Report – 24 February 2006

 

St David’s Day Tournament

 

 

Revenge for the Barbarians

The Barbarian exacted revenge for last year’s trouncing by winning a close fought tussle. Thanks to Marty’s excellent computer program (he took ten hours to create it – amazing!) the teams’ event could be continuously monitored. It was only with the last two or three games completed that the final result was known, with the teams within a point or two of each other for most of the night. The computer also was used to provide pairings and enter results and facilitated a smooth tournament administration by Marty.

 

The Barbs started with an advantage in the handicaps (29.02 to 24.80 – see table below). However similar advantage still resulted in Welsh victory last year, so obviously the Barbarians put up a better show this year.

 

The tournament

First the teams were selected. Andrew, Debbie and the Grand Druid himself were all as Welsh as leeks and dandelions and selected themselves. So you would have thought was Brian Thomas. Alas the cousin from the next village turned his back on his true ancestral homeland in that little corner of Britain to which his surname attests his eternal connection. So, instead of Mr Thomas, the Welsh ended up with John, Cameron and Mick, all of dubious Welshness. A quote from Cameron at the end of the night: “Was I playing for the Welsh?” attests to the less than rigorous nature of the Welsh selection. Let this be a lesson to the Welsh, that more care should be taken next year with correct representation so that revenge is enacted!

 

Phil Kirkman let the Welsh team down by not putting in an appearance to defend his title. This allowed Brian Thomas and Andrew Robinson to dominate with Brian winning all his games, and Andrew winning all except the one that he lost to Brian. However, the beauty of the handicap system is that other players still had a chance if they out-performed their pre-tournament expectations. This is exactly what two players did – Kieran Lyons and Mark Taylor.

 

The handicaps this year were a little more generous to the players in the bottom half of the ratings table this year than last which resulted in 6 or 7 players still being in with a shot at the title with a couple of rounds to go. Kieran lost to the top two but was undefeated against the rest of the field, including draws with Mick and Cameron. Mark’s best result on the night was his win over Debbie, but he also played solidly against John, Russell and Mick to obtain important wins.

 

At the end of the night a formal (but not too formal) presentation ceremony occurred where the President presented a leek to the winner, Kieran, who appeared overcome with emotion (perhaps the emotion was “I won this tournament and they give me a bloody vegetable!”). Brian Willcock, the founder of this tournament, assured Kieran that she would have received a dandelion (sic), but that these were out of season, so we reverted to the symbol of Wales as expressed in Shakespearean literature….

 

Brian Willcock wrote in response to the above paragraph:

“Have just had to retain James yet again. The popular Welsh symbol is the Daffodil, not the Dandelion! For some odd reason the daffodil, a flower of the early spring in sub arctic Britain is not available in the Queensland summer so we had to go for the older symbol allegedly chosen by David himself (to help the Welsh avoid clobbering themselves with friendly fire (sic) while fighting the Saxons). Again oddly the Welsh today use the daffodil rather than the leek – no doubt it’s the influence of the only Thomases in the village..”

 

 

St David’s Day tournament standings

All players to play 11 games

No.	NAME		POINTS	plus Handicap	TOTAL
1	Kieran Lyons	B	8	3.92	11.92
2	Mark Taylor	B	5	6.83	11.83
3	Andrew Robinson	W	10	1.40	11.40
4	Brian Thomas	B	11	0.00	11.00
5	Tim Johnson	B	3	7.59	10.59
6	John Curran	W	4½	5.95	10.45
7	Cameron De Vere	W	4½	5.71	10.21
8	Brian Willcock	W	5	4.62	9.62
9	Debbie Jenkins	W	6½	3.09	9.59
10	Russell Lyons	B	5	3.09	8.09
11	James Hiller	B	0	7.59	7.59
12	Mick Waters	W	3½	4.03	7.53

St David’s Day tournament 2006 results in detail

(W=Welsh; B=Barbarian)

 

