Category: Meeting report

Greetings from Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. This will be a short edition of the News, as I wasn’t there at the meet. It’s a bit of a miracle that I’m even writing this now, reclining on the bed in cabin 4086 on the Viking Star. It’s 3:50pm Wednesday and we’ve just returned from a bus tour around rainy Lisbon, due to depart for Granada via the Strait of Gibraltar at 10pm. Matt (who has come down with an attack of Shingles) has sent me the results of the Sept meet, and I’ll be able to update the spreadsheet, but the rest of the website update will have to wait till I return. It seems that I’ve been chucked out of the lead position by Tara, and Matt has overtaken Louise into 4th spot.

Get well soon Matt, and check for further updates after October 3.

Word Power Marathon

A chilly evening at Como saw six of us gathered to play Word Power followed by a quick two rounds of Uno. We were lucky to get to Uno at all as the main game lasted about two and a half hours, seemingly longer than usual despite two of us being absent – Nicole in Canberra and Tara with Covid (hope you’re feeling better Tara). It might have been the unusually high amount of non-game conversation that made us go a bit late, but at least it was mostly interesting chatter.

We had to decide how to determine the minor placings for Word Power – the instructions are silent on that subject. After a robust discussion it was decided to award first place according to the rules – first to graduate University wins, then minor placings according to the point scores at the time the winner is declared. An alternate method was discussed in which the order of players along the educational pathway would show the placings, but this was eventually rejected on the grounds that it was possible to get an ambiguous result depending on how far along alternate paths the remaining players were placed. The chief proponent of that proposal, Louise, who won the game, remarked that if her proposal had been adopted she probably wouldn’t have got a placing.
In the end, after Louise won, it turned out that Genelle and Rob were tied on 330 points – the top score including Louise‘s 290 points – so a Quiz-Off was held in which the combatants had to answer one spelling test each followed by one “moderate” card each. Sadly for Genelle, the only errors she made in the entire game were in the Quiz-Off! Apparently she has a mental blank on the spelling of “necessary”. Peter was struggling a bit with spelling tests and word pronunciation, but he has been a dyslexia sufferer, so I reckon he did pretty well considering.
The competition graph shows me overtaking both Tara and Genelle to grab the top spot thanks to two helpings of points. Louise – also with two helpings of points – jumped up the ladder overtaking Nicole, Wayne and Matt. We must expect big things from Tara at her next appearance, seeing as she has been flatlined since the May meet. Apart from absentees, it was Peter and Matt who WHP this month.

5WHP!

They say “brevity is the soul of wit” – and I’ve just set a record for the shortest SBGA News sub-heading ever. 5WHP indeed. That’s because on a cold night at Tara’s this July with a full complement of eight members, only three scored points – the other five Went Home Pointless – possibly a new record. The intermission entertainment was provided by the Zarubin sisters’ children who were having a cousins sleepover and made a video about it – good work guys, send us the YouTube link! Also welcome to Tara‘s newest family member Lenin, the cute but destructive Basenji, named after Valdimir Ilyich Lenin, not the differently spelled Beatle.

The games were Pictionary (main) and Pass the Pigs (backup). The advertised main – Six Second Scribble – was abandoned at the last minute as our host Nicole couldn’t find it, possibly buried somewhere as a result of moving house. There were significant modifications made to the old favourite Pictionary – and when I say old, I mean we were playing with Matt‘s family copy dating back to the mid 80s, the last time it had ever been out of the box. The modifications are an attempt to reduce inequalities imposed by the team draw system. It is a teams game, and graphical talents among us are highly variable, so by altering the partnerships during the game we sought to more evenly distribute talent pairings, and arrive at a final individual placement ladder that avoides the sharing of points. I think it worked well, but I would say that as I won. 🙂 Second was Wayne and third Nicole.
The backup Pass The Pigs was a close and fast game marked by many changes of leadership. At the last round (there were ten rounds with most players averaging six pigouts) I was trying to tip Wayne out of second place and needed 24 points to do so, and rolled 25 points of piggy goodness – but with encouragement from various spectators, took the fateful pigout risk and rolled one more time to score a double razorback 20 pointer – enough points to steal the win from Nicole. It could have gone either way. That’s the same three placegetters as in the main game, so Peter, Louise, Tara, Matt and Genelle all WHP.
Take a look at the score graph, it shows myself overtaking Louise, Nicole and Matt to lag 2nd placed Genelle by only 15 points, and Wayne has surged up to overtake Louise.

The game’s afoot!

Our first winter meeting for ’24, and it was cold outside at the Jannali Gamerdome. Mother Theresa supplied the nibbles and cups of tea, including French Onion dip (yum). No absentees, although it was looking like Matt wouldn’t make it due to a bout of pneumonia from which he’s recovering, but he still turned up and managed to get 50 points – that’s dedication. Nicole also made it from her new abode in Canberra, dedication again!

