Online Museum of Checkers History

Greetings,
I have received some interesting correspondence from Dave Kotin on the 2nd International Match from 1927...I am printing it here in the forum in case anyone has any thoughts or further insights into the subject they would like to post on......here is his unedited e-mail....

Dear Jay

Short but important? news tid-bits. Unfortunately, this is the only issue I have of any
periodical which provides info in determining 1927 US team. See American Checker Monthly - vol.6 nos. 3&4 - Mar-Apr 1926. J.T. Bradford - Joe Duffy elimination match of 30 games ended in 3 wins each with 24 draws. Duffy was leading by 3-1 late in the match when Bradford managed to win the 24th & 25th games of the match. H.B. Reynolds "ran away from E.C.Waterhouse" but no score was given. Jesse Hanson beat (W.E.? Davis, H. Lieberman with big lead over Ketchum but again, no score was given. The These 3 matches
"were so decisive as to warrant the "Big Seven" placing Reynolds, Lieberman and Hanson on the All-American team without considering the claims of other aspirants." This seems to be a problem in my opinion. The selection process contained flaws to some extent. Single matches only give me info about the 2 particular players involved. It is a pity that criteria used to select players was not used with greater care to determine/select the last few spots on the US team. I can understand possible reasons why August Heffner was on team for his great & many contributions to the game. But as his health, I believe was poor at the time,
I think it more propitious tohave selected Joe Duffy. I my opinion, I think the Bradford-Duffy match was among the strongest, if not the strongest pairing of those mentioned in this issue of The American Checker Monthly. Either of these 2 players would be favourites I think to defeat some of those players selected to the team in a match.

Now we have only room for 2 more players yet many players, relatively speaking, are still fighting for the remaining places. O'Grady plays Waterhouse (he is lucky to have this opportunity to win a place after losing convincingly in 1 match already. Herbert Brown plays Tanner, while Mike Lieber plays A. Dossett shortly. Unfortunately, these are the only details that I have on these matches. I think Duffy was robbed or can anybody tell me who defeated him in a match? Why does E.C. Waterhouse get a 2nd chance? A better system would be to have (virtually) all interested players not yet chosen for the team or eliminated for possible inclusion, to play in a single pool event, with each player playing every other play about 4 games. The 4 game heats were typical in the international matches & playing many players with different knowledge & various styles of play, more or less simulates conditions during international match play. Plus, I still dont know how J.T. Bradford made the 1927 team, though I certainly maintain that he is a very strong player! Then again, so is Joe Duffy!
Perhaps, 30 game match is too few or too many, depending on one's point of view. I don't believe that the system chosen & its implementation to choose the top 12 players was optimal means to achieve the desired purpose or goal. It is interesting that in the 3rd(last paragraph) of this news item, that "selection of the remaining two players is temporarily halted." In addition, Joe Duffy does not feature in any of these matches. Why not? I am aware of George Tanner's later claims about his losing out on a place representing the 1927 team but lack match details etc. Perhaps, interested readers can provide additional detais & results to clarify the difficult decision selectors had to make. By the way, who were the selectors in the first place? Personally, I am a fan? of George Tanner & Joe Duffy. No more to say about this Jay. Hopefully, something will be of interest to your viewers.All the best.
David Kotin


If anyone wants to comment, join the forum and post.....Dave would be interested in any further info on this subject.

Thanx

Jay Hinnershitz