Bristol backgammon news

News items from 2017 (second half)

22/12/17: Twenty-two in Fizz action

The last event of the year, known as the Christmas Fizz Tournament, because of sponsor Steve Morris's kind provision of four bottles of various kinds of fizzy liquid, was enjoyed by a twenty-two players at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday.
With only 3-point matches throughout, there were two phases -- the first involving round robin groups of four or five players, while the second comprised main and consolation knock-out flights, where qualification was dependent on performance in the first phase.
The five groups saw the winners -- Ian Tarr, Adam Sinclair, Simon Hughes, Carwyn Jenkins -- who won the event last year -- and Tim Line -- pocket small cash prizes, and the top two or three in each moved on to the main knock-out flight, the remainder contesting the consolation.
Adam emerged through the main flight to take the top prize, defeating Chris Rogers and James Lintell-Smith before despatching Ian in the final.
In the consolation it was Alex Hodge who won the flight, defeating Richard Owsley, Roland Herrera and Steffen Nowak.
All four finalists received bubbly prizes from Steve as well as their prize money, and all in all, a good time was had by all.

22/12/17: Premier League entries total a record forty-seven

Last year's record Premier League entry of forty-three players has been surpassed.
A total of forty-seven players had entered by the time entries closed at midnight.
Three of last year's members -- Cynthia Roberts, Andy Brown and John Chester -- have opted out this time.
But James Lintell-Smith is back, and six players totally new to the Premier League -- Yusuf Adenwala, Steve Cox, John Curran, Jon Organ, Matt Robson and James Timoney -- have taken the plunge.
The full line-ups are:
PREMIER ONE: Simon Baker, Nick Barham, Andy Boysan, Jason Champion, Alex Hodge, Stuart Mann, Fred North, Steffen Nowak, Gaz Owen, Gary Plant, Chris Rogers, Cecilia Sparke, Paul Watts;
PREMIER TWO BLUE: Drew Caudwell, Phil Charlton, Andrew Cobb, Daniel Eldridge, Ian Hedges, Simon Hughes, Tim Line, Stephen Little, Mandy Macdonald, Steve Morris, Dave Pym, Rufus Rozelaar, Peter Thistlewood;
PREMIER TWO RED: Cliff Blofield, Tom Chapman, Pearl Foster, George Georgiou, Simonetta Herrera, Chris Hughes, Richard Owsley, Adam Sinclair, Mike Smith, Ian Tarr, Ed Turner, Ismail Yilmaz, Neil Young;
PREMIER THREE: Yusuf Adenwala, Steve Cox, John Curran, Carwyn Jenkins, James Lintell-Smith, Jon Organ, Matt Robson, James Timoney.
The thirteen members of Premier One and the Blue and Red Divisions will each face a programme of twenty-four matches, while the eight Premier Three players -- playing each other three times -- have twenty-one matches each to play.
Members should expect full details by email within the next couple of days.

19/12/17: Two titles confirmed for Roland; one for John; one for Jim

There were twelve players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club to contest the final phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a pair of six player Nackgammon Tournos.
Both groups saw the pot shared -- by Roland Herrera and Adam Sinclair in one group, Jason Champion and George Georgiou in the other.
So the final Monday session of the year saw the destination of four titles decided.
Roland took the main AGP title, while John Curran was confirmed as the competition's top intermediate.
Jim Green did just enough to win the Nackgammon section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
And Roland also won the Drew Caudwell sponsored Nackgammon Grand Prix.

15/12/17: Alex take OGP title in style

There were thirteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino to contest the final monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournament of the year.
Dubbed a Lesters Trophy tournament in deference to the past history of Bristol Backgammon, the tournament also carried the John Chidgey Cup as an added benefit to the winner.
The Open Grand Prix title was also at stake, with only two players in with a chance.
Alex Hodge was hot favourite, since his only rival -- Roland Herrera -- needed to reach the final at the very least.
So when Roland succumbed at the first hurdle against Richard Owsley that issue was decided.
Then Alex rounded things off in style by winning the tournament, via victories over Cynthia Roberts, Nick Barham, Hugh Swann and Adam Sinclair.
His winning OGP margin is a whopping 141 points, thanks to a campaign which saw him win four of the twelve events.
Adam's march to the final took him past Steve Morris, Tony Walters and Tim Line.
Tony took the consolation flight, defeating Cynthia in the final.
The ill fated Intermediate Grand Prix, where -- apart from the additional contribution from the annual Intermediates Trophy -- only two appearances from intermediates had been forthcoming in the previous eleven tournaments, featured a small twist in the tail with the appearance of Hugh.
With two victories over Premier League opponents he amassed enough points to clinch second place, behind title winner Steve Cox.

12/12/17: Ten in Monday action

There were ten players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club to contest the penultimate phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a pair of five player 3-point round robins.
Both groups saw the pot shared -- by Roland Herrera and Adam Sinclair in one group, John Curran and Alex Hodge in the other.
Adam narrowed the gap at the top to 37 points behind Roland, but with just one session remaining and discards biting, Roland is now virtually assured of the AGP title.
John has won the July to December 3-point round robin section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship by a country mile as well as being the AGP's top intermediate.
There was time for an impromptu DMP Tourno, where the pot was split three ways.

10/12/17: Nick wins maiden Premier League title

It was late, but for Nick Barham it was worth waiting for.
After eight weeks of unavailability through circumstances beyond his control, Nick returned to action at the Rainbow Casino yesterday to complete the Premier One season via his meeting with Jason Champion.
The outcome would decide not only who would win the league title, but also who would finish in third place -- with only one of these objectives achievable, by the winner of course.
Nick had the better of the early exchanges, but after a break it was Jason who pressed on towards the finishing line, moving 9-5 ahead.
Jason took advantage of a free drop, but a double gammon put Nick 10-9 ahead, and he followed up by winning the Crawford game to take his first Premier One title.
Stuart Mann thus finishes second and Gaz Owen third, with Jason completing the prize money bracket in fourth.
While finishing in the top four was a new experience for Nick and Jason, the same could not be said for Stuart, who has done so for seventeen successive seasons, including thirteen in the top two.
And a top four finish is a feat which Gaz has managed eight times in his ten top flight seasons.

08/12/17: Last Round Robin Grand Prix evening sees Daniel take the title

There were just nine players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino to contest the final Round Robin Grand Prix tournament of the year.
This particular competition will probably disappear when the list of new year's events is published shortly, so there was a palpable whiff of anti-climax in the air.
Two small groups -- one of five players and one of four -- meant that, allowing for discards, the chances of major moves in the RRGP table were very limited.
And so it proved as none of the top seven players going into the event were able to add to their tallies.
The minute pots were both shared -- Tim Line, Steve Morris, Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr benefitting -- and pre-event RRGP leader Daniel Eldridge is confirmed as the event winner, his second grand prix title of the year.

05/12/17: Alex and Simonetta share Monday pot

There were eleven players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club to contest the fourteenth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
Simonetta Herrera and Alex Hodge shared the pot, scoring fifteen points apiece.
Roland Herrera also scored well, enough to extend his AGP lead to 55 points with just two sessions remaining.
John Curran has long since wrapped up the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, and has also won the Tric Trac Tourno section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship.

01/12/17: League season ends quietly, with one major conundrum to be resolved

The November 30th end of league season deadline has passed, and Director Ian Tarr has felt compelled to break with hitherto hard and fast rules and grant an extension -- the length of which remains undecided -- for the sake of one match only.
That match -- featuring Nick Barham and Jason Champion -- will not only decide who finishes first and second in Premier One (Nick and Stuart Mann), but also who finishes third and fourth (Jason and Gaz Owen).
Nick has been indisposed for seven weeks now, and the circumstances surrounding that have militated against his completion of this final encounter.
Ian is keen to point out that this exception should not be seen as a precedent for wholesale deadline extensions.
All other leagues are now over for the season.
Premier Two Blue and Premier Two Red had already finished without a hitch.
But Premier Three saw four results unreported, which has prompted a plethora of penalty points to give the final league table an untidy look.
John Chester has incurred twelve penalties, Andy Brown and Carwyn Jenkins eight each, and Rufus Rozelaar four.
Andy, currently based in Shrewsbury, has thus missed out on a chance of securing the third promotion slot, and slips below Tom Chapman into fifth place.
Rufus had already done more than enough to guarantee a second place finish.
And despite the penalties, Carwyn's and John's final positions are unaffected.
The Conference League had an even quieter end of season.
All matches are optional in this league, but despite there being rewards to be grabbed in the form of a title, Premier League qualification and prize money, the final 78 days of competition yielded not a single result!
John Curran has thus been confirmed as champion, with Mary French as runner-up.

01/12/17: Simonetta wins handicap tournament, but Richard takes the title

There were twelve players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino to contest the final Handicap Trophy tournament of the year.
Going into the event three players were in contention for the Handicap Trophy title.
Leader Richard Owsley had a 60 points cushion, which meant that second placed Simonetta Herrera and third placed Steve Morris would need to score very heavily to have a chance of overhauling him.
Steve's first round exit from the main flight at the hands of Cynthia Roberts took him immediately out of contention.
Simonetta drew a bye in the first round, which gave her no margin for error at all.
Ony a tournament win would give her a chance, while Richard could put the issue beyond doubt by winning his first three matches.
And while Simonetta was progressing to the final, Richard was also going well in the longer half of the draw.
Wins over Tim Line, Cynthia and Mandy Macdonald took him beyond reach.
So the final was all about the final and not the title.
Simonetta won it to finish a convincing second, but would have cause to regret forgetting to enter the side pool.
Had she done so, she would have taken the Side Pool Grand Prix, a unique element of Ed Turner's sponsorship of the event.
Steve, who won the consolation flight with victories over Tim, Adam Sinclair and Ian Tarr, was the beneficiary of Simonetta's omission.

30/11/17: Simon rounds off GP30 title season with a victory

Simon Hughes had already made sure of winning the GP30 title long before yesterday's final match of the competition.
But the held over final of the November tournament with Ian Tarr at the Old Market Tavern provided Simon with icing on the cake in the shape of a 9-5 victory.
The result means that Simonetta Herrera is runner-up in this year's competition, with Ian in thIrd place.

29/11/17: Five Premier League matches outstanding

The penultimate day of the Bristol Premier League season is here, yet there are five results still not in.
While there appears a slim prospect of the four remaining Premier Three matches being completed, the one in the top flight is a different case.
Nick Barham's current circumstances -- which have prevailed for almost seven weeks now -- have impeded his desire to complete the season.
If the match were not to be completed by midnight tomorrow -- something which appears unlikely -- the normal upshot would be for the season to be declared closed, with penalty points the consequence.
However, because of the unique circumstances here, Director Ian Tarr has decided that the deadline will be extended for an as yet unspecified period.
Nick needs to defeat Jason Champion to take his maiden Premier One title, while Jason can edge into third place if he wins by 11-6 or better.

29/11/17: Steffen finishes with a win

The Bristol County Sports Club was the venue for the penultimate Premier One match of the season yesterday.
Steffen Nowak defeated Paul Watts 11-4 to leapfrog him in what was effectively a battle for sixth and seventh places.
Both qualify for the 2018 incarnation of the UK Champions League, which is this year open to the top seven Premier League players.
Steffen possesses the third longest current sequence of top flight membership, his nine year tenure only exceeded by Stuart Mann (18 years) and (10 years).
Interestingly Steffen has finished with an even win-loss record in five of the past six seasons.

