News items from 2015 (first half)
29/06/15: Bristol hosts a tournament full of surprises
The fourth UK Clubs Championship, a k a the Tutchings Trophy (so named to honour the event's founder Phil Tutchings), was played out at the Hanham Community Centre, Bristol, yesterday.
Fourteen teams of five players competed, North West and Liverpool from the north, Birmingham, Coventry and Worcester from the Midlands, Clapton, London Players League, St Albans "A" and St Albans "B" from the South East, "Team UK" -- a team of otherwise unattached players assembled at the last minute -- and four local teams, Bristol "A", Bristol "B", Bristol "C" and Bristol "D".
Ian Tarr directed the tournament on behalf of the UKBGF, with outstanding assistance from Andy Brown and Rob Wills.
The teams were split into two groups of seven, each team playing every other in the group in first-to-3-points matches.
In each team players were randomly assigned numbers #1 to #5 to facilitate identification of each individual opponent.
Among the hot favourites were holders Bristol "A" and the other previous winners, St Albans "A" and London Players League.
But this was to be an event packed with surprises.
As the groups got under way, the first notable feature was the holders' slow start in Group A.
Losing each of their first two matches 1-4, first to Coventry, then to London Players League, it was apparent that they had very little margin for error if they were finish in the top two to progress to the knock-out stage.
London Players League and tournament dark horses "Team UK" set the early pace, then LPL were defeated by St Albans "B".
But then the clash of the top two went the way of the Londoners.
St Albans "B" and Bristol "C" were staying in touch, as were Bristol "A" until St Albans "B" stopped their recovery in its tracks.
The holders' defence had proved unsuccessful earlier then anyone had anticipated.
Arriving at the last of the seven series of matches, LPL had played all their six matches and could only wait and hope that one of the two key results went their way.
St Albans' second string would surpass LPL with a victory over Bristol "C", while "Team UK" could even afford to lose 2-3 to hit the same target.
LPL's progress was assured when Bristol "C" prevailed.
This rendered "Team UK"'s 1-4 defeat by Bristol "A" less harmful than it would otherwise have been.
This incredibly tight group had finished with four teams level on four victories.
The tie break system was working overtime here.
"Team UK" and LPL progressed to the knock-outs, having won eighteen of their individual rubbers, compared to the seventeen of the other two contenders.
LPL took the top spot thanks to their victory over "Team UK".
In Group B Birmingham and North West were setting the pace right from the start.
And when the strong St Albans "A" side suffered early setbacks against North West and Clapton, they were playing catch up.
Going into the final series of matches North West were already assured of a place in the knock-outs.
The other place rested between Birmingham and St Albans.
A St Albans win over Bristol "D" and a Birmingham defeat by unbeaten North West would see the group favourites through.
The Hertfordshire side did their bit in emphatic style, but to no avail as Birmingham scored a fine win to secure their semi-final place.
So four teams were to play out the main flight, with the remaining ten in the consolation.
In the consolation, before reverting to 3-point matches from the quarter-final onwards, the bottom two teams in each group played a preliminary round of single point matches, and the winners of these were to put their earlier troubles behind them to make it all the way to the final.
Coventry put Liverpool, Bristol "C" and Clapton to the sword, while Bristol "D" -- featuring Peter Thistlewood, Ismail Yilmaz, Cynthia Roberts, Pearl Foster and Chris Hughes -- were triumphant over Worcester, St Albans "A" and Bristol "B".
And the least fancied of the Bristol teams carried on their stunning late afternoon form to win the flight.
Meanwhile the big guns were slogging it out for the main prizes.
"Team UK"'s first three results against Birmingham were all positive, so they were into the final.
The other semi went to the wire, however, but North West joined them with a 3-2 win.
The final was also the closest of encounters.
While Tim Cross and Rachel Rhodes were scoring North West wins over Chris Rogers and Andy Boysan, their team mates Andy Marshall and Mark Calderbank -- the only player out of seventy to win all six of his group matches -- were succumbing to Peter Christmas and Len Brown.
It all came down to Chris Derry and Anna Price in a fittingly close match.
At DMP "Team UK"'s Anna held a marginal racing advantage to the end to take the Tutchings Trophy for her team.
A successful event has been revived after a year out, and next year it is hoped that a northern venue will play host.
25/06/15: Blue Division lead changes hands twice in one evening
There were twelve players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, including the ten who contested the third phase in five of the Round Robin Grand Prix.
The exceptions were Andy Brown and Richard Owsley who fought out a Premier Two Blue double header.
Richard won the opener to move from third place to the top, at the expense of leader Paul Watts and Andy.
But his 11-7 victory was followed by a 6-11 reverse as it was Andy's turn to move into pole position.
The saving grace for Paul is that he has matches in hand over both.
The RRGP session featured two groups of five players playing round robins of five point matches.
Steve Morris managed a clean sweep of four wins to move thirty points clear in the RRGP reckoning.
In the other group Simonetta Herrera and Alex Hodge shared the pot with three wins apiece.
24/06/15: Stuart back at the top
Stuart Mann is back at the summit of Premier One after a brief meeting with Alex Hodge at the Bridge Inn, Yatton, today.
There were just three games -- a dropped cube, a double gammon and a quadruple gammon as Stuart completed the whitewash.
22/06/15: Summer Grand Prix lead changes hands again
There were fifteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, including the twelve who made up two six player DMP Tournos, the latest instalment of the .
Two league matches were played.
In Premier Three Alan Parfitt inflicted an 11-8 defeat on Adam Sinclair, while in the Conference League Mary French picked up her third successive victory, beating Jon Pemberton 11-9.
After the advertised event Alex Hodge and Stephen Little found time to make progress in their fifth round Brunel Trophy tie, which was adjourned with Stephen 8-4 ahead.
In the round robins Adam made up for his earlier disappointment with a clean sweep in one group, while in the other Stephen and Roland Herrera shared the spoils.
As is apparently now the custom, we have yet another new leader of the SGP table.
This week it's Stephen, although with four others within 25 points of him, it's anyone's guess who will be in pole position next week.
19/06/15: Alex bows out after narrow defeat
A narrow online defeat to Lawrence Powell today signalled the end of Alex Hodge's involvement in the inaugural UK Champions League.
London's Lawrence progresses to the knock-out phase from Group D along with our own Stuart Mann.
This means that five of the eight remaining players are London players, Bristol's remaining representatives being Stuart, Chas Perry and Steffen Nowak.
Assuming that the six dead rubbers in the group stage will not now be played -- as looks likely -- it's interesting to reflect that the win record from the 66 completed matches reads: London 34 Bristol 32.
19/06/15: Roland gets Brunel bye
Ismail Yilmaz kindly conducted the draw for the fifth round of this year's Brunel Trophy before Thursday's tournament.
With nine survivors in this double elimination event, there had to be another bye, and this went to one of the two eligible players whose opponents had the best collective records in the competition to date.
That lucky player was Roland Herrera.
The only one of the nine still undefeated -- James Newman -- faces Gaz Owen in what is arguably the tie of the round.
19/06/15: Simonetta rediscovers the art of winning
After something of a lean spell Simonetta Herrera is bouncing back with a vengeance.
Yesterday's march to the final of the Bristol Masters was followed today with a double league success against Gary Plant, who was visiting Kellaway Avenue.
It was far from easy, however, as the 11-10 and 11-8 margins will attest.
The results leave both players still in the bottom four of the Premier One table.
The second match was the 2,000th in the history of Premier One.
19/06/15: Alex one step from successful title defence
The fifteenth Bristol Masters took place at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, and 2014 Masters champion Alex Hodge stands just one step away from a successful title defence.
His only remaining obstacle is Simonetta Herrera, who reached the final via victories over Tony Walters, Steve Morris and Roland Herrera.
Alex defeated Jason Champion, Miles Farren and Nick Barham on his way to the final, which may be played on Monday.
Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr is likely to move the 2016 competition to an earlier slot in the calendar after having to work hard to fill the sixteen qualification slots for the second successive year.
No fewer than eight qualifiers or reserves turned down the chance to take part in a competition which at one time players were desperate to play in.
To be fair, living in Japan was an eminently understandable excuse for one player this time around.
Meanwhile, alongside the main event, Mary French continued to show signs of progress almost exactly a year after her first appearance at a Monday session as a raw beginner.
Her 11-8 victory over Conference leader Ismail Yilmaz was her second successive league win.
16/06/15: Ed goes top
With his second and third wins in two days Ed Turner today became the latest player to hit the top of Premier One.
His double header at the Merchants Arms, Eastville, resulted in 11-9 and 11-5 wins over Simon Baker.
16/06/15: Eighteen in Monday action
There were eighteen Bristol players in various forms of action on Monday, including the fourteen who contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix at the Bristol County Sports Club, which comprised three 3-point round robin groups.
The afternoon saw a rare Premier One defeat for Stuart Mann, who went down 8-11 to Ed Turner at the Bridge Inn, Yatton.
And before the tournament the fourth round of the Brunel Trophy came to an early conclusion when both outstanding ties were decided.
Alex Hodge defeated Neil Young, while Peter Thistlewood was despatching John Chester.
John was the only one of the four to say farewell to the competition, as that was his second and final life lost.
Nine players remain in the competition, and the draw has now been brought forward a week to June 18th.
The evening's central event featured two groups of five players and one of four.
In the smaller group the pot was shared three ways, including an initial success for new player Martin Nosko.
One of the larger groups also saw a split pot, between George Georgiou and James Newman, while the other was won outright by John Chester.
And for the second successive week the SGP leader dropped four places!
Roland Herrera had a blank night, and Ismail Yilmaz moves to pole position, followed closely by Jason Champion, Simonetta Herrera, Stephen Little and Roland.
Meanwhile, online, Steffen Nowak was recording some splendid results against World Backgammon Giant #36 Raj Jansari.
Playing their trio of UK Champions League Group A matches, Steffen won two out of three, including an 11-0 whitewash, to ensure that he and London's Geoff Oliver will progress to the knock-out phase at the expense of the two players who might initially have been considered favourites -- Raj and our own Gaz Owen.
12/06/15: Roland wins June Grand Prix tournament
Only twelve players were at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday for the sixth of our monthly grand prix tournaments, a k a the 95th Lesters Trophy event.
And Roland Herrera won the main flight, defeating Stuart Mann 11-5 in the final.
Stuart came through the "long" side of the draw, beating Ian Tarr, Tim Line and Adam Sinclair, while Roland was progressing via a bye and wins over Steve Morris and Cecilia Sparke.
Jason Champion won the consolation flight, via a bye and victories over Steve and Ian.
Roland was not an investor in the Winner Takes All pool, so there will be a £50 rollover to the July tournament.
Steve still leads the OGP, but his lead has been whittled down to eleven points by Ian.
But for the second month running intermediates were conspicuous by their absence, so while the IGP leadership is still owned by Ismail Yilmaz, there appears to be a marked reluctance to compete for what is an important title.
09/06/15: Roland wins Monday DMP event
Ten players contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix at the Bristol County Sports Club.
And Roland Herrera took the DMP Tourno pot with seven wins out of nine.
Previous SGP leader Stephen Little was absent, and now finds himself down in fifth place, overhauled by new leader Roland, Jason Champion, Ismail Yilmaz and Simonetta Herrera.
06/06/15: Simonetta and Ian cancel each other out; Steve exits Brunel Trophy
Friday's action took place on adjacent tables at Kellaway Avenue.
Steve Morris became the latest Brunel Trophy casualty when he was defeated 11-3 by Roland Herrera.
Alongside this encounter there was a UK Champions League double header.
With sixteen out of eighteen Group B matches gone, everything was up for grabs.
Two wins for Simonetta Herrera would see her and Eric McAlpine move through to the knock-out phase, while the opposite result would be good news for her opponent Ian Tarr and Ken Gibson.
When Simonetta won the opener 11-8 this meant Ian was out and Eric was through.
However things took a drastic turn in the second match, Ian winning 11-2, which meant that the Bristol pair had effectively killed each other off, leaving the London pair as the qualifiers from what could hardly have been a tighter group.
05/06/15: Stuart heads Premier League again
Eighteen players were in action on Thursday, including fifteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom eleven contested the third of this year's six Clock Blitz Grand Prix events.
In Premier One Steve Morris set himself a difficult task with two matches in Redland.
Facing Bristol's two top ranked players, he succumbed 9-11 to Gaz Owen and 7-11 to Stuart Mann.
This second result saw Stuart reach top spot in the top flight for the second time in two days, and the title race would appear to rest between Stuart, Cecilia Sparke and Gaz.
