c4countdown

Aaaaaaaaaaaand we're back.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable end-of-the-year; we're going to start off the new year by getting right back into these tournaments.

The JSpeed Demon has moved from preliminaries to playoffs: so everyone is in a new pool, with five new opponents and therefore five more matches over the next three weeks. You can see the results from each prelim pool here. The 1st place players have formed a new pool, as have the 2nd place players, the 3rd place players, etc. No games are carried over; everyone starts from 0-0 in the playoff pool. Most everyone should have two best-of-one matches on the big list of week 4 games. (We are -DOD for the playoffs, so the bottom bracket only has 5 players instead of 6.)

The Junior Mint is on round 4 of 6 in the Swiss style.

And the main event:

The Championship Flight has two weeks left in the preliminaries. (There will be quite a few byes in Pool Smashing, as we are -DOD here too.) The final week will be the crossover games against the people finishing at the same place in the other brackets. This week has the match of the undefeated players in Pool Super.

Flight A is on round 4 of 6 in the Swiss style. I believe I have caught all the games that took place at odd times, but it never hurts to double-check.

Flight B is on round 4 of the five-round round robin. Since we are now -Howard, there will be byes here (and if you've already played Howard, that match was removed from the standings). There will be playoffs here for everyone within one point of the leader at the end of the prelims.

Speed Demon

James Robinson 87-85 Thomas Cappleman

Flight A:
James Hall 71-62 Liam Tiernan
Liam Tiernan 80-41 James Hall
Liam Tiernan 101-96 James Hall

Sorry that I wasn't able to play Andrew Herbertson, we just never got the chance.

Marcus Hares 83 - 114 Kirk Bevins in the speed demon.

Andrew Feist wrote:
The JSpeed Demon has moved from preliminaries to playoffs: so everyone is in a new pool, with five new opponents and therefore five more matches over the next three weeks. You can see the results from each prelim pool here. The 1st place players have formed a new pool, as have the 2nd place players, the 3rd place players, etc. No games are carried over; everyone starts from 0-0 in the playoff pool. Most everyone should have two best-of-one matches on the big list of week 4 games. (We are -DOD for the playoffs, so the bottom bracket only has 5 players instead of 6.)

Hmm so finishing 1st rewards you with playing another 1st placed player? Had I have known I'd have finished bottom in my group. I don't get it.

Speed Demon

Marcus Hares 83-88 James Robinson

Kirk Bevins wrote: Hmm so finishing 1st rewards you with playing another 1st placed player? Had I have known I'd have finished bottom in my group. I don't get it.

If I'm understanding it right you need to be in the top pool to win overall, if you'd come last in your prelim group your best possible overall result would be sixth-last.

Championship Flight

Thomas Cappleman 96 - 129 Marcus Hares
Marcus Hares 98 - 91 Thomas Cappleman

Innis Carson wrote:

Kirk Bevins wrote: Hmm so finishing 1st rewards you with playing another 1st placed player? Had I have known I'd have finished bottom in my group. I don't get it.

If I'm understanding it right you need to be in the top pool to win overall, if you'd come last in your prelim group your best possible overall result would be sixth-last.

This is correct.

Kirk Bevins 90 - 74 Ryan Taylor in the speed demon.

Kirk Bevins wrote:Kirk Bevins 90 - 74 Ryan Taylor in the speed demon.

This was a bitter game. A very bitter game.

A couple of results...

‎Main Event Championship Flight‎: Scott Gillies 0-2 Adam Gillard

Scott Gillies 99 - 116 Adam Gillard

Best 15-rounder I've been involved in for a while. Scott's darrenic pencil HABITANT was the difference in the first 9 rounds, but his chance of a max game went with a tricky numbers round with which I pulled 7 points back. I then spotted EATERIES to take a 7 point lead into the conundrum, which I solved in 22.4s after taking the L off the end of a 10 letter word I know. We each maxed 10 of the 11 letters rounds; high quality game.

Adam Gillard 85 - 67 Scott Gillies

A decent game that fizzled out a bit towards the end. Scott took the lead with PALSIES, but I fought back with DOUGHNUT, INDICTER and DARERS before Scott pulled 7 back in the final numbers round to set up another crucial conundrum, which I got again.

Pretty standard really; Scott knows he has to get >10 ahead before the conundrum

Speed Demon: Adam Gillard 96 - 79 James Doohan

A close game that I won on a crucial (yet again) when I remembered that magicport* = PICTOGRAM.

Thanks for the games, Scott and James (hey, that rhymes).

