News items from 2017 (first half)
30/06/17: Steffen tops Premier One; Tim takes Speedgammon honours
There were eleven players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, including the eight who lined up for a Speedgammon Grand Prix round robin.
Four league matches were completed.
In Premier One Steffen Nowak and Ed Turner scored a win apiece from their double header, and Steffen has become the latest player to top the league.
Richard Owsley continued his Premier Two Red revival with an 11-7 win over Chris Hughes.
And John Curran extended his lead in the Conference League by defeating one of his closest challengers, Mary French, 11-8.
There are many ways for intermediates to secure Premier Status for next year, and John's win means he is very close to achieving that via his league campaign.
Should he win one of his next three league matches, he will cross the 20 points threshold to get the job done.
In the Speedgammon the number of contestants dictated the most gruelling schedule possible under the rules of the event.
And eight player round robin meant a tough evening, with seven first-to-5-point matches to be completed, and it took around four and a half hours to finish the event.
Tim Line scored his second tournament win in five days by winning six of his seven matches.
Daniel Eldridge was closest to Tim, and he takes over the lead of the SGGP table, being level on points with Ian Tarr, but with a fractional advantage on the third level of tie break (the percentage of wins over the season's SGGP events).
28/06/17: Cliff defeats Carwyn
In a Premier Three clash at the Rainbow Casino today Cliff Blofield beat Carwyn Jenkins 11-6.
27/06/17: Roland wins on low key Monday
There were just seven players in action on Monday evening at the Bristol County Sports Club to contest the seventh phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno.
Roland Herrera took the honours with five wins out of six.
Stephen Little has extended his lead over second placed George Georgiou in the SGP table to 28 points.
No intermediates were present, so the status quo is maintained in terms of the intermediate elements of the competition.
26/06/17: Gaz knocks Jason out of Brunel Trophy
In a clash of two previous Brunel Trophy champions Gaz Owen defeated Jason Champion 11-10 yesterday evening, a result which sees Gaz remaining unbeaten in the competition, while Jason has lost his second and final life.
Because of time constraints -- Gaz is off on his honeymoon -- and the risk of contagion -- Gaz has a nasty cough -- the pair were given special dispensation to play the match online.
The only fourth round match outstanding is the one between Nick Barham and Andy Brown.
Nick is unbeaten, but Andy has just one life remaining.
Depending on the outcome of that match there will be either eleven or twelve players in the fifth round draw.
25/06/17: Tim wins Sunday Rainbow event
There were eleven players in action on Sunday at the Rainbow Casino for the latest of our one-day weekend events.
There were two welcome debut players -- Shaun Goode and Andrea Hope -- who usually play in Worcester, while Lily Owsley was making her first appearance for a year and a half.
Tim Line took the honours, making light of the lack of a bye, defeating Shaun, Stephen Little and Lily before despatching Roland Herrera in the final.
Roland had beaten Richard Owsley and Graham Smith to get there.
Tim also took first prize in the £20 side pool.
Also making his first appearance for a while was Seb Wilkinson -- October last year saw his last visit -- and he won the consolation flight, having overcome Andrea and Simonetta Herrera.
23/06/17: Steve wins Intermediates Trophy; Nick tops Premier One; Ian Hedges wins satellite
There were just twelve players in action on Thursday evening at the Rainbow Casino, taking part in a variety of events.
There were three league matches played, as well as the annual Intermediates Trophy and an Intermediates satellite for October's Bristol Open.
Nick Barham is back at the top of Premier One after a very tight double header with Ed Turner.
Ed edged the first match 11-10 after being well in arrears, but Nick struck back to win the return encounter 11-8.
In Premier Two Red Richard Owsley scored an emphatic win over Simonetta Herrera.
The sixteenth Intermediates Trophy attracted the bare minimum of entrants -- just four -- but at least this had the benefit of making it a well balanced event.
Both semi-finals were tough affairs, John Curran and Steve Cox eventually overcoming, respectively, Michael Clarke and Jim Green.
Michael was returning to action for the first time in just over two years.
But if the semis were gruelling encounters, the final was a total contrast.
All over in just one game, with an eight cube, Steve won a see saw game to take the title.
Satellites for the Bristol Open had been advertised for both Masters and Intermediate categories.
There was, however, insufficient interest in a Masters satellite, but a handy four stepped up for the intermediate version.
Ian Hedges took the honours here, and is fully paid up for the October event thanks to an outlay of just £20 and wins over Daniel Eldridge and Simon Hughes.
22/06/17: Tim eases relegation fears
A brace of Premier Two Blue victories over Cynthia Roberts in Stoke Bishop have given Tim Line's league campaign a timely boost.
He has moved out of the potential relegation zone to a comfortable mid-table slot.
21/06/17: Lifeline for Adam; Marcus knocks Tony out of Brunel Trophy
Adam Sinclair's worrying run of eight Premier One defeats came to an end at the Brewhouse and Kitchen this evening.
He inflicted a pair of defeats on Ed Turner to give himself at least some hope of extricating himself from relegation strife.
The defeats brought Ed's recent revival to a halt.
Tony Walters is the latest player to be eliminated from the Brunel Trophy, having lost to Marcus Evans.
20/06/17: Ten in Monday action
There were ten players in action on Monday evening at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the nine who contested the sixth phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of 3-point round robins.
Tom Chapman and Carwyn Jenkins fitted in a Premier Three match before the advertised event, and Carwyn registered an 11-3 victory to keep the fight for the third promotion place wide open.
In the round robins Stephen Little won the smaller group outright, while the larger group saw the pot shared between George Georgiou and Roland Herrera.
Stephen has preserved his eight point lead over George in the SGP table with the chasing pack a further 39 points back.
No intermediates were present, so John Curran remains the competition's leading intermediate.
And this also rendered the final leg of the January to June 3-point round robin section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship a non event.
John has taken the prize.
18/06/17: Richard still unbeaten in Brunel Trophy
The fifth of eight fourth round Brunel Trophy matches took place at the Old Fish Market this afternoon.
The tie was the only one of the round to feature two unbeaten players, and Richard Owsley stayed that way when he defeated Cliff Blofield.
The fifth round of this double elimination competition could feature anything between eleven and thirteen survivors, with between three and five of those unbeaten.
16/06/17: Richard wins Handicap event
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, including the eighteen at the Rainbow Casino who contested the fourth of the year's eight Handicap Trophy tournaments.
At the Pump House Dave Pym maintained his unbeaten record in this year's Brunel Trophy when he defeated James Lintell-Smith, a defeat which signalled James's exit from this double elimination competition.
And at the casino, before the advertised event, Daniel Eldridge and Carwyn Jenkins had time to fit in a Premier Three encounter, which Carwyn edged 11-9.
There were two welcome newcomers in the handicap event, and Jen Owsley and Suzie Walters each won a match in their maiden event.
But it was Jen's husband Richard Owsley who took the honours by winning the main flight, defeating Simon Hughes, Chris Hughes, Tom Chapman and Adam Sinclair in the process.
Adam had made the final by eliminating Roland Herrera, Daniel and Ed Turner.
Roland won the consolation flight with wins against Steve Morris, Suzie and Carwyn.
Nick Barham did just enough to wrest the HT lead from Tim Line, while Richard and Cynthia Roberts are right in the mix.
In the unique Side Pool Grand Prix associated with this competition, Nick and Tim are well ahead of the field.
13/06/17: Daniel and Adam take Monday plaudits
There were twelve players in action on Monday evening at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the ten who contested the fifth phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno.
The two exceptions were Daniel Eldridge and Roland Herrera, who fought out their fourth round Brunel Trophy match.
This was an extremely tight match, which Daniel edged at DMP.
Roland's interest in the competition is thus ended for another year, while Daniel has one life remaining.
Adam Sinclair pipped George Georgiou to the DMP Tourno pot, Adam winning eight and George seven of their nine matches.
The top three in the SGP table all had mediocre evenings, which allowed George and Simonetta Herrera to concertina the leading pack of five into just a 29 point span.
Stephen Little heads George by eight points.
John Curran still leads the race to be the competition's top intermediate, but Jon Organ is close behind.
Steve Cox takes over as the leader of the DMP section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
09/06/17: Cecilia wins monthly grand prix tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom fourteen contested the sixth of the year's twelve Monthly Grand Prix tournaments.
One Premier League match and two Brunel Trophy matches were also played.
Before the tournament Chris Rogers and Tim Line met in Portland Square to contest their fourth round Brunel Trophy match, which Chris edged.
A second Brunel match was played later, Adam Sinclair defeating Ian Tarr.
Of the four in Brunel action, only Tim exited the competition, the other three having one life remaining.
Adam had earlier lost a Premier One match 4-11 to Paul Watts.
In the tournament the honours went to Cecilia Sparke, whose victories over Ian Hedges, Jason Champion and Stephen Little took her to the final.
In the other half of the draw Tim was whitewashing Alex Hodge, Roland Herrera and Chris.
The final was played later in Portland Square, and Cecilia won it 11-1.
Alex won the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia Roberts, Ian Hedges and Nick Barham.
This extended his OGP lead to a massive 176 points over second placed Stephen.
Vic Sprake still leads the IGP as the only intermediate to attend one of these tournaments so far this year.
The IGP table will hopefully be less sparsely populated soon, when the Intermediates Trophy, which contributes to the IGP standings, is contested soon.
Hopefully some intermediates will be there for that one.
06/06/17: Thirteen in Monday action
There were thirteen players in action on Monday evening at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the eleven who contested the fourth phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of 3-point round robins.
There was also a league match played alongside the advertsied event.
In Premier Two Red Ismail Yilmaz edged home 11-10 against Chris Hughes.
The smaller, five player, group saw outright victory for Simonetta Herrera, who won all of her four matches.
The six player group, however, saw a totally different outcome, with four players sharing the pot, having won three matches each.
One of those, Stephen Little, has thus extended his SGP lead to nineteen points, with Alex Hodge in second place.
Another of the four, John Curran, has taken over as the competition's leading intermediate, and also now leads the January to June 3-point round robin section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
03/06/17: Seventeen in Brunel fourth round draw
The draw for the fourth round of the Brunel Trophy was performed on Thursday at the casino, and can be viewed here.
The third round reduced the field from thirty players to seventeen. This would have been eighteen had Derek Clew and Cecilia Sparke not failed to play their match.
As both players had one life remaining, this meant that both were eliminated.
The first bye of the competition went to Stephen Little.
As one of those seven players with two lives left, Stephen took this honour on countback, with his three opponents so far having recorded a total of four victories during the first three rounds.
Assuming all matches are played before the fifth round draw on July 6th, that draw could feature anything between ten and fourteen players.
