News items from 2021 (second half)
30/12/21: Could Chris's early start backfire?
Bristol Premier League champion Chris Rogers has been making a habit of starting his new season early each year, and getting off to a flying start may have dealt a psychological blow to his pursuers, who have failed to catch him for two successive seasons.
But as he begins his latest title defence, in the hope of becoming the first player to take the coveted title three times in succession, it could be that this time his tactic is backfiring.
Having played local derbies in Portland Square on Tuesday and again today, he has suffered defeat twice to the newest Rogers on the block.
And sandwiched in between those matches was a double header on Wednesday, where he shared the spoils with Neil Young.
Cecilia Rogers is now in pole position in Premier One and, for the moment at least, it is she who needs pursuing.
30/12/21: Martha's entry brings pleasant surprises for Alan and Ben
Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr has made the unusual decision to admit a late entrant to the 2022 Bristol Premier League.
Martha Beal, who contested the Conference League in 2021, missed the Premier League entry deadline, having been laid low by Covid.
But under the circumstances Ian felt it appropriate to admit her, and not make her wait another year.
Because of the preferred numerical splits, the best way to admit Martha was to place her in Premier Three Green, moving Ben Crowden up from there to Premier Two Blue, and consequently elevating Alan Joicey from there up to Premier One.
The new line-up features 57 players, just as it did last season, and the fact that all players in all five divisions will now face a programme of twenty-four matches, gives the league a pleasing symmetry.
24/12/21: Twelve in Christmas Fizz action to bring the Bristol Backgammon year to a close
The last Bristol Backgammon 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 twelve players at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday.
For obvious reasons the turnout was lower than in previous years, but there was still a fun atmosphere.
With only 3-point matches throughout, there were two phases -- the first involving round robin groups of four players, while the second comprised main and consolation knock-out flights, where qualification was dependent on performance in the first phase.
The three groups saw the winners -- Hazel Boucher, Tim Line and George Georgiou -- pocket small cash prizes, and the top two in each moved on to the main knock-out flight, the remainder contesting the consolation.
Tim and Gaz Owen emerged through the main flight to contest the final, Tim taking the top prize for the second time running.
In the consolation it was Ian Tarr who won the flight, defeating Roland Herrera in the final.
All four finalists received bubbly prizes from Steve -- who, sadly, was among the absentees -- as well as their prize money, and all in all, a good time was had by all.
22/12/21: Adam wins final Freeroll GP tournament; Ian takes title
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday to contest the twelfth and last of this year's Freeroll Grand Prix series.
Adam Sinclair was the main flight winner, defeating Cynthia Roberts, Chris Hughes and Ian Tarr en route to the final, where he defeated Alan Joicey.
Alan had got past Safi Tracy, Ian Anderson and Hazel Boucher in the other half of the draw.
Kev Peters won the consolation flight, beating Elias Hamati, Frank Jones and Hazel.
Roland Herrera once again missed the event, and his FRGP lead was finally lost when Ian Tarr won the two main flight matches he needed to overhaul Roland and take the title.
22/12/21: Fifty-six sign up for the 2022 Bristol Premier League
The deadline passed at midnight on Tuesday, and fifty-six players have signed up for next year's Bristol Premier League.
This is a drop of just one from last year's record entry.
Premier One was due to shrink from this year's fifteen down to fourteen, on its way back to the optimum of twelve or thirteen dictated by the rules.
But two qualifiers -- Jim Green and Adam Sinclair -- have opted out for different reasons, and the division will be twelve strong in 2022.
The two Premier Two divisions will each have thirteen members, which means reprieves for two players who were eligible for relegation -- Steve Morris and Mandy Macdonald -- and "back door" elevation for Jordan White and Frank Jones.
And in Premier Three, the two divisions will again consist of nine players each, with each opponent to be played three times.
Three players -- Marcel Bancroft, Michael Corbett and Mathew Nicholls -- make welcome returns to the league.
And there will be five players making Premier League debuts -- Hemal Getalal, Kylie-Clair Hedges, Michael Petrakas, Natalie Singh and Andy Zographou.
Full line-ups are:
Premier One: Chris Rogers, Gaz Owen, Stuart Mann, Simon Hughes, Andy Boysan, Cecilia Rogers, Neil Young, Simon Baker, Ed Turner, Nick Barham, George Georgiou and Ian Hedges;
Premier Two Blue: Alan Joicey, Robin Gunney, Ian Tarr, Chris Hughes, Stephen Little, Dave Pym, Cliff Blofield, Steffen Nowak, Jon Organ, Safi Tracy, Ismail Yilmaz, Steve Morris and Mandy Macdonald;
Premier Two Red: Adrian Farthing, Kev Peters, Gary Plant, Richard Owsley, Tim Line, Paul Watts, Phil Charlton, Andrew Cobb, Hazel Harper, Mike Smith, Gerald Whitehouse, Jordan White and Frank Jones;
Premier Three Green: Ben Crowden, Simon Tracy, Pearl Foster, Cynthia Roberts, Rosemary Whitehouse, Marcel Bancroft, Andy Zographou, Natalie Singh and Mathew Nicholls;
Premier Three Yellow: Carwyn Jenkins, Eamonn Reay, James Lintell-Smith, John Curran, Caroline Boulton, Kylie-Clair Hedges, Michael Corbett, Hemal Getalal and Michael Petrakas.
Players will be given full instructions over the next few days.
21/12/21: Tim pips Jim to Brunel Trophy title
The tenth and final round of the 2021 Brunel Trophy was a straight shoot-out for the title on Heroes, with both protagonists having a single life remaining.
And Tim Line became the second player to win the title twice when he won a slightly fortuitous gammon at 9-10 Crawford, pipping long time favourite Jim Green.
The conclusion of this year's competition also tidied up the final qualifying in the 2022 Bristol Masters.
Tim's win left Jim as the Premier Two Blue high finishing qualifier at George Georgiou's expense, while Ian Tarr was the seventh and final Bristol Grand Prix qualifier thanks to his November win.
20/12/21: Michael takes Autumn Grand Prix title
There were eighteen players in action on Monday, including fifteen who contested the tenth and final Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix session online in 3-point round robins.
Three others had hoped to contest the live equivalent at Sportsmans, but three is not enough, so they played chouette instead.
The fifteen were split into two groups, one of eight, one of seven, with Michael Petrakas and Ian Anderson as group winners.
Tim Line won the side pool in Michael's group.
Michael's exploits saw him snatch the AGP lead at the death, thwarting Gaz Owen's bid to take the title.
And Andrew Montgomery took the honours in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
18/12/21: Hazel wins to take the consolation hamper
The consolation final from Thursday's tournament was played online on Saturday, and Hazel Boucher defeated Reece Hodges to win the flight and take the consolation hamper.
17/12/21: Reece to play Hazel for the second hamper
The held over consolation semi-final from Thursday's tournament was played on Friday afternoon on Heroes, Reece Hodges edging home against Ian Tarr.
Reece will now face Hazel Boucher in the final, which carries a nice extra prize for the winner in the shape of a Christmas hamper.
17/12/21: Nick wins final Welcome Back Series tournament; Gaz confirmed as series champion
There were seventeen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino to contest the sixth and final event in the Welcome Back Series.
Celebrating the reopening of live competition in Bristol, the series was subject to a generous sponsorship, with £75 added to each tournament's prize pool, plus year end prizes for not only the top three performers but also the top three "Tier 2" performers.
"Tier 2" is a one-off hastily coined term, an attempt to define a subset of developing players.
Those who are current members of Premier One or Premier Two and those who were in possession of a Bristol Backgammon handicap of either 0 or 1 at the start of the first tournament are NOT "Tier 2".
This time there was the additional draw of a couple of handsome Christmas hampers -- provided by yet another sponsor -- for the two flight winners.
And Nick Barham timed his best performance in the series to perfection by taking the main flight, defeating James Newman, Safi Tracy, Gaz Owen and -- in the final -- George Georgiou, taking the hamper back to Weston-Super-Mare.
Once again the tournament was not completed.
Reece Hodges -- making his live Bristol Backgammon debut -- needed to catch the last train back to Cardiff, and had to leave before playing his consolation semi-final against Ian Tarr.
This will be played online very soon, and the winner will meet Hazel Boucher in the final to take the other hamper.
Gaz's WBS lead had already all but assured him of the title, and this was confirmed when second placed Roland Herrera was a no show.
Roland held on to his second place, and Nick completed the top three.
The "Tier 2" honours go to Cynthia Roberts, Hazel (who cannot make up the gap even if she wins the consolation final), and Kylie-Clair Hedges.
16/12/21: Herreras dominate the year's last GP20 tournament, but Gaz confirmed as champion
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday to contest the eighth and final tournament of the year's GP20 series.
And in the main flight the Herreras had things very much their own way.
Simonetta Herrera reached the final by defeating Stephen Little, Gaz Owen and Steve Morris.
In the other half of the draw Roland Herrera got past Ian Anderson, Hazel Boucher and Safi Tracy.
Then Simonetta won the final.
Reece Hodges took the consolation flight with victories over Simon Tracy, Cynthia Roberts and Stephen.
Gaz had already made virtually certain of taking the overall title through his previous efforts, and this event rubber-stamped his success, with the absent Chris Rogers 105 points behind in second place.
And Tim Line won a late four-player jackpot.
15/12/21: Tim levels things up in the Brunel Trophy
The ninth round of the 2021 Brunel Trophy consisted of just one match, as only two players remained standing.
And that was played on Heroes on Tuesday.
Jim Green had two lives remaining and Tim Line one.
A win for Jim would have ended the double elimination competition there and then, but Tim took the honours and now things are 50:50.
The pair will contest the tenth and final round on Tuesday, with the title at stake.
13/12/21: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday to contest the ninth Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix session in DMP round robins across two environments.
Seventeen were split into two online groups -- one of nine, the other of eight -- while just four were present at Sportsmans.
The online groups were won by Chris Hughes and Kev Peters, while the live group, playing each other twice, saw victory for George Georgiou.
Gaz Owen did enough in his online group to edge ahead of Adam Sinclair in the AGP table, while Andrew Montgomery still heads the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
10/12/21: Tim takes second annual title in successive days
There were just nine players in action on Thursday to contest the seventh and final instalment of the 2020-21 Handicap Trophy, sponsored as ever by Ed Turner.
Roland Herrera took the honours in the tournament main flight, defeating Ian Tarr, Hazel Boucher and -- in the final -- Cynthia Roberts.
Cynthia had beaten Simonetta Herrera and George Georgiou en route to the final.
Simonetta took the consolation flight with victories over Mandy Macdonald and Stephen Little.
Given the low turnout and the consequently limited number of points available, only Tim Line, Ian and Hazel had the opportunity to top the final HT table.
Hazel needed two main flight wins to stand a chance of overhauling the top two, but fell at the second hurdle.
Which left Tim and Ian, both eliminated from the main flight in their opening matches, to contest the title.
And although Ian defeated Tim in the opening consolation round, he would have needed to win the flight to overtake leader Tim, something which proved beyond him.
Having taken the Bristol Grand Prix title the previous day, it meant two annual titles in two days for Tim, who also unsurprisingly took the honours in the Side Pool Grand Prix, a unique feature of Ed's sponsorship.
08/12/21: Tim wins to clinch his first Bristol Grand Prix title
There were twenty players in action on Wednesday to contest the twelfth and final monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournament of the year.
And Tim Line won the main flight -- his third monthly Grand Prix tournament win in the last five.
His wins, over Ian Tarr, Cynthia Roberts, Gaz Owen and -- in the final -- Safi Tracy scored him more than enough points to overhaul previous BGP leader Kev Peters, who has finished second overall.
With Kev dipping out at the first hurdle in the main flight, thus failing to add to his points tally, it was the semi-final victory over Gaz which clinched the title for Tim.
His final victim Safi again impressed, her scalps en route to the final being Kev, Elias Hamati and Cecilia Rogers.
It was a good evening for the Tracys, as Simon Tracy took the consolation flight, defeating John Curran, Chris Rogers, Kev and Stephen Little.
Tim had already done enough to qualify for the 2022 Bristol Masters.
Fifteen of the qualifiers are now known.
The sixteenth depends on the outcome of the Brunel Trophy, where the last two standing have already qualified, but hold the fates of George Georgiou and Ian Tarr in their hands.
A title win for Tim would give Ian the place, while George is rooting for a Jim Green win.
06/12/21: Twenty-four in Monday action
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday, twenty-three of them to contest the eighth session of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, which comprised four three-point round robins across two environments.
Nineteen competed online at Heroes and just four live at the Bristol County Sports Club (a k a Sportsmans).
The online session, split into a group of seven and two of six, saw group wins for Ian Anderson, Chris Hughes and Gaz Owen.
In the live session, the sole group of four was won by Hemal Getalal.
Ian Tarr took the side pool in Hemal's group.
Adam Sinclair retains the AGP lead, with Gaz eight points behind.
Meanwhile Andrew Montgomery has edged a little further ahead of Kylie-Clair Hedges in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship, with Hemal not far behind.
A post-tournament four player jackpot was won by Tim Line.
05/12/21: Hazel is Premier Three champion
Premier Three Green and Premier Three Yellow champions Mike Smith and Hazel Boucher met on Sunday to decide the overall Premier Three championship.
This was the first ever Premier Three play-off, as the 2021 season was the first with two divisions at that level.
Hazel won 11-10.
03/12/21: Gerald's promotion confirmed
Two days on from the end of the season, no appeals were received from the two Premier Three Green players who incurred penalty points at the season's end.
That being the case, the penalties stand, and Gerald Whitehouse is confirmed in the third promotion place.
03/12/21: George wins Thursday tournament
There were eleven players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino to contest a stand-alone two flight £10 entry tournament.
In the main flight it was George Georgiou who prevailed, defeating Ian Tarr, Tim Line and Alan Joicey before beating Stephen Little in the final.
Stephen had got past Simonetta Herrera and Andy Zographou to get there.