Three Premier Two Blue matches were played out at the main venue -- Fred North and Richard Owsley sharing the spoils of a double header, while Andy Brown was slipping from top spot on average points difference, losing 8-11 to Peter Thistlewood, and elevating Paul Watts to pole position.
In the Clock Blitz the eleven contestants were split into groups of six and five.
Both groups were won outright -- by Jason Champion in the larger group and Roland Herrera.
Roland has cut Simonetta Herrera's CBGP lead from 45 points to fifteen, with Simon Hughes 45 points further back in third place.
03/06/15: Premier League lead changes hands twice in a day
Four physical matches were played today, which featured six results and two new Bristol Backgammon venues.
On the surface that statement makes little sense, until one remembers the option of doubling up a single physical match as a result in two separate competitions.
This comparatively rare occurrence happened twice today.
The first instance saw Alex Hodge meeting Stuart Mann at the Bridge Inn, Yatton -- a match which doubled up as both a Bristol Premier League Division One match and a UK Champions League match.
Stuart's 11-4 win moved him past Alex to the summit of Premier One and also leaves him well placed to progress from Group D of the UKCL into the knock-out phase.
The second double match took place at the Star, Congresbury, and Gaz Owen suffered a 9-11 defeat to Nick Barham which keeps him a little off the Premier One pace as well as joining the bulk of the Brunel Trophy survivors with one life remaining.
For Nick, Brunel Trophy survival and a continuation of his top flight form improvement made it a satisfactory day.
Meanwhile at the second of our new venues -- BSB on Whiteladies Road -- one player who didn't survive to the fifth round of the Brunel Trophy was Ian Tarr, who was comprehensively beaten by Adam Sinclair.
And this evening's top flight encounter saw Cecilia Sparke regain top spot in Premier One, leapfrogging both Alex and Stuart courtesy of an 11-4 victory over Phil Charlton at the Hen and Chicken.
02/06/15: Fourteen in Monday action
There were fourteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, including one welcome debutant, George Georgiou.
Before the evening's tournament an important loose end was tied up when Horst Stenzel and Ismail Yilmaz played the main final of Thursday's Handicap Trophy event.
Horst won 7-4 and replaces Simon Hughes at the top of the HT table.
And a Premier Three match, also completed before the tournament, saw victory for Adam Sinclair over Chris Hughes.
Alongside the advertised event Simon extended his Premier Two Red lead with a narrow win over Pearl Foster.
The twelve players in the tournament -- which was run by Simonetta Herrera in the absence of the usual Director -- were arranged into two six player 3-point round robins.
One of these saw an outright win for Roland Herrera, while the other saw the pot shared between Simonetta and Ismail Yilmaz.
Stephen Little still leads the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix table, with Ismail in second place.
Meanwhile Ismail has become the year's first new player to achieve Premier Status for 2016, courtesy of his accumulation of more than fifty points in the Race to the Premier League totting up procedure.
01/06/15: Chris beats Simon in Bedminster
There was a further develpment in Premier Three yesterday.
Chris Hughes met Simon Temme at the Hare and won 11-2.
Strictly speaking, the result was reported too late to affect the penalty points scenario described in the previous story.
However Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr has decided to allow the result to reduce Simon's penalty tally to two points.
01/06/15: Three pick up penalty points
Progress in the four divisions of the Bristol Premier League has been generally good so far this season.
But three players have picked up penalty points at the May 31st checkpoint, and they have each been docked three points for being three matches short of the requirement.
However Tim Line in Premier Two Red and Alan Parfitt and Simon Temme in Premier Three can claw their points back by complying with the terms of the July 31st checkpoint.
31/05/15: Sixth Friday result emerges
There was actually a sixth Premier League match played on Friday, but the result has only just emerged.
This was the Premier Three meeting of Rob Brito and Chris Hughes at the Hen and Chicken.
Chris won 11-6, and the result should ensure a very interesting run in.
Stephen Little and Jason Champion are very strongly placed to take the top two promotion slots, but the third slot appears to be wide open.
29/05/15: Five Premier League matches played on Friday
There was a small flurry of activity on Friday, no doubt prompted by the proximity of the May 31st checkpoint.
In a Premier One double header at Kellaway Avenue visiting Simon Baker plundered a pair of wins to alleviate his relegation concerns while adding to those of his opponent Simonetta Herrera.
The Victoria Park Tavern was the scene of another double header, this time in Premier Two Blue.
Here Mike Smith was the beneficiary of a double success, at the expense of Peter Thistlewood.
And back at our Bristol County Sports Club HQ there was a Premier Three victory for Drew Caudwell over Malcolm Patterson.
29/05/15: Simon is first fourth round Brunel casualty
There were eighteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday evening, every one of them contesting the third of this year's Handicap Trophy events.
Simon Hughes and Stephen Little got there early and completed the first of the fourth round Brunel Trophy ties, Stephen winning narrowly to survive to the fifth round, while Simon has lost his second and final life.
In the tournament two players with handicaps of 3 have made it all the way to the main final, which is scheduled for Monday evening.
Horst Stenzel's victims were Steve Morris, Cynthia Roberts and Roland Herrera, while Ismail Yilmaz made it past Ed Turner, Chris Hughes and Adam Sinclair.
In the consolation it was Derek Wright, another with a 3 handicap, who took the flight, defeating Michael Clarke, Simon and Nick Barham.
Simon's Handicap Trophy lead has been cut to 15 points, with Adam now in second place.
And the revolutionary side pool grand prix devised by sponsor Ed also sees Simon at the top, with a 40 points cushion over second placed Ed.
27/05/15: James wins battle of the Smiths
Ye Shakespeare in Victoria Street was the venue early this evening for a Premier Two Blue double header.
It was also the venue for a Great Western Grecians meeting, but let's gloss over that.
The opening match saw a resounding 11-2 win for James Lintell-Smith over Mike Smith, and while the return encounter was a lot closer, it was again James who prevailed, 11-9.
He leapfrogs Mike in the league table.
26/05/15: Double win for Phil
Phil Charlton visited Kellaway Avenue this evening and came away with a brace of 11-7 wins.
The wins have lifted him out of the bottom four in Premier One, while at the same time leaving his opponent, Simonetta Herrera, right there.
26/05/15: Neil suffers promotion setback
Neil Young ensured that he would claw back the penalty points he incurred in March by completing the requisite number of matches for the May checkpoint this afternoon.
This was not without cost, however, as he suffered a 2-11 Premier Two Red defeat to Dave Pym at the Fox Den, Stoke Gifford.
22/05/15: Nick scores double over Ed
In a Premier One double header today at the Old Colonial, Weston-super-Mare, Nick Barham alleviated his relegation fears while striking a massive blow to Ed Turner's title hopes.
It was one way traffic with 11-4 and 11-0 victories for Nick.
22/05/15: Ian wins GP5 event
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, including the twelve who contested the third of this year's six GP5 tournaments.
Five league matches were completed, including a top of the table Premier One clash at the Bridge Inn, Yatton.
Here Stuart Mann defeated Ed Turner 11-9, and is ominously poised in fourth place with matches in hand over his rivals.
The Fox Den, Stoke Gifford, became the latest new Bristol Backgammon venue when Neil Young defeated Pearl Foster 11-2 in Premier Two Red.
The expected promotion challenge from Neil which failed to materialise last year, looks a lot more likely this year.
In the parallel Blue Division there was a double header at the Pump House.
James Lintell-Smith beat Andy Boysan 11-9 in the opener, but Andy had his revenge, winning the return encounter 11-8.
And at the Bristol County Sports Club Stephen Little moved back to the head of the Premier Three table when his adjourned match against Chris Hughes finished 11-8 in his favour.
Also at the main venue, the final piece of the third round Brunel Trophy jigsaw fell into place when Neil edged out Richard Owsley.
The defeat spelled the end of Richard's involvement in the competition, leaving thirteen players in the fourth round draw, which Richard kindly performed after his elimination.
James Newman earned the right to the competition's first bye, being the top performer of the three unbeaten players, by virtue of his opponents' win total.
In the advertised event Nick Barham and Ian Tarr made it through to the final, Nick disposing of Simon Hughes, Chris Hughes and Roland Herrera en route, while Ian was progressing via a bye and wins over Richard and John Chester.
Ian scraped home to victory in the tightest of finals.
Alex Hodge won the consolation flight after victories over Adam Sinclair and Steve Morris.
Nick takes over at the top of the GP5 table, having been the model of consistency so far in reaching all three main flight finals, albeit without winning one of them.
21/05/15: League wins for Stuart, Mandy and James
Three league matches took place last night.
The Portcullis, Staple Hill, was the scene for a Premier One clash between Phil Charlton and Stuart Mann.
Stuart edged home 11-10 to press his title claims.
Back at the Bristol County Sports Club Eamonn Reay played a brace of Premier Two Red matches.
But his promotion hopes took a couple of knocks with defeats to Mandy Macdonald and James Newman.
James is looking strong in second place.
20/05/15: Eamonn the latest Brunel casualty
The latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy is Eamonn Reay.
His 9-11 defeat to Gaz Owen occurred this lunch-time at a new venue for Bristol Backgammon, the Robin Hood, St. Michael's Hill.
Gaz and James Newman are the only players who still have two lives remaining, but they could be joined by Neil Young if he can defeat Richard Owsley before tomorrow's 7pm draw.
Expect more results from Eamonn later today as he fits in some league action on this, his latest flying visit from Galway.
19/05/15: Nick and Phil trade blows at the Sports Club
A Premier One double header at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening saw honours even between Nick Barham and Phil Charlton.
Nick won the opener 11-9 before succumbing 6-11 in the return.
19/05/15: Chas advances to Champions League knock-out phase
The group phase of the UK Champions League has until the end of June to complete.
And the first group has now finished, after a double header between Chas Perry and Ed Turner in Fishponds this morning.
Honours were shared, which was enough to ensure that Chas progresses to the knock-out phase along with Group C winner Peter Bennet.
Ed finishes fourth in the group, behind Sean Williams.
18/05/15: Ian wins Monday Tric Trac
There were sixteen players in action on Monday, including twelve at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom eleven contested the second phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
Ed Turner moved into second place in Premier One when he defeated Phil Charlton 11-5 at the King William IV, Staple Hill.
In a Premier Two Blue double header at the Pump House Andy Boysan and Andy Brown shared the spoils, allowing Andy Brown to regain top spot.
And back at HQ Jason Champion pipped Rob Brito in a resumed Premier Three match, thus moving to the top of that division.
And Simonetta Herrera became the latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy when she was defeated by Adam Sinclair.
In the Tric Trac Tourno four players scored very well, Ian Tarr just edging ahead of the others to take the pot.
Stephen Little retains the SGP lead he established last week, with Ian and Jason equal second.
18/05/15: Julian and Pearl in Birmingham successes
Two players with Bristol connections did well in Saturday's Birmingham Open.
Julian Fetterlein took the main title, while Pearl Foster got to the final of the last chance flight, electing to concede when it became apparent that there would be a long delay before an opponent would emerge.
16/05/15: Nick wins May grand prix; James goes second
Two more pieces of action from Friday and Saturday concerned Premier Two Red and the May grand prix tournament.
Yesterday at the King William Ale House James Newman scored an 11-4 victory over Mandy Macdonald which moved him up to second in the Red Division.
And today at the Merchants Arms, Hotwells, Nick Barham defeated Ian Tarr 11-8 to win the fifth of our monthly grand prix events.
This result means that Ian has missed a chance to dislodge Steve Morris at the top of the OGP table, while the win moves Nick up to fourth place.
15/05/15: Nick and Ian to contest May grand prix final
There were nineteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, including the sixteen who contested the fifth of this year's monthly grand prix tournaments.
A couple of matches were adjourned to facilitate the start of the tournament.
These were a Brunel Trophy encounter between Richard Owsley and Neil Young -- tantalisingly poised at 8-8 -- and a Premier Three match between Jason Champion and Rob Brito, score unknown.
A Premier Two Blue double header was played out alongside the tournament, Paul Watts scoring a brace of wins over Andrew Cobb to move back to the top of the league.
The tournament itself saw Nick Barham and Ian Tarr winning through to the main flight final, which will no doubt be played soon.
Nick defeated Richard, Alex Hodge and Simonetta Herrera en route to the final, while Ian was getting past John Chester, Roland Herrera and Steffen Nowak.
Both players invested in the Winner Takes All pool, so there will be no rollover to the June tournament.
Richard won the consolation flight, defeating Chris Hughes, Stephen Little and Rob in the process.
Meanwhile one of the most eagerly awaited clashes in this year's Brunel Trophy will not now take place.
Stuart Mann was due to meet Roland in the third round, but has withdrawn because of other commitments -- the conceptual defeat spelling the end of his involvement in this year's competition.
