Main (20/40)
Forty! What an unexpected turnout. Forty players battling down to just one. On the Sunday morning (following a false alarm, fire alarm that got most of us out of bed or the restaurant) we were now split into two fields, Main and Consolation. In the Main we had five on 3/3: Tony Fawcett vs Raj Jansari; Peter Christmas vs Steve Rimmer; Phil Tutchings vs John Thomas (a random, 2/3). Because we're not guaranteed 6/6, a 5/6 could come 1st or 2nd. Raj beat Tony and Peter beat Steve - however, Phil lost to John which left us with Raj vs Peter both on 4/4. Raj prevailed and he then faced Phil Tutchings in the 6th Round. If Phil won we'd have a Prize Draw Rollover - so we were all cheering Phil on! Phil managed to win the first game, but then Raj won a couple of points and we get to this position:

Game 3

11 point match
Black 1 White 2
Black cube action?

Phil (b) has a substantial lead of 57 pips and offers across a 2-cube. There's no doubt about the cube; and there's no doubt it's a take. White's 21-point anchor isn't going anywhere for a while and black's two runners are split and facing plenty of opposition. Phil is on 65.6% (34.4% for Raj) and it's a double. take from Snowie.

Snowie Stats:
Double, take 0.693
No double 0.678 -0.015
Double, pass 1.000 +0.307

White scoops it up and the game continues. Black rolls 32 and plays 20/15 making his 15-point . . . and that's where these two checkers remain for four more rolls for black until he's forced into leaving a shot:

Black to play 53

Phil correctly plays 15/7 duplicating 3s - and Raj rolls 53 and hits and covers by playing 21/18* 7/2. Phil dances, Raj rolls another 53 and scoops up the second blot; a position from which Phil never really recovers. Eventually he rolls in both checkers with 33 and Raj promptly ships across a 4-cube.:

White cube action?

Phil's previous lead of 57 pips has dropped by 59 and he now trails by 2 pips and drops the cube. Snowie concurs, Phil is now on just 13.7% and Raj is on 86.3% and it's over for Phil in this game.

Snowie Stats:
Redouble, pass 1.000
No redouble 0.974 -0.026
Redouble, take 1.573 +0.573

The score went with Raj for a while, then Phil levelled at 5-5. From here the score went fairly evenly until the 13th Game when Phil was leading 9-8 when he faced this cube from Raj:

Black 9 White 8
White cube action?

Another case of double, take, being the correct play:

Snowie Stats:
Double, take 0.961
No double 0.714 -0.246
Double, pass 1.000 +0.039

But then disaster struck! Raj rolled 66 playing 20/14*(2) 14/2 and covered the blot - much like above! Although Phil re-entered quickly with 53 he never got a shot at Raj, and eventually Raj rolled out to win two points taking the score to 10-9 Crawford in his favour. The Crawford went (almost) all Raj's way and Phil resigned after it was impossible for him the win the match. Well done, Raj, and hard luck, Phil.  On countbacks and tie-breaks 2nd place was awarded to Chris Ternel.

Raj Jansari	Chris Ternel

Consolation (20/40) Mike Heard beat Richard Holness, Paul Barwick and John Reddinton to get 3/3. He was joined by Stewart Pemberton who beat Arthur Wright, Mrs. Pemberton! (Vicki) and Rachel Rhodes. One other play, Gerry Enslin could have make it three on 3/3 if he won his 3rd match against Stephen Drake, but alas he didn't. Because we had plenty of time and both players agreed, Mike and Stewart had an 11-point playoff, a match from which Stewart came out the winner with Mike as Runner-up. Mike Heard & Stewart Pemberton

On the Saturday night we cracked on with . . .

Team (9)
Nine players were soon whittled down to two teams after the team I was in were robbed by a joker 33 allowing our opponents to bearoff their last three checkers. This winning team were later whittled down to two, John Hedge vs Nicky Check - an encounter from which John emerged the winner.

Poker (9) Not the biggest of fields but enough to make it worth winning in the Grand Prix. Our two resident 'professionals', Tony Fawcett and Myke Wignall predictably came 1st and 2nd with 'Mr Annoying', Mick Butterfield in 3rd. If talking was an Olympic event, Mick would now be on his way to Beijing with high hopes of a medal! At one stage of the poker Mick Vacarey saw that three of the remaining players had beards and he bet a tenner that the night's winner would have a beard - he lost, for as we all know, Tony's face is as smooth as a babies bottom! Two of the three beardies that failed to win!   Click here for Poker Grand Prix.

Finally. The fire alarm proved to be very entertaining and Peter Chan was present with his camera to capture the moment. I vacated the restaurant with a bacon sarnie and a cup of coffee. Arthur Wright managed to sleep through it all despite being on his feet. And Deena and Sharen were upset because Peter photographed the fire engine but not a fireman!
	Arthur Wrights sleeps through it all as Tony Fawcett looks on bemused.   I enjoy a warming cup of coffee and a loverly bacon sarnie.   The tournament went along very well indeed and was unique in that not one player asked to drop out! That reminds me, where were David Nathan and Ray Tannen?