An audible gasp could be heard as far away as O’Donovans Hotel as The Klingon was pitted against The Persian Tiger and drew a large crowd of onlookers and a very loud “meow” could be heard as The Klingon was taken out 4-0.
Chris AKA The Quiet Man was beaten by DJ Mike 3-2 in a marathon display of “Anything Goes” style of Backgammon.
First timer Vinny the Viking lost his “Berserker” reputation when Bev “DFWM” Cotton de-horned him 3-1.
Frank “The Tank” the eleven year old child prodigy was hoping to blast Bev “DFWM” Cotton but sadly fell to him 3-1 after getting a bye from the first round.
New comers “GI” Joe and “Big Bad John” went head to head with GI Joe coming out on top by being bigger and badder with a score of 3-1.
An audible silence fell on the stadium as The Persian Tiger’s fellow Persian Mossy the Persian humiliated The Tiger with a crushing 4-0 victory, the tournament was now wide open to all the survivors of the previous rounds.
The Body knee capped DJ Mike with an 8-0 trouncing that was going to put The Body into the next round with “The Man Who Beat The Tiger”, Mossy the Persian. Was the Persian back on form? He proudly announced that from now on he wanted to be known as The Persian Tiger Killer, sorry Persian but you will have to wait until after the tournament. The tension was almost unbearable, it was like the film “300” but better, well, a bit better any way.
The Semi-final saw Bev “DFWM” Cotton against GI Joe and The Body against Mossy The Persian. GI Joe went out quickly to Bev “DFWM” Cotton 3-1 then it was the turn of Mossy The Persian to bow out to The Body with a staggering 3-0 defeat that had the crowd on their feet.
Now it was the Grand Final against these two rivals, Bev “DFWM” Cotton & The Body. A hush fell over the stadium as these two veterans of Backgammon squared off against each other in what was tipped as a re-play of a previous final between the two. It looked to be all over when The Body went ahead 2-0 in what appeared to be a very short time but Bev “DFWM” Cotton immediately replied with a point coming from nowhere to make it 2-1, then using his very unorthodox style of play Bev “DFWM” Cotton made it 2-2. The crowd went wild, women were fainting, children and grown men were openly weeping and blood flowed freely through the streets although no one actually knew where the blood came from, it was probably a pint of raspberry cordial that got spilt. It went right down to the wire in the final point as the game flowed one way and then the other, both players in the lead one minute then losing the next. Spectators were trying to touch the players, hoping that just a little of their godliness would rub off on them and it took all the efforts of the security staff and the Secret Service to keep them back and suddenly, from out of nowhere Bev “DFWM” Cotton threw the final dice and it was over. For the second time The Body was crushed by Bev “DFWM” Cotton in a match that is probably going to be used in Backgammon text books all over the world.
In a surprisingly upbeat statement The Body said “I know he can be beaten, he’s not as good as people say, it was pure luck, he may be the big bright star in the sky at the moment but watch this space, he will go down, he will go down hard trust me”.
Asked for a reaction to The Body’s statement, Bev “DFWM” Cotton said “I admit it was a lucky win. The more I play The Body, the luckier I get".