13/05/15: Double success for Neil
Neil Young scored a brace of Premier Two Red victories over Mandy Macdonald at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening.
With the second promotion place wide open -- albeit that leader Simon Hughes still has some work to do despite being strongly odds on to take one of them -- Neil has now positioned himself well for the run in.
13/05/15: Brunel close shave for Ian
Ian Tarr today kept his Brunel Trophy hopes alive with the narrowest of wins over Peter Thistlewood at the Bristol County Sports Club.
This was a result which looked unlikely after Peter surged from 1-3 down into a 9-3 lead.
Both players have one life remaining.
12/05/15: Alex takes over at the top
A Premier One double header at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening saw honours even between Phil Charlton and Alex Hodge.
Alex won the opener 11-6, but succumbed 9-11 in the return.
The win made Alex the latest player to lead the top flight, taking over from Cecilia Sparke, while Phil is off the bottom of the league at Steffen Nowak's expense.
12/05/15: Stephen is first Summer Grand Prix leader
Eleven players engaged in Monday action at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the ten who contested the opening phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
Before the advertised event Alex Hodge fitted in his third round Brunel Trophy match, where he suffered his first defeat of the competition to Simon Hughes.
Both players have a life remaining.
Two five player groups made up the SGP event, where the theme of the day was 3-point round robins.
The draw seemed a little lop sided, and one group might be considered as one of the strongest ever to feature in a Monday event.
Stephen Little made it a clean sweep in that one, while the spoils of the other group were jointly shared by Pearl Foster and Chris Hughes.
Stephen is thus the early SGP leader.
10/05/15: Tim's London Open win not the only Bristol success
The weekend's London Open -- rescued by the UKBGF at short notice -- has been a real success.
And from a Bristol viewpoint it was certainly no different, as a handful of our Premier League players were among the star performers.
The central event, the London Open itself, was won by Tim Line, who emerged from the field of over 100 players to line up in today's quarter-finals.
And with victories over Julian Minwalla, Andrew Gibson and Kenroy Brown in the final he clinched arguably his biggest career win.
Alongside the main event there was a Super Jackpot, a Professionals flight, and the Hippodrome Cup, with entry set at £500, £250 and £50 respectively, while the free entry London Shield catered for all those not involved in the other flights on Sunday.
Stuart Mann was close to success in the Professionals, losing out to Sean Casey in the semis.
And two Bristol players, Tim and James Newman found themselves in the quarter-finals of the Hippodrome Cup as today began.
Both won their quarter-finals, and met in the semis, James prevailing and going on to win the final against Paul Fredheim!
08/05/15: Sixteen in Thursday action
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, including twelve at the Bristol County Sports Club, ten of whom contested the second of this year's Round Robin Grand Prix events.
There was also league action, where the order of the day was a shared double header.
In Premier Two Red it was Dave Pym and Neil Young trading blows at the main venue.
In the parallel Blue Division it was Andrew Cobb and Fred North at the Larkhall Inn, Bath, while at the Adam and Eve it was Richard Owsley and Mike Smith.
And before playing in the evening's advertised event Rob Brito and Steffen Nowak had time to play last week's Clock Grand Prix final, Rob prevailing to go fourth in the CTGP table.
The ten contestants in the RRGP -- including Vic Sprake visiting from Clonakilty -- were split into two groups of five.
Both groups featured shared pots -- Roland Herrera and Steve Morris scoring three wins apiece in one group, Steffen and Ian Tarr doing likewise in the other.
Roland and Steve now share the lead in the RRGP table, with Stephen Little just five points behind.
06/05/15: Alex goes second
Alex Hodge was involved in another Premier One double header this afternoon.
His opponent at the Bristol County Sports Club was Ian Tarr.
Ian won the opening encounter 11-5, and after falling 0-3 behind in the second he went 8-5 ahead in the return.
But he failed to score another point, and Alex's 11-8 victory was enough to move him up to second in the league.
04/05/15: Alex and Ed trade Premier One blows
Two of the top five contenders for the Premier One title met in a double header at the Ship, Park Row, this evening.
And it turned out to be honours near enough even as Alex Hodge defeated Ed Turner 11-6 before Ed turned the tables to win the return 11-4.
The second match brought Alex's fine run of league wins to an end.
His sequence of eight successes has only been bettered six times in top flight history.
01/05/15: Record CTGP turnout at the Bristol County Sports Club
Thursday saw twenty-five players in action, including twenty-three at the Bristol County Sports Club, twenty of whom contested the latest instalment of the Clock Grand Prix.
Although one or two pilot clock events in 2007 and 2008 attracted more entries, this constituted a CTGP record turnout, the inaugural event in 2009 having boasted the previous highest entry of eighteen.
Amongst the field were two Thursday debutants.
Jon Pemberton had already visited several times on Monday and has also joined the Conference League, but Bez Chokami arrived completely out of the blue, and despite having no previous experience with clocks and precious little with the doubling cube, was brave enough to take the plunge.
Coincidentally Jon and Bez were drawn together in their opening match and Bez scored his first victory.
Jon was to fare better in the consolation flight.
The main flight finalists, who will no doubt do battle soon, are Steffen Nowak -- conqueror of Ian Tarr, Simon Hughes, Alex Hodge and Steve Morris -- and Rob Brito, who arrived in the final via a bye and wins over Roland Herrera, Richard Owsley and Simonetta Herrera.
Nick Barham took the consolation flight, beating Cynthia Roberts, Stephen Little and Ian before despatching Jon in the final.
Simonetta did enough to edge five points ahead of Ian at the summit of the CTGP table, while Steffen can reach third place with a final win.
There was also Brunel Trophy action, with two more players suffering their second defeats in the competition and thus making their respective exits.
Andy Boysan lost out with some rapidity to Steve Morris, while Ed Turner's exit was more tortuous, 10-11 to John Chester.
In the leagues, the only action away from HQ witnessed a further changing of the guard at the top of Premier One.
The Ashville in Southville was the venue as Cecilia Sparke allowed Steve Morris only a single day at the top.
Her 11-6 victory over Stuart Mann reinforces her title challenge, while inflicting a rare blow to Stuart's.
The other league results were tidying up exercises, with two previously adjourned matches reaching their conclusion.
In Premier Two Red Simon Hughes's outstanding sequence of victories came to an end thanks to James Newman, while there was little to signal Rob's later tournament exploits when he lost out narrowly to Chris Hughes in Premier Three.
30/04/15: Alex joins the contenders
Alex Hodge's start to life in Premier One was not what he would have wanted.
Four successive defeats did not appear to augur well for his season.
But since then Alex has not lost any of his seven league matches, with his latest brace of victories -- over Simon Baker at the Bristol County Sports Club -- moving him right into to the group of championship contenders.
Steve Morris could become a contender, too.
His 11-7 win over Phil Charlton at the Portcullis moved him back to the top, but with seventeen results already under his belt, he needs to win all or most of his remaining matches to stand a realistic chance.
James Newman was another to have a good day.
It started with a Premier Two Red victory over fellow promotion contender Pearl Foster at Brimsham Park, Yate.
And it ended at the Star and Dove, where his latest Brunel Trophy victory spelled the end of Steffen Nowak's involvement in that double elimination competition.
28/04/15: Simon extends Red Division lead
A double header at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening saw Simon Hughes extend his Premier Two Red lead to a gigantic 21 points.
His victim, losing 11-2 and 11-9, was Dave Pym.
Simon's current winning league sequence stands at eleven -- the third longest run in Premier Two history.
27/04/15: Mary wins first league match
There were eleven players in action on Monday evening at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the nine who participated in the final phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix.
The only league action centred around the Conference League, where there were a couple of firsts.
Jon Pemberton registered his first ever league result, having adjourned recently 6-4 ahead of Ismail Yilmaz.
Unfortunately for Jon, Ismail was the only one to score points on the resumption, winning 11-6 and moving seven points clear at the top of the league.
The other first was recorded by Mary French -- her first ever league win, 11-6 over Horst Stenzel.
The Spring Grand Prix featured Nackgammon Tournos -- with one group of five players, the other of four.
Jason Champion won one group outright, while the pot in the other group was shared by Alex Hodge and Jon.
So despite failing to add to his points tally on the night SGP leader Ian Tarr took the title, fifteen points ahead of second placed Chris Hughes, with Stephen Little and Jason eight and fifteen points further back respectively.
Ismail won the leading intermediate prize, 98 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Horst.
In the Drew Caudwell sponsored Monday Club Nackgammon Championship Chris has moved into the lead with three instalments to come.
There was also time for a four player double-DMP Tourno, where Jason added to his winnings.
24/04/15: Gaz closes on Premier One lead
In a top of the table clash at the Hen and Chicken, Bedminster, this evening defending champion Gaz Owen defeated Cecilia Sparke 11-6 to go second in the table, just behind Cecilia.
The margin of her Premier One lead is tenuous, however.
Had Gaz won 11-5 it would be him at the top of the pile.
Meanwhile at the Windmill James Newman was an 11-4 winner against Mandy Macdonald in Premier Two Red.
24/04/15: UK Champions League Groups B and C near completion
The six month time span allowed for the group phase of the inaugural UK Champions League is now nearly two thirds of the way towards completion.
While Group A has barely started and Group D is around half way towards finishing, the other two groups are very close to the end with only one issue definitely sorted for the eight players involved.
In Group C, Ealing's Peter Bennet is the first player in the whole competition to be assured of a place in the knock-out stage, his six wins out of nine meaning he will finish top of Group C.
This news has just emerged after a double success on GridGammon against Bristol's Chas Perry.
With just two matches in the group remaining -- all Bristol affairs between Chas and Ed Turner -- Chas will take the other qualifying slot if he can beat Ed just once.
Should he fail to do so, then Londoner Sean Williams would probably qualify, unless Ed's wins were to be by a most emphatic margin, in which case Ed would squeeze through.
Group B is even closer with two matches remaining.
Here the London representatives -- Ken Gibson and Eric McAlpine -- have both completed their programmes with five wins out of nine.
And yet neither is sure of qualifying, as it all depends on the outstanding matches between the two Bristol representatives in the group, Simonetta Herrera and Ian Tarr.
If they win one apiece Eric and Ken will progress, while a double win for Simonetta would see her going through with Eric, and a double win for Ian would make him and Ken the qualifiers, such are the ramifications of the tie-break regime.
23/04/15: Alex on the move
Starting life in the top flight with four successive defeats may have been a disquieting start for Alex Hodge, but he now appears to have put that well and truly behind him.
A double success over Steffen Nowak at the Star and Dove this evening featured his fourth and fifth successive Premier One wins, while Steffen is not yet showing signs of recovering from his similarly disappointing start.
23/04/15: Gaz bounces back to win GP30 event
The start to Gaz Owen's backgammon day was an inauspicious one as he lost a Premier One encounter with Steve Morris, which began at the Kensington Arms and ended at the Bristol County Sports Club just before the evening's GP30 event, which was contested by twelve players.
But things picked up when Gaz defeated Cecilia Sparke, Ian Tarr and Tony Walters before edging out Stuart Mann in the GP30 main flight final.
Stuart had progressed via a bye and wins over Alex Hodge and Nick Barham.
Alex won the consolation flight, beating Blaine Buchanan, Stephen Little and Cecilia Sparke.
Ian's GP30 lead was halved as Gaz moves into second place, with Stuart third.
The first result is in from the third round of the Brunel Trophy double elimination event.
Nick may have beaten Stephen in the tournament, but Stephen got his revenge in the Brunel, leaving both players with a single life remaining.
21/04/15: Simon still setting a hot pace
Premier Two Red is beginning to resemble a race to accompany Simon Hughes to promotion.
Although it's too early to draw any absolute conclusions, Simon's tenth and eleventh wins of the league season -- over Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill -- have given him a fifteen point cushion at the top of the league.
21/04/15: Stephen wins Monday round robin
There were thirteen players at the latest Bristol County Sports Club Monday session, including Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr who assumed a non-playing role.
In the leagues Andy Brown extended his lead in Premier Two Blue, but only just, as he edged home 11-10 against Fred North.
Tom Chapman defeated Mary French 11-4 to move into second place in the Conference League.
And two Premier Three matches were adjourned -- coincidentally both at 10-8, one Crawford, one post-Crawford -- to allow protagonists to play in the round robin.
Speaking of which, there were six players in what was the penultimate phase of this year's Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a three point round robin.
Stephen Little made it a clean sweep of five victories to take the pot, and moved into third place, still with a realistic chance of catching SGP leader Ian at next week's final phase, which features Nackgammon Tournos.
Second placed Chris Hughes missed a chance to take advantage of Ian's inactivity by failing to add to his points tally.
