There were just three of us at our table tonight – the Old Guard of Noda, David and Jaime. The table, however, could not take the strain. After one hand had been played the shuffling and sorting mechanism inside the electronic table broke down and as all but one of the other tables were in use, and as the remaining table had also broken, we had to resort to shuffling the tiles, building walls and throwing the die ourselves. I am gratified to report that Mama-san waived the table fee at the end of the evening although this is not something that the players at the other tables should know…
From the foreigners’ point of view the breakdown of the table and the waiving of the table fee were probably very good things.
Firstly, at a time when Noda is rampant at the table, the process of shuffling and sorting our own tiles slowed down the rate of play so we only played four games in three and a half hours.
Secondly, Mama’s discount pretty much covered our losses at the table – so another “score draw” may perhaps be claimed by the losing players…
Noda was the only winner in three of the four games tonight. His final score for the evening came to +112 and so his score for the year on the “accumulated points chart” now stands at +432 – a record high…
The player who suffered the main brunt of the onslaught was Jaime, who ended every game in negative territory. Tonight saw Jaime move from “black” to “red” on the “accumulated points chart” and he and David have had occasion to compete with each other for the honour of being the most despised by that strumpet goddess Fortuna over the last three months…
Tonight the honour fell to Jaime as David had managed to wage a relatively successful defensive campaign against the Noda onslaught for much of the evening. He was the only winner of the second game and by the end of the third game he was back to zero… But the fourth and final game was Noda’s best game of the evening and so it turned out that David and Jaime both had to see out the second quarter of the year with yet another loss.
However, we look forward to the third quarter, resting our hopes upon the mighty edifice of the “Hirohurl Hypothesis,” videlicet, that fortune changes every quarter…
Noda +36, -6, +16, +66 = 112
===
David -15, +18, -3, -36 = -36
Jaime -21, -12, -13, -30 = -76
After the game, Jaime and David strolled over to culture to watch the Germany v Argentina game with Tim, Don, Dutch Alex and a few others. All the English were cheering on Germany, which must be an unusual circumstance, although none was so vehement that he did not want the game to go to penalties. Who could fail to be impressed by the German team’s ability to score and to save penalties?
David Hurley
DavidHurleyinJapan.com