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Townharbour Trophy, 4-6 November, 2011
Report by Michael Crane to follo

I was surprised by the low turnout for this last Swiss of the year, but that didn't detract from some very good matches, one of which was the Round 6 match between Mardi Ohannessian (5/5) and Julian Minwalla (4/5); however, before we get there . . .

On the Sunday morning we had three on 3/3; Mardi, Marc Turner and Paul Plumptre. Mardi was pitched against Paul, from which Mardi emerged the first on 4/4, but Marc, pitched against Peter Bennet (2/3) wasn't so fortunate! This left us with just one, Mardi, on 4/4. He next met Paul who was also unable to stop his run of wins and then we get to where we came in: Mardi vs Julian.

The first game proved to be a pivotal one and it was in this game that the tone of the match was set. In the 11 point match Mardi is playing as black.

 

Julian (w) 0	Mardi (b) 0
61: 13/7, 8/7	21: 24/23, 13/11
44: 24/20(2), 13/9(2)	44: 13/9(2), 6/2(2)

 

So far, so good, and then we get to this cube:

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This is just too soon, there's nothing in the race and although white has a decent prime he's flat all over with spare checkers only on his 6-point. Mardi snatched it up.

 

43: 13/10, 13/9	64: 13/7, 11/7

The 64 was a slight error and would have been better played 24/14; but then Julian made a blunder with The Girls.

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Running out, 20/10(2) was a wasted opportunity - the double-hit, 7/2*(2), 6/1*(2) was far superior. Black is very vulnerable and white's 20-point anchor is a great asset and one which will make it easy for him to re-enter should he get hit, but with two on the bar this is very unlikely.

 

55: 20/10(2)	64:13/7, 8/4

And another mistake from Julian as he plays 9/5, 8/5. There's only one roll that won't leave a shot, stacking on the 6-point, but that's not very constructive and leaving a direct 6 is too risky. The best move here is to attack with a spare checker, 6/2* and then 10/7 keeping your builders poised for the cover. Mardi gets the hit on his next roll.

 

43: 9/5, 8/5	65: 23/17* 9/4
61: 25/24, 10/4

Now it's Mardi's turn to make a big mistake as he ships across a recube to 4! Like the first cube the race is negligible and neither player really has an advantage with a lot of play left in this game. XG advises, "No redouble/Take" with Mardi on 58.44% and Julian not too far behind at 41.56%. Julian takes.

 

	52: 24/17
52: 24/22, 6/1	65: 9/3*, 8/3
31: 25/24, 7/4	21: 7/5, 6/5
31: 10/9, 10/7

Julian is now behind a 6-prime and Mardi plays two off his 17-point when he should have been hitting 8/1*. By not hitting at the moment he allows Julian to make a good home board which might prove very useful if he gets a shot during the bearoff. Later on . . .

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He doesn't get a shot, and thanks to 66, 22, 22 during the bearoff Mardi puts gammon pressure on Julian when he needs a double 4, 5 or 6 to lose either 4 or 8 points; he loses the gammon with his roll of 63.

From hereon Julian slowly pulls the score back to 9-7 after a few earlyish cubes and some good rolling and playing but he is unable to get the better of Mardi and he finally bows out in the bearoff. So, we have an outright winner on 6/6, Mardi. This match is available in XG, Snowie of JellyFish format - email your preference. The 2nd place was a decider between Uldis Lapikens and Paul Plumptre, each on 4/5. Because they had played in the first round they were not playing each other, Uldis beat Peter Bennet but Paul failed to beat Chris Ternel.

 

Main: Mardi and Uldis	Consolation: Brian and Peter

In the Consolation element, two players were tied on 3/3 and the final position was decided by tie-break leaving Peter Finnimore the winner with Brian Lever Runner-up.

As usual the weekend kicked off with the Friday 500 (6). The battle between Tim Line and Myke Wignall has finally concluded and by virtue of going one round further than Myke during the TT, Tim took first place in the listing by just a single point and wins £100! Gerry Enslin was the winner on the night when he beat Mick Vacarey in the final. We now have our Top 16 for the December play-off for the £500 (see here).

On the Saturday night the Poker was cancelled due to a low entry (two) and therefore we all played Doubles (6). The 'Sons of Anarchy' proved to be pushovers as they lost twice in Round 1 thanks to a (fruitless) buy-back. In the semi-final 'The Losers' lived up to their apt name thanks to 'Bad Influence' and the 'Norfolk Nodules' where krunched by the 'Kent Krunchers'. . . . who in turn were themselves krunched by 'Bad Influence'.

Finally. It was a small tournament, but perfectly formed. ;-)