KNOCKOUT CHARTS
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Only 11 Players made it to Cambridge this year though 14 had actually signed up. 1 was stuck in Bratislava but let me know and the other two were, upon a phone call to Coventry, found to be at the Biba County Cups Tournament which was also running this weekend. I can't say I was overly surprised by that - both live a lot nearer to Coventry than Cambridge. So, having consulted the 11 Players I stepped in to make it an even 12 Players.

A week or two when I really turned my attention to this MSOC gig I realised that 32 Players this year was highly unlikely to happen so I  wrote a 16 Player version of my Olympiad format. The event had been advertised as a 7 bracket format with 7 trophies and 21 medals so I was not going to alter that, but did need to slim down the spreadsheets otherwise that player called bye would have been all over the place. With just 12 players and so many medals we were heading for a "Who can most look like Medallion Man / Woman" contest. Rather than thinking this was all a waste of time we all took the attitude that this was in fact a huge giggle.

I was going to drive up the night before but there's never quite enough time in my life these days so I drove up on the Saturday morning. This also had the benefit of my being able to give a transport less Player, Miranda, a lift up and hence increase our Player numbers by 1. On the way up we spoke of bacon butties. It was as if a seed had been planted. My stomach now wanted and expected a bacon buttie. We arrived, having done a tour of a rather dead because it was early in the morning Cambridge, at the venue at just after 10 am. and were all set up by 11.00 am. As last year there was to be only a coffee and tea urn at the venue and the urn was still warming up. So I went out to find a corner shop for coffee, tobacco, tissues and, top of the list, bacon butties. The tobacco and tissues were no problem. But as far as I could tell Cambridge does not do Workers Cafes. Do the City Elders dislike them so much they have banned them? Have the students not discovered that you can get a good, greasy cheap feed in them? I drove round and round for ages but I hereby declare that Cambridge is devoid of them. Instead I found a Yuppie Cafe where I ordered 2 bacon butties and 3 coffees. Ok - I expected and got the "Do you want cappacheino, latte, frappe, wappe or noire coffee" and of course the "mini, medium or maximum" and well as having to wrestle with silly little stick packets of sugar and paying way over the odds for the coffee while being told by a poster that they were into fair trade for their growers but a noticeable absence of a poster claiming fair trade to their clients. What I hadn't anticipated was a total blank look on the face of the young Antipodean when I ordered the bacon butties. He consulted his senior (3 months older and been then 3 days more than he had) member of staff. She rapidly explained to him, in Antipodean speak,  what a buttie was. My car was outside on a double yellow line so I stood outside while my coffees were created and butties prepared behind a partition. At long last I headed back to the venue where I was supposed to be to greet the huge number of Players that should by now be there. Next time I'm gonna call up an expeditionary force for the butties run.  

About half the Players were there now. I said my hellos and then moved over to a wasting away Miranda to hand over her bacon buttie. The paper bag undone, 1 bacon buttie extracted it felt rather light. Ummm, not much bacon in here then I thought. I wondered just how much bacon there actually was in there. So, despite it not being my bacon buttie, I open it up to check upon the content. None. Absolutely none. Not even an oink. A baconless bacon buttie. Mine was the same. bl**dy b**ll*ks.

But the show must go on. And so it did. We kicked off with the Auction. 6 Groups of all of 2 players each. The highest bid was £11.50 and the lowest was all of £2.00 with John B spread betting by buying 2 Groups. The Prize Fund was a staggering £34.

As planned we stuck with 7 pointers in the Main. There were 4 byes in Round 1 but the set up meant that all Players commenced play at 12.00 o'clock (2 2nd Round matches happening.) Those that lost were slotted into the Consolation, those that had byes in the Main did not get bye in the Conso and some of those that played 1st Round Main matches got byes in the Conso thus all Players got an equal number of matches. Conso matches were 5 pointers. Those that lost their 1st match in the Conso were slotted into the Satellite 1 Tournament. Basically the entire Tournament is designed to keep Players as active on the boards as possible. Because 7 and 5 pointers take a while to play the atmosphere was one of quite steadily progressing composure. However with 4 byes this didn't work as exactly as well as I had planned but there were no voices of complaint so I take it that all were happy enough. I considered adding in a 12 Player Tric Trac Tourno into the proceeding but I knew this would cause delays later on so I didn't propose it.
Satellite 1 was, as expected, the first bracket to complete. Simon Morecroft was the winner having despatched myself (Mike Main) in the final. Simon and I have a history of meeting in Tournament play - I think this took the tally to 3-1 to him. Alain, our only 1st time Tournament Player, took the bronze. 