28/11/17: Alex takes Premier Two championship

There were fourteen players in competitive action on Monday, including the twelve at the Bristol County Sports Club who contested the thirteenth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a pair of six player 3-point round robins.
The Rainbow Casino played host to the play-off match for the Premier Two championship.
This match, which pits together the winners of Premier Two Blue and Premier Two Red, saw Alex Hodge uphold the honour of the Red Division with an 11-3 victory over Chris Rogers.
The round robins featured a return to action after a seven and a half year absence for Ben Heath, who did quite well in his group.
The group winners, each with four wins from five matches, were Stelios Choustoulakis and Simonetta Herrera.
AGP leader Roland Herrera did enough to extend his lead to a handy 45 points, which will give his pursuers a tough target to surpass, as discards are biting hard with just three sessions remaining.
John Curran is out of sight as the intermediates' top performer in this competition, and is also insurpassable at the head of the July to December 3-point round robin section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship.

26/11/17: Chris Hughes wins Sunday Rainbow event; Premier Two completed

There were fourteen players in action on Sunday, including the twelve who contested the latest Sunday tournament at the Rainbow Casino.
Londoner Andy Bell, a regular visitor to the Bristol Open, was making his domestic Bristol debut.
Chris Hughes won the main flight, via a bye and victories over Andy, George Georgiou and Ian Tarr.
Ian had reached the final by defeating Cynthia Roberts, Alex Hodge and Chris Rogers.
Andy won the consolation flight, beating Adam Sinclair and Cynthia.
Meanwhile the Premier Two season drew to a close at the Compass, Tormarton, where Mike Smith edged home 11-10 against Pearl Foster in the Blue Division.

24/11/17: Fred promoted as Ian misses out

The final match of the Premier Two Red season took place at the Rainbow Casino this afternoon.
Ian Tarr needed an 11-3 win or better against Richard Owsley to pip Fred North for the second promotion slot, or an 11-4 win to force an unprecedented promotion play-off.
Things were on track when Ian led 7-3, but his wheels came off, and Richard rallied to score an 11-9 victory.

24/11/17: Ian takes GP5 title with a tournament win

There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, including sixteen at the Rainbow Casino, where twelve contested the final GP5 tournament of the year.
Three Premier League matches were played.
In Premier One Gaz Owen met Jason Champion at the Phoenix, and in a match where each player scored a double backgammon it was Gaz who got the win by 11-9.
At the casino Cecilia Sparke defeated Andy Boysan 11-8 to round off their respective campaigns.
In Premier Two Red Neil Young ended his season with an 11-9 victory over Richard Owsley.
The final GP5 tournament arrived with three players in with a chance of taking the annual title.
Leader Ian Tarr and second placed Alex Hodge appeared to be the main contenders, while for third placed Steve Morris nothing less than a tournament win would suffice.
With all three in one half of the draw, Alex and Ian met in the second round after defeating Cynthia Roberts and Stephen Little respectively.
And Ian saw off Alex's threat.
Meanwhile Steve was staying in contention by defeating Simon Hughes and Daniel Eldridge, and his quarter-final meeting with Ian was to prove pivotal.
Onc again it was Ian who came through to clinch the title and a place in the final against Ian Hedges, who had progressed via a bye and victories over Roland Herrera and Tim Line.
Simonetta Herrera won the consolation flight, defeating Adam Sinclair, Stephen and Roland.

22/11/17: Tom signs off with a win

Tom Chapman signed off his inaugural Premier Three season yesterday at the White Hart, Bedminster Parade, with an 11-8 win over John Chester.

21/11/17: Tuesday Premier Two action

Two matches from the Bristol Premier League's second tier were played on Tuesday.
The Castle Inn, Bradford-on-Avon, was the latest new venue for a Bristol Backgammon match, and it was here that Simon Baker and Tim Line concluded their Blue Division campaigns.
Simon, already assured of promotion to the top flight, won 11-6 to round off an outstanding season, where he only missed out on the divisional title by a difference of seven points.
Another player with promotion aspirations was Ian Tarr, whose slim chance of elevation from the Red Division rested on his chances of scoring emphatic wins in both of his remaining matches.
Those hopes gained a little more substance when he defeated Drew Caudwell 11-1 at the Bristol County Sports Club, aided in no small measure by a quadruple gammon in the opening game.

20/11/17: Alex wins Red Division; Ed relegated

There were twenty-four players in action on Monday, including nineteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom ten contested the twelfth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno.
Four Premier League matches were played, and some important issues were resolved.
In Premier One a double header between Ed Turner and Cecilia Sparke at the Rainbow Casino saw honours shared.
Ed needed more, however, as the defeat signalled his relegation from the top flight, leaving Gary Plant to fight another day at that level.
And the top two in Premier Two Red also played.
Fred North could have clinched the divisional title with a win over Simonetta Herrera at Kellaway Avenue, but he lost 6-11.
Later Alex Hodge scored an 11-3 victory over Neil Young at the casino to make the title his.
He now faces Blue Division champion Chris Rogers in a play-off for the overall Premier Two title.
The news is not all bad for Fred, however, as he is strong favourite for the second Red Division promotion slot.
Only Ian Tarr can overhaul him, but two very emphatic wins are required to do this.
At the club nine members of the Bristol University Persian Society played some friendly matches alongside the DMP Tourno.
Roland Herrera won the DMP with seven wins from his nine games and takes over the AGP lead from Adam Sinclair with a margin of 25 points.
John Curran remains the runaway leader of the race to be that competition's top intermediate, but didn't quite do enough to overhaul Mathew Nicholls, who wins the DMP section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship.

19/11/17: Premier Two Red takes centre stage

The three league matches played on Sunday were all in Premier Two Red.
Simonetta Herrera played two at the Rainbow Casino and met with differing fortunes.
An 11-5 victory over Chris Hughes was followed by a 10-11 reverse against Ismail Yilmaz.
Chris's final result means that he is one of three players at risk of playing Premier Three backgammon in 2018, although there is a strong chance that he will make the Premier Two cut.
In the other match Richard Owsley played host to Ian Tarr and lost 4-11.
That result keeps Ian's slim promotion hopes alive.

17/11/17: Steve signs off with a win

Steve Morris and Peter Thistlewood concluded their league campaigns this afternoon at the Blaise Inn.
Their Premier Two Blue encounter ended in an 11-9 victory for Steve.

17/11/17: GP30 and Blue Division titles resolved

There were nineteen players in action on Thursday, including eighteen at the Rainbow Casino, where sixteen contested the final GP30 tournament of the year.
Three Premier Two Blue matches were played -- two at the Compass, Tormarton, where Tim Line scored a brace of 11-3 wins over Pearl Foster.
And while those two matches had no bearing on important issues, the other match, between Simon Baker and Mike Smith did.
Simon had a ghost of a chance to take the divisional title with very emphatic wins in his final two matches.
His eventual 11-9 victory took that chance out of the equation, but the important objective of achieving promotion to Premier One at the expense of Stephen Little was met.
Simon finishes second behind chanpion Chris Rogers.
The perfect sixteen player draw for the GP30 tournament included two Thursday debutants -- Yusuf Adenwala and Hugh Swann, who had made their first Bristol Backgammon appearances as recently as Monday.
Yusuf added to his Monday success by taking the consolation flight with victories over Cynthia Roberts, Tim and Roland Herrera.
The main flight final will feature Simon Hughes and Ian Tarr.
Simon progressed with wins over Alex Hodge, Gaz Owen and Cecilia Sparke, while Ian got past Cynthia Roberts, Stephen and Steve Morris.
It was Simon's victory over Gaz which sealed the GP30 title in his favour.
Ironically had Simon not managed more than one win Ian would have had a chance to overhaul him, although he can still finish second by winning the outstanding final.

15/11/17: George signs off with a rare defeat

The top two players in Premier Three -- the already promoted George Georgiou and Rufus Rozelaar met at the Rainbow Casino today.
And Rufus scored an 11-10 victory to cement second place, inflicting only the fourth defeat of the season for champion George, who has now completed his fixtures.
The only important issue remaining in the division is the destiny of the third promotion place, which depends on whether or not Andy Brown can overhaul Daniel Eldridge.

14/11/17: Thirty in Monday action!

There were thirty players in action on Monday, including twenty-seven at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom twelve contested the eleventh phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a pair of 3-point round robins.
Five league matches were played, eight members of the Bristol University Persian Society played as a group, and one new player, John McLaughlin, played some friendly games with Director Ian Tarr.
One other player sadly arrived too late for inclusion into the round robins.
In the leagues, one issue was decided, and others got closer to resolution.
Rufus Rozelaar is now assured of promotion from Premier Three, assuming he completes his fixtures, after finishing an adjourned match with Tom Chapman at the Rainbow Casino, winning 11-6.
Also played at the casino was a match betwen the two top players in Premier Two Red.
Fred North won this -- against Alex Hodge -- 11-2 and is now almost certain of promotion.
The other three league matches were in Premier One, and as a result the final relegation place now definitely rests between Gary Plant and Ed Turner.
Andy Boysan and Paul Watts removed any minor lingering doubts about their top flight safety by winning.
For Paul it was honours even in a double header with Simon Hughes.
And for Andy it was an 11-8 win over Ed, who now faces a battle to stay up.
From his final two matches -- both against Cecilia Sparke -- Ed needs either to win both or to win one out of two while substantially improving his average points difference.
In the round robins, there were two more debut players -- Yusuf Adenwala and Hugh Swann -- who encountered differing fortunes.
Yusuf won his group outright, while Hugh did not fare so well, although his play drew compliments from at least one top player.
The other group saw the spoils shared between Roland Herrera and Adam Sinclair.
John Curran extended his lead in the July to December 3-point round robin section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship and is comfortably leading the race to be the AGP's top intermediate.

11/11/17: George extends Premier Three lead

A Premier Three match at the Rainbow Casino today saw George Georgiou defeat Carwyn Jenkins 11-5 to further extend his league lead.

10/11/17: Peter wins in Redland

In a Premier Two Blue meeting at the Kensington Arms, Redland, today Peter Thistlewood emerged with an 11-8 victory over Steve Morris.

10/11/17: Tim wins November Grand Prix event

There were thirteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino for the eleventh of this year's twelve Monthly Grand Prix tournaments.
Tim Line won the main flight, defeating Simon Hughes, Ian Tarr and Daniel Eldridge en route to a final in which he beat Roland Herrera.
Roland had got past Adam Sinclair, Simonetta Herrera and Jason Champion.
Simon won the consolation flight with victories over Richard Owsley, Steve Morris and Steve Cox.
Roland has reduced Alex Hodge's OGP points lead to 46, but although he is now the only challenger in with a chance of overhauling Alex, he has 30 to discard in December, so will need to reach the latter stages of that event.
Steve Cox became, in November(!), the first locally based intermediate to contest one of these tournaments this year.
He already held the IGP lead, thanks to his Intermedates Trophy success in June, and will now be very difficult to surpass in December for that title.

