The weekend kicked off, as always, with the Friday 500 (16). In the semi-finals, Peter Christmas beat Billy Sharp and Irving Czechowicz beat Jeff Barber. Irving had taken advantage of one of the two buy-backs and in the final he made that investment work as he came out the winner over Peter. As a result of this the Friday 500 leader board is: Andy Darby, whose wife let him attend this weekend :-) remains at #1 and Nicky Check and Myke Wignall move two points apart but swap places at 2nd and 3rd. This weekend's winner, Irving, is knocking on the door, just 1 point behind 16th place, and, knowing Irving, he'll be back to improve his present score and hope for a shot at the £500 especially now he's won a free weekend break! Click here for listing

In the Main (17/36) we had just four players on 3-3 starting Sunday morning: Stewart Pemberton vs Steve Rimmer, and Raj Jansari vs Mark Calderbank; encounters from which Stewart and Mark emerged to battle it out on 4-4. We then got to the part where one player was on 5-5. Stewart beat Mark to become the only player capable of winning 6-6. There were three possible candidates to play Stewart: Simon K Jones, Phil Tutchings and Gerry Enslin. A random draw produced Gerry and it was he that sat down in Round 6 to see if Stewart's tide of wins could be stemmed.

Stewart took an early lead 0-2 and then Gerry made it 1-2, Stewart then had two more wins: 1-3, 1-4 until Gerry pulled up: 3-4. Gerry remained on 3 as the score went Stewart's way with a gammoned 2-cube: 3-8. It then went 5-8, 5-9, and it is at this match score, 6-away, 2-away in favour of Stewart that Gerry ups the ante with a series of cubes. In the following positions, Gerry is playing as black and the match is to 11-points.

 

Game #9

Black 5 White 9

Although only 16 pips behind in the race, Stewart can't take this cube. His runners have yet to move and Gerry has gained control of 3/4 of the board. Correct decision: Double/Drop

 

Game #10

Black 6 White 9

With just the one checker on the bar, Gerry looks as if he could play on for a gammon, but with just 10.52% gammon chances it is prudent to cube Stewart out in this position. Correct decision: Double/Drop

Game #11

Black 7 White 9

Gerry's two back checkers are a liability at the moment, things look good for him now but it could all go pear-shaped; however, they are threatening a third white blot. Correct decision: Double/Drop

Game #12

Black 8 White 9

Now, this is where Gerry makes a mistake and let's Stewart off the hook. He's got four white blots to pick from and the only point Stewart holds outside of his home board is his mid-point. This is an easy drop for white - he was looking at just over 31% gammons and now he'll only lose a single point and go level at 9-9 instead of 10-9 Crawford down! Correct decision: Too good to double/Drop.

Game #13

Black 9 White 9

This time it is Stewart who cubes. There are many thoughts on cubing at 2-away, 2-away, some advocate the second roll of the game (after the initial roll), some say wait until you have any advantage, others that you should cube if you have any market losers coming up. Whatever your thoughts are, the correct decision here is Double/Take.

The game is now at DMP and we jump to the bearoff.

32: 3/0 2/0

Things look black for Gerry and XG gives him just 25.74% chances of winning. Stewart's reply, 61: 6/0, 2/1.

44: 5/1(2) 4/0(2)

Now it looks better for Gerry. This great double-four shifts him up to 48.20%, almost doubling his chances. Stewart's reply, 42: 4/0, 2/0.

61: 6/0 2/0

With three gaps in his board Gerry is very lucky to get two checkers off and he moves up to become the favourite with 53.36%. Stewart's reply, 6/4: 5/0, 4/0.

33: 6/0 5/2(2)

Another stroke of good luck and Gerry leaps forward to 70.18%! Stewart's reply, 64: 5/0, 3/0.

63: 5/0 2/0

Now Gerry moves up to a stonking 88.89% and Stewart has to bearoff his last four checkers on his next roll to win the match and the title and the £570 Winner-Takes-All prize money .... he rolls 4/3! CLICK HERE FOR XG STATS

This left me with five players on 5-5 and after applying tiebreaks the final placings were winner, Gerry Enslin, runner-up, Phil Tutchings based upon the average ranking score of their opponents. One outcome of Stewart's failure to win 6-6 is that the WTA £570 is rolled over to the Barceló Cup next month - that should bring a few extra players out of the woodwork!

In the Consolation (19/36) element, two players emerged with 3-3, Dan Tutchings and Andy Darby. Here, coming to the correct positions was a lot easier, they had played head-to-head on the Saturday and it was Dan that prevailed, thus making him 1st and Andy 2nd.

On Saturday night the Poker (12) was won by Andy Darby (no doubt chuffed he was allowed to come to Hinckley directly after his holiday) with Simon K Jones 2nd and Vicki Pemberton 3rd. Although Vicki remains at #1 in the listings she is now joined by Simon K Jones, and just behind him is this weekend's winner, Andy, moving up to #3. Lawrence Powell and Mark Calderbank are moved down to #4 and #5 respectively as Andy moves up. Vicki (and husband, Stewart) are returning to the Sates later in August, so this is (perhaps!) Vicki's last appearance - and one to watch as her possible replacement is Rosey Bensley, she has a score of 1 to replace and with a good position next time could well move right up to the top! Click here for listing

In the Team (11) we all had a good time and a good laugh (who can play against Nicky Check and keep a straight face?) and it went down in the end to two of us: Brian Metcalf and me. I did my best to beat him but at DMP he rolled 66, 66 and 33 to not only leap past my lovely prime and points, but to beat me in the bearoff as well. Mind you, I was happy, we'd split the pot and played for a tenner.

The weekend past without major incident, although there was a disagreement on requesting clocks. It is (and has been for some time) my policy to agree to the request based upon two factors: 1. is the clock designed to be an advantage? 2. Is one or both the players deemed 'slow' in my opinion? I decided that no advantage was being sought (both players were clock-experienced) and they were both, historically, on the slowish side, so a clock was duly given; however, the opponent objected on the grounds that he didn't want/like a clock - as far as I am concerned these are not valid reasons, I'm afraid. In fact, knowing the two players as I do, I had considered applying a clock myself but was pre-empted by the request.

Finally
Whoever stole my battery charger from my equipment basket better hope I never discover their identity!