SAC Trophy
4/5 August 2000
The SAC Trophy in 1999 was also a field of 56 but that's where the comparisons end. Once again I had comments about entry levels but, for the last 3 years the average entry has been 56. Prior to this attendance was higher but we played fewer tournaments per year. I'd rather give members a choice of 12 tournaments a year than revert back to the 6 or 8 per annum it once was just to raise entry levels.
Main (56)
Everything ran nice and smoothly on the Saturday without any problems and on the Sunday we had 7 through on 3/3; two of which were lady players, Francine Brandler and Roz Nathan. No-one shared my confidence in the belief that we might just have our first lady champion (a la, World Championship) and so I was able to buy both of them in the auction for £10 each - a bargain. Unfortunately my investment didn't pay out any dividends, Roz fell to Paul Barwick in the 4th round and Francine fell to him in the 5th. In fact of the five players Paul beat over the weekend, I had a share of 3 of them in the auctions - I hate him! Paul's victories took him into round six (his first Biba 'final') on 5/5 to face Richard Granville who was also on 5/5 and playing in his second Biba 'final' his first being the 1997 British Open when he came Runner-up to Dave McNair.
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Richard Granville, Winner SAC Trophy |
As is becoming customary the match was videoed and will appear as a JellyFish .mat file soon on the MSO web site. The match swung back and forth but in the end Richard emerged victorious to take his first Biba title; but Paul had compensation in the fact that he went home with two trophies - Runner-up and Top Intermediate. Well done both of you.
Click here for the Jellyfish .mat file of the final game. The misplays are outlined here.
Three Turks (includes one Honorary Turk). Bayram Akay, Erol Calsikan & Michael Crane |
Friday KO (10+3 buy backs)
I like a small one and 10 suits me perfectly. However, I had to lose in the 1st round to Kevin Stebbing to get into the 2nd! From there on I stormed my way through to the final beating Kevin (revenge is sweet) in the semis to meet my Turkish friend Bayram Akay in the final. This was something of a 'return' match for me as we played in Turkey a few years ago for the Starlight Trophy and that time Bayram won.
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This time I had my revenge (yep, it sure is sweet) and emerged the winner of half the money, a weekend break and a totally wasted entry into the £50 pool - which was good news for John Clark as he was able to enter the £50 pool and keep 100% equity; mind you, he lost it anyway, isn't that ironic?
Doubles (15+1 buy back)
Some names this time: PMT' who, when asked, "Why PMT?" snapped back, "It just is. OK?" 'Lolly & Pop' were licked in the 1st round, 'A Herd of Hoggs' were herded out in the 1st round, 'Fingers & Thumbs' lost their grip and went out in the 2nd round, and 'Why Do We Play This F*****g Game?' were heard asking themselves this very question following their 5-1 defeat in the 2nd round. The finals were played between two teams of newcomers, 'Sikidim Sikidim' (Turkish, pronounced Shikidem Shikidem) and 'Bill & Ben' those adorable flower pot men; who, quickly weeded out the Turks and took home the bigger wad of prize money. Mind you, the Turkish pair went home with 120,000,000 Turkish lira between them!
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Double Trophy holder, Paul Barwick |
Click here for the SAC Trophy quick results.
So, that's it for the SAC 2000. Another new name on the trophy and another entrant into the UK Finals in December.
- To see the latest statistics regarding Biba tournaments click here.
- Michael Crane