Three ties -- Marcus Evans versus Tony Walters, Tim Line versus Chris Rogers, and Daniel Eldridge versus Roland Herrera -- will definitely end in elimination for somebody.
On the other side of the coin, the tie between Cliff Blofield and Richard Owsley will definitely end with both players still involved, as neither has lost a life yet.
01/06/17: Sixteen in Thursday action
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, including fourteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom thirteen contested the second of the year's five Round Robin Grand Prix evenings.
Two league matches and one Brunel Trophy match were completed.
In the Brunel Trophy Adam Sinclair defeated Andy Brown, leaving both players with a single life remaining.
Stephen Little began what was a good evening for him by beating Tim Line 11-6 in Premier Two Blue.
Meanwhile, at the Coach and Horses, Mary French was moving into second place in the Conference League at Mathew Nicholls' expense by beating him 11-6.
For the round robins the field was split into two groups -- one of seven players, the other of six, all playing first-to-3-point matches.
In the larger group Stephen took the pot by winning five of his six matches, while the smaller group saw the pot split between Nick Barham and Tim.
Nick leads the RRGP league table, closely followed by Daniel Eldridge and Roland Herrera.
01/06/17: Chris's penalties firmed up; three others incur initial penalties
The May 31st Premier League checkpoint passed at midnight, and four players were affected.
In Premier Two Red Chris Hughes failed to claw back the two points he incurred in March, and has a further initial penalty point, which can be clawed back by complying with the terms of the July checkpoint.
Incurring two initial penalty points each (which can also be clawed back) were Simon Hughes in Premier One, Tim Line in Premier Two Blue and Carwyn Jenkins in Premier Three.
30/05/17: Ian wins at the Lock Keeper
Ian Tarr defeated Chris Hughes at the Lock Keeper on Wednesday evening in a Premier Two Red encounter.
30/05/17: Wins for Neil, Phil, Andy and Mary
Ian Tarr's sequence of league victories stopped at six when he was defeated 11-10 by Neil Young at the Black Castle today.
The win lifts Neil out of the Premier Two Red relegation zone.
Later, in the same division, Phil Charlton beat Chris Hughes 11-6 at the Lock Keeper.
In the top flight Andy Boysan closed on the leaders with an 11-10 win over Paul Watts at the Pump House.
And in the Conference League Mary French scored an 11-7 victory over Andrew Gay at the Beaufort Arms.
29/05/17: Tom and Andy share the spoils
At the Rainbow Casino Tom Chapman and Andy Brown fought out a Premier Three double header today.
The spoils were shared, Tom winning the opener 11-7 before Andy struck back with an 11-2 victory.
29/05/17: Andy goes third
On Sunday at the Old Fish Market Cliff Blofield met Andy Brown for a Premier Three encounter.
Andy shrugged off an early deficit to win 11-8, a result which moved him into third place.
27/05/17: Simon presses promotion claim
Saturday was a great day for Simon Baker, who fitted in three Premier Two Blue matches at the Rainbow Casino.
The first two of these were a double header with Chris Rogers, and Simon scored 11-7 victories in both.
He followed this up with an 11-10 win against Mike Smith.
The results put Simon in a great position to press on into one of the automatic promotion slots.
Promotion is something which has appeared to be a formality for Chris for some time.
However, with only three matches left for him to play, it seems he will need to add to his tally of points to achieve that aim.
26/05/17: The recovery starts here for Neil
There were three Premier League matches played on Friday.
Neil Young was the most active player, fitting in two Premier Two Red matches at the Shakespeare, Totterdown.
His first visitor was Fred North, who lost narrowly, 9-11.
Next came Mandy Macdonald, who also succumbed, 8-11.
The wins will have come as a major boost to Neil, whose season had not started well.
The other match was at the Pump House, where Ed Turner -- another player recovering from a poor start to the season -- defeated Andy Boysan 11-6 in Premier One.
26/05/17: Ian wins GP5 event
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, including sixteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom thirteen contested the fourth of the year's eight GP5 tournaments.
Four Premier League matches were played, plus one in the Brunel Trophy.
Carwyn Jenkins became the latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy, losing to Tim Line, who still has one life remaining.
In Premier One Ed Turner scored a brace of much needed wins over Dave Pym.
Stephen Little beat Tim 11-3 in Premier Two Blue, while the Post Office Tavern played host to the Premier Two Red meeting of Drew Caudwell and Neil Young, which Drew edged 11-9.
In the tournament Ian Tarr took full advantage of a first round bye, going on to defeat Cynthia Roberts, Simonetta Herrera and Daniel Eldridge to win the main flight.
Daniel had got past Ian Hedges, Tim and Alex Hodge to reach the final.
Steve Morris won the consolation flight, via a bye and wins over Roland Herrera and Ian Hedges.
Ian Tarr has extended his lead in the GP5 table to 115 points over second placed Alex.
24/05/17: Fifth to first and back again for Nick!
There were three Premier One matches played on Wednesday.
A double header at the Rainbow Casino saw an unusual occurrence in terms of leagye standings.
Nick Barham began the evening in fifth place, but shot into pole position when he defeated Simon Hughes 11-9.
The return encounter, however, saw him whitewashed, and he slipped back to fifth place as his average points difference took a hit.
Gaz Owen was thus restored to the lead, with the best difference of the five leaders, who all have 24 points.
Although Nick now has the worst difference of the five, he does have the advantage of a match in hand on all his rivals.
The other action saw Andy Boysan playing host to Adam Sinclair in Clifton.
Andy won 11-5.
23/05/17: Tuesday league action
There were seven league matches played on Tuesday.
The Old Plough, Kingswood, was the venue for a top flight double header, which saw Andy Boysan, aided by a double backgammon, defeat Gaz Owen 11-2, only to be pegged back by a 7-11 reverse.
This win was just enough to return Gaz to pole position in the Premier One title race, which gets ever more fascinating.
At the Bristol County Sports Club there were two matches, Stuart Mann defeating Paul Watts 11-6, while Gary Plant notched a resounding 11-1 victory over Cecilia Sparke.
In Premier Two Red Ian Tarr beat Neil Young 11-7 at The Black Castle.
And at the Coach and Horses, Clifton, there were Conference League wins for Steve Cox and Andrew Gay over Caroline Boulton and league leader John Curran respectively.
23/05/17: Alex wins Tric Trac; Simon out of Brunel
There were eleven players in action on Monday evening at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the nine who contested the third phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
There was one third round Brunel Trophy match played, and Marcus Evans inflicted an 11-8 defeat on Simon Hughes, who becomes the latest player to exit the competition.
Marcus has one life remaining.
Alex Hodge won the Tric Trac Tourno, scoring four more points than second pkaced Nick Barham.
Stephen Little takes over the lead of the SGP table from George Georgiou, while the absent Jon Organ remains leader of the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.
John Curran has moved into the lead of the Tric Trac Tourno section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran sponsorship.
There was time for an additional event afterwards.
And a seven player DMP Tourno saw the pot split three ways between Marcus, Simonetta Herrera and Ian Tarr.
22/05/17: Simonetta is latest Brunel casualty
Early Monday action featured one Brunel Trophy match and one from Premier Two Red.
The game at Kellaway Avenue saw Simonetta Herrera depart from the Brunel Trophy, losing 8-11 to her visitor, James Lintell-Smith.
James has one life remaining.
The league match was at the Windmill, where the theme of away wins was maintained when Fred North left with an 11-5 victory over Mandy Macdonald, which consolidates his second place in the Red Division.
21/05/17: Alex wins Saturday Rainbow event
There were just eight players in action on Saturday at the latest of our monthly one-day tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Alex Hodge took the plaudits, defeating Cynthia Roberts, Simonetta Herrera and Gaz Owen.
Gaz had got past Anna Price and Ian Tarr to reach the final.
George Georgiou won the consolation flight when he beat Cynthia and Anna.
Since there was plenty of time available five players then played out a round robin of first-to-5-point matches.
Ian won this without the need to play his final match.
He then contested a Premier Two Red match with Simonetta, which he won 11-6.
19/05/17: Roland wins truncated GP30 event
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, including ten at the Rainbow Casino, of whom six contested the third of this year's six GP30 tournaments.
One Brunel trophy and six Premier League matches were played.
Mandy Macdonald was the latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy, when she lost to Dave Pym at the Windmill.
Dave is one of many still retaining both lives in this competition.
At the Star and Dove Steffen Nowak and Gary Plant scored a Premier One win apiece.
This was just enough to move Steffen to the top of the league at Jason Champion's expense.
In Premier Two Blue Andrew Cobb scored a brace of victories over Cynthia Roberts.
And Richard Owsley and Phil Charlton shared the spoils of a double header in Premier Two Red.
The turnout for the GP30 event was an all time low at just six players.
This triggered the first ever round robin in this competition's history, with the players playing each other in first-to-5-point matches.
There would have been a four way tie, as three players won three out of five matches, but the tie break system uses the match scores in these circumstances.
This gave Roland Herrera the overall victory with Simon Hughes in second place.
Simon takes over the lead in the GP30 table.
18/05/17: Rufus goes top
The White Hart, Bedminster Parade, was the venue yesterday as Rufus Rozelaar moved to the top of Premier Three.
He achieved this by twice defeating John Chester.
17/05/17: Premier One updates
Two matches omitted from the Monday report and one just reported from yesterday have affected various regions of the Premier One league table.
The double header on Monday occurred at the Prince of Wales, where Steffen Nowak scored a brace of victories over Jason Champion, which pressed his own title claims while denting Jason's.
Yesterday's action was at the Cotham Brewhouse, where Cecilia Sparke and Adam Sinclair were both trying to halt a run of defeats.
It was Cecilia who managed to do so.
16/05/17: Tuesday wins for Jason and John
Two matches were played at the Bristol County Sports Club this evening.
In a match where both players were playing for their Brunel Trophy survival, it was Jason Champion who prevailed against Paul Watts.
And in the Conference League John Curran scored an 11-6 victory over Steve Cox to move three points ahead at the top of the league.
16/05/17: A good night for Stephen and Steffen
There were ten players in action on Monday, including just eight at the Bristol County Sports Club, who contested the second phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of four player 3-point round robins.
Stephen Little didn't fare particularly well in the advertised event, but he did score two significant wins beforehand and afterwards.
The held over main flight final of Thursday's Monthly Grand Prix tournament saw him defeat Ian Tarr before the tournament, a win which moves him into second place in the OGP, albeit 160 points behind leader Alex Hodge.
And later his third round Brunel Trophy encounter with Ed Turner also ended in victory.
Ed thus lost his second and final life, while Stephen's lives are both still intact.
