November 15th, 2007

Hail! Hail! The Gang’s All Here!
Day one of WSOB’s UK Masters, Empire Casino London

Sickening tension… danger at every corner… unbelievable drama… and that was just my journey to the casino – as, after dropping off the baby with his grandfather, I got stuck in Knightsbridge gridlock hell, abandandoned the car, and ran the final 4 kms to the theatre of dreams… arriving just in time for the opening ceremony.

What a magnificent, fizzing atmosphere awaited me. It was immediately obvious that, win or lose, tonight this was to be the peak experience of my backgammon career. On Wednesday night, having lost three consecutive gammons in a satellite final to fail to automatically qualify, I decided not to play in the UK Masters. My game was too flaky, I hadn’t earned the right. On Thursday morning I woke up, and two words sang from my brain: “I’m in.” The lure was irresistible.

The draw stretched to an incredible 123 – the 5 ‘rebuys’ [for a plum 128 draw] were a formality, and duly snapped up. My first match was against a fellow British journeyman Simon Barget. Terribly nervous, in over 2 hours of play I didn’t manage to ship a single cube that he felt was a take. I sure did it the hard way then, as I stumbled over the line 13-9. The sublime charms of former European champion Katja Spillum await me in round two.

Elsewhere the carnival atmosphere was intoxicating as the some of the greatest names in backgammon fought like buffaloes to reach the holy grail of the last 64. Many didn’t make it. Tournament commentator and world poker superstar Gus Hansen was cruising his match, before it swivelled on a sixpence and he lost out at the death. The tournament has also lost one of its biggest names in Falafel Natanzen who bowed out to his Israeli teammate from the Nations Cup, in a thrilling double-match-pointer. Leading British threat Raj Jansari, who has been winning everything it seems of late, is already in the showers. The American threat of Carter Mattig will not repeat his march to the Las Vegas final of a year ago

However, the great Mochi Moziyuki lives on by dint of a gruelling win against the wily Brit Julian Minwalla; WSOB Riviera champ Sander Lylloff is still with us; so is Maria Krancheva (who has swapped sides by the way – at last year’s Riviera Cup she died her hair the colour of the yellowy-orange checkers, now she is very much on dark red’s side). And there are more… so many more magnificent players – at least 20 of whom are from ominous threat of Scandinavia.



As for the Brits, well many were cut down in the trenches, but there were something like 44 in the draw, so surely a few still stand? Indeed they do. The two biggest British names of Clark and Fetterlein were, at latter stages, 2% and 10% respectively to win their matches before both launching spectacular Houdini escapes. Newspaper Backgammon correspondent Chris Bray is still there, so is Las Vegas Over-50s champ Peter Bennet. Dod Davies…John Hurst…and don’t forget redoubtable match player, World Champs quarter-finalist Mike Heard – into the next round by dint of toppling American legend Ed O’Laughlin

I left the casino breathless and euphoric. It had been a marvellous, heady night of drama, intrigue and camaraderie, all played in a fine, gung-ho spirit. The WSOB’s mission to put backgammon back on to the world map is fast coming to fruition, and there’s still three days of thrills and spills to go. Fasten your seatbelts – we haven’t begun to work!