The Barcelo Cup, 3, 4, 5 September, 2010

Report by Michael Crane

Main (32). What a great entry, making my job a doddle! The drawsheet worked beautifully and everyone dropped into place without a hitch - as it always (should!) do. On the Sunday we were down to the semis: Simon Morecroft vs Andy Bell and Adrian Jones vs Nicky Check, fixtures from which Andy and Nicky progressed to the final. The match got off to a cracking start for Andy (white) as the score went 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6 in his favour. It was here that Nicky began striking back.

Mind you, he didn't get off to a good start and this 41 was badly played (the match is to 11 points):
.

Black 1 : White 6

Nicky's play of 13/9, 6/5 is just too aggressive here and is unnecessary. Certainly the 13/9 is correct but slotting the 5-point is not. With Andy having a three-prime straddling his bar the better 1 would have been 24/23. He is hit with 62: 24/16*.

Later he gets a lucky roll off the bar:

He plays 25/22*, 22/21, but it might have been a tad better to have played 25/22*, 21/20 and given himself a spare checker on his Golden Point. Andy dances with 65, and then Nicky makes another mistake:

Slotting with 13/4 is almost a blunder. It would have been better to have played 21/16, 13/9. This duplicates 4s nicely and gives good cover for making the 4-point next roll if possible. He gets away with it as Andy rolls 52: 25/23, 13/8; and Nicky then rolls 61: 10/4, 6/5. It is here that Andy makes a blunder:

Nicky hasn't any spare checkers outside of his home board and a 6 will mean he'll have to break off one of his points (this is why the 31 above would have been better played 25/22*, 21/20). With this in mind the better play here is 13/8, keeping all the white checkers in front of all the black ones and not leaving a blot inside. Mind you, Nicky's reply of 55: 21/16(2), 13/8(2) was a cracker!

A little later Nicky is hit with 66 and then dances with a roll of 52, after which Andy pushes over a 2-cube.

It is the cube that proves to be Andy's undoing, even if it is the correct play! According to XG, this is double/take. Nicky has a good home board, 27 re-entry numbers and the possibility of a hit sometime. Nicky takes. Andy is unable to make another point as he rolls 52: 12/5.

Nicky rolls 44: 25/21, 5/1(3) and his home board crunches. We then get to the bearoff and Nicky ships across a 4-cube:

With game winning chances of around 70/30 in Nicky's favour this is a correct double and a correct take. However, Andy is very unlucky as it gets to this position:

The Girls come out to play with Nicky and he lowers Andy's lead to just a single point at 5-6. From here it moves 5-7, 5-8, 5-9 in Andy's favour and then back with Nicky, 6-9, 8-9, 10-9, 10-10.

It is at 10-10 that both players are in dire time trouble, each having just seconds on their clocks! Throughout the entire game just one small error is made (by Andy), which is remarkable considering that almost every move played was within 12 seconds! However, of the two, Nicky managed his time better and at this crucial point . . .

Black 10 : White 10

. . . Andy runs out of time! He began this game with just 12 seconds on his clock, and Nicky had 25, when it ended Nicky still had 15 seconds left.

So, it's Nicky Check, the winner of the new, Barceló Cup and Andy Bell, Runner-up. Not only did Nicky take home the Main trophy, but also the board on which the final was played, kindly donated by his opponent, Andy, as sponsor of the Biba Backgammon Tour of which this event is part. The two losing semi-finalists were Adrian Jones and Simon Morecroft as mentioned earlier. XG STATS

Main: Andy & Nicky

Main: Semi-Finalists, Simon & Adrian

Staying with Simon: He had a bloody good weekend overall. He won the Last Chance (32), with Lawrence Powell coming 2nd; and the Team (5) as well as cashing in 1st place in the £10 pool in the Main! In the Consolation (30), Marc Turner (from the Progressive side) met Neil Everritt in the Final. Despite already beating Marcus Wrinch, Peter Chan, Andy Darby, Rachel Rhodes and Julian Fetterlein, Neil was unable to add Marc Turner to an impressive list of scalps and Marc took home the winner's trophy. And, if having two Coventry-based players in the Final of the Consolation wasn't enough, Dan Tutchings beat his brother, Rob, in the semi-final of the Triumph (16) to meet - and beat - Rachel Rhodes in the Final.

Last Chance: Simon & Lawrence	Triumph: Dan & Rachel

In the Friday 500 (12), Jeff Barber beat Rachel Rhodes, and in the Poker (14) Mark Calderbank and Andy Darby came out 1st and 2nd, and at 3rd and 4th, two Coventry-based players, Rob Tutchings and Marc Turner - they get everywhere, don't they? Lastly, we had two Team events (5) and (4), both in which I lost, with Simon Morecroft winning the first, and Irving Czechowicz winning the second.

Finally
It was a good weekend, a perfect draw of 32 and no real problems to speak of. My only regret is that the Winner-Takes-All was taken, leaving no rollover for next month!

.

.

.

.

This match is available from Biba HQ in JellyFish, Snowie or XG formats