Backpacker Trophy 1 & 2 September 2007

Report by Michael Crane to follow

As usual. the Backpacker packed in loads of action over the weekend. There were no fewer than 11 different events for players to take part in! I availed myself of a few; most of which I won! I chalked up victories in the Friday Jackpot (4) after beating Nicky Check followed by our sponsor, Mike Main; then I won the Gang (9) tournament after whittling the field down to just myself and Bob Young. If you're not sure what the Gang entails I'll tell you: it entails two teams each headed by a Captain and lots of shouting . . . lots! The winning team is split into another team and so on until we have a Final pairing.

My third victory came right after the Gang when I won the Saturday Jackpot (4) when I trounced Mike Main and then Nicky Check! And finally - after four failed attempts at qualifying - I made it into the final of Cazzie's Round Robin (25). Jeff Barber had already made a fantastic start, beating Bob Young and winning a backgammon (worth 3 points); and when I joined it he had finished on 5 points. I strapped myself in and won two gammons and two singles to pinch it off Jeff by one point! This is my third Round Robin final and my second consecutive win . . . I like these!

Me and my many trophies	Sean in the 500

In the Friday 500 (8), Sean Williams, returning from Down Under, gained his first points when he beat Ray Tannen. This win for Sean propelled him into 16th place thus qualifying for the £500 in December on his first attempt (see here).

In the Main (23) we slimmed the players down to four on the Sunday morning: Tom Duggan vs Simon Morecroft and Jon Barnes vs David Nathan. Tom took an early lead, as did David; however, their opponents pulled back but in the end it wasn't enough and Tom and David met in the final. David's match against Jon was worthy of a final in its own right - and I wished I had recorded it. As it turned out, the final proper was over very quickly thanks to some very dodgy cube action from Tom.

With the score at 5-0 to David, Tom is heard to say, "This is going to be embarrassing." After watching the entire match I am now wondering if he was referring to the current score or looking into the future and commenting on a cubing decision he made when the score had improved to 5-4!

11 point match
Black 5 White 4
Black cube action

David (b) offers across a good cube, it being both a double and a take, and Tom quickly scoops it up, "Snatch!" he calls. David rolled 32, 25/23 6/3. Tom rolls 21 and hits the blot on the black 22-point and moves 11/10 to cover his 4-point blot with 6s. David dances with 61 and then Tom recubes to four in this position:

White cube action

This is a massive blunder @ -0.407 and David is delighted to have a 4-cube in residence on his side of the board. At the moment Tom has approx. 42% game winning chances and he should have held on to the cube. According to Snowie, David has almost 58% of which 26% are gammons! Easy take - bad double!

David re-enters fairly quickly, anchoring with double-two; but two rolls later a third checker is hit and David then dances for twelve consecutive rolls; during which time Tom is well into the bearoff. Tom gets down to just five checkers to bearoff when he is forced into leaving a shot - David misses and Tom chalks up a gammon on a 4-cube and steals the match!

David & Tom

Meanwhile, in the Consolation (19), Peter Chan had entered from the non-progressive side and was waiting in the final to see if fellow non-prog, Myke Wignall would be joining him, or progressive, Stephen Drake. Myke prevailed and against Peter he clawed his way to dmp after trailing, but it was Peter who came out the winner - a triumph of luck over dynamic backgammon?

Myke & Peter	Lawrence & Adrian

In the Last Chance (16), Peter's travelling companion, Adrian Jones, made it to the final where he finished off Lawrence Powell to take home a second trophy back to Liverpool . . . . I mention this because Peter told me to!

The Mad Monkey (16), 3-pointer, saw Friday's 500 winner, Sean, in the final playing against Fak Laight. It was Sean that emerged the victor, leaving Fak in 2nd place. Over the weekend, Fak had bought a new car and was seen reading the owner's manual several times . . . . perhaps he should have bought a new backgammon board instead :-)

Fak & Sean (again)	Mike Main - Sponsor

The final backgammon report is for the Sunday Jackpot (8). This is one of the two events I failed to win this weekend; but at least I was beaten by the eventual winner, our sponsor, Mike Main. He beat Lawrence Powell to take home one of his own trophies. Well done, Mike.

The Poker (6), was a little low on entry, but this didn't bother a couple of poker-virgins, Neil Webb and William Spiers. They had travelled down from Glasgowish and were very pleased to make it into the payouts. Neil came 1st, Lawrence Powell 2nd, and William 3rd. Unfortunately, Neil and William left for home early Sunday morning so there isn't a photo of them. The Poker Grand Prix is hotting up now, and you can read about how it's going and who's placed where, here.

Finally
As usual the Backpacker was a cornucopia of backgammon. Eleven elements in total meant there was plenty of action for everyone; and those that attended had a great time. I'd like to thank Mike for directing it and for the many trophies, and Sean for the Excel spreadsheet that is the engine behind the drawsheets and number crunching. I had a great weekend, winning four elements, as well as 'owning' both Main finalists via the Saturday Auction, and wining the Biba Tote (again!) after being the sole owner of Tom! Yep, I had a great weekend :-)