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26/04/24: Gaz maintains GP20 monopoly
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, eleven of them at the casino to contest the third instalment of the year's GP20 series.
And once again Gaz Owen was the tournament winner, capitalising on a first round bye by defeating Hazel Harper, Ian Hedges, and -- in the final -- Barry Vasili.
Barry had got past Umut Bilge, Steve Morris and George Georgiou to reach the final.
The consolation flight saw Tim Line victorious, with Hazel and Ian Tarr his victims.
So Gaz -- having won all three GP20 tournaments this year -- has stretched his lead in the current series to 155 points, with reigning GP20 champion Ian Tarr a very distant second.
There was one Premier League match played online, Paul Watts narrowly defeating Phil Doubtfire in Premier Two Red.
25/04/24: Chris wins Wednesday tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the seventeenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Chris Rogers was this week's winner, defeating Simon Blinkhorn, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Nick Barham, after receiving a first round bye.
Nick had got past Tim Line and Phil Doubtfire en route to the final.
Simon won the consolation flight by beating Elias Hamati and Ian Anderson.
Elias won the post-tournament jackpot.
There were six Premier League matches played.
Premier Two Red saw most action, with Michael Petrakas getting three matches in -- a defeat to Ismail Yilmaz, followed by victory over Dave Pym and another loss against Gerald Whitehouse.
In the same division Paul Watts beat Mathew Nicholls, while Hazel Harper scored a much needed Premier Two Blue win against Richard Owsley.
And in Premier One there was a first ever Bristol Backgammon match in Glastonbury.
Gaz Owen suffered defeat to Natalie Singh at the Finca coffee house.
23/04/24: Tuesday results roundup
There were five matches played on Tuesday.
Premier One saw most action, with both Gaz Owen and Tim Line playing twice.
Gaz defeated Neil Young before succumbing to Tim, who followed that up by beating Natalie Singh.
Warner Solomon beat Hazel Harper in Premier Two Blue.
And Steve Pickard moved to the top of Premier Three Purple by defeating Simon Blinkhorn.
23/04/24: Twenty-four in Monday action
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday.
Thirteen of those contested the third session of our Monday Spring Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website, forming groups of seven and six.
Group winners were Alan Joicey and Gaz Owen, although Kev Peters took the side pool in Alan's group.
Gaz's SGP lead has increased to eighteen points, with Alan now in second place.
There was some online league action, too.
Ismail Yilmaz defeated Paul Watts in Premier Two Red; Matt Sharp beat James Timoney in Premier Three Yellow; and in Premier Three Purple Cynthia Roberts overcame Richard Davies.
At Sportsmans Ian's Backgammon Clinic was attended by five players.
21/04/24: Sunday results roundup
There were three matches played on Sunday.
In the third round of the Brunel Trophy there were exits from the competition for Steve Morris and Alan Joicey.
Steve's defeat was inflicted by Simon Baker at the Red Monkey, Chandos Road, while Alan's loss came online at the hands of Dicky Biddle.
Simon retains both lives, while Dicky has one left.
And Ed Turner defeated Michael Corbett in Premier Two Red.
19/04/24: Friday results roundup
There were three matches played on Friday.
In the third round of the Brunel Trophy Reece Hodges defeated Robin Gunney, preserving his two lives while eliminating Robin from the competition.
Ed Turner suffered a rare Premier Two Red defeat at the hands of Ben Crowden.
And Dicky Biddle beat James Timoney in Premier Three Yellow to go top of the league.
19/04/24: Stuart wins third Masters title
There were twenty-four players in action on Thursday, sixteen of them to contest the 24th annual Bristol Masters event at the casino.
And it was Stuart Mann who came through the gruelling four 9-point match schedule to take the title.
Stuart thus equals Alex Hodge's record tally of three Masters wins, having won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
He got past Jim Green, Elias Hamati and Tim Line, while his final opponent Warner Solomon was defeating Ian Tarr, Gaz Owen and Ian Hedges.
Stuart has qualified by right for twenty of the twenty-four events, which is a record.
For anyone interested Roland Herrera holds the records for most Masters events contested (21), most semi-final appearances (8), and most finals (5).
There was other action, both live and online.
Adam Sinclair and Ian Tarr made the most of the opportunity afforded by early Masters elimination by playing their third round Brunel Trophy match, where Adam prevailed.
At the Pump House Nick Barham and Neil Young played one and a half matches.
Neil won the Brunel opener emphatically, eliminating Nick from the competition, and leads in the adjourned Premier One match by 6-4.
Adam and Neil take both lives into round four, while Ian has just the one.
Phil Charlton continued his winning ways in Premier Two Blue, defeating second placed Richard Owsley.
Mathew Nicholls edged out Gerald Whitehouse in Premier Two Red.
Frank Jones beat Gary Plant at the Fox Den in Premier Three Green, and in the same division Marcel Bancroft beat Ian Anderson online.
18/04/24: Chris wins Wednesday tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the sixteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Chris Hughes -- was this week's winner -- his second such success in three weeks -- defeating Simon Blinkhorn, Simon Tracy and -- in the final -- Ian Anderson.
Ian had got past John Curran and George Georgiou en route to the final.
Simon B won the consolation flight by beating Tim Line and Elias Hamati.
Elias won the post-tournament jackpot.
There were Brunel Trophy third round exits for Jordan White and Gerald Whitehouse.
Jordan was defeated by Kev Peters, while Gerald succumbed to Kylie Hedges.
Both Kev and Kylie have both lives intact going into round four.
And in Premier Two Red Ed Turner continued his fine recent run by beating Ben Crowden.
16/04/24: Tuesday results roundup
There were five matches played on Tuesday.
In the third round of the Brunel Trophy two players made their exits from the competition, Cynthia Roberts losing to thus far unbeaten Richard Owsley, while Andy Zographou succumbed to Ian Anderson, who has one life remaining.
Phil Charlton defeated Hazel Harper in Premier Two Blue.
And at the Fox Den a Premier Three Green double header saw the spoils shared by Gary Plant and Frank Jones.
16/04/24: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday.
Sixteen of those contested the second session of our Monday Spring Grand Prix in DMP round robins at the Heroes website, forming two groups of eight.
That should have been seventeen, but Director Ian Tarr sadly failed to pick up a message from Alan Joicey.
Group winners were Natalie Singh and Simon Tracy, although neither winner invested in the optional side pools, so Cynthia Roberts and Adam Sinclair collected.
Gaz Owen's SGP lead increased slightly, with Adam now in second place.
At Sportsmans Ian's Backgammon Clinic was attended by Simon Dicken, with three Sportsmans regulars trying their hand at the great game.
14/04/24: Sunday win for Ed
In the only league action on Sunday Ed Turner maintained his strong start to the Premier Two Red season by defeating Dave Pym.
13/04/24: Saturday Brunel wins for Jim and Miles
The only action on Saturday was in the third round of the Brunel Trophy.
Online Jim Green defeated Mike Smith, a result which leaves both players with a single life to take into round four.
Meanwhile at the Wiper and True Taproom Miles Farren receovered from 4-10 down to score an epic win against Gaz Owen.
Each player came into the match with both lives intact.
Gaz and Miles made their Bristol Backgammon debuts in the same tournament, back in March 2005.
12/04/24: Friday win for Stephen
In the only league action on Friday Stephen Little defeated Premier Two Blue league leader Simon Tracy.
12/04/24: Tim wins second successive Bristol Grand Prix event
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, twelve of them to contest the fourth instalment of our 2024 monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Tim Line was the tournament winner, just as he was in March, defeating Stephen Little, George Georgiou, Hazel Harper and -- in the final -- Gaz Owen.
Gaz had arrived there by getting past Cynthia Roberts and Steve Morris after receiving a first round bye.
Safi Tracy took the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia, Simon Tracy and Ian Tarr.
Tim has moved further into the lead in the BGP points table, moving 120 points ahead of second placed Hazel.
He is also the first player to clinch a 2025 Bristol Masters place.
There was action in the Premier League and the Brunel Trophy.
Warner Solomon won twice, defeating Cecilia Rogers and Phil Charlton.
The victory over Cecilia was in the third round of the Brunel Trophy, a result which leaves both players taking a single life into round four.
His second win of the day -- in Premier Two Blue -- was much needed, and also put a small dent in Phil's fine start to the season.
Another who has begun his league season well is Ed Turner, who continued his impressive Premier Two Red run by defeating Mathew Nicholls.
The other action was in Premier Three Green, where Marcel Bancroft beat Gary Plant at the Compass, Tormarton, before succumbing online to Frank Jones.
10/04/24: Adam wins Wednesday tournament
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the fifteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Adam Sinclair -- was this week's winner, defeating John Curran, Australian visitor Daniel Pedrecal, Elias Hamati and -- in the final -- Gaz Owen.
Gaz had got past Chris Hughes and Tim Line en route to the final, after receiving a first round bye.
It was Adam's fourth Wednesday success this year, while Gaz has now been runner-up four times.
Ian Anderson won the consolation flight by beating Simon Tracy, Chris and John Curran.
Stephen Little won the post-tournament jackpot.
There were league wins for Phil Charlton (over Robin Gunney in Premier Two Blue), and Ed Turner (over Paul Watts in Premier Two Red).
09/04/24: Chris exits Brunel Trophy
The first result from the third round of the Brunel Trophy is in.
And Chris Rogers's defeat at the hands of James Newman signals his exit from the competition, while James still has both lives intact.
09/04/24: Tuesday win for Ed
In the only league action on Tuesday Ed Turner defeated Steffen Nowak in Premier Two Red.
09/04/24: Nineteen in Monday action
There were nineteen players in action on Monday.
Thirteen of those contested the opening session of our Monday Spring Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website, forming groups of seven and six.
Group winners were Gaz Owen and Mike Smith, although George Georgiou won the side pool in Mike's group.
Gaz, having just won his first ever Monday Grand Prix title in the previous quarterly competition, now leads the SGP standings.
There was one league match played online, Flora von Michel's Premier Three Green victory over Andy Zographou.
At Sportsmans Ian's Backgammon Clinic was attended by Aditya Narayanan, Glyn Davies and Hina Shah.
07/04/24: Brunel Trophy third round draw made
The draw for the third round of the eleventh incarnation of the year-long Brunel Trophy double elimination tournament was made on Sunday, using the regular practice of matching two sequences of random numbers.
The initial field of fifty-eight has been reduced by fifteen casualties to forty-three, which has necessitated a bye for this round, the lucky recipient of which is Steffen Nowak.
There are only two ties where both players are thus far unbeaten, while eight others will effectively be sudden death affairs.
Matches are to be played by May 12th.
The full draw is here.
07/04/24: Saturday results round-up
There were four matches played on Saturday.
Cynthia Roberts and Andrew Cobb played a Premier Three Purple triple header.
Cynthia won the first match but Andrew struck back with two victories of his own.
And the second round of the Brunel Trophy is now complete, after Jordan White's defeat of Tom Chapman and James Timoney's concession against Cynthia.
05/04/24: Friday wins for Andy and Mark
There were two matches played on Friday.
Andy Boysan won his second round Brunel Trophy tie against Natalie Singh, leaving both players with a single life to take into round three.
And Mark Dixon beat Richard Davies in Premier Three Purple.
05/04/24: Safi wins Handicap tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, twelve of them to contest the third instalment of our 2024 Handicap Trophy series at the Rainbow Casino.
And Safi Tracy -- making her first appearance of the year -- was the tournament winner, her victims being Simon Tracy, Tim Line and -- in the final -- George Georgiou, after receiving a first round bye.
George had arrived there by getting past Ian Tarr, Nick Barham and Hazel Harper.
Andy Zographou took the consolation flight with wins over Ian, Tom Chapman and Simon.
Steve Morris remains the leader of the HT standings, although Hazel has reduced his lead to ten points.
Nick and Simon found time to fit in their outstanding GP20 consolation final from the prevous week, Nick prevailing.
And there was league action online.
The last remaining unbeaten record in the entire Premier League fell when Phil Charlton was edged out by Chris Hughes in Premier Two Blue, where Richard Owsley was another winner, defeating Warner Slomon.
And in Premier Three Yellow Ann Pocknell beat Matt Sharp.
03/04/24: Chris wins Wednesday tournament
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the fourteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Chris Hughes -- was this week's winner, defeating Tim Line, Adam Sinclair and -- in the final -- Simon Tracy.
Simon had got past Gaz Owen and Elias Hamati en route to the final.
Ian Anderson won the consolation flight by beating Gaz and Chris Rogers.
Adam won the post-tournament jackpot.
In the second round of the Brunel Trophy there were wins for Gerald Whitehouse and Simon Baker, who defeated Chas Perry and Robin Gunney.
All four players move into round three, Simon with both lives intact, the others on their final life.
And Phil Charlton continued his unbeaten start to the Premier Two Blue season, overcoming Jon Organ.
It was the 500th Premier League match of Phil's career.
03/04/24: Adam won Monday's Nackgammon event
After investigation into aspects of Monday's Nackgammon Grand Prix event, Adam Sinclair has been declared the winner.
One match was not played, and never will be.
Adam moves to second place in the NGP table, just behind leader Gaz Owen.
02/04/24: Tuesday's results roundup
There were four matches played on Tuesday.
Ian Tarr won his second round Brunel Trophy tie against Phil Doubtfire, thus eliminating Phil from the competition, while retaining both of his own lives.
A Premier One double header saw honours shared between league leader Adam Sinclair and Tim Line.
And Mark Dixon beat Tom Chapman in Premier Three Purple.
02/04/24: Sixteen in Monday action
There were sixteen players in action on Monday, eleven competitively and five at the latest session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Five contested the third session of our Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix in 3-point Nackgammon round robins at the Heroes website.
That NGP session consisted of a single round robin group, which was not completed, and is the subject of further investigation and adjudication by Director Ian Tarr.
There was a second round Brunel Trophy victory for Eamonn Reay over Frank Jones, leaving both players with a single life remaining.
In Premier Two the day belonged to the Whitehouses, who each registered 11-2 wins.
Gerald's came against Paul Watts in Premier Two Red, while Rosemary's in Premier Two Blue was at the expense of Neil Edwards.
At the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was more friendly and fascinating informal action, with Simon Dicken entertaining absolute beginner Neil, while Ian welcomed back Sarah and Peter Collingwood, who last attended late in 2021.
01/04/24: Thirteen incur penalties at March 31st checkpoint
The first Premier League checkpoint of 2024 passed at midnight on Sunday.
And thirteen players have incurred penalty points for not reporting at least seven results.
These can be clawed back at the May 31st checkpoint.
31/03/24: Sunday's results roundup
There were three matches played on Sunday.
Mike Smith won his second round Brunel Trophy tie against Simon Tracy, thus eliminating Simon from the competition, while Mike retains both of his lives.
Simon later lost a Premier Two Blue clash with Rosemary Whitehouse after leading 10-4.
Stephen Little defeated Ian Tarr in the same division.
30/03/24: Saturday's Premier League action
There were just two Premier League matches played on Friday, both in Premier Two Blue.
The winners were Stephen Little and Simon Tracy, their victims Hemal Getalal and Jon Organ.
30/03/24: Good Friday Brunel Trophy action
One second round Brunel Trophy match was played on Friday.
And Neil Young's victory over Chris Rogers leaves Neil with both lives remaining while Chris has one.
30/03/24: Good Friday Premier League action
There were just two Premier League matches played on Friday.
Michael Corbett defeated Steffen Nowak in Premier Two Red.
And in Premier Three Yellow Dicky Biddle supplanted Ann Pocknell as league leader by beating her.
29/03/24: George wins GP10 tournament
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, twelve of them to contest the third of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
George Georgiou took the honours in the tournament, defeating Simon Blinkhorn, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Geoff Paffett after receiving a first round bye.
Geoff made the final by eliminating Kylie Hedges, Ian Tarr and Ian Hedges.
The consolation flight final was held over for another time after Simon Tracy, perhaps justifiably disapproving of his final opponent Nick Barham prioritising the latter stages of his second round Brunel Trophy match, decided not to wait around.
For the record Nick defeated Stephen Little in that Brunel match, leaving both players with a single life remaining for the third round.
George has drawn level with Tim at the head of the GP10 table, and he also has the advantage of having played one event fewer.
There was also Premier Three Yellow action online, where Dicky Biddle whitewashed Caroline Boulton.
27/03/24: Kev wins Wednesday tournament again
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, just six of them to contest the thirteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And once again the turnout dictated a change to a round robin of 5-point matches.
Kev Peters -- just as last week -- was this week's winner, with Chris Rogers as runner-up this time.
Elias Hamati won the post-tournament jackpot.
In the second round of the Brunel Trophy a meeting of two hitherto unbeaten players saw victory for Cecilia Rogers over Matt Sharp.
Pearl Foster and Mathew Nicholls were winners in Premier Two Red against Ed Turner and Steffen Nowak.
And Matt Sharp won a Premier Three Yellow encounter with Cliff Blofield.
26/03/24: Tuesday's results roundup
There were six matches played on Tuesday.
Premier Two Red was the busiest of the divisions, with three matches completed.
Elias Hamati was one of the winners, concluding his campaign with a narrow victory over Steffen Nowak.
Yes, you read it correctly. Instead of spreading the fixture load across the 335 days of the Premier League season, Elias's season is done and dusted on Day 86!
He has finished with an even record in terms of wins and losses, so although he will top the table for a while yet, it's safe to conclude that he will not ultimately be figuring in either the promotion race or the battle to avoid relegation.
Other winners in the division were Dave Pym and Ed Turner, either or both of whom may well be in the final shakedown at the top end of the table if they continue their impressive form.
Their victims on this occasion were Michael Corbett and Ismail Yilmaz.
In Premier Two Blue Phil Charlton became the last of the league's 68 players to ensure that no expungement will take place when Sunday's checkpoint passes.
He remains the only unbeaten player in the entire Premier League, however, after defeating Stephen Little.
Simon Blinkhorn pulled off a fine win against Mark Dixon in Premier Three Purple.
And in Premier Three Yellow Fred North defeated Caroline Boulton.
25/03/24: Eighteen in Monday action
There were eighteen players in action on Monday.
Just seven contested the final session of our Monday Winter Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website.
Those seven formed a single group, which was won by Elias Hamati.
The absent Gaz Owen had already made sure of winning the WGP title, so the honour of finishing second was up for grabs.
That fell to Kev Peters.
There were five other matches played.
In Premier Two Blue Ian Tarr defeated Rosemary Whitehouse.
Dave Pym and Steffen Nowak were winners in Premier Two Red, Phil Doubtfire and Ismail Yilmaz their victims.
In Premier Three Purple Steve Pickard got the better of Tom Chapman.
And Matt Sharp defeated Caroline Boulton in Premier Three Yellow.
At Sportsmans Ian's Backgammon Clinic was attended by James Hammonds, who was put through an intensive session on his third visit.
25/03/24: Modest Simon reports a Saturday win
Simon Hughes visited Simonetta Herrera in Kellaway Avenue on Saturday, and recorded a second round Brunel Trophy victory.
The result is only just in, and leaves Simon with both lives intact as the third round draw approaches.
For Simonetta, however, her Brunel campaign is over for another year.
24/03/24: Sunday's results roundup
There were ten matches played on Sunday.
In the top flight Tim Line pipped Andy Boysan.
Paul Watts scored a brace of Premier Two Red wins, overcoming Elias Hamati and Gerald Whitehouse.
In the same division there were wins for Ed Turner and Pearl Foster, over Phil Doubtfire and Michael Corbett.
Another two-time winner was Hemal Getalal in Premier Two Blue, defeating Rosemary Whitehouse and league leader Simon Tracy.
And other Blue Division winners were Ian Tarr and Hazel Harper, whose victims were Chris Hughes and Robin Gunney.
Meanwhile in the second round of the Brunel Trophy Ian Hedges defeated Phil Charlton, leaving both players with a single life to take into round three.
24/03/24: Saturday's Premier League results
There were seven Premier League matches played on Saturday.
A top flight double header between Cecilia Rogers and Natalie Singh saw honours shared, in terms of wins if not points difference.
Michael Petrakas was the player of the day, getting in three Premier Two Red matches and winning thm all.
He defeated Michael Corbett, Pearl Foster and Ben Crowden.
That division's other winner was Phil Doubtfire, who beat Elias Hamati.
And in Premier Two Blue Hemal Getalal beat Neil Edwards.
22/03/24: Friday's Premier League results
There were four Premier League matches played on Friday.
