News items from 2012 (first half)
29/06/12: Ian wins as Euros take their toll
Euro 2012 was responsible for keeping at least two players away from the latest instalment of the Clock Blitz Grand Prix at the BCSC, and probably more.
So just six players toed the start line, including two Conference players -- Andy Brown and Matt Walder.
The March evening had featured two groups of five, with a triple tie in each resulting in a six way tie for the CBGP lead.
Of those six, only Simon Hughes and Ian Tarr were present this time to press their claims, and it was Ian who pushed on into the lead when he claimed a clean sweep of wins to take the pot.
Simon managed three wins out of five to be a clear second in the table, while Nick Barham's four wins moved him into third.
26/06/12: Pearl fourth Conference player to qualify for Premier League
Yesterday she put herself within touching distance of Premier League qualification.
And today the dream became a reality, as Pearl took on Conference leader Gary Plant at the Compass, Tormarton.
Resuming an adjourned match 8-7 ahead, closing that one out would have seen Pearl becoming the fourth player -- after Gary, Andy Brown and Fred North -- to gain elevation via this year's Conference.
But Gary scored the win -- 11-7 -- and Pearl was left to rely on winning the return encounter -- the pair's fourth and final meeting of the season.
When Gary moved into a 6-0 lead, it looked as though Pearl would need to wait for another day, but Gary only scored one more point as Pearl roared back to clinch her place in next season's Premier League.
Gary now has an eleven points cushion over second placed Fred, but with over five months of action still to come, the race for the Conference championship and prize money will undoubtedly see more and more twists and turns.
25/06/12: Pearl almost there
Twelve players were in Monday evening action at the BCSC.
Six played league matches, four contested the advertised Monday Club Summer Grand Prix event, and Director Ian Tarr took time out to play some friendly games with welcome new recruit, Maria Finlayson.
Four league matches were completed, including a Premier Two Red double header where Paul Watts and Malcolm Patterson scored a win apiece.
In the Conference leader Gary Plant extended his lead over second placed Fred North to eight points by defeating Tom Koeller, while Pearl Foster's defeat of Matt Walder has brought her tantalisingly close to becoming the fourth member of the competition to clinch a spot in next year's Premier League.
The SGP three point round robin saw Roland Herrera take the honours, closing to within 45 points of leader Ian's tally.
22/06/12: Stuart wins record eighth Lesters title
It was another low key league night at the BCSC, calling into question whether or not there is actually a need for league nights when players can just as easily arrange their fixtures for other places and times.
And while there were only four league matches completed at the BCSC last night, centre stage was taken by the held over final of last week's monthly grand prix tournament.
This turned out to be an historic occasion, when Dave Pym's long standing record for Lesters Trophy wins was finally eclipsed.
The history of the Lesters Trophy goes way back to 1986, when lunch-time competition in the computing department of the Rolls-Royce factory in Patchway finally spilled over into evening activity.
Evening tournaments carried the name Lesters Trophy long after the original venue, Lesters Club, Clifton, was demolished, and the title has been retained in current competition, being applied to the March, June, September and December tournaments for which entry is £20.
This month's tournament was the 83rd in the Lesters series, which was dominated in the early years by Dave.
By 1994 he had won seven of his first 20 tournaments, and that was a tally unequalled until Stuart Mann matched it last year.
Last night Stuart scored his record eighth win when he defeated Simon Hughes 11-4.
Simon thus remains 45 points adrift of OGP leader Ian Tarr, while Stuart closes on third placed Roland Herrera.
Stuart also became the sixth payer to book his place in next year's Bristol Masters, and will hold the Sarah Rosich Cup for a year, too.
Premier One action was restricted to a double header between Richard Biddle and Ian.
After his nightmare start to the season, Richard began what he hopes will be a miracle comeback last month when he scored a brace of wins over Simon Temme.
And when he rattled off an 11-2 destruction of Ian his momentum appeared to be gathering.
Ian won the return, however, and Richard's margin for error as he continues to battle against relegation is now narrower than ever.
He is off the bottom of the league, at Richard Owsley's expense, but will probably need at least five wins in his six remaining matches to survive in the top flight.
Ian's win moved him into third place, and just about keeps his title ambitions alive.
There was no sign of any action in Premier Two Red, but in the Blue Division Cecilia Sparke was hoping to push on towards the top two. Sean Hopson had ambitions of his own, however, and his 11-7 win gives him a platform to make a challenge himself.
Pearl Foster scored a fourth successive victory in the Conference, defeating Lily Owsley 11-5, and is six points from achieving her Premier League qualification ambition.
20/06/12: Gary staves off Fred's challenge
In a Conference top of the table local derby Gary Plant defeated Fred North 11-6.
The meeting, at the Brookhouse Farm Inn, West Swindon, gave Fred the chance to leapfrog Gary at the top of the league, but Gary has staved off that threat for now.
Meanwhile, Gary had a match, against Pearl Foster at the Compass, Tormarton, adjourned on Tuesday, with Pearl 8-7 ahead. This is scheduled for completion soon.
18/06/12: Nick completes league season
Nick Barham today became the second player this year to complete his Premier League programme.
His double header with Chas Perry at the White Hart, Weston-super-Mare, saw him doing what he has done for the entire season -- breaking even.
Having won the first of their Premier Two Red encounters 11-8, Nick then suffered a 6-11 defeat.
League leader Chas only has three matches remaining himself, and a strong run in will see him very well placed for a maiden foray into the top flight.
Meanwhile, this evening's event at the BCSC was attended by seven players, including a debut appearance by Michèl Mahon.
The DMP Tourno, the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, was won by Ian Tarr, whose SGP lead over second placed Roland Herrera has increased to almost 100 points.
Chrissy Carter, in third place, is the leading intermediate, just 10 points ahead of Tom Koeller.
15/06/12: LESTERS 83 ROUND-UP ......
There were nineteen players in action on Thursday, fifteen in the eighty-third instalment of the "mythical" Lesters Trophy, and four others playing league matches.
Also, two of the tournament entrants tied up an important loose end when they contested the final of the twelfth Bristol Masters.
15/06/12: Tim becomes Bristol Masters champion ......
The twelfth Bristol Masters event was concluded before yesterday's main event, when Steve Morris and Tim Line played out the final, which had been held over from May 24th.
And it was Tim who had the better of things, winning 9-2 to become the tenth different winner of the title.
Three of the semi-finalists -- including Tim and Steve -- had reached that stage for the first time.
Charlie Hetherington and Stuart Mann remain the only two time winners of the title, while Roland Herrera now holds the record for semi-final appearances, after his fourth venture to that stage.
15/06/12: Stuart and Simon will contest Lesters final ......
Stuart Mann and Simon Hughes emerged from the fifteen strong field at Thursday's tournament to reach a final which will be played some time soon.
Stuart's victims were Richard Owsley, Cynthia Roberts and Tim Line, while Simon was defeating Nick Barham, Steffen Nowak and Marcus Wrinch en route to the final.
15/06/12: Gaz wins consolation flight ......
Gaz Owen took the consolation flight at Thursday's tournament, beating Richard Owsley and Steve Morris before desepatching Roland Herrera in the final.
15/06/12: Stuart grabs Playboy Million Bristol qualifier seat ......
The latest attempt to fill a seat at the Bristol and West Playboy Million Qualifier was successful, with exactly eight players stumping up the £12.50 for the Playboy Pool.
And as the only main flight finalist in that pool, Stuart Mann is the latest player to grab a £100 valued seat.
That makes 3.5 of the eight seats filled, and there is a distinct likelihood that some players will buy their way into the event if they cannot win their way through, such is the demand for seats.
Click here for the up to date list of qualifiers.
15/06/12: Simon in hot pursuit of OGP lead ......
Simon Hughes is on a hot streak.
Having won last month's grand prix tournament, he now finds himself in the final of the latest one.
And not surprisingly this has elevated him very close to the top of the OGP points table.
Ian Tarr will remain in the lead until next month at least, but beating Stuart Mann would bring Simon to within five points of the top.
A win for Stuart would move him close to third placed Roland Herrera.
15/06/12: Intermediates conspicuous by their absence ......
For only the second time in the history of Bristol monthly grand prix tournaments, there were no intermediates at all contesting the event.
IGP leader John Sprague is therefore one step closer to taking that title.
15/06/12: No Winner Takes All rollover for July ......
The £30 rollover which fed Thursday's Winner Takes All pool was augmented by a further £60 when six players elected to participate, so with 60% of the field not bothering, hopes for a further rollover were reasonably high.
But the result of nine wins and four defeats left pool protagonists Stuart Mann and Simon Hughes in the final, giving the pair a total of £305 to fight for when they eventually sit down to play the final.
The other rewards at stake are the Sarah Rosich Memorial Cup, and a place in the 2013 Bristol Masters, which would go either to Stuart or a league high finisher, as Simon has already qualified.
15/06/12: League wins for Gaz, Matt and Lily ......
As well as tournament action, there were also three league matches played yesterday.
In the Conference Matt Walder was in action at two venues.
In the afternoon he took on Andy Brown at the Cross Hands, Staple Hill Road, and scored an 11-10 win.
His evening opponent at the BCSC was Lily Owsley, and Lily scored an emphatic win to boost her Premier Status qualification chances.
Also at the BCSC, Gaz Owen and Dave Pym played out a Premier One match which could have some bearing on the title race.
It was a nail-biter, with Gaz scoring an 11-10 win over league leader Dave.
Gaz, who has matches in hand on everyone else, thus hauled himself out of the bottom four at Simon Temme's expense.
13/06/12: Steve closes on leaders
Steve Morris is just three points away from the top two in Premier Two Blue after winning today.
He defeated John Corrado 11-9 at the Kensington Arms, Redland.
11/06/12: Pearl a step closer
Pearl Foster moved to within 8 points of clinching a place in next year's Premier League this evening at another new venue for Bristol Backgammon, the Van Dyck Forum, in Fishponds Road.
Pearl scored her third successive league win, defeating Pat Meek 11-6.
Meanwhile the advertised event at the BCSC only just got off the ground.
The Nackgammon Tourno, the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, was about to be abandoned with just three players present, when Tom Koeller saved the day by turning up to make us "quorate".
Ian Tarr won the tourno, and then everyone went home a little earlier than usual.
08/06/12: Fred wins Handicap event
Fred North's recent rise to Conference League prominence has had the effect of reducing his handicap to 2.
But this was still sufficient to see him home to victory against a trio of zero handicapped players in Ian Tarr, Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera, giving him his first Handicap Trophy title.
Simonetta had overcome Steve Morris, Nick Barham and Steffen Nowak to reach the final.
Ian won the consolation flight, beating Steve and Chrissy Carter.
Handicap Trophy leader Ian Preston managed to extend his lead despite failing to win a match.
His 10 points for entering moved him 50 points clear of Michihito Kageyama, who was unsurprisingly absent.
