News items from 2015 (second half)
22/12/15: Premier Three goes into mothballs
The deadline for entry to the 2016 Premier League passed at midnight on Monday with just thirty-seven players committing themselves to the rigours of competing in Bristol Backgammon's flagship competition.
And since it takes forty players to ensure that there will be three levels -- as there were in 2015 -- we will see a reversion to the format of the years leading up to 2015, with a Premier One and two parallel Premier Two Divisions.
Forty-one players started this year's league, but three in-season resignations proved to be something of a blight, particularly in the inaugural Premier Three which suffered two premature departures.
And now five of those who completed this year's season -- Alex Hodge, Eamonn Reay, Alan Parfitt, Rob Brito and Malcolm Patterson -- are absent from the new line-ups.
On the plus side, four players are added to the new league -- Cynthia Roberts returning after a four year gap, while Ian Hedges, Horst Stenzel and Ismail Yilmaz have made the step up from the intermediate ranks.
The total of thirty-seven players dictates a thirteen player top flight, with two twelve player Premier Twos.
So with only twelve automatic Premier One qualifiers taking up their places, Richard Owsley gets an unexpected leg up as the best performing player not to get automatic promotion.
It was a close run thing, Richard having won 62.5% of his matches in Premier Two Blue as opposed to his Red Division counterpart James Newman's 61.9%.
The line-up split between the two second divisions is dictated for the most part by finishing positions this year (twenty-two entrants), while the four newcomers were randomly drawn to fill the last vacancies.
This draw occurred at the Eastfield Inn, Henleaze, this lunch-time.
John Killoran, who entered three Lesters Trophy events in 1990 and was a stalwart of DPS Backgammon between 1989 and 1998, did the honours.
The full line-ups for the new season read as follows:
PREMIER ONE: Nick Barham, Andy Boysan, Phil Charlton, Simon Hughes, Stuart Mann, Steve Morris, Steffen Nowak, Gaz Owen, Richard Owsley, Cecilia Sparke, Ed Turner, Paul Watts, Neil Young.
PREMIER TWO BLUE: James Newman, Dave Pym, Ian Tarr, Simonetta Herrera, Andy Brown, Fred North, Peter Thistlewood, Chris Hughes, Andrew Cobb, Adam Sinclair, Ian Hedges, Ismail Yilmaz.
PREMIER TWO RED: Gary Plant, James Lintell-Smith, Mike Smith, Tim Line, Simon Baker, Pearl Foster, Jason Champion, Stephen Little, Mandy Macdonald, Drew Caudwell, Cynthia Roberts, Horst Stenzel.
21/12/15: Twelve bring the curtain down on the 2015 Bristol Backgammon year
The final session of 2015 saw twelve players in competition at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday.
Roland and Simonetta Herrera ran another checker play training session before the advertised event.
The twelve were then split into two 3-point round robin groups for the finale of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
Chris Hughes won four of his five matches to take one of the groups outright, while the other group saw the pot split four ways.
Roland had already made sure of the AGP title, just as George Georgiou had ensured that he would be the competition's top intermediate.
18/12/15: Twenty-two enjoy the fizz!
The pre-Christmas event known as the Christmas Fizz Tournament, because of sponsor Steve Morris's kind provision of four bottles of various kinds of fizzy liquid, was once again enjoyed by a healthily large field at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday.
Twenty-two players came along and sampled a hectic tournament format, which kept things moving until around 12.30am.
There were rare tournament appearances by Mike Smith, James Lintell-Smith, Lily Owsley and Derek Clew, while Sophie Bruce made her Bristol Backgammon debut and John Curran -- a Monday regular -- made his Thursday debut.
The latter two players both distinguished themselves by finishing in the top half of their groups.
With only 3-point matches throughout, there were two phases -- the first involving round robin groups of four or five players, while the second comprised main and consolation knock-out flights, where qualification was dependent on performance in the first phase.
There was also a buffet, although it should be said that the rice left a lot to be desired.
The five groups saw the winners -- Cecilia Sparke, Roland Herrera, Mike, Chris Hughes and Chris Rogers -- rewarded with small cash prizes, and the top two in each (or the top three in the case of the five player groups) moved on to the main knock-out flight, the remainder contesting the consolation.
The least deserving player in the main flight was Ian Tarr, who somehow managed to scrape third place in a five player group by winning just one of his four matches. He pipped two other players on points difference!
Cecilia Sparke emerged through the main flight to take the top prize, defeating James, Chris Rogers and Ian, before despatching Jason Champion in the final.
In the consolation it was Tim Line who won the flight, defeating Lily, Steffen Nowak and Stephen Little, then overcoming Richard Owsley in the final.
All in all, a fitting finale to the Thursday Bristol Backgammon season (although there is the final Monday Club event remaining).
15/12/15: Gaz wins Lesters; two more titles for Roland
There were eleven players in action yesterday, including the ten who contested the penultimate phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
There were two things happening before the tournament -- Roland Herrera staged a checker play demonstation for half a dozen interested players at the Bristol County Sports Club, while Blaine Buchanan and Gaz Owen were fighting out the held over final from the monthly grand prix tournament around the corner at the Ship.
This was a close fought affair, and although Blaine held the advantage close to the end, Gaz was the 11-9 victor.
The tournament comprised two groups of five player Nackgammon Tournos, one of which was won by Gaz, the other by Roland Herrera.
Roland has now amassed enough points to ensure that he wins the AGP, as his lead cannot be nullified by any of his pursuers at Monday's final phase.
He also wins the inaugural Drew Caudwell sponsored Nackgammon Grand Prix, which is based around the five Monday Nackgammon events during the year.
The absent Simonetta Herrera had led this competition, but Roland scored enough points last night to take the prize.
12/12/15: Blaine into Lesters final
The outstanding semi-final from Thursday's tournament was played out at Zazu's Kitchen, Bedminster, yesterday, and it was Blaine Buchanan who prevailed against Tim Line to earn a final meeting with Gaz Owen.
11/12/15: Simonetta draws a blank but wins OGP title
Fifteen players contested the year's twelfth and final Monthly Grand Prix tournament (a k a Lesters 97) at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, and the tournament was completed around the bar instead of the usual playing area, after another function was slow to vacate -- a problem we are unlikely to face next year when our Thursday events move to the Rainbow Casino.
Dave Pym made a rare tournament appearance, and Carwyn Jenkins made the switch from Mondays for his Thursday debut.
With the OGP and IGP titles at stake, there was plenty to play for.
The IGP has been a disappointment this year, with only two intermediates really doing enough to contest the title.
And absent leader Ismail Yilmaz was pretty safe in the knowledge that the title was his, since second placed Ian Hedges had already declared his season over.
Carwyn, however, demonstrated the sparseness of the IGP season by doing enough to finish third overall, merely by winning a single match with bonus points added for defeating a current Premier One player.
However, it was the OGP which was the centre of attention.
Simonetta Herrera's 61 points lead was always going to be tough to overturn, with her three potential pursuers all having to contend with discards at this late stage of the season.
And although Simonetta suffered first round defeats in both flights, her pursuers did little better, so her first OGP title was in the bag -- some small consolation for relegation from Premier One.
Gaz Owen is in the final, having defeated Stephen Little, Simonetta and Ed Turner en route.
There he will meet either Tim Line or Blaine Buchanan, whose semi-final was adjourned until today after Blaine took nearly four hours to get through two 7-point matches.
Next season these tournaments will be played under clock rules.
Andy Boysan took the consolation flight with wins over Steve Morris, Ian Tarr and Stephen.
07/12/15: Nine in Monday action
The latest instalment of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix saw nine players taking part, forming one five player group and one of four for 3-point round robins.
The five player group was won outright by Simonetta Herrera with a clean sweep of four wins, while the smaller group saw Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr sharing the spoils with two victories apiece.
Roland still leads the AGP table, but Simonetta is now second, just nine points behind.
03/12/15: Only six enjoy clock blitz event
There were only six players present at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday for the last of this year's six Clock Blitz Grand Prix evenings.
And the single round robin resulted in a four way tie as three wins out of five seemed to be the order of the day.
Cynthia Roberts, Roland Herrera, Stephen Little and Ian Tarr thus shared the pot.
The CBGP title was a two horse race, with only Simonetta Herrera in a position to overhaul leader Roland Herrera's points tally.
And since Roland fared better than Simonetta, the status quo was maintained.
03/12/15: No more action, so Ismail is Conference champion
The end of the league season passed at midnight on November 30th, and as well as the conclusion of all Premier League business, it also meant the end of the Conference League season.
There was no sign of a late flurry of activity, so Ismail Yilmaz takes the title, with Ian Hedges and Jude Pitt in second and third.
Ismail and Ian did comfortably enough to attain their Premier Status, as did Horst Stenzel via other channels.
30/11/15: Simon takes Premier Two title
There were twelve players in action on Monday, including ten at the Bristol County Sports Club.
Eight of those contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, a Tric Trac Tourno.
Alongside that event Simon Hughes and Paul Watts sat down to do battle for the outright Premier Two championship, having won the Red and Blue divisions respectively.
And in a seesaw match Simon prevailed 11-9.
The final action of the league season proper had been taking place on the web over the final two days of the competition, with Dave Pym and Eamonn Reay playing all three of their matches.
Dave won the first and third of those matches and finishes in fourth place.
In the Tric Trac Tourno four players managed to register two gammons apiece, but Stephen Little went one better to take the pot.
Neither AGP leader Roland Herrera nor second placed Ian Tarr did well enough to add to their points tallies, so Roland's 27 points lead remains intact.
29/11/15: James ends with a win
James Newman's league season is over.
His adjourned Premier Two Red match against Eamonn Reay was given special dispensation to be completed online, given that Eamonn has not been well recently.
And James saw it through with an 11-6 victory, which leaves him tantalisingly one win away from the promotion berths.
27/11/15: Simonetta wins CTGP; Stuart is league runner-up
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday at the final instalment of the last ever Clock Grand Prix tournament.
Two of those had a prior engagement at the Ship, Park Row.
This was for the last of this year's Premier One matches, with Stuart Mann and Gaz Owen effectively playing off for the runner-up spot.
Stuart won 11-7, and Gaz had to settle for third place.
In the clock event, Simonetta Herrera arrived with a more than handy 50 points CTGP lead over second placed Ian Tarr, the only player present with a realistic chance of making a challenge.
But when he lost at the first hurdle the title race was over.
Gaz won the tournament, defeating Roland Herrera, Nick Barham, Simon Hughes and Stephen Little.
Stephen had defeated Alin Buzescu and Tim Line to reach the final.
Alin, in only his second Thursday event, went on to take the consolation flight with victories over Roland, Simonetta and Steffen Nowak.
25/11/15: Cecilia rounds her season off in style
The Hen and Chicken, Bedminster, was the venue this evening as Cecilia Sparke ended her amazing maiden season in the top flight with an 11-3 victory over Ed Turner.
Having already clinched the title, this was the icing on the cake for her.
Ed finishes fourth for the second season running, leaving Stuart Mann and Gaz Owen to fight out the final remaining match of the season, which will amount to a second place play-off.
24/11/15: Stuart misses out on Champions League title
The inaugural season of the UK Champions League came to its conclusion in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, yesterday.
The best of three matches final of the competition was played out at the home of the competition's founder Richard Biddle.
And the two last players standing were new London Players League champion Peter Bennet of Ealing and five times Bristol Premier League champion Stuart Mann.
The first match went well for Stuart, and with the score at 10-5 Crawford he stood, by common consent, more than 95% favourite to win the bear off and the match.
That didn't work out, however, and neither did the two post Crawford games -- the second of which was a gammon -- so Peter had clutched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Peter's ascendancy continued in the second match, and with the score at 10-2 Crawford, it was Stuart's turn to try and rescue what looked like an unlikely possibility.
Clawing it back to 7-10, it all seemed more feasible, but there it ended and Peter was crowned as the first ever champion of the competition.
24/11/15: Simonetta relegated
Eleven players were in action at the Bristol County Sports Club yesterday evening.