Ian took the consolation flight with victories over Simonetta, Roland Herrera and Robin Gunney.
And for the fifth succesive time Ian Anderson won the post tournament jackpot.
02/12/21: Gaz wins again to take Speedgammon GP title
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday to take part in the eighth and final instalment of the year's Speedgammon Grand Prix.
Four round robin groups of four players apiece saw group wins for Alan Joicey, Elias Hamati, Nick Barham and Roland Herrera, and four others qualified for the knock-out phase.
Roland and Gaz Owen made it to a final match which would decide the destiny of the SGGP title.
Gaz won to wrest the title from Roland at the death, after only contesting four of the eight tournaments, as compared to Roland's six.
Winning three of those four suggests that the title probably ended up in the right hands on this occasion.
01/12/21: Hemal is Conference champion
When the Bristol league season ended at midnight, the Conference League was no exception.
In this feeder league, where participation is less formal than in the Premier League, there is no compulsion to play a set number of matches.
But that doesn't mean it hasn't been successful in giving valuable match experience for up and coming players.
There were only four participants this year, and they all benefited from their campaigns.
Hemal Getalal ended the season clear at the top, and having reached the required threshold of 20 points, is not only champion but also a Premier Status player for 2022, thanks to his league efforts.
There are other routes to this goal, too, and in the year long totting up procedure known as the Race to the Premier League two of the remaining three -- Kylie-Clair Hedges and Natalie Singh -- have more than done enough to "earn their stripes".
Hemal also gains entry to the 2022 Bristol Masters, where the last two slots could rest between any of George Georgiou, Roland Herrera, Ian Tarr and the winner of the December Bristol Grand Prix tournament.
30/11/21: Nick wins Premier Two title; Matt and John fail to complete league season
There were two matches played on Tuesday.
Jim Green and Nick Barham -- champions of Premier Two Blue and Premier Two Red respectively -- met at Heroes to fight it out for the outright Premier Two championship.
And Nick won it in a surprisingly one-sided contest.
In the morning John Curran and Matt Reekie-Black played one of their last two Premier Three Green matches, Matt winning narrowly.
But with John unavailable for much of the remainder of the day, the final match was left unplayed.
Both players therefore lose four points for this transgression.
This is particularly unfortunate for Matt, as he had already incurred three penalty points in July, which he failed to claw back in September, when he incurred an additional penalty point.
That point, of course, is also not clawed back, giving Matt a total of eight penalty points, enough to deprive him of promotion.
These latest penalties are, of course, subject to appeal, if the players in question feel they have a very strong case.
In the meantime, Gerald Whitehouse remains in the division's third promotion slot.
30/11/21: George up; Eamonn down; absent Andy wins Nackgammon title
There were twenty players in action on Monday, seventeen of them to contest the eleventh and final session of this year's Monday Club Nackgammon Grand Prix, held across two environments.
Eleven were split into two groups -- one of six, one of five -- on the Heroes site, while six more played in one group at Sportsmans.
The two online groups -- just like last month -- were won by Gaz Owen and Adam Sinclair.
The live group saw a win for George Georgiou.
Andy Boysan didn't play, but his NGP lead was enough to fend off all pursuers, thanks to the effect of discards.
So Andy takes the title, with George runner-up.
For George, however, this wasn't the biggest news of the day, as he scored a brace of Premier Two Blue wins over Eamonn Reay.
These results meant that George claims the second promotion slot, pushing Adrian Farthing down to third place. And Eamonn's bid to avoid relegation was stymied.
The division was wrapped up later when Jon Organ defeated Chris Hughes.
Premier One was also tidied up, when Cecilia Rogers defeated Stephen Little at Sportsmans.
28/11/21: Chris Hughes wins Sunday tournament
There were thirteen players in action on Sunday, twelve of them to contest the tenth of Bristol's 2021 Sunday afternoon knock-out tournaments.
The tournament featured Bristol players past and present, and none of those others from around the UK we are accustomed to welcoming.
It was Chris Hughes who took the main flight honours after receiving a first round bye, defeating Gaz Owen, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Adam Sinclair.
Adam had beaten Cynthia Roberts, Ian Anderson and Nick Barham en route.
In the consolation flight it was Gaz who prevailed with victories over Cynthia and James Newman.
There was also one Premier Two Blue match played.
Tim Line closed out his season by defeating Eamonn Reay, who will now need to win both his remaining matches to avoid relegation.
27/11/21: Ed safe and Eamonn clings on
There were two Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In Premier One Cecilia Rogers defeated Ed Turner.
And as soon as Ed scored a point he knew he was safe from relegation to Premier Two, while Kev Peters, who has long since accepted his fate, now knows it for sure.
Eamonn Reay has left it late to finish off his final few Premier Two Blue matches, but he got another one under his belt when he beat Jon Organ.
And that result means he still harbours hopes of escaping relegation which, were it to happen, would be at Jon's expense.
26/11/21: Nick wins Red Division title showdown
There were three matches played on Friday.
The held over main flight final of the previous day's Welcome Back Series tournament saw Chris Rogers pip Gaz Owen to consolidate his third place in the WBS table.
But the day's most crucial clash was the final match of the Premier Two Red season.
Barring a freak result it was a winner takes all scenario, with the divisional title at stake.
And Nick Barham edged home 11-9 against Alan Joicey to take the prize and also confirm Ian Hedges in the second promotion place.
In third and fourth places Alan and Robin Gunney had fine campaigns, both missing out only on points difference in their first foray at this level.
And Kylie-Clair Hedges became the first player this season to take the option of completing all twelve available fixtures in the Conference League, defeating Martha Beal and moving into second place at Natalie Singh's expense.
There remain four days for Natalie to get her own back.
26/11/21: Gaz extends Welcome Back Series lead; Hazel is Yellow Division champion
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, thirteen of them at the Rainbow Casino to contest the fifth in the Welcome Back Series of six events.
Celebrating the reopening of live competition in Bristol, the series is subject to a generous sponsorship, with £75 added to each tournament's prize pool, plus year end prizes for not only the top three performers but also the top three "Tier 2" performers.
"Tier 2" is a one-off hastily coined term, an attempt to define a subset of developing players.
Those who are current members of Premier One or Premier Two and those who were in possession of a Bristol Backgammon handicap of either 0 or 1 at the start of the first tournament are NOT "Tier 2".
The tournament is not yet over, after Gaz Owen and Chris Rogers elected to play the main final at a later time and place.
Gaz reached the final via victories over Nick Barham, Adrian Farthing and Ian Tarr, while Chris's victims -- after the receipt of a first round bye -- were Stephen Little and Simonetta Herrera.
The consolation flight was won by Roland Herrera, who defeated Stephen, Tim Line and Nick.
Gaz's WBS lead over second placed Roland has increased to 75 points, which would increase to 110 were he to win the adjourned final.
Chris is in third place.
And in the "Tier 2" category Cynthia Roberts is now 50 points ahead of Hazel Boucher, with Kylie-Clair Hedges close behind.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Prior to the tournament Hazel and Simon Tracy wound up the Premier Three Yellow season, and Hazel's win saw her clinch the Yellow Division title.
She will now meet Green Division champion Mike Smith to decide the destiny of the overall Premier Three championship.
And in Premier Three Green Matt Reekie-Black beat Tom Chapman.
25/11/21: Mixed day for Ian
There were twenty-five players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the eleventh of this year's series of twelve Freeroll Grand Prix tournaments.
Ian Tarr was the main flight winner, defeating Kev Peters, Cynthia Roberts, Safi Tracy and Ian Hedges en route to the final, where he defeated Chris Hughes.
Chris had got past Natalie Singh, Michael Petrakas and Tim Line after receiving a first round bye.
John Curran won the consolation flight, beating Kev, Robin Gunney, Ian Anderson and Reece Hodges.
Roland Herrera once again missed the event, and his FRGP lead has been whittled down to 10 points by Ian Tarr.
Ian's day was mixed, however, as he dipped out of the Premier Two Blue promotion race.
A win against Eamonn Reay in his final match of the season would have moved him into the promotion bracket at Adrian Farthing's expense.
But after leading 8-3 he never scored another point.
Only George Georgiou can now prevent Adrian's elevation.
23/11/21: Tuesday's Premier One action
Four Premier League matches were played on Tuesday -- all of then in Premier One.
The top two played their final match of the season, and Gaz Owen gained a small degree of consolation by defeating Chris Rogers, and finishing just one win short of the target.
Cecilia Rogers confirmed her top flight survival by defeating Andy Boysan.
And at the club Simon Hughes played a match and a half, beating both Stephen Little and Ed Turner, the latter match being a resumption from 8-8.
Simon's end of season run of seven victories has seen him confirmed in fifth place, by far and away his best top flight season.
Ed's defeat, however, leaves him with just one loose end to tie up.
His final match -- against Cecilia -- will probably see him safe and condemning Kev Peters to relegation.
Anything but an 11-0 defeat will do the job for him.
23/11/21: Thirty-one in Monday action
There were thirty-one players in action on Monday, twenty-seven of them to contest the seventh session of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, which comprised four three-point round robins across two environments.
Twenty-one competed online at Heroes and six live at the Bristol County Sports Club (a k a Sportsmans).
The online session, split into three groups of seven, saw group wins for Kev Peters, Ian Anderson and Alan Joicey.
Andrew Montgomery took the side pool in Alan's group.
In the live session, there was a single group of six, which was won by Ian Tarr.
Adam Sinclair retains the AGP lead, but Kev, Michael Petrakas and Nick Barham are within five points.
Meanwhile Andrew has edged ahead of Kylie-Clair Hedges in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
There were also four Premier League matches played.
In the top flight Simon Hughes defeated Peter Thistlewood.
George Georgiou and Chris Hughes shared the spoils of a Premier Two Blue double header.
Chris can no longer make it to the top two, but George can overhaul second placed Adrian Farthing, either by winning both of his remaining matches or by winning one and improving his points difference.
And Richard Owsley and Carwyn Jenkins finished their respective Premier Two Red campaigns, Richard prevailing.
19/11/21: Stephen relegated
In Friday's only Premier League action Fred North signed off for the season with a victory over Stephen Little.
The result means Stephen can no longer escape relegation from Premier One -- he will accompany Fred, Peter Thistlewood and Gary Plant in the drop.
The fifth player to finish below the dreaded dotted line is most likely to be Kev Peters, although either Ed Turner or Cecilia Rogers could conceivably slip into the bottom five.
19/11/21: Chris retains Premier League title
There were nineteen players in action on Thursday, fifteen of them to contest the sixth in the series of seven 2020-21 Handicap Trophy tournaments, sponsored as ever by Ed Turner.
But the day's big news revolved around Gary Plant's Premier One victory over Gaz Owen.
Gaz had hoped for a win to set up a mouth watering title showdown between himself and league leader Chris Rogers, but that final match will no longer have such great significance.
Chris has thus emulated the achievements of John Slattery in 2002 and Stuart Mann in 2004, in becoming the third player to complete a successful Premier League title defence.
And he has won matches at an unprecedented rate to clinch both titles, having won 37 of 45 played in those two seasons.
The reason he has needed this high win ratio has been the pressure from runner-up Gaz, whose 33 from 45 would have given him two titles in "normal" circumstances.
The challenge for the remainder of the top flight in coming seasons will be to push closer to the two most dominant players Bristol Backgammon has ever seen.
Tim Line took the honours in the tournament main flight, defeating Stephen Little, Adrian Farthing and -- in the final -- Andy Zographou, after being the only recipient of a first round bye.
Andy had beaten Cynthia Roberts, Nelson Stephens and Tom Chapman en route to the final.
Jordan White took the consolation flight with victories over Hazel Boucher, Cynthia and Steve Morris.
Tim takes over from Ian Tarr at the head of the HT table, and also heads the "Side Pool Grand Prix", also a part of Ed's sponsorship.
In other league action James Lintell-Smith and Rosemary Whitehouse completed their respective Premier Three Yellow campaigns, James prevailing.
18/11/21: Gaz had done enough to take GP10 title
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, including the eighteen who contested the tenth and final instalment of the GP10 series.
In the tournament main flight it was Stephen Little who took the honours with victories over Simon Tracy, Safi Tracy, Tim Line and Steve Pickard.
Steve had arrived in the final by getting past Steve Morris, Alan Joicey and Cynthia Roberts.
The consolation flight again went to Steve Morris, who defeated Nick Barham, Ian Anderson and Simon.
Gaz Owen unusually failed to win a match, but his previously amassed points tally was enough to stave off the pursuit of Tim and Stephen and give him the GP10 title.
In the only league action of Thursday, Jim Green has assured himself of the Premier Two Blue title, barring a succession of George Georgiou whitewashes in his four remaining matches.
Jim's final two matches saw him share the spoils with Andrew Cobb.
A late four-player jackpot saw Ian Anderson triumphant, which is getting to be a habit for him.
16/11/21: League wins for Neil, Ian, Robin and Gerald
There were four Premier League matches played online on Tuesday.
In Premier One Neil Young defeated Gaz Owen to round off another satisfactory top flight season for him.
For Gaz the equation is now a simple one.
If he can win his final two matches he regains the league title.
But one of those matches is against reigning champion Chris Rogers, who will retain his crown should Gaz slip up.
Ian Tarr won a Premier Two Blue encounter with Jon Organ, and still has a chance of finishing in the top two.
A win in his final match would move him above Adrian Farthing, and then it would depend whether or not either George Georgiou or Chris Hughes could do better.
In the Red Division Robin Gunney finished a first season at Premier Two level in a highly creditable fourth place -- on the same number of points as the second placer, whoever that might turn out to be -- after his win over Paul Watts.
And Gerald Whitehouse concluded his Premier Three Green season by beating Tom Chapman.
Gerald sits in the third promotion slot, but now faces an agonising wait while Matt Reekie-Black attempts to overhaul him.
16/11/21: Thirty-five in Monday action
There were thirty-five players in action on Monday, twenty-eight of them to contest the sixth session of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, which comprised five three-point round robins across two environments.
