Thursday, March 15, 2012

Memory Competitions Happening

I'm safely back from Bilbao, having neatly swapped places with the travelling army of Man Utd fans, who I'm sure will love the place. The drawback is that I'll have to watch the game on Channel 5 instead of being there, but the plus is that I'm briefly back in my own bed before jetting off to Germany.

Speaking of, the North German Memory Championship is taking place on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th March, 2012, in Niebüll. Actually, the North German Championship is happening just on the Saturday and is only open to North Germans, while there's also the Niebüll Open taking place over the two days - Friday's three disciplines are the extra three that turns a "regional standard" competition into a "national standard", and then Saturday's disciplines are simultaneously two different competitions.

It's all a bit confusing, but this is a competition for clever people, after all. Here's the schedule:

Friday March 23rd Start 4:30 pm

- 10 Minutes Cards,
- 15 Minutes Numbers
- Spoken Number

Sat March 24th : 9am-5pm

- Binary 5
- Words 5
- Numbers 5
- Dates
- Abstract
- Names 5
- Speed Cards

My three biggest rivals from Germany will be there, competing in the "Open" even though some or all of them are North German - Simon Reinhard, Johannes Mallow and Christian Schäfer.

(I need to find some comic or cartoon character with a name like "Simon Reinhard", since whenever I think of the other two I think of Marsh Mallow from Baby-Face Finlayson and Schaeffer the sheepdog from The Raccoons.)

I'll be competing there too, I haven't really made that clear yet, but I haven't done any training since last year, so I'm not expecting to do well. Some or all of the events will be done on the new-fangled computerised Memocamp.com, so get practicing! And if you're coming to the Open, let them know quite quickly, since the closing date is tomorrow. I should have mentioned this earlier, really.


At the same time (well, Saturday only, and six hours later), in the lovely Con Edison building in lovely New York, the US Memory Championship is happening. It's too late to register for that, and you needed to be American anyway, but if you're in the area, you can still go along and watch. It's highly recommended!


Then, the weekend after that, on Saturday 31st, it's the Welsh Memory Championship! I, um, don't know who'll be coming, where exactly it is or what the schedule might be - I have a vague idea that it's in a village hall somewhere, but I can't find the details on the internet. Dai will know, ask him. I'll be there, anyway!


That's all your memory competition fun for March, that I know of. Wow, I haven't written about memory for ages, partly because I worry that if I do I'll get another nasty email from the WMSC, but mostly because I just haven't been in a memory kind of mood for a long time now. Maybe that will change now the season's back in full swing...


(Added five minutes later)
Not being entirely satisfied with my coverage of the Welsh Championship, I've now found the details. Please come along!


Saturday, 31 March 2012
09:00 until 18:00
Llanover Village Hall, Tre Elidyr, Llanover, Abergavenny, South Wales. NP7 9HB

One Day National Standard Competition

Schedule

08.45 Meet at Venue
09.00 5 Min Random Words 10 Min Recall
09.30 5 Min Binary 15 Min Recall
10.00 5 Min Names 15 Min Recall
10.30 15 Min Numbers 30 Min Recall
11.30 10 Min Cards 20 Min Recall

12. 30 Lunch

13.30 5 Min Numbers 15 Min Recall
14.00 15 Min Images 30 Min Recall
15.00 5 Min Historic 15 Min Recall
15.30 Spoken 100 5 Min Recall
16.00 Spoken 200 10 Min Recall
16.30 5 Min Cards 5 Min Recall
17.00 5 Min Cards 5 Min Recall

18.00 Get together.

It is traditional to bring you own deck/s ofcards to these events :-)

As this is an open competition foreign competitors may also compete.

The competition is ideal for beginners and FREE to spectators.

Entry Fee £35 English Pounds.

Language translations available on request and age is no barrier.

Gain an Official World Ranking !

Feel free to send me a message should you have any other questions.



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