They formed two round robin groups for 3-point matches as the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
But the big news came after the advertised event, when the second longest stay in the history of Premier One came to an end.
In terms of top flight longevity, nobody can rival Stuart Mann, who has contested all sixteen seasons of the league's existence.
But Simonetta Herrera, who has just completed her twelfth successive season in that league, will be playing Premier Two backgammon next season after suffering an 8-11 defeat to Gaz Owen.
She accompanies Gary Plant, Ian Tarr and Simon Baker as the four to drop down a division, and Steffen Nowak will be drawing a hefty sigh of relief, as he stays up thanks to yesterday's result.
Gaz's win comes at the end of a season where his title defence has failed.
He can still finish second, though, as can Stuart or Ed Turner.
The top four, including new champion Cecilia Sparke, contest the final two matches of the season.
In the round robins Simonetta found some small compensation by winning the six player group.
Sharing the pot in the five player group were George Georgiou and Roland Herrera, who takes over the AGP lead from the absent Ian.
22/11/15: Mission accomplished for Chris and Jason
The Three Sugar Loaves was the venue this lunch time for the match which brought the curtain down on the inaugural Premier Three season.
Both players had a particular objective in mind.
For league leader Jason Champion a win or a defeat by nothing worse than 5-11 would keep him above Stephen Little to claim the championship.
But for his opponent Chris Hughes it was a case of win or fail to pip Alan Parfitt for the third and final promotion place.
Things were looking good for Chris and Stephen when the score after three games read Chris 7 Jason 0.
But Jason rallied, and although he was unable to catch Chris the eventual scoreline -- 11-7 to Chris -- was enough to see both players achieving their more important objectives.
The first season at this level can only be considered a partial success overall, however, after the withdrawal of two players early on decimated the fixture list.
Because of this, only 56 of the originally projected 90 matches counted!
And without a major influx of new players it's very likely that the overall Premier League entry for 2016 will not reach the forty required to trigger another Premier Three season.
20/11/15: Neil clinches promotion, but it was close
In what was virtually a promotion play-off match, Neil Young defeated James Newman 11-10 at the Bristol County Sports Club yesterday evening.
The match decided who would finish in the second Premier Two Red promotion position.
Neil and James were among twenty players in action at our regular venue, sixteen of whom contested the final instalment of the Round Robin Grand Prix.
This is the third season of this competition, and the previous sixteen events had all seen line-ups ranging from eight to twelve players.
So this was the first time the players were split into three groups.
Nick Barham won the six player group, Roland Herrera won one of the five player groups, while the pot in the other was shared by Simonetta Herrera and Adam Sinclair.
Steve Morris had come into the event with a twenty points RRGP lead.
And while this superfically looks like a tenuous advantage, those who understand the effect of discards on late season points tallies know the opposite to be true.
Steve failed to improve his tally, but of Steve's pursuers only the Herreras got close.
Simonetta was one victory from drawing level on points with Steve, while Roland did exactly that.
The third level of tie break was the decisive one, however, as the two had the same number of points after discards and had entered the same number of tournaments.
Their only meeting in this year's competition was back in May, and it had been Steve who won that one, and he takes the title by that narrowest of margins.
The evening's other action saw Steffen Nowak beat Simonetta in the held over Handicap Trophy final from last month, and Tom Chapman winning a hard fought Conference League match against Mary French.
17/11/15: Cecilia crowned Premier League champion; Andy promoted; Gary relegated
Three league matches and a knock-out final were played this evening, and a few important issues were resolved.
The most momentous of those was the confirmation of Cecilia Sparke's Premier League championship win.
And she didn't even have to venture out to play.
Her only remaining rival for the title, Ed Turner, was in action at the King William IV, finishing off his match with Steffen Nowak, which had been adjourned with Steffen 9-8 ahead.
A backgammon would have been handy for Ed, but ironically it was Steffen who achieved this, when a mere gammon would have sufficed.
This result spoiled what would have been an intriguing climax for the neutrals, as the Cecilia versus Ed match would have been a great title decider.
It will now only play a part in deciding whether Ed will finish second, third or fourth.
The decisive game came after Steffen had suffered a blow to his bid to stay in the top flight.
His match with Phil Charlton started well enough when Steffen moved into a 5-0 lead.
He was only able to score one more point, however, as Phil sealed a great finish to the season, with the seventh victory from his final eight matches.
Steffen's mixed evening means that Gary Plant has now been relegated.
It also means that Simonetta Herrera needs an 11-9 win or better in her final league match -- against Gaz Owen -- to stay up at Steffen's expense.
But while Gaz still has a chance of finishing second, there is little chance that he will ease his foot off the gas.
Meanwhile at the Pump House there were two matches.
The second was the final match of the Premier Two Blue season, and it nearly didn't take place as Andy Boysan had all but given up hope of newly crowned divisional champion Paul Watts making an appearance.
He made it, however, and Andy scraped an 11-10 win which gives him the second promotion slot, just pipping Richard Owsley.
The earlier match at that venue was the held over final of the November Grand Prix tournament.
In a see-saw match Nick Barham clinched an 11-8 win over Ian Tarr.
And while Simonetta may be preoccupied by her final league match, at least her chances of taking a maiden OGP title are now stronger than ever.
Nick has now emerged as the player with the best chance to overhaul Simonetta's points tally, but reaching the December semi-final would be his minimum target.
Ian, Roland Herrera and Steve Morris would all need more.
16/11/15: Stephen and George take Monday pots
There were sixteen players in action on Monday for the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix, which took the form of a pair of eight player DMP Tournos.
Six wins out of seven were enough to win the groups outright -- George Georgiou taking one pot, Stephen Little the other.
Ian Tarr's AGP lead has been cut to just seven points by Roland Herrera, while George leads the race to become the competition's leading intermediate.
15/11/15: Simonetta clinging on to a lifeline
Simonetta Herrera kept her Premier One survival hopes alive with a hard fought 11-8 victory over Nick Barham at Kellaway Avenue yesterday.
Defeat would have meant relegation, but now she must win her final match and hope that Steffen Nowak has a bleak evening this coming Tuesday.
Gary Plant has been tantalisingly poised above the drop zone awaiting his fate for a while now, but things look bleak for him as he needs all three relevant remaining matches to go the way of his rivals' opponents.
13/11/15: Nick and Ian reach November grand prix final
Exactly sixteen players fought out most of the November Grand Prix tournament at the Bristol County Sports Club yesterday evening, including Thursday debut player Alin Buzescu.
OGP contenders Nick Barham and Ian Tarr made it through to a final which will no doubt be played very soon.
Nick defeated Adam Sinclair, Ismail Yilmaz and Alex Hodge to reach the final, while Ian's victims were Ed Turner, Simon Hughes and Stephen Little.
OGP leader Simonetta Herrera suffered a setback in losing her opening match to Jason Champion, but ensured that her evening was well spent by winning the consolation flight via wins over Alin, Richard Owsley and Ed.
Meanwhile Ian Hedges has apparently thrown in the towel in the race for the IGP title.
Before yesterday's event, his ideal scenario was to get drawn against IGP leader Ismail, win that match and then go on to score enough points to wrest the IGP lead from Ismail.
He got the first part of his wish, but Ismail ruined the plan by winning and extending his IGP lead to 60 points.
In a text today, Ian has apparently now pulled the plug on what has been a very successful debut season.
So with just one match plus the December tournament to play Simonetta is still strongly odds on to win the OGP title for the first time.
Her biggest danger now is Ian Tarr, who can move to within 26 points of Simonetta's score by defeating Nick.
That is a deceptive number, however, as discards mean that -- depending on the number of entrants to the December tournament -- Ian would still need to win two or three main flight matches to stand a chance of pipping Simonetta.
Others still in the mix are Roland Herrera, Nick -- who would move into third place with a victory over Ian -- and somewhat more tentatively, Steve Morris.
Steve would need five main flight wins in December's tournament to stand a chance.
13/11/15: Premier League title race narrowed to two contenders
After a pause for breath for the top flight's championship contenders and those haunted by the fear of relegation, the intriguing run in has now started with a vengeance.
And two matches in the past couple of days have narrowed the title race down from four players to just two -- neither of whom has taken the title before.
Gaz Owen's slim chance of retaining his title disappeared on Wednesday at the Lounge, Bedminster, when leader Cecilia Sparke defeated Phil Charlton 11-8.
And Stuart Mann dipped out of contention at the Bristol County Sports Club yesterday evening when he suffered a 6-11 defeat to Nick Barham, who still has an eye on some prize money as he moves into fourth place.
Although Stuart can still finish level on points with Cecilia, her average points difference cannot be anything but superior to Stuart's no matter what the scores of the remaining matches.
So now the only player who can wrest the title from Cecilia is Ed Turner.
And Steffen Nowak could hold the key to unravelling the mystery on Tuesday night, when he is scheduled to meet Phil, and at the same session he will finish his adjourned match with Ed.
That adjourned match is tantalisingly poised with Steffen leading 9-8, but were Ed to clinch a win, the stage would then be set for a gripping title decider between the two contenders.
Ed's two possible winning margins over Steffen are 11-9 and 11-10.
In the former case an 11-4 for win for Ed over Cecilia would see him take the title outright, while in the latter that result would force an unprecedented title play-off.
11/11/15: A lot riding on the final Premier Three match
Chris Hughes scored an 11-4 victory over Malcolm Patterson at the Bristol County Sports Club yesterday.
And that result ensures that the sole remaining match of this fractured inaugural Premier Three campaign will have plenty of significance for both players.
Victory for Chris would give him automatic promotion at Alan Parfitt's expense while the other result would see Jason Champion installed as the first Premier Three champion ahead of Stephen Little.
10/11/15: Gaz's winner's speech in Cyprus
Gaz Owen's speech at the weekend's momentous tournament in Cyprus can be viewed here, thanks to Cecilia Sparke.
10/11/15: Fourteen in Monday action
There were fourteen players in action at the latest Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix session, which took the form of three 3-point round robins.
Amongst the field was another welcome debut player, Carwyn Jenkins.
Chris Hughes won the four player group outright, while one of the five player groups saw the pot shared between Jason Champion and Adam Sinclair.
The other group is not yet finished, as Tony Martin had to leave early.
His match against Ismail Yilmaz will probably be played next Monday, and it will decide who shares the pot with Pearl Foster.
The top positions in the AGP table didn't change a lot, although Jason moved into third place.
08/11/15: Is this the biggest ever win by a UK backgammon player?
Gaz Owen -- current Bristol Premier League champion -- has today won the prestigious Cyprus Merit Open in Kyrenia!
This is arguably the biggest win ever achieved by a UK player, and the event is almost certainly the most well attended of any in the world backgammon calendar -- Gaz came top of a field of 283 in the Masters.
Visit the UKBGF website for more.
06/11/15: Roland takes GP5 title in his absence
The exodus to Cyprus was partly responsible for another diappointing turnout at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, only eight players being present for the last of the year's GP5 tournaments.
Roland Herrera, one of those currently in Cyprus, headed the GP5 table at the start of the evening.
But with his three closest pursuers all absent and only a maximum of 85 points available, a tournament win for Jason Champion was the only result which could oust him from the top.
Jason lost his first match.
Ian Hedges and Alex Hodge made it to the final -- Ian disposing of Ismail Yilmaz and Ian Tarr, while Alex was defeating Richard Owsley and Adam Sinclair.
And Ian prevailed in a close final.
Simon Hughes defeated Jason in the consolation final.
04/11/15: Blue Division promotion race goes to the last match
An 11-5 win for Andy Boysan over Fred North at the Pump House yesterday evening means that the final match of this year's Premier Two Blue season will be an important one.
Andy meets divisional champion Paul Watts knowing that a win will put him into next season's top flight at the expense of the current incumbent of second place, Richard Owsley.
03/11/15: Mike ends with a win
James Lintell-Smith and Mike Smith wrapped up their respective Premier Two Blue campaigns yesterday at Ye Shakespeare, Victoria Street.
And it was Mike who closed with a win, 11-3.
Just two matches remain in this division -- important ones for Andy Boysan and Richard Owsley, as one will gain promotion to the top flight.
