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48 Entries, 6
Tournaments, 33 Players, £600 Prize Fund,
John B & Romolo split the
Jackpot.
A lower attendance figure this month than I had expected but having said
that I know of a good number of Bg Clubs that would be happy with 33
players in an evening.
The 1st Tournament (aka the Jackpot) only had 10 players interested at a
£25 entry. At £30 two players dropped out, I kept the bidding going for
the remaining 8 but 1 player elected to stop at £35 so £35 is what they
played for. Sadly another player that I'm sure would have happily played
for a good bit more arrived at 7.10 - but by that time he had missed to
Jackpot Auction so was reduced to playing for smaller money. I cannot
stress enough the importance to those who want to play for big money that
you need to be at the venue by 7.00 pm. It's often the first time Bg in
Camden players, but highly experienced tournament and money players, who
arrive at just after 7.00 pm who are disappointed that they are playing
for less than £25.
There was insufficient demand for a £20 Tournament so we moved to the £10
Tournaments (2 of them) and a £5 Tournament. By 7.20 we had 24 active
tournament players. At 8.15 all those 4 Tournaments were full and we had
another £10er and another £5er.
In my quest to make Bg in Camden as modern as possible we were once again
running the evening via a laptop and flat-screen facing players. I'd also
had made up a cover for the D.J. T.D. desk to make it look more appealing
than something like a monolith stuck in the pub and I'd purchased some
display boxes for scorecards, fliers for various other events and the Phil
Simborg Quiz. I'm pleased with the visual effect. I've recently purchased
a camera for my impending walkabout to New Zealand and this was to be its
trial run. But I couldn't get the thing working (I think I need to charge
up the battery) so sorry folks, no pictures of Bg in Camden.
I had a very relaxing evening. As of next month Adam Tansley will be
running Bg in Camden in my absence so this evening served as a second
trial run for Adam running the show. I think "no worries" is the apt
expression. There was even a T.D. decision (cocked dice) for Adam to sort
out and I'm pleased to say this was done without drama and both players
were happy with the explanation and ruling.
I was so relaxed about what was going on tournament-wise that when John B
and Romolo told me they we splitting the pot for the 1st Tournament I
didn't even realise they had not even played a 1 pointer and thus there
wasn't a winner to enter on the tournament chart. This is the first time
in 17 months that I haven't been able to enter somebody as a winner of a
tournament so, the next time John B and Romolo meet, if they would at
least like to roll dice for it I'll at some stage be able to do a ratings
system for Bg in Camden.
Bickos is a character and lived up to his name when it was not announced
that he had won T2. He, quite rightly, wanted the glory of the bell being
rung in his honour and his name announced. So he said so and the bell was
rung and his name announced and you'd have thought he had just won the 100
meters in the Olympics - the applause was there for our hero.
Simon M did it yet again - he won T3 this month. I'm not entirely sure of
his record but it seems that he wins pretty well every month these days. A
steady and thoughtful player Simon's game has improved over the last two
years and results are now coming in on a regular basis.
Jon K is another player I rate highly (well he would be - he's a
GNUBG programming man) and I was pleased to see he won T4 this month.
Little George M has been working at his game as well over the last year of
so and his results prove that - this month he won T5. And we had a first
time Tournament winner too - Martin B. has been coming for a good few
months now and it was a pleasure to see his beaming smile when the bell
was rung in his honour.
This months Quiz was a particularly good one. It addresses an area of my
play that I know is weak and I often am flummoxed as to how I should play
such positions so I was thrilled to see it addressed by Phil Simborg with
a little aide from Perry Gartner.
Click here for it and see how you do.
So all in all another good evening. Next month Bg in Camden will revert to
the 1st Tuesday in the month (Tuesday 6th Feb '07) and Adam will be there
to run the show.
Me, I'm off to New Zealand for 6 months. It's a hard life but somebody has
to go and see other parts of the world and it seems this is my lot in
life. I expect to survive the experience. However before that there is Bg
action a plenty in this country which I hope to see you at:
This weekend (12th, 13th, 14th January) it's the
Biba Bright 'n' Breezy 10th Birthday Knockout.
It's
generally the largest tournament on the calendar with approx. 100 players.
Don't be put off by such a large number of entrants: weak players can do
well as proved by yours truly in 2005 when I was a Main Finalists. Apart
from that it's held in a Hotel that has all the charm of Victorian seaside
England.
Then on 26th, 27th, 28th January it's the
Cotswolds Fireside Backgammon Tournament.
This will be
the 5th year and, due to increased demand, it is now in new venue -
actually the venue that the Organiser and T.D. Martin Hemming envisaged it
would be in when he started it all off. I've never been to it before but
I've yet to meet a player that has been but doesn't rate it highly as an
excellent backgammon weekend in an excellent environment. It's because of
factors like this that Martin has this year created 3 Divisions of play -
Champion, Intermediate and Beginner. These events are being sponsored by
Andrew Sarjeant’s new games server
GammonitisGames which is due to be launched this month. There will be
Satellite entries on the Friday afternoon, Jackpots on the Friday evening
after dinner and a Last Chance. For those of you who are disloyal to Bg (a
bias there Mike?) there will also be 3 Bush State Hang 'Em Card Game
Tournaments (I think that's what they are called!) As many of you
know I'm always keen to work with other Tournament Directors in my quest
to make Bg into something bigger and more modern than it is today so I'm
pleased to say that I'll be providing the computerised tournament charts
and printed programme for this event. Hope to see you there.
Having had such a terrible(?!?!) January I'll be jumping on a plane to
Auckland on Sun 4th Feb. I'll be back for Bg in Camden August '07 and in
time to prepare for Backgammon Live in London 2007 on 9th, 10th 11th
November; That's a hint to get your 2007 diary out and enter "BG Live in
London '07."
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