The Casinorip English Open, 5, 6, 7, June 2009

Report by Michael Crane

David Startin has taken a few photos of some of the players present - Slideshow

It wasn't the biggest turnout for the Main (33) we've ever had, but what it lacked in quantity it made up for it in quality. Some of the best players in the UK turned out, but only two of them made it to the final: Brian Lever and Kevin Stebbing.

Brian Lever and Kevin Stebbing battle it out in the final

Brian (black) got off to a cracking start in Game #1, all thanks to a couple of doubles. Mind you, the first cube, from Kevin, was a bit on the dodgy side.

Black 0 White 0
White cubes

It's an easy take for Brian. Kevin really doesn't have a lot going for him in this position. Direct 1s but if he does hit he's got a lot to do to safety his two home board blots which need a specific 21 roll for the hit&cover play. After Brian takes the cube, Kevin rolls 42 and makes his 4-point. Brian then replies with a beautiful 66: 20/8(2), Kevin misses the blot again . . . and some time later we get to this position:

Black on roll - Cube action?

Although only 11 pips ahead in the race Brian has good distribution and will be bearing off two checkers for a while; Kevin, on the other hand is stacked on higher points and has an open 1-point. It should have been a re-double/pass but Brian rolled giving Kevin a chance to roll a big double and perhaps take the lead. Brian rolled 63: 6/0 3/0, Kevin replied with 6/1: 6/0 2/1, dropping a checker and then Brian cubes . . .

. . . and Kevin (after some time considering it) takes! This is a huge blunder with an equity of almost 0.470. Brian was very pleased, but he was even more pleased to see this:

White to play 41

It's an awful roll and Kevin is left with five checkers, leaving Brian with just four. On his final roll Kevin needed 55 or 66 to win and he rolled 62. Brian went into an immediate 4-0 lead. This he increased to 5-0 and then Kevin fought back, first to 5-1 then 5-3. Brian pulled ahead one more to 6-3.

In the next game, Game #6, both players make some big blunders. First is Kevin:

Black 6 White 3
White to play 65

The better move here is almost anything that contains 21/15, especially with 13/8. But, for reasons only he can explain, Kevin hits 13/2*! Brian rolls 53: 25/22 8/3 and then:

White to play 55

Having previously left his runner behind Kevin gets a second chance to move . . . and plays 21/16, 8/3*(3) making another big blunder. Having already escaped from black's home board it makes no sense to send another one back with this play. Here, the better move is the simple, pure and safe, 21/11, 13/8(2). Kevin gets away with it as Brian rolls 61: 25/18. Eventually Kevin is left with two checkers to bear in and Brian is blocking them just three pips away:

Black to play 44

Brian took a long time over this, deciding whether or not to run both or no checkers off his 18-point. Eventually he settled for 18/10(2) and makes a blunder. This play lets Kevin off the hook if he rolls 61, 62 or 63 - all of which would leave a shot for Brian and might even lead to a gammon. However, Sod's Law came into play and Kevin rolled The Girls (55) and leapt in and off in one move. A little later a timely 66 led to Kevin making the score respectable at 6-5 to Brian.

The score then moves: 6-7, 7-7, 8-7 and then 9-7 to Brian. In what turns out to be the final game of the match Brian starts with 43: 24/20, 13/10. Kevin rolls 66: 24/18(2), 13/7(2) and says, "I knew I should have doubled." Brian and I laughed . . . but not for long! Brian rolled 42: 24/20, 10/8 and then:

Kevin doubles! This is not a double and quite an easy take for Brian. Now all Brian has to do is win a single game and the match is his. Much later Brian gets a shot:

Black to play 62

Kevin is hit and only re-enters when Brian is 100% certain to win with four checkers on each of his 1-, 2- and 3-points. Forlornly he rolls a few times but in the end he resigns and Brian Lever adds the 2009 English Open to his list of four other Main titles: SAC 1993, UK Finals 2001, SAC 2002, and British Open 2007.

Main: Kevin and Brian   Losing semi-finalists, Gheorghe Filipas and Martin Barkwill

Meanwhile
In the Consolation (29) Marcus Wrinch, joining it in the 2nd Round, played his way into the final via John Hedge, Chris Ternel, Mick Vacarey and Talan Evans. Here he met Richard Biddle who came in from the Main quarter-finals, beating Paul Barwick and Mardi Ohannessian to play against Marcus. Without losing any momentum, Marcus prevailed . . . but at least Richard didn't go out in the round before the payout!

Consolation: Richard and Marcus	Last Chance: David and Uldis

In the Last Chance (32) it was down to David Nathan and Uldis Lapikens. Being an open draw each entrant was able to re-enter; however, David managed to get to the final on his first attempt whereas Uldis did it on his second. David, making full use of his one entry cashed in in 1st place leaving Uldis the Runner-up.

Once again we paid homage to Grahame Powell with The Grammy (8) - an event that saw the second airing of the famous tee-shirt (see here). It drew a few puzzled looks around the hotel, which would have pleased Grahame. Due to the lowish turnout only eight entrants were available for this 3-pointer. Staking his claim to fame, Mick Vacarey triumphed over Tony Fawcett to take home the winner's trophy.

The Grammy: Mick and Tony

Of course, the weekend got off with the Friday 500 (16), an event that saw Tom Duggan notching up a good few points after he beat Marcus Wrinch in the final. Marcus has now taken his score to 72, fifteen points ahead of nearest rival, Paul Gilbertson who has 57 points. This will probably alter after the Biba World Championship in July for the next issue of Bibafax.

The Poker (14) was a Freeze-out this weekend, and it was Martin Barkwill that emerged the winner with Lawrence Powell 2nd and Gilberto Nieto (Casinorip/GammonAccount Global, Affiliate Manager) 3rd. The 'usual suspects' didn't feature in the Top 8 (though to be fair, Myke Wignall and Rosey Bensley were both absent. Even though Myke was absent for the weekend, he is still hard to beat! He remains at the top with Paul Gilbertson still in 2nd place. John Hedge moves Tony Fawcett down (still not on form, eh Tony?) and Marcus Wrinch enters in 5th place and just into the money . . . for the moment.

Lastly we come to The Team (4). Not the biggest of turnouts, but as usual, Richard Biddle was there in the final where he lost to Nicky Check. And in the Jackpot (4) Tony Fawcett beat me into 2nd place.

Finally
This event was played with clocks for the Quarter Finals and it all appeared to go fairly smoothly. John Hedge kindly donated four new clocks so that if needed we can use them on Saturday as well. Thank you, John.

	The Casinorip trophies

Gilberto from Casinorip, represented the tournament sponsors and the trophies they supplied were very popular. Thanks, guys.

Of course, I can't go without thanking Tony Fawcett for the poker, and Deana for assisting me in the running of the backgammon - thank you, both.