Slattery Scottish Open 10/11 March 2007

Report by Michael Crane

We got off to a good start in the Main (48) on the Saturday afternoon; and by the end of the day we had eight players going through for the Sunday: Chris Gibbins vs Simonetta Herrera, Adrian Jones vs Jon Samuel, Gerry Enslin vs Paul Gilbertson, Uldis Lapikens vs Jerry Limb. In each fixture the former prevailed leaving the last four: Gerry vs Uldis and Adrian vs Chris, from which we had an Adrian vs Gerry final.

The final between Gerry (black) and Adrian (white) was an exciting one to watch. By the 6th game Gerry was 9-1 down and Adrian was hanging on to a 2-cube. Gerry had nicely brought his checkers in for the bearoff but Adrian had two anchors and Gerry then rolled 33 in this position:

11 point match
Black 1 White 9
Black rolls 33

Forced into leaving a blot, Gerry has dropped from a 77.4% chance of winning to just over half, 55.0%. Adrian then rolls the joker, 42, hitting and covering his 3-point blot. When Gerry dances with double-twos his game winning chances (gwc) plummet to 10.5% and it's looking grim. Adrian tries his best to get a second checker back but despite have three opportunities he fails to do so but he does complete a closed prime preventing Gerry's escape. In the bearoff, as soon as Adrian opens his 6-point, Gerry rolls 65 and hurtles round to save the gammon and at that stage, the match, thanks to two double-fours and a double-one!

The match then progressed with Gerry catching up, but Adrian took it to 10-5 Crawford, a game that Gerry won. It then went in the end to double match point. And this is where Gerry lost it when he made a basic error in strategy. What's your play in this position?

Double match point
Black to play 22

Although it looks to be the perfect roll, playing 20/18* 8/6 6/4(2), is a mistake; and this is what Gerry did. At the moment Adrian is looking at the Runner-up trophy with an approx 12.0% chance of winning the match. He needs to anchor to keep his hopes alive and therefore Gerry's priority should be to avoid that happening. To this end, he has to shift points and point on his 1-point. There are a few ways this is done, but the better one (according to Snowie) is 20/18* 18/16 3/1*(2). I prefer to play off my 7-point, 20/18* 7/5 3/1*(2) to give me 1s, but I'm not fussed. The important thing is - don't let him anchor! Adrian rolled 61 and anchored.

With just four checkers off, Gerry is forced into leaving a shot - Adrian hits and Gerry's previous 75% gwc before the hit now fall to 43.6%. Adrian, once again, fails to get a second checker, but he does manage to form a 6-prime to contain Gerry's runner. By the time Gerry re-enters his gwc are low @ 0.2% and he concedes the match. In the process of winning the match, Adrian also won his 10th consecutive match to win the coveted, 1000-to-1 trophy. Well done, Adrian

Adrian, Slats, Gerry This match will appear soon on GammonVillage and is available from Biba in Snowie, Jelly, or text format. Email stating what format you require.

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In the Consolation (44), the final was a rematch of the Jarvis Trophy of a month earlier - Giorgio Castellano vs Peter Chan. Giorgio was there thanks to Tom Duggan knocking him out in the 2nd Round of the Main, and Peter made it via the Progressive side after he was knocked out by Gerry in the last eight. Their final was a repeat of their previous encounter; Giorgio came out the winner.

Consolation: Giorgio, Slats, Peter	Last Chance: Jeff, Slats, Tom

I might have stretched things a bit when I made the Last Chance (64) an open draw of 64, but in the end I managed to fill it. The final was between Jeff Barber and Tom Duggan (making a welcome return to Biba tournaments); a match that Jeff won.

I suppose the 64 draw in the Last Chance affected The Haggis(16) entry; but that didn't seem to bother its entrants. Although the eventual winner was Paul Barwick with Myke Wignall 2nd; the most notable part of the element was the defeat of our sponsor and former European Champion by an absolute beginner, Cassie Stafford! Cassie, who is part of the tournament staff played in the 3--pointer as a bit of fun - but I'm not sure John saw the funny side!

The Haggis: Myke and Paul

On the Friday evening, the Friday 500 (16) had a strong field; out of which Giorgio emerged the winner with Jerry Limb in second place. See the Friday 500 table for the current leaders.

On the Saturday evening we had the cabaret. This consisted of Rachel Rhodes and Vicky Chandler giving a recital on the French horn and bassoon, respectively.

Rachel and Vicky	Rosey and Paul

Their renditions of nursery rhymes were a delight and went down very well with the audience. This was followed by a recital of limericks from Rosey and brother, Paul. We all had a good laugh at them (except the one about me!) and we then all went our separate ways to play . . .

Poker (19). Our former poker director, Martin Hemming failed to return the tables, chips and playing cards due to an accident that prevented him from driving, so we had to repair to Toys R Us to purchase a set to ensure there wasn't a riot from the assembled poker players. As usual, a Gilbertson featured in the top three: 1st. Paul Gilbertson, 2nd. Michelle Fisher, 3rd. Lawrence Powell. As soon as I get the info from Martin I shall post the Grand Prix positions.

Nicky Check not only organised the £50 Jackpot (4), but he also won it, beating Peter Bennet in the final.

In the Doubles (4), A Cake of Cheese once again made it to the final, but unfortunately they were (closely) beaten by No Name Men. The Lady & The Scamp and MC's Secret Lover were 1st Round casualties.

