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Clive Kaye came
to a Bg in London evening about 18 months ago and a little while
later wrote to me asking me to run a tournament in Meribel in the
French Alps. I get a fair number of such emails but they usually
come to nothing when the writer realises just how much work is
involved. So I wrote a 4 page reply to Clive letting him know the
considerable logistics of setting up and running a professional
standard new event; if he came back his idea might be a goer.
He next spoke to me in Monte Carlo in the summer; he had taken on
board a lot of what I and others had told him, he had a pledge of
5000euros from the Meribel Tourist Office and he was even more
determined than ever to do this. Ok, it’s a goer.
It was Chris Ternel’s idea to use the Meribel Tourist Office
sponsorship money in place of asking players to pay a registration
fee and rakes rather than using it as Added Prize Fund which would
only benefit a few. Clive sent me an outline of how he saw the
event running. The match lengths were far too long to be practical
so I cut them down to workable 32 player events to be played over
a weekend. Masters and Mid Flights to attract a variety of
players. We’d make the event longer by including Satellites,
Jackpots and Clive’s “The Highest Little Tournament in the World”
on the Thursday and Friday. Doubles on Sunday evening after the
Prize Giving so it could run without stalling other tournaments.
The Masters Flight would be a 100% clock play event, the Mid
Flight a both players clock play preferred event and everybody
would use precision dice. We’d run a choice of a Super Jackpot and
a Gang Tournament on the Saturday evening. Clive would handle all
the local and player dealings while I would write the website and
handle the backgammon side of the event.
Both Clive and I suffer from what some might call attention to
detail disorder. Emails between us about the event became a habit;
between August and early December we managed to write 440 emails
to each other about the event. Clive gathered in local and
international sponsors and the prize table filled up. I wrote the
website in English then Clive said it should be in French too. I
kicked my cat but later apologised to her because I knew Clive was
right so sat down one night to write a French clone of the site.
This was shaping up to be a highly professional event even though
it was its first run.
I drove from London to Meribel on the Tuesday stopping overnight
in Geneva to see my niece. I’d intended to drive the pretty way
from Geneva to Meribel but after such a long drive I just stayed
on the motorways and was there within an hour and a half. The
Chaudanne Hotel was expecting me, if I would like to make myself
comfortable in my room there was a meeting scheduled for 2.00pm
for me to view the playing room and inform them of any finer
details of layout that I required. This was looking very efficient
and easy. I lunched with Clive in Le Refuge Restaurant having
shaken what seemed like dozens of local hands. They all knew about
the Backgammon Tournament, were excited to see it come to fruition
and anything they could do to help it be a success I only had to
ask.
We had the Tournament Room set by 6.00pm. In reality it is a
luxury Conference Centre but unusually it is has wooden clad
alpine walls and soft furnishings. There was even a side room for
players’ bags to be left securely in. An adjoining bar would be
manned for us as of the Friday evening. World Champion Mochy,
Morton and Bent arrived and joined us for dinner after which we
crossed the road to The Barometer Bar where we played a Round
Robin tournament with Arina joining us as well. Arina, Russian by
birth but now lives in Meribel, has only recently taken up
backgammon and was thrilled to bits (though in awe) to be in the
presence of the World Champion. The awe quickly dissipated as
Mochy came across as his usual very approachable self and Arina’s
smile was something to behold when she received a lesson after her
match with Mochy. Morton won the Round Robin.
More players, some pre-booked, some not pre-booked, arrived on the
Thursday for the Satellite Tournaments. Clive sorted out hotel
bedrooms or studios as required and I ran backgammon. Alexis
Vincent won our 1st Masters Satellite, Bent Christensen won a
Jackpot that he used as a ½ entry to the Masters, I was asked to
run an All Ladies Tournament but flatly refused (sorry, backgammon
is a mind sport to me) but 4 Ladies approached me to for 20 euro
entry tournament so I ran a mini-Jackpot for them and Arina was
the smiling player a couple of hours later. Loïc Jallu entered and
won another Mini-Jackpot thereby giving himself a birthday
present. By the end of the evening we had 24 players in-situ with
36 hours to go until we kicked off the Main events. We were
looking good.
