Blog

5th July - Another great night for all attending, being Matt, Steve and new member Leroy.  Decided to do a change from our normal competitions and introduce chouette (a version of backgammon played by a group of 3 to 6 people on one board).  In our chouette of 3 players, Leroy was thrown in the deep end by playing with me and Steve both veterans of chouettes.  To give the game a bit of an edge we played at 10p a point.  Leroy may have been new to chouettes ( though judging by his high standard of play no novice to backgammon) was by half way through the evening taking me to the cleaners.  I though, by being in the 'box' (a chouette term) for the last three games of the evening turned my position from a large negative to a small positive.   Steve 'the unluckiest player in the world' on the other hand just kept staying positive for the whole evening.
 As a change the playing a chouette went down well, we might try it again in the future.

1st June - Five turned up, but apart from Matt the other four were different from last month. They were Ahmed, Janet, Malcolm and Neil. We played 'a round robin' apart from Malcolm we all had a game to play by the end of the evening, but he had won three games and Janet and I had won two. So either or both could draw with Malcolm but not bet him, so we gave him the price money, all of £5 !!

Good night was had by all.

6th April - Ten peeps turned up tonight, including 3 new faces. Jay and Mike who had previously come along to Moseley on our '3rd Monday' meeting, luckily Neil had decided to come that night so was able to give them a game and some encouragement. As they are both new to the game they decided to play our little knockout comp in tandem, which worked fine. Tony was the other new boy, he turned up with a rather cute backgammon board emblazoned with The Raffles Hotel, Singapore emblem, he hadn't played for over 30 years and decided he'd rather watch than join in to re-familiarize himself with the game without the 'pressure'. So we had a perfect 8 for our 5-point comp, which saw Steve and Pat in the final and once again the unluckiest player in the club triumphed.

Because of the poorly supported '3rd Monday' meetings it has been decided that we should go back to 1st Monday of the month only, to avoid wasted journeys. Our next meeting is 11th May due to the Bank Holiday

2nd March - A better turnout this week which also included a couple of new peeps who where not only new to the BBC but new to backgammon, so time will tell if we have whet their appetite for the game or scared them off with too much information. We ran a five point competition which saw two of our newer backgammoners in the final, Chris and Janet provided an interesting match for the rest of the club who decided to spectate. Just goes to show how you can improve at this game very quickly.

16th February - A very disappointing turn-out tonight, initially just four people turned out, so we decided the best plan was to play some league matches. Jo paid her second visit to the club, hot foot from her visit to Egypt where she learned another variation of backgammon. Although a little apprehensive she took the plunge and joined our league with the maximum handicap, and had her first match against Phil, who was only too pleased to give advice on best moves and cube decisions. After a 2 hr match Jo said she’d thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot. Andreas turned up later in the evening and was able to finish his league match with Phil. So although thin on the ground we had quite a productive night.

2nd February - Apologies to anyone who turned up for Backgammon yesterday (if anyone did so) and found themselves alone. In view of the snowy and icy conditions a last minute decision was made to cancel the meeting. Putting a notice on the website may have been seen by some people but it was felt that it wouldn't be effective. Problem is, we don't have phone numbers for a lot of people. If such a situation occurs again, and you would like to be notified of a potential cancellation of proceedings then please make sure you let David or Matty know what your phone number is. One or the other could then contact you to let you know what's happening.
If we're not still up to our armpits in snow and ice by then, our next meeting is scheduled for Monday 16 February

19th January - For a ‘third Monday’ meeting we had a pleasing turnout of seven. Malcolm, Janet, Ahmes, Andreas, Pat, Neil and Phil. We decided on a 7-point knockout and an entry of £5, this allowed one re-buy which Phil took advantage of. So although Neil had knocked him out in the first round they met again in the final. Because of time constraints they decided to split the pot and play a one point shootout for the glory and although it looked to be Neil’s game an unfortunate roll and a lucky hit and it all went Phil’s way.

It made a nice change this week that there were more than enough boards to go around and some very interesting ones at that. Ahmes arrived with a brand new one bought sight unseen from an online shop and he had no idea what colour it would be until it arrived, it turned out to be a very striking colour combination but thank goodness he loved it. Several league games were played or at least started so that is also progressing nicely, we meet next on Feb 2nd – see you there!

