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County Cups Trophy (26)
Report by Michael Crane

I like the Swiss format, and 'though it isn't the most popular of formats with some players there are those that prefer them. Because they offer 6 x 11 point matches they are great for making good/bad changes to the Ranking and Grand Prix championships. It is for this reason alone that the November Swiss is so very important for those members chasing points in the championships.

In the Main (13/26) it isn't often we get a 6/6 winner thus it's possible to win the tournament after losing one round; however, this weekend that was not the case. We had an outright winner in Rachel Rhodes when she beat Marcus Wrinch in the 6th Round. In a good many of her six matches she was behind (at one time, 10-1 behind!) yet she prevailed in them all to take home the trophy.

Main: Rachel and Chris

Chris Ternel lost his 1st Round match against Neil Everitt, and if he was playing in a knockout he'd have been out of the running. However, those that know Chris will know he doesn't quit. He keeps on at it and to his credit (and skill) he finished the tournament with 5/6. As he was the only one to get 5/6 he nicely took second place to Rachel's first. George Miltiadou was also hoping to end up on 5/6 but he had the misfortune to meet the UK's top ranked player, Julian Fetterlein . . . and Julian is hard to beat - as George discovered.

In the Consolation (13/26) the manipulation and rebranding of the Sunday matches has proved a success, and nowadays players are more likely to continue playing than ever before. Four that failed to impress on the Saturday made a big improvement on the Sunday. They were Richard Holness, Gerry Enslin, Paul Gilbertson and Arthur Wright. Richard lost to Arthur in the 6th Round and Paul beat Gerry to leave a playoff between Paul and Arthur for the trophy. In a very one-sided match Arthur completely out-rolled Paul - and he administered the coup de grace with a double-six to bearoff his last two checkers to steal it away from Paul who had just one to clear.

	Paul's cheery smile is entirely forced as this previous shot shows:
Consolation: Paul and Arthur

Of course, the weekend got underway with the Friday 500 (12) and it was a good start for Paul Gilbertson. He beat new-comer, Jeff Bale in the final to take home the Weekend Prize. The backgammon continued on the Saturday night with The Team (8) event. Here, we had Richard Biddle in a second consecutive final, this time playing against Brian Metcalf. Richard won again - and is now looking for a hat trick next time out!

In the Poker (8), late (almost reluctant) entrant, Marcus Wrinch, ended up chip-leader with Paul Gilbertson in 2nd place. Mardi Ohannessian surprised us all by entering - we didn't even knew he could play! He raised a few eyebrows and blood pressures when he went all-in on his first hand. It proved a winning tactic as everyone else folded. However, he didn't last much longer and went out in 7th place.

Overall it was a good tournament if not a good turnout - however, it was only one short of last year's 27; and that would have been beaten had Tony Fawcett and Paul Barwick both played.