Fred is now third.
And this morning's other good news is that Steve remembered where he'd parked his car.
06/06/12: Nick suffers double promotion body blow
Nick Barham met Paul Watts in a Premier Two Red double header at the BCSC this evening.
Having moved up to second place, but with just four matches remaining, Nick really needed a couple of wins to get himself firmly into the promotion mix, but on an evening where both players agreed that Nick was totally outrolled, it was Paul who got the results.
Nick must now attempt to win his last two matches and hope for some kind of miracle.
The wins have improved Paul's chances, however, and a strong run in might yet see him back to the top flight.
02/06/12: Fred closes on Conference lead
Having won both matches of a double header with Pat Meek at the Beehive, Henleaze, yesterday, Fred North is within two points of his fellow Swindon based player Gary Plant's Conference League lead.
The matches took the total number played in this league this season to 60, a number which has already eclipsed the totals for the whole of each of the past four seasons.
01/06/12: Stuart making his customary move
Yesterday's Nackgammon Grand Prix tournament was overshadowed by pre-checkpoint league action, where eight matches were completed at three different venues.
Stuart Mann's disappointing (by his standards) start to the season appears to be giving way to a typical run up the Premier One league table.
The five times champion lined up a tough double header against Simonetta Herrera at the BCSC, and came out on top in both matches.
The second encounter was the first Premier League encounter ever to be played under clock rules, something which is an option for players in all competitions if they both agree beforehand.
Stuart climbs to fifth in the league, with matches in hand on all those above him.
Ian Tarr -- now in sixth place -- has a similar record to Stuart's, albeit with an inferior points difference, after grinding out an 11-8 win over the obdurate Simon Temme.
And at the Grain Barge Gaz Owen scored an emphatic victory over Richard Owsley to serve notice that his chances of challenging for the title should certainly not be written off.
The Premier Two matches featured players making sure of avoiding the dreaded fate of expungement -- cutting it quite fine!
In Premier Two Blue Phil Charlton was the player wiping his metaphorical brow, but his hard fought victory over Richard Holness leaves him well placed to make a challenge on the run in.
Paul Watts was the near offender in Premier Two Red, solving his potential problem with a double header against John Paton.
Once again the matches were close, Paul taking the first before John struck back.
While expungement was avoided by all, there was a case of penalties not being clawed back.
Michael Corbett fell one result short of reclaiming the two points docked in March, although his recent move to Fishponds from out of town should enable him to steer well clear of such problems in the future, including the clawing back of the fresh penalty incurred at midnight.
All of those others threatened with the firming up of March penalties managed to escape, while fresh penalty points were also incurred by Gaz in Premier One, Phil, Cecilia Sparke and Sean Hopson in Premier Two Blue, and Paul in Premier Two Red.
There was also a Conference match played at the Live and Let Live, where home advantage could not save Tom Koeller from defeat at the hands of Pearl Foster, who has now won five of her last eight league matches, and should be in with a great chance of joining those who will attain Premier Status for next year.
Meanwhile, what of the evening's advertised event, the second of four tournaments in the Nackgammon Grand Prix series?
This series is threatened with redundancy, and will be removed from the 2013 calendar if numbers remain persistently low.
The fact that the appearance of seven contenders was greeted with near glee by Director Ian Tarr, the number being 75% up on the previous two such occasions, is a measure of the event's standing as an endangered species.
Nick Barham came out on top, defeating Ian and Roland Herrera before his final win over Simon Hughes, while Mandy Macdonald's wins over Andy Brown and Roland secured her the consolation flight honours.
After two events Steve Morris is at the top of the cluster of three main contenders in the points table. Nick is second, with the advantage of having played just one of the two events, with Simon Hughes third.
31/05/12: One apiece for Ed and Malcolm
Ed Turner and Malcolm Patterson met at the BCSC this afternoon to fight out a Premier Two Red double header.
Malcolm failed to trouble the scorers when losing the opening encounter, but bounced back to win the return 11-6, clawing back his March penalty point in the process.
30/05/12: Premier Two wins for Ed, Nick and Richard
There was Premier Two action yesterday as the May checkpoint approaches.
Nick Barham and Ed Turner fought out a Premier Two Red double header at the Dragon Inn, Weston-super-Mare, with Ed taking the first match 11-9 before losing the return 3-11.
Nick moves into second place, although Simon Baker in third and Simon Hughes in fourth have matches in hand.
An intended Premier Two Blue double header at Michael Corbett's in Fishponds didn't quite materialise after Richard Holness lost his way.
There might still have been time for two matches before Richard wended his way back to Wiltshire, but the first match went right to the wire, Richard winning 11-10.
30/05/12: Gaz makes short work of Ian
The match lasted just three games when Gaz Owen met Ian Tarr at St George's Hall, Redfield, in a Premier One encounter this afternoon.
After racing into a 5-0 lead, Gaz found himself taking an eight cube in the next game, which turned out to be closer than expected, but not quite close enough for Ian's purposes.
Gaz is now safe from expungement at the May checkpoint, while two Premier Two players -- Phil Charlton and Paul Watts -- still have work to do.
29/05/12: Simon closes on leaders
In a Premier Two Red clash at the BCSC this evening Simon Hughes beat Malcolm Patterson 11-5 to move to within three points of second placed Simon Baker.
28/05/12: Ian wins Monday round robin
There were ten players in action at the BCSC on Monday evening.
Before the advertised event Malcolm Patterson and Ian Tarr finished off last week's 3-point round robin event, which had still not been finished at close of play.
Ian won the match and went to the top of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
This week's event then took place, with five players contesting a further 3-point round robin group, of which Ian was also the winner, extending his SGP lead over second placed Roland Herrera to 43 points.
There was also some Conference action, with leader Gary Plant returning to winning ways against Tom Koeller, and Pearl Foster defeating Jonathan Loukes.
27/05/12: Stuart edges to "away" win
A Premier One match adjourned from last Thursday evening was finished at Gaz Owen's Kingswood home this morning.
Last year's league top two -- Gaz and Stuart Mann -- resumed at 6-all, and it was reigning champion Stuart who came out on top with an 11-9 win.
27/05/12: Six points for Blaine in the Wye Valley
Blaine Buchanan and Mike Smith took Premier One backgammon to the Wye Valley at the weekend, adding two new venues to our extensive list.
Saturday evening saw a one sided encounter at the Brockweir Country Inn, where Mike failed to score a point.
He did a lot better at the Boat Inn, Penallt, today, but still succumbed 6-11.
The six points, plus two others clawed back from the March checkpoint, were enough to haul Blaine from rock bottom to just outside the four relegation places.
25/05/12: Tim and Steve make Masters final
The twelfth Bristol Masters tournament, contested each year by sixteen of the previous year's achievers, was held at the BCSC last night, and after six hours of play Tim Line and Steve Morris had emerged as the two finalists.
That event will have to wait until Tim is next in town.
Tim had to beat Dave Pym, Cynthia Roberts and Roland Herrera to reach the final, while Steve's victims were Gaz Owen, Simon Hughes and Simon Temme.
There was also some league action, when Cecilia Sparke defeated Richard Holness in Premier Two Blue, to keep her annual promotion challenge on track.
And later Dave and Richard Owsley made use of the time afforded them by their early Masters elimination by fighting out a Premier One nailbiter, Dave winning 11-10 to go nine points clear at the top.
That same scoreline was also in vogue at the Shakespeare, Redland, when Conference leader Gary Plant met Jonathan Loukes.
It was Jonathan who prevailed, and he now stands just five points from clinching promotion.
24/05/12: New arrival scuppers Derek's title defence
Derek Clew has some good news and some bad news.
Wife Helen gave birth to a son at 3am, and it is understood that everyone is well.
And while the good news undoubtedly outweighs the bad, the unfortunate fact is that Derek's defence of the Bristol Masters title he won last year has fallen even before the first hurdle.
It's been an unusual year for the Masters, in that several reserves have needed to be drafted in.
Three original qualifiers have been replaced by Simon Hughes, Tony Walters and Blaine Buchanan.
Fourth reserve Miles Farren is away, and now Cynthia Roberts, next on the list, replaces Derek in the starting line-up.
Sixth reserve Nick Barham will now be ready and waiting, should any more problems occur.
The full line-up for tonight's event is here.
23/05/12: Tonight's league action, with Steffen moving to second, and wins for Andrew and John
Blaine Buchanan and Steffen Nowak played out a "local derby" Premier One double header at the Star and Dove this evening, and it was Steffen who emerged with both wins, to move into second place in the table.
Meanwhile Premier Two Red saw another double header at the Hillgrove, where Andrew Cobb whitewashed John Paton before an 11-4 backlash.
22/05/12: League wins for Blaine, Dave, James and Sean
The Cornubia, Temple Street, and the Wellington, Horfield, were the venues this evening for a couple of league double headers.
Premier One leader Dave Pym took on Blaine Buchanan at the Cornubia, losing the first match 8-11, but winning the second 11-5.
Meanwhile, in Premier Two Blue, second placed James Lintell-Smith scored his fifth successive league success, winning the opener 11-7, but Sean Hopson hit back to win the return 11-10.
21/05/12: Simon and Nick press promotion claims
There were thirteen players in action at the BCSC on Monday, seven in the leagues, five in the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix 3-point round robin, and one in both.
In Premier Two Red there were useful wins for Simon Hughes and Nick Barham to ensure that the top two will not have things all their own way.
Simon scored an early evening win over Malcolm Patterson, while Nick got the better of a double header against John Paton, although quite how he emerged the winner of the second match after being 0-9 in arrears only Nick and John will know.
The Swindon duo Gary Plant and Fred North made it down for some Conference action.
Gary took on Pat Meek, but recent league form was no indication of the outcome as Pat scored an 11-10 win.
Fred's opponent was Jonathan Loukes who suffered an uncharacteristically emphatic defeat.
Gary still leads the table, but Fred has now overtaken Andy Brown in second place, while Jonathan is still well placed to join the top three in clinching a Premier League place for next season.
Meanwhile, the short format Monday competition wasn't quite short enough to reach a total conclusion.
The prize pot went to Roland Herrera, whose clean sweep also took him to the top of the SGP table.
But at past 11pm, there was still one group match outstanding, and this will be played next Monday.
The scheduled event was a Tric Trac Tourno, but the rules state that a minimum of six players is necessary for that format, and with only four present at five minutes past "draw" time, the decision was taken to switch to a 3-point round robin.
With that event in full swing, first one latecomer and then another appeared, and both were -- ironically -- admitted into the round robin, although had they both arrived on time, the Tric Trac Tourno would have held sway.
20/05/12: Marcus crowned London Open champion
Hereford based former Bristol Premier League player Marcus Wrinch is the 2012 London Open champion!
He came through the 128-player draw, beating American luminary Paul Weaver, CJ Uttley, Myke Wignall, Tony Fawcett and Italy's Andrea de Zandonati, before despatching 2007 British Open champion Brian Lever in the semis, and Tom Duggan in the final.