John Broomfield had shot through in the Main to the final so took this opportunity to read the paper and as always the Conso seemed to take that little bit longer even though the matches were slightly shorter. In the Main Dave Sanders had progressed to the 3rd place Play-off but his opponent took a little longer to come though. Dave had to leave at 4.30 so he never got to play for the Main bronze medal but, ever the gentleman, he didn't complain; he knows the rules (absent Players forfeit) and it's a matter of honour to him to play by them. Meanwhile in the Conso Miranda had progressed to the final and was waiting for her next victim. Mahmoud came though from the top half of the Main to meet his friend John Broomfield in the final. John had actually bought Mahmoud in the auction, Mahmoud had not entered the Main pool but John had and thus John had won the Pool. Given that it would have made financial sense for John to throw the final in order to win the Auction but I'm pleased to report that that is not in the nature of the man and no quarter was given. As it was Mahmoud won the match and thus became the Mind Sports Olympiad Cambridge 2006 Backgammon Champion. Shaun Burton, in his 2nd MSOC Tournament, took the Main bronze. Over in the Conso Suzy Crabb (only 12 years old you know! Um hum.) beat Alan Beckerson to join Miranda in the final leaving Alan to play Matte Juggler for the bronze. Miranda took the gold, leaving Suzy the silver and Alan took the bronze. Suzy wasn't too heart broken because Miranda hadn't entered the pool which meant Suzy picked up a cool £42 for in effect winning 1 Consolation match (having won 1, lost 1 Main match.)  

The next bracket to commence was the 4 Player Tric Trac Tourno for those who lost in the 1/4 Final of the Conso - Simon, Alain, Alan and Suzy. All but Alain have played TTT backgammon before now so I explained the scoring system (3 points for a backgammon, 2 points for a gammon, 1 point for a straight win and 1/2 point for any loss) to Alain and how that means you need to play for gammons.  He's quick headed and took the theory in pretty well but I didn't suppose he entirely understood the ramifications over the board. If he didn't he was treated to a fantastic example of how to play TTT backgammon as he and others watched the Alan versus Suzy match. Here's the position (it might not be exact but it's close enough to work from) when I went over to see what all the hullabaloo was about:



Alan, playing red, has only 5 checkers left in play all on his 3 point (Suzy's 22.) It looks like a hugely probably backgammon and thus 3 points. 3 points gained in a 4 Player TTT is also highly likely to win the player the entire TTT. He rolls a 3,1 which forces him to hit Suzy. Suzy then needed the hit. If she does she's got a toe hold in the match. She does hit and so Alan has to start the the long process of bringing his trailing checker home past Suzy's waiting infantry. But Suzy knows (she's an experienced TTT Player) 1 checker back is not enough so she leaves blots on her 24 & 23 points hoping Alan has to hit again. He does. She hits his blot. 2 checkers back. Now she stands a good chance of saving the backgammon, a chance of saving the gammon though her winning the match is still a long way down the road though not impossible.

I glanced round to inspect Alain's face as the play carried on. Eyes on stalks is I think the right expression. Suzy played marvellously. She kept her composure knowing that it was vital that she played every checker play to the best possible effect. Uldis Lapikens and Richard Biddle (the two gentlemen Suzy quite rightly credits with teaching her how to really play backgammon) would have been beaming with pride had they been there. Alan's checkers were banished back to the bar time and time again but as they suffered their fate he also managed to roll a double 2 and thus move his forward checkers onto his 1 point. They were now unhittables. Suzy would have to make do with beating up just 2 of Alan's checkers. And she did. Back they went time and time again again.

Slowly Suzy formed the makings of a prime around her 7 & 6 points. It grew to encompass her 8 point. Then her 5 point. All was looking pretty good and I was considering finding Alain a pair of goggles to keep his eye balls from falling on the board until Alan rolled a double 5 when one of his checkers was on her 4 point. This made it safe on his 1 point. Suzy only had 1 target to aim at now. Could she still save the gammon? A good few rolls later she had a perfect 6 prime from her 8 point to her 2 point. She rolled it forward until she achieved a 6 point prime in her home quarter.

Gammon saved and Suzy has a new target of winning the game. 15 checkers versus 4 checkers, 3 of which are on Alan's 1 point and 1 on the bar. Still a huge order but just possible. She bore off as aggressively as she could and still to my mind played every checker correctly. She was down to 8 checkers still in play when Alan entered, didn't hit and started to scamper home. Then, and the dice can be cruel, Suzy's rolls let her down as she rolled 2s and 1s and Alan rolled big.  The match must have taken 30 minutes to play. Are 1 pointers a waste of time? Only if you hate a little bit of backgammon excitement in your life. Alain, eye balls back in sockets, said he never thought a game like it was possible.

Having thus far had a fairly leisurely paced day of backgammon we moved to the Last Chance, Satellite 2, Suicide Tournaments and the remainder of the TTT. In fact it had all been a little bit too leisurely, we were in danger of a serious overrun so I decided that the Last Chance would have to reduced to 1 pointers. I picked up the tempo and launched the Last Chance with a full 8 Players. Bronwen replaced the departed Dave Sanders. 1st Round Last Chance losers were placed in the Satellite 2 Tournament so all were still active. The remaining TTT matches were played as well. The room was a hive of activity.