19/04/15: GP30 tournament switched to Wednesday
Bristol Backgammon apologises profusely for any inconvenience caused, but it has been necessary to bring this week's GP30 tournament forward a day.
There is a function at the club which will render the venue unplayable in a backgammon sense on Thursday, so the event will now take place on Wednesday.
17/04/15: Record clock blitz turnout at the Sports Club
Eighteen players were in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, including an all-time record for the event of fifteen to contest the latest Clock Blitz Grand Prix evening.
Gaz Owen and Rob Brito scored victories in Premier One and Premier Three respectively, Gaz defeating Nick Barham 11-8, while Rob was accounting for Malcolm Patterson by 11-5.
The fifteen in the blitz round robin event were split into three groups of five, two of which were won outright.
Amongst the field were such backgammon luminaries as world backgammon giant #2 Michihito Kageyama, on one of his too infrequent visits from Japan, and London's Eric McAlpine, who captains the UK online team.
Cynthia Roberts was the only player to win all four matches, while Jason Champion's tally of three wins was also enough to win his group.
The other group featured a three way tie for the pot between Michi, Simonetta Herrera, and Steffen Nowak.
And after the event we had the rare luxury of a chouette.
Before the event Ismail Yilmaz kindly conducted the draw for the third round of this year's Brunel Trophy.
Pick of the ties looks like Roland Herrera versus Stuart Mann, a match where one is sure to be eliminated, as each has only one life remaining.
All six of the twenty players remaining who are still undefeated were drawn in separate matches, so in theory at least it's possible that everyone might be fighting for survival in round four.
15/04/15: James and Steffen score Brunel victories
The Shakespeare in Prince Street was the venue this evening for a second round Brunel Trophy match between James Newman and Ian Tarr.
Ian had the early ascendancy, but having led 6-2, failed to score another point.
Meanwhile at the Star and Dove the other remaining second round match saw Steffen Nowak score an emphatic win over Stuart Mann.
James is thus one of six players yet to be beaten, while Ian, Steffen and Stuart each have one life remaining.
15/04/15: Gary getting value for money
Gary Plant has been back in Premier One action with three matches, every one of which has featured an 11-10 scoreline.
Yesterday at the Pump House it was a double header with Nick Barham, where both matches featured a double backgammon in Gary's favour.
Nick pegged him back both times, however, winning the first match at DMP and losing the second at DMP.
Today Gary took on Ian Tarr at the Compass, Tormarton, in a match where there was never more than a two point margin.
From 8-10 down, Ian managed to win the last two games to edge home.
14/04/15: John beats Eamonn at the Sports Club
The Bristol County Sports Club was the venue this afternoon when Eamonn Reay played the last match of his brief visit from Galway.
John Corrado was his Red Division opponent, and it was John who scored an 11-6 victory.
14/04/15: Ian dashes rollover hopes
There were nineteen players in action on Monday, including the two whose exploits were reported earlier.
Premier Two Red, Premier Three, the Conference and the Brunel Trophy all saw action before or alongside the evening's advertised event, while the final of Thursday's April Grand Prix tournament was played afterwards.
Pearl Foster played two Red Division matches at the Bristol County Sports Club, defeating Eamonn Reay 11-2 before succumbing 7-11 to Simon Hughes, who continues to set a hot pace at the top of the league.
Stephen Little moved back to the top of Premier Three with an 11-5 win over Rob Brito.
Jon Pemberton sampled Conference League play for the first time, moving 6-4 ahead of Ismail Yilmaz before adjourning.
And Eamonn moved on to the Pump House, where he met Andy Boysan in the tightest of Brunel Trophy encounters, Andy prevailing.
Eleven players started the Tric Trac Tourno which served as the latest instalment of Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, but only ten finished!
Rob Comanzo, accommodated as a late entrant, mysteriously went missing after playing five of his ten games, leaving Director Ian Tarr with no alternative but to wipe those five games from the record, an action which harmed Ismail's chances of cashing, although Alex Hodge would have taken the money regardless.
Second placed Ian scored enough points to take the SGP lead from Chris Hughes with two events remaining, while Ismail is nailed on as the competition's leading intermediate.
Ian and Simonetta Herrera moved on to Kellaway Avenue after the event to play out Thursday's held over final.
Ian made the early running, moving 7-0 ahead, but Simonetta rallied, closing to 8-9.
At this point Ian was brave or foolhardy enough to take Simonetta's excellent cube, and dug in to take the match.
So there's no Winner Takes All pool rollover for the May event, and Ian moves ahead of Simonetta into second place in the OGP table.
13/04/15: John wins at the Windmill
Mandy Macdonald and John Corrado met at the Windmill this afternoon for a Premier Two Red match, and it was John who edged home 11-10.
A further Red Division result is expected later from the Bristol County Sports Club, where Pearl Foster and Eamonn Reay are the protagonists.
12/04/15: Cecilia topples Ed
When Ed Turner met Cecilia Sparke at the Ostrich this afternoon there was more than usual at stake.
As Ed led the Premier One league table on average points difference from three others, including Cecilia, pole position at close of play would go to the victor.
And when he moved into an 8-0 lead it seemed he would hold onto top spot.
Cecilia launched a comeback, however, and prevailed 11-9 to return to the top herself.
10/04/15: Simonetta and Ian to contest April Grand Prix final
There were nineteen players in action in Thursday -- seventeen of them contesting the April Grand Prix tournament at the Bristol County Sports Club.
The exceptions were Pearl Foster and Mandy Macdonald, who fought out a Premier Two Red match at the Three Brooks.
Pearl won 11-7.
Two Brunel Trophy matches were played before the tournament, both involving Herreras.
Simonetta Herrera defeated Richard Owsley to keep her interest in the competition alive. Both players have one of their two lives remaining.
The same can also be said of John Chester and Roland Herrera after John sprung a surprise by recovering from 3-7 down to win at DMP.
Three second round matches are yet to be completed, with just a week remaining before Thursday's third round draw.
In the main event Simonetta and Ian Tarr progressed to the final, which will no doubt be played some time soon.
Simonetta's run to the final came via hard fought wins over Jason Champion, Roland Herrera and Steve Morris, while Ian was defeating Chris Hughes, Alex Hodge and Simon Hughes.
Stephen Little took the consolation flight with wins over Richard, Adam Sinclair and Ed Turner.
Steve Morris has extended his OGP lead from 85 points to 95.
But after the final it will be reduced again -- to 60 points if Simonetta wins, or 84 if Ian wins.
There were four intermediates in the competition, but the only victor was Marcus Evans, who defeated fellow intermediate Paul Male.
Ismail Yilmaz now leads the IGP by fifteen points from second placed Colin Sara.
07/04/15: Jason tops Premier Three; Simon extends Red Division lead
Zero Degrees was the venue this afternoon for a Premier Three match between Jason Champion and Chris Hughes.
It was a gruelling encounter involving seventeen games, but Jason eventually ended up the 11-10 winner.
He displaces Stephen Little at the top of the division.
And this evening at the King William Ale House Simon Hughes was another 11-10 winner, over James Newman -- a win which extends Simon's Premier Two Red lead.
The return match, however, had to be adjourned with James 9-5 ahead.
07/04/15: Stephen awarded Brunel victory
As his second round Brunel Trophy opponent Drew Caudwell is unable to fulfil the fixture Stephen Little has been credited with a victory by default.
Drew, who is working away from Bristol, is therefore sadly eliminated from the competition, having also lost in the first round.
07/04/15: Jon is the sixth to join the Conference League
Jon Pemberton has become the sixth entrant to this year's Bristol Conference League, and Director Ian Tarr is confident that more will sign up soon.
03/04/15: Andy and Richard even in double header
A pair of 11-9 scorelines were the fruits of the labours of Andy Boysan and Richard Owsley when they met for a Premier Two Blue double header at the Merchants Arms, Hotwells, today.
Andy won the first match, Richard the second.
03/04/15: Simon wins handicap event
There were sixteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, including a welcome debut for Paul Male.
Two league matches were completed before the advertised event, which was the second of the year's Handicap Trophy events.
Jason Champion scored a valuable 11-7 victory over Stephen Little to keep up the pressure at the top of Premier Three, and Ismail Yilmaz moved further ahead of the opposition in the Conference League when he narrowly beat Horst Stenzel.
After elimination from the tournament Cynthia Roberts became the latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy, just losing out to Alex Hodge.
In the tournament it was Simon Hughes who came through to win, defeating Ismail, Cynthia and Nick Barham before his final victory over Horst.
Horst's run to the final took him past Tom Chapman, Ian Tarr and Ed Turner.
Jason won the consolation flight with wins over Tom, Richard Owsley and Paul.
Simon thus opens up a 35 points lead at the top of the HT table, with Ed in second and the absent Adam Sinclair in third.
Sponsor Ed's revolutionary side pool grand prix sees Simon top and Ed himself second.
01/04/15: Wednesday results
Two matches were played at the Bristol County Sports Club on Wednesday evening.
Jude Pitt defeated Mary French 11-6 in the Conference League to move into second place in the league.
And Chris Hughes became the latest player to be eliminated from the Brunel Trophy, when he lost very narrowly to Peter Thistlewood.
Peter still retains both of his lives in this year long double elimination knock-out.
01/04/15: Five penalised at first league checkpoint
The first Premier League checkpoint of the season passed at midnight, and five players have incurred penalty points, which can be clawed back by complying with the terms of the May 31st checkpoint.
In Premier One Phil Charlton has incurred two penalty points, while three players in Premier Two Red -- Mandy Macdonald (3), James Newman (2) and Neil Young (2) -- have been docked points.
Chris Hughes incurred one penalty in Premier Three, while Premier Two Blue was the only league where players' records are completely unblemished.
31/03/15: Ian beats Simon in Redfield
Having lost a very close Premier One match to Simon Baker on Friday, Ian Tarr today turned the tables at his Redfield home to win a similarly tight encounter.
Both players are now out of the bottom four, but there is little margin for error for anyone.
Nine of the thirteen players have lost more matches than they have won!
31/03/15: Fred off the Blue Division bottom
A late result is in from Premier Two Blue yesterday evening at an undisclosed venue.
Fred North inflicted an 11-3 defeat on Andy Boysan to haul himself off the bottom of the league at Andrew Cobb's expense.
30/03/15: Nineteen in Monday action
There were nineteen players in action on Monday, including the seventeen who made it down to the Bristol County Sports Club.
The exceptions were Phil Charlton and Ed Turner, who played a Premier One match at the King William IV, Staple Hill.
And Ed scored an 11-4 win to become the latest player to head the top flight.
Before the 3-point round robin action back at base a few more league matches were played.
The adjourned Premier Three match between Stephen Little and Adam Sinclair resumed with Adam on the front foot, only to have his 10-5 lead pegged back for Stephen to recover to the narrowest of wins, consolidating his divisional lead.
Another adjourned match was completed in the Conference League, Ismail Yilmaz regaining the leadership with an 11-4 victory over Horst Stenzel. The pair have also adjourned their fourth and final match, score unknown.
Earlier Tom Chapman had begun his league campaign at the Hare, Bedminster, defeating Jude Pitt 11-2.
The pair also made it to the evening session, taking their places among a field of seventeen players to contest three 3-point round robins (two groups of six players, one of five).
Simonetta Herrera was alone in being unbeaten throughout to take one pot, while the other groups each featured a three way tie.
Chris Hughes still leads the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix standings with three events to go, but Ian Tarr has whittled Chris's lead down to just three points.
Ismail Yilmaz, now in third place overall, heads the race to become the event's leading intermediate.
30/03/15: Bedminster win for Simon
Simon Temme and Adam Sinclair met at the Hare, Bedminster, last night for a Premier Three encounter.
And it was Simon who won, 11-8.
27/03/15: Simon wins at the Bridge
The Bridge Inn, Passage Street, was the venue for a match and a half of Premier One action this evening.
Simon Baker edged the first encounter with Ian Tarr 11-10, before the return match as adjourned with Ian 5-4 ahead.
This match is likely to be finished on Tuesday.
27/03/15: Jason takes GP5 tournament honours
There were twenty-one players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday.
Four Premier League matches and a Brunel Trophy match took place before and during the advertised event, which was the second of this year's GP5 tournaments.
In the leagues Simon Baker defeated Steffen Nowak in Premier One, Andy Brown beat Peter Thistlewood to go top of Premier Two Blue, and Rob Brito scored a brace of wins over Simon Temme to move into third place in Premier Three.
Miles Farren became the third player to exit the Brunel Trophy when he lost very narrowly to Nick Barham, who still has two lives.