07/11/17: Stuart suffers double title blow

There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday, two of which had a dramatic bearing on the league title race.
Dave Pym and Stuart Mann played out a double header at the Rainbow Casino to conclude their Premier One campaigns.
For Dave, already relegated, it was a case of playing for honour, while for Stuart one win out of two would almost certainly mean a seventh league title triumph.
But both matches were close, and both went Dave's way, 11-9 and 11-8.
The margins being that narrow did at least resolve one thing, and that was to deny Jason Champion a chance of taking the title, since -- while he can draw level on points with Stuart -- his average points difference will not now match Stuart's.
So now it all comes down to one of Jason's two remaining matches -- the one against second placed Nick Barham.
While Jason still has second place to play for, the title equation is simple.
A victory for Nick will mean the league title is his. A defeat will hand the title to Stuart.
Meanwhile, in Premier Two Red, Phil Charlton was scoring an emphatic win at the King William IV for the second successive evening.
His victim this time was Chris Hughes, and the margin was 11-3.
Phil has finished the season with a flourish, and although automatic promotion is out of his grasp, third place is still a distinct possibility.

07/11/17: Eleven in Monday action

There were eleven players in action on Monday, including the nine at the Bristol County Sports Club who contested the tenth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno.
The exceptions were Drew Caudwell and Phil Charlton who met for a Premier Two Red encounter at the King William IV.
Phil won 11-2 for his fifth successive league victory.
The DMP Tourno saw welcome Bristol Backgammon debuts for Azadeh Rafi and Stelios Choustoulakis.
George Georgiou took the honours by winning seven of his eight games.
Ian Hedges did enough to close the gap at the top of the AGP table to 15 points.
And John Curran holds a massive lead in the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.

03/11/17: Record low Handicap Trophy turnout

With some regular players away in Cyprus there were just six players in action on Thursday for the seventh of this year's eight Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino -- a record low in the 79 incarnations of this event.
The fact that there were fewer than seven players triggered a round robin -- the first time this has happened in this event.
That meant a gruelling schedule of five seven-point matches for each player, but thankfully there were no slouches, and the whole thing was done and dusted before midnight.
Steve Morris swept all before him, and took first prize with a 100% record, Stephen Little finishing second.
Handicap Trophy leader Richard Owsley was hoping to extend his 50 points lead, and despite a poor tournament for him, he managed to do this by 10 points, not least because his three closest rivals were absent for differing reasons.
Steve has moved into third place.

01/11/17: Rufus almost there

Rufus Rozelaar and Tom Chapman met at the Rainbow Casino on Monday for a Premier Three encounter.
Rufus won 11-5, and will be promoted if he finishes the season on time.
He was also 5-2 ahead in a return encounter, which was adjourned.

Catching up after the news hiatus (5)

30/10/17: Monday 30th:

There were thirteen players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club, where five contested the ninth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a 3-point round robin.
The other eight were members of the Bristol University Persian Society, who played an informal round robin, won by Shabnam.
John Curran took the honours in the AGP round robin and now holds a very commanding lead in the July to December 3-point round robin section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
Ian Hedges moves into second place in the AGP table, 20 points behind George Georgiou.

Catching up after the news hiatus (4)

30/10/17: Friday 27th, Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th at the Bristol Open:

A grand total of Ninety-seven players participated in the various elements of the seventh and latest incarnation of the Bristol Open at the Rainbow Casino over the weekend.
51 in the Masters, 36 in the Intermediates, and two in the Beginners were joined at different stages by eight others in a tournament jointly directed by Tim Line and Ian Tarr, with invaluable assistance from Carel Lindley, Daniel Eldridge and Andy Boysan.
Players who fared best were (UK players unless stated, Bristol players in block capitals):
MASTERS (double elimination): 1st Peter Bennet; 2nd CECILIA SPARKE; 3rd Andy Darby; 4th Robert Wachtel (USA); equal 5th Catalin Bucur and GAZ OWEN.
INTERMEDIATES (double elimination): 1st Mike Ireland; 2nd CHAS PERRY; 3rd SIMON BAKER; 4th MATT HOPKINS; equal 5th Shaun Goode and STEVE MORRIS.
SUPER JACKPOT: 1st CHRIS ROGERS; 2nd Eric McAlpine.
FRIDAY WARM-UP: 1st John Hurst; 2nd GAZ OWEN.
TOMBSTONE TROPHY (Sunday last chance): 1st Michihito Kageyama (Japan); 2nd Fak Laight.
BRISTOL BLITZ (Speedgammon): 1st Allen Tish (USA); 2nd Jon Barnes.
CONSULTING DOUBLES: 1st "Leroy Head" (Gary Kallos (Canada) and Allen Tish (USA)); 2nd "Rainbow" (Farzin Aarabi (Norway/Iran) playing solo).
�5 64-player 1-pointer: 1st Yan Kit Chan; 2nd Jon Barnes.
�10 8-player jackpot: 1st IAN HEDGES.
�10 4-player jackpot: 1st Farzin Aarabi (Norway/Iran).

Catching up after the news hiatus (3)

31/10/17: Sunday 29th Bristol Premier League action:

Three Premier League matches were played on Sunday alongside the main event.
Stuart Mann took a sizeable step towards another Premier One title with an 11-2 victory over Adam Sinclair which also confirmed Adam's relegation back to Premier Two.
One victory from his outstanding double header with Dave Pym will be enough to clinch a seventh top flight championship.
Adam joins Dave and Simon Hughes in stepping down, with their fourth companion in distress still to be confirmed.
Gary Plant and Ed Turner are the most likely candidates, although there is a very remote chance that either Andy Boysan or Paul Watts could be sucked into the mire.
The other two matches involved Mandy Macdonald, whose relegation to Premier Three was confirmed when she suffered narrow defeats to her closest rivals Chris Hughes and Drew Caudwell.

Catching up after the news hiatus (2)

30/10/17: Thursday 26th:

There were nineteen players in action on Thursday for the seventh and last of this year's Speedgammon Grand Prix round robin evenings at the Rainbow Casino.
The field was boosted by players from afar limbering up for the weekend's big event, including two -- Allen Tish of the USA and Garry Kallos from Canada -- who were making their Bristol Backgammon debuts.
One group of seven players and two of six made for some absorbing competition.
The seven player group saw a three way split between John Hurst, Michihito Kageyama and Chris Rogers, who each won four of their six matches.
One of the six player groups was as close as it could have been, with three players winning three -- Simon Hughes, Stephen Little and Allen Tish -- and the other three winning two apiece.
But Daniel Eldridge won the other group outright, being defeated only once.
This latter group was significant indeed, as it allowed Daniel to bridge the 30 points gap between himself and SGGP leader Ian Tarr.
So the destiny of the title was all down to tie breakers.
And as both players entered every tournament, the decisive factor was the percentage of matches won over the entire SGGP season, where Daniel held sway to win his biggest title yet.

Catching up after the news hiatus (1)

30/10/17: Wednesday 25th:

Two late results from the Rainbow Casino involved the Premier Three promotion race.
Daniel Eldridge and Rufus Rozelaar scored a win apiece.
For Daniel this signalled the end of his league campaign, and he has finished on 36 points.
Whether or not this will be enough to get him promoted remains to be seen, but the odds are in his favour.
Assuming Rufus finishes his season, and wins at least one of his four matches, he will be up.
That would leave the only other contender, Andy Brown, needing to win both of his remaining matches, improving his points difference by at least sixteen points.
The other issue to be decided was the one which most people had assumed anyway -- George Georgiou is the Premier Three champion, since Rufus can no longer catch him.

25/10/17: Gaz out of title race, Gary clings to survival hope

The Blathwayt Arms, Swindon, was the venue for a Premier One double header today.
The protagonists -- Gaz Owen and Gary Plant -- had differing but equally urgent objectives in mind.
For Gaz, nothing less than two wins would keep alive his slim championship chance.
And for Gary, a brace of wins would give him a realistic chance of staying in the top flight.
An 11-3 win for Gaz and an 11-2 victory for Gary left both players short of their targets.
The title race now involves just three players, while Gary, whose fixtures are now complete, has moved out of the bottom four, but must wait anxiously for other results to settle things.

24/10/17: Sixteen in Monday action

There were sixteen players in action on Monday, of whom fourteen were at the Bristol County Sports Club, where six contested the eighth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
The other eight were Roland and Simonetta Herrera and six members of the Bristol University Persian Society.
The Herreras provided tuition in the context of a modified gang tournament.
The Tric Trac was won by Ian Tarr, who only won two of his five games, but as these were a gammon and a backgammon, this was enough.
George Georgiou is the latest leader of the AGP table, but four pursuers are within forty points of him.
John Curran comfortably leads the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, and is also sure of winning the Tric Trac Tourno section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran Monday Club intermediate sponsorship.
Earlier at the Windmill Phil Charlton had scored an 11-2 victory over Mandy Macdonald in Premier Two Red.

22/10/17: Setback for Fred

Fred North's promotion aspirations encountered a setback on Friday at the Shakespeare, Totterdown, when he met Neil Young in a Premier Two Red encounter.
Neil's 11-9 win keeps Fred in second place, behind Alex Hodge on average points difference.
As far as promotion goes, however, Fred still has it all in his own hands, as his closest pursuer needs several things to happen to oust Fred from second place.

20/10/17: A sad evening for Bristol Backgammon

There were just ten players in action on Thursday for the seventh of this year's eight GP5 knock-out tournaments the Rainbow Casino.
But it was not a happy occasion for the majority of those present.
Nick Barham, who has been making headlines for all the right reasons lately, did the exact opposite this time.
Nick, normally a popular and affable opponent, has a condition which, on rare occasions, drastically alters his behaviour.
Yesterday evening was just such an occasion.
In the past, these episodes have been managed without too much damage to the evening's entertainment, which influenced Director Ian Tarr's decision to accept Nick's entry.
With hindsight this will be seen as a bad decision, and one which is unlikely to be repeated when his demeanour is similar.
Coincidentally Ian and Nick were drawn together in the opening round.
But by the time the score had reached 4-4, Ian had had more than enough of the experience, and decided to resign the match.
Richard Owsley, due to play the victor, had also seen and heard enough, and resigned without even starting the quarter-final.
These actions had the undesirable effect of propelling Nick into the semi-finals, where he defeated Tim Line.
He subsequently lost the final to Simonetta Herrera.
None of Nick's opponents enjoyed their experience, two unrelated matches relocated to a quieter environment, and another player -- who had had advance knowledge of Nick's current demeanour -- declined to even come along at all when he had been planning to.
While all his friends wish Nick the very best in managing his condition, his further participation in Bristol Backgammon events will clearly need to be closely monitored.
Steve Morris won the consolation flight, defeating Ian and Daniel Eldridge.
Ian still heads the GP5 standings, and is favourite to take the title with just one event remaining.
Alex Hodge is well within striking distance, but the only other player in contention is Steve, who would need to win the final event to stand a chance of finishing top.

18/10/17: UK Champions League knock-out phase update

(see report dated 20/07/17 for a summary of the group phase).
The sharp end of the year's UK Champions League action has seen five Bristol players continuing their quest for honours after moving through the group phase with varying degrees of success.
Sixteen of the original field of 40 qualified for the Champions Final Stage, while sixteen moved into the Challenge Final Stage.
In the elite group Nick Barham was eliminated in the round of sixteen, while Gaz Owen made it one stage further.
So our only representative in with a chance of taking the big prize is Cecilia Sparke, who faces London's Sean Williams for a place in the semi-finals.
In the consolation Challenge both of our representatives still survive.
Simon Hughes got past double British Open champion Rachel Rhodes and must play David Penn in the quarter-finals, while Steffen Nowak has already gone one step further than that, and meets Geoff Oliver for a place in the final.
Further updates will appear here when available.

18/10/17: Nineteen in Monday action

There were nineteen players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom eight contested the seventh phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- two four-player 3-point round robins.
The other eleven were members of the Bristol University Persian Society, who amused themselves in non-competitive games.
The round robins were won outright by George Georgiou and Roland Herrera.
Roland moved back into the lead in the AGP standings, but George is just 1.5 points behind.
The July to December round robin section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship shows little change, with John extending his impressive lead.

