Author: Rob Askew

Genelle’s “Silly Game” a hit.

Genelle was our host at the Presidential Games Room at Jannali, and she brought lots of goodies – not only a table groaning with edibles, but also two new games. There was Uno Flip, a new variant of the old favourite, which is now donated to the official SBGA collection, thanks GG. It is scheduled to be played at the June meet. Then there was tonight’s secondary game – a game with no fixed name, hence it’s generic title of “Silly Game”. According to Genelle it takes its title from the most memorable or amusing phrase that occurred last time it was played – in this case, John Howard’s Eyebrows. It was a hit for the majority of players, but El Prez found it hard to take in, although he really excelled at the Charades segment, so he’ll probably grow to like it eventually. John Howard’s Eyebrows was won in fine style by Tara, who scored more than double the points of second placed Louise, with Genelle in third place.

The main game was Sherlock Holmes, for which Rob took home tonight’s prize of a Monopoly variant. This was mainly due to sheer luck – by playing a Sherlock card on Tara with no incriminating evidence other than her holding a large hand, and capturing TWO villains at once (this may also have had something to do with Tara coming last). Wayne made second place with a successful arrest, as did Louise in third place.
Tonight’s WHP was Mark, who is looking decidedly Spoonish now that we’re almost halfway through the year. Nicole was absent due to family commitments.

Note that we clarified a potential playing strategy in Sherlock as probably legal because the rules have nothing specific to say about it being compulsory to play a card held before resorting to the pickup pile. For example, if the next card to be played is “Location or Thick Fog”, and you have only Thick Fog that can be played, and you have no villain cards, and don’t want to risk acquiring one in the re-shuffle resulting from a Thick Fog, then it is legal to pick up a card instead of playing the Fog card.

El Trez back on top, but…
That’s Broadway needs work

Once again we gathered at Nicole’s for Tara’s hosting turn (Tara’s house is in pieces, under renovation) – thanks Nicole. The SBGA graffiti I left on the blackboard wall in March was still in place!
We played That’s Broadway, and although we’ve played it previously, it soon became evident that the game requires some serious tweaking to make it more even. El Trez won it by a large margin, but more than half the players were severely handicapped for most of the game by not having a full set of “essentials”, and according to the rules, unable to collect income. In fact, the game became so unbalanced that we opted to finish it early. There were several suggestions for improvement, including a reduced income for missing essentials, instead of zero income, and the opportunity to choose needed essentials when landing on the “add essential” square, rather than take the random card from the top of the deck.
El Prez plans to implement some improvements.

The backup was old fave Billionaire! – Won by Tara. Two lots of points were won by Louise – a 3rd and a 2nd placing. Genelle got 3rd in Billionaire! Last month the Z sisters were in a tie at the top of the table, and they both scored 50 points tonight, so Nicole & Tara remain in a tie on 200, but Rob has sneaked past to reclaim the top spot by a mere 10 points, so no surprises if he gets knocked off that perch again in May. The WHP’s tonight were Wayne and Mark.

Genelle has once again done her thing of introducing new and interesting games to the club by picking a game for May that is somewhat quirky – it has no fixed title! She tried to explain it by saying it has elements of Charades and Pictionary, but left it at that – all will be revealed at the next meet. For want of a better title, we’re calling it Silly Game. I for one am quite intrigued. If it goes pear-shaped (unlikely according to GG), she is trying to source a new variant of the old favourite Uno, called Uno Flip. Read about it HERE, sounds quite interesting.

The Sisters Zarubin Dominate

Nicole has pulled off an impressive feat – in one meeting scoring a double whammy – winning both Hey Presto! and Pass the Pigs to go from ZERO points to 150, or to put it more graphically – from SPOON to LEADER in one fell swoop. To top it off, Tara also got points for 2nd in Pigs, that puts her in joint first place with her sister. It was Girls Night Out this month, every bloke scored a WHP, every girl got points. The league table is looking very bunched up, with the Z sisters sharing the lead, Louise 25 points behind at 2nd, and 15 points below that, a three way tie for 3rd between Genelle, Rob and Wayne. It’s still anybody’s game – although Mark is in Spoon position, he’s only one main game win away from 2nd spot.

Tara goes to the Top,
El Prez scores in both games

We met at Mark’s on a very pleasant evening to play Reno Casino and Yahtzee. Genelle proposed a rule change for Reno, and it was trialled but seems to have not won the approval of most members. Mark had a shiny new edition of Yahtzee for us to play – the dice came stored in a special container that doubled as the dice shaker and was hard to open, and when he did eventually get it open with brute force, the dice fell out on the floor.