Twenty competed online at Heroes and eight live at the Bristol County Sports Club (a k a Sportsmans).
The online session, split into two groups of seven and one of six, saw group wins for Gaz Owen, Adrian Farthing and Nick Barham.
Kev Peters took the side pool in Adrian's group.
In the live session, split into two groups of four players, there was outright victory for Hazel Boucher in one group and a tie between George Georgiou and Stephen Little in the other.
Adam Sinclair's AGP lead has been cut to five points by Nick.
Meanwhile Kylie-Clair Hedges and Andrew Montgomery now share the lead in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
There was also some crucial Premier League action.
In the top flight Simon Hughes and Ed Turner got close to completing their double header at the club.
Simon edged the opener, and the return was adjourned at 8-8.
The margins mean Simon can no longer finish in the top four, although he is assured of his best ever Premier One season, while Ed is not quite free of relegation concerns.
Carwyn Jenkins had a narrow victory over Steffen Nowak in Premier Two Red.
But no fewer than four matches were completed in Premier Three Yellow.
Hazel Boucher defeated Simon Tracy at the club, and has moved to the top of the division, with a fractional points difference advantage over Ismail Yilmaz.
That advantage would count for nothing, however, were she to lose her final match -- also against Simon -- as she would slip back below Ismail in that event.
So it's a clear cut situation. Hazel needs a win to clinch the divisional title.
For Simon, however, the quest for promotion is over, and the massive irony is that John Lewis has become the first player to achieve promotion posthumously.
The other matches in Yellow Division featured wins for David Tyrrell -- twice over James Lintell-Smith -- and Rosemary Whitehouse over Jordan White.
Those three results had the effect of concertina-ing the bottom six players into a group covered by just three points, making the division one of the closest ever.
14/11/21: Sunday wins for Simon and Frank
There were two Premier League matches played on Sunday.
And in Premier One Simon Baker scored the win he needed from his final match of the season which almost certainly secures his top flight status for another year.
His emphatic win over Gary Plant means that unless three players overhaul him he will be safe.
And while Cecilia Rogers and Ed Turner can quite feasibly move above him, Stephen Little will need three impressive victories to complete the set.
Simon's win was bad news for Kev Peters, who will be relegated barring catastrophic results for Cecilia and Ed.
In Premier Three Green Frank Jones was another to complete his season's fixtures, signing off with his fourth successive victory, this time over Tom Chapman.
14/11/21: Simon stays in the hunt
Saturday's only match was in Premier Three Yellow.
It was Ismail Yilmaz's final fixture of the season, and his defeat at the hands of Simon Tracy leaves his championship aspirations in the balance.
Long since assured of promotion, he now awaits the results of second placed Hazel Boucher's two final matches which, coincidentally, are both against Simon.
Two wins for Hazel would make her Yellow Division champion, although a win and a defeat could just achieve the same objective if she were able to improve her points difference by eight in the process.
Simon, however, needs two wins to clinch the third promotion place, with the help of the clawing back of two penalty points he incurred on September 30th.
12/11/21: Ed moves out of bottom five
In the only action of Friday Ed Turner rolled the double he needed at the death to pip Peter Thistlewood and move out of the bottom five in Premier One at Simon Baker's expense.
12/11/21: Alan sets up promotion showdown
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them at the Rainbow Casino to contest a stand-alone two flight £10 entry tournament.
And there was also league action online, as crucial issues get closer to resolution.
In Premier One Stuart Mann finished his season by defeating Andy Boysan, a result which means Andy can no longer qualify for the 2022 UK Champions League.
Chris Rogers, Gaz Owen, and now Adam Sinclair will take up three of the four places, while Stuart will be the fourth Bristol respresentative unless Simon Hughes can win his final four matches by substantial margins.
Stephen Little scored a vital win over Fred North and can still escape relegation, but will need to win at least two of his final three matches.
And in Premier Two Red Alan Joicey kept his promotion hopes very much alive when he pipped Steffen Nowak.
The two promotion slots rest between leader Nick Barham, second placed Ian Hedges and Alan.
And with Ian already finished everything rests on one remaining match, where Nick and Alan meet.
If Alan should win, Ian would miss out, assuming Nick scores at least two points in the match; a win for Nick would leave Alan out of the equation.
The complication is that an 11-0 win for Alan would see Alan and Ian up, while an 11-1 scoreline would see Nick and Ian in a play-off to join Alan on the way up.
In the tournament main flight it was Ian Tarr who prevailed, defeating Cynthia Roberts, Simonetta Herrera and Hazel Boucher before pipping Ian Hedges in a nail-biting final.
Ian H had beaten Roland Herrera and Stephen to get there.
Steve Morris took the consolation flight with victories over Roland and Cynthia.
11/11/21: Ian wins November Bristol Grand Prix tournament
There were twenty-three players in action on Wednesday to contest the eleventh of this year's series of twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments.
Ian Tarr won the main flight, defeating Simon Tracy, Steve Morris, Elias Hamati and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there via the long part of the draw and wins over Kylie-Clair Hedges, Safi Tracy, Andy Boysan and Alan Joicey.
The consolation flight was won by Kev Peters, whose victims were Adam Sinclair, Stephen Little and Kylie.
Kev retains the overall lead of the BGP table, just 10 points ahead of Nick, and will go into the final event with five pursuers having various degrees of opportunity to overhaul him.
Discards, however, can make this a tougher task than appears at first sight.
Ian was not in either of the Winner Takes All pools, so there will be rollovers to whet the appetite of investors in December.
Two Premier One matches were played.
Adam completed his season with victory over Stuart Mann, which leaves him in third place.
Stuart is one of three players who have the chance to overhaul him.
Peter Thistlewood defeated Simon Baker, so Simon is not yet safe from the drop.
09/11/21: Tuesday wins for Stuart and David
There were two Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
And in Premier One Stuart Mann moved back into the top four with a narrow victory over Cecilia Rogers.
The other action was in Premier Three Yellow, where David Tyrrell defeated Ben Crowden.
09/11/21: Tim wins Cyprus doubles
Tim Line and partner Sergey Erokhin of Russia have won the doubles event at the 8th Merit International Backgammon Tournament in Cyprus.
They emerged from a field of 96 pairs to whitewash the Norwegian pairing of Hans Liby and Dagfinn Snarheim in the final.
A stream of the final can be viewed here, starting at around 10 hours 22 minutes.
08/11/21: Steffen safe as Steve and Carwyn cancel one another out
There were twenty-three players in action on Monday, including sixteen who contested the fifth Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix session online in DMP round robins.
Three others had hoped to contest the live equivalent at Sportsmans, but three is not enough, so they played chouette instead.
The sixteen were split into two groups of eight, with Adam Sinclair and Nick Barham as group winners.
The two online groups were won by Adam Sinclair and Nick Barham.
Adam's AGP lead over second placed Michael Petrakas stretched to 15 points, while Kylie-Clair Hedges is now under pressure from Andrew Montgomery in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
There was also Premier League action and the relegation battle in Premier Two Red reached a conclusion thanks to Carwyn Jenkins's victory over Steve Morris.
Both players needed an emphatic win to maintain hopes of sustaining their survival, but the 11-7 margin served only to confirm Steffen Nowak's safety at their expense.
In Premier Three Yellow Rosemary Whitehouse defeated the already promoted Ismail Yilmaz.
07/11/21: Mike and Safi clinch promotion
There were four Premier League matches played on Sunday.
And the main focus was on Premier Three Green, where some important issues were decided.
Mike Smith scored a brace of wins over Tom Chapman, while Safi Tracy narrowly defeated Gerald Whitehouse.
Mike and Safi have finished their programmes, and both are now assured of promotion to Premier Two -- Mike as divisional champion.
Gerald currently holds the third and final promotion slot, but that will no longer be the case assuming Matt Reekie-Black completes his last three matches, in which case he would claw back the two penalty points he incurred on September 30th.
Mike's wins made it nine in a row at the tail end of the season.
The day's other match was the Premier Two Red meeting of Pearl Foster and Paul Watts, where Pearl was the winner.
05/11/21: Steve keeps slim hopes alive
Just one match was played on Friday.
And Steve Morris -- strongly odds on to fill one of the Premier Two Red relegation slots -- at least kept his slim hopes of Premier Two survival alive.
His victory over already relegated Pearl Foster means that 11-5 results in his favour in his sole remaining match and Steffen Nowak's two matches could yet see him stay up.
05/11/21: Roland closes Welcome Back Series gap
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, twelve of them at the Rainbow Casino to contest the fourth in the Welcome Back Series of six events.
Celebrating the reopening of live competition in Bristol, the series is subject to a generous sponsorship, with £75 added to each tournament's prize pool, plus year end prizes for not only the top three performers but also the top three "Tier 2" performers.
"Tier 2" is a one-off hastily coined term, an attempt to define a subset of developing players.
Those who are current members of Premier One or Premier Two and those who were in possession of a Bristol Backgammon handicap of either 0 or 1 at the start of the first tournament are NOT "Tier 2".
The tournament saw victory for Roland Herrera, whose path to a final win over Cynthia Roberts took him past Peter Crispin, Ian Tarr and Nick Barham.
Cynthia had made the most of a first round bye, defeating Mandy Macdonald and Kylie-Clair Hedges.
It was a good evening for the family as Simonetta Herrera took the consolation flight with wins over Stephen Little, Mandy and Ian Hedges.
Gaz Owen -- one of a handful of players absent in Cyprus -- has had his hefty lead in the WBS table cut to 50 points by Roland.
And in the "Tier 2" category Cynthia has opened up a 40 points lead, with Kylie-Clair and Hazel Boucher in second and third.
There was also league action.
Adam Sinclair moved into third place in Premier One with a victory over Gary Plant, who can no longer escape occupation of one of the relegation slots.
Adam is involved in a four way fight for the third and fourth UK Champions League slots.
And at the casino Cliff Blofield ensured that he will finish in a comfortable mid-table position in Premier Two Red when he beat Steve Morris.
For Steve, however, escape from relegation looks a long way off now.
04/11/21: Ian wins GP20 tournament
There were just twelve players in action on Wednesday to contest the seventh of the year's eight GP20 tournaments.
And in the main flight Ian Tarr won the day by defeating Cynthia Roberts, Ian Anderson, James Newman and, in the final, Steve Morris.
Steve had got past Adam Sinclair and Chris Hughes after receiving a first round bye.
Adam took the consolation flight with victories over Elias Hamati and Cynthia.
Gaz Owen had a low key tournament, but his GP20 lead of 105 points remains intact with just one tournament to go, making it extremely unlikely that he will be overhauled.
And Ian Anderson won a late four-player jackpot.
02/11/21: Twenty-five in Monday action
There were twenty-five players in action on Monday, twenty-three of them to contest the fourth session of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, which comprised four three-point round robins across two environments.
Seventeen competed online at Heroes and six live at the Bristol County Sports Club (a k a Sportsmans).
The online session, split into two groups of six and one of five, saw group wins for Adam Sinclair, Steve Pickard and Hazel Boucher.
In the live session group of six players, there was victory for Jim Green.
So Adam has regained his AGP lead from Michael Petrakas.
Meanwhile Kylie-Clair Hedges retains the lead in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship, with Andrew Montgomery in second place.
There was also league action in Premier Two Red, where Robin Gunney defeated Pearl Foster.
31/10/21: Steve Pickard takes Sunday tournament honours
There were fifteen players in action on Sunday, twelve of them to contest the ninth of Bristol's 2021 Sunday afternoon knock-out tournaments.
In the tournament main flight, with its customary mixture of Bristol and UK players, it was Exmoor based Steve Pickard who took the honours.
Steve's victims, after receiving a first round bye, were Elias Hamati, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Scotland based Denby Pettitt.
Denby had beaten Simon Hopper, Hazel Boucher and Cecilia Rogers en route.
In the consolation flight it was Elias who prevailed with victories over Simon, Ian Hedges and Andrew Selby.
A four-player post-tournament jackpot saw Elias triumphant again.
There was also league action.
In Premier One Adam Sinclair kept alive his top four ambitions by defeating Neil Young.
And in Premier Two Blue second placed Adrian Farthing suffered a narrow defeat in his final match of the season against Tim.
Adrian must now wait and see whether or not any of three pursuers can overhaul him to accompany Jim Green into the top flight.
30/10/21: Gary keeps top flight survival chance alive
In the only Saturday action, Gary Plant defeated Adam Sinclair in Premier One.
Gary's slim chance of top flight survival was thus preserved, while for Adam chances of 2022 UK Champions League qualification have diminished a little.
29/10/21: Friday win for Ian; and incidentally, Jim is promoted!
There was just one match on Friday, in Premier Two Blue.
It happened at another new venue for Bristol Backgammon -- the Windmill Hill City Farm -- and Ian Tarr kept his outside promotion hopes alive with an emphatic win over Mandy Macdonald.
Mandy -- who never recovered from an opening game double backgammon -- has finished her season, and will fill one of the relegation slots, unless Jon Organ loses all three remaining matches very heavily and Eamonn Reay fails to surpass her points haul.
The other thing to report is that Sunday's win over Tim Line actually clinched promotion for Jim Green.
Although both Chris Hughes and George Georgiou have slim opportunities to overtake Jim, at least one of them won't as they have two crucial meetings to negotiate (which will, of course, involve two defeats).
28/10/21: Ian wins to take Handicap Trophy lead
There were just nine players in action on Thursday to contest the fifth in the series of seven 2020-21 Handicap Trophy tournaments, sponsored as ever by Ed Turner.
Ian Tarr took the honours in the main flight, defeating Simonetta Herrera, Cynthia Roberts and -- in the final -- Roland Herrera.
Roland had beaten Ian Hedges and Hazel Boucher en route to the final.
Tim Line took the consolation flight with victories over Mandy Macdonald, Ian Hedges and Stephen Little.
Ian takes over from Hazel at the head of the HT table, and also heads the "Side Pool Grand Prix", also a part of Ed's sponsorship.