13/10/17: Nick makes it a perfect week

There were just ten players in action on Thursday for the tenth of this year's twelve Monthly Grand Prix tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
And after making Monday's headline, Nick Barham repeated the dose by claiming the tournament main flight, with the added bonus of an agreement with opponent Steffen Nowak to double up the final as a Premier One match.
That agreement was looking like backfiring on Nick when he fell 1-8 down, but Steffen was unable to add any more points, and Nick -- although not close enough to absent OGP leader Alex Hodge to pose a threat in that table -- took the major share of the tournament spoils (including the Winner Takes All pool) as well as moving to the top of Premier One.
He has one league match remaining -- against fellow contender Jason Champion -- which he would be well advised to win to keep his chances truly alive.
Stuart Mann remains favourite for the title, however.
In the tournament Nick's other victims were Adam Sinclair, Steve Morris and Stephen Little, while Steffen's path to the final came via a bye and wins over Cynthia Roberts and Jason.
Adam defeated Cynthia and Daniel Eldridge to take the consolation flight.

10/10/17: Nick is fourth Brunel Trophy winner

There were twelve players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club to contest the sixth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- two six-player Nackgammon Tournos.
But first there was an important piece of business to be conducted.
Nick Barham and Daniel Eldridge -- the last two standing -- were there to play out the ninth round of the Brunel Trophy.
It was not necessarily the final round, however, as Nick had two lives remaining and Daniel one.
A win for Daniel would have precipitated a tenth round, which would have been a genuine final.
But a tense and close battle ended with Nick edging it to take the title, after a splendid undefeated campaign.
Nick takes first prize, Daniel second, Stephen Little and Gaz Owen joint third, and Chris Rogers fifth.
In the Nackgammon Tournos Adam Sinclair won one group outright, while the pot in the other was shared by Ian Hedges and Ian Tarr.
Ian Hedges now heads the AGP standings, being 30 points ahead of Stephen.
Adam is probably the player to beat, however, having won or jointly won all of the three events he has contested so far.
The absent Jon Organ still leads the Nackgammon section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
And the Drew Caudwell sponsored Nackgammon Grand Prix is still led by Roland Herrera, with just one event to go.

06/10/17: Ten contest Round Robin Grand Prix evening

There were just ten players in action on Thursday for the fourth of this year's five Round Robin Grand Prix evenings at the Rainbow Casino.
Two groups of five, playing each other in first-to-5-point matches, saw both pots shared.
Daniel Eldridge and Roland Herrera came top of one group, while Cynthia Roberts and Ian Tarr did so in the other.
Daniel is now five points ahead of Roland at the top of the RRGP standings.

03/10/17: A Monday night with a difference

There were sixteen players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom just five contested the fifth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a 3-point round robin.
The other eleven included Roland and Simonetta Herrera, who hosted the evening superbly in Director Ian Tarr's absence.
Their "duties" included looking after nine members of the Bristol University Persian Society, who joined the evening and appeared to enjoy the experience.
The hosts and the visitors played out an informal DMP Tourno, which wasn't completed, but that didn't seem to matter.
The advertised event saw the pot shared by Ian Hedges and Stephen Little.
Stephen takes over as leader of the AGP, four points ahead of Ian Hedges.
And John has consolidated his lead of the 3-point round robin section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran sponsorship.

01/10/17: Two penalised at September 30th Premier League checkpoint

The September 30th Premier League penalty checkpoint has passed, and two Premier Three players have been penalised for being in arrears of the schedule.
The points incurred by Rufus Rozelaar (three) and John Chester (one) will be successfully clawed back when they complete the season on time.
However the conditions of the September checkpoint are subtly different, in that there is also a penalty applied to the players' points difference, which is not subject to appeal.
The effect of this has been to encourage all players in the league's other three divisions to meet all the requirements.
It is also at this point of the season that Director Ian Tarr can heave a sigh of relief because nobody can now be expunged from this season's Premier League.

01/10/17: Cecilia wins Saturday Rainbow event

There were just eight players in action on Saturday at the latest Saturday tournament at the Rainbow Casino.
Cecilia Sparke won the main flight, defeating Stephen Little, Simonetta Herrera and Tony Walters.
Gaz Owen took the consolation flight after defeating Ian Tarr and Alex Hodge.

29/09/17: Roland and Nick win Speedgammon round robins; Simon close to promotion

There were nineteen players in action on Thursday, including sixteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom ten contested the sixth of the year's seven Speedgammon Grand Prix evenings.
Five and a half Premier League matches were played, with the focus primarily on Premier Two Blue.
Simon Baker's 11-3 victory over Tim Line ended Tim's automatic promotion aspirations, but consolidated Simon's.
He has moved into the second promotion slot, but Stephen Little -- who has completed his fixtures -- will be hoping that Simon slips back to third with two defeats in his remaining matches.
But even in defeat the odds would be in Simon's favour, as scoring a total of nine points or more would see him stay second.
Steve Morris scored a brace of wins over Andrew Cobb, while Mike Smith defeated Peter Thistlewood 11-6 at the Blaise Inn.
In the parallel Red Division Neil Young beat Richard Owsley 11-2.
And a Premier Three match was adjourned with Daniel Eldridge 10-3 ahead of Rufus Rozelaar.
In the Speedgammon round robins, there were clean sweep wins for Roland Herrera and Nick Barham.
Ian Tarr never got close to adding to his points tally, but still heads the SGGP standings, with Daniel in second place.
At this point, it should be noted that there was an error in the reporting of the last of these contests.
The increase from six to seven events was accompanied in the rules by a change of the number of counting rounds from four to five.
Thus discards were reported last time when there were none at the time.
This has now been rectified.

27/09/17: Alex and Fred almost there

Premier Two Red took centre stage on Wednesday with three matches completed.
And it was a day when the promotion issues moved a great deal closer to resolution.
Neil Young was already a rank outsider in the race for the top two, but two defeats finally extinguished all hope of automatic promotion.
The first was a 9-11 reverse against Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill, and the second was at the Rainbow Casino, where Alex Hodge's 11-4 win took him back to the top of the league on average points difference from Fred North.
The other match took place at the Fire Engine, where Phil Charlton's 11-2 success delivered a swingeing blow to Ian Tarr's top two ambitions.
Ian is the only player who can now break into the top two, but this will require many elements to fall conveniently into place.

26/09/17: Chris wins at the Windmill

In a Premier Two Red match at the Windmill on Tuesday Chris Hughes defeated Mandy Macdonald 11-6.

25/09/17: Fred's run ended; Adam and Ian share Monday Tric Trac Tourno spoils

There were seventeen players in action on Monday, including sixteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom ten contested the fourth phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
Seven Premier League matches were completed.
In Premier One Simon Hughes and Gary Plant ensured that all top flight players will hit the September 30th checkpoint with a clean bill of health, playing a double header.
Simon, already relegated, was playing for pride, and duly won the opener 11-9, but Gary hit back to win the return 11-7.
Gary retains a fair chance of escaping the drop, but will need to win at least one of his final two matches, both of which are against Gaz Owen.
Neil Young is currently involved in a flurry of activity to catch up with the schedule, and won two Premier Two Red matches, 11-8 over Chris Hughes at the Shakespeare, Totterdown, and 11-0 over Drew Caudwell at the club.
Director Ian Tarr can now rest easy, in that there will be no expungements in this year's Premier League.
And if Neil can keep winning, he may yet have a say in the promotion shake-down.
For league leader Fred North, however, there was a setback.
His 8-11 defeat by Ismail Yilmaz still sees him in pole position, but there is now a little less margin for error.
There were two Premier Three matches played, both involving Tom Chapman.
An adjourned encounter with Daniel Eldridge ended 11-7 in Daniel's favour, and this was followed by a quickfire 3-11 defeat at the hands of league leader George Georgiou.
With George already assured of promotion, the other two coveted slots will rest between Rufus Rozelaar, Daniel and Andy Brown.
In the Tric Trac Tourno the spoils were shared by Ian Hedges and Adam Sinclair, who each scored 13 points.
Roland Herrera's AGP lead over second placed George has increased by 10 points to 27.5.

24/09/17: George promoted in style; Simon one step closer

Six Premier League matches were played on Sunday.
A triple header at the Rainbow Casino saw George Georgiou clinch promotion from Premier Three.
His opponent, Andy Brown, was looking to regain third place in his quest for a return to Premier Two.
But he found his opponent in top form, and all three results went George's way, 11-5, 11-10 and 11-7.
It was the second victory which clinched George's promotion, and the third makes him strong odds on to win the title.
Daniel Eldridge thus holds on to third place, with Andy still fourth.
In Premier Two Blue Simon Baker met Andrew Cobb for a double header at the Rose and Crown, Bath.
Simon won the opener 11-6, but Andrew returned the compliment with an 11-10 victory of his own.
Simon will now need two victories from his final three matches to be sure of landing the second promotion slot, although one win could conceivably be enough.
And in Premier Two Red at the Lock Keeper Neil Young lost his first league match in six, 5-11 to Chris Hughes.

24/09/17: Paul and Jason share the spoils

Jason Champion played host to Paul Watts in a Premier One double header yesterday.
Paul won the opener 11-8, but Jason got his revenge, winning the return 11-9.
The results will have pleased Paul more than Jason, however.
Jason is now third favourite to take the title, and must win his last two matches -- against fellow contenders Nick Barham and Gaz Owen -- to stand any chance of lifting the prize.
For Paul, however, top flight survival remains a probability, as one win from his three remaining matches should see him safe.
What Paul's win did achieve, however, was to render Dave Pym's survival hopes almost non-existent.
He must hope for three miracles -- in his double header against leader Stuart Mann and Adam Sinclair's match against the same player -- to overcome a points difference disadvantage of 30.
And even then, Ed Turner or Gary Plant are very likely to render the miracles meaningless.

22/09/17: League win for Neil

A Friday morning visit to Kellaway Avenue proved a positive one for Neil Young when he scored an 11-10 Premier Two Red victory over Simonetta Herrera.
Neil still has nine matches to play, but retains an outside interest in the promotion race.

22/09/17: Adam wins GP30 tournament

There were sixteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, fourteen of whom contested the fifth of the year's six GP30 knock-out events.
The other two, Andy Boysan and Gary Plant, fought out a Premier One match, Gary winning 11-6 to kep alive his top flight survival hopes.
And Andy, with two matches remaining, would be well advised to win at least one of those if he wants to stay up too.
Adam Sinclair won the advertised event, taking full advantage of a bye, before defeating Steve Morris, Jason Champion and, in the final, Chris Hughes.
Chris had got past Roland Herrera, Fred North and Stephen Little en route to the final.
Tim Line took the consolation flight, beating Cynthia Roberts in the final after wins over Steve and Simonetta Herrera.
Simonetta still heads the GP30 standings despite her almost blank evening, but Simon Hughes has closed to within 10 points.
With just one of the six events in this series remaining, it's still possible for any of the top ten to win the title.

20/09/17: Paul ends Cecilia's title hopes

In a Premier One match at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening Paul Watts scored a stunning 11-0 victory over Cecilia Sparke.
The win moved Paul out of the bottom four, while at the same time extinguishing Cecilia's last hope of taking a second title.