The round robins saw pots shared -- one split two ways, the other three.
George Georgiou takes over from Stephen at the head of the SGP standings.
12/05/17: Mandy beats Phil at the Windmill
In a Premier Two Red meeting at the Windmill today Mandy Macdonald scored a much needed 11-6 win over Phil Charlton.
11/05/17: Stephen and Ian reach monthly grand prix final
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom seventeen contested the fifth of this year's twelve monthly grand prix tournaments.
A third round Brunel Trophy match was completed before the tournament.
Richard Owsley defeated Jim Green, a result which means Jim is eliminated, while Richard retains both lives.
Cecilia Sparke and Simon Hughes got a fair way through a Premier One match before adjourning for the tournament with Cecilia 8-5 ahead.
In the main flight of the tournament Stephen Little and Ian Tarr fought their way through to the final, which will be played on another day.
Stephen defeated Steve Morris, Daniel Eldridge and Alex Hodge, while Ian's victims were Simon, Adam Sinclair and Roland Herrera.
Steve Morris won the consolation flight, overcoming Steffen Nowak, Cynthia Roberts and Tony Walters.
Alex's semi-final defeat was his first in a monthly tournament since January.
Despite his disappointment, he still scored enough points to consolidate his lead in the OGP.
Depending on who wins the final, he will take a lead of either 149 or 160 points into the June event.
Vic Sprake still leads the IGP.
His March visit from Clonakilty makes him the only intermediate to contest a monthly grand prix tournament this year, so at this rate the fifty points he earned that night could be enough to give him the IGP title!
11/05/17: Maiden league win for Steve
Steve Cox scored his first ever league win yesterday at the Coach and Horses.
His 11-4 Conference League victory was at the expense of Andrew Gay.
09/05/17: Paul scores Premier One win
The Bristol County Sports Club was the scene of a Premier One encounter this evening.
Paul Watts defeated Cecilia Sparke 11-2.
08/05/17: Jon and Stephen take Nackgammon honours; Alex out of Brunel Trophy
There were ten players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom nine contested the first phase of the Monday Club Summer Grand Prix -- a pair of Nackgammon Tournos.
One Premier Two Blue match was played before the tournament.
Stephen Little defeated Pearl Foster 11-7.
And one Brunel Trophy third round match was played during the tournament and afterwards.
Two games during the event saw Ian Tarr into a 2-0 lead, but that gave no inkling as to the single game which followed the tournament.
A sixteen cube saw Ian home! He has both lives remaining, but Alex Hodge is eliminated.
In the five player Nackgammon Tourno Stephen took the pot, while Jon Organ was a comprehensive winner of the four player group.
Stephen is the initial leader of the SGP table, while Jon is the first leader of the race to be the competition's top intermediate.
Jon also takes the lead of the Nackgammon section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
In the Drew Caudwell sponsored Nackgammon Grand Prix Alex and Roland now share the lead, with Stephen just behind.
07/05/17: Weekend league round-up
Four Premier Two matches were played at the weekend.
On Saturday Simonetta Herrera clocked up a pair of Red Division victories at different locations.
Visiting Richard Owsley in Clifton, she left with an 11-8 win, and later she entertained Alex Hodge at Kellaway Avenue.
This time the winning margin was 11-5.
Sunday's action was a Blue Division double header at the Rose and Crown, Larkhall, Bath.
Andrew Cobb scored an 11-10 win, but Mike Smith got his revenge in the return encounter, winning 11-7.
05/05/17: Nick wins Brunel local derby
The Old Colonial, Weston-super-Mare, was the venue today for a third round Brunel Trophy match between two of Weston's finest.
Nick Barham defeated Tom Chapman 11-6 after leading 10-0.
That defeat spells the end of Tom's participation in this year's competition, while Nick still has both lives intact.
05/05/17: Nick and Stephen take Speedgammon honours; Alex's league run is over
There were twelve players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom ten contested the third of this year's seven Speedgammon Grand Prix evenings.
In the third round of the Brunel Trophy the only meeting of two undefeated players saw an emphatic win for Gaz Owen over Daniel Eldridge, aided in no small measure by a somewhat fortuitous double backgammon.
And the only league action of the night was a Premier Two Red double header between Alex Hodge and Richard Owsley.
This was Alex's second successive league double header evening at the casino.
And it started just as it had done yesterday against Phil Charlton with an 11-0 whitewash in Alex's favour.
And just as yesterday Phil got a lot closer in the return, Richard followed suit, and it even appeared likely he would replicate Phil's 7-11 defeat when Alex moved 10-7 ahead.
Richard had other ideas, however, and overturned the deficit to register a satisfying 11-10 win.
This was Alex's first league reverse of the season, so he still looks very strong for the divisional title.
It also brought to an end two noteworthy sequences.
Combined with his last league season -- in Premier One -- it ran to eleven successive victories, while purely in terms of Premier Two matches the winning run was fourteen, dating back from the tail end of 2014.
After Adam Sinclair's heroic sixteen match run last year, that sequence is the second best in Premier Two history.
The Speedgammon saw two round robin groups of five players, each of which had an outright victor.
Stephen Little won all four of his matches to take the pot in one group, while Nick Barham's three out of four proved enough to achieve the desired effect in the other group.
Nick draws level with Ian Tarr at the top of the SGGP standings, while Daniel and Simonetta Herrera are close behind.
03/05/17: Alex extends Red Division lead; Roland scores Brunel win
In a Brunel Trophy encounter at Chris and Cecilia's flat, visiting Roland Herrera scored an 11-6 win over Chris Rogers, which means both players have a single life remaining as they look forward to the fourth round draw.
Meanwhile at the Rainbow Casino Alex Hodge extended his lead of Premier Two Red to nine points when he scored a pair of victories over Phil Charlton.
His 11-0 and 11-7 wins make it a nine match winning start to the league season.
03/05/17: Steffen out of Brunel Trophy as Cliff marches on
The first of the fifteen third round Brunel Trophy matches was played at the Star and Dove yesterday evening.
And Cliff Blofield -- hitherto unbeaten in this competition -- maintained that record with an 11-2 victory over Steffen Nowak.
That means Steffen has lost both his lives in this double elimination knock-out, reducing the number of active participants to twenty-nine.
02/05/17: John hits the top
In a top of the table Conference League clash at the Coach and Horses on Monday, John Curran scored a resounding 11-3 victory over Mathew Nicholls.
And the winning margin was enough to see John hit the top of the league on average points difference at Mathew's expense.
30/04/17: Four in weekend league action
There were three league matches played over the weekend.
At the Beaufort Arms on Saturday Mathew Nicholls scored an 11-6 victory over Andrew Gay to extend his Conference League lead over second placed John Curran to four points.
And there was a new Bristol Backgammon venue on Sunday evening, when Cliff Blofield and Carwyn Jenkins met for a Premier Three double header at the Brunello Lounge, Weston-super-Mare.
Cliff won the opener 11-4, but Carwyn struck back with an 11-5 win.
28/04/17: Thirty in Brunel third round draw
After two rounds of the annual double elimination extravaganza known as the Brunel Trophy the field of forty starters has been whittled down to thirty.
The third round draw, made at the casino last night by a poker player named Mandy, sees some interesting pairings.
Only one of the fifteen ties sees two players -- Daniel Eldridge and Gaz Owen -- who are both guaranteed a place in round four.
Six of the ties will definitely eliminate one of the participants, while the other eight pit a player with two lives and against a player with just one.
The ties are to be completed by Thursday June 1st, the date of the fourth round draw.
28/04/17: Nick wins Handicap event
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, of whom twelve contested the third of this year's eight Handicap Trophy tournaments.
There was another welcome debut player -- Pes Freeland, who is hopefully the first of several friends of Richard Owsley who are due to be taking their competitive plunge.
Three Premier Two Blue matches were played.
Chris Rogers returned to the summit of the division with an 11-5 victory over Pearl Foster, while Cynthia Roberts and Mike Smith shared ths spoils of a double header.
In the advertised event, Nick Barham took the main flight with wins over Cynthia, Ian Tarr, Pes and Simon Hughes.
Simon had benefitted from a bye, before defeating Stephen Little and Daniel Eldridge.
Nick's win over Pes was the narrowest, with a timely double six seeing him home.
Pes's debut had been a memorable one, making the most of his 4-handicap to whitewash both Simonetta Herrera and Alex Hodge.
Tim Line won the consolation flight, defeating Richard, Stephen and Roland Herrera.
That run was enough to see Tim stay at the top of the HT standings, just five points ahead of Nick.
27/04/17: Pearl and Rufus are last Brunel second round casualties
The nineteenth and twentieth of the twenty second round Brunel Trophy matches took place at the Bristol County Sports Club and the Windmill yesterday evening, and in each match both players were fighting to retain their final life.
At the club it was Cecilia Sparke who survived, at Pearl Foster's expense.
And at the Windmill Derek Clew put Rufus Rozelaar to the sword.
Which all paves the way for the third round draw at the casino this evening.
25/04/17: Jason loses a Brunel match
There were thirteen players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom ten contested the fifteenth and last phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of five player 3-point round robins.
Other matches played on the day were one Premier One match, one in the Conference League, a Brunel Trophy second round match, and the held over final of the Sunday tournament.
This latter match was contested by Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera in the comfort of their own home, and it was Roland who prevailed.
The Premier One match saw a victory for Steffen Nowak over Paul Watts.
In the Conference the winner was John Curran over league debut player Steve Cox.
A further Conference result also came to light.
Mary French scored a very narrow victory over Caroline Boulton at the Coach and Horses on Saturday.
There was a shock result in the Brunel Trophy, where Carwyn Jenkins scored an 11-1 victory over reigning chapion Jason Champion, leaving both players with one life remaining when Thursday's third round draw is done.
In the round robins, one group saw the pot shared between Steve and Roland Herrera, while the other was won outright by George Georgiou.
Since this was the final action of the SGP, a decision had to be made about the one match outstanding from the April 3rd round robins.
As George left the event early, and Chris Hughes has shown no particular desire to tie up the loose end, Director Ian Tarr made the decision that the match will not need to be played.
Steve thus takes the prize pot, while the points awarded have been adjusted to reflect the actual results.
Alex Hodge went into last night's event with a lead over second placed Ian which only stood a chance of being overturned if Ian was playing in a six player group.
He wasn't, so Alex takes the title -- his third of these Monday accolades.
The race to finish as the competition's leading intermediate had an interesting conclusion.
Mathew Nicholls started the evening less than two points ahead of Mary.
But since Mathew was a no show, the way was clear for Mary to overtake him.
And she did just enough to improve her score by five points, thus taking the prize.
