News items from 2010 (first half)
29/06/10: Jamie and Roland share Monday honours
It was a low turnout at the latest Monday Club session, with six players contesting a nackgammon round robin as the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, with a chouette to follow.
Jamie Nevill and Roland Herrera shared the nackgammon honours, with Roland extending his SGP lead over second placed Ian Preston to 52 points, and Jamie moving up to third and overhauling Pearl Foster as top intermediate.
25/06/10: JUNE LEAGUE NIGHT ROUND-UP ......
Eighteen players were in league action last night, while a handful of others were also present with friendly matches and a chouette completing the scene.
25/06/10: Dave keeps up pressure on Stuart ......
With Premier One leader Stuart Mann absent there was a chance for others with positive records to cement their championship challenge.
Dave Pym obliged with a narrow win over Steffen Nowak to oust Steffen from second place.
Steffen had earlier suffered defeat by Phil Charlton on a night which delivered a body blow to his title hopes.
Paul Gilbertson came down from Buckinghamshire and got in three matches, losing to Simon Hughes before sharing ths spoils of a double header with Simonetta Herrera.
The current bottom four -- Miles Farren, Phil, Ian Tarr and Paul appear to have a lot of work to do to escape the drop.
25/06/10: Twelve in a row for Ed ......
Ed Turner's remarkable run in Premier Two Blue continues.
His 11-2 win over Simon Temme at Colston Yard made it twelve wins in a row, and it's difficult to imagine how anyone bar second placed Derek Clew might threaten his lead.
Simon later made up ground by defeating Chas Perry, while Cecilia Sparke and Tony Walters were swapping wins in the only other action in the division.
25/06/10: Double pushes Steve up to third ......
With promotion favourites Tim Line and Blaine Buchanan absent from proceedings last night the stage was set for someone -- anyone -- to make inroads on those two Premier Two Red promotion positions.
But when the dust had settled only another absentee Richard Holness of all the potential challengers had a record of more wins than losses.
Steve Morris was the main beneficiary from the session, earning six points with two very hard earned wins over John Lewis, who slips to the bottom, behind Malcolm Patterson who arrested his run of defeats with a typical marathon match.
Steve is now third, but has only five more matches left to make an impression on the leaders.
25/06/10: Richard's sights set on Premier League ......
In a recent email to members of the Conference Director Ian Tarr mentioned the possibility of someone coming out of the pack to begin to threaten the 20 points barrier with a couple of wins.
Right on cue Buckinghamshire based Richard Biddle arrived at the BCSC last night and got in three matches, every one of which he won.
His previous points tally of six now looks a lot healthier at 15, meaning that he will secure lifetime Premier Status if he can win just two of his next three matches.
And the fact that he did this against the two players who have already secured their elevation to next year's top flight demonstrated the point of what's possible in the most emphatic way.
Remarkably leader Jamie Nevill has now lost his last four matches, but is still best placed to take the divisional championship, although James Lintell-Smith is just a point behind, with Richard a further six points back.
Who will be the next Conference player to make a surge towards qualification?
21/06/10: Ian on local radio
Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr took a detour before arriving for the Monday night session at the BCSC.
At short notice he called in at the BBC Bristol studio to be interviewed on the local backgammon scene by Ben Prater for the "Drive" programme.
Anyone of a strong disposition who has some time to spare can find the interview (for about a week) on iplayer at this link.
Ian is on one hour and thirteen minutes into the show, and the feature lasts for about thirteen minutes.
Later the Monday session featured twelve players in three point round robin action, and Ian made the decision to go against the competition rules and split the players into three groups of four because of anticipated time constraints -- a decision which was justified by the subsequent action.
Each group contained one non-paying player, an option that is exercised on Mondays to allow new players to get a taste of competition without the inherent risks.
One of those players, James Lintell-Smith, would have regretted his decision by the time he won his group outright, leaving second placed Roland Herrera to capitalise by taking the pot.
Neil Young and Tony Walters were the winners of the other two groups.
The effect on the latest Monday Club Summer Grand Prix standings is that previous leader Ian Preston now finds himself seventeen points behind Roland after a blank night, with Ian Tarr and Simon Hughes moving into third and fourth places, and Pearl Foster regaining the top intermediate spot.
17/06/10: Miles takes first monthly grand prix title
After trailing for most of a long match Miles Farren finally won his first ever monthly grand prix title, defeating Derek Clew 11-8 at the BCSC.
The win firms up fourth place for Miles in the OGP, bags him a tidy profit, and clinches both his place in the 2011 Bristol Masters and tenure of the Sarah Rosich Memorial Cup.
And Tim Line had a stress free evening, safe in the knowledge that he had bought both finalists in Thursday's auction pool.
Meanwhile fourteen others were contesting what is now the only free to enter Thursday event in the Bristol calendar -- the Inter League Challenge.
With five Premier One players, two from Premier Two Blue, four from Premier Two Red, two from the Conference, and one non-league player, it was not possible to hold the event in its intended form -- a four team affair.
So the field was split into two teams of seven players -- one representing Premier One and the Conference, and the other representing "The Rest".
Three rounds of 5-point matches were played, and the P1/C team forged ahead when winning five of the opening seven match series, and then repeating the dose in series two to go 10-4 up.
With just one more victory needed in the third and final series, it looked a foregone conclusion, but the "Rest" team rallied to secure a 5-2 result of their own, to make the final score 12-9.
Only one player -- Stuart Mann, for the P1/C team -- managed a clean sweep of three wins, while only one player -- Tim Line -- managed the more ignominious form of clean sweep.
Total wins: Premier One and the Conference:
Stuart Mann 3; Simonetta Herrera, Sean Hopson, Steffen Nowak 2 each; James Lintell-Smith, Ian Tarr, Neil Young 1 each.
"The Rest":
Steve Morris, Richard Owsley, Simon Temme 2 wins each; Roland Herrera, John Lewis, Ian Preston 1 each; Tim Line 0.
15/06/10: Derek reaches Lesters final
Derek Clew last night defeated Chas Perry at the BCSC to reach his second Lesters final.
There he will meet Miles Farren, whose second such final it will also be.
Chas' defeat means that Tim Line's OGP lead of 73 points is preserved for another month at least.
Before last night's BCSC session Ed Turner took another significant step towards regaining his Premier One place when he scored an 11-2 Premier Two Blue victory over Cynthia Roberts.
The central feature of the Monday Club session was a Tric Trac Tourno, contested by eleven players.
Ian Tarr came out on top of the group, while Ian Preston's fourth place was enough to give him an 8 point Monday Club Summer Grand Prix lead over Roland Herrera.
Pearl Foster could have won the event with a gammon in her last match, but had to content herself with second place, which moved her closer to current top intermediate, Jamie Nevill.
13/06/10: Handicapping system overhauled
Eagle eyed observers will notice that subtle changes have been made to the system for handicapping players in our Handicap Trophy tournaments, the system which has also evolved into our own Bristol ranking list.
For a while now Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr has been conscious of two anomalies -- Premier Two wins being accorded too high a reward, with grand prix and clock event consolation flights too low in the mix. The changes to the points tariff are designed to correct these perceived problems.
What it means in real terms is that overall ranking scores tend to be higher than they were before the change, and that is also reflected in changes to the "banding" for the different handicaps.
12/06/10: ALL THE NEWS FROM LESTERS LXXV ......
Tne seventy-fifth Lesters Trophy tournament was contested by twenty-one players at the BCSC on Thursday evening, while one other player was present for a league match.
12/06/10: Miles awaits a final opponent ......
It wouldn't be unfair to say that Miles Farren has spectacularly under achieved in Bristol Grand Prix knock-out events.
In forty-one previous outings Miles had just one main flight final appearance -- in the December 2007 Lesters event -- to show for his efforts.
So last night's run to the final, defeating Simon Temme, Sean Hopson and Neil Young, will have come as a major source of relief.
He doesn't yet know who his final opponent will be, with Chas Perry and Derek Clew due to fight out the outstanding semi some time soon.
Chas came through the long part of the draw, eliminating Shadow Hamilton, Roland Herrera and John Plummer, while Derek was beating Tim Line and Tony Walters.
12/06/10: Simon wins consolation flight ......
Simon Hughes took the honours in Thursday's consolation flight, defeating Mandy Macdonald and Steffen Nowak before beating Tim Line in the final.
12/06/10: Chas can eat into Tim's lead ......
OGP leader Tim Line garnered four more points than second placed Roland Herrera in Thursday's tournament to keep him at arm's length, but another threat emerged in the shape of third placed Chas Perry.
Chas' run to the semis moves him above Roland, and the 73 points gap to the top can be cut to just three points if Chas can go on and win the event.
A tournament win for either of the other protagonists -- Miles Farren and Derek Clew -- would result in occupation of fourth place.
12/06/10: Sean's win gives him a little breathing space ......
On an inauspicious evening for intermediates IGP leader Sean Hopson was the only one of five representatives to win a match in either flight, so his 10 points lead over second placed Shay Baabahar has been extended to 50.
His tenure of pole position shouldn't be regarded as impregnable, however, as one good tournament for any of the many other contenders can change things dramatically.
12/06/10: Rollover for July tournament ......
With only six of the twenty-one players investing in Thursday's Winner Takes All pool, it's not too surprising to be able to announce that there's a rollover for the July tournament.
Of the six only Tony Walters and Gaz Owen made it as far as the quarter-finals, but that was as far as it went.
The pre-tournament auction sees Tim Line in with a chance of scooping the entire auction pool.
As well as landing finalist Miles Farren for a mere £3 outlay, he also has an interest in semi-finalist Derek Clew, although Mandy Macdonald will be hoping that her purchase of Chas Perry will bear fruit.
As for the three players left in the tournament, they have more rewards than the prize pot to think about, namely a guaranteed place in the 2011 Bristol Masters and holding the Sarah Rosich Memorial Cup for twelve months.
12/06/10: Blaine keeps title race interesting ......
There were two matches in Premier Two Red on Thursday evening, including a clash of the top two contenders.
Blaine Buchanan came out on top of his meeting with Tim Line to keep the title race a close affair.
Later in the evening Lewis Young kept alive his slim chances of challenging with a whitewash of Steve Morris.
10/06/10: Bristol Open website taking shape
It's less than three months to the flagship Bristol backgammon event of the calendar, the 2010 Bristol Open.
The event website is now taking shape as the main details become firm and the pre-tournament publicity process moves into full swing.
Check it out on a regular basis to keep fully informed.
08/06/10: Ian deeper into relegation mire
A 3-11 Premier One defeat at the hands of Simon Baker at Redfield this lunch-time has plunged Ian Tarr even deeper into the relegation trouble he was already in.
07/06/10: Ian closes on Roland
There were ten players at the latest Monday Club session, eight participating in the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix series, and two others playing friendlies.
The competition consisted of two groups of four players contesting 3-point round robins.
