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In it for the long run at Gammonitis' 4th Birthday TournamentBy Andrew Sarjeant I drove to Eynsham Hall on parole from a six-month prison sentence. This was a self-imposed sentence and my gaol wasn’t Belmarsh or Wormwood Scrubs but “Backgammon prison” – a far more depressing place, where people get sent if they play the game like Coco the Clown on acid, and are banned from all live play until their bank balance is repaired and their play polished. Just as the auction was about to get under way with a plum 32-man draw, latecomer David Markwick hurried along asking Andrew, “would I ever let you down?” On this occasion, Andrew was none too impressed and growled and gesticulated like King Kong. 33 players then, and two unlucky souls would play a round of 64er. Peter Bennet was one and he never did see last 32 action, falling to Guil Drai (Eric Guedj’s cousin.) I drew Eric. “What’s he like?” I asked Andy Bell. “One of Europe’s strongest players, and winner of huge tournaments all over the world,” came the reply. No problem, I thought, and shortly found myself in a 10-4 lead, when this delightful cube action came up.
I’m 86% here but if I give him a 4-cube there’s no way he’s passing and every way that a snowman will come whizzing back. The only way I reckon I’ll lose the game is if I pop a disgusting 65, or he immediately pings 66. This was enough to scare me off though and instead I rolled a neat 41. If Eric doesn’t then throw the 66 I go up to 90% but I’m still not good enough! Only after he fails to find boxes next time out do I go up to 95% and finally have my cube. In the game Eric, of course, instantly found his 66 and followed up with 55 for an encore to cream the race. Still, a short time later I closed him out 13-6, and went to investigate the action elsewhere. Carnage and mayhem reigned. Big names dropping like flies in Peter and Eric’s wake. Dod Davies, resplendent in a t-shirt advertising himself to be a “crack whore” found that a big late rally was not enough to see off the ever improving George Miltiadou. Slatts bowed out Gary Brooker, and John Hurst – the smiling assassin – was the old 0-11 down to Andy Bell in the battle of the BBC (Battersea Backgammon Club). 90 minutes later and poor Andy was still stuck on 11, as a freakish Hurst comeback gave him the win. I got a sharp jolt when I saw on the draw sheet that Julian Fetterlein was in combat with my new bride. “Funny,” I thought. “She’s on a 6-week secondment in Vietnam.” But on closer inspection, Jules was grinding out a win over Dorothy Lee (my wife is Dorothea Lee). His prize catch in the second round was…me. I went into the match determined to cube aggressively as I’ve found that Jules can be a bit of a ‘passer’ to any late shipments. Unfortunately my tardiness continued apace in this match. Here are Jules’s decisions to the first eight cubes I proffered: pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. After 3 hours and 10 minutes of toil, Jules finally found himself 95% at DMP, merrily bearing off his men with me clinging on to life thanks to a solitary brave checker on his 3 point. Out pops a shocker of a 65 for Jules to leave a shot, I zap him with a three, and it’s quarter-final time for me. The other quarter-finalists included David Fall versus John Clark (Fall 9-4 up overnight), John Hurst versus John Leavey, and Martin Hemming versus Guil. But now it was movie-time and we all went upstairs. The entertainment in question was two editions of the upcoming Eurosport 8-programme run called “The World Series of Backgammon” produced by Andy Bell and Eric Guedj. It features play from this summer’s Nation’s Cup and Riviera Cup. We were treated to an extraordinary match between the comely Maria Krancheva (she of the “yellowy-red hair and yellowy-red checkers”) and BG giant Morten Holm; and the dramatic final between Ireland’s Sean Casey and Nodar Gaguar. The two editions were extremely well received and many times had the audience guffawing in delight. Look out for the first show on November 6th, 10:15 GMT. The PartyGammon.com World Series of Backgammon... As part of the screening PartyGammon.com gave away 2 free seats to a $440 satellite qualifier to the upcoming Backgammon Million in the Bahamas. The lucky winners being Fiona Oldham and Paul Gilbertson. The poker tournament was well-attended by 18 grizzled old pros, and little old me, a virgin to the game but interested to see what it was all about. After half an hour I was down to my last 100 chips and had run out of loot (I had rebought twice). I went all in with a solid hand of 7,2, and 45 minutes later I had over 9,000 chips in my collection…as one does. Down to the final five and facing off against Jo Davies, she had to hit a 5 on the river or else she would be bowing out. She hit it and breathed again. Slatts then starting ganging up on me real savage, and after being chip leader with well over 10,000 chips coming into the final five, I never won again and placed 4th. Jo squared up to Slatts in the final at a 30-70 disadvantage. She kept going all in…and kept winning. A famous triumph indeed and her little jig of delight after four hours of play was a picture to behold.
I bade goodnight to my quarter-final opponent Mike Heard at 3.30am as he was settling into bottle of wine number 17 with Martin Hemming. Brilliant - they were going to pull an all-nighter… If I got past Mike in the morning, Martin awaited me in the semis. Burn babies, burn yourselves up. On Sunday, Mike arrived at the table scrubbed, clean-shaven and looking as though he’d slept for 14 hours. What followed was an incredibly tense match in which Mike twice hit me with late shots to get off the gammon and win games (one was a 17x35 parlay), to go to a 10-7 lead. As is my wont I kept cubing late and Mike kept passing – four times in all. We reached DMP, and a racing game developed thanks to Mike’s boxes, but he limped thereafter – which can’t be said for me. Semi-final time against an equally fresh-faced and bushy-tailed Martin Hemming who had overcome Guil Drei in another DMP thriller.
The final was the most remarkable – and pleasant – match I’ve ever played. We were both happy to be there as underdogs so had nothing to lose. The first hour-and-a-half was slow and turgid as I ground out a 6-5 lead. Then things sprang to life. Dave brutally gammoned me followed up with horrid things in the next and the next. I was on the verge of checking out with the scoreline 6-12. I was less than 20% to win the next but hit a last gasp shot. In the next Dave wriggled off the gammon, but in the next I was being administered the last rites as I embarked on about a 1% race. 44, 66, 66, 44 in six rolls came in handy though and I was at DMP for the third time in four matches. In the final game I yet again found myself knee-deep in manure, with four hopeless checkers stacked on his 4 point. I got a shot at a 6 but missed with a 44, and choking back the tears moved my men. Here’s the position for the next play.
David has rolled a tasty racing number, 66, but I don’t think it was quite what he had in mind. I replied with a 61 and managed, I believe, to find the Snowie play, to which David had no riposte. A marvellous, dramatic match though, against a charming and gracious opponent. So what does it take to win a Gammonitis tournament? Here’s a quick stat attack: I had to play 61 games which took 11 hours (5.5 minutes per game). I won 39 of those and lost 22. I averaged a miserable 1.66 points per game, to my opponents 2.09. Obviously my cube action is too bashful but perversely that could have been the secret of my success. I’m sure I didn’t ship a single premature cube all weekend (about a dozen late ones though), and I don’t think I ‘took’ a single cube that was a pass (although passed a few ‘takes’). I believe that the occasional flamboyant checker play is acceptable (I just love to foul things up and create weird patterns), because if things go wrong you can just pass for a point. But being flamboyant with the cube is unacceptable, because you can lose eight points in the blink of an eye, and winning a tournament thus becomes nigh on impossible. The consolation was won in fine style by Rob Wills, who had to get through six matches and saw off Fetterlein and Guedj in the semis and final. In the Last Chance Guil defeated George Sulimirski. My heartfelt thanks to you all, for one of the most enjoyable weekends of my life. Results Main Tournament
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