27/10/21: Tim wins October Freeroll tournament
There were just fourteen players in action on Wednesday to contest the tenth of this year's series of twelve Freeroll Grand Prix tournaments.
Tim Line was the main flight winner, defeating Safi Tracy, Adam Sinclair and Adrian Farthing en route to the final, where he defeated Ian Tarr.
Ian had got past Natalie Singh and Alan Joicey after receiving a first round bye.
Safi won the consolation flight, beating Natalie and Nick Barham.
Roland Herrera once again missed the event, but still holds a lead of 70 points over second placed Stephen, with only two sessions remaining.
Elias Hamati was the winner of a post-tournament jackpot.
26/10/21: Paul out of promotion reckoning
There was just one match on Tuesday, in Premier Two Red.
And a defeat for Paul Watts at the hands of Cliff Blofield means that Paul can no longer finish in the top two.
Only Alan Joicey can now claim one of those two coveted promotion slots at the expense of either Nick Barham or Ian Hedges.
25/10/21: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday to contest the tenth and penultimate session of this year's Monday Club Nackgammon Grand Prix, held across two environments.
Thirteen were split into two groups -- one of seven, one of six -- on the Heroes site, while just four played in one group at Sportsmans.
The two online groups were won by Gaz Owen and Adam Sinclair.
The live group saw a win for Stephen Little.
Andy Boysan's NGP lead remains 10.5 points as, although he didn't compete this time, none of the clutch of pursuers was able to make inroads because of the effect of discards.
And only one session remains.
24/10/21: Sunday wins for Jim and Matt
Sunday's Premier League action comprised single matches in Premier Two Blue and Premier Three Green.
The Blue Division match saw Jim Green take a further step towards the top flight when he defeated Tim Line.
And two promotion contenders met in the Green Division, where Matt Reekie-Black got the better of Safi Tracy.
This race, where four are chasing three promotion slots, threatens to go to the wire.
22/10/21: Gaz wins second tournament in two days
There were just twelve players in action on Thursday to contest the third in the Welcome Back Series of six events.
Celebrating the reopening of live competition in Bristol, the series is subject to a generous sponsorship, with £75 added to each tournament's prize pool, plus year end prizes for not only the top three performers but also the top three "Tier 2" performers.
"Tier 2" is a one-off hastily coined term, an attempt to define a subset of developing players.
Those who are current members of Premier One or Premier Two and those who were in possession of a Bristol Backgammon handicap of either 0 or 1 at the start of the first tournament are NOT "Tier 2".
The tournament saw victory for Gaz Owen, who also won the first in the series.
It was also his second tournament win in two days, after his GP10 exploits online the previous evening.
His victims this time were Alan Joicey, Tim Line, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Roland Herrera.
Roland had arrived there via a first round bye and wins over Cynthia Roberts and Stephen Little.
Nick Barham won the consolation flight with victories over Cynthia, Hazel Boucher and Simonetta Herrera.
Gaz's WBS lead has stretched to a massive 135 points, with Stephen now in second place and Roland third.
In the "Tier 2" category the top three, all tightly bunched, are Hazel, Cynthia and Kylie-Clair Hedges.
21/10/21: Gaz advances on two fronts
There were twenty-four players in action on Thursday, including the twenty-two who contested the ninth of this year's series of ten GP10 tournaments.
In the tournament main flight it was Gaz Owen who took the honours for the third time in the series.
His victims en route to the final were Frank Jones, Nick Barham, Cecilia Rogers and Andy Boysan, while the other finalist -- Stephen Little -- was despatching Kylie-Clair Hedges, Elias Hamati and Tim Line after a first round bye.
The consolation flight went to Steve Morris, who defeated Warner Solomon, Ian Hedges and John Curran.
Gaz's points haul moves him into a 25 points GP10 lead over second placed Tim Line.
If that was a satisfactory result for Gaz, it wasn't the only one for him.
A Premier One meeting earlier in the day saw him defeat Neil Young to keep his title chances alive.
A late four-player jackpot saw Ian Anderson triumphant.
19/10/21: Hazel clinches promotion to Premier Two
There were twenty-seven players in action on Monday, twenty-six of them to contest the third session of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, which comprised four three-point round robins across two environments.
Fourteen competed online at Heroes and twelve live at the Bristol County Sports Club (a k a Sportsmans).
The online session, split into two groups of seven, saw group wins for Michael Petrakas and Kev Peters.
Steve Pickard benefited from the fact that Michael had opted out of the side pool.
In the live session, with groups of six, where there was victory for Simonetta Herrera in one group, while Nick Barham and Ian Tarr shared the spoils in the other.
So Michael has regained his AGP lead from Adam Sinclair.
Meanwhile Kylie-Clair Hedges retains the lead in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
Before the live tournament there was a crucial match in Premier Three Yellow where Hazel Boucher defeated one of her promotion rivals, Simon Tracy.
The win assures Hazel of Premier Two backgammon next year, while Simon still has a chance to clinch the third promltion slot, as does James Lintell-Smith.
Both players would need three wins out of three to get there.
18/10/21: R I P John Lewis
It is with great sadness that I have to record the passing of John Lewis yesterday morning in hospital.
John was bravely working through considerable health issues, and seemed to be on the mend until a sudden relapse.
He had many interests, only one of which was backgammon, which he was playing right up to the end.
His first involvement in backgammon came in lunchtime competitions in the IT department at the Rolls-Royce factory in Patchway, as long ago as 1992.
After moving to work away from Bristol around a decade later, he kept practicing, and vowed to return when circumstances permitted.
Ironically his return coincided with the pandemic, where this year he has graced Premier Three Yellow online, and he concluded his season's fixtures as recently as Saturday.
He may well have done enough to earn promotion to Premier Two.
John served for a time on the committee of our Monday venue, the Bristol County Sports Club, where he rose to become chairman.
I'm sure I speak for the whole Bristol Backgammon community in expressing our condolences to Sandra and the girls.
17/10/21: Neil in UK Champions League semi-finals
Bristol's four representatives in the annual UK Champions League, who all made it through the group stages, have now been whittled down to just one in the semi-finals.
All four -- Adam Sinclair, Chris Rogers, Neil Young and Gaz Owen -- made it through the round of sixteen.
But Adam fell to Birmingham's Rob Perry and Chris to Manchester's Brian Lever in the quarter-finals.
And Neil and Gaz met there, with Neil winning two of the three encounters to progress to the semis, where he will meet Brian.
17/10/21: Ben wins, and John must wait
In Saturday's only action Ben Crowden scored an emphatic Premier Three Yellow win over John Lewis, whose league season is now complete.
John deserves plaudits for fulfilling his league commitments under trying circumstances.
He may have done enough for promotion to Premier Two, but must now wait and see if either Simon Tracy or James Lintell-Smith can edge him out of the promotion slots.
15/10/21: Nick almost back in the top flight
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, eleven of them at the Rainbow Casino to contest a stand-alone two flight £10 entry tournament.
But alongside the tournament there were two matches of greater significance, with promotion contenders Nick Barham and Ian Hedges fighting out their Premier Two Red double header.
Ian won the first 11-7, before Nick got his revenge by 11-8, after seeing a 7-0 lead disappear before clinching things.
Both players are closer to achieving their aim of promotion, especially Nick who can only be deprived of promotion by an unlikely sequence of events.
Ian has finished his fixtures and stands in second place, but if Nick were to lose his final match -- against another fellow contender, Alan Joicey -- 11-0, he would slip below Ian on average points difference.
And both Alan and Paul Watts could still overhaul both him and Ian.
Before the tournament there was another important encounter, where Steve Morris was close to reaching the final two of the Brunel Trophy at Tim Line's expense.
Leading 9-0 and 10-1, Steve failed to get another point, so it will be Tim who does battle with unbeaten Jim Green in the next round, and possibly a subsequent one.
In the tournament main flight it was Ian Tarr who prevailed, taking advantage of a first round bye and defeating Steve, Cynthia Roberts and Roland Herrera.
Roland, also the recipient of a bye, had got past Tim and Stephen Little en route to the final.
Tim took the consolation flight with victories over Alessandro Corra, Kylie-Clair Hedges and Simonetta Herrera.
14/10/21: Roland takes October Bristol Grand Prix honours
There were twenty players in action on Wednesday to contest the tenth of this year's series of twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments.
And Roland Herrera took the main flight, defeating Warner Solomon, Safi Tracy, Alan Joicey and -- in the final -- Steve Morris.
Steve had arrived there via wins over Robin Gunney, Hazel Boucher and Nick Barham.
The consolation flight was won by Andy Boysan, whose victims were Ian Anderson, Elias Hamati and Warner.
BGP leader Kev Peters had another low key tournament, but still retains the overall lead, although the vultures are gathering behind him.
Roland has a great chance of securing a 2022 Bristol Masters place, and also scooped the £10 Winner Takes All pool, although the £20 pool rolls over to November.
Ian Anderson won the post-tournament jackpot, curtailed to 5-point matches due to a clerical error.
12/10/21: Twenty-three in Monday action
There were twenty-three players in action on Monday, including twenty-two who contested the second Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix session across two environments, in DMP round robins.
Sixteen of the twenty-two, playing online, were split into two groups of eight, while six played live at the Sportsmans.
The two online groups were won by Adam Sinclair and Nick Barham, while the live group -- playing each other twice -- saw George Georgiou take the spoils.
Adam moves into the lead in the AGP table, while Kylie-Clair Hedges still leads the autumn section of John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
There was also Premier League action with one important double header in Premier Two Blue.
And with a win apiece George and Adrian Farthing both retain high hopes of promotion.
Kev Peters won a late jackpot, which served as handsome consolation for his lowly DMP finish, despite having an average PR of just 2.43!
08/10/21: Ian goes second
In Friday's only action Ian Hedges took another stride towards the top flight with a narrow victory over Steffen Nowak, which moved him into second place in the Premier Two Red table.
08/10/21: Hazel takes Handicap honours
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, thirteen of them to contest the fourth in the series of seven 2020-21 Handicap Trophy tournaments, sponsored as ever by Ed Turner.
Hazel Boucher took the honours in the main flight, defeating Alan Joicey, Tim Line and Simonetta Herrera, before beating Adrian Farthing in the final.
Adrian had defeated Steve Morris, Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr en route to the final.
Roland took the consolation flight with victories over Alan and Steve, after receiving a quarter-final bye.
Hazel has taken over from Steve at the head of the HT table, although the lead is a slender one.
Steve heads the "Side Pool Grand Prix", also a part of Ed's sponsorship.
There was also a Premier Two Red match played, involving two promotion contenders.
And Richard Owsley's hopes appear to have been extinguished after defeat at the hands of Robin Gunney.
06/10/21: Gaz wins October Speedgammon tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday to take part in the seventh of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix tournaments.
Four round robin groups of four players apiece saw group wins for Ian Hedges, Ian Anderson, Tim Line and Ian Tarr, and four others qualified for the knock-out phase.
None of the group winners made it to the final, as Gaz Owen and Natalie Singh emerged to contest it, Gaz prevailing.
Tim's SGGP lead has been cut to 25 points by Ian Anderson, who has a more favourable discard as the protagonists move towards the final instalment of the series.
05/10/21: Andy goes third in style
Tuesday's only action was a meeting towards the sharp end of Premier One.
And reigning champion and current league leader Chris Rogers was handsomely defeated by Andy Boysan -- a result which moves Andy into third place.
Chris will meet Gaz Owen, his only remaining challenger for the title, in his final match, where a victory would see him retain his title.
A defeat, however, would leave the door open for Gaz, who would clinch the crown by winning his other three matches, or possibly just two of them if he could preserve his marginal average points difference advantage.
05/10/21: WhatsApp outage overcome and twenty-four in Monday action
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday to contest the opening session of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, which comprised four three-point round robins across two environments.
Fourteen competed online at Heroes and ten live at the Bristol County Sports Club (a k a Sportsmans).
The online session, split into two groups of seven, was initially hampered by communications issues due to the six hour WhatsApp outage, but a way was found to work around the issues and things went smoothly.
Group winners were Adam Sinclair and Michael Petrakas.
Michael's group was dominated by him, Kylie-Clair Hedges and John Curran, who all won five matches out of six, with Michael shading it on the PR tie-breaker.
However, none of the three were in the side pool, so fourth placed Nick Barham cashed.
In the live session, with groups of five including Bristol Backgammon debutant Dom Verrall, there were clean sweeps for Neil Young and Hazel Boucher.
Once again Hazel's lack of side pool involvement benefited second placed Ian Tarr.
So initial AGP leaders are Adam and Michael.
Meanwhile Kylie's performance has given her a very handy early lead in the Autumn section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
04/10/21: UKBGF Online League Q3 round-up
The third quarterly UKBGF Online League finished with UKBGF Board stalwart Peter Bennet as champion.
This was the first time that the title had not been won by a Bristol player!
Previous quarterly champions Gaz Owen and Stuart Mann did finish second and third, however.
The league continues to grow in popularity and well over 400 players completed the season this time.
With two up and two down in most divisions there were, of course, many Bristol-related promotions and relegations.
Chris Rogers won Division 4, while others to gain promotion were Ian Tarr in Division 7A, Adrian Farthing in 13A, Robin Gunney in 15C, Reece Hodges in 16H, Safi Tracy in 17A, Steve Pickard and Cynthia Roberts in 18B, Kev Peters in 18E, and Ian Hedges in 19E.
To offset those successes, Andy Boysan was relegated from Division 4, Jason Champion from 5, Mark Dixon from 6A, Ann Pocknell from 9A, Cecilia Rogers from 9B, James Newman from 10B, Alan Joicey from 12D, Rosemary Whitehouse from 16A and Chris Hughes from 16H.
02/10/21: Jim ensures two bites at Brunel Trophy success
The third and final match of the seventh round of the 2021 Brunel Trophy was played on Saturday.
And Jim Green's defeat of Simon Tracy means that only three players survive to round eight.
Simon's fine run has come to an end, but Jim is still unbeaten, and the only survivor in that happy place, so he gets the eighth round bye.