Having previously won the corresponding title in last year's Summer Grand Prix, Mary has made use of one of the many routes to achieving Premier Status for 2018 -- the first player to achieve this in 2017.
In the Roland Herrera and John Curran Monday intermediate sponsorship, Steve has taken the lead in the 3-point round robin section.
23/04/17: Phil wins at the King Billy
In a Premier Two Red encounter at the King William IV this evening Phil Charlton scored a narrow victory over Neil Young.
23/04/17: Herreras take Sunday plaudits
There were twelve players in action on Sunday at the Rainbow Casino to contest the fourth of this year's Rainbow weekend tournaments.
A welcome debutant was Wieland Eckler, a Spanish resident originating from Germany.
The main finalists, who will play the match at home at some convenient time, were Roland Herrera and Simonetta Herrera.
Roland, who came through the heavy side of the draw, defeated Alex Hodge, Stephen Little and George Georgiou to reach the final, while Simonetta's victims were Drew Caudwell and Cynthia Roberts.
Alex won the consolation flight, defeating Wieland and Chris Rogers.
22/04/17: Yet another title for Alex
The held over final of the April Grand Prix tournament was played at Kellaway Avenue on Saturday.
And Alex Hodge continued his outstanding run of form by defeating Roland Herrera 11-6.
There have been eleven Thursday knock-out tournaments concluded so far this year, and Alex has now won five of these, including the last three monthly grand prix tournaments.
His OGP lead now stands at 160 points, and even at this stage of the year it is clear that it will take something exceptional to oust him from pole position.
21/04/17: Alex wins again
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, including fourteen at the Rainbow Casino, where twelve contested the third of this year's GP5 knock-out tournaments.
At the Coach and Horses Caroline Boulton defeated John Curran in what is becoming the most wide open Conference League race ever.
The seventeenth of twenty second round Brunel Trophy matches saw Paul Watts narrowly beat Tony Walters, ensuring that both players make it to the third round draw with a single life remaining.
The advertised event saw Alex Hodge score his fourth knock-out main flight win of the year when he got past Steve Cox, Richard Owsley and Ian Tarr before despatching Cynthia Roberts in the final.
Cynthia had progressed to the final via a bye and victories over Simon Hughes and Tim Line.
Steffen Nowak won the consolation flight with wins over Daniel Eldridge, Steve Morris and, in the final, Simon.
Ian Tarr increased his GP5 table lead to 70 points.
19/04/17: Fred defeats Chris in Hungerford Newtown
The Tally Ho, at Hungerford Newtown, was the venue today for a Premier Two Red match.
Chris Hughes was the visitor to Fred North's territory, and it turned out to be a home win, by 11-5.
17/04/17: Daniel deals George double blow
In a pair of Premier Three matches at the Rainbow Casino on Sunday Daniel Eldridge scored a brace of victories over George Georgiou.
George's position at the top of the league still looks good, but Daniel has now moved into the third promotion slot after a slow start to his season.
15/04/17: Jason tops Premier One; Alex reaches third successive monthly grand prix final
There were twenty-two players in action on Thursday, including nineteen at the Rainbow Casino, where seventeen contested the fourth of this year's Monthly Grand Prix knock-out tournaments.
Six league matches were completed.
The Wellington was the scene of Jason Champion's successful double header against Gary Plant.
Jason's 11-4 and 11-10 wins have moved him into pole position in Premier One.
Fred North moved into the Premier Two Red promotion bracket with a hard fought 11-10 victory over Drew Caudwell at the casino.
Drew had led 10-3 at one stage.
Rufus Rozelaar created a new Premier Three record sequence of eight wins when he defeated Cliff Blofield twice.
He and leader George Georgiou are looking difficult to catch.
And Andrew Gay made it four wins out of four in the Conference League when he beat Mary French 11-6 at the Coach and Horses.
In the grand prix tournament Alex Hodge, the winner in both February and March, made it three finals in a row by getting past Steve Morris, Cynthia Roberts and Tony Walters.
There he will meet Roland Herrera, who made light of being in the only first round match by scoring wins over Cliff, Daniel Eldridge, Steffen Nowak and Mandy Macdonald.
Stephen Little took the consolation flight, defeating Cliff, Ian Hedges and Daniel.
Alex has racked up an impressive OGP lead of 125 points over second placed Jason, and this would rise to 160 were he to win this latest final.
Roland, however, can move into third place by winning.
The IGP continues in its lowest profile ever, as there has been just one appearance by an intermediate in the first four events.
Vic Sprake, who visited from Clonakilty in the Irish Republic for the March tournament, is thus far unchallenged for this title, having scored 50 points in that event.
Surely someone will push him before the year is out?
13/04/17: George stays in Brunel Trophy; and so does Mandy
In a second round Brunel Trophy match at the casino yesterday George Georgiou defeated Simon Hughes.
Meanwhile, at the Windmill, Mandy Macdonald beat Marcus Evans.
All four players take a single life into the third round draw.
11/04/17: Three more eliminated from Brunel Trophy
There were fifteen players in action on Monday evening, including eleven at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom nine contested the fourteenth and penultimate phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
One Premier League match and six Brunel Trophy matches were played.
The league match saw Nick Barham move into second place in Premier One when he defeated Steffen Nowak 11-8.
This was a part of a double header at the Rainbow Casino -- Nick having beaten Steffen earlier in the Brunel Trophy.
Cliff Blofield was also a Brunel winner at the casino, Drew Caudwell being his victim.
At Ye Shakespeare Stephen Little beat James Lintell-Smith.
And three more Brunel matches at the club saw wins for Daniel Eldridge, Roland Herrera and Ian Tarr -- over Chris Hughes, Miles Farren and Simonetta Herrera respectively.
The defeats of Drew, Chris and Miles signalled the end of their involvement in this year's epic double elimination competition, while Steffen, James and Simonetta live to fight another day.
In the Tric Trac Tourno SGP leader Alex Hodge just pipped Ian Tarr to win the pot, a result which makes it almost certain that Alex will win the title.
With just one 3-point round robin session remaining, the only player who can overhaul Alex is Ian, but he needs three things to come together to do so.
He first needs to be drawn into a group of six, then he needs to win it outright, and he also needs Alex to score less than 55 points himself on the night.
Mathew Nicholls still holds a tenuous advantage over Mary French in the race to finish as the competition's leading intermediate, as neither player was present on the night.
10/04/17: Simon wins GP30 final
At Kellaway Avenue today Simon Hughes defeated his host Roland Herrera to win the held over final of last month's GP30 tournament.
09/04/17: Four in Sunday Premier League action
There were two Premier League double headers played on Sunday.
Jason Champion played host to Adam Sinclair in Premier One and scored two victories -- by 11-7 and 11-8 -- to move him well into championship contention.
And the Old Fish Market was the venue for the Premier Three meeting of Cliff Blofield and Daniel Eldridge.
Here Daniel was the double victor, with two narrow margins -- 11-10 and 11-9 being the scorelines.
08/04/17: Late news: Jim beat Bob in the Brunel
A Brunel Trophy result from Wednesday has just come to light.
Jim Green and Bob Markham were both fighting to preserve their only remaining life, and it was Jim who survived to the third round with an 11-5 win.
07/04/17: Gaz and Roland make it to the Masters final
There were twenty-six players in action on Thursday, including twenty-two at the Rainbow Casino, of whom sixteen contested the seventeenth Bristol Masters knock-out.
There were seven league matches and two Brunel Trophy matches played.
Gaz Owen and Roland Herrera will contest the final of the Masters.
They will now be the two players most familiar with that experience, Gaz making his third appearance at this stage, while Roland is making it a record five appearances.
Gaz got past Stuart Mann, Steffen Nowak and Jason Champion, while Roland was defeating Simon Hughes, Simonetta Herrera and Nick Barham.
The date for the final is not yet decided.
In Premier One Gaz had suffered a setback earlier, losing to Nick for the second time in seven days.
Gaz, Nick and Stuart, who defeated Adam Sinclair, are beginning to emerge from the pack as the front runners.
There was a Premier Two double header, which saw Steve Morris and Cynthia Roberts sharing the spoils.
Daniel Eldridge suffered a 9-11 defeat to Cliff Blofield in Premier Three, still struggling to translate his knock-out form into good league results.
Meanwhile, at the Coach and Horses -- the most frequent venue for Conference League matches this season -- there were wins for Andrew Gay and Mary French.
Andrew edged home against John Curran, while Mary emphatically beat league leader Mathew Nicholls.
The Brunel Trophy action saw Adam score a lightning win over Tim Line, while Ian Hedges became the fourth player to exit this double elimination competition when he succumbed to Chris Rogers.
05/04/17: Alex goes six points clear
The Windmill was the venue today for a Premier Two Red encounter.
Alex Hodge, visiting Mandy Macdonald's home terrain, came away with an 11-7 victory which stretches his unbeaten start to the league campaign and increases his divisional lead to six points.
05/04/17: Andy is the latest to exit the Brunel
In a second round Brunel Trophy match at the Pump House yesterday Dave Pym defeated Andy Boysan 11-8.
The result eliminates Andy from the competition, while preserving both of Dave's lives.
04/04/17: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, including nineteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom fifteen contested the thirteenth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- three five-player 3-point round robins.
Two Premier League matches were played.
At Brimsham Park, Yate, Ian Hedges concluded his Premier Two Blue campaign on the ninety-fourth day of the 334 day season!
His 11-7 win over Pearl Foster moves him back to the top of the league, but whether or not his final points tally of 36 will be enough to see him into the second automatic promotion slot remains to be seen.
In the Red Division Chris Hughes defeated Drew Caudwell 11-6.
Ismail Yilmaz became the second player eliminated from the Brunel Trophy when he suffered a lightning 11-1 defeat at the hands of Gaz Owen.
And in the same competition Ed Turner beat Tom Chapman to leave both players with a single life remaining.
The round robins included a welcome Bristol Backgammon debut for Jon Organ, who was to perform with distinction.
Adam Sinclair won one group outright, while Jon shared the pot with Simonetta Herrera in another.
The third group was not finished, however, when George Georgiou decided to leave before playing his final match, leaving the outcome hanging, both in terms of the cash prize and SGP points.
Alex Hodge's SGP table lead over second placed Ian Tarr has been reduced to 21 points.
The race to finish as the competition's leading intermediate gets closer and closer with less than two points separating Mathew Nicholls and Mary French.
Mathew still leads the 3-point robin section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
02/04/17: Four penalised at March Premier League checkpoint
The first checkpoint of the Premier League season passed at midnight on Friday, and four players have picked up penalty points for being in arrears of the requirements of the penalty avoidance schedule.
In Premier Two Red Phil Charlton and Neil Young have incurred three penalties, while Chris Hughes has incurred two.
