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Townharbour Trophy (31)
Report by Michael Crane

Friday 500 (15)
So, we have finally reached the last of the 500 events, and I know you're all wondering, did Myke or Nicky come out on top? I can't say here - you'll have to read about it here.

With a field of 15 we had an open 16 draw with one buyback, this went to Andy Darby, but it did him go good and he went out (twice) in Round 1. The final four were Tony Fawcett vs Jeff Barber and Paul Gilbertson vs Nicky Check (a clue there for the observant among you!), with Paul and Tony going through to the Final. Here, it was Paul that prevailed, taking home the bigger half of the pools and the free weekend.

Townharbour Trophy (31)
I was expecting a few more, but with a draw of 32 (my faithful assistant, Deana Fawcett and Pat Holly took it in turns to make up the numbers) I'm not going to complain. It gave me a chance to test-drive my latest toy, a Swiss Format Drawsheet. It's based upon an entry of 64 so half that is a good entry. I had played around with it at home and discovered it's far from perfect - it gets mucked about with odd fixtures. Hopefully, 32 should be 'odd' free and work well.

By the end of Round 3 on the Saturday it was clear that the new drawsheet would be OK until the 6th Round pairings, during that I'd have to 'fiddle' a few around depending upon the Round 5 results.

On the Sunday we had two clear halves of Main (15) and Consolation (16). Leading the field on 3-3 were Peter Bennet vs Julian Fetterlein and David Motley vs Rosey Bensley. Because we were not guaranteed a 6-6 the remaining 12 players had a chance of getting 5-6 thus coming 1st or 2nd. In Round 4 David beat Rosey and Peter beat Julian, for Round 5 the two winners played off for 4-4 and the two losers were paired off. David beat Peter and Julian beat Rosey - leaving us with David being the only player on 5-5 going into the 6th Round.

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David & Julian	Paul & Jeff

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In the 6th Round, David was pitched against Julian, and Rosey against Peter. David wasn't in the Winner-Takes-All pool, as we were guaranteed a Rollover whether he won 6-6 or not! As it turned out he didn't win 6-6, Julian beat him in the 6th Round thus leaving me with three players on 5-6: David, Julian and Chris Ternel. Head-to-head encounters didn't reveal a winner; nor did any shared opponents so we resorted to the average score of opponents - which returned our 1st as David, with Julian 2nd and Chris 3rd. Sporting as ever, Julian remarked on hearing David was declared the winner, "That's only fair, he was the only one to win 5-5."

Meanwhile in the Consolation bracket we had eight on 1-1, that was whittled down to four on 2-2, giving us a final round pairing of Myke Wignall vs Paul Gilbertson and Jeff Barber vs Mike Heard. Jeff and Paul emerged as the only two on 3-3 and the final placing was determined by their shared opponent, Rachel Rhodes, whom Paul beat and Jeff didn't.

Poker (7)
Not a very big entry, but enough to get a table together and some exciting poker played. Ed Turner, who made a last-minute decision to enter was the first to leave, followed a bit later by Neil Young, a not long after, Mick Vacarey bowed out. This left the 'usual suspects' to battle it out: Rosey Bensley, Paul Gilbertson, Myke Wignall and Tony Fawcett. Clinging to a slender two points lead in the Grand Prix, it was Tony to exit next. Outflanked by the two men, Rosey couldn't remain in and she went out leaving it Myke and Paul. It wasn't too long before Myke 'Mad Mullah' Wignall went all-in (he does this a lot!), but this time he came unstuck and left Paul as the night's winner. To see how this affected the Grand Prix Championship, see here.

I have been talking with a few of the established and potential poker players about when a player can actually enter the poker. Up to date the official view (mine) was that if you didn't register for the poker when you registered for the backgammon you couldn't play - however, it was left to the poker directors discretion whether or not to allow late entries. Because the director is also an entrant they can have a vested interest in who or how many players are entered, I have therefore decided that should any non-registered players want to enter the cut-off time will be 8.30pm. I have made it 8.30pm to allow those that were in two minds or not during backgammon registration to later decide to enter. No one, under any circumstances will be allowed to enter after 8.30pm.

Finally
It was a good weekend. The Swiss drawsheet worked very well until Round 6 (as expected) during which I 'hand-drew' opponents as best I could using the 6th round results to guide me. Overall the new random system worked very well in that it allowed players to know whom their next opponent was and that enabled fixtures to be played at a more fluid pace. For reasons you'll read elsewhere it was a very good weekend for two players, Peter Bennet and Paul Gilbertson. Well done, both of you.

Regarding the WTA Rollover of £285. Because the UK Finals already has eight players into the last 16 (thus giving them an unfair advantage) the rollover will go to the next 'open' entry, the casinorip.com Bright 'n' Breezy in January.