19/09/17: Nick and Stuart's titanic session

The top two in Premier One met for a double header at the Rainbow Casino this evening.
And two very close matches saw the spoils split.
Nick Barham drew first blood with an 11-9 victory, which ended Stuart Mann's sequence of eight league wins and extended Nick's run to six.
That result moved Nick to the top of the league, but then it was Stuart's turn to end a winning run, when he edged home 11-10 to return to the summit.
While Cecilia Sparke and Gaz Owen retain an interest in the title race, the odds are that the top three -- including third placed Jason Champion -- will provide the champion.

19/09/17: Simon relegated; Daniel into Brunel last two; Fred goes top

There were nineteen players in action on Monday, including fifteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom thirteen contested the third phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- three 3-point round robins.
Four Premier League matches and the final match of the eighth round of the Brunel Trophy were played at various locations.
Fred North defeated Drew Caudwell at the Post Office Tavern, and now sits proudly atop Premier Two Red, so close to clinching promotion to the top flight.
At the Bear of Rodborough Simon Baker met Steve Morris for a Premier Two Blue double header, where the spoils were shared.
Simon is still poised to challenge for the second promotion slot.
At the club Simon Hughes's disastrous season has resulted in his relegation from Premier One after a 7-11 defeat by Ed Turner finally sealed his fate.
And in the Brunel Trophy the eighth round was completed by Daniel Eldridge's victory over Stephen Little.
Only Daniel and Nick Barham remain, from the forty original entrants, to contest round nine.
Daniel has one life remaining and Nick two.
So Daniel will need to win the round nine match to take it to a round ten decider.
In the round robins the five player group was won outright by Adam Sinclair, while the two four player groups saw the pot shared.
Roland Herrera retains his AGP lead, with a 12.5 points cushion over second placed George Georgiou.
John Curran did enough to take the lead in the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.

15/09/17: Gaz wins Lesters 104; Simonetta wins July GP30 event

There were fourteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, twelve of whom contested the ninth of the year's twelve Monthly Grand Prix knock-out events, a k a Lesters CIV.
Action before the advertised event consisted of a Premier Three triple header and the held over main flight final of the July GP30 tournament.
This latter match involved Simonetta Herrera and Gaz Owen.
Simonetta moved into a 7-2 lead in the first-to-9-points match, but Gaz pegged it back to DMP, only for Simonetta to clinch the prize and move to the head of the GP30 standings.
The league action saw John Chester defeat Daniel Eldridge before suffering a brace of defeats.
Daniel now occupies the third and last promotion slot, although Andy Brown has matches in hand.
In the GP main flight, Gaz was once again in the final, after defeating Alex Hodge and Adam Sinclair.
There he met Roland Herrera, who came through the long part of the draw, getting past Andy Boysan, Chris Rogers and Tim Line.
This was another match to go to DMP, Roland recovering from 3-10 in arrears, only to lose a very close race.
Simon Hughes took the honours in the consolation flight, beating Simonetta, Alex and Andy.
In the OGP it has for some time appeared as though Alex would take the title in a canter.
He still sits at the top of the pile in a very strong position, but Roland has closed to within 77 points, and thus well within striking distance.
As for the IGP, consideration may well have to be given to discontinuing this title after eighteen years of history.
Nobody seems to want to win this.
Apart from the annual Intermediates Trophy knock-out, which contributes points to this title race, there has been just one appearance by an intermediate in nine GP tournaments.
And that was by Vic Sprake, visiting from the Republic of Ireland!

13/09/17: Gaz out of Brunel Trophy

There were four matches played on Wednesday, one in the Brunel Trophy, three in the leagues.
Nick Barham and Gaz Owen met at the Rainbow Casino to fight out their eighth round Brunel Trophy encounter, and it was Nick who edged it, 11-9.
Gaz is thus eliminated, which means that only two players will contest the ninth round.
Unbeaten Nick now knows that he will have two shots at winning the title, as his ninth round opponent -- either Daniel Eldridge or Stephen Little -- will have but one life remaining.
In Premier One River City was the venue for a double header between Simon Hughes and Steffen Nowak.
Steffen won the first match 11-5, but Simon hit back to win the second at DMP, 11-9.
Steffen appears destined to finish in mid table now, while Simon really needed to win both matches to stand any realistic chance of top flight survival.
The Coach and Horses was once again the venue of choice in the Conference League, where Andrew Gay leapfrogged Mathew Nicholls into third place by winning 11-7.
Both players still have a chance to reach the crucial 20 points threshold before the season ends.

11/09/17: Jason suffers title blow; Fred still on course; Ian wins Monday DMP

There were sixteen players in action on Monday, including the ten at the Bristol County Sports Club who contested the second phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno.
Three Premier League matches were played at different venues.
In the top flight two championship hopefuls -- Jason Champion and Gaz Owen -- met at the Cat and Wheel.
Gaz, having recently slipped to outsider status, won a close encounter 11-9, a result which leaves Jason only a marginally better chance of ousting the top two, Stuart Mann and Nick Barham.
In Premier Two Red Fred North took another step towards the elite division when he pipped Mandy Macdonald 11-10 at Grounded in Bedminster.
And the Post Office Tavern hosted the other match in this division, when Phil Charlton scored an 11-8 victory over Drew Caudwell.
Back at the club it was Ian Tarr who took the pot, winning seven of his nine games.
Roland Herrera moves to the top of the AGP table, while the absent Jon Organ still leads the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.
James Calver made his competitive Bristol Backgammon debut, but sadly for us his next action is likely to be in the capital after he leaves Bristol in a few days.

11/09/17: Rules decide Brunel eighth round line-up

The eighth round of the 2017 Brunel Trophy double elimination knock-out is up and running.
Usually there is a draw, but on this occasion the pairings were dictated by the rules.
Since Gaz Owen has already met two of the other three survivors, he must now play Nick Barham, the only player with both lives intact.
Daniel Eldridge and Stephen Little meet in the other match.
The round should be completed by October 5th.

10/09/17: Spoils shared by Ismail and Ian

Ian Tarr and Ismail Yilmaz met at the Rainbow Casino this afternoon for a Premier Two Red double header.
And honours were even after Ismail's 11-7 win and Ian's 11-4 riposte.
Ismail's hopes of filling one of the two promotion places are all but over, but the session did little to further Ian's claims either.
Alex Hodge and Fred North remain favourites to land the coveted slots.

08/09/17: Simonetta wins Handicap event; Chris out of Brunel Trophy

There were twenty players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, seventeen of whom contested the sixth of the year's eight Handicap Trophy knock-out events.
The seventh round of the Brunel Trophy was concluded, and three Premier Two Red matches were played.
In the Brunel Trophy Nick Barham maintained his unbeaten record in the competition by eliminating Chris Rogers.
Just four of the forty starters go forward to the eighth round draw, and Nick is the only one with both lives remaining.
In the Red Division Phil Charlton defeated Ismail Yilmaz, while Simonetta Herrera suffered mixed fortunes.
She defeated Chris Hughes, but was unable to convert a 9-7 lead from her adjourned match against Mandy Macdonald into another win.
In the advertised event, however, it was Simonetta who prevailed.
Victories over George Devlin, Chris Hughes (again) and Richard Owsley were the precursor to a final win over Steve Morris.
Steve had reached the final by eliminating Roland Herrera, Mandy and Chas Perry.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight with wins over John Curran, Daniel Eldridge and Tim Line.

06/09/17: Six in Wednesday league action

Four league matches were played on Wednesday.
In Premier One the Phoenix, St Pauls, became the latest new Bristol Backgammon venue when Simon Hughes and Gaz Owen met up.
And Gaz pipped Simon 11-10 to keep alive his last vestige of title hope, while pushing Simon closer to the relegation abyss.
Phil Charlton and Simonetta Herrera met for a Premier Two Red double header at the Wellington.
Phil won the opener 11-3 before succumbing 10-11 in the return.
And that regular Conference League venue, the Coach and Horses, played host to league leader John Curran and Andrew Gay.
Andrew's 11-5 win moved him to half way towards the 20 points threshold for Premier League qualification.

06/09/17: Which Bristol players fared best the UKBGF Open?

The country's flagship tournament took place at Coombe Abbey, near Coventry, at the weekend, and as usual many Bristol players made their presence felt.
But the success stories came not necessarily from those who might have been expected to provide them.
The main event was the Masters category, where 88 players contested this double elimination competition.
And pride of place went to a player not seen much in Bristol in recent times, due to work commitments.
James Newman's promise has never been in doubt, but his exploits at the weekend outstripped anything achieved so far, when he took third place.
Not far behind him were Simonetta Herrera in equal fifth, and Julian Fetterlein -- another infrequent visitor to Bristol of late -- in equal seventh.
In the Advanced category, also a double elimination event, Adam Sinclair came in third of the 52 entrants.
And others to register noteworthy achievements were Seb Wilkinson (Speedgammon semi-finalist), Tim Line (Super Jackpot semi-finalist), Vic Sprake (Masters Sunday Consolation (Abbey Cup) semi-finalist), and Luke Owen (Saturday Social Swiss champion).

06/09/17: Dave and Gaz share spoils at the Blathwayt

In a Premier One double header at the Blathwayt Arms, Bath, yesterday Dave Pym and Gaz Owen wrapped up the business in just one hour twenty minutes.
It was a case of honours very much even as they clocked up a win apiece, Dave winning the opener.
Dave will almost certainly need to win his final two matches to stand a chance of surviving in the top flight, while for Gaz his championship hopes are now all but gone.

05/09/17: Gaz suffers Brunel defeat

There were nineteen players in action on Monday, including seventeen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom fourteen contested the opening phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- three 3-point round robins.
Meanwhile at the Rainbow Casino Dave Pym and Cecilia Sparke were playing out a Premier One double header.
Cecilia had the better of the exchanges, winning 11-9 and 11-5 to move into fourth place, while Dave remains in great danger of relegation.
Back at the club, Daniel Eldridge was scoring a Premier Three victory, 11-6 over Tom Chapman.
Daniel is now best placed to threaten the third promotion slot, currently occupied by Andy Brown.
In thr seventh round of the Brunel Trophy Gaz Owen lost his unbeaten record, going down 6-11 to Stephen Little.
The match was evenly poised at 6-6, but a double backgammon put a stop to that.
Only Nick Barham, of the five survivors in this competition, is now unbeaten, although Chris Rogers will be looking to change that.
A new player, James Calver, got some one to one attention from both Gaz and Ian Tarr.
In the advertised event there were outright group wins for Daniel Eldridge and Stephen Little, while the other group saw the spoils shared between George Georgiou and Roland Herrera.
Daniel is the AGP's first leader, while Jon Organ leads the race to be the leading intermediate.

05/09/17: Nick and Tom are doubles champions; Stuart scores vital win

There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, eighteen of whom contested the annual Consulting Doubles Championship.
Beforehand Stuart Mann and Gaz Owen met for a crucial Premier One clash, and it was Stuart who came out ahead, 11-5, to move back to the top of the league.
The defeat leaves Gaz with little or no margin for error on the run in if he is to challenge for the title.
A Premier Three match was adjourned with Daniel Eldridge 7-5 ahead of John Chester.
In the main event there was a debut appearance for Milo Devlin, summoned at the last minute by father George Devlin to enable all willing contestants to take part by bringing the field up to an even number.
The draw saw reigning champions Gaz and Luke Owen drawn into the only first round match, where they succumbed to Roland and Simonetta Herrera.
But it was the Weston-super-Mare combination of Nick Barham and Tom Chapman who won the title.
They scored victories over Tim Line and Steve Morris and Stephen Little and John Curran, before defeating Mandy Macdonald and Milo in the final.
In the consolation flight the honours went to Steffen Nowak and Simon Hughes, who beat the Herreras and Tim and Steve.

