Ann Pocknell
Arthur Wright
Tim Mooring
Martin Barkwill
Peter Christmas
Phil Tutchings
Peter Finnimore
Mike Heard

Bright 'n' Breezy January 2011

Report by Michael Crane

Well, at last the event lived up to its title - it was bright and it was breezy this weekend in Brighton. The Main (67) was a decent turnout which included a couple of entrants who had their fees paid for them by PlayWSOB as part of their prize after winning their online qualifiers. Hanna Thorsen travelled all the way from Norway to take part and Nicky Check travelled from Mill Hill,London! Hanna faired a little better than Nicky, she went out in the 3rd Round to Neil Webb (travelled down from Scotland) whereas Nicky went out in the 2nd Round to Mike Heard. It actually sounds better than it was - they both had 1st Round byes!

Nicky asks "Who's the Daddy?" Mike Heard, that's who!

During his match against Mike, Nicky was left holding the baby - quite literally - until Mummy and Daddy returned, much to Nicky's relief.

The first name out for the draw was John Hurst, defending champion and winner of the title 5-6 times, but this weekend he was stopped in his tracks in Round One by Simon Morecroft. This victory by Simon was the end of an era and it was a little sad to think that John's name wouldn't be at the top this year. Simon didn't manage to get past Round Two as he fell to Tony Lee, who, in the next round, fell to Peter Bennet (who had beaten Chris Ternel in the 1st Round). Peter then dispatched Sean Williams to face Bob Young in the Last 8 on the Sunday. The other Sunday fixtures were John Batty (Lincoln player and having a great tournament) vs George Miltiadou (hot and rolling well); John Wright (Liverpool organiser) vs Paul Plumptre; Dave Ablett vs Al Hogg.

Bob prevailed over Peter in a very tough match and in the semi-finals he faced John Batty; and in the other semi-final, John Wright faced Dave Ablett. Bob beat John B, and Dave beat John W and it was Bob and Dave who sat down in the final across the PlayWSOB tournament board.

Bob and Dave and the Board

Although I was able to record the match, time and PC problems have prevented me from getting the plays into any bots, so I am afraid a blow-by-blow account of how Bob triumphed over Dave will have to wait for a later date. Suffice to say, Bob was relaxed and confident, and after an astonishing turnaround when he was leading 6-5 and was facing an almost certain 2-cube gammon-loss, but ended up winning the game, he was even more relaxed.

Dave dwelt a bit too much on what might have been as he trailed behind at 8-5 instead of his expected lead of 6-9! Bob then went on to finish him off as Dave's clock time leeched away as he tried in vain to get back into the match. Eventually it all went Bob's way and he emerged a worthy winner after triumphing over a very tough opponent.

Main: Dave and Bob

Meanwhile, in the Progressive Consolation (63), Arthur Wright tore through his opponents in the non-prog side to get to the final. At the same time, Ann Pocknell, entering the prog side from the Main Last 16 tore her way through to beat Martin Barkwill in the progressive 'final' to sit down opposite Arthur in the Consolation final - an encounter from which she emerged victorious over Arthur.

Consolation: Ann and Arthur

Last Chance: Uldis and Stuart	Tidal Wave: Nicky and Marc (Sorry about the blur)

The Last Chance (32) semi-finals were fought out between Uldis Lapikens vs Mike Williams and Stuart Mann vs giant-killer, Simon Morecroft. Uldis and Stuart came through and Stuart continued and came out on top. In the Tidal Wave (32) we had an open draw. The semis were between Richard Biddle vs Nicky Check (second entry) and Marc Turner vs Eddie Barker (second entry). Eddie failed to take fullest advantage of his second entry as he fell to Marc, but Nicky did and he then faced Marc in the final. Marc showed Nicky that one entry is enough to win and he left Nicky holding the runner-up trophy. The Team (13) saw Jon Barnes walk off with the pot as he defeated his two opponents in the final.

As usual the weekend kicked off with the Friday 500 (36). It's early days at the moment, but Nicky Check and Andy Darby aren't vying for much at the moment. Tim Line beat Jerry Limb in the Final and new-member, Hanna Thorsen from Norway came joint 3rd/4th with Paul Barwick. In the Poker (27), Eddie Barker makes the #1 slot and then it's two Andys, Darby and Bell taking slots #2 and #3. It's always good to get a big one under your belt, and this is just what the top 8 have done - all off to a good start.

The Finals of the Biba Backgammon Tour (sponsored by PlayWSOB) was concluded over the weekend, the final being played between Tony Fawcett and Mark Calderbank in the Cricketers pub! I wasn't too happy about about the off-piste venue, but they were redeemed by Hanna Thorsen who recorded the match and Richard Biddle who saved it onto his laptop. Again, sadly, the demise of my PC and time issues bar me from fully reporting it at the moment, but it will feature in the next issue of Bibafax. The analysis will probably show that Tony was very lucky to have beaten Mark, which is remarkable for Tony seeing how much Guinness he'd consumed throughout the afternoon. A glance at the photos below will give you an idea of how far gone he was later that night.

BBT: Tony and Mark with their trophies and board provided by sponsor, PlayWSOB.   On the right, Richard Biddle and Tony have a nice cuddle.

Finally, as many of you know, there were two raffles in aid of Help Lewis Walk coming to a head over the weekend. The unwanted Christmas present raffle raised £240 and the Online Raffle finished with a final total of £385. See the web site for who won what in the Online Raffle.

And really finally I'd like to thank Andy Bell and PlayWSOB for sponsoring the event and the BBT, and Deana Fawcett for her help and assistance and for keeping me in touch with reality; and to Tony Lee for stepping in the help run the poker; and to all sixty-seven of you that turned out to attend. Thank you, all.