Mathew Nicholls played twice in Premier Two Red, succumbing first to Dave Pym, then to Ben Crowden.
And there were Premier Three Purple wins for Mark Dixon and Steve Pickard, their victims being Andrew Cobb and Tom Chapman.
22/03/24: Barry wins March Speedgammon event
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, with twelve taking part in the second session of the year's Speedgammon Grand Prix at the Rainbow Casino.
The twelve -- including debut appearances for Umut Bilge and Alla Lulzim, and a welcome return for Rufus Rozelaar for the first time since November, 2019 -- were split into three groups for the opening round robin phase, which saw clean sweep group wins for Umut and Barry Vasili and a narrower win for Ian Tarr.
The knock-out phase saw the unbeaten group pair Umut and Barry make it to the final where Barry prevailed.
Barry has edged ahead of previous leader Ian in the SGGP table.
There was also Premier League action, including two double headers in the casino alongside the tournament.
For Richard Owsley and Stephen Little in Premier Two Blue honours were shared, while Simon Tracy continued his impressive progress online against Hemal Getalal.
And in Premier Three Green leader Ian Hedges scored a brace of wins over Frank Jones.
20/03/24: Kev wins Wednesday tournament
There were twelve players in action on Wednesday, just six of them to contest the twelfth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And the low turnout dictated a change of format -- a round robin of 5-point matches.
Kev Peters was this week's winner, with Adam Sinclair as runner-up.
Elias Hamati won the post-tournament jackpot.
In the second round of the Brunel Trophy there was effectively a sudden death encounter.
And Andy Zographou emerged as the winner against Ed Turner to survive to the third round.
Hazel Harper emphatically ended her winless Premier Two Blue streak at the expense of Jon Organ.
And Ben Crabb was a popular winner in Premier Three Purple against Mark Dixon.
20/03/24: Tuesday's results round-up
Seven matches were played on Tuesday.
There were second round Brunel Trophy victories for Dicky Biddle and Simon Blinkhorn.
Their victims were Pearl Foster and Alan Joicey.
Pearl thus becomes the latest player to be eliminated, while Dicky, Simon and Alan are now on one life apiece.
The Pump House, arguably the most regular alternative venue for Bristol Backgammon endeavours, played host to a Premier One match -- Jim Green building on his promising start to life in the top flight by defeating Stuart Mann.
Premier Two Blue leader Simon Tracy narrowly beat second placed Richard Owsley.
Elias Hamati continued his Premier Two Red campaign at break-neck speed, defeating Eamonn Reay, and has only three matches remaining.
Chepstow saw a Premier Three Green meeting, where visiting Andy Zographou was beaten by Barry Vasili, while Ian Anderson won online against Mandy Macdonald.
18/03/24: Twenty-two in Monday action
There were twenty-two players in action on Monday.
Fourteen contested the latest session of our Monday Winter Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website.
Those fourteen were split into two groups of seven, which were won by Kev Peters and Adam Sinclair.
Gaz Owen was absent and therefore unable to protect his WGP lead of twenty-eight points.
He needn't have worried, however, as the two players in with a chance of overhauling him were also no shows.
But although Gaz's lead has been cut to 23 points by Kev, there won't be enough points available from next week's final WGP session to bridge the gap, when discards are taken into account.
Gaz therefore wins his first ever Monday title.
There were five other matches played, including one for Gaz, who played his second round Brunel Trophy tie against Barry Vasili from the other side of the world.
Gaz's win sealed Barry's Brunel exit, while Gaz's lives remain intact.
In Premier Two Blue there were wins for Simon Tracy and Jon Organ, over Stephen Little and Neil Edwards respectively, Simon's win moving him to the top of the table.
Dave Pym defeated Elias Hamati in Premier Two Red.
And in Premier Three Yellow Dicky Biddle got the better of Simon Hughes.
18/03/24: Monday Sportsmans session cancelled
The regular Monday evening session at Sportsmans, which is these days billed as "Ian's Backgammon Clinic", has been cancelled just for this week as Ian has a heavy cold and would not wish to inflict that on anyone else.
It should resume next week, all guns blazing!
The Monday online session will still be operated, from the safety of Ian's home.
17/03/24: Twenty-one in busy Sunday action
It was a busy Sunday of activity, with twenty-one players in action in a total of thirteen matches.
All six divisions of the Premier League were represented, as well as the second round of the Brunel Trophy.
There were Brunel exits for Chris Hughes and John Curran who both lost to unbeaten players in James Newman and Miles Farren.
Premier One saw the only live action, and this was at a new venue for Bristol Backgammon.
Jim Green had the better of a brace of matches against Tim Line.
Michael Corbett may have been the last of the sixty-eight Premier League players to register an opening result, but he appears ready to make up for lost time.
His Premier Two Red victory over Elias Hamati was followed by defeat at the hands of Eamonn Reay.
In the same division Dave Pym scored a win over Pearl Foster.
Simon Tracy and Warner Solomon were winners in Premier Two Blue -- Robin Gunney and Jon Organ their victims.
Andrew Cobb and Mark Dixon shared the spoils of a Premier Three Purple double header.
Ian Anderson suffered defeat by Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
And Matt Sharp defeated Ann Pocknell in Premier Three Yellow.
17/03/24: Andy opens league account
In the only action on Saturday, Andy Boysan registered his first Premier One win of the season, at the expense of Natalie Singh.
15/03/24: Friday wins for Elias and Mark
There were two matches played on Friday.
Elias Hamati defeated Michael Corbett in Premier Two Red.
And Mark Dixon beat Richard Davies in Premier Three Purple.
15/03/24: Tim wins March Bristol Grand Prix event
There were nineteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the third instalment of our 2024 monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Tim Line was the tournament winner, defeating Hazel Harper, Simon Tracy and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr, after receiving a first round bye.
Ian had arrived there by getting past Barry Vasili, Ian Hedges and Flora von Michel.
George Georgiou took the consolation flight with wins over Andy Zographou, Hazel and Steve Morris.
Tim has taken over the lead in the BGP points table, moving 60 points ahead of previous leader Hazel.
There was also action in four Premier League divisions.
In the top flight Natalie Singh circumvented potential time zone difficulties, defeating Chris Rogers before succumbing to new league leader Adam Sinclair.
Phil Charlton continued his unbeaten start to the Premier Two Blue season by beating Rosemary Whitehouse.
Michael Corbett became the last of the sixty-eight Premier League players to register a result, beginning with a Premier Two Red victory over Phil Doubtfire.
And in Premier Three Yellow Caroline Boulton beat Simon Hughes.
13/03/24: Nick wins Wednesday tournament
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the eleventh of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Nick Barham was this week's winner, defeating Adam Sinclair, Elias Hamati and -- in the final -- Ian Anderson.
Ian got past Chris Hughes and Tim Line en route to the final.
Adam won the consolation, beating John Curran and Chris, while Ian Tarr won the post-tournament jackpot.
There was also action in the Brunel Trophy and the Premier League.
Richard Owsley and Rosemary Whitehouse elected to double up their second round Brunel Trophy tie with a Premier Two Blue match.
Richard was the emphatic winner.
In Premier One Kev Peters and Natalie Singh swapped one sided wins, while Nick Barham defeated Cecilia Rogers.
And Steffen Nowak defeated Eamonn Reay in Premier Two Red.
12/03/24: Tuesday's results round-up
Eight matches were played on Tuesday.
There were second round Brunel Trophy victories for Hazel Harper, Mark Dixon and James Lintell-Smith.
Their victims were Warner Solomon, Mandy Macdonald and Ian Anderson.
Mandy thus becomes the latest player to be eliminated, while Hazel, James, Warner and Ian are on one life apiece, and Mark retains both of his.
Premier Two Blue saw a double header where Simon Tracy and Chris Hughes shared the spoils of two one sided encounters.
Eamonn Reay played two Premier Two Red matches, losing to Ismail Yilmaz before defeating Steffen Nowak.
And Tom Chapman beat Steve Pickard in Premier Three Purple.
11/03/24: Nine in Monday action
There were just nine players in action on Monday.
Seven contested the latest session of our Monday Winter Grand Prix in DMP round robins at the Heroes website.
Those seven formed a single group, which was won by Gaz Owen.
Gaz's lead in the WGP has extended to twenty-eight points from second placed Nick Barham.
There was also a single Premier Three Purple match played, Steve Pickard defeating Richard Davies.
At the Sportsmans, Ian's Backgammon Clinic had no drop-ins at all, for the first time since the sessions began at the start of the year.
10/03/24: Sunday's results round-up
There were seven matches played on Sunday.
Holder Tim Line and Paul Watts suffered second round Brunel Trophy defeats -- Tim to Jim Green at the Farm, St Werburghs, and Paul online against Kylie Hedges.
Kylie has both lives remaining, while the other three have just one left.
In Premier Two Blue Ian Tarr got three matches played -- defeats at the hands of Simon Tracy and Warner Solomon, and a victory over Robin Gunney.
Phil Doubtfire defeated Michael Petrakas in Premier Two Red.
And Mark Dixon beat Richard Davies in Premier Three Purple.
10/03/24: Reece eliminates Elias
In the only Saturday action, Reece Hodges defeated Elias Hamati in the second round of the Brunel Trophy.
Elias becomes the latest player to be eliminated, while Reece still has both lives intact.
08/03/24: Friday's league action
There were four matches played on Friday.
In Premier Two Blue there were wins for Phil Charlton over Mike Smith and Stephen Little over Neil Edwards.
Ian Anderson scored a Premier Three Green victory over Andy Zographou.
And Steve Pickard defeated Simon Blinkhorn in Premier Three Purple.
08/03/24: Thursday round-up
There were twenty-seven players involved on Thursday.
There was a very low turnout at the annual Bristol Backgammon Awards Night at the casino, with just fifteen present.
Forewarned is forearmed, however, and Director Ian Tarr took the unprecedented step of leaving many of the awards at home in the knowledge that many would not be present to receive them.
The display of hardware was still reasonably impressive.
Nevertheless, those who did get there sampled the unique flavour of the evening, with an American buffet provided free of charge by the casino, and several of those present putting faces to names for the first time.
It's a simple fact of Bristol Backgammon life that the playing opportunities afforded by live tournaments, online tournaments and leagues are so varied that many players' paths never usually cross.
Ian delivered his usual Review of the Year, giving out prizes -- both of the hardware variety and the brown enveloped variety -- along the way.
Many photographs were taken, some of which will undoubtedly surface in due course.
Apart from the "known quantity" prizes for winning or nearly winning various competitions, there were the usual "surprise" awards.
Stephen Little and Pearl Foster were there to receive mementoes for being, respectively, the 26th and 27th players to rack up a century of career Premier League victories, while Tim Line's achievement of being the thirteenth to make it to 200 was similarly marked.
The Gaz Owen sponsored Most Improved Player award went this year to Gerald Whitehouse, while the Rookie of the Year award -- sponsored jointly by Andy Boysan and Ian Hedges -- was won by Matt Sharp.
After the ceremony there was an eight player jackpot, which was won by Tim.
There were also ten league matches, and two in the Brunel Trophy, played on Thursday.
Steffen Nowak defeated Steve Morris in a second round Brunel Trophy match at the casino, while Adam Sinclair was beating Ben Crabb online in the same competition.
While Ben is eliminated, Steve still has one life remaining, although Adam and Steffen still have both lives intact.
In Premier Two Red Ed Turner scored a brace of wins over Elias Hamati, who is apparently relieved that he will now be now unlikely to be promoted to play the sharks of the top flight.
Pearl beat Gerald at the casino in the same division.
Also at the casino Rosemary Whitehouse inflicted a Premier Two Blue defeat on Hazel Harper, while online Phil Charlton was kicking off his Blue Division season with a win over Hemal Getalal.
Premier Three Purple saw the rarity of a league triple header involving Steve Pickard and Andrew Cobb, Steve winning the second and third of those matches.
In Premier Three Green Gary Plant overcame Mandy Macdonald at the Three Brooks.
And Simon Hughes won a Premier Three Yellow encounter with Caroline Boulton.
06/03/24: Ian Anderson wins Wednesday tournament
There were just six players in action on Wednesday, all of them to contest the tenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And the low turnout dictated a change of format -- a round robin of 5-point matches.
Ian Anderson was this week's winner, with Adam Sinclair as runner-up.
05/03/24: Tuesday results round-up
There were eight matches played on Tuesday.
Steve Pickard became the first player to be eliminated from the Brunel Trophy, when he lost his second round match to Kev Peters.
Later Kev was on the wrong end of a Premier One double header against Adam Sinclair.
In Premier Three Green Ian Anderson notched three victories -- two over Marcel Bancroft, the other over Barry Vasili.
Alan Joicey defeated Mark Dixon in Premier Three Purple.
And Ann Pocknell won a Premier Three Yellow encounter with Fred North.
05/03/24: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, nineteen competitively and just two at the latest session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Thirteen contested the latest session of our Monday Winter Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website.
Those thirteen were split into groups of seven and six, which were won by Kev Peters and Adam Sinclair.
Gaz Owen still heads the WGP table by twenty-six points from Nick Barham.
There was also Premier League action.
In Premier One at Channings Hotel Simon Baker defeated Andy Boysan.
And there were Premier Two Blue wins for Mike Smith (over Warner Solomon) and Hemal Getalal (over Hazel Harper).
At the Sportsmans "education" session Ian Tarr was able to give his undivided attention to Newport based Glyn Davies.
04/03/24: Sunday win for Paul
In the only Sunday match Paul Watts defeated Ed Turner in Premier Two Red.
03/03/24: Brunel Trophy second round draw made
The draw for the second round of the eleventh incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Wednesday, using the recent practice of matching two sequences of random numbers.
The field of fifty-eight remains intact, but this time there will be casualties, as several players will lose for the second time in the competition.
Draws are every five weeks, and the competition typically spans nine or ten rounds, with the latter stages towards the end of the year.
The full draw is here.
02/03/24: Saturday results round-up
There were two Premier League matches played on Saturday.
Natalie Singh began her first Premier One campaign with a victory over Andy Boysan.
And in Premier Three Green Frank Jones defeated Ian Anderson.
01/03/24: Friday results round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Friday.
In Premier Two Red there were wins for Ed Turner over Ismail Yilmaz and Steffen Nowak over league leader Elias Hamati.
And in a Premier Three Green double header Ian Hedges visited Marcel Bancroft and came way with two wins.
01/03/24: Gaz eyes GP20 title
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, thirteen of them at the casino to contest the second instalment of the year's GP20 series.
And, just as in January, Gaz Owen was the tournament winner, capitalising on a first round bye by defeating Andy Zographou, Hazel Harper, and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr.
Ian had got past George Georgiou, Steve Morris and Flora von Michel to reach the final.
The consolation flight saw Chris Rogers victorious, with George, Yuri Cherkasenko and Andy his victims.
So Gaz has stretched his GP20 lead to 90 points, with Chris in second place.
There were league matches played before the tournament, Chris grabbing a Premier One victory over Jim Green at the Pump House before succumbing to Gaz at the casino.
Flora had also notched a Premier Three Green win over Ian Hedges at the casino.
Online there were wins for Paul Watts (over Elias Hamati in Premier Two Red) and Matt Sharp (over Fred North in Premier Three Yellow).
And the final first round match in the Brunel Trophy took place at the Watershed, Simon Hughes edging home against James Lintell-Smith.
28/02/24: Adam wins Wednesday tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the ninth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Adam Sinclair was this week's winner, defeating Elias Hamati, Gerald Whitehouse and -- in the final -- Ian Anderson.
Ian got past Tim Line and Gaz Owen en route to the final.
Elias won the consolation, beating John Curran and Tim.
There was also action in the Brunel Trophy and the Premier League.
The first round of the Brunel Trophy saw wins for Simon Baker and Phil Charlton -- Andy Zographou and Ed Turner their victims.
Simon Tracy scored a Premier Two Blue win against Warner Solomon.
In Premier Three Green Barry Vasili defeated Gary Plant at the Three Brooks.
And Tom Chapman shared the spoils of a Premier Three Purple double header with league leader Alan Joicey, both matches won by wide margins.
27/02/24: Tuesday results round-up
There were eight matches played on Tuesday.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Ian Tarr defeated Dicky Biddle at the Pump House, Matt Sharp visited Barry Vasili in Brentry and came away with a victory, while Warner Solomon beat Jordan White online.
Richard Owsley moved back to the top of Premier Two Blue by beating Robin Gunney.
Andrew Cobb began his Premier Three Purple campaign with a win over Simon Blinkhorn.
And there were Premier Three Green wins for Ian Hedges, Mandy Macdonald and Marcel Bancroft over Mandy, Frank Jones and Andy Zographou.
26/02/24: Eighteen in Monday action
There were eighteen players in action on Monday, fourteen competitively and four at the latest session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Six contested the second session of our Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix in 3-point Nackgammon round robins at the Heroes website.
That NGP session consisted of a single round robin group, which was won by Nick Barham.
Gaz Owen leads the NGP table by five points from Nick.
There were first round Brunel Trophy victories for Robin Gunney and James Newman over Simon Tracy and Mandy Macdonald.
In Premier One there was a double header at the Pump House, where Stuart Mann notched a double success against Simon Baker.
And Alan Joicey's first Premier Three Purple defeat in nine matches was inflicted by Mark Dixon.
At the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was more friendly and fascinating informal action, with Ben Crabb, Simon Dicken and Glyn Davies participating.
25/02/24: Sunday results round-up
There were five matches played on Saturday.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Mark Dixon pipped James Timoney.
Gaz Owen won a Premier One encounter with Kev Peters.
Premier Two Red leader Elias Hamati defeated Gerald Whitehouse.
And Premier Three Yellow high fliers Dicky Biddle and Ann Pocknell were both beaten -- Dicky by Caroline Boulton and Ann at the hands of Matt Sharp.
25/02/24: Saturday results round-up
There were two matches played on Saturday.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Tim Line defeated Pearl Foster.
And in Premier Two Blue Mike Smith beat Warner Solomon.
23/02/24: Friday results round-up
There were three matches played on Friday.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Kylie Hedges overcame Nick Barham.
Ann Pocknell defeated Simon Hughes in Premier Three Yellow.
And in Premier Three Purple Alan Joicey maintained his recent winning sequence by beating Steve Pickard.
22/02/24: Steve wins Handicap tournament
There were just eight players in action on Thursday to contest the second instalment of our 2024 Handicap Trophy series at the Rainbow Casino.
And Steve Morris was the tournament winner, his victims being Stephen Little, George Georgiou and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there by getting past Geoff Paffett and Hazel Harper.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight with wins over Stephen and Geoff Paffett.
Steve has overtaken Hazel at the head of the HT standings.
21/02/24: Ian Tarr wins Wednesday tournament
There were twenty-two players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the eighth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Ian Tarr was this week's winner, defeating Kev Peters, Elias Hamati, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Simon Blinkhorn.
Simon got past Steve Pickard and Adam Sinclair en route to the final.
Chris Rogers won the consolation, beating Nick Barham and Kev.
There was also action in the Brunel Trophy and the Premier League.
The first round of the Brunel Trophy saw wins for Alan Joicey and Paul Watts -- Hazel Harper and Rosemary Whitehouse their victims.
Pearl Foster continued her encouraging start to the Premier Two Red season by defeating Steffen Nowak.
And in Premier Three Yellow Dicky Biddle beat Fred North, then Ann Pocknell defeated Caroline Boulton.
20/02/24: Tuesday results round-up
There were eight matches played on Tuesday.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy there were wins for Richard Owsley, Steffen Nowak and Mike Smith over Ian Hedges, Andy Boysan and Eamonn Reay.
Richard later scored a Premier Two Blue victory over Warner Solomon.
Premier Two Red leader Elias Hamati suffered defeat at the hands of Pearl Foster.
Kylie Hedges scored another Premier Three Yellow win, at the expense of Cliff Blofield.
And in Premier Three Purple Alan Joicey beat Simon Blinkhorn, and Ben Crabb defeated Tom Chapman.
19/02/24: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday, seventeen competitively, the remainder at the latest session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Thirteen contested the latest session of our Monday Club Winter Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website.
They were split into groups of seven and six, which were won by Gaz Owen and Phil Doubtfire.
Gaz has extended his WGP lead to twenty-six points, with second placed Nick Barham a further twenty-six points ahead of third place.
Three Premier League matches were played online.
In Premier Two Blue Ian Tarr defeated Warner Solomon.
Flora von Michel beat Frank Jones in Premier Three Green.
And Alan Joicey scored a Premier Three Purple victory over Ben Crabb.
