News items from 2010 (second half)
24/12/10: Welcome, Grace!
A potential new backgammon player arrived in the world at 09:49 this morning.
Neil Young is pleased and proud to report that both Hayley and Grace, who weighed in at 8lbs 1oz, are doing really well.
23/12/10: A Merry Christmas to all our readers!
Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr wishes all who frequent this website, whether players or non-players, the compliments of the season.
There's a two week hiatus on the local playing circuit, but normal business will be resumed on January 6th with the first Clock Tournament of the new season.
Visit the site over the holiday period as details of all the new year's events are revealed.
23/12/10: Ten enjoy the year's final event
There were ten players present to contest the year's final event at the BCSC, a Christmas tournament based around 3-point matches.
They were split into two round robin groups with a prize for the winner of each, followed by a main knock-out -- for those who finished in the top three of the groups -- and a consolation knock-out for the remainder.
Group winners were Steffen Nowak and Richard Owsley. Richard then went on to win the main knock-out, while Tim Line won the consolation.
And while a chouette ensued, the last loose end of the season was tied up when Nick Barham clinched victory in the consolation final of the December Clock Grand Prix tournament.
The match had been adjourned with Nick 4-0 ahead, and he made no mistake, winning 7-2.
22/12/10: 2011 Premier League line-ups announced
At the deadline for entries to the 2011 Premier League thirty-five players have committed themselves to competing.
Three of the twenty-nine players from the 2010 league tables are missing this time around -- Paul Gilbertson, John Lewis and Tony Walters.
But while their loss for their various understandable reasons is regrettable, the good news is that four new qualifiers have taken up the challenge, and five former Premier League players have returned to the fold.
Jamie Nevill and Richard Biddle have qualified via the Conference, Sean Hopson has gained his place through the IGP, and James Lintell-Smith managed to qualify via both routes.
Meanwhile making welcome returns after taking a year or two out from league backgammon are Nick Barham, Michael Corbett, Alan Parfitt, Mike Smith and Paul Watts.
With all twelve players guaranteed a top flight place through their efforts this year taking up their places, the split preferred by the rules -- eleven in Premier One, and twelve each in Premier Two Blue and Premier Two Red -- was therefore a non-starter, and the need to keep the numbers balanced between the Premier Two divisions resulted in the eventual 13/11/11 split.
The beneficiary of the top flight enlargement is Richard Holness who so narrowly missed out on automatic promotion.
So he and Premier Two champion Derek Clew are the only top flight debutants.
The thirteen other players who played this year have been allotted their divisional places by the rules, while the nine new and returning players were drawn randomly by two eminent local players this evening.
So the full divisional line-ups are as follows:
Premier One: Blaine Buchanan, Phil Charlton, Derek Clew, Miles Farren, Simonetta Herrera, Richard Holness, Tim Line, Stuart Mann, Steffen Nowak, Gaz Owen, Dave Pym, Ian Tarr and Ed Turner.
Premier Two Blue: Ian Preston, Cecilia Sparke, Richard Owsley, Simon Temme, Lewis Young, Malcolm Patterson, Cynthia Roberts, Michael Corbett, Paul Watts, James Lintell-Smith and Sean Hopson.
Premier Two Red: Simon Baker, Steve Morris, Chas Perry, Simon Hughes, Neil Young, Andrew Cobb, Mike Smith, Alan Parfitt, Nick Barham, Jamie Nevill and Richard Biddle.
20/12/10: Simonetta wins final Monday event of the year
The final session in the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix was contested by six players at the BCSC this evening.
Simonetta Herrera was the winner of the three point round robin, winning four of her five matches.
Roland Herrera won the AGP by a margin of over 50 points from top intermediate Jamie Nevill.
15/12/10: Eight in Tuesday action
The first ever Bristol Backgammon session to be held at the BCSC on a Tuesday was attended by just eight players.
But if the turnout was low, the competition on offer was excellent, with the eight forming a single round robin group to round off the inaugural Clock Blitz Grand Prix series.
With seven matches for each player to play, the action was fast and furious.
And it was Simonetta Herrera who came out on top with six wins, pipping five time winner Tim Line to the prize money.
But Ian Tarr, who won four times on the night, had enough of a cushion from the previous events to feel reasonably sure he would not be overhauled in the final CBGP table, and so it proved.
Tim and Simonetta finished joint second.
14/12/10: Premier One entry fees rise
Qualifiers for next year's Premier One have just voted on two potential rule changes for their division.
One motion, regarding changing to 15 point matches in the top flight, narrowly failed to get the requisite level of support, but the other -- with entry fees rising to £40 in 2011 and £50 in 2013 -- was passed overwhelmingly.
Fees in Premier Two will remain unchanged at £20, although there is a plan to raise these to £25 in 2013.
Meanwhile Premier League entries continue to trickle in.
The signs are that last year's total entry of thirty players will be beaten, with just seven days to the deadline for entries.
13/12/10: Miles takes December grand prix title
Miles Farren and Tim Line fought out the held over final from Thursday's Lesters 77 tournament at the BCSC on Monday evening.
And it was Miles who edged home 11-10 to clinch his second Lesters title of the year, having coincidentally emulated Ian Tarr's feat of last year, winning both the Sarah Rosich Memorial Trophy (for June's event) and the John Chidgey Cup (for December's event).
This was also good news for Steffen Nowak and Shadow Hamilton.
Steffen takes the sixteenth and last place in the 2011 Bristol Masters, thanks to Miles' double success, while Shadow took the main prize in the pre-tournament auction.
If that was the biggest match of the evening, the centrepiece was the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, an eleven player Tric Trac Tourno, which was won by Ian Tarr, when he pipped Jamie Nevill for the prize pot by gammoning Lotte Ryan in his final game.
Jamie, second in the overall table, and top intermediate by a considerable distance, closed to within 48 points of leader Roland Herrera with just one event remaining.
There were welcome debuts for two Swindon based players, Fred North and Gary Plant, both of whom acquitted themselves well.
09/12/10: LESTERS LXXVII ROUND-UP ......
Eighteen players made light of the disruption to our regular Thursday routine by turning up to contest the final Bristol Grand Prix tournament of the year at the BCSC on Wednesday evening.
09/12/10: Miles and Tim make it to the final of Lesters 77 ......
Miles Farren and Tim Line will contest the final of the seventy-seventh Lesters Trophy tournament, probably at the BCSC on Monday evening.
Miles was one of four unfortunates not to receive a first round bye, but shrugged off that disappointment with victories over Simonetta Herrera, Blaine Buchanan, Gaz Owen and John Sprague which clinched his place in the final.
In the other half of the draw Tim fought his way past Roland Herrera, Nick Barham and Ian Hayes.
09/12/10: Simon's remarkable consolation run continues ......
Simon Hughes may just have found his niche in Bristol Backgammon circles.
Three months ago his long overdue first semi-final appearence in a Bristol Grand Prix event was mentioned in this column.
But while he has been striving to improve on that record, another quite remarkable one is being built.
The last four occasions (during the last seven tournaments) when Simon has failed to make it past the first hurdle in the main flight, he has gone on to win the consolation flight.
That works out at thirteen successive victories -- over thirteen different opponents -- as he continues to sweep all before him in consolation flights.
Last night's victims were Phillip Hill, Ian Tarr and the other finalist Stuart Mann, who had beaten Roland Herrera, James Lintell-Smith and Simonetta Herrera en route.
09/12/10: Low entry confirms Roland as OGP winner ......
For Roland Herrera not to be crowned OGP champion for the second time in three years, several things needed to happen.
And it was the first and most basic requirement that clinched the deal for Roland, even before the tournament had begun.
More than thirty-two contestants toeing the start line was always going to be a tall order, and so it proved as the maximum of five rounds failed to afford Tim Line and Chas Perry the opportunity to accumulate enough points to make Roland break sweat.
Perhaps it was the sense of anti-climax that contributed to Roland's failure to add to his points tally on the night, as well as Chas's blank evening.
But Tim was apparently not deterred, and if he should win the final he would find himself just 21 points adrift of Roland.
Tim is guaranteed to finish second no matter what, just as his final opponent Miles Farren will definitely finish third.
09/12/10: Down under Sean finishes top in IGP ......
Last month James Lintell-Smith gave himself a great chance of lifting the IGP title, when his tournament win took him to within 29 points of apparent runaway leader Sean Hopson.
Sean, still in Australia where he has been following the Ashes tour, was left wondering whether or not he had done enough.
James was one of four intermediates at last night's event, and knew that a single main flight win would be enough to lift him a single point above Sean, regardless of any bonus points.
As it happened, those four intermediates were coincidentally drawn in pairs in either half of the draw, and the task for James was to defeat John Sprague, a player whose last competitive outing was in the equivalent tournament last year!
The task proved to be beyond James, however, but he still had chances to complete the job in the consolation flight.
Here he faced none other than the most "decorated" Bristol player of them all, Stuart Mann.
With the twenty bonus points on offer for Stuart's scalp, victory would once again be enough for James.
But once again he fell short, and has to content himself with second place, to complement his Conference second place -- dual qualification for next season's Premier League.
So ironically it was the duo making their first grand prix appearance of the year (in December!) who scooped the most points.
John's 60 IGP points and Ian Hayes 70 were great returns, but at this stage of the year not even close to troubling the top two......
09/12/10: John and Ian fail to force triple rollover ......
...... And there were high hopes resting on the shoulders of John Sprague and Ian Hayes as they progressed to the main flight semi-finals.
With the double rollover of the Winner Takes All pool boosting this particular potential source of income to £290, the emergence of non-WTA investors Ian and John into the last four raised considerable hopes of a further rollover to January.
Their collective semi-final demise put a stop to that.
09/12/10: Tim and Shadow to take auction prizes ......
The traditional pre-tournament Lesters auction has been getting a tad tired of late, but that changed last night when the lots were presented in alphabetical order.
First up was Nick Barham, who set a very healthy tone with a sudden sharp upturn in the bidding for himself, the effect of which was carried through during the sale of other lots.
Thos who have invested well are Tim Line, who also bought himself, and Shadow Hamilton, whose purchase of Miles Farren will also bear fruit.
Who will get the lion's share will no doubt be decided on Monday.
09/12/10: Steffen or Steve for Masters? ......
The final qualifying place for the 2011 Bristol Masters will rest on who wins Monday's final.
But it won't be either of the protagonists who benefits, as they are both already qualified.
Under the rules, the place will go to the highest placed unqualified player from the winner's own league.
Since Miles Farren is a Premier One player and Tim Line is a Premier Two Red player, those waiting with bated breath for the outcome are, respectively, Steffen Nowak and Steve Morris.
This year's qualification process brings to an end the only perfect Masters qualification sequence, with Stuart Mann failing to qualify by right for the first time in the eleven year history of the event.
The final list of qualifiers, though, includes overseas visitors Michihito Kageyama and Anna Mielech.
Whether they take up their invitations has to be considered doubtful, although we would of course be very pleased to see them.
But if they, or any others on the list, are unable to make the March 31st date, vacancies are filled via high finishers in the OGP, and in pole position to benefit are: Simon Hughes, Richard Owsley, Simonetta Herrera and whichever of Steffen or Steve is unlucky.
06/12/10: Ians share Monday honours
A six player three point round robin looked like being the order of the day in the latest Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix phase, but latecomer Haydn Beard was allowed to add himself into the mix as a seventh player.
And in a very evenly contested event two players with four wins from their six matches -- Ian Preston and Ian Tarr -- shared the money.
Last week's incomplete round robin took a step closer to completion when Roland Herrera ensured he took the prize with victory over Lotte Ryan.
Roland's lead over second placed Jamie Nevill has extended to 68 points with just two events to go.
04/12/10: Blaine sets up new award
Blaine Buchanan has set up a new annual award for Bristol players, aided and abetted by John Sprague, who these days runs the Merchants Arms, in Hotwells.
The Merchants Arms Bristol Backgammon Sportsperson of the Year will receive a microcask of Bath Ale as his or her reward for sportsmanship.
Blaine will sift through the nominations and will decide who receives the prize at the Bristol Backgammon Annual Awards Night on February 3rd.
02/12/10: Roland wins clock event, but loses title
The sixth and final Clock Tournament Grand Prix event of the year was won by reigning CTGP champion Roland Herrera at the BCSC last night.
He defeated Richard Owsley, Thursday debutant Ian Hayes and Steffen Nowak to win the title, but when the final reckoning came, he might have regretted receiving a bye in the opening round.
This was because he needed to score 100 points to stand a chance of overhauling the competition leader and retaining his title, but his bye put paid to that idea, limiting his tally to a mere 85 points.
That was enough to assure him of second place in the final CTGP table, 10 behind none other than Simonetta Herrera -- last year's runner-up -- who had no need to add to her overall tally to take the title, which was just as well because she didn't.
But Roland's consolation, of the title staying in the family, may have paled into insignificance when compared to the rewards of winning on the night, given that the Winner Takes All pool -- complete with double rollover -- amounted to a tidy £220.
Steffen had come through the long part of the draw, defeating Simon Hughes, Simonetta and Steve Morris en route to the final.
The consolation final had to be adjourned to allow Nick Barham the opportunity to catch the final conveyance back to Weston-super-Mare.
When the resumption happens, though, Nick will start 4-0 ahead of Ian Tarr, although with 6 minutes 33 seconds remaining on the clock compared to Ian's 12:09, he will need to ensure that he doesn't meet the fate he suffered in the main flight, where he ran out of time against Neil Young.
And even if Ian -- placed third overall -- manages to recover to victory, he cannot add enough to his points tally to catch Roland.
01/12/10: Jamie confirmed as Conference champion
The league season ended at midnight with no additional results reported, so as expected Jamie Nevill is this year's Conference champion.
His rise to Premier Status, along with James Lintell-Smith and Richard Biddle, was established some while back, but it remains a source of disappointment that others failed to get close to the 20 points threshold that ensures elevation to the top flight.
This year's competition was busier than the previous two years, with a total of 56 matches completed, compared to last year's puny 27, and the 54 played in 2008.
But the fact remains that each of the seasons from 2001 to 2007 inclusive was more successful in terms of activity levels in the Conference.
What price another struggle to kick start the competition in 2011 without some of those whose enthusiasm drove this year's?
29/11/10: Premier League entries flooding in
This is the time of year when entries for the next Premier League season are sought, and Director Ian Tarr is encouraged enough to predict an overall rise in league membership for 2011, despite the loss of three or four stalwarts.
The current status of entries, which close on December 21st, can be found here.
29/11/10: Seven at Monday BCSC session
Seven players braved the cold weather to venture to the BCSC on Monday evening for the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
This was a DMP Tourno, and was won by Roland Herrera.
When the competition ended before the deadline of 9.10pm, a second contest was triggered, but only four of the seven were available to continue, so a 3-point round robin was substituted for the DMP Tourno.
This was not quite completed in the allotted time, with two matches held over for another time.
