This was the 2nd year of this event. Its aim was to introduce Players to Westernised Backgammon Tournament and Chouette play and have some fun.
Unusually for B-g Tournaments there would not be cash prizes. Prizes would be from our Sponsors, Experts and trophies. Whilst I understand that backgammon is ideally suited to Gamblers I do not agree that it should be, at Tournament level and higher, their sole preserve. This was well publicized before the event and as such anybody who came was not under false expectations. It also had the desired effect that Players who came would not be in Sharks or Hustler mode - the Players that came, came for the love of the game and represent, I believe, the vast majority of people who play backgammon. There would be 5 Tournaments in total - Players that did well in Tournaments would gain points in the Champ 'o' Champs Tournament.
Sponsorship is something used in most other sports. I'm not sure why is it not so well developed in backgammon, but one of the glories of setting up your own event is that you can do as you see fit. So I did. Our Sponsors were: Playmaker-world, BIBA, Snowie, Chris Bray, The Fox Reformed, David Naylor and GLH.
GLH - a London Cab Company - had been picking up (free of charge) the International and non London based Players that had been arriving at various London airports and mainline stations since the Thursday morning. This greatly reduced the cost to those Players.
We kicked off proper on Friday evening with drinks and dinner in The Spice Island Pub just south east of Tower Bridge. There were about 17 of us. This was a time for Players to meet and talk to one another about things other than b-g. The only b-g in evidence were the questions that Paul Lamford would ask in his Seminar the next morning.
And on we returned across the road to the other half of our venue - the Y.H.A. This purpose built modern building has a bar of its own and it was then that backgammon boards came out. Two sections of the b-g weekend started in earnest. The In-Housers Tric Trac Tourno started and the Chouette Corner opened.
TTTs are non-doubling cube all play all b-g tournaments. As such they give a chance for everybody present to play and meet everybody else present. The scoring system is simple but has a twist to make for interesting and open games of backgammon. All matches are 1 game only. The simple bit is that you score 1 point for a straight win, 2 points for a gammon and 3 points for a backgammon. The twist is that you score 1/2 point even when you lose a match. This effectively renders a straight win only worth 1/2 point extra for the Winner of the match. So if you're aim is to win the tournament you MUST play for gammons. Also because losing by a gammon will also give the Loser a 1/2 point, as long as your opponent has not already won by a few gammons, Players are not overly bothered by losing by a gammon whilst chasing a win by gammon. So the games are Blot Cities, Blitz affairs and Backgames. Boring race games are not the norm. TTTs have been running for a couple of years now and are run both online on Playmaker-world and Live here in London. This would be TTT81. They have a small but loyal following - and quite a few of those loyal regular Players were here in London.
In England gambling is still technically illegal in Public Houses unless you have a license to do so. And a Magistrate was not about to grant me a license to do so in a Youth Hostel and a Pub. Also I didn't want the "I've never played Chouette Backgammon before" Players to get fleeced. So the Chouette Corner would be playing for my invented and printed "Backpacker Backgammon Board Bucks" and each Player was given 32 BBB Bucks.
There would be a Chouette Trophy for the Player that could show me the most Bucks at the end of the weekend. I'm not sure what time the Friday evening (night) session ended but the next morning some of the Players eyelids suggested it was pretty late.
On the Saturday morning GLH had 4 of their cabs at another of our Sponsors location: The Fox Reformed in Stoke Newington Church Street, North London to bring Players to the venue. Paul Lamford's Seminar questions were with the Drivers so that those Players could fill in their answers en route. As soon as they arrived it was time for Paul's Seminar. We had over 20 attend and Players were well geed up on various b-g situations by the time the Seminar was over. The Seminar was won by Andy Kindler who will receive a copy of Paul's third b-g book "Improve your Backgammon" which is due to be published any day now.
