KNOCKOUT CHARTS
(Requires your computer to be Excel enabled)

Mind Sports Olympiad Cambridge 5th year and the 4th year it incorporated backgammon. This year a change of venue meant a change of date. All the Tournament Directors were asked about this and how it might effect attendance in their events. One lonely voice sounded the alarm that it would not be good; that it would cause a clash of dates with the largest Backgammon organisation in the country. But when 14 other T.D.s say the change of date would be fine or better there really wasn't a lot I could do about it.  

So I set about working out how to have, as last year, a full 32 player Knockout but without drawing upon the British Isles Backgammon Association members that would be in Hinckley for the County Cups Trophy. So I told only non-Biba members early: My first mailing about the MSOC event went out in January - 2 months before last years first announcement. Slowly are surely seats were booked and it was on 3rd May that I had the detestable task of telling a player that the Knockout was full but that I had him down as 1st Reserve.

Sean, Zoe and myself went up to Cambridge on the Friday evening, found our Guest House and heading into the town centre for drinks and dinner. I placed myself in their hands; they are both Cambridge Graduates. In their days there they apparently never strayed more than 200 yards from the centre of town so we didn't have far to roam ! However quantity is not always quality and I learnt that there really isn't much need to go far. Sean and Zoe were aiming for their favourite restaurant but, times chance, and it is now a Noodles Bar. But we had a good dinner and then decamped to Sean and Zoe's old haunt - The Trinity College Student Bar. I'm sure I was the oldest person there but at least nobody felt the need to offer me a seat. I was then shown round Trinity College - Quadrangles upon Quadrangles that seemed to seep history. The Maypole was our next port of call before we joined the queue of  Friday night revelers waiting for Cabs. A quick Chouette completed our evening before we departed for our beds before the big day. 

Our Guest house didn't do breakfast on Saturday morning so we had a 15 minute walk to their sister Guest House for that. Then we took another cab to get our gear and find the venue for the Mind Sports Olympiad. 

Backgammon was to be in the 6th Form Common Room but they obviously don't do a lot of study in there for there we no tables, so we raided a classroom and made ourselves a Tournament Room. Boards were laid out and a few tables of backgammon workshoppers got down to learning and teaching.  We didn't have any real rookie players so the main lessons being given were live play etiquette and a lesson on the doubling cube. 

Players arrived thoughout the morning which made for an easy start to the day. Players were offered into the Main Pool and Sean kicked off the Auction at 11.40. It was his first time doing this but he handled it well and there was soon £245 in the pot - 70% to go to the Owner of the Winner and 30% to go to the Owner of the Runner-up. I lent my Assistant Chrissi £25 so she could buy a Group.

With 32 players the draw was rapidly done and 30 players sat down to play their 7 pointer 1st Round Main matches. By chance the two late arrivals were drawn to play each other. One arrived after 15 minutes the other after 45. Seeing as we were on a limited time schedule I gave the later player a 3 point penalty. The biggest scalp taken in the 1st Round was Paul Lamford's taken by Irving - they had played before at Live in London 2004 and Irving was thrilled to win this one. 

As is my norm nowadays I was running the tournament via an excel spreadsheet on my laptop with a screen facing players. It incorporates the 4 Pools, the Auction and puts players into their correct slot in whichever bracket when the winner is entered. The entire idea is that it eliminates the T.D. making errors and lets players see where they and others are in the Tournaments, Pools and Auction. The spreadsheet (designed by myself and formulaed by Sean Williams) worked perfect though my laptop didn't and is now due to be retired.  Even so I think players were impressed with the ease of understanding the progress of the Tournament.  

Notable losers in the 2nd Round of the Main were John Broomfield (who lost to Irving) and Chris Gibbins to Sean. Meanwhile the 1st Round of the Consolation was progressing well and soon the 2nd Round was kicking in. 

3rd Round Main saw Jon Kinsey, Zoe Cunningham, Irving Czechowicz and Stef Rohan in the Semi-Finals. The Consolation (with 2 Rounds of feedback ins from the Main) always takes slightly longer but this (in theory) is balanced by match lengths being 5 pointers. Theory isn't always practice and I had to hurry along some matches. 

By now the Last Chance and Suicide were kicking in. Just 16 players brackets for these. This is because Semi-Finalist in all brackets play in a 3rd place play-off due to the title of this event which carries the word Olympiad - hence bronze medals are awarded. The only players that suffer because of this are those 4 players that lose in the 1/4 final of the Consolation. I considered setting up a feedback in Round in the Last Chance for those players but this event only has a 6 hour window from start to finish so I didn't do so. Without the 3rd place play-off I certainly would incorporate those feed-back ins.  

MSOC had omitted to lay on Caterers for the day so Chrissi swung into action and took orders for pizzas to keep players going. Incredibly it seems that no Pizzeria in Cambridge will deliver (are the students that bad?) so off Chrissi went in a cab. When she returned she laid out the boxes and came to check in how her Auction Group was doing; 2 of 4 were still in.   

Semi-Finalist in the Consolation were Colin Talbot, Sean Williams, Chris Gibbins, and John Broomfield. The Last Chance and Suicide looked like stalling for lack of players coming though but this is normal and gives players a chance to take an interest in Main and Consolation Semis.  

Marcus Keighley won though to the Semi-Final of the Last Chance, waited for a good while but lost to Mahmoud Jahanbani when he came though. Fanika has progressed though to the final of the Suicide at rapid pace but had to wait for the 1st round to kick in. 

Now we knew our finalist in the Main - Zoe Cunningham and Irving Czechowicz. A good crowd gathered to watch and a long match was given to them. 



Meanwhile the Last Chance and Suicide, with players now available, picked up pace and was completed before the Main Final finished. Chris Bickerton (in his first Live tournament) won over Mahmoud to take the Last Chance trophy, gold medal and pool. Bronze went to Sue Keeble. Fanika's long wait paid off as she won the Suicide trophy and gold medal but she hadn't entered to pool so that went to the runner-up David Rogers who had entered the pool. Howard Furr-Barton took the bronze.  



The Consolation Finalist were at last decided as Colin Talbot and Chris Gibbins sat down to do battle. I hated to have to do it but it was now gone 6.00 p.m. (our finish time) so I had to reduce the match to a 3 pointer.  

Back in the Main Final things were progressing and soon it was Zoe who triumphed over Irving. Trophy, gold medal and pool to Zoe, silver to Irving (though I gather they had done a split on the Pool) and bronze went to Jon Kinsey.



Chris Gibbins won over Colin Talbot leaving Chris with trophy, gold medal and pool, Colin with silver and Sean took bronze. 

But the real winner of the day, who never even moved a single checker, was a young Lady who did all the running around for players and myself. A shrew buy in the auction left Chrissi with both the Winner and Runner-up of the Main and hence two nice fat envelopes. Good for you Chrissi. 



There were to takers for the Tric Trac Tourno which was set up as a spill over tournament. No problem there. 

I'd like to thank all the players for making it such an easy and enjoyable day to run. I think everybody enjoyed their day out and I'm sure the first time live players learnt loads. There will be more backgammon. My next event will be the Stokefest Tournament on Sat 18th June, followed by Backpacker Backgammon at Biba in September and of course the big one; my annual Backgammon Live in London in November (details to be released soon). 

I think I have added all players to my mailing list so you should all get details before events happen. If anybody else would like to join the mailing list please just click here.

Many thanx for the photos to Mark Johnson of
Coiledspring Games Limited

KNOCKOUT CHARTS
(Requires your computer to be Excel enabled)