Tim Line and Steve Morris will contest the only tie of round eight, with the winner progressing to play Jim in the knowledge that he will have to be defeated twice to wrest the title from his grasp.
The eighth round must be completed by November 6th.
02/10/21: Five incur penalties at September 30th checkpoint
The penultimate Premier League checkpoint -- the last one is the end of the season -- passed at midnight on September 30th.
And five players fell foul of the requirements.
Under the rules of the competition the September checkpoint is unique, in that there are two different kinds of penalty on offer.
The familiar one, as applied to all other checkpoints, is where players are deducted a point for each match short of the required number of results reported.
These can be clawed back by catching up with the schedule at the following checkpoint.
The second penalty is not for clawing back, and five penalty points are deducted from a players points difference for each match in arrears.
This penalty was introduced in 2015 in an attempt to counteract the practice of hanging back in order to gain a better understanding of what a player might need to achieve to reach a target, e.g. promotion or avoidance of relegation.
This was waived in 2020 because of the chaos caused by the pandemic, and even though players were warned by email on September 9th, the fact that the rule has not been applied since September 2019 has contributed to a degree of ignorance for those who have entered the league since that occurrence.
Because of that, and because the rule has largely been effective anyway this year, Director Ian Tarr has decided to waive the penalty one final time, with the resolve that greater awareness will be made available in future seasons.
The "normal" penalty still applies, however.
Premier One and Premier Two Red had no difficulty at all in meeting the checkpoint's requirements.
In Premier Two Blue an unfortunate confluence of a domestic emergency and inadequate communications caused further difficulties for two players.
Eamonn Reay is deducted two points and George Georgiou three, which of course will be clawed back when they finish the season on time.
In Premier Three Green and Premier Three Yellow the problems can in part be put down to the new experience of playing Bristol Premier League backgammon.
Simon Tracy (1 point) in the Yellow Division, Tom Chapman (2 points) and Matt Reekie-Black (1 point) in the Green Division have also incurred penalty points which can be clawed back.
Unfortunately for Matt, however, the 3 penalties incurred on July 31st now become permanent, albeit subject to appeal.
01/10/21: Chris wins second Welcome Back Series tournament
There were twenty-two players in action on Thursday, thirteen of them to contest the second in the Welcome Back Series of six events.
Celebrating the reopening of live competition in Bristol, the series is subject to a generous sponsorship, with £75 added to each tournament's prize pool, plus year end prizes for not only the top three performers but also the top three "Tier 2" performers.
"Tier 2" is a one-off hastily coined term, an attempt to define a subset of developing players.
Those who are current members of Premier One or Premier Two and those who were in possession of a Bristol Backgammon handicap of either 0 or 1 at the start of the first tournament are NOT "Tier 2".
The tournament saw victory for Chris Rogers, who made the most of a first round bye by defeating Andy Zographou, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Roland Herrera.
Roland had arrived there via wins over Hazel Boucher, Simonetta Herrera and Gaz Owen.
Stephen Little won the consolation flight with victories over Tim Line, Ian Hedges and Hazel.
Gaz's WBS lead has stretched to 55 points, with Chris now in second place.
In the "Tier 2" category Hazel and Cynthia Roberts remain jointly in the lead.
There were also six Premier League matches played.
In Premier One Simon Baker scored a much needed victory over Cecilia Rogers.
Premier Two Blue leader Jim Green suffered defeat at the hands of Mandy Macdonald, while Dave Pym closed his season with defeat by Ian Tarr.
Premier Three Green saw the most action, with victories for John Curran, Mike Smith and Caroline Boulton.
30/09/21: Stephen wins September Freeroll tournament
There were twenty-four players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the ninth of this year's series of twelve Freeroll Grand Prix tournaments.
Stephen Little was the main flight winner, defeating Safi Tracy, Tim Line and Hazel Boucher en route to the final, where he defeated Ian Hedges.
Ian had got past Gaz Owen, John Curran and Elias Hamati.
Adam Sinclair won the consolation flight, beating Nick Barham and Gaz.
Roland Herrera once again missed the event, but still holds a lead of 70 points over second placed Stephen.
There was also Premier League action with five matches played.
Cecilia Sparke defeated Fred North in Premier One.
Jim Green rose to the top of Premier Two Blue with a narrow win over promotion rival Chris Hughes, while George Georgiou was defeating Jon Organ.
In Premier Two Red Pearl Foster finally halted the run of defeats which have ensured her relegation, when she beat Carwyn Jenkins.
Gerald Whitehouse beat Tom Chapman in Premier Three Green.
And Jordan White defeated John Lewis in Premier Three Yellow.
29/09/21: Premier Two 4,000 up!
The Tuesday match between Jim Green and Tim Line was the 4,000th ever in Premier Two.
29/09/21: Jon won on Sunday
A Premier Two Blue result from early on Sunday has come to light.
Jon Organ was the victor over Eamonn Reay.
28/09/21: Jim goes second
There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier Two Blue Jim Green's victory over Tim Line moved him into second place, while extinguishing the final glimmer of promotion hope for Tim.
Matt Reekie-Black and Tom Chapman met to ensure that neither player will be expunged from Premier Three Green at Thursday's checkpoint, Tom emerging as the winner.
And Simon Tracy is making a late run towards the top three in Premier Three Yellow, his latest win a very narrow one over Rosemary Whitehouse.
28/09/21: Thirty-four in Monday action
There were thirty-four players in action on Monday, twenty-three of them to contest the ninth session of this year's Monday Club Nackgammon Grand Prix, held across two environments.
Twelve were split into two groups on the Heroes site, while eleven formed two more groups at Sportsmans.
And amongst the Nackgammon contestants were no fewer than three making their Bristol Backgammon debuts.
For Peter and Sarah Collingwood at the club it was a welcome competitive debut, while for Michael Petrakas -- already a contestant at some national events -- his debut came online, although he has just moved to Bristol.
The two online groups were won by Andy Boysan and Kev Peters, although Michael started his Bristol career well, only being pipped by Kev on PR.
The larger of the two live groups saw a win for Ian Tarr, while the spoils in the smaller group were shared by Hazel Boucher and George Georgiou.
Andy's NGP lead has stretched to 10.5 points, but there is a cluster of pursuers within striking distance of changing things in the two outstanding sessions.
There was also Premier League action with the September 30th checkpoint looming.
Mandy Macdonald and Chris Hughes shared the spoils of a Premier Two Blue double header, and Chris's win was enough to push him back into the top two.
George was the other winner in that division, defeating Jon Organ.
Matt Reekie-Black beat Gerald Whitehouse in Premier Three Green, and Mike Smith did likewise against Caroline Boulton.
And the winners in Premier Three Yellow were Ben Crowden and Simon Tracy, over John Lewis and Ismail Yilmaz respectively.
27/09/21: Sunday league results round-up
There were eight Premier League matches played on Sunday.
In Premier One Adam Sinclair defeated Peter Thistlewood to keep his hopes of a top four finish very much alive.
Amid a flurry of results in Premier Three Green it was Mike Smith who fared best with victories over Tom Chapman and Matt Reekie-Black.
Matt had earlier defeated Caroline Boulton, who also succumbed to John Curran.
And Jordan White defeated already promoted Ismail Yilmaz in Premier Three Yellow.
There was also live action in Premier Two Blue, where Tim Line and Ian Tarr made the most of the opportunity afforded by the last minute cancellation of a trip to Ireland to play their double header across three venues.
Starting at Riverstation, their initial match was adjourned at 7-all when the venue closed, so the match was completed at Revolucion de Cuba.
The return took place at the Rainbow Casino, Ian completing a fortunate double after two very close matches.
25/09/21: Saturday win for Tim
There was just one Premier League match played on Saturday.
And Tim Line recovered from a 6-10 deficit to defeat Jon Organ in Premier Two Blue.
24/09/21: Friday results round-up
There were five Premier League matches and one Brunel Trophy match played on Friday.
In Premier One Fred North finally arrested the devastating sequence of defeats which has condemned him to relegation when he recovered from 3-10 in arrears to defeat Kev Peters.
That was Kev's final match of the season and he must now wait -- a trifle nervously, one would think -- to see how many players overhaul him over the final few weeks.
More than two will see Kev finish below the dreaded dotted line too.
Meanwhile in Premier Two Red Alan Joicey's mini-slump has continued with a heavy defeat to Cliff Blofield.
With just two matches remaining Alan needs to arrest the slide quickly.
Hazel Boucher had a busy day in Premier Three Yellow.
A brace of wins over James Lintell-Smith preceded a defeat at the hands of David Tyrrell, and the top three now looks close to cut and dried.
Ismail Yilmaz is up already, while Hazel and John Lewis will be difficult to dislodge from the other promotion slots.
The day's only live match took place at the Wellington, where Steve Morris progressed to the eighth round of the Brunel Trophy, having ended the great run of Peter Thistlewood.
Only the meeting of Simon Tracy and the unbeaten Jim Green remains from round seven.
24/09/21: Ian Hedges wins for the second successive Thursday
There were twenty-five players in action on Thursday, twelve of them at the Rainbow Casino to contest a stand-alone two flight £10 entry tournament.
And after his Handicap Trophy win the previous Thursday, it was more of the same -- this time without handicaps -- as Ian Hedges took the honours in the main flight.
After receiving a first round bye, he defeated Kylie-Clair Hedges and Tim Line before a tightly fought final encounter with Nick Barham also went his way.
Nick had got past Ian Tarr, Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera en route.
Tom Chapman took the consolation flight -- again after a bye -- beating Ian Tarr and Neil Young.
There were also no fewer than eleven Premier League matches played, although one of these ultimately didn't count!
Kev Peters gave himself a fighting chance of staying in Premier One by twice defeating Peter Thistlewood, who was consigned to Premier Two as a result of the reverses.
Andrew Cobb scored two emphatic wins over Eamonn Reay, leaving Eamonn in severe jeopardy at the wrong end of the Premier Two Blue table.
And Robin Gunney kept alive his slim chance of promotion from Premier Two Red by edging past Alan Joicey, whose dominant position in the race is now looking considerably less so.
Premier Three Green was the busiest of the leagues, with five results reported.
Unfortunately a sequence breaking victory for Caroline Boulton had to be disqualified from inclusion in the league table, as she had already encountered Gerald Whitehouse the maximum three times!
Insult was added to Caroline's injury when she later lost twice to Frank Jones.
And Ben Crowden defeated David Tyrrell in the only Premier Three Yellow match to take place.
23/09/21: Tim wins GP10 tournament for the third time this year
There were seventeen players in action on Thursday, including the twelve who contested the eighth of this year's series of ten GP10 tournaments.
In the tournament main flight it was Tim Line who took the honours for the second successive time, and the third time this year.
His victims en route to the final were Adam Sinclair, Nick Barham and Safi Tracy, while the other finalist -- Gaz Owen -- was despatching John Curran and Cynthia Roberts after a first round bye.
The consolation flight went to Ian Hedges, who defeated Stephen Little, John Curran and Steve Morris.
Tim's points haul extends his GP10 lead to 60 points, with Gaz in second place.
Had Gaz won the final he would have retaken the lead.
Four Premier League matches were played, including a stunning Premier One defeat of Gaz by Andy Boysan, who performed post-Crawford wonders to erase a hefty deficit.
Gaz can still win the league title, but his meeting with leader Chris Rogers is likely to prove the crucial match.
Simon Hughes, enjoying his best top flight season, scored two narrow victories over already relegated Fred North.
And Rosemary Whitehouse defeated Jordan White in Premier Three Yellow.
A late four-player jackpot saw Elias Hamati triumphant.
21/09/21: Tuesday results round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier One Gaz Owen scored a narrow but potentially crucial victory over Stuart Mann to keep alive his chances of overhauling league leader Chris Rogers.
The title race, which has always looked likely to rest between these two, has been confirmed as a two horse race since Adam Sinclair's recent defeat by Andy Boysan.
The Premier Two Red promotion race is no closer to resolution after second placed Alan Joicey's narrow defeat at the hands of Carwyn Jenkins, whose two wins this week have given him a realistic chance of escaping relegation.
And James Lintell-Smith moved into fourth place in Premier Three Yellow when he beat Ben Crowden.
21/09/21: Kev and Natalie take Summer Grand Prix titles
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday, nineteen of them to contest the tenth and final session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which comprised three three-point round robins across two environments.
Thirteen competed online at Heroes and six live at the Bristol County Sports Club (a k a Sportsmans).
The online session, split into groups of seven and six, saw group wins for Natalie Singh and Kev Peters.
In the live session, the honours were shared by George Georgiou and Ian Tarr.
Kev has clinched the SGP title with a 9 points cushion over second placed Ian, while Natalie's fine evening ensured that she took the honours in the Summer section of the John Curran sponsored intermediate sponsorship ahead of stiff competition from Andrew Montgomery.
There was also league action with four Premier League matches completed.
The Wellington was the venue for a Premier One meeting of Neil Young and Peter Thistlewood, where Neil prevailed.
Back online there were wins for Carwyn Jenkins over Pearl Foster in Premier Two Red, Gerald Whitehouse over John Curran in Premier Three Green, and Ben Crowden over Rosemary Whitehouse in Premier Three Yellow.
19/09/21: Sunday results round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Three of those were in Premier One, including a double header at St James Wine Vaults in Bath, where Stephen Little and Ed Turner shared the spoils.
Back online Neil Young defeated Adam Sinclair.
And in Premier Three Yellow Hazel Boucher ended Rosemary Whitehouse's run of six victories.
18/09/21: Cecilia defeats Ed
There was just one Premier One match played online on Saturday.
Cecilia Rogers defeated Ed Turner.
17/09/21: Premier Two wins for Steve and Ian
There were two Premier Two matches played on Friday.
In the Red Division Steve Morris defeated Steffen Nowak online for the second time in seven days.
And at the Clyde Arms Ian Tarr recovered from a 0-5 deficit to clinch a fortuitous victory over Jim Green in the Blue Division.