The Seminar is available on the web
Next we swung into The Swiss Tournament. A £10 entry fee with a £10 or £5 pool as an option. We had 27 Players. As last year this Tournament was run by Guy, which left me free to play and socialize. Some months ago I'd written to the Lord Mayor of the City of London asking if he could do something for us. He responded by saying that he was not a backgammon player (he didn't like the idea that people might think he is a gambler) but suggested he could lay on a Fireworks display. O.k. so it was also the Lord Mayors Show that day ! After 2 of the 5 Rounds we adjourned to go up river to watch his Fireworks. 4 cabs were ready outside to take the Players there and back. They came back in raptures and we then carried on with our Swiss Tournament. Meanwhile, BigDave had lost his second round match and withdrew to go and watch the England v All Blacks Rugby Match. By Round 4 we had only 2 players still without a loss. The 5th Round was between John Broomfield and Alef Rosenbaum. Alef triumphed, won the Swiss Tournament Trophy, a copy of Chris Bray's new book 'What Colour is the Wind?' and 5 points in the Champ 'o' Champs Tournament.
Meanwhile the In-Houserers Tric Trac Tourno was progressing though its 91 matches. Each Player had been given a list of their opponents and they found time to pair themselves up. The Losers were reporting their losses in the TTT Loss Report Post Box and the Standings Chart was updated every few hours. Apart from it being fun, it left no time for dull moments.
We were joined by a few more Players before the Doubles Knockout Tournament which started at 8.00 p.m. I'd set up a 16 Team Tournament with a buy back in option to fill the extra spaces because last year we had 9 teams. However this year we had 15 teams register. So we elected to leave the 16th place as a bye and, after some time, we ran a Consolation Tournament for those knocked out in the 1st Round. The Doubles was of course a noisy affair - There had been free beer on ice available to Players since midday and I've since had to edit some of the names the Teams chose. It was Royalty (Brian and Emmeline) who won the Main Tournament, a trophy each, 5 points each in the Champ 'o' Champs and vouchers for The Fox Reformed. Double Trouble (Mazda and Netmusen) won the Consolation Tournament and membership to Playmaker-world.
As Players finished in the Doubles they then played more Tric Trac Tournos matches and the Chouette Corner kicked in again. There was backgammon happening in the B-g Room, The YHA Bar and The Spice Island Pub.
Again there were cabs at The Fox Reformed on the Sunday morning. A few more of the In-Housers Tric Trac Tourno matches were played in the morning and it looked like BigDave would win it, but an upset was still possible.
The Singles Knockout Tournament kicked of at 12.00 o'clock. There was to be a Main, Consolation, Last Chance, Suicide, Dead'n'Buried and Cremated Tournaments with an optional pool of £10 or £5 in the Main and a £5 pool in the Consolation. Players played their first two rounds in the Knockout and then the Sunday Tric Trac Tourno started as well. There were matches happening all over the place, some Knockout and some Tric Trac - Players had to alter their tactics according to the format they were playing. As T.D. of the Knockout I had got, despite hours of preparation for it, my set-up slightly wrong and the Dead'n'Buried and Cremated tournaments were dropped. I don't think anybody minded probably because they were all busy playing TTT matches. The Final of the 7 pointer Main went to double match point and was between John Broomfield and Grant Jewsbury. John is a well known and very good Player. Grant's first live Tournament had been at this event last year where he won 1 years free subscription to BIBA and has since played at BIBA events. Both wanted the win and both played well. But it was John B who gained the upper hand and won the match and hence the Knockout Trophy, a copy of Chris Brays book 'What Colour is the Wind?' and 5 Champ'o'Champs points. The Consolation was won by Guy, the Last Chance by Stan and the Suicide by Mazda who all also won Playmaker-world membership. Chris and Jo both showed great promise and were given membership to BIBA.