Ian Preston won one outright, while Jamie Nevill and Ian Tarr shared the pot in the other.
Ian Preston thus closes to within two points of SGP leader Roland Herrera, with Simon Hughes third and Jamie taking over the mantle of top intermediate from Pearl Foster in fourth.
01/06/10: Ian wins Handicap event
An equal record low turnout of eleven players turned up for the third of the year's Handicap Trophy tournaments, while one other player was there for a league match.
In the main flight Ian Preston emerged as the winner, defeating Simon Temme and Neil Young before beating Shadow Hamilton in the final.
Shadow had come through the long part of the draw with wins over James Lintell-Smith, Tony Walters and Ian Tarr.
James defeated Tony in the consolation final.
Shadow now holds a 50 points lead over the absent Duncan Lee, with Ian Preston five points further back.
In the evening's only league action Steve Morris scored an 11-5 Premier Two Red win over Lewis Young.
01/06/10: Two penalised at May checkpoint
Two players have fallen foul of the end of May Premier League checkpoint by incurring penalties.
In Premier One Paul Gilbertson has incurred three penalty points to go with the three he incurred in March, which to become eradicated would need a successful appeal.
And in Premier Two Blue Cecilia Sparke has two penalties which can be clawed back by compliance with the end of July checkpoint.
28/05/10: Inaugural clock blitz evening a qualified success
Yesterday's inaugural Clock Blitz Grand Prix evening at the BCSC always had something of the experimental about it, and with hindsight might have been formatted slightly differently, although most players seemed to enjoy the experience.
With twelve players initially taking part, the rules stipulated three round robins of four players each, which on reflection would probably have been better as two groups of six.
Having had experience of similar competitions in the slightly more relaxed atmosphere of Monday sessions, Director Ian Tarr was perhaps over cautious in his expectations of what would transpire, as the somewhat more experienced field rattled on with things more quickly than has often been the case on Mondays.
There was, however, provision in the rules for a second, separate, event if all was done and dusted by 9.30pm, and that deadline was met more than comfortably, with seven of the original players plus one new one forming two more groups of four.
Ian has now rethought the rules in time for the second of the series of three events in October, giving greater emphasis to larger groups, although this will still be dependent to some extent on the total number of entrants.
This includes a revision of the CBGP points scoring system in the light of this change of emphasis. This would be tough to achieve part way through a competition, but will be made easier by the fact that, after last night, the runaway CBGP leader, who stands to lose most through the change, is none other than Ian himself.
In the opening series of round robins, Ian was the only one to win his group outright, with the other groups seeing pots shared betwen Gaz Owen and Phillip Hill in one group, and Michael Sørensen and Simon Hughes in the other.
In the second series Ian again won his group outright, while the other saw a triple tie between Simon, Roland Herrera and Tony Walters.
Despite the criticisms of the format, most players thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and there seems to be every chance that the CBGP will feature regularly in the Bristol Backgammon calendar.
In all thirteen players participated in the event, including top Dane Michael Sørensen and German visitor Jana Ström to give the evening an international flavour, while six others were in league action.
At the Albion, in Clifton, Simon Baker was scoring a valuable Premier One double over Miles Farren, while back at the BCSC Blaine Buchanan was ensuring that he clawed back penalty points incurred in March by completing three Premier Two Red matches -- two victories over John Lewis and a defeat by Richard Owsley. Blaine is now established as the main threat to Tim Line's leadership.
But perhaps the most momentous match of the evening was James Lintell-Smith's 11-10 Conference win over Mandy Macdonald, which ensured that James becomes the second player this year to become a newly qualified Premier League player.
27/05/10: Gaz wins May grand prix tournament
Dave Ablett's residence in Totterdown today saw the completion of the May Bristol Grand Prix tournament.
His visitor Gaz Owen was the 11-10 victor, scooping the extra cash and a place in the 2011 Bristol Masters tournament.
The extra 35 points moved Gaz up to equal 5th in the OGP.
26/05/10: Stuart back on top ...... twice over
Eldon House in clifton was the intended venue for a Premier One double header this afternoon.
But with Gaz Owen and Stuart Mann half way through the first match, the pub closed, and the pair moved on to the Lansdown.
Then an 11-7 win for Stuart was followed by another at 11-4, Stuart regaining his pole position in both the league table and the Bristol rankings.
25/05/10: Andrew and Chas in Bocabar action
A Premier Two Blue triple header took place at Bocabar, Totterdown, this evening.
Andrew Cobb's two victories sandwiched one by his opponent Chas Perry.
24/05/10: Seventeen in Monday evening action at the BCSC
A healthy Monday turnout of seventeen players, including a debut performance by Jana Ström, saw the completion of six league matches as well as a couple of DMP Tournos, which comprised the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
Miles Farren and Steffen Nowak played out a Premier One double header, where the shared spoils were enough to put Steffen back on top of the league table at Dave Pym's expense.
Meanwhile Tony Walters had his most productive evening for quite a while with Premier Two Blue victories over Derek Clew and Cynthia Roberts (twice).
And in the Conference an 11-4 win over Mandy Macdonald brought James Lintell-Smith to within a single point of confirming his Premier League arrival next season.
The DMP Tournos, one with a group of seven players, the other with six, saw Roland Herrera win the larger group, while Neil Young and Pearl Foster shared the pot in the smaller group.
Roland takes the outright SGP lead, with Ian Preston in second place, the absent Simon Hughes third, and Pearl, now the leading intermediate, in fourth.
21/05/10: MAY LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
Twenty Premier League players were in league action at an assortment of venues on Thursday evening.
But all was quiet in the Conference.
21/05/10: Premier One developing into a three horse race ......
Dave Pym is back on top of Premier One.
The season's top flight surprise packet turned up at the BCSC on the off chance of some action, and found some with an 11-0 whitewash of Ian Tarr.
He leapfrogs Steffen Nowak, who appeared to be heading for a double setback after losing to Gaz Owen and reaching DMP in the return.
Gaz had borne off fourteen men without reply, but Steffen hit, contained, shut out, and bore off for an unlikely win before an incredulous end of evening audience.
Meanwhile Stuart Mann scored an emphatic win over Neil Young at the Ship, before a successful comeback from 4-9 down at the BCSC against Ian.
Stuart is handily placed behind the top two with a couple of matches in hand.
Neil maintained his recent progress with a victory over Phil Charlton, who along with Ian, Simon Baker and Paul Gilbertson makes up a bottom four who have a lot of work to do to ensure their safety.
21/05/10: Cecilia's disastrous evening ......
With five wins from seven Premier Two Blue matches under her belt before last night Cecilia Sparke arrived at the BCSC with twin objectives -- to keep up the pressure on the top two, and to ensure that she would not be expunged from the league for lack of progress.
The latter objective was achieved, but the former was left very much in the balance when Cecilia suffered defeats at the hands of Chas Perry, Derek Clew and Tony Walters.
Derek's win sees him as the only apparent threat to Ed Turner's lead, with the rest of the field -- led by Chas, Ian Preston, Simon Temme and Cecilia now in a race for third place.
Chas won twice last night, the second success at the expense of Tony, while Ian also defeated Tony after resuming an adjourned match from 0-5 down.
Simon had fought out most of a triple header with Andrew Cobb at Bocabar, winning one, losing one, and adjourning the third at 9-8 up.
21/05/10: Tim takes Premier Two Red initiative ......
After limbering up with an 11-6 win over Malcolm Patterson, Tim Line then tackled a double header with Richard Holness which promised to have a major bearing on the Premier Two Red title race.
A double victory for either player would secure a very strong pole position, and Tim duly obliged with 11-2 and 11-5 wins.
It will now be a surprise if Tim fails to take the title, although Blaine Buchanan could threaten the lead by winning the majority of his matches in hand.
Blaine shared the spoils of a double header with Richard Owsley at the Merchants Arms, Hotwells, and the night's other winner was Steve Morris, who beat Malcolm.
21/05/10: No expungements this month ......
Progress made by Gaz Owen, Tony Walters, Cecilia Sparke and Blaine Buchanan in last night's league action ensured that there will be no expungements at the May 31st checkpoint.
There remain pressing issues, however, for five players -- Gaz, Blaine, Paul Gilbertson, Stuart Mann and Derek Clew -- who all need to play matches before the checkpoint to stop penalties incurred in March becoming permanent.
And four other players can incur initial penalties.
18/05/10: Gaz out of relegation zone
An 11-9 victory over Ian Tarr at the Cornubia this afternoon has hauled Gaz Owen out of the Premier One relagation zone.
17/05/10: Roland and Jamie win clock blitz round robins
The second phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, comprising two four player clock blitz round robins, saw the honours go to Jamie Nevill in one group and Roland Herrera in the other.
Roland thus draws level with Simon Hughes at the top of the SGP table, while Jamie takes over the leading intermediate mantle from Pearl Foster.
Apart from the main event, Simon Ramsden was again given some guidance by Ian Tarr, while Ian Preston and Tony Walters began a Premier Two Blue match that was adjourned with Tony 5-0 ahead.
14/05/10: MAY GRAND PRIX NEWS ROUND-UP ......
A bumper turnout of twenty-nine players graced the fifth of the year's monthly grand prix tournaments at the BCSC last night.
All had participated in one or more of the previous four events, with the surprising exception of Stuart Mann.
14/05/10: Dave and Gaz to fight out the main final ......
Last night's tournament at the BCSC saw Dave Ablett and Gaz Owen forge a path to a final meeting.
That final was adjourned, and will be played some time very soon.
Gaz beat Cecilia Sparke, Derek Clew, Simon Temme and George Jakeway to reach the final, while Dave's victims were Simonetta Herrera, Tim Line, James Lintell-Smith and Roland Herrera.
14/05/10: Neil keeps the winning habit in consolation ......
Just a day after becoming the tenth Bristol Masters champion, Neil Young maintained his winning habit to take another title, albeit a much less significant one.
After elimination from the main flight by Ian Preston, Neil accounted for Blaine Buchanan, Marcus Wrinch and Cecilia Sparke before defeating Stuart Mann in the consolation final.
14/05/10: Tim still 80 points clear ......
Tim Line's OGP lead was reduced from 95 points to a still very handy 80, when Roland Herrera progressed a round further than him in last night's main flight.
Chas Perry edges ahead of Richard owsley in third place, while finalists Gaz Owen and Dave Ablett are still some way further off the pace, having each contested just two of the five events to date.
14/05/10: IGP race hots up ......
Last year was an excruciatingly quiet year for intermediates, when only seven players contested more than a single monthly grand prix event.
That tally has already been equalled this year, and the signs are that the IGP race is hotting up into something pretty competitive.
March finalist Sean Hopson still holds the overall lead, but with four intermediates picking up bonus points yesterday, Shay Baabahar, George Jakeway, James Lintell-Smith, Mandy Macdonald and Shadow Hamilton are all within easy striking reach.