Finally
It was a good turnout and it was good to see the current world champion, Philp Vischjager, gambling his reputation playing 11-point matches at a Biba event; it is much appreciated. Philp is also entering the XcitingGames British Open - so, if you want to see a world champion in action; BOOK A ROOM!

I'd like to thank John Slattery for sponsoring the event, Rosey and Paul for organising the cabaret, Rachel and Vicky for their recital, Jon Samuel for stepping in to run the poker; but most of all to the members that entered; thanks for coming.

Sharen Crane is the wife of Biba Director, Michael Crane. She has been his assistant director for ten years and is very experienced in tournament directing. Michael is grooming her to take over so that he can relax and play.

I first met you at the inaugural Scottish Open in 1998 where you were the Consolation Runner-up. How long have you been playing backgammon and how did you learn?

I have been playing since 1997, 5 years now. I learnt by just watching. In actual fact what I did was summon most of the top UK players to my place in Scotland and paid for my lessons highly! I think £150,000 was what I lost in the first two years. A lot of it to people like Mardi Ohannessian and John Clark. It was like learning to swim by jumping in at the deep end.

Whilst learning, what backgammon books did you read, and have read since?

The first one I read was one of Robin Clay’s; I think it was called Backgammon for Winners. I thought it was a well laid out book, but I would probably disagree with some of the content now, but it was a good grounding. Magriel’s book 'Backgammon' was the second one I read, which gives you a whole set of concepts.

A lot of players use bots nowadays. Do you prefer Snowie or Jellyfish and do you analyse any of your games?

I don’t analyse anything. I am not a big fan of Snowie or Jellyfish because they are computers and people are human and you have to play the person rather than play like a computer, because the computer plays as if it is playing another computer. Humans have emotions, so you build up a repertoire so you know regardless of what Snowie says, when some people should be cubed and when they shouldn’t, just by their own actions. It’s a bit like poker, only you can see what is going on, you get tell tale signs. Very seldom do I give anything away I have a poker face for backgammon.

Over the years which players do you think have influenced you?

David Levy, John Clark, Mardi, Dod Davies. What I felt when I was playing these people is that you can take a little from each of their games, you know there are some good points in each of them and you try and collect all of this. But you could live to a hundred and still be learning.

You have become very successful over the last three years; to what do you attribute this?

I play a lot and certainly the more time you put into it you become more successful. I have always been a bit of a strategist so the game suits me very well.

Every time you come to a Biba tournament (and there have been many since that first Scottish encounter), you always seem to have another board. How many boards do you now own and is there one which you favour over others?

I own 17 I think. I play on them all by rotation. If I have a really bad session, I throw that board to the back of the pile and start with the next one. I’m not all that superstitious to be honest but I do like to rotate them and give them all a bit of use. There is no point in having boards for the sake of having them if you are not going to use them. I may die tomorrow who knows.

Are you planning on having them buried with you?

To be honest I have actually put some bits in my will regarding my boards, but you will have to wait and see.

You play a lot of backgammon. Do you prefer Tournament, Head to Head or Chouette?

In order of preference I would say tournament, head to head then chouette. Chouette last because I like to play backgammon and I think what put me off chouette was that I used to go to Ealing, and play chouette on a Wednesday night and there used to be 11 or 12 players there, so if you got into the box, which first of all you waited about two hours to get into the box, and then all of a sudden all of these cubes are thrown at you and you know if you don’t
take them you have got to wait another two hours for a game, so it then screws your decisions. I don’t mind chouettes if there is a maximum of four people, but to play in big chouettes puts me off.

Apart from backgammon, what other games of chance/gambling have you played?

Blackjack. I don’t so much like gambling, I don’t consider myself so much a gambler, and I like to feel that I can put odds in my favour. So it’s not so much a gamble if you like. Blackjack was my big love before backgammon, I have been told I should be playing Poker because of my poker face but I feel if you diversify too much you dilute your skill and I would rather concentrate on that.

I've heard that you are playing backgammon somewhere every day of the week. You appear to live backgammon; do you ever see a time when you won’t play anymore?

At this stage no, but I could have said the same about blackjack. Things change, I am having fun with it and so long as I am having fun then I will carry on. If I am not enjoying it I will stop and it doesn’t matter if I am making a lot of money. I made a lot of money at blackjack and I stopped because I wasn’t enjoying it, so the money is not the driving force, it is just for fun.

You have become a bit of a celebrity, especially well known for you waistcoats; when did this start and do you make them yourself?

This probably started 10 years ago, I have them all made, I don’t make them myself (laughs) I don’t have the time. I’m not very practical when it comes to these things; I commission people to make them for me. I do design them myself; the people who make the waistcoats know what I am like so I don’t get odd looks anymore. I like to have fun with the whole thing, I am worse than a woman in some cases, I love to dress up and have fun with it.

An addition to the waistcoats, your latest trademark is the trilby. What is the next trademark going to be?

I go off and on with the trilby, I used to wear one before but I went off it, and then came back to it. I have had some new creations done. I will be introducing them at the Scottish Open, the new style. If you want to see it you have to come to the Scottish Open.

Finally, I understand you were in a punk rock band many years ago and that you cut a record is that true?

It is and I have done records yes. Do you have a record player because it’s on vinyl so I’ll look one out for you?

Thank you John.

It's cabaret time at the Slattery Scottish Open, 2008