Meanwhile, at the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian, three others were present for informal action and discussion.
18/02/24: Sunday results round-up
There were seven matches played on Sunday.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Cecilia Rogers scored a narrow victory over Steve Pickard, while Ian Anderson defeated Tom Chapman.
A Premier One double header between Tim Line and Kev Peters spanned two venues.
Starting at the George at Nunney, Tim took the opener 11-7, after which the venue unexpectedly closed at 8pm.
Kev's lead disappeared at the second venue -- the Ship, Frome -- and Tim completed the double.
Mike Smith played twice in Premier Two Blue -- succumbing to Rosemary Whitehouse (who was making her Premier Two debut) before walloping Simon Tracy.
And in Premier Three Yellow Ann Pocknell defeated Cliff Blofield.
17/02/24: Saturday's Premier Three results
There were two Premier Three matches played on Saturday.
Ian Anderson defeated Mandy Macdonald in Premier Three Green.
And in Premier Three Purple Mark Dixon beat Cynthia Roberts.
16/02/24: Tim wins GP10 tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the second of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
Tim Line took the honours in the tournament, defeating George Georgiou, Barry Vasili and -- in the final -- Steve Morris after receiving a first round bye.
Steve, who also had a first round bye, made the final by eliminating Ben Crabb and Gaz Owen.
George took the consolation flight by defeating Stephen Little, Alan Joicey and Ben.
Tim draws level with January winner Steffen Nowak at the head of the GP10 table, albeit from two tournaments as opposed to Steffen's one.
There was also Premier League and Brunel Trophy action earlier.
The Courtyard, Keynsham, was a new venue for Bristol Backgammon, hosting Gaz's narrow first round Brunel Trophy victory over Chris Hughes, while Chris Rogers also scored a narrow win over Gerald Whitehouse online.
There was a Premier Three Green double header at the Compass, Tormarton, where Gary Plant shared the spoils with Marcel Bancroft.
And Ben suffered a narrow Premier Three Purple defeat at the hands of Mark Dixon.
15/02/24: Ian Anderson wins Wednesday tournament
There were just ten players in action on Wednesday to contest the seventh of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Ian Anderson was this week's winner, coming through the long side of the draw with wins over Tim Line, Gaz Owen, Chris Hughes and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati.
Elias got past Chris Rogers and Kev Peters en route to the final.
Simon Tracy won the consolation, beating Cecilia Rogers and Ian Tarr.
13/02/24: Tuesday's Premier League results
There were two Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Simon Baker narrowly defeated Neil Young at the Pump House in Premier One.
And Warner Solomon lost for the first time in Premier Two Blue, against Neil Edwards.
13/02/24: Twenty-six in Monday action
There were twenty-six players in action on Monday, twenty-one competitively, the remainder at the latest session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Eleven contested the latest session of our Monday Club Winter Grand Prix in a single DMP round robin at the Heroes website.
The group was won by Gary Owston, while Nick Barham and Cynthia Roberts took first and second places in the optional side pool.
Gaz Owen still leads the WGP table, but Nick has reduced the margin to 18 points.
Four Premier League and Brunel Trophy matches were played.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy Ben Crabb visited Steve Morris in Redland, but came away with a defeat.
And Chas Perry returned to action to defeat Jim Green at the Watershed in the same competition.
Andy Boysan and Simon Baker opened their Premier One campaigns at the Alma Tavern, Simon prevailing.
In Premier Two Blue a meeting of previously unbeaten players saw Warner Solomon narrowly defeat Chris Hughes.
And Kylie Hedges again beat James Timoney in Premier Three Yellow.
Meanwhile, at the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was more friendly and fascinating informal action, with seven present in all, including valuable insights from Jim.
11/02/24: Sunday's results round-up
There were two matches played on Sunday.
In Premier Two Blue Chris Hughes defeated Mike Smith.
And Kylie Hedges beat James Timoney in Premier Three Yellow.
10/02/24: Saturday win for Mike
There was just one match played on Saturday.
In Premier Two Blue Mike Smith defeated Neil Edwards.
09/02/24: Friday's results round-up
There were two matches played on Friday.
The Post Office Tavern played host to a Premier Three Green meeting between Ian Hedges and Andy Zographou, which Ian won narrowly.
And in the first round of the Brunel Trophy Stephen Little defeated Elias Hamati.
09/02/24: Gaz wins February Bristol Grand Prix event
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, twelve of them to contest the second instalment of our 2024 monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Gaz Owen was the tournament winner, defeating Hazel Harper, Ian Hedges and -- in the final -- Tim Line, after receiving a first round bye.
Tim had arrived there by getting past Ian Tarr, Barry Vasili and Cynthia Roberts.
Hazel took the consolation flight with wins over Andy Zographou and Ian.
That consolation run was enough to extend Hazel's BGP points table lead to 25.
There was also Premier Two action.
In the Red Division Gerald Whitehouse defeated Dave Pym, while Chris Hughes scored a Blue Division victory over Richard Owsley.
08/02/24: Kev wins Wednesday freeroll tournament
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the sixth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This was a subtly different Wednesday tournament, with free entry and a greater variety of optional side pools.
Kev Peters was this week's winner, with Simon Blinkhorn as runner-up.
Kev, who received a first round bye, got past Frank Jones and Elias Hamati, before defeating Simon.
Simon reached the final the hard way, beating Chris Hughes, Ian Anderson and Chris Rogers en route.
Tim Line won the consolation, beating Chris Hughes and Frank, while Ian Anderson won the post-tournament jackpot.
There were also three league matches played.
Richard Owsley beat Jon Organ in Premier Two Blue, while in Premier Three Green Gary Plant got the better of Barry Vasili in a double header at the Three Brooks.
06/02/24: Tuesday's Premier League results
There were two Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier Two Blue Warner Solomon defeated Jon Organ.
And Alan Joicey beat Simon Blinkhorn in Premier Three Purple.
06/02/24: Twenty-four in Monday action
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday, eighteen competitively and six at the latest session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Eleven contested the latest session of our Monday Club Winter Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website.
The WGP session saw groups of six and five, which were won by Gaz Owen and Elias Hamati.
Gaz has opened up a good lead in the WGP table.
Six matches were played in the Premier League and Brunel Trophy.
Gaz suffered a Premier One defeat at the hands of Adam Sinclair.
In Premier Three Green there was another double header at Cafe Kino, where Flora von Michel and Barry Vasili shared the spoils.
And Caroline Boulton defeated James Timoney in Premier Three Yellow.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy there were wins for Miles Farren and Frank Jones, Phil Doubtfire and Cynthia Roberts their respective victims.
And at the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was more friendly and fascinating informal action, with six present in all, and good work done by Scott Wood and Simon Dicken, with Emsy making her first visit.
04/02/24: Sunday win for Dave
There was just one match played on Sunday.
Dave Pym defeated Ismail Yilmaz in Premier Two Red.
04/02/24: Saturday win for Mike
There was just one match played on Saturday.
Mike Smith defeated Neil Edwards in Premier Two Blue.
02/02/24: Friday's results round up
There were two matches played on Friday.
The first result from the 2024 Brunel Trophy is in -- a win for Adam Sinclair over Simon Blinkhorn.
And in Premier Two Red Michael Petrakas defeated Ismail Yilmaz.
02/02/24: Ian wins opening Speedgammon event
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, with eight taking part in the opening session of the year's Speedgammon Grand Prix at the Rainbow Casino.
The eight were split into two groups for the opening round robin phase, which saw Ian Tarr winning his group with a clean sweep, while Steve Morris took the other on points difference.
The knock-out phase saw Ian continue unbeaten to take the win, with Barry Vasili as runner-up, and Ian has already built a lead of 55 points in the SGGP table as he tries to defend his title.
There was also Premier League action.
Robin Gunney defeated Neil Edwards in Premier Two Blue.
Premier Three Purple saw a win for Alan Joicey over Richard Davies.
And Premier Three Green was the busiest division, with three results recorded.
Ian Anderson began his league career online with a victory over Frank Jones, who then moved on to the casino to meet Ian Hedges.
Ian H had already beaten Barry before accounting for Frank as well.
31/01/24: Adam wins Wednesday tournament
There were just six players in action on Wednesday, all of them to contest the fifth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And the low turnout dictated a change of format -- a round robin of 5-point matches.
Adam Sinclair was this week's winner, with Gaz Owen as runner-up.
31/01/24: Record entry in Brunel Trophy first round draw
The draw for the eleventh incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Wednesday, using the recent practice of matching two sequences of random numbers.
The field of fifty-nine is a record for the competition which is, and always has been, sponsored by an anonymous benefactor.
The double elimination format ensures at least two bites of the cherry for all players, with the last five standing (plus ties, if any) taking the prize pot, which amounts to £1,430 -- £1,180 in entry fees plus £250 added by the sponsor.
As there is an odd number of players, one lucky player -- Natalie Singh -- gets a first round bye.
The full draw is here.
30/01/24: Tuesday's Premier League results
There were six Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
The Dumb Post Inn, Calne, played host to Jim Green's first ever top flight match, which was a victory over Chris Rogers.
In Premier Two Red Pearl Foster defeated Eamonn Reay.
Warner Solomon began his Premier Two Blue campaign by beating Stephen Little.
Andy Zographou also made it a winning start in Premier Three Green against Barry Vasili at the Sportsman, Nevil Road.
And in the same division Mandy Macdonald and Gary Plant scored a win apiece at the Three Brooks, Bradley Stoke.
30/01/24: Fifteen in Monday action
There were fifteen players in action on Monday, twelve competitively and three at the latest session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Ten contested the opening session of our Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix in 3-point Nackgammon round robins at the Heroes website, while two played a league double header.
The NGP session saw two groups of five, which were won by Ian Anderson and Gaz Owen.
So Ian and Gaz share the lead in the NGP table.
The league action was in Premier Three Green and took place at Cafe Kino, where Flora von Michel and Mandy Macdonald shared the spoils.
At the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was more friendly and fascinating informal action, with Michael Corbett and Scott Wood participating.
29/01/24: Sunday's Premier League results
There were two Premier League matches played on Sunday.
In Premier Two Red Elias Hamati is setting a hot pace in more ways than one.
He defeated Dave Pym and has now completed exactly half of his year's fixtures, while establishing a 15-point lead.
If he can replicate that over the second half of his season he will be odds on for promotion to the top flight.
And in Premier Three Purple Alan Joicey defeated Ben Crabb.
27/01/24: Saturday's Premier League results
There were six Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In Premier One Gaz Owen defeated Adam Sinclair.
Premier Two Red saw the most action, with three results.
Michael Petrakas and Mathew Nicholls shared the spoils of a double header at Sportsmans, while online Ismail Yilmaz pipped Paul Watts.
James Timoney scored his opening Premier Three Yellow win over Cliff Blofield.
And in Premier Three Purple Simon Blinkhorn beat Steve Pickard.
26/01/24: Gaz wins opening GP20 tournament
There were twelve players in action on Thursday at the casino, eleven of them to contest the opening instalment of the year's GP20 series.
The exception was Nick Barham, who suffered a brace of Premier One defeats to Chris Rogers before the tournament, and decided to cut his losses and go home.
Chris also found time for a third pre-tournament league match, which he lost to Tim Line.
In the tournament Gaz Owen took the honours, defeating Steve Morris, Chris, and -- in the final -- Geoff Paffett, after receiving a first round bye.
Geoff had got past Tim and Mike Smith to reach the final.
The consolation flight saw Stephen Little victorious, with Barry Vasili, Ian Hedges and Steve his victims.
So Gaz is the first leader of the GP20 table.
25/01/24: Ian wins Wednesday tournament
There were seventeen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the fourth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Ian Tarr was this week's main flight winner, defeating Elias Hamati, Simon Tracy, and -- in the final -- Adam Sinclair, after receiving a first round bye.
Adam -- in his second successive Wednesday final -- had arrived there via wins over Simon Blinkhorn, Phil Doubtfire and Nick Barham.
Ian Anderson took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Simon Blinkhorn, Mark Dixon, and Elias.
Tim Line won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
Three Premier League matches were also played.
In Premier Two Red there were wins for Phil and Ismail Yilmaz -- Eamonn Reay and Mathew Nicholls being their victims.
And Steve Pickard scored another victory over Cynthia Roberts in Premier Three Purple.
23/01/24: Tuesday's Premier League results
There were four Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
The Pump House played host to a Premier One meeting between Stuart Mann and Neil Young, Stuart prevailing.
In Premier Two Blue Neil Edwards defeated Hazel Harper.
Dicky Biddle continued his unbeaten start to the Premier Three Yellow campaign with a win over Fred North.
And in Premier Three Purple Alan Joicey whitewashed Cynthia Roberts.
23/01/24: Thirty-two in Monday action
There were thirty-two players in action on Monday, twenty-three competitively and nine at the third session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Fifteen contested the third session of our Monday Winter Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website, while eight others were involved in league matches.
The WGP session saw groups of eight and seven, which were won by Ian Anderson and Gaz Owen.
Ian leapfrogged Gaz at the top of the WGP table, albeit by just two points.
The league action was in Premier Two and Premier Three.
Simon Tracy defeated Hazel Harper in Premier Two Blue, while Ismail Yilmaz was beating Mathew Nicholls in Premier Two Red.
In the third tier there were victories for Dicky Biddle over Cliff Blofield in the Yellow Division and Simon Blinkhorn over Richard Davies in the Purple Division.
At the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was more friendly and fascinating informal action.
No fewer than eight aspiring players, from a very broad range of levels, were present.
Umut Bilge, a Turkish player studying in Bristol and brought to our attention by world renowned TD Arda Findikoglu, will be looking to get involved in competition immediately.
Lebanese Jean-Louis Kassis, who has recently moved from Essex, is also competition ready.
Failand based Bryan Greene and Cheryl Garner, totally self-taught, are looking to take their game to the next level, and will need one-to-one tuition.
And Monday regular Simon Dicken, whose role in bringing in newcomers cannot be overstated, helped Glyn Davies, Cynthia Aiken and James Hammonds to acclimatise to live play.
21/01/24: Sunday's Premier League results
There were four Premier League matches played on Sunday.
In Premier One Adam Sinclair defeated Cecilia Rogers.
Elias Hamati continued to rack up Premier Two Red results, defeating Gerald Whitehouse before succumbing to Phil Doubtfire.
And in Premier Two Blue Chris Hughes scored a win over Neil Edwards.
21/01/24: Saturday's Premier League round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In Premier One Adam Sinclair defeated Chris Rogers.
Premier Two Blue gathered a little momentum after a slow start with four players launching their campaigns, Jon Organ and Neil Edwards the victors over, respectively, Robin Gunney and Simon Tracy.
And in Premier Three Purple Steve Pickard defeated Alan Joicey.
19/01/24: Friday's Premier Three action
There were two Premier League matches played on Friday.
In Premier Three Purple Steve Pickard defeated Cynthia Roberts.
And Dicky Biddle beat Cliff Blofield in Premier Three Yellow.
19/01/24: Second successive Thursday tournament win for Hazel
There were seventeen players in action on Thursday, eleven of them to contest the opening instalment of our 2024 Handicap Trophy series at the Rainbow Casino.
For the second successive Thursday Hazel Harper was the tournament winner, her victims this time being Carmen van-der-l'Isle, Cynthia Roberts and -- in the final -- Steve Morris, after receiving a first round bye.
Steve had arrived there by getting past Ian Tarr and Barry Vasili.
Mandy Macdonald took the consolation flight with wins over Carmen and Ian.
So Hazel now leads both the Handicap Trophy and the Bristol Grand Prix.
A point of discussion during the event -- which has prompted a little research -- concerned how difficult it is for a zero-handicapped player to win in these events, and indeed there were no match wins for scratch players over non-scratch players this time.
But that is only the fourth such occurrence in 126 handicap tournaments, and in fact exactly a third of all our handicap events (forty-two of them) have been won by zero-handicapped players.
This suggests that the handicapping system works very well.
There was also Premier League action.
Ian Hedges and Flora von Michel played out a Premier Three Green double header alongside the tournament, and Ian prevailed twice.
In Premier One Gaz Owen defeated Kev Peters.
And Eamonn Reay scored his first Premier Two Red win of the season against Dave Pym.
18/01/24: Adam wins Wednesday tournament
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the third of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Adam Sinclair was this week's main flight winner, defeating Ian Tarr, Ian Anderson, Elias Hamati, and -- in the final -- Gaz Owen.
Gaz had arrived there via a first round bye and wins over Kev Peters and John Curran.
Nick Barham took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Chris Hughes, Kev and Andy Boysan.
Three Premier League matches were also played, every one of them involving Elias.
His Premier Two Red campaign gathered pace with a win and a defeat against Michael Petrakas, followed by a further victory, over Eamonn Reay.
16/01/24: Tuesday's Premier League round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
A Premier One double header saw Nick Barham twice victorious over Adam Sinclair.
And Fred North defeated Cliff Blofield in Premier Three Yellow.
16/01/24: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, sixteen competitively and five at the second session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Twelve contested the second session of our Monday Winter Grand Prix in DMP round robins at the Heroes website, while four others were involved in league matches.
The WGP session saw a single group, which was won by John Curran, although second placed Ian Anderson and third placed Adam Sinclair took the spoils of the optional side pool.
Gaz Owen has taken over the leadership of the WGP table, albeit by a single point from Ian Anderson and Nick Barham.
The league action was in Premier Three Green, and featured wins for Barry Vasili and Mandy Macdonald.
Barry's win came from a visit to Marcel Bancroft, while Mandy was a narrow victor over Flora von Michel at Cafe Kino, Stokes Croft.
At the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was more friendly and fascinating informal action involving Richard Davies, Simon Dicken and welcome new players Ben Bennett and Glyn D -- a total beginner brought to us by Simon's excellent MeetUp initiative.
14/01/24: Sunday's Premier One action
There were just two Premier League matches played on Sunday, both of them in Premier One, and both of them involving Cecilia Rogers.
She defeated Tim Line before succumbing to Nick Barham.
14/01/24: Saturday's Premier League round-up
There were six Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In the top flight there were wins for Cecilia Rogers and Adam Sinclair over Gaz Owen and Chris Rogers.
Premier Three Purple saw victory for Mark Dixon against Steve Pickard.
And Ann Pocknell was busy in the Yellow Division, fitting in three matches -- all wins -- against Caroline Boulton and Kylie Hedges (twice).
12/01/24: Friday's Premier Three results
There were two Premier Three matches played on Friday.
Marcel Bancroft and Ian Hedges met in the Green Division in what is believed to be the first Bristol Backgammon match ever staged in Melksham, Ian prevailing.
And in the Purple Division Richard Davies defeated Ben Crabb.
12/01/24: Hazel wins opening monthly Grand Prix event
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, eleven of them to contest the opening instalment of our 2024 monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Hazel Harper was the tournament winner, defeating Gaz Owen, Cynthia Roberts and -- in the final -- Stephen Little, after receiving a first round bye.
Stephen had arrived there by getting past Ian Tarr, Steffen Nowak and Nick Barham.
Barry Vasili took the consolation flight with wins over Steffen and Tim Line.
So Hazel is the first leader of the BGP points table.
There was also Premier League action.
The Knights Templar was the venue for a Premier One meeting between Neil Young and Kev Peters, where Neil came out on top.
And for the second successive evening, there was a late Premier Two Red match online between Mathew Nicholls and Elias Hamati, where Elias got his revenge.
Mathew had earlier defeated Phil Doubtfire at the Eastfield Inn.
11/01/24: Chris wins Wednesday tournament
There were twenty players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the second of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Chris Rogers was this week's main flight winner, defeating Ian Anderson, John Curran, and -- in the final -- Mark Dixon, after receiving a first round bye.
Mark had arrived there via wins over Chris Hughes, Ian Tarr and Phil Doubtfire.
Chris Hughes took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Tim Line and Simon Tracy.
There was time and interest enough for two post-tournament jackpots, which saw wins for Ian Anderson and Ian Tarr.
Five Premier League matches were also played online.
Richard Owsley's win over Hazel Harper kicked off the Premier Two Blue season.
Kylie Hedges scored a brace of Premier Three Yellow victories, at the expense of Matt Sharp and Ann Pocknell, who was later whitewashed by Cliff Blofield.
And after the tournament there was a late, late, match in Premier Two Red, where Mathew Nicholls began his campaign with an emphatic win over Elias Hamati.
09/01/24: Tuesday's league results round-up
There were five Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Kev Peters and Chris Rogers shared the spoils of a Premier One double header at a new venue for Bristol Backgammon, the Red Lion, Lacock, Chippenham.