16/09/21: The return of handicaps, and an Ian Hedges win
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, twelve of them to celebrate the return of the Handicap Trophy.
The series, sponsored as ever by Ed Turner, is a little different from previous versions.
Although the format remains the same, with players allotted handicaps in the range 0 to 4 to affect the starting scores of matches, the difference this time is that -- on the say so of the sponsor -- the two pre-lockdown events are married together with five post lockdown tournaments between now and Christmas.
So this is the Handicap Trophy 2020-21!
Ian Hedges took the honours in the main flight, defeating Adrian Farthing, John Curran and Tim Line, before pipping Hazel Boucher in the final.
Hazel had defeated Stephen Little and Nick Barham en route to the final.
Adrian took the consolation flight with victories over Simonetta Herrera, Roland Herrera and -- in the final -- Cynthia Roberts.
Steve Morris, leader of the series after the first two tournaments way back at the start of 2020, still holds the lead but it is now a slender one, only countback separating him and second placed Nick.
The same pair head the "Side Pool Grand Prix", also a part of Ed's sponsorship.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Stuart Mann maintained his recent fine form with a Premier One win over Fred North.
And Adrian Farthing consolidated his Premier Two Blue pole position with the narrowest of wins over Tim Line.
A Conference League result from Monday also came to light -- a win for Martha Beal over Kylie-Clair Hedges.
16/09/21: Nick wins GP20 tournament
There were nineteen players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the sixth of the year's eight GP20 tournaments.
And in the main flight Nick Barham won the day, taking full advantage of a first round bye by defeating John Curran, Ian Tarr and, in the final, Safi Tracy.
Safi had got past Tim Line, Hazel Boucher and Gaz Owen.
Tim took the consolation flight, with victories over Stephen Little, Elias Hamati and John.
Gaz's GP20 lead has increased slightly to 105 points, with just two tournaments in the series to come.
There was also Premier One action, where Simon Baker and Andy Boysan defeated Fred North and Adam Sinclair respectively.
And Elias won a late four-player jackpot.
15/09/21: Sunday tournament cancelled
In part due to the unavailability of the Director, and in part pending a decision on the future of the event generally, this month's Sunday afternoon online tournament -- originally scheduled for the 23rd -- has been cancelled.
Watch this space for further announcements.
14/09/21: Tuesday's league and Brunel Trophy round-up
There were nine matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier One there was a double Simon double header, as Simon Baker and Simon Hughes shared the spoils.
Dave Pym's Premier Two Blue promotion hopes took a couple of hits when he lost to Ian Tarr and promotion rival Jim Green.
In Premier Two Red Cliff Blofield defeated Pearl Foster.
James Lintell-Smith and leader Ismail Yilmaz were Premier Three Yellow victors over Ben Crowden and Hazel Boucher respectively.
And Hemal Getalal breached the 20 points promotion threshold in the Conference League by defeating Natalie Singh.
The first of the seventh round Brunel Trophy ties was a gruelling affair, with Tim Line staying alive at Alan Joicey's expense.
14/09/21: Twenty-nine in Monday action
There were twenty-nine players in action on Monday, including twenty-two who contested the ninth and penultimate Monday Club Summer Grand Prix session of the year across two environments, in DMP round robins.
Sixteen of the twenty-two, playing online, were split into two groups of eight, while six played live at the Sportsmans.
The two online groups were won by Gaz Owen and Kev Peters, while the live group -- playing each other twice -- saw the spoils shared by Marcel Bancroft and George Georgiou.
Kev goes into the final SGP session next week with a five points lead over second placed Gaz, with George in third place.
And Natalie Singh has leapfrogged Andrew Montgomery into a narrow lead in the John Curran sponsored SGP intermediate sponsorship prize race.
There was also Premier League action with six matches played.
The Grain Barge was the venue for two Premier One matches, Stuart Mann defeating both Stephen Little and Simon Hughes to move into third place.
Back online Adrian Farthing's brace of narrow victories over Andrew Cobb have moved him to the summit of the wide open Premier Two Blue table.
And the Whitehouses were the winners in Premier Three.
Gerald beat John Curran in the Green Division, while Rosemary defeated Ben Crowden in the Yellow Division.
12/09/21: Sunday wins for Ed, Chris and Frank
There were three Premier League matches played on Sunday.
In the top flight Ed Turner scored a narrow victory over Fred North.
A similarly close affair at the Lock Keeper saw Chris Hughes leapfrog his opponent Jim Green into second place in Premier Two Blue.
And Frank Jones defeated Caroline Boulton in Premier Three Green.
11/09/21: Natalie goes second
Saturday's only action involved a Conference League match, where Natalie Singh scored a narrow win over Martha Beal, and has moved into second place in the pursuit of leader Hemal Getalal.
10/09/21: Friday win for Steve
In the only action of Friday Steve Morris scored a narrow Premier Two Red victory over Steffen Nowak.
10/09/21: Gaz wins Welcome Back Series opener
There were twenty-three players in action on Thursday, thirteen of them to contest the first of six tournaments in the Welcome Back Series.
Intended as a celebration of the reopening of online competition in Bristol, the series is subject to a generous sponsorship, with £75 added to each tournament's prize pool, plus year end prizes for not only the top three performers but also the top three "Tier 2" performers.
"Tier 2" is a one-off hastily coined term, an attempt to define a subset of developing players.
Those who are current members of Premier One or Premier Two and those who were in possession of a Bristol Backgammon handicap of either 0 or 1 at the start of the first tournament are NOT "Tier 2".
The tournament saw victory for none other than Gaz Owen, who defeated debutant Alessandro Corra, Hazel Boucher, Stephen Little and -- in the final -- Ian Hedges.
Ian hed arrived there via a first round bye and wins over Elias Hamati and Ian Tarr.
Elias, in losing the "odd match", where one player is playing his or her first match while the other is playing their second, took full advantage by winning the consolation flight.
His victims were Thursday debut player Andy Zographou and Tim Line.
Gaz holds an ominous 50 points WBS lead going into the second of the series, while joint leaders in the "Tier 2" category are Hazel and Cynthia Roberts.
There were also five Premier League matches played.
In Premier One Andy Boysan defeated Neil Young at the Lock Keeper, while back online Adam Sinclair overcame Fred North.
Paul Watts and Alan Joicey scored Premier Two Red victories over Cliff Blofield and Carwyn Jenkins respectively.
And the first Premier Three Yellow match for well over a month saw a win for Simon Tracy over league leader Ismail Yilmaz.
09/09/21: Tim wins second successive monthly Grand Prix tournament
There were twenty players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the ninth of this year's series of twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments.
And, just as in August, it was Tim Line who won the main flight, defeating Steve Pickard, Cynthia Roberts, Steve Morris and -- in the final -- Safi Tracy.
Safi had arrived there via wins over Stephen Little, Gaz Owen and Ian Tarr.
The consolation flight was won by Alan Joicey, whose victims were Stephen, Steve Pickard and John Curran.
Kev Peters had a low key tournament, but still retains the overall BGP lead, albeit that the margin has been reduced to 25 points by Tim.
Tim has a confirmed his 2022 Bristol Masters qualification, and also scooped both Winner Takes All pools.
There was also league action.
In the first Premier Two Blue action for over a month Adrian Farthing scored a double success over Mandy Macdonald.
And Kylie-Clair Hedges had a busy Conference League day, with three matches completed.
A defeat to Natalie Singh was sandwiched between victories over leader Hemal Getalal and Martha Beal.
07/09/21: Premier One results round-up
There were four Premier One matches played on Tuesday.
Brookhouse Farm, Swindon, was the venue for a Simon Baker victory over Gary Plant.
An online double header saw a brace of wins for Simon Hughes over Kev Peters.
And Neil Young visited Portland Square to good effect, edging to an 11-10 result over Cecilia Rogers.
07/09/21: Simultaneous Monday tournaments proceed without a hitch
There were twenty-five players in action on Monday, twenty-one of them to contest the eighth session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which comprised four three three-point round robins across two environments.
The idea to run online and live portions of the same grand prix series simultaneously was perhaps innovative, but was aimed at providing options for players of all persuasions.
And the two halves of this experimental regime exhibited just how different the two environments are.
Ten contested online and eleven live, while the live session also provided for a handful of non-participants.
The online session, where the ten were split into two groups of five, proceeded seamlessly in the now customary efficient manner, and things were done and dusted by 9pm!
Group winners were Nick Barham and Gaz Owen.
Meanwhile a mixture of experience levels characterised the live session, where the eleven included a Bristol Backgammon debutante in Sophie Line, a welcome second appearance for Andy Zographou, and a live debut for Conference League leader Hemal Getalal.
The group of six players saw victory for George Georgiou, while the five player group saw honours shared between Roland Herrera and Tim Line.
Play concluded just before the 11pm closing time, and the social aspects of a live session were well to the fore, with friendly matches for the non-participants, and fact finding discussions for the less experienced.
All in all a successful evening for Bristol Backgammon on the return of Monday evenings live.
Kev Peters remains the leader of the SGP table, but Gaz is close behind.
Andrew Montgomery maintains his narrow lead in the Summer section of the John Curran sponsored intermediate sponsorship table.
There was also league action.
This included a pre-tournament Premier One double header at the Sportsmans, where Neil Young and Stephen Little swapped 11-4 victories.
Back online there were Premier Two Red wins for Ian Hedges and Robin Gunney over Steffen Nowak and Carwyn Jenkins respectively.
05/09/21: League wins for Adam and, apparently, Natalie
Adam Sinclair scored an emphatic Premier One win over Cecilia Rogers on Sunday to move into third place.
And a further league result has just about come to light after a lot of emailing and messaging. It seems that Natalie Singh won a Conference League match against Kylie-Clair Hedges on August 29th, and it may have been 11-9.
03/09/21: Stuart goes third
In the only league action of Friday Stuart Mann defeated Simon Baker to move into third place in Premier One.
03/09/21: Nine enjoy teams tournament
There were eleven players in action in Thursday, including the nine who enjoyed the hastily improvised team tournament at the Rainbow Casino.
One Premier Two Red match was played online, Paul Watts defeating Robin Gunney.
The nine at the casino were formed into three teams of three players, who contested a double round robin of 3-point matches, giving each player four matches in total.
The winning team comprised Andy Boysan, Hazel Boucher and Tim Line, Tim maintaining his recent good form by being the only player to win all four individual matches.
01/09/21: Safi wins September Speedgammon tournament
There were ten players in action on Wednesday, eight of whom contested the sixth of the year's Speedgammon Grand Prix tournaments.
Two round robin groups of four players apiece saw group wins for Tim Line and John Curran, and two others -- Nick Barham and Safi Tracy -- also qualified for the knock-out phase.
Tim and Safi made it to the final, where Safi came out on top.
The SGGP lead, which had been shared by Roland Herrera and Tim, now sees Tim 45 points ahead, Roland having missed the tournament.
In the leagues Steffen Nowak scored a narrow Premier Two Red victory over Robin Gunney.
31/08/21: Red Division wins for Cliff and Paul
There were two league matches played on Tuesday, both in Premier Two Red.
The Brunello Lounge, Weston-super-Mare, was the venue for Cliff Blofield's victory over Carwyn Jenkins, while Paul Watts won narrowly online against Pearl Foster.
30/08/21: Roland and Andy win Nackgammon Grand Prix round robins
There were thirteen players in action on Monday to contest the eighth session of this year's Monday Club Nackgammon Grand Prix.
Those thirteen were split into groups of seven and six.
These were won by Roland Herrera and Andy Boysan, although Andy's lack of side pool investment was good news for second placed Simonetta Herrera.
Andy now shares the NGP table lead with Tim Line.
And after the round robins Ian Tarr took the honours in a four player jackpot.
29/08/21: Brunel Trophy seventh round draw
The draw for the seventh round of the eighth Brunel Trophy was made on Sunday, using the time honoured lockdown method of matching two numerical sequences, one each provided by Ian Tarr and Gaz Owen.
Matches are to be completed by Saturday October 2nd.
There are six survivors to this stage, so the even number meant there was no bye to be had.
Either three or four players will survive to the eighth round, the variable being the fact that Jim Green alone has two lives remaining.
Should Simon Tracy defeat him, rounds eight and nine would be straight semi-finals and a final, otherwise the player with the best record of all those who haven't received a bye during the competition -- and that would be Jim -- would get a bye to round eight.
View the draw here.
27/08/21: Live backgammon tournaments have returned, and Cecilia takes the honours
There were twelve players at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday for the return of live backgammon tournaments in Bristol.
The occasion was the one-off Hello Again! tournament, with some added money to celebrate the event.
But whether it's live or online, it makes little difference at present to Tim Line, who continues his successful streak wherever the game is played.
Having won the opening Wednesday online tournament the previous evening, it was almost a two-in-two-days double back live, as Tim -- one of four lucky bye recipients -- overcame Gaz Owen and Kylie-Clair Hedges before being edged out of an epic final against Cecilia Rogers.
Having also been in good form recently, Cecilia's victims en route to the final were Hazel Boucher, Ian Hedges and Stephen Little.
When Gaz and visiting Bristol Backgammon debutant Kuwaiti Abdul Barakat opted out of the consolation flight, it left a depleted but tidy field of four semi-finalists.
And Nick Barham took the honours, beating Marcel Bancroft in that final.
So what do we make of the new order?
We are now a split community, with twelve contesting the Wednesday online event and twelve in Thursday's Hello Again! tournament, although five were in both.
How will it all pan out in the long run?
Who can tell?
But at least there's something reassuring about seeing a big step back towards a new normality.
26/08/21: Tim wins August Freeroll tournament
There were seventeen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the eighth of this year's series of twelve Freeroll Grand Prix tournaments.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the immiment return of live tournaments, this was a record low turnout for the event, albeit only two fewer than the previous instalment.
Tim Line made the most of a first round bye to get past Mandy Macdonald and Simon Tracy in reaching the final.
There he met Ian Tarr, who had defeated Elias Hamati, Robin Gunney and John Curran, and it was Tim who edged to victory.
