I only arrived at the Grand Hotel, Monte Carlo on Friday and assumed that someone else was probably doing a report and that I would just put my feet up and enjoy watching the games. There must be something inside me however, that means I can't resist writing down a few interesting positions or stories.

On my arrival I met up with my brother John and we went to the Café de Paris for coffee and bumped into Wayne Felton. I got up-to-date with all of the hard luck stories as to why no Brits were still in the Main tourney, and as always, there were lots of those! Dod and Paul G had done well to get through to the play on Thursday but had now qualified for the Second Consolation.

Most of the Brits were staying at The Miramar Hotel at Cap D'Ail, which has been a long time favourite place to stay. A mini-tournament had taken place on the beach there on Wednesday. It boasted 21 players, including some Norwegians, and was won by Roland Herrera. He wasn't actually playing in the World Championship so was pleased to have got some backgammon action.

So who made up the British contingent this year? Well, I shall apologise in advance for leaving names off but I can remember seeing the following players huddled over their backgammon boards with pained expressions on their faces!! In no particular order:-

John Slattery, Paul and John Gilbertson, Myke Wignall, Peter Bennet, Dod Davies, Jo Curl, Roland Herrera, Simonetta Barone, Rachel Rhodes, Jane Oxley, Laurence Powell, Ernie Pick (who was playing at his first Monte Carlo tourney; and enjoyed it so much he says he will definitely be back!), Mike Butterfield, Will Richardson, Wayne Felton, Kevin Stebbings, Geoff Conn, Alex Naylor, Cynthia and her partner from Bristol, Justin Silver (from the RAC Club), Ash, Mark Telscher, James Vogel (for the first few days only and then he went off to play Poker!). I am sure there were more than this but old age is setting in and I can't remember there names! Like me Vicki only made it for part of the week so didn't play.

If I was prone to sub-headings this story would have to be entitled "Was Conn conned by the magician?"! Geoff Conn and Kevin Stebbings were playing money games, at 10 euros a point, when after being fairly even on the points, one in one particular game every move seemed to become a double-take decision. Geoff has a double-shot and re-doubles to 16. Kevin takes. Geoff misses leaving this position:
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Money Game
Kevin (w) cube action?

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Kevin says, "this game's getting expensive but I have to double." Geoff takes the 32 cube. Kevin then throws 62 and moves 18 /10. His thoughts were that it would be much worse to leave the blot further back. Geoff was delighted when he rolled a joker double one that did everything - hit Kevin, and closed his board. Geoff didn't hesitate and shipped Kevin the cube which had written on it "Monte Carlo" but Geoff made sure there was no mistaking it was a 64 cube. Now be honest, would you take in this position?
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Money Game
Geoff (b) cube action?

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Well. Kevin thought very logically about it. He gave me an insight into what he had been thinking before realising his logic was wrong! "I must assess this cube decision properly and ignore that it is for a lot of money. If he has 5 fewer men than me off then it's a double, and then if I have a fast bearoff it's a take. But he has no fewer men than me off, so it's not even a double!"

Kevin takes.

G: "You've taken!"

K: "Yes, it's a take." It was at that point that he realised he had made an appalling blunder! His thoughts again - "I'll have to go to the bank tomorrow to get the money. This is going to be really embarrassing!"

Geoff thought all his Christmases had come at once! He was over the moon if not a bit surprised at Kevin's decision. It wasn't long after this euphoria that Geoff saw the magician at work. As soon as Geoff had cleared his 6-point out popped a double 6 from Kevin! He continued to roll well in the bearoff and ended up with 3 men left against Geoff's 2. Yes, he rolled a double 3. Geoff drops his dice cup onto the board. Poor Geoff was stunned, and in his own words "gutted", although what came out of his mouth was "oh s - - - !".

He went round in a daze for at least 2 days telling everyone his hard luck story. Us Brits all felt for him. It probably didn't help though when one bright spark decided to tell Geoff how Kevin had been teaching them how to roll double-6 on demand!!! I am sure Geoff and Kevin are best of friends again now although I must admit when I asked Geoff if he wanted to form a team with me and Kevin, he did reply "no thanks, Kevin takes silly cubes!!"

My only other story is the one about the Team event and the success of the Mad Hatters. Slatts, Peter Bennet and Paul Gilbertson all dressed up in Slatts' hats and sequined waistcoats to play together. They had to endure quite a few photo calls before they actually sat down to play! They really did look the part and if there had been a prize for the best-dressed team I am sure they would have won!

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Their first match was against 3 American Ladies. I have got to admit I was quite disappointed when I went over to check on progress and found them down in all 3 matches, 4-0 / 4-0 / 2-0! The matches were only to 5 points so I didn't give them much hope of getting past the first round. To my surprise and theirs I think, they actually prevailed and won all 3 matches! They continued to do well until the Quarter Finals when the team had won one, lost one and Slatts had a particularly tough match against one of the members of a Dutch team. He managed to save a gammon to stay in the match and went on to win when a double was required on the last roll! In the semi-final they played an experienced French team. This time it was Peter that was under the spotlight. He was 2-0 up when he got to this position.
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5 point match
French (w) 0 Brits (b) 2
Brits cube action?
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He thought about it for a long time and then threw the 4-cube across. His team members were not convinced this was the right play! However, as Peter said afterwards he felt certain the French player would drop, in which case it was an excellent cube. His opponent thought long and hard about his decision, but did eventually drop. Peter went on to win the match and the Mad Hatters were in the final! When I had said to Slatts that I was flying out to Monte Carlo to watch him in the final, I had said it tongue in cheek. I am glad he didn't let me down though!

Unfortunately, the team final was over a bit too quickly and the Mad Hatters had to content themselves with Runner-Up trophies and Fortis watches. I don't think they minded too much as they were extremely pleased at doing so well at such a prestigious event. Here's a couple of positions that cropped up during their games.
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5 point match
Dutch (w) 3 Brits (b) 0
Brits roll 43
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5 point match
White 2 Black 3
White cube action?

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Apart from the team winning, Will Richardson did extremely well and took home the trophy for winning the Intermediate Consolation. Justin Silver was a semi-finalist in the Beginners Main and Alex Naylor won a trophy for being a semi-finalist in the Beginners Consolation. Well done the Brits!!!
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Peter Hallberg of Denmark defeated Robert Wachtel of the USA to become the 2004 World Champion of Backgammon! When he collected his trophy he said that he hadn't actually come to play in the tournament originally! He was obviously delighted that he had though and was certainly the happiest player around that night.

Finally . . .
Slatts got a lot of strange looks when asked if he was going to Cannes to try for a share in the added prize money. His reply was "No, I am going back to the UK to play in the Liverpool Open!" He probably did elaborate and let them know that he won the title in 2000 and 2002 and wanted to reclaim it in 2004 after only winning the Consolation last year!!!

MC: Go to the Liverpool Open to see how Slats faired. Peter Bennet was the unfortunate victim of a theft in Monte. For full details of this and more on the World Championship see www.gammonvillage.com.