Second placed Richard can only wait and hope that Andy doesn't overhaul him by defeating Fred North and champion Paul Watts.
02/11/15: Neil sets up promotion clash with James
Fifteen players were in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, including the eleven who fought out a DMP Tourno as the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
The other four played league matches.
Neil Young defeated Mandy Macdonald 11-8, doing enough to ensure that his remaining Premier Two Red match -- against promotion rival James Newman -- will decide the destiny of the second promotion slot, regardless of how James fares when he finishes his adjourned match with Eamonn Reay.
Meanwhile Rob Brito completed his maiden Premier Three campaign with a 7-11 defeat against Malcolm Patterson.
The DMP Tourno saw Simonetta Herrera take the pot by winning eight of her ten games, pipping Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr by one win.
Ian maintains his 25 points AGP lead over Roland, while George Georgiou takes over from Horst Stenzel as the competition's leading intermediate.
30/10/15: Hospitalised Horst takes Handicap Trophy title
Eighteen players were in action on Thursday, including the fourteen who contested the last of the year's six Handicap Trophy tournaments.
Earlier Simon Baker and Steve Morris played out their final two Premier One matches at the Kensington Arms, Redland.
Simon took the first match 11-6, but Steve removed any lingering doubt about his qualification for next year's top flight by winning the return 11-2.
The last two relegation slots now rest between Gary Plant, Steffen Nowak and Simonetta Herrera.
Peter Thistlewood ended his Premier Two Blue season alongside the evening's main event, succumbing to Paul Watts, who had already won the division.
In the tournament Steffen and Simonetta temporarily forgot about their relegation worries, reaching the main flight final, which will be played out in due course.
Richard Owsley defeated Ismail Yilmaz in the consolation flight.
Horst Stenzel, who led the Handicap Trophy table going into the event, was unable to be present, having gone into hospital for a hip replacement.
He was sorry to have missed the chance to consolidate his leadership, but he need not have worried as none of his closest pursuers added enough points to their tallies to overhaul him.
He thus takes the title, while second placed Nick Barham wins the Ed Turner sponsored Side Pool Grand Prix.
28/10/15: Alex signs off with a significant win
In a Premier One match at the Bristol County Sports Club yesterday evening Alex Hodge scored an 11-5 win which will have more significance for others -- including his victim Cecilia Sparke -- than it will for him.
Alex has had a satisfactory debut season in the top flight, and will finish in a top half position.
For his opponent last night, however, the defeat will seem like a missed opportunity.
Cecilia remains top, ahead of Stuart Mann on average points difference, but third placed Ed Turner and even fourth placed reigning champion Gaz Owen cannot be ruled out.
All four have two matches remaining, including a clash between Cecilia and Ed and another between Gaz and Stuart.
Gaz needs all six results to go his way, so can still be considered a rank outsider, but the other three contenders all have realistic chances.
27/10/15: Steffen deals Ed a body blow
There were eighteen players at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, including the sixteen who contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix -- three 3-point round robins.
The exceptions were Steffen Nowak and Ed Turner who had arranged a Premier One double header.
Both really needed to win twice, but with very different objectives in mind.
Two wins for Ed would put him top of the league with an outstanding chance to take the title for the first time.
Two wins for Steffen on the other hand would make him very much odds on to retain his top flight place.
The first match was a gruelling one indeed -- no gammons and no fewer than seventeen games -- and it was Steffen who prevailed by the narrowest of margins.
The return match was heading in a similar direction when time ran out. Steffen leads 9-8 and another time and place will see the denouement.
Ed must now beat Steffen and leader Cecilia Sparke and hope other results go his way.
Steffen will stay up if he wins his two matches, but one victory would leave him anxiously awaiting the resuts of Simonetta Herrera's matches.
Rob Brito played two of his three remaining Premier Three matches, with mixed fortunes.
A 5-11 defeat by Jason Champion was followed by an 11-7 win over Adam Sinclair.
Jason moves to the top of the table, and will be divisional champion if he does no worse than losing 5-11 in his final match against Chris Hughes.
That's an important match for Chris, too, as two wins would seal automatic promotion.
The advertised event saw pots shared in all three groups.
In the six player group it was debut player Alin Buzescu and Pearl Foster, while Horst Stenzel and Stephen Little had a half share in one of the five player groups.
In the other group Jason, Rob and Ismail Yilmaz scooped a third share each.
For Horst, his three match wins brought him further benefit.
It raised his Race to the Premier League points tally to exactly 50, the level which guarantees a player Premier Status -- a welcome boost as he goes under the surgeon's knife this weekend.
Ian Tarr's AGP lead is extended to 25 points, with Roland Herrera edging the absent Gaz Owen out of second place.
26/10/15: Jason clinches GP30 third place
The outstanding final of Thursday's GP30 main flight was played at the Hen and Chicken, Bedminster, this afternoon.
Jason Champion defeated Chris Rogers 9-3 in what was effectively the match to decide third place in this year's GP30 competition.
25/10/15: Chris reaches GP30 final
At a cottage in the Cotswolds yesterday the outstanding semi-final from Thursday's GP30 tournament was completed.
Chris Rogers converted his 5-2 lead over Cecilia Sparke from the adjournment into a victory and will now meet Jason Champion in the final.
In the overall GP30 standings Gaz Owen is now assured of second place, while third will be filled by whoever wins the final, which is due to be played tomorrow.
23/10/15: Second successive record turnout for GP30 event
There were twenty-three players in action on Thursday, including the sixteen who were at the Bristol County Sports Club to toe the start line for the last of this year's four GP30 tournaments.
Sixteen was a record for this particular competition, which has been a little slow to get off the ground since its inclusion in the calendar in 2013.
This beat the previous record of fifteen which was only set in July.
Sadly, from an excitement perspective, the turnout sealed Ian Tarr's claim to the title.
The maximum points available from a sixteen player draw is 100, and Ian's closest challenger -- Gaz Owen -- started the evening 105 points adrift, after Ian had won two of the three earlier events.
With Paul Gilbertson's sponsorship of the competition ading spice, however, the race for second and third place prize money was alive and kicking.
And with one and a half matches remaining to be completed, we are little wiser as to the destination of those spoils.
Jason Champion is in the final, after defeating Roland Herrera, Ian and Nick Barham.
There he will meet either Cecilia Sparke or Chris Rogers, who adjourned their semi-final with Chris leading 5-2 when it became clear that the final would have to be held over.
Gaz is in second place overall, but would be overhauled in the event of a win for Cecilia, while third placed Roland would be overtaken by Jason or Chris if either were to win.
Roland won the consolation flight with wins over Simon Hughes, Stephen Little and Alex Hodge.
Four league matches were also completed.
Neil Young and James Newman are running almost neck and neck for the second promotion slot in Premier Two Red.
And both won last night -- Neil pipping Tim Line at the main venue, while James eclipsed Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill.
The pair have two matches remaining, but the advantage has now switched to James on average points difference.
Their last meeting threatens to be a humdinger.
In the Blue Division Andy Brown rounded off a disappointing end to a season which promised so much with a 6-11 reverse at the hands of Fred North.
And in the Conference League Ian Hedges moved a little closer to leader Ismail Yilmaz with an 11-7 victory over Mary French
19/10/15: Stuart reaches inaugural Champions League final
The Star and Dove played host to a couple of important matches last night.
Stuart Mann and Steffen Nowak met to fight out the all Bristol semi-final of the UK Champions League.
This inaugural ground breaking competition, this year featuring eight Bristol players and eight from London, has been an undoubted success, and is set to expand next year to thirty-two players representing five leagues.
Three Bristol players and five Londoners made it through the World Cup-style groups, but balance was restored when Stuart and Steffen fought their way through to contest one of the semi-finals.
With London's Peter Bennet awaiting the winner in the final, the pair braced themselves for three eleven point matches.
As it happened only two were necessary as Stuart won the first 11-9 and then the second 11-7.
The final has to be completed by the end of the year.
19/10/15: Ed and Ian win Monday Tric Trac Tournos
Fifteen players contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix at the Bristol County Sports Club.
The session took the form of Tric Trac Tournos -- one of eight players, the other of seven.
Ian Tarr took the honours in the smaller group, but the highlight of the evening was the climax of the eight player group.
In this group Alex Hodge left for home with a great chance of taking the pot.
Ed Turner had other ideas, however.
To pip Alex he needed a backgammon in his final match -- against Roland Herrera -- and amazingly got it!
Ian narrowly takes over the lead of the AGP table from Gaz Owen, with Roland in third.
George Georgiou still heads the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.
18/10/15: Roland completes spectacular weekend
Having won yesterday's Rainbow Bristol Backgammon Day, Roland Herrera capped off a great weekend when he defeated Simonetta Herrera 11-7 in a Kellaway Avenue local derby.
This was the held over final of the October Grand Prix tournament.
A win for Simonetta would have made her the strongest of favourites to capture the October Grand Prix title with a 121 points lead going into the final two events.
As it now stands, however, Roland has moved into second place, just 70 points adrift.
But with discards biting hard, this will still be a difficult margin to overturn.
18/10/15: Rainbow event enjoyed by twenty-one
The pilot Rainbow Bristol Backgammon Day passed off successfully, albeit with a slightly disappointing turnout.
Nineteen players contested the main event, while three later side events included two others in the mix.
Total prize money for all components amounted to £1,100.
The main flight saw three players new to the Bristol Backgammon scene -- Anna Price, an established London player, plus two new to competition, John Beardsell and Tom Jones.
World Backgammon Giant Julian Fetterlein played, but it was four regulars on the Bristol scene who made it through to the semi-finals.
The Herreras are currently in a rich vein of form -- Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera meeting in one semi -- while two title contenders from Premier One, Cecilia Sparke and Ed Turner, completed the last four line up.
Roland and Cecilia won through and agreed to a curtailed final, which Roland won.
Small side events were won by Tim Line, George Georgiou and Director Ian Tarr.
It is hoped that further similar events will follow in due course.
15/10/15: Paul wins Blue Division title
It was Clock Blitz night at the Bristol County Sports Club, but the limelight was stolen by two Premier Two Blue promotion chasers.
Paul Watts not only made sure of promotion to the top flight -- his 11-6 victory over Andy Brown also confirmed him as Blue Division champion.
Once he has polished off his two remaining league results, he will face Red Division champion Simon Hughes for the outright Premier Two championship.
And while Paul was hitting his targets Richard Owsley was giving himself a great chance of accompanying Paul into Premier One in a triple header against Andrew Cobb at the Ram, Bath.
Richard won all three matches with a combined score of 33-11 and has moved into second place.
Paul's result and Richard's three victories have ruled Andy Brown and James Lintell-Smith out of automatic promotion, as Andy Boysan is the only player who can now grab the second promotion slot at Richard's expense.
Victories in his final two fixtures would do it for Andy.
The evening's other league action involved Ian Hedges and Tom Chapman at the George, Backwell.
Ian won their Conference League match 11-5.
The eight players who lined up for the fifth of the year's six Clock Blitz Grand Prix evenings certainly got value for money, each having to play seven five point matches.
Roland Herrera came out on top with six victories and has wrested the overall CBGP lead from Simonetta Herrera.
15/10/15: Business as usual at the club
Although the part of Colston Street immediately outside the Bristol County Sports Club is still closed to traffic after Monday's fire in the block opposite, it's business as usual at the club, with access on foot still possible.
So tonight's Clock Blitz Grand Prix event goes ahead unhindered.
14/10/15: Sixth successive league win for Phil
The threat of relegation long since banished, Phil Charlton scored his sixth Premier One victory in succession this evening.
The venue was the Kingsdown Vaults, and his victim was Steve Morris.
While Phil pushes on with a chance to gate crash the prize money party, Steve has still not quite guaranteed his top flight safety, although the results of seven outstanding matches all need to go against him -- and some of them by wide margins -- to condemn him.
13/10/15: Fire shifts Monday session
The major fire at the student accommodation block opposite our usual venue, the Bristol County Sports Club, caused a hasty re-location of last night's Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
As the club was within a no-go zone and therefore closed, attention shifted to what proved to be a more than satisfactory alternative venue, around the corner in the Ship, Lower Park Row.