In the Sunday TTT we had 20 Players. So rather than having all Players play all Players (and thus having 190 matches to play) I created 2 leagues of 10 Players (2 x 45 matches) with the top 3 players from each league going into a 6 player Final Play-off (15 matches.) We had an interesting combination of experienced online TTT Players and experienced Traditional Tournament Players. As is the norm I updated the Standing after every 3 matches played and made this available to Players. Brian was the first Player to finish and had 5.5 points. He sat back feeling fairly comfortable. That was until Gipsen won a backgammon. Dod quickly realised the importance of a win by this measure and rechecked the Standings. Dod's last match was against Gipsen and Dod hit Gipsen at every available opportunity. Soon Gipsen had 4 checkers on his 24 point, and 3 on the bar while Dod had the rest of his Home board covered. The backgammon, with some luck and more skill, was possible. Again the Standing were consulted. Things were getting tense now. Dod had to play some wild moves and got away with them. But the backgammon crumbled when Gipsen, who had been throwing 1s like they were going out of fashion, then threw a double 5 to escape most of his checkers from the 1 point and just escaped the backgammon. Now it looked as if a Final Play-off Play-off would be required. As they say, it's never only until the Fat Lady sings and she was in fine fettle. But Gipsen had one last match to play. Meanwhile Simon also had the one last match to play and he too could upset Brian's, Dod's, and Gipsen's apple cart. One of the glories of this format is that scores are usually very close and the Leader can change quickly. Unfortunately John Broomfield had had to leave before his last match so a replacement Player was needed. This should be a Player of similar ability and I selected Mazda - the only person to have won 6 (of the now 81) Tric Trac Tournos. But Gipsen dealt the killer blow in his last match and won it by a gammon and was thus uncatchable. Gipsen beamed with pleasure as he accepted the Tric Trac Tourno Trophy and the Snowie CD Rom provided by Sponsors SnowieGroup.
The Chouette Corner also drew to a close. Grant had a goodly wad of BBB Bucks but Uldis had been training a good number of Players in Chouette play and his wad was a lot thicker than Grant's and there were a lot of high value bucks in there too so it was Uldis who took away the Chouette Trophy and a Chris Bray book.
John B just pipped Brian in the Champ 'o' Champs points stakes with Dod coming a close 3rd. There was some confusion over Team names in the Doubles Knockout Tournament which left us thinking that John B and Brian had draw for the title of Champ 'o' Champs, but this was sorted out and as a result both John B and Brian won a cup each - The Champ 'o' Champ trophy and the Champ 'o' Champs runner-up trophy.
So the big question is was it all a success ? Will Players go to Backgammon Tournament without the carrot of maybe winning loads of dosh ? The turnout was bigger (nearly 40 Players) and we had more Sponsors and prizes this year than last. Nobody complained about paying up £10 to enter the Swiss or Knockout and there were pools in which Players could make some money if they did well. The quality of the prizes from Sponsors was very high and I think most people are more than happy to walk away with a Trophy and or prizes as they are cash. Finger food was provided at lunchtimes and there was always free coffee, tea and cold beers to hand. Certainly Sponsorship from the GLH Cab Company made it all very easy for Players to get there and back. The Fireworks Display added another, different, feature to the weekend. There are nowadays plenty of Tournaments in the England for established Tournament Players and I don't expect those National and the International Tournaments to consider running without offering a big cash prizes, but as long as you do not target Money Players, there are enough people out there who will turn up to a Weekend of Backgammon just because they love the game and wish to learn more.
A huge THANK YOU to all the Sponsors who gave to and thereby made the event such a success,
a second huge THANK YOU to Paul Lamford for doing,
despite have a terrible cold, his Seminar on the Saturday morning,
another huge THANK YOU to Guy for running the Swiss and Doubles Tournaments
thereby leaving me free to see those Tournaments from a Players point of view,
yet another huge THANK YOU to Beste for all the practical and moral support
she gave me she gave me before and during the weekend
and the last huge THANK YOU to all the Players that came.
Same again (with more) next year.
