Tonight’s coverage of the St David’s Day tournament come from the voices of reason, fairness, honesty and Welshness – Brian and Andrew.
Brian’s account first:
On Friday members hastened to the club for the honour of taking part in the first St David’s Day tournament. Most, being of strong Welsh descent hungered to win the first tournament in honour of the patron saint of Wales even if it were played some days before the Great Day, March 1st. The few non Welsh, principally made up of Tony and George, lusted after the Saint’s magnificent golden cup, stolen at great expense from Wales to be the perpetual trophy. In true Welsh fashion the tournament was conducted in a mystic fog with no one being able to know the colours they had or the handicap systems that were operating. Rather worryingly Andrew and Brian were observed feverishly trying to insert a Welsh requirement that would dish the other ethnic groups. Possibly as a result George spent the whole night attempting to gain naturalisation, only to be foiled by the lack of a sheep. As you can see, the tournament was a great success, as was the experimental Lightning arrangement (even though the increment per move failed to eliminate some horrifying clock bashing).
Results were not available on the night as The Druids had not had time to cook the books.
Andrew’s account:
Brian started the evening off by presenting a fine trophy to be awarded to the victor. Then the 12 entrants had to state their allegiance – Welsh or Barbarian.
The Welsh team composed of the following:
· Brian, who was born in Swansea
· Andrew, whose great-grandmother was born in Glamorgan
· Debbie, who claims Richard Burton as a relative
· Marty, who claims Debbie as a relative
· Harvey, who will claim the allegiance of any ethnic minority
· Stuart, who comes from NZ which has agricultural similarities with Wales
The teams competition was unfortunately won by the Barbarians 48.87 to 42.77 (scores obtained by adding the totals in the far right column of the table below). There’s always next year!
Stuart Holt managed to win the inaugural St David’s Day tournament thanks to his handicap and some solid play. The crunch match was against George which he survived and won with time to spare, though the DGT was lucky to survive George’s final moves in the time scramble (of which there wasn’t one, due to the 2 second per move add on). Stuart lost 3 games – all to Welsh players (Andrew, Debbie and Marty).
Another good performer on the night was Peter Hiller who might have won had the handicapper been more generous to the lower rated players. His win over top seed Tony Howes was worthy of the cup (except that they are both Barbarians!).
George played his usual aggressive variety of lightning winning all games except his loss to Stuart and draw with Tony. This gave him 9.5 points to lead on scores before handicap from Andrew who gained 9 points losing only to George and Tony.
The experimental 3 minute plus 2 second time controls (no 21 on the DGT) were a success and no problems were experienced.
And so to the next St David’s Day tournament (Friday closest to March 1) when the Welsh will regain their former glory and wrench back the cup!!
St David’s Day tournament standings
All players to play 11 games
|
No. |
NAME |
|
POINTS |
plus Handicap |
TOTAL |
|
1 |
Stuart Holt |
B |
8 |
2.92 |
10.92 |
|
2 |
George Flitcroft-Smith |
B |
9½ |
0.81 |
10.31 |
|
3 |
Debbie Jenkins |
W |
7 |
2.81 |
9.81 |
|
4 |
Andrew Robinson |
W |
9 |
0.56 |
9.56 |
|
5 |
Peter Hiller |
B |
6 |
3.38 |
9.38 |
|
6 |
Harvey Quaresmini |
W |
7 |
1.51 |
8.51 |
|
7 |
Marty Chadwick |
W |
4 |
3.92 |
7.92 |
|
8 |
Tony Howes |
B |
7½ |
0.00 |
7.50 |
|
9 |
Brian Willcock |
W |
4 |
2.97 |
6.97 |
|
10 |
Mark Wardle |
B |
3 |
3.07 |
6.07 |
|
11 |
John Curran |
B |
1 |
3.69 |
4.69 |
|
12 |
Stuart Wilson |
W |
0 |
4.44 |
4.44 |
St David’s Day tournament 2004 results in detail
No quotes, but much discussion on Mel Gibson’s latest film ‘The Passion of the Christ’, particularly between George and Brian, both arguing on the same side but failing to see the other’s view.