The AGP standings were not greatly affected by the evening's proceedings, mostly because of the effect of discards.
So Roland maintains his cushion of more than 50 points over second placed Jamie Nevill, who is also top intermediate by 138 points.
27/11/10: Six enjoy latest Magriel quiz
There were six players present to enjoy the latest round of Magriel 10 Move Quizzes at the BCSC yesterday.
The session, run by Roland Herrera, provided two absorbing sessions and a lot of discussion. It is probable that that will become a regular feature on the Bristol Backgammon calendar.
26/11/10: Dave Pym crowned league champion
Thursday at the BCSC may have been billed as the finale of this year's inaugural Nackgammon Grand Prix, but the main headlines were made as the last action of the Premier League season unfolded.
The night's biggest match was the one which decided the destiny of the Premier One title.
And a gruelling three hour encounter saw Stuart Mann edging out Simonetta Herrera 11-7, scuppering Simonetta's title defence at the last hurdle, and ensuring that Dave Pym -- in Swindon all evening awaiting a text update -- picked up his first league championship.
Stuart claimed third place in the final league table, and Simonetta fourth, behind Dave and runner-up Steffen Nowak.
And the Premier Two championship was being decided at the same time at the Naval Volunteer, where Premier Two Blue champion Derek Clew was taking on his Premier Two Red counterpart Blaine Buchanan for the outright Premier Two title.
Derek took it with an 11-4 win, as both players, together with divisional runners-up Tim Line and Ed Turner, look forward to next season in the top flight -- in Derek's case a first taste of Premier One.
Tim had earlier concluded proceedings in the Red division by defeating Lewis Young 11-2, a victory which pushed him into the second promotion slot at the expense of the unfortunate Richard Holness.
And on being congratulated on his return to he top flight, Tim was taken aback, professing never to have been there.
He even put a fiver on it, and was surprised to learn that he had successfully blanked out his 2009 Premier One campaign!
The other match completed was that between Simon Temme and another Tony Walters impersonator, Ian Preston.
Ian was the last of three players nominated to fulfil Tony's last three fixtures after his resignation from the division, and became the only one of the three to succumb to Simon.
So that wraps it up for this year's Premier League, although there are still four more days remaining for anyone who wants to play the odd Conference League match.
The league action had an effect on the Nackgammon turnout, with just ten players contesting the two flight five point matches event.
And it was Roland Herrera who defeated Ian Tarr in a very tight final of the main flight.
Roland had defeated Simon Hughes and Neil Young en route to the final, while Ian was getting past Miles Farren and Jamie Nevill.
Steffen defeated Lewis in the consolation final.
There was some consolation for Simonetta here. As leader coming into the event, she elected to play her league match at the expense of NGP participation, and although Roland and Tim ran her close, she still had a ten points cushion at the finish to win the inaugural title.
25/11/10: Gaz goes third but will finish fourth or fifth
Neil Young and Gaz Owen rounded off their respective Premier One campaigns at Neil's mother's home in Stockwood this lunch time.
The 6-11 reverse emphasised Neil's unfortunate end of season sequence -- his final seven matches all ending in defeat, and scuppering what had seemed a highly satisfactory top flight debut season. He will be back, no doubt.
Gaz, however, moves into third place, but unfortunately for him will not stay there, as he awaits the outcome of the season's final top flight match this evening.
That match, betwen Stuart Mann and Simonetta Herrera at the BCSC this evening, will decide the finishing order of the top five.
Simonetta, who will reclaim her two penalty points this evening, needs to win 11-8 or better to pip Dave Pym for the title. A narrower win will put her second, ahead of Steffen Nowak.
A win for Stuart would move him up to third, with either Gaz or Simonetta fourth, depending on the winning/losing margin of the match.
22/11/10: Roland and Ian win Nackgammon tournos
Roland Herrera and Ian Preston were the winners of two five player Nackgammon tournos at the BCSC on Monday evening.
This was the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, where Roland has once again extended his lead to more than 50 points.
Jamie Nevill, in overall second place, also extended his lead as top intermediate to a formidable 168 points.
21/11/10: Ian wins in tale of two heads
Ed Turner and Ian Preston met at the Kings Head, Whitehall, to conclude their Premier Two Blue campaigns this evening.
However, when the pub closed at 8pm they were forced to adjourn to an alternative venue -- the Queens Head, Eastville.
And Ian emerged the victor with an 11-8 scoreline.
20/11/10: James stuns Roland in Bedminster
James Lintell-Smith played host to Roland Herrera early this evening at his Bedminster home, where the reason for the meeting was the outstanding main fight final of the November Bristol Grand Prix tournament.
And it was underdog James who prevailed with an 11-9 triumph for his first BGP title win.
As well as furthering his OGP and IGP standings -- he is now just 29 points behind IGP leader Sean Hopson -- James has clinched a place in the 2011 Bristol Masters.
And the good news for grand prix contestants is that the Winner Takes All pool will carry a £170 rollover on December 8th.
As for the OGP title, Roland should still have nothing to fear.
If there are fewer than 33 contestants at the December event, and there always have been in the past, Roland's pursuers will be unable to catch him, as both Tim Line and Chas Perry would need six wins to pass Roland, always assuming that he fails to add to his tally.
19/11/10: Third December date change
With Christmas approaching fast, and the BCSC needing all the income it can get, Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr has acceded to a request for a date change for a third time in successive weeks.
This time it's the final session of the Clock Blitz Grand Prix, which has been brought forward two days to Tuesday December 14th.
If this is just a seasonal trend, it can be accommodated, but if the BCSC becomes more successful in attracting private functions, it could be that our Thursday sessions might come under a little more pressure.
How we might react to that pressure remains to be seen.
19/11/10: ALL THE NEWS FROM THE YEAR'S FINAL LEAGUE NIGHT ......
There were seventeen players in league action on Thursday -- fifteen of them at the BCSC -- and one other player dropped in to catch some late night chouette.
19/11/10: Title race still in the balance, while Miles and Phil escape the drop ......
The lion's share of last night's league action was in the top flight.
All the main issues in Premier One remained to be decided, and six of the eight outstanding matches took place, resolving all but arguably the most important.
Title contenders Dave Pym and Simonetta Herrera were both in action, Dave coming into the evening with a three points advantage plus a marginally superior average points difference.
Dave's final matches -- a double header with Paul Gilbertson, one of six players threatened by relegation -- were first to get under way.
Paul secured an 11-5 win, keeping all issues very much alive.
And when he followed that with another win -- this time 11-4 -- Dave must have been fearing the worst for his title chances.
Next result was Miles Farren's 11-5 win over Neil Young, which had the effect of moving Miles to safety, while condemning Neil to relegation.
Neil had calculated that he needed two emphatic wins to stand a chance of surviving, and tailored his doubling tactics accordingly -- something that backfired on him on the night.
Then the spotlight fell on Simonetta and Phil Charlton.
Simonetta's title defence seemed to be gathering strength when she established a 7-1 lead, but Phil is a player who never knows when he is beaten, and proceeded to claw his way back.
His eventual 11-9 win was enough to give him great hope of avoiding the drop, while leaving a shell-shocked Simonetta with a formidable task in her final match.
Then Miles capped a good evening for him with a victory over Ian Tarr, which saw him finishing in the top half of the league.
The evening's final match pitted Paul against Phil.
Paul was aiming to join the clutch of players on 27 points, targetting Simon Baker as the one to surpass on average points difference.
An 11-5 win for Paul would have put them dead level and potentially facing an unprecedented relegation play-off.
However, Paul's target was the wrong one. He needed to defeat Phil by 11-3 to stay ahead of not only Simon, but also Phil.
The eventual margin of Paul's win was 11-6, leaving Phil safe, and Paul relegated along with Simon Baker, Simon Hughes and Neil.
There remain just two matches.
Neil plays Gaz Owen, for whom a win could be enough to get him amongst the prize money.
But the really intriguing encounter is that of Simonetta and Stuart Mann.
Because Simonetta got the double over Dave, her minimum target is to finish level with Dave on a difference of +26, taking the title because of the results of their meetings.
That would take an 11-8 win for Simonetta, who would obviously prefer a more comfortable margin.
For Stuart, however, a win would guarantee third place.
19/11/10: Blaine takes Premier Two Red title ......
The big match in Premier Two Red last night was the promotion clash between Blaine Buchanan and Tim Line.
And Blaine triumphed 11-4, finishing the season with seven straight wins to take the divisional title.
He will now contest an 11-points play-off match with Premier Two Blue title winner Derek Clew to decide the destiny of the outright Premier Two championship.
But the big question now is: who will accompany Blaine into the top flight?
Tim's final match -- the very last one of the Premier Two Red season -- is against Lewis Young, and provides the key. If he should win by 11-8 or better he will leapfrog second placed Richard Holness to claim promotion.
Lewis, whose season has tailed off a little after being a real contender, played out a double header with Richard Owsley last night, and lost two closely fought matches.
19/11/10: Cecilia has a late flourish ......
Not much of note occurred in Premier Two Blue last night, although Ian Preston is now assured of third place.
Two whitewashes of Ian by Cecilia Sparke would have propelled her into that spot, but although she won both matches, the margins -- 11-4 and 11-10 -- were such that she has to settle for fourth place.
There remain just two matches to play, Ian's meeting with Ed Turner, and Simon Temme's final match, where Ian substitutes for the resigned Tony Walters.
Neither match will affect finishing positions, however.
19/11/10: Jamie surely cements Conference top spot ......
Two victories for Jamie Nevill over Lotte Ryan at the BCSC have surely put the destiny of the Conference title beyond doubt.
Second placed James Lintell-Smith was simultaneously defeating Harry Kauntze at the Ostrich, but the chance of him bridging a twenty-one points gap with eleven days to the end of the season have to be considered minimal.
18/11/10: Which league issues will be decided tonight?
The final league night of the season -- although there will still be twelve days to tie up any loose ends after tonight -- looms this evening, and it's likely that some of the most important issues will be decided.
In Premier One will we know the destiny of the league title? It's down to two contenders.
And will the typically tight relegation battle -- with six players trying to avoid the four slots -- be resolved, either partly or completely?
In Premier Two Blue only the minor placings need to be sorted, but the Premier Two Red promotion race, with three players chasing two tickets to the top flight, prepares for a tense finale.
And as for the Conference, will anyone make a late surge towards the 20-points threshold already crossed by three players? And is the championship of that division already decided?
Find out the answers to at least some of these questions here tomorrow.
17/11/10: Shared honours no good for Gaz and Simon
The Merchants Arms, Hotwells, was the venue tonight when Gaz Owen and Simon Hughes fought out a Premier One double header.
An opening 11-6 win kept alive Gaz's slim hope of taking the league title, but dealt a severe blow to Simon's chances of staying in the top flight.
The return encounter, however, saw Simon score an 11-0 whitewash, ruling out Gaz's championship aspirations for another season, while keeping Simon's survival hopes still clinging by a thread.
Only Simonetta Herrera can now stop Dave Pym winning the coveted title, while the four relegation slots rest between six players.
Miles Farrencan reach the safe haven of 30 points by winning one of his two remaining matches, while Phil Charlton can also reach 30 by winning both of his.
The Simons, Baker and Hughes have both finished on 27 points, and can only wait to see how many players finish below them.
If either Miles or Phil should fail to make it to 30, points difference for those on 27 is likely to prove crucial.
17/11/10: James into grand prix final
James Lintell-Smith tonight defeated Miles Farren at the Naval Volunteer to earn a November Bristol Grand Prix main flight final clash with Roland Herrera.
The defeat took away the last vestige of OGP title hope for Miles, leaving only Tim Line and Chas Perry in with a minute chance of overhauling Roland.
As for the IGP, however, James gained 45 points on leader Sean Hopson with tonight's win, and a final win over Roland would bring him a further 45 points to leave him just 29 points in arrears going into December's event.
16/11/10: Roland extends AGP lead
The latest Monday Club session at the BCSC, featuring three point round robins, saw Roland Herrera extend his lead in the Autumn Grand Prix after a clean sweep in a five player group.
And in a four player group the honours were shared by Pearl Foster and Jamie Nevill, who is still top intermediate by a distance.
Simon Temme took on Chas Perry (deputising for Tony Walters) in a Premier Two Blue match, and Chas won 11-9, ensuring that Simon will not overhaul him in the table.
15/11/10: Julian second again
Julian Fetterlein was defeated by Fred Kalantari in yesterday's Las Vegas Open final.
His amazing string of big final appearances -- and big final reverses -- thus continues.
14/11/10: A second December date change
The year's sixth and final Clock Grand Prix tournament, originally scheduled for Thursday December 2nd, has been brought forward a day to Wednesday 1st.
This news follows hard on the heels of the other December date change -- the final Bristol Grand Prix tournament having also been brought forward a day to December 8th.
While Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr will usually accede to such requests to help out the venue, there is a danger that too many such switches might destabilise our solid tenure of Thursday evenings at the club.
With this in mind a £25 compensation fee has been agreed for both switches, and this amount will be added into the prize pots for the two events.
14/11/10: Julian excels in Vegas
Julian Fetterlein had quite a passable excuse for missing Thursday's Bristol Grand Prix event at the BCSC.
He is abroad, contesting the Las Vegas Open, and he has made very good use of his time.
He has now reached the final, where he will face Fred Kalantari.
Julian may joke -- as he did in London -- that he has already fulfilled his destiny by reaching the final, but his string of major final defeats has to end sometime, and there will be many Bristol and UK fingers crossed that now is the hour.
12/11/10: NOVEMBER GRAND PRIX NEWS ......
There were twenty players present at the November grand prix evening at the BCSC last night.
Seventeen contested the main event, two others were present for league action, and one other was turned away!
12/11/10: Roland one step from third grand prix win in five attempts ......
Having won last month, and also back in July, Roland Herrera stands one win away from a third Bristol Grand Prix success in five after eliminating Blaine Buchanan, Jamie Nevill and Nick Barham on the way to the final.
His opponent there will be either Miles Farren or James Lintell-Smith, after Miles's victories over Marcus Wrinch and Lotte Ryan and those by James over Richard Owsley, Simon Hughes and Derek Clew.
12/11/10: Simon the consolation king ......
Simon Hughes won his third grand prix consolation flight of the year yesterday with wins over Blaine Buchanan, Simonetta Herrera and finalist Richard Owsley.
12/11/10: Roland closes on second OGP title ......
Roland Herrera's run to the final of yesterday's tournament has all but settled this year's OGP title on his shoulders.
If we assume that there will be no more than 32 players at the final event in December, then Roland cannot be caught, even though the Lesters points tariffs are slightly more generous than those in the other events.
And a final win would put him out of reach of anyone, even given an unlikely December field of over 32.
Roland won the title in 2008, and would become only the second player to have won it more than once -- Stuart Mann's three successes being the record.
12/11/10: Sean's IGP lead under threat ......
