Full Report on Bristol Open 2008 (Report on Play here)
by TD Ian Tarr

29/08/08: Twenty-seven contest warm up event

01/09/08: Simonetta takes Bristol Open 2008 crown!

02/09/08: Main Report : Bristol Open here to stay on the backgammon calendar

Friday evening's warm-up saw twenty-seven players getting the weekend off to a great start.
2006 Bristol Festival champion John Clark made his way to the final, where he met Dave Moon. This was held over until a suitable gap the following day, when John prevailed.
Meanwhile, a quarter entry Championship satellite resulted in top Dane Mikael Jensen securing a nice cheap entry.
In all a pleasing thirty-six signed up for the Championship category, with a handy sixteen contesting the Intermediate competition.

With such a strong Championship field, it was inevitable that there would be some eminent casualties early in the piece.
Dane Michael Soerensen went out to Birmingham's David Startin, Raj Jansari succumbed to Kazuhiro Shino, Stuart Mann lost to Pia Jeppesen, Mikael Jensen yielded to Peter Bennet, Bristol's Ed Turner saw off Denmark's Poul Lindberg, while Mike Heard and Chris Ternel were also victims at the hands of Martin Barkwill and Simonetta Herrera. And as the quarter-final line-up was being clarified, out too went Lawrence Powell, Pia Jeppesen, Amsterdam based Egyptian Rida Hassan, and the reigning champion John Clark, who had a £50 bounty on his head that was too much for Ed Turner to resist, a double backgammon providing the spectacular coup de grace.

As is often the case, the progressive consolation was slow to get off the ground, more of which later.
With only eleven point matches in the main flight, however, the Intermediate category was progressing excellently.
There were twelve current Bristol players, one former one -- Phil Doubtfire -- making a welcome visit, and a contingent of three from Birmingham.
Two of the most strongly fancied players in terms of past results -- Ralph Eskinazi and Martin Hemming -- fell at the first hurdle, rendering the flight wide open.
Richard Owsley and Simon Hughes were their conquerors. In the last eight, it was left to Birmingham's Pat Holly to fly the non-Bristol flag, a task she performed admirably, progressing to a final meeting with Derek Clew, arranged for noon on Sunday.
Richard Holness and Simon Hughes had cashed as losing semi-finalists.

Saturday evening featured the now customary Texas Hold 'Em event, while the side events -- masterminded expertly by London's main man, Mike Main -- also got under way.
Sunday morning came, and many eyes were focussed on the top flight. From a Bristol perspective, seeing a last eight line-up containing no fewer than five current Bristol players was a tremendous sight.
Two of those, Ed Turner and Ann Pocknell, had got ahead of the pack and played their quarter-final the previous evening, Ann coming out on top.
But Peter Edwards and Gaz Owen were also still in contention, along with the more experienced Simonetta. Peter and Gaz were to lose out extremely narrowly -- Peter to Shino, and Gaz to Julian Fetterlein, while Simonetta moved on at the expense of Martin Barkwill. The non-Bristol semi-final saw Julian defeat Shino, while the Bristol ladies went head to head, Simonetta eventually coming through.
The final was a see-saw affair, with each player getting an eight points windfall along the way.
Losing nearly all of an 11-2 lead at a single stroke might have seriously fazed Simonetta in times gone by, but she steadfastly stuck to her guns and the match arrived at DMP.
She prevailed for the finest achievement of her international career, even -- dare I say it -- eclipsing her last sixteen placing in Monte Carlo last year.

In the progressive consolation things had moved on very well after earlier worries about progress.
Lawrence Powell eliminated Martin Barkwill at the semi-final stage, while the Bristol flag was being expertly carried by yet another top lady, Cecilia Sparke, who edged home against Dave Moon to reach the final, having earlier claimed the esteemed scalps of Raj Jansari and Mikael Jensen. Lawrence was to prevail, but Bristol ladies taking three of the top six prizes on offer is a staggering statistic.
The last chance, seven points all the way, proceeded without a problem.
The Danes, who had not been having the customary share of the spoils in the other flights, began to make their mark, with both Poul Lindberg and Michael Soerensen reaching the semis.
Poul went out to Mike Heard, but Michael made it all the way by defeating Rida Hassan. And it was Michael who also won the final, ensuring that Denmark would not return home entirely unrewarded.
The Intermediate final was another close affair, but Derek Clew edged out Pat Holly to take the title.
Derek has only been playing live backgammon for a very short time, but he has impressed many Bristol observers, to the extent that the win was no surprise.
As for the exceedingly modest Pat, she will hopefully be encouraged to enter more events. Her ability certainly warrants this.
And the Birmingham Three all cashed! Ralph Eskinazi avenged his main flight elimination at the hands of Richard Owsley by beating him in the consolation final, while Fak Laight took the last chance final with a win over Martin Hemming.

All was done and dusted, and the response from the players has been generally good, with a couple of exceptions.
In defence of Tournament Director Ian Tarr, he may somehow have acquired a reputation as a top TD, but it should be remembered that when it comes to large events like this, he is still pretty inexperienced.
His style is to attempt to bridge the gap between the relaxed, laissez faire approach and its draconian opposite, and this is sometimes a hard path to steer.
One criticism was entirely justified -- the initial draw for the Championship progressive consolation was skewed against those who were unlucky enough not to get a bye in the main.
Another criticism surrounded the lack of communication with a player who was awaiting a match with a player who had retired for the day on the TD's advice.
These imperfections were unfortunate, but will be eliminated when we assemble for the fourth Bristol Open in 2009, which Ian and co-organiser Roland Herrera are now firmly committed to staging.
As a footnote, the organisers would like to thank the many players who contributed their help in so many ways, large and small.
The presence of our great friend Mike Main was a vastly reassuring one, and Nicky Check contributed some constructive help.
Mark Dixon ran the poker, Chris and Cynthia Roberts stepped in to help with the preparation of food, some players bought the organisers drinks and made them coffee, a handful of players arrived early to help set up,
and some stayed behind to help with the tidy up. All in all, a fine team effort, and our thoughts are now firmly set on a bigger and better event next year.

The Bristol Open 2008
Full results of all backgammon competitions, including satellites

Thursday 7th at the BCSC - Championship satellite - £38 entry, plus auctioned semi-final place; 9 point matches

Intermediate satellite - £9 entry; 7 point matches

Friday 29th at the Artillery Grounds - Warm-Up Tournament - £5 entry, with optional side pools at £5 or £20; 7 point matches
** denotes £20 pool entrant; * denotes £5 pool entrant; prize money/pool prize money in parentheses

Quarter entry Championship satellite : £75 entry; 9 point matches

Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st at the Artillery Grounds : CHAMPIONSHIP CATEGORY - £170 entry, with optional side pool at £100
Main flight : 15-point matches : * denotes pool entrant; prize money/pool prize money in parentheses

Progressive Consolation flight : 11-point matches: prize money in parentheses

Last Chance flight : 7-point matches : prize money in parentheses

INTERMEDIATE CATEGORY - £30 entry, with optional side pool at £30
Main flight : 11-point matches : * denotes pool entrant; prize money/pool prize money in parentheses.

Progressive Consolation flight
7-point matches : prize money in parentheses

Last Chance flight
5-point matches : prize money in parentheses

CLOCK BLITZ #1 - £10 entry, 90% return
5-point matches; 2 minutes total time allocation, with 10 seconds delay

(Other Side events were held....results not published)

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Last modified: May 16, 2008 03:14