Safi Tracy won the consolation flight, beating Elias and Stephen Little.
Roland Herrera missed the event for the second successive time, but his three wins in the series still see him well ahead of the rest of the field -- his cushion over second placed Nick Barham being 130 points.
There was also Premier League action at the Alma Tavern and the Blaise Inn, where -- respectively -- Andy Boysan defeated Neil Young and Simon Hughes beat Peter Thistlewood.
And Tim continued his impressive recent form to win a late £10 jackpot tournament.
23/08/21: Monday round robin wins for John, Gaz and Nick
There were twenty-two players in action on Monday, nineteen of them to contest the seventh session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which comprised three three-point round robins.
The nineteen were split into a group of seven and two groups of six players.
Group winners were John Curran, Gaz Owen and Nick Barham.
Second placed Roland Herrera took the side pool in John's group, as John had not invested.
Kev Peters remains the leader of the SGP table, twelve points ahead of Ian Tarr.
Andrew Montgomery maintains the narrowest of leads in the Summer section of the John Curran sponsored intermediate sponsorship table.
Ian later won a four player jackpot.
There was also Premier One action at the Wellington, where Neil Young edged out Peter Thistlewood with a last gasp double.
22/08/21: Sunday tournament features extended wedding celebration
There were eighteen players in action on Sunday, fourteen of them to contest the eighth of Bristol's 2021 Sunday afternoon knock-out tournaments.
In the tournament main flight, with its customary mixture of Bristol and UK players, the two finalists contested a "local derby".
Just eight days after their wedding, Chris and Cecilia Rogers swept all before them before a very short final.
Cecilia's victims were Kev Peters, James Newman and Gaz Owen, while those who succumbed to Chris were John Hedge, Steve Pickard and Elias Hamati.
The first game of the final was a four-cubed backgammon, giving Cecilia one of her fastest victories.
In the consolation flight it was John Hedge who took the honours.
Following a first round bye, John scored victories over Stephen Little and Kev.
And as on Thursday a four-player post-tournament jackpot saw Elias split the pot with Ian Tarr.
22/08/21: Wins for Jim and Steve seal Brunel seventh round line-up
The weekend saw the last two matches of the Brunel Trophy sixth round completed.
On Saturday Jim Green edged out Peter Thistlewood in the battle of the round's last two remaining unbeaten players.
And in what was effectively a sudden death encounter on Sunday at Steve Morris's, Steve apparently used his home advantage to good effect in dispatching Roland Herrera from the tournament.
Six players will go into the seventh round draw, with Jim the only player on two lives.
20/08/21: Simon's Brunel win
Friday's only action was a sixth round Brunel Trophy meeting between Tim Line and Simon Tracy.
And Simon scored the victory he needed to stay alive for the seventh round.
Tim will also be there, as he has one life remaining too.
20/08/21: Tim wins to head GP10 table
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, including the sixteen who contested the seventh of this year's series of ten GP10 tournaments.
In the tournament main flight it was Tim Line who took the honours for the second time in the series.
His victims en route to the final were Cecilia Rogers, Cynthia Roberts and Stephen Little, while the other finalist -- Warner Solomon -- was despatching Hazel Boucher, Kev Peters and Steve Morris.
The consolation flight went to Ian Tarr, who defeated Mandy Macdonald, Safi Tracy and Cecilia.
Tim's points haul took him to the summit of the GP10 table, 25 points ahead of Gaz Owen and Roland Herrera.
One Brunel Trophy sixth round match was played, and Simonetta Herrera made her exit from the tournament after losing to Alan Joicey.
A late four-player jackpot saw Elias Hamati and Ian share the spoils.
18/08/21: Ian turns the tables
For the second day running the only action was a Premier Two Red match between Ian Hedges and Paul Watts.
But whereas Paul had triumphed on Tuesday, it was Ian who turned the tables on Wednesday.
17/08/21: Tuesday win for Paul
Premier Two Red saw the only league action on Tuesday, Ian Hedges succumbing online to Paul Watts.
16/08/21: Monday round robin wins for Adam, Gaz and Alan
There were nineteen players in action on Monday to contest the sixth session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which comprised three three-point round robins.
The nineteen were split into a group of seven and two groups of six players.
Group winners were Adam Sinclair, Gaz Owen and Alan Joicey.
Fourth placed Andrew Montgomery took the side pool in Alan's group, as none of the top three had invested.
Kev Peters now leads the SGP table, seven points ahead of George Georgiou and Stephen Little.
Andrew still holds a narrow lead in the Summer section of the John Curran sponsored intermediate sponsorship table.
George later won a four player jackpot.
16/08/21: Sponsor boosts Premier Three prize fund
An anonymous sponsor has given a boost to the prize pots for Premier Three Green and Premier Three Yellow.
The £50 boost moves the prizes a little closer in value to those in Premier Two.
13/08/21: Tim wins August Grand Prix tournament
There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday, eighteen of them to contest the eighth of this year's series of twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments.
And it was Tim Line who won the main flight, defeating Ian Anderson, Stephen Little, Safi Tracy and -- in the final -- Simon Tracy.
Simon had arrived there via wins over Ian Tarr, John Curran and Simonetta Herrera.
The consolation flight was won by Chris Rogers, whose victims were Robin Gunney, Ian Tarr and Ian Anderson.
Despite failing to add to his overall points tally Kev Peters' overall BGP lead of 70 points remained intact.
Tim now has a very good chance of 2022 Bristol Masters qualification, and also scooped both Winner Takes All pools.
There was also a late four player jackpot, which was won by Elias Hamati.
And the first Conference League action for nearly two months saw runaway leader Hemal Getalal scoring another hard fought win, this time over Kylie-Clair Hedges.
11/08/21: Wednesday's Premier League round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Wednesday.
The Beaufort Arms, Stoke Gifford, played host to a Premier One double header where Neil Young notched a brace of wins over Gary Plant.
And in Premier Two Red Ian Hedges added weight to his promotion challenge by inflicting Alan Joicey's first league defeat in eight matches.
09/08/21: Green Division error corrected
Largely thanks to a clerical error on the part of the Director, a superfluous Premier Three Green match was played on Sunday.
Frank Jones and Mike Smith played a double header, when in fact they only had one meeting outstanding.
The two were misled into this course of action because of a partially incorrectly entered previous result.
Frank's May 31st win over Mike had been correctly added to the league table and the results narrative, but had been entered into the wrong box in the results grid.
The page has now been corrected, and unfortunately for Mike his victory in the fourth, superfluous, match no longer counts.
The Director has apologised to both players.
09/08/21: Tim and Adam win Monday DMP groups
There were eighteen players in action on Monday to contest the eighth online DMP round robin evening of the year, as a part of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
The eighteen made up two nine-player groups.
Group winners were Tim Line and Adam Sinclair.
Kev Peters takes over leadership of the SGP table, with a clutch of close pursuers, while Andrew Montgomery has moved into a narrow lead in the John Curran sponsored SGP intermediate sponsorship prize race.
After the tournament there was a four player jackpot, where Tim took the money.
08/08/21: Sunday's Premier League action
There were three Premier League matches played online on Sunday.
Stephen Little scored a much needed Premier One victory over Adam Sinclair, a result which leaves Adam with only the remotest mathematical chance of making the title race anything but a two horse one.
And in Premier Three Green a double header against Frank Jones went all Mike Smith's way.
06/08/21: Chris wins GP20 tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, sixteen of them to contest the fifth of the year's eight GP20 tournaments.
And in the main flight Chris Rogers won the day, defeating Steve Pickard, Simonetta Herrera and Gaz Owen before accounting for Roland Herrera in the final.
Roland had emerged via wins over Cynthia Roberts, Hazel Boucher and James Newman.
Adam Sinclair took the consolation flight, with victories over Elias Hamati, Steve Morris and Steve Pickard.
Chris has reduced Gaz's GP20 lead to 100 points.
There was also league action, where Jim Green kept his Premier Two Blue promotion campaign on track by beating Mandy Macdonald.
And Ian Anderson won a late four-player jackpot.
04/08/21: Wednesday league round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Wednesday, and none of them online.
A Premier One double header took place at a new Bristol Backgammon venue, the Ivy Inn, Calne.
And honours were even between Gary Plant and Kev Peters.
And the Brunello Lounge, Weston-super-Mare, was the venue for league leader Nick Barham's Premier Two Red victory over Carwyn Jenkins.
04/08/21: Four still in the UK Champions League mix
Bristol's four representatives in the annual UK Champions League are all still in contention for honours.
As usual we have four of the thirty-two places in the annual competition for the top performers in the UK's many regional leagues.
The first phase of the competition split the players into eight groups of four.
And group winners Adam Sinclair and Gaz Owen, together with group runners-up Chris Rogers and Neil Young, were all amongst the sixteen who progressed to the final knock-out phase.
This has already begun, and Chris is into the quarter-finals, while Neil has won his opening best-of-three encounter.
It has also now been confirmed that Bristol will have four representatives next year, which could rise to five should one of our four win this year's competition.
04/08/21: Chris appointed UK captain
Having performed the role of online UK captain for four years, Bristol Backgammon Premier League champion and current league leader Chris Rogers has been appointed the overall UK Backgammon captain with effect from January 1st, succeeding Martin Barkwill.
Chris deserves the congratulations of us all in Bristol and of the wider backgammon community, and also our best wishes for a successful tenure.
Read the full story in the blog article dated 3rd August 2021.
04/08/21: Six were penalised in four Premier League divisions
Four players fell foul of the July 31st Premier League penalty checkpoints.
While all those who had points to claw back from May managed to achieve that, fresh penalties were incurred by Neil Young (3) and Simon Hughes (2) in Premier One, Jim Green (2) in Premier Two Blue, Carwyn Jenkins (2) in Premier Two Red, and Matt Reekie-Black (3) and Mike Smith (1) in Premier Three Green.
There was a clean bill of health for all in Premier Three Yellow.
All penalties incurred can be clawed back by catching up with the schedule by the September 30th checkpoint.
03/08/21: Chris two wins away
There was just one Premier League match played on Tuesday.
And the emphatic win Chris Rogers scored over Andy Boysan means that Chris is tantalisingly close to retaining his league title.
He has just two Premier One matches remaining -- against Andy and his closest rival Gaz Owen.
Should Chris win both of those matches it would be job done.
Should he lose to Gaz, however, the run in could be very interesting.
The only other player in with even a mathematical chance of upsetting the proverbial apple cart is Adam Sinclair, who would probably need to win all ten of his remaining matches to stand a chance.
03/08/21: Monday round robin wins for Alan, Ian and Kev
There were nineteen players in action on Monday to contest the fourth session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which comprised three three-point round robins.
The nineteen were split into a group of seven and two groups of six players.
Group winners were Alan Joicey, Ian Tarr and Kev Peters.
Third placed Gaz Owen took the side pool in Alan's group, as neither he nor second placed Stephen Little had invested.
Ian now leads the SGP table, a whisker ahead of Kev and George Georgiou.
Natalie Singh still holds a very narrow lead in the Summer section of the John Curran sponsored intermediate sponsorship table.
George later won a four player jackpot.
31/07/21: Saturday Premier League round-up
There were five Premier League matches played on Saturday.
Simon Baker played twice in Premier One but suffered emphatic defeats at the hands of Peter Thistlewood and Ed Turner.
Mandy Macdonald and Eamonn Reay swapped 11-8 results in a Premier Two Blue double header.
And Safi Tracy moved a step closer to promotion from Premier Three Green with victory over Tom Chapman.
30/07/21: Friday league wins for Adam and Rosemary
There were two Premier League matches played on Friday.
In Premier One Adam Sinclair moved into third place with a win over Simon Baker.
And in Premier Three Yellow Rosemary Whitehouse, who seems to specialise in late season winning runs, beat Jordan White.
30/07/21: Stephen takes July Freeroll honours
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, fourteen of them to contest the seventh of this year's series of twelve Freeroll Grand Prix tournaments, equalling the lowest entry for this series since its post-lockdown introduction.
And in true Freeroll spirit the main flight final was contested by two players who didn't go for the optional side pools.
Stephen Little capitalised on a first round bye by defeating Adam Sinclair and Simon Tracy to earn a final meeting with Cynthia Roberts.
Cynthia had arrived in the final by eliminating Kev Peters, Elias Hamati and Gaz Owen, but it was Stephen who won the final.
Adam took the consolation flight, defeating Alan Joicey, Hazel Boucher and, in the final, Safi Tracy.
Roland Herrera missed the event, but his 145 points lead from previous events remains intact.
There was also Premier League action.
In the top flight the Grain Barge played host to Stuart Mann's defeat of Peter Thistlewood, while there were online wins for Gaz Owen and Simon Baker -- over Simon and Andy Boysan respectively.
And Tom Chapman defeated Caroline Boulton in a Premier Three Green match.
28/07/21: Wednesday league wins for Gaz, Jim, Tim and James
There were four Premier League matches played on Wednesday.
In Premier One Gaz Owen defeated Andy Boysan to keep alive his title hopes.
Eamonn Reay got in two more Premier Two Blue matches, losing to both Jim Green and Tim Line.
And in Premier Three Yellow James Lintell-Smith beat Hazel Boucher.
27/07/21: Flurry of league activity on Tuesday
No doubt largely prompted by the approach of the July 31st Premier League penalty and expungement checkpoints, there was an upsurge of activity in four of the five divisions.
There were Premier One victories for Simon Baker and Cecilia Sparke -- respectively over Kev Peters and Peter Thistlewood.
Five Premier Two Blue matches took place.
Chris Hughes was busiest, coming out on top of two out of three very close matches with Eamonn Reay and Andrew Cobb.
Eamonn atoned for his loss to Chris by overcoming Adrian Farthing, while Ian Tarr scored a win against George Georgiou.
Winners in Premier Two Red were Steve Morris and Richard Owsley, over Pearl Foster and Ian Hedges.
And John Curran defeated Caroline Boulton in Premier Three Green.