In the same division Stuart Mann defeated Neil Young at the Pump House.
Phil Doubtfire opened his Premier Two Red campaign with victory over Ismail Yilmaz.
And in Premier Three Purple Steve Pickard continued his winning start to the campaign against Ben Crabb.
09/01/24: Twenty-seven in Monday action
There were twenty-seven players in action on Monday, twenty-three of them in competitions and four of them at the inaugural session of Ian's Backgammon Clinic at Sportsmans.
Thirteen contested the opening session of our Monday Winter Grand Prix in 3-point round robins at the Heroes website, while ten others were involved in league matches.
The WGP session saw groups of seven and six, which were won by Nick Barham and Gaz Owen, so Nick -- as winner of the larger group -- is the early WGP leader.
In the leagues, there was a Premier One double header at the Pump House, where Chris Rogers scored a double success over Stuart Mann.
Dave Pym defeated Ismail Yilmaz in Premier Two Red.
The season's first result from Premier Three Green came from Frank Jones's narrow victory over Barry Vasili at the Bocabar.
And in Premier Three Yellow Kylie Hedges and Dicky Biddle were victors over Fred North and Matt Sharp.
At the Sportsmans session hosted by Ian Tarr there was friendly and hopefully informative action involving Richard Davies, Simon Dicken and welcome new player Simon Griffiths.
07/01/24: And on Sunday, too......
Just one Premier League match was played on Sunday.
Cynthia Roberts defeated Alan Joicey in Premier Three Purple.
07/01/24: Cynthia wins on Saturday......
Just one Premier League match was played on Saturday.
Cynthia Roberts defeated Ben Crabb in Premier Three Purple.
05/01/24: Friday's league action
Four Premier League matches were played on Friday.
Elias Hamati maintained his pace in Premier Two Red, completing his fifth match and his fourth win, Ben Crowden his victim.
Ben had already lost to Ismail Yilmaz.
And Premier Three Purple saw wins for Cynthia Roberts and Mark Dixon, over Simon Blinkhorn and Ben Crabb respectively.
05/01/24: Steffen wins opening GP10 tournament
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the first of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
Steffen Nowak -- having returned to Thursday action at December's Fizz tournament -- must have had his appetite whetted, and wins over Barry Vasili, Steve Morris, Ian Hedges and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr saw him take the main flight honours.
Ian, having received a first round bye, made the final by eliminating Hazel Harper and Nick Barham.
Hazel took the consolation flight by defeating Barry and reigning GP10 champion Gaz Owen.
There was also league action online, with Elias Hamati completing his third and fourth Premier Two Red matches, beating Ismail Yilmaz before succumbing to Ben Crowden.
03/01/24: Fourteen in Wednesday action
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, just six of them to contest first of the new year's Wednesday online tournaments.
The low entry meant the competition switched to round robin format with first-to-5-points matches.
Tim Line came out on top this week, winning four of his five matches, with Gaz Owen taking second place.
Stephen Little joined in the customary post-tournament jackpot and won it.
Meanwhile there were four Premier League matches played.
The Rose and Crown, Wick, hosted a Premier One match, Neil Young defeating Chris Rogers.
Elias Hamati scored his second Premier Two Red win, Ismail Yilmaz his victim this time.
Mark Dixon's winning start to life in Premier Three Purple came to a juddering halt in a whitewash by Steve Pickard.
And Kylie Hedges signalled her return to league play by defeating Cliff Blofield in Premier Three Yellow.
02/01/24: Tuesday's league action
Three Premier League matches were played on Tuesday.
Gaz Owen and Chris Rogers met online for a Premier One match, with Gaz making the winning start.
Elias Hamati pipped Pearl Foster in the first Premier Two Red match of the season.
And in Premier Three Purple Mark Dixon again defeated Cynthia Roberts.
01/01/24: New Year's Day Premier Three action
Three Premier Three matches were played on Monday.
Cynthia Roberts has been characteristically quick off the mark, and played her second and third Premier Three Purple matches, suffering a whitewash at the hands of Mark Dixon before edging home against league debutant Ben Crabb.
And along with Mark, Ann Pocknell was another to make a winning return to the league, defeating James Timoney in Premier Three Yellow.
31/12/23: Chris gets his revenge; Steve off the mark
Two more 2024 Premier League matches were played on Sunday before the official start of the season.
Chris Rogers had his revenge over Cecilia Rogers in Chippenham to take the early Premier One leadership.
And Steve Pickard made a winning Bristol league debut when he defeated Cynthia Roberts in the new Premier Three Purple division.
30/12/23: Cecilia and Chris jump the gun
It may not quite be 2024, but that won't stop some players from getting some league action in.
As has happened a few times before at this time of the year Chris and Cecilia Rogers were the first to register a Premier League result for the new season.
Cecilia was the victor, and the venue -- unsurprisingly -- was their Chippenham home.
So Cecilia is the first to strike out into the lead in Premier One.
28/12/23: All time record entry for the 2024 Bristol Premier League
The deadline for entries passed at midnight on December 21st, and sixty-eight players are lined up ready to go for next year's Bristol Premier League.
This is a record entry and ten more than the number who finished this year's competitions.
The preferred divisional split for 68 players had to be tweaked, as thirty-nine of the field are qualified by right for the top two tiers.
Premier Two remains slightly larger than usual, fourteen in both the Blue Division and the Red Division.
This is the case in order to facilitate even splits in the third tier, and also allows two players -- Michael Corbett and Richard Owsley, who just missed out on promotion -- to gain "back door" entry to the second tier.
The increased entry means that for the first time we will have three divisions at Premier Three level, with nine players in each, playing each opponent three times.
The Green Division and the Yellow Division now have a sibling Purple Division.
While only four of those who ended the 2023 season have dropped out, we have six returning after gaps of varying lengths, and eight who are totally new to the Premier League.
Full line-ups are:
PREMIER ONE: Simon Baker, Nick Barham, Andy Boysan, Jim Green, Tim Line, Stuart Mann, Gaz Owen, Kev Peters, Cecilia Rogers, Chris Rogers, Adam Sinclair, Natalie Singh and Neil Young;
PREMIER TWO BLUE: Phil Charlton, Neil Edwards, Hemal Getalal, Robin Gunney, Hazel Harper, Chris Hughes, Stephen Little, Jon Organ, Richard Owsley, Mike Smith, Warner Solomon, Ian Tarr, Simon Tracy and Rosemary Whitehouse;
PREMIER TWO RED: Michael Corbett, Ben Crowden, Phil Doubtfire, Pearl Foster, Elias Hamati, Steffen Nowak, Mathew Nicholls, Michael Petrakas, Dave Pym, Eamonn Reay, Ed Turner, Paul Watts, Gerald Whitehouse and Ismail Yilmaz;
PREMIER THREE GREEN: Ian Anderson, Marcel Bancroft, Ian Hedges, Frank Jones, Mandy Macdonald, Gary Plant, Barry Vasili, Flora von Michel and Andy Zographou;
PREMIER THREE YELLOW: Dicky Biddle, Cliff Blofield, Caroline Boulton, Kylie Hedges, Simon Hughes, Fred North, Ann Pocknell, Matt Sharp and James Timoney;
PREMIER THREE PURPLE: Simon Blinkhorn, Tom Chapman, Andrew Cobb, Ben Crabb, Richard Davies, Mark Dixon, Alan Joicey, Steve Pickard and Cynthia Roberts.
Players will be given full instructions in the next couple of days.
22/12/23: Steve's Christmas Fizz tournament brings down the Bristol Backgammon 2023 curtain, Neil taking the title
The last Bristol Backgammon event of the year, known as the Christmas Fizz Tournament, because of sponsor Steve Morris's kind provision of four bottles of various kinds of fizzy liquid, was enjoyed by eighteen players at the Rainbow Casino on Thursday.
This was the twelfth incarnation of the event.
With only 3-point matches throughout, the eighteen slotted nicely into the two-phase format, forming four round robin groups -- two of five players, two of four -- for the opening phase.
The top two or three in each moved on to the main knock-out flight, the remainder contesting the consolation, so ten in the main flight and eight in the consolation.
A nice feature of the event was that every single player won at least one match.
Group winners Alan Joicey, Barry Vasili, Cynthia Roberts and Chris Rogers all won £15 for their round robin efforts, Alan the only one to win every match.
Stephen Little and Neil Young emerged through the main flight to contest the final, Neil taking the top prize.
And in the consolation it was Marcus Evans who won the flight, defeating Robin Gunney in the final.
All four finalists received their bubbly prizes from Steve as well as their prize money, and all in all, a good time was had by all.
Bristol Backgammon now takes its annual festive break, with "hostilities" to be resumed on Wednesday January 3rd.
21/12/23: Business as usual at the last of this year's Wednesday tournaments
There were just nine players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the fifty-first and last of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And the story was a familiar one.
Gaz Owen was this week's main flight winner, defeating Ian Tarr, Alan Joicey, and -- in the final -- Chris Hughes, which was a repeat of last week's final.
Chris had arrived there via wins over Elias Hamati and Tim Line.
It was the fifteenth Wednesday win of the year for Gaz in thirty-five events contested.
Rumours of a ban to allow others to take the spoils are thought to be unfounded!
Elias took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Ian Anderson and Chris Rogers.
Tim won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
20/12/23: Tim wins record third Brunel Trophy
Steffen Nowak and Tim Line -- the last men standing -- met at the Globe, Newton St Loe, on Tuesday to contest the final of the tenth Brunel Trophy.
And Tim won a one sided encounter to notch a record third Brunel title.
The first round draw, made back on January 31st, comprised fifty-one players.
With further random FA Cup style draws every five weeks, the double elimination format ensured involvement for many until the field was gradually whittled down to the final two contesting the tenth and final round.
18/12/23: Kev takes Autumn Grand Prix title
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday to contest the final session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in 3-point round robins across two environments.
The five at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the sixteen online split into two groups of eight.
Flora von Michel won the live group, while the online groups were won by Kev Peters and Gaz Owen.
Kev's final flourish ensured that he took the AGP title, with Tim Line in second place.
15/12/23: Gaz wins monthly Grand Prix event; Ian takes third title
There were ten players in action on Thursday to contest the twelfth and last of our 2023 monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Gaz Owen was the tournament winner -- for the second successive month -- defeating Hazel Harper, Steve Morris and -- in the final -- Dicky Biddle, after receiving a first round bye.
Dicky had arrived there by getting past Ian Hedges, Ian Tarr and Nick Barham.
Barry Vasili took the consolation flight with wins over Hazel, Tim Line and Ian Hedges.
Ian Tarr has finished on top of the BGP points table.
Tim, the only player who could conceivably have threatened the lead, lost that slim opportunity when he lost his opening match to Steve Morris.
Ian's title is his third in the series, leaving him behind only Roland Herrera, and level with Stuart Mann and Gaz.
It also brings to an end a successful year for Ian in Thursday competition, when he has also won the GP20 series and the Speedgammon Grand Prix, while finishing second in the GP10 series and third in the Handicap Trophy.
14/12/23: Premier League set for record entry
With a week to go to the registration deadline, the Bristol Premier League entry record is set to be broken.
Fifty-four have already committed to the 2024 season, and with several yet to confirm, it is anticipated that the all time Premier League entry record of fifty-nine will be comfortably exceeded.
13/12/23: Gaz wins fourteenth Wednesday tournament
There were eleven players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the fiftieth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Gaz Owen was this week's winner, defeating Ian Anderson, Ian Tarr, and -- in the final -- Chris Hughes, having received a first round bye.
Chris had arrived there via wins over Chris Rogers and John Curran.
It was the fourteenth Wednesday win of the year for Gaz.
Ian Anderson took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Adam Sinclair, Elias Hamati and Tim Line.
Tim won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
13/12/23: Adam defeats Jim to take outright Premier Two title
Premier Two Blue champion Jim Green and Premier Two Red champion Adam Sinclair met online on Wednesday to decide the outcome of the outright Premier Two title.
And it was Adam who prevailed, winning 11-6.
Bizarrely this was the tenth time in eleven years that the honour has fallen to the Red Division winner.
12/12/23: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday, fifteen of whom contested the ninth session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in DMP round robins.
Only three made it to Sportsmans, insufficient for a competition, so one of those then attempted to join the online groups, but had to abort due to lack of Premium Heroes membership.
This left fifteen online, in groups of eight and seven, and group winners were Andy Boysan and Gaz Owen.
Kev Peters retains his 6 points lead of the AGP table, with one session remaining.
Back at Sportsmans Steve Morris and Ian Tarr played a friendly match.
08/12/23: Barry wins year's final Handicap Trophy event; Tim takes title
There were just six players in action on Thursday to contest the ninth and final Handicap Trophy tournament of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
And although one match has been held over, all the important issues were decided.
As there were six players, the event switched to a round robin format, for the second time this year.
And Barry Vasili took full advantage of his handicap of two, topping the league with four wins out of five.
Steve Morris pipped Tim Line on points difference for second place, although Tim's efforts were sufficient to land him the annual HT title.
The title race finale had been anticipated as a shoot out between Tim and Hazel Harper, but Hazel's tournament was anti-climactic as she failed to register a win on the night.
She will be hoping to remedy that when tidying up the one outstanding match, but at least has the satisfaction of a clear second place overall..
07/12/23: Ian Anderson wins Wednesday tournament
There were ten players in action on Wednesday to contest the forty-ninth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Ian Anderson was this week's winner, defeating Adam Sinclair, Simon Blinkhorn, and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati, having received a first round bye.
Elias had arrived there via wins over John Curran and Gaz Owen.
Adam took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Mandy Macdonald and Alan Joicey.
Elias Hamati won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
04/12/23: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday to contest the eighth session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in 3-point round robins across two environments.
The four at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the thirteen online split into groups of seven and six.
Ian Tarr won the live group, while the online groups were won by Kev Peters and Ian Anderson.
Kev has moved into a six points AGP lead, with Tim Line in second place.
02/12/23: Matt wins inaugural Feeder League
The Feeder League, set up earlier this season for those not involved in the Premier League, finished at midnight on Thursday.
The successor to the Conference League, which was last contested in 2021, starting encouragingly in April, and six players were involved, but after nine matches were played before the end of June, things petered out in a disappointing fashion, with only two more matches playerd thereafter.
One commendable aspect of the league was that all matches were played live, despite players having the online option available.
Matt Sharp contested six of the eleven matches played, and won them all to take the title convincingly.
Whether or not his form had a deflating effect on his rivals, we may never know.
But nobody seemed willing to grasp the opportunity to challenge his lead, despite the addition of £50 to the prize pool from an anonymous sponsor.
01/12/23: Ian wins final GP10 tournament but Gaz takes the title
There were ten players in action on Thursday to contest the tenth and final GP10 tournament of the year at the casino.
Gaz Owen held a 55 point GP10 lead going into the tournament and, allowing for discards, only Ian Tarr of those present had the chance to overhaul him.
And when Ian received a bye in the first round, that meant only a tournament win would give him that chance.
In fact he did get the win, but Gaz's sole match win on the night was just enough to keep him in first place.
Ian's victims were Hazel Harper, Steve Morris and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had got past Nick Barham and Barry Vasili en route to the final.
Nick took the consolation flight honours with wins over Stephen Little and Hazel.
29/11/23: Tim wins Wednesday tournament; and relegation for Gary and Alan
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the forty-eighth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Tim Line continued a good week by winning the tournament, defeating Simon Blinkhorn, Stephen Little and -- in the final -- Gaz Owen, having received a first round bye.
Gaz had arrived there via wins over John Curran, Simon Tracy and Ian Anderson.
Chris Hughes took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Simon Blinkhorn and Adam Sinclair.
Elias Hamati won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
There were also two Premier League matches played -- the last two of the season.
The action was in Premier Two Blue.
Safi Tracy ensured there would be no more penalty points for her by playing a nail biter against Jim Green.
She ended on the wrong side of the result, but ensured a safe finish, as failure to complete that match would have resulted in penalty points which would have substantially altered the outcome at the foot of the league.
That was Gary Plant's last hope of avoiding the drop.
And the other result decided the other relegation poser -- Alan Joicey needing victory to haul himself clear of trouble at Chris Hughes's expense.
Alan was unable to get the result he needed as bottom of the league Simon Hughes ended the season with his fifth successive victory.
It is an indication of the quality of Premier Two these days that the three players relegated from the Blue Division -- Gary, Alan and Simon H -- have all previously tasted Premier One backgammon.
So if it's a given that climbing out of the second tier is now no mean feat, it's now likely to be tougher than ever to rise from Premier Three.
28/11/23: Tuesday's results round-up; Tim reaches Brunel final
There were five matches played on Tuesday.
Gaz Owen played two live matches.
The first, at the Rose and Crown, Two Mile Hill Road, was the held over final from Thursday's Speedgammon Grand Prix final.
And Gaz was the victor over Ian Tarr to win the tournament. Ian had already clinched the 2023 SGGP title.
From there Gaz moved on to the Globe, Newton St Loe, where he met Tim Line in the ninth round of the Brunel Trophy.
And it was Tim who clinched victory, recovering from a 6-10 deficit to clinch a tenth round meeting with Steffen Nowak for the title.
Online Safi Tracy found time away from her studies to fit in three Premier Two Blue matches.
An emphatic defeat at the hands of Alan Joicey was followed by a double header against Chris Hughes, who won the first but was whitewashed in the return.
This leaves just two Premier League matches to be played before Thursday's midnight deadline -- both of them in the Blue Division, and both scheduled for Wednesday.
Alan meets Simon Hughes, while Safi plays divisional champion Jim Green.
Alan needs a win to haul himself out of the bottom three at Chris's expense, while Safi just needs to play her match to avoid being sucked into the equation by penalty points.
28/11/23: Twelve in Monday action; Stephen takes Nackgammon title in unexpected circumstances
There were twelve players in action on Monday, ten of whom contested the tenth and last of our Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix 3-point round robin sessions.
This would normally be across two environments, but since only two turned up at Sportsmans, there was no feasible live option.
So after a fifteen minute delay to the online session, just to make sure no live latecomers were to arrive, the two -- Stephen Little and Ian Tarr -- were afforded the unusual opportunity to play online in the live venue!
Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction!
This meant two online groups of five, the winners of which were Kev Peters and Gaz Owen.
So the final NGP table saw Stephen and Ian remaining in the top two positions despite scores which they had to discard, Stephen winning his first NGP title.
Ironically, had Kev been able to win a six player group rather than a five, he would have gained enough points to overhaul both the top two.
As it turned out, there was just a two point span covering the top three.
There was also Premier League action.
And Premier Three Green was finally completed when Tom Chapman defeated Caroline Boulton.
26/11/23: Tim pips Ian in Blue Division promotion race finale
There were two Premier League matches played on Sunday, and they made for an exciting Premier Two Red promotion race showdown, a great way to bring the curtain down on the Red Division season.
The second automatic promotion slot rested between Ian Tarr -- in second place on 51 points -- and Tim Line -- in third place on 48 points.
Their points differences were close enough to make it interesting, should Ian lose and Tim win, given that a nine point swing would result in an unprecedented promotion play-off match.
Wins for both contenders, defeats for both contenders, and a win for Ian coupled with a defeat for Tim -- all those combinations of results would keep Ian in second place.
Both matches were originally scheduled for a 10am Sunday start to add to the excitement, but a work-related issue made this impossible for Simon Tracy, so an evening match was arranged.
Tim versus Pearl Foster proceeded on schedule, however, with Pearl leading for most of the match, before Tim got home 11-8.
This left Ian with the options of winning, or losing by less than six points, to achieve the promotion aim.
Things went Simon's way from the start, though, and Ian was unable to raise his score beyond four points.
So the pair finished level on points, while Tim's points difference of plus 27 shaded Ian's by just 1.
Tim's latest four year stint at Premier Two level is thus over, while Ian's sequence will be in it's ninth year next season, the longest current sequence along with Chris Hughes, assuming Chris stays up.
24/10/23: Gaz and Ian make it to Speedgammon final; title is Ian's
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, with ten taking part in the eighth and last of the year's Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino.
For the first time since the June event, the turnout dictated more than one group, and consequently a knock-out phase.
The two groups of five saw wins for Nick Barham and Ian Tarr, with the top three in each group progressing to the knock-outs.
And Ian and Gaz Owen made it to the final, which will be played some time soon.
Ian's run sealed this year's SGGP title -- a record fifth success -- and given the number of points on offer only Tim Line had the opportunity to challenge.
