Magriel Cup Final Day: USA triumph 77-73

Holding a slender lead of 41-37, the UK team were hopeful of claiming a morale boosting win in the 2nd Magriel Cup. Sadly, it was not to be.

The first day included a 1st round of Speedgammon which the UK team won 19-17 (2 points awarded for a match win and 1 point for a Performance Rating (PR) win. The 2nd round was best of 5 Double Match Point which the UK won 14-10 (no PR points in this round). The USA team sneaked a 10-8 win in the 3rd round of Consulting Doubles to narrow the UK overall lead.

This set up an exciting climax of two rounds of 11 points singles matches and it was in the first of these the wheels came off. In spite of achieving PR wins in 9 of the 12 matches, we managed to lose the round 13-23 due to the USA team achieving 10 match wins. The USA team therefore led 60-54 going into the final round.

In the final round of singles, the opponents were switched and for a while it looked like we were clawing back sufficiently for any result to be possible. A UK or USA win or even a tie. It was in this round that Steve Bibby achieved an amazing PR of 0.56 in his match against Albert Steg. Of course, there is no justice in backgammon as Steve was narrowly defeated in the match.

There were several outstanding performances on the part of players from each side. The UK team’s PR of 4.29 (excluding the Consulting Doubles) was slightly superior to the 4.36 recorded by the USA team. If the Consulting Doubles is included, we edged the PR battle by 4.13 v 4.15.

Chris Bray and Simon Barget achieved the highest points of the UK players, with a total of 8 points achieved in individual matches and half of the points accumulated in the Consulting Doubles. They were followed closely by Oliver Squire and Steve Bibby on 7.5. For the USA, Bob Wachtel achieved 11 points followed by Matt Cohn-Geier on 10.5. The lowest overall UK PR was achieved by Chris Bray with an outstanding 2.45 with Oliver Squire next on 2.66. For the USA, Matt Cohn-Geier achieved 2.51 followed by Bob Wachtel on 3.12.

After such a thrilling match, there is inevitably demand to make this event a regular occurrence and certainly more frequent than three times every 5,000 years! If it were held in 2026 it could coincide with what would have been Paul Magriel’s 80th birthday on 1st July and the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is on 4th July.

UK Captain, Chris Rogers raised and motivated a very strong team and said:

“It was an honour and a privilege to captain such a strong UK team of elite backgammon players. We put in an exceptional performance and were beaten by the narrowest of margins. Special mentions should go to Chris Bray, Oliver Squire, Gaz Owen and Pete Heskett, all for posting an average PR below 3! This really is an exceptional standard of play. Congratulations to our American counterparts, and we will very much relish the opportunity to gain our revenge at the third incarnation of the Magriel Cup in the not too distant future.”

The UKBGF congratulates the USA team on another fine win and thanks Joe Russell and Chris Rogers for their considerable efforts in making this match happen as well as Julia Hayward for setting up the match spreadsheet. Julia, Simon Barget and David Potter helped me with my first attempt at livestreaming. Geoff Hall performed a marathon commentary on both days and was joined by Roberto Litzenberger, Ian Terry and the redoubtable Kent Goulding on the final day.