Nick was also the recipient of the bye in the evening's fifteen player main event, and took advantage of this and wins over Richard Owsley and Steffen to reach the final.
There he met Jason Champion, whose victories over Simonetta Herrera, Steve Morris and Blaine Buchanan were augmented by final victory over Nick.
In the consolation flight Roland Herrera narrowly beat Ian Tarr in the final.
Jason moves into a 15 points lead in the GP5 table, ahead of previous leader Steve.
25/03/15: League wins for Ian and Simon
Two Premier League matches were played on Wednesday.
Phil Charlton and Ian Tarr met at the Portcullis, Staple Hill, and Ian scored an 11-7 Premier One victory.
Back at the Bristol County Sports Club Simon Hughes edged home 11-10 against Neil Young in Premier Two Red to move three points clear at the top.
25/03/15: Two Tuesday league double headers
Four Premier League matches were played yesterday -- a double header in Premier Two Blue and another in Premier Three.
At Ye Shakespeare, Victoria Street, Andy Brown and James Lintell-Smith each won a match -- James retaliating with a whitewash after going down 6-11 in the opener -- and Andy has moved into second place in the Blue Division.
In Premier Three Malcolm Patterson's unhappy start to the season continued at the Bristol County Sports Club when he lost twice to Adam Sinclair, who is now occupying the third of the three promotion slots.
23/03/15: Stuart tops Premier One without playing
There were seventeen players in action on Thursday, including two who thought their action was competitive but were mistaken!
Rob Brito and Alan Parfitt played out what they thought was a Premier Three match.
What both players had failed to take into account, however, was that they had played their quota of two matches as a double header on February 9th.
Still, as long as they enjoyed themselves......
At the Star and Dove Stuart Mann hit the top of Premier One.
He wasn't actually there, but Cecilia Sparke's 8-11 defeat to Steffen Nowak was enough to make her average points difference inferior to Stuart's, thus changing the divisional leadership.
Horst Stenzel and Ismail Yilmaz almost finished a Conference League match before the evening's tournament, Ismail leading 10-4 when they adjourned.
At the Pump House there was progress in the second round of the Brunel Trophy when Simon Hughes defeated Adam Sinclair.
Both players have one life remaining in this double elimination competition.
Which leaves the eleven player DMP Tourno, the twelfth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, with welcome debut player Jon Pemberton included amongst the field.
This was won at a canter by Stephen Little, his clean sweep of ten wins beating his nearest challenger Alex Hodge by four.
Chris Hughes carries a lead of 47 points into the last four phases, while Ismail now leads the race to be the competition's top intermediate.
22/03/15: Ed advances on two fronts
An "almost double header" occurred at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening.
"Almost" because a match and a bit were played by Steve Morris and Ed Turner.
Their return Premier One match had been adjourned with Steve in the driving seat, 9-4 ahead.
The seating arrangements were soon altered, however, as Ed recovered to win 11-10.
The pair then played a full match -- their second round Brunel Trophy encounter -- and Ed also won this to keep alive his chance in that event.
Both players are now one defeat away from elimination.
In the league Ed is one of a clutch of four players who have won significantly more than half their matches.
The four are Stuart Mann, Gaz Owen, Ed and leader Cecilia Sparke.
22/03/15: Alex defeats Simonetta
Alex Hodge visited Kellaway Avenue yesterday evening for a Premier One clash with Simonetta Herrera.
And he came away with an 11-6 victory.
20/03/15: Tim's title defence ends quickly
Tim Line, the inaugural Brunel Trophy champion, has failed in his title defence.
Going down 11-2 to Gaz Owen at the Globe, Newton St Loe, Tim became the second of the twenty-six contestants to exit this year's double elimination tournament.
Last year Tim was a convincing winner, going through the whole tournament undefeated while everyone else was losing twice.
20/03/15: Ian wins Thursday clock tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, including sixteen at the Bristol County Sports Club.
Fourteen of those entered the second of this year's Clock Grand Prix tournaments.
Before the evening's events unfolded Richard Owsley played host to James Lintell-Smith at his office and defeated him 11-6 to go second in Premier Two Blue.
And Neil Young met John Corrado at the Wellington for a double header, consisting of a Premier Two Red match and a Brunel Trophy match.
Neil won both, and John is the first player to suffer elimination from this year's Brunel (or "Bluenel" as it was amusingly dubbed during the evening!).
Adam Sinclair and Stephen Little also started a Premier Three match before the tournament -- they adjourned with Adam 5-4 ahead.
Alongside the main event, a Blue Division double header featured Andrew Cobb and Peter Thistlewood.
Peter scored a brace of wins to continue his recovery from a slow start to the season.
The clock tournament -- the evening's centrepiece -- is this year subject to slightly tighter time parameters.
A 10.5 minutes time bank (with 12 second delay) has caused problems for nobody, bar one dissenter, and as under the previous regime nobody ever runs out of time.
As a result the event is all the more likely to be completed in one session, which is what happened last night.
The main flight winner was Ian Tarr, who defeated Stephen, Alex Hodge, Roland Herrera and Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived in the final via a bye and wins over Richard and Adam.
The consolation flight was won by Ed Turner, whose victims were Chris Hughes, Stephen and Simonetta Herrera.
Ian takes over from Simonetta at the head of the CTGP table.
18/03/15: Wednesday Premier League action
There was a flurry of activity in the Premier League today, with no fewer than seven results.
And the most active was John Corrado, who fitted in three Premier Two Red matches.
John's effort was not matched by productivity, however, as he suffered three defeats to dent his otherwise fine start to the campaign.
First stop for John was the Compass, Tormarton, where his 10-11 defeat to Pearl Foster was not the only match being played there.
Fred North and Peter Thistlewood were playing a Premier Two Blue match, and 11-10 was obviously the order of the day in Tormarton, as Peter narrowly prevailed.
John later rocked up at Channings for a double header with Simon Hughes, but could scarcely have imagined the outcome.
Two defeats later, he had failed to register even a single point, as Simon reclaimed top spot.
The Portcullis, Staple Hill, played host to the only Premier One match of the day, and Gaz Owen inflicted Phil Charlton's first defeat of the season, by 11-4.
And back at base, there was a Premier Three double header, with Stephen Little defeating Malcolm Patterson twice to displace Jason Champion at the top of the division.
17/03/15: Stuart goes second in Congresbury
Nick Barham and Stuart Mann met at the Plough, Congresbury, this evening for a Premier One match.
And Stuart won by the narrowest of margins to go second in the league.
16/03/15: Jason suffers first league defeat
There were thirteen players, including eleven in competitive action, at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday.
Before the evening's advertised event -- a pair of three point round robins, which formed the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a couple of league matches were completed.
In Premier Three Jason Champion lost for the first time since his return to league action, Stephen Little scoring an 11-6 victory which puts him within striking distance of league leader Jason.
And in the Conference League Horst Stenzel and Ismail Yilmaz picked up their adjourned match at 6-6, and it was Horst who prevailed, winning 11-10.
While the round robins were in progress Director Ian Tarr introduced Loly Rodrigues Torres and Mary French to the delights of the doubling cube, as the pair played out a couple of demonstration matches.
The round robins, one group of five players, the other of four, were won by Jason and Adam Sinclair respectively.
With the top three in the SGP not participating, several players took the opportunity to move into closer contention.
Later in the evening Ed Turner and Ian played out their held over consolation final from last week's grand prix tournament, Ian winning at DMP.
The top OGP positions were unaffected.
15/03/15: Steve opens up OGP lead
The outstanding final from Thursday's Grand Prix tournament was played at the Herreras' home this evening.
Visiting Steve Morris scored an 11-5 win for his second win from the three monthly grand prix events so far this year.
That gives him an 85 points lead in the OGP.
14/03/15: Pearl wins in Swindon
The Blunsdon Arms, Swindon, was the venue for a Premier Two Red match yesterday.
And Pearl Foster scored an 11-9 win over Dave Pym.
13/03/15: Brunel Trophy second round draw
The draw for the second round of the Brunel Trophy was made prior to last night's tournament, and can be seen here.
The double elimination facet of the event of course means that all twenty-six players who contested the first round are in the draw for the second.
Strangely, there is only one of the pairings where both players -- James Newman and Ian Tarr -- know that they will be in the third round.
On the other side of the coin, there is one match -- Stephen Little versus Drew Caudwell -- where there will definitely be a player eliminated this time.
Matches need to be completed before the third round draw, which will take place on Thursday April 16th.
13/03/15: Friday afternoon's Premier Two results
Four Premier Two matches were played out this afternoon.
At the Alma Tavern there was a Premier Two Blue double header where the spoils were shared by Andy Boysan and Peter Thistlewood.
Meanwhile, at the Windmill, Eamonn Reay wrapped up the last two matches of his current visit, scoring a brace of victories over Mandy Macdonald which returned him to the summit of the Premier Two Red table.
So just the thirteen matches, then, for Eamonn this time around.
13/03/15: Simonetta and Steve reach March Grand Prix final
Twenty-one players were in action on Thursday, including the nineteen who entered the March Grand Prix tournament.
In that field was Dave Street, whose only previous Bristol Backgammon appearance was in the equivalent tournament, exactly ten years and two days previously!
Six Premier League matches were completed, and one Monday round robin loose end was tied up.
The main event, of course, was the 94th Lesters Trophy event -- Lesters Trophy being the title given (for historical reasons) to our £20 tournaments in March, June, September and December.
A Winner Takes All pool rollover of £110 may have boosted the entry, and thirteen of the contestants invested in this to give a total side pool of £240.
A further rollover was averted with the quarter-final demise of Colin Sara, Richard Owsley and James Newman.
Steve Morris continued his improved form and reached the main final via wins over Matt Walder, Jason Champion and Simon Hughes.
His final opponent will be Simonetta Herrera, who defeated Drew Caudwell, James Newman and Stuart Mann to get there.
In the consolation flight Ed Turner and Ian Tarr made it to the end.
Both finals will no doubt be played very soon.
In the OGP Steve has regained the lead he held in January, and can extend it to 85 points with a final win.
The reverse result would see Simonetta move into second place at the expense of James, 40 points behind Steve.
After a blank event in January, intermediates wise, we have now had five intermediate appearances in the February and March events -- by five different players.
The encouraging news for intermediates is that four of the five have won at least one match when they have entered, so what is it that they are afraid of?
The fact remains that nobody has yet grabbed this competition by the scruff of the neck, but with competition for places potentially intense current leader Ismail Yilmaz could have his work cut out to stay in pole position.
Meanwhile the day's league action was monopolised, not by Eamonn Reay -- as is usually the case when he visits from Galway -- but by Tim Line.
Tim managed to fit five Premier Two Red matches into his visit from Wiltshire, including the season's first triple header (with Eamonn).
This sequence of matches began well for Tim when he scored an 11-8 win, but this was as good as it got for him, as Eamonn struck back with 11-1 and 11-7 wins of his own.
And Tim's other league matches, which sandwiched the tournament, saw him lose 0-11 and 10-11 to Simon.
With six defeats from eight league matches, this is not the kind of start one of the favourites for promotion would have expected.
Eamonn's wins put him top of the Red Division, but Simon replaced him a matter of hours later.
There was also important top flight action with four of the league leaders involved in one and a bit matches.
Stuart and Gaz Owen clashed at Colston Yard prior to the tournament, and it was Stuart who prevailed, winning 11-8.
Steve and Ed adjourned their match to play the tournament, but Steve was 9-4 ahead at the time.
John Curran and Matt also played before the tournament, tieing up the final loose end from the Monday 3-point round robin ten days previously, Matt being the victor.
12/03/15: Bristol Backgammon welcomes Charlie!
A new potential Bristol Backgammon player was born on Monday.
Welcome, Charlie Boysan!
All is apparently well.
12/03/15: Gaz staves off Ed fightback
Ed Turner and Gaz Owen met today at the Portcullis, Staple Hill, for a Premier One match.
It seemed to be plain sailing for Gaz when he led 9-0, but Ed fought back well to reduce Gaz''s winning margin to 11-8.
11/03/15: Neil scores first league wins of the season
Eamonn Reay's action at the Bristol County Sports Club today centred around the Brunel Trophy and Premier Two Red.
In the former competition Eamonn defeated Cynthia Roberts to close out the first round in readiness for tomorrow's second round draw.
But in the league he suffered a double setback, losing twice to Neil Young -- Neil's first league wins of the season.
Meanwhile, at the King William Ale House, John Corrado was narrowly defeating James Newman to return to the top of the Red Division.
11/03/15: Cecilia pays up and goes top
Cecilia Sparke has paid her league fees, thus reclaiming her penalty point.