And Daniel Eldridge of Premier Three has been docked a single point.
All of these penalties can be clawed back by compliance with the terms of the May 31st checkpoint.
No penalties were incurred in either Premier One or Premier Two Blue, although in the latter division Peter Thistlewood is currently three matches behind the requirement.
Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr has, however, declared Peter exempt from penalties for the duration of his recovery from major surgery.
31/03/17: Seventeen in Thursday action
There were seventeen players at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday, including the nine who contested the second of this year's Speedgammon Grand Prix evenings.
There were five Premier League and two Brunel Trophy matches played.
In Premier One leader Gaz Owen suffered a setback, losing 9-11 to Nick Barham, while Ed Turner scored a much needed victory over Paul Watts.
A Premier Two Blue double header saw the spoils shared between Stephen Little and Ian Hedges, while Steve Morris scored an 11-9 win over Tim Line.
Ian has now played all bar one of his league matches, so will end the season with either eleven or twelve victories.
Whether or not this will suffice for a top two place remains to be seen.
In the second round of the Brunel Trophy Steve Morris became the first player to exit this double elimination competition, when he was defeated by Andy Brown.
And in a match where the players were hoping to keep both lives intact it was Richard Owsley who prevailed against Alex Hodge.
The Speedgammon field of nine was split into groups of five and four respectively.
Simonetta Herrera won the smaller group outright, while in the other group the pot was shared between Nick and Ian Tarr.
Ian edges ahead in the SGGP table, with Nick, Simonetta and Daniel Eldridge all close behind.
30/03/17: Andrew off the mark
Andrew Cobb's slow start to the season took a turn for the better at the Compass, Tormarton, yesterday.
His 11-5 Premier Two Blue victory over Pearl Foster didn't quite lift him from the bottom of the league, but it was a step in the right direction.
28/03/17: Gaz setting the pace
In a Premier One season where nobody has been setting a blistering pace, Gaz Owen seems bent on changing that.
Yesterday at St Georges Hall he came from 0-6 down to defeat Paul Watts 11-6, and today he was at the Brewhouse and Kitchen to beat Adam Sinclair 11-5.
Gaz is now top with matches in hand over his closest pursuers.
Another comeback occurred today at the King William IV, Staple Hill.
Ian Tarr recovered from 0-7 in arrears to pip Phil Charlton 11-9 in Premier Two Red.
28/03/17: Simon's Monday win at Yate
Seven days on from his 11-3 victory over Pearl Foster at Brimsham Park, Yate, Simon Baker repeated the dose yesterday to maintain his strong start to the Premier Two Blue campaign.
28/03/17: Seventeen contest Monday DMP Tourno evening
There were seventeen players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club to contest the twelfth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of DMP Tournos.
The nine player group saw victory for Roland Herrera who lost only one of his eight games, while Adam Sinclair mirrored that feat in the slightly smaller group.
Alex Hodge still heads the SGP table, albeit with a slightly reduced lead of 36 points.
With just three events remaining, however, and discards biting hard, that is a very useful lead.
Mathew Nicholls still edges the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, with Mary French in second place.
And Mary heads the DMP section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
26/03/17: George beaten but still on course
The Old Fish Market played host to a Premier Three double header today.
Cliff Blofield began with an 11-4 win, but George Georgiou struck back with 11-10 and 11-5 wins of his own.
The defeat was George's first in league action, but with nine wins out of ten he remains favourite for the divisional title.
26/03/17: Cecilia wins Saturday event
There were thirteen players at the Rainbow Casino on Saturday to contest the third of this year's weekend one day events.
Cecilia Sparke took the honours, defeating Jack Armorgie, Cynthia Roberts and Chris Rogers before despatching Adam Sinclair in a close fought final.
Adam had arrived there via a first round bye, followed by victories over Ian Tarr and Simonetta Herrera.
Jack, playing in only his second event, won the consolation flight, taking the scalps of Alex Hodge, Graham Smith and Ian.
24/03/17: Ian wins at the Windmill
Ian Tarr visited Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill this evening and came away with a hard fought 11-9 Premier Two Red victory.
24/03/17: Tim wins Handicap event
There were twenty-seven players in action on Thursday, including twenty-five at the Rainbow Casino, of whom eighteen contested the second of the year's series of eight Handicap Trophy tournaments.
Nine league matches and one Brunel Trophy match were played.
In the league's top flight Paul Watts met Ed Turner and came out on top with an 11-4 victory.
The majority of the league action centred around three double headers in Premier Two Blue and the chasing pack will be encouraged that the division's two leaders both suffered a brace of defeats.
Mike Smith had started the season with four defeats, but could hardly have kicked things off in a more impressive manner than he did with 11-6 and 11-10 wins over title favourite Chris Rogers.
Meanwhile Ian Hedges was the other leader to hit a setback, losing his two encounters with Tim Line, for whom this was to be a good day.
And Simon Baker made it four wins out of five after his belated start to the campaign, when he defeated Cynthia Roberts twice.
In the Conference League the two back markers scored much needed wins -- Mary French by 11-7 over John Curran at the casino, and Andrew Gay by 11-5 over Caroline Boulton at the Coach and Horses.
And the first round of the Brunel Trophy Tony Walters managed a seesaw win over Carwyn Jenkins to complete the round.
After leading 10-0, Tony had been pegged back to 10-10 before finally succeeding.
The draw for the second round was made later in the evening by Alex Hodge, and can be seen here.
In the tournament Tim continued his good run on the night to reach the final, while Simonetta Herrera was getting through the other half of the draw.
And Tim won that match to take a share of the overall Handicap Trophy lead with Cynthia, while taking the outright lead in the Side Pool Grand Prix.
His victims were Adam Sinclair, Simon Hughes and Carwyn, while Simonetta was getting past Richard Owsley, Mandy Macdonald, Cynthia and Daniel Eldridge.
The consolation flight was won by Nick Barham, who beat Ian Hedges, Richard and Alex to prevail.
One loose end was tied up later in the evening.
Simon and Ian Tarr played their held over consolation flight final from the Lesters Trophy tournament a couple of weeks ago.
Ian had the breaks and won 5-1.
22/03/17: Wednesday wins for Tom and Ian
Two matches were played on Wednesday.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Tom Chapman pulled off a surprise 11-1 victory over Cecilia Sparke.
And Ian Tarr visited the Christmas Steps for the second day running, once again coming away with a Premier Two Red victory, this time over Fred North.
21/03/17: Tuesday's Premier League action
There were four Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In the top flight Gaz Owen met Simon Hughes at the Coronation Tap, and his 11-5 win moved him to within three points of the lead.
A Premier Two Blue top of the table double header took place at the Rainbow Casino, and it was Chris Rogers who prevailed in both matches against Ian Hedges -- narrowly in the first, not so narrowly in the second.
Chris now appears to have a commanding lead.
And the Christmas Steps was the venue for a Premier Two Red match, Ian Tarr scoring his first league win of the season at Chris Hughes's expense.
21/03/17: Alex regains SGP lead
There were fourteen players in action on Monday, including twelve at the Bristol County Sports Club, where ten contested the eleventh phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of 3-point round robins.
Earlier, at Brimsham Park, Yate, Simon Baker had defeated Pearl Foster 11-3 in Premier Two Blue.
At the club Alex Hodge maintained his unbeaten start to the league season with an 11-8 win over Drew Caudwell.
And Gaz Owen scored an 11-0 whitewash over Jim Green in the first round of the Brunel Trophy.
That, however, was a scoreline which did scant justice to Jim as -- at 0-6 down he had a significant chance of a match winning backgammon with the cube on four.
In the round robins Alex Hodge and George Georgiou were the group winners.
Alex has regained the leadership of the SGP table.
Mathew Nicholls is still the competition's leading intermediate, and also still heads the 3-point round robin section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
19/03/17: Andrew scores first league win
In a Conference League match played today at the Coach and Horses Andrew Gay defeated Mary French 11-9 to register his first win in Bristol Backgammon competition.
18/03/17: Simon starts with a win and a loss
All forty-three Premier League players now have their campaigns under way.
The last to get his dice rolling was Simon Baker, who met Ian Hedges at the Bristol County Sports Club this afternoon.
Simon took the first of the two Premier Two Blue matches 11-8, and led the second 7-4.
Two games later, however, he had lost, courtesy of two backgammons.
17/03/17: Roland and Simon to contest GP30 final
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, including eighteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom sixteen contested the second of the year's series of six GP30 tournaments.
Six league matches were played.
In Premier One there were wins for Gaz Owen and Simon Hughes, over Stuart Mann and Cecilia Sparke respectively.
In Premier Two Blue Chris Rogers scored a brace of wins over Andrew Cobb, while Cynthia Roberts defeated Pearl Foster.
And there was another Conference League match at the Coach and Horses, where John Curran's 11-8 victory over Mathew Nicholls closed the gap between the two of them at the top of the league to just two points.
In the advertised event, where the all-time GP30 participation record was equalled, Roland Herrera and Simon fought their way through to the final, which will be played at a later date.
Roland got past Alex Hodge, Simonetta Herrera and Bob Markham, while Simon's victims were Gaz, Ian Tarr and Stuart.
Cynthia took the honours in the consolation flight, beating Chris Hughes, Steve Morris and Gaz.
January tournament winner Alex still heads the GP30 table, but the eventual winner of the final will close to within 10 points.
15/03/17: Chris keeps Brunel lives intact
The Rainbow Casino was the venue yesterday for a first round Brunel Trophy match.
And Chris Rogers defeated Bob Markham to keep both of his lives intact for the next round.
15/03/17: Mathew closes on Premier Status qualification
In a gruelling Conference League match at the Coach and Horses yesterday evening Mathew Nicholls scored an 11-9 victory over Mary French.
The victory consolidates his leadership of the league, and he is now six points from becoming the first player this year to secure Premier Status for 2018.
13/03/17: Stuart tops Premier One; Ian wins Monday DMP Tourno
There were nineteen players in action on Monday, including thirteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, where eleven contested the tenth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a DMP Tourno.
Four Premier League matches and one Brunel Trophy match were played.
In Premier One Stuart Mann scored a brace of wins over Ed Turner at the Bridge Inn, Yatton, overhauling Dave Pym at the top of the league.
And at St Georges Hall, Redfield, Paul Watts won a DMP bear-off by just one pip to defeat Gaz Owen.
At the King William IV Fred North continued his good early season form with a narrow Premier Two Red victory over Phil Charlton.
And at the club Simon Hughes won his first round Brunel Trophy match against Rufus Rozelaar.
The DMP Tourno was notable for the fact that every one of the eleven contestants won at least four of their ten games.
