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Gilbertson UK Finals. 5, 6, 7 December 2008 The Saturday, Double-Knockout provided us with some of the very best Biba players to join the pre-qualifiers for the UK Finals. From KO #1 emerged Julian Fetterlein, Nigel Merrigan, Lawrence Powell and Mike Heard. From KO #2 Tony Lee, Gerry Enslin, Tom Duggan and Julian Minwalla. On the Sunday, these were matched thus (pre-qualifiers marked in red): Julian F vs Mark Heidenfeld The 2nd Round paired up: Allan, the Irish Open winner faced Tony, a previous UK Finals winner from 2003. Could Tony become the second player to win the title twice? Well, the quick answer is Yes! But it was an exciting match and everything eventually hinged on Game 5 and it all kicked off thus . . . When I record a match on video prior to inputting it into Snowie I get the added bonus of sometimes hearing each players comments. I get to hear some pretty useful stuff as I play back the recording, but as yet I am still waiting to hear any pin numbers for chip & pin! After the match was over, Tony and Allan set up a position that occurred in what was to be the last game, Game 5. It was a 2-cube from Tony (b) while Allan had two on the bar and another under threat:
7 point match Allan took. Was it a double or not? Was it a take or not? Although Allan and Tony discussed the merits of the cube action they decided to leave it to Snowie to reveal all. Snowie is almost shouting out, Pass! Pass! Pass! For money, Tony is almost 70% with just over 36% gammons, and it is the gammon chances that make all the difference. Passing this cube would have meant a measly equity loss of -0.019, whereas the take meant a massive -0.622! Four rolls later and Allan had an opportunity to lower his gammon losses to about 29% when he rolled this 61:
White to play 61 Allan moved 25/18 (a blunder) which is almost guaranteeing being back on the bar next roll. He should have made his 2-point here. He needs to get a hit, but at the same time he needs to make home board points to help contain the black checker(s) when he's got them on the bar. Tony rolls 53 and Allan is back on the bar. Three rolls later Allan rolls 55:
White to play 55 Pointing on the 3-point is clear, but Allan makes a blunder by then playing 6/1(2) and closing off his 1-point. The one point should be left open for Tony to enter upon. The lower down he is in Allan's board the greater the chances of him crunching and perhaps leaving Allan another blot. Snowie's fave by a long chalk was 13/3*(2). The actual play increased Tony's gammon chances to just over 40%! Tony managed to get this blot home, but he was eventually hit during the bearoff, thus giving Allan a slim chance of saving the gammon or even winning the game. Here he is on the bar and his move, a blunder, further increases his gammon losses to over 50%:
White to play 52 Allan plays 25/20 13/11. It is the 25/20 part that's incorrect. He already has two checkers on that point and he should have played on to his 18-point to maximize his hitting chances. In the game Tony rolled 43 and hit 17/14* 14/10 whereas he would have been forced to play 17/10 had Allan played 25/18, and in doing so left Allan with a quadruple shot at the blot. Instead, Allan was on the bar and his roll of 63 (which would have hit from his 18-point!) missed the blot. He played 25/16 to leave this position:
Black on roll Tony rolls 51! Once again, Allan is in with a chance! He hits with 21, but Tony can't be retained and he eventually rolls out for a backgammon and the match - and his second UK title.
Main - Tony & Allan (Apologies for the crap picture - I wobbled!) In the Consolation (20) non-progressive side the quarter-finals was between Paul Gilbertson (our sponsor) vs Paul Learmount, and Marcus Wrinch vs Jeff Barber. Paul and Marcus made it to the non-prog final and it was Marcus that made it to the Consolation final. Here he waited on the Main 1st Round losers to battle it out to meet him. In the end it came down to Raj vs Julian Fetterlein, and Raj prevailed . . . only to lose to Marcus in the final.
Consolation - Raj & Marcus The Snowball (10) for those players who didn't win any qualifying matches on the Saturday was won by last year's Main winner, Mick Butterfield whose attempt at three-in-a-row titles was unsuccessful. He beat Jeff Barber into 2nd place.
The Last Chance (16) was the only element in which a pre-qualifier took home a trophy. John Hedge beat David Wallbank to go home a happy bunny. Ann Pocknell won the Champion of Champions (7) when she got the better of John Reddington in the final.
The 1-point Knockout and the Wii Boxing events were both non-starters with players showing little or no interest in entering either. The Secret Santa faired a little better with six presents being exchanged. Perhaps it was too secret! Rosey's Rollout was better supported and six players shared her roll of sixteen but only one, Sharen Crane managed to match it twice and she took home a lovely bottle of Rosé champagne.
Sharen & Rosey The Team (6) was a little under-subscribed, but this didn't bother Mark Heidenfeld when he went through to beat Richard Biddle in the final. The freeze-out Poker (18) saw John Hedge beating all-comers in his favourite poker format. Mick Butterfield came 2nd with Rosey Bensley 3rd. NB: Because the freeze-out format was so popular it has been decided to include freeze-outs in the 2009 Grand Prix events. Details later. Going back to Friday night's final of the Friday 500 (16), Tom Duggan just missed out on the £500 prize losing to David Nathan. And, in the Friday Jackpot (8) I stormed through the field to come out on top after beating John Reddington in the final . . . mind you, the best bit was beating Mick Butterfield in the 1st Round! Finally I'd like to thank Paul for the trophies and Rosey for the champagne. Their sponsorship and support of Biba is very much appreciated. I'd also like to thank all entrants that braved sub-zero temperatures to make it to Walton and especially to Mark Heidenfeld who flew in from his new home in Germany and to Allan Christensen who flew in from Denmark. Footnote: John Broomfield didn't make it to the UK Finals . . . . but he was there in spirit! Here's Mike Heard doing a 'Broomfield' in his Consolation match against Raj Jansari.
Raj contemplates his next move while Mike relaxes a la Broomfield style! And really, really finally! Tom Duggan, the sponsor of the Biba - World Championship has provided a stunning centrepiece to publicise the July event.
It's a globe thingy! With £1000 first prize guaranteed this event is expected to draw a big entry. If you want to reserve accommodation you need to book it now! Don't leave it too late and miss out on being Biba's first world champion and going home £1000 richer! follow
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