The Christmas UK Finals. 3-4, December 2011
The weekend began, as it always does, with the Friday 500. Many of the Top 16 qualifiers didn't turn out to compete for the £500 first prize, so we had to go further down the list in order to get a 16 draw as outlined in the format. This draw included me and it was with utter astonishment that I found myself in the Final against Anabel Carrington for the Friday 500 title! It was a close match but I edged Anabel into 2nd place as I became the 2011 Friday 500 Champion! It was nice to win back some of my own money! NB: One thing that you should all take on board regarding the format is that no matter what position you are on the listing, there's always a chance you can play in the December final. Never assume all the qualifiers will attend; such an assumption might cost you £500. On the Saturday we got on with the Qualifying Rounds, from which we got our eight: Anabel Carrington, Andy Darby, Arthur Wright, Peter Christmas, Rachel Rhodes, Tim Line, Tony Fawcett, Yan Kit Chan. Joining these was Chris Ternel. Chris won the Snowball (image below) when he beat Rosey Bensley in the Final of the 3-pointer for those players winning 0-2 in the Qualifier Rounds. Why a 9th player? Julian Minwalla won three places thus creating one spare one and himself a bye. The Sunday Main then looked like this (with the pre-qualifier in red, except Chris Ternel and Anabel Carrington): * Vaidas dropped out of the Main, he had a plane to catch, so Arthur got a very helpful bye. Out of these just one Pre-qualifier made it to the Last 8: It was a good match and XG rated them: Arthur, Advanced, Rachel, Expert. A few interesting positions came up, some of which I share with you here in the match to seven points.
Game 1
This is the biggest blunder of the eight made throughout the match, as Arthur plays 18/10! There is only really one play here and that is 18/15, 18/13. It cuts down the shots from 6s and 1s with Arthur's play to just 3s. Safer and more constructive. Rachel rolled one of the 6s, 63: 13/7*, 6/4. Arthur ends up with two on the bar a little later, and then re-enters with a cracking 11 . . . and he misplays it.
Black to play 11
Playing 25/24, 25/23, 13/12* is an error; it would have been far stronger to have played 25/24(2), 13/12*, 12/11. By playing 12/11 the checker is now bearing onto the 5-point, a more useful position than loose on the 23-point. A bit later Rachel doubles (XG: Double/Take) after which she makes a blunder of her own - although not as big as Arthur's. White doubles to 2
Leaving three blots on: 24/23, 8/2 is just giving white too many shots inasmuch as every single dice roll can hit at least one blot! Now is the time to tidy it all up with 20/14, 15/14; make the anchor and let black come to you. The 1-point blot isn't in much danger, and black's home board isn't very strong. From hereon the game progresses for some time, time during which Arthur's home board crunches and he is unable to get his two back checkers off his 24-point - until now.
Black plays 24/17* There then follows a blot-hitting contest and Rachel eventually ends up with three checkers back, two of which were on the bar! Happily for her she still retained her 5-prime (6 to 2) and Arthur couldn't get his last checker out before she came round and closed him out. A timely 44 came to Arthur's rescue and he managed to save the gammon. Game 2
The double-hit, 8/4*, 4/1* looks good ("two on the bar - better by far") but it's not. Pointing 8/4*, 7/4 is far better. A good point and no return shots. Ten rolls later and we get a double-blunder! First, Rachel.
White to play 55 I am not too sure what Rachel had in mind as she played 13/3, 8/3(2) but it didn't do much for her. A far better play was to make two home board points, 8/3(2), 6/1(2). On the next roll Arthur drops another big one!