03/09/17: Gary wins at the Alma Tavern

In a Premier One match at the Alma Tavern today Gary Plant beat Andy Boysan 11-7 to keep alive his top flight survival hopes.

30/08/17: League wins for Gaz, Jason, Andy and Steve

Four Premier League matches were played on Wednesday.
In the top flight Gaz Owen defeated Steffen Nowak 11-8 at River City, while Jason Champion and Andy Boysan shared the spoils of a double header at the Prince of Wales.
And in Premier Two Blue at the Compass Steve Morris pipped Pearl Foster.

29/08/17: Ian stays in promotion contention

Two of the top three players in Premier Two Red met at the Rainbow Casino on Tuesday.
And league leader Alex Hodge lost a close encounter with Ian Tarr 11-9.
The result leaves the race for the two promotion places still in the balance.

27/08/17: Nick tops Premier One; Ian wins Sunday Rainbow event

There were just nine players in action on Sunday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom seven contested the eighth of the year's Rainbow weekend 1-day tournaments.
With hindsight, the choice of the August Bank Holiday weekend for the event may have been inadvisable.
The two not involved in the tournament were Nick Barham and Paul Watts, who played out a Premier One double header.
And Nick's 11-8 and 11-5 victories propelled him to the top of the league, while emphasising that Paul is not yet clear of relegation worries.
The tournament saw success for Ian Tarr, whose victims were Tim Line -- a fortuitous 8-cube game providing the matches turning point -- George Georgiou and Sean Jones.
Sean had reached the final via a bye and a victory over Gaz Owen.
Gaz took the consolation flight, defeating Stephen Little and Tim.

25/08/17: Steve earns GP5 plaudits

There were fourteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom ten contested the sixth of the year's eight GP5 tournaments.
Four Premier League matches and one Brunel Trophy match were played before or alongside the advertised event.
The last of the sixth round Brunel Trophy matches was played, and Daniel Eldridge survived to the next round at the expense of Marcus Evans, whose fine run in the competition thus ended.
Just five players remain, and the draw -- browseable here -- was kindly performed by Marcus, two weeks ahead of schedule.
In Premier Two Red Ismail Yilmaz suffered a blow in his pursuit of the top three when he went down 6-11 to Phil Charlton.
Meanwhile in Premier Three Carwyn Jenkins and Andy Brown played out a triple header.
Carwyn won the opener emphatically, but Andy struck back to win two close matches, and is well placed in the third promotion slot.
Steve Morris swept all before him in the GP5 event, defeating Tim Line, Nick Barham and Alex Hodge before despatching Daniel in the final.
Daniel had beaten Ian Hedges and Stephen Little en route to the final.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight with wins over Marcus and Tim.
He still leads the GP5 standings, but Alex has cut his lead to 25 points.

24/08/17: Victory for Cecilia at the Arnolfini

The Arnolfini played host to a Premier One match on Wednesday.
And Cecilia Sparke scored an 11-9 win over Andy Boysan.

22/08/17: League wins for Gaz, Adam and Fred

There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier One there were two new Bristol Backgammon venues.
Gaz Owen defeated Steffen Nowak 11-8 at River City in Cumberland Road to escape the bottom four.
And Adam Sinclair kept his top flight survival hopes alive with an 11-6 victory against Cecilia Sparke at The Social, Cheltenham Road.
The King William IV in Staple Hill saw Fred North's impressive Premier Two Red form continue when he scored an 11-6 win over Phil Charlton.

22/08/17: Gaz wins Monday Tric Trac Tourno

There were fourteen players present at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, of whom eleven contested the final phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
Making her competitive debut was Debbie Duncan-Curtis, while Marion Brazier came along to get a feel for the scene and played some friendly games with Ian Tarr.
Gaz Owen won the Tric Trac Tourno, scoring thirteen points from his ten games, one more than Adam Sinclair.
George Georgiou scored just enough points to pip Stephen Little for the SGP title, adding 2.5 points to his tally to wipe out his pre-tournament deficit of 2.33 points.
0.17 points is the narrowest winning margin in the history of the event.
John Curran won the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, and also heads the Tric Trac Tourno section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran sponsorship.

20/08/17: John extends Conference lead

In a Conference League match at the Coach and Horses on Saturday John Curran extended his league lead to six points with a hard fought 11-9 victory over Mathew Nicholls.

17/08/17: Ian wins Speedgammon event

There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, including thirteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom just seven contested the fifth of the year's seven Speedgammon Grand Prix evenings.
Three Premier Two matches and one Brunel Trophy match were played before or alongside the advertised event.
Dave Pym became the latest casualty in the Brunel Trophy sixth round, succumbing to Chris Rogers.
In Premier Two Blue Stephen Little completed his campaign with an 11-6 victory over Peter Thistlewood.
Stephen holds second place, but whether or not he can stay there depends on the outcome of remaining matches involving Tim Line and Simon Baker.
While Chris Rogers has already made sure of one of the promotion places, Tim's chances of overhauling Stephen depend on him winning all four remaining matches by an average score of 11-4 or better.
Simon has the better chance, as four wins from his seven matches will clinch second place.
Earlier, in the same division, Mike Smith had defeated Pearl Foster 11-4.
In the parallel Red Division leader Alex Hodge suffered a setback when he lost 6-11 to Ismail Yilmaz.
While Alex remains favourite for the divisional title, his pursuers -- Fred North, Ian Tarr and now Ismail -- will be encouraged by this result.
In the Speedgammon there was a welcome return to action for George and Pam Jakeway.
The pair last appeared together in July 2010, although George has visited twice in the meantime.
This event was won outright by Ian Tarr, who won all six of his matches to wrest the SGGP lead from Daniel Eldridge.

17/08/17: Andy wins at the Alma Tavern

The Alma Tavern was the stage for a Premier One match on Wednesday evening.
And Andy Boysan's 11-6 win over Adam Sinclair has given Adam little margin for error in his final two matches.

15/08/17: Adam and Ian win Monday round robins

There were eight players present at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday to contest the penultimate phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of four player 3-point round robins.
These were won outright by Adam Sinclair and Ian Tarr.
Of the four leading SGGP contenders, only George Georgiou did enough to add to his points tally, but by not quite enough to overhaul leader Stephen Little.
The gap is down to less than 3 points, and since he now has a score of 35 points to discard George will need to score at least 38 points from the final session of the competition next week to stand a chance of hitting the top spot.

13/08/17: Bristol "A" so close to national title

Saturday saw the staging of the annual UK Clubs Championship at the Priory Centre, St Neots, Cambridgeshire.
Nineteen teams of five players each represented various clubs from around the country in a tried and tested format.
St Albans and Worcester managed to muster three teams apiece, and Bristol two.
The Bristol team line-ups were: �A� team: Gaz Owen (captain), Roland Herrera, Simonetta Herrera, Alex Hodge and Ian Tarr. �B� team: Tim Line (captain), Drew Caudwell, Chris Hughes, James Lintell-Smith and Cynthia Roberts.
The first phase of the competition consisted of World Cup style groups of five teams (except one group, where there were only four).
The top two in each would progress to a main knock-out, while the remainder would contest the consolation knock-out.
Bristol �A� � one of four top seeds, along with London Hippodrome, St Albans �A� and the North West League -- were in the smaller group, and got through convincingly, winning all three matches by four 5-point matches to one. The �B� team did manage one fine victory, over Ealing � but were consigned to the consolation, where they defeated Lowestoft before succumbing to eventual consolation winners, Liverpool.
Meanwhile the �A� team were vanquishing Holland Park and St Albans �B�, earning a final meeting (featuring 7-point matches) with St Albans �A�.
Gaz and Roland won their matches, which left one of Alex, Simonetta or Ian the opportunity to score the match clinching point.
Alex led 5-4 against Chris Hamilton, Simonetta had a 6-0 lead against Dave Brown, and Ian was 5-2 ahead of Eric McAlpine.
Unfortunately none of the three was able to finish the job and bring the title back to Bristol.
So near and yet so far, although the team did cash.
And Gaz won every one of his matches to win the individual �20 pool.

13/08/17: John achieves promotion from the Conference

Redwood Farm was the venue on Friday as John Curran scored a momentous Conference League victory over Thomas Preece.
Apart from moving John into the lead the 11-8 win brought his points tally for the season to twenty, the number which qualifies a player for Premier League status.
John is the first player in this year's league to achieve elevation via this route.

11/08/17: Ian Hedges wins August Grand Prix event

There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, including seventeen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom fifteen contested the eighth of the year's twelve monthly grand prix tournaments events.
Five Premier League matches and one Brunel Trophy match were played before the advertised event.
At the Old Colonial, Weston-super-Mare, Gary Plant was visiting Nick Barham for a Premier One double header.
And Nick scored a pair of wins to push himself right into the sharp end of the title race.
The defeats have serious implications for Gary's top flight survival, as he will need good results on the run in.
In Premier Two Blue a casino double header between Peter Thistlewood and Tim Line ended with honours even.
Tim needed better than that to press his promotion claims.
And Pearl Foster continued her recent revival with an 11-7 victory over Steve Morris.
Richard Owsley became the latest Brunel Trophy casualty when he succumbed to Stephen Little.
Two more sixth round matches remain, after which the seventh round line-up will include just five survivors.
The starters for the advertised event included a welcome guest from Yorkshire.
2003 BIBA British Open winner Ian Shaw, briefly working in the area, took advantage of his visit to sample the delights of a Bristol Backgammon Thursday session.
Ian Hedges performed the draw, and managed to sort himself out the only available first round bye.
Maybe he won't be asked to repeat the process for a while.
Victories over Stephen and Steve got Ian through to the final.
There he met Tim, who progressed via victories over Adam Sinclair, Jason Champion and Ian Tarr.
And Ian duly took the final after some interesting cube action.
Nick won the consolation flight, defeating Richard, Adam and Ian Shaw.
The absent Alex Hodge had his OGP lead cut to "only" 131 points by second placed Roland Herrera.
Meanwhile, the total absence of intermediate contestants meant that Steve Cox maintains his IGP lead.
Ian's tournament win assures him of a place in the 2018 Bristol Masters, the fourth player to confirm a place.
And the other side effect of Ian's win is a Winner Takes All pool rollover to the September event.

09/08/17: Adam has real cause for optimism

In a Premier One double header at the Rainbow Casino this evening, there was a lot at stake for the protagonists, Adam Sinclair and Dave Pym.
Both players were in need of good results in their respective quests for top flight safety.
And it was Adam who got them -- 11-8 and 11-5 victories.
These propelled him to the heady heights of fifth in the league, although that is a trifle deceptive as most playera have matches in hand on Adam.
The reality is that he should still be looking for at least two wins from his final three matches to stand a good chance of remaining in Premier One for another season, a scenario which did not appear likely before his current run of five successive wins.
For Dave, things have taken a turn for the worse.
Losing five out of six means that he will be looking to win the majority of his last six matches to stay up.