After coming very close to winning several titles over the past couple of years, it seems Marcus has broken his own mould, having also won the BIBA Bright 'n' Breezy title in January.
Meanwhile the same venue, Browns Courtrooms, Covent Garden, played host to a couple of Bristol Premier One games today.
Two of the main event's early casualties, Tim Line and Stuart Mann, fought out a couple of nail biting matches, which both got to 10-all before being decided.
Stuart won the first, Tim the second.
18/05/12: MAY LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
There were eighteen players in league action on Thursday, four others tieing up some knock-out loose ends, some laptop based training, and a chouette.
All in all, a satisfactory Bristol Backgammon evening.
18/05/12: Dave holds firm at the top ......
Premier One leader Dave Pym negotiated a tricky double header against Simonetta Herrera at the BCSC on Thursday, and will probably not be too displeased to come away with a win and a defeat.
Simonetta, already in second place, would have gone top with a brace of wins, so Dave effectively fended her off.
Another double header featured Simon Temme and Richard Biddle, whose top flight initiation has seen him start the season disastrously.
That state of affairs was never going to last, however, and Simon bore the brunt of the start of Richard's backlash, losing 0-11 and 6-11.
The other match in the division saw Ian Tarr and Richard Owsley fight out a nail biter similar to their first meeting. The similarity extended to the result, with Ian again getting the lucky break at the end.
18/05/12: James closes in on leader Neil ......
James Lintell-Smith continued his impressive run in Premier Two Blue, defeating Alan Parfitt twice to put him comfortably in second place, and just six points behind Neil Young, who has already completed his season.
The pair of defeats thus blunted Alan's own promotion push a tad.
His third place berth has now been taken over by Steve Morris, whose brace of wins over Richard Holness has given him a glimmer of promotion hope.
18/05/12: Chas tops Premier Two Red ......
Chas Perry scored two victories over Andrew Cobb at the BCSC, leapfrogging Simon Baker to go top of Premier Two Red.
These two are currently looking strong contenders to hold onto the all important top places, although Simon Hughes, with matches in hand, could be a threat.
The other result in the division was Malcolm Patterson's narrow win over Mandy Macdonald.
18/05/12: Fred becomes third Premier graduate ......
Fred North started the evening just four points away from becoming the third Conference player to book a Premier League place for next year.
And a pair of wins over Tom Koeller duly completed the job.
Leader Gary Plant was also in action, completing his set of four matches against Matt Walder, the first pairing to do this.
Gary scored a narrow win to maintain his title quest.
Gary, Andy Brown, and Fred can now concentrate fully on winning the division, knowing that the main objective has been achieved.
18/05/12: Simon wins a grand prix tournament at last, Cecilia wins consolation ......
Simon Hughes fought out his sixth monthly grand prix final at the BCSC last night, still searching for his first win, having contested 49 such events.
When he went 8-0 up against Miles Farren after two games, he would have been feeling confident, and he duly scored an 11-2 win.
The rewards, apart from the glow of satisfaction and the lion's share of the tournament prize money, are second place in the OGP table, a place in the 2013 Bristol Masters, and a seat at the Playboy Million Bristol regional qualifier.
Interestingly, this was a first final appearance for Miles in 38 attempts in £10 grand prix events, although he has figured in three £20 (Lesters) finals in nineteen attempts.
Meanwhile, at the Bell, Hillgrove Street, the consolation flight of last week's tournament was being played.
Here Cecilia Sparke took the honours, defeating Jason Champion.
18/05/12: Roland's training service in evidence ......
It hasn't been well publicised -- in fact it has hardly been publicised at all -- but league nights provide an opportunity for Roland Herrera to run a laptop based training session.
Roland, for reasons best known to himself, hasn't played league backgammon for a few years, so league nights offer him that window of opportunity.
A beneficiary last night was Stephen Thomas, who arrived expecting a tournament rather than a league night.
And later on, Cecilia Sparke and Jason Champion arrived after their match at the Bell, and the process continued.
Thereafter, of course, there was a chouette.
16/05/12: Michael up and running at last
After a torrid start to his Premier Two Blue campaign, Michael Corbett scored his first win of the season at the White Lion, Frenchay, yesterday evening.
His 10-11 defeat by Alan Parfitt was later matched by an 11-10 victory, the first result keeping Alan's sights on the promotion race.
15/05/12: Additional promotion route announced
The various routes available to intermediates to attain Premier Status were augmented today by an additional one.
Any player finishing as "top intermediate" in more than one of the three annual Monday grand prix series will be invited to play Premier League backgammon in the year following the achievement.
And participation by that player in any subsequent Monday event will also no longer occur as an intermediate.
The change has been applied retrospectively, meaning that Bahman Salahshour's 2012 Spring Grand Prix effectively grants him Premier Status from next year.
15/05/12: Spoils shared in Premier Two Red promotion clash
Premier Two Red top two Simon Baker and Chas Perry locked horns for a double header at the Albion, Clifton, this evening.
And honours were near enough even by the time the final dice were rolled.
Simon won the first match 11-6, but Chas hit back with an 11-9 victory.
15/05/12: Simon into GP final
Simon Hughes beat Nick Barham yesterday evening at the BCSC to clinch a monthly grand prix final meeting with Miles Farren.
Simon moves into third place in the OGP table, and can overtake second place Roland Herrera if he wins Thursday's final against Miles.
Gary Plant returned to action after holiday and illness, and scored an 11-5 Conference win over Julia Griffith, extending his lead over second placed Andy Brown to six points.
Meanwhile only four players contested the advertised event, the opening salvo of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
The 3-point round robin saw Nick and Ian Tarr share the spoils and take an early joint SGP lead.
13/05/12: Honours even at the Ram
Andrew Cobb and Ed Turner fought out a Premier Two Red double header at the Ram, Bath, this afternoon.
And after Ed scored an 11-7 win Andrew struck back to win the return 11-5.
12/05/12: James second at the double
Michael Corbett's move to Fishponds has made it easier to arrange matches, and he set up a home double header against James Lintell-Smith this afternoon.
But Michael's early season disappointments continued as James scored two wins which propel him right up to second place in Premier Two Blue.
11/05/12: MAY GRAND PRIX ROUND-UP ......
There were twenty players in action at the BCSC on Thursday, eighteen of them in the monthly grand prix event.
11/05/12: Slow play hampers main flight progress ......
The decision to continue with a slow play penalty system, modified from last year, was brought into sharp focus when two opening matches each took two hours to complete.
In fact four of the nine initially drawn matches went over the 90 minutes mark, so eight players were "logged".
Obviously the penalty system was not in the forefront of some players' minds, but this may not be the case later in the year when the race to avoid penalties becomes more clearly defined.
One other player arrived late, and sat down to play half an hour after the delayed draw, but at least made up time quickly enough to avoid being logged.
Miles Farren made it through to the final after defeating Tony Walters, Simonetta Herrera and Richard Owsley, but will have to wait to find out who he will meet.
Simon Hughes and Nick Barham will no doubt play the outstanding semi-final soon.
11/05/12: Jason and Cecilia in consolation final ......
Last month's grand prix winner Jason Champion succumbed to a painful opening match exit this time, but has at least made it through to the consolation final, after wins over Tony Walters, Stephen Thomas and Cynthia Roberts.
There he will meet Cecilia Sparke, conqueror of Derek Clew and Roland Herrera.
11/05/12: Ian's OGP lead almost intact ......
Ian Tarr went into last night's tournament with a 110 points lead in the OGP, and despite failing to win more than a single point in either flight, still leads by 105 from second placed Roland Herrera who fared little better.
Simon Hughes would reduce that margin by a further 10 points were he to go on and win the event.
11/05/12: Virtually as you were in the IGP......
Stephen Thomas made his monthly grand prix debut as the only intermediate present, and suffered first match defeats in both flights to score the bare minimum 10 points.
So John Sprague's IGP lead remains unthreatened.
11/05/12: Still three in Playboy contention ......
Eight players opted into the Playboy London Million pool, enough to ensure that a full seat will be earned by the winner.
And since all three players remaining in the tournament are Playboy pool entrants, there will be no need for any play-off to decide the recipient.
So far Jason Champion has a full seat, and Steve Morris a half seat, so two and a half of the eight seats at the Bristol and West regional qualifier are now fully funded.
11/05/12: Tiny WTA rollover ......
The Playboy Pool undoubtedly had a detrimental effect on the customary Winner Takes All pool, which was patronised by only three players.
And when all three fell at the first hurdle, a £30 rollover to June was guaranteed.
Meanwhile the other reward the three players remaining in the tournament have to play for is a place in the 2013 Bristol Masters.
11/05/12: League wins for Steffen, Tim and Andy ......
Tim Line made the long trip west for the tournament, and as usual he did his utmost to fit in some league action.
Visiting Steffen Nowak's home, he suffered a 5-11 afternoon Premier One defeat, but on arriving at the BCSC he overcame Blaine Buchanan 11-6 before the tournament.
And in the Conference there was the closest of encounters between Pat Meek and Andy Brown, Andy winning 11-10 to keep up the pressure on league leader Gary Plant.
08/05/12: Joe Betts
Those few players who came to the great game via the scene at Rolls-Royce (and subsequently EDS) will have been greatly saddened to hear of the passing of a very well liked colleague, Joe Betts.
Joe, who was in his forties, suffered from motor neurone disease during his final years, and passed away on May 1st.
The funeral is at Clifton Cathedral at noon on Thursday, and all who knew Joe are invited to attend.
Joe enjoyed his backgammon, playing in DPS Backgammon competitions between 1994 and 1997, gaining promotion to the top division of the league during this time.
His one foray into evening competition came at Lesters 26, when he reached the semi-finals before losing to Elias Hamati.
08/05/12: Awards Night photos now have comments
Apologies to all readers for the delay (mea culpa), but comments have now been added to this year's awards night photos, which can be found on Roland Herrera's flickr page.
Click on the "Detail" button for the comments.
04/05/12: Jonathan moves closer to Premier status
Jonathan Loukes scored an 11-8 win over Pat Meek at the Cambridge Arms last night to move into fourth place in the Conference league table.
He is now seven points from achieving Premier League status for next year.
03/05/12: Steve takes clock honours
Ten players contested the third of the year's six Clock Grand Prix tournaments at the BCSC on Thursday.
And Steve Morris came through the long part of the draw to win the main flight, defeating debut player Stephen Thomas, Richard Owsley and Simon Hughes before despatching Simon Temme in the final.
Simon had beaten Stuart Mann and Roland Herrera.
Stuart won the consolation flight, beating Simonetta Herrera in the final.
Steve's win moves him into second place in the CTGP table, 45 points behind Ian Tarr.
Steve also invested in the latest Playboy Million pool, and has clinched a half seat in the Bristol and West regional qualifier.
