Category: Meeting report

Rookie scores first points then retires hurt

It was a dark and stormy night… well almost – it was bloody cold for late October, and it was windy and raining. Our host Tara even had a fresh log burning in the fireplace at Yowie Bay.
The ever popular Sherlock Holmes was our main game, and it was won by none other than El Presidente, Wayne. Tara came second and Jiordan broke her personal drought by coming third. Rule 7.5, the “Rookie Protection” rule prevents Jiordie from the ignominy of taking home the Wooden Spoon, 2021 will be her year to shine.
The also ever popular Ride ’em Cowboy was our backup, and it was the usual thrills and spills, so much so that Jiordan left early while coming third in the game due to a flare up of her netball injury – she recently had surgery on her right pinkie finger and it started to throb. The placings were Tara, Louise, Nicole in that order. Genelle and El Trez both WHP.
Look at the graph – Tara with 100 points tonight has broken away from the pack and it looks like the trophy winners are already decided unless something spectacularly unusual happens in November. Rob‘s close pursuit of the lead held by Louise has slackened off from a 10 point gap back to 35 points, but it’s still a close race. November’s program hosted by Nicole is unusual and the results unpredictable.

The annual Dinner and Presentation night is coming up, possibly December 16, stay tuned for further information. Please consider catching up your dues at the November meet, there are three members in the red.

Louise & Rob neck & neck for Trophy

It was a very pleasant evening at the Presidential Gaming Palace – now with integrated loo facility! The main event was Gallop, one of El Prez‘s more popular creations. The Tote Clerk hat went to El Trez who discovered no betting irregularities during proceedings, and topped it off with a Personal Best for this game – he owned the winning horse in the final race and also bet heavily on himself, so cleaned up with a staggering $8000+. This meant he made the 100 points he needed to catch Louise the ladder leader, plus a 2nd place in Pass The Bomb to cement the new lead, however, Louise had other ideas and by scoring a double third place she maintained her lead, but by the narrowest of margins – only 10 points. Tara , despite getting 2nd in Gallop, is 275 points away in 3rd place, so with only two meetings left it looks like Louise & Rob might be battling it out for the championship trophy. Our rookie recruit Jiordan was exposed to two new games and picked them up pretty quickly – but was blasted severely in Pass The Bomb in which there was a 3-way bomb-off for the placings between Genelle, Louise & Rob. Nicole, Wayne and Jiordan all WHP.

Stapleton’s, our usual restaurant for year-end festivities, has closed, so we are on the lookout for suggestions for an alternative venue. Let’s have your ideas.

Welcome Jiordan – our new rookie

It was another cold, wet and windy evening, and we were at Como. At last it seems one of our vacancies has been filled – Jiordan Hollingsworth turned up early (just in case of getting lost). She is our youngest member, is married and has two young children, is studying Social Work at Bond University, and is keen to play board games with us. Welcome Jiordy! (When it’s her turn to host, I predict Scattergories will be on the program)

Our games were Trivial Pursuit and Pass the Pigs. We played the quick version of TP which means a “cheese” is collected for every correct answer. Rob went to the lead early on, but was soon caught by Louise, and then they were sitting at the centre of the board, both with a full cheese collection. El Trez won with a lucky guess at his final question, then there was a quiz-off for third place between Genelle and Nicole. That quiz-off was also tied, so there followed a sudden death tie breaker quiz won by GG.
Tara showed her expertise at the passing of the Pigs – she won by more than 100 points from El Prez closely followed by GG in third place. In 10 turns, Tara only had one single pigout while the rest of us averaged 4 or 5.

See you in September at the Jannali Gamerdome.

Cold & Wet – but giggles nevertheless.

It was midwinter with a vast and terrible low pressure system hovering off the NSW coast wreaking havoc on the shoreline. Although cold and wet outside, we had a fairly uneventful meeting at Louise‘s with quite a lot of giggles from the sisters – first the teams event Articulate! followed by Uno Flip. The teams were Louise + Rob, Tara + Genelle, and Nicole + Wayne. Tara/Genelle led for most of the game (which was lengthened to two laps), chased by Louise/Rob with Nicole/Wayne bringing up the rear. Towards the last couple of turns, Tara/Genelle suffered a form slump with a simultaneous burst of knowledge from the Louise/Rob team who zipped past for the win. So everybody scored points, but the first two ladder leaders being on the same team meant that Louise’s lead over Rob was maintained, although slightly reduced. Rob scored a double whammy, while Louise managed a 1.5 whammy if you see what I mean – a win in the main game and a 2nd in the backup. Genelle may not make the August meet due to the impending birth of her next grandchild – we hope all goes well GG.

SBGA members exposed to Virus!

It was not the dreaded Covid-19, just El Presidente’s interpretation of it in a new board game entitled Danger Zone. Genelle was our host for this meet, and she chose the new game for its topicality. There were only five players due to a last minute car problem for Nicole. Being a new game, it was bound to have a couple of teething troubles, but they were not serious. The most obvious issue is that it is not a long game and all agreed that it would be better as a backup rather than a main game. The placings were Louise, Rob, Tara in that order. The backup was Five Crowns, the relatively recent game introduced by Genelle which is gaining in popularity. Placings were Louise, Genelle, Tara in a very close-fought game, there was a tie-break round to separate the first two placings finishing on 117 each with Tara only 5 points behind. I have a theory that females are genetically superior at the skill required to rapidly recognise the multitude of permutations and combinations of scoring patterns in Five Crowns – but I could be wrong. It is certainly true for our particular sample of humanity.