And a gathering of thirteen players was an excellent outcome under the circumstances.
These were split into three groups for the 3-point round robins -- one of five players, two of four -- and there was a welcome Bristol Backgammon debut for Bell Butsarakum.
Simonetta Herrera and Adam Sinclair won the four player groups outright, while the five player group saw the pot shared between George Georgiou and Chris Hughes.
Gaz Owen still heads the AGP table, but Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr are now within four points of him.
George leads the race to become the event's top intermediate.
Before the groups Chris and Adam played out a Premier Three match, Chris winning 11-4 to keep alive his automatic promotion chance.
09/10/15: James sets up intriguing Red Division run in
Pearl Foster completed her Premier Two Red season today at Brimsham Park, Yate, going down to a 5-11 defeat against James Newman.
James is now level on points with second placed Neil Young, but with a marginally inferior average points difference.
As they each have three matches remaining, it's anybody's guess who will accompany Simon Hughes into the top flight.
Dave Pym and Eamonn Reay both retain an outside chance of stealing that promotion slot, but it's likely that the crucial match will be the remaining meeting of James and Neil.
The pair failed to complete their final match last season, but with so much at stake it seems unlikely that there will be a repeat this time around.
09/10/15: Simonetta tightens OGP title grip
There were nineteen players in action on Thursday, including the eighteen who contested the latest of our Monthly Grand Prix tournaments at the Bristol County Sports Club.
And it will be an all-Herrera main flight final after Simonetta Herrera's victories over Steve Morris, Alex Hodge, Ian Tarr and Cynthia Roberts and Roland Herrera's wins against Ian Hedges, welcome debutant Jim Green and Simon Hughes.
With just two tournaments remaining Simonetta has stretched her OGP lead over second placed Ian Tarr to 86 points.
But a win in the final would see Roland becoming Simonetta's most dangerous challenger, reducing the gap to 70 points.
A win for Simonetta would give her a 121 points lead, which would be very difficult to overturn at this late stage in the competition.
Richard Owsley won the consolation flight, defeating Tim Line, Ian Hedges, Steve and Jason Champion in the process.
Ismail Yilmaz increased his IGP lead to 45 points with a bonus points win over Nick Barham.
Before the tournament Tim dropped in at the Compass, Tormarton, to inflict an 11-8 Premier Two Red defeat on Pearl Foster, before arriving at the main venue to play the remainder of the adjourned consolation final of the September Clock Tournament, where he overcame Paul Male.
Coincidentally the main flight final of the same tournament was being played simultaneously, Stephen Little defeating Simon.
06/10/15: Dave grounded
Mandy Macdonald and Dave Pym met this morning at Grounded in Bedminster for a Premier Two Red encounter.
And Mandy's 11-5 victory did nothing for Dave's already slim promotion hopes.
06/10/15: Gaz wins Brunel Trophy
The second Brunel Trophy -- the year long double elimination tournament which ranks as Bristol Backgammon's richest knock-out tournament -- ended yesterday evening at the Bristol County Sports Club, when the two last men standing from the original field of twenty-six players -- Nick Barham and Gaz Owen -- fought out a close final.
It went Gaz's way, when a gammon in the Crawford game saw him home.
There was also league action, with James Lintell-Smith suffering a body blow to his chances of promotion from Premier Two Blue when he lost 8-11 to Fred North at Ye Shakespeare, Victoria Street -- a result which also greatly enhances Fred's chances of steering clear of relegation.
And Ian Hedges defeated Horst Stenzel 11-2 in a Conference League match.
He didn't stay for the advertised event, however, as twelve contestants battled out two six player Nackgammon Tournos.
These saw victories for Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr, who closed in on Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix leader Gaz, with the top three now covered by just nine points.
In the Drew Caudwell sponsored Monday Club Nackgammon Grand Prix Simonetta Herrera takes a 27 points lead into the final leg of the competition in December.
04/10/15: Drew signs off with a win
Drew Caudwell completed his Premier Three season today with an 11-5 win over Rob Brito at the Post Office Tavern, Westbury on Trym.
01/10/15: Intermediates Trophy barely quoreate
Despite an email campaign to drum up interest in the annual opportunity for intermediates to win their own title, the message fell on particularly stony ground.
The minimum requirement for a knock-out tournament is four participants, and that is exactly what we got at the Bristol County Sports Club tonight.
As damp squibs go, this was the soggiest, and the event was done and dusted before 9pm.
No criticism should be levelled at Tom Chapman, Ian Hedges, reigning title holder Horst Stenzel or Ismail Yilmaz, however.
They all turned up and had a tilt at winning the event.
Ismail ended Horst's title defence in the semis, while Tom was succumbing to Ian.
And a four cube decided the final with the score at 4-3 to Ian.
It see-sawed before Ian dealt the telling blow to win the event.
There was league action earlier at the Compass, Tormarton, where Pearl Foster defeated Tim Line 11-3 in Premier Two Red.
01/10/15: Penalty checkpoint passes without much incident
The new rule brought in to cajole players to avoid penalty at the 30th September midnight checkpoint has had its effect.
There were no new penalties in Premier One or Premier Two Blue, and those who might have been eligible for penalty in Premier Two Red have been let off because of minor difficulties surrounding Eamonn Reay's participation.
Eamonn, whose efforts to compete in our league eclipse those of all other players given the fact that he has to travel from Galway, is one match short of the required eighteen matches, as are Dave Pym and James Newman.
But Eamonn's final match with James was almost finished when James had to catch a flight, and Dave has had absences abroad which have coincided with Eamonn's recent visits.
So under the circumstances -- which had also been exacerbated by uncertainty over the bizarre expungement of John Corrado -- Director Ian Tarr has decided to waive all penalties for the three.
In Premier Three there have also been problems caused by two expungements, and Rob Brito has a single point penalty to contend with, which can be clawed back by finishing the season on time.
Ian has also decided to waive the five points which could have been added to Rob's points against column.
All in all, however, the new rule has had the effect of substantially reducing the number of matches outstanding for the final couple of months, which in turn makes satisfactory completion of the season more likely.
30/09/15: Peter beats Mike in eighteen game epic
The Victoria Park Tavern was the venue for a Premier Two Blue match this afternoon.
And Peter Thistlewood is almost safe from relegation after his 11-9 win over Mike Smith in a match which spanned eighteen games.
30/09/15: Cecilia goes top as the run in approaches
Another win for Cecilia Sparke -- 11-4 over Alex Hodge at the Hen and Chicken -- has moved her to the top of Premier One, as the competition hots up.
There are still four contenders, although Gaz Owen can be discounted on the grounds that if any one of eight remaining matches goes the wrong way for him he can't retain his title.
Two of the eight matches affecting the title race feature clashes of contenders -- Gaz against Stuart Mann and Cecilia versus Ed Turner -- and the latter one of these we should be selling tickets for!
29/09/15: Tuesday afternoon league action: two relegated
Six Premier League matches were played this afternoon, including some critical to the important issues.
Simon Baker and Ian Tarr suffered relegation from the top flight after losing both sides of double headers.
The Old Stillage, Redfield, was the venue for Ian as he lost 6-11 and 10-11 to a rampant Ed Turner, who still retains hopes of taking the championship itself.
Simon's fate was sealed at the Bristol County Sports Club, where Nick Barham scored 11-5 and 11-6 wins.
Only four players now retain an unwanted interest in the battle to avoid joining Ian and Simon in Premier Two.
Steve Morris -- with a good average points difference -- is almost safe, as even if he were to lose his three remaining matches, the chances of either Steffen Nowak or Simonetta Herrera passing him are slim.
Gary Plant also has grounds for optimism, although his difference will not save him if called upon.
In Premier Two Blue James Lintell-Smith defeated Peter Thistlewood at Henbury Golf Club, and has leapfrogged Andy Boysan into the second promotion place.
And at the Compass, Tormarton, Dave Pym scored an 11-7 Red Division win over Pearl Foster.
28/09/15: Gaz reaches Brunel final
Sixteen players were in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the twelve who played out the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
The other play progressed the Brunel Trophy, Premier Two Blue and Premier Three.
Gaz Owen will meet Nick Barham in the final of the Brunel Trophy after a surprisingly one sided win for Gaz over Roland Herrera.
And Paul Watts is almost back in Premier One after a pair of Blue Division victories over Peter Thistlewood.
He has opened up a six points lead, and there are three players who can equal that, but not beat it.
And in Premier Three Chris Hughes kept his promotion chances alive with an 11-4 win over Malcolm Patterson.
The Autumn Grand Prix competition featured two six player 3-point round robins.
Alex Hodge and Roland took the pots here, and Gaz has extended his lead in the AGP table to 40 points, with Roland now in second place.
Horst Stenzel is the leader in the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.
27/09/15: Sunday league news
Three important Premier League matches were played on Sunday.
At the Fire Engine, Redfield, Phil Charlton just managed to stave off a fightback by Ian Tarr to win 11-10.
Phil's fifth successive league win has all but guaranteed his safety, but Ian's fate will become clearer when he meets Ed Turner for his final two matches on Tuesday.
Two defeats would condemn him, two wins would make him almost safe, but sharing the spoils would leave him wondering.
In Premier Two Red the top three players were in action.
Simon Hughes, already assured of the divisional championship, ended his season in anti-climax at the Anchor, Bishopston, losing 1-11 to Neil Young, who moves into second place.
James Newman, who looked a very strong bet for automatic promotion not too long ago, lost his fifth successive league match -- 6-11 to Dave Pym at the Air Balloon, Birdlip -- and slips to third.
27/09/15: Steve and Ian fly the flag
The annual Chandos Road Festival today saw Steve Morris and Ian Tarr flying the backgammon flag at One Man's Grace.
There was a limited response to the sight of backgammon being played this time, but these sessions can have a beneficial effect in terms of raising the game's profile, and we gained at least one player last time we had a presence there.
27/09/15: Simon irrepressible
Premier Two Red champion seems determined to win the division by a record margin.
Yesterday he added another three points to his tally with an 11-3 victory over Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill.
25/09/15: Ian keeps hopes alive
Two Premier League matches were played this afternoon.
A crucial Premier One clash occurred in a sunny garden in Kellaway Avenue, although there were figurative dark clouds looming over both players.
For Simonetta Herrera the 9-11 defeat does not spell the end of her fight against relegation, but she must now win her final two matches and hope that it is enough to stay up.
Although Ian Tarr is far from out of the woods yet, two wins from his final three matches would make top flight survival a probability.
The Rose of Denmark was the venue for a Premier Two Blue match between Fred North and Richard Owsley.
And Richard missed a chance to further press his promotion claim when he went down 7-11.
For Fred the win keeps him ahead of relegation rival Andrew Cobb.
25/09/15: Thirteen in Thursday action
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, including the ten who contested the fifth of this year's six Clock Grand Prix tournaments.
Earlier Tim Line had visited the Windmill, where he scored an 11-3 Premier Two Red victory over Mandy Macdonald.
Alongside the tournament Richard Owsley did his promotion chances no harm at all with an 11-7 Premier Two Blue win over rival contender Andy Brown.
Toeing the start line for the clock event was a welcome newcomer Cliff Blofield.
The event was cut a little short by an earlier than usual closure of the venue, but the final line-ups were complete by then, with Simon Hughes and Stephen Little in the main final and Tim and Paul Male in the consolation.
CTGP leader Simonetta Herrera made it to the semis, and added to her lead in the absence of her five nearest challengers.
She is extremely well placed to take the title when the final instalment of this competition takes place in November, as only four players now have a realistic chance to overtake her.
25/09/15: Phil takes two steps towards safety
Two late results from Premier One on Wednesday have come to light.
A double header with a bearing on the relegation dog fight featured Simon Baker and Phil Charlton at the King William IV.
And it was Phil who came through two tight matches with six invaluable points, giving him a strong odds on chance of achieving safety.
The defeats have a severe impact on Simon's chances of escaping the drop, however.