While the tournament was the centrepiece of the BCSC evening, Tom Koeller and Matt Walder fought out a Conference match, Matt prevailing 11-5.
30/04/12: Simon back on top of Premier Two Red despite defeat
The last unbeaten record in this year's three Premier League divisions came to an end yesterday evening at the Albion, Clifton.
Simon Baker had won all six of his league matches thus far, but succumbed 8-11 in the first match of a double header with Nick Barham.
He won the return 11-9 though, and returns to the top of Premier Two Red, while Nick's win moves him up to third.
30/04/12: Bahman on form
The final phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix took place at the BCSC tonight, with just eight players contesting a DMP Tourno.
Bahman Salahshour and Roland Herrera shared the honours with five wins apiece, Bahman consolidating his SGP second place as well as making sure of the best intermediate prize.
Ian Tarr had already won the main SGP title.
There was still time for five of the field to contest two more DMP Tournos, Bahman winning the first, and Matt Walder the second.
While this was a breakthrough for Matt, it was tempered slightly by the fact that he had opted to play for free, so second placed Ian took the money!
The final SGP table has been amended to show what would have happened if non-paying players had actually paid, as promised to Peter Crispin a little while ago.
Pat Meek is shown to be the pick of the free rollers.
26/04/12: Ten in league night action, including promoted Andy
The April league night saw just six results recorded -- four in Premier One and two in the Conference.
Richard Biddle's luckless run in the top flight continued with a double defeat at the hands of Simonetta Herrera, who moves into second place behind Dave Pym.
There were also Premier One wins for Ian Tarr and Simon Temme, over Richard Owsley and Stuart Mann respectively.
In the Conference Andy Brown became the second player to clinch his place in next year's Premier League when he defeated Jonathan Loukes 11-7.
Lily Owsley won by the same score, defeating Matt Walder.
25/04/12: Dave out to regain league title
Dave Pym, who won the Premier League championship in 2010, has done enough in the first half of his current campaign to suggest that he can repeat that success.
After eleven of his twenty-two matches, Dave is back at the top with eight wins, having come out well on top of a table topping double header at the Star and Dove yesterday evening.
Previous leader Mike Smith was put to the sword in 11-6 and 11-3 reverses.
23/04/12: Simon still unbeaten in Premier Two Red
Simon Baker has won two more Premier Two Red matches, taking his unbeaten sequence at the start of the 2012 season to six matches.
His double header victim at the BCSC was Mandy Macdonald, the margins being 11-5 and 11-9.
Meanwhile another double header in the same division took place at the Knights Templar, where the game's extremes were experienced by Simon Hughes and Nick Barham.
Nick could lay claim to the only bragging rights, because he did at least score a single point when he lost!
A further double header had taken place earlier in the day at the Post Office Tavern, Westbury-on-Trym, where John Corrado shared the Premier Two Blue spoils with Richard Holness -- 11-2 to John, 11-5 to Richard.
The evening's advertised action at the BCSC was the penultimate instalment of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, a SuperNackgammon Tourno.
This was contested by six players, and Bahman Salahshour scored an emphatic win to edge into second place in the table.
Leader Ian Tarr, who sat out the tourno in the interest of numerical sense, cannot now be caught, but Bahman, fractionally ahead of absent Iranian compatriot Manesh in overall second place, now leads the race to be leading SGP intermediate -- but only by 1.5 points.
Steve Morris, who had suffered a disappointing tourno, then made ample amends by winning the late DMP Tourno.
20/04/12: Cecilia wins at Channings
A Premier Two Blue encounter took place at Channings Hotel yesterday evening, when Cecilia Sparke defeated John Corrado 11-7.
The only previous Bristol Backgammon matches to take place at this venue were a league double header between Martin Hemming and Gaz Owen four years ago.
19/04/12: Visiting Michi wins handicap event
Occasional Bristol visitor Michihito Kageyama (World Backgammon Giant number 9) defeated Simonetta Herrera, Roland Herrera, Ian Preston and Simon Temme to win the April Handicap Trophy event, which was contested by thirteen players.
Simon reached the main final via wins over Cynthia Roberts and Ian Tarr.
Steve Morris defeated Simon Hughes in the consolation flight final.
Ian Preston's 40 points haul was enough to consolidate his overall lead in the event, because although his lead has been reduced from 50 points to 40, second placed Michi is unlikely to add to his tally, leaving the next four players 90 points adrift of Ian, as he attempts an unprecedented third successive title win.
18/04/12: Simon out of the relegation zone
There was a Premier One double header at the BCSC this evening featuring Simonetta Herrera and Simon Temme.
And it was Simon who scored a notable double with 11-7 and 11-6 wins to haul himself out of the bottom four.
The double setback means that Simonetta's record is now back to 50:50.
16/04/12: Jason finishes the job at the Merchants Arms
The held over final of last Wednesday's tournament was played out this afternoon at the Merchants Arms, Hotwells.
Host John Sprague moved into a 5-0 lead, but Jason Champion restricted him to just a single point more thereafter, finishing the 11-6 winner.
Jason thus recorded his third career monthly grand prix victory, and made sure of the Winner Takes All pool, not to mention clinching his place in the 2013 Bristol Masters.
The action then moved to the BCSC, where the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix consisted of two five player 3-point round robins.
Ian Tarr scored a clean sweep in one group, while the second saw the prize split three ways, between Jason, Roland Herrera and Chas Perry.
Ian extends his SGP lead to more than 60 points, with just two events remaining.
The absent Manesh remains the competition's leading intermediate.
There was also a Conference double header featuring Julia Griffith and Jonathan Loukes.
In the opening encounter Julia inflicted Jonathan's first league defeat, but he gained his revenge in the return.
After just five matches Jonathan is just over half way to attaining the 20 points needed to gain Premier Status next season.
12/04/12: APRIL GRAND PRIX ROUND-UP ......
The switch to Wednesday made it difficult to predict the size and composition of the line up for the monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournament.
Making the event the first in the series of Playboy Million pre-qualifiers was also likely to have an effect.
As it happened, there was a respectable nineteen player field, with a debut for Hereford based Steve Smith, and returns after long breaks for Jason Champion and Pete Wright, while irregular recent tournament entrants Miles Farren, John Sprague, Derek Clew, John Plummer, Simon Temme, Jerry Limb and Cecilia Sparke also toed the start line.
And it was from this list of names that the majority of the evening's successes emerged.
12/04/12: Jason and John make it to the final ......
Returning to the fray almost five years after his last visit, Jason Champion came back with a bang, coming through the long part of the draw to reach the main flight final of Wednesday's tournament.
Victories over Steve Smith, Nick Barham, Tony Walters and Miles Farren earned him a final meeting with John Sprague.
Thursdays aren't good for John these days, so his appearance was not unexpected, and his wins over Simon Temme, Cecilia Sparke and Derek Clew brought him to his first monthly grand prix final in twenty-two attempts.
The final was left for another time, some time soon.
12/04/12: Roland wins consolation flight ......
The only recent regular with anything to shout about on Wednesday was Roland Herrera, who won the consolation flight.
An eight-cube start got him past Ian Tarr, and wins over Jerry Limb and Steve Smith finished the job.
Steve had beaten Simon Temme, Steve Morris and Simon Hughes to reach the final.
12/04/12: Jason wins first Playboy seat ......
Ten of the nineteen players elected to fight for the first seat in the Bristol Regional qualifier for the Playboy Million.
Three of the ten made it to the semi-finals, but the demise there of Miles Farren and Derek Clew meant that Jason Champion has won the first seat, plus the surplus £25 from the pool.
Having also entered the customary Winner Takes All pool, along with just five others, Jason will also take this if he wins the final.
Meanwhile, finalists Jason and John Sprague will also have qualification for the 2013 Bristol Masters on their minds when they meet.
12/04/12: Ian's OGP lead cut ......
After winning successive monthly events OGP leader Ian Tarr had to make do with just a 25 points haul to add to his tally after second round elimination.
So second placed Roland Herrera made up a little ground with 40 points for his consolation flight success, cutting Ian's lead to 110 points.
Roland has a 54 points cushion over third placed Jerry Limb.
12/04/12: John and Steve roar into top IGP positions ......
IGP leader Tina Mullins was present at Wednesday's tournament, but elected not to play.
This left the way clear for the four intermediate entrants to make IGP inroads, and two in particular took full advantage.
John Sprague's run to the final has netted him 105 points (including 40 bonus points for defeating Premier Status players), making him the new IGP leader.
Should he defeat Jason Champion he would gain a further 45 points, bringing him 75% of the way to Premier Status qualification himself in one fell swoop.
Meanwhile debut player Steve Smith's run to the consolation final gained him a total of 70 points, moving him into second place.
And Pete Wright -- making a welcome return after a gap of nearly three years -- scored 25 points for winning the only all-intermediate clash of the evening against Matt Reekie-Black.
12/04/12: League win for Ian ......
There was time for a single league match on Wednesday, Ian Tarr defeating Simon Temme 11-1 in Premier One.
06/04/12: Doubles event had to be replaced!
Thursday's second of four Consulting Doubles Grand Prix tournaments never got off the ground, when only six players turned up to play!
With a minimum of eight needed, Director Ian Tarr decided that a three point round robin would constitute a better use of time for the six.
Tony Walters and Jerry Limb took the honours by each winning four of their five matches.
The rules of the CDGP have now been amended to allow for just three events, the best two of which will count for each player.
That makes two of our current grand prix series which are now under threat from low turnouts, after last month's Nackgammon Grand Prix tournament attracted just four players, which meant that only a single flight was appropriate.
If attendance figures for these events do not improve over the remainder of the year, they will be replaced in the 2013 calendar.
02/04/12: Julia's letdown turns into an advantage
Julia Griffith arrived for the Monday session at the BCSC expecting to play a Conference match.
But when her opponent stood her up, it gave her the chance to enter the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
She then came out on top of the nine player event to take the pot.
Peter Thistlewood finished second and Ian Tarr third.
The top of the SGP table looks pretty much as it did last week, with Ian's discarded score precisely cancelling out his new one, and Manesh absent.
Bahman Salahshour and Pearl Foster edged a little closer to the top two, but it will now be a surprise if neither Ian nor Manesh grab the title, with just three weeks remaining and discards biting hard.
There was also time for an impromptu six player DMP Tourno, and this was won by Simonetta Herrera.
01/04/12: Eight penalised at initial Premier League checkpoint
The first checkpoint of the current Premier League season passed at midnight on Saturday, and eight players picked up penalty points.
In Premier One Blaine Buchanan and Simon Temme were docked 2 points each, while Stuart Mann incurred just one.
The Premier Two Blue tally was two players -- Michael Corbett 2 points, and Richard Holness one.
Meanwhile three players in Premier Two Red incurred a single point -- Simon Baker, John Paton and Malcolm Patterson.