Black to play 31 In Arthur’s last position above the double-hit wasn't correct - this time it is (isn't backgammon fickle?). Playing 6/3*, 3*2 gives black a chance to make another point if missed next roll; whereas playing 13/10, 13/12* gives white great chances to anchor and cause some trouble. Rachel re-enters easily with 33: 25/22, 23/20, 8/5(2). A while later Rachel wimps out here:
White to play 32 Playing 6/1 is very un-Rachellike. She should have gone with 21/16. Occupying the 21-point isn't having much effect on Arthur and it or the 22-point will probably have to break next roll anyway. And, later on:
Black to play 41 With just three rolls to pick from, Arthur goes for the middle one (blunder) as he plays 6/5, 6/2. He's big favourite to win the game (perhaps even the gammon) and with this in mind he should have taken off one checker with 6/2, 1/0; and not 6/5, 6/2. Taking one off leaves ten checkers (five rolls . . if a 6 is rolled and no dice are wasted) whereas that extra one checker will need one full roll to get off, a full roll that Rachel might well need. As it turned out, Arthur got the gammon after Rachel rolled a series of small dice and ended up with two checkers well from home as Arthur rolled out to take four points. Game 3
Game 3 was uneventful but for a couple of rolls, both of them 63 rolled by Arthur. As you'd expect he played 24/15*. Rachel then rolled 62: 25/23, 11/5; and then Arthur rolled his second 63. Was he to repeat his first move or should he make his 5-point, 11/5, 6/5? He made his 15-point, but it would have been better to have made his 5-point. Given the choice of the two points in this position the 5-point should take priority. The game carried on to where Rachel accepted a 2-cube in this position:
Black cubes XG is not happy with the cube deeming it No double/Take . . . and Rachel was happy to take. But, her happiness was short-lived as Arthur bore in safely and took off to win the cubed two points, taking the match to Crawford. Game 4 - Crawford
Erring on the side of caution here, Arthur plays the pick&pass, 6/4*, 4/1; whereas he would have been wiser to point: 7/4*, 6/4. With just a roll of 52 to hit his blot he's on very safe ground here and, the longer Rachel dances the longer he'll have to get his last few checkers home. As it turned out Rachel danced for three rolls despite the fact that Arthur never made the 4- or 5-point, and when she did come in he rolled a nice 64, jumped over her and rolled out to win the UK title. NB: This match is available in XG and Snowie match format (excepting 11 to 28 December)
Main: Rachel and Arthur
Main semi-finalists: Andy and Yan Meanwhile in the Consolation non-progressive side, Michelle Ford, having beaten joint-sponsor, Paul Christmas, Myke ('Dynamic') Wignall and Mick Vacarey, found she had a longish wait in the Final as the progressive side caught up. With the likes of Peter Bennet, Julian Fetterlein, Peter Christmas (joint-sponsor) and Chris Ternel coming through Michelle wasn't going to have an easy time. In the end it was Chris who came out on top of the prog side . . . and it was Michelle who came out on top in the Final.
During the Saturday Qualifier we held the Champion of Champions Knockout, a Round Robin event from which two players emerged with 4-5 wins: Peter Bennet (Biba World Champion) and Vaidas Novicenko (Irish Open). In the play-off Peter (who suggested the format!) came out to win (my £50 added prize money) and take the title Champion of Champions.
The Last Chance was a small affair, and its Final saw our third female finalist; this time it was Dorothy Lee's chance to give the girls a 2-3 winning streak. All she had to do was defeat the defending UK 2010, Last Chance winner, Paul Plumptre . . . which she did. Girl power! We can't leave without reporting on the Doubles, an event in which Peter Christmas and I - playing as Jingle Bells - got the better of Arthur and Valerie - Christmas Crackers - to win another doubles knockout. And in the Poker, over the weekend, Mick Vacarey won (unfortunately his new score was still too few to creep into the prize money) with Julian Minwalla 2nd and Andy Darby 3rd.
In the Poker Grand Prix Championship race none of the Top Five managed to improve on their previous scores and so Andy Darby came out (as expected) in the No.1 slot and is the first player to successfully defend the title. Even though absent this weekend, Lawrence Powell came 2nd, with Marcus Wrinch (also absent) 3rd. NB: The format and structure of the Poker Grand Prix will be changing for 2012. When the details have been finalised they will appear on the poker page. It might be the Christmas UK Finals, but traditions prevail and as in the past ,we had Rosey's Rollout for a bottle of champagne; and it seemed only fair that Paul Christmas won it.
Rosey's Rollout: Paul and Rosey
Finally Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all
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