George's run to the main flight semi-finals was his finest achievement to date, since he first crossed the Severn Bridge to contest a Bristol tournament just over four years ago.
14/05/10: Winner assured of Masters qualification ......
The size of yesterday's field was enough to guarantee that whoever wins the main flight final will qualify for the 2011 Bristol Masters.
And Gaz Owen and Dave Ablett will also have a tidy sum to play for after last month's Winner Takes All pool rollover.
14/05/10: Lewis defeats top man Tim ......
There was just one league match played at the BCSC last night, when Lewis Young scored an 11-4 victory over Premier Two Red leader Tim Line.
Having clawed back his March penalty point, the win was enough to haul Lewis into third place.
13/05/10: Bristol Open date change confirmed
The fifth Bristol Open will now go ahead on the weekend prior to the August Bank Holiday.
Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd are the new dates.
The date shift, first mentioned in this column on 28/04/10, had occurred because of availability problems at the venue for the original dates.
Co-Directors Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr can now proceed with the preparations with absolute confidence.
12/05/10: Masters part two -- and Neil is the champion!
Thirteen days after the tenth Bristol Masters stopped at "half time", the second half was played out at the Bear of Rodborough, near Stroud, today.
With two of the four protagonists based in Hereford and one in Cheltenham, a "northerly" venue was deemed entirely appropriate for the conclusion of the prestigious tournament.
But it was Bristol based traveller Neil Young who took the honours.
The semis saw Simon Baker account for John Plummer, while Neil was launching a dramatic comeback from 1-7 in arrears to pip Marcus Wrinch.
The final was also a close affair -- with the players electing to double it up as a Premier One match.
Neil, who had eliminated Ian Tarr and Chas Perry in the first two rounds, came through 11-9 to take his biggest honour to date by far, eclipsing three grand prix wins and last year's emphatic promotion to the top flight.
It was the fourth Masters Neil has contested, having qualified by right twice.
The league result means that Neil is out of the bottom four he has occupied for most of the season to date. And his elevation comes at Simon's expense.
12/05/10: Cynthia suffers narrow league defeat -- three times
Cynthia Roberts managed to fit in plenty of league action on Monday evening, either side of contesting the first phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
Unfortunately for her, three Premier Two Blue matches saw her score a total of 28 points, and yet finish on the losing side each time.
Ed Turner was the double beneficiary at Colston Yard, then Ian Preston scored a victory after the pair's Monday Club involvement.
Ed now has eleven wins from thirteen league matches, including each of his last ten outings, and as he only seems to play league matches these days that qualifies him for a 1000 to 1 award.
The Monday Club session featured two 3-point round robins -- one of five players, the other of four.
Simon Hughes won the five player group outright -- taking the early Summer Grand Prix lead -- while the spoils from the four player group were shared by Ian Preston and Roland Herrera.
Dominic Owens made his competitive debut, while debut player Simon Ramsden, who hails from Huddersfield, played friendly matches with Ian Tarr.
09/05/10: Ian defeats Simonetta
Ian Tarr visited Kellaway Avenue this evening and inflicted an 11-9 Premier One defeat on Simonetta Herrera, denting her title defence, and at the same time hauling himself out of the relegation zone.
07/05/10: Derek presses promotion claim in triple header
The Rose and Crown, Larkhall, Bath, was the venue tonight for a Premier Two Blue triple header between Andrew Cobb and Derek Clew.
After the opening match reached DMP, it was Derek who grabbed the 11-10 win, following up with two rather more emphatic victories.
He moves into second place, and it looks ever more likely that the nine matches involving Derek, leader Ed Turner, and Cecilia Sparke will have the main say in who claims the two promotion slots.
07/05/10: Ian wins low key clock event
There were just nine entrants for the third of the series of six Clock Tournament Grand Prix events at the BCSC last night, although there were three others there for some league action.
Ian Tarr took the honours in the main flight, defeating Tim Line, Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera, and has taken the CTGP lead from Roland by a mere five points.
Simon Temme won the consolation flight, defeating Tim in the final.
In Premier Two Blue Ian Preston narrowly defeated Chas Perry, while Tim had earlier despatched John Lewis to take over at the top of Premier Two Red.
05/05/10: Conference top two share the honours
The Beehive, Henleaze, was the latest new venue for Bristol Backgammon matches this evening, when the two keenest players in the Conference met for a double header.
Jamie Nevill, who has already qualified for next year's Premier League, played his tenth and eleventh league matches of the season, winning the first but losing the return.
His opponent James Lintell-Smith has played one match more, and raised his overall points tally to sixteen, just four away from booking his own Premier League place.
30/04/10: Masters future as a clock tournament
The tenth Bristol Masters, which started last night at the BCSC, will have a different format in future years.
This was the inescapable conclusion reached by Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr after what should be the jewel in the crown of domestic Bristol knock-outs spluttered to a very disappointing premature conclusion, with the semi-finals still to play.
Because the single flight tournament solely features sixteen pre-qualifiers, it starts with the draw promptly made at 7pm.
And because the matches are all to 11 points, a degree of co-operation by the players is needed to ensure that at least the first round, quarter-finals and semi-finals are played on the night.
Adjournment of the final, making it an event in itself, can always be justified. But calling a halt to proceedings at midnight, because the first two rounds have taken five hours to complete, when we have use of the club cleared into the early hours, surely devalues the event.
As from next year, the event will feature compulsory clock play, and the match length will be reduced to nine points.
The tournament itself, albeit only two rounds in, has already produced a number of shock results, proving once again that there are few, if any, easy matches in Bristol Backgammon.
A glance at the pre-tournament Bristol Rankings, would have shown the following pecking order of participants:
(1) Roland Herrera; (2) Stuart Mann; (3) Paul Gilbertson; (4) Julian Fetterlein; (5) Ian Tarr; (6) Simonetta Herrera; (7) Phil Charlton; (8) Marcus Wrinch; (9) Chas Perry; (10) Simon Baker; (11) Blaine Buchanan; (12) Steffen Nowak; (13) Simon Hughes; (14) Neil Young; and (15) John Plummer, with Dave Ablett not yet having played enough Bristol matches to have a ranking position, although enough to qualify for the event after his July tournament success.
The first round accounted, among others, for numbers 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, and numbers 1 and 4 followed in the quarter-finals.
If the rankings are to be believed, and there must be some doubt based on last night's proceedings, then Marcus is now the favourite to prevail.
So this columnist predicts a John versus Neil final -- bad news for Marcus and Simon B if correct!
There was also some league action, mostly involving those not involved in the tournament, but one pair took advantage of the flexibility in league rules which allows an 11-point match in another competition to double up as a league match.
Simon Baker and Simonetta Herrera did this with their first round match, which left Simonetta with double regrets after a 1-11 Premier One reverse.
Neil Young had earlier defeated Paul Gilbertson at Colston Yard to lift himself off the bottom of the league at Paul's expense.
And Colston Yard was also the venue for Ed Turner and Simon Temme as Simon waited for the call to take up a Masters position in the event of an unexpected absence.
The call never came, leaving Simon free to suffer a 6-11 Premier Two Blue reverse, Ed's eighth successive win in that competition.
Another on the Masters reserve list, Tim Line, managed to get no fewer than four Premier Two Red matches in, winning three of them.
His defeat was at the hands of Richard Holness who, also bolstered by an earlier win over John Lewis, is now top of the league, with Tim second, and Richard Owsley, on the slide after a good start to the season, now third.
29/04/10: Derek beaten by Simon
Derek Clew, one of the three players who have started the Premier Two Blue season extremely well, suffered a 4-11 defeat at the hands of Simon Temme yesterday evening at Colston Yard.
Those three players -- Ed Turner and Cecilia Sparke being the others -- have yet to meet, however, and it could well be that those nine matches will be the major factor in deciding who claims the two promotion slots.
No doubt other contenders will emerge as the season progresses. Both Simon and Chas Perry have won more than they have lost, and a good run from now would put either well into the promotion mix.
28/04/10: Big tournament date changes
Watch out for an announcement during the next few days of a date change for the 2010 Bristol Open, due to logistical problems at the venue over the August Bank Holiday.
This follows on from the entirely unrelated date switch for the London Open, which has been postponed from it's former end of May slot until September.
28/04/10: Liverpool are playing, so Gaz pulls out
Gaz Owen has pulled out of tomorrow evening's tenth Bristol Masters, citing the massive distraction of Liverpool's Europa League match as his reason.
This is good news for Blaine Buchanan, who is happily accepting Gaz's slot.
Maybe if there is the odd distracted Fulham fan amongst the sixteen Simon Temme, who is now first reserve, might yet get to start!
26/04/10: Cynthia on form again in Tric Trac Tourno
There were thirteen players present at the latest Monday Club session at the BCSC.
Three played friendly matches, while the other ten made up the field for the final phase of the Spring Grand Prix, a Tric Trac Tourno.
And following the recent Monday trend it was Cynthia Roberts who took the pot, with three gammons among her six wins for a total of 10.5 points.
Roland Herrera increased his SGP winning margin to a total of 57 points ahead of second placed Ian Preston, with Ian Tarr and Cynthia a few points further back.
Sean Hopson finished as the top intermediate.
23/04/10: APRIL LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
There were twenty-three players in action on or around this month's league night at the BCSC, although only nineteen of those were progressing their league campaigns.
Michihito Kageyama was among those playing friendly matches, prior to his early morning -- much delayed -- return to Japan.
And there was a welcome Conference debut appearance for Paul Aubrey-Rees.
23/04/10: Four excel in top flight ......
Premier One provided the main focus for Thursday's league night, with nine of the twelve players in action, completing eight matches.
And at this stage of the season it's hard to escape the conclusion that last season's freakishly close division is very much a thing of the past.
Although it's still far too early to draw too many finite conclusions, there appear to be four players who are extremely well placed to fight out the title race.
A glance at the top of the league table -- probably discounting Simon Hughes who only has five matches left to play and would be extremely unlikely to win the title even if he were to win all those five -- shows Steffen Nowak, Dave Pym, Simonetta Herrera and Stuart Mann all poised to fight it out for the honours.
Overnight leader Dave broke even in his two matches -- against fellow contenders Stuart and Simonetta -- but was overtaken by Steffen, whose exceptional evening saw him take three wins without reply against Paul Gilbertson (twice) and Ian Tarr.
Simonetta's position was well maintained by her sole result, a win over Dave, while Stuart's win and loss also kept him well in touch.
Paul did manage to win his other match, while bottom of the league Neil Young also secured a much needed win.
Meanwhile defeats for Phil Charlton and Ian point ominously towards a season fighting to avoid the drop.
23/04/10: Premier Two Red is very close ......
There was no action at all in Premier Two Blue -- nor has there been since March 29th -- but its sister division Premier Two Red did at least see three matches contested.
And this league is looking extremely tight at this stage, with all contestants currently on either three, four or five wins.