All of the above mentioned penalties will be clawed back when the players in question comply with the May 31st checkpoint.
01/04/12: A record month "on the road"
March was a record month in terms of matches completed away from our regular venue.
No fewer than 43 of the 175 results reported during March occurred "on the road", with 18 in Premier One, 15 in Premier Two and 8 Conference matches making up the bulk of that number.
The previous record of 40 "away" matches occurred in November 2007, when the Conference was at its most vibrant.
Meanwhile attendances of competitors at the BCSC have shown an overall rise during the first quarter of the year.
While Thursdays (and I have included the two poorly attended Wednesday sessions here) are down, with an average of 13.61 competitors compared to 15.38 during the same period last year, Mondays are up from 8.08 to 12.75.
31/03/12: Andy also won on Thursday
A late reported result from Conference has emerged.
Andy Brown edged home 11-9 against Pearl Foster at the Live and Let Live to move within a single victory of ensuring his Premier Status for 2013.
30/03/12: Honours even at the Wellington
Two Premier One matches took place at the Wellington, Horfield, this afternoon.
Simonetta Herrera defeated Mike Smith 11-8 in the opening encounter, but Mike precisely returned the compliment to move to the top of the league on average points difference.
29/03/12: League wins for Richard, Stuart, Steffen, Chas and Fred
There were sixteen players in Thursday action at three venues.
Three Premier One matches were played, with Stuart Mann beat Steffen Nowak swapping 11-6 wins at the Star and Dove.
At the Grain Barge, Mike Smith's stunning run of victories came to an end with a 9-11 defeat by Richard Owsley.
And completing the Owsley family outing, Lily Owsley lost 7-11 to Fred North in a Conference match.
The only league action at the BCSC came before the evening's advertised event, the first of four Clock Blitz Grand Prix round robin evenings.
Chas Perry defended his Premier Two Red lead by defeating Simon Hughes 11-8.
In the Clock Blitz event, there were ten players, split into two groups of five.
And by a coincidence, there was a three way tie for the lead in both groups.
Shadow Hamilton, Simon and Ian Tarr shared the pot in Group A, while Adrian Barnes, Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera did the same in Group B.
So the CBGP table sees no fewer than six players sharing the lead, with three events remaining!
28/03/12: Cecilia wins in Bedminster
The Hen and Chicken, Bedminster, was the venue for a Premier Two Blue match this evening.
Cecilia Sparke beat James Lintell-Smith 11-8.
28/03/12: John defeats Phil in Downend
In a Premier Two Blue encounter at the Foresters, Downend, last night, John Corrado defeated Phil Charlton 11-10.
26/03/12: Nineteen in Monday BCSC action
Fifteen players contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix at the BCSC, while four others were engaged in Conference matches.
Jonathan Loukes and Tom Koeller scored Conference wins, moving into fourth and fifth places respectively.
The other fifteen players formed themselves into three five player groups to contest 3-point round robins.
In all three of these the pot was shared by two players each winning three out of four matches.
Simonetta Herrera and Malcolm Patterson, Steve Morris and Neil Young, Manesh and Ian Tarr were the prize beneficiaries.
Ian still leads the SGP table, but Manesh -- the top intermediate in the competition -- is closing fast in second place.
There were three welcome debut players -- Adrian Barnes, Peter Thistlewood and Joseph Wilkins -- and there are good signs that they will be back.
26/03/12: Bristol sides fall short of the prizes
Sunday's UK Clubs Championship -- contested by fourteen five player teams -- saw the Bristol teams falling short of the prizes, although there were some notable performances.
The London Players' League took the title, defeating Manchester in the final.
Bristol's "A" team had won four out of six group matches, and very narrowly missed out contesting the four team play-offs.
There are no details yet to hand about individual performances in the A" team, but thankfully Steve Morris took it upon himself to document the progress of the "B" team, which won two out of six group matches.
Steve himself was the pick of the "B" team, winning four of his matches, while Lotte Ryan -- ranked a mere 69th in Bristol -- won three of hers.
The previous day had seen Julian Fetterlein grab yet another title, when he won the UK Open.
24/03/12: Ian's luck runs out
Ian Tarr has had quite a lot of luck recently, something which had played a part in allowing him to accumulate a sequence of fifteen successive victories in competitions which count towards the 1000 to 1 Awards.
His luck ran out with a vengeance on Saturday evening, however, when he suffered a double Premier One defeat at the hands of Simonetta Herrera in Kellaway Avenue.
Ian's sequence was the second longest to be recorded since the awards began late in 2001, bettered only by Gaz Owen's eighteen match winning sequence in 2009.
By a coincidence that sequence was also stopped in its tracks by a pair of league defeats -- on that occasion it was Phil Charlton who spoiled the party.
Simonetta's wins move her into fourth place in the top flight.
23/03/12: Ten of Bristol's finest in Coventry on Sunday
A splendid cross section of the Bristol player base will be in action on our behalf on Sunday at the Coventry Hilton, when ten players form two of the fourteen teams contesting the second UK Clubs Championship.
The Bristol "A" team is represented by Gaz Owen, Tim Line, Julian Fetterlein, Simon Hughes and Marcus Wrinch, while the "B" team comprises Cecilia Sparke, Steve Morris, James Lintell-Smith, Lotte Ryan and Pearl Foster.
Expect to read some news of their progress here on Sunday evening.
22/03/12: Thursday still holds sway for some
This week's league night may have been brought forward a day to Wednesday, but that didn't stop at least eleven players sticking to tradition and getting their league action in on the customary day.
For those players it was just that the venue was different.
And the first two venues were new ones for Bristol Backgammon.
Beerd in St Michael's Hill was the scene for a Premier One double header between Mike Smith and Richard Biddle, which went to recent form with Mike keeping his 100% start to the season on track, winning 11-1 and 11-4.
Then there was a single Conference match at the Cross Hands, Staple Hill Road, where Pearl Foster warmed up for the weekend's UK Club Championships by defeating Matt Walder 11-4.
The next double header was in Premier Two Blue, where Neil Young almost certainly created a new record for completing a full league season, when he signed off with a brace of victories over Alan Parfitt at Colston Yard.
Just 82 days into the 335 day season, Neil has finished with ten wins from eighteen matches, a disappointing return for one of the pre-season promotion favourites -- but who knows, there's just a ghost of a chance that 30 points may be enough to earn a top flight return.
The Grain Barge was the scene for the evening's most one sided pair of encounters, with Stuart Mann thumping Blaine Buchanan 11-0 and 11-3 in Premier One.
Another double header to be reported was in the Conference where Lily Owsley made home advantage count, defeating Julia Griffith twice -- her first league wins.
And meanwhile, back at Beerd, Richard's season continued on its unfortunate way when he succumbed twice more -- 6-11 both times to Dave Pym, who is now top of the league.
21/03/12: Tim gets in four top flight matches
Tim Line's latest visit saw him playing four Premier One matches today.
After a 6-11 defeat at Kellaway Avenue by Simonetta Herrera, there were three matches at the BCSC.
An 11-9 win over Richard Owsley was followed by a defeat and a win against Dave Pym.
Tim regains top spot in the league from Steffen Nowak, who was also in action, losing 4-11 to Ian Tarr, who thus extended his 1000 to 1 Awards winning sequence to fifteen matches (the equivalent of 32,000 to 1).
The only other league action was in Premier Two Blue where Steve Morris inflicted Phil Charlton's first league defeat of the season.
This week's move to Wednesday evening, then, saw just seven players in action at the BCSC, although this dearth could be attributed in part to the fact that many players used the previous Thursday's designated Nackgammon session to rack up some league results.
19/03/12: Twenty in various forms of Monday action
At three different local venues there were a total of twenty different players partaking of a variety of different backgammon activities on Monday evening.
Two of those venues staged Premier Two Blue matches, James Lintell-Smith defeating Cecilia Sparke 11-7 at the Hen and Chicken, Bedminster, while Sean Hopson was triumphing against John Corrado by the same scoreline at the Prince of Wales, Westbury-on-Trym.
The remainder were at the BCSC, seven contesting the advertised event -- a DMP Tourno, the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- four more playing Conference matches, three more enjoying a training workshop, and two others joining in an impromptu late evening DMP Tourno.
The main DMP Tourno saw a win for Simon Hughes in his first Monday Club foray of the year, while Andy Hopkins won the later DMP competition.
Ian Tarr still leads the SGP table, although Manesh -- the competition's leading intermediate -- has closed to within 50 points.
And in the Conference there were wins for leader Gary Plant, Matt Walder -- his first career league win -- and Tom Koeller.
Director Ian spent his evening putting Pat Meek and Pearl Foster through their paces, with some interesting checker and doubling situations provoking much discussion.
17/03/12: Pearl and Julia share Conference spoils
A Conference double header at the Wishing Well, Longwell Green, saw honours even.
Pearl Foster won the opening encounter 11-5, but Julia Griffith got her revenge with an 11-2 win of her own, moving into fourth spot in the league.
16/03/12: Late result: Cecilia beat Michael
There was another Premier Two Blue match played on Thursday, the result of which has just come to hand.
The venue was the Coronation, Southville, and it was Cecilia Sparke who defeated Michael Corbett 11-7.
16/03/12: League action all but eclipses the Nackgammon
It was billed as the start of the Nackgammon Grand Prix, but the main action of Thursday evening centred around the four leagues.
There were at least twenty-two players in competition altogether, including two at the Grain Barge.
It was there that Mike Smith continued his impressive return to Premier One, winning his third league match out of three at the expense of reigning league champion Stuart Mann, the last of the Premier League players to get his campaign under way.
Mike is the only top flight player undefeated, and his unbeaten league run goes back even further when you add in the final six regular season matches of last season's Premier Two Red campaign.
Richard Owsley also scored a top flight win over Blaine Buchanan, while Ian Tarr made it fourteen in a row in all contributing competitions (16,000 to 1 for 1,000 to 1 award purposes) in a nail biter with Steffen Nowak.
Premier Two Red saw six players in action, Simon Baker taking pride of place with two 11-8 wins over Ed Turner.
Simon seems to be putting last year's nightmare season behind him, as the only remaining unbeaten player in this division.
John Paton and Chas Perry shared the spoils in their double header, as did Nick Barham and Andrew Cobb -- Chas doing enough to edge into pole position.
The only action in Premier Two Blue was another double header, Alan Parfitt scoring a pair of 11-4 wins over Richard Holness to move into second place.
And in the Conference, the fledgling Bristol Backgammon players were not to be outdone, when six of their number fought out a total of five matches.
Gary Plant, who had already done enough to assure himself of promotion to next year's Premier League, showed no sign of letting up with a hard fought 11-8 win over Pearl Foster.
There are, of course, more rewards to be fought for in this division. There's the championship, there's prize money, and there's a place in the 2013 Bristol Masters at stake, so neither Gary nor his band of pursuers have any reason to take their feet off the gas.
