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36
Entries, 4 Tournaments, 26 Players, Prize Fund value £1000.
Daniel Flesch
wins a seat in
The WSOB UK Masters Backgammon Tournament
(value £580)
to be held at the prestigious
Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, London
between 15th and 18th November 2007 and
the complete set of DVDs from the 2006 WSOB series.
London is one of the major capitals of the world and as such should host
some of the best events in the world. Yet, to the best of my knowledge,
London has never hosted a truly International Big Prize Money Backgammon
Tournament. There are at least 2 annual charity tournaments that attract
64+ players and raise thousands of pounds for good causes, there are West
End Clubs that host tournaments with high entry fees but few players, there is the
Mind Sports Olympiad but it' s not the force it used to be and
there is the annual Backgammon Live in London that attracts over 64
players but is designed for the non-money players of this world. Why oh
why has London not got a professional players Backgammon Tournament?
That is about to change. On 15th - 18th November 2007 London is due to
enter the International Backgammon Tournament circuit with a huge splash.
The World Series of Backgammon is, in it's second year, coming to London.
The Tournament will be held at the prestigious Casino at the Empire in
Leicester Square. The WSOB are working in conjunction with, amongst
others, Gammonitis and Partouche Gammon to put the UK on the world
backgammon map and onto TV screens.
The entry fee to the Masters Division is, it must be said, not low. But
such is the current nature of serious backgammon. When The WSOB asked me
to run a Satellite Tournament at the monthly Backgammon in Camden, north
London I was certainly interested to do my bit towards the improvement of
the profile of backgammon in the United Kingdom but was also worried that
running a Satellite at a hugely successful club would result in far more
players than the venue could handle in one evening. So I proposed running
a separate evening just for a WSOB UK Masters Satellite Tournament.
Just 2 or 3 days of discussions with the WSOB, some web page writing and I
sent out an email to the Backpacker Backgammon mailing list detailing the
format that would be played in just one weeks time.
The tournament was to be a 32 player bracket Knockout format with 5 point
matches throughout. That's a lot of backgammon to get though in just one
evening so registration would open
at 6.00 pm and would close at 7.00 pm or earlier if there were a full 32
players. If there were 32 players in-situ by 6.30 pm I would also run
an Auction as well as an Optional Pool. For those that were knocked out I
would run other tournaments to suit.
I'm known as something for a stickler for starting events I run on time;
if I publish that a tournament will start at a time that is the time it
will start at. No if, no buts. By 7.00 pm there were 20 players in-situ
all of who had paid their entry fees (£31 each) and chosen to or not enter
the £10 Optional Pool. I announced that I was doing the draw at precisely
7.00 pm. At 7.02 pm two more players walked in. Could they enter they
asked; they were only a few seconds late. I replied firmly but politely
that they could not but that other tournaments would be run for their
benefit in due course. The two players were of course not thrilled at this
but had I bent I would have quite rightly expected the wrath of the 20 on
time players and my reputation for starting on time would be blown.
20 players meant 4 first round matches and first round 12 byes. Of those
first round matches Sean Williams was the first to fall. Richard Biddle
(winner of the Cotswolds Intermediate 2007) fell to Ron Havenhand who had
travelled all the way down from Cheshire for the night and Martin Barkwill
(winner of too many events to mention) saw off the challenge of Andreas
Vrhovsek. Meanwhile Zoe Cunningham trailed 0-4 to the esteemed Ray
Kershaw. In the Crawford game things got pretty heavy for Zoe and she was
forced to play a backgame. Sean watched it and reported that it was "the
most brilliantly backgame he has ever seen." He also added that this was
typical of his girlfriend who plays the game so naturally while he has to
spend hours upon hours learning how to play correctly yet doesn't achieve
her results. Zoe continued with her dogged determination and won the
match.
Those that had had byes in Round 1 played their Round 2 matches straight
away. Sometimes random draws are kind to players and sometimes they are
not. Shino and Michael Michael, old friends who have played chouettes
numerous time together, were drawn against each other and this time it was
Michael Michael that prevailed. Tim Line, who had travelled up from the
West Countrie saw off Vicky Ondis who had travelled from north London.