Probable favourite at this stage is Blaine Buchanan, whose three penalty points partially obscure the fact that he has won four out of five matches -- the best record in the division to date.
Last night's win over Lewis Young consolidated his promising start, after Lewis had defeated Malcolm Patterson, while John Lewis was denting Richard Holness's useful start to the season.
23/04/10: Jamie is the first to promotion ......
Last year's struggle to produce new Premier League players via the Conference League yielded only one -- Chas Perry.
This year shows every sign of being far more productive on that front, with last year's feeble total of twenty-seven matches all season only six away as we get close to the end of April.
And just to emphasise that point, we already have a Premier League qualifier!
On Wednesday Jamie Nevill knew he was just two wins away from the 20-points threshold when he visited Sean Hopson's home for a match.
An 11-5 victory later he knew he had a great chance to clinch his promotion at league night.
And his first match last night -- a hard fought encounter with Richard Biddle -- saw him cross the line 11-9 ahead to secure his Premier League place for 2011.
His later win over Paul Aubrey-Rees was just the icing on the cake.
Paul had started extremely well when winning his debut match, against James Lintell-Smith who had led the table until Wednesday.
For James it was an evening to forget, after his subsequent defeat at Richard's hands.
19/04/10: Four cash in three point round robins
There were two more new players at the latest Monday Club session at the BCSC.
While Dominic Owens sussed out the lie of the land with some spectating and the odd friendly game, Paul Lamdin -- a one time visitor in the late 90's -- took the plunge into the evening's competition.
There were enough players to form two 5-player 3-point round robins.
While Neil Young's three wins out of four were enough to win him one group outright, the other group saw a three players -- Michihito Kageyama, Cynthia Roberts and Ian Tarr -- sharing the pot with a similar return.
And with just one event to go, leader Roland Herrera has a cushion of nearly 49 points over his nearest challenger Ian Preston.
Unfortunately for Ian, there are unlikely to be enough points available in next week's Tric Trac Tournos to change things at the top.
The top intermediate prize, however, is still very much up for grabs, with Sean Hopson in pole position.
18/04/10: Michi and Jamie win doubles final
It can be logistically a difficult proposition to assemble four players for a doubles match, but the final of Thursday's tournament proved to be the exception.
There was a degree of urgency since one of the protagonists -- Michihito Kageyama -- is due to fly to Japan on Monday.
Whether or not he actually does so is at the mercy of the cloud of volcanic dust currently blowing over Europe from Iceland, but the match went ahead this evening at Kellaway Avenue.
Michi and his partner Jamie Nevill met Duncan Lee and Sean Hopson, and came through to win 5-2, giving Jamie a third share of the Consulting Doubles Grand Prix lead, with Michi a mere 10 points behind in fourth place.
The match was recorded for posterity by Roland Herrera, and can be viewed at Roland's website under the heading "UK and Bristol matches".
16/04/10: Twenty contest latest doubles tournament
The popularity of consulting doubles in Bristol continues unabated.
Twenty of the twenty-four players in action at the BCSC last night were involved in second of this year's four Consulting Doubles Grand Prix tournaments, while three others played league matches, and one more was a TD.
The tournament saw all matches bar the main final completed, and as one of the four players -- Michihito Kageyama -- is due to head back to Japan on Monday, it is hoped that the final will take place on Sunday evening.
Michi was partnered by Jamie Nevill -- and what great experience for a Conference player to be partnered by the current World Backgammon Giant #9!
Michi and Jamie got past Ian Preston and Simon Temme in round one, before their quarter-final victory over Simon Hughes and Neil Young and their semi-final win against Steffen Nowak and Phillip Hill.
Their final opponents will be Duncan Lee and Sean Hopson, who got there via a bye and wins over Simonetta Herrera and Rufus Rozelaar and Stuart Mann and Lewis Young.
Simonetta and Rufus went on to win the consolation flight, defeating Tim Line and Anne Foreman in that final.
The February winners Chas Perry and Tony Walters drew a complete blank last night, but still lead the CDGP table, although a win for Michi and Jamie would move Jamie level with them and Michi just 10 points behind them in fourth place.
Duncan and Sean, however, would be 25 points behind the top two of they were to win the final.
The only Premier One match of the evening saw Dave Pym celebrate moving back to the top of the league with his hundredth career Premier League victory -- an 11-5 success against Neil Young -- making him the fourth player to reach this landmark.
Meanwhile Premier Two Red saw three matches completed. League leader Richard Owsley had his promotion hopes dented by a double defeat at the hands of Richard Holness, while Tim Line scored a win over Lewis Young.
Earlier in the evening Duncan had pipped Jamie in the final of the second of this year's Handicap Trophy tournaments, and has wrested the lead in that competition from Shadow Hamilton.
15/04/10: Withdrawal opens Masters door for Neil
Peter Edwards, the first player to qualify for this year's Bristol Masters tournament, has indicated that he will not play in the event.
This has opened the door for first reserve Neil Young, who has now been offered the vacant slot.
The tournament is the only one in the Bristol calendar where pre-qualification decides the line-up, and the sixteen qualifiers are asked to confirm their participation beforehand, as replacements are ready and waiting in the wings.
13/04/10: Paul joins the British Open near miss list
It has almost become a tradition that Bristol supplies the runner-up for the BIBA British Open each year.
Ann Pocknell bucked the trend by having the temerity to actually take the title in 2008, but every rule should have an exception.
The last time there was no Bristol presence in the final was 2005, but since then -- apart from Ann's win -- Tony Lee, Ian Tarr and Gaz Owen have filled that second place, after Simon Baker (1996), Phil Charlton (1998) and Stuart Mann (2001) had whetted all our appetites.
This year it was the turn of Paul Gilbertson, who succumbed to Ireland's Sean Casey in Sunday's final.
Paul, one of the few players to win back to back BIBA events, also figured prominently in the latter stages of BIBA's other showpiece event, the Bright 'n' Breezy back in January, where he reached the semis.
13/04/10: Cynthia the DMP specialist!
Last night's phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, an eleven player DMP Tourno, saw Cynthia Roberts establish an astonishing record.
Since we first staged such an event, back in March 2009, there have now been eleven incarnations, with anything between six and eleven players taking part.
Until last night the most impressive performance in percentage terms had come in the last such event, when Cynthia won nine of ten games played (well done Shay Baabahar, the only player to beat her).
But last night she went one better with a clean sweep of victories, and has won an incredible nineteen out of twenty games in those last two appearances.
Cynthia, who once declared herself not a fan of Mondays, seems to be changing her tune!
Meanwhile, at the top of the SGP, Ian Preston moved a single point closer to leader Roland Herrera, but still has a 44.5 points deficit to make up, and a 7 point disadvantage in potential discards over the final two weeks does not help his cause.
There was further action in the shape of the outstanding semi-final of the main flight of the recent Handicap Trophy tournament, with Alan Parfitt and Jamie Nevill the twelfth and thirteenth players present on the evening.
Jamie won, and will meet another 3-handicap player Duncan Lee in the final, possibly on Thursday evening.
11/04/10: James leapfrogs Jamie in the Conference
Jamie Nevill's spell at the top of the Conference League came to an end on Friday evening, when James Lintell-Smith and Haydn Beard fought out a triple header at the Coopers Arms, Bedminster.
The pair had arranged to play two matches, but after two one sided affairs with honours near enough even, they decided to play a "decider" which James edged 11-10.
James, on sixteen points, and Jamie, on fourteen, are both within striking distance of the twenty points threshold which delineates qualification for next year's Premier League.
11/04/10: Roland back on top
The handicapping system which gives us the handy by-product of a Bristol ranking list now shows Roland Herrera back on top, after Stuart Mann's brief period back in the pole position he had monopolised for so long.
There's not much in it, though, so it could provide an interesting sub-plot to our competitions over the coming months.
09/04/10: APRIL GRAND PRIX TOURNAMENT ROUND-UP ......
Twenty-two players were at the April Bristol Grand Prix evening at the BCSC last night, including one who was only there for a league match.
09/04/10: Lewis is youngest grand prix winner ......
At just sixteen years and thirty-six days Lewis Young last night became the youngest ever winner of a Bristol Grand Prix tournament.
And he did it the hard way after coming through the long part of the draw, leaving a trail of high calibre victims in his wake.
Richard Owsley, Simonetta Herrera, Dave Ablett (not Dave Albert, as one player recorded his name on the draw sheet!) and Tim Line were all dispatched, before Lewis sat down to the 11-point final against Roland Herrera.
And Lewis kept his nose in front for most of the match before eventually triumphing 11-9.
09/04/10: Cynthia wins consolation flight ......
Cynthia Roberts defeated Simon Hughes, Pam Jakeway, Tony Walters and Simon Temme to win Thursday's consolation flight.
09/04/10: Tim extends OGP lead ......
Tim Line's OGP lead was extended to 95 points after his run to the semi-final of last night's main flight.
Roland Herrera, Richard Owsley and the absent Chas Perry are his closest rivals.
09/04/10: Absent Sean remains unchallenged in IGP ......
With just two intermediates turning out for last night's tournament, and only one match won, Sean Hopson's IGP lead of 60 points remains intact.
George and Pam Jakeway made their first appearance of the season, and both found themselves in the consolation flight, where Pam defeated Richard Owsley before falling to flight winner Cynthia Roberts in unfortunate circumstances.
09/04/10: Lewis has to wait for Masters nod ......
There are still only two definite qualifiers for the 2011 Bristol Masters after last night's tournament.
Both Thursday's winner Lewis Young and Chas Perry, who won the January event, will definitely qualify if any of the five remaining £10 events attract an entry of fewer than 21 players.
Their qualification will also be assured as soon as any player grabs dual qualification for the event, so the odds are strongly in their favour.
09/04/10: Rare rollover for the May tournament ......
The Winner Takes All pool attracted just five investors at Thursday's tournament, so it shouldn't be too big a surprise that, just for once, there's a rollover to the May tournament.
09/04/10: Tim and John score league wins ......
Lewis Young may have had a memorable evening, but it didn't start so well.
Before the tournament Lewis played a Premier Two Red match against John Lewis, and went down 10-11.
And Tim Line defeated Malcolm Patterson 11-7.
02/04/10: Roland reporting on the Nordic Open
Roland Herrera is posting details from the 2010 Nordic Open on his website.
For his latest missives, click here.
01/04/10: Duncan waits for a final opponent
The second of this year's six Handicap Trophy tournaments attracted an entry of seventeen players at the BCSC tonight.
The main flight saw Duncan Lee taking full advantage of his 3-handicap to get past Ian Preston, Phillip Hill and Lewis Young to reach the final.
There he will meet the winner of the outstanding semi-final between Alan Parfitt and Jamie Nevill, which will no doubt be played very soon.
The consolation flight was won by Derek Clew, who defeated Colin Sara and Ian Tarr before despatching Blaine Buchanan in the final.
