Blog

2nd June - Good night all-round. We had eight attending; all there by eight, so we started promptly with a 7-point knockout. Pleasant ambience throughout the evening with Steve and Andy getting to the final. Andy showed consistently good play by winning the competition two months in a row. I also think he got a good deal with an excellent match board from Pat.

For the initial losers of the main competition we held a 5-point knockout. Pat and Andreas met in the final. Pat noticed with some of the dice being used (no foul play was ever considered) that there could be a bias to the rolling of 4s. The dice being used were the standard dice that come with the board, not precision dice. She played with this in mind, which helped her to win the match.

The owner of the dice was not quite convinced that they were bias, but for me it shows the value of precision dice, peace of mind.

12th May - Seven of the now regulars were sitting around the lounge at the All Services Club, wondering if we should play a knockout or a Round Robin as it seemed the magic eight was not to be. Our conversation was interrupted by a very pleasant young woman who had come in to the room asking if this was 91 Church Road. We all looked at each other in dumb ignorance as none of us had a clue, she then said because that was where a backgammon club meet! We all found this quite amusing and it ended up as a good way of introducing Ranbir to the club.
So with eight we could get off to 7-point knockout. No outstanding matches or games noted, though Andreas did tell Tim he needed to be more positive thinking about his games and then the rolls he wanted would come! As you can imagine Tim did not found this advice very constructive, amusing but not constructive. Oh yes, and talking about negative thoughts, Steve was again the 'unluckiest player in the world'.

Anyway the final ended up being between Andy and Matthew and a real thrashing with Andy winning 7-1. Well done Andy.

7th April - Today we were eight, a perfect number competition-wise. Neil, Pat, Andy, Dave, Tim, Steve, Andreas and a first time visitor from the Erdington area of Birmingham, Jon Hession. Jon hasn't played backgammon against 'real people' before. He found out about us from our website and decided to take the plunge. He has said he will return next time, so we can't be that bad!
We ran a £2 entry 8 person k/o which was delayed somewhat because we only had three BG boards between the eight of us. David took half an hour out to fetch another board from his home. This eventually came to a showdown between Pat and Andreas, with Pat taking the £12 first prize. Pat was well chuffed because this was the first time she had beaten Andreas (so she said anyway, but surely not!). For the first round fallers in our 'main' competition we ran a second , four person k/o. Time beat us on this one and it will have to be settled next month. Steve is in the final and will play either Andy or Tim. Hope to see everyone next time, which is Mon 12 May.

3rd March - Well, well, well! After many months of being just four - six of us, tonight we were twelve! This was largely down to Phil who bought along his two sons and their cousin, all from the Coventry area. Then Andreas turned up as well accompanied by his son-in-law, Tim who has only been playing backgammon for a little while. It was good to see Andreas back. He had not, as it turned out, fallen out with us but he had been kept away from the monthly meetings because of family commitments. To complete the set we were joined by Pat who made a trip down from Worcester to join us for the evening. So, including all the 'old hands' we were: Phil, Rob, Dan and Mark. Andreas and Tim. Pat. Dave, Matty, Steve, Neil and Andy.
We ran a £1 entry, 5 pointer k/o competition with 16 places, allowing for four buy-backs and giving prize money of £12 to the winner and £4 to the runner up. Steve went out in the first round to Mark so he invested another £1 to get one of the four buy-back places. His £1 was well spent, taking him to the final where he met Andreas who had despatched Rob, Phil and then Neil to get to his final match. Andreas must have practicing in his absence and he quickly added Steve to his list of 'scalps'. So, congratulations Andreas and bad luck Steve.
Of course, we had a lot of casualties from the main k/o competition so we also ran a £1 entry eight place three pointer k/o competition for a bit more interest. The 'runners' for this competition turned out to be: Matt, Mark, Rob, Phil, Andy, Tim, Dave and Pat. Andy prevailed over Rob in the final to collect £6 with £2 going to Rob as runner up. 
All our players tonight, winners and losers and the experienced and the less experienced alike, enjoyed the friendly atmosphere in which all the matches were played.
Let's hope for the same sort of turnout next month.

4th February - An all male affair this month. There were seven of, being David, Matty, Steve, Neil, Andy, Phil and his son Rob who has played at Phil's Coventry club a couple of times and was making his Birmingham debut.
Rather optimistically perhaps, we decided to play a £1 entry round-robin 5 pointer competition. We were still struggling to finish all the matches at 11.20pm,but by then it was pretty clear that the winner would be either Steve or Matt depending on what happened in other, still to be played, matches. Rather than carry the competition over to next month, Matty and Steve settled for a 'score draw' and took half the prize each.
Off on a tangent. Andreas, are you out there? We haven't seen you now for three months but we can't contact you because no-one has your number. Hopefully, you haven't fallen out with us for some upset that we are not aware of and it would be nice to hear from you simply to know that you are OK, even if you have decided to stop playing at the club for some reason or another. 