24/09/15: Rainbow Bristol Backgammon Day set for October 17th
In conjunction with the Rainbow Casino Bristol, Bristol Backgammon is staging what is hoped to be a series of one-day backgammon events.
The pilot event for this is on Saturday October 17th.
Visit the new page for all the latest details.
23/09/15: Cecilia favourite again in title race
An 11-5 win over Ian Tarr at Ye Shakespeare in Victoria Street moved Cecilia Sparke to within three points of Premier One leader Stuart Mann on Wednesday evening.
With two matches in hand over Stuart and a superior average points difference, she must now be the bookies' favourite.
The result deepened Ian's relegation problems.
22/09/15: Cecilia defeated at the Hen and Chicken
An important Premier One match took place at the Hen and Chicken yesterday, as a total of sixteen players were in action across Bristol.
Reigning champion Gaz Owen met an aspiring one in Cecilia Sparke, and won 11-6.
Gaz moves into third place, but has only a very limited chance to retain his title, while the defeat has put just that little bit more pressure on Cecilia, whose maiden top flight season has been exceptional.
She is six points behind leader Stuart Mann, but with Cecilia having three matches in hand and a superior average points difference, the run in is set up for a grandstand finish.
At the Fire Engine things changed at the top of Premier Two Blue.
Andy Boysan and Paul Watts won one apiece, and both overhauled previous leader James Lintell-Smith.
While things remain very tight at the top of this division, it's Paul who is best placed with matches in hand over his rivals.
And alongside the evening's advertised event at the Bristol County Sports Club, Ian Hedges played two Conference League matches, losing 6-11 to Horst Stenzel after holding a 6-0 lead, but defeating Mary French 11-2 to move into second place.
Horst was one of eleven players to contest a Tric Trac Tourno, the latest phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
Jason Champion won convincingly with 21 points, six more than his closest rival, and moved into second place overall, 35 points adrift of leader Gaz.
20/09/15: Eight in Sunday league action
Six and a half league matches were played on Sunday, involving eight players.
Bristol's top two lady players slugged out a Premier One double header at the Watershed with very different objectives in mind.
Twice league champion Simonetta Herrera unusually finds herself near the wrong end of the table, while Cecilia Sparke's maiden season in the top flight sees her in with a great chance of lifting the title.
And after two hard fought struggles -- each player scoring an 11-7 win -- Cecilia has done her title challenge no harm, while Simonetta finds herself with little margin for error in her three remaining matches.
In Premier Two Blue there was another encounter with the protagonists fighting different battles.
And Andrew Cobb still has a chance to escape the drop to Premier Three, should there be one next season, after denting Andy Brown's promotion campaign with an 11-4 victory.
Meanwhile, back at the Bristol County Sports Club, four Conference League players arranged a gathering.
Three and a half matches were completed, with Ismail Yilmaz winning twice to extend his league lead.
Jude Pitt scored a valuable win to move into second place, closer to the magic 20 points threshold which leads to the promised land of Premier Status.
Tom Chapman and Mary French were the defeated players with nothing to show for their outing, although Mary and Jude are tied at 6-6 in an adjourned match.
19/09/15: John Corrado resigns from Premier Two
Approaching the final stages of his fourth season in the Premier League, John Corrado has suddenly decided that it's perfectly OK to resign from Premier Two Red.
While most contestants in Bristol Backgammon's flagship competition have fully absorbed the message that completion of the season, unless difficult life circumstances intervene, is a condition of entry, this basic concept has apparently eluded John.
So having played thirteen Red Division matches, John's record has to be expunged.
While John's disapperance from the table in itself causes nobody any problems, the records of his opponents have to be altered, and some of them substantially.
Checkpoint targets need to be reset too.
James Newman, Eamonn Reay and Mandy Macdonald all come out of the re-shaped league table better off in varying degrees, but for Simon Hughes, Neil Young and Dave Pym the opposite story is the case.
For bottom placed Mandy and leader Simon, however, their positions remain pretty much unalterable.
The expungement avoidance target is reduced from eighteen results to fifteen, and penalty avoidance can be achieved via eighteen results instead of twenty-one.
Matches already played against John will be taken into consideration in this respect, however.
John will not be invited to enter the league again.
18/09/15: Roland steals GP5 final victory
The local derby in the main flight final of the September GP5 tournament was a close affair, with Simonetta Herrera suffering an unlikely gammon coup de grace at the hands of none other than Roland Herrera.
Roland takes over the lead of the GP5 table, but has Nick Barham and Simonetta within 10 points of him, and the discard scenario is not advantageous for Roland.
In all, six players have a chance to clinch the title when the sixth and final instalment of the competition takes place in November.
18/09/15: Herreras in GP5 final; good night for Ian Hedges
There were twenty-three players in action on Thursday, including the fifteen who contested the fifth of this year's six GP5 events.
Ten league matches were played.
Two Premier One double headers had little bearing on the top of the league, but plenty on the relegation dog fight.
Steve Morris entertained Ian Tarr in Redland, and the shared spoils left the two almost as they were, although Steve is marginally closer to clinching safety than he was.
Simon Baker, on the other hand, now needs a great run in if he is to survive in the top flight after losing twice at Gaz Owen's in Kingswood.
Five matches in Premier Two Blue all had a bearing on the promotion battle.
The day started with Paul Watts and Andy Brown occupying the two promotion slots.
But it ended with James Lintell-Smith and Andy Boysan in first and second.
James had been in sixth place before his wins over Andy Brown and Richard Owsley at the Pump House.
Andy Boysan's emphatic win over Mike Smith came at the same venue.
Mike had previously played out a double header at the Highbury Vaults, beating Fred North 11-4 before succumbing to a sixteen cube in the return.
Of the six players at the top, who are all covered by three points, Mike has the disadvantage of having played most matches, while Paul Watts -- who didn't play on Thursday -- has most matches remaining.
Before the evening's tournament there was a Conference match, with league leader Ismail Yilmaz losing 3-11 to Ian Hedges, who moves into second, and has not yet given up on bridging the fourteen point gap at the top.
This was just the start of a good evening for Ian, as winning the consolation flight gave him enough points in the Premier Status Race to breach the 50 points mark, thus ensuring that he will receive an invitation to compete in next year's Premier League.
In the main flight the two players unbeaten, and thus in the final, were Roland Herrera -- victor over Cynthia Roberts, Alex Hodge and John Chester -- and Simonetta Herrera, who reached the final via a bye and wins over Steve Morris and Stephen Little.
Whoever wins the final, which will no doubt be played at home very soon, will move to the top of the GP5 table ahead of current leader Nick Barham.
16/09/15: Two King Williams host evening league action
This evening's league action centred on the King William Ale House in King Street and the King William IV in Staple Hill.
And the results all had a bearing on the fascinating battle to avoid the drop from Premier One.
In King Street Nick Barham took two giant steps towards safety with a pair of very emphatic wins over Steffen Nowak, whose recent recovery has taken a big knock.
Meanwhile in Staple Hill the margin was almost as close as it could be when Phil Charlton edged out Gaz Owen for three invaluable points.
Gaz's title defence is now over, barring the most spectacular sequence of events ever seen in this league or any other.
16/09/15: Stuart suffers title blow; Peter scores double
A 2-11 defeat at the hands of Ian Tarr at the Pump House this afternoon dealt a blow to Stuart Mann's chances of winning a record sixth league title.
Stuart still heads the table, but Cecilia Sparke can overhaul him by winning half of her six matches in hand.
And third placed Ed Turner would also overtake Stuart were he to win his three matches in hand.
For Ian this was a vital win, keeping him right in the thick of the battle faced by eight players to avoid the four relegation slots.
There was also afternoon Premier Two Blue action at the Bristol County Sports Club, where Peter Thistlewood scored a brace of wins against James Lintell-Smith to ease his relegation concerns, while putting a damper on James's promotion ambitions.
15/09/15: Steffen's recovery continues
An 11-4 win over Simon Baker at the Star and Dove has helped Steffen Nowak maintain his recovery from an horrendous start to his Premier One campaign.
Steffen only won two of his first twelve league matches, but has now won six of his last seven to give himself a great chance of top flight survival.
The defeat does nothing for Simon's chances, however, and eight players are embroiled in a fascinating tussle to avoid the bottom four positions.
14/09/15: Double success for Simonetta
There were sixteen players at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, including the fourteen who contested the second phase of the Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
The exceptions were Simonetta Herrera and Nick Barham, who played two 11-point matches from different competitions.
First up was the main final of Thursday's monthly grand prix event, which was a close affair -- Simonetta winning 11-9.
This moved her to the top of the OGP table, and as she failed to invest in the Winner Takes All pool the win will be a popular one, with a £190 rollover carried forward to the October event.
The second match was a Premier One encounter, Simonetta again the victor, this time by an 11-4 margin.
This win kept alive her hopes of escaping the clutches of relegation, while also ensuring that Nick cannot be complacent on that front.
Before competing in the advertised event Stephen Little and Alan Parfitt completed their Premier Three campaigns.
This match, previously adjourned with Alan 6-3 ahead, saw Stephen score all the remaining points to give himself a chance of staving off the challenge of Jason Champion for the divisional title.
And while those two have long since been assured of promotion, Alan will now have to wait and see whether or not he has done enough to clinch the third promotion slot.
The fourteen AGP entrants were split into three groups of 3-point round robins, two of five players, the other of four.
In the larger groups Gaz Owen and Ian Tarr prevailed, while Alan took the smaller group.
Gaz, having recently returned to Monday action, leads the AGP table by 28 points.
14/09/15: Gaz wins in Redfield
Gaz Owen and Ian Tarr met at St Georges Hall, Redfield, this afternoon for a Premier One encounter.
And it was Gaz who scraped home 11-10 with a last ditch hit on the bear in.
13/09/15: Eamonn has a better day and promotes Simon
Simon Hughes's runaway promotion campaign has borne the anticipated fruit.
And he has Eamonn Reay to thank for getting across the line today.
Eamonn's latest visit didn't start too well on Friday, when he lost to Pearl Foster and Simon, but an invigorating day in Devon yesterday obviously had the desired effect on his fortunes today.
The Shakespeare in Prince Street was the venue for a projected double header with James Newman.
The pair had arranged to play at the Bristol County Sports Club, but found it closed and had to find another place to play.
This delay had the unfortunate effect of limiting the available time before James had to catch a flight to Edinburgh, and after Eamonn had scooped the first match 11-8, they had to adjourn the return encounter with James leading 9-6.
The club was open later on for Eamonn's match against Neil Young, which also resulted in an 11-8 win for Eamonn.
The defeats for two of Simon's promotion rivals mean that while Neil and James each have the mathematical chance to catch Simon, the fact that they still have to meet once means that they can't both pass him.
John Corrado, the other player who still retains a ghost of a chance, has to play Neil and James twice apiece, thus also ensuring that only one player at the most can catch Simon.
13/09/15: Chris beats Gaz on GridGammon
Given the distances involved for a London player playing in a Bristol competition, it was a no brainer for Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr to allow the protagonists from Thursday's monthly grand prix tournament consolation final to play the held over match online.
So on Friday evening Gaz Owen and Chris Rogers met on GridGammon to and Chris emerged the 5-4 winner.
11/09/15: League wins for Pearl, Simon and Andy
Four Premier Two matches were played on Friday, two in each division.
Eamonn Reay is over from Galway and managed two Red Division matches at the Bristol County Sports Club, losing 7-11 to Pearl Foster and 5-11 to Simon Hughes, who is now just a whisker away from confirming his promotion.
After an educational trip to Devon on Saturday Eamonn will be back in action on Sunday.
In the Blue Division Andy Brown kept Mike Smith waiting for a long time at the Victoria Park Tavern and then had the temerity to beat him twice, moving into second place in the league table.
11/09/15: Nick and Simonetta in the September GP final
Nineteen players were there for the September Monthly Grand Prix tournament, although one of them arrived too late to enter the main flight.
Nick Barham and Simonetta Herrera fought their way through a quality field to make it to the main flight final, which will no doubt be played some time soon.