Flight A: Three tough games, Jim's level dropped after the first one, allowing me what seems like my first victories against him in ages:

Jim Bentley 85 - 57 Ian Volante
Ian Volante 92 - 90 Jim Bentley
Jim Bentley 68 - 78 Ian Volante

I was very close to my first ever max in the letters games in the second match, third match was a bit of a mess and I was lucky to come through. Cheers Jim!

Still undefeated (bo3 speaking) in the Junior Mint

Ryan Taylor 1 - 2 Dinos Sfyris. First 14 rounds were pretty straight forward in every game. Then the conundrums were just a classic tale of tortoise and the hare with Ryan buzzing pretty much instantaneously on all 3 games and only being successful once, while suffering severe finger cerebral palsy on the other 2. The moral of the story. More haste lest speed. Good things come to those who wait. Chillax don't do it etc...

Dinos 93 - 88 Ryan
Ryan 122 - 117 Dinos
Dinos 93 - 87 Ryan

Garner 96 Bevins 95
Garner 103 Bevins 101
So I'm fairly pleased to beat an out of practice Kirk Bevins in two very close games. To win the group then, I have the difficult task of avoiding a 2-0 defeat against Adam (I think).

Just been on a tournament binge with Dinos, here are some results:

Speed Demon (Pool Elite):

Dinos 66-90 Innis

Championship Flight (doing next week's game in advance):

Innis 2-1 Dinos

Innis 132-99 Dinos
Dinos 107-90 Innis
Innis 105-70 Dinos

In an astonishing run of unprecedented form, I beat John in the Junior Mint as follows:

Lesley Hines 122 - 62 John Gillies - I hope he won't mind my pointing out my PB in this format: I was well chuffed
John Gillies 114 - 91 Lesley Hines - This was the drubbing I then very richly deserved
Lesley Hines 104 - 62 John Gillies - Again I had a fair amount of luck here

Enjoyed all three and unlucky John - normally I'm a complete muppet. Promise I will be the next time we play

Championship Flight

James Robinson 0 - 2 Edward McCullagh

Edward McCullagh 107-71 James Robinson
James Robinson 80-85 Edward McCullagh

Speed Demon:

Tom Barnes 74 - 61 Ian Volante

Funny old game that.

Sorry to do this now but i'm going to have to withdraw from the tournament, really busy with exams and stuff at the moment and just don't have the time

FromtheSpeedDemonHare85Feist83quiteagoodgamereally

Speed Demon

Matt Morrison 32 - 97 Thomas Cappleman

Speed Demon

Ryan Taylor 96-50 Matt Morrison

Speed Demon:
Hugh Binnie 52 - 84 Matthew Tassier

Thought I was heading for a predictable defeat until Hugh had a plausible 9 disallowed and I then spotted 2 decent 6 smalls sandwiching 3 musical maxes to turn it around.

Matthew Tassier wrote:Thought I was heading for a predictable defeat until Hugh had a plausible 9 disallowed and I then spotted 2 decent 6 smalls sandwiching 3 musical maxes to turn it around.

Nice stuff!

Junior Mint: Edward McCullagh 2-0 Innis Carson

Edward 106-97 Innis
Edward 101-85 Innis

Speed Demon
Peter Lee 68-62 Chris Hare

Speed Demon: Wilson 98-89 McCullagh Cracking first hard from both of us, exciting second half.

Also: Wilson 94-91 Gillies Yet another tense crucial conundrum.

Ben Wilson wrote:Speed Demon: Wilson 98-89 McCullagh Cracking first hard from both of us, exciting second half.

Also: Wilson 94-91 Gillies Yet another tense crucial conundrum.

Two great wins there. Good stuff.

Junior Mint:

Ian Volante 97 - 68 Chris Hare
Chris Hare 88 - 98 Ian Volante

In Main Event Flight B, James Leroux 2-0 Rhys Benjamin
Rhys 34-69 James
James 79-30 Rhys

Speed - Round 1F Result

Dan Seasmith 92-73 Matthew Tassier

Speed lag:

Ian Volante 77 - 88 Kai Laddiman

JrMt: Hugh Binnie 99 - 95 Thomas Cappleman
Thomas Cappleman 81 - 103 Hugh Binnie

Flight A Wk4

John Gillies 2 - 0 Peter Lee

J Gillies 101 - 67 P Lee
J Gillies 101 - 82 P Lee

Two good games closer than the scores suggest. Thanks Peter.

James Doohan wrote:Sorry to do this now but i'm going to have to withdraw from the tournament, really busy with exams and stuff at the moment and just don't have the time

Where does this leave me this week?

Edwin Mead wrote:

James Doohan wrote:Sorry to do this now but i'm going to have to withdraw from the tournament, really busy with exams and stuff at the moment and just don't have the time

Where does this leave me this week?

It leaves you with a free point, alas.