Sherlock Holmes was the main game, and rookie Pete had his first taste of the famous detective, and became confused by the cards like every rookie ever. In fact some of us so called veterans still get mixed up between the card title and the list of what can be played on it, so not to worry Pete. The game was won convincingly by Genelle with the two ladder bottom dwellers (Wayne & Pete) taking the minor placings to get some badly needed points. We corrected a dealing error this time around – having spotted in the rules that one (and only one) villain is supposed to be included in the deal. Previously we set it up so that at least one was in the deal. It seemed to make a difference in the flow of arrests. In addition, for the first time in memory a player “went out” with no villains caught. So Matt (who went out scoring zero) got to attempt an arrest by unsuccessfully accusing someone, who in turn unsuccessfully tried to arrest Genelle, who finally made an arrest to score minus 28 on her last turn.

Then followed Greed, and there were some new rule interpretations implemented in the area of what happens if one or more dice roll off the green mat. It pays to be careful NOT to let any escape off the mat – and it was Matt who won followed by Louise and Genelle – a second helping of points for GG. Nicole and Peter failed to open their score account, possibly due to time preventing enough attempts.

The only ladder position change this month is Rob and Louise switching places, Louise up one to 5th, but still only 5 points between them. Genelle has closed the gap from the leader Tara from 150 points to 40 points, and Matt has pulled ahead of the middle bunch to cement his 3rd placing.
Rob, Tara and Nicole were the sad players who WHP in June.

Tara streaks ahead

In the middle of a wet fortnight we met at Como to play Matt‘s choices of Five Crowns and Scattergories. Thanks to Genelle and Louise for acting as chauffeur for El Prez who no longer has his own transport. Nicole was away due to moving house.
Five Crowns was popular with all except for Wayne who by his own admission doesn’t quite get it, but thanks to help from Tara he managed to beat me back into last place! It was a close run game with the top three placegetters often separated by only 2 points, and the lead changing almost with each round. In the end it was Tara who won followed by rookie Pete then Matt, who scored the most zeros (ie; went out first).
Then there was Scattergories for four rounds – it had its usual share of controversy, for example the argument about whether “octopus” qualified as a “fish” had to be settled by a vote – that vote went 4-3 in favour of Tara getting the octopus point which avoided a “Scatter-off” to resolve a tie with Rob who ended up in third place by 1 point.
Wayne, Louise and Genelle WHP, and just look at the ladder graph – Tara has won two main games in a row and is now well ahead of the rest of the pack.

New Rookie + New WT game debut

Here’s our newest rookie Peter Mason – he likes to be called Pete. He fitted right in with the general mayhem of cut-throat business empires and Sydney-Hobart yacht racing, and managed to accumulate 10 competition points at his very first meet. Welcome Pete!
We wish the departing Steve all the best – he started a new job and decided it was going to be too difficult to make it to meetings.

Tonight’s meet was hosted by El Prez who wasn’t in good form due to recovering from a virus attack which put him in hospital in the previous few days. The main game Brisk Bizz seemed to be more vicious than previously with a large number of attendances at the bankruptcy court. I believe that might have been due to the sudden onset of maximum inflation early in the game when Wayne drew a Challenge card that put inflation at a factor of 5 – the worst setting. Tara won the Bizz convincingly with Genelle in 2nd place, and Nicole came 3rd, just beating rookie Pete by less than 1%.

The backup was a new Wayne game based on a yacht race inspired by him watching the 2023 Sydney-Hobart on TV. It is a very simple toss-the-die-and-move game which was generally well received, although it needs a more solid cardboard backing. There were a couple of comments about excessive penalty squares, but it will be added to the roster. Genelle won it with El Prez second, and Pete 3rd – getting his first taste of competition points.

The competition ladder has developed 3 groupings of players – Tara, Genelle and Nicole at the top in a 40-point grouping, then a 50-point gap followed by a 35-point grouping of Rob, Louise and Matt. Then Wayne and Pete – don’t worry Pete, it is highly unlikely that you’ll get the Wooden Spoon because the constitution has Rule 7.5, the rookie protection rule, look it up.
There was some discussion about who should be the current holder of the Wooden Spoon since the resignation of Steve who would have been the current Spooner. There is no club rule that covers this situation, but it seems to me unfair to award it to the 2nd last placegetter – it probably should simply be left un-assigned until the next presentation night. If there are differing opinions on this we should put it to a vote at the next meeting.

Where did Brisk Bizz come from?

This game dates from 1987 – as may be obvious from some of the outdated companies and logos used. It was offered for sale to staff members of the companies whose logos appear in the game. At that time I worked at the Overseas Telecommunications Commission which had adopted the corporate name OTC Limited with the relatively new logo as appears in the game (this was about 5 years before OTC was swallowed up by Telecom to become Telstra). I bought it for I think about $25 which was reasonably cheap. I’ve never seen it for sale anywhere in a shop, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it only ever sold to the staff of the companies that permitted their logos to be used in the game. It remains a popular SBGA choice 37 years later.

El Prez is back, Jordan fills in for Steve

It was good to see El Prez almost back to his usual form after his episode of garage carnage and health scare last month, and to top it off he won Pass The Pigs! Steve, our nominal host, was once again unavoidably detained by the new job that he started today, but we were still able to field eight players due to the presence of ex-member Jordan who was on hand to assist his dad through some medical appointments – thanks Jordan.