08/08/17: Tuesday action in Bristol

Four matches were completed on Tuesday evening.
Adam Sinclair and Gaz Owen met at the Cotham Brewhouse for a match and a bit.
Their adjourned Premier One match needed to be completed, and Adam took this 11-10, keeping his survival chances alive while blunting Gaz's title aspirations.
Their sixth round Brunel Trophy match followed, and Gaz maintained his 100% record in the competition, which means Adam is the thirty-second player to lose both lives.
Another league match to be completed after an adjournment was the Conference League meeting between Mary French and Andrew Gay, where Mary pressed home her 8-1 advantage to win 11-2 at the Coach and Horses, a victory which took her to the top of the league table, ahead of John Curran on average points difference.
And the outstanding consolation final from the July Grand Prix tournament took place at the Barley Mow.
Ian Tarr pipped Simon Hughes in that one to consolidate his fourth position in the OGP table.

08/08/17: Tim reached a World final, too!

Further to Cecilia Sparke's exploits in Monte Carlo, Bristol later had another finalist at the event.
Brits in big finals used to be a rarity, but now it's happening all the time, and our very own players are playing their full part.
In the Doubles final, there were three Brits.
Londoners Jon Barnes and Eric McAlpine, who won the UKBGF Doubles title in 2015, went one better in Monte to become World Doubles champions.
But our own Tim Line, partnered by Sergey Erokhin, made it to the final and also cashed handsomely.
The UKBGF report on the event has now been updated to include Tim's achievement. (See the entry on August 5th).

08/08/17: Eleven in Monday action

There were eleven players present at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, nine of whom contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
The other two -- Mary French and James Timoney -- completed a Conference League match they had started the previous week.
James won this 11-7, his first league victory.
In the Tric Trac Tourno, it was a close run affair, with the top four players covered by just two points.
George Georgiou shaded it to put pressure on Stephen Little at the top of the SGP table, with just two sessions remaining.
John Curran retains the lead in two races, the one to become the competition's leading intermediate, the other to take the Tric Trac Tourno section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran sponsorship.

06/08/17: Cecilia's World title defence ends in the narrowest of failures

At the World Championships in Monte Carlo, Bristol's Cecilia Sparke has just missed out on retaining her World Ladies title.
After last year's triumph, two successive victories would have been a very special achievement, and this looked likely when she reached the final -- an all-British affair against Anna Clarke.
However, it was Anna's turn to be Ladies World Champion, winning at DMP to become the third Brit to win this title recently, after Zoe Cunningham and Cecilia.
Here's a link to the report on the UKBGF website. See the entry on August 5th.

04/08/17: Maiden league win for Thomas

Just signed up for the Conference League, Thomas Preece has wasted no time in registering his first league victory.
Redwood Farm, Cribbs Causeway, was the venue for his 11-9 victory over league leader John Curran.

03/08/17: Brunel sixth round draw done a week early

The draw for the sixth round of the Brunel Trophy was performed a week earlier than scheduled after the completion of the last of the fifth round matches.
With nine players still surviving a bye had to be allocated, and this went to Nick Barham as the only unbeaten player not to have received a bye in previous rounds.
Gaz Owen is the only other unbeaten player, so there will be either three or four more players eliminated this round.
Matches are to be completed by Thursday September 7th, the date of the next draw.

03/08/17: Roland and Ian take round robin honours

There were fourteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom twelve contested the third of the year's five Round Robin Grand Prix events.
The final of last week's Handicap Trophy main flight was tidied up beforehand, Richard Owsley defeating Daniel Eldridge to open up a 60 points lead in the HT table.
And the last of the fifth round Brunel Trophy matches was also played, Dave Pym suffering his first defeat of the competition at the hands of Marcus Evans.
In the round robins, comprising two groups of six players playing first-to-3-points matches, the groups were won by Ian Tarr and Roland Herrera, who both won four out of five matches.
Roland moves to the head of the RRGP table, just five points ahead of Daniel, and another ten above previous leader Nick Barham.

01/08/17: Six penalised at July 31st Premier League checkpoint

The third of the year's five checkpoints passed at midnight and six players have incurred penalty points, all of which can be clawed back by complying with the terms of the September 30th checkpoint.
Gaz Owen of Premier One incurred three penalties, Steve Morris of Premier Two Blue incurred one, and Andy Brown of Premier Three also incurred one penalty point.
Premier Two Red was the division most affected, with three players falling foul of the rule.
Neil Young and Phil Charlton incurred three points each, Simonetta Herrera one.

01/08/17: Fifteen enjoy seminar and Monday Club action

There were fifteen players present on Monday, either to benefit from an excellent seminar by Roland Herrera or to play either a league match or the twelfth phase of the Monday Cub Summer Grand Prix.
Eleven arrived at 6pm for Roland's "Five Moves" seminar, where students chose their best move and had it assessed with the help of eXtremeGammon.
Afterwards thirteen -- including debut players Vassos Soteriou and Andy Zographou -- contested 3-point round robins, one of five players, the others of four.
Each group had an outright winner -- Pearl Foster in the five player group, Simonetta Herrera and Stephen Little in the others.
With three SGP sesions remaining, Stephen has built a 26 points lead over second placed George Georgiou, with Roland close behind.
John Curran extended his lead in the race to become the competition's leading intermediate.
A Conference League match was started, and was adjourned with the score at 6-5 in favour of James Timoney against Mary French.
And the good news for that league was that both Andy and Thomas Preece have signed up, bringing the number of contestants to nine.

31/07/17: Jason closes on top flight lead

At the Prince of Wales last night Jason Champion made inroads on the Premier One leadership.
A brace of victories over Ed Turner moved him to within three points of Stuart Mann and he has one match in hand.
Ed is just outside the bottom four, but having played more matches than those around him, he will need some positive results in his last four matches to remain in the top flight.

30/07/17: Two whitewashes at the Drapers Arms

Another new venue for Bristol Backgammon saw a pair of contrasting matches when Steve Morris met Mike Smith at the Drapers Arms in the Gloucester Road on Sunday.
This Premier Two Blue clash saw things go very much Mike's way in the first match, which ended 11-0.
The nature of the contrast was not in the score, however, merely the change of ascendancy as Steve returned the compliment, in what may well be the first Premier League double header to end in a whitewash apiece.

29/07/17: Adam wins Saturday Rainbow tournament

There were just ten players in action on Saturday at the Rainbow Casino to contest the seventh of our weekend one-day knock-out tournaments.
And Adam Sinclair took the honours, defeating Tony Walters, Gaz Owen an Simonetta Herrera before despatching Carwyn Jenkins in the final.
Carwyn, whose matches were all extremely close, had beaten Cynthia Roberts and Ian Tarr en route to the final.
Cliff Blofield won the consolation flight, with victories over Tony and George Georgiou.
After main flight semi-final elimination, Simonetta and Ian took the opportunity to play a Premier Two Red match.
Ian won this 11-10, after trailing 2-9, to stay in promotion contention.

28/07/17: Chris promoted; Fred a big step closer

Two Premier Two matches with a bearing on promotion issues were played on Friday afternoon.
The elevation of Chris Rogers has been expected for some time, but an 11-8 victory in his final Blue Division match against Peter Thistlewood at the Rainbow Casino sealed the deal, as only Simon Baker can now catch him.
Meanwhile, the Christmas Steps was the venue for the meeting of second and third placed Red Division contenders, Fred North and Ian Tarr.
Fred won this one 11-10 and is now very well placed to make the top flight for the first time.

28/07/17: Daniel and Richard make Handicap Trophy final

There were thirteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom eleven contested the fifth of the year's eight Handicap Trophy knock-out tournaments.
Just one league match was played -- a top of the table Conference match between John Curran and Mary French.
This could hardly have been any closer, Mary emerging as the 11-10 victor.
A win would have moved John past the 20 points threshold guaranteeing qualification for next year's Premier League, and would have extended his league lead.
Mary, however, has moved into second place just three points behind John.
In the advertised event, James Timoney -- who has also signed up for the Conference -- made his Thursday debut.
Daniel Eldridge and Richard Owsley reached the main flight final, which will be played at some later date.
Richard benefitted from a bye before despatching Steve Morris and his daughter Lily Owsley.
Daniel, also a bye recipient, made it past James and Jim Green.
Simonetta Herrera won the consolation flight, beating Adam Sinclair in the final.
Richard has taken the overall lead in the Handicap Trophy, and can extend his lead over Nick Barham from 25 to 60 points if he can defeat Daniel.
Nick has the lead in the Side Pool Grand Prix.

26/07/17: Wednesday afternoon wins for Mike and Ian

A couple of Premier Two matches were played on Wednesday afternoon.
A seventeen game encounter occurred at the Victoria Park Tavern, Bedminster.
This Blue Division meeting between Mike Smith and Peter Thistlewood resulted in a narrow victory for Mike.
Peter, having been given special dispensation to continue his season by working around a serious operation, has bounced back remarkably after a six month lay off.
He was given his own set of criteria to get him back on schedule by the end of September, but has now caught up well in advance of that by playing ten matches in a fortnight.
The other match, at the Windmill, saw Ian Tarr stay in contention for Red Division honours by beating Mandy Macdonald.

25/07/17: Sixteen in Monday action

There were sixteen players in action on Monday, including fourteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom ten contested the eleventh phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of five player Nackgammon Tournos.
Four Premier Two matches were played.
In the Blue Division Pearl Foster and Peter Thistlewood met at the Compass, Tormarton, and Pearl scored an 11-5 victory.
In the same division Stephen Little and Simon Baker played a double header at the club.
A win apiece kept both players in promotion contention.
In the Red Division Alex Hodge and Chris Hughes finished off an adjourned match, Alex winning 11-2 to consolidate his divisional lead.
James Timoney came along from Swindon and played some friendly games with Ian Tarr.
He acquitted himself very well and will be back for more.
In the Nackgammon Tournos, there were outright group wins for Chris and Roland Herrera.
With discards beginning to bite, neither Stephen nor George Georgiou scored enough points to add to their overall SGP tallies, so Stephen retains his narrow lead.
Roland has closed to within striking distance, however, and John Curran is still the competition's leading intermediate.
In the Drew Caudwell sponsored Nackgammon Grand Prix Roland has extended his lead to 29 points, with Stephen in second place.
And in the Nackgammon section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship Jon Organ retains his lead despite arriving too late for admission to the competition.

23/07/17: Simon and Peter share the spoils

In a Premier Two Blue double header today at the Rainbow Casino Simon Baker and Peter Thistlewood shared the spoils.
Simon took his league winning sequence to eight when he won the opener 11-5, but Peter ended that run by winning the return 11-7.
Since everyone in the Blue Division bar Chris Rogers and Simon has lost at least six matches, Chris will ensure automatic promotion should he defeat Peter in his only remaining fixture.

21/07/17: Red Division wins for Neil and Fred

Friday saw two Premier Two Red matches played.
Neil Young visited Kellaway Avenue and came away with an 11-2 win over Simonetta Herrera.
Later at the Compass, Tormarton, Fred North cemented his hold on second place with an 11-3 victory over Chris Hughes.

