Irish Open 20/21 October, 2007
Report by Michael Crane

(more off-site photos from Peter Chan)

Some of the 64 players ......................................... Paul O'Kelly's Auction

I have never heard such a loud cheer before at the Irish Open. Nearly every player present whooped and whistled! Had Brendan Burgess announced the drinks were on him? No. Had Paul O'Kelly lost his voice? No. Had Stuart Mann announced he was going to play faster this year? No. Had I announced that this year I wouldn't be controversial and make a fuss about something? No . . . as if that would ever happen! None of these prompted the outburst (although each would have); it was Brendan's announcement that they had a perfect 64 field and perhaps this year they could run a knockout! Alas, our cheers that greeted this news soon died on our lips when we realised it was a joke! Never mind, perhaps next year.

So, we got underway with the 6 x 7-point matches to qualify for the Irish Open 16 player draw. I won't bore you with my dismal performance but I will dazzle you with this: Sean Casey (who kept calling me a baby, for reasons I won't go into here; suffice to say I wasn't impressed by his powers of argument and debate and I found it hard to think that he and Oscar Wilde were of the same stock!) won 6/6 and looked as if he'd become the first player to win the title three times (1999 and 2000). He went straight into the last 8 of the Main for his achievement. I'll also dazzle you with this bit of biased reporting: Four out of six Lincoln BG Club players made it into the Main - Tim Mooring, Jeff Ellis, Jim Moore and John Batty. Alas, Tim and John fell in the 1st Round; Jim fell to Sean in the Last 8; and Jeff went out in the semi, beaten by Uhlrich, the eventual Runner-up.

The 'Luck of the Irish' doesn't just favour the Irish - some of it rubbed off onto Dane, Uhlrich, during his match with John Batty. John, playing black, was leading 10-9, post-Crawford when he had to play a 21 in this position.

Double match point

Normally John would have played 4/2 3/2 hoping that Uhlrich's home prime would collapse, but instead he cleared his 7-point, 7/5 7/6. Uhlrich rolled double-six and went on the win the race and the match! According to Snowie, John played a very good move, @ -0.004 it is not worth much in equity loss - but it was costly nonetheless.

Sean was stopped by Jacob Anderson in the semi, and in the final Jacob met with friend and fellow Dane, Uhlrich - a match I was unable to see due to having to catch a plane home, but one from which a new name appears on the trophy, that of Jacob Anderson. Well done, Jacob. It is worth noting that three Danes made it into the Main; and only two locals, Sean and Dama Cunningham.

Main: Jacob and Uhlrich

Consolation. Phil and Felix	Cracker's Team

In the Consolation (32), Phil Tutchings from Coventry lost to Felix Vink . . . who is claimed as Irish, giving the hosts a victory! A second host victory followed in the Team event when Cracker's team beat that of Rachel Rhodes. And, finally (although it happened on Saturday), Rosey Bensley won a bottle of whiskey for being the first player to lose 3/3 during the Qualifiers! Mind you, she made it for it by going out Saturday night to play in a poker tournament and coming home at 3.45 in the morning the winner!

Finally

So, was it a good event? Well, overall, I think it was. It was marred by one incident. Two players had a scoring dispute; and the whole episode brought back memories for me as Brendan and I ruled against the player that did not present a legible or easy-to-follow score-card to back up his claim. I have now altered rule 5.1 to make it absolutely clear to players what is expected of them. The aggrieved player then threw a wobbler and claimed we had acted against him in favour of an Irish player. This was a spurious claim for all Brendan and I were presented with were two score-cards with the owners' names removed. Our decision was based purely on what we could see and personalities didn't come into it . . . . and they never do.

Over the weeknd I asked Brendan why the qualifying format? He told me it gave everyone more chances to qualify for the Main. Oh yeah? Well here's a radical suggestion: Why not make it a straight knockout with a progressive Consolation and put EVERYONE into the Main?