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BGonline.org Forums
Clocking
Posted By: Mike Main In Response To: Clocking (Neil Robins)
Date: Tuesday, 16 December 2008, at 1:38 p.m.
Hi Neil,
Only the £100 Tournament at Bg at London Bridge is a Clock Play Tournament. You play in the £10 or less 8 or 4 player Swiss and Knockout Tournaments - none of which are clock play Tournaments. It's the big money players that are playing 11 point matches that like clocks - not the small money players who are usually playing 5 pointers.
I have not proposed to introduce clock play to the £10 / 5 pointer 8 or 4 player Tournaments because I want to keep those Tournaments as casual as possible for the very reasons that you cite. At the last Bg at London Bridge you attended you played 7 x 5 pointers, paid out a total of £35, won £50 and played backgammon for about 6 hours - no obligatory clock play at all.
I did make the 32 player Bg Live in London Sunday Swiss Tournament (an event you didn't play in) a clock play event because there were 80 matches to be played within a 5 1/4 hour window. In this event no player timed out (clock times were very generous), I received no complaints or even murmurs of disapproval over the use of clocks but did receive a lot of positive feedback.
To the best of my knowledge I cannot think of a time when you have played on clocks. So I'm now bound to ask if you have actually played on clocks? If the answer is "no" please understand that I'm not having a go at you - one of the largest problems of introducing clock play is that players dislike of the idea of clock play; a fear of the unknown. It's a very common syndrome. As such please understand that if this is the case with you you are in good company.
With your statement that clocks are a "totally boring distraction from a friendly game" I disagree. It's just a matter of getting into a different grove. Instead of your hand reaching to pick up your dice to signal the end of your move you donk the clock. When both players are equally happy with using clocks.
I agree that this forum is very much in favour of clock play. However I would also state that, IMHO, most of those who post messages on this forum are some of the best (and practiced) players in the world for whom a slow player is a just a drag in a large (mostly ABT - American Backgammon Tour) event. 1 slow player in a large event has the ability to bring that event to a near standstill or at least push the schedule back so that players miss flights at the end of the weekend or are unable to play in as many events as they could do otherwise. So for them clock play is attractive. At most 1 day Bg in London events (Camden and London Bridge) this does not apply therefore I only apply clock play to the longer (11 point) matches.
Bg in London will only continue operating if players tell me their thoughts and I can therefore run events in accordance to players wishes. Please, if you don't like the way we do things, let me know. I'll not take offence and will do things to suit players if there are enough of you asking for the same thing.
Cheers,
Mike
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