Nick defeated Tony Walters, Cecilia Sparke and Richard Owsley to get there, while Simonetta's victims were Tim Line, Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr.
The consolation final was also held over, with Gaz Owen and Chris Rogers meeting in this one.
Hopes for a further Winner Takes All pool rollover rest with Simonetta, as Nick will scoop the £190 accumulated so far if he wins the final.
Ian still holds the lead in the OGP but will lose it if Simonetta wins the final.
The IGP table is still led with a ridiculously low score.
Ismail Yilmaz's 55 point haul so far is still enough for him to top the pile.
Yesterday three intermediates were present, two of them failing to score more than the basic 10 points for entering.
But Tom Chapman won one main flight match on his monthly grand prix debut, and scored 30 points for doing so, demonstrating quite clearly what is possible.
11/09/15: Thursday's league action
Five league matches were completed on Thursday, two in the top flight and three in Premier Two Blue.
Gary Plant needed to tie up the loose ends of his maiden season in Premier One before going off on his travels.
His final two matches came against reigning champion Gaz Owen at the Crown Inn, Dyrham -- yet another new Bristol Backgammon venue.
And Gary scored his first back to back wins of the season, winning 11-10 and 11-9.
This double success means that Gary finishes on ten wins, and it now remains to be seen whether or not that will be enough to preserve his top flight status.
For Gaz it means that his title defence is unlikely to bear fruit -- an unbeaten run in might just give him a chance.
In the Blue Division the action centred around Andrew Cobb at the Knights Templar.
And it was not a good day for Andrew, as he lost emphatically to Andy Boysan and twice narrowly to Mike Smith -- the first of these a resumption of an adjourned match.
The promotion battle here promises to be one of the most exciting on record.
Leader Paul Watts has an advantage, but his five pursuers are not far behind in the quest for the two automatic promotion slots.
09/09/15: James stays in contention
The Ram, Widcombe, Bath, was the venue for a Premier Two Blue match this evening.
James Lintell-Smith defeated Andrew Cobb 11-5 to remain a contender for promotion.
09/09/15: Gary and Steffen share the spoils
In a Premier One double header at the Star and Dove yesterday Gary Plant and Steffen Nowak scored a win apiece.
As both players were attempting to stave off the threat of relegation, it was Gary who won the first match 11-9, but Steffen struck back with an 11-5 win.
08/09/15: Gaz and Stephen scoop Monday Club wins
There were sixteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday evening, including the thirteen who contested the opening phase of this year's Monday Club Autumn Grand Prix.
Jude is now six points shy of the 20 points threshold, which she needs to breach to gain Premier Status, while Ian is two points further back, although he may be more likely to achieve the same objective beforehand via the Premier Status Race.
There was also plenty of Conference League action, with four matches completed -- including three each for Ian Hedges and Jude Pitt, who each won twice, while Horst Stenzel and Tom Chapman suffered solitary defeats.
In the advertised event the players were split into a group of seven and a group of six, forming DMP Tournos.
The larger group featured a clean sweep of six victories for Gaz Owen -- an infrequent Monday visitor -- while four wins out of five were enough for Stephen Little to take the other pot.
Gaz thus becomes the early leader in the AGP.
07/09/15: Alex and Tim cash handsomely at the UKBGF UK Open
The second UKBGF UK Open in Coventry at the weekend featured some stand out performances by the Bristol contingent.
The eighty-player Masters Flight, using an experimental format with three separate entry levels, which left pretty much everyone scratching their heads when it came to working out the eventual prize distributions, was nevertheless an absorbing competition, eventually won by Midlander Dave Pritchard.
The double elimination facet worked very well once again, and all seven current Bristol players who featured in this category reached the last thirty-two of the winners bracket.
At this stage Cecilia Sparke and Ian Tarr were consigned to the fighters bracket -- both players losing to familiar faces.
Cecilia went down to former Bristol player Ann Pocknell, while Ian lost to Alex Hodge.
The round of the last sixteen saw Steve Morris and Gaz Owen head the same way, losing to Alex and Tim Line respectively.
In the last eight Tim accounted for James Newman, being joined by Alex in the last four.
Here Alex defeated Robin Swaffield, while Tim was losing to the eventual winner, who then consigned Alex to the fighters bracket.
To summarise the winners bracket exploits of the Bristol seven, they won almost every match played (except, of course, where they met) with only one defeat by an ex-Bristol player and two by the eventual winner tarnishing an astonishing record.
In other words, against non-Bristol players, there were seventeen wins and three defeats!
In double elimination, of course, the winners bracket -- with its seven rounds of 11 point matches -- is only half the story.
The fighters bracket, consisting of eleven rounds of five point matches, saw James eliminated in the eighth round by Andreas Christian Olsen, Tim going out in the ninth to Yan Kit Chan, and Alex meeting the same fate in the eleventh to finish third overall.
The twist was that the two largest cash beneficiaries of the competition were Tim and Alex, as Alex scooped the silver pool and Tim the gold!
This came in very handy when it came to paying the bill at Cafe Khans for what is hoped to be an annual celebration curry (the UK Open Arena Cup runner-up did similar honours at the same place last year).
07/09/15: Mixed fortunes for Jude on Sunday
Jude Pitt played a couple of Conference League matches at the Bristol County Sports Club on Sunday, and for her there was some good news and some bad.
The bad came with a 7-11 defeat to Ismail Yilmaz, while the good was an 11-9 victory over Ian Hedges.
Jude moves up to second in the league, but Ismail's lead begins to look insuperable.
03/09/15: Cynthia is a double doubles champion
There were eighteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening, including the fourteen who entered the annual Consulting Doubles Championship.
The others were there for some league matches.
In Premier Two Blue Richard Owsley took sole possession of the second promotion slot with an 11-7 win over league leader Paul Watts, while Ismail Yilmaz took a giant leap towards taking the Conference League title with two emphatic wins over Jon Pemberton.
The latest Bristol consulting doubles champions are Steve Morris and Cynthia Roberts.
Cynthia is also one half of the reigning UK Open Doubles Champion pairing, a title she is scheduled to be defending with Ian Tarr in Coventry over the weekend.
Steve and Cynthia scored wins over Ian Hedges and Tom Chapman, Stephen Little and Paul Male, and final opponents Neil Young and Simon Hughes, who thus just missed out on a successful defence of their title.
Jason Champion and Adam Sinclair won the consolation flight.
03/09/15: Gaz completes Brunel seventh round trio
The Blathwayt, Lansdowne Road, Bath, was the latest new venue for a Bristol Backgammon match when the last of the three sixth round Brunel Trophy matches was played yesterday.
And Gaz Owen completes the three player seventh round line-up, having recovered from 6-9 down against Stephen Little.
Nick Barham gets the benefit of the bye, as Roland Herrera received one in an earlier round, and Nick's opponents throughout the competition have won fourteen matches, compared to the thirteen wins of Gaz's adversaries.
30/08/15: Congratulations to Lily in the European Championships!
It may not be backgammon, but our occasional player Lily Owsley is celebrating receiving a gold medal at the European Hockey Championships in London today.
England had managed a perfect campaign in the eight team tournament, winning all three group matches plus a semi-final against Spain.
Facing the team acknowledged as the world's best, Holland, things looked bleak in the final when England trailed 0-2 with around ten minutes remaining.
They stuck to their task and conjured two late goals, including Lily's vital equaliser, before triumphing in the penalty shoot-out.
30/08/15: Bristol assured of a Champions League final place!
The inaugural UK Champions League is now assured of having a Bristol player in the final.
This is thanks to a thrilling victory for Steffen Nowak over leading London player Eric McAlpine.
In their best of three 11-point matches quarter-final, Steffen clinched an 11-10 victory in the deciding rubber and advances to face Stuart Mann in the semis.
The competition, which started with eight top London players and eight Bristol counterparts, has now been whittled down to four, with London sure to provide the other finalist, as Peter Bennet meets Ken Gibson.
The semis are scheduled to be finished by the end of October.
28/08/15: Nick and Ian share the spoils
In a Premier One double header this evening which began at the Pump House and finished at the Bristol County Sports Club Nick Barham and Ian Tarr traded wins.
Ian was 8-4 ahead when rain and overcrowding indoors necessitated a venue change.
After the resumption Nick struck back before going down 9-11.
But Ian was never in the return match, losing 3-11.
28/08/15: News catch up from the past few days
Tuesday saw a Premier One double header played at the Bridge Inn, Yatton.
League leader Stuart Mann took on Gary Plant and lost the opener 4-11 before recovering to win the return match 11-1.
The latest instalment of the Handicap trophy was brought forward to Wednesday, and this had a detrimental effect on the turnout, just nine players taking part in a tournament directed by Chris Hughes, who stepped in for the absent Ian Tarr.
Nick Barham won this, beating Horst Stenzel and Chris, before despatching Drew Caudwell in the final.
Ismail Yilmaz took the consolation flight with victories over Marcus Evans, Ed Turner and Horst.
Horst did enough to increase his HT lead from 10 points to 25, with Nick now in second.
Nick also takes over from Simon Hughes as leader in the HT Side pool grand prix, sponsored by Ed.
And yesterday Mary French and Ian Hedges squeezed into a quiet corner of the Bristol County Sports Club for a Conference League match.
Ian won 11-8, although in a previously unreported result from the Spike Cafe last Thursday Mary managed to defeat Jude Pitt 11-9.
24/08/15: Alan closes on promotion
There were thirteen players in action on Monday evening, ten of them being involved in the final phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
Four and a half league matches were played.
In Premier Three the action revolved around Alan Parfitt, and his session could hardly have gone better.
A brace of victories over Drew Caudwell were followed by an adjournment of his final match of the season, where he leads Stephen Little 6-3.
Alan is now strongly odds on for promotion to Premier Two, which would be confirmed should he close out the win.
Should he lose, he could still be overhauled by Rob Brito and Chris Hughes.
The other two league matches occurred in the Conference League, where Tom Chapman edged home against Horst Stenzel to move into second place, while Ismail Yilmaz's victory over Mary French took him beyond the 20 points threshold which would have confirmed his Premier Status for 2016 had he not already achieved this via other routes.
What the 20 points threshold does mean for him, however, is that should he win the league, as appears very likely, he will have won a place in the 2016 Bristol Masters.
The ten SGP contestants were split into two groups of five for 3-point round robins.
One group was won outright by Jason Chamnpion, while the other saw the pot split three ways.
Jason has finished second in the SGP, behind Roland Herrera, while Ismail, who could potentially have been overhauled by George Georgiou, is confirmed as the leading intermediate in the competition, after George had a less than successful evening.
21/08/15: Jason and two Ians cash on round robin night
There were just twelve players in action on Thursday evening, the occasion of the fourth of five Round Robin Grand Prix evenings.
Two of those, Ian Hedges and Ismail Yilmaz, played out a Conference League match prior to the round robins, and it was Ismail who won 11-7 to consolidate his league lead.
Split into two groups of six players, playing five 3-point matches each, one group was won outright while the other saw the pot shared.
Ian Hedges won four out of five matches to top one group, while it was Jason Champion and Ian Tarr whose four wins apiece took the honours in the other.
The top three players in the RRGP were all missing, allowing Ian Tarr to get amongst them with his 50 points haul.
But with just one session remaining and discards playing an increasingly prominent part, leader Steve Morris looks odds on to gain the title.
19/08/15: Handicap event brought forward a day, and TD sought
Thanks to a clash of functions at our regular venue, the Bristol County Sports Club, it has been necessary to bring the fifth of our six Handicap trophy events forward a day to Wednesday August 26th.
And as Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr is otherwise engaged that day, a substitute tournament director will be needed.
If you are interested in doing this, please email Ian here.
18/08/15: Nick survives to Brunel Trophy seventh round
There were fourteen players present at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, of whom twelve contested the advertised event, the penultimate phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which comprised two six player DMP Tournos.
The exceptions were Nick Barham and James Newman, who fought out their sixth round Brunel Trophy match.
Nick won 11-8 to cement a place in what will almost certainly be the last three.