St David’s Day – Teams standings

All players to play 11 games

No.	THE WELSH		POINTS	Handicap	TOTAL
3	Andrew Robinson	W	10	1.40	11.40
6	John Curran	W	4½	5.95	10.45
7	Cameron De Vere	W	4½	5.71	10.21
8	Brian Willcock	W	5	4.62	9.62
9	Debbie Jenkins	W	6½	3.09	9.59
12	Mick Waters	W	3½	4.03	7.53
	WELSH TOTAL:		34	24.80	58.80

 

No.	THE BARBARIANS		POINTS	Handicap	TOTAL
1	Kieran Lyons	B	8	3.92	11.92
2	Mark Taylor	B	5	6.83	11.83
4	Brian Thomas	B	11	0.00	11.00
5	Tim Johnson	B	3	7.59	10.59
10	Russell Lyons	B	5	3.09	8.09
11	James Hiller	B	0	7.59	7.59
	BARBARIAN TOTAL:		32	29.02	61.02

 

 

Flood Cup / Handicap entrants (as at 1 March 2006)

No.	NAME	Rating Mar 2006	Flood Cup Best result	Handicap Best result
1	Brian Thomas	1743	=1st 2000	3rd 2000
2	Phillip Kirkman	1724	1st 1990; 2005 =1st 1993	1st 1988
3	Andrew Robinson	1587	1st 1998; 2001-2; 2004	1st 1994
4	Tony Howes	1569	2nd 2005	6th 2003
5	Debbie Jenkins	1400	3rd 2004	1st 2004
6	Ray Adams	1389	2nd 1990; =2nd 1984	4th 2004
7	Mick Waters	1283	11th 2005	14th 2005
8	Kieran Lyons	1276	Never entered	Never entered
9	Garvin Gray	1232	8th 2005	4th 2005
10	John Curran	1082	9th 2003	2nd 2003
11	Cameron De Vere	1044	Withdrew 2005	Withdrew 2005
12	Marty Chadwick	1023	8th 2004	3rd 2004
13	Shane Martin	994	10th 2005	3rd 2005
14	Mark Taylor	984	9th 2005	1st 2005
15	Stuart Wilson	934	5th 2001	1st 2001
16	James Hiller	594	8th 2001	7th 2001; 2005
17	Tim Johnson	unrated	Never entered	Never entered
18	Russell Lyons	unrated	Never entered	Never entered

 

Confirmed non-entries:

Brian Willcock

Gabriel Boross

Mark Winn

Harvey Quaresmini

 

No advise received:

Peter Hiller

 

Handicap calculations

No.	NAME	Rating Mar 2006	Handicap
1	Brian Thomas	1743	0.00
2	Phillip Kirkman	1724	0.10
3	Andrew Robinson	1587	0.78
4	Tony Howes	1569	0.87
5	Debbie Jenkins	1400	1.72
6	Ray Adams	1389	1.77
7	Mick Waters	1283	2.30
8	Kieran Lyons	1276	2.34
9	Garvin Gray	1232	2.56
10	John Curran	1082	3.31
11	Cameron De Vere	1044	3.50
12	Marty Chadwick	1023	3.60
13	Shane Martin	994	3.75
14	Mark Taylor	984	3.80
15	Stuart Wilson	934	4.05
16	James Hiller	594+300	4.25
17	Tim Johnson	1000*	3.72
18	Russell Lyons	1250*	2.47

Handicap trophy

The player with the highest "Handicap Total" wins the Handicap Trophy.

The "Handicap Total" is obtained by adding the Handicap (column one above) to the player's points gained in the Flood Cup. 

Handicaps are calculated at: [(1743 minus rating) divided by 200]. 

To avoid statistical distortions, James Hiller has 300 points added to his rating for handicap purposes only.

Tim Johnson and Russell Lyons have been given provisional ratings for handicap purposes only.

 

Quote of the night

“Brother… Beatles… pot… <censored>” – Madam X

 

 

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