El Prez was quite chuffed to win Reno – and then also got points for 3rd place in Yahtzee. The current champ, El Trez, was knocked off his perch by scoring a big fat WHP, allowing Tara, who was only 35 points away from the top, to lead the pack by 15 points with Rob and Wayne tied for 2nd place. Louise and Genelle are also tied in 3rd spot, only 40 points off the lead. Our host Mark scored points by coming 2nd in Yahtzee, but Nicole remains scoreless. She was absent from the meet due to work commitments, but plans to score big in March when she will host.

At I write this, we still haven’t found a replacement for Gill – be on the lookout people for potential players.

(Postponed to February 4)

Gill Resigns – Welcome Nicole

In a decision that must have been very hard to make, Gill has resigned due to family commitments. We are all very sad to see her go, and hope that one day, priorities permitting, she might re-surface and win that game of Pictionary that she was so keen to have. It was a pleasure to welcome back Nicole who has had a year off – also due to family commitments – and has replaced Jordan who left at the end of 2018. It seems we are now looking to fill another vacancy.

The January meeting (postponed to Feb 4) was held in air conditioned comfort at the Presidential games room – our host Gill was MIA for reasons already mentioned. The main game was Smart Ass, and we modified it a bit by doing two laps of the board due to it being a bit short with only a single lap. El Trez led for much of the game, hotly chased by Tara right up to a few moves before the end when she stalled and was overtaken by Louise to snatch 2nd place.

Old favourite Uno was the backup, won in fine style by Tara with Genelle 2nd and El Trez 3rd by only 3 points. So all the points were won by four players with Mark, Wayne and Nicole all WHP.

A recurring theme at the meeting was El Prez’s hearing impairment – it is becoming obvious that he is actually missing out on game points by failing to hear what is going on in games. I think he mentioned that he has an appointment to check his hearing – we wish him well and hope that it results in an improvement that will allow him to compete without the ear handicap.

Grand Final –
El Trez Owns the World, Spoon tied!

Wayne was the host and the author of both games programmed for the 2018 decider played on a balmy Jannali evening with much rule reading and correcting – thanks Tara. It’s so long since we played Who Owns The World that even El Prez didn’t remember the rules.  Despite the rule lookup issue, we all enjoyed it with El Trez winning on more than double the finances of 2nd placed Mark, and Tara sneaking into 3rd place with less than a 5% margin over Jordan.  Rob’s win was seemingly effortless, but it was simply the luck of the 12-sided die not landing him on any disastrous squares, and handing him a couple of “Subsidies” in which first the bank, then Mark paid for desirable industrial properties on his behalf.

The backup game Reno Casino was equally well received – another El Prez original – won by Genelle with El Prez and El Trez in the minor placings.  The main score graph shows how Rob, Tara and Louise have been ahead of the pack since March, and a late run by Genelle taking advantage of Louise’s WHP was too little too late.  Note that there is a TIE for the dreaded Spoon.  It is rather sad that the holder of the Spoon will be decided by the roll of a die – will it be Gill or Jordan?  Back in 2015 we amended the constitution to allow for multiple trophies to avoid this situation at the top of the scoreboard – see clause 7.7, I think it’s time to do something similar for the victims of the Spoon – perhaps a mid-year handover from loser to co-loser with both names inscribed on the perpetual wood. What do you think? Discuss in the comments.

Louise and Jordan were the two unfortunate WHP victims – and Gill was another no-show.  The new mum sent her apologies with an assurance that she would see us at the Dinner, and that she would definitely be returning in 2019 to win the championship!  Gill is host in January – I predict another attempt to get Pictionary off the ground.

The Annual Dinner will take place on Thursday 13 December at Stapleton’s in Sutherland with several ex-members in attendance. I look forward to seeing you all there.

El Trez WHP – Tara now a Major Contender

There were only five of us at Como for the penultimate meeting of the year, but it was a fun meet.  Jordan was having car trouble, Louise is somewhere over near Uluru, and Gill is still coming to terms with motherhood.

El Trez picked an old fave,  Word Power, and trailed the field through nearly all of the game (Daisy kept chewing up his homework).  He was the only WHP on the night, and that saw his 85 point competition lead eroded to just 15 points as Tara with her double whammy second placings overtook the Uluru tourist Louise to grab 2nd spot.  Those two ladies are both contenders for the top spot with just one meet to go before awards night, and with Wayne’s November programme, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll win.  Gill and Jordan are still tied for the Spoon, and it could stay that way right till the end – not sure what happens in that case?

Genelle is back from her travels with a vengeance, winning Word Power in fine style – sailing through University while El Trez & El Prez were toddling out of High School.  Mark got points for 3rd in Word Power, but Genelle’s performance has well and truly broken their tie of last month.  The ladder positions are fairly evenly spread from bottom to top, except for the actual bottom and top places.

We have set a date for the Dinner/Reunion evening – 13 December, put it in your calendars!  More details to come later.

Here’s a recent photo Gill sent with her absence apology just before the meeting. That’s baby Linc who’s been keeping her very busy lately.