In the DMP Tournos, where Tony Foster made a BCSC competitive debut, Stephen Little won one of them outright, while the pot in the other was split three ways, when John Curran, Alexe Marin and Tony Martin won four matches apiece.
The absent Roland Herrera's SGP lead was already unassailable, but Stephen moved into third place.
Meanwhile the prize for the competition's leading intermediate will go the way of Ismail Yilmaz -- another absentee -- unless George Georgiou can conjure something special in the final phase next week.
14/08/15: Jason hits back to win August grand prix event
There were fourteen players present at the Bristol County Sports Club for the eighth in this year's series of monthly grand prix tournaments.
And it was Jason Champion who stole the show with a final comeback from 0-7 down to defeat Tim Line 11-9.
Tim had reached the final via wins over Chris Hughes, Ian Tarr and Nick Barham, while Jason was eliminating two Owsleys and Ed Turner.
Steve Morris won the consolation flight, beating Simonetta Herrera in the final after progressing thanks to a bye and a win over Stephen Little.
Steve has moved to within 14 points of OGP leader Ian Tarr, as discards begin to bite for the first time.
Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera are 45 points further back.
Lily Owsley demonstrated just how wide open this year's IGP is by moving into second place when making her first grand prix appearance of the year.
Her victory over Steve Morris, complete with 20 bonus points for beating a current Premier One player, places her just 10 points behind absent leader Ismail Yilmaz.
12/08/15: Six in Tuesday league action
There were three league double headers played on Tuesday at a variety of locations.
In Premier One the venue was the King William IV in Staple Hill, and the protagonists were Phil Charlton and Gary Plant.
Gary edged home 11-10 in the first match, but Phil responded in emphatic style, winning the return 11-1.
James Lintell-Smith and Fred North met at the Pump House, and their Premier Two Blue matches ended with identical score lines.
While James won both 11-2, it was the second match which caught the eye, ending as it did with a sixteen cube.
The day's other double league clash was in the Conference League at the George Inn, Backwell, where Tom Chapman and Ian Hedges shared the spoils.
11/08/15: Roland and George make Monday Club progress
There were fourteen players in action on Monday, all of them involved in the last but two phase of the Monday Club Grand Prix.
Some found time to squeeze in some league play, with Stephen Little scoring an 11-4 win over Adam Sinclair to keep alive his title chances in Premier Three, and Ismail Yilmaz defeating Jon Pemberton 11-3 to establish an eight points lead in the Conference.
In the advertised event there were three groups of 3-point round robins -- two with five players, one with four.
The five player groups saw outright wins for Roland Herrera and George Georgiou, while the four player group featured a three way split for the pot.
For Roland the 65 points gained saw him establish a 42 points lead over second placed Simonetta Herrera.
Although neither will be available for the final two phases it looks implausible for any pursuers to oust Roland from top spot, bearing in mind the effect of discards.
But the prize for the competition's leading intermediate, which has long since looked like resting with Ismail, now sees George in with a chance of overhauling him.
07/08/15: Tim and Chris win Blitz groups
There were eleven players in action on Thursday, including the nine who toed the start line for the fourth of this year's six Clock Blitz Grand Prix evenings.
The exceptions were Pearl Foster and Mandy Macdonald, who played a Premier Two Red match at the Three Brooks, which Pearl edged 11-10.
Split into two groups -- one of five players, the other of four -- there were clean sweeps of victories in both.
The five player group saw Tim Line winning outright, while Chris Rogers did the same in the other group.
Simonetta Herrera still holds a fifteen points lead over Roland Herrera in the CBGP table -- this despite both having a moderate tournament.
They had the absence of the third, fourth and fifth players to thank for that.
Tim has now moved into third, 65 points behind Roland, although he does have the advantage of not having to worry about discards, having missed two of the four events so far.
03/08/15: Ian wins Monday Tric Trac Tourno
Nine players were at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday for the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
This consisted of a Tric Trac Tourno, and the honours went to Ian Tarr, who needed a gammon in his final game to clinch things.
Included in the field was Nick Martin, whose only previous appearance had been almost eight years previously in a clock tournament.
Roland Herrera's SGP lead over second placed Simonetta Herrera has increased to sixteen points.
Tom Chapman and Horst Stenzel found time before the tournament to finish off an adjourned Conference League match, Horst winning 11-7.
01/08/15: Jason and Stephen promoted
The expungement in Premier Three has had one unexpected side effect.
With even fewer matches now needing to be played -- only 56 of the 90 matches originally scheduled will now count -- it has emerged that neither Jason Champion nor Stephen Little can finish outside of the three promotion places.
This leaves five other players chasing the third spot, although at this stage nobody can tell whether or not fourth or fifth will bring a similar reward.
01/08/15: One expunged and nine penalised at July 31st checkpoint
Simon Temme has been expunged from the Premier Three table at the July 31st midnight checkpoint.
After John Chester's resignation from the league just forty eight days into the season, this has come as a body blow to the inaugural season of Premier Three activity, and Director Ian Tarr may be forced to be less inclusive when invitations are sent out for the 2016 season.
With only eight players remaining in the division (each playing the other only twice), this means that those players will only have fourteen matches to play -- not an appropriate test for any division of the Premier League.
And it's far too late to instigate emergency measures, such as a third meeting with each player.
The other undesirable effect of this expungement is that six results have to be wiped from the table, which has an iniquitous effect on the standings, with some players benefitting while others suffer.
The checkpoint also saw nine Premier League players penalised for falling behind the schedule, although all of these points can be clawed back by complying with the terms of the September 30th checkpoint.
Those docked points are Ian Tarr (3), Simon Baker (1), Nick Barham (1), Phil Charlton (1) and Gaz Owen (1) in Premier One, James Lintell-Smith (2) and Mike Smith (1) in Premier Two Blue, John Corrado (3) and Eamonn Reay (2) in Premier Two Red.
Meanwhile the Fox Den was the venue yesterday for a flurry of Premier Two Red action, as Tim Line fitted in three matches.
His double header with Neil Young saw the spoils shared, albeit with a positive effect on Tim's points difference and a commensurately negative one on Neil's.
The third match saw Tim defeat Dave Pym 11-4.
31/07/15: Simonetta wins GP5 event
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, twelve of them at the Bristol County Sports Club, ten of whom contested the latest GP5 knock-out event.
Earlier at the Fox Den Neil Young moved into second place in Premier Two Red when he defeated Pearl Foster 11-8.
Pre-tournament action at the main venue featured the last of the fifth round Brunel Trophy matches, Nick Barham edging to victory over Peter Thistlewood, thus reducing the field for the sixth round to just six players.
Ian Hedges was to perform the draw after the event.
And it was Ian who won the other match before the GP5 event, an 11-7 Conference success against Tom Chapman.
Simonetta Herrera came through to win the main flight of the advertised event, defeating Ian Tarr and Roland Herrera before despatching Ian Hedges in the final.
This was Ian's second final appearance in two tournaments, having arrived there via defeats of Steve Morris and Cynthia Roberts.
Mandy Macdonald won the consolation flight, defeating debut player Geoff Ralph from Dorset, before her final win over Stephen Little.
Nick Barham holds the GP5 lead, with Roland, Simonetta and Steve 45 points behind him.
29/07/15: Blue Division wins for Paul and Andy
Wednesday's action was in Premier Two Blue.
Andy Boysan and James Lintell-Smith met at the Knights Templar, where Andy delivered a whitewash.
And Paul Watts extended his divisional lead with an 11-8 win over Mike Smith at the Fire Engine.
28/07/15: More results reported
Two more results are to hand.
On Friday James Newman suffered his first defeat in this year's Brunel trophy, going down 5-11 to Gaz Owen at the Tennis Court Inn, Kingswood.
All remaining Brunel survivors have now lost once, leaving no margin for error for anyone.
And last night Fred North visited the Fire Engine, Redfield, for the second time on five days.
This time he came away with an 11-6 victory over Premier Two Blue leader Paul Watts, a result which hauls Fred off the bottom of the league at Andrew Cobb's expense.
28/07/15: Fourteen at Monday session
There were fourteen players at the latest Bristol County Sports Club Monday session, thirteen of whom contested three point round robins, the last but four phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix.
That meant three groups -- one of five players, two of four.
Simonetta Herrera made it a clean sweep in the larger group, while the pots were shared in the other two groups -- by Alexe Marin and Horst Stenzel in one group, and John Curran, George Georgiou and Jon Pemberton in the other.
The Herreras have taken over at the top of the SGP table, Roland Herrera less than three points ahead of Simonetta, with the absent Jason Champion a further 23 points back in third place.
There was also time for a six player DMP Tourno which included one latecomer, where Ian Tarr scooped the pot via a clean sweep of wins.
28/07/15: Catching up on Thursday's action
There were twenty-two players in action on Thursday, including sixteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom fifteen contested the fourth of this year's Handicap trophy tournaments.
Amongst the field there was a Bristol Backgammon debut for Emily Owsley, daughter of Richard and sister of Lily, both of whom were also starters.
Elsewhere Paul Watts extended his Premier Two Blue lead with an 11-2 victory over Fred North at the Fire Engine, Redfield, while Richard Owsley was moving into joint second place by defeating Peter Thistlewood 11-9 at the main venue.
In the parallel Red Division James Newman had a chance to repel his closest rival for second place when he took on Neil Young at the Anchor, Gloucester Road, in a double header.
But Neil scored 11-6 and 11-7 wins and battle has been well and truly joined.
The Compass, Tormarton, was the venue for another match in this division, and Tim Line scored an emphatic win over Pearl Foster.
Back at the Sports Club there was also a Conference match before the tournament, Jon Pemberton scoring his first league win as he overcame Ian Hedges by an 11-3 scoreline.
Better things were to happen for Ian later on.
The tournament, successfully run by Roland and Simonetta Herrera in the absence of Ian Tarr, saw Ian Hedges and Thursday debutant Alexe Marin fighting their way through to the final.
Ian defeated Nick Barham, Simonetta and Lily to reach the final, while Alexe was progressing via a bye and wins over Richard and Adam Sinclair.
Ian won the final to record his first tournament win.
In the consolation flight it was Ismail Yilmaz who took the honours, beating Steve Morris, Roland and Richard.
Horst Stenzel still heads the HT standings, with Adam now in second place, just ten points back.
And in sponsor Ed Turner's novel addition to the event, the side pool grand prix, the absent Simon Hughes still leads the way, some forty points ahead of Ed and Nick.
22/07/15: Andrew wins at the Larkhall Inn
A Premier Two Blue match at the Larkhall Inn, Bath, today saw an 11-7 win for Andrew Cobb over Peter Thistlewood.
22/07/15: Tuesday league round-up
Four and a half Premier League matches were played on Tuesday.
In Premier One there was a double header at the Bridge Inn, Yatton, where Simon Baker and Stuart Mann traded blows.
Simon won the opener 11-5 to move out of the bottom four, but Stuart got his revenge with an 11-9 success which extends his league lead.
Back at the Bristol County Sports Club Andrew Cobb was visiting from Bath.
Premier Two Blue leader Paul Watts consolidated his position, winning 11-6, before Mike Smith inflicted an 11-5 defeat on Andrew.
The return match was adjourned at 7-6 to Mike, with Andrew's train beckoning.
21/07/15: Record Monday turnout at the Bristol County Sports Club
There were twenty-five players in competitive action yesterday, including a record turnout at the Bristol County Sports Club of twenty-two competitors.
Before the competition got under way Roland Herrera gave a fascinating doubling demonstration, to the rapt attention of eight or nine players.
Alongside this there was a Premier One double header, with two fairly short matches, both of which ended 11-1.
Stuart Mann defeated Simonetta Herrera in the first to regain top spot, before Simonetta turned the tables to move off the bottom of the league.
In other league action Fred North and Peter Thistlewood met up at the Compass, Tormarton, where Peter scored an 11-6 Premier Two Blue victory.
Peter later met Andy Boysan at the Alma Tavern, where Andy prevailed 11-3.
In Premier Three Malcolm Patterson played a match and a half, losing 8-11 to Alan Parfitt before picking up an adjourned match against leader Jason Champion.