The main game was an old favourite, Gallop, won by Nicole with Louise and Genelle in the minor placings. It was Matt‘s first exposure to the game, but he had no luck with the bookies, and in fact WHP. The other WHP was Tara who had a rather ordinary evening score-wise. The backup, Pass The Pigs was a bit more interesting in the scoring: Firstly, it was won by Wayne, a cause for major celebration, then our stand-in Jordan managed to get 2nd place (cheeky bugger) with Nicole 3rd. Genelle scored Makin’ Bacon on her very first go, and Rob also Made Bacon on his 5th go, losing all of his measly 10 points to put him at zero – stone motherless last as the final roll commenced. With shouts of encouragement from the spectators, he managed a 63 point roll on the last gasp, the best roll of the game and enough to get 4th place which scored as 3rd due to 2nd place being won by a non-member.

El Prez misses out on the Bomb

There were only six of us at Como to play Articulate! and Pass the Bomb. Steve was away “enjoying his semi retirement” as he put it. El Prez was at home not feeling well after another episode in which he passed out while driving. He was driving into his residence’s garage at the time – as luck would have it he was crossing Woronora bridge at 80 km/h only a few minutes earlier. He seems resigned to the fact that his driving days are probably now over. He has minor injuries and an attack of gout which has reduced his mobility and was relieved that his hosting duties for tonight were taken up by Tara.

Since Articulate! is a team game, and there were just three teams, all those present received points. First place went to the Matt/Louise team who won convincingly, then it was a close battle for second place which went to the Tara/Rob team with the Nicole/Genelle team third.

Pass the Bomb was its usual entertaining self which finished in a 3-way tie for first – a “Bomb-off” determined the placings. In order they were Tara, Genelle, Nicole. The Bomb was supplied by Matt – it was a new game for him that he had not played before.

Please note that I have made a small update to the club Charter to reflect the latest changes in clothing – the 40th anniversary shirt to be exact. You can see the Charter by clicking it in the main menu.

Lastly, the members are unanimous in saying “Please get well soon Prez!”

New shirts delivered! Thanks Tara

And there we all are in our new 40th anniversary shirts – except Steve who was away on holiday and will be photographed and published at a later date, probably at the same time he is presented with the 2023 SPOON award. A great big thank you to Tara for organising the shirt purchase and embroidery, and to Nicole, our resident graphic artiste, for coming up with the new SBGA logo.

As you might see in the photo, the main game tonight was SmartAss – played for the second time in as many meetings, but in two different years. As luck would have it, Rob won it both times! Tonight Genelle and Matt were the other place getters. The backup was the ever tricky Six Second Scribbles – too hard for us with that time limit, so we play it as Three Minute Scribbles. The placings were Tara, Nicole and Matt.

Before games began some people were glancing through some ancient SBGA News issues brought along by El Presidente. In the December 2008 issue it was recorded that at the annual Presentation Dinner I proposed Wayne to be made a Life Member of SBGA, an idea that was endorsed by the membership as it was then. It is also recorded that the instigator of the idea was ex-member Rob Harris. I remember none of this. Anyway, having read this item, there was a movement, carried unanimously, to declare another life member – yours truly!
Thanks to you all, and I’ll be updating my official SBGA email signature to include the relevant letters after my name ET,LM,SBGA. If you haven’t worked it out, this stands for El Tesorero, Life Member, Sydney Board Games Association. I bet you didn’t know El Trez is short for El Tesorero, the next most important office bearer after El Presidente.

Matt the Rookie wins!

This will be the last time this journal refers to our newest member as Matt the Rookie, as he has well and truly proved his talent for board games by winning the championship in his first year as a member. We think he is only the 3rd player in 40 years to do this – the others are Nicole and Rob.

It was a balmy night at Como as we gathered to play Smart Ass and Greed. The main game was won by Rob after a late run – Tara and others were already 2/3 of the way to the finish before he got past the dreaded “Kick Ass” near the start, then got Kick Ass another couple of times near the finish as the leader bunch were getting ready to cross the finish line – in fact the final Kick Ass square was heavily patronised. Tara came 2nd with Matt (still a rookie at the time) in 3rd spot. As it turned out, the 25 points for that 3rd spot was enough to get him the premiership, because he was running 2nd to Louise by only 5 points, and both Louise and Steve WHP.

Greed was well received as usual with only Rob and Genelle opening their score accounts on the first round (500 points are needed to start scoring). The second round was marked by Wayne opening his account by throwing $GREED. Thereafter the lead was swapped between Wayne and Genelle with Genelle winning out in the end, and it was Nicole who got the 3rd placing. Poor Louise kept on going bust until finally opening her scoring on the penultimate round! Tara fared badly too with no score till halfway through the game.

After the gaming there was much discussion about SBGA shirts and embroidery, and also about trophy policy given the rising price of such items. Nicole has designed a new club logo, only final colours to be decided for embroidery which depends on shirt colour. The concensus was that we should in future only award a first place trophy, and certificates for the runners up – certificates to be produced “in house”.

Finally, congratulations to the competition placegetters Matt, Louise and Tara.