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Gilbertson UK Finals. 4, 5, 6, December 2009
Report by Michael Crane
Well, the move to Oxford certainly made a difference – we went from an entry of 34 last year to 49 this year; which was fitting for the last UK Finals sponsored by Paul Gilbertson and sister, Rosey Bensley. After a good few years they are stepping down in 2010 and the mantle is being taken up by another pair of siblings, Peter and Paul Christmas – an apt surname that gives The Christmas UK Finals a double meaning!
As usual too many of you didn’t understand the format for qualifying on the Saturday, but I find it hard to see how this is difficult to fathom!: You play 2 x 7 point matches:- if you win 2/2 you go into a playoff for four qualifiers; if you win 1/2 you go into a playoff for four qualifiers; and if you don't win any you go into a separate event (The Snowball)!
Anyhow, despite the ‘difficulty’, eight players managed (God knows how!) to get through to the Sunday Main; an element in which each met a pre-qualifier from throughout the year. The draw was thus with the pre-qualifier being shown in red:
Chris Ternel vs Mick Vacarey
Tony Fawcett vs Nigel Merrigan
Felix Vink vs Raj Jansari
Jon Barnes vs David Wallbank
Rachel Rhodes vs David Startin
Mardi Ohannessian vs Lawrence Powell
Gerry Enslin vs Peter Bennet
Michael Bennett vs Marcus Wrinch
From these fixtures the draw went:
Chris Ternel vs Tony Fawcett; Raj Jansari vs Jon Barnes; Mardi Ohannessian vs David Startin; Gerry Enslin vs Marcus Wrinch. In each match the latter went through leaving Tony vs Jon and David vs Marcus, encounters from which Jon and Marcus emerged to face each other in the 7 point final.
In a match, played with a clock, that saw just two blunders – one each – it was Jon’s that precipitated Marcus’s first (and unfortunately, only) point in the match. To 7 points, Jon is playing as black.
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Black 0 White 0
Black to play 43
With Marcus in a holding position and having a five-prime home board Jon decides to be provocative with 16/13, 7/3 leaving Marcus with 7s to hit and a great chance to rack up the first points. It would have been far better for Jon to have played safe this roll and moved 7/3, 7/4 – or most other checker plays behind white’s anchoring back-checkers. Fortunately for Jon, Marcus rolls 33: 16/10)2), the reply is 61: 16/10, 3/2; and then Marcus cubes:
Jon correctly passes. The score then moves 1-1 and then 2-1 to Jon when we come to this cube action:
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Black 2 White 1
Black cube action
This is a double/take position. Black trails by just eight pips and the game has a long way to go. Marcus spends a little time over his decision to take but he is confident it’s the correct play – which it was. However; a series of good rolls from Jon saw him take the initiative where Marcus has two in the air facing one single open point:
White starts dancing
Marcus then dances for ten rolls before bringing in one checker, and the second follows on his next roll, by which time Jon had borne off two checkers and Jon gets a gammon and four points to lead 6-1 Crawford. In the Crawford game Marcus makes his lone blunder:
White to play 64
This is not a good roll for Marcus and he deliberates over moving off his 7-point or his 21-point and eventually goes with the runner, 21/11, leaving multiple shots!! His chances with this play dropped from 33.7% with 7/1, 7/3 to 25.9%. Jon rolled 62: 20/14*, 13/11. Marcus never fully recovered after the hit and Jon bore off against opposition without leaving a shot to win the match and the UK title. Click here for Snowie stats. NB: This match is available from Biba in Snowie, JellyFish and html formats via email.
Main: Marcus and Jon
Meantime, in the Consolation (41), David Nathan vs Arthur Wright, and Paul Christmas vs Michael Horne were battling it out in the non-prog side for a place in the semi; draws from which Paul and David prevailed, and it was Paul that went into the final to face Lawrence Powell who had just beaten Felix Vink in his semi-final. Paul came out on top against Lawrence and half of next year’s sponsors had a trophy to take home!
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Consolation: Paul and Lawrence |
Last Chance: Peter and David |
In the Last Chance (32), Paul’s brother, Peter just failed in his attempt to take home a winner’s trophy when he was beaten in the final by David Startin (who is hopefully making a comeback after a dearth of wins), but at least both Christmases took home a Gilbertson trophy!
Brian Metcalf overcame the opposition when he triumphed over David Motley in the final of the Snowball (10) to win his first ever Biba element.
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Snowball: David and Brian |
Blitz: Jon and Peter |
Over the weekend we also ran a Blitz (32) element: 5 point matches on the clock with 12 seconds per move and just two minutes in reserve! Very stressful I can tell you after I tried in vain to get the better of Paul Learmount! Others more successful than I were Peter Bennet, Raj Jansari, Jon Barnes and Julian Fetterlein. These four played off in the semis from which Peter came 1st with Jon in 2nd place.
The grand finale of the Friday 500 (16) took place this weekend and it looked as if our sponsor, Paul Gilbertson, might kick off his weekend with a £500 starter. He beat Jeff Barber in the semi and then he faced Tom Duggan who had seen off Myke Wignall; however, Tom triumphed and it was he that took home the hefty wad!
We had a Team (9) match on the Saturday night from which Simon Morecroft triumphed over Martin Blindell (returning to Biba after a seven year lapse!); and in the Poker (19) three players shared 1st place: Raj Jansari, Edie Barker, Lawrence Powell. Richard Biddle and Rachel Rhodes each won a Jackpot (8) with Jean Wade and Raj Jansari coming second respectively. Jon Barnes beat Michael Bennett in the final of the Champion of Champions (8).
Rosey’s Rollout for a bottle of champagne was won by Steve Wiltsher who matched Rosey’s roll of 13 in the play-off. |
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Rosey's Rollout: Rosey and Steve |
Finally, we had a great weekend and Paul and Rosey’s sponsorship ended on a high and I’d like to thank them both very much for all they’ve done over the years in their support of the UK Finals. Also, as usual, thanks to Deana and Tony Fawcett for their continued help in assisting me in the running of this and the other twelve tournaments this year.
What can you do with Arthur Wright? After I got him a special 70th tee-shirt he’s now gone mad!
And, to finish off, some studies from David Startin (from whom the naughty one above also came).
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Marcus Wrinch |
Michael Crane |
Sharen Crane |
© Michael Crane 2009
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