StokeFest Backgammon 2004
This was the 3rd year that I've run in conjunction with The
Fox Reformed a Backgammon Tentquee outside in Stoke Newington as part
of one summer festival or another. Last year they expected 2000 people in
Clissold Park and got 25,000. This year the council wanted a huge security
presence and an inordinate licensee fee for a similar bash so it was
trimmed down to a Village Fete type of event. I ran much the same sort of
event this year and we had much the same number of matches played.
Raising a 9 x 3 meter tentquee needs a few helping hands. Many thanx
to Alis, Patricia and Patricia who I roped in from my house to help and to
Chris, Shell, Pete, David, Richard and Simon who all came along early to
help too. By 11 o'clock we had the tentquee up, streamers and balloons up,
chairs and tables in place and boards out. The weather didn't look too
good and we were treated to a shower of rain so the tables and chairs that
were due to be placed outside the front of the tentquee were placed behind
the tentquee under a large sheltering tree and we realised we had a
woodland playing area.
How do you have tournaments running all day that players can dip in and
out of so they can go look at the other stalls as well ? Easy - run 3
pointer buy back in 16 players tournaments. Charge £1 per entry and award
a prize to the winner of each tournament. I took along 6 tournament charts
and 5 were used. We had a total of 80 entries by 30 players.
At 11.30 we had 7 players start in the 1st Tournament so I joined in as
player 8 to make for a clean start. Bigdave was the first to lose a match
and he bought back in straight away to play newly arrived Dan in a match
that took about 5 minutes to play. So Dan bought back in to play now
beaten Simon only for Dan to lose again. Meanwhile Suzy and Tony arrived
so they played 1st Round losers (I think 1st Roundists sounds better)
Chris and Pete and hey-presto Tournament 1 was full.
So Tournament 2 kicked off with newly arrived Willum playing now 2 x 1st
Roundist Chris, newly arrived Gt-W-Shark playing Dan, newly arrived
Cynthia playing newly arrived John B followed by buy-back-iners Chris
versus Pete. Shortly after Diane and Jason arrived and they played the
next batch of buy-backiners followed by by-backiners Chris (already on his
4th buy-back-in) versus Shell and hey presto again - Tournament 2 was full
as well.
Across the Green at another stall Paul Lamford (who was donating a copy of his "Starting out in Backgammon") was playing another one of the games he's pretty damned good at - chess. Blindfold Chess. Against two other players simultaneously. Paul had his back to the two boards with a blindfold on. He was verbally told the moves is opponents played and verbally asked the Judge to move his pieces.
As more players arrived they were slotted into Tournament 3 while Tournament 1 had reached its final between Simon and David. In a long match Simon came away the victor and was award a copy of "An Independent View" by sponsor Chris Bray who does the extremely good weekly backgammon position in The Independent Magazine of Saturdays.
Guy, Sean, Zoe, Paul W, Dave W, Rob and Ann were are new players in Tournament 3. The secret of the Woodland Playing Area was now out and more matches were happening up there. The sun came out, the tentquee became muggy so players moved tables out to the front of the tentquee and played in the sun.
Tournament 2 was suffering a slight stall as the bottom half caught up with the top half leaving Dan waiting for his Final opponent. However this gave Dan a chance to keep an eye on Paul Lamford's progress. He won one of the two chess matches and Dan returned to play Chris (who had now kicked into gear) in the Final of Tournament 2.
Knockout 4 started. This one would be comprised of 4 new players and 12 buy-back-iners. Meanwhile others had a chance to find some food (I hear the Thai food was good; Richard vowed he would go for a Thai meal everytime he was knocked out!) and the Ride the Sky Balloon got a few visits too.
Meanwhile news filtered across the Green that not only had Paul Lamford won his second blindfold chess match but he was now informing his opponents where they had made errors in their play. Is Paul really a mere mortal ?
Tournament 4 was up by now and running. Chas (last years Finalist in Knockout 2), John G. and Lydia had arrived. Lydia said (prettily) that she had only come along to watch but I (nicely) bullied her into playing. She started as she meant to go on by winning and winning. Zoe was looking good in the top half as she made it to the Final and waited for her opponent from the bottom half. Richard made it to the Semi-Finals having been a 2nd Roundist in Tournaments 1 & 3. Cynthia (on her 4th entry) became a 2nd Roundist.
Tournament 4 drew to a close with Lydia (1st entry) playing Zoe (3rd entry). Lydia did an Ann and won it and thus a copy of "Starting out in Backgammon".
Olde Father Time was awaiting for no man or woman and other stalls were packing up and going home. In the final of Tournament 5 Suzy was playing John G. in a corner of the tentquee. The hired tables and chairs were being taken away and we were clearing up as much other stuff as we could without disturbing the Finalists. But we clearer-upers were working faster than the Finalists were playing and they lost their cosy tentquee corner as we striped off the walls around them. Distraction Backgammon they called it. But Suzy (on her 5th entry) did not flinch from her goal and came away the victor. She already has a copy of "Starting out in Backgammon" and I ran out of copies of "An Independent View" but a copy of it will be with you soon Suzy.
Summary:
I think it's fair to say that this was another good day out for all those who played. The Woodland playing area was a lovely surprise and there was a good buzz going around. On the downside the proposed workshop didn't happen because Miranda had succumbed a summer bug (hope you're better now) but we only had 2 or 3 players that could have used this so no major disaster there. Many thanx to all those that came along, some of whom traveled a fair distance and to all those that helped out during the day.