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!