In the Last Chance John had his revenge over Mahmoud and Mike had his over Simon. The Dekkers (Alain and Bronwen) went out to Shaun and Monica respectively.  in Satellite 2 Alain took out Simon but Bronwen lost to Mahmoud. Round 2 of the Last Chance saw John beat Mike and Shaun beat Monica. In Satellite 2 Alain took the gold leaving Mahmoud with silver and Simon took the bronze in the 3rd place Play-off against Bronwen. Back in the Last Chance John took the gold, Shaun thus took silver and Mike denied Monica the bronze.

Over in the TTT Alan got it point perfect this time and backgammoned Simon. Alain put into practice what he had learnt a while earlier and gammoned Suzy who, having provided us with the best spectator sport of the day, lost all three of her TTT matches and thus was the one without a medal from this event. Alan took gold, Alain took silver and Simon bronze.

By now I had moved, with 6 Players ready to play, onto the Suicide. I did the draw and off they went. In the 1st Round Suzy had her revenge over Miranda, Matte defeated Monica, Shaun was felled again by John and Mahmoud beat an spent Alan. In the Semis Matte beat his girlfriend (hay, she's only 12 years old isn't she!) and Mahmoud had his re-revenge over John. In the 3rd place Play-off John took the medal leaving Suzy without one again, Matte took silver and Mahmoud took another gold.   

And so we moved to the Prize giving. I've never dished out so many prizes to so few Players! No sooner had I awarded a medal to one Player they were back again for another. Mr Medallion Man was of course Mahmoud Jahanbani who walked away with 3 medals (2 gold, 1 silver) and two trophies. John Broomfield took away a complete set of bronze, silver and gold and I was pleased to see that Alain (1st time Tournament Player) did the same. Simon Morecroft also had a 3 medal haul (2 bronze, 1 gold.) Alan left with a bronze and gold, Shaun and Mike a bronze and silver a piece, Miranda 1 gold, Suzy and Matte a silver each.  

That's not to say that everybody walked away with something. Dave Sanders had left early and forfeited his chance of a bronze and possibly other prizes. Bronwen had joined us late in the day and didn't pick up a prize either. But, and backgammon can be fickle, it was Monica, a genuinely very good Player, who was outstanding by dent of the unjust fact that somehow she played all day but won nowt. Why do we play this game?

The Backgammon Tournament was the last MSOC event of the day to finish so we were left to close the doors on the way out and head into Cambridge for a well deserved drink. This was followed by dinner in a Chinese restaurant, lifts to the station and I went to my B&B in Cambridge for a darn good sleep.



After breakfast I headed back into Cambridge to the Yuppie Cafe. I returned their 4 slices of buttered bread, declined their offer of replacement bacon butties but accepted their offer of a refund. On the way out I heard the next customer asking for a "egg SANDWICH please."  On the way home I wondered if his eggs had been cooked.

That nearly completes the writing of this report. Nearly because I've yet to add what I've had for supper this evening. Bacon butties. 3 of 'em. E by gum - they were great!


Footnote:

I advertised the date of the MSOC Backgammon Tournament in early January on the basis that I think people look at their new diary then and fill in things they want to do in the forthcoming year. However the MSOC website itself was not updated with the date of this years event until some weeks later. Far be it from me to criticise others for poor marketing, it's not exactly my forte, but I consider in all reality that this years MSOC was never really given the chance it was to due to attract the Players it needs. If you don't have a sufficient number of bums on seats you are not going to cover your costs of running the event. The danger is that MSOC 2007 will not happen though lack of funds in the kitty to get it off the ground.

If that is the case it'll be a huge shame. I'm not suggesting that MSOC is ever going to become one of the leading board game events of the year - it was never designed to be so. But it has acted as a worthwhile event that attracts Players into attending such events.

The committee of MSOC are a lovely bunch of people (boffins is I think a correct and non-insulting term to use) who's hearts are without question in the right place but they do need to add a marketing person to their ranks. Right on their doorstep they have one of the largest populations of students in the world; students love games. There really should be a huge number of Cambridge students, both Uni and the various International Colleges that litter Cambridge, attending MSOC.

So the attendance and the games available at this years MSOC were considerably down. As far as the backgammon was concerned we dipped from 32 Players in 2005 & 2004 to just 13 in 2006. And not a single student. Ok - I could have plugged it harder to the people on my mailing list - but this year there is more backgammon going on in London where a lot of them live. As far as I see it this event should be aiming to attract new Players into the game. I really didn't have the time or energy to go up to Cambridge to plug the backgammon around the Halls and Colleges when I couldn't see any such action from those committee members who live and work there.

If next year the backgammon can achieve a mix of experienced Tournament Players and novice Tournament Players the event will be even more worth while.

KNOCKOUT CHARTS
(Requires your computer to be Excel enabled)