It was very unfortunate that a communications problem scuppered Sean Hopson's hopes of adding to his IGP lead at last night's event.
The failure of Director Ian Tarr to check his text messages just before the draw meant that Sean arrived late only to find that he had been excluded from it.
Going into the penultimate event of the year with a lead of 175 points, one might have thought that his exclusion was of little importance to the IGP race.
That was to reckon without the outstanding run of James Lintell-Smith to the semi-finals -- his 55 points haul being augmented by 40 bonus points for wins over Premier Status players.
And while James is still 119 points behind Sean, that deficit would be reduced to a mere 29 if he were to go on and win the current event.
Jamie Nevill and Lotte Ryan each collected 35 points last night, and while the clutch of challengers of which they are a part are all too far away to threaten the lead, a good tournament next month could yet see them threaten second place, as long as James progresses no further this month.
12/11/10: James defends rollover hopes ......
Only James Lintell-Smith can bring about a £170 Winner Takes All pool rollover to December's tournament, as both his semi-final opponent Miles Farren and prosepctive final opponent Roland Herrera have an interest in the pool.
Meanwhile qualification for the 2011 Bristol Masters is getting closer to final resolution.
There are still six places up for grabs, and normally the November tournament winner would take one of those slots.
James will do so if he wins, but if he doesn't a second Premier One high finisher will benefit, because both Miles and Roland Herrera have already qualified.
12/11/10: Blaine poised for top flight return ......
An 11-2 Premier Two Red victory over Malcolm Patterson before last night's tournament has moved Blaine Buchanan to within a whisker of returning to the top flight he last left in 2003.
Blaine goes top with just one game to go, as three contenders jostle for just two promotion slots.
The margin of yesterday's win has boosted Blaine's points difference to eleven better than Richard Holness, who has finished his campaign.
So he can lose his final match 1-11 and still be assured of finishing above Richard.
A 0-11 reverse, however, would see him finishing below Richard, because Richard won two of their three encounters.
The major complication, of course, is Blaine's final opponent, Tim Line.
Tim is the other challenger, and will certainly be champion if he defeats Blaine and Lewis Young.
He will finish third if he loses both, and a win and a defeat would see his points difference decide his fate.
There was further league action before the tournament, when Lotte Ryan and Haydn Beard contested a Conference match.
This was adjourned with Lotte 7-3 up to enable her to compete in the tournament.
10/11/10: Jamie leaving nothing to chance
Jamie Nevill's quest for the Conference title is leaving no stone unturned.
Having already racked up a fifteen points cushion at the top of the league, Jamie took on Haydn Beard at the Bristol Flyer, Gloucester Road, this evening, and scored an 11-4 victory.
The chances of him being overhauled in the twenty remaining days of the league season look slimmer than ever.
But perhaps of more interest will be whether or not any other player emerges from the ranks to threaten the twenty points threshold in these final weeks.
The Bristol Flyer, incidentally, is yet another new venue to add to the voluminous ranks of Bristol Backgammon venues.
09/11/10: A new date, and a changed one, for your diaries
The December Bristol Grand Prix tournament has been brought forward a day -- to Wednesday December 8th, in order to accommodate a function at the BCSC.
As this is a month away, it is hoped that not too much inconvenience will be experienced.
And there's an extra date in the diary, a second Magriel 10 Move Quiz evening, organised by Roland Herrera, which is being held on Friday November 26th.
This is free of charge, and a lot of fun, as those who attended the first one will testify.
09/11/10: Richard ends with a win, and waits
There were fourteen players in action at the Monday evening session at the BCSC, ten in the Tric Trac Tourno which was the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, and four others in league action.
Meanwhile two others were playing a league match at the Windmill.
The most significant league action, however, was at the BCSC, where two crucial Premier Two Red promotion matches were fought out.
Lewis Young's last hope of becoming the youngest ever Premier One player next year were extinguished when he went down 8-11 to Blaine Buchanan.
Time is still well on Lewis's side, however.
The other match in that division saw Malcolm Patterson giving Richard Holness a tough test, which Richard came through to win, also by 11-8.
Richard has now completed his fixtures, sits on top of the league, and should be well pleased with his best season to date, with fourteen wins from his twenty-one matches and a difference of +39.
He must now wait and see whether or not he stays there, or -- more importantly, perhaps -- remains in those top two slots which guarantee Premier One backgammon next season.
His problems come in the form of his two rivals, Tim Line (thirteen wins, +43) and Blaine (thirteen wins, +41).
Blaine and Tim each have two matches remaining, so a single win for each whilst maintaining their current points differences would be enough to push Richard down to third.
This task, however, will be all the tougher for the loser in their final, mouth watering, encounter.
Tim's other match is against Lewis, Blaine's is against Malcolm.
At the Windmill Simon Temme was playing Cecilia Sparke, who was deputising for the resigned Tony Walters in Premier Two Blue. Cecilia was the winner, by the night's standard score -- 11-8.
Back at the BCSC the Tric Trac Tourno was won by Ian Preston, whose four gammons were just enough to push Jamie Nevill into second place.
Jamie has moved to within thirty points of MCAGP leader Roland Herrera.
05/11/10: Roland boosts OGP lead, Ian wins Handicap Trophy, Shadow "robbed"
Thursday evening's session at the BCSC saw thirteen players in action -- eleven in the sixth and final event of the Handicap Trophy, and a couple of others tying up some loose ends from other recent contests.
While the main event was getting under way Roland Herrera and Chas Perry sat down to play the main final of last month's Bristol Grand Prix event.
Roland emerged victorious to move 81 points ahead of second placed Tim Line in the OGP with two tournaments remaining.
And he can now rest easy on the 2011 Bristol Masters qualification front, while his double OGP success (he also won in July) now ensures that the November GP winner will definitely qualify, regardless of size of entry for that event.
Later in the evening Roland tied up another loose end when he defeated Simon Hughes in an outstanding match from the October 18th clock blitz phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, stretching his lead in that competition to over 66 points.
Meanwhile in the handicap knock-out, Shadow Hamilton was there to defend her Handicap Trophy lead.
There were three players within striking distance of her at the start of the evening, and when her nearest challenger Duncan Lee didn't materialise her chances of taking the title were looking even better.
Being drawn against another of her challengers gave her an opportunity to stop that challenge in its tracks, too, but Steve Morris overcame the obstacle of a two points deficit to stay on course.
Steve's challenge effectively ended in the next round, however, thanks to the other title protagonist Ian Preston.
Director Ian Tarr then committed an unforgiveable faux pas by informing Shadow that she couldn't be caught for the title, but had neglected to factor in Ian P's chance and was forced to back track.
Shadow, to her credit, took the mix up very well, while Ian P stormed on to collect not only the title, but also the tournament win -- his second of the season -- defeating Derek Clew in the final.
Meanwhile Shadow had progressed to the consolation final, where she was beaten by Jamie Nevill.
03/11/10: Jamie goes fifteen points clear
The Naval Volunteer, King Street, is the latest new venue for a Bristol Backgammon match.
This was the backdrop for the latest Conference match, the fourth and final meeting of the top two -- Jamie Nevill and James Lintell-Smith.
And it was leader Jamie who edged home 11-9, opening up a fiften points lead at the top of the league with just twenty-seven days of the season remaining.
03/11/10: Tony pulls out of Bristol Backgammon
Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr reluctantly reports that Tony Walters has decided not to play any more Bristol events for the foreseeable future.
Tony cites personal, practical, problems in justification of his decision.
The immediate effect of this situation is his resignation from Premier Two Blue, leaving three matches, all against Simon Temme, unplayed.
This has prompted the Director to intervene with a solution identical to that used in similar end of season situations in recent seasons.
In order to afford Simon the chance to play his full quota of 24 matches, substitute opponents with a vested interest in defeating Simon have been nominated to fulfil the fixtures.
Chas Perry, Ian Preston and Cecilia Sparke -- all of whom have similar playing records to Simon this season -- have kindly stepped in to play the matches.
Tony's failure to finish the season sees him penalised, as per the rules, to the tune of twelve points (four for each unfulfilled fixture), in addition to the two incurred on September 30th, which he would have clawed back by finishing the season on time.
Ian remains hopeful that Tony will feel able to continue his Bristol Backgammon career at some future time.
02/11/10: A win apiece for Sean and Lotte
Sean Hopson and Lotte Ryan traded Conference blows this evening at the Prince of Wales, Westbury-on-Trym.
Sean won the first match 11-4, but Lotte gained her revenge with an 11-3 win later.
02/11/10: Ed clinches top flight return
Early this evening at Colston Yard Ed Turner confirmed his return to Premier One by defeating Cecilia Sparke 11-1.
That closes out the final promotion slot in Premier Two Blue, leaving the nearest pursuers chasing the possibility of finishing as high as possible in the hope that other top flight places might materialise when the final 2011 entry list is completed.
02/11/10: Ian and Roland win round robins
Eleven players -- including a welcome Bristol Backgammon debut for Ian Hayes -- contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a pair of three point round robins -- at the BCSC last night.
The larger group was won by Ian Tarr, with a clean sweep of five wins, while Roland Herrera emulated that feat -- as far as circumstances could permit -- in the smaller group.
Roland's lead in the AGP table now exceeds 50, while Jamie Nevill, who also scored well last night, is top intermediate by a considerable distance, as well as holding down second place overall.
And a Conference result from Sunday came to light, with the reporting of Jamie's "revenge" win over Lotte Ryan in Henleaze.
Jamie's lead over second placed James Lintell-Smith is now eleven points.
31/10/10: Roland to meet Chas in October GP final
Kellaway Avenue was the scene of the held over main flight semi-final of the October Bristol Grand Prix tournament this evening.
And a 7-4 win for Roland over Derek Clew paves the way for a final meeting with Chas Perry, as well as ensuring a Winner Takes All pool rollover for the November tournament.
Roland's OGP lead over second placed Tim Line is extended to 46 points, and a final win would make it 81 -- which would be a very handy lead with just two tournaments remaining.
29/10/10: Lotte wins at the Shakespeare
There was some Conference action at the Shakespeare, Prince Street, today, when league leader Jamie Nevill met Lotte Ryan.
Lotte scored an 11-9 win which had the effect of reducing Jamie's lead over James Lintell-Smith to eight points.
29/10/10: Simonetta suffers title defence blow, Jamie is doubles champion
In another low key Thursday evening at the BCSC, just five pairs contested the fourth and final leg of the Consulting Doubles Grand Prix, while Simonetta Herrera and Phil Charlton fought out a Premier One clash with a vital bearing on the season's outcome for both players.
With Simonetta chasing leader Dave Pym in defence of her Premier League title, and Phil needing good results to stay in the top flight, tension was assured.
Phil got his nose in front, and after Simonetta had clawed herself back into it a double gammon for Phil opened up an 8-3 lead. But Simonetta is not reigning champion for nothing, and parity was reached at 8-all.
But in the end it was Phil who got the upper hand, winning 11-8.
The title pendulum has now swung firmly back in Dave's favour, as Simonetta now needs to record at least one win more than Dave when they play their final matches -- Dave facing Paul Gilbertson twice, while Simonetta has a return meeting with Phil as well as an encounter with Stuart Mann.
Gaz Owen still retains an interest in the race, as wins over Simon Hughes (twice) and Neil Young with other results going in his favour could yet see him crowned champion.
As for the relegation battle, the three players who cannot exceed 27 points -- Simon Baker, Neil Young and Paul Gilbertson -- remain favourites to fill three of the four dreaded slots.
But if Simon Hughes, Phil and Miles Farren can all get to 30 points (Miles needs one win from two, while Simon and Phil need two apiece), Ian Tarr could yet be dragged into the danger area, and points difference -- where Phil is best placed of the four players and Simon worst -- could be a factor.
As to the evening's main event, the equal lowest turnout in the twenty tournament history of the competition still lasted five and a half hours, making up the Director's mind that the format next year will include compulsory clocks.
Ian Preston and Simon Temme -- having kept their partnership intact for the entire season -- were finally rewarded with a tournament win, getting a quarter-final bye before despatching first Chas Perry and Sean Hopson and then Stuart Mann and Lewis Young.
Simon Hughes and Neil Young won the consolation flight, defeating Roland Herrera and Jamie Nevill in the final.
Jamie would not have been too downhearted, however, as he had already done enough to claim the title of CDGP champion for 2010.
He has had three different partners this year -- Roland twice, Michihito Kageyama, and Phillip Hill.
27/10/10: James scores Tobacco Factory double
The Tobacco Factory, Bedminster, was the venue for a Conference double header yesterday evening.
And James Lintell-Smith defeated Lotte Ryan twice to move back into second place in the league table.
25/10/10: Richard pushing Tim and Blaine to the limit
There were fourteen players present at the Monday session at the BCSC, twelve contesting DMP Tournos as the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix while two others contested a crucial Premier Two Red promotion clash.
Lewis Young and Richard Holness were the two in league action, each needing a victory to press their promotion claims.
And it was Richard who triumphed, coming from behind to register an 11-7 win.
Lewis's promotion hopes have now receded to the extent that he must win all of his four remaining matches even to stand a chance of finishing in the top two.
But the win has given Richard a great chance of claiming a top flight place for the first time.
He has just one match left, but were he to defeat Malcolm Patterson, Tim Line would need to win at least one of his two matches to better him, while Blaine Buchanan would need at least two wins out of three.
And because the average points differences are too close to call, margins of victory or defeat may well prove crucial. And the meeting of Blaine and Tim should be a fascinating encounter.
The twelve Monday Club contestants were split into two groups of six for the DMP Tournos, and there were clean sweep wins for Lotte Ryan and Eamonn Reay.
Roland Herrera still leads the AGP table, although second placed Jamie Nevill has moved a little closer.
Jamie is still the top intermediate by a distance, although down the order Lotte is making good progress.
22/10/10: Quietest league night ever?
On what was probably the quietest league night in the history of Bristol Backgammon, there were only eight players present at the BCSC last night -- and two of those were playing friendlies.
The highlight of the evening was Derek Clew's clinching of the Premier Two Blue championship, when he defeated Tony Walters 11-8. Derek then went on to defeat Tony again, this time 11-3.
Derek was desperately unlucky not to clinch promotion to the top flight last season, but this time around he has done even better, finishing with nineteen wins from his twenty-four matches, giving him a total of 34 wins in 46 matches during his two years at this level.
Having finished his campaign he will face the eventual winner of Premier Two Red in a play-off for the outright Premier Two title.
And while there was no action at all in Premier Two Red, there was a match of significance in Premier One, where Simonetta Herrera demonstrated that she will not give up her league title lightly when she won an agonisingly tight match 11-10 against Miles Farren.
Given that Simonetta will claw back her penalty points when she completes the season on time, she would draw level on points with leader Dave Pym were she to win her match in hand, although Dave's average points difference would appear to give him a slight advantage.
