The Persian Rose Restaurant was host to the ABF endorsed Australian Open and Masters Backgammon Championships on the 3 and 4 November.
The Open had 36 players fighting for first place, with players coming from the Gold Coast, New Zealand, South Australia, Victoria and Canberra.
The format was Round Robins, with the winner from each group progressing through to the top 8 knockout.
The semi-finals saw Ian Dunstan take out Jan Spillekom while Gerhardt Macor disposed of Newcastle club mate, Mick Dyett.
Jan and Mick.
History was repeating as both Ian and Gerhardt played in last year’s final, a testament to the consistency and determination of both these fine players.
Ian was triumphant to take out the Open for a fourth time.
Congratulations to both Gerhardt and Ian for putting on such an exciting and well played match.
The Masters was played on Sunday and became a field of 18 players, with 14 first round Byes. The semi-finals saw Simon Woodhead beat fellow Queenslander Steve Roberts, while Peter Brown defeated Habib Shalala.
Steve and Habib.
The finals were a state of origin match with Queensland Simon taking on New South Welshman, Peter Brown. Both these players have a lot of experience and their match reflected this.
Peter Brown came up trumps and took first place. Congratulations to both for a fine performance.
There were 4 jackpot tournaments, with the winners of those being Terry Christodoulou, Simon Ustick, Adrian Marisescu and David Reitzen.
Chouettes were also played throughout the day.
All in all, everyone seemed to have a great time playing the greatest game of all.
Thanks, must go to Taeed, who organised the venue and a big thank you to both Sharne Dyett and Dr Greg Ash who played a major role on the front desk, making sure everything ran smoothly.
A big thank you to Zvi Bendavid who donated all trophies this year. Zvi has done this for many years. His very kind generosity allows 100% of all money to be returned in prize money.
And last but not least, I thank all players who participated for supporting the game we all love and making this event the success that it was.
Cheers
Mick
Tournament Director