Ian Tarr's seven wins gave him enough to take the pot outright.
He also takes the lead in the SGP table, moving 21 points ahead of Alex Hodge.
Mathew Nicholls still leads the race to be the competition's top intermediate, while Mary French is now in pole position in the DMP section of the Roland Herrera and John Curran intermediate sponsorship.
12/03/17: Weekend action round-up
Three matches were completed at the weekend -- two on Saturday and one on Sunday.
The Crown Inn, Churchill, saw two recent Premier League champions locking horns on Saturday.
The first item on the agenda was the conclusion of a match tantalisingly adjourned in January, with Gaz Owen 10-9 ahead (post Crawford) against Cecilia Sparke.
Cecilia won that, but hit the buffers in the return, losing 1-11.
And the fifteenth of the twenty first round Brunel Trophy results occurred at the Rainbow Casino today, when Richard Owsley defeated George Georgiou 11-9.
10/03/17: Ian and Drew share the spoils
The Post Office Tavern, Westbury-on-Trym, was the venue this evening for a double header involving Drew Caudwell and Ian Tarr.
The opener was their first round Brunel Trophy match which Ian won 11-6.
Drew struck back, however, to win the return -- a Premier Two Red match -- 11-9.
10/03/17: Alex wins again
There were twenty players in action at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday, including the fifteen who contested the third of the year's series of twelve Monthly Grand Prix tournaments.
Five league matches were played, and two other results -- one in the league and one in the Brunel Trophy -- came to light.
The historical results came from Stephen Little, now back from his travels.
While in Clonakilty for last weekend's Cork Open he took the opportunity to finish an adjourned Premier Two Blue match with Cynthia Roberts.
This was a win for Stephen, as was his Wednesday night Brunel Trophy meeting with Paul Watts.
Paul was also in action last night in a Premier One double header with league leader Dave Pym, where the protagonists registered one victory apiece.
In the Blue Division Cynthia succumbed narrowly to league leader Ian Hedges.
And a Premier Three double header saw Andy Brown and Daniel Eldridge share the spoils.
Last month Alex Hodge registered his first monthly grand prix victory in twenty-eight attempts -- a surprising statistic.
This month he made it two in twenty-nine with victories over Steve Morris, Roland Herrera, Jason Champion and Derek Clew.
Derek had defeated Ian Tarr, Cliff Blofield and Stephen Little in reaching the final.
The final of the consolation flight was adjourned until another time, and will feature Simon Hughes and Ian Tarr.
There will be no Winner Takes All pool rollover to April as Alex had the foresight to back himself in this.
And monthly grand prix winners will now find it a tad easier to ensure that they qualify for the 2018 Bristol Masters thanks to Alex's double success.
09/03/17: Jason's Brunel defence starts with a win
The reigning Brunel Trophy champion, the eponymous Jason Champion, yesterday began his defence of that title.
And it was a winning start as he defeated Adam Sinclair at the Cotham Brewhouse.
08/03/17: Chris and John also win on Tuesday
Two more results from Tuesday have come to light.
In Premier Two Red Drew Caudwell met Chris Hughes at the Christmas Steps (formerly known as the Three Sugar Loaves), and it was Chris who got the victory, 11-7.
And in the Conference League John Curran won his third successive league match, defeating Caroline Boulton 11-8 at the Coach and Horses, a new venue for Bristol Backgammon.
07/03/17: Cecilia bounces back
Tuesday saw three matches played.
Just a day after suffering her worst top flight session Cecilia Sparke was "back on the horse" with a double header against Stuart Mann.
This meeting of the last two Premier League title winners took place at the Bell, Hillgrove Street.
And Cecilia bounced back from her disappointments against Jason Champion by scoring 11-8 and 11-0 victories.
The division is beginning to look tighter than ever, with all but two players now either breaking even, or winning one match more or less than losing.
The evening's other action was at Andy Boysan's, with visiting Marcus Evans securing an 11-10 first round Brunel Trophy win.
06/03/17: Steve cashes on first visit
There were sixteen players in action on Monday, including twelve at the Bristol County Sports Club, where ten contested the ninth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of five player 3-point round robins.
Three Premier League matches and one Brunel Trophy match were played.
Cecilia Sparke and Jason Champion played a Premier One double header, which was enacted at two different venues.
Jason won the first -- at the Prince of Wales, Gloucester Road -- 11-1.
But if Cecilia was hoping for a change of fortune when they moved to Bishops Tavern for the return encounter, she was to be disappointed -- suffering a whitewash.
In Premier Three Tom Chapman met Rufus Rozelaar at the Rainbow Casino.
And Rufus kept up the pressure on leader George Georgiou by scoring an 11-6 victory.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Steffen Nowak and Roland Herrera did battle alongside the round robins.
And it was Steffen who prevailed.
One of the round robins had an outright winner, Simonetta Herrera taking the pot, while the other was shared by Pearl Foster and welcome debut player Steve Cox, who lives close to the club.
SGP leader Alex Hodge was absent but still holds the overall lead, although both Simonetta and Ian Tarr are very close in second and third.
Mathew Nicholls is the new leader of the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, and has also consolidated his lead of the 3-point round robin section of the John and Roland intermediate sponsorship.
05/03/17: Alex at the double
Four matches were played on Friday.
Alex Hodge met Ismail Yilmaz at the Rainbow Casino and scored a brace of 11-2 wins.
The first moved Alex to the top of Premier Two Red at Ismail's expense, and the second was a first round Brunel Trophy match.
Other Brunel matches to be completed saw victories for Simonetta Herrera over Pearl Foster at Kellaway Avenue, and for Cliff Blofield over Derek Clew at the White Hart, Ford.
03/03/17: Ian wins GP5 tournament
There were eighteen players in action at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday, including the fifteen who contested the second of the year's series of eight GP5 tournaments.
Six other matches were played -- three Premier League matches, and three from the first round of the Brunel Trophy.
In the latter competition there were wins for Dave Pym, Daniel Eldridge and Andy Brown over Miles Farren, Ian Hedges and Chris Hughes respectively.
Steffen Nowak and Dave contested a Premier One double header, where the honours were shared.
And Rufus Rozelaar narrowly defeated Carwyn Jenkins in Premier Three.
In the advertised event Ian Tarr won the main flight with victories over Steve Morris, Richard Owsley, Daniel and Roland Herrera.
Roland's route to the final took him past Chris, Rufus and Simon Hughes.
The final itself featured an interesting climax.
Ian led 6-4 Crawford, but faced a very likely backgammon and defeat with eight men on Roland's one point. Escaping all was unlikely, so a hit was needed.
It came, and the backgammon was somehow turned into a single point to seal Ian's win.
Nick Barham won the consolation flight, beating Steve, Chris and Carwyn.
Ian Tarr now has a 30 points cushion at the head of the GP5 table.
01/03/17: Phil makes winning return; Pearl wins at the Compass
In a Premier Two Blue encounter at the Compass, Tormarton, this afternoon Andrew Cobb and Pearl Foster fought out a close match, Pearl winning 11-9.
And later Phil Charlton made a very welcome return to action, defeating Neil Young 11-9 at the Black Castle in a Premier Two Red match.
28/02/17: Pearl wins at the Folly
Premier Two Blue leader Ian Hedges met Pearl Foster at the Folly, Westerleigh, this afternoon, and suffered a heavy defeat.
Pearl's 11-3 victory maintains her 100% league record for the season, albeit that she has only played two matches thus far.
28/02/17: Alex and Ismail share Tric Trac honours
There were eighteen players in action on Monday, including sixteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, where eleven contested the eighth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
The Prince of Wales, Gloucester Road, was the venue for the night's only league activity -- Jason Champion and Dave Pym scoring an emphatic Premier One victory apiece.
Also present at the club were four welcome newcomers from the University of Bristol Persian Society.
Amin, Shahriyar, Alex and Jim didn't enter the tournament, but were given some helpful hints in some friendly games by Pearl Foster and Ian Tarr, and will hopefully feel ready to enter competitions very soon.
In the Tric Trac Alex Hodge took full advantage of SGP leader Ian's unavailability to forge his way back into the overall SGP lead.
The 60 points gained for sharing the pot with Ismail Yilmaz moved him to the top by a margin of 51 points.
Mary French still heads the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, and also holds the lead in the Tric Trac Tourno section of the John Curran and Roland Herrera sponsorship.
26/02/17: Simonetta wins the Rainbow Sunday tournament
There were seventeen players in action at the Rainbow Casino on Sunday to contest the latest of our series of weekend tournaments.
Amongst the field were Bristol Backgammon debutants Jack Armorgie, Brendan Bensley and Graham Smith.
Simonetta Herrera took the honours in the main flight, defeating Sean Jones, Jack, and Rosey Bensley, before her final victory over George Georgiou.
George had eliminated Garry Jones, Ian Tarr and Brendan en route to the final.
Tim Line took the consolation flight with wins over Garry, Alex Hodge and Roland Herrera.
24/02/17: League wins for Fred and Mathew
Fred North visited Simonetta Herrera for a Premier Two Red match today, and he came away with an 11-8 victory.
And Mathew Nicholls later extended his lead in the Conference League with an 11-5 win over Andrew Gay at the Beaufort Arms.
24/02/17: Twenty-three in Thursday action
There were twenty-three players in action on Thursday, including nineteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom fifteen contested the first instalment of the Round Robin Grand Prix.
Five league matches and the first three of this year's Brunel Trophy were played.
In the Brunel Trophy there were wins for James Lintell-Smith, Tim Line and Nick Barham, but of course their opponents -- respectively Ed Turner, Mandy Macdonald and Steve Morris -- stay alive thanks to the double elimination aspect of the competition.
The encounter between James and Ed was at Ye Shakespeare in Victoria Street.
Tim also kick started his Premier Two Blue campaign with a narrow victory over Steve.
In the parallel Red Division Richard Owsley and Drew Caudwell scored one win apiece in their double header, while Ismail Yilmaz moved to the top of the league by pipping Neil Young.
And in the Conference League Mary French secured her first league win of the season at the expense of Caroline Boulton at Chums Bar.
The fifteen round robin contestants -- including a first domestic appearance for Martin Barkwill of Newcastle, and a welcome return to action for Dave Cank -- were drawn into three five player groups, playing first-to-5-point matches.
Nick and Daniel Eldridge won their groups outright to share the early RRGP lead.
The other group saw the pot shared between Roland Herrera and Chris Hughes.
22/02/17: John wins in Clifton
The Beaufort Arms is rapidly becoming the hub of this year's Conference League programme.
John Curran met Andrew Gay there yesterday evening, and he came away with an 11-5 victory.