21/07/17: Roland wins Masters and July Grand Prix

There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday, including twenty at the Rainbow Casino, of whom twelve contested the fourth of the year's six GP30 knock-out tournaments.
There was a flurry of league activity, plus the tieing up of some loose ends.
Foremost amongst the loose ends was the final of the 2017 Bristol Masters, a tournament held no less than fifteen weeks previously.
That such a match should be shelved for such a long time does little justice to an important competition.
Nevertheless Roland Herrera and Gaz Owen sat down to contest the match, each player hoping to improve on his history in the competition.
Not that they had done badly on previous occasions -- Roland was in his fifth Masters final, Gaz in his third. Nobody else has appeared in more than two finals.
The hoped for improvement concerned the actual winning of the event, since Roland had one win under his belt and Gaz none.
And it was Roland who took the title -- the fifth player to triumph twice.
Earlier in the day he had won the held over final of the July Grand Prix event, a domestic affair between himself and Simonetta Herrera.
This win had cut Alex Hodge's mammoth OGP lead to 156 points.
The league action involved no fewer than thirteen matches -- one of them adjourned.
Cecilia Sparke had completed a top flight win over Simon Hughes, picking up at 8-5 ahead from a previous session.
In Premier Two Blue two double headers saw the spoils shared.
At The Farm, St Werburghs, there was a win apiece for Tim Line and Mike Smith, while at the casino Cynthia Roberts concluded her league campaign against Peter Thistlewood.
Richard Owsley and Ismail Yilmaz also had one victory apiece to show for their Premier Two Red session.
Four Premier Three players registered five results between them.
Daniel Eldridge and Andy Brown had successful sessions -- Rufus Rozelaar and Carwyn Jenkins less so.
There was also a fifth round Brunel Trophy match played -- Chris Rogers defeating Stephen Little, a result which leaves both players with one life remaining.
In the GP30 event Simonetta and Gaz fought their way through to the final, Gaz benefiting from a bye before despatching Steve Morris and Stephen Little, while Simonetta was defeating Cynthia, Tim and Ian Tarr.
This final was held over for another time.
The consolation flight saw Cecilia and Chris make it through to the end, and they adjourned to Portland Square, where Chris was the victor.
Simon's GP30 lead was cut to 15 points, but Simonetta will take the lead if she can defeat Gaz.

20/07/17: UK Champions League update

The first half of the year saw the completion of the group stages of this year's UK Champions League, and Bristol's seven representatives met with mixed fortunes.
The forty players drawn from the higher echelons of the UK's leagues had been split into eight World Cup style groups, where the top two would progress to the Champions Final Stage, and the third and fourth to the Challenge Final Stage.
Two of our seven were eliminated -- Andy Boysan and 2015 competition runner-up Stuart Mann.
Simon Hughes and Steffen Nowak are in the Challenge, while Nick Barham, Cecilia Sparke and Gaz Owen are all still in the mix for the big prize.
All of their round of sixteen matches are to be completed by the end of August.

18/07/17: Pearl off the bottom

The worst sequence of Pearl Foster's league career ended today at the Compass, Tormarton, when she recorded an 11-3 Premier Two Blue victory over Peter Thistlewood.
The win hauled her off the bottom of the league table at Peter's expense.

18/07/17: Nineteen players in Monday action

There were nineteen players in action on Monday, including fifteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom ten contested the tenth phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of five player 3-point round robins.
Eight Premier League matches were played.
In a Premier One double header at the club, honours were even between Simon Hughes and Dave Pym, although Simon's 11-2 win was more beneficial for him in terms of points difference than Dave's subsequent 11-10 success was for him.
The Rose and Crown, Larkhall, was the venue for a Premier Two Blue double header between Andrew Cobb and Peter Thistlewood, where Peter took the spoils.
And in the same division Cynthia Roberts scored an 11-5 victory over Pearl Foster at the club.
Premier Three saw a new venue for Bristol Backgammon when Molloys, Baldwin Street, hosted a triple header between John Chester and George Georgiou.
Things all went George's way here, and he has opened up a lead over second placed Rufus Rozelaar.
A new player, Miguel, turned up and played some friendly games with Ian Tarr. He will hopefully be back for more.
Both of the round robins saw the pot shared -- between George and Roland Herrera in one group, and Adam Sinclair and Stephen Little in the other.
The SGP seems to have developed into a two horse race between Stephen and George, where Stephen holds a marginal advantage.
John Curran remains the competition's leading intermediate.

16/07/17: Stephen closes on top two

Three matches were played on Sunday.
At the Larkhall Inn, Bath, Andrew Cobb and Stephen Little fought out a Premier Two Blue double header.
Stephen won both matches to keep alive his hopes of finishing amongst the two automatic promotion slots.
Meanwhile at the Rainbow Casino Adam Sinclair was defeating Richard Owsley in the fifth round of the Brunel Trophy.
Both players have one life remaining.

14/07/17: Herreras in monthly grand prix final

There were nineteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, including the sixteen who contested the seventh of the year's twelve monthly grand prix knock-out tournaments.
Four Premier Two matches were completed.
In Premier Two Blue Peter Thistlewood was back in action after his hospitalisation with complications has rendered his season dormant for nearly six months.
He lost narrowly to Chris Rogers, and has several more matches lined up this month.
For Chris the probability of promotion to the top flight became even greater -- it will take something special to thwart him now.
In the same division Tim Line came out on top of a double header with Andrew Cobb, winning 11-10 and 11-5.
And in the parallel Red Division Ismail Yilmaz stayed in contention with an 11-7 win over Mandy Macdonald.
The advertised event saw a draw conveniently occupied by sixteen players.
The finals of both flights were held over for another day.
In the main flight Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera fought their way into the final, which will no doubt be played at home in the very near future.
Simonetta overcame Mandy, Richard Owsley and Daniel Eldridge to reach the final, while Roland was defeating Tim, Steve Morris and Chris Hughes.
The consolation flight saw Simon Hughes and Ian Tarr making it through to another final which will be scheduled soon.
View the latest OGP and IGP standings.

12/07/17: Cecilia and Nick share Premier One spoils; Ian exits Brunel Trophy

Three matches were played at the Rainbow Casino on Wednesday.
Ian Tarr, beaten 11-4 by Daniel Eldridge, became the thirty-first player eliminated from this year's Brunel Trophy.
And Cecilia Sparke's 11-9 Premier One win over Nick Barham was cancelled out by Nick's 11-6 return win.
Nick moves to third in the league table, and Cecilia is still not out of the title reckoning.

11/07/17: League wins for Cecilia and Fred

Two Premier League matches were played on Tuesday.
At the Bristol County Sports Club Cecilia Sparke hauled herself out of Premier One's bottom four at Gary Plant's expense by defeating Gary 11-4.
Meanwhile, at the Rainbow Casino, Premier Two Red leader Alex Hodge suffered a rare league defeat at the hands of second placed Fred North.

11/07/17: Stuart pushes on at the top

There were ten players in action on Monday evening, including the eight at the Bristol County Sports Club who contested the ninth phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno.
The odd two were Simon Hughes and Stuart Mann, who contested a Premier One double header just around the corner at the Ship.
Stuart scored another two victories, and he is now the player to catch, having established a nine points lead.
Simon, rooted at the foot of the league, now has little margin for error if he is to reach safety.
In the DMP Tourno, where Thomas Preece made his competitive debut, the pot was shared between Simonetta Herrera and Mathew Nicholls.
Stephen Little's SGP lead has been cut to five points by George Georgiou, while Mathew has taken over the lead of the DMP Tourno section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
There was a curious anomaly to the evening.
The event was (mostly) advertised as a Tric Trac Tourno evening, but an administrative error resulted in the DMP scenario.
To compensate for this, the August 21st evening -- hitherto advertised as a DMP evening, will now be a Tric Trac session.

09/07/17: Cliff ends league season on a high, but exits Brunel Trophy

Four matches were played on Sunday.
Cliff Blofield played two matches at the Brunello Lounge, Weston-super-Mare.
The first was his final Premier Three match of the season, a campaign ended deliberately early to accommodate an overseas adventure later in the year.
It has been a frustrating league season for Cliff, but his final match showed a glimpse of what might have been, when he eclipsed Tom Chapman 11-0.
And his involvement in the Brunel Trophy was also concluded, by a 4-11 defeat at the hands of Nick Barham, who retains both of his lives.
The other two matches came at Brookhouse Farm, Swindon, where Gary Plant and Paul Watts fought out a top flight double header, Paul winning 11-7 both times.

07/07/17: Gaz gets Brunel Trophy bye

The draw for the fifth round of the Brunel Trophy was performed by Steve Morris at the casino on Thursday.
With eleven players remaining in contention for this double elimination event, the first task was to decide the recipient of the bye.
This fell between Gaz Owen and Richard Owsley -- both unbeaten, and both having a total of six victories by their opponents -- and the draw favoured Gaz.
Of the five ties, four involve an unbeaten player against one on his final life, while one -- the match between Daniel Eldridge and Ian Tarr -- will be a sudden death affair.

07/07/17: Stuart tops Premier One; Alex takes GP5 honours

There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, including fourteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom twelve contested the fifth of the year's eight GP5 knock-out tournaments.
Four Premier League matches were completed.
Andy Boysan and Stuart Mann met at the Pump House for a Premier One double header, and Stuart's victories -- by 11-9 and 11-4 -- have made him the latest player to move into pole position.
Chris Rogers moved a step closer to clinching promotion from Premier Two Blue by defeating Pearl Foster 11-2.
Daniel Eldridge and Tom Chapman took advantage of early elimination from the tournament to fit in a Premier Three match, which Tom won 11-3.
The GP5 tournament saw Alex Hodge adding to his litany of 2017 tournament wins, defeating Daniel, Cynthia Roberts, Nick Barham and Adam Sinclair in the process.
Adam's route to the final took him past Tim Line and Simonetta Herrera.
Steve Morris took the consolation flight, defeating Roland Herrera and Tim.
Alex's win moves him to within 40 points of GP5 leader Ian Tarr, and 110 points clear of the remainder of the field.

05/07/17: Wednesday's Premier League action

Three Premier League matches were played on Wednesday.
Andy Boysan and Steffen Nowak played out a Premier One double header at the Pump House, and both matches finished with an 11-7 scoreline -- Andy drawing first blood before Steffen returned the compliment.
And John Chester defeated Cliff Blofield in a Premier Three encounter at the Old Fish Market, also by 11-7.

04/07/17: Jason and Stuart go first and second

The closest Premier One title race ever took a couple of new turns on Tuesday.
A win for Stuart Mann and two for Jason Champion moved them ahead of yesterday's leader Steffen Nowak into second and first places respectively.
Stuart's 11-3 win over Paul Watts at the Bristol County Sports Club was trumped by Jason's brace of 11-6 victories over Simon Hughes at the Prince of Wales.

04/07/17: Andrew and George win Monday round robins

There were just fifteen players in action on Monday evening, including thirteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, where eight contested the eighth phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of four player 3-point round robins.
Ye Shakespeare, Victoria Street, was the venue for a Premier One match, league leader Steffen Nowak falling to a narrow defeat against Cecilia Sparke.
There was also league action at the club, where Alex Hodge kindly broke off from an intended Premier Two Red double header with Chris Hughes to make up the round robin numbers.
Alex won their first match 11-7 and adjourned 9-2 ahead in the second.
A double header which was completed was the one between Tom Chapman and Carwyn Jenkins in Premier Three.
Here the honours were shared, albeit with Tom improving his points difference at Carwyn's expense.
In the round robins both groups had outright winners with three wins out of three.
George Georgiou won one group, and has closed to within eight points of SGP leader Stephen Little.
The other winner was Andrew Gay, who thus became the initial leader of the July to December 3-point robin section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
Thomas Preece made his debut appearance, and played some friendly matches with Ian Tarr.

01/07/17: Andy is twenty-ninth Brunel casualty

The Old Colonial, Weston-super-Mare, was the venue for the last of the fourth round Brunel Trophy matches today.
Andy Brown was narrowly defeated by Nick Barham to become the twenty-ninth player to exit the competition.
That leaves just eleven, of whom five still have both their original lives intact.
The fifth round draw is scheduled for Thursday.

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