Andy Brown scored a couple of narrow wins to move into second place, and is now just four points away from joining Gary in the guaranteed promotion bracket, while Fred North, who shared the spoils of a double header with Julia Griffith, is third, only seven points away from the same target.
Meanwhile, what of the Nackgammon?
Just four players toed the start line, the absolute minimum required to start a tournament and well short of the seven needed to trigger a consolation flight.
The signs are ominous for this competition. Will it still be featured in our calendar lext year? Time will tell.
So semi-final winners Simon Hughes and Steve Morris fought out the final -- Steve winning to take the initial NGP lead -- leaving Ian and Steffen free to play their league match.
13/03/12: Nick bounces back with double drubbing; Phil maintains unbeaten start
After a slow start to his Premier Two Red season, Nick Barham bounced back with a vengeance, defeating Malcolm Patterson twice at the BCSC, with identical 11-1 score lines.
Meanwhile, at the White Lion, Frenchay, something had to give when the two unbeaten players in Premier Two met.
Phil Charlton beat Alan Parfitt 11-5.
12/03/12: Gary first to qualify for next year's Premier League
Just 72 days into 2012 we have our first "graduate" to qualify for next year's Premier League.
Gary Plant has reached the designated 20 points threshold in the Conference League, which assures him of lifetime Premier Status.
The milestone was reached when he defeated Tom Koeller 11-4 at the BCSC.
Meanwhile there was another COnference match at the Cambridge Arms, Jonathan Loukes defeating Pat Meek 11-5 to move into fourth place in the league table.
There was also an attempt at a Premier League double header at the BCSC when John Paton met Ed Turner.
Ed edged the first match 11-10, while the second was adjourned at chucking out time with John 9-8 ahead.
The advertised event at the BCSC was the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, a pair of four player Nackgammon tournos.
Chrissy Carter made her competitive debut in one of these, and came third out of four.
The groups were won by Manesh and Cynthia Roberts, while Bahman Salahshour did well in both the DMP tournos which were held later, winning one outright and sharing the pot with Ian Tarr in the other.
Ian had spent the early part of the evening playing friendly games with Chippenham based new player Simon Ashworth, who proved to be far more than the beginner he professed to be.
09/03/12: Jerry wins "domestic"
Jerry Limb defeated Tina Mullins 5-2 at Henbury this afternoon in the held over final of yesterday's consolation flight.
This moves Jerry up to third in the OGP.
09/03/12: Neil wins in Bedminster
Neil Young's headlong dash to finish his league season eight months early saw him contest a Premier Two Blue match at the Hen and Chicken, Bedminster, today.
He defeated James Lintell-Smith 11-8.
09/03/12: ALL THE NEWS FROM LESTERS 82 ......
The 139th Bristol Monthly Grand Prix event was contested by just twelve players at the BCSC last night, the equal second lowest turnout in the history of the event.
09/03/12: Ian wins his fourth tournament of the year ......
Ian Tarr's 2012 continues to amaze everyone, including him.
Having already won the January and March Clock GP tournaments and the February Bristol Grand Prix event, Ian added Lesters LXXXII to his list of titles last night.
Victories over Tony Walters, Steve Morris and Simon Hughes got him to the final, where he met Simonetta Herrera, who had eliminated Tim Line and Steffen Nowak.
The final was adjourned at 5-4 in Ian's favour, at which point the game moved to the Herreras' Kellaway Avenue home.
Ian eventually edged home 11-9.
09/03/12: Jerry and Tina take it home ......
Jerry Limb and Tina Mullins made it to the consolation final of last night's tournament, and took the eminently sensible decision to adjourn to their home to play the match.
This will take place this afternoon.
Jerry had beaten Tony Walters and Phillip Hill, while Tina came through the short part of the draw by defeating Tim Line.
09/03/12: OGP lead extended to 125 points for Ian ......
The five points OGP lead Ian Tarr took into last night's tournament was extended to a whopping 125 points as he took full advantage of the absence of the unwell Roland Herrera to win the event.
Roland is still second, with Simonetta Herrera, Jerry Limb and Stuart Mann still some way back in the pursuing pack.
Jerry can edge into third place by defeating Tina Mullins in the held over consolation final at their home this afternoon.
09/03/12: Tina retakes IGP lead ......
For the third month running there was just a single intermediate contesting the monthly grand prix tournament.
In January it was Tina Mullins, then Lily Owsley took the IGP lead in February.
Last night it was Tina again, and her progression to the consolation final has ensured that she once again holds the IGP lead.
Her 32 points lead will increase to 60 if she can defeat Jerry Limb this afternoon.
09/03/12: No rollover as Ian becomes second Masters qualifier ......
Only four of the twelve entrants bothered with the Winner Takes All pool at yesterday's tournament, and when those four all ended up in the long half of the draw, hopes were high for a rollover, albeit a small one.
The meeting of Simon Hughes and Ian Tarr in the semis ensured that the pool would be represented in the final, and Ian's subsequent tournament win will have disappointed the neutrals.
One matter resolved, though, was 2013 Bristol Masters qualification, where Ian's second grand prix win means that all twelve monthly grand prix winners will now qualify.
09/03/12: 8000-1 award for Ian ......
The best sequence of Ian Tarr's entire Bristol Backgammon career has assured him of an award at next year's ceremony.
The Roland Herrera sponsored 1000 to 1 prizes, awarded when a player scores ten or more successive wins in nominated competitions, have until now seen thirteen such achievements commemorated since the instigation of the scheme by John Slattery in 2001.
Ian clocked up his tenth win in the first round of yesterday's event when he defeated Tony Walters.
And three subsequent wins have brought the sequence to thirteen, the theoretical equivalent of 8,000-1 odds!
The best such sequence is still a long way off, however.
Gaz Owen racked up eighteen successive victories in 2009!
09/03/12: Tim tops Premier One ......
Tim Line, one of two long distance travellers in the Premier League, got in two Premier One matches before the tournament.
Steffen Nowak played host to Tim in the afternoon, losing 10-11, and then Blaine Buchanan finally got his league season off to a great start with an 11-3 win at the BCSC before the tournament.
Then, when Tim clawed back the two league fee penalties, he emerged at the top of the league.
07/03/12: This afternoon's league action in Bristol and Bath
Neil Young got two more Premier Two Blue matches in at the The Wellington this afternoon, sharing the spoils with Steve Morris.
Neil now has just three league matches to play this year!
And at the Rose and Crown, Larkhall, Bath, there was a Premier Two Red double header between Andrew Cobb and Simon Baker, Simon winning both narrowly.
With Simon getting his season under way, that leaves just two Premier League players yet to begin their campaigns -- Premier One duo Blaine Buchanan and Stuart Mann.
07/03/12: Phil pips Neil at the Wellington
The Wellington, Horfield, was the venue last night when Phil Charlton defeated Neil Young 11-10 to maintain his 100% start to the Premier Two Blue season.
05/03/12: Gary so close to early promotion
There were fourteen players in competitive action at the BCSC on Monday evening, ten in the advertised 3-point round robin, and four in Conference action.
In the Conference Gary Plant defeated Matt Walder 11-5 to get within two points of becoming the first player this year to earn membership of next year's Premier League.
When the return match was played, a win for Gary would have clinched it, but with time overrunning, it was adjourned with Gary tantalisingly 10-7 ahead, post Crawford.
Andy Brown also scored a Conference win, 11-8 over Julia Griffith.
In the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix it was an evening for split pots in both of the five player round robins.
In one group there was a three way tie between Chas Perry, Lotte Ryan and Ian Tarr, who each won three out of four matches, while the other group saw Manesh and Pearl Foster sharing the spoils.
Ian's SGP lead was cut to around 96 points by Pearl, who is also the competition's leading intermediate, despite the strong challenges of Manesh and Bahman Salahshour.
Meanwhile at the Merchants Arms, Eastville, Neil Young scored an 11-6 Premier Two Blue win over Michael Corbett.
02/03/12: Chas goes second
A Premier Two Red double header took place yesterday evening at the Windmill, where Chas Perry scored a double over Mandy Macdonald.
The 11-5 and 11-8 wins move Chas up to second in the league, with Mandy slipping from second to fourth, below Paul Watts on average points difference.
01/03/12: Ian wins again
There were twelve players in action at the BCSC on Thursday, eight in the Clock Grand Prix tournament, and four in Conference matches.
And Ian Tarr came out on top to win his third tournament of the year.
Simon Hughes, Gaz Owen and Steffen Nowak were his victims.
Tony Walters won the consolation flight, defeating Richard Owsley in the final.
Having now won both of this year's CTGP events, Ian has established an 80 points lead over second placed Gaz, with Steffen a further 15 points back in third.
Meanwhile the twin raiders from Swindon, Gary Plant and Fred North, made good progress with narrow Conference wins over Lily Owsley and Andy Brown respectively.
Gary is now just five points away from becoming the first player to ensure qualification for next year's Premier League.
28/02/12: Neil beaten by Sean and Phil
Neil Young played his tenth Premier Two Blue match of the season this afternoon at the Inn on the Green, Horfield.
His opponent, Sean Hopson, was due a victory, and delivered with aplomb, 11-2.
Next up for Neil was a visit to the Foresters, Downend, where Phil Charlton beat him 11-9 this evening.
28/02/12: Simon goes top of Premier Two Red
There were thirteen players in action yesterday evening at the BCSC, eight in the advertised event, a Tric Trac Tourno as the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, four more were in league action, and one latecomer joined in an impromptu DMP Tourno to round the evening off.
John Paton started his Premier Two Red campaign against Simon Hughes, and despite leading for most of the match, it was Simon who edged it 11-10 to move to the top of the league.
There was also a Conference match, and an eight-cube saw Julia Griffith home 11-3 against Matt Walder to move into fourth place.
The eight player Tric Tric Tourno turned out to be a duel between Bahman Salahshour and Ian Tarr, which Ian edged by just half a point.
His SGP lead has stretched to 107 points, with Bahman, who is also the leading intermediate in the competition, moving ahead of Pearl Foster into second place.
In the DMP Tourno the pot was shared by Ian and Ed Turner, who each won five out of seven.
Miles Farren made a return to action after a four month gap, and brought a friend, visiting from Spain, Paul Kirwin, for his Bristol Backgammon debut.
23/02/12: FEBRUARY LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
Nineteen players were in action on the occasion of the February league night -- fifteen of those at the BCSC.
23/02/12: Steffen goes top of Premier One ......
Steffen Nowak had the better of a Premier One double header against Richard Biddle when he scored a pair of 11-6 victories to go top of the league.
Dave Pym moved into second place, and it could have been even better if he had won the DMP game against Ian Tarr. Dave had earlier whitewashed Richard Owsley.
23/02/12: Neil half way through his Premier Two Blue programme already ......
Neil Young is a man on a mission, having played his fifth and sixth Premier Two Blue matches of the week!