But his failure to get past the group phase put paid to that aspiration, and he finishes second.
There was also Premier League action online.
Simon Hughes defeated Stephen Little in Premier Two Blue.
And the Premier Three Yellow season was completed by Michael Corbett's emphatic victory over Martha Beal.
22/11/23: Gaz wins on Wednesday -- for the thirteenth time this year
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the forty-seventh of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Gaz Owen -- for the thirteenth time this year -- was the winner this week, defeating Nick Barham, Tim Line, Adam Sinclair and -- in the final -- Gerald Whitehouse.
Gerald had arrived there via a first round bye and wins over Chris Rogers and Ian Anderson.
Elias Hamati took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Nick and Ian Tarr.
Ian Anderson won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
There was also one Premier League match played.
Simon Tracy defeated Phil Charlton in Premier Two Red, bringing Phil's season to an end in anti-climactic fashion.
Since being very well placed amongst the main promotion contenders after fourteen wins from his first eighteen encounters, Phil has experienced a scarcely believable sequence of eight defeats, despite very often having a superior PR to those of his opponents.
21/11/23: Tuesday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
And the Premier One season is over.
Outgoing champion Andy Boysan saved his top flight status by the skin of his teeth by pipping his champion successor Gaz Owen.
This was bad news for Gerald Whitehouse, who slipped below the dreaded dotted line, and surrenders his hard won top flight status after an eventful first year at the level.
Simon Hughes, already eligible for relegation from Premier Two Blue, at least maintained his recent return to form by defeating Ismail Yilmaz, whose last match of the season this was.
Ismail must now wait for the remaining action to unfold, and could yet slip into relegation territory.
21/11/23: Sixteen in Monday action
There were sixteen players in action on Monday, twelve of whom contested the seventh session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in 3-point round robins online.
Only two made it to Sportsmans, so Pete Kearsey was put through his paces in a couple of friendly matches by Ian Tarr.
The twelve online formed two groups of six, which were won by Nick Barham and Tim Line.
Stephen Little's absence from action meant that his AGP lead was slashed to a mere fraction by Tim, with Kev Peters not far behind.
There was also one Premier Two Blue match played, Michael Petrakas defeating Safi Tracy.
17/11/23: Tim wins to set up Handicap Trophy showdown with Hazel
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the eighth of this year's series of nine Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
The ten included a Thursday debut for Ben Crabb, who has already dabbled in our Monday and Wednesday competitions.
The tournament main flight winner was Tim Line, with wins over Ian Tarr, Safi Tracy and Stephen Little.
Stephen had reached the final by defeating Steve Morris and Cynthia Roberts.
Barry Vasili took the consolation flight by getting past Ian, Ben and Hazel Harper.
Hazel's clear HT lead has been wiped out, and she leads Tim only by virtue of one of the lesser tiebreak conditions, where her win percentage throughout the HT season is marginally superior.
With just one of the series remaining, that tournament will feature a shoot-out for the title between Hazel and Tim, with no other candidate even remotely close to their points tallies.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Alan Joicey kept his Premier Two Blue survival hopes alive by defeating Ismail Yilmaz, who is still not quite safe himself.
And in Premier Three Yellow John Curran finished his campaign with a victory over Michael Corbett to lift himself off the bottom of the table at Frank Jones's expense.
15/11/23: Chris returns to take the Wednesday tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the forty-sixth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Chris Rogers -- fresh from a hugely successful visit to the Merit Park Cyprus Open -- brought that form back with him to win this week's event, defeating Alan Joicey, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati.
Elias had arrived there via wins over Nick Barham and Simon Blinkhorn.
John Curran took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Nick and Alan.
Tim won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
Earlier there had been Premier League action, with three matches played.
Hemal Getalal made sure of tier two safety when he signed off his Premier Two Blue season with victory over Paul Watts.
Simon Tracy defeated Phil Charlton in Premier Two Red.
And Rosemary Whitehouse had to be content with a third place finish in Premier Three Yellow, having concluded her campaign with defeat by Michael Corbett, when a win would have pushed her ahead of second placed Phil Doubtfire.
14/11/23: Tuesday's Premier Two action; Natalie and Adam promoted
There were four Premier Two matches played on Tuesday, all of which had a bearing on important outstanding issues.
Two of the three remaining promotion contenders in the Red Division were in action.
Long time league leader Adam Sinclair finally got over the line, his defeat of Steffen Nowak also confirming him as divisional champion.
But Tim Line suffered a blow to his chances of elevation, losing to Jon Organ, who signed off his best ever season in style.
Tim needs to win his final match, while second placed Ian Tarr loses his for the tables to be turned.
Mike Smith needed a win against Stephen Little to clinch promotion from the Blue Division.
But his agonisingly close match went the wrong way for him, leaving Natalie Singh confirmed in the second promotion slot.
At the other end of the table Chris Hughes scored an important victory over Hemal Getalal, giving himself a good chance to escape the bottom three in his last two matches.
Hemal remains tantalisingly close to safety.
13/11/23: Twenty-one in Monday action; Rosemary promoted
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, seventeen of them to contest the sixth session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in DMP round robins across two environments.
The five at Sportsmans and the twelve online formed separate groups.
Ian Anderson and Adam Sinclair came first and second online, while Steve Morris took the live group honours.
Stephen Little's AGP lead over second placed Kev Peters has increased to just under fourteen points.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Rosemary Whitehouse's Premier Three Yellow defeat of Fred North confirmed her promotion to Premier Two.
And Hazel Harper signed off her Premier Two Red season with victory over Jon Organ.
12/11/23: Sunday's Red Division results round-up
There were three matches played on Sunday, all in Premier Two Red.
A double header between Ed Turner and Andrew Cobb was a mere tidying up of loose ends exercise.
A win apiece to end their respective seasons left Ed in a comfortable upper mid table spot, while Andrew's eligibility for relegation had already been confirmed.
The other match, however, sealed James Lintell-Smith's relegation, while victor Jon Organ is in the process of consolidating his highest ever finish.
09/11/23: Ian wins monthly Grand Prix event; Gerald must wait
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, eight of them to contest the eleventh of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
Ian Tarr was the tournament winner -- his third such success this year -- defeating Cynthia Roberts, Stephen Little and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there by getting past Barry Vasili and Hazel Harper.
Barry took the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia and Steve.
Ian's BGP points table lead has extended to 75 points and, allowing for discards, only Tim has the chance to overhaul him.
Even then, there will need to be a field of more than eight, and Tim will need to win the tournament too.
There were three other matches played online earlier.
In Premier One Simon Baker made sure of another season in the top flight by defeating Gerald Whitehouse, while Neil Young was cementing third place with a victory over Ben Crowden.
Gerald must now wait for the outcome of the one and only remaining top flight match to see whether or not he will get a second stab at Premier One life.
In that final match Andy Boysan meets newly crowned champion Gaz Owen.
A win for Andy would see him stay up at Gerald's expense.
The other match was held over from the October Nackgammon Grand Prix session, and Matt Sharp was the victor over Heena Crabb.
09/11/23: Elias wins Wednesday tournament
There were eleven players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the forty-fifth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Elias Hamati won this week's event, defeating Chris Hughes, Ian Anderson, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Gerald Whitehouse.
Gerald had arrived there via a first round bye and wins over Stephen Little and Alan Joicey.
Stephen took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Simon Blinkhorn and Tim Line.
Tim won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
Earlier there had been league action, in the form of a crucial Premier Two Red promotion battle.
League leader Adam Sinclair took on equal second placed Ian Tarr, and in a match of two halves Ian prevailed after recovering from 1-9 in arrears.
A win for Adam would have sealed his promotion, while Ian will probably need victory in his final game to stand a chance of claiming one of the two slots, with Tim the only other contender, now that the slim mathematical chances of Phil Charlton and Jon Organ have evaporated.
07/11/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were four matches played on Tuesday.
At the Merit Park Hotel, Northern Cyprus, Ian Anderson and Gaz Owen played the held over consolation flight final of last week's GP20 tournament, and Gaz was the winner.
Ben Crowden and Stuart Mann played a Premier One double header, and shared the spoils of two one sided matches.
Stuart finishes fifth, but Ben's relegation is confirmed.
And in Premier Two Red Hazel Harper took a large stride towards safety, while denting Ian Tarr's promotion hopes.
Hazel and James Lintell-Smith each have one match remaining.
A win for James and a defeat for Hazel, with a combined points difference of more than nine points would see James safe, but any other combination of results would work in Hazel's favour -- except for that nine points differential, which would force a relegation play-off.
As for Ian, he is now dead level in second place with Tim Line, both players having two remaining matches.
So assuming Adam Sinclair is able to confirm his promotion, the second place would rest with whichever of Ian and Tim fares better, although both Phil Charlton and Jon Organ retain minute mathematical hopes of figuring in the final equation.
07/11/23: Eighteen in Monday action
There were eighteen players in action on Monday to contest the fifth session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in 3-point round robins across two environments.
The eight at Sportsmans formed two groups of four, while the ten online -- including online debuts for Gary Owston and Ben Crabb -- split into groups of five.
Caroline Boulton and Ian Tarr won the live groups with clean sweeps of three victories apiece, while online Frank Jones won all four of his matches and Kev Peters pipped Elias Hamati on PR in the other group.
Cynthia Roberts took the side pool in Frank's group.
Kev has cut Stephen Little's AGP lead to just under ten points.
05/11/23: Fred misses out
There were two Premier League matches played on Sunday, both of them in Premier Three.
In Premier Three Yellow Fred North suffered defeat against John Curran, a result which rules Fred out of automatic promotion.
There are four matches yet to be completed in the division, and if they all go in Michael Corbett's favour he will snatch the third promotion slot from Rosemary Whitehouse's grasp.
Meanwhile Andy Zographou was ending a disappointing Premier Three Green season on a high with victory over Tom Chapman.
05/11/23: Brunel Trophy ninth round news
No draw was necessary for the ninth round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy.
The original field of fifty-one in this double elimination tournament having been whittled down to just three, the only bone of contention was the name of the recipient of the necessary bye.
Of the survivors, Tim Line and Gaz Owen have both received byes in earlier rounds, so the third wheel -- Steffen Nowak -- gets the honour this time.
All three players are down to a single life, so the remainder of the competition will consist merely of a ninth round meeting of Tim and Gaz -- they coincidentally met in the eighth round, too -- and a tenth round final tie between Steffen and the winner from round nine.
The ninth round match is due for completion by December 10th.
Check out the draw and results so far here.
03/11/23: Safi out of Brunel Trophy
There were four matches played on Friday.
Most significant was the eighth round Brunel Trophy meeting of Safi Tracy and Steffen Nowak.
Steffen was the victor, Safi exiting the competition in fourth place.
In Premier One Nick Barham and Robin Gunney ended their respective campaigns, Nick winning emphatically.
Nick finishes comfortably in mid table, while Robin, already having suffered relegation, will be rueing the string of defeats he endured early in the season.
His form in the second half of the season suggests that he will be back in the top flight sooner rather than later.
Another to end his season was Cliff Blofield who signed off his Premier Two Red campaign with a victory over Ed Turner.
And Caroline Boulton defeated Tom Chapman in Premier Three Green.
03/11/23: Visiting Mark wins GP20 tournament; Ian takes title
There were seven players in action on Thursday to contest the eighth and final instalment of the year's GP20 tournaments at the casino.
And Texas resident Mark Ferrin took the honours, defeating Ian Anderson, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Stephen Little.
Mark -- whose only previous visit was in 2019 -- had booked his visit to Bristol in anticipation of the ill-fated 2023 Bristol Open, which had to be abandoned due to uncertainty over the casino redevelopment plans.
His success made sure his time with us before he leaves for the big Cyprus tournament on Monday wasn't entirely wasted.
Ian Tarr's semi-final defeat ensured that he would fail to add to his leading GP20 points tally.
But the absence of second placed Tim Line and the paucity of points on offer for third placed Stephen meant that the title was destined to go Ian's way even before any dice were rolled.
Stephen's run, however, was good enough to raise him into the runner-up spot.
The consolation flight final featuring Gaz Owen and Ian Anderson, was adjourned to another date, time and place.
02/11/23: Ian wins Wednesday tournament
There were ten players in action on Wednesday to contest the forty-fourth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Ian Tarr won this week's event, defeating Tim Line, John Curran and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati, after receiving a first round bye.
Elias beat Gaz Owen and Ian Anderson en route.
Gaz took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Chris Rogers and Tim.
Stephen Little won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
31/10/23: Thirteen in Monday action
There were thirteen players in action on Monday, eleven of whom contested the tenth of our Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix 3-point round robin sessions across two environments.
The five at Sportsmans -- including welcome debut player Heena Crabb -- and the six online formed single groups.
Alan Joicey won the online group, while second placed Nick Barham took the optional side pool.
Back live the honours were shared between Stephen Little and Mathew Nicholls.
Stephen has moved into a fractional lead in the NGP table, with Ian Tarr just behind, although one outstanding match may affect the points standings.
There was also Premier League action.
In Premier Two Red Hazel Harper pipped James Lintell-Smith and leapfrogged him out of the bottom three.
29/10/23: Neil and Ian tie up a loose end
The only match on Sunday was the held over consolation final of the October 5th GP20 tournament.
Played online, Ian Tarr defeated Neil Young to consolidate his lead of the GP20 table, taking a 65 points lead into the final session this coming Thursday.
27/10/23: Gaz wins to take big GP10 lead
There were just seven players in action on Thursday to contest the ninth of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino, where we were back in the Riverview Suite.
Gaz Owen won the main flight, defeating Ian Tarr, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Steve Morris.
Steve had got past Hazel Harper and Frank Jones en route to the final.
Stephen Little took the consolation flight honours with wins over Frank and Hazel.
Gaz's win moves him into a 55 points lead in the GP10 table, and with just one event in the series remaining, that will be difficult to overturn.
25/10/23: Tim wins Wednesday tournament
There were twelve players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the forty-third of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
And Tim Line won this week's event, defeating Simon Blinkhorn, Chris Rogers and -- in the final -- Nick Barham, after a first round bye.
Nick beat Ian Anderson and Elias Hamati en route.
Chris Hughes took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Gaz Owen and Ian Anderson.
Tim also won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
24/10/23: Gaz wins fourth Premier League title
There were five Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
And the only Premier One match was the one which decided this year's league title.
Gaz Owen, who still has one match to play, defeated outgoing champion Andy Boysan 11-6, a margin which means he cannot be dislodged from the top spot.
It is Gaz's fourth such title, moving him to within two of Stuart Mann's tally, but only his second in the past nine seasons.
He also has six runner-up finishes, and three in third place.
For Andy, meanwhile, things are getting serious.
He will survive in the top flight if he wins his final match, which -- not entirely coincidentally -- is also against Gaz.
In Premier Three Yellow new Nottingham resident Martha Beal was tidying up some loose ends.
She played three times, losing once to Rosemary Whitehouse and twice to Frank Jones.
Rosemary is one step closer to promotion, although there could be last ditch challenges from Fred North and Michael Corbett.
Victories in her final two matches would even move her up to second.
And Andrew Cobb narrowly defeated Cliff Blofield in Premier Two Red, both players now confirmed for the drop.
24/10/23: Bristol allocated a sixth Champions League place for 2024
Dicky Biddle, director of the UK Champions League, has announced the qualification criteria for the 2024 competition.
Top players from nine leagues around the UK are invited to take part, and the number of places allocated to each is dependent on their respective numerical strengths.
This year the Bristol leagues were allocated five places, while Chris Rogers took another as the reigning champion.
For next year there are six Bristol slots among the total of thirty-two, while there is still a chance of a seventh as Simon Baker and Stuart Mann meet in the semi-final of the current competition.
24/10/23: Thirteen in Monday action
There were thirteen players in action on Monday to contest the fourth session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in 3-point round robins across two environments.
The four at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the nine online split into two groups of five and four.
While Mathew Nicholls won the live group with a clean sweep of three victories, Kev Peters and Cynthia Roberts won the online groups.
Stephen Little's AGP lead has increased to nearly sixteen points, with Tim Line in second place.
23/10/23: Bristol successes at the Irish Open
The weekend's Irish Open featured a couple of great runs by Bristol players.
After Neil Young won the 7-point Friday warm-up, Stuart Mann took Sunday's consolation flight.
22/10/23: Elias wins Premier Three play-off final
Saturday's only match was the play-off for the outright championship of Premier Three.
Green Division top dog Elias Hamati met his old friend and Yellow Division champion Warner Solomon.
And it was Elias who prevailed to claim the title.
22/10/23: Gerald still not safe
Saturday's only match was in Premier One.
And Cecilia Rogers signed off her season with a narrow victory over Gerald Whitehouse which sees her finishing fourth in the division -- in the last of the cash prize places and also qualifying for the 2024 incarnation of the UK Champions League.
For Gerald, however, nothing is yet certain, as he is one of the players who could still sink into the two remaining relegation slots.
He is level on points with Simon Baker, and the pair meet in their final match. The winner will definitely be safe, while the loser might not be.
20/10/23: Fred keeps slim promotion hopes alive
There was just one match played on Friday.
In Premier Three Yellow Fred North defeated Martha Beal to maintain an interest in the promotion race.
20/10/23: Gaz wins October Speedgammon Grand Prix event; Stephen misses out
There were eleven players in action on Thursday, with seven taking part in the seventh of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino.
The turnout dictated a single round robin group, with each player playing six matches.
And Gaz Owen -- an avowed Speedgammon enthusiast -- having left it late to make his first SGGP appearance of the season, took the honours with a clean sweep of six wins.
Tim Line took second place, and has closed the gap behind Ian Tarr at the head of the SGGP table to just 30 points.
Meanwhile online there was important Premier Two Blue action, as Stephen Little met Hemal Getalal.
Stephen needed the win to remain in with a chance of overhauling Natalie Singh for the second and last divisional promotion slot, but it was Hemal who prevailed.
Only Mike Smith can now oust Natalie, and ironically it is Stephen he must defeat.
As for Hemal, he is now almost safe from relegation.
And Phil Doubtfire also ended his season in Premier Three Yellow with a defeat to Mandy Macdonald.
19/10/23: Adam's hat-trick of Wednesday wins
There were twelve players in action on Wednesday to contest the forty-second of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
The event featured a Bristol Backgammon debut for South Wales based Simon Blinkhorn.
And Adam Sinclair won this week's event, the third successive week that he has prevailed.
His sixth Wednesday success of the year featured wins over Elias Hamati, Gaz Owen and -- in the final -- Chris Hughes, after a first round bye.
Chris came through the long part of the draw, beating Frank Jones, Tim Line and Ian Anderson en route.
John Curran took the honours in the consolation flight, overcoming Simon Tracy and Elias.
Tim won the customary post-tournament jackpot.
17/10/23: Caroline's win confirms Elias as Green Division champion
There was just one Premier League match played on Tuesday.
In Premier Three Green Neil Edwards's successful season ended in anti-climax when he was narrowly defeated by Caroline Boulton.
This was a match which Neil needed to win to take the divisional title, so Elias Hamati is confirmed in that position.
Elias had finished his campaign as early as mid-March, setting a target of fifteen victories (with an average points difference of 1.708) for the remainder of the division to emulate or surpass.
Ultimately nobody did.
17/10/23: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday to contest the third session of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in 3-point round robins across two environments.
The six at Sportsmans -- including a welcome debut for Nailsea based Ben Crabb -- formed a single group, while the fourteen online split into two groups of seven.
While Matt Sharp won the live group with a clean sweep of five victories, Andrew Montgomery and Tim Line won the online groups.
Stephen Little's AGP lead has increased to nearly fourteen points, with Andrew in second place.
15/10/23: Neil misses out on league title; Mike gives himself a chance
There were three Premier League matches played on Sunday.
The Alma Tavern was the venue for a Premier One match between Neil Young and Andy Boysan.
Andy won, extinguishing Neil's final hope of taking the league title for the first time, an honour which will fall to either Chris Rogers or Gaz Owen.
The win was important for Andy, though, as he battles to fight his way out of the relegation places.
Meanwhile, online in Premier Two Blue, Mike Smith was grabbing two of the three victories needed to oust Natalie Singh from the second promotion place.
His wins, over Ismail Yilmaz and Hemal Getalal, leave him needing a win in his final match.
That match -- against Stephen Little -- is doubly important as Stephen would achieve the same objective by winning his final three matches.
13/10/23: Eamonn promoted; Ian misses opportunity to extend BGP lead
There were two matches played on Friday.