For Miles, however, there still remains the spectre of relegation, as he is not quite safe yet. A victory in either of his final two matches, however, would allay any such fears.
There was also a Conference match played.
And it was a special one for Harry Kauntze who recorded his first competitive victory, 11-3 over Lotte Ryan.
Meanwhile we were pleased to welcome Eamonn Reay on his first visit to the club.
Eamonn, who lives in Galway, is visiting family nearby, and has done extensive research into Bristol Backgammon, as he intends to include us in his itinerary whenever he is over from Ireland.
As he played -- and won -- a couple of friendly matches with Ian Tarr, it became clear in conversation that Eamonn's overall grasp of our scene would put to shame that of many of our own regular players!
He conversed knowledgably about our variety of competitive fare, about the merits of our ranking system compared to Elo systems, was aware that Roland Herrera does not play in the league, and knew that Harry and Lotte's meeting was a Conference match!
21/10/10: Gaz keeps slim hopes alive
St George's Hall in Redfield was the latest new venue for a Bristol Backgammon match when Gaz Owen defeated Ian Tarr 11-2 this afternoon.
Gaz's slim Premier One title hopes are thus kept alive.
19/10/10: Lotte and Steffen win clock blitzes
Twelve players were in attendance at last night's session of the Monday Club, eleven contesting a pair of clock blitz round robins, the other playing out a league triple header.
Cynthia Roberts and Andrew Cobb's trio of Premier Two Blue encounters brought their respective seasons to an end, and it was Andrew who finished with a flourish, winning all three matches emphatically, bringing his current league winning sequence up to a creditable six.
The suspicion that Cynthia, who has said she will not contest the league next season, has not been applying herself in this competition as she might have done was possibly borne out when she decided to concede the third match at 0-10.
This is not the sort of thing that Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr is happy to condone, as such behaviour -- in a league -- could easily be prejudicial to the chances of other contestants.
Given these circumstances, however, and the fact that no important issues are affected, Ian decided to accept the 0-11 concession on this rare occasion.
Cynthia fared better in her clock blitz round robin, but it was Lotte Ryan who took the spoils in her group with four wins out of five.
Steffen Nowak was the victor in the other group, winning all four of his matches.
A rare, and not to be encouraged, scenario emerged in the larger group when, despite a half hour extension to our normal Monday hours, one match remained unplayed.
This will be played at a later date, but with Monday formats designed to be self contained within a single session, it may be that clock blitz round robins will have a different format on Mondays in future.
Roland Herrera's Monday Club Autumn Grand prix lead has increased to over 50 points, and could be larger when that final match -- his meeting with Simon Hughes -- is eventually played.
15/10/10: OCTOBER GRAND PRIX NEWS ......
There were nineteen players present at the October Bristol Grand Prix tournament at the BCSC on Thursday, eighteen in the tournament, plus one who popped in for an early evening league match.
15/10/10: Chas awaits a final opponent ......
Chas Perry reached his second grand prix final of the year, defeating Steffen Nowak, Simonetta Herrera and Blaine Buchanan in the October tournament last night at the BCSC.
In the final he will meet either Roland Herrera or Derek Clew, whose semi-final has not yet taken place.
Roland came through the long part of the draw by beating Tim Line, Lotte Ryan and Steve Morris, while Derek's victims were Nick Barham and Stuart Mann.
15/10/10: Nick wins consolation flight ......
Nick Barham's second appearance in a week saw him take the consolation flight last night, with victories over Ian Tarr, Richard Owsley and Steffen Nowak.
15/10/10: Roland regains OGP lead ......
Since March Tim Line and Roland Herrera have between them monopolised the lead in the OGP.
Last night it was Roland's turn to strike out in front, and his lead of 21 points would rise to 81 were he to win the tournament.
Meanwhile a third challenger has surfaced in the form of Chas Perry, whose run to the final has so far earned him 65 points, and his lack of discards -- having only entered seven events so far -- stands him in good stead.
Should he win the final he would leapfrog over Tim into second place.
A whole clutch of further challengers stand some way off, although two successful tournaments could pitch any one of them right into the thick of the race.
15/10/10: Sean draws a blank, but extends lead ......
Only two intermediates contested last night's tournament, and Lotte Ryan picked up 35 points after defeating Tony Walters.
But her late entry into the grand scheme of things gives her only a slim chance of making a big IGP impact this year at least.
Sean Hopson was the other intermediate present, and although he fell at the first hurdle in both flights his minimum reward of ten points extends his lead over second placed Pam Jakeway to 175 -- a big lead with just two events remaining.
15/10/10: Derek threatens rollover hopes ......
The Winner Takes All pool at last night's tournament attracted just seven investors from the field of eighteen players, and only three made it to the last eight, where Simon Hughes and Stuart Mann were to progress no further.
So Derek Clew is the only player now threatening a rollover to next month's tournament.
Meanwhile the number of entrants may have been a tad disappointing, but it was sufficient to guarantee that the eventual tournament winner will qualify for a 2011 Bristol Masters place.
The three potential tournament winners, however, all have other irons in the fire when it comes to Masters qualification.
Finalist Chas Perry has already qualified, thanks to his January grand prix success, while Derek -- if the worst comes to the worst -- looks like qualifying as the high finisher from Premier Two Blue (see story immediately below this one).
Roland Herrera's qualification is less clear cut, having won the grand prix tournament with the fewest entrants back in July.
Obviously the simplest way to ensure his place would be to win the current tournament, but if Chas should win his double qualification would ensure that Roland's July success would bear fruit.
And although a tournament win for Derek would leave Roland's qualification in limbo, the fact that the top final OGP position holders take up the place of any absentees -- and two qualifiers live overseas! -- would tend to suggest that Roland's Masters place is pretty much nailed on, given that his nearest OGP challengers are already qualified!
15/10/10: Derek closes on Premier Two Blue title ......
Derek Clew found the time to defeat Cecilia Sparke 11-1 in a Premier Two Blue match before Thursday's tournament.
The win makes him a very strong favourite to take the divisional title, as he only needs one result from four outstanding matches to go his way.
Derek's final two matches are both against Tony Walters, while second placed Ed Turner faces Cecilia and the only player who might just pip him for second place, Ian Preston.
12/10/10: Roland and Tim win round robins
The latest instalment of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix was contested by twelve players at the BCSC last night.
The popular three point round robins saw two groups of six players, with Tim Line making a clean sweep in one, while Roland Herrera's four wins out of five were enough to win him the other group.
Roland has taken over the leadership of the AGP, opening up a gap of almost 38 points over previous leader Jamie Nevill, with Cynthia Roberts in third and and Neil Young fourth.
Jamie is the top intermediate by some distance.
08/10/10: Simonetta keeps title defence alive
Reigning champion Simonetta Herrera remains the only player in with a realistic chance of pipping Dave Pym for the Premier One championship after an 11-3 victory over Simon Baker at Kellaway Avenue today.
Her fifth successive league win leaves her two wins behind Dave with two matches in hand.
For Simon, however, a nervous wait beckons. He has finished his season, and currently stands two places above the drop zone, so he needs no more than one of those below him to surpass him if he is to retain his top flight status.
Gaz Owen is the other player who could take the title, but he needs to win his remaining four matches while Dave and Simonetta each suffer two defeats. Then it might be down to average points difference.
08/10/10: Can Ian be overhauled in the Clock Blitz Grand Prix?
The inaugural Clock Blitz Grand Prix evening back in May saw two waves of round robins with groups of four players.
Last night's latest instalment of the competition had larger groups after a necessary tweak in the rules, and the format for the twelve contestants was much the better for it.
One thing that didn't change, however, was Ian Tarr's winning streak, as last night's win was his third in three round robins, and he now has a 60 points lead in the CBGP, which will be tough for anyone to overhaul when the final session takes place in December.
The consistent Simon Hughes is in second place, with Roland Herrera a further 15 points back in third.
The evening's other group saw a tie for the top place between Tim Line and Stuart Mann, who also fought out an unofficial play-off -- Stuart won -- to tweak the prize pot.
Stuart's reputation for not being the quickest player in the land will probably always stay with him now.
But it should be remembered that Stuart has long been an advocate of clock play, and his CBGP debut demonstrated that he can perform well whatever the circumstances, winning five of six blitz matches contested on the evening.
The evening featured a welcome return to competition by Nick Barham, making his first appearance since February last year.
06/10/10: Jamie extends Conference lead
In a Conference match at the Golden Lion, Bishopston, last night Jamie Nevill defeated Haydn Beard 11-3.
Jamie thus extends his lead over second placed Richard Biddle to fourteen points, and it will take something special to beat him for the title with 55 days of the season remaining.
04/10/10: Ian wins latest Monday Club event
The latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, an eight player Tric Trac Tourno saw a win for Ian Preston.
Jamie Nevill's overall lead in the competition was reduced to a dozen points by second placed Roland Herrera.
30/09/10: Sean wins Intermediates Trophy
The annual knock-out event especially for intermediates -- the Intermediates Trophy -- was won by Sean Hopson at the BCSC on Thursday evening.
Sean became the ninth player to take the title -- defeating Harry Kauntze and Shadow Hamilton before recovering from 4-6 Crawford in the final to beat Jamie Nevill, and the 85 points gained in the IGP have moved him into a commanding 165 points lead with just three events remaining.
There is traditionally a struggle to get enough players to participate in the event, so Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr was happy to get eight players vying for the title.
While the intermediates took centre stage, there were also ten league matches played, plus a four player jackpot, a chouette, and a few friendly matches.
The first of the league action took place at the Cornubia, with Paul Gilbertson down from High Wycombe to get some Premier One matches in.
His double header with Stuart Mann produced an outcome which wasn't enough to satisfy either player -- Stuart breaking his recent losing sequence with an 11-8 win, before Paul gained his revenge with an 11-10 victory.
Stuart's last remote hope of regaining the title he has won four times has now gone, but Paul's battle to avoid relegation then continued at the BCSC with a further double header, this time against relegation rival Simon Baker.
Once again the spoils were shared, leaving Paul needing to win his last three matches for a realistic chance of staying up.
Simon has just one match left now, and he will almost certainly be safe if he can defeat Simonetta Herrera, although his average points difference is good enough to give him hope of staying up even with a narrow defeat.
Premier Two Red also saw four matches completed, and Tim Line is back at the top after his 11-3 win over Malcolm Patterson.
The other three matches all featured Steve Morris, who signed off his league campaign with a double success over Richard Owsley, followed by a defeat at Malcolm's hands.
The only Premier Two Blue action was at the Ship, in Lower Park Row.
Here Simon Temme pipped Ed Turner 11-10.
The flurry of Premier League action saw the last player threatened by expungement -- Paul Gilbertson -- do enough to avoid not only expungement but also penalty points.
Those who are penalised, however, are Simonetta (2 points) and Gaz Owen (1 point) in Premier One, Tony Walters (2 points) and Cecilia Sparke (1 point) in Premier Two Blue, and Lewis Young (2 points) in Premier Two Red.
Meanwhile, there was a Conference match back at the BCSC, where Mandy Macdonald and Lotte Ryan took advantage of their early elimination from the main event. Lotte -- a late starter to the season -- got off the mark with an 11-5 win.
And Ian Tarr won a four player £10 jackpot.
29/09/10: Ian wins in Downend
In a Premier One encounter at the Foresters, Downend, this evening Ian Tarr continued his recent revival with an 11-7 victory over Phil Charlton.
With two matches remaining Ian now appears virtually safe from the threat of relegation, while Phil is one of the six players trying to avoid finishing in those bottom four slots.
28/09/10: Derek promoted!
The Queens Head, Eastville, was the venue for a Premier Two Blue top of the table match this evening.
Derek Clew defeated Ed Turner 11-9, to go top of the league and to make sure of elevation to the top flight for the first time.
Only Ed can now overhaul Derek, while Ian Preston has a ghost of a chance to surpass Ed, but only if six results out of six go his way.
28/09/10: Julian adds to list of major near misses
The 2010 London Open last weekend saw Julian Fetterlein defeated in the main final of the Masters Division by Norwegian Arild Idsoe.
The format of best of three seven point matches -- as featured in the fondly remembered Cotswold Fireside Tournament -- seems to be a popular one, and Julian had seen off Julian Wilson 2-0, Naza Saridin (Serbia) 2-1, Michael Loftblad (Sweden) 2-1, and Mario Sequeira (Portugal) 2-0, before losing the final 0-2.
Julian, who was also runner-up at our own Bristol Open last month, seems to be establishing a pattern of coming second in major tournaments, as neither success was his first such achievement, also finishing second in Bristol in 2008 and London in 2009.
Julian has, of course, won many tournaments in his time, but for the moment success in the big finals seems to be elusive.
Keep checking the London Open link, as more reports will soon appear there, and follow the discussion on Stick Rice's site.
And Marcus Wrinch won the grandiosely titled Championship Division, defeating Jon Barnes in the semis and Tom Duggan in the final.
27/09/10: Neil deeper in relegation peril
There were fourteen players in action at the BCSC on Monday, ten in the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- a pair of three point round robins -- and a further four playing Premier League matches.
In a crucial clash at the bottom end of Premier One Simon Baker inflicted an 11-5 defeat on Neil Young, a result which leaves Neil in a precarious position while giving Simon renewed hope of top flight survival.
And in Premier Two Blue Chas Perry finished a satisfactory maiden Premier League season in a manner befitting a break even campaign -- slipping to a 0-11 whitewash at the hands of Derek Clew, then recovering to an 11-3 victory over Simon Temme.
Derek's win all but seals his promotion to Premier One. Only Ian Preston has a mathematical chance of overhauling one of the top two -- Derek and the leader on average points difference, Ed Turner.
Assuming both leaders reclaim their penalty points incurred in July -- each needs to report a single result by Thursday -- the only way either can be ousted from the top two is for Ian to win his final three matches while Ed and Derek are each losing their last four matches, except for the fact that Ed and Derek have one remaining meeting, which one of them inevitably will win.
The two five player round robins saw the prize pots taken by Jamie Nevill, who won all four of his matches, and Ian Tarr, whose three wins out of four were enough to top the other group.
So not only is Jamie the top intermediate in the AGP, he is also the outright leader, with a cushion of nearly 25 points over second placed Roland Herrera, with previous leader Cynthia Roberts a further 10 points behind in third.
The event featured a welcome competitive debut for Matt Reekie-Black, who ran Jamie close in their group, and a return to action for the first time in about two years for Lotte Ryan.
24/09/10: Ian a step closer to safety
The Wellington, Horfield, was the venue this afternoon for a Premier One encounter between Neil Young and Ian Tarr.
Ian raced into a 7-0 lead, which Neil pegged back to 8-3. The crucial game ensued, with Neil well set for a double gammon to put him right back in the mix.
Somehow Ian won the game, and clinched the match on the Crawford for an 11-3 win which has gone close to guaranteeing his safety in the top flight, although failure to win any of his three remaining matches might well see him back in the mire.