His double header against Richard Holness ended with each player winning once, Richard by 11-1, Neil by 11-9.
Phil Charlton was the evening's other winner, 11-7 over Steve Morris.
23/02/12: Mandy, Paul and Simon setting the pace ......
Two double headers featuring the Premier Two Red pace setters took place on Thursday -- one at the BCSC, the other at Paul Watts' home in Redfield.
Leader Mandy Macdonald scored an 11-2 win over Simon Hughes, but was pipped in the return encounter, while Paul's home advantage saw him score 11-1 and 11-2 wins over Ed Turner.
23/02/12: Maiden league wins for Pearl, Julia and Jonathan ......
Pearl Foster scored an overdue maiden Conference League victory at the Compass, Tormarton, defeating Fred North 11-7.
And at the BCSC there were maiden league matches -- and maiden league wins -- for Julia Griffith and Jonathan Loukes, who respectively defeated Gary Plant and Andy Brown.
Julia later entered unknown territory, playing back to back 11-point matches, and lost the return.
Gary now has a four points lead, and is just eight away from being the first player to secure a place in next year's Premier League.
23/02/12: Neil's busy week puts him top
Neil Young has played four Premier Two Blue matches this week, and his persistence has been rewarded with a move to the top of the league table.
After Monday's double header (see below), he defeated Michael Corbett 11-8 at the Merchants Arms, Eastville, on Tuesday, and Sean Hopson by the same score at the Wellington on Wednesday.
21/02/12: A win apiece for Neil and John
There was a Premier Two Blue double header at the Wellington yesterday evening.
Neil Young defeated John Corrado 11-7 in the opening encounter, but John won the return 11-8.
20/02/12: Gary half way there
There were fourteen players in action at the BCSC on Monday, eight in the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix and six more in the Conference League.
The three match winners in the Conference were the three pace setters Fred North, Andy Brown and Gary Plant, who defeated Pat Meek, Matt Walder and Tom Koeller respectively.
The twenty points threshold, which is the target for qualification for next year's Premier League, is looking smaller by the week.
Leader Gary is half way there, while Fred and Andy are just a point further adrift.
Meanwhile the eight participants in the 3-point round robins, which formed the latest phase of the SGP, included debut player Roy Day.
The four player groups were won by Bahman Salahshour and John Paton, while a later, impromptu, five player DMP Tourno saw the pot shared by Mandy Macdonald and Manesh.
Ian Tarr's SGP lead has been cut to 87.5 points by second placed Pearl Foster, who is also the top intermediate in the competition.
17/02/12: Fred closes on Conference lead
Conference leader Gary Plant and Fred North fought out a league match in Swindon today, and it was Fred who emerged victorious, winning 11-7.
Fred moves into second place in the league, making it a Swindon one-two.
Meanwhile newcomer Matt Walder has become the fourteenth player to sign up for Conference action this season.
16/02/12: Title defence on course for Ian
Ian Preston, who has won the Handicap Trophy in each of the last two years, made a great start to his title defence at the BCSC on Thursday.
He defeated Matt Walder, Steve Morris and David Phillips before beating Andy Brown 7-4 in the final.
Both Matt, a student at UWE, and David, a Manchester player working in the area, were making their Bristol Backgammon Thursday debuts.
Mandy Macdonald won the consolation flight, beating Steffen Nowak in the final after despatching Ian Tarr and Cynthia Roberts.
Ian P takes a 50 points lead going into the second of the six event series.
15/02/12: James wins at the Wellington
Promotion favourite Neil Young suffered a 1-11 defeat this evening to James Lintell-Smith at the Wellington.
James now has three wins out of four at the start of his Premier Two Blue campaign.
13/02/12: League doubles for Alan and Simon
There were sixteen players in action at the BCSC on Monday evening.
Six were involved in Premier Two double headers, nine contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno -- and one latecomer joined in a later impromptu DMP Tourno.
Alan Parfitt took on Steve Morris in Premier Two Blue and his 11-4 and 11-7 victories moved him to the top of the league at Steve's expense.
In the same division Cecilia Sparke and Neil Young were both kicking off their campaigns, Neil winning the opener 11-7, Cecilia gaining her revenge with an 11-5 reply.
Another player starting his league campaign was Simon Hughes in Premier Two Red.
A brace of wins over Paul Watts saw him off to a healthy start.
Meanwhile, in the advertised event, Peter Crispin took the zero payment option, and his six wins out of eight saw him questioning that decision, as it was enough to win the event.
Ian Tarr and Simon Temme -- in joint second place -- thus shared the pot, Ian also increasing his SGP lead to 95 points.
The later DMP Tourno saw a success for Mandy Macdonald, the only player to win five out of seven games.
10/02/12: FEBRUARY GRAND PRIX ROUND-UP ......
While just fourteen players took centre stage in the monthly grand prix event at the BCSC, eight others were in league action.
10/02/12: Ian wins latest grand prix event ......
Ian Tarr followed up his January Clock Tournament success by winning the February grand prix tournament at the BCSC yesterday.
And it wasn't an easy path to victory as he left Roland Herrera, Simonetta Herrera and Steffen Nowak defeated before despatching Stuart Mann 11-4 in a five game final.
Stuart had beaten Neil Young, Richard Owsley and Simon Hughes to reach the final.
10/02/12: Roland wins consolation ......
Roland Herrera shrugged off his first round main flight exit by winning the consolation flight of Thursday's tournament.
Cynthia Roberts and Tony Walters were defeated on the way to the final, where he beat Neil Young.
10/02/12: Ian edges into OGP lead ......
With a main flight win and a consolation flight win apiece Ian Tarr and Roland Herrera are the top two in the OGP.
Ian has the edge, though, by just 5 points for winning an extra consolation match in the January event.
Stuart Mann is in third place.
10/02/12: Lily first of two in IGP ......
Only one intermediate contested the January tournament, and it was the same situation yesterday when Lily Owsley represented the "underdogs".
After the narrowest of first round exits at the hands of Simon Hughes, Lily picked up 20 bonus points in the consolation for beating current Premier One player Tim Line.
That was enough to give Lily a 10 points lead over Tina Mullins at the head of a very small IGP table.
10/02/12: Roland qualifies for 2013 Masters ......
The low turnout for yesterday's tournament means that Roland Herrera is guaranteed a place in the 2013 Bristol Masters.
The January grand prix event attracted an entry of 21, seven more than last night's event, so Ian Tarr will have to wait to see whether or not his win last night gains him one of the sought after slots.
10/02/12: Double rollover hopes die before the semis ......
Nine of the field of fourteen players invested in the Winner Takes All pool at last night's event, having been attracted by the £80 rollover.
A further rollover was ruled out when Richard Owsley failed to make it to the semi-finals.
10/02/12: League wins for Tim, Paul, Chas, Gary, Fred and Tom ......
Including two players who were in last night's tournament, there were as many as ten in league action, including two at the Live and Let Live.
Simonetta Herrera and Tim Line fought out a Premier One encounter after their tournament elimination, and it was Tim who prevailed, winning 11-7.
A Premier Two Red double header saw Chas Perry and Paul Watts fight out the closest possible matches, each winning 11-10.
Amusingly, never having met before, they found out during the evening that they live in adjacent roads in St George!
Meanwhile the Conference continues to look like a wholly different competition this season, as six players were in action last night.
Fred North and Tom Koeller scored their maiden league victories, while Gary Plant is the new leader after a surprisingly emphatic win over Pat Meek.
Andy Brown and Pearl Foster were the night's other defeated players, but after just 40 days of the 335 day season, we have already had nine matches completed -- seven more than during the entirety of last season!
07/02/12: James wins at the Mall
The Mall, Clifton, was the venue this evening when James Lintell-Smith defeated John Corrado in a Premier Two Blue encounter.
06/02/12: Ten players in Monday action
Eight players took part in the latest Monday session at the BCSC, while two more met for a league match at the Compass, Tormarton.
The Tormarton meeting was one of two Conference matches played.
Pearl Foster and Gary Plant chose the venue as a suitable neutral one between the Bristol and Swindon areas, and it was Gary who prevailed, 11-8.
Andy Brown and Pat Meek met at the BCSC, with a similar outcome -- also 11-8 -- in favour of Andy.
Andy and Gary are thus first and second in the latest league table, and more matches are scheduled for this Thursday.
This left five players contesting the Monday Club event, a SuperNackgammon Tourno.
Ian Tarr scored gammons in three of his four games, but was pipped by Manesh whose 7 points tally came from three gammons and a single game and clinched the pot for him.
Ian's lead in the SGP table was extended to 52 points over second placed Roland Herrera, while four players are now in close contention for the top intermediate place -- Pearl, Bahman Salahshour, Julia Griffith and Manesh.
Latecomer Ed Turner then joined four of the gathering in a DMP Tourno, where Roland and Ian shared the pot.
03/02/12: See the photos from Awards Night
Roland Herrera once again acted as honorary photographer at the annual Awards Evening.
You can see the fruit of his labours at flickr.
Apart from the usual competition winner and runner-up prizes, there were memorable moments for Lewis Young, who won Blaine Buchanan and John Sprague's Sportsperson of the Year prize, Richard Biddle with Marcus Wrinch's Rankings Jump prize, and Julia Griffith, who won Shadow Hamilton's Ladies Prize.
Had they been present, Malcolm Patterson would have received Gaz Owen's Most Improved Player prize, and Lily Owsley would have received the Paul Gilbertson sponsored Rookie of the Year prize, just nine years after her father Richard won the same award.
03/02/12: A great return for Mike
The awards ceremony may have taken centre stage at the BCSC on Thursday, but there was also plenty of backgammon action to savour.
Five Premier One matches were played, and the four new arrivals in the top flight won them all.
Mike Smith -- the only one of the four to have played top flight backgammon before -- started his season with a memorable double success against league leader Gaz Owen to move into second place himself.
Richard Biddle and Richard Owsley played out a double header which sandwiched the ceremonials, and came out almost even, Richard B winning 11-8 before succumbing 9-11 to Richard O.
But Simon Temme was not to be outdone, despatching Steffen Nowak handsomely, 11-1.
There was also a first-to-2 match in Premier Two Red!
Nick Barham and Mandy Macdonald had to adjourn their second encounter at 9-9 recently, but they resumed last night, and it was Mandy who came out on top, 11-10, to go top of the league.
There was also an eight player £5 jackpot, which saw Stuart Mann defeat Steve Morris in the final.
30/01/12: A busier than average Monday at the BCSC
Fourteen players were in action at the BCSC on Monday evening.
Twelve contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- two six player 3-point round robins -- while two others played out a gruelling Conference double header.
The Conference action was well received by Director Ian Tarr, who has made strenuous efforts to avoid a repeat of last year's embarrassing competition.
The matches, between Andy Brown and Gary Plant, brought the total number of matches played so far to four, exactly double the entire tally for last year!