Table leader Shadow Hamilton had a blank evening, but still leads, although Duncan will overtake her if he wins the final.
Blaine and Steve Morris arrived just in time for the tournament after finishing an adjourned Premier Two Red at the Ship, Lower Park Row, where it was Blaine who emerged victorious.
And Ben Heath, who made his Thursday debut in the tournament, has also signed up for the Conference, bringing the membership of that league up to eleven.
01/04/10: Julian on the up
The latest list of 64 World Backgammon Giants has been published, and our own Julian Fetterlein has moved up to number 37 on the list.
The list, which is published after a ballot every two years, contains several players familiar to us in Bristol.
Indeed, top of the pile for the first time is current World Champion Masayuki Mochizuki (a k a Mochy), who won the inaugural Bristol Open in 2005, while his Japanese compatriot Michi (Michihito Kageyama) has risen sharply to number 9.
Other visitors to Bristol in the list are Trabi (Lars Trabolt) at 8, Katja Sophie Spillum Svendsen (36), Lars Bonding (41), Raj Jansari (52, and the only other Brit in the list apart from Julian), and Philip Vischjager 54.
01/04/10: Nine penalised at midnight checkpoint
The first checkpoint of the Premier League season passed at midnight with nine players incurring penalty points.
In Premier One Paul Gilbertson is three reported results short of the seven required, Neil Young two, and Stuart Mann and Gaz Owen one apiece.
Derek Clew's single point penalty was the only one in Premier Two Blue, while there were also four players penalised in Premier Two Red -- Blaine Buchanan and Tim Line three each, Richard Holness two, and Lewis Young one.
All nine players can claw those penalties back by being up with the schedule at the May 31st checkpoint, which means reporting at least eleven results in Premier One, twelve in Premier Two Blue and ten in Premier Two Red.
29/03/10: Paul's double success, Stuart suffers first defeat
Paul Gilbertson came all the way from High Wycombe on Monday evening to ensure that he would not be expunged from Premier One at the end of March checkpoint.
Having won the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a clock blitz round robin -- Paul sat down to defeat Ian Tarr 11-8 in a league match.
And at the Star and Dove, Totterdown, a double header between two early contenders for the Premier One lead saw Stuart Mann win the opening encounter 11-4, only for Steffen Nowak to get his own back with an 11-8 success of his own, Stuart's first league defeat of the season.
Further league action involved Cecilia Sparke and Cynthia Roberts at the BCSC, with Cecilia winning 11-4 to move into third place in Premier Two Blue.
Meanwhile at the Kensington Arms, Redland, Blaine Buchanan defeated Steve Morris 11-1 in Premier Two Red to remove the last threat of expungement this month, and Blaine was also 5-4 ahead in the return at the point of adjournment.
And as all remaining Premier League fees were paid this evening -- apart from that of the resigned Paul Watts -- that particular threat of penalty points has now disappeared.
The clock blitz round robin saw Ian Preston move a mere five points closer to SGP leader Roland Herrera with just three events to come.
There were also a couple of DMP round robins contested by four novice players to round off a varied evening of activity for fifteen players around Bristol.
29/03/10: A new Perry arrival
Saturday night saw the arrival of a baby girl for Chas Perry and his wife, Fiona.
So it's many congratulations to the three of them.
25/03/10: MARCH LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
The March league night was attended by twenty players, fifteen of whom were progressing their league campaigns.
25/03/10: Simonetta warms to title defence task ......
There were seven Premier One matches played at the BCSC on Thursday, and reigning league champion Simonetta Herrera is showing signs that she will not relinquish her title lightly.
Having started her campaign slowly, she scored her third and fourth consecutive league wins at the expense of Neil Young and Steffen Nowak.
It was Steffen's first league defeat of the season, after he had earlier claimed his fourth successive victory, 11-5 over Phil Charlton.
Ian Tarr also managed a brace of wins to haul himself out of the bottom four, and the night's other winners were Simon Hughes and Neil, who shared the spoils of a double header.
Simon thus regains the overall lead, his position inflated somewhat by the fact that he has already completed sixteen of his twenty-two matches.
Neil, meanwhile, has started his first top flight campaign with four defeats out of five, but should take heart from his zero average points difference.
25/03/10: Richard wins top of the table clash ......
Blaine Buchanan registered his first two results of the season, amongst three in Premier Two Red.
He suffered defeat to Steve Morris, but bounced back with a win against Richard Holness.
The other match involved the two pace setters, Malcolm Patterson and Richard Owsley, and it was Richard who won to consolidate top spot.
25/03/10: Jamie suffers first league defeat ......
Richard Biddle made the long trip down from Buckinghamshire, and got in two Conference matches, taking on the top two in the league, Jamie Nevill and James Lintell-Smith.
JLS was first up, and withstood a fightback by Richard from 3-10 down to win 11-8, before Richard inflicted a first league reverse on Jamie.
Jamie's lead over James is cut from seven points to three.
25/03/10: Two still under expungement threat ......
With just six playing days left before the March Premier League checkpoint, there are still two players under threat of expungement from the league.
But both Paul Gilbertson in Premier One and Blaine Buchanan in Premier Two Red are just one result away from avoiding the ignominy.
There are twelve players, however, who still have work to do if they want to avoid incurring penalty points.
24/03/10: Cecilia and Ed double at Bocabar and Kings Head, Mandy wins at the Windmill
Ed Turner continued his fine start to the season with a double success over Ian Preston at the Kings Head, Whitehall this evening -- his sixth and seventh successive league wins.
Also in Premier Two Blue Cecilia Sparke scored two much needed victories at Bocabar at the expense of Andrew Cobb, whose start to the season has left him with a lot to do.
Cecilia has now won four of her six matches to maintain her interest in the promotion race, although Ed is four wins ahead of her.
Meanwhile at the Windmill Mandy Macdonald defeated Harry Kauntze 11-6 in what was his Conference league debut.
22/03/10: Sixteen in action on Monday
There were sixteen players in action in three locations on Monday evening.
At the BCSC five players contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, one of whom had been amongst six players playing league matches, while Ian Tarr played some friendly games with welcome new arrival Ben Heath -- an Exeter City fan!
And there were two Premier One double headers elsewhere.
Biggest mover in Premier One was four times champion Stuart Mann, whose double success against Simon Baker at the Albion, Clifton, gives him a perfect record after four matches thus far.
Meanwhile at Miles Farren's city centre flat, Miles shared the spoils with Gaz Owen, while back at the BCSC Dave Pym was returning to the top of the league with victory over Neil Young.
In Premier Two Blue there was a triple header at the BCSC, with Simon Temme scoring a clean sweep over Cynthia Roberts, while a double header in Premier Two Red saw both matches going the way of Lewis Young against John Lewis.
The five player Spring Grand Prix three point round robin saw the pool shared between Neil Young and Tony Walters, while leaders Roland Herrera and Ian Preston shared third place, maintaining the status quo with Roland 50 points ahead of Ian.
19/03/10: Simonetta wins inaugural Nackgammon Grand Prix event
The inaugural Nackgammon Grand Prix tournament, contested by twelve players at the BCSC last night, was won by Simonetta Herrera.
After defeating Tony Walters, Jamie Nevill and Miles Farren before defeating Steffen Nowak in the final.
The consolation flight saw Shadow Hamilton beat Shay Baabahar in the final.
Simonetta thus has a 50 points lead in the three event series.
There was also some league action, with Chas Perry pipping Simon Temme in Premier Two Blue, while Richard Owsley was defeating Richard Holness in Premier Two Red. Both matches finished 11-9.
18/03/10: Conference membership up to double figures
Harry Kauntze today became the tenth player to sign up for this year's Bristol Conference League.
18/03/10: Simon wins in Redfield
Simon Baker scored an 11-2 Premier One win over Ian Tarr in Redfield this afternoon to climb out of the bottom four.
17/03/10: Hophouse, Star and Dove play host to Premier One double headers
Two Premier One double headers took place this evening.
Gaz Owen and Phil Charlton locked horns at the Hophouse, Clifton, and the honours were shared, albeit with a points difference advantage to Gaz, whose 11-2 success preceded Phil's 11-10 win.
But at the Star and Dove, Totterdown, Simon Hughes continued the bizarre sequence of league results since his elevation to the top flight.
Twelve previous matches had yielded three pairs of defeats each succeeded by a pair of wins.
By this tortuous logic, Simon was due a pair of defeats when he sat down to play Steffen Nowak, and the losses duly arrived, 8-11 and 10-11.
Simon still tops the division, of course, but will need to win the vast majority of his eight remaining matches to stand a chance of staying there.
Steffen, meanwhile, means to prove that last year's second place was far from a fluke, and has won all three of his matches thus far.
15/03/10: Neil wins Monday Tric Trac Tourno
There were twelve players present at the latest Monday Club session at the BCSC.
Eight contested the main event, a Tric Trac Tourno, two played out a league double header, and Ian Tarr played a couple of friendly matches with debut player Harry Kauntze.
The Tric Trac Tourno was one of the closest on record, with a span of just 2.5 points separating first from last.
The very last game, between Neil Young and Haydn Beard was destined to produce the overall winner, since the half point for losing would have been enough for Neil, unless Haydn scored a backgammon.
As Haydn got well on top, the backgammon was still a possibility, forcing Neil to play to lose a gammon rather than risking being backgammoned by hitting and making things more volatile. It was a strange way to ensure overall victory, but it worked.
Spring Grand Prix leader Roland Herrera failed to increase his overall lead, discarding his points score on the night.
Meanwhile, in Premier Two Blue, Andrew Cobb halted his losing sequence in defeating Ian Preston before Ian got his own back.
12/03/10: LESTERS 74 ROUND-UP ......
The seventy-fourth Lesters Trophy tournament, the third of our twelve monthly grand prix tournaments, was contested by twenty-two players at the BCSC last night, and reached a conclusion after 2am.
12/03/10: Tim breaks grand prix duck ......
Having previously contested no fewer than forty-seven monthly grand prix tournaments, it could be argued that his success was overdue.
For some time now Tim Line has been telling anyone who could be bothered to listen about his extraordinary lack of success in Bristol tournaments. Now perhaps our ears will be spared!
On the face of it, a seventh semi-final in sixteen £20 Lesters tournaments represents a decent effort, but considering the fact that none of the previous six semis had yielded a victory, it is perhaps understandable that Tim has been banging on about it.
Add to that equation the fact that none of Tim's five final appearances in thirty-two £10 monthly tournaments have yet ended in success, you realise that he definitely does have a point.
Tim got a bye in last night's tournament, and took full advantage by defeating Julian Fetterlein, Simon Hughes and Roland Herrera, before despatching Sean Hopson in the 11-point final.
Sean, who was making his first appearance in a monthly grand prix event, had beaten Marcus Wrinch, Miles Farren and Richard Owsley en route to the final.
