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County Cups Trophy (30)
Report by Michael Crane

I had thought that a £510 rollover would have brought in a good few players - but I was wrong and we started the weekend with an entry of 30. These entrants increased the WTA to £900 so it was well worth winning, and by the Sunday morning we had four on 3-3, all of whom were in the WTA: Julian Fetterlein vs Rachel Rhodes and Julian Minwalla vs Neil Everitt, encounters from which both Julians emerged victorious (does this sound familiar?). Julian M then went on to beat Julian F (again!) to become the only 5-5 in the tournament. Rachel was drawn at random from the 4-5s to see if she could stop him winning his third Main event this year!

Julian (black) took an early lead and was at 5-1 when he made a blunder when recubed in this position:

Rachel ships across a 4-cube

This is an easy drop. Both players are on a four-roll bearoff, and with Rachel on roll Julian will have to roll a double to take the lead. Not worth it as XG shouts out, Drop as he Takes! He fails to roll a double and the lead goes level at 5-5. It then progresses (Julian first): 5-6, 7/6

With the score at 7-6 to Julian both he and Rachel began the game with a blotfest! By move 13 there had been 22 checkers placed on the bar.

21/15*, 13/9*

After this move Rachel had all but two of her checkers on Julian's side of the board and from hereon she is playing what looks like a backgame.

A few rolls later she had managed to make her 18-point but a 5-2 backgame isn't that strong, and with a one-point home board she's not going to have Julian dancing too much.

9/4*, 8/4

Rachel's attempt to make the crucial 4-point is thwarted by a great 54 from Julian, a roll that ensured Rachel wouldn't be making any more decent points in Julian's home board. However, being placed on the bar gave her an outside chance of a hit, but she failed to roll any of the indirects that hit the 9-point blot.

25/23, 13/9

Later it looked as if she might change things a bit when she got this roll:

18/12*(2), 13/7(2)

Moving 13/7(2) was a blunder according to XG who preferred 20/8 threatening the blot on her 9-point. However, soon after she gets both of Julian's back checkers onto the bar . . . for one roll, and a while later he's ready to start bearing his checkers in:

Everyone, onlookers, Rachel and Julian were certain Rachel would get a shot - and she did a bit later, albeit a (fairly decent) indirect:

25/20, 3/2

She misses and Julian continues bearing in safely until he rolls here:

3/1, 3/0

Rachel's last chance to save the gammon (over 70% chance she'll lose one - and the match) but she rolls 64 with which she covers her 4-point, hoping for Snake Eyes from Julian . . . he doesn't roll it and the race is now on for Rachel to save the gammon and the match. She rolls 55: 23/18, 23/8, then 65: 18/12, 8/3 leaving herself a 6-anything to save the gammon:

She rolls 51, and the match and the title goes to Julian - again! Two players were left on 5-6, Julian F and Marc Turner, and it was Julian who was declared the Runner-up after the tiebreak. NB: This match is available in XG or Snowie format. Please email info@backgammon-biba.co.uk to request your chosen format.

Main: Julian . . . and Julian

This is a remarkable feat from Julian, he's won three out of the four events he's entered this year, the only title eluding him thus far being the Biba International in which he was knocked out in his first match by Phil Tutchings. Since then he has been undefeated and has now earned himself a 1000-to-1 Trophy for winning 10 consecutive 11 point matches (12 to date). Can no one stop him?

Consolation: Richard and Anabel

In the Consolation, Richard Biddle triumphed over Anabel Carrington, with Mark Calderbank in 3rd place after the tiebreak. Anabel's weekend got off to a very good start when she made it to the final of the Friday 500 (8), but her opponent there, boyfriend, Myke Wignall, made sure she didn't win the Weekend Break first prize . . . or did she?

In the Poker (8), after a bit of messing about over an expected entrant who failed to turn up, it started with a substitute to keep a tidy table of eight entrants. Of these Lawrence Powell was 1st, with Marcus Wrinch 2nd and Rosey Bensley 3rd.

Finally. It wasn't a bad weekend so far as the backgammon went, but it wasn't a good one for dining or drinking. The restaurant had to fit us in among 310 women Buddhists each night for dinner and on Saturday, early evening, the bar refused to serve any draught beers because they were 'too busy'! As a consequence many players went to local bars and restaurants instead. Sorry, guys.