Tournaments 2007

(Swiss format ranking tournament 4 of 4)

Townharbour Trophy 3 & 4 November 2007

The Winners

1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Alan Beckerson
Rick Janowski
Nev Hyde
Brendan Burgess
Barry Williams
Paul Lamford
Rick Janowski
Paul Lamford
Simon Gasquoine
Roy Hollands
Erik Sorensen
Mardi Ohannessian
John Clark
Mardi Ohannessian

Connor Dickinson

Eddie Barker

Mark Dixon

Jerry Limb

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Main (16/32)
Pos
Players Name
wins
GP Pts

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Jerry Limb
Mardi Ohannessian
Mark Heidenfeld
Peter Christmas
Myke Wignall
Paul Watts
Fak Laight
Tim Cross
Jeff Barber
David Motley

David Startin

Paul Plumptre
Adrian Jones
Paul Barwick
Peter Chan
Jonathan Powell

5
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
3

3
3

3
3
3
2

15.48
14.97
18.58
17.55
11.35
12.39
9.29
10.84
12.39
8.25

7.74
6.19
7.74

7.74
8.25
5.68

Consolation (16/32)
Pos
Players Name

Con/Wins

GP Pts

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Geoff Conn
Arthur Wright
Bob Young
Gerry Enslin
Mick Butterfield
Brian Lever
Nicky Check
Uldis Lapikens
Phil Tutchings
Simon Morecroft
Richard Biddle
Paul Learmount
Tony Fawcett
Eamon Keogh
Ian Davidson
Paul Gilbertson

3/4
3/4
2/2
2/3
2/3
2/3
2/2
2/3
1/2
1/1
1/2
1/1
0/1
0/1
0/1
0/1

9.29
10.84
4.13
6.19
7.74
7.74
4.13
6.19
4.13
2.58
4.13
2.58
4.13
4.13
2.58
2.58

 

Friday 500 (14)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Nicky Check
Mardi Ohannessian
Jerry Limb
Paul Barwick
Paul Gilbertson
Paul Learmount
Richard Biddle
Geoff Conn

Poker (8)

1

2

3

Paul Gilbertson
Tony Fawcett
Paul Learmount

£50 Jackpot

1

2

Geoff Conn
Nicky Check
Team (7)

1

2

Michael Crane

Ian Davidson

Round Robin (14)
Jonathan Powell

 

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Townharbour Trophy (32)
Report by Michael Crane

The weekend got off to a flying start in the Friday 500 (14) for Nicky Check. After months of trying to get into Top 16 he finally made it by beating Mardi Ohannessian in the final. He was propelled into 12th place and secures his shot at the £500. See here.

For the Main we had a perfect draw of 32, which nicely split into 16 each for the Main and the Consolation. In the Main (16) we almost had an outright winner when Mark Heidenfeld went into the last round unbeaten on 5/5, I say almost because here he was stopped by Jerry Limb. Jerry's victory complicated matters somewhat for we then ended up with four players on 5/6, Jerry, Mark, Mardi and Peter Christmas! The 'head-to-head' couldn't show an outright winner for although Peter had beaten Mardi and Jerry, Mark had beaten Peter and Jerry had beaten Mark; as one player rose to the top another replaced him! So I was left with the average ranking score of each players' opponents. This returned Jerry as the winner with Mardi Runner-up and Mark 3rd and Peter Christmas 4th. See more on this here. Tim Cross, the 'sponsor of the TT kindly gave £100 which was shared between the four players; a gesture they all appreciated.

The last round match between Jerry Limb and Mark Heidenfeld saw Jerry playing as Advanced and Mark as World Class. Each of them made 11 errors of which two were blunders, so they we evenly matched; and their error rates were acceptable at 2.881 for Mark and 3.548 for Jerry.

They both made blunders when playing a 21. Here's Mark's. He is playing as black.
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11 point match
Black 0 White 0
Black to play 21

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Mark's blunder @ -0.115 is moving both checkers 7/5 7/6. Jerry is very likely to get his 13-point checker safe next roll; but just in case he doesn't, the split, 17/16 7/5 is the better play. Even if hit, Mark will probably get a shot off the bar, especially with 5s duplicated. Jerry rolled 43 and safetied the runner and the race began. Soon they were down to five checkers each and a three-roll finish when Mark ships across the cube:
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Black cube action

A live-cube rollout reveals this as a redouble/pass, but Jerry takes - and loses four points!

Jerry's 21 blunder is a bit larger than Mark’s @ -0.134:
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Black 4 White 0
White to play 21

Going for another home-board point Jerry moves 11/9 8/7; but Snowie thinks this too risky and prefers the safe play of 16/13. Jerry's play did return slightly more gammons - 19.6% to 18.5%, but his game winning chances we reduced by a fairly large margin - 66.5% down to 60.9%. However, Jerry didn't make another point on his next roll, but he did win the game and two points.

From hereon Mark wins only one more point and in Game 12, Jerry later bears off against a 2-point anchor to win two points and the match 11-5, and in doing so secures himself a place in the UK Finals.

Mardi and Jerry

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Because I wanted to record the match between Jerry Mark it was necessary for Jerry to play in the playing-room instead of in the bar where he'd played all weekend. However, the problem was, he was unable to sit on the chairs in the playing-roomand reach the board.

The solution?Sit on a cupboard!

 

Picture courtesy of David Startin

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Meanwhile in the Consolation (16), Arthur Wright had come through with 3/3 and he then awaited the outcome of the match between Nicky Check and Geoff Conn. It was Geoff that emerged the victor; and on the tie-break it was he that come out the winner.

 
Arthur
Geoff
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On the Saturday night the Poker (8) Grand Prix reached a climax when Paul Gilbertson emerged the winner with Tony Fawcett 2nd and Paul Learmount 3rd. We now have our Top Table of eight players (see page 27) who will fight it out for the prize money at the UK Finals.

Also on the Saturday night Geoff Conn won the £50 Jackpot (4); and I won the Team (7) event beating Ian Davidson in the Final. Our initial team's victory was particularly sweet seeing as we were trailing 3-0 down and we went on to win it! In the Round Robin (14), Jonathan Powell took home all the dosh. I failed to qualify this time . . . although I did have only one attempt instead of my usual five!

Finally
It was a good end to the year's backgammon. The weekend went smoothly and everyone enjoyed themselves. We concluded our Ranking and Grand Prix Championships and the results are here.