21/02/17: George and Ian win Monday round robins
There were twelve players in action on Monday, including ten at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom eight contested the seventh phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of 4-player 3-point round robins.
Five Premier League matches were played.
Nick Barham and Dave Pym met at the Rainbow Casino for a Premier One double header, and it was Dave who prevailed, winning both encounters 11-9.
At the club Stephen Little had the better of a Premier Two Blue double header with a brace of wins over Mike Smith.
And Ismail Yilmaz consolidated his improved league form with an 11-2 victory over Chris Hughes in Premier Two Red.
The round robins saw outright wins for Ian Tarr and George Georgiou.
Ian edges ahead of Alex Hodge at the top of the SGP table, while the absent Mary French still leads the race to be the competition's leading intermediate.
Mathew Nicholls heads the 3-point round robins section of the newly consolidated John Curran and Roland Herrera intermediate sponsorship.
17/02/17: Brunel Trophy draw online
2017 is the fourth year of our year long double elimination knock-out tournament, the Brunel Trophy.
The draw for the first round was performed during last night's awards ceremony, and can be viewed here.
Matches are to be played before the second round draw on Thursday March 23rd.
17/02/17: All the news from Awards Night
The Bristol Backgammon Annual Awards Night was held at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday, with thirty-three present, although six of these concentrated on a high stakes chouette in the bar rather than attend the ceremony!
A total of 92 prizes -- either permanent trophies, or mementoes, or envelopes containing cash -- were scheduled to be dispensed by Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr.
But as is always the case, a few sponsors and prize winners were unable to attend.
The evening, however, was about those who did attend, and photographs by Roland and Simonetta Herrera give a great flavour of the occasion.
The usual league and knock-out awards took up most of the presentation, but of course there was the element of mystery surrounding the "surprise" awards.
Daniel Eldridge won the Rookie of the Year award (sponsored by Paul Gilbertson; the Gaz Owen sponsored Most Improved Player prize went to Rufus Rozelaar; Simonetta Herrera's Sports Person of the Year award went to Mary French; Shadow Hamilton's Rankings Jump prize was won by the absent Warner Solomon; and there was also a 2,000 to 1 prize (sponsored by Andy Boysan) for another absentee, Paul Watts.
Before the event there was some Premier League action.
A Premier Two Blue double header between Stephen Little and Steve Morris could hardly have been closer, with each player claiming an 11-10 victory.
Alex Hodge built on his good start to the Premier Two Red season by defeating Drew Caudwell, while Simonetta suffered mixed fortunes, losing to Ismail Yilmaz but finishing off an adjourned match with Drew in victory.
In the same division Chris Hughes kicked off his campaign with a resounding win against Richard Owsley.
Rufus won the evening's only Premier Three clash, against Cliff Blofield.
After the ceremony, there was a nine player DMP Tourno, which was won by Simonetta.
16/02/17: Gary's double in Swindon derby
Brookmans Farm Inn, Swindon, was the venue for a top flight double header yesterday.
Two of Swindon's finest battled it out, and Gary Plant came out on top on the day with a brace of wins over Dave Pym.
14/02/17: Andy and Dave share the spoils
Dave Pym visited Andy Boysan in Clifton Wood this evening for a Premier One double header.
And after two emphatic wins the spoils were shared, Andy's 11-4 victory was cancelled out by Dave's 11-2 response.
14/02/17: Thirteen in Monday action
There were thirteen players in action on Monday, including twelve at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom ten contested the sixth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of 5-player Nackgammon Tournos.
League action centred entirely on Premier Three, where the players are setting a fine example to the rest of the league in terms of making progress.
Four matches were completed, the first of which was at the Rope Walk, where Rufus Rozelaar defeated Daniel Eldridge.
Daniel moved on the the club, where he suffered a further defeat, this time at the hands of Carwyn Jenkins.
And Tom Chapman moved into second place with a brace of victories over John Chester.
Both Nackgammon Tournos saw the spoils shared -- Roland Herrera and Alex Hodge sharing the pot in one, while intermediates Mary French and Mathew Nicholls did likewise in the other.
Alex extends his lead in the SGP table to 46 points, while Mary is the competition's leading intermediate.
Mary and Mathew share the lead in the Nackgammon section of the John Curran intermediate sponsorship and they also share the lead with Alex and Roland in the Drew Caudwell sponsored Nackgammon Grand Prix.
11/02/17: Andy goes second after double success
A Premier Three double header at the Bristol County Sports Club today went the way of Andy Brown.
His 11-9 and 11-3 victories over John Chester moved him up to second in the league table.
10/02/17: Alex's rich vein of form continues
There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday, including nineteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom seventeen contested the second of the year's twelve Monthly Grand Prix tournaments.
Five league matches were completed, and one adjourned.
In Premier Two Blue Cynthia Roberts recovered from a previous adjournment at 3-10 down to Stephen Little to score a stunning victory.
But she was on the wrong end of an 11-10 scoreline later against Ian Hedges, who moves to the top of the league on his own.
Her return match against Stephen was also adjourned, this time with Stephen 4-2 ahead.
In Premier Three Carwyn Jenkins was stunned by a whitewash against Rufus Rozelaar.
And two matches in the Conference League were significant in more ways than one.
11-9 wins for Caroline Boulton and John Curran at the Beaufort Arms and the casino, respectively against Andrew Gay and Mary French give the league table a little more balance.
But the matches ensured that the threshold for a new Bristol Backgammon initiative was breached.
All five players signed up for the competition so far have now registered at least two results, which has triggered a £25 addition to the prize pot.
In the main event it was Alex Hodge who came through to win, building on his outstanding string of results this year.
Victories over Ian Hedges, Tony Walters, Stephen and Rufus gave him the spoils, and also ensured that there will be no Winner Takes All pool rollover to the March tournament.
Rufus had reached the final via victories over Steffen Nowak, Ian Tarr and Cynthia.
Jason Champion won the consolation flight, beating Andy Boysan, Daniel Eldridge and, in the final, Derek Clew.
Alex and Jason now jointly lead the OGP table, but the slightly worrying scenario in the IGP is that no intermediates have yet contested a monthly grand prix tournament this year.
09/02/17: Honours even for Stuart and Jason
The Prince of Wales, Gloucester Road, was the venue for a Premier One double header yesterday evening.
And honours were even as Stuart Mann and Jason Champion each won a match emphatically.
It was 11-0 to Stuart and 11-2 to Jason, results which move Stuart into pole position.
08/02/17: Cecilia kicks off with a win
Having almost played one whole top flight match, tantalisingly adjourned at 10-9 post-Crawford, Cecilia Sparke finally registered her first league result of the season tonight at the Cornubia.
Her 11-5 victory over Steffen Nowak moves her off the bottom of the Premier One league table.
07/02/17: Fourteen in Monday action
There were fourteen players in action on Monday, including twelve at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom eleven contested the fifth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of 3-point round robins.
In the leagues, there were wins for Drew Caudwell, narrowly over Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill in Premier Two Red, and Carwyn Jenkins, over John Chester at the club in Premier Three.
Making her Bristol Backgammon debut in the round robins was Leonie Laws, a renowned local musician.
The group of six players saw a three way split for the pot between Simonetta Herrera, Carwyn and Stephen Little, while the five player group was won outright by Jim Green.
The absent Alex Hodge still leads the SGP table, but his lead has been cut to 28 points.
Mary French, another absentee on the night, still heads the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, while Mathew Nicholls leads the 3-point round robin section of John Curran's intermediate sponsorship.
05/02/17: Andrew close to debut win
Andrew Gay made his Bristol Backgammon debut today at the Beaufort Arms, Clifton.
And his Conference League match against Mathew Nicholls ended in the narrowest of defeats.
03/02/17: Alex consolidates Red Division lead
Alex Hodge visited Mandy Macdonald at the Windmill on Friday and came away with an 11-6 victory.
The win puts him three points clear at the top of Premier Two Red.
03/02/17: Daniel and Ian take Speedgammon honours
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, including eighteen at the Rainbow Casino, of whom twelve contested the first of the year's seven Speedgammon Grand Prix evenings.
Eight league matches were completed and two more were adjourned.
Paul Watts scored his first Premier One victory of the season at the expense of Adam Sinclair.
In Premier Two Blue Chris Rogers and Ian Hedges maintained their fierce pace by scoring doubles over Cynthia Roberts and Steve Morris respectively.
The pair jointly lead the division with seven wins out of eight and identical differences.
A Red Division double header saw honours even between Fred North and Richard Owsley.
And the Conference League provided Bristol Backgammon with another new venue, Chums Bar in Chandos Road.
It was here that Mathew Nicholls regained the league lead with a win against Mary French.
The Speedgammon round robins consisted of two groups of six players, and each saw one player making a clean sweep.
Daniel Eldridge and Ian Tarr are thus the first leaders in the SGGP table.
01/02/17: Eight in Tuesday league action
Six league matches were played on Tuesday.
In Premier One Gary Plant visited Stuart Mann for a double header at the Bridge Inn, Yatton, but came away empty handed.
Andy Boysan met Paul Watts at the Pump House, and won 11-8.
The Ram, Widcombe, was the venue for a Premier Two Blue double header, where Ian Hedges got the better of Andrew Cobb to edge ahead of Chris Rogers at the top.
And Caroline Boulton made a winning Bristol Backgammon debut at the Beaufort Arms, Clifton, defeating Mathew Nicholls in the Conference.
31/01/17: Ian wins Monday Tric Trac
There were fifteen players in action on Monday at the Bristol County Sports Club, including the eleven who contested the fourth phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a Tric Trac Tourno.
Five league matches were completed.
In the top flight Ed Turner edged home 11-10 against Simon Hughes.
And John Chester and George Georgiou came out on top of Premier Three double headers against Cliff Blofield and Carwyn Jenkins respectively.
Ian Tarr took the honours in the Tric Trac Tourno, just ahead of Chris Hughes, Ismail Yilmaz and Alex Hodge.
Alex now holds a 58 points SGP lead over second placed Ian, while third placed Mary French is 55 points ahead in the race to be the competition's leading intermediate, and leads two categories of John Curran's intermediate sponsorship, having won the incomplete 3-point round robin from last week, where John Curran lost the outstanding match to George.
28/01/17: Chris wins Saturday event
There were fifteen players in action on Saturday, including the thirteen at the Rainbow Casino who contested the first of the year's weekend one-dayers.
There were three players making their domestic Bristol Backgammon debuts -- Max Devlin (son of George), and Worcester's Jones brothers, Garry and Sean.
Chris Rogers won the event, defeating George Devlin, Chris Hughes, Alex Hodge and, in the final, Cynthia Roberts.
Cynthia had received a bye, before victories over Sean Jones and Tim Line.