I open my curtains at 08.30am on the Friday morning hoping to see
some blue sky. It was 100% blue between the impressive snow clad
mountains. This was the day set for “The Highest Little Tournament
in the World.” At 11.30am Clive had a bus laid on to take us up to
the next cable car station (the one 50 meters away would now not
open until the next day.) Off we set, we flashed our Meribel
Backgammon Association cards and were waved through onto the
bubble cars that took us up to 2739 metres where vin chaud was
served to us and Scarlett Serrero and I took entry fees. We had 15
players in-situ so we ran a 16 player Knockout of just 3 pointers.
A little while later Morton and Bent joined us from their morning
ski session so we became 17 players. I said I’d stretch the
tournament to a 32 player re-buy event if players re-bought
quickly. However they didn’t – most were more than happy to sit on
the terrace, soak up the sun and admire the wonderful view.
Shortly after we moved inside for lunch and played on afterwards.
So for once the environment was more important to players than
actually playing! We return via bubble car or ski to the village
of Meribel at about 3.30pm. Raj Jansari won this tournament.
Now it was down to backgammon business – more Satellites and
Jackpots on demand and players had plenty of space to play. At
8.00pm we adjourned all play for a welcome cocktail party
sponsored by the local taxi company, after which players moved up
the road to take over Le Refuge Restaurant for dinner. Players
were back for 10.30pm for the Warm-Up Tournament – a free entry
event for any player registered in the Masters or Mid Flight
Tournament with the 1st placed player due to win a pair of skis
donated by Freeride Ski Shop, 2nd placed player gaining a meal for
4 at Le Refuge and bottles of champagne for the two Semi-Finalists
from Barometer Bar and La Loft NightClub.
As players were knocked out they entered more Satellites or
Jackpots. This was the first time I’d worked with Scarlett as my
Assistant T.D. and by now I’d realised how on the ball she is – we
ran enough tournaments to keep players active but not so many that
play would be required the following morning. Hence at close of
play we had no outstanding tournaments in progress and could thus
start with clean sheets the following morning. Katyhaber
Natchkebia of Georgia won the Warm-up, Christian Plenz and Ran
Bartov won Master Satellites, Bernard Divorne won a Mid Satellite
and Rassoul Rasti won a Mini-Jackpot. At the close of play we had
26 registered in the Masters and 9 in the Mid Flight. As such it
looked highly possible that the Masters would go just over the 32
if more players turned up on spec the following morning.
For a full day of backgammon in a cosy tournament room with
adjoining bar you do not need blue sky, the Snow Gods knew this so
they took the opportunity to do their stuff. 2 more Mid Flight
players arrived and one Master Flight player decided that skiing
was preferable to backgammon so we closed at 11 and 25; good
enough numbers to keep players active in Main, Progressive
Consolation and Last Chance formats. Even though he’d never done
one before Scarlett and I had decided the previous day that Clive
should be our Masters Group Auctioneer. As we expected Clive rose
to the challenge and ran not one but two Group Actions. The draws
were manual. I have full confidence in computerised draws but
Clive had had, before the event, requests for good olde fashioned
manual draws so that’s what was scheduled and that’s what we did.
Mochy and his girlfriend Michiko had travelled about 20,000
kilometres between them to be here and, yup, you guess it, they
were drawn to play each other in Round 1! C’est la vie. As soon as
the Masters were underway we did the draw for the Mid Flight and
by 12.35 we had 17 matches in progress with 1 Master and 1 Mid
player waiting for opponents. Tout va bien.
Scarlett and I then had another opportunity to double check our
schedule. We decided to get the Masters and Mid Mains and Consos
down to Semi-Finals which would leave us knowing all our players
in the Last Chances the following morning; sensible and mature
tournament management in place. Tres bien.
At 8.00pm we broke off for dinner; this was proving to be a very
civilised event indeed. By 10.30pm everybody was back, well-fed by
restaurants all over town. The Main Semi-Finalists elected to play
their matches there and then, a couple of Jackpots filled in time
for those that wished them before we kicked off The Gang
Tournament. The what? The Gang Tournament: take every player that
wishes to play in it, put their names into a hat and draw them out
in into 2 teams. First names out of the hat are the Captains who
are the only players allowed to move checkers and, if out-voted on
a move by their team, they must play their teams’ move –
democratic backgammon. It’s usually pandemonium with players
jeering and cajoling for their move to be played. We had 22
players sign up for it so it was 11 versus 11 all around 1 board
in a 3 point match. The noise level was high. We played the match
in the bar (away from those still playing serious clock play
backgammon in the tournament room) and the Gang players loved it.
