The 28th SA OPEN was held at the ADELAIDE HILTON who offered dinner for two in the fabulous Brasserie as part of the prize for the Champion. We thank the HILTON for their on-going support as the SA Club meets in the lobby lounge at the HILTON every Tuesday night from about 7:00pm. We have noted some souls coming a bit earlier, at 6:45pm, to get their weekly backgammon fix, which is fine. But we digress, back to the SA OPEN.
This year we had a few interstate guests namely – SIMON WOODHEAD, STEVEN CLARRY and JIM BEAN. Steven has left his contact details with the SA Club President should SA members wish to contact Steven in the future in Sydney. This year we changed the format so a free consolation tournament [and most of us did need consolation] was available with 64 spots for those who were knocked out of the main flight. Entry was not available to players other than those who had participated in the main flight and had been “eliminated”. Bright and early, for a Sunday that is, 25 mainly fresh starters assembled in the quiet Lobby Lounge of the ADELAIDE HILTON [where we meet and play on Tuesday evenings], some with the traditional morning heart starter, a good cup of coffee [which the HILTON does well].
The draw, which commenced at 8:50am, was done by veteran SA player, long time SA Club member and past SA OPEN Champion, ALEX ATHANS, who did not participate, citing that this gave the rest of us a chance to win a tournament! - tongue in cheek of course! Then play commenced, at 9:00am, as scheduled. The SA Club uses Merit International Rules [and has since the club’s inception] but with one recently instituted exception. Points lost for late starting now accumulate after the official start time rather than 20 minutes after the official start time. This means points started accumulating to your opponent from 9:05am rather than 9:25am, if late, a necessary and accepted rule change, very necessary when a tournament must be completed in one day.
So play commenced. Had your correspondent received a dollar for every “my opponent needed 3 doubles to win and he/she threw them during bearing off” story during the day, he would be a rich man by now [including donating some money from himself! Maybe next year we will establish a “Hard Luck Story Booth” and charge a dollar to listen, nod and say soothing words! The draw did not produce any surprises, fortunately, with our interstate guests not drawing each other [it’s amazing how many times this occurs, with husband playing wife, brother playing brother, partner playing partner, in tournaments].
Favourites in the top half of the draw included past SA OPEN Champions, CHRIS BENHAM, JOHN McLEAN, THEO GEORGIOU and PETER GEELEN. And in the bottom half, we had TERRY EFTHIMIOU, ANGELO ALI and NICK BEGAKIS. First round exits included JIM BEAN, SIMON WOODHEAD, TERRY EFTHIMIOU, who was eliminated by SALLY TREGLOAN who came from 2/8 to 9 down to win [good to see you again Sally] GORDON NEILSON [maybe you have to come on Tuesday nights to get more practice] And another who exited in the first round and good to see him again also was ERROL BAMFORD who too maybe should consider coming on Tuesday nights for more practice! STEVEN CLARRY was knocked out in the second round [by CHRIS BENHAM], having performed the best of our interstate guests in the main flight. And while we are talking about players travelling long distances, PETER WARD [who was helped along out of the first round by JOHN O’GRADY], came from “up north” in SA to compete. Maybe we can see more of you when you are in town Peter.
It’s worth knowing that SIMON WOODHEAD [who entered the main flight buyback twice] was at least able to get a laugh out of the ADELAIDE FESTIVAL FRINGE which will now be an annual event [announced last week]. Simon said he stayed on [at the ADELAIDE HILTON of course] and attended some events and said he would be back to SA if for no other reason that the FRINGE and the SA OPEN coincided! The SA OPEN is held around this time each year and organisers will ensure it coincides with the start of the fringe from now on and advertise it thus. And Simon did say it was one of those weekends, losing the unlosable, opponents getting out of jail with the match with SA Club President NICK BEGAKIS in the consolation tournament a case in point [much to Nick’s relief!].
The final 8 were: JOHN McLEAN, CHRIS BENHAM, THEO GEORGIOU, PETER GEELEN, ANGELO ALI, NICK BEGAKIS, JACOB HOFFMEYER and BILL TOUBAKARIS. It’s interesting to note that the first six players are all past SA OPEN Champions and the last two, essentially, were the last chance buy-backs. Disaster then struck for half these players with CHRIS BENHAM, THEO GEORGIOU, ANGELO ALI and JACOB HOFFMEYER winning through. More disaster for THEO GEORGIOU and JACOB HOFFMEYER leaving CHRIS BENHAM and ANGELO ALI to fight it out for the title of SA OPEN CHAMPION. The scores went as follows - Anglo took an early and handy 5/0 lead in the 15 point match. Chris came back and levelled at 6/6. Angelo spurted ahead to 9/6. Chris levelled at 9/9. Then Chris slowly moved ahead with Angelo unable to “do anything” [up his score that is, no matter what he tried] as we all have experienced, to win convincingly - 15/9.
CONGRATULATIONS - CHRIS BENHAM. Chris has now won 5 times – 1991, 1992, 1999, 2003 and 2006. Chris equals TERRY EFTHIMIOU’s record of 5 SA OPEN wins; Terry’s being – 1979, 1989, 1995, 1996 and 2005.
And now for the CONSOLATION TOURNAMENT report. As mentioned earlier, this was for “eliminated” main “flight-ers” with unlimited free entry. This worked particularly well with players playing in live matches until 3:00 or 4:00pm – virtually all day. Organisers did announce that the last 4 spots would be reserved and first offered to the losing semi-finalists in the main flight. The largest number of re-entries were by the following, given a field of 64 was possible; (3) DON SCHULZ, SALLY TREGLOAN, GRIETO LUJKE and GORDON NEILSON. It’s interesting to note that JIM BEAN made it to the 4th round and STEVEN CLARRY made it to the 3rd round of the Consolation Tournament, each entering twice.
