Mind Sports Olympiad Cambridge 2007 Backgammon Tournament
Sunday 6th May

EVENT REPORT 2007

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Report by Danny Gallagher

This tournament took place on Sunday 6th May 2007 and was a part of the Cambridge offshoot of the Mind sports Olympics.

I came up to Cambridge the night before after a kind offer from Neil Foston to put me up for the night allowing me to keep the costs down.

I was hoping to go to the Cambridge Blue Pub home of the local club, to meet the other local players for a few games and a leisurely pint or two. However, only Roger and Neil were up for a game on the Friday evening so we went to the Fort St George on the river Cam for some lovely Organic local cider and an very enjoyable Chouette.

14 players entered from travelling from as far a field as Derbyshire and Lancashire down to Eastbourne.
The line up was:-

Neil Foston
John Broomfield
Mahmoud Jahanbani
Susan Bourne
Irving Czechowicz
Roger Salmon
Robert Bolter
Howard Furr-Barton
Jackie Griffiths-Moore
Jon Williams
Crispin Duke
Simon Morecroft
David Sanders
Geoff Conn

The tournament was set as a progressive KO with 4 tournaments (7, 5, 3, and 1), with side Tric-Trac tournament’s able to be run if players were waiting due to bottlenecking of preceding tournaments.

At the start of the draw only 12 players had arrived, with two running late after the draw had taken place, in consultation with the other players I allowed the two latecomers to enter the tournament in place of the first two byes.

Twelve players entered the pool giving a healthy £120 pool. Contesting the final were Jackie Griffiths-Moore and Simon Morecroft won by Jackie with third place going to David Sanders over Geoff Conn.

The Consolationlation was unusual as no entries into the pool were forthcoming making it just for the medals.

Due to my inexperience with this version of the spreadsheet I have an apology to make to Neil Foston and John Broomfield (twice) after having to void their matches due to second round losers in the Main being filtered into the second round of the Consolation; fortunately both players took it good naturedly. Eventually they played anyway (fate!).

The final was won (eventually!) by John Broomfield over Cambridge’s Robert Bolter, with the Bronze going to Neil Foston over Jon Williams.

With no local catering facilities I asked the players if they wanted to chip in for Pizza’s I ordered locally and found it costs almost £15 more to deliver than collect, my thanks go to Simon and Neil for taking a quick break to pick them up.

The last chance had an unusual pool situation; six players entered with two byes, three players entered the pool, two of which were knocked out in the first round and the one getting the bye (Irving) winning the £15 without actually playing!

The final was won by Howard over Irving, with Mahmoud Jahanbani beating Roger for third.

Finally with the facilities having to be vacated by 5.30pm and an hour to go, the Suicide with all eight players entering a £3 pool.

The Final being won again by Howard over Neil for his second Gold medal of the day and Neil’s silver adding to his Bronze won in the Consolation, with third going To Susan Bourne beating Irving playing one of his trademark mega-super backgames.

Medals Table


Name

Gold(3)

Silver(2)

Bronze(1)

Points

Howard Furr-Barton

2

 

 

6

Jackie Griffiths

1

 

 

3

John Broomfield

1

 

 

3

Neil Foston

 

1

1

3

Robert Bolter

 

1

 

3

Simon Morecroft

 

1

 

3

Irving Czechowicz

 

1

 

2

David Sanders

 

 

1

1

Mahmoud Jahanbani

 

 

1

1

Susan Bourne

 

 

1

1


 

My thanks to Aubrey De Grey for organising the venue, the players, Mike Main for asking me to run it whilst he was away.

 Pictures are available here


 


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