The first time Adam Tansley came to Bg in Camden (some months ago now) he
was surprised that I wasn't running the evening via a computer. More
recently (last summer) Zoe said this could easily be done. So before this
months gig I had sat down to work out just how to achieve this. It
wasn't that difficult and the more time I spent thinking about it and
playing with the idea the more I became convinced that it was an excellent
idea. Mission was accomplished within 48 hours. 1 laptop facing the
TD with a flat-screen facing players instead of up to 12 clipboards
littered over the TD desk would be how we would run BG in Camden Dec '06.
And this month I would not be alone in running BG in Camden. I'm off on a
walkabout in late Jan '07 so I needed to find somebody to keep the ship
afloat while I'm gone. Adam Tansley stood out to me as the most obvious
choice - his people skills, knowledge of backgammon and ability to
organise things had been noted and I asked him if he would like the role.
I was thrilled when he said he would. So this evening was to be a training
session.
Adam threw himself in the deep end and kicked off with doing the Jackpot
Auction. With only 10 players interested in playing for £25 at 7.00
o'clock it wasn't a particularly difficult auction to run but everything
went perfectly well and the 8 Tournament 1 players were found, had paid
and the draw done within 10 minutes. 5 minutes later he had another 8
players in an up and running Tournament 2 for £20 a head. By 7.20 Adam had
another 8 players in Tournament 3 for £10 a head. Tournament 4 had 6
players playing by 7.25 with another two added by 7.30. So all in all
Adam, working on a new computer program, had as many players active as I
usually do within the same time frame. Bothered - me - do I look bothered?
I'm gonna enjoy my stress free walkabout to New Zealand safe in the
knowledge that BG in Camden is in the best possibly hands.
Jon Barnes had his third good BG in Camden evening - he won T1 and this
stretches his lead in the "Who has won T1 more than once" to three wins
with nobody else on two wins. Bicous won T2, Pete W took T3 and Chrissi,
who only entered as a player because she decided there were too few
players to make it a filming night, swept her way though T4 to win it and
thus proved she can play well when she wants to. Geoff Conn proved that
there is no need to be in The Lockside Lounge bang on 7.00 o'clock by
turning up at 7.50 and winning T5. T6 was slow in its progress and the
final was only a 2-2 in a 5 pointer at 11.20 when the bar staff were
putting chairs on tables so it was rolled for and Toby came out as the
winner. T7 had a shortened final as well with Ian T coming out as
our winner, T8 had a 1 point final played with Uldis in the winners slot
and T9 had the same match length final with Martin G gaining the credit.
So why did we have so many shortened finals? Slow play is I think the
answer. It's not easy to judge if tournaments starting after 8.30 should
be 5 pointers or 3 pointers; it very much depends on who the players are -
just one slow player in a tournament and time is going to be a problem. To
be honest I was quite enjoying myself wandering around the pub, talking to
players at the bar and leaving Adam to the running of the evening, so I
probably took my eye off the proceeding a little too much so it can be
argued that the shortened finals were my fault. But Adam was doing a fine
job and I'm very much one who thinks that learning from experience is a
great way of learning. Adam will naturally be more conservative next time
and thus learn how to achieve the optimum balance on match lengths versus
players in front of him.
We also had the
Phil Simborg Quiz back with us this evening. They hadn't
been present the last two months because I'd messed up in my
communications with Phil. It's a tough question this month but 3
players came up with the correct move and so we moved to the tie-breaker
to settle who won a free drink - that was a pint of Guinness to Geoff Conn.
44 players was a lower turnout than I had expected but it was still enough
to make for a buzzing backgammon bar. Some extra tables had been bought in
from outside and there was never a time we were short of space of players
were crammed in 10 to the dozen.
Neil Davidson was also with us this evening. Neil organises the
which in 2007 will be from 16th to 23rd
June. I've never been but know a good number of people who have. If you're
looking for a good summer holiday in Greece with a load of other good
British Backgammon players and want some other things to do as well (e.g.
sailing) it comes highly recommended by those that have been in the past.
£1 per player per evening:
I got a right good, but very nice, telling off last month for what I am
charging players at Bg in Camden. I was told in no uncertain terms that I
am undervaluing the service that I am providing and should be charging a
lot more. This not the first time that I've been told this and it's
interesting that the majority of people (a good number now) telling me
this are ladies though I'm not sure what conclusions one can draw from
this fact. I've held off charging players more than £1 per evening because
I don't want to make it too expensive. Players are currently charged £1
per evening. But in all honesty, having looked at the books, £1 is too
little and a good number of players seem to accept that they should be
paying more. So £1 becomes £2 per player per evening next month.
Adam took to running the evening as a duck takes to water.
There are a few background items he and I need to sort out so we'll do
those before I jump on a plane to NZ in late Jan '07.
BG in Camden in January will be on Tue 9th Jan.
In other words not the first Tuesday in the month
which will be 2nd Jan when I expect most people to be getting over
hangovers. See yous then.
The Cotswolds Fireside Tournament 2007 is on 26th, 27th and 28th Jan. This has in the past been a "Big Boys Tournament" but
this year features 3 flights and from what I hear from the very capable
organiser Martin Hemming the Champion flight will have about 64 players,
the Intermediate flight about 32 players and the Beginners flight about
20. I've not been before but have pushed back my departure date to be
there. I'll be providing the tournament spreadsheets and programmes for
Martin but be a player myself.
Of course Player feedback is vital, so if you have any
comments of questions please do not hesitate to email or
phone me:
MikeMadMonk@backpacker-backgammon.com
07985-941729
That said it'll be impossible to email every would be
Player on an individual basis so if you are not already on
it please join my
mailing list.