7th January - Perhaps it was because of the disgustingly cold and miserable weather, or post-Xmas recuperation, but just four souls turned up today. They were David, Andy, Steve and Neil. We played a five pointer round robin at £2 per head. First prize was Dave's with three/three wins. Runner up was Steve with one win and two very narrow losses. Our next meeting is on Mon 4 Feb. Do come along and join us.

2007
3rd December - Today, just five people turned up. Perhaps this was because of Xmas etc commitments, but we received no 'sick notes' from anyone. Anyway, our merry little band comprised Dave, Steve, Matt, Andy (for the second time - undaunted by his first visit) and Neil. We played a round-robin 5 pointer k/o. As was the case last month, Matt chalked up the most wins with an impressive 4/4. However, we had to wait until the last round to confirm him as the winner whereas last month it was obvious much earlier that he would win. Steve is well known (he tells us a lot) as being the unluckiest BG player in the world and this was rather confirmed this month as he qualified for the wooden spoon in this event. Our next gathering will be on Mon 07 Jan 08. Hopefully, we will see rather more people then to get the new year BG programme off to a flying start.

Meantime, your correspondent wishes all readers a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

5th November - saw seven of us turn up. There were Dave, Matt, Steve, Phil, Neil, Andreas and a 'new boy' Andy Hull. Andy has played a little before but this has been pretty much exclusively over the www. We played a round-robin five pointer where all the fireworks were contributed by Matty. He stormed to such an unassailable lead so quickly that everyone threw in the towel at about 10.00 p.m with a number of head to heads still unplayed. Then we had a gentle chouette for an hour. Andy and Neil were happy to simply watch and try to pick up tips for the future. As with all the recent www 'exiles' who have wandered along to join us, Andy found that he enjoyed his first experience of playing with 'real' people. Hopefully, he and everyone else will be back for more BG next month.

1st October - Five of us were there - Andreas, Ant, Neil, Steve and Phil. We played a five point round robin. It was a close thing - Phil and Neil had 3 wins each, Steve and Ant 2 wins each. Phil took the kitty having won against Neil.

3rd September - Dave, Pat, Ant. Andreas, Neil and Steve turned up tonight. Six lovely people but an awkward competition number so it was a £2 entry five pointer round robin that we decided upon. By 10.45 it became obvious that no-one could catch Dave who then had a scoreline of played four, won four so it was declared all over and Dave pocketed the prize.
Andreas mentioned that he would like to move back to weekly meetings or perhaps fortnightly ones. Since the move to once a month, most people now do other things on non-Backgammon Monday's but please do e-mail Dave or Matty if you are interested or you want to have a say about this idea.

6th August - Summer holidays take their toll on the club's attendance. Rather than the six to eight members who are usually there, this month just three. What we lacked in numbers we made up in excitement and understanding. For the three of us decided to play a chouette (very friendly with just a small wager). Present was Andreas, Steve and myself, Matthew. Steve was the eventual winner, but Andreas gave both myself and Steve an incredible display of how best to play back games. I would say that out of about 20 games with Andreas playing he must have played 15 as back games, winning most of them. It was a real education and Andreas must be one of the best players I have seen in playing backgammon from such positions.

2nd July - An all male affair this month. Seven of us turned up, being: Neil, Andreas, Steve, Ant, Matt, Dave and Phil. We ran an eight person, £1 entry, 5 pointer k/o with a draw for who should get the bye into R2. This turned out to be Neil but that was the only bit of luck he had all night. After a long wait for an opponent, he lost to Andreas who then went on to play Dave in the final. Andreas triumphed, repeating last month's success.
The four fastest losers in the 'main' then played in a second, £1 entry, 5 pointer k/o to keep them occupied as competition #1 progressed. Neil got to play in this, but his 'luck' continued and he lost to Ant, who went on to win competition #2.

4th June - Eight, being a perfect number of people for competition purposes turned up tonight. They were: Carol, Matthew, Dave, Neil, Pat, Steve, Andreas and Phil. This meant we could have a 5 pointer k/o competition with all the first round losers entered in a second four person 5 pointer k/o. Timings worked out excellently and we had two finals starting at the same time, leaving 4 bods for yet another 5 pointer k/o. Results were: Main - Steve v Matt. Steve won (Steve is surely in danger of officially becoming not the unluckiest player in the world)
Plate #1 - Pat v Andreas. Andreas won having been down 1-6 (7 point final).
Plate #2 - Dave v Carol. Carol was definitely beaten by luck rather than skill.
A good time was had by all.