The held over main flight final of the previous night's monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournament occurred at the Rose and Crown, Kingswood.
And Ian Tarr missed an opportunity to pull 75 points clear in the BGP points table, losing emphatically to Gaz Owen, who moves up to fourth in the standings.
The other match saw Eamonn Reay sign off his Premier Three Green season with a 7-11 reverse at the hands of Neil Edwards.
Although he lost, the margin of defeat was such that he can no longer be dislodged from the third promotion place, since even three 11-0 victories for Tom Chapman in his remaining matches would see him losing out on the head-to-head tie-break.
Neil, meanwhile, will pip Elias Hamati for the divisional title if he can win his final match of the season.
13/10/23: Eamonn almost there; Brunel gets complicated; monthly Grand Prix final held over
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, fourteen of them to contest the tenth of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
That pleasing turnout meant that some early matches were played in the bar and the restaurant.
The main flight final between Gaz Owen and Ian Tarr was held over, and will probably be held on Friday afternoon.
Gaz defeated Hazel Harper, Gerald Whitehouse and Tom Chapman to get there, while Ian made the most of a first round bye, getting past Ian Hedges and Barry Vasili.
Hazel took the consolation flight with wins over Ian Hedges, Steve Morris and Stephen Little.
That result broke an amazing sequence of wins for Stephen, who had taken the honours on all four of his previous BGP consolation flight appearances this year.
Ian Tarr's BGP points table lead has extended to 40 points, with Tim Line second, but a final win would increase that margin to 75.
Tim scored a notable win before the tournament, inflicting Gaz Owen's first Brunel Trophy defeat of the year.
So there will be three players in round nine, all with a single life remaining.
And the only Premier League match, played online, saw Eamonn Reay secure the win which moves him into the third Premier Three Green promotion slot at Richard Owsley's expense.
He can only be usurped by a Herculean finish to the season on the part of Tom.
12/10/23: Adam wins on Wednesday again; Dave misses out
There were just eight players in action on Wednesday, six of them to contest the forty-first of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
The turnout dictated a switch to round robin format, featuring five five-point matches.
And for the second week in succession the week's winner was Adam Sinclair, who managed four wins out of five, and could have made it a clean sweep of five wins had he not been timed out against Gaz Owen, who ultimately finished second.
It was Adam's fifth Wednesday success of the year.
Earlier there was a vital Premier Two Blue match.
Dave Pym spent a lot of 2023 at the head of the table, before being overhauled, first by Jim Green, and more recently by Natalie Singh.
With Jim already assured of the divisional championship, and Natalie having completed her fixtures, Dave could have reclaimed the second promotion place once and for all with a win of 11-9 or better in his final match.
However, his opponent was Jim, and he lost a close encounter 9-11, leaving Natalie second and only vulnerable to a three match winning sequence on the part of either Mike Smith or Stephen Little, but not both as the two still have to meet.
10/10/23: Richard's win may not be enough
In Tuesday's only match Richard Owsley ended his Premier Three Green season with an emphatic victory over Eamonn Reay.
The win moved Richard above Cynthia Roberts and into the third promotion slot.
However the odds are against him staying there.
Cynthia has long since completed her season, but Eamonn and Tom Chapman both have the opportunioty to overhaul Richard.
For Eamonn one win from his final two matches would do the job, while Tom would need to win all three of his remaining matches while bridging a points difference gap of 17.
10/10/23: Thirteen in Monday action
There were thirteen players in action on Monday to contest the second sessions of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in DMP round robins across two environments.
That number should have been fourteen, but Director Ian Tarr negligently omitted John Curran from the online group of eight (which should have been nine).
The five at Sportsmans also formed a single group, playing each other twice.
Gaz Owen and Cynthia Roberts were first and second in the online group, while Andy Zographou took the live honours at Sportsmans.
Stephen Little still heads the AGP table.
06/10/23: Steve wins GP20 tournament
There were nine players in action on Thursday, seven of them to contest the seventh of the year's eight GP20 tournaments at the casino.
Steve Morris won the main flight, defeating Neil Young, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there via wins over Chris Aquilina and Hazel Harper.
The consolation flight final, featuring Neil and Ian, was adjourned to another date, time and place.
Tim has reduced Ian's GP20 lead to 55 points, but this would rise to 65 were Ian to win the consolation final.
Meanwhile online the held over jackpot final from the previous evening was won by Ian Anderson.
05/10/23: Adam wins Wednesday tournament
There were just nine players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the fortieth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's main flight winner was Adam Sinclair, who defeated Nick Barham, Simon Tracy and -- in the final -- Gerald Whitehouse.
Gerald had beaten Tim Line and Ian Anderson en route to the final.
Stephen Little took the consolation flight, defeating Tim and Nick.
Then the customary post-tournament jackpot failed to reach a conclusion after Stephen, thinking he had won it, disappeared out of circulation while still needing to face Ian Anderson in the final.
This will be played some time soon.
03/10/23: Tuesday win for Stuart
In Tuesday's only match Stuart Mann whitewashed Gerald Whitehouse in Premier One.
The result means Stuart is now mathematically safe from relegation, while Gerald's top flight place could still be under threat.
03/10/23: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday to contest the opening sessions of our Monday Autumn Grand Prix in 3-point round robin sessions across two environments.
The six at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the eleven online were split six and five.
Chris Hughes and Nick Barham won the online groups, while Stephen Little made it a clean sweep of five wins at Sportsmans, where Mathew Nicholls and Ian Tarr shared the side pool.
Stephen becomes the first leader of the AGP table.
02/10/23: Brunel Trophy eighth round draw made
The draw for the eighth round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Monday afternoon by matching two numerical sequences.
The original field of fifty-one in this double elimination tournament has now been whittled down to just four.
This looks like a normal semi-final, but the complication is that Gaz Owen still has two lives remaining, while the other three have just the one.
One match -- the meeting of Steffen Nowak and Safi Tracy -- is effectively sudden death, while Gaz faces Tim Line in the other.
So the number progressing to round nine will be either two or three.
Matches are to be completed by November 5th.
Check out the draw and results so far here.
01/10/23: Adam almost up
In Sunday's only match Adam Sinclair narrowly defeated Phil Charlton in Premier Two Red.
When a player has a record of won eighteen and lost six, it usually means that promotion is already secured.
And while Adam is now strongly odds on for a return to Premier One, there are still two players who have a chance of catching him.
01/10/23: Cecilia interview on the WBGF site
There's a brilliant article on the WBGF site featuring our very own former Ladies World Champion Cecilia Rogers.
Well worth a read.
01/10/23: Three pick up penalties at final Premier League checkpoint
The September 30th Premier League checkpoint passed at midnight on Saturday, and three players fell foul of the penalty avoidance requirements.
In Premier Two Blue Safi Tracy not only incurred two fresh penalty points, but also failed to claw back the three points incurred in July.
In the same division Hemal Getalal incurred a single penalty point.
And Martha Beal is docked two points in Premier Three Yellow.
All of the fresh penalty points can be clawed back by timely completion of the season.
Meanwhile under the unique terms of the September checkpoint all three players have non-negotiable additions to their points against tallies.
Once the September checkpoint passes Director Ian Tarr can always breathe a sigh of relief as no further expungements can occur.
In the other three divisions -- Premier One, Premier Two Red and Premier Three Green -- all players met the requirements.
30/09/23: Saturday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Saturday, both in Premier Two.
In the Blue Division Mike Smith stayed in promotion contention by defeating Gary Plant, who has now completed his fixtures and must wait and see whether or not he gets relegated.
The Red Division encounter of Andrew Cobb and Cliff Blofield went Cliff's way.
Both players need to win their remaining matches to stand a chance of avoiding relegation.
29/09/23: Ian goes second
In the only action of Friday, Ian Tarr scored the narrowest of victories over James Lintell-Smith in Premier Two Red.
29/09/23: Tim wins GP10 tournament round robin
There were just eight players in action on Thursday, four of them to contest the eighth of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
The turnout of four equalled the record low Thursday turnout established at the July Speedgammon Grand Prix event.
That Speedgammon event merely followed the normal Speedgammon format, but this time was the first ever where four players have contested a round robin of 7-point matches.
Tim Line won the event, with Ian Tarr as runner-up.
Ian takes over the leadership of the GP10 table from George Georgiou.
Online there was Premier League action, with two matches played.
Simon Hughes defeated Ismail Yilmaz in Premier Two Blue.
And Michael Corbett's Premier Three Yellow defeat by Fred North confirms the promotion of Phil Doubtfire.
Michael and Fred still have a chance to claim the third promotion slot currently occupied by Rosemary Whitehouse, although they have little margin for error.
28/09/23: Andy wins Wednesday tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the thirty-ninth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's main flight winner was Andy Boysan, who defeated Tim Line, Chris Hughes and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati.
Elias had beaten Ian Anderson and Adam Sinclair en route to the final.
Tim Line took the consolation flight, defeating Ian Tarr and Nick Barham, and then won a post-tournament jackpot.
Five league matches were played.
Simon Baker defeated Ben Crowden in Premier One, a result which gives Simon a real chance of top flight survival, while giving Ben no margin for error in his last three matches.
Safi Tracy defeated Hemal Getalal in Premier Two Blue.
Michael Corbett still has a chance to break into the top three of Premier Three Yellow after his latest victory, over Mandy Macdonald.
Andy Zographou ended his run of Premier Three Green defeats by beating Tom Chapman.
And at the Pump House there was a rare piece of Feeder League action, Matt Sharp preserving his undefeated record at the expense of league debutant Dom Verrall.
26/09/23: Tuesday's Premier League action
There were four Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier Two Blue Ismail Yilmaz scored wins over both Michael Petrakas and Hemal Getalal, while champion elect Jim Green resumed his winning ways against Safi Tracy.
And Tom Chapman added to his recent run of victories against Caroline Boulton in Premier Three Green.
26/09/23: Twenty-two in Monday action
There were twenty-two players in action on Monday, eleven of whom contested the ninth of our Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix 3-point round robin sessions across two environments.
The five at Sportsmans and the six online formed single groups.
Tim Line kept the online group waiting, having fallen asleep at home, and then had the temerity to win the group with a clean sweep of five wins.
Back live the honours were shared between Mathew Nicholls and Ian Tarr.
Kev Peters, currently on holiday, still leads the NGP table, but Ian has cut the gap to a mere fraction.
There were also six Premier League matches played.
In Premier One Andy Boysan still has work to do to avoid relegation after losing to Cecilia Rogers.
Jim Green, already assured of the Premier Two Blue title, defeated Hemal Getalal, but then lost to Simon Hughes.
That defeat ended a run of thirteen successive Premier Two victories, a sequence only twice bettered in the history of that level.
That it was Simon who broke the run was ironic, as Simon has suffered by far and away the worst run of his career.
He has recently rediscovered the art of winning, but that appears to have come too late to avoid relegation to Premier Three.
In Premier Two Red James Lintell-Smith boosted his hopes of avoiding relegation by defeating Jon Organ, whose slim promotion chances have further diminished.
There were Premier Three Yellow wins for Fred North (over Frank Jones at Windmill Hill City Farm) and Michael Corbett (over second placed Phil Doubtfire).
Fred and Michael thus cling on to their slim hopes of promotion.
25/09/23: UK Champions League update
The ninth annual UK Champions League is approaching the final stages.
Bristol's six representatives (out of a field of 32) continue to be prominent.
All six made it through the group stage to the last sixteen, where the competition's knock-out phase begins.
Gaz Owen and Nick Barham were both eliminated by fellow Bristol players in Simon Baker and Stuart Mann.
Cecilia Rogers is the only Bristol player so far to be eliminated by a non-Bristol player, Reece Hodges of Worcester.
Simon and Stuart both progressed to the semis, getting past Sussex based Rich McQuillan and our own Chris Rogers, and the two will play for a place in the final against an as yet unresolved opponent.
24/09/23: Premier League action on Sunday
There were seven Premier League matches played on Sunday.
In Premier One Simon Baker continued his fight for top flight survival with defeat at the hands of Cecilia Rogers followed by victory over Gerald Whitehouse.
Natalie Singh gave herself a chance of promotion from Premier Two Blue by signing off her season with a brace of victories over Simon Hughes.
Dave Pym, who has one match remaining -- against league leader Jim Green -- now definitely needs to win that encounter to stand a chance of fending off challenges from any of Michael Petrakas, Stephen Little, Mike Smith or Safi Tracy, whose chances took a knock when she lost to Paul Watts.
And in Premier Two Red Ian Tarr suffered mixed fortunes, losing to Ed Turner before a comeback win over Phil Charlton.
Leader Adam Sinclair remains favourite to fill one of the two promotion slots, with Tim Line and Ian next best placed, while none of Phil, Jon Organ or Ed can still be ruled out of contention.
23/09/23: Saturday wins for two Michaels
There were two Premier League matches played on Saturday.
Michael Petrakas kept his tenuous Premier Two Blue promotion hopes alive by defeating Paul Watts.
And in Premier Three Yellow Michael Corbett did likewise in beating Mandy Macdonald.
22/09/23: Friday's Premier League round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Friday.
Andy Boysan defeated Nick Barham in Premier One, a result which means Robin Gunney can no longer escape relegation.
Michael Petrakas suffered a damaging defeat in his bid for promotion from Premier Two Blue, going down to Simon Hughes.
And in Premier Two Red Jon Organ had his revenge over Ed Turner for the defeat he suffered the previous day.
22/09/23: Hazel wins to take commanding Handicap Trophy lead
There were twenty-five players in action on Thursday, nine of them to contest the seventh of this year's series of Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
The nine included two very welcome new players, Carmen van-der-l'Isle and Niclas Kupper.
There were also signs that our exposure in the main room of the casino is attracting a little more interest, with six others expressing an interest during the evening.
The tournament main flight winner was Hazel Harper, with wins over Niclas, Frank Jones and Chris Hughes.
Chris had reached the final by defeating Stephen Little and Carmen.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight by getting past Steve Morris, Tim Line and Stephen.
Hazel's points tally got enough of a boost to take her 70 points clear of second placed Tim, with just two of the series remaining and discards beginning to bite.
There was also a flurry of Premier League action online, with results in all five divisions.
Stuart Mann defeated Robin Gunney in Premier One, a result which all but seals Robin's relegation.
Michael Petrakas scored a brace of Premier Two Blue wins, over Simon Hughes and Paul Watts, to keep his slim promotion hopes alive.
Simon later defeated Alan Joicey to end his dismal run of defeats.
In Premier Two Red Ed Turner beat Jon Organ.
Marcel Bancroft signed off her "break even" Premier Three Green season by defeating Andy Zographou, while in the same division Richard Owsley dented Eamonn Reay's promotion hopes.
And in Premier Three Yellow there were wins for Frank Jones and Fred North over John Curran and Martha Beal.
21/09/23: Elias wins Wednesday tournament
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the thirty-eighth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's main flight winner was Elias Hamati, who defeated Gerald Whitehouse, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Chris Hughes.
Chris had beaten Ian Anderson and Nick Barham en route to the final.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight, defeating Ian Anderson and Gerald, who won a post-tournament jackpot.
Three Premier League matches were played.
Paul Watts narrowly defeated Simon Hughes in Premier Two Blue, keeping alive his slim hopes of promotion.
In Premier Three Green Tom Chapman overcame Richard Owsley.
And at the White House, Oxford, Phil Doubtfire beat Fred North in a Premier Three Yellow encounter.
Only a miracle can now prevent Phil claiming promotion, as a favourable result in any one of eight outstanding matches involving either Phil or Michael Corbett would confirm his elevation.
19/09/23: Tuesday's Premier League round-up
There were seven Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Stuart Mann played twice in the top flight and lost both times, first to Gerald Whitehouse, then to Andy Boysan.
Premier Two Red saw most action, Tim Line consolidating his second place in the league with a whitewash of Andrew Cobb, while Mathew Nicholls was rounding off his season with a double header at Simon Tracy's.
Mathew's brace of wins have all but secured his Premier Two place for another season, while the results rule Simon out of the promotion race.
League leader Jim Green further extended his run of Premier Two Blue wins against Chris Hughes, and only penalty points or a remarkable run by Safi Tracy could stop him claiming the divisional title.
And Rosemary Whitehouse's defeat of Mandy Macdonald in Premier Three Yellow means she will now be tough to dislodge from the top three.
19/09/23: Nineteen in Monday action
There were nineteen players in action on Monday to contest the tenth and final one of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
The ten online formed two groups of five, while the nine at Sportsmans were split five and four.
Andrew Montgomery and Matalie Singh won the online groups, although Natalie's failure to invest in the optional side pool was good news for Ian Anderson.
Honours were shared in the larger of the live groups, with a three way split of the points, featuring Aidan Kenny, Mathew Nicholls and Kian Sabet's, while Matt Sharp won the smaller group outright.
Ian A has finished top of the SGP table, as Stephen Little missed the opportunity to overhaul him.
18/09/23: George expunged from Premier One
Bristol Backgammon Director Ian Tarr has today made the regrettable decision to expunge George Georgiou from Premier One, after difficulties with conpletion of fixtures.
As ever with such occurrences, this has differing effects on the chances of different players, with some suffering from the disappearance of victories while others benefit from the removal of defeats.
Main beneficiaries from the decision are Chris Rogers and Gerald Whitehouse, while Nick Barham is one to suffer disappointment, while others are running out of games to achieve various objectives.
Targets for the upcoming September 30th checkpoint have been revised down in line with the reduced fixture load.
17/09/23: The weekend's Premier Two action
The only two Premier League matches played over the weekend were in Premier Two Blue, and both involved a player on a long winning sequence.
On Saturday it was Jim Green, who extended his league winning sequence to eleven matches by defeating Alan Joicey.
The win has moved him above Dave Pym at the top of the league, and the title appears to be his to lose.
But on Sunday Safi Tracy lost narrowly to Paul Watts to halt her winning sequence at eight.
15/09/23: Friday wins for Steffen and Eamonn
There were two Premier League matches played on Friday.
Steffen Nowak defeated Pearl Foster in Premier Two Red.
And in Premier Three Green Eamonn Reay took another step towards a return to Premier Two with a narrow victory over Caroline Boulton.
15/09/23: Richard's defeat confirmed promotion for Elias
Yesterday's defeat for Richard Owsley confirmed that Elias Hamati will finish in the three berth promotion bracket in Premier Three Green.
Only Neil Edwards and Eamonn Reay can overhaul him.
15/09/23: Ian Hedges breaks sequence to win September Bristol Grand Prix event
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, just seven of them to contest the ninth of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
That turnout was the lowest for a Lesters event in the Bristol (Open) Grand Prix era, i.e. since 2000.
Ian Hedges has for some time been "boasting" that he cannot win a match in this particular event.
This time, after eleven successive defeats, he managed to string together enough wins to take the main flight, defeating Steve Morris, Hazel Harper and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there with wins over Aidan Kenny and Ian Tarr.
Stephen Little took the consolation flight with wins over Hazel and Aidan.
Ian Tarr's BGP points table lead has extended slightly, but Tim is now second, eighteen points behind.
Ian Hedges has a great chance of qualification for the 2024 Bristol Masters.
There were also six Premier League matches played online.
There were top flight wins for Simon Baker and Robin Gunney, over Ben Crowden and Gerald Whitehouse.
In Premier Two Blue Alan Joicey suffered a brace of defeats, going down to Gary Plant and Michael Petrakas.
Marcel Bancroft dealt a blow to Richard Owsley's Premier Three Green promotion chances.
And in Premier Three Yellow Mandy Macdonald defeated John Curran.
13/09/23: Gaz wins Wednesday tournament round robin
There were seventeen players in action on Wednesday, but just six of them to contest the thirty-seventh of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
The turnout of six dictated a round robin format, the winner of which was Gaz Owen, with Tim Line in second place.
The results can be viewed here.
Ian Anderson won a post-tournament jackpot.
Six Premier League matches were played.
Natalie Singh and Gary Plant fought out a Premier Two Blue double header, where they swapped 11-9 results.
Natalie still retains a tenuous interest in the promotion race.
In Premier Two Red Ed Turner's promotion chances diminished with a defeat at the hands of Mathew Nicholls.
Premier Three Yellow saw wins for Michael Corbett and Frank Jones over Martha Beal and Mandy Macdonald.
And Tom Chapman scored an emphatic win over Richard Owsley in Premier Three Green.
12/09/23: Tuesday results round-up
There were eight matches played on Tuesday.
A Premier One double header saw spoils shared between Simon Baker and Robin Gunney.
