I left for Canberra on Thursday morning.  On the 5.25 flight out of Auckland going to Sydney then on to Canberra.  I was so worried that I would sleep and miss my flight that I had stayed up all night and had got my second wind by the time I got to the airport. I had a connection who worked for Air New Zealand (my lovely mother) and so I was able to check in quickly and also lucky to upgrade to Business Class.  We went into the bowels of the Airport and had a quick cup of free coffee (a free cup - unknown of at the airport). Through the metal detectors, where I had to take off the steel capped shoes (I knew I should have changed those socks) before I jumped on the plane and had my obligatory 5 A.M. glass of champagne.  Then we waited while the rest of the plane boarded.  I glanced through the selection of in flight movies (had seen them all) before deciding that a bit of a nap was in order. 

That never happened and I end up watching four movies at the same time. The flight was uneventful and I arrived in Sydney and transferred though to the domestic terminal.  More shoe removing and then on to the small biplane that would take me to the capital of Australia.  It was raining in Sydney and so we were bussed the 20 metres to the plane. More uneventful flying and then down in to Canberra. 

The day there was a little better and as we flew to our destination I could see this new highway with lots of exits going to dirt roads.  Ah, I thought the same as NZ.  Build a road when you have the money, but it doesn't matter where it goes (I find out later that it ends at Sydney).  As we descend I see a little outcropping with a building and a gas station.  I think to myself, imagine if that is our venue....

I have organised a pickup, and the jack of all trades Roland [Flavelle] is there to pick me up.  Standing there with a board with my man on I wander up and say hi. I need a cigarette as I haven't had one for about 8 hours, so whilst he picks up the van I light up.  As we drive off into the countryside I inquire about the building set into the hill and he says everyone asks about it.  It is some sort of defense bunker (looks more like a set from Thunderbirds). We jump onto the motorway and head away from the city.  Soon we have left the Australian Capital Territory altogether and have entered New South Wales and I see the same gas station and outcropping and realise that I had indeed seen the venue before as I was flying over...

I check in and spend the next half hour finding my room, a maze of buildings with Australian signs makes it difficult to find my lodgings and when I do finally get there I realise that I am in one of the closest buildings and that there is a much easier way to get there.  I try to ring home to say that I am safe but find out that there is limited cellphone coverage. Oh well, at least that means they can't ring me as well.....

Into the game room and I introduce myself to Rob [Stephenson] and Ken [Sproat], who are setting up the room and I help with a bit of stuff.  I consider a sleep but people start arriving so the change never really arises.  I settle for a shower and then a beer.  Will Black from NZ arrives with Sean Colman and I see the shock on his face when he sees me.  "What are you doing here?," he asks. "Playing Diplomacy," I reply.  I had forgot to let him know that I was coming. "Good," he counters. "We now have enough for a NZ team."

It was a bit disappointing to see that there were only five people from New Zealand.  I was expecting to see a lot more travel across the ditch to play in this particular tournament.  Especially considering the magnitude of the event.  I understand that we have more people going to the normal events. Lets try to work on that guys :)  As there were only five Kiwis there I thought that I would be happy to be on the teams event, scraping the bottom of the barrel and such but anyway I am always honoured to represent my country. I registered and handed over my cash.  I decided to play in Rounds 1, 3, 4 (team round) and 6.  I had spent a little bit of time on my decision.  I wanted to make sure that I could have a sleep in at least one morning. We then ended up wandering into the town centre for a pizza and some beers.  Back to the hotel early and in bed asleep by 10.00, which was a good plan in the end as I hear that one person, Brian Shelden, spent most of the first few years of Round 1 in the toilet. Still he got a nine-centre Turkey. I understand that I am both a heavy sleeper and a light snorer.  Poor Dominick Stevens got the bunk above me and told me the next morning that he spent most of the night bashing me with his pillow.  I think that he was really trying to put me off the first round.

Round 1

I drew Italy and had Dominick Stevens (E), Rohan Flavelle (F) and Steve Gould (G) form an alliance that went through the game seeing them end up on 11 each with Crusher [Sean Plelan] (T) on the remaining centre.  Larry Peery was Russia and he was happy to sit where he was.  This really allowed the EFG to flourish.  Austria was Brett Chatterton and his intent early on was to eliminate Turkey.  He encountered some difficulties and did not come to my pleading assistance. The fatal mistake was when he moved to Gre rather than to Tyn from Ion and that ended up spelling the elimination for the both of us. I had a chance of gaining a survival point but suggested a move which ended up in me getting dislodged and the draw then passed The EFG played well together and they deserved the points that they got. I was a bit disappointed with my result but had noone to blame really but myself.

