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Checker Match
Barbados Hotel
Tuesday, June 1st
Our daily routine during the tournament
was to eat breakfast around 9:00, eat lunch
around 2:30. Checkers match starts in front of the Barbados
hotel at 4:00 for our ride to Bridgetown.
Since we were allotted supper, the hotel
restaurant provided meals to go. Play ended
at 11:00 each night, since that was the latest
our driver could work to return us to the
Barbados hotel.
Frequently our Barbados Hotel lunch and
menu options were either fish or chicken.
Some days the lunch was a ‘buffet’,
which seemed to mean that we had to walk
over to two containers of hot food and
fill our own plates. I found the food good,
but it tended to get repetitive after a
while. Sometimes our take out supper consisted
of a piece of chicken, some rice, and a
few lettuce leaves a $15 dollar dinner
in US money at menu price. After each meal,
we had to sign off a receipt so the hotel
could track meal expenses.
Some of the players spent the early part
of the day in the Barbados hotel gazebo
by the ocean reviewing openings. I took
a walk down the neighborhood street and
found a small souvenir shop that carried
a lot of items. At last, I found a place
that seemed to have reasonable prices.
I ran into Gerry Lopez and John Webster's
wife, Mickey on the way back. Mickey bought
half a watermelon from a nearby street-side
vendor at reasonable price, so Gerry and
I went over there and bought the other
half.
Barbados was originally British, but they
gained their independence in the 1960s.
Nevertheless, I saw many similarities
to the United Kingdom, such as cars driving
on the left side of the road. People commonly
say 'holiday'
and 'draughts' when
referring to vacation and checkers. There
are many traffic circles (roundabouts)
on the roads. Road signs say, 'give
way' instead of 'yield.' Barbados
produces a lot of sugar cane. Other products
they make include rum and Banks beer. Alan's
wife, Vicki used this morning to visit
the rum factory.
Today our trip to the playing site took us by
a ravine near two busy four lane city roads
where cows were grazing by the roadside. Bridgetown
also features several nightclubs and restaurants,
pool halls, outdoor barbecues, etc. There are few
familiar chains, but we did see KFC and Shell.
There were no McDonald's, but we did see several
'Cheffette's,
which looked like the same fast food concept.
Barbados Hotel by 11:00
Our opening round today ran a long time.
Those American checkers players were who
not finished with the latter round by 11:00,
had to take a taxi home if they chose to
continue playing. The last taxi was only
available to Barbados hotel by 11:00 each
night. I squeaked by with draws on a couple
games (one of which featured a new Gene
Lindsay defense that he shared on Sunday),
but I gained my first win against an opponent
who consistently opened with the inferior
10-15 move. Nevertheless, Ron King continued
to manufacture wins, and the U.S. had a
rough day overall. After three rounds and
two days of play, the Barbados checkers
team moved ahead to a two-win game lead.
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