Steffen Nowak had the best of a Premier Two Red double header against Cliff Blofield.
And in the same division there were wins for James Lintell-Smith (over second placed Tim Line) and Ed Turner (over Hazel Harper).
Phil Doubtfire defeated Mandy Macdonald in Premier Three Yellow.
And the held over main flight final from the August GP20 tournament saw Simon Tracy defeat Gaz Owen.
12/09/23: Jon also won on Monday
In a late reported result from Monday evening, Jon Organ defeated Steffen Nowak in Premier Two Red.
The match was played on Heroes 3, so no automatic match report was created.
12/09/23: Thirty in Monday action
There were thirty players in action on Monday, twenty-one of whom contested the ninth of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of DMP round robins across two environments.
The thirteen online and the eight at Sportsmans formed single groups.
Ian Anderson and Steve Pickard came first and second in the online group, scooping the side pool 70%:30%, while the honours were shared in the live group, although Stephen Little's failure to invest in the side pool left the way clear for Kian Sabet to profit alone.
Ian A has moved to the summit of the SGP table, not far ahead of Stephen Little and Gaz Owen.
With only next week's session to come, discards may be crucial in the final outcome.
There was also Premier League and Brunel Trophy action online.
In the seventh round battle of the Brunel Trophy undefeated it was Gaz who prevailed, leaving him with a distinct advantage going into round eight.
Safi and Jim Green continued their fine sequences in Premier Two Blue, Jim getting past Chris Hughes while Safi was defeating Alan Joicey.
Second placed Jim is now massively odds on to take one of the two promotion berths, having six matches in hand over leader Dave Pym, but Safi still has some hard work to do after her slow start to the season.
In Premier Two Red Steffen Nowak scored a narrow victory over Pearl Foster.
Eamonn Reay's Premier Three Green win over Caroline Boulton keeps him well in the hunt for a top three place.
Meanwhile Rosemary Whitehouse is closer to achieving elevation from Premier Three Yellow after defeating Martha Beal.
10/09/23: Sunday's Premier League round-up
There were four Premier Two matches played on Sunday.
Hazel Harper and Tim Line played a Red Division match chez Tracy in Henleaze, and Tim's win moves him back into second place in the league table.
The other three matches were online in the Blue Division.
Alan Joicey scored two much needed wins, over Gary Plant and Ismail Yilmaz, while Ismail also succumbed to Safi Tracy.
10/09/23: Saturday wins for Pearl and Mandy
There were two Premier League matches played online on Saturday.
Pearl Foster's victory dented Simon Tracy's promotion chances in Premier Two Red.
And in Premier Three Yellow Warner Solomon signed off his championship winning season with a degree of anti-climax, losing emphatically to Mandy Macdonald.
But his nineteen wins from twenty-four matches tell a more positive story.
08/09/23: Friday's Premier League action
There were three Premier League matches played online on Friday.
Ian Tarr defeated Steffen Nowak and moves into second place in Premier Two Red.
In Premier Two Blue Natalie Singh beat Chris Hughes.
And in Premier Three Green Tom Chapman scored an emphatic win over Eamonn Reay.
08/09/23: Nick wins September Speedgammon Grand Prix event
There were ten players in action on Thursday, with six taking part in the sixth of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino.
The low turnout meant that the tournament consisted of a single round robin group, with each player playing five matches.
And Nick Barham swept aside all contenders with five victories.
Tim Line took second place.
Ian Tarr's SGGP lead has been cut by Tim to 60 points.
Before the tournament Nick and Simon Tracy tidied up a loose end, when they completed their unfinished GP20 semi-final from the previous week.
It had been adjourned at 6-4 to Nick, but Simon fought back to earn a final meeting with Gaz Owen.
There was also online action in the Premier League.
Neil Young kept his title hopes alive in Premier One by defeating Robin Gunney.
And Jim Green's imperious course towards the Premier Two Blue title was maintained with his win against Alan Joicey.
07/09/23: Tim wins Wednesday tournament
There were thirteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the thirty-sixth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
The main flight winner this week was Tim Line -- for the fourth time this year -- who shrugged off being in the long half of the draw, beating Gaz Owen, Stephen Little, Warner Solomon and, in the final, Natalie Singh.
Natalie had arrived there by defeating Alan Joicey and Nick Barham.
Gaz took the consolation flight with wins over Ian Anderson and Ian Tarr.
Ian Tarr won a post-tournament jackpot.
Two Premier League matches were played earlier online.
Ian Tarr beat Pearl Foster to stay in promotion contention in Premier Two Red.
And Eamonn Reay is another to harbour promotion ambitions in Premier Three Green, his latest win coming at the expense of Andy Zographou.
05/09/23: Red Division wins for Tim and Jon
There were two Premier Two Red matches played on Tuesday, and both of them were close.
Tim Line beat Phil Charlton and leapfrogs him into the second promotion slot.
Meanwhile Jon Organ continued his run of good form by defeating Hazel Harper, and is closing on the leading promotion contenders.
05/09/23: Twenty-two in Monday action
There were twenty-two players in action on Monday, eighteen of whom contested the eighth of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
The twelve online fell neatly into groups of six, while the seven at Sportsmans were whittled down to six, Matt Sharp gallantly stepping aside to allow Director Ian Tarr to compete.
Matt had earlier played a held over match from last week's Nackgammon Grand Prix session.
Alan Joicey and Tim Line won the online groups -- Adam Sinclair taking the side pool in Alan's group -- while honours were shared at Sportsmans by Stephen Little and Mathew Nicholls.
Stephen has edged ahead of absent previous leader Gaz Owen in the SGP table.
There was also Premier League action online.
In Premier Two Red James Lintell-Smith defeated Pearl Foster.
And Fred North was the victor against Frank Jones in Premier Three Yellow.
03/09/23: Steffen knocks Chris out of Brunel Trophy
There was just one match played on Sunday.
The Lock Keeper, Keynsham, was the venue for a seventh round Brunel Trophy tie.
And Steffen Nowak's victory over Chris Rogers means that he will join Tim Line, Gaz Owen and Safi Tracy in round eight, while the only issue to be decided is who will be the only player still with two lives.
Chris finishes in fifth place.
03/09/23: Warner takes Yellow Division title
There were two Premier Three Yellow matches played on Saturday, both involving Rosemary Whitehouse.
And while Rosemary was hoping to consolidate her promotion credentials, she will now need to wait, after defeats to John Curran and Warner Solomon.
And that latter result confirmed Warner as the divisional champion.
Rosemary is still odds on to take one of the other promotion slots, but still has a little to do.
01/09/23: Friday's Premier League round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Friday, two of them affecting the higher reaches of Premier Two Red.
Second placed Phil Charlton suffered defeat at the hands of Jon Organ, while Tim Line moved into third place by beating Pearl Foster.
Meanwhile there was Premier Three Yellow action, with Warner Solomon closing in on the league title after his victory over John Curran.
01/09/23: GP20 tournament unfinished!
There were twelve players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the sixth of the year's eight GP20 tournaments at the casino.
In the main flight one of the semi-finals was adjourned.
Nick Barham was kept waiting for two hours for an opponent, who eventually turned out to be Simon Tracy, courtesy of a double backgammon at 5-away 5-away against Aidan Kenny.
The pair were unable to finish the match in the time before Nick's departure for a bus back to W-s-M, and will resume at some later date, time and place with Nick 6-4 ahead.
The winner of that match will face Gaz Owen in the final, after Gaz's victories against Tim Line and Steve Morris.
Stephen Little added only ten points to his GP20 tally, but this was enough to reduce Ian Tarr's lead to 70 points, as Ian's 20 points are discarded.
Gaz would move to within 65 pounts of Ian by winning the final.
Ian Hedges took the consolation flight by defeating Tim Line, Hazel Harper and Ian Tarr.
Online there was a Premier Three Green match played, Marcel Bancroft nrrowly beating Neil Edwards.
30/08/23: Wednesday tournament win for Nick
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the thirty-fifth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
The main flight winner this week was Nick Barham, who made the most of a first round bye by defeating Simon Tracy and Safi Tracy, before overcoming Elias Hamati in the final.
Elias had arrived there by beating Chris Hughes, Tim Line and Ian Anderson.
Gaz Owen took the consolation flight with wins over John Curran and Simon.
Tim won a post-tournament jackpot.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Hazel Harper defeated Cliff Blofield in Premier Two Red.
And Neil Edwards took another step towards promotion from Premier Three Green by narrowly beating Caroline Boulton.
29/08/23: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday, fifteen of whom contested the eighth of our Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix 3-point round robin sessions across two environments.
The six at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the nine online were split five and four.
Ian Anderson and Kev Peters won the online groups, while the live group still has two results outstanding, and the leadership could go a number of ways.
Nackgammon is included in the schedule of events for a reason, as lots can be learned from the format.
This can lead to some very absorbing games, although last night's live session seemed to be so absorbing that the doubling cube tended to get overlooked!
Kev holds a fourteen point NGP lead over Adam Sinclair, although when the points from the incomplete live session get added in, Stephen Little is likely to be well in the mix.
There was also a Premier One match played, Robin Gunney grabbing three valuable points from a nail biter against Cecilia Rogers.
28/08/23: Brunel Trophy seventh round draw made
The draw for the seventh round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Monday afternoon by matching two numerical sequences.
The original field of fifty-one in this double elimination tournament has now been whittled down to just five.
So once again there is a bye, which goes to the player with the best record who hasn't already received one.
And that player is Tim Line.
That leaves two ties, one of which -- the meeting of Steffen Nowak and Chris Rogers -- is effectively sudden death.
The other one pits the two unbeaten players -- Gaz Owen and Safi Tracy, so the number progressing to round eight will therefore be four.
Matches are to be completed by October 1st.
Check out the draw and results so far here.
26/08/23: Friday's Premier League round-up
There were two Premier League matches played on Friday.
Dave Pym's effort to set a formidable target for his Premier Two Blue pursuers encountered an obstacle in the shape of Michael Petrakas, who continued his recovery from a lean spell.
Dave has just one match remaining, and with 48 points already in the bank, only Jim Green looks odds on to overhaul him.
Meanwhile there was the first Premier Three Green action for almost a month when Caroline Boulton defeated Andy Zographou.
25/08/23: Hazel wins GP10 tournament
There were ten players in action on Thursday, eight of them to contest the seventh of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
And Hazel Harper was the main flight winner, defeating Aidan Kenny, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Stephen Little.
Stephen had defeated Steve Morris and Simon Tracy en route to the final.
Aidan took the consolation flight with victories over Ian Hedges and Steve.
George Georgiou still heads the GP10 standings, while Ian Tarr has moved to within five points of him.
Online there was Premier Two Red action, Andrew Cobb winning out against Phil Charlton.
24/08/23: Wednesday tournament switched to round robin mode
There were just six players in action on Wednesday to contest the thirty-fourth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
this week's winner was Ian Anderson, who won four of his five matches, and the runner-up spot was shared three ways.
This was the result of a decision by Director Ian Tarr to use head-to-head results as the tie-breaker.
Elias Hamati, Tim Line and Stephen Little therefore earned minute cash prizes.
This was the first time this year where the event was forced down the round robin route -- it happened twice last year.
22/08/23: Tuesday win for Mathew
There was just one match played on Tuesday, a Premier Two Red meeting between Phil Charlton and Mathew Nicholls.
And Mathew upset the form book by taking the three points.
22/08/23: Sixteen in Monday action
There were sixteen players in action on Monday, fifteen of whom contested the seventh of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
The six at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the nine online were split five and four.
Ian Anderson and Elias Hamati won the online groups, while Bahman Salahshour won the live group.
Gaz Owen was absent but still holds an SGP lead of fourteen points, with Kev Peters now second.
There was also a Premier Two Blue match played, and Jim Green took another step towards promotion with a win over Natalie Singh.
20/08/23: Sunday's Premier League results
There were two Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Kev Peters narrowly defeated Robin Gunney in Premier One.
And in Premier Two Blue Paul Watts beat Natalie Singh for the second successive day.
19/08/23: Saturday's results round-up
There were two matches played on Saturday.
Tim Line won his sixth round Brunel Trophy tie with Steve Pickard.
Steve is eliminated and Tim progresses to the last five.
And Paul Watts won a Premier Two Blue meeting with Natalie Singh.
18/08/23: Marcus wins August Handicap Trophy event
There were just eight players in action on Thursday, six of them to contest the sixth of this year's series of Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Amounting to the equal lowest ever turnout for one of these events, the format changed from the usual two flight knock-out scenario into a round robin.
And making the most of his handicap of 3 was Marcus Evans, who won four of his five matches to scoop the tournanent win prize plus both side pools.
Hazel Harper took second place, having a superior points difference to that of Ian Tarr.
Tim Line's HT lead over second placed Hazel has been reduced to just five points.
There was also one league match played.
And Phil Charlton's narrow victory over James Lintell-Smith kept him well on course for promotion from Premier Two Red.
16/08/23: Yet another Wednesday tournament win for Gaz
There were just ten players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the thirty-third of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
Once again the week's winner was Gaz Owen -- his eleventh Wednesday main flight victory of the year -- who got past Chris Rogers, Warner Solomon and in the final Ian Tarr.
Ian had arrived there by beating John Curran and Nick Barham.
Chris took the consolation flight with wins over Natalie Singh and Elias Hamati.
There was also one Premier League match played.
Michael Petrakas defeated Chris Hughes in Premier Two Blue.
15/08/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were four matches played on Tuesday.
Gaz Owen pressed his claim for the league title with a brace of Premier One victories, over Gerald Whitehouse and Simon Baker.
He is now top of the league, ahead of previous leader Chris Rogers on points difference with three matches in hand.
Another making good progress towards a major goal is Phil Charlton, whose Premier Two Red win over Pearl Foster has moved him into second place in that division.
And Steffen Nowak is assured of a place among the last five of the Brunel Trophy by defeating Kev Peters.
15/08/23: Stephen won on Sunday, too
In a result which was reported but temporarily overlooked, Stephen Little moved into second place in Premier Two Blue on Sunday.
This was his narrow victory over Chris Hughes at the Globe, Newton St Loe.
15/08/23: Twenty-two in Monday action
There were Twenty-two players in action on Monday to contest the sixth of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions, which comprised DMP round robins across two environments.
The ten at Sportsmans and the twelve online made up two competitive groups.
The live session was ably hosted by Hazel Harper in Ian Tarr's temporary absence.
The online group saw the side pool proceeds go to Kev Peters and Adam Sinclair, while the live recipients were Tim Line and Jim Green.
Gaz Owen's SGP lead is up to twenty points, with Stephen Little still second.
Gaz had earlier won another Premier One match against Nick Barham to move into second place in the table.
14/08/23: Sunday's Premier League round-up
There were two Premier One matches played on Saturday.
Nick Barham continued his recent resurgence with a win against Simon Baker.
And Ben Crowden scored a much needed win -- a narrow one -- over Gerald Whitehouse.
12/08/23: Saturday was Nick's day
There were three matches played on Saturday.
They were all in Premier One, and they all featured victories for Nick Barham.
He started with a double header against Ben Crowden and followed this up against Kev Peters.
The day's work doesn't assure Nick of staying in the top flight, but he is certainly a lot closer to doing that.
11/08/23: Matt continues to set Feeder League pace
After a six week lull in activity, a Feeder League match was played on Friday at he Clifton Club.
And Matt Sharp scored a victory at the expense of Richard Davies to extend his league lead.
11/08/23: Tim wins August Bristol Grand Prix event
There were just nine players in action on Thursday to contest the eighth of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
Tim Line took the main flight honours this time, defeating Gaz Owen, Safi Tracy and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr.
Ian had arrived there with wins over Ian Hedges and Simon Tracy.
Steve Morris took the consolation flight with wins over Aidan Kenny, Gaz and Hazel Harper.
Ian Tarr moves just ahead of George Georgiou in the BGP points table, with Tim closing in third place.
Tim has also assured himself of qualification for the 2024 Bristol Masters, having won two of these events.
09/08/23: Gaz wins another Wednesday tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the thirty-second of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen -- his tenth Wednesday main flight victory of the year -- who got past Tim Line and Kev Peters after receiving a first round bye, before beating Chris Rogers in the final.
Chris had arrived in the final by beating Nick Barham, Ian Anderson and Warner Solomon.
Stephen Little took the consolation flight with wins over Simon Tracy and Tim.
Ian Tarr won the post tournament jackpot.
There was also 11-point action.
Safi Tracy visited Simonetta Herrera for their sixth round Brunel Trophy tie.
And Safi's win came about after a sixteen cube!
She goes into round seven as one of two unbeaten players, while Simonetta has made her exit.
And online Pearl Foster scored an emphatic win over Cliff Blofield in Premier Two Red.
08/08/23: Tuesday's results round-up
The were four matches played on Tuesday, three in Premier One and one in the sixth round of the Brunel Trophy.
Chris Rogers visited the Lock Keeper for two matches.
He narrowly defeated Hemal Getalal to eliminate him from the competition, and still has one life remaining.
Then he faced Andy Boysan in a top flight league match, and it was all over in a single game -- an eight-cubed gammon in Chris's favour.
Chris remains top of the league, and still won't have given up on regaining the title, while Andy faces the real prospect of relegation if his results don't pick up soon.
Online in the same division Stuart Mann and Nick Barham played a double header, Nick winning the first before Stuart struck back to end his recent run of defeats.
08/08/23: Warner clinches promotion
There were nineteen players in action on Monday, seventeen of whom contested the fifth of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
The eight at Sportsmans made two four player groups, while the nine online were split five and four.
That should have been five and five, but there was a technical problem on the site with Elias Hamati's changed username, which forced his withdrawal, which he graciously accepted.
Tim Line and Gaz Owen won the online groups, while the live groups saw ties for the lead -- featuring Mathew Nicholls and Stephen Little in one group, Bahman Salahshour and Ian Tarr in the other.
Gaz's SGP lead is up fractionally to fourteen points, with Stephen second.
There was also a Premier Three Yellow match played, and it proved to be a memorable one in that Warner Solomon's victory over Rosemary Whitehouse sealed his promotion to Premier Two.
07/08/23: Catching up with the news...... Two Sunday defeats for Simon
The were two matches played on Sunday, both of them involving Simon Baker.
And he incurred two Premier One defeats, an emphatic one at the hands of Kev Peters and a narrow one against Nick Barham.
07/08/23: Catching up with the news...... Rosemary pips Warner on Saturday
The was just one match played on Saturday.
That was the Premier Three Yellow match between runaway leader Warner Solomon and Rosemary Whitehouse.
The result was a narrow win for Rosemary, and it is looking increasingly likely that the current top three -- Warner, Phil Doubtfire and Rosemary -- will be the ones to gain promotion from that division.
07/08/23: Catching up with the news...... Thursday's GP10 tournament
There were just eight players in action on Thursday to contest the sixth of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
And George Georgiou, making a surprise return to action, was the main flight winner, defeating Stephen Little, Hazel Harper and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had defeated Gaz Owen and Ian Hedges en route to the final.
Stephen took the consolation flight with victories over Gaz and Aidan Kenny.
George has moved to the top of the GP10 table, twenty points ahead of Gaz.
02/08/23: Tim wins Wednesday tournament
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday to contest the thirty-first of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Tim Line, who got past Cynthia Roberts, Elias Hamati and Gaz Owen before defeating Simon Tracy in the final.
Simon had arrived in the final by beating Cecilia Rogers, Warner Solomon and James Timoney.
Cynthia took the consolation flight with wins over Steve Pickard, Dom Verrall and Ian Anderson.
Ian Tarr won the post tournament jackpot.
01/08/23: Fourteen penalised at the July 31st checkpoint
The July 31st Premier League checkpoint passed at midnight on Monday, and a few players incurred initial penalties, although thankfully nobody who needed to claw penalties back from the May checkpoint failed to do so.
Five from Premier One, five from Premier Two Blue, three from Premier Two Red, and one from from Premier Three Yellow have a little more work to do than was really necessary to meet the September checkpoint requirements.
Premier Three Green players all had a clean bill of health.
01/08/23: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday, fifteen of them to contest the seventh Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix sessions across two environments.
Six online formed a single round robin group, while the nine at the Sportsmans were split into groups of five and four.
Gaz Owen won the online group, while the larger live group saw Stephen Little and Jake Mochnacz share the win, although because neither invested in the side pool, Bahman Salahshour took that.
Ian Tarr won the smaller live group.
Kev Peters's lead of the NGP table is extended to fourteen points, with Adam Sinclair still in second place.