Feist/Tassier Junior Mint:

Tassier 96-76 Feist: I forget English while Matthew racks up a personal best.
Feist 114-85 Tassier: I figure out what's going on, finally, and come as close as I ever have to a max junior 15 (by a lot, really).
Tassier 96-100 Feist: We each scored in 14 rounds, but it turns out a conundrum is worth more than a 6-letter word, so I come out ahead.

Two and a half very good games (discounting my play in the first one). Good luck, Matthew, for the rest.

Junior Mint

JAMES ROBINSON 2 - 1 Kirk Bevins

James Robinson 106-87 Kirk Bevins - at last a win against my nemesis May only be junior, but a win's a win. Could've been sweeter if I went with VEGETAL, but getting PENDANT in 0.9s - oh, the joy.

Kirk Bevins 133-124 James Robinson - A game laden with 7's and nearly a max game, but Kirk cocked it up on the conundrum. Still PB's for us both though.

James Robinson 105*-95 Kirk Bevins - After taking an early 10 point lead after 4 rounds, I trhought Kirk's batteries might've been turned off, but we maxed every round upto round 13, which ended my max game, then Kirk got ENFORCE in 1.2s, before the tie-break (which I thought I certainly wouldn't get), and never has getting WEALTHY in 0.8s been so cooler.

I realise this is serious gloating, but I think I've deserved it.

I have been in the gameroom almost every day this week without bumping into any of my opponents.I have contacted all of my opponents for the week with the intention of getting the games done today.

Matt and I played our Junior Mint game last night:

Matt Morrison 72 - 80 Jim Bentley
Jim Bentley 95 - 94 Matt Morrison

Matt's got man flu or something at the moment and was well off-form. Dunno what my excuse was, though, I was very lucky to scrape through this one.

Main event flight A - Tom Chafer-Cook 2 - 1 Matthew Tassier

TCC 114 - 89 MT
MT 82 - 52 TCC
TCC 91 - 89 MT <- very close nail-biting decider

Junior Mint: Liam Tiernan vs. Tom Chafer-Cook
Liam 116-106 Tom Double max game. My first Junior 15 max. Insanely tense.
Liam 104- 98 Tom Very close contest again. Tom was very unlucky not to win both.

James Bradley wrote:I have been in the gameroom almost every day this week without bumping into any of my opponents.I have contacted all of my opponents for the week with the intention of getting the games done today.

Still none of my opponents have turned up

James Bradley wrote:

James Bradley wrote:I have been in the gameroom almost every day this week without bumping into any of my opponents.I have contacted all of my opponents for the week with the intention of getting the games done today.

Still none of my opponents have turned up

I've been here quite a lot this week too, and I have checked and Tom and Lesley have both been online, just not at the right time.

Since I stated that this week would start on Jan 3, which was actually a Monday, that means this week will run through Sunday night, so you've still got some time.

Same boat here. Haven't seen hide nor hair of my opponents all week.

Speed Demon:

Eoin Monaghan - 71 - 64 - Tom Rowell
Eoin Monaghan - 74 - 46 - Lesley Hines

Thanks for the games Tom and Lesley.

Junior Mint
Garner 89 Laddiman 85
Garner 91 Laddiman 84
Oliver 2 Kai 0

Speed Daemon - Pool Elite
Garner 90 Carson 80
Garner 62 McCullagh 92
The Elite pool is wide open with only Neb on 2 out of 2. It could well be won with 3 wins.

I done a message on Lloyd whilst I was sending out all the "oi, send me your picture" e-mails (shame, oh, massive shame, on all you who have ignored me ) and haven't heard back yet...

I played Lesley in the speed

Lesley Hines 75-115 Tom Rowell

and the main event

Lesley Hines 107-89 Tom Rowell
Lesley Hines 102-70 Tom Rowell

I've been struggling to catch up with Hugh. Will bung him an aptomail tonight if still no joy.

Got one of my games done
Main Event Flight B

James Bradley 81-74 Martin Long
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=376899

Martin long 80-78 James Bradley
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=376912

James Bradley 84-55 Martin Long
http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=376922

Tom Rowell and I haven't managed to get our match in for the Juniors. We've both been online, just never at the same time...

Daemon: Kai Laddiman 81 - 74 Tom Chafer-Cook

Normal: Kai Laddiman 92 - 79 Chris Hare; Kai Laddiman 98 - 79 Chris Hare

Thanks for the games Tom and Chris.

Result from the Junior Mint

Marcus Hares 2 - 0 James Hall

Marcus 113 - 70 James http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=377087
Marcus 99 - 98 James http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=377096

Speed Demon: Hugh Binnie 99 - 82 Leslie Hines.