27/07/21: Brunel Trophy sixth round draw
The draw for the sixth round of the eighth Brunel Trophy was made on Tuesday -- a little later than scheduled -- using the time honoured lockdown method of matching two numerical sequences, one each provided by Ian Tarr and Gaz Owen.
Matches are to be completed by Saturday August 28th.
There are eight survivors to this stage, so the even number meant there was no bye to be had.
There will be anything between five and six players progressing to round six, as three of the line-up still have both lives remaining.
View the draw here.
26/07/21: Simonetta, Roland and Ian win Nackgammon Grand Prix round robins
There were seventeen players in action on Monday, fifteen of them to contest the seventh session of this year's Monday Club Nackgammon Grand Prix.
Those fifteen were split into three groups of five players.
The groups were won by Simonetta Herrera, Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr.
Tim Line's lead in the NGP table has increased a little to thirteen points, with George Georgiou still in second place.
And after the round robins Kev Peters took the honours in a four player jackpot.
There was also Premier One action, with Cecilia Sparke stealing an 11-10 victory over Fred North with some nice dice at the death.
25/07/21: Elias wins July Sunday tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Sunday, twelve of them to contest the seventh of Bristol's 2021 Sunday afternoon knock-out tournaments.
In the tournament main flight, with its customary mixture of Bristol and UK players, it was Elias Hamati who took the honours.
Following a first round bye, Elias scored victories over Denby Pettitt, Reece Hodges and -- in the final -- John Hedge.
John had defeated Chris Rogers, Neculai Axinte and Ian Tarr en route to the final.
Hazel Boucher took the consolation flight, defeating Cynthia Roberts, Chris Rogers and Cecilia Sparke.
There was also Premier League action, with George Georgiou and Andrew Cobb sharing the spoils of a Premier Two Blue double header, and Tom Chapman edging out Caroline Boulton in Premier Three Green.
Tim Line won a four-player post-tournament jackpot.
24/07/21: Saturday's Premier Three action
There were three Premier Three matches played on Saturday.
A top of the table double header in Premier Three Yellow saw Ismail Yilmaz leapfrog John Lewis into pole position.
And Matt Reekie-Black did his Premier Three Green promotion chances no harm at all with an emphatic victory over Tom Chapman.
24/07/21: Peter in epic fightback
In a Friday Premier One match Fred North was the victim of a sterling comeback by Peter Thistlewood.
Fred's expectations of a positive result would have been reasonable at least when he led 9-1, but Peter eventually ran out the winner by 11-10.
23/07/21: Roland wins July Speedgammon tournament
There were twelve players in action on Thursday, just eight of whom contested the fifth of the year's Speedgammon Grand Prix tournaments, making it the smallest turnout of the year for a Thursday tournament, maybe because of the heat.
Two round robin groups of four players apiece saw group wins for Ian Anderson and Roland Herrera, and two others -- Kev Peters and Cynthia Roberts -- also qualified for the knock-out phase.
Ian and Roland made it to the final, where Roland came out on top.
Roland now shares the SGGP lead with Tim Line.
In the leagues Peter Thistlewood scored a Premier One victory over Ed Turner, while in Premier Two Red Paul Watts defeated Richard Owsley for the second time in three days.
22/07/21: Wednesday's action summarised
There were six Premier League matches played on Wednesday, plus the last of the fifth round Brunel Trophy ties.
Simon Tracy played host to Roland Herrera in Henleaze, and won their tie.
Eight players will go into the hat for the sixth round draw, three of them -- Jim Green, Tim Line and Peter Thistlewood -- will both lives still intact.
The Beaufort, Stoke Gifford, saw three Premier League matches.
A Premier One double header saw Simon Hughes and Gary Plant share the spoils, while David Tyrrell gained a Premier Three Yellow victory over James Lintell-Smith.
Back online Ed Turner defeated Fred North in the top flight, Robin Gunney beat Pearl Foster in Premier Two Red and Rosemary Whitehouse pipped John Lewis in the Yellow Division.
20/07/21: Tuesday's Premier League results round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In the top flight Andy Boysan defeated Ed Turner to move into third place.
Paul Watts beat Richard Owsley in Premier Two Red.
In Premier Three Green Frank Jones came out on top against Gerald Whitehouse.
And Rosemary Whitehouse scored a much needed Premier Three Yellow win over Hazel Boucher.
19/07/21: Ian and Simon win Monday round robins
There were sixteen players in action on Monday, fourteen of whom contested the third session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, two three-point round robins.
The fourteen were split into groups of seven players.
Group winners were Ian Tarr and Simon Tracy.
George Georgiou took the side pool in Simon's group, as Simon had not invested.
Simon now leads the SGP table, with George just behind.
Natalie Singh still holds the lead in the Summer section of the John Curran sponsored intermediate sponsorship table.
Earlier there had been three Premier League matches.
Kev Peters scored a pair of emphatic Premier One victories over Ed Turner.
But the Premier Two meeting of Chris Hughes and Ian was even more so, with a whitewash in Chris's favour after just two games.
18/07/21: If Saturday was a disappointment, then Sunday certainly wasn't
The annual UK Clubs Championship was held online for the second successive year, because of you-know-what.
Bristol's representation was depleted for various reasons, not least the attendance of some of our more heavyweight players at a secret function on Saturday night.
But the good news was that their absence gave others the chance to fill the spotlight, and how well did they manage that after a somewhat disappointing Saturday?
Just two Bristol teams, then, Bristol "A" and Bristol "B".
The "A" team comprised five players whose unofficial Bristol rankings ranged from 12 to 53, while the "B" team ratings from that 97-strong list ranged from 61 to 83!
Both teams stuttered a little in the group phase, each winning just one match out of three, thus failing to reach the main knock-out, which incidentally was to be won by Worcester Royals.
In fact the "B" team did marginally better than their more illustrious counterparts, winning seven group matches out of fifteen, while the "A" team managed only five.
So both moved on to the Consolation knock-out phase, and this is where things began to improve.
The "A"s sprang into life, beating Scottish Ladies, St Albans "A", and the North West League to reach the semi-finals.
Those latter two opponents were very strong sides, St Albans "A" having won 13 of their fifteen group matches.
Meanwhile the "B"s were doing equally as well.
They disposed of Birmingham Blitz, HarroGaters, and a strong Manchester team to earn a tilt at the "A" team in the semis.
This much anticipated encounter proved to be as close as the majority of the earlier matches of both teams.
Wins for Hazel and Gerald put the "A"s 2-0 up, then John pulled one back before Adrian clinched victory for the "A"s, with Pearl netting a late consolation.
And so to the final, where Worcester Wolves faced up to the "A"s.
First result in was a defeat for Hazel, but no worries.
Victories for Warner, Adrian, Andy and Gerald completed a comprehensive win, and the "A" team were Consolation Champions.
So take a bow Warner Solomon, Adrian Farthing, Gerald Whitehouse and Hazel Boucher for the "A" team, Cynthia Roberts, Pearl Foster, John Curran and Jordan White for the "B" team, every one of whom respresented Bristol Backgammon with distinction.
And especially Andy Boysan and Simon Tracy, who stepped into the captaincy role for the two sides and did such a sterling job, both in terms of communication and leadership, as well as performing extremely well.
All in all an outstanding weekend for our scene.
18/07/21: The weekend's Premier League round-up
There were three Premier League matches played over the weekend.
In the top flight Adam Sinclair defeated Ed Turner on Saturday.
Ismail Yilmaz won a battle of the top two in Premier Three Yellow, also on Saturday.
And a Sunday Premier Three Green encounter saw a narrow win for Frank Jones over Tom Chapman.
16/07/21: Gaz wins second successive GP10 tournament
There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday, including the eighteen who contested the sixth of this year's series of ten GP10 tournaments.
In the tournament main flight it was Gaz Owen who took the honours, for the second time running in this series.
His victims en route to the final were Cynthia Roberts, Elias Hamati and Safi Tracy, while the other finalist -- Steve Morris -- was despatching Andy Boysan, Simonetta Herrera, Simon Tracy and Warner Solomon.
The consolation flight went to Kev Peters, who defeated Tim Line, Frank Jones and Nick Barham.
GP10 table leader Roland Herrera's lead has been cut to 25 points by second placed Gaz.
One Premier Two Red match was played, Robin Gunney beating Cliff Blofield for his third league win in two days.
And George Georgiou won a late four-player jackpot.
14/07/21: Wednesday's Premier League action
There were six Premier League matches played on Wednesday.
In the top flight Gary Plant defeated Stephen Little at Brookhouse Farm, Swindon, while back online leader Chris Rogers staved off a fightback by Simon Baker.
Robin Gunney had the best of a double header with Steve Morris in Premier Two Red.
And a Premier Three Yellow double header saw the spoils shared by Jordan White and James Lintell-Smith.
13/07/21: Ian and Tim win on Tuesday
There were two Premier Two matches played on Tuesday.
In the Red Division, a meeting of two players with promotion aspirations saw Ian Hedges pipping Richard Owsley.
And in the parallel Blue Division two more contenders met, Tim Line also scoring a narrow win against George Georgiou.
12/07/21: George takes Monday DMP honours
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, fifteen of them to contest the seventh online DMP round robin evening of the year, as a part of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
And the fifteen made up a demandingly large group.
George Georgiou took the honours.
George moves into the lead in the SGP, with a large pack in chase, while Natalie Singh moved into the lead in the John Curran sponsored SGP intermediate sponsorship prize race.
There was Premier League action too.
In Premier Two Red Ian Hedges defeated Carwyn Jenkins, while Tom Chapman scored a Premier Three Green win over league leader Safi Tracy.
After the tournament there was a four player jackpot, where Elias Hamati took the money.
11/07/21: Sunday action in Premier Three
There were two matches played on Sunday, both of them in Premier Three.
In the Yellow Division Ben Crowden defeated Hazel Boucher.
While the Green Division saw a narrow victory for Safi Tracy over Caoline Boulton.
08/07/21: Kev wins July Grand Prix tournament to go top of BGP table
There were twenty-six players in action on Thursday, twenty-four of them to contest the seventh of this year's series of twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments.
And it was Kev Peters who won the main flight for his second monthly grand prix success of the year, defeating John Curran, Nick Barham, Robin Gunney and Elias Hamati before beating Ian Anderson in the final.
Ian had arrived there via wins over Steve Pickard, Mandy Macdonald and Hazel Boucher.
The consolation flight was won by Steve Morris, whose victims were Simon Tracy, Adrian Farthing and -- in the final -- Alan Joicey.
Kev is now nailed on for a place in the 2022 Bristol Masters, as multiple monthly grand prix winners cannot fail to qualify.
Once again one of the Winner Takes All pools will roll over to next month's equivalent event.
The £60 rollover from the June £10 WTA pool attracted fourteen further investors, for a total of £200, but there was little interest in the £20 pool, where there is now an £80 rollover to the August event.
Kev's 120 points haul moves him into a 70 points lead in the Bristol Grand Prix table, with previous leader Andy Boysan in second place.
There was also a Premier Two Red meeting, with Ian Hedges defeating Carwyn Jenkins.
07/07/21: Now Adam exits Brunel
There were two matches played on Wednesday.
In the Brunel Trophy Adam Sinclair became the latest player to get no further than the fifth round when he was defeated by Steve Morris, who still has one life remaining.
And in Premier Three Green John Curran beat Gerald Whitehouse.
06/07/21: Cecilia and Matt are latest Brunel casualties
Two more Brunel Trophy fifth round ties were played on Tuesday.
Both were effectively sudden death matches as the protagonists each had one life remaining.
And the wins for Simonetta Herrera (over Cecilia Sparke) and Alan Joicey (against Matt Reekie-Black) moved the two victors into the sixth round.
The two remaining ties need to be played by July 24th, by which time there will be just seven or eight survivors.
06/07/21: Summer Grand Prix up and running with a controversy
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday, twenty-one of whom contested the opening session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, three three-point round robins.
The twenty-one were split into groups of seven players.
Two of the group winners were Kev Peters and Simon Tracy, but there was controversy in the third.
Ian Tarr needed a win in his final match, against Elias Hamati, to clinch the group.
He got it, but was not satisfied that Elias had made sufficent effort to put it mildly, something which has forced him to make a ruling in retrospect.
This was to the effect that all of Elias's matches would be expunged, something which had minimal effect on overall standings as he had only won one match, against the bottom player.
And while this left Ian as the group winner, the average PRs -- which are used as a tie breaker, but cannot be separated out after the event -- of Ian and second placed Stephen Little were not sufficiently far apart to make Ian the conclusive winner.
The points awarded for the top two positions are thus shared equally between the two.
Ian did win the side pool, as Stephen was not in it.
So Kev and Simon share the SGP lead after one event.
Elias will be warned that any repeat of this behaviour will result in a permanent ban from all round robin events.
Andrew Montgomery and Natalie Singh share the lead in the Summer section of the John Curran sponsored intermediate sponsorship table.
In late action, there was a six player jackpot with entry at £10, and this was won by Alan Joicey.
There was also a league result.
Ben Crowden scored a Premier Three Yellow victory over Jordan White.
02/07/21: Stephen wins in Swindon
In a Premier One meeting at Brookhouse Farm, Swindon, on Friday Stephen Little defeated Gary Plant.
02/07/21: Tim wins GP20 tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, fourteen of them to contest the fourth of the year's eight GP20 tournaments.
And in the main flight Gaz Owen made it to his third succesive GP20 final, where he lost out to Tim Line.
Tim's progress to the final had come through wins over Nick Barham, Chris Rogers and Kev Peters, while Gaz had beaten Hazel Boucher, Chris Hughes and Ian Anderson.
Cecilia Sparke took the consolation flight, defeating Cynthia Roberts and Steve Morris after receiving the quarter-finals' only bye.
Gaz has now built up a massive 120 points lead over second placed Kev in the GP20 table, with Tim just behind in third.
The day's only other action was in Premier Three Green, where Caroline Boulton staved off a spirited comeback from Mike Smith to earn a narrow victory.
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