We had a fine showing for our March tournament – 15 players showed up on the first really warm Saturday of the year, foregoing the sunshine and refreshing breeze to instead play backgammon. Naturally, we moved out onto the patio, so we still were able to enjoy the warm air and the sound of passing motorcycles, etc.
15, as you might know, is an odd number, so it doesn’t lead to a perfect bracket. It gets slightly worse than that, because a couple of them had the wrong start time in mind, and didn’t show up until 2:00 or 2:30 (that was Steve “I’ll be about 30 minutes late” E…) So I had 13 as I did the bracket draw. Gene got the first round bye, but since he had somewhere else to go as an alternative, he just headed out, and so we were down to 12 players in the tournament, in two 6-person brackets.
In the “A” bracket, I faced off against Buzz in round 1, Tim E took on Leah, and Tim T drew Dave. In each pairing, the second person won the first match. In round 2, Leah got the bye, and Buzz rolled over Dave. Leah and Buzz faced off in the final, and in spite of some immediately regretted cube action, Leah took the prize! That makes Leah undefeated in all appearances this year, if you’re keeping track. Tim E went on to win the consolation bracket over Dave.
In the “B” bracket, Steve H played newcomer Tammy A (and they spent a lot of time talking strategy, since she’s a newer player and he’s a nice guy), Larry (in his first in person visit) played Ed, and Tim A (related to Tammy A, and so also a first-timer) played Cam. In each pairing, the first player listed ended up winning. In round 2, Steve got the bye and Larry beat out Tim A. In the final, Steve came out on top. Ed went on to win the consolation bracket over Tim A.
You’ll notice that 3 of our 12 players were named Tim, making this the most Tim-intensive backgammon tournament in the US for the weekend, I am pretty sure.
After my quick defeat, I got to play a pick-up match against Steve E and some heads up against Dave, so in spite of the poor showing in the tournament I still got a lot of backgammon in. As Dave and I were getting close to wrapping up, a lady leaving the bar let us know that we had been playing for hours, a very accurate description of the situation I have to say.
Thanks everyone who came out, and I hope to see you all again at our next tournament, scheduled for April 21st at (take note, JB and Steve E, and I guess the rest of you as well) 1:00 pm!
-Mark