Both players reclaimed the penalty points incurred in July, and Neil probably needs at least two wins from his last three matches to stay up.
23/09/10: Dave almost there
On what must have been the quietest September league night ever, there were just ten players in action -- eight in Premier One and two in Premier Two Blue.
There were three other players present, but the sum total of nine league results was surprisingly low, considering players still have penalty points to avoid, not to mention expungement in one case.
Premier One provided most of the action, with seven matches completed.
And although leader Dave Pym won one and lost one, it was the crucial match against championship rival Stuart Mann that he won, and it will now take something special to keep him from taking the league title for the first time.
And Stuart's subsequent defeat by Phil Charlton reduced his status to that of a rank outsider, having now lost five successive top flight matches for the first time ever.
Dave's defeat came against Steffen Nowak, who had earlier defeated Neil Young, but the margin of defeat was not enough to give Steffen a mathematical chance of sneaking ahead of Dave, should Dave suffer defeats in his two remaining matches.
Last year's runner-up Steffen -- the first player to complete his top flight season -- has finished on 42 points, which ironically would have been sufficient to take the title last year.
Dave is also on 42 points, and a win from either of his last two matches would also take the main prize out of the reach of both Stuart and Gaz Owen, who have three and four matches respectively remaining.
The best chance of overhauling Dave, however, rests with Simonetta Herrera, who needs to do particularly well in her five remaining matches.
In fact if she wins them all very convincingly, she can retain her title without worrying about Dave's results.
If the title race now concerns just four players, the battle to avoid relegation is less clear cut.
Gaz has the distinction of being the only player potentially involved at either end of the table.
While a four win finish might just be enough for the title, four defeats could also see him slip into the bottom four, although a total of ten wins might be enough for safety this year, unlike some previous years.
If 30 points seems the most reasonable safety target, Miles Farren still needs one win out of three, while Ian Tarr would need two out of four, even after scoring an important double over Simon Hughes (the first of which made him the second player to win a century of top flight matches), who needs to win his last two to reach ten wins.
And the triumvirate of Phil, Neil and Simon Baker -- all on 21 points if we assume they will claw back their penalty points -- all need to win three of their remaining matches, which leaves little margin for error as Simon B and Neil still have to meet.
Phil was a winner tonight, while Neil lost twice.
And Paul Gilbertson, the only Premier League player still threatened by expungement, will need to win six out of seven remaining matches, because he already has three confirmed penalty points.
Meanwhile in Premier Two Blue there was a double header between Cecilia Sparke and Simon Temme.
There was an eight cube denouement in the first match, which went Simon's way, but Cecilia gained her revenge in the return.
Neither player has a realistic chance of automatic promotion.
20/09/10: Jamie wins DMP Tourno
Eight players contested a DMP Tourno, the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, at the BCSC on Monday evening, while relative newcomer Mike Frost played some friendly games with Director Ian Tarr.
Jamie Nevill, who also put Mike through his paces later on, took the honours in the DMP Tourno, winning six of his seven games.
AGP leader Cynthia Roberts didn't have her best evening, and her lead has been cut to 11.5 points by Roland Herrera, with Jamie and Neil Young not far behind.
19/09/10: Five enjoy inaugural quiz
There were five players present for the pilot of what is hoped will become a regular occurrence, a Magriel 10 Move Quiz evening, at the BCSC on Friday.
There was a bit of a learner curve concerning the mechanics of the event, but all five appeared to have taken something positive from the occasion.
Watch out for news of further similar events.
17/09/10: Steve wins Handicap Trophy event
Seventeen players contested the fifth of six Handicap Trophy events at the BCSC last night, while three others got some league action in.
And it was Steve Morris, repelling the challenges of Tony Walters, Richard Owsley and Simon Temme before defeating John Plummer in the final, who took the honours.
John had beaten Roland Herrera, Duncan Lee and Ian Preston on the way to the final.
And Malcolm Patterson made the most of his handicap of three to win the consolation flight, courtesy of victories over zero handicappers Tim Line, Ian Tarr and Simonetta Herrera.
So Shadow Hamilton, who held a 30 points lead before the event, still leads, but with her margin over second placed Duncan reduced to 20.
Duncan, however, is unlikely to contest the final event in November so Shadow's main challengers will now be third and fourth placed Steve and Ian Preston.
Neil Young and Miles Farren contested a Premier One match early in the evening, and it was Miles who won, thus moving one step closer to safety from relegation.
Neil's setback means he still has work to do to extricate himself from that threat.
Meanwhile there was a Premier Two Blue double header between Tony Walters and Andrew Cobb, with both wins going to Andrew.
The defeats have just about wiped out any hope of automatic promotion for Tony, while Andrew is left wondering what might have been had he not had such a disastrous start to his campaign.
His recent form shows six wins from nine matches.
15/09/10: New education format piloted
It's short notice, but anyone looking for a fun form of backgammon education could be in for a treat on Friday evening at the BCSC.
Roland Herrera, Bristol's number one advocate for education in the backgammon evironment, is running a series of quizzes, based on the first ten moves of a game for each player.
Follow this link for a fuller picture of how it all works, and be at the club at 7.30pm to enjoy the full benefit.
14/09/10: Ed and Derek maintain the status quo
In a Premier Two Blue double header at the Merchants Arms, Eastville, this evening Ed Turner and Derek Clew won a match apiece to maintain the promotion race status quo.
Derek's 11-10 opening win was fractionally bettered by Ed's 11-8 success.
Assuming both players claw back their penalty points before the end of the month, it looks almost certain that the two will fill the promotion berths at the season's end.
14/09/10: Blaine wins Lesters LXXVI
The final of the seventy-sixth Lesters Trophy tournament, held over from Thursday, took place at the BCSC early on a Monday evening which saw sixteen players present.
Blaine Buchanan took an immediate 4-0 lead, and romped ahead, but when his opponent, Julian Fetterlein, pegged him back to 9-8, it looked very much like game on.
But Blaine got the crucial final two points to clinch his fourth Lesters title, a tally bettered by only five players in the unique history of the event.
As well as scooping the tournament first prize and the Winner Takes All pool, Blaine had bought himself in the auction, thus maximising his return.
Tim Line, purchaser of Julian in the auction, has to settle for the minor auction prize.
Blaine's win also bags him the ninth of the sixteen places in the 2011 Bristol Masters, which leaves a lot of players scrambling for the other seven places over the next two or three months.
There was also a Premier Two Red double header, with Richard Holness locking horns with Malcolm Patterson.
And Richard's brace of victories see him taking closer order at the sharp end of the league, drawing level on points with leaders Blaine and Tim.
With all three players having average points differences pretty much in the same ball park, Richard's only significant disadvantage is that he only has two matches left, as opposed to Blaine's and Tim's three apiece.
Lewis Young is fourth, three matches and three wins behind Richard, but if he should keep winning, his points difference is likely to prove advantageous.
As for the central thrust of the evening, Nackgammon round robins providing the direction for the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, there were nine players involved in this.
Having been split into two groups, Neil Young won the five player group, while Jamie Nevill was successful in the four player group.
There was also time for a second wave for those who were up for it, and the resultant six player group saw Steffen Nowak take the prize.
Cynthia Roberts takes over the AGP lead, with Steffen and Roland Herrera in hot pursuit, while Jamie, pursued by Pearl Foster and Haydn Beard, is the leading intermediate.
Also present, for the first time, were Matt Reekie-Black and Mike Frost, who played some friendly games with Ian Tarr, and later partook of a short consulting doubles match, on the splendid suggestion of Simon Temme.
12/09/10: Who spotted Simon's sequence?
When Simon Hughes defeated Neil Young in the second round of Thursday's tournament, it's a fair bet that nobody -- not even the man himself -- realised the full significance of the occasion.
But the fact was that it was Simon's tenth successive win in competitions contributing to the 1000 to 1 awards.
Simon thus became the second player this year to win one of the Roland Herrera sponsored awards.
And he made it eleven in a row by defeating Cynthia Roberts in the quarter-finals, reaching 2000-1, before Julian Fetterlein brought his run to an end.
10/09/10: Wins for Neil and John in Friday afternoon league action
There were two Premier League matches played this afternoon.
At the Wellington Neil Young took on Ian Tarr in an important Premier One relegation battle, and Neil fought back from a 4-7 deficit to win 11-7, hauling himself out of the bottom four.
Meanwhile at the BCSC, John Lewis was bidding farewell, for the time being at least, to league backgammon, signing off his Premier Two Red season with an 11-8 victory over Malcolm Patterson.
John has a new job in Portsmouth, and although we certainly haven't seen the last of him, he is extremely unlikely to be taking up his league place again, unless his circumstances change.
In his typically committed way John has fulfilled all his fixtures to the letter.
10/09/10: LESTERS LXXVI ROUND-UP ......
The seventy-sixth Lesters Trophy tournament at the BCSC attracted a slightly disappointing -- considering there was a small Winner Takes All pool rollover -- field of eighteen contestants to the BCSC.
Elsewhere there was one Conference match at the Windmill.
10/09/10: Blaine and Julian to contest Lesters final ......
The 11-points final of the seventy-sixth Lesters Trophy event will be fought out between Blaine Buchanan and Julian Fetterlein.
Blaine maintained his remarkable record in Lesters Trophy competition, where he has now reached nine finals in thirty-seven attempts.
His victims were Ian Tarr, Stuart Mann and Dave Ablett, while Julian's route to the final took him past Cecilia Sparke, Tim Line and Simon Hughes.
Simon's appearance in the semi-finals broke an extraordinary sequence for him.
In his thirty-second Bristol Grand Prix event, this was his first time in a main flight semi-final, a bizarre statistic for someone who has had his fair share of success on his steady rise into the top twenty of the Bristol rankings.
10/09/10: Steffen wins consolation flight ......
Steffen Nowak made light of his early main flight elimination at the hands of Cynthia Roberts, going on to win the consolation flight.
He defeated Cecilia Sparke and Ian Tarr before his final win over Simonetta Herrera.
10/09/10: Tim edges back in front ......
Discards are beginning to bite in the OGP table, but not yet for Tim Line.
"Overnight" leader Roland Herrera bagged just thirty points last night, as did Tim, but because it was Tim's seventh tournament and Roland's ninth, Roland had to discard his 25 points haul from the January tournament, so Tim now has a slender nine points lead.
The absent Chas Perry is 79 points further back in third place.
10/09/10: Unchallenged Sean opens up a lead ......
If any Bristol intermediates had aspirations to overhaul Sean Hopson at the top of the IGP table, they hid it pretty well at last night's event.
Sean was the only intermediate present, and his tenuous lead of 30 points has now stretched to 80 thanks to his first round win over Simonetta Herrera, which won Sean 20 bonus points.
There are now just four opportunities for players to add to their IGP tallies -- the three remaining monthly grand prix events, plus the Intermediates Trophy later this month.
10/09/10: No rollover this time ......
Winner Takes All pool double rollover hopes died with the quarter-final exit of Cynthia Roberts last night, so main finalists Blaine Buchanan and Julian Fetterlein will have a tournament prize pot of £265 plus £160 in the WTA pool to fight for.
In addition Blaine bought himself in the auction, where the total pool amounted to just £78. Tim Line's £7 auction investment in Julian will also bear fruit.
10/09/10: Winner will get Masters place ......
The main flight finalists will also be battling for qualification to next year's Bristol Masters.
There has been a distinct lack of multiple qualifications so far this year, which leaves a lot of leading players still sweating on relatively few remaining places.
Last year, some leading Premier One players benefitted from default slots, thanks to a glut of multiples. This year looks like being in complete contrast.
10/09/10: Sean goes fifth in Handicap Trophy ......
He's only entered one of the four Handicap Trophy events so far, but the 100 points total haul garnered by Sean Hopson in last night's deferred July main flight final have already moved him up to fifth position.
Admittedly that's still 105 points away from leader Shadow Hamilton, but it does go to show how a tournament win can dramatically change the picture.
Next Thursday sees the fifth of six instalments in this particular competition.
10/09/10: Jamie edges out Mandy at the Windmill ......
Jamie Nevill increased his overall Conference lead to eleven points when he ground out an 11-10 win over Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill last night.
08/09/10: Spoils shared at the Foresters
The Foresters in Downend was the venue yesterday evening when Simon Baker and Phil Charlton did battle in Premier One.
The double header provided contrasting results, as Simon edged home 11-10 in the opening encounter, only for Phil to score a more emphatic 11-1 victory in the return.
Both players move up the table -- Simon by two places and Phil by one -- but the results have done little to extricate either player from the relegation scrap.
07/09/10: Richard goes third
Richard Holness scored an 11-2 win over John Lewis at the BCSC tonight to go third in Premier Two Red.
06/09/10: Simon keeps it wide open
There was a variety of action in the latest Monday session at the BCSC.
Simon Hughes defeated Simonetta Herrera in the final of the latest Clock Tournament Grand Prix event, and in so doing kept his hopes -- and those of two other players -- of overhauling Simonetta at the final one these tournaments in September.
There are six players in all who have a chance to take the title.
Meanwhile there were two Premier Two Red matches completed, including a vital promotion tussle between second placed Blaine Buchanan and third placed Lewis Young.
It was Blaine who edged home at DMP to go above Tim Line at the top of the league, and these two players now appear to be strong favourites for promotion.
In the other match in that league Steve Morris and John Lewis picked up their unfinished match at 4-4, and it was Steve who secured the victory.
The evening's centrepiece was the first phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, where eight players were split into two four player groups to contest 3-point round robins.
These were won outright by Roland Herrera and Cynthia Roberts who thus share the lead in the embryonic AGP table.
03/09/10: Simonetta consolidates CTGP lead
The fifth of our six Clock Tournament Grand Prix events attracted the largest CTGP field so far this year to the BCSC, with the seventeen entrants, including Manchester Backgammon Club supremo Rodney Lighton, who was making a welcome Bristol debut while briefly working in the area.
The main final -- which was left for another day, possibly Monday -- will feature Simonetta Herrera and Simon Hughes.
Simonetta defeated Sean Hopson, Rodney and Ian Tarr to reach the final, while Simon, drawn to play the only first round match, fought his way past Tim Line, Steffen Nowak, Blaine Buchanan and Simon Temme to clinch his final berth.
Simon's run highlighted the double edged coin of failing to get a bye.
While it means having to negotiate an extra round, there is a plus side to success, given that the extra win gives you more grand prix points.
In Simon's case this can be useful, if he should win the final, as it would give him a better chance to overhaul Simonetta at the top of the table in the final event of the series in December.
Should Simonetta win the final, she could only be overhauled by Ian or Tim, while a Simon win would also bring Roland Herrera, Simon himself, and tenuously Tony Walters into the picture.
The consolation flight was finished -- Tim defeating Steffen in the final after eliminating Cynthia Roberts and Steve Morris en route.
