The other day I referred to the Tower of Babel. Today I was inside the Tower! Being typically English I have squandered the education process and utterly refused to learn a second language (not counting my smattering of holiday Turkish) expecting the rest of the world to march to my tune and speak English.

Unfortunately for me, the Rest of the World are here; and some have haven't even had the decency to learn English - can you believe that? I'd always been led to believe that learning to speak any foreign language was a waste of time as all other nations were diligently learning English for my benefit - I've been misled!

This ear-opening fact has been painfully obvious to me as I have stumbled and stuttered my way through explaining the formats and procedures associated with qualifying and gaining entry to the final categories of the Olympiad Championship. I was struggling to make myself understood to a Russian when, just out of curiosity (or desperation - you choose) I asked, of no-one in particular; "Anyone speak Russian?". Roman Klimashev and Peter Bennet battle it out for the last Gold round of the day.

Imagine my utter astonishment when Darry Arrt (a Biba member) turned to my questioner and spoke to them in passable Russian! I as very impressed. Apparently Darryl learned to speak Russian at school. That would have been when I was more occupied with matters behind the bike shed; if only I'd realised what I was missing.

Meanwhile, back at the backgammon. Today, the 3rd day of qualifying, has been slower, the same Silver Category players recycling in their attempts to get to the Gold peppered by the odd, Bronze coming in. Yesterday I made a mistake in adding 8 (Monday) and 4 (Tuesday) together, making it a total of 11 when everyone knows it should be 12 - oops! Anyway, today we had 5 more qualifiers taking the total to 17, the latest being:

• George Christofide
• Darryl Arrt
• Helen Helm-Sagar
• Vitaly Lunkin
• Peter Bennet

Tomorrow (Thursday) will be the last chance for those on Silver to elevate themselves to the giddy golden heights; and it will be a race against time for new entrants attempting to rush through the ranks in one day.