Malcolm at last scored his first win of the season, also with an 11-8 scoreline.
And there was also a Conference match, Jude Pitt edging home 11-10 against Jon Pemberton to go second.
Adam Sinclair became the latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy, succumbing to Neil Young.
And after the advertised event Stephen Little and Ian Tarr played out the final of last week's GP30 main flight, Ian winning 9-5 to take a near impregnable lead in that competition.
In the Monday Club competition Director Ian made the decision to digress from the rules, which decreed three groups of Nackgammon Tourno, condensing the field into two groups of eight.
These were won by Simonetta and Alex Hodge.
There were two Bristol Backgammon debuts in this event -- Alexe Marin, who had won the Sunday event at the Azuza, and Tony Martin, another of George Georgiou's recruits.
Jason, Roland, Stephen, Simonetta and Ismail Yilmaz are now the top five in this competition, all covered by less than 50 points.
19/07/15: Tim finds some league action in the sun
Taking advantage of the nationwide Backgammon in the Sun initiative, Tim Line did his bit to add to the overall atmosphere at the Azuza Coffee House in Broadmead by getting in no fewer than five Premier Two Red matches.
Before the advertised event even got under way Tim had suffered a shock 10-11 defeat to Mandy Macdonald -- a shock as Tim had led 10-3.
A tough triple header with James Newman ensued, and Tim's disappointing league run continued with 6-11 and 10-11 defeats, this latter one after leading 10-5.
Things at least took a turn for the better when Tim struck back to beat James 11-2, followed by an 11-3 victory over Mandy, finished off at Caffe Nero.
Meanwhile the action in the eleven player DMP Tourno took up the bulk of the afternoon.
Carol Mayne and new player Alexe Marin fared best with seven wins apiece, and Alexe won the resultant play-off to take the trophy and book his place in the online UK Open qualifier.
The boldness of relying on the weather paid handsome dividends as a truly Mediterranean ambience prevailed, making the event a resounding success, with a handful of other players -- some new, some old -- dropping by for chats and games.
17/07/15: Stephen and Ian to contest GP30 final
There were nineteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Thursday, including the fifteen who contested the latest GP30 tournament.
Early evening league action saw Simon Hughes extending his already massive Premier Two Red lead with an 11-10 victory over Neil Young, while in the Conference Ian Hedges was celebrating victory in his maiden league match, bringing to an end Mary French's run of three successive wins.
The turnout of fifteen for the eleventh GP30 tournament was a record, exceeding the thirteen who made it to the inaugural event in January 2013.
There were Bristol Backgammon debuts for leading London player Chris Rogers and Robin Davidson, introduced to the scene by Chris Hughes.
In the main flight Robin was the sole recipient of a bye, but it was Stephen Little and Ian Tarr who progressed through to the final.
Ian scored wins over Chris Rogers, Adam Sinclair and Alex Hodge, while Stephen was eliminating Derek Wright, Robin and Simonetta Herrera.
The final will no doubt be played soon.
James Newman took the consolation flight, defeating Robin, before getting the benefit of a bye to the final after Chris Rogers left early.
Blaine Buchanan was James's final victim.
Ian Tarr has opened up a 70 points GP30 lead over Stephen and Alex, so with one of the four event series to go, it would give the October event a boost if Stephen were to win the final to get within 35 points of Ian.
The alternative result would see Ian 105 points ahead, a difficult margin to overturn.
15/07/15: Four days to Backgammon in the Sun!
The UKBGF initiative "Backgammon in the Sun" comes to fruition at various venues nationwide on Sunday.
Here in Bristol it's anyone's guess how things will pan out on the day, but the idea is to pull as many potential backgammon players towards the Azuza Coffee House, Merchant Street, Broadmead, as we possibly can.
A couple of press releases have been issued, flyers have been distributed (there are still a few more if you want some), the venue is primed and ready to go, volunteers are lined up to give as big a welcome as we can muster, and all we need apart from that is some decent weather, and plenty of players.
If nothing else, it should be fun, with 1-point matches aplenty and a great prize for the overall winner. Come on down, any time from 11.30am, and join in!
14/07/15: Rejuvenated Steffen jumps five places
Having yesterday won only his third and fourth Premier One matches of the season, Steffen Nowak registered his fifth and sixth over Ian Tarr at the Cornubia this evening.
And his 11-6 and 11-2 victories -- the latter including an eight-cube -- moved him from bottom of the league right up to sixth from bottom.
Avoiding relegation, which looked like a forlorn cause a couple of days ago, now looks a very realistic target, while the defeats have pushed Ian right into the thick of the survival battle.
There was also a double header in Premier Two Blue this evening at the Knights Templar.
Here the spoils were shared between Andrew Cobb and Andy Boysan.
And this afternoon at the Lock Keeper Chris Hughes shrugged off a recent series of disappointments with a whitewash of Alan Parfitt in Premier Three.
14/07/15: Steffen doubles league points tally
Steffen Nowak's wretched Premier One campaign could be taking off at last.
Having won only two of his first twelve league matches, Steffen sat down to play a double header with Simonetta Herrera before yesterday evening's Monday Club session at the Bristol County Sports Club.
And Simonetta, herself suffering an unaccustomed league blight, fell victim to a double body blow, losing 10-11 and 9-11, where the coup de grace in the first match came from 10-8 up with a backgammon out of nothing.
Both players are deep into the race to avoid relagation, but Steffen has the opportunity to gather more momentum with another double header, this evening against Ian Tarr at the Cornubia.
Dave Pym also got in a couple of Premier Two Red matches, but with mixed fortunes.
The first match was split between two venues.
The Victoria, Chock Lane, closed at 2pm, leaving Dave and John Corrado half way through their match, with John 7-3 ahead.
The nearby White Lion proved a more amenable venue for Dave, as he recovered to win 11-10, moving into second place in the league.
He moved on to the main venue to take on league leader Simon Hughes, suffering a 9-11 reverse, cementing Simon's lead which is taking on the proportions of a yawning chasm.
Fourteen players contested the latest phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, which consisted of three round robin groups playing 3-point matches.
The four player group saw Adam Sinclair take the pot outright, which Derek Wright also magaed in one of the five player groups, despite expressing his surprise that Mondays didn't appear to be any easier than Thursdays.
The other group saw a three way split.
Jason Champion is the latest leader of the SGP table, with Ismail Yilmaz, Roland Herrera and Stephen Little all well within striking distance.
10/07/15: John wins at the Windmill
John Corrado visited the Windmill this afternoon and inflicted an 11-2 Premier Two Red defeat on Mandy Macdonald.
10/07/15: Only ten contest July Grand Prix event
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, thirteen of them at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom ten toed the start line for the July Grand Prix tournament.
That constituted the lowest turnout bar two for one of these events -- and there have been 179 of them.
The positive on the turnout front was the Thursday debut of Ian Hedges, from Warmley, who first played the game at the age of six.
Having played a lot online, Ian was brave enough to bypass the more common Monday entry route into Bristol Backgammon, and has already signed up for the Conference League.
He played two matches, narrowly losing both, and throughly enjoyed the experience.
The fact that there were only ten contestants contributed greatly to the fact that the tournament was done and dusted in one session.
Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr made it to the final, having each had only two matches to win to get there.
Roland's victims were Simon Hughes and Andy Brown, while Ian was defeating Ian Hedges and Simonetta Herrera.
Ian went 5-0 ahead, but Roland took over, moving into an 8-6 lead. Parity was restored in the next game, which proved to be the penultimate one.
With the cube on two Ian settled into a strong looking back game, but facing a gammon and defeat he recubed.
Only one chance came, and it was missed, so Roland powered to his second successive monthly grand prix success.
In the consolation flight, it was Cynthia Roberts who took the spoils, defeating Simon and Alex Hodge.
Ian moves into a 39 points OGP lead over the absent Steve Morris, with Simonetta and Roland third and fourth.
Ian Hedges was the only intermediate present, and such has been the apathy towards these events from intermediates so far this year that his 10 points for coming along place him just 45 points behind IGP leader Ismail Yilmaz.
A loose end was tied up towards the end of the evening, when Simon and Simonetta (no resemblance to Wayne and Waynetta!) played the held over consolation final of the recent Clock Tournament Grand Prix series.
Simonetta prevailed, and extends her CTGP lead over Ian Tarr to 30 points.
There were also three and a half league matches played.
At the GW Hotel, Swindon, Cecilia Sparke moved back to the top of Premier One by beating Gary Plant 11-3.
Richard Owsley played a Premier Two Blue match before the tournament, but suffered a 4-11 defeat to James Lintell-Smith.
And earlier in the afternoon at the main venue Jason Champion extended his Premier Three lead by overcoming Malcolm Patterson 11-5.
The adjourned return match, however, sees Malcolm leading 8-7.
08/07/15: League wins for Alex, Cecilia and Dave (twice)
Alex Hodge made sure of retaining his top flight place for another year at the Pump House this afternoon, at the same time dealing a heavy blow to Gaz Owen's hopes of retaining his league title.
The 9-11 defeat leaves Gaz little or no margin for error in his remaining nine matches.
One player still eyeing Gaz's crown is Cecilia Sparke, also an 11-9 winner this evening.
In a seesaw Premier One match she defeated Steffen Nowak at the Star and Dove.
And in Premier Two Red Dave Pym visited Mandy Macdonald's home turf, coming away with a brace of wins to keep alive his hopes of challenging for the division's second promotion slot.
07/07/15: One apiece for Alex and Gary
In a Premier One double header at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening, honours were shared between Alex Hodge and Gary Plant.
Alex won the opener 11-2 but Gary struck back to take the return 11-8.
07/07/15: Alan wins at the Lock Keeper; Dave wins at the Compass
Finishing his third Premier Three match in two days, Alan Parfitt scored an 11-3 victory over Chris Hughes at the Lock Keeper, Keynsham, this afternoon.
While the top two would appear to have two of the promotion places sewn up, the third place remains wide open to anyone who can put together a good run in.
Also this afternoon, there was a match in Premier Two Red.
Pearl Foster met Dave Pym at the Compass, Tormarton, and it was Dave who prevailed, winning 11-5.
06/07/15: Thirteen in Monday action
There were thirteen players at the Bristol County Sports Club for the latest Monday session.
Twelve of these were in the two six player Tric Trac Tournos which were the eighth phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix, but two of those twelve registered Premier Three results against Alan Parfitt before the tournament.
Alan came from a long way behind only to suffer a 10-11 defeat Jason Champion, after which Alan resumed his adjourned match with Stephen Little where Stephen led 10-8 post Crawford.
A double gammon swung things Alan's way, leaving Jason back at the top of the division.
Jason also took the pot in one of the Tournos, scoring 11 points to win easily.
The other pot was shared between Alex Hodge and Horst Stenzel.
Just eleven points cover the top four in the SGP table, with Stephen leading Jason, Roland Herrera and Ismail Yilmaz.
04/07/15: Alex retains Masters title
The held over final of the fifteenth Bristol Masters was played at Kellaway Avenue this evening.
And Alex Hodge scored a 9-6 victory over Simonetta Herrera to take the title.
Alex is the fourth player to win the event twice, and like Charlie Hetherington and Stuart Mann his title wins are consecutive.
The other two time winner is Derek Clew.
03/07/15: Jason wins clock event
Thirteen players toed the start line at Thursday's Clock Tournament Grand Prix event at the Bristol County Sports Club.
And it was Jason Champion who came through to win the event.
Aided by an intial bye, he overcame Adam Sinclair and Steffen Nowak before defeating Alex Hodge in the final.
Alex had beaten Ian Tarr, Cynthia Roberts and Tim Line to reach the final.
The final of the consolation flight, between Simonetta Herrera and Simon Hughes, was held over for another day.
Simonetta's CTGP lead over second placed Ian has increased to 15 points, and beating Simon would double this margin.
02/07/15: Photos from Sunday's UK Clubs event in Hanham now online
Simonetta Herrera took some great photos at Sunday's UK Clubs event in Hanham.
And you can see them online here.
Recent news items
News items from 2016 (first half)
News items from 2015 (first half)
Back to Home Page