There was also some league action, with John Lewis doing all he can to finish his Premier Two Red season, having landed a new job in Portsmouth.
John suffered 6-11 defeats to Blaine and Richard Owsley, and adjourned his match with Steve at 4-4, because of Steve's tournament involvement.
Blaine thus moves closer to leader Tim, while Richard also kept alive his slim promotion chance.
31/08/10: Blaine goes second
In a Premier Two Red double header at the BCSC tonight Blaine Buchanan twice overcame Malcolm Patterson to move back into second place in the table at Lewis Young's expense.
If Blaine can win the two matches he has in hand over leader Tim Line he is likely to go top on average points difference.
30/08/10: Haydn and Sean share the honours
Haydn Beard and Sean Hopson met up for a couple of Conference matches this afternoon, and both made a little progress on their way to the "Holy Grail" of the 20 points mark, where admission to the Premier League is attained.
First stop was the Shore Cafe Bar, Harbourside, Bristol, where Haydn triumphed 11-5.
The pair then adjourned to somewhere a little quieter, the King William Ale House in King Street, where Sean turned the tables with an 11-8 win.
27/08/10: Bristol Open reflections
A short time after each Bristol Open, co-organisers Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr sit down together for a debrief session.
They will look at what worked, what didn't, what improvements can be made, and even whether or not they will undertake the task again next year. Watch this space on that one.
Overall this year's event has to be considered a success, and there's been some excellent feedback from the participants.
The disappointment, of course, was the fact that the Championship Division was contested by 45 players, compared to last year's 64.
There were factors which contributed to this. The lack of a sponsor to add value was one, and the uncertainty over the date, which was resolved a tad later than we might have been comfortable with, may have deterred one or two, especially those with long distance travel arrangements to make.
The recession would no doubt have been a factor, too, for some.
No matter, there was a great deal of quality on view, the level of sportsmanship was gratifyingly high, and there appeared to be a lot of enjoyment.
One or two changes for future events are likely.
In the Championship, it may be that a Progressive Last Chance replaces the "flat" variety we had this time.
And if we have round robins in the Intermediates Division again, maybe we need better tie breakers.
Credits
Roland and Ian's team also worked well.
Mike Main, with all his experience, proved a tower of strength once again, and Flip and Fran both worked tirelessly and added a light hearted and humorous touch to the proceedings.
Blaine Buchanan took on the role of hosting the Saturday evening poker at relatively short notice, and did a sterling job with the 20 or so players.
Another to perform at short notice was Raj Jansari, whose conduct of Saturday's group auction and Sunday's quarter-final auction were so well done that this will surely not be his last such experience.
And Sgt (not Sjt) Terry Ryder also did a prodigious amount of work in setting up and generally ensuring things kept ticking over, as well as being barman for a very long weekend.
Further highlights for the event were provided by World Giant #25 Paul Weaver, whose Saturday evening seminar on "Early Blitzing Strategy" was extremely well received, and Steffen Nowak, whose silent backgammon book auction prompted a high level of interest, as well as clearing a useful space in his home.
The Logo
More than one player was puzzled by the adoption of the event logo, a very red Concorde.
It has been our policy to adopt representations of iconic local images for this purpose, and this was no exception.
Of course the Clifton Suspension Bridge, as the most famous local landmark, has been used for more than one previous year, as has the SS Great Britain, and the Clifton Club, where the Wedding Tournament was held.
This year it was Concorde's turn, reflecting the great deal of local pride in the aircraft, given that it was jointly developed by British Aerospace at Filton, North Bristol, and Aerospatiale in Toulouse.
Lost property
Perhaps people are learning.
There is usually an extensive collection of possessions left behind by the players after these occasions.
This year it was different.
The owners of two sets of precision dice have been located, which leaves just one paperback book.
Any claimant for "Movers & Shapers 2: Irish Visual Art 1940-2006", please email Ian Tarr, and it will be returned to you.
Links
For further perspectives of our event, Mike Main has done an excellent report on his website, and there are lots of photos on Roland's flickr page.
Results
The full results are here.
27/08/10: AUGUST LEAGUE NIGHT ROUND-UP ......
Twenty-one players were in league action on Thursday, with thirteen matches completed at the BCSC, and three more at other venues.
Also at the BCSC, Paul Weaver gave us the sixth and final instalment of his fascinating seminar on "Early Blitz Strategy", filmed for wider publication on the internet.
27/08/10: Dave emerges as favourite for the title ......
Dave Pym won all three of his Premier One matches last night, while two of his championship rivals had bad days, and he has emerged as the clear favourite to take the title for the first time.
His wins over Simon Baker (twice) and Phil Charlton mean that the league title is now his to lose, after leader Steffen Nowak and previous favourite Stuart Mann each suffered a brace of defeats.
Stuart's backgammon day started with an afternoon meeting with Ian Tarr at the Cornubia, and the 0-11 reverse suffered ranks as the shock result of the day, given recent form.
Stuart's subsequent match, against Simonetta Herrera -- herself still in contention -- was equally painful, but for different reasons, after a 10-4 lead turned into a 10-11 reverse.
Steffen's evening, featuring matches against two players embroiled in the relegation dog fight, went no better, with Neil Young and Ian each gaining valuable points.
There are some tasty looking fixtures remaining: Dave's meetings with Stuart and Steffen, plus Stuart's return match with Simonetta, and these are likely to have a major bearing on the final title outcome.
The effect of the days play on things at the bottom was that Ian gained fresh hope from two victories after a dismal spell, Neil and Miles Farren improved their situations with a win apiece, while two defeats apiece have left both Simon Baker and Phil deeper in the mire.
Miles has joined Simon Hughes in that tantalising place just above the thick of the race although not immune from being sucked back into it, while the five players below them can now be described as the prime contenders for the drop.
A word of commiseration for Phil here. Suffering a 10-11 defeat is usually a frustrating experience, but to suffer two in the same session is doubly so.
27/08/10: Derek just about does enough ......
There were just three Premier Two Blue matches played yesterday, all involving the two players who have all but sewn up the promotion places.
And while both Ed Turner and Derek Clew suffered a defeat, nothing has dented their apparent impregnability at the top, the reason being that nearest challenger Ian Preston was also beaten.
Ed lost 3-11 to Cecilia Sparke at Colston Yard, but still has plenty in hand at the top, as does Derek whose share of the spoils of his double header with Ian leaves him just a win behind Ed, assuming all penalty points are clawed back on September 30th.
27/08/10: Tim leads, but it's still wide open ......
Of the eight players remaining in Premier Two Red after the March resignation of Paul Watts, only John Lewis can be ruled out of the promotion race, having lost his twelfth match yesterday to Tim Line.
In addition Malcolm Patterson would need a miraculous recovery to figure in the shake down, but for any of the other six players a strong run in might just yield the desired result of a top two finish.
Tim remains the man to beat, winning one and losing one last night, but Lewis Young and Blaine Buchanan would draw level on points with Tim if they won their matches in hand -- three and four respectively.
Lewis maintained his recent mini surge with a win over Richard Holness, whose earlier victory over Steve Morris also kept him in contention.
Richard Owsley's win over Tim also just about kept him in the reckoning.
27/08/10: Sean recovers in Westbury ......
While Shadow Hamilton waited in vain for an opponent -- any opponent -- at the BCSC, Sean Hopson and Richard Biddle were doing Conference battle in Westbury-on-Trym.
Shadow had made the round trip of about 100 miles from Taunton on the off chance of getting a league game, but was the only Conference player present on the night.
Whereas this demonstrates Shadow's tremendous commitment to the game, this does serve as a lesson -- particularly for those in the Conference, where matches are few and far between -- that it's a good idea to make sure you have a firm arrangement with an opponent before travelling.
Meanwhile Richard and Sean fought out what was, by all accounts, a tough encounter at the Prince of Wales in Westbury, and Sean managed to mitigate his double defeat the previous evening by scoring an 11-7 victory.
Jamie Nevill's lead thus increases to eight points, while Sean is hopefully now on the road to amassing the twenty points he will need to clinch a Premier League place for next season, although a top two finish in the IGP could still be his best route into the elite.
25/08/10: Mandy half way to the Premier League
A brace of Conference wins over Sean Hopson at the Windmill this evening have moved Mandy Macdonald up to the 10 points mark -- exactly half way to the total necessary for clinching a Premier League place for life.
The defeats leave Sean with a lot of work to do for his elevation, although the IGP still looks like the most feasible route upwards for Sean.
25/08/10: Fourteen in Tric Trac Tourno action at the BCSC
The final session of this year's Monday Club Summer Grand Prix featured no fewer than fourteen players, split into two groups to contest Tric Trac Tournos.
But these came after the filming of another fascinating segment from Paul Weaver's "Early Blitzing Strategy" seminar -- the fifth in a series of six which will appear on the web very shortly.
Paul was one of a handful of overseas visitors still in Bristol after the weekend's big tournament, so there was a very cosmopolitan feel to the evening.
Paul then followed up by winning one of the TTTs, while Simonetta Herrera took the honours in the other.
The destiny of the SGP title had not been in doubt since Ian Preston had established an unassailable 77 points lead the previous week, but as it happened neither Ian nor his closest pursuers -- joint second placers Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr -- managed to win enough points on the night to improve their overall scores.
And the absent Jamie Nevill -- also with an unassailable lead over second placed intermediate Pearl Foster -- could afford to be similarly relaxed despite Pearl's narrow failure to pip Paul.
Before the event Ian Preston had suffered a surprise 8-11 Premier Two Blue reverse at the hands of Cynthia Roberts -- a surprise only because Cynthia was failing to create a new all time record for successive losses in Premier Two.
24/08/10: Shezan is Intermediate champion
The BRISTOL OPEN INTERMEDIATE DIVISION
Quite a lot of effort has gone into providing a good format for the intermediates at the Bristol Open.
The idea of short matches in a round robin format is a good one, in that it ensures that everybody gets a fair amount of action, as well as being beneficial from a social viewpoint, hopefully making it a comfortable entry into tournament play for those with little or no previous experience.
Splitting the eleven contestants into two groups on the Saturday, with the top three from each going forward to an Intermediates championship round robin on the Sunday, seemed like the best plan, bearing in mind that last year's ten player group was demonstrably too large.
The players all seemed to enjoy the experience, but they turned out to be so closely matched that the tie break arrangements were to be distinctly overworked.
The six player group on Saturday saw Alan Parfitt and Gay Roberts qualify outright, but a four way tie for third place was resolved by a single point knock-out shoot out, which saw Shezan Hirjee through to Sunday's elite group.
In the five player group there was almost a bizarre five way tie, until the last result went the way of Donna Sherred, who qualified outright.
Further shoot-outs saw Carel Lindley and Simon Fahoury make it to the top Sunday group.
Sunday's consolation group was won by Andrew Bennet, and to avoid further shoot-outs, a three way tie for second was decreed final, with Deana Fawcett, Pearl Foster and Mandy Macdonald splitting the prize.
The championship group was won by Shezan, with Alan winning the tie-break for second place.
And the optional side pool was won by Gay, as the only one of four punters to make the top group.
More from the Bristol Open here tomorrow or the day after, or maybe the day after that.
24/08/10: Anna can't stop winning
The BRISTOL OPEN ADVANCED DIVISION
Winning Thursday's Bristol Grand Prix tournament was a great way for Poland's sole visiting representative to warm up for the Bristol Open, but for Anna Mielech it was only the beginning.
Anna led the small overseas presence in the Advanced Division, backed up by Ingrid Sonnabend from Germany, and Liz Perry from Ireland, and she led it well.
She scythed through the field, defeating Shadow Hamilton, Richard Holness, Bristol Backgammon's favourite UK based Aussie Fiona Oldham, and George Miltiadou on her way to the final.
The home challenge was led by Tony Fawcett, who made the most of a first round bye, before despatching Paul Barwick, Duncan Lee and Mick Vacarey.
In the final, though, Tony had to accept defeat as Anna took the title.
The optional £50 side pool drew only three responses, but Ingrid's positivity was rewarded when she took the first prize by reaching the quarter-finals, John Plummer almost recouping his outlay in second place.
In the Progressive Consolation, two Bristol players met in the final.
Phillip Hill had to fight his way past John Plummer, Simon Temme, Richard Owsley and Ingrid to get there, while Duncan Lee's further progression in the main flight earned him a shorter route through, via wins over Neil Young and Irving Czechowicz.
And it was Duncan who won the match and the flight.
Sunday's Last Chance including rebuys fitted a 32-draw pretty well.
Rosey Bensley came through the top half of the draw, thanks to wins over Myke Wignall, Simon Temme, John Plummer and Richard Holness, to reach the final.
Her opponent, via a single rebuy, was to be Steve Morris, whose victims were Paul Barwick, Steffen Nowak, Mike Williams and Liz Perry.
But he met his match in Rosey, who proudly secured her first trophy since 2007.
More from the Bristol Open here soon.
24/08/10: Wayne wins it for the Brits
The BRISTOL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION
British backgammon doesn't have the best reputation internationally, although slowly but surely more and more Brits are making their presence felt on the larger stage.
The latest evidence of this was the victory of Wayne Felton at last weekend's fifth Bristol Open.
London based Wayne defeated Simon Gasquoine, Ray Tannen, Chris Ternel and Andy Darby before his final victory over Julian Fetterlein, after recovering from a 0-7 deficit.
If we count 2008 champion Simonetta Herrera as a Brit -- and her backgammon education has come as a UK resident -- then home grown players have successfully thwarted the challenges of several of the world's best players since Japan's Mochizuki Masayuki won the inaugural event (then dubbed as the Wedding Tournament) in 2005.
And Julian's appearance at the final stage -- after defeating Miles Farren, Ireland's Sean Casey, America's World Giant #10 Bob Wachtel, and Mike Heard -- was his second, emulating the 2005 and 2009 feats of Martin Barkwill.
If there had been a disappointment for the organisers, it was the size of the Championship field.
Forty-five players toed the start line, compared to the full 64 draw last year, but if the field lacked size, there was plenty of quality on show.
World Giants #9, 10 and 25, in the guise of Michihito Kageyama (Japan), Bob Wachtel and his compatriot Paul Weaver, headed the overseas contingent, while our own World Giants, Julian and Raj Jansari, headed the UK challenge.
Others travelling from afar to grace the event were Volker Sonnabend and Frank Simon from Germany, Michael Sørensen who has visited the event every time so far from his native Denmark, a strong Irish presence -- Sean Casey (the reigning UK champion), Brendan Burgess, "Cracker" McNamara and Felix Vink -- Lithuania's Vaidas Novicenko, and Belgium's Walter Meuwis.
The four semi-finalists naturally cashed, but there were other winners.
The optional £100 side pool tempted thirteen players, including Wayne, who obviously took the top prize, while two quarter-finalists -- Bob Wachtel and Chris Ternel -- were surprised to take a 50:50 share of the second prize.
