The action then moved to the Saturday.

Main (12/26)
By Round 5, only one player, Stephen Drake, had won all five matches. It was, therefore, up to Eamon Keogh (4-5) to stop Stephen's progress and at the same time enhance his own chances to come out 5-6 with Stephen. It was an interesting match (which I recorded) and it went mostly Eamon's way in the early stages.

In the first game, Eamon (black) shipped across the cube in this position:

11 point match
Black 0 White 0
Black cube action

Leading by 13 pips and one fewer crossover, this is a double/pass; but Stephen takes. White is already stacking his 5- and 6-points whilst black is 'bottom-heavy'. However, just to reinforce the pass element, Eamon then goes on to roll 62, 64 and takes off the first checker. In reply Stephen rolls 52, 22 and takes the lead with two checkers off. Next, both players roll 1s and take off just one more checker. This galvanises Eamon into action: he rolls consecutive double-fives while Stephen flounders with 62 and 21 taking off just two checkers in total.

In the next game Eamon ships across a very early cube in what is quite an inflexible position (white has a bar-point and 13-point blocking game going on), his only spare checkers are on his own 8-point - and he doesn't have any home board points except the one he started with:

Black 2 White 0
Black cube action

This isn't a double and is an easy take for Stephen. Some time later white rolls 66 ...

... and is forced to vacate the 13-point with 13/7(2), 8/2(2), but he still has excellent chances of a hit with his 18-point anchor. A little later black rolls 66 ...

... and is then left with two checkers on his 13-point, and white has two spare 6s he can play. Both home boards now start to crunch and it is white who eventually rolls a 6 and leaves a blot - which is hit. He never recovers and black goes on to win another two points.

Stephen wins the next game but then Eamon moves away to 6-1. Stephen then comes back: 6-2, 6-4. However, Stephen is then stuck on 4 while Eamon pulls away to 8-6, then 9-6; at which point, Stephen claws it back to 9-6 and then 9-7.

It is during this game that Stephen falls foul to the luck of the Irish! He is on roll in this position and he cubes at 4-away, 2-away:

Black 9 White 7
White cube action

This is far too good to double and is an easy drop for Eamon; but no one told Eamon is was an easy drop and he took! But, if it's too good to double, then taking should be in white's favour, shouldn't it? Much later on after lots of tooing and froing the position is thus:

White correctly makes his 5-point, 8/5* 7/5, and then black rolls 61 off the bar, a roll that Stephen never recovers from. He has plummeted from 86.3% game winning chances (including 26.8% gammon chances) to 24.2% gwc and 4.3% gc. However, he only re-enters after black has played behind him and he fails to win the bearoff and the match.

This then left me with three players on 5-6, Stephen, Eamon and Mark Heidenfeld who beat Peter Bennet in Round 6. The head-to-head tie-break couldn't resolve who came where because Stephen had beaten Mark, Mark had beaten Eamon and Eamon had beaten Stephen; so it was left to the backup tie-breaker, the opponents' average ranking score; and it was this that placed Stephen 1st and Mark 2nd by just 1 point: 1684 to 1683!

Mark and Stephen

This outcome (over which I have no control I hasten to add) worked out well for me: I had purchased Stephen in the Biba Tote (sole owner) and he hadn't been in the Winner-Takes-All prize fund, thus giving us a Rollover of £225 for the Backpacker in September. All together now, "Thank you, Stephen!"

Meanwhile, in the Consolation(12/26) section, only two players made it to 2-2, John Slattery and Peter Christmas. From this encounter, Peter came 1st, and then we had to resort to the tie-break again to see which of the four 2s (Slats, Fanika Petkovska, Jeff Barber and Richard Holness) would come 2nd. As it worked it was Slats - with the others in the order given.

Peter	Slats

Running in tandem with the SAC was the second, Cazzie's Round Robin(25). This 1-pointer all-play-all is getting to be very popular, especially with me! I made it into the Final group (again!) where I met two previous opponent's from the 1st Round Robin, Chris Ternel and Jeff Barber. They were joined by Steve Rimmer and Simon Morecroft. It was a close-run group and I snatched it out of Simon's hands by just 1/2 a point! Mind you, I did panic a bit and had already hedged my bets with Simon when it became clear I could lose - so we both went home happy!

Michael and Caroline

On the Saturday the Poker(8) saw Slats going all-in and losing, and then buying back in . . . and then going out first! Next to go was Eamon, then Rosey, then poker 'virgin' Peter Bennet. Next to go (and out of the money) was Myke 'Mr. Fluffy' Wignall; this left Tony Fawcett, Paul Learmount and Chris Gibbins to finish off the night in ascending order with Tony now topping the Poker Grand Prix. Only the Top 8 go into December's Play-off, so the next three rounds could prove decisive for some players.

Finally
Don't forget the £225 Rollover, will you? It's waiting for you at the Backpacker on 1 & 2 September! Once again, "Thank you, Stephen!"