The Whatcote Invitational: a Handicapped UBC Event

On a miserable, rainy July 14th, eighteen courageous, cuboid-chucking, checker-chancers, set their satnavs to Whatcote, a picturesque village 10 miles away from Stratford-upon-Avon, to take part in a brand-new tournament format. A UBC-style event whereby points are awarded to players who win matches as well as points awarded for a better PR. However, the unique difference in this tournament is that each player has a ‘PR Handicap’ assigned to them at the start.

From left to right: Andy Darby, Oliver Squire, Dave Sanders, Dan Rovira, Chris Rogers, Safi Tracy, Steve Bibby, Gaz Owen, Sara Sathyanandha, Steve Peers, Jon Barnes, Tim Line, Pete Heskett, Hazel Harper, Eric McAlpine, Nick Sandqvist, Stefan Paliwoda, Rich Carter, Paul Plumptre, Julian Minwalla, Eric Westbrook, and Geoff Hall

The ‘PR Handicaps’ were assessed by a panel consisting of myself, Julian Minwalla and Reece Hodges. We used a mix of BMAB, WBIF and other relevant live/online play to estimate the players’ PR’s.

‘PR Handicap’ ranged from 3.6 to 9.3, so we had a healthy range of player abilities attending the tournament. It was also pleasing (and reassuring) that the final results showed a very good correlation between handicaps assigned and actual PR’s recorded. A credit to the efforts made by the ‘PR Handicap’ panel.

A Facebook page was set up, ‘Whatcote Invitational’, (please feel free to join and view), so that players and observers could track the progress of the event.

Friday consisted of a Warm-Up event, with rebuys, for those wishing to turn up a day before the main event. 11 players took part, and the final was contested between Andy Darby and Safi Tracy with Andy emerging victorious.

Special mention goes to Chris Rogers, who took ‘advantage’ of the rebuy feature but ended up basically sponsoring the event 😊

The group draws were made later Friday evening and the 18 players were divided into 3 groups of 6 players, guaranteeing that every player plays at least 5 matches in the Main event on Saturday.

The Main Event

Breakfast was served from 9.30am with Stefan ‘Sunny Side Up’ Paliwoda offering to help by cooking eggs to order. This is a good a time as any to thank the following for their invaluable assistance in the kitchen:-

The 18 players were going to be whittled down to 9 players by the end of the day. The top 3 players, from each of the 3 groups, progressing to the final stages on Sunday. Players picking up 1 point for the match win (7-point matches) and 1 point for the PR win (based on the handicap).

We used a % difference in PR Handicap, to award the point to the winning player. For example, if Player A had a PR-handicap of 6 and Player B had a PR-handicap of 4, if Player A played a 5.4PR then he/she would have a PR-handicap score of -10% (for being 10% lower than the predicted 6 PR). Player B would need to produce a PR better than 10% lower to win the PR point. With a PR-handicap of 4 it means that Player B would need to play at 3.6PR or lower, otherwise the PR point is awarded to Player A. (The PR point was split if the % was within 3% of each other).

The matches were transcribed by Mate Feher and his team, and he produced an outstanding job of not only recording every match, but transcribing each one and returning the PR’s so quickly that the pace of the tournament remained smooth and uninterrupted.

There were some excellent performances over the weekend, notably:-

• Gaz Owen and Oliver Squire (both played at 2.7PR over the 5 group matches)
• Jon Barnes and Sara Sathyanandha who played well below their handicaps at 3.07 and 4.52 PR’s respectively.
• Paul Plumptre who played well below his 7.2PR handicap and produced an overall 5.37PR in his group matches.

All of the results were recorded and handled by Julian Minwalla and Dave Sanders who both worked tirelessly over the weekend. The corresponding draws were produced by Dave’s bespoke spreadsheet, and it really did make it so much easier to keep the tournament running smoothly, while players were kept up to date with their progress.

After a competitive day’s play, 9 main finalists emerged:-

The others were placed in a ‘Knockout’ tournament format (9 points), where PR was not factored in at all. The ‘Knockout’ was also to feature on the Sunday as well, so players had a chance to relax and unwind on Saturday evening. Main group players would also be eligible to enter the knockout if they fail to make it to the Main semi-finals.

Of course, what better way to relax from a gruelling backgammon tournament? Chouette. 😊

Sunday Knockout

The knockout final was closely contested between Pete Heskett and Rich Carter, with Pete emerging victorious.  Rich did particularly well reaching the final as he had decided to camp in the driveway, despite the awful weather, and had enjoyed copious amounts of alcohol during the Saturday chouette.

 

Sunday Main

The 9 players were divided into 3 groups of 3 players (the draw was constructed so that none of the players would have played each other before). From the 9 players, there would be 4 players progressing to the semi-finals, consisting of the top player from each group and the best performing 2nd placed group player. Again, players received a point for winning the 7-point match and a point for achieving the better PR-handicap %. By Sunday afternoon we were down to the 4 semi-finalists and the draw was made for the pairings:-

Main semi-finals

The semi-finals consisted of two 7-point matches with a point for the win and a point for best handicap PR in both matches.  If there was a tie after the 2 matches, then the best handicap PR would be the deciding factor.

After 2, hard-fought, matches, we had our first Whatcote Invitational Main Finalists:-

Oliver Squire volunteered to live-transcribe the final (one of the quickest transcribers I’ve seen !), and he kept up with the pace of the game so that we had access to instant PR’s at the end of each match. The final consisted of up to 3 matches, with 6 points being up for grabs.

Gaz Owen won an enthralling final and took home the coveted trophy.

However, Gaz was not the only winner. Everyone who took part won a piece of history for this new backgammon format and helped to make it a tremendous success over the weekend. It was really encouraging to see every player, regardless of PR, anxiously waiting to see how well they had performed, whether they had won or lost their match.

I hope to repeat this tournament next year and will be keeping my fingers crossed that it runs as smoothly as it did this year and is played with the same amount of sportsmanship and respect shown by all those who attended.

A big THANK YOU to all those who took part in playing and helping to run this unique event.

Main Trophy Winners