John Plummer and Gay Roberts were in the Advanced and Intermediate Divisions respectively, but their investments in the Saturday Group Auction were repaid handsomely, John being rewarded with an £890 profit!
And Wayne's weekend was made complete, when his confidence in his own ability was repaid by taking the Sunday Quarter-final Auction, Peter Bennet taking the second prize.
The Progressive Consolation again saw home players in the final, and it was Murray Sharp who defeated Peter Bennet in the final.
Sean Williams, Tony Walters, Michael Sørensen and Michi were Murray's victims, while Peter fought his way past Ray Kershaw, Sean Casey, Julian Minwalla and Miles Farren.
In Sunday's Last Chance, the final was not played, and the proceeds were split 50:50 between the finalists. Next year it is likely that there will be adjustments to the format.
When Ray Tannen reached the final from the top half of the draw, via wins over John Broomfield, Steve Rimmer, Simonetta, Volker and Engin Ongel, the very bottom of the draw had yet to be filled, and before Michi and Vaidas sat down to play their third round match, they were asked, along with Ray's other prospective opponents, Rachel Rhodes and Roy Hollands, if they would agree to a 50:50 split with Ray.
Since all agreed, we then effectively had two tournaments in one, each with a "Winner Takes All" reward, and Ray was free to leave.
Vaidas beat Michi, but then lost to Rachel, who went on to defeat Roy to take the proceeds of the bottom half of the draw, demonstrating the value of persistence on her second rebuy.
More from the Bristol Open will be available to read here soon.
21/08/10: Busy day at the Artillery Grounds
After the sedate and friendly atmosphere of the Friday warm-up event, it was down to business with a vengeance on Saturday as the three central categories of play moved into action.
In the Championship the main flight lineup was whittled down to eight, and the following pairings will do battle in Sunday's quarter-finals: Julian Fetterlein versus Bob Wachtel; Michael Sørensen versus Mike Heard; Andy Darby versus Julian Minwalla; and Chris Ternel versus Wayne Felton.
They are down to the last four in the Advanced Division, where Tony Fawcett will play Mick Vacarey and Anna Mielech meets George Miltiadou in the semis.
And the Intermediates played two round robins of three point matches, to progress six of their number into Sunday's top round robin, leaving the other five contestants to fight out the consolation round robin.
Total numbers are down on last year from 100 to 82, with just 45 (compared to 64) in the Championship, while the numbers were slightly up in the Intermediate (11 as opposed to 10), and holding steady in the Advanced (26 again).
Fuller reports will appear here when the dust has settled.
20/08/10: Michi wins warm-up, but is overshadowed!
Thirty players contested the Warm-up Tournament at the 2010 Bristol Open at the Artillery Grounds, Whiteladies Road, on Friday evening.
Players had the option of entering either of two pools -- one pitched at £30, the other at £10 -- and the field was evenly split with fifteen in each category.
Michihito Kageyama won the event -- a single flight five points knock-out -- to take first prize in the £30 pool, but it was his final opponent who stole the limelight.
Shadow Hamilton, who was in the Intermediate Division at last year's event but will enter the Advanced Division this time around, took the £10 option in the Warm-up.
Defeating a string of excellent players -- Steffen Nowak, Andy Darby, Chris Ternel and Martin Barkwill -- Shadow had won the £10 pool merely by reaching the semi-finals, but eventually succumbed to Michi.
The second prize in the £30 pool was split between losing semi-finalists Murray Sharp and Martin Barkwill, while Irving Czechowicz took second place in the £10 pool.
There were also a couple of four player jackpots, Mark Calderbank winning the £20 one, while Simonetta Herrera won the £10 edition.
20/08/10: Anna completes stunning Bristol debut
The final of Thursday's tournament took place at Kellaway Avenue today, and it was Anna Mielech who prevailed over Simonetta Herrera.
All in all a great Bristol debut for Anna, who clinched a place in next year's Bristol Masters as well as taking the biggest cash prize on offer on the night.
It's a long way from Poland to Bristol for a Thursday tournament in April, but who knows, maybe she'll make it!
19/08/10: AUGUST GRAND PRIX NEWS ......
Call it the lull before the storm, maybe, but there were just nineteen contestants at the August Bristol Grand Prix event at the BCSC on Thursday.
Some players were undoubtedly saving themselves for the weekend's feast of backgammon activity at the fifth Bristol Open, while one or two others were perhaps keeping a low profile prior to failing to support their local flagship event.
But since there were four overseas players competing, including Bristol Backgammon debuts for Bob Wachtel from the USA, and Anna Mielech from Poland via Lithuania, nineteen was a slightly disappointing number.
19/08/10: Ladies rule the August GP main flight ......
The draw for Thursday's main flight ensured that one of our visiting big guns wouldn't even make it to the last sixteen, as amongst the three unlucky pairings not to get a bye was the mouth watering encounter of Michihito Kageyama (World Backgammon Giant #9) and Paul Weaver (Giant #25), possibly the highest rated pairing in Bristol Backgammon history.
Michi won that one, but didn't make it any further after losing to Richard Owsley, who had already accounted for OGP leader Roland Herrera in the first round.
Paul's compatriot Bob Wachtel got past Tony Walters only to succumb to Steffen Nowak in the quarter-finals.
So it was left to the least experienced of the visiting quartet -- Anna Mielech -- to keep overseas flags flying.
Having also failed to get a bye, Anna nevertheless eliminated Chas Perry and Ian Preston, before bringing Richard's run to an end, and then Steffen's, reaching the final on her first session in Bristol.
There she will meet Simonetta Herrera, victor over Phillip Hill, Ian Tarr and Cynthia Roberts.
When a visiting player does this well, there is usually the thorny question of how to conclude matters satisfactorily before he or she returns home.
In Anna's case, however, there is less of a problem since her opponent is also her gracious hostess, and they plan to play the final tomorrow morning.
19/08/10: Simon wins consolation flight ......
For the second time this year Simon Hughes has won a grand prix consolation flight.
Sean Hopson, Paul Weaver and Tony Walters were his victims, before he despatched Miles Farren in the final.
19/08/10: Absent Tim will be relieved ......
Tim Line was one of those inconvenienced by the decision to switch the dates of the Grand Prix tournament and the Consulting Doubles event.
But things could have turned out worse in his absence as his sixteen points deficit behind OGP leader Roland Herrera remains exactly that after Roland's blank evening caused him to discard his score.
And the two still have a decent cushion between them and the chasing Chas Perry and Miles Farren.
19/08/10: Sean fails to capitalise ......
Sean Hopson was the only intermediate at the Thursday tournament, so he had a great chance to add to his 20 points IGP lead over Pam Jakeway.
But early defeats in both flights ensured that he only added his 10 points for turning up.
A further minor threat to his leadership was cleared up when Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr made the decision not to classify Polish visitor Anna Mielech as an intermediate for Bristol purposes.
Anna may not have been competing for very long, but Ian based his decision on the fact that she is now a regular on the international tournament circuit.
Had he ruled differently Anna would already be within 40 points of Sean's tally, with the prospect of adding another 55 by winning tomorrow's final.
19/08/10: It's a rollover! ......
It doesn't seem to happen too often these days, but the Winner Takes All pool produced a rollover for the September tournament.
Unfortunately the amount rolling over is just £50.
It seems that some players took one look at a field containing three of the top 25 in the World Giants list, and concluded that the extra investment wasn't worth the bother.
Not surprisingly those three players were amongst the pool investors, with only Tony Walters and Ian Tarr parting with their extra tenners.
But the last chance of a pool win evaporated when Bob Wachtel and Ian were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
19/08/10: Winner will be Masters bound ......
Roland Herrera, winner of last month's grand prix tournament, still cannot be sure whether or not he will qualify for the 2011 Bristol Masters.
Whoever wins tomorrow's final, between Simonetta Herrera and Anna Mielech, will definitely qualify, but as the winner of the least well attended of this year's events Roland awaits either a multiple qualification on the part of someone else or a £10 grand prix tournament contested by fewer than sixteen players.
Or he could win another tournament......
16/08/10: Paul is first visitor to surface
There will be many players, from all sorts of locations, descending on Bristol this week in readiness for the coming weekend's fifth Bristol Open.
First to arrive is World Backgammon Giant #25, Paul Weaver of the USA, who sampled some "grass roots" Bristol Backgammon at the BCSC this evening.
Paul was just one of a dozen players in action at the latest Monday Club session -- amongst ten contesting the penultimate phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which consisted of a pair of five player 3-point round robins.
Ian Preston won one of these with a clean sweep of victories, while Simonetta Herrera and Jamie Nevill shared the spoils in the other with three wins apiece.
Ian cannot now be caught in the SGP race, with a maximum 65 points available in the final event next week unable to make too big a dent in his 77 points lead, while Jamie's 93 points margin over nearest rival Pearl Foster has similarly clinched the top intermediate spot.
Also present, for a Premier One double header, were Simon Baker and Steffen Nowak, and it was Steffen who came out of it with a brace of wins to enhance his league title chances.
Steffen takes over at the head of the table, but the usurped Stuart Mann is three points behind with three matches in hand.
12/08/10: Tim and Anne win doubles event
Tim Line and Anne Foreman took the honours in the third of the year's four Consulting Doubles Grand Prix tournaments.
Eight pairs took part, and Tim and Anne got past Neil Young and Simon Hughes and then Simonetta Herrera and Steve Morris, before defeating Phillip Hill and Jamie Nevill in the final.
In the consolation final Neil and Simon beat Roland Herrera and Lizzie Pearce.
Having swapped partners a couple of times through the season, Jamie now finds himself the outright leader of the CDGP, with Tony Walters 40 points behind in second place.
And Jamie also got around to reporting a brace of Conference victories, over Haydn Beard at the Ram, Bath, yesterday.
Jamie now finds himself with a seven point cushion over second placed Richard Biddle.
09/08/10: Sean's Cornubia double
A Conference double header at the Cornubia saw Sean Hopson scoring a brace of 11-5 victories over James Lintell-Smith.
Sean's Conference outings have been few and far between, and although he has made his mark in other competitions, these were his maiden league wins.
For players like Sean, Mandy Macdonald, and Haydn Beard, the opportunity is still there to gain enough points to grab a Premier League place for next season, but only if they play a few matches!
09/08/10: Simonetta takes the pot, but Ian closes on SGP title
Ten players contested the last but two session of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which took the form of a DMP Tourno contested by ten players.
It was Simonetta Herrera who took the cash prize, but Ian Preston, in joint second place, did enough to hold his SGP lead over joint second placed Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr to 47 points, which will be tough to overturn, given the prevalence of discards at this stage of the competition.
The other main interest centred around the battle for the prize of free entry to the Intermediates Category at the forthcoming Bristol Open.
Only two players declared an interest in this, and it was Alan Parfitt whose five wins out of nine proved sufficient to claim the prize.
Before the main event there was a Premier Two Blue encounter between Derek Clew and Cynthia Roberts.
Derek's 11-4 win moved him above Ian Preston into the second promotion slot, and news of a defeat for leader Ed Turner later surfaced.
Ed, beaten 11-9 by Chas Perry at Colston Yard, thus suffered his first defeat in fourteen matches, but despite that sensational run he can still quite feasibly be caught by Derek, since both players have lost just three matches.
08/08/10: More Bristol Open activity tomorrow
The buildup to the fifth Bristol Open, at the Artillery Grounds, Whiteladies Road, on August 20th to 22nd, gathers pace tomorrow, with associated events in Bristol and in London.
After Thursday's subsidised satellites at the BCSC, there's an opportunity for somebody to win free entry and registration to the Intermediates Division at the Open.
Anyone turning up for the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix and paying to compete in the DMP Tourno at the BCSC tomorrow (and declaring an interest in playing in the Intermediates Division at the Bristol Open), qualifies for the prize.
Simply finish higher in the DMP Tourno than any other contender on the night, and the prize is yours.
And also on Monday evening, Mike Main -- who is an important part of the Bristol Open team -- is running Championship and Advanced satellites at Backgammon in Fulham.
This gives anybody in London -- and several are already committeed to coming to our flagship event -- the opportunity to win their entry and registration fees for a mere fraction of the total cost.
Click here for the details.
06/08/10: Julian, Stuart and Phil win Bristol Open satellites
It was the annual Bristol Open satellites evening at the BCSC on Thursday, and several players took advantage of the chance of earning their entry and registration fees for the big event, encouraged by a 20% subsidy.
The evening started with two eight player satellites -- one for the Championship Division, the other for the Advanced Division -- and a couple of others waiting in the wings for further developments as the evening progressed.
The Championship satellite saw the players each paying £20 entry, augmented by a £40 subsidy to bring the prize up the the level of the £165 entry and £35 registration, while the figures for the Advanced equivalent were £7.50 each with a £15 subsidy, making up the £75 total for that Division.
The Advanced satellite saw Cynthia Roberts and Phillip Hill progress to the final, where Phil secured his prize.
Meanwhile things were moving a little less quickly in the Championship satellite -- 9 point matches as opposed to the 7 in the Advanced -- until Julian Fetterlein and Steffen Nowak sat down to contest the final, which Julian won 9-4.
As the two initial satellites were in progress, various efforts were made to put together further satellites, but the only one to come to fruition was a four player Championship satellite, with £40 entry and a similar £40 subsidy.
This was won by Stuart Mann, who defeated Dave Ablett in an enthralling final game.
There was also a four player £10 entry jackpot played, where the Herreras made the final and decided to split the proceeds.
And the night's other action was the conclusion of an adjourned Conference match between Shadow Hamilton and Mandy Macdonald, which Mandy won 11-8.
04/08/10: Normal service now resuming
Ian Tarr's PC has been repaired, so the news blackout of the past week is now officially over!
All the stories which have been stockpiling over that time can now be seen below.
The hope is that normality -- whatever that is -- will now prevail.
04/08/10: August tournament dates switched
It's short notice, but the events scheduled for August 12th and 19th have been switched with one another.
The monthly grand prix tournament will now be on the 19th, while the doubles tournament originally scheduled for that night has been brought forward a week to the 12th.
The reason for the switch is the probable presence of several visiting players just before the weekend of the Bristol Open.
The participation of these players in the doubles would cause major problems if, as sometimes happens, the event is not finished on the night.
Finishing off any singles matches would present much less of a problem, since it's a lot easier to arrange a meeting for two players than it is for four.
02/08/10: Ten in Monday Club blitzes
The latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix featured Clock Blitz Round Robins.
Ten players made up two groups of five, with one player in each group taking the no play no reward option.
Simon Hughes and Ian Preston shared the honours in one group with three wins apiece, while there was a three way split in the other group, with Mandy Macdonald, Jamie Nevill and Tony Walters making minute profits.
Ian has now opened up a lead of over 50 points over second placed Ian Tarr, an advantage which will be tough to overturn with just three events remaining, and discards coming into play.