Note that Louise scored a double whammy; the 150 points added to her leading score has made it impossible for any player to catch up in July. She must be a favourite to win the competition at this rate. The rest of us can only hope for a form slump.

During the tea break in which El Prez had to retire to his residence to fill the jug (water supply was interrupted due to loo construction), Genelle introduced a quick round of Sequence so we could get the feel of it. Thanks Genelle. I think it’s not far off being chosen on someone’s programme soon.

Louise wins a Ticket to Ride, blokes WHP.

It was a cold midwinter night, approaching the shortest day of the year, but we were comfy at Nicole‘s playing a game new to most of us – Ticket to Ride. I had played it a few times, consistently and soundly beaten by my son, and Nicole’s husband had also played it a lot, mainly the computer screen version – thanks to him for coaching us through the game and being El Prez‘s “engineer”. To top it off, Nicole provided my favourite dip (French Onion) and favourite lollies, (Violet Crumble or Cadbury Crunchy, same thing). Tara won Ticket convincingly with Nicole and Louise in the placings. It was a late start for the backup Sherwood, an old El Prez original, so we had only two rounds, and it finished in a draw between Louise and Nicole which Louise won on a tie-break toss. Tara was 3rd. El Prez and El Trez both WHP.

So the 50 points Louise won in Sherwood makes her the new competition leader, breaking the tie with Rob. Genelle was absent – in Melbourne getting acquainted with her new granddaughter. That absence without points has cost her – both sisters Z have overtaken her and relegated her to 5th place (see graph on home page).

At the start of the meeting, El Prez previewed three new games he has produced. The Covid game Danger Zone is on Genelle’s programme for next meet, and you’ve also met Bond & Beyond here in the news items. He has also resurrected an old one about Egyptology called Expedition – one of his earliest creations re-manufactured. Here it is…

And Here’s Louise with Nicole’s Sherwood hat…

Louise catches up, El Prez off sick.

It was a cold, windy, rainy night for meeting 4 of season 2020, but it was cosy at Tara’s with a nice fire burning in the new fireplace. This was the meet that was scheduled for April but trashed by the Covid-19 isolation rules. There was one notable absence – El Prez himself was struck down by a gastric affliction and wasn’t well enough to attend, we hope you get better soon WT, immediately if not sooner!

The WT game That’s Broadway was the main game which was won by Louise with Tara & Rob in the placings. The game suffered a bit from some rule amendments that had been hand written onto the official sheet, and had to be read several times to understand what was intended. We made it through, but are still unsure if we got it right.
Billionaire! was the backup won in fine style by Louise again, a double whammy for her that has put her in equal first place with Rob, overtaking both Nicole and Genelle in the process. Louise started the game by playing a 9-card hand with the Billionaire to double the score, then did it again on the very next hand! Tara also made a significant gain by coming 2nd in both games, also managing a 9-card plus billionaire hand. Sadly it was Nicole who WHP for this meet. The prize for Louise was a Bunnings gift voucher, the very first time we’ve delivered a prize by email – it should be in her inbox by the time she reads this.

Our next meeting (nominally the May meet) is scheduled for June 15 at Jannali. Nicole and Genelle having swapped hosting turns, it will be Genelle hosting the new WT game Danger Zone, a game based on an international pandemic. Sound familiar? The meeting after that one is scheduled for June 29 – the actual June meeting.

El trez gets double whammy, catches the leader – new game goes missing.

On a cool but somewhat windy evening at Como, we had a pleasant evening of gaming despite the absence of the chosen main game. It was to have been Readers Digest Word Power which we think was last seen at Nicole‘s where there was a discussion in which El Prez thought it had previously been written off as unsuitable for our requirements, but El Trez had no recollection of that fact, so I elected to inspect the rules to find out what it was about. Those rules are still on my desk, have been scanned into my computer, and have been published here on the SBGA website. Meanwhile, the game itself has vanished! It seems that Nicole, not realising that it was under serious consideration for our club, may have donated it somewhere. Whoever has it now will be wondering what the rules are.

The replacement on the night was the original old version of Word Power which Rob won in a close finish just ahead of Genelle, followed a couple of moves later by Louise. The backup game was Uno Flip, also won by El Trez by sheer luck rather than talent, the cards were kind, unlike poor Louise who at one point had to pick up about a quarter of the pack in one of those “dark side” flip penalties. So Rob has now made up for his WHP in January, but sadly Wayne has yet to overcome his WHP demon, scoring the second one for the year. Tara has now had three third placings out of four games for 2020, and in this competition, that’s only enough to get you just ahead of the Wooden Spooner on zero. Remember – it is early days, too early for anyone to lose hope, and too early for anyone to think the trophy is already in the bag.

Louise & Genelle already fighting it out for the lead.

Arriving just before sunset at Louise’s on the Georges River, we were able to briefly enjoy the magnificent water views before gaming commenced for 2020. Louise chose DumbAss as the backup game, and straight away regretted it – it seemed much more USA oriented than the version played previously. It may not get picked again for some time. Genelle won it with Louise in 2nd place. Louise won the main game Five Crowns – this is what caused the draw for the lead, 100 points each. Tara got the double whammy 3rd place in both games, putting her in 3rd spot on the ladder ahead of Nicole on 25 for coming 2nd in DumbAss. Missing from this commentary so far are El Prez and El Trez – nothing to see here, they both WHP.

The February meet will be at Rob’s and he picked the new Readers Digest version of Word Power. When it was asked who was in possession of the game there were blank looks all around, then Nicole said she might have it, and hoped that it wasn’t given away in a recent cleanout. Fingers crossed, it’s still in a cupboard somewhere – the rules sheet is still with El Trez.