Jay's View
REPORT ON PLAY FROM WEDNESDAY, August 5, 2026
Last night while I had a little downtime between matches at the club, I was trying to come up with a topic to write about for this week’s missive. I noticed that we didn’t have our biggest crowd of the year at only 14 players. I realized that it was due to a number of our regulars going to Madison to play in the Wisconsin Backgammon Championship tournament, while yet others were away for summer vacation with their families. I share these thoughts with you as we enter play in the first week of the month of August, what some refer to as “the dog days of summer”. I then found myself wondering about how the month got its name. My thoughts went first— and correctly so— that it was named to honor the Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar. And then I thought, oh, and that’s why the word “august” refers to a person or event that is highly respected or grand in status, right?. But then, my dear and close friend the Internet revealed that it was actually the other way around. The word august was a Latin adjective meaning “majestic” or “venerable” and that is why the Roman Senate granted that title to Augustus Caesar. Mind blown!
And the term august is exactly how I would describe the setting for the final matches in the Consolation and Main brackets last night. In the Consolation final match, David Rockwell put on a grand performance and received the respect of the opponent he defeated, yours truly. David shut me out and his play was textbook solid play. Over in the final of the Main bracket, Carter Mattig played a near flawless match against Nader Zarrin, a majestic performance that gave him enough master points to move up in the standings from 19th to 14th place. A truly august performance by the two winners.
Next week, we will still be playing in the month of August and we can only hope that the quality of play exhibited by all players in attendance is as august as it was this week. The best way to find out is to come play at our club. Until then, have a great weekend, everyone!
Jay