There were two Pairs events scheduled to run on the weekend, the brand new Ted Chadwick Restricted Pairs (for players with <300 Masterpoints) and the Dick Cummings Open Pairs.  Many months ago I had to guesstimate the number of tables that would enter these events, in order to deal the appropriate number of replicates of the boards, create the right number of score booklets and hand records.  At that time, I thought that the numbers would be about 15 tables in the Restricted event and about 35 tables in the Open.  This would give a total that exceeded last year.

WELL entries reached 30 tables in the Restricted and a massive 53 tables in the Open.  Every physical table we could lay our hands on was put to use, more boards were dealt and additional hand records printed.  Fortunately most of the additional Restricted entries had come in early, so I was able to make extra score books in advance.

I must say the two rooms looked spectacular, one with a grid of 30 tables and the other with 53 tables.

A caddy, Siobhan, was brought in to help with the board movements and did a great job.

At the same time, the Semi-Finals of the Open Teams:

TRAVIS (Barbara TRAVIS, Candice GINSBERG, Annette HENRY, Stephen HENRY ) v WILKINSON (Michael WILKINSON, Pauline GUMBY, Warren LAZER, Griff WARE)

and HANS (Sartaj HANS, Michael WHIBLEY, Gabby FEILER, Justin WILLIAMS, Ishmael DEL'MONTE0 v FISCHER (Stephen FISCHER, David MORGAN, Michael CARTMELL, Nick FAHRER)

were taking place, with all four tables being broadcast on BBO, along with live video feed from one table.

In the final tomorrow, HANS (Sartaj HANS, Michael WHIBLEY, Gabby FEILER, Justin WILLIAMS, Ishmael DEL'MONTE0 will play WILKINSON (Michael WILKINSON, Pauline GUMBY, Warren LAZER, Griff WARE)