David Rogers didn't give any quarter to Crispin Duke who had travelled up
from the south coast. Stoke Newington based players Simon Morecroft and
Mick Vacarey did battle for I dread to think the how manyeth time and it
was Mick that progressed. Daniel Flesch, winner of the inaugural Backgammon in
Camden Tournament, had a tough drawn against very experienced player Geoff
Oliver but won. In a slightly longer lasting match Neil Davidson beat off
the challenge of Ken Gibson.
Ron Havenhand then met Martin Barkwill in the 2nd round and the London
Georgie sent the Cheshire man out. Zoe then met the man, Mourad, who had
knocked out her partner Sean. Zoe sent Mourad out though I doubt this was
of much consolation to Sean who I think I saw grinding his teeth at the
innate ability of his girlfriend.
And so onto the Quarter Finals with the top half of the draw (which had
more matches to be played) lagging behind the bottom half. Tim line
despatched Ken Gibson, and David Rogers saw for Mick Vacarey. The tallest
player of the evening, Michael Michael, tried to impose his play on the
smaller frame of Daniel Flesch but to no avail; Daniel progressed in good
time to the Semi-Finals. Back in the top half of the draw Martin Barkwill
played Zoe Cunningham in a match that was watched by a number of
knowledgeable players so I deduce that it was a tight match. Zoe, no
respecter of reputation, won again.
Before this Daniel Flesch had played Tim Line in the second Semi-Final and
Daniel found himself in the Final but with a long wait for his opponent.
Daniel looked slightly shell shocked - he knows he's not the best player
in the world, is very self critical of his play, but there is a certain je
ne sais quoi about him that works in his favour.
Daniel Flesch playing mindgammon
In the other Semi-Final Zoe took on David Rogers. This was yet another
long match that was watched by a crowd of players. Also of interest was
the fact that both Zoe and Daniel had not entered to Optional Pool. Tim
Line and David Rogers had. If David won this match David would take 70% of
the Pool and Tim 30%. If David lost he and Tim would split the pool 50/50.
And it was the latter that happened. Tim had already left to get back to
the West Countrie so a cheque is now in the post to him.
Zoe had a very quick breather and sat down to play Daniel in the Final. A
32 player tournament played in one evening was always going to be a tough
call and Zoe had borne the brunt of this fact. But did Daniel care about
this? Quite rightly, from his point of view, the answer was no. Daniel
knew that Zoe was probably the stronger player but he also knows that
strength of play in a 5 pointer is not necessarily a huge advantage.
The WSOB UK Master Satellite Final at Backgammon in Camden - Daniel versus
Zoe
Of course the Final was watched by a good number of players though it must
be said that Sean had by now had quite enough of his girlfriend doing so
well so he crashed out on a sofa. 35 minutes after Daniel and Zoe
commenced play we had a winner - Mr Daniel Flesch. He won the inaugural
Backgammon in Camden Tournament a little over a couple of years ago and he
had now won probably the most prestigious tournament ever played at
Backgammon in Camden.
Congratulations Daniel. He received his voucher for a seat in the WSOB UK
Masters and will shortly receive the complete set of DVDs from the 2006 WSOB series.
Hard luck Zoe Cunningham who looked shattered after her marathon.
There were, as promised, other tournaments during the evening. Shirley
Elghanian won the 2nd Tournament of the evening, Ken Gibson won the 3rd
and Mike Mullineux won the 4th.
There were a total of 26 players present during the evening - less than
the norm for a BG in Camden evening (average 40.5 in the last 12 months) -
but those that were there all seemed to have a good evening, some walked
away with some cash in their pockets and one walked away with a voucher
worth £580 for an investment of just £31.
Thank you to all the players that attended the evening and for the ease of
working with The WSOB in putting this event together at such short notice.
I look forward to working with you at the WSOB UK Masters where I'll be
helping out on the T.D. desk.
There will be other Satellites before the WSOB UK Masters. These will be
held at the
Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square in the days preceding the
event. Details can be found on the
WSOB website.
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