Andy has been particularly active, having taken part in all four matches so far, but other matches have been arranged and things are looking promising.
After an 11-8 success for Andy in the opening encounter, Gary gained his revenge through an 11-3 victory.
Andy is now top of the league.
Meanwhile, in the advertised event, there was a welcome debut for Paul Everall, who took advantage of the zero payment option available on Mondays and had quite a full evening's entertainment.
In his group Chas Perry recorded a clean sweep of five wins, while the pot was shared in the other group when Bahman Salahshour and Ian Tarr each managed four wins.
Ian takes over as SGP leader, while previous leader Pearl Foster, now second overall, is still the leading intermediate in the competition.
26/01/12: Action from all four leagues!
Simon Temme and Richard Owsley each scored their first Premier One victories tonight -- at each other's expense -- on a pub crawl of Hotwells.
The Rose of Denmark was the venue as Simon grabbed his 11-4 win, and at 9-2 ahead he looked like adding to his tally at the Adam and Eve.
But Richard staged a dramatic recovery to win 11-9.
These were the first top flight wins for any of the three "new boys", but they are still without a win against top flight "veterans".
If, like the writer, any reader imagined that these two venues were Bristol Backgammon "virgins", then they would be wrong.
Cecilia Sparke beat Blaine Buchanan in a jackpot semi-final at the Rose of Denmark in 2008, while 2010 saw Richard Biddle defeating Harry Kauntze in a Conference encounter at the Adam and Eve.
Meanwhile, early Premier Two Blue leader Steve Morris and James Lintell-Smith met for a double header at the Kensington Arms, Redland, earlier this evening.
Honours were shared quite precisely, James drawing first blood with an 11-4 win, then Steve returning the compliment.
There was also an attempt at a Premier Two Red double header, when Nick Barham met Mandy Macdonald at the V-Shed.
Mandy notched her first Premier League win, 11-6, at which point the pair retired to a quieter venue, the Portwall Tavern.
Nick managed an 8-point reply to a 1-9 deficit in the return, before his last train beckoned, leaving the match tantalisingly poised at 9-9.
And encouragingly there was Conference action at the Live and Let Live, Frampton Cotterell, where Andy Brown secured his maiden league victory, 11-10 over Pearl Foster.
25/01/12: Doubles on Wednesday not a big hit
The bare minimum necessary to stage a Consulting Doubles Grand Prix tournament -- eight players -- turned up at the BCSC on Wednesday evening, a day before the event was originally scheduled.
Neil Young and Tony Walters took the honours as the first leaders of the 2012 CDGP, defeating Ian Tarr and Mandy Macdonald in the semis, before prevailing against Ed Turner and Anne Foreman in the final.
Nick Barham and Phillip Hill then beat Ian and Mandy in the consolation.
Ian did not have a blank evening, however, later defeating Tony Walters in the held over consolation final from the January Grand Prix tournament, and moving into third place in the OGP.
23/01/12: Bahman wins Monday Tric Trac Tourno
The latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix at the BCSC saw Bahman Salahshour take the honours in a nine player Tric Trac Tourno.
Pearl Foster takes over at the top of the SGP table, closely followed by Ian Tarr and Roland Herrera.
A five player DMP Tourno ensued, and customary late arrival Manesh took the pot.
19/01/12: JANUARY LEAGUE NIGHT NEWS ......
Sixteen players were in league action at three different venues on the first league night of the year.
19/01/12: Steffen, Dave and Tim in pursuit of Gaz ......
Until yesterday Gaz Owen had it all his own way in Premier One.
He turned up at the BCSC tonight hoping to beat Dave Pym and maintain his momentum.
Dave edged it 11-10, however, and signalled the fact that the chase for the top spot is very much on.
A further victory over Simon Temme, with a defeat by Steffen Nowak sandwiched in between, confirmed Dave as one of the pursuers.
Steffen followed his win over Dave with a more emphatic one over Simonetta Herrera, and with two wins out of two he is in second place.
The win over Dave was Steffen's hundredth in the Premier League, making him the seventh player to reach that landmark.
Meanwhile in the Lord Palmerston, London NW5, there was a double header between Richard Biddle and Tim Line, where Tim got his season back on track, winning 11-9 and 11-7.
Simonetta was the evening's only other top flight winner, beating Richard Owsley 11-2.
Whisper it, but the four promoted players have not yet registered a win, albeit unsurprisingly in Mike Smith's case, as he hasn't played yet.
19/01/12: Steve's double puts him top ......
Alan Parfitt left the BCSC believing that his 11-10 win over John Corrado had put him top of Premier Two Blue.
News came in later, however, of a double header at the Beaufort Arms, Hawkesbury Upton, where a visiting Steve Morris showed scant regard for Sean Hopson's hospitality by defeating him twice in emphatic style.
These were the first three results of the season in Blue Division, so Steve tops the pile.
19/01/12: Malcolm and Chas share the spoils ......
There was just a double header played in Premier Two Red, with Malcolm Patterson taking on Chas Perry.
Things went very much Malcolm's way in the opening encounter, with Chas failing to trouble the scorers.
But Chas fought back, winning the return by a big margin himself.
19/01/12: Pat the first Conference leader ......
After last season's disastrous Conference season the green shoots of recovery are well in evidence.
Twelve players are already signed up for the season's endeavours, and there will surely be more to come, with Director Ian Tarr determined to revive the fortunes of the competition.
The first match of the season was completed at the BCSC, and Pat Meek scored an 11-7 win to make her the division's first leader of the season.
18/01/12: Gaz still the only top flight winner
It's been a slow start to the new year's league season, although tomorrow's league night will undoubtedly kick start a few campaigns.
In Premier One there had only been two matches until this afternoon -- last week's double header between Tim Line and Gaz Owen, where Gaz scored a brace of emphatic wins.
Today Gaz took on Ian Tarr at St George's Hall, Redfield, and despite trailing 0-5 and later 7-8, Gaz was a winner again, this time by an 11-8 margin.
The win was his eighth in a row in the top flight, having won his last five last year, a sequence which has only been bettered five times in Premier One history.
17/01/12: Andrew kicks off Premier Two Red with two wins
The Knights Templar was the venue this evening when Premier Two Red got under way.
Mandy Macdonald was making her Premier League debut, but suffered two narrowish defeats at the hands of Andrew Cobb, who thus takes the early lead.
17/01/12: Long wait ends for Marcus in Brighton
After a succession of near misses over the past two or three years Marcus Wrinch has won a national title.
Marcus came out on top of a strong field of 90 players at BIBA's Bright 'n' Breezy knock-out event in Brighton at the weekend, defeating Raj Jansari in the final.
He had limbered up for the event at the BCSC on Thursday when he reached the quarter-finals, where he was eliminated by Dave Ablett.
17/01/12: Monday honours shared
Eight players, split into two 3-point round robins, saw honours spread around pretty evenly as the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix reached its second phase at the BCSC last night.
Everyone won either one or two matches, so those with two wins topped the groups.
In one group Pat Meek took the Monday zero payment option, so had to forego the chance of recompense, which worked to Pearl Foster's benefit.
The other group saw Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr share the pot.
Pearl and Roland now jointly head the SGP table, closely followed by Cynthia Roberts and Ian.
There was also time for a six player DMP Tourno, where Ian took the money.
13/01/12: JANUARY GRAND PRIX ROUND-UP ......
There was a gratifyingly large turnout for the opening Bristol Grand Prix tournament of the year at the BCSC last night.
Twenty-one players toed the start line.
And earlier, at Gaz Owen's home, the first two league fixtures of the year were completed.
13/01/12: Will Roland ever need to find the OGP Shield? ......
It's the time of the year when all those winning players have to return the annual trophies that have been in their tender and loving care (or otherwise) for the past year.
Roland Herrera, however, has a problem.
Having won the OGP in 2010, he needs to bring back the Shield for engraving so that the 2011 winner can receive the accolade on February 2nd.
But lengthy searches of the Herrera household have yet to locate the item in question, and Director Ian Tarr is now on tenterhooks, wondering whether or not the prize will be present and correct at the Awards Night.
The problem might be more serious if Roland hadn't actually ensured that his tenure as OGP champion extends another twelve months, after he became the second player to retain the title in December.
And if he was looking for even more time to locate the Shield, his victory in last night's tournament puts him on track to retain the title yet again, although of course there is still a very long way to go.
His victims last night were Cynthia Roberts, Sean Hopson, Dave Ablett and finally Jerry Limb, whose path to the final took him past Ian Tarr, Nick Barham and Tim Line.
Roland thus establishes a 35 points lead in the embryonic OGP table.
13/01/12: Tony and Ian in consolation final ......
Tony Walters and Ian Tarr will contest the consolation final of Thursday's tournament some time soon.
Tony defeated Steve Morris and Tina Mullins to make the final, while Ian was working his way through the long half of the draw by beating Gaz Owen, Steffen Nowak and Phillip Hill.
13/01/12: Tina stands alone in IGP ......
Tina Mullins was the only intermediate to contest last night's event, so it's not too surprising that she leads the IGP table.
She picked up 25 points, including 10 bonus points for defeating Premier Status player Cynthia Roberts in the consolation flight.
13/01/12: No slow play loggings! ......
The new slow play logging system failed to trap anyone last night.
Maybe this is a sign that the message is getting across. The coming months will provide the answer.
13/01/12: Roland ensures rollover ......
The February monthly grand prix tournament will receive a welcome boost in the form of an £80 Winner Takes All pool rollover.
Roland Herrera ensured this by winning the event after neglecting to invest in the WTA pool.
He is, however, almost certain to have the consolation of being an early qualifier for the 2013 Bristol Masters.
13/01/12: Gaz starts with a double success ......
The league season got under way at Gaz Owen's Kingswood home yesterday afternoon when Tim Line came visiting.
Gaz proved to be a slightly inhospitable host, however, when he recorded 11-1 and 11-3 victories to become the year's first leader of Premier One.
09/01/12: Cynthia takes Spring Grand Prix lead
The first Monday session of the year saw Cynthia Roberts come out on top of a nine player DMP Tourno -- the first phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix.
Cynthia won seven of her eight games to take the pot and establish an early lead in the SGP table.
There was a welcome debut appearance from Andy Brown, who consolidated on a fair start in the main event by being part of a three way tie in the follow up event -- sharing with Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr.
06/01/12: Ian wins first tournament of the year
The Bristol Backgammon season kicked off yesterday evening at the BCSC with the first of the six event series of Clock Grand Prix tournaments.
Eleven players turned out, including Simonetta Herrera who was defending her title.
Ian Tarr defeated Stuart Mann, Nick Barham and Gaz Owen to win the event, Gaz having moved through the "long" side of the draw with victories over Richard Owsley, Steffen Nowak and Chas Perry.
Stuart defeated Tony Walters, Richard and Steve Morris to take the consolation flight.
Ian is thus the early competition leader.
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