20 October 2006

Gammonitis' 4th Birthday Tournament

Gammonitis celebrated its fourth birthday with a tournament at Eynsham Hall, near Oxford, on October 14-15, 2006. The field was one of the strongest in the club's history, with names such as Julian Fetterlein, John Slattery, Dod Davies, John Clark, Eric Guedj and Peter Bennet. Thirty-three players entered, so two of them played a preliminary match: Guil Drai, Eric Guedj's cousin, beat Peter Bennet to take the last place in the draw of 32.

Early rounds

The first round brought several upsets. William Cockerell, who came in ranked 52nd of 57 on the club's active ratings and had not played since May, beat Eric Guedj. George Miltiadou held off a late rally by Dod Davies, John Slattery beat Gary Brooker, and John Hurst came back from 0-11 down to beat Andy Bell. In the second round Cockerell met Julian Fetterlein, and after more than three hours the match reached double match point, where a late shot decided it in Cockerell's favour.

The quarter-finals paired David Fall with John Clark, John Hurst with John Leavey, Martin Hemming with Guil Drai, and Cockerell with Mike Heard. On Saturday evening the players watched two episodes of the upcoming Eurosport series "The World Series of Backgammon", produced by Andy Bell and Eric Guedj, with play from the summer's Nation's Cup and Riviera Cup.

Sunday

Cockerell beat Mike Heard at double match point, while Martin Hemming beat Guil Drai in another match that went to the last game. Cockerell then defeated Hemming in the semi-final. In the other semi-final John Hurst led David Fall 12-9 in the Crawford game, but Fall came back to win.

The final was played in a friendly spirit. Fall led 12-6 at one point, but Cockerell won the games that followed, reached double match point for the third time in four matches and took the title in the deciding game. Over the weekend the winner played 61 games in about 11 hours, winning 39 and losing 22.

Rob Wills won the consolation after six matches, beating Julian Fetterlein in the semi-final and Eric Guedj in the final. Guil Drai won the Last Chance against George Sulimirski.

Results