Not an earth shattering occurrence, perhaps, but that single point is enough to put her top of Premier One, displacing Steve Morris.
11/03/15: Premier One victories for Stuart and Gaz
The headline "Eighteen in Monday action" below should actually have read "Twenty......", as a Monday result from the Ostrich has come to light.
This was a top of the table clash between Cecilia Sparke and Stuart Mann, which Stuart won 11-9.
But hot off the press is another Premier One result, with Gaz Owen defeating Simonetta Herrera 11-6 at Kellaway Avenue.
10/03/15: The Eamonn Roadshow is back in town
Bristol Backgammon's most far flung regular Eamonn Reay is back in town for a few days.
He has upwards of a dozen matches scheduled before his departure at the weekend, starting with the three he completed at the Bristol County Sports Club earlier today.
Starting with an 11-9 victory over Pearl Foster, and continuing with a shared double header against Simon Hughes, Eamonn has made a better start to his league campaign than he did last year.
His Wednesday schedule includes a Brunel Trophy match and four more Premier Two Red matches.
09/03/15: Eighteen in Monday action
There were eighteen players in action on Monday in a variety of competitions and venues.
The Star and Dove hosted three Premier League matches involving four players.
In the top flight reigning champion Gaz Owen played a double header with Steffen Nowak.
Gaz won the opener 11-6, but Steffen -- having just equalled Jerry Limb's all time record Premier One sequence of ten defeats -- gained his revenge by taking the return 11-9.
And Mike Smith edged out Fred North by the same score in Premier Two Blue.
At the Inn on the Green, Horfield, Neil Young opened his Premier Two Red campaign with a 5-11 defeat at the hands of Pearl Foster.
Back at HQ -- the Bristol County Sports Club -- Jason Champion maintained his unbeaten start in Premier Three with an 11-2 victory over Alan Parfitt.
Horst Stenzel and Ismail Yilmaz adjourned their Conference League match at 6-6 in order to play the tournament.
Also played before the advertised event was a Brunel Trophy match -- Adam Sinclair beating Chris Hughes.
The Monday Club Spring Grand Prix featured an eleven player DMP Tourno, where three of the field managed to win at least eight of their ten games.
Chris and Ian Tarr won eight, but were beaten to the pot by Ismail, who won nine!
Chris thus keeps his 60 points SGP lead over Ian intact, while Ismail is closing on the competition's leading intermediate, Horst.
08/03/15: Spoils shared in top of the table clash
The two top players in Premier One met today at the Arnolfini for a double header.
And league leader Steve Morris ensured he would stay in pole position by winning the opening encounter with Cecilia Sparke 11-7.
It was Cecilia's first defeat in the top flight, but she bounced back to edge the return 11-10.
07/03/15: Saturday Premier League action
Five Premier League matches were played this afternoon.
At Brimsham Park, Yate, James Newman defeated Pearl Foster 11-6 to keep his Premier Two Red promotion campaign on track.
Meanwhile back at the Bristol County Sports Club, Adam Sinclair, no doubt suffering withdrawal symptoms after his stay in Vietnam, got in four Premier Three matches!
He came off distinctly second best in a double header with Jason Champion, losing 1-11 and 5-11.
Then he shared the spoils against Drew Caudwell, losing 1-11 before scoring his only victory of the day by 11-2.
Jason's wins move him to the top of the league.
06/03/15: Ian wins GP30 final
Ian Tarr gained a little consolation for his earlier Champions League defeats (see story below) when he defeated Roland Herrera at DMP in the held over final of last month's GP30 main flight.
06/03/15: UK Champions League latest
Ken Gibson visited Bristol today for a marathon UK Champions League session at the Herreras' in Kellaway Avenue.
He played Simonetta Herrera three times and Ian Tarr twice.
Simonetta scored 11-5 and 11-10 wins before Ken struck back to win their third match 11-10.
He then defeated Ian 11-6 and 11-8 before wending his way back to Twickenham.
Their group (Group B) sees Simonetta and Eric McAlpine best placed to qualify for the knock-out stage.
Yesterday Chas Perry opened his Group C campaign with an online 11-9 victory over Peter Bennet.
Other Bristol players who have started well are Stuart Mann and Alex Hodge who have both beaten Richard Biddle twice in three Group D matches, while Stuart also beat Alex.
Ed Turner came out slightly the worse of his three Group C matches with Sean Williams.
Group A, involving Steffen Nowak and Gaz Owen is soon to get started.
06/03/15: Twenty-one in Thursday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday, including the twenty who played at the Bristol County Sports Club.
The exception was Mike Smith who lost a Premier Two Blue match to Richard Owsley 5-11 at the Three Tuns.
Richard moved on to the main venue and completed a satisfactory evening by defeating Ed Turner in the first round of the Brunel Trophy.
There was also a Brunel win for Peter Thistlewood over Miles Farren, leaving just two of the thirteen first round matches to be completed before next Thursday's draw.
Four other Premier League matches were played, with Andy Brown taking the main plaudits with a pair of 11-5 victories over Andrew Cobb.
In Premier Three Rob Brito inflicted a first ever league defeat on Stephen Little by the narrowest of margins.
And Mary French made her league debut, going down 8-11 to Ismail Yilmaz in the Conference League, a result which moves Ismail back to the top of the league.
Twelve players contested the advertised event, the first of this year's five Round Robin Grand Prix tournaments.
They were split into two random groups of six, giving everyone five three-point matches.
Stephen won one of the groups outright with four wins out of five, while the spoils of the other group were shared between two four-match victors -- Chris Hughes and James Newman.
Those three players thus take the early RRGP lead.
04/03/15: Andrew beats Fred in Bath
Andrew Cobb and Fred North met yesterday at the Rose and Crown, Larkhall, Bath, for a Premier Two Blue.
And in a very close match it was Andrew who prevailed.
03/03/15: Thursday wins for Cecilia and Jude
Cecilia Sparke today continued her remarkable start to life in the top flight with an 11-5 victory over Gary Plant at the GW Hotel, Swindon.
That makes six matches in Premier One and six wins!
Meanwhile the Conference League is now picking up pace after a very slow start.
Ismail Yilmaz completed his second league match in successive days at the Hare, Bedminster -- this time on the end of a narrow defeat by Jude Pitt, who now leads the embryonic league table.
03/03/15: Gaz beats Ian in Redfield
St Georges Hall, Redfield was the venue this afternoon when Gaz Owen scored an 11-4 Premier One win over Ian Tarr.
02/03/15: Horst and Ismail share Monday pot
There were twelve players in competitive action on Monday, eight of them at the Bristol County Sports Club.
The dreaded number of seven were up for the 3-point round robin, the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, so Director Ian Tarr sat it out to reduce the number to a more manageable six.
Even then one match has been held over due of lack of time.
Despite that, the destiny of the pot was decided -- it was shared between Horst Stenzel and Ismail Yilmaz who each won four out of five matches.
The minor points allocations will be sorted out once John Curran and Matt Walder complete the event.
Horst and Ismail had earlier completed the first match of this season's Bristol Conference League, Ismail prevailing after the closest of battles.
Also in action at the main venue were Premier Two Blue leader Paul Watts and Mike Smith, who scored a victory apiece.
Ian took time out to give some games to new arrivals Rob Comanzo and Loly, who has a very long Spanish name.
The Star and Dove was the scene of the evening's other double header, and this was one with a difference.
The opener was a first round Brunel Trophy match, which involved just two games -- two points to Steffen Nowak ultimately counting for nothing, after Gaz Owen struck back with an eight-cubed gammon to clinch things.
Their second match -- their opening UK Champions League fixture -- was a great deal closer, a see saw match eventually going Steffen's way at DMP.
The evening's other match took place at the Pump House, where Andy Boysan scored an 11-7 Blue Division win over Andy Brown.
27/02/15: Seventeen in Thursday action
There were seventeen players in action on Thursday, including the eight who contested the first of this year's six Clock Blitz Grand Prix events at the Bristol County Sports Club.
Eight Premier League matches were played, either before or alongside the advertised event.
In Premier One leader Steve Morris reached the half way point in his campaign, going down 8-11 to Ed Turner.
Steve has now won six out of twelve matches.
Ed, on the other hand, seems set to build on last season's fourth place finish, where he won more than half his top flight matches for the first time in nine attempts.
He is now second.
In Premier Two Blue leader Paul Watts and Richard Owsley shared the spoils of a double header, featuring two close finishes.
Earlier at the Pump House Andy Boysan had whitewashed Fred North in the same division.
Tim Line opened his Premier Two Red campaign with a double header against Dave Pym, followed by a single match with Simon Hughes.
Tim and Dave won one apiece, while Simon's 11-2 win was the first of his league season.
And Chris Hughes scored an 11-5 win over Drew Caudwell in Premier Three.
The Clock Blitz event involved just eight contestants -- including debut player Derek Wright.
After last season's average attendance of 11.5, the best year so far in this competition, eight was a disappointment, although it translated to a hectic schedule of seven matches per player -- all done and dusted by midnight.
Here the pot was shared by Simon and Simonetta Herrera who each won six of their seven matches to take the early CBGP lead.
25/02/15: Wednesday victories for Neil and Stephen
Wednesday's results saw wins for Stephen Little and Neil Young in different competitions.
Neil's win, secured at the Wellington, Horfield, came against Andy Boysan in the Brunel Trophy.
And Stephen's, an 11-4 triumph over Drew Caudwell at the Bristol County Sports Club, was enough to see him displace Drew at the top of Premier Three.
24/02/15: Stuart's double at the Star and Dove
Steffen Nowak and Stuart Mann played a double header at the Star and Dove this evening.
And Stuart emerged from both matches with an 11-3 victory to boost his challenge for the Premier One title.
24/02/15: Stephen wins Monday Tric Trac Tourno
A total of seventeen players were in action on Monday, including fifteen at the Bristol County Sports Club evening session.
Earlier in the day Alex Hodge got his maiden Premier One campaign up and running at last at Steve Morris's Redland home when he scored a brace of victories, defeating his host 11-0 and 11-7.
There was plenty of league action at the main venue, both before and alongside the advertised event.
In Premier Two Blue there were wins for leader Paul Watts and Andy Brown, over James Lintell-Smith and Mike Smith respectively.
Stephen Little scored an 11-4 Premier Three victory over Chris Hughes.
And the first Conference League action of the year took place, with Ismail Yilmaz 6-4 ahead of Horst Stenzel when they adjourned to start the tournament.
All of which left eleven players fighting out the Tric Trac Tourno which formed the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix.
Stephen's four gammons were the deciding factor as he took the pot.
John Chester's absence allowed Chris to push almost 60 points into the lead in the SGP table, while Horst still leads the race to become the competition's leading intermediate.
There was a welcome competitive debut for Ian Cutts, while Peter Scott played his first competition for more than two years.
20/02/15: Roland and Ian make it to GP30 final
Seventeen players were in action on Thursday at the the Bristol County Sports Club.
Twelve toed the start line for the opening GP30 tournament of the year, while four played league matches and one got in a Brunel Trophy match.
Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr will play the main final of the tournament some time soon, after Roland defeated Simonetta Herrera, Steve Morris and Stuart Mann in getting there.
Ian came through the short half of the draw with wins over Chris Hughes and Stephen Little.
The consolation flight was won by Tim Line who beat Nick Barham, Simonetta and Chris.
Prior to the tournament Stuart had won his first round Brunel Trophy match with Drew Caudwell.
Meanwhile in Premier Two Blue Richard Owsley had much the better of a double header with Peter Thistlewood, and his two emphatic wins move him up to second.
Things were closer in the only Premier Three match of the evening, where Alan Parfitt edged home 11-10 against Malcolm Patterson.
(This update brought to you courtesy of Lemsip Max Cold & Flu Capsules).
19/02/15: James defeats Stephen to top OGP
The held over final from last week's Monthly Grand Prix tournament was played last night at the Bristol County Sports Club.
James Newman defeated Stephen Little 11-6 for his biggest tournament win to date, and displaces previous OGP leader Steve Morris.
The good news for neutrals is that James failed to invest in the Winner Takes All pool, so there will be a rollover of £110 to the March event.
18/02/15: League wins for Fred and Simonetta
Two Premier League matches were played on Wednesday.
In the afternoon Fred North and Peter Thistlewood met at the Compass, Tormarton, and Fred won their Premier Two Blue match 11-5.
The other encounter was at Kellaway Avenue, where Simonetta Herrera took on Ian Tarr in a Premier One match after she had given him a thrashing in their first ever UK Champions League match.
The Bristol match went to DMP after Ian had recovered from 4-8 down, but the victory still went the same way.
17/02/15: Tuesday action summary
Five matches were played today -- three in Premier One, one in Premier Two Blue, and one in the Brunel Trophy.