I had a quick look around the boards and saw that there were quite a few 14 centre leaders.  At least I knew what I needed to score. Off into town again with Brian Shelden, Manus Hand, Kit Burke, and his partner.  Manus and I stayed on when the others retired. We tried working together off the board; by 4.00 the last call had been made and we went back to the hotel. I spent the next morning trying to lull the slight hangover and by the time my next round started in the afternoon it was only down to a dull throb.

Round 3

France!!  A country that I could play fairly well.  As long as I was able to get a good start.  And I did that too :)  I had a very good alliance with a French player Phillipe Clavaud as England and we were quickly able to eliminate both Jimmy the Knife [James Bounsell] (G) and Rob Hadley (I).  I went from seven to 10 to 13 in two years :)  Phillipe got himself out of position and I was able to take his home centres off him on my way to 15.  He disbanded at home, keeping a couple in Scandinavia and also StP allowing him to finish on three.  Mark Withnall was Russia and I was very lucky for him to allow me to hold Munich without any support for 3 turns whilst I secured the rest of Germany. He ended on eight.  Peter Taylor was Turkey and he was happy to end on eight as well. We drew in 1911 I think and the time draw was called in 1913.  There was still an opportunity for me to continue but I was so happy with my performance in the round that I offered the draw I was also pleased that Phillipe took my stab so well.  I had a quick look around the remaining boards and thought that my result may have been the best of the round but there were a few that had been cleared away already so I was guessing until the prizgiveing as to whether I had actually got it.  My goal then was Best France as I was pretty sure that I had at the time the highest score.

Off to the pub for a meal and a few cheaper drinks. We stayed at the pub till closing and then we went back to the hotel and played a game of Junta. Don't like that game that much but hey it was worth playing just to watch Rohan Jon Keane get absolutely wasted and then fall asleep with his cards in his hand.  We had played for another hour before we realised that he still had them.  Steve Muzzati and Andrew Cheevers did a great job of using him as their own puppet.  A nod of the head and then playing his cards :). Finished at two and then went to bed for an extra hour due to daylight savings.

Round 4 (Teams Round)

Team NZ was all in Black (apart from Peter Taylor who got eliminated) and we knew who the Reservoir Frogs were (due to their great shirts) but apart from them the rest of the teams were unknown to us.  I drew Turkey and was happy to have a corner for the round.  I had Christian Gemballa Moura as Austria and Rob Stevenson as Italy to really contend with.  I quickly decided to work with Christian and we went about destroying Russia and Italy as quickly as we could. Christian and I were working really well together but I did a pretty major stab on Christian and he went down rather quickly, although a miss ordered convoy allowed him to last a bit longer than I had anticipated. I felt pretty bad after doing that. Rob, however, quickly filled in as my ally. I had been honest with him for all of the game and together we finished off Austria.  Brian Shelden as Germany and Guillaume Vuillin (Mssr Green) as England had their own battle going on in the north.  The same time that I stabbed Rob, Guillaume stabbed Brian.  I was then up to 13 Rob, had clawed his way back from two to be on seven and then down to give, Guillaume was on 11 and Brian three. France had been eliminated and Greg Evans as Russia had finally increased from one centre to two (at my expense).

I was happy with 13 (especially for the teams round) and then made a big mistake (one which I am sure I will not make again).  I was in Tri, Bud, and Gal and had a couple of builds.  Rob had a removal to make (I think) and Brian as Germany had three removals.  Before the builds were in, I called for a draw and it was passed immediately.  I then looked again at the board and counted the five more that centres I needed.  Tun, Ven, Rome, Nap and Mun and kicked myself.  All of Brian's units were around Mun and everything was wide open for me.  With four fleets against Rob's one the board was open to me... Damn, a chance at my first solo and I called for the draw.  Still, many more years of play to go; I will get there one day.