At the end of Round 1 those that won are split again into two new
teams. This goes on until only 1 player has not lost. That player
was Franck Stepler. The format will shortly be played in Geneva,
Berlin, Paris and beyond. With so many players active in the Gang
Tournament the Super-Jackpot didn’t get off the ground that
evening but would be played the next day.
Neculai Dragnuta won a Jackpot, Nadia Danckof won a Mini-Jackpot
and Christian Plenz won a late night Round Robin. Our Masters
Final would be Morton Lylloff versus Raj Jansari and still
standing in the Masters Conso were Frederic Andrieu v Franck
Stepler and Michiko Matsumiya v Clive Kaye. In the Mid Flight Main
Final Loïc Jallu would play Giselle Ardisson while in the Conso
Final Gergorie Sergent would play Jacque Wheli. Once again
Scarlett and I had had all tournaments up to date and all was in
readiness for play the next day.
We had a little extra the following morning; a seminar by the
World Champion Mochy on how to play 5 point matches. One of the
huge benefits to backgammon this year has been the willingness of
our current World Champion to give back to the game. Even with a
late night the night before and an 11.00am seminar we had a good
turnout and players commented afterwards that they had learnt a
great deal. Thank you Mochy.
So we started play at 12.00 o’clock with random manual draws for
the Last Chances and our Master Conso Semi-Finalists getting their
matches underway. We kicked off the Masters Main Final at 2.00pm
so that those knocked out of the Last Chances could watch it.
Having a multi-skilled and experienced Tournament Direction Team
came into swing again as Scarlett recorded the Masters Final. Not
everybody wanted to watch the Final so we laid on more Jackpots
and got that delayed Super Jackpot underway as well. Loïc rounded
off his excellent weekend by winning the Mid Main, Jacques took
the Mid Conso and Bernard the Mid Last Chance. Over in the Masters
Irakli Sabulua won the Last Chance, Frederic triumphed over
Michiko in the Conso and in a match that looked liked Raj would be
the winner Morton Lylloff won in a last gasp finish. There was
also time for Jackpots and Mini-Jackpots in which Neculai,
Gergorie and Jacque won.
Come 6.00pm, and still on schedule, we were ready for the Prize
Giving Ceremony followed by another round of cocktails and
nibbles. Clive once again acted as Master of Ceremonies and did
yet another fantastic job of it. Genuine thanks were extended to
the Hotel, Tourist Office, Mayor and all sponsors for their
comprehensive involvement in this new Meribel event and it was
announced that they hoped to see us and more back next year.
But you can’t keep backgammon players from playing backgammon and
shortly I was back organising our next event – The Doubles.
Scarlett was no longer required as an Assistant T.D. so turned to
become a player, 14 Pairs signed up so I made it a 2 re-buys
event. They played all the 1st Round matches then broke for
dinner. After dinner the Doubles and Super Jackpot resumed. Alexis
Vincent won the Super Jackpot, we ran yet more Jackpots (won by
Scarlett and Gregorie) and a Mini-Jackpot which was won by Patrick
Martel. The Doubles completed later on which was won by Michiko
and Mochy. The Inaugural Meribel Backgammon Tournaments had all
been played. Superbe.
The following morning most players left while I slept the sleep of
sleeps. When I woke I did a few more updates to the website and
published yet more photos of the event. As I did so I asked myself
how it had all gone. I realised that I had not been called upon to
make one single over-the-board Tournament Directors’ decision
during the entire 5 days of play. I’m firmly of the belief that if
an event is well set up and well run that players will key into
this and if they have a problem with an opponent they will sort it
out in an amenable manner between them. Those 440 emails between
Clive and I proved to be an excellent investment.
The date for the next Meribel event is booked already: 8th – 13th
December 2010 at the same venue. Given how well this event ran 150
players is my, I think quite realistic, target. If you would like
to be informed when registration opens please join the
mailing list.
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