A top flight double header at Brookhouse Farm, Swindon, saw Simon Baker and Gary Plant trading blows, Simon winning 11-3 before Gary's 11-7 success.
In the same division Phil Charlton visited Steffen Nowak at the Star and Dove, and came away with an 11-9 win after Steffen clawed things back from 2-10 down.
The Premier Two Blue encounter featured league leader Paul Watts and Fred North at the Fire Engine, Redfield.
And Paul made it four wins out of five with an 11-6 victory.
The sixth result from the first round of the Brunel Trophy saw Alex Hodge scoring an 11-4 win over Simonetta Herrera at Kellaway Avenue.
17/02/15: John resigns from Premier Three
John Chester has today resigned from Premier Three.
He had played one match, so that one, a 10-11 defeat by Drew Caudwell, will be expunged from the record.
This means that Premier Three players will now be required to play just sixteen matches, as opposed to the original eighteen.
Requirements for all checkpoints after March 31st have now been adjusted accordingly.
16/02/15: Seventeen at Monday session
For the second successive Monday there was a higher then average turnout at the Bristol County Sports Club, with seventeen in action.
Fifteen took part in the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, while Peter Scott and Ian Cutts played some friendly games.
The fifteen -- including John Curran who was making his competitive debut -- were split into three separate groups of three point round robins.
Ian Tarr won one of these outright, while a second saw the pot shared by Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera.
In the third group there was a three way tie for the lead, but because Matt Walder had taken the zero entry fee option, Jason Champion and Chris Hughes shared the financial spoils.
Chris takes over at the top of the SGP table, just over 20 points ahead of previous leader John Chester.
Horst Stenzel, in eleventh place overall, leads the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.
Before the tournament another first round Brunel Trophy was completed.
Roland just edged home 11-10 against Stephen Little.
Meanwhile two more players signed up for the Bristol Conference League.
The addition of Ismail Yilmaz and Mary French to the ranks brings the number of contestants up to five -- not a great number yet, but it does give everyone the possibility of up to sixteen league matches, a number which will continue to rise as and when more new players join up.
16/02/15: Maiden Premier League win for Chris
The Hare, Bedminster, was the venue for a Premier Three match yesterday.
Simon Temme met Chris Hughes and it was Chris who edged home 11-10 for the first Premier League win of his career.
15/02/15: Cecilia maintains great start
Cecilia Sparke's run of outstanding form at the beginning of her top flight career shows no sign of letting up.
She defeated Ian Tarr 11-5 at the Ostrich this afternoon to move into second place in the league.
That's now five wins out of five.
13/02/15: FEBRUARY GRAND PRIX ROUND-UP ......
There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday, including the twenty who contested the second of this year's monthly grand prix tournaments.
Ismail Yilmaz made his Thursday debut.
13/02/15: Stephen and James to contest February final ......
Stephen Little and James Newman emerged from the twenty strong field contesting the February Grand Prix tournament to reach the final.
James shrugged off the difficulty of coming through the long part of the draw, defeating Simonetta Herrera, Blaine Buchanan, Tim Line and Simon Hughes, while Stephen's route to the final came via victories over Roland Herrera, Alex Hodge and Nick Barham.
The final will no doubt be played very soon.
13/02/15: Chris wins consolation flight ......
The consolation flight of Thursday's tournament was won by Chris Hughes, who registered wins over Warner Solomon, Ian Tarr and Thursday debut player Ismail Yilmaz in the final.
13/02/15: Steve's OGP lead cut, and may disappear altogether ......
January winner Steve Morris still heads the OGP table, although his 50 points lead has been cut to 30.
Should James Newman win the outstanding final, he would edge into the lead, while the opposite result would keep Steve ahead, 10 points ahead of Stephen Little.
13/02/15: Relief as IGP is up and running ......
There were no intermediates at the January tournament, hence no IGP leader.
That situation changed yesterday when Warner Solomon and Ismail Yilmaz toed the starting line.
Warner failed to register a win, but Ismail's progress to the consolation final bagged him 45 points to set up a 35 points lead.
13/02/15: James carries rollover hopes ......
Thursday's Winner Takes All pool carried no rollover, but eleven of the starters invested, so there will be a good deal of interest in the outcome of the final.
Stephen Little will scoop the pool should he win, but as James failed to take the pool plunge neutrals will be rooting for James to win.
13/02/15: Brunel Trophy gathers pace ......
The 2015 incarnation of the Brunel Trophy is now getting well under way.
The second, third and fourth of the thirteen first round results are now in.
Nick Barham beat John Corrado at the Ship, Park Row, before the tournament, while Steve Morris defeated John Chester and Ian Tarr very narrowly beat Tim Line afterwards.
Ian thus became the first player to defeat holder Tim in Brunel Trophy action.
12/02/15: Cecilia goes third
Cecilia Sparke may have taken a while to make it up to Premier One, but she seems determined to make up for lost time.
In a double header yesterday at the Hen and Chicken, North Street, Cecilia grabbed a brace of wins over Nick Barham -- by 11-6 and 11-8.
That's a four match unbeaten start at the top level, and she has put herself right into the mix with the other in form pace setters, Steve Morris and Ed Turner.
And at the Bristol County Sports Club Simon Hughes met James Newman for a match doubled up as a Premier Two Red match and a Brunel Trophy match.
James won 11-8.
10/02/15: Tuesday's league action
There were four Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
A Premier One double header took place at the Kensington Arms, Redland, and honours were shared between Steve Morris and Gary Plant, each gaining an 11-5 win.
At the Plough, Congresbury, Phil Charlton got his league campaign off to a winning start, defeating Stuart Mann 11-9.
Back to HQ, at the Bristol County Sports Club, Premier Three leader Drew Caudwell scored an 11-6 victory over Malcolm Patterson.
09/02/15: Twenty at Monday session
Twenty players were present at the latest Monday session at the Bristol County Sports Club.
Nine entered the latest instalment of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, seven others played league matches, and four others played friendly matches.
The friendlies involved two more welcome new players, John Curran and Ian Cutts, as well as featuring a return to action for Peter Scott.
In Premier One Gaz Owen got his title defence back on track with a victory over Alex Hodge, although he had to recover from a 4-8 deficit to do so.
Andy Brown defeated Fred North 11-5 in Premier Two Blue, while Premier Three saw three matches completed.
The first of these was a match resumption, with Stephen Little converting a 7-2 lead into a close run 11-9 win over Drew Caudwell.
Rob Brito and Alan Parfitt played out a double header, Alan edging home 11-10 in the opener, before succumbing 2-11 in the return.
The Monday Club round robins were of the Nackgammon variety, with Simonetta Herrera winning the five player group, while the four player group was won by Chris Hughes.
The SGP seems to be developing into a two horse race, with Chris now just six points away from leader John Chester.
Horst Stenzel remains the competition's leading intermediate.
There was also time for a seven player DMP Tourno, which was won by Ian Tarr.
06/02/15: Another Awards Night at the Bristol County Sports Club
The fifteenth Bristol Backgammon Awards Night was held at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday.
The event was attended by twenty-three players and sponsors, and a dog.
There was the free buffet, Ian Tarr's Bristol Backgammon Review of 2014 punctuated by the distribution of the majority of the ninety or so prizes, and the draw for the first round of this year's Brunel Trophy.
Roland and Simonetta Herrera recorded things for posterity with their cameras, and the results can be seen on flickr. There will be captions soon, too!
Four league matches were played during the session, while four others were played elsewhere.
While the destiny of the vast majority of prizes was known beforehand, there are some prizes which inevitably come as a surprise.
These went to Chris Hughes (Rookie of the Year), Andy Brown (Most Improved Player), Cecilia Sparke (Ladies Prize), and James Newman (Rankings Jump Award).
There were also awards for Paul Watts and Tim Line to commemorate reaching a century of Premier League victories, while Stuart Mann picked up awards for being Bristol rankings leader at the year end and becoming the first player to record 200 Premier League wins.
But Dexter was probably the star of the show.
The day's league action centred around the top two tiers of the Premier League.
Gary Plant scored his first top flight win in a double header with Ed Turner at the Merchants Arms, Eastville.
Ed won the opener 11-5, before Gary struck back to win 11-9.
Meanwhile Steve Morris was continuing his amazing early season form with an 11-9 win over Nick Barham just before the ceremony.
At the same time, in the Blue Division, Andy Boysan was securing his first league win of the season at the expense of Richard Owsley.
In the same division there was a double header at the Ram in Bath, where James Lintell-Smith and Andrew Cobb shared the spoils.
And the only action in the Red Division was another double header, featuring Dave Pym and James Newman.
Once again, there was a win apiece for the protagonists.
04/02/15: Wednesday's Premier League results
There were four Premier League matches played on Wednesday.
Double headers featured Simon Baker and Cecilia Sparke at the Hare, Bedminster and James Lintell-Smith and Paul Watts at the Fire Engine, Redfield.
Cecilia started her top flight career with a brace of victories, while honours were even in the Blue Division, where Paul moved to the top of the league.
03/02/15: Four in afternoon Premier League action
Three Premier League matches were played this afternoon.
Gary Plant played his first top flight match at the Compass, Tormarton, going down 4-11 to Ian Tarr.
And at the Port of Call, Clifton, Dave Pym and John Corrado fought out a double header.
Dave scored a whitewash in the opener, but John fought back to win the return 11-8, extending his Premier Two Red lead.
02/02/15: Adam wins Monday round robin
There were six players in competitive action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, and one newcomer on a fact finding mission.
Ismail Yilmaz was the welcome new player, and he is resolved to visit on more Mondays soon.
Andy Brown and Peter Thistlewood played out a Premier Two Blue match alongside the advertised event, and Andy scored his first league win of the season.
The other six players played out a three point round robin, the fifth phase of this year's Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, and it was Adam Sinclair's evening as he took the pot with four wins from his five matches.
John Chester has taken over from the absent Chris Hughes at the head of the SGP table, while Horst Stenzel leads the race to become the competition's leading intermediate.
01/02/15: Rob breaks Premier League duck in Portishead
Another new Bristol Backgammon venue made its bow on Saturday as Rob Brito and Adam Sinclair fought out a Premier Three encounter.
At the Impero Lounge in Portishead Rob scored an 11-9 victory -- his first Premier League success.
30/01/15: Steve wins GP5 final and goes top of Premier One again
Sixteen players turned up for the first of this year's Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Bristol County Sports Club.
But there was earlier action at Steve Morris's home in Redland, where Nick Barham was the visitor.
They had the small matter of the GP5 final from last week to settle, and they also fitted in a Premier One encounter.
Steve won both matches and goes top of the GP5 and the league.
The handicap event was contested by no fewer than nine zero handicap players, showing that many of our best players relish the challenge of being disadvantaged by their handicaps.
And while three of the four finalists came from that group, it was one of those with a positive handicap who came out on top in the main flight.
Adam Sinclair, who has moved from a handicap of 4 to one of 2 in a very short time, defeated Steffen Nowak, John Chester, Nick and Ed Turner to take the spoils.
In the consolation final it was Simon Hughes who just came out on top against Ian Tarr.
Adam will have had cause to regret by-passing the side pool, and not just because he missed out on £50, but also because under the terms of Ed's increased sponsorship he would have been top in the new "Handicap Side Pool Grand Prix", which honour currently stands with Ed.
28/01/15: Mandy wins in Bradley Stoke
The Three Brooks, Bradley Stoke, was the venue this evening for a Premier Two Red encounter.
And Mandy Macdonald scored her first league win of the season, defeating Pearl Foster 11-8.
26/01/15: Chas pips Chrissy to Tric Trac honours
An eight player Tric Trac Tourno was the vehicle for the fourth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix at the Bristol County Sports Club.
Chas Perry and Chrissy Carter scored heavily to outstrip the rest of the field.
And it was Chas who just took the honours by a single point.
In the SGP table Chris Hughes's lead was cut to eighteen points as John Chester moved into second place.
26/01/15: Stuart and Richard make a little piece of history
A match was played on GridGammon this morning.
Nothing unusual in that, of course.
But what made this match a little but special was that it was the first match of the new UK Champions League.
Matches can either be played face to face or on GridGammon, and the two protagonists each had a Bristol connection.
Richard Biddle, whose experience in our own leagues inspired him to found the London Players League, met Stuart Mann, who has won our Premier League on five occasions, and they also used Skype to keep it civilised.
It was Stuart who prevailed, winning 11-8.
26/01/15: John tops Red Division
John Corrado defeated Mandy Macdonald 11-7 at the Windmill today to go top of Premier Two Red.