12/03/10: John takes consolation flight ......
John Plummer's trip from Hereford proved a success in more ways than one.
After elimination from the main flight, John beat Steve Morris and Chas Perry in the consolation, before defeating Julian Fetterlein to win the flight.
And there seems to be every likelihood that he is now cured of a troublesome shaking disorder.
12/03/10: Tim moves into OGP lead ......
Tim Line has overtaken Chas Perry at the top of the OGP standings, his 120 points tally for winning the tournament moving him 54 points clear of Chas, with Richard Owsley a further point back.
12/03/10: Sean sends a message to fellow intermediates ......
The green shoots of intermediate recovery sprouted anew at the BCSC last night when Sean Hopson sent out a strong message to his fellow intermediates by storming all the way to the main flight final.
His defeat there should not obscure the fact that he gained IGP bonus points for beating three Premier Status players en route to the final, amassing 110 points in all, dwarfing any IGP return since John Plummer's 175 points win last May.
Previous leader Shay Baabahar, absent last night, is now 60 points adrift in second.
12/03/10: A rewarding night for Tim ......
Winning Thursday's tournament brought Tim Line a veritable plethora of benefits.
The main flight prize money, the Winner Takes All pool (so no rollover for next month's event), and his purchase of himself in the pre-tournament auction, more than softened the blow of a sizeable chouette deficit.
And Tim has become the second player to secure his place in the 2011 Bristol Masters, as well as winning the Samuel Mead Memorial Shield, which goes to the winner of the March tournament every year.
Miles Farren was the lucky auction purchaser of runner-up Sean Hopson.
10/03/10: Richard shares Premier Two Red lead
An 11-10 victory over Lewis Young at the BCSC has moved Richard Owsley into a share of the lead in Premier Two Red.
After five matches apiece Richard and Malcolm Patterson have identical records.
10/03/10: Jamie close to securing promotion
Just two and a bit months into the season Jamie Nevill is closing fast on securing promotion to next year's Premier League.
The target of 20 Conference points is now just five away after yesterday evening's 11-8 win over his nearest challenger James Lintell-Smith.
09/03/10: Derek's run ends
The Monday session at the BCSC saw a total of twelve players in various forms of action.
While Ian Tarr put four fledgling players through their paces, five players contested a three point round robin -- the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- and there was also a Premier Two Blue double header.
The league action saw Derek Clew extend his opening sequence of wins to five with an 11-3 victory over Cynthia Roberts, but Cynthia struck back with an 11-1 win of her own. Derek, although still in third place, would not swap his record for anybody else's, however.
And in the round robin Roland Herrera took the honours, winning three of his four matches to open up a gap of more than 50 points over his nearest SGP rival, Ian Preston, who had an evening to forget.
09/03/10: Paul Watts resigns from league
Paul Watts, a league stalwart since joining the Conference in 2001, has resigned from Premier Two Red.
Paul will be away working in London for a few months and, in view of the fact that he has not yet started his 2010 campaign, reached the inevitable conclusion that resignation now would be the most sensible option.
He will make occasional visits to the club to play in tournaments, and will rejoin the league in the future as and when circumstances permit.
The immediate effect of this is to reduce the fixture load for the other eight members of Red Division from 24 matches to 21.
The checkpoint requirements have been amended in line with this, and can be seen by looking at the Premier Two rules.
08/03/10: News from the RAC Club
The big charity tournament at the RAC Club in London yesterday saw a handful of Bristol players participating.
The event, in aid of Scope, saw successes for Miles Farren and Steve Morris.
Miles was runner-up in the Masters Consolation, losing to London's Sean Williams, while Steve won the Championship Consolation.
04/03/10: Julian wins clock tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, sixteen of them at the BCSC.
The main event was the second of this year's series of Clock Tournament Grand Prix events, which attracted an entry of fourteen players.
Julian Fetterlein took the honours here, defeating Simonetta Herrera, Jamie Nevill and Ian Tarr before despatching Steve Morris in the final.
Steve had overcome Steffen Nowak and Tony Walters after receiving a bye.
The consolation flight was won by Roland Herrera, who defeated Steffen in the final.
This gives Roland a five points lead over Julian in the CTGP table, with previous leader Tim Line a further five points back in third.
There was also some league action, with Chas Perry and Cecilia Sparke adjourning at 8-6 to Chas, when they had to make their move from Zero Degrees down to the BCSC for the tournament.
Also in Premier Two Blue there was a tight encounter between Simon Temme and Ian Preston, with Simon coming through 11-10 -- his first league success of the season.
James Lintell-Smith had earlier defeated Haydn Beard 11-5 at the Old Market Tavern in their Conference match, with James now closing on leader Jamie Nevill.
02/03/10: Nordic Open qualifier in London on March 14th
There's a qualifier for the 22nd Nordic Open in London on Sunday March 14th.
Mike Main is staging the event at the Doggett's Coat and Badge, Blackfriars Bridge, from 2pm, and the cost of entry is dependent on the number of contestants on the day.
For example, a repeat of the turnout the last time Mike ran one of these would see 23 players paying £32 entry plus £5 registration, hoping to win the non-transferable £725 prize, which is equivalent to the 700Euros entry plus 100Euros registration for the Nordic, which takes place in Copenhagen from April 1st to 5th.
Check out Mike's website for the complete details here.
A Bristol contingent for this one is a distinct possibility.
01/03/10: Cynthia takes Monday honours
The latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, an eleven player DMP Tourno, was won by Cynthia Roberts, who won nine of her ten games.
Leader Roland Herrera had an off night, and his SGP lead was cut to a mere half of a point by Ian Preston.
Meanwhile, there was Premier One action at the Hophouse, where Simon Hughes scored a double success over Simon Baker to go top of the league.
28/02/10: A good day's work for Ed
In a Premier Two Blue triple header at The Ram in Bath today Ed Turner scored three wins over Andrew Cobb, conceding only five points in the process.
Ed takes over from Chas Perry at the top of the league.
26/02/10: FEBRUARY LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
There were twenty-nine players active in a variety of locations -- mostly, of course, at the BCSC -- on a vibrant February league night.
And the best thing of all was that no fewer than four players were making their league debuts in the Conference -- Haydn Beard and James Lintell-Smith, already familiar to us from Monday nights, and Huw and Ally Davies from Cwmbran, who were making their first very welcome visit.
26/02/10: Stuart and Simonetta the top flight's biggest movers ......
There were ten Premier One matches played on Thursday evening, nine at the BCSC, and one at the Ship, just up the road.
Leader Dave Pym suffered a couple of setbacks, but hit back to win his third match and hold onto pole position.
Stuart Mann and Simonetta Herrera had the best of the evening's results, each winning twice without reply, Stuart winning a nail-biter with Neil Young at the Ship before defeating Simon Hughes at the BCSC, Simonetta accounting for Dave and Ian Tarr.
Stuart and the absent Steffen Nowak are thus the top flight's only unbeaten players, but then again they have only played three matches between them.
In contrast Simon is making giant strides towards ensuring the completion of his season, with a possible move to Sussex in the offing. Simon has recorded ten results so far, winning four times.
With players having registered anything between one and ten results, the table has a somewhat skewed look to it, with leader Dave the only player in the top five to have won more than he has lost.
Eight of the nine players in action last night managed to register victories at some point during the evening.
26/02/10: Derek makes it four out of four ......
Chas Perry is keeping pace with Premier One's Simon Hughes on the progress front, having also played ten matches, including four last night.
And having won half of his matches -- including a double over Tony Walters yesterday -- he has done enough to top the Premier Two Blue league table.
Moving smoothly into second place, however, is Derek Clew, whose double over Chas made it a perfect four out of four.
Ian Preston was the division's other winner on the night.
26/02/10: Richard starts with a brace of wins ......
Premier Two Red leader Steve Morris suffered a triple setback with defeats at the hands of Lewis Young and Richard Holness (twice).
For Richard it was an eminently satisfactory start to the season.
Malcolm Patterson took over at the top, tidying up an adjourned match with a win over Lewis, but suffered a defeat later at the hands of Richard Owsley.
Blaine Buchanan and Paul Watts are the only players in the whole of this year's Premier League not to have rcorded a result as yet.
26/02/10: Jamie already over half way there ......
There are now nine players signed up for this year's Conference League, including four who made their league debuts last night.
Mandy Macdonald and Haydn Beard did battle at the Windmill, rather than joining the throng at the BCSC, and it was Haydn who emerged victorious from a close match.
Back at the BCSC the first winner was Richard Biddle, returning to Conference action for the first time since 2007 (but don't be hard on Richard -- he does live in Buckinghamshire!). Richard defeated Shadow Hamilton.
James Lintell-Smith got his season off to a flyer with wins over Ally Davies and Richard, while Jamie Nevill built upon his 100% start to the season by beating Huw Davies.
With twelve points already under his belt, Jamie is already three fifths of the way towards assuring himself of a Premier League place for 2011!
26/02/10: Shadow and Duncan win Handicap flights ......
Last week's Handicap Trophy tournament was concluded on Thursday when the finals of both flights took place.
Shadow Hamilton defeated reigning champion Simon Hughes in the main flight final at Colston Yard, before the evening league session, and Duncan Lee defeated Roland Herrera to take the consolation flight.
Shadow has a 50 points lead after the first of six events.
25/02/10: One apiece at the Hophouse
There was another new venue for Bristol Backgammon yesterday evening when Gaz Owen and Simon Baker met at the Hophouse, Kings Road, Clifton Village, yesterday evening.
Gaz won the first of the two Premier One encounters 11-3, but Simon got his revenge with an 11-5 success.
24/02/10: Cecilia wins in Bath
The Rose and Crown at Larkhall, Bath, was the venue for this evening's Premier Two Blue encounter between Andrew Cobb and Cecilia Sparke.
And Cecilia's 11-8 win sets her up for another promotion challenge with two wins out of three so far.
22/02/10: Seventeen at Monday Club
There were seventeen players in action at the latest Monday Club session at the BCSC.
Four were there to fight out the main flight final of the February Consulting Doubles Grand Prix event, four others were there purely for league action, six contested the evening's designated event -- an innovation in the form of a Nackgammon Tourno -- and Ian Tarr put two developing players through their paces.
It was Premier Two Blue which saw the lion's share of the league play, with Cecilia Sparke and Cynthia Roberts fighting out a double header, where the honours were ultimately even, and Ian Preston meeting Tony Walters both before and after their doubles match -- Ian winning 11-8.
Jamie Nevill won a hard fought Conference match 11-8 against Mandy Macdonald, and is still the only player to have won a match thus far in that competition.
Chas Perry and Tony won the doubles match to open up a handy 50 points lead in the CDGP over their victims, Ian P and Simon Temme.
And the Nackgammon saw the only two paying players of the six -- Roland Herrera and Sean Hopson -- finishing level on top of the group, almost earning a return of their entry fees! Their points tallies, however, advance them nicely in the Spring Grand Prix table, with Roland moving ahead of Ian Preston at the top.
