Month: September 2024

We had a great turnout for today’s monthly backgammon tournament – 16 players came out on a sunny and gorgeous first day of fall. People were split between indoors and the patio all day, and although I was inside I think the folks on the patio had the right idea.

In the “A” bracket, first round had Dave over Mark A, Larry over Leah (breaking her undefeated streak for the year, aww…), Cam over Kyle, and me over Bodger. In the final, Cam beat me down in 2 games – winning a single (that he could have cubed me out of much earlier than he actually did) followed by a doubled gammon win. Larry fought through to win the Consolation bracket, although somewhat by default, since Dave had to leave for another obligations and so conceded the bracket. Drinks on Larry next time!

In the “B” bracket, first round had Nathan over Stephanie (back after some years hiatus, and raring to go!), Joel over Ceci, Ed over newcomer Francesca, and Brian (back after some years hiatus, and tentatively committed to not waiting that long until the next one) over newcomer Dave G (who drove up from southern Oregon, winning the “longest commute” prize). In the final, Joel ended up winning over Brian. Nathan and Stephanie had a rematch in the final of the consolation, with (alas for Stephanie!) the same result.

There was a lot of excitement and discussion about the rapidly approaching Denver Open – at this point I believe 7 Portland based players will be in attendance, the biggest showing from our club at an ABT event ever! I am looking forward to it, for sure. To add to the excitement, I’m considering counting any head-to-head Portland matches from there towards the Player of the Year contest. Speaking of which, yes, Dave still has that almost on lock – he currently has a record of 28 wins/16 loses (I did not count the forfeit in the consolation today), giving him an impressive net 12 wins. Leah is still not far behind, with 11 wins/2 loses for a net 9, and Cam is right behind her with 12 wins/5 loses for a net 7. If Dave pulls off the three-peat, next year might have an exclusion clause added to the contest, or add a “Player of the Year Who Isn’t Dave” trophy as well…

It was a lovely afternoon of play, and I hope to see everyone back for our next tournament in a mere 2 weeks – for the rest of the year, the tournament is the FIRST Sunday of the month to avoid conflicts with any holidays.

We had a good turnout for the third championship qualifier – 15 people turned out for a long afternoon of backgammon.

As usual, Dave was there early, and we played  a short match ‘for his entry fee’, which he won. That one, sadly for Dave, does not count towards the Player of the Year competition, because it was the only match he won that day.

In the Men’s bracket, Tim was playing flawlessly, in spite of having eye troubles – he has a detached retina, which apparently prevented him from seeing bad moves. But when it came to the finals, Tim had to give way to Aggi, who – drumroll – is from Hawaii and is perhaps unlikely to make it back for the actual Championship. Aggi was in town visiting his son, Tyson, who hasn’t been to a meetup in a while but made a respectable showing himself at this event.

In the Women’s bracket, Leah extended her undefeated streak for the year, beating Andrea in the final, but nonetheless securing Andrea a spot in the Championship for the second year in a row.

So if you’re tracking this from home, in the Women’s, we currently have Julie and Leah, both with a first-round bye, and Andrea and Paola qualified, with 2 spots left to go. In the Men’s, we currently have Tim with a first-round bye, Joel and Bodger, and Aggi (from Hawaii) and Gary (did not leave his contact info). So on the Men’s side, I think I actually only have 4 spots filled. I do not know how I am going to handle that – who knows, maybe both Aggi and Gary will show for it… Time will tell!