Team NZ had performed pretty well. Will and Dominick had done the math to work out our position.  At the moment we were leading.  My 12, Dom. 14, Rob 11 and Will 12 and Peter with zero.  It would all come down to the game that Rohan Jon Keane had to play in the 5th Round (he couldn't make it to the morning round).  He needed to finish on nine to win for his team.  The round had moved to another smaller room as the main room had been invaded by the Chevy fanatics who were having a RnR evening.  He started well getting 3 in 1901 and quickly moving to eight.  We left them to it and went to the pub.  The French were there and we drank till closing and then wandered back to drink some more.  We arrived back to find that Rob Stevenson (as Turkey) had soloed that game.  Thanks to Shane Cubis (A) stabbing  Ian Moses (I). It seemed that after a couple of mediocre rounds Rob now had the lead of the tournament.  We started to compare scores and tried to work out the leaders. Someone, methinks it was Dominick, informed me that I was in the top 5 after my two good rounds. Great, I thought, nothing like a bit more pressure.

Final Round

After the elongated drawing process I ended up with England.  Shane Cubis was Germany, David Norman had France, Craig Sedgwick Italy, Steve Muzzatti got Austria, Mike Dowling was Russia and Will Black had Turkey.  Both G and F had been on the board which had given Rob the solo the night before and I quickly noted that neither really wanted to work with the other.  That played well for me as I was able to open knowing that both of them wanted to go against the other.  Craig played a great Italy and we were happy to watch the two of them go at it.  I decided to go against David, and Craig quickly moved from Tyr to Pie in the fall of 1901 to put pressure on France straight away.  Meanwhile there was an A/R happening and Will as Turkey was quickly eliminated.  Steve got most of the builds out of that and when I made my move into Scandinavia (a turn to late for Will) I was able to get both StP and Mos without any contesting.  Craig, Shane and I had agreed on an 11 split with the final unit going to Russia.  France and Turkey were out of the game and Russia was down to 2.  Steve, as Austria had made a lot of gains and Italy and Germany set about reducing them.  I sat happily, as an ally, in the background, watching them make all of  the gains. I told each of them that I wanted to stab the other but didn't really make the move until fall of 1909 when I took 2 off Shane.  He had actually picked the stab (I must have been very tired) and managed to cover a centre.  Craig moved then to stop my attempt at a solo but I knew that time was not on my side. We had a time draw in 1911. I ended on 12, Shane and Craig both had nine, whilst Mike and Steve both had two.  I think that this was my most enjoyable game as it really tested my patience as a player.

The scores were added up and I was told that I had placed very well.  When prizegiving came along I got Best France.  It was also good enough to get me the Best Round 3 medal as well.  I was very surprised to hear my name called out for the Best Round 6 as well, especially considering I only had 12 SC's. I hadn't really thought about it that much at all during the last day.  I had taken a couple of looks at the tables in the last round to see where the competition was placed but never looked at the leaders of each table.  It seemed that the games had early endings in large draws and that the earlier time draw had also made a slight impact on the last year of centre grabbing. Team NZ got the teams award and I wandered up to collect my third medal of the evening.  I was keen to do the Haka but the Wellingtonions couldn't remember it.

I hate speeches and when I was called up to receive the second-place trophy I sort of stuttered my way through it. The last night in the Capital and in for a bite to eat at a Thai restaurant. We got out of the maxi taxi and Will Black said he was off to get some money.  That is the last anyone saw of him that night.  We sent out search parties around Canberra, alerted the Police, even called Sean Colman back at the hotel, but to no avail.  Will had just vanished.  Dinner was good and a quick beer at the now local haunt. Back to the hotel to find Will curled up asleep.  Sean told us that he was beaten up by seven guys trying to steal his cellphone.  Luckily he had left it at the hotel and hadn't had a chance to get any money out.

My flight home didn't leave until the afternoon so I planned to have a sleep in and then a lazy morning.  Sean comes into the room at 8am telling us that we all have to check out now.  Up we get.  No chance for a shower or anything and then he says 'only joking' :-).  At least Sean got his stab in during the weekend, albeit not on the Diplomacy board. I had a look around the War Memorial Museum, with Tony Collins, trying to be a little bit cultural over the weekend. Off to the airport and then on the flights home.

All in all it was a great weekend of Diplomacy. Seldom do I get the chance to talk tactics, tell lies and drink as much as I did then.  It was good to meet so many avid players of the game and some very interesting people altogether.  I hope that I can see all of you soon at a NZ tournament or if not there, then at Denver next year.