Midweek games

Cribbage: Played two games against Fiona in the pub. She’s pretty new to Cribbage, and wanted somebody who knew the game to practice against. We played two games of six card Cribbage, 121 up.

I took an early lead in the first game, and have to give Fiona a few tips, (and some help with the scoring, which always flummoxes beginners). She is catching me by the end, and has the advantage last of not having the box. I finish up one point short in the play, and she is scoring first, and takes the game. The second game she has much the better of the cards and absolutlely smokes me, winning by about 30 points.

Backgammon: My chance for revenge after Fiona’s beginners luck at Cribbage came Friday evening, when I went round to see her & Pete . (I’m a decent backgammon player). Disappointingly the first game turns into a race, and I roll slightly higher, and win.

The second game makes up for it though. Fiona has the better of the early exchanges and I end up playing a back game. This isn’t something Fiona has seen before, so she makes some non-obvious mistakes, repeatedly hitting my blots, letting me establish two points in her inner board, whilst blocking off my own. Her final mistake comes when bearing off. She mistakenly leaves a blot, I hit it, and she can’t come back on before I establish a prime on my inner board! So it comes down to a straight race, and I just edge it.

After that we play a couple more games, both winning one each. Next time we might try a match (7 points) with the doubling cube, though I suspect she needs a few more games first.

San Juan: Fiona really likes this, so we played a few times after backgammon. Two-player can be really harsh on beginners, but after I beat her a few times I think my advice began to sink in, and she won the last game with a pretty good City Hall game.

After my victories at Backgammon and San Juan, we decide to play something I’m not very good at – Carcassonne: The Castle. I don’t know why but I very rarely win at any version of Carc, and sure enough Fiona beats me twice, the first time a rout, the second game is close, but I mistime the ending, leaving making impossible for me to finish both a large tower and a large house, so I miss out on the keep bonus.