25/01/15: Ed tops Premier League
In a Premier One double header at the Wellington today Ed Turner became the latest to move to the summit of the league with a brace of victories over Simonetta Herrera.
23/01/15: League wins for Stuart and Simonetta
Two Premier One matches were played today.
At the Bristol County Sports Club the action featured Stuart Mann and Ian Tarr.
Stuart raced into a 6-0 lead, was then pegged back to 6-5, pulled away again slightly to 8-6, then falling behind 8-10 before winning the final two games for victory.
Meanwhile at Kellaway Avenue, the visiting Alex Hodge lost 7-11 to Simonetta Herrera.
23/01/15: Nick and Steve make GP5 final
There were nineteen players present at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday -- one of them merely to finish a league match, the remainder contesting the first of this year's GP5 tournaments.
The league action saw Drew Caudwell complete an 11-6 victory over Rob Brito, moving Drew to the top of Premier Three -- but then again he has played six of the seven matches completed so far in the division.
The main flight of the tournament featured runs to the final for Nick Barham and Steve Morris, who will no doubt meet soon to decide things.
Nick defeated Colin Sara, Ian Tarr and Jason Champion, while Steve's victims were Tim Line, Simonetta Herrera and James Newman.
Roland Herrera won the consolation flight, beating Cynthia Roberts, Colin and Tim.
Meanwhile Tom Chapman yesterday became only the second player to sign up for this year's Conference League.
22/01/15: Champions League draw made
The draw for the inaugural UK Champions League competition was made over the weekend at the tournament in Brighton.
It was staged by Richard Biddle, whose initiative the project is, in front of witnesses Michael Crane, Peter Bennet and Lawrence Powell.
The full draw, which features eight players from our own league along with eight players from the London Players League, can be viewed here.
22/01/15: John off the mark
John Corrado started his Premier Two Red campaign yesterday with an 11-8 victory over Pearl Foster at the Compass, Tormarton.
21/01/15: Steve ahead on two fronts
It's quite unusual for a player to be leading in Bristol Backgammon's two foremost year long competitions.
But Steve Morris has managed to achieve this feat this evening in Redland.
He and Steffen Nowak agreed to double up their outstanding January Grand Prix main final as a Premier One match.
There was no room at the inn (in this case the Kensington Arms), so the pair adjourned to Steve's home.
Steve already held the OGP lead by virtue of having won his way through more rounds to reach the final than Steffen had.
And when the encounter finished 11-1 in Steve's favour, his OGP lead was stretched to 50 points.
The victory also moved Steve to the top of the Premier One table.
A second match ensued, and this time it was a lot closer.
Steve was once again the victor, however, by 11-9, and has a five points lead in the league.
21/01/15: Drew bounces back
Having lost three successive Premier Three matches, Drew Caudwell got back on track by pipping Chris Hughes 11-10 at the Bristol County Sports Club this afternoon.
21/01/15: Bristol players dominate in Brighton
BIBA's Bright 'n' Breezy tournament at the weekend -- in Brighton, as the name suggests -- featured sixty-eight players, but it was two Bristol players who shared the limelight.
Bristolian Jerry Limb, who cut his backgammon teeth in our own Premier League but is now a Maltese resident, fought out the final with five times Premier League champion Stuart Mann.
Stuart led 8-2 and later 10-5, but it was Jerry who eventually prevailed.
21/01/15: Simon starts with a win
Simon Temme began his Premier Three campaign at the Bristol County Sports Club yesterday with an 11-9 victory over Drew Caudwell.
And this after trailing 0-6.
19/01/15: Pearl and Jason take early league leads
Twelve players were in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday.
Eight, formed into two groups, played 3-point round robins as the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, but there were also five league matches played, plus the final two matches from the January Clock Grand Prix tournament.
Paul Watts and Andy Brown fought out a Premier Two Blue double header -- Paul winning both close encounters.
Premier Two Red finally got under way, Pearl Foster pipping Simon Hughes 11-9 to become the first leader in that division.
And Premier Three gathered pace, with Drew Caudwell and Jason Champion playing twice before the start of the round robins, Jason winning both matches emphatically to go top.
Simon and Stephen Little tidied up a loose end in the consolation flight semi-final of the clock event, Simon winning 7-4.
He was later to lose the final, John Chester whitewashing him.
In the round robins Chrissy Carter won one of the groups outright, while the other resulted in a three way tie.
Chris Hughes extended his SGP lead to 33 points over second placed Jason.
16/01/15: Steve and Simonetta share league spoils
In a Premier One double header at Kellaway Avenue today Steve Morris and Simonetta Herrera shared the spoils.
Steve won the first match 11-3, but trailed 3-8 in the return.
This preceded a comeback, where at 9-9 with the cube on 2, all he had to do was avoid rolling a 2-1 with his final bear-off roll.
He failed.
16/01/15: Steve and Steffen reach January grand prix final
There were just fourteen players at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday for the first of our twelve monthly grand prix tournaments -- the lowest ever January turnout for one of these events.
And the two players who made it through to the main final were Steve Morris and Steffen Nowak.
Steve defeated Miles Farren, Ian Tarr and John Chester while Steffen was progressing via a first round bye and victories over Ed Turner and Drew Caudwell.
The final will no doubt be played soon, and rumour has it that it may be doubled up as a Premier One match.
Ed won the consolation flight, defeating Simon Hughes, Simonetta Herrera and Rob Brito.
Obviously the winner of the main final will be the early leader of the Open Grand Prix.
As for the OGP's sister event, the Intermediate Grand Prix, there is nothing to report, as no intermediates contested the tournament.
There was also a little league action, with Rob and Drew playing the lion's share of a Premier Three event, which was adjourned at the start of the tournament with Drew 7-6 ahead.
14/01/15: Stuart starts with a win
Stuart Mann and Steve Morris began their Premier One campaigns at the Plough, Congresbury, this afternoon.
And it was Stuart who came though with a hard earned 11-9 victory.
13/01/15: Ed steps up Handicap Trophy sponsorship
Premier League stalwart Ed Turner is the man behind Bristol Backgammon's longest running sponsorship, having first sponsored the Handicap Trophy back in 2005.
That sponsorship now enters its eleventh year, and Ed has decided to give more than ever to the project.
Having paid for the perpetual shield and engraved mementoes each year, Ed gave cash prizes worth £30 last year, and has now upped this to a total of £80 for 2015.
While the top three finishers in the HT table will gain £30, £20 and £10 respectively, the innovative aspect of this new sponsorship involves another £20 prize.
This is an attempt to add spice to the £5 furthest progression pool which is an option at each Handicap Trophy event, and now involves a separate year long competition for those who enter that pool.
A pool entrant's best four points tallies will count for this, adding a new dimension to the competition.
13/01/15: Drew's sponsorship keeps Nackgammon alive on Mondays
When Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr mentioned his intention to drop Nackgammon Tournos from the Monday schedule in 2015, there were some dissenting voices.
This was at the final Monday session of 2014, on Monday December 22nd, and although the attendance figures for Nackgammon Tournos in 2014 were disappointing, it was clear that the impending decision was being met with some disappointment.
Not only that, but Drew Caudwell was even prepared to put his money where his mouth was in the form of a sponsorship deal, which will involve prizes to the value of £50.
So there will continue to be Nackgammon Tournos (five of them during 2015), and they will form their own competition as well as contributing as they always have done to the Spring, Summer and Autumn Grand Prix competitions.
12/01/15: Drew makes history on a good night for Adam
There were nine players present at the second Monday session of the year, including the eight who contested the DMP Tourno which was the latest phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix.
Four players were involved in league action before the start of the advertised event, however, and this was the first ever action in the new Premier League Division Three.
So history was made when Drew Caudwell became the first player ever to win a Premier Three match, after he recovered from 0-6 down to pip John Chester 11-10.
His stay at the top of the new league did not last more than a few minutes, however, as Adam Sinclair's victory over Alan Parfitt was by the slightly more comfortable margin of 11-9!
The DMP Tourno also saw success for Adam, whose five wins out of seven saw him sharing the pot with Pearl Foster.
Chris Hughes moved into the lead in the SGP table, with John in second place, 25 points behind.
11/01/15: Champions League acceptances complete
The identity of the eight Bristol players who will make history by competing in the inaugural UK Champions League can now be revealed.
The top six finishers in last year's Premier League -- Gaz Owen, Simonetta Herrera, Stuart Mann, Ed Turner, Ian Tarr and Steffen Nowak -- plus Bristol Masters winner Alex Hodge and eighth place league finisher Chas Perry are the eight who will take part in this ground breaking competition.
11/01/15: Twenty-six to contest Brunel Trophy
The second Brunel Trophy will be contested by twenty-six players.
Eighteen contested the inaugural competition, which is heavily sponsored by an anonymous benefactor, and the success of that one has been reflected in the increased qualification levels for this year's event.
This year the sponsor has contributed £288 of the prize pool of £620.
And once again the Director has been empowered to add two or three deserving players to the mix to ensure that the competition starts with an even number of contestants.
Gaz Owen and Eamonn Reay were the closest of those who didn't quite qualify, while Adam Sinclair would surely have gathered enough points had he arrived on the scene earlier than late October.
The first round draw will be made at the Awards Night on February 5th.
11/01/15: Mike first of the mark in Blue Division
The Premier Two Blue season got under way at the Port of Call, Clifton, this afternoon.
A double header between Andy Boysan and Mike Smith saw Mike draw first and second blood with 11-1 and 11-7 victories, to become the league's first leader.
09/01/15: The UK Champions League is here!
This year sees the launch of an exciting new initiative revolving around league backgammon.
With the Bristol Premier League long established and the London Players League going from strength to strength, two newer leagues have recently emerged.
The North West League is up and running and a new Midlands League has just begun.
And now, to capitalise on this upsurge in league backgammon, former Bristol league player Richard Biddle, who also founded the London league, has devised the next logical step in the process.
The UK Champions League 2015 has come a tad too early to involve the two most recently formed leagues, but it is hoped that they will be involved in the 2016.
In the meantime eight players from each of the two leagues will be doing battle for this inuagural title.
The top seven players in each of the two leagues as the the end of 2014, plus the London Players League Cup winner and the Bristol Masters champion are those who will represent the two leagues, assuming they all take up their rightful places.
The draw for the group stages will take place in Brighton on January 18th, the groups will be played out during the first six months of the year, and the top two in each group move on to the knock-out phase during the second half of the year.
08/01/15: Simonetta takes clock tournament honours
There were fifteen players at the Bristol County Sports Club on Wednesday to contest the opening Clock Grand Prix tournament.
The switch to Wednesday brought out one or two players for whom Thursdays are not ideal, demonstrating that a departure from the norm need not necessarily be a bad thing.
It was Simonetta Herrera who came out on top -- defeating John Chester, Chris Hughes and Ian Tarr, before despatching Stuart Mann in the final.
Stuart had got past Kevin Carter, Steve Morris and Roland Herrera en route to the final.
The consolation flight was subject to a lengthy delay in one half of the draw, and Stephen Little was allowed to take the bus home to Bath, leaving a semi and the final to be completed at a later date.
John is waiting in the final for the winner of the semi between Stephen and Simon Hughes.
The reduction in time allowances introduced into this season's CTGP was generally well received.
05/01/15: A quiet start at the Monday Club session
Just seven players turned up to contest the year's opening session -- the first phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix, and that was reduced to six when Director Ian Tarr sat out the event to make it a manageable schedule.
Honours were shared by Jason Champion and Chris Hughes, who each won four of their five matches to claim the joint lead of the first SGP table of the season.
04/01/15: Nick claims early Weston bragging rights
Weston-super-Mare's two finest players have arrived simultaneously in Premier One, and they celebrated with a local derby double header yesterday evening.
Alex Hodge played host, but Nick Barham repaid his hospitality by inflicting two 11-6 defeats on him.
Nick thus takes over from Ed Turner as the season's early pace setter.
02/01/15: Early season date changes to note
For enthusiasts who had already taken a peek at the new season's domestic schedule, it will be necessary to take on board a couple of date changes.
A function at our venue is scheduled for this coming Thursday, January 8th, which had been the date set for our opening monthly grand prix tournament.
The Clock Grand Prix tournament originally scheduled for Thursday January 15th will now take place on Wednesday January 7th, while the Monthly grand prix event will now be on Thursday January 15th.
02/01/15: A belated Happy New Year to all readers!
Happy New Year, one and all!
This message would have been visible a little earlier, but for a broadband blackout chez moi, now thankfully rectified by an engineer with a new router.
He'd never seen a router like my old one, so perhaps its replacement was long overdue.
Hopefully all the pages which should be updated in readiness for the new season are now in place.
If you spot any errors and/or omissions, please let me know.
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