5th January - Well well!! Despite the notice that was put on our website to say that (because of the arctic weather and anticipated severe freeze up later) this evening's meet had been cancelled, there were still seven people who decided to go along anyway just in case anyone else did.
Our seven intrepid souls were Janet, Steve, Ahmes, Neil, John, Dave and Matt. We decided on playing a round robin competition of 3 point matches, giving everyone 6 matches to play. As usual there were some very interesting matches and bizarre positions that cropped up but the person who coped best with all this was Ahmes (a new 'boy', long term player but with little experience of cube use) who won six out of six. Runners up were Dave and Steve with four wins out of six. The wooden spoon went to John who, although he managed no wins, still came out smiling about the evening. We should all try to emulate John (smiling that is, not losing.) all the time!

Please note this is subs time at MASC see home page for info.

15th December- Whether it was the proximity to Christmas or just the cold and foggy weather that kept people away but 5 bods turned up tonight, Pat, Andreas, John, Neil and new girl on the block Jo who although originally from Liverpool now lives and works in Birmingham, she has played  for some time although never “properly” and has always found backgammon to be a great ice-breaker even when there has been a language barrier like the time she was in India and drew a crowd who were very interested in the game everywhere she played. She felt she needed a new pastime so had a look round the Interweb and came across this site.

We decided to have a 3-point round robin, so Jo got to face some different playing styles, some fast, some more considered, and although she’s never used the cube wasn’t fazed by it’s use. Due in part to the small field the result was very close and the prize money ended up being split.

Because of the holiday period our next meeting will be on January 5th.

Season’s Greetings to all, and see you in the New Year.

1st December - Turnout a little disappointing this month. Nine of us being John, Malcolm, Andreas, Steve, Matt, Janet, Chris, Dave and Ahmes. We did have hopes of seeing a bumper 'crop' including some new faces but perhaps it was the freezing cold weather that put people off. Anyway, we decided to run a five point k/o competition for £2 entry giving a prize of £12 to the winner and £6 to the runner up. The final was between Steve (yes, that's him - the unluckiest player in the world who, in spite of that handicap, has won two of the last three 'main' competitions and been runner up in the third!!) and Ahmes who has played a fair bit of Backgammon but without the use of the cube. Ahmes couldn't handle Steve's continued run of rotten luck and had to settle for runner up spot. Well done Steve, and better luck next time Ahmes.

The main competition fallers contented themselves with playing some (of our newly resurrected) annual League matches, so everyone had something to enjoy.

We are planning to meet again on 15 December, so if you can get along to join us then please do. For the benefit of people who don't know, the only cost to us of meeting at MASC is that the club expects regulars to join the MASC club itself. This has a very modest cost of approx. £10 pa and the next subs are due in Jan 2009, so very soon we will need to pay Matty, who liaises with club, some cash.

17th November - Well our change to fortnightly meetings looks to have been the right decision as we had a surprisingly good turnout tonight - including two more ‘new boys’ - David (who came along with Malcom & Janet) and Lee (Jon's brother). David has played a bit on-line lately but hadn't played a ‘live’ game for about twenty years. There were eight of us altogether - so perfect for a five point knockout. Present were: Malcom, Ahmes, Andreas, Jon, Janet, David, Lee and Phil. Neil sent a message to say he would have been there but he has flu.

Phil won the knockout just beating Jon in the final - Jon leading 3-0 but Phil turned it round with a lucky gammon on a two cube, then rolled almost perfectly through the Crawford game to win 5-3.

Our new handicapping system for the league was tested tonight when Phil  played his match against Janet and won 11-8. The handicap seemed to be about right as the match went to DMP (Janet re-cubing to 4 with Phil leading 9-7). Again the luck was with Phil - it could easily have been Janet chalking up her first win.

3rd November - Another bumper turnout this month, including two new players, Ahmes from Egypt who has played for years but never used a doubling cube, he was thrown in at the deep end but coped very well with it, and Angela a new player from the Midlands.  We decided to kick off with a 5-point comp, which had 12 players and 4 ‘buys’ sic. Dave who had had a great weekend at BIBA, winning the Townharbour Trophy with 5 wins out of 6, just nosing ahead of both Julian Fetterlein and Chris Ternel so a very good result, then exited sharply in the first round here tonight. That’s backgammon for you! The competition was won by Steve who beat John in the final.