01/08/10: Seven incur penalties
The July Premier League checkpoint passed at midnight, with seven players incurring penalties which can be clawed back by compliance with the September checkpoint.
While Paul Gilbertson in Premier One and Cecilia Sparke in Premier Two Blue succeeded in clawing back their May penalties, those who need to concentrate on keeping up with the schedule over the next two months are Simon Baker, Neil Young, Phil Charlton and Ian Tarr from the top flight, prime Premier Two Blue promotion contenders Ed Turner and Derek Clew, and Malcolm Patterson of Premier Two Red.
31/07/10: Miles wins in High Wycombe
Miles Farren visited Paul Gilbertson in High Wycombe today and scored an 11-10 Premier One win to move him further away from the relegation zone.
The result also ensured that Paul would claw back the three penalty points incurred at the end of May.
30/07/10: Derek achieves two goals
Colston Yard was the venue this evening as Derek Clew defeated Cecilia Sparke 11-5.
The win was enough to consolidate Derek's already strong challenge for promotion from Premier Two Blue, but more importantly the completion of his fourteenth league match ensures that expungement will not be an issue at tomorrow's checkpoint.
29/07/10: Sean and Tony make Handicap final
The fourth of six instalments of the Handicap Trophy was contested by just eleven players at the BCSC last night.
Tony Walters and Sean Hopson made it through to the main flight final, which will no doubt be played soon, while Duncan Lee won the consolation flight, defeating Simon Hughes in the final.
Duncan thus cut Shadow Hamilton's overall lead to 30 points.
29/07/10: More league action
Today saw Premier League wins for Gaz Owen abd Derek Clew.
Gaz moved into third place in Premier One with an 11-8 win over Neil Young at the Cambridge.
And Derek went some way towards quelling the Premier Two Blue promotion charge of Ian Preston with an 11-9 win at the Kings Head.
29/07/10: Yesterday's league action
With the July 31st penalty checkpoint looming, there were three Premier League matches played yesterday.
A double header at the Cornubia saw the spoils shared between Stuart Mann and Miles Farren, doing no real harm to Stuart's position at the summit of Premier One, while Miles moved out of the bottom four at Neil Young's expense.
Meanwhile at the Hen and Chicken Cecilia Sparke was edging home 11-10 in a Premier Two Blue encounter with Simon Temme.
29/07/10: Bristol Backgammon hit by computing problems
All the news items between this report and August nnth have been added retrospectively after Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr was beset with computing problems, in the form of a dead PC.
27/07/10: Thirteen in a row for Ed
Ed Turner extended his run of victories to thirteen this evening at Colston Yard, when he inflicted an 11-8 Premier Two Blue defeat on Cecilia Sparke.
It seems to be only a matter of time before Ed's return to the top flight will be confirmed.
27/07/10: Ian and Simon share round robin spoils
Six players contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a 3-point Round Robin -- and two players got half way through an attempt to play a league match they had already played, before the error of their ways was pointed out!
That was the sum of the action at the BCSC, with Simon Hughes and Ian Preston each winning four of their five matches to share the pot.
Ian takes over the SGP lead from the absent Roland Herrera, while Ian Tarr also did enough to move into second place overall.
24/07/10: Congratulations to Helen and Derek!
The evening of Wednesday July 21st was a special one for Derek and Helen Clew.
Their new daughter Marnie arrived two weeks late, but is no doubt forgiven!
It is understood that all is well, although Derek's Premier Two Blue participation has been understandably hampered of late.
23/07/10: JULY LEAGUE NIGHT ROUND-UP ......
There were just fourteen players in league action on the year's sixth league night on Thursday.
And for one of those, who travelled from afar, it was a case of "mission accomplished"!
23/07/10: Richard becomes third promoted Conference player ......
Richard Biddle has been putting in the hard yards -- or more appropriately, the hard miles -- in this year's bid for Premier Status, travelling on a few occasions all the way from Chesham, and making the necessary arrangements to tie down Conference opponents.
After his last visit his situation was nicely set up so that, providing he didn't lose twice in the process, his next two wins would deliver his lifetime membership to Bristol's top flight.
His first opponent yesterday was Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill, and his 11-9 victory moved him tantalisingly close to his goal.
His later match, against Harry Kauntze at the Adam and Eve, Clifton, saw him scoring another win -- this time 11-5 -- and his mission had proved successful.
With Jamie Nevill and James Lintell-Smith having already crashed through the 20 points threshold, that makes three new qualifiers for the 2010-11 Premier League.
And while these three can all relax in the knowledge that they have achieved the number one objective, there remains the matter of trophies and prize money to be decided.
23/07/10: Paul's mixed evening ......
Paul Gilbertson also travelled a long way from his High Wycombe base to get some Premier One matches in, and things started OK at Colston Yard, where he despatched Neil Young 11-8.
Next up for him after a saunter down the road to the BCSC was a double header with Gaz Owen.
The first match could hardly have been closer at 11-10, but Gaz's narrow win paved the way for another, and Paul stays in his unaccustomed place at the foot of the table.
This was just another episode in Gaz's seesaw season, but at least he is now well placed to avoid relegation, where Paul, Neil, Ian Tarr, Phil Charlton, Miles Farren and possibly Simon Hughes look to have the most to fear.
23/07/10: Ian pushing for top two berth ......
Ian Preston's league career history makes interesting reading.
In 2003, having just done pretty well in his one and only Premier One season, Ian opted out of the league for a season, and has never yet got close to a return -- 2008 being his best season since.
And it was looking like more of the same when Ian won just four of his first ten games in this year's Premier Two Blue.
Last night, however, Ian scored his sixth and seventh successive league wins, and suddenly promotion looks like a more realistic possibility.
He's up to second now, and although five matches in hand still make Derek Clew the favourite for second place, things aren't looking quite as clear cut as they did a few weeks ago.
Nobody else who played yesterday in Premier Two Blue made any real headway, with Chas Perry, Cecilia Sparke and Simon Temme each winning one out of two, Tony Walters losing his only match, and Andrew Cobb outscoring his opponents on the night, but still coming out of the session with only one win out of three.
23/07/10: Absent Tim can breathe a little easier ......
The Premier Two Red promotion race was looking like a two horse one, going into Thursday's session, with leader Tim Line and second placed Blaine Buchanan very nicely placed to mop up the promotion honours.
But with Tim absent, Blaine's double header against one of the potential challengers Richard Holness had the potential to provide a pivotal moment. The action did not disappoint.
Two wins for Blaine would make it very hard for anyone, bar possibly Lewis Young, to break the monopoly of the top two, while a win apiece would virtually maintain the status quo.
What happened, however, was the other option, and Richard's spectacular 11-5 and 11-3 double has proved good news for Tim, while throwing the second promotion place wide open.
In fact Blaine's points difference has deteriorated to the point where he has slipped below Lewis into third place, while Richard makes up a trio of players with eight wins and six defeats.
And now even Steve Morris and Richard Owsley cannot be discounted from the final shakedown.
19/07/10: Lewis goes third
Lewis Young edged home 11-10 against Malcolm Patterson in a Premier Two Red match at the BCSC this evening, and is now well placed to launch a late promotion challenge in third place.
Later a ten player Tric Trac Tourno was the featured event in the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, and Simon Fahoury came out on top on one of his rare visits.
Roland Herrera did enough to move back into the MCSGP lead, displacing Ian Preston, with Ian Tarr close behind in third.
Jamie Nevill could have moved to within a point of Pearl Foster as top intermediate, but chose to take the non-paying option after taking a minor chouette beating at the start of the evening.
17/07/10: The Americans are coming!
With the 2010 Bristol Open now just five weeks away, registrations are beginning to fill up the start list.
And in keeping with the event's reputation in attracting a top quality field, it looks as though this year's event will be no different.
Among the latest names on the Championship Division list are top Americans Bob Wachtel and Paul Weaver -- World Backgammon Giants #10 and #25 respectively -- considerably strengthening the US contingent, which had consisted merely of regular visitor, Chicago's Carter Mattig.
That makes four of the top 52 on the Giants list, including two Brits -- Bristol/Cheltenham's very own Julian Fetterlein (#37) and Raj Jansari (#52).
Watch out for more big names in the coming weeks.
15/07/10: Tim wins Nackgammon event
The second of the year's three Nackgammon Grand Prix evenings saw just nine players in the featured event at the BCSC yesterday, while three others were in league action, and two others playing friendlies when bar and kitchen duties permitted.
Tim Line took the honours in the Nackgammon main flight, defeating Neil Young and Steve Morris before his final victory over Simon Hughes.
Neil won the consolation flight, beating Simonetta Herrera in the final.
Simonetta, who won the first event back in March, still leads the NGP table, with Tim 25 points behind in second place, and Neil a further 35 points back in third.
Tim also took another step towards reclaiming his top flight league place when he increased his Premier Two Red lead over second placed Blaine Buchanan to nine points, beating John Lewis 11-8.
And in Premier Two Blue Ian Preston emphasised his recent resurgence with an 11-5 victory over Chas Perry, and is now the best placed of the pursuers of the top two.
15/07/10: Simonetta up to fourth
Gaz Owen visited Kellaway Avenue today for a Premier One double header with Simonetta Herrera, and left with two defeats.
Leading 9-0 in the first match, Gaz failed to get another point, and then lost the return 7-11.
His only consolation was scoring two backgammons during the session.
Meanwhile the six points have moved Simonetta up to fourth place, and into the fringes of the championship race.
Giving up her title without a fight is obviously not an option.
13/07/10: Gaz strikes double blow to Dave's title hopes
In a double header at yet another new venue for Bristol Backgammon competition, the Salamander, John Street, Bath, Gaz Owen has handed Stuart Mann a considerable advantage in the Premier One championship race by beating second placed Dave Pym 11-7 and 11-8.
Stuart and Dave are still level on points, but now Stuart has two matches in hand.
Gaz rises two places after a recent indifferent spell, and is at least in a position to challenge for prizes, even if top spot still seems a long way off.
13/07/10: Ian back on top of SGP
Nine players turned up for the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, a 3-point round robin evening.
The spoils in each of the two resultant groups were shared, with Ian Preston and Tony Walters splitting the pot in the five player group, while Simonetta Herrera and Ian Tarr did likewise in the four player group.
With discards starting to bite, previous leader Roland Herrera failed to add to his overall points tally, while Ian Preston's net gain of 45 points moves him into the lead.
A chouette featuring outrageous swings of fortune completed the evening.
Earlier Cynthia Roberts had suffered Premier Two Blue defeats at the hands of Ian Preston and Tony, who while both still off the promotion pace at least remain the most likely threats to the top two.
09/07/10: ALL THE NEWS FROM THE JULY GRAND PRIX TOURNAMENT ......
Summer activities took their toll on the turnout at the July Bristol Grand Prix tournament, with just sixteen players taking part.
09/07/10: Herreras take both flights ......
Having entered many Bristol tournaments together over the years, Roland and Simonetta Herrera have never before won both flights of an event.
They managed it at last night's monthly grand prix tournament, however.
It was Roland who took the honours in the main flight, defeating Ian Tarr, Simon Hughes and Gaz Owen before his 11-7 final win over the night's start turn, Pam Jakeway.
Pam's route to the final -- her best previous achievement was winning the consolation flight twelve months ago -- took her past Stuart Mann, Ian Preston and Tony Walters.
Meanwhile Simonetta was completing the family double with wins over Mandy Macdonald, Ian Tarr and Stuart.
09/07/10: Roland edges Tim out of top spot ......
The absence of several of the top OGP contenders left the way clear for a few changes at or near the top of the table.
Most notable absentee -- working away -- was leader Tim Line, who might have expected his 73 points advantage to have been a big enough cushion to keep his lead intact, especially since second placed Chas Perry was one of the others not toeing the starting line.
But third placed Roland Herrera obviously had other ideas, his 100 points haul for winning the tournament pushing him 16 points ahead of Tim.
09/07/10: Pam stakes IGP claim ......
Pam Jakeway's exciting run to Thursday's main flight final bagged her 105 IGP points, bringing her to within 20 points of leader Sean Hopson.
Pam was the only one of four intermediates in either flight of last night's tournament to win a match, and the fact that she won three and picked up 40 bonus points in the process (for defeating Premier Status players) only served to emphasise her dramatic rise to contention.
Pam is not alone in being one of those players who, despite the availability of copious amounts of information, tends to remain oblivious of the impact of competitions like the IGP, merely turning up and enjoying the tournaments for what they are.
Maybe last night's result, and the knowledge that one of the two Premier League spots available through the IGP is within touching distance, might give her some added focus over the remainder of the season.
09/07/10: No rollover for the August tournament ......
The £60 Winner Takes All pool rollover from the June event didn't have the greatest impact on investment at last night's tournament, with just seven of the sixteen contestants taking the plunge.
So hopes of a double rollover to the August event were quite realistic -- until Pam Jakeway became the only rollover defender in the semi-finals.
She managed to defeat Tony Walters, but the task of despatching Roland Herrera in the final eventually proved too much.
Meanwhile Roland's tournament win has proved to be good news for both Chas Perry and Lewis Young, who are now confirmed qualifiers for the 2011 Bristol Masters.
Chas and Lewis were sweating on their qualification after winning the January and April tournaments respectively.
Under the rules, only seven of the eight £10 monthly grand prix tournaments are guaranteed their Masters places, the unlucky winner of the tournament with the fewest entries potentially missing out.
There were 21 entries for the events Chas and Lewis won, but last night's low turnout means it is now Roland wondering whether or not he will qualify.
There have not yet been any multiple qualifiers. As soon as there is, Roland's qualification will be confirmed.
05/07/10: 11-10 the league score of the day
Two league matches took place yesterday evening, and each ended 11-10!
In Premier One leader Stuart Mann lost out to Phil Charlton at the Cornubia, and now only heads Dave Pym on points difference with both players having played 13 matches.
The three points were a welcome boost for Phil in his battle to escape the relegation zone.
Meanwhile at the BCSC it was Lewis Young who came out on top against Richard Holness.
While Premier Two Red leaders Tim Line and Blaine Buchanan are looking good in the two promotion slots, Lewis has now replaced Richard as the only other player with more wins than defeats.
The other action at the BCSC was the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, a DMP Tourno contested by seven players.
Pearl Foster scooped the prize pool with five wins from her six games to move into third place in the SGP table, leapfrogging Jamie Nevill as the top intermediate, while overall leader Roland Herrera had his lead cut to less than 35 points by Ian Preston.
A four player chouette ensued.
02/07/10: Simonetta wins tournament, goes top
Just ten players contested the latest episode of the Clock Tournament Grand Prix at the BCSC on Thursday.
Simonetta Herrera won the event, defeating Cecilia Sparke and Dave Ablett, before despatching Tony Walters in the final.
Steffen Nowak beat Cecilia in the consolation final.
Simonetta picked up 85 CTGP points to go ten points clear at the top of the table, with previous leader Ian Tarr second.
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