George Georgiou won the consolation flight, beating George Devlin, Ian Tarr and Simonetta Herrera.
In action at the Wellington were Gary Plant and Adam Sinclair, who left with honours even after their Premier One double header after providing pre-match entertainment for Bristol Rovers and Swindon Town supporters.
On Friday there was most of a Premier Two Red double header, when Drew Caudwell visited Simonetta.
Simonetta won the opener 11-5, but the second had to be adjourned with her leading 9-7.
27/01/17: Cynthia takes Handicap Trophy lead
There were just twelve players in action on Thursday at the Rainbow Casino, including the nine who contested the first of the year's eight Handicap Trophy tournaments.
Two league double headers were also played.
In Premier One Steffen Nowak scored a brace of 11-7 wins over Adam Sinclair, while in Premier Two Blue Chris Rogers suffered his first defeat of the season.
Chris beat Steve Morris 11-2, but then fell to defeat by the same score in the return.
In the advertised event Cynthia Roberts -- the highest handicapped player at just two -- made light of being one of just two players not to receive a bye when she won the main flight, defeating Ian Tarr, Simonetta Herrera, Tim Line and Richard Owsley in the process.
Richard had made the final via victories over Nick Barham and Steve.
Alex Hodge won the consolation flight by defeating Ian and Nick.
Cynthia is thus the early Handicap Trophy leader, while Alex holds the lead in the Side Pool Grand Prix.
25/01/17: Ed and Gary do battle at the Wellington
Gary Plant and Ed Turner met at the Wellington this evening for a Premier One double header, and after two closely fought matches honours were almost even.
Ed started the ball rolling with an 11-9 win, but Gary struck back to win the return 11-8.
25/01/17: Conference up and running
The seventeenth season of our feeder league, the Bristol Conference, finally kicked off at the Bristol County Sports Club this afternoon.
And Mathew Nicholls defeated John Curran to become the year's first leader of the competition.
25/01/17: Spoils shared at the Star and Dove
Stuart Mann and Steffen Nowak began their 2017 Premier One campaigns at the Star and Dove yesterday evening.
And they scored one victory apiece -- Stuart winning the first match 11-5, Steffen returning the favour with an 11-9 victory.
24/01/17: Rufus opens Premier Three account
The Ropewalk, Bedminster, was the scene of a Premier Three match this afternoon, making it the first time in almost ten years that it has hosted Bristol Backgammon action.
And Rufus Rozelaar edged home 11-10 against John Chester to score his first Premier League win.
24/01/17: Sixteen in Monday action
There were sixteen players in action on Monday, including fourteen at the Bristol County Sports Club, of whom eleven contested the third phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of 3-point round robins.
There was league action aplenty.
At the Rainbow Casino Nick Barham extended his Premier One lead by inflicting an 11-6 defeat on Jason Champion, who was returnng to top flight action for the first time since 2006.
Back at the club, Pearl Foster scored the narrowest of Premier Two Blue wins over Stephen Little, while in the parallel Red Division Drew Caudwell and Ismail Yilmaz were sharing the spoils of a double header.
In Premier Three George Georgiou continued to set a break-neck pace with a brace of wins over Tom Chapman, having also defeated Daniel Eldridge the previous day at the casino.
He has started his league career with five straight victories.
In the round robins the six player group ended in a four way tie, while the five player group is not yet over, George having left without realising he had a match against John Curran to play.
This omission will hopefully be dealt with next Monday, John needing a win to share the prize money with Mary French.
Alex Hodge, one of the four joint winners of the first group, now holds a 52 points SGP lead over second placed Pearl.
Mary is the front runner in the race to become the competition's leading intermediate, and also leads the 3-point robin secion of John Curran's intermediate sponsorship.
22/01/17: Friday league wins for Chris and Alex
Two Premier Two matches were played on Friday.
The Hen and Chicken was the venue for a return match between Tim Line and Chris Rogers, and again Chris was the victor, building on his impressive start to the Blue Division campaign.
And Alex Hodge played host to Ian Tarr in the Red Division -- a match which came to an abrupt end in Alex's favour with an eight cube finale.
19/01/17: Alex wins GP30 event
There were twenty-one players in action on Thursday, nineteen of them at the Rainbow Casino, where twelve contested the first of the year's six GP30 tournaments.
Eleven league matches were completed.
In Premier One Andy Boysan played host to Simon Hughes and inflicted a pair of 11-3 defeats on him.
Earlier, in Premier Two Red Mandy Macdonald visited Simonetta Herrera and suffered a 7-11 defeat.
From there Mandy went on to the casino, where she shared ths spoils of a double header with Richard Owsley.
Fred North was that division's other winner, edging home 11-9 against Ismail Yilmaz.
And Chris Rogers made his Bristol league debut, rattling off three Premier Two Blue victories -- two against Stephen Little, one against Tim Line.
Ian Hedges suffered mixed fortunes in two close matches, losing to Peter Thistlewood and defeating Mike Smith.
In the tournament Chris almost made it a clean sweep of victories, but succumbed in the main final to Alex Hodge after wins over Stephen Little (again) and Steve Morris.
Alex had fought his way through the long half of the draw, getting past Cynthia Roberts, Jason Champion and Simonetta.
Ian Tarr won the consolation flight, beating Nick Barham and Drew Caudwell.
Alex takes a handy 50 points lead in the GP30 table.
18/01/17: Nick top after brace of victories
Andy Boysan played host to Nick Barham in Clifton yesterday for a Premier One double header.
And Nick came away with two wins to move to the top of the league table at Adam Sinclair's expense.
17/01/17: Fifteen in Monday action at the Bristol County Sports Club
There were fifteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, including the fourteen who contested the second phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of DMP Tournos.
One league match was played -- Neil Young defeating Ismail Yilmaz 11-6 in Premier Two Red.
In the DMP Tournos, Alex Hodge scored a clean sweep in one of the seven player groups, while Stephen Little did enough to take the other outright.
Alex leads the SGP table, holding a 38 points lead over second placed Roland Herrera, while Jim Green takes over the lead in the race to be the the competition's leading intermediate, and also leads the DMP section of John Curran's intermediate sponsorship.
16/01/17: George's league debut is a good one
George Georgiou and Rufus Rozelaar met up at the Rainbow Casino on Sunday for a Premier Three double header.
And George's first taste of league action was a sweet one, as he scored 11-6 and 11-7 victories to lead the embryonic Premier Three table.
14/01/17: Adam and Nick share top flight spoils
Nick Barham and Adam Sinclair returned to the Rainbow Casino today to fight out a Premier One double header.
Adam shaded the first match 11-10, but Nick struck back to take the return 11-7.
Adam extends his early season leadership, although in fairness it should be mentioned that only six matches have been played thus far and he has been involved in four of them.
13/01/17: Jason takes early OGP lead
There were eighteen players in action at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday, including the fourteen who contested the first of the year's twelve Monthly Grand Prix tournaments.
In league action before the tournament there were Premier Two Blue wins for Ian Hedges and Stephen Little, and a Premier Three victory for Tom Chapman.
The main event saw Jason Champion capitalise on a first round bye by defeating Steffen Nowak and Richard Owsley to reach the final.
In the other half of the draw Ian Tarr made it through at the expense of Adam Sinclair, Roland Herrera and Daniel Eldridge.
In the final Ian found himself 0-8 in arrears after two games before mounting a recovery to 7-10 post Crawford.
Jason closed out the next game, though, to become the year's first OGP leader.
Steffen won the consolation flight, defeating Rufus Rozelaar, Nick Barham and Adam.
The turnout of fourteen for the year's first monthly grand prix event was disappointing, espacially given the £130 Winner Takes All pool rollover.
And when non-WTA investors Richard and Daniel progressed well, hopes for a further rollover were high.
Their semi-final demises ended that, however.
Jason becomes the first player to stake a claim for a 2018 Bristol Masters place, although the small entry could still count against him.
10/01/17: Fifteen in Monday action at the Bristol County Sports Club
There were fifteen players in action at the Bristol County Sports Club on Monday, including the ten who contested the first phase of the Monday Club Spring Grand Prix -- a pair of 3-point round robins.
Five league matches were played, the highlight being a great top flight debut for Adam Sinclair, whose brace of victories over Simon Hughes have put him top of the embryonic Premier One league table.
In Premier Two Red Ismail Yilmaz began his season with an 11-4 win over Mandy Macdonald.
And Cliff Blofield shared the spoils of a Premier Three double header for the second successive day, this time against Tom Chapman.
The round robins both had an outright winner -- Roland Herrera and Alex Hodge taking the pots to share the initial SGP lead.
08/01/17: Honours even in first Premier Three session
The first two matches of the new Premier Three season took place at the Old Fish Market on Sunday.
The double header, featuring Cliff Blofield and Andy Brown, ended with honours virtually even.
Cliff's 11-1 was met with a 4-11 reverse.
08/01/17: Alex starts with a win
Alex Hodge has celebrated his return to league action with a win.
His Premier Two Red match with Simonetta Herrera at Kellaway Avenue yesterday ended 11-4 in his favour.
06/01/17: Rufus wins the year's first tournament
There were fifteen players in action at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday, including the fourteen who contested the first of the year's eight GP5 tournaments.
The one piece of pre-tournament action featured the first match of this year's Premier Two Blue campaign, where Ian Hedges defeated Peter Thistlewood 11-5.
In the main event Rufus Rozelaar took centre stage, becoming the year's first GP5 leader by winning the main flight, Mandy Macdonald, Stephen Little and Ian Tarr being his victims en route to the final, where he beat Andy Brown.
Andy had benefitted from a first round bye before wins over Daniel Eldridge and Richard Owsley.
Ian Hedges won the consolation flight with victories over Daniel, Roland Herrera and Adam Sinclair.
05/01/17: John admitted late to Premier Three
The resignation of Horst Stenzel from this year's Premier Three has had an unexpected sequel.
John Chester has offered to step in, and Director Ian Tarr has accepted him into the league on the basis that "the more the merrier" is a good maxim.
02/01/17: Ill health forces Horst's resignation
Horst Stenzel has regrettably been forced to resign from this year's Premier Three before a match has been played.
He has been a long time sufferer with emphysema, and over the festive period these symptoms have worsened to the extent that he has had to rethink certain aspects of his life.
He has thus decided to curtail his backgammon activities to the extent that taking part in the league this year will not be an option.
He hopes, however, to come along to Monday sessions where he has been a regular as and when his symptoms permit.
Horst is a very popular player, and the epitome of a true gentleman.
This writer feels sure that the whole Bristol Backgammon community would like to wish him the very best for the future.
Hopefully on some Mondays these wishes can be expressed on an individual basis.
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