It was decided that to add more interest rather than just small comps every month we would restart our league, and a few matches were started and a couple actually finished. It was good to see John in the final of the comp as he is one of the players benefiting from a 5-point handicap in the league, so it looks as if his game is already improving.   

We are going to try meeting twice a month, although we are not all able to commit to both there will definitely be some of the BBC at the MASC on the 17th Nov. So why not drop in, the more the merrier.

6th October - Another good turn out this month. Eleven of us. We had two competitions of 5-point matches, a ‘Main’ and a ‘Consolation’. The main finalists were Matthew and Steve, with Matty  securing victory. In the consolation because of time constraints the finalists decided on a 1 point ‘shoot-out’ in which Andreas triumphed over Malcolm.

It was discussed briefly at the end of the evening about the possibilities of increasing the number of times we meet each month with the 1st & 3rd Mondays being suggested. We have left it as it is for now but will look at the possibility of that when we meet in November.

We have also decided that we will re-instate the league matches which will give some 11-pointer practice, and with the league trophy  at stake hopefully some incentive to complete the matches. Details of this also to be finalised at the November meeting.

Malcolm, keen to get the numbers up even more, is going to do a mailshot of past club attendees. So all in all things are looking quite promising at the BBC.

1st September - Well we were 10 again this month which is very promising, two months running in double figures! Regular stalwarts, Matthew, Steve, Pat and Andreas, (Dave sent his apologies, a pressing committee meeting kept him away) Nikkii, Ranbir, and Jon who have been before although can still be classed as fairly newbies, Jorg who played at Birmingham backgammon club years ago but moved abroad and hasn’t been playing ‘live’ for a long time, and then we had first timers Malcolm and Janet. Malcolm has been playing for some years but now he is retired has more time for the game and Janet who is a fairly new convert but thoroughly enjoys it. Malcolm turned up with a very ‘posh’ board which a few of us enjoyed playing on.

We had a 5 point knockout competition from which, although there were some very closely contested matches, Pat emerged victorious.

We left on a good note with dates being checked for next month so hopefully a bumper turnout in October is on the cards.

4th August - Ten bods this week including three!! new faces, being Nikkii Davies (introduced to us by Phil from his Coventry BG Club), Mark Fletcher and Chris Jones. Nikkii's still learning, Mark used to play years ago and thinks he's forgotten everything he ever knew, and Chris has been playing on the www for a while but like many others who have found their way to us, he wanted to try his hand against some 'real' players.

Andreas didn't arrive - although we were expecting him - so no updates on his 'new venue' ideas are available. Matty made it despite his crocked knee. He assures us it's well on the mend, so perhaps no crutches next time. A couple of known absentees because of holidays etc but we were all disappointed that neither Jon Hession nor Ranbir made a repeat appearance after their first visit to us in recent months. Hopefully, we will be seeing them again soon and also some more of our other occasional visitors. 

So, our ten were Dave, Steve, Chris, Pat, Phil, Nikkii, Dan, Mark, Matt and Mike. We put £2 each into a 5 point k/o competition prize pot - £15 winner and £5 runner up prizes. As has been mentioned on these pages before, Steve consistently has the unluckiest dice known to mankind - and is prepared to tell anyone who cares to listen - so far the most anyone can stand is about 15 seconds. However, despite this truly awful handicap and being one of the four people to have to play a round one match (six people had byes straight into round two) he carved his way through Dave (recovering from 0-4, and a losing position in the Crawford game), Pat, Nikkii and then Matt to claim first prize!!! The first four losers in the main competition were Dave, Chris, Phil and Mark. They played a four man k/o competition which Chris won, by beating Mark and then Phil.  Everything came nicely to an end at about 10.45 so that tidied up this month's proceedings. Hope to see everyone next month

7th July - Seven of us this month..............Mike Wildboar (a new club joiner, from Halesowen West Mids, who had found us on the www and decided to try us out), Steve, Neil, Andreas, Andy, Dave and Pat. Unfortunately, Matt couldn't come along. He is immobile (but now recovering nicely) after a fall from his motorbike led to a losing argument with a lamp-post resulting in a knee injury.