19/02/10: Shadow, Simon, Duncan, Roland reach finals
Twenty-two players lined up for the first of this year's six Handicap Trophy events at the BCSC last night.
The decision to raise the entry fee from last year's £5 to this year's £10 seems to have been justified.
Pearl Foster was making her Thursday debut after a couple of Monday visits, Duncan Lee was back after a spell abroad, and Michihito Kageyama -- who now seems like a regular -- was making his last visit for a while before his return to Japan.
In the main flight Shadow Hamilton made the most of her 3 handicap to breeze past Chas Perry, Pearl, Shay Baabahar and Richard Owsley in reaching her first Bristol Backgammon final.
There she will meet last year's Handicap Trophy champion Simon Hughes, whose 2 handicap will not last very much longer.
Simon defeated Colin Sara, Mandy Macdonald and Ian Preston to clinch his final berth.
In the consolation flight Duncan got past Simon Temme and Steve Morris, while his final opponent Roland Herrera was eliminating Neil Young and Colin.
It is anticipated that both finals will take place within the next week.
So the first Handicap Trophy table sees Shadow at the top, having played more matches than Simon H, who will take the lead if he wins the final.
There was a smidgeon of league action too, with Lewis Young and Malcolm Patterson adjourning their Premier Two Red match at 7-7 to enable both players to play in the tournament.
18/02/10: Honours even for Simonetta and Simon
In a Premier One double header at Kellaway Avenue yesterday, Simonetta Herrera and Simon Hughes each had an 11-9 win to show for their efforts.
15/02/10: Chas and Tony reach final
Four players made use of the latest Monday Club session at the BCSC to play the outstanding semi-final of the February Consulting Doubles tournament main flight.
And it was Chas Perry and Tony Walters who prevailed 5-4 over Miles Farren and Sue Hall to earn a final clash with Ian Preston and Simon Temme.
And there were ten others present, one of whom played the odd friendly while the other nine contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, which consisted of two three point round robins.
Bravely making their debuts in this event were first time visitors James Lintell-Smith and Sheeraz Khan, who both took the zero entry fee option.
And James was the only member of the five player group to vanquish World Backgammon Giant Michihito Kageyama, who was joint winner of the group with Ian Tarr.
The four player group saw Simonetta Herrera make a clean sweep to take the prize.
Ian Preston did enough to extend his SGP lead over Roland Herrera to nearly 50 points.
13/02/10: Michi takes the title
At Kellaway Avenue this morning it was Michihito Kageyama who took the February Bristol Grand Prix title, taking just five games to defeat Richard Owsley 11-4.
Richard found himself 6-0 down after the first two games, but countered well with a double gammon which wasn't too far away from being a backgammon.
That was as good as it got for Richard, though, as Michi replied with a double gammon of his own before wrapping up the Crawford game.
The result leaves Chas Perry 35 points ahead of Richard at the top of the OGP table, with Michi taking closer order in fourth place.
And Michi is also the first player to be assured of a place -- if he's in the country! -- in the 2011 Bristol Masters.
12/02/10: FEBRUARY GRAND PRIX ROUND-UP ......
Twenty-six players were at the BCSC to contest the February Bristol Grand Prix event, including a debut for experienced tournament player Malcolm Robertson, who is now based in Somerset.
12/02/10: Richard and Michi to contest February final tomorrow ......
Richard Owsley last night made it to his fourth Bristol Grand Prix main flight final, defeating Colin Sara, Simon Hughes, Chas Perry and Steffen Nowak en route to the final.
There he will meet one of Japan's big two, Michihito Kageyama, a frequent visitor to Bristol, who beat Mandy Macdonald, Cecilia Sparke and Malcolm Robertson after receiving a first round bye.
The final is scheduled for 11am tomorrow (Saturday) at Kellaway Avenue.
12/02/10: Steve wins consolation flight ......
Losing out to Simon Hughes in the first round of the main flight paved the way for Steve Morris winning a flight of a Bristol Grand Prix event for the first time.
Neil Young, Miles Farren, Mandy Macdonald and Ian Preston were his victims.
12/02/10: Richard can catch Chas at the top ......
January winner Chas Perry still leads the OGP table after winning a couple of main flight matches last night, but Richard Owsley will draw level with him if he can defeat Michihito Kageyama on Saturday morning.
Tim Line is third, with Michi fourth, a position he will still occupy even if he beats Richard.
12/02/10: Mandy puts pressure on IGP leaders ......
Three intermediates toed the start line for the February Bristol Grand Prix tournament, a similar turnout to January's event.
They were different players this time around, and Shay Baabahar and Shadow Hamilton still occupy the top two places in the IGP table.
But Mandy Macdonald is now close behind, after collecting 20 bonus points for defeating Premier One's Ian Tarr in the consolation flight.
With signs that there is a useful clutch of new or returning intermediates this year, the IGP should provide more thrills and spills than it did last year.
12/02/10: Richard assured of final good wishes ......
As is the tradition, the best wishes of many Bristol players will accompany Richard Owsley to the held over final of Thursday's tournament.
This is no reflection on the popularity of Richard or his opponent Michihito Kageyama, more an indication that Michi invested in the Winner Tales All pool and Richard didn't.
A win for Richard would result in a £150 rollover.
The other reward for the winner will be the confirmation of a place in the 2011 Bristol Masters, attendance at which might prove problematic for Michi if he were to win.
12/02/10: Malcolm spawns a new category ......
Director Ian Tarr was forced to add a new category to the qualification criteria for Premier Status when Malcolm Robertson turned up to play last night.
The purpose of Premier Status is twofold -- to delineate qualification for entry to subsequent years of the Bristol Premier League, while also leaving the remainder of players to fight for honours which are reserved purely for intermediates.
BIBA and Gammonitis rankings have been among the criteria used to fast track new arrivals to the Bristol area into the Premier League, but Malcolm -- a recent arrival in the area -- has not played enough at either to push his ranking score above the requisite 1550.
And yet, having been runner-up in the Advanced Division of the Bristol Open in 2006 and reached the semi-finals in the Championship Division of the same event in 2009, Malcolm clearly should not be classified as an intermediate.
So Ian has now reserved the right to confer Premier Status on any player he feels should not compete at intermediate level, and Malcolm is the first player to benefit from this.
It could also be argued that the other intermediate players will benefit, since Malcolm would already be top of the IGP table had he been considered as an intermediate last night.
12/02/10: Steve comes out on top in triple header ......
Prior to the action at the BCSC Tim Line and Steve Morris fought out a Premier Two Red triple header at the Kensington Arms, Redland.
Steve got off to a great start with an 11-0 whitewash, but Tim took the next match 11-9, setting up a "decider".
Tim led by the proverbial street, but Steve pegged him back to sneak home 11-10, and move to the top of the table.
09/02/10: Simon and Miles share double header spoils
Colston Yard was the venue this evening for a Premier One double header between Simon Hughes and Miles Farren.
Two close matches saw honours virtually even with Simon winning 11-8 and Miles replying 11-9.
09/02/10: Another lively Monday at the BCSC
After a record turnout for Bristol Backgammon Mondays at the BCSC last week, there were once again nineteen players present at the latest Monday session.
This time the ranks were augmented by two esteemed overseas visitors -- top Japanese player Michihito Kageyama, who has visited us several times now, and Libby Cohen from Israel, whose welcome first visit this was.
Both players had been in London for the weekend's WSOB tournament, and are staying in Bristol for a few days.
The evening's main event, the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, saw two groups of seven players contesting Tric Trac Tournos, while Director Ian Tarr supervised four recently arrived players, including two -- Pearl and Tony Foster -- who were attending for the very first time.
Winners of the two TTTs were Ian Preston and Simon Hughes, Ian extending his MCSGP lead to nearly 30 points.
There was also a very lively chouette after the completion of the TTTs.
05/02/10: Doubles news from the BCSC
The popularity of the Consulting Doubles Grand Prix shows no sign of diminishing.
Ten pairs were there at the BCSC last night to contest the first of this year's series of four doubles tournaments.
Ian Preston and Simon Temme made it to the main flight final, defeating Roland Herrera and Jamie Nevill and Simonetta Herrera and Rufus Rozelaar en route.
They will meet the winners of the outstanding semi-final between Chas Perry and Tony Walters and Miles Farren and Sue Hall.
The consolation flight saw Ian Tarr and Mandy Macdonald come through the long part of the draw to win the flight.
Before the tournament there was a Premier Two Red meeting between Steve Morris and Lewis Young. This was adjourned with Lewis ahead 10-4 Crawford.
03/02/10: Another new venue added to the list
The Fire Engine, Redfield, is the latest new venue for Bristol Backgammon action.
Chas Perry entertained Ed Turner in his local, and Ed repaid the hospitality by winning both legs of a double header 11-6.
Ed has taken over the Premier Two Blue lead.
02/02/10: Mondays becoming less low key?
There was a record turnout for Mondays at the BCSC last night, when no fewer than nineteen players were engaged in a variety of activities.
Four players took advantage of the session to get some league action in, and two of those went on to join eight more contestants in the central activity of the evening -- two 3-point round robins.
Two of the best players in the land -- Julian Fetterlein and Roland Herrera -- were there for some clock practice with a very specific set of time parameters in preparation for the upcoming WSOB tournament, while Director Ian Tarr put three new players -- including a welcome first appearance for Betty Wallace -- through their paces, and one other player turned up late and got in some friendly action.
Highlight of the league action was a Premier One double header between Miles Farren and Dave Pym. Dave -- having already won his opening two matches -- added a couple more victories to set a formidable target for his pursuers.
In Premier Two Blue early pace setters Tony Walters and Chas Perry adjourned their match at 5-5 to enable them to compete in the round robins.
In the round robins -- two groups of five -- Rufus Rozelaar completed a clean sweep of four wins to take Group A, while Chas and Ian Preston shared the pot in Group B with three wins apiece.
Ian P has retaken the lead in the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix table, with Roland otherwise engaged. Chas is also close behind in third.
30/01/10: Awards Night photos now online
Roland Herrera's photographs of the annual Bristol Backgammon Awards Night are now on the site.
29/01/10: Roland, Ian, Simon, Chas and Simonetta head prize winners list
It would be really good if all the prizes on offer at the annual Bristol Backgammon Awards night went to different players.
The reality of the situation, however, is that the occasion highlights those who have had a particularly good year.
Simon Hughes, for example, took the sensible precaution of bringing Julie along to ensure that there would be no problem transporting his haul -- for winning Premier Two, the Handicap Trophy, and the Most Improved Player award.
Director Ian Tarr meanwhile, had his customary duty to perform in holding on to unclaimed prizes (nine of the twenty recipients were absent for various reasons), but this year had the unusual additional problem of taking home a few of his own -- for taking the OGP title, the Sarah Rosich Memorial Cup, the John Chidgey Cup, the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, and a special award for becoming the third player to win a century of Premier League matches.
