Goat/Co:Brum 2024-Fri 02nd/Sat 03rd Aug

[Matt Rutherford]

Sod the South Coast, and there's no need to jet off to the Azores-it's time for FOCAL's summer holiday jaunt to the Midlands. Goat/Co Brum back for a double-header. 'Tis I, MSR (the not-yet-ordained Vicar of Dudley), and others will be bringing the fun for you-this time out in Birmingham's Eastern Fleapit! (It has all your amenities, don't fret)

Format-Lincoln style/at tables for both (further details below)

When-GOAT-Friday 02nd August 2024. CO-Saturday 03rd August 2024

Where-The Paramo Lounge, 40 High Street, Solihull, Birmingham, B91 3TB

Admission-£10 for Co, £5 for Goat, £12 if you are up for both. Paypal link uses real name, but 'tis me!

https://paypal.me/MSRBrum?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB NOTE THE NEW LINK-this does use my real name, but is all good!

FRIDAY-Playing six, 9-round games of Goatdown over two round in Lincoln-style,

Essentially, Goatdown is Countdown except the player picking the letters can choose exactly which letter they would like for the 9th letter. So the first eight letters are chosen as normal (vowel or consonant) but for the ninth letter the player picking that round’s letters chooses exactly which letter they would like.

For conundrums, the player is shown only eight letters instead of nine. Their task is to find the NINE letter word that uses those eight letters (there will only be one possible nine-letter word from those eight letters). If nobody does that within the 30 seconds, the ninth letter will be revealed and the players will have a further 15 seconds to solve the now normal conundrum. Doing so will however only grant 7 points rather than the 10 that would be awarded for solving the conundrum from only the first eight letters.

There will be mechanisms to work around all these explained on the night.

SATURDAY-Playing eight, 9-round games of Countdown, in tables of three, ‘'Lincoln' style. After eight games, the top two players will face each other in the grand final, with prizes for the top 8. The first round is drawn randomly-don't panic if you are trounced early on, for the subsequent rounds, you will play opponents that have scored similarly to you, so everyone should get some good, well-matched games. Main aim is a bit of fun.

TIMINGS
Goat:Brum/Friday 02nd August 2024
18:00-Doors open* (Bar is open all day)
18:30-First round draw and things kick-off
19:45-Second round starts
21:00-Third round starts
22:00/ASAP after-Final

Co:Brum/Saturday 03rd August 2024
10:00-Doors open
11:00-First round draw and kick-off
12:15-Second round
13:30-Lunch
14:30-Third round starts
15:45-Fourth round starts
17:00-Grand Final
17:30-Prizegiving
After-Meal at the venue. Details to be sorted soon!

Other Info
Food and Drink-Many options nearby. This venue has been very generous with rates, and are lovely, so if you can, grab bites here!. We will also be here for the meal afterwards.

Hotels-Premier Inn and Travelodge are walking distances away.

Parkrun-Located in nearby Brueton Park. You nutcases who enjoy know what to do

Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/events/3614963785488318

Any further questions, shout at me. Hope to see you there!


CONTENDERS (Ready)

Goat (5)
George Armstrong
Steven Grady
Phil Stanton
Adam Dexter
Mike Lee

Co (5)
George Armstrong
Steven Grady
Phil Stanton
Adam Dexter
Mike Lee

[Fiona T]

FRIDAY-Playing six, 9-round games of Goatdown over two round in Lincoln-style,

Six games = 3 rounds

Timings
TIMINGS
Goat:Brum/Friday 02nd August 2024
18:30-Doors open
19:00-First round draw is made and things kick-off
20:15-Second round starts
21:30-Grand final

Timings only show 2 rounds

[Matt Rutherford]

Yup, what I definitely didn't do here was copy-paste timings from the Rugby page. I didn't do that at all in any way shape or form

(Amendments incoming!)

[Matt Rutherford]

Time to experiment a bit, after some discussions over the generation of fixtures. Both Brum tournaments are going to test the new methods for drawing matches as put in the Atropine update.

Goat-Will the 'Draw Against Someone On Same Number Of Wins' counting all rounds
Co-Will use the 'Draw Against Someone On Same Number Of Wins counting only the most recent round

If these work, they work. If they don't, they don't. We won't know until we have a shot, and it's worth a go. Feedback welcome, of course!