Jay's View
REPORT ON PLAY FROM WEDNESDAY, October 8, 2025
In my weekly report to you the past two weeks, I thanked David Hanold for providing me with all the info I needed during my absence in order to give you my weekly update. In the first two reports I referred to him as our club’s “cub reporter” and then as our “ace reporter. Based on all the activity that took place— and in particular at the end of the evening— this week I am referring to him as our “embedded report.
There was evidently a lot of action taking place at the club last night, including a visit to the club by another new player, Alley Maranto. I understand from David’s report that Alley really enjoys backgammon but is new to some of the elements of tournament play. I hope she found here first visit to our club enjoyable and educational. I also hope that will translate to her returning again the next Wednesday night she’s available to do so.
I was also told that another of our newer players, Perry Sadler returned to play and did well before losing his match against Michael Stellman in the Main bracket. Perry is another new player that I look forward to meeting upon my return.
In the meantime, many of our regular players continued to play at a high level with some closely fought matches. In the Consolation bracket, Club Director, Bill Chibnik defeated Barbara Levinson for first place. His win earned Bill enough master points to move up one notch in the standings from 7th to 6th place.
Things played out a little different in the final match in the Main bracket between club leader, Michael Comins and David Hanold duked it out in a joker-filled match— “like Crazy” according to David’s report— that was shortened due to the time of the match coming close to our venue’s closing time. David’s winn gave him enough master points to pass yours truly from 5th to 4th place in the standings. Michael remained rock solid at the top.
However the reason for the “embedded reporter” designation for David is that those final matches were interrupted by a fire alarm at the Winnetka Community House, requiring all remaining players to leave their boards in the playroom and vacate the building while the Winnetka Fire Department came to investigate the cause for the alarm going off. Fortunately it was just something in the air in the building that mimicked smoke or some other air pollutant with no actual harm done. The players returned to the game room to finish their matches and well, I’ve already given you the results.
There’s always something to report about play at Trudie’s Winnetlka Backgammon Club and with exceptions like last night, it’s all fun and games. I recommend you come next week to see and play for yourselves. Until then, have a great weekend, everyone!!
Jay