The Herreras -- Roland and Simonetta -- helped each other with nine assorted pieces of hardware and six envelopes.
And Chas Perry was also summoned to the spotlight to celebrate as winner of the Rookie of the Year prize, the Conference championship, and third place in the Consulting Doubles Grand Prix.
Gaz Owen, Malcolm Patterson, Steffen Nowak, Tim Parker, Phil Charlton and Tony Walters were also present to receive well earned prizes, there was an adequate free buffet, and several players also took advantage of the occasion to play some backgammon.
There were three and a half league matches, with Richard Owsley and John Lewis sharing the honours in a Premier Two Red double header, and Ian Preston defeating Simon Temme in Premier Two Blue.
And eight players enjoyed a Simonetta directed £10 jackpot, especially Simonetta herself and Ian Tarr, who made it to the final and decided on a split.
The occasion was recorded photographically by Roland, ably supported by Steffen, and photos will appear on their own page here very soon.
25/01/10: Thirteen at Monday Club session
Thirteen players turned up to the latest Monday Club session at the BCSC tonight.
Eleven contested the latest phase of the Spring Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno -- while one arrived a little late and played the odd friendly, and one totally new player, Peter Snowman, introduced himself with a promise of further visits soon.
The DMP Tourno was well contested, with Chas Perry clinching overall victory by beating Carol Mayne in the last match to finish.
That seventh win for Chas ensured that he took the pot instead of having to share with Roland Herrera, Sean Hopson and Ian Tarr.
Roland had done enough to increase his SGP lead over second placed Ian Preston to 35 points.
23/01/10: Miles starts with a win
Miles Farren began his Premier One campaign this afternoon with a win over reigning chanpion SimoNetta Herrera at Kellaway Avenue.
22/01/10: JANUARY LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
There were just nineteen players at the BCSC for the first league night of the 2010 season.
And there were two new Conference players in action, Jamie Nevill making his Thursday debut and Sean Hopson making his very first appearance at a Bristol Backgammon event.
22/01/10: Dave is the first Premier One leader ......
There was some Premier One action at last night's session, and Dave Pym emerged as the leader of the embryonic league table.
Victories over Simon Hughes and Ian Tarr got Dave's campaign off to a fine start.
Other victors on the night were Simon, Phil Charlton and Steffen Nowak.
22/01/10: Tony and Chas continue to set Premier Two Blue pace ......
Tony Walters and Chas Perry, already setting the pace in Premier Two Blue, kept up the momentum with a narrow win apiece -- both at the expense of Ian Preston.
Meanwhile, joint pre-season favourite Derek Clew opened his account with a double success against Simon Temme.
22/01/10: Malcolm makes fine Premier Two Red start ......
Malcolm Patterson, freshly elevated from the Conference, made a fine opening impact at Premier Two level last night.
After sharing the spoils of a double header against John Lewis, Malcolm defeated Steve Morris to go top of the Premier Two Red table.
Steve had earlier beaten Richard Owsley.
22/01/10: Jamie makes fine Conference debut ......
Last year's Conference was a disappointing affair which barely ever got off the ground.
And while there are still only six players signed up for the coming season, the signs are good that the competition will be more viable this time around.
Three players -- all of whom have already shown some promise -- were in action last night, with two matches completed and another adjourned.
Leading the table at this early stage is Jamie Nevill, who scored wins over Shadow Hamilton and Sean Hopson, while a further match between Sean and Shadow was adjourned.
20/01/10: One whitewash deserves another
Tony Walters' whitewash of Ed Turner on Monday evening was repaid in kind when the pair met again at Colston Yard.
And their third meeting was a totally different affair, going right to the wire with Tony picking up the 11-10 result to leapfrog Chas Perry at the Top of Premier Two Blue.
19/01/10: Chas has one foot in the Masters
Man of the moment Chas Perry's January Grand Prix win has almost cemented a place for him in the 2011 Bristol Masters.
Under the rules of the competition seven of the eight £10 Grand Prix tournament winners get a Masters place, the winner of the event with fewest entrants potentially missing out.
In reality, though, the near inevitability of multiple qualifications at some stage of the year would enable all eight event winners to qualify.
And the other side effect of Chas's win is the smallest rollover in the history of the Winner Takes All pool, with £40 carried forward to February's tournament.
18/01/10: The advent of the triple header
This season's Premier Two regime, where players meet each other three times over the course of the season, has tonight spawned a new entity, the triple header.
Premier League -- and Conference -- campaigns have long since given scope for double headers as a convenient way of clocking up results without involving a third party, but tonight's triple meeting between Chas Perry and Cynthia Roberts marked its own place in Bristol Backgammon history.
Earlier at Colston Yard Tony Walters and Ed Turner had thrashed out the season's first league result, with Tony completing a whitewash to become Premier Two Blue's first -- very temporary -- leader.
Then Chas and Cynthia met up at the BCSC, and Cynthia drew first blood. But Chas won the second and third encounters to claim his place at the top of that league.
Meanwhile eight others contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, a pair of four player Clock Blitz Round Robins.
Haydn Beard took the non-paying option in Group A, where Roland Herrera completed a clean sweep to edge Ian Preston out of the overall MCSGP lead.
Ian Tarr was the winner of the other group.
There was also a welcome visit from two prospective new players, Peter and Liz Scott.
17/01/10: Chas goes 50 points clear
The held over final of the Thursday tournament was played last night at the BCSC, and Chas Perry was the 11-5 victor over Tim Line.
The result gives Chas a 50 points lead over Tim at the top of the OGP table.
15/01/10: ALL THE NEWS FROM THE JANUARY GRAND PRIX EVENING ......
The first Bristol Grand Prix tournament of the season attracted a field of twenty-one players to the BCSC last night, with the onset of the big thaw hopefully signalling lift-off -- and business as usual -- for the Bristol Backgammon season.
15/01/10: Chas and Tim to contest the January main final ......
Chas Perry, fresh from his first BIBA experience in Brighton at the weekend, showed why he was awarded the Paul Gilbertson sponsored Rookie of the Year award, when he fought his way to the main final of the January Bristol Grand Prix tournament.
He came through the long part of the draw, defeating Phillip Hill, Malcolm Patterson, Richard Owsley and Miles Farren along the way, to clinch a final meeting with Tim Line.
Tim has started 2010 in fine fettle, having won last week's Clock Tournament Grand Prix event, following on last night with wins over Blaine Buchanan, Marcus Wrinch and Shay Baabahar.
The final may take place some time this weekend. If not, there is likely to be a delay as Tim is working away for a few weeks.
15/01/10: Ian wins consolation flight ......
Reigning OGP champion Ian Tarr made an umpromising start to his title defence when he fell at the first hurdle in the main flight.
But the consolation proved to be just that when Ian defeated Blaine Buchanan, Simonetta Herrera and Roland Herrera to win the flight.
15/01/10: Chas takes early OGP lead, but Tim can pass him ......
Winning the extra round has given Chas Perry a fifteen points OGP lead over Tim Line.
But the 35 points at stake in the final can change that for Tim.
15/01/10: Shay and Shadow set IGP pace ......
Conference champion Chas Perry, and IGP champion and runner-up John Plummer and Malcolm Patterson graduated from the ranks of intermediates at the end of the year, so the way is clear for the new wave.
Three intermediates were present last night, and two of them scored very well.
Shay Baabahar defeated Steve Morris to gain 10 IGP bonus points, while Shadow Hamilton beat Simonetta Herrera to bag 20 bonus points.
The pair then met in the quarter-finals, and Shay prevailed, establishing a 5 points lead in the embryonic IGP table.
Shay then met his match in Tim Line in the semi-finals.
15/01/10: Rollover hopes rest with Chas ......
Only four of the 21 players invested in the Winner Takes All pool last night, and two of those fell at the first hurdle.
When the other two met in the quarter-finals, hopes for a rollover were looking good, but Tim Line has now made it to the final, where neutrals will be hoping for a Chas Perry victory.
The other issue in the final, of course, is the first qualification place for the 2011 Bristol Masters, which will almost certainly go to the winner.
15/01/10: Steve and Blaine kick-off the league season -- just about ......
When was the last time it took more than a fortnight before the first league action of the season took place?
Having checked the record books, the answer -- perhaps surprisingly -- is not "never".
Things were different back in 2001, when the first action took place on January 25th!
But a slow start this year, largely because of the weather, momemtarily accelerated before last night's tournament, when Blaine Buchanan and Steve Morris sat down to contest the early stages of a Premier Two Red match.
When the adjournment came, Blaine was leading 4-1.
12/01/10: Roland wins Monday event
The dreaded unworkable number reared its head again at the BCSC last night when seven players braved the elements to contest the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix.
Director Ian Tarr sat the event out, and a six player 3-point round robin filled out the evening quite nicely.
Roland Herrera won all five of his matches to take the prize, and has reduced Ian Preston's SGP lead to just two points.
11/01/10: Paul and Marcus do well in Brighton
BIBA's Bright 'n' Breezy knock-out tournament at the weekend was badly hit by the weather.
An event which would normally have attracted an entry in excess of 80 players had to make do with just 54.
Of the Bristol players present, Marcus Wrinch and Paul Gilbertson survived the first day with the main flight whittled down to the quarter-finslists.
Unfortunately the draw paired them there, and Paul won a tight encounter to reach the semis.
Paul seemed to be on the brink of the final itself, but was the victim of a remarkable comeback by reigning champion John Hurst of London.
John made the most of his good fortune to defeat Nicky Check in the final, giving him an astonishing third successive Bright 'n' Breezy title.
It was also a memorable weekend for Chas Perry.
Taking up the best ever sponsorship prize associated with Bristol Backgammon, the Paul Gilbertson sponsored Rookie of the Year award, Chas enjoyed the experience greatly, although being drawn against John Hurst in the first round of the main was not the best start.
His narrow 9-11 defeat to such a proven performer, however, reflected very well on him.
07/01/10: Tim wins opening clock tournament
A small handful of players braved the elements to visit the BCSC on Thursday evening for the opening salvo of the Clock Tournament Grand Prix season.
That was just nine contestants plus one spectator.
Tim Line is the first CTGP leader of 2010 after defeating John Lewis< Simon Hughes and Roland Herrera to win the event, which also saw him scoop the CTGP Winner Takes All pool.
Miles Farren defeated Neil Young in the consolation final.
05/01/10: Bristol Backgammon springs back into action
A Monday Club Tric Trac Tourno was the centrepiece of a low key return to Bristol Backgammon action at the BCSC last night.
Ian Preston took the honours, so is the first Spring Grand Prix leader of the year.
With time too short for a repeat Tric Trac Tourno, there was then a small gang tournament, where Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr ended up sharing the spoils.
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