There was just one other match played, Steffen Nowak scoring an emphatic Premier Two Red win over Jon Organ.
30/07/23: Chris and Warner fare well in Monte Carlo
The World Backgammon Championships, held in Monte Carlo each year, may not be widely regarded as the biggest tournament in the game these days, but it cannot be denied that it is still very prestigious.
It has a rich history, having just reached its 54th incarnation this week.
And that tradition -- and the title -- is still a big draw for many of the game's biggest names.
For the main event, the World Championship itself, there were 182 entrants from all over the globe, including thirteen Brits.
Among those thirteen were two with strong Bristol Backgammon connections, double Bristol Premier League champions Mark Dixon and Chris Rogers.
Mark left the area long since, having won his titles in 2005 and 2007.
But Chris, of course, is still a major force in these parts, his titles having come in 2020 and 2021.
The double elimination format of the competition, with 17-point matches in the Main and 11-point matches in the Second Chance, meant that Mark's opening round defeat didn't mean the end of his interest, but after three wins in the Second Chance bracket, he was eliminated by Norwegian Dagfinn Snarheim.
For Chris, however, it was a very different story.
Main bracket victories over Lucas Sfez (France), Tristan Bettencourt (USA), fellow Brit Will Cockerell, Fabrice de Carbon (France), Chris Trencher (USA), and Kengo Nagasuka (Japan) took him to a Round 3 meeting with another American Victor Ashkenazi.
(Unusually the rounds are numbered in reverse, starting in Round 9!).
A narrow defeat consigned Chris to the Second Chance bracket, where he slotted in at Round 4.
There he beat Israeli Ofir Balali, only to be pitted once again against Victor -- a strange quirk of the format, where one might normally expect Main bracket adversaries to be slotted into different parts of the Second Chance draw.
This time he turned the tables to progress to Round 2.
Here he met Kengo once again, but this time it was the Japanese player who prevailed.
Chris's stunning run had come to an end, but he was well into the realms of cashing, finishing in equal fourth place.
Although the main event attracted most of the limelight, there were plenty of other competitions available.
For those not feeling up to tackling the biggest names, there was the Intermediates category.
Here 64 players competed for the title, again in a double elimination format.
And here Warner Solomon of Premier Three Yellow excelled.
Scoring six victories, Warner went all the way to winning the Main bracket.
Then, for the Intermediates title, he met Second Chance winner Max Petersen of Denmark, having already defeated Max in the third round of the Main bracket.
And continuing the theme of tables being turned, it was Max who took the title.
Great work by Chris and Warner, flying the Bristol flag in all the right places.
30/07/23: Sunday's Premier League action
There were six Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Gerald Whitehouse defeated Cecilia Rogers in Premier One.
Chris Hughes scored a brace of Premier Two Blue victories, over Paul Watts and Stephen Little.
In Premier Two Red the winners were Jon Organ and Tim Line, over Simon Tracy and Steffen Nowak.
And Michael Corbett beat Fred North in Premier Three Yellow.
One more purported Yellow Division match was played, but it proved to be surplus to requirements.
28/07/23: Friday's Premier League action
There were three Premier League matches played on Friday.
Mathew Nicholls and Ian Tarr played out two hard fought Premier Two Red matches at Sportsmans, and Ian came out on top both times.
He is now in hopeful pursuit of the top two.
And online there were two matches.
Rosemary Whitehouse continues her surge towards promotion from Premier Three Yellow, having defeated John Curran.
And Caroline Boulton defeated Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green -- the match being the thousandth played at Premier Three level.
27/07/23: Tim pips Ian to win July Speedgammon Grand Prix event
There were twelve players in action on Thursday, with just four taking part in the fifth of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino.
The event was shifted from the Riverview Suite to the Mahjong area of the casino, and it appears that our long spell of Riverview usage is now at an end, as a revamp of the entire building is imminent.
The four who entered the event had the distinction of comprising the equal smallest ever field for a Bristol Backgammon Thursday or Wednesday event.
It would have been five had one player not turned back after failing to find a parking space.
So the Speedgammon consisted of a single round robin group, with each player playing three matches.
After two matches apiece all four players had one win each, so the final round of matches was all important.
Ian Tarr moved into contention from fourth place on points difference with a whitewash of Hazel Harper, leaving Tim Line needing a 5-1 (or better) win to take the title.
At 3-1 ahead his opponent ran out of time, so it was job done for Tim!
Ian's SGGP lead is up to 115 points, with Tim now in second place.
There was also online action in the Premier League.
Ed Turner suffered a blow in his attempt to muscle in on one of the Premier Two Red promotion slots, going down to Pearl Foster.
In Premier Three Yellow Rosemary Whitehouse picked up three more points by defeating Frank Jones, and is looking on course for promotion.
And Richard Owsley and Eamonn Reay strengthened their bids for one of the Premier Three Green promotion slots with wins over Tom Chapman and Andy Zographou.
27/07/23: Bristol Open will not take place this year
The popular annual flagship event of Bristol Backgammon, the The Bristol Open will not be taking place this year.
The event, which has been held most years since the original in 2005, has received fulsome international acclaim, and has always attracted a sizeable overseas entry, as well as many more from around the UK to supplement the local interest.
Current Bristol Open TD Tim Line explains the cancellation following a Rainbow Casino communication thus: "Because of the impending loss of the Riverview Suite they are unable to guarantee that we will have use of it. The casino are unfortunately still being kept in the dark about where the planning/consultation is and when a decision will be made. They are under the impression that as soon as planning is granted, the area will be cordoned off and they will no longer be able to use it. These plans will also result in the loss of part (if not all) of the poker room."
At the same time, of course, this has implications for our regular weekly events, but the understanding is that we can still be accommodated elsewhere in the casino.
27/07/23: Elias takes Wednesday tournament honours
There were twenty players in action on Wednesday, but only eight of those contested the thirtieth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Elias Hamati, who got past Stephen Little and Hazel Harper before defeating Ian Anderson in the final.
Ian had arrived in the final by beating Tim Line and Gaz Owen.
Simon Tracy took the consolation flight with wins over Tim and Stephen.
And Tim won the post tournament jackpot.
There was Premier League action involving twelve players.
In Premier One Neil Young suffered a blow to his title chances when he lost to Gerald Whitehouse, while Cecilia Rogers defeated Andy Boysan, for whom relegation is becoming a real possibility.
Michael Petrakas halted a run of Premier Two Blue defeats with a win against Chris Hughes.
Ed Turner and Jon Organ scored Premier Two Red victories at the expense of Cliff Blofield and Andrew Cobb.
And Neil Edwards beat Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
25/07/23: Tuesday's Premier League results round-up
There were five Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Phil Charlton scored another victory to bolster his Premier Two Red promotion chances at the expense of rival Ian Tarr, and has moved into second place.
In Premier Two Blue there was a double header played out at Brookhouse Farm, Swindon, where Stephen Little and Gary Plant shared the spoils.
And in the same division Paul Watts defeated Simon Hughes online.
Michael Corbett won his Premier Three Yellow match against John Curran.
25/07/23: Brunel Trophy sixth round draw made
The draw for the sixth round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made, slightly belatedly, on Tuesday by matching two numerical sequences.
The original field of fifty-one in this double elimination tournament has now been whittled down to just nine.
So there is a bye, which goes to the player with the best record who hasn't already received one.
And that player is Gaz Owen.
That leaves four ties, three of which are effectively sudden death.
The number progressing to round six will therefore be either five or six.
Matches are to be completed by August 27th.
Check out the full draw here.
25/07/23: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, eighteen of whom contested the fourth of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
The eleven at Sportsmans outnumbered the online contingent -- who made up a group of seven -- with groups of six and five, including welcome new player Simon Dicken.
Ian Anderson won the online group, while the live winners were Gary Owston and Neil Young.
Gaz Owen had a less than productive session, and his SGP lead is down to thirteen points, with Stephen Little second and Ian Anderson third.
There was also a Premier Three Yellow double header, where Mandy Macdonald and Martha Beal won one match apiece.
And one Premier One encounter at Sportsmans began but was not finished.
23/07/23: Sunday's Premier League results round-up
There were six Premier League matches played on Sunday, and for the second successive day every division featured.
Nick Barham scored a much needed Premier One victory over Cecilia Rogers.
Phil Charlton underlined his promotion credentials with a Premier Two Red win over Cliff Blofield.
In Premier Two Blue Mike Smith defeated Chris Hughes.
Neil Edwards was beaten by Marcel Bancroft in Premier Three Green.
And in Premier Three Yellow the winners were Fred North and Phil Doubtfire over John Curran and Michael Corbett.
22/07/23: Saturday's Premier League results round-up
There were eight matches, spread over all five divisions of the Premier League, played on Saturday.
A Premier One double header at the Pump House saw Cecilia Rogers twice defeat Stuart Mann, whose strong start to the season appears to have eveporated.
The Fire Engine, Redfield, was the venue for Premier Two Red meeting, where Ed Turner trailed for most of the match, but not for the important part against Ian Tarr.
Online in the same division Mathew Nicholls and Cliff Blofield shared the spoils of a double header.
In Premier Two Blue Gary Plant defeated Mike Smith.
Neil Edwards scored a Premier Three Green victory over Tom Chapman.
And in Premier Three Yellow John Curran gained his revenge for Tuesday's defeat at the hands of Mandy Macdonald.
21/07/23: Friday's league action
In the only match played on Friday Ian Tarr defeated Hazel Harper in Premier Two Red.
21/07/23: Ian Hedges wins GP20 tournament
There were eleven players in action on Thursday, eight of them to contest the fifth of the year's eight GP20 tournaments at the casino.
In the main flight Ian Hedges was the winner, defeating Tim Line, Simon Tracy and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr.
Ian T had got past Stephen Little and Steve Morris en route to the final.
Stephen took the consolation flight with victories over Hazel Harper and George Georgiou.
Ian Tarr -- whose lead in the GP20 table has extended to 80 points, with Stephen now clear in second place -- was contesting his fourth successive GP20 final, three of which he has lost.
Before the tournament, George played his fifth round Brunel Trophy tie online, and he exited the tournament, while victor Steffen Nowak has one life remaining.
And in Premier Two Red Ed Turner defeated Pearl Foster.
19/07/23: Gaz wins another Wednesday tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday, just eight of them to contest the twenty-ninth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen -- for the ninth time this year -- who got past John Curran and Stephen Little before defeating Ian Anderson in the final.
Ian had arrived in the final after beating Elias Hamati and Simon Tracy.
Elias took the consolation flight with wins over John and Tim Line, and then won a post tournament jackpot.
Earlier there was online Premier League and Brunel Trophy action.
In the fifth round of the Brunel Neil Young and Chris Hughes made their exits from the competition, losing respectively to Safi Tracy and Simonetta Herrera.
Safi will go into the sixth round draw as one of just two survivors with both lives intact.
Hemal Getalal defeated Gary Plant for the second successive day in Premier Two Blue.
And Phil Charlton scored a Premier Two Red victory over Hazel Harper.
18/07/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were eight matches played on Tuesday.
Robin Gunney became the latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy, losing his fifth round tie against Gaz Owen, who still has both lives intact.
A Premier One double header saw the spoils shared by Ben Crowden and Andy Boysan.
Hemal Getalal and Chris Hughes were the winners in Premier Two Blue, Gary Plant and Paul Watts their victims.
Tim Line beat Steffen Nowak in Premier Two Red to maintain his promotion challenge.
Richard Owsley stayed in promotion contention in Premier Three Green by defeating Caroline Boulton.
And in Premier Three Yellow Mandy Macdonald continued her recovery from a slow start to the season by beating John Curran.
18/07/23: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, seventeen of whom contested the third of our Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
Five at Sportsmans made a single group, while the twelve online formed two groups of six.
Kev Peters and Nick Barham won the online groups, while Gaz Owen took the live group honours.
Gaz is building a handy SGP lead, with an eighteen points cushion over second placed Adam Sinclair.
He also played George Georgiou in a Premier One match before the tournament, winning 11-2.
Gaz and Neil Young are best placed to overhaul league leader Chris Rogers, who must surely win his final match to have any chance of staying top.
Meanwhile the top two in Premier Three Yellow were in action online.
Warner Solomon defeated Fred North and is seemingly closing on the twin objectives of promotion and the divisional championship.
Phil Doubtfire, however, lost a little ground in losing to Mandy Macdonald, but is still on course for promotion.
17/07/23: Sunday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Sunday.
In Premier One Cecilia Rogers defeated Robin Gunney.
And in Premier Three Yellow Frank Jones ended his run of defeats by beating Michael Corbett.
15/07/23: Saturday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In Premier Two Blue Gary Plant defeated Simon Hughes.
And in Premier Three Green Marcel Bancroft beat Tom Chapman.
14/07/23: Friday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Friday.
In Premier Two Blue Ismail Yilmaz defeated Gary Plant.
And Caroline Boulton scored her second Premier Three Green win in successive days, beating Andy Zographou.
14/07/23: Simon wins July Bristol Grand Prix event
There were seventeen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the seventh of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
Simon Tracy took the main flight honours this time, defeating Cynthia Roberts, Steve Morris and -- in the final -- Stephen Little, having received a first round bye.
Stephen had arrived there with wins over Frank Jones, Tim Line and Hazel Harper.
George Georgiou took the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia and Ian Tarr.
George extends his BGP points table lead to thirty points over Ian.
There was also Premier League action online.
Robin Gunney had an overdue good day in Premier One, scoring victories over Stuart Mann and Ben Crowden.
Natalie Singh maintained her Premier Two Blue promotion challenge with a win against Michael Petrakas.
And Caroline Boulton scored a narrow Premier Three Green win over Marcel Bancroft.
12/07/23: Chris wins Wednesday tournament
There were just thirteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the twenty-eighth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Chris Rogers, who received a first round bye before getting past Safi Tracy and George Georgiou.
He then inflicted a final defeat on Gaz Owen -- the first time Gaz has lost in nine Wednesday finals this year.
Gaz also had a first round bye, then defeated Tim Line and Ian Anderson en route to the final.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight with wins over Elias Hamati, Simon Tracy and Tim.
Tim won a post tournament jackpot.
Earlier there was live Premier League action.
Gaz narrowly defeated Stuart Mann in Premier One at another new Bristol Backgammon venue, the Pelican, Chew Magna.
And the Compass, Tormarton, played host to Jim Green's latest Premier Two Blue victory, Gary Plant the victim.
11/07/23: UK Champions League progress
The ninth annual UK Champions League is more than half way to completion.
And Bristol's representatives are making a very strong showing.
Granted six of the thirty-two places this year, including one for reigning champion Chris Rogers, every one of Bristol's finest progressed through the group stage to the last sixteen, where the competition morphs into a knock-out.
Unfortunately it's guaranteed that at least two will bow out before the quarter-finals, as the draw has paired not only Simon Baker and Gaz Owen together, but also Nick Barham and Stuart Mann.
Cecilia Rogers plays Worcester's rising star Reece Hodges, while Chris has already moved into the last eight at the expense of Simon Morecroft of the London Players' League.
11/07/23: Tuesday's Premier Three action
There were four Premier Three matches played on Tuesday.
In the Green Division there were victories for Tom Chapman over Marcel Bancroft and Richard Owsley over Andy Zographou.
And John Curran played two Yellow Division matches, succumbing to Phil Doubtfire before edging to victory over Frank Jones.
11/07/23: Nineteen in Monday action
There were nineteen players in action on Monday, fifteen of them to contest the second Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of DMP round robins across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans and nine online made good sized groups, with the live players facing each opponent twice.
In the online group there was a four way tie in terms of games won, but thanks to the PR tie-break Gaz Owen and Kev Peters took the two side pool prizes.
Meanwhile Jake Mochnacz took the live group honours, although his non-investment in the side pool was good news for second placed Frank Jones.
Gaz takes over the leadership of the SGP table from Stephen Little.
There was also Premier League action.
Another new venue for Bristol Backgammon matches -- the Dumb Post Inn, Calne -- played host to a Premier One double header, Chris Rogers regaining top spot by virtue of his brace of wins over Simon Baker.
With only one more match remaining, however, it remains to be seen whether he will have done enough to fend off pursuers like Neil Young, Gaz Owen or Stuart Mann.
And in Premier Three Yellow John Curran scored a much needed win over Martha Beal.
09/07/23: Liverpool win for Hazel
At this weekend's Liverpool Open Hazel Harper had a great Sunday, coming through a 64-player field to win the one point shoot-out.
09/07/23: Kev wins on Sunday
There was just one match played on Sunday.
In Premier One Kev Peters defeated George Georgiou.
08/07/23: Tom wins on Saturday
In the only action of Saturday, Tom Chapman defeated Marcel Bancroft in Premier Three Green.
It was the first result registered in that division in 38 days.
07/07/23: Gaz and Jake take annual doubles title
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, twelve of them to contest the ninth annual Consulting Doubles Championship tournament at the Rainbow Casino.
With just six pairs, two had the good fortune to receive byes to the semi-final, and it was one of those pairs -- Gaz Owen and Jake Mochnacz -- who moved on to take the title.
They defeated Stephen Little and Fraser Mackenzie in the semis, and Gerald and Rosemary Whitehouse in the final.
The Whitehouses had fought their way past Tim Line and Hazel Harper, and then George Georgiou and Dom Cybulski.
Tim and Hazel took the consolation flight, beating Stephen and Fraser before despatching Cynthia Roberts and Frank Jones in the final.
Gaz thus became the first player to win this title four times, having partnered Ian Hedges last year, and his brother Luke Owen in both 2013 and 2016.
There was also a fifth round Brunel Trophy tie played.
Hemal Getalal got past Richard Owsley in what was effectively a sudden death tie in this double elimination event.
05/07/23: Adam wins Wednesday tournament again
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the twenty-seventh of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Adam Sinclair, who has now won three of his last four Wednesday tournaments, and he "only" reached the final in the other.
His victims, after a first round bye, were Ian Tarr, John Curran and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there by beating Cynthia Roberts, Chris Aquilina and Elias Hamati.
George Georgiou took the consolation flight with wins over Mandy Macdonald, Phil Doubtfire and Gaz Owen.
Ian won a post tournament jackpot.
Earlier there was Premier League action.
Gaz narrowly defeated Stuart Mann in Premier One.
And Hazel Harper pipped Pearl Foster in a Premier Two Red encounter.
05/07/23: Tuesday wins for Gaz, Natalie and Tim
There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier One Gaz Owen moved into third place with a victory over Gerald Whitehouse.
Another to move into third place was Tim Line in Premier Two Red, when he beat James Lintell-Smith.
Meanwhile, in a battle between two Premier Two Blue promotion contenders Natalie Singh furthered her prospects and damaged her opponent's when she overcame Stephen Little.
04/07/23: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, seventeen of them to contest the opening Monday Summer Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans made a single group, while the eleven online formed groups of six and five.
Gaz Owen and Adam Sinclair won the online groups, while Stephen Little shared the live group honours with Ian Tarr.
In Gaz's group four players won three out of five matches, but Gaz's average PR of 1.4 was the deciding factor.
Gaz, Ian and Stephen share the lead in the first SGP table.
There was also 11-point action, with two Premier Two Blue matches played.
Hemal Getalal defeated Natalie Singh, while Chris Hughes succumbed to Mike Smith.
02/07/23: Adam closes on promotion
There were just two Premier Two Red matches played on Sunday.
Andrew Cobb and Adam Sinclair played out a double header, and Adam won both matches.
With only three more to play, it will take an extraordinary twist or two to prevent Adam returning to the league's top flight.
02/07/23: Saturday Premier League round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In Premier Two Red league leader Adam Sinclair shared the spoils of a double header with Tim Line.
And there were Premier Three Yellow wins for Fred North -- over Michael Corbett -- and leader Warner Solomon -- over both John Curran and Frank Jones.
30/06/23: Friday win for Kev
There was just one match played on Friday.
In Premier One Kev Peters defeated Gerald Whitehouse.
30/06/23: Dom wins June Handicap Trophy event
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, eleven of them -- including visiting American player Bob Azari -- to contest the fifth of this year's series of Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
The main flight saw Dom Cybulski taking the honours, making the most of his 4-handicap in defeating Hazel Harper, George Georgiou and Aidan Kenny, before beating Ian Tarr in the final.
Ian had arrived there via a bye and victories over Stephen Little and Tim Line.
Ed Turner took the consolation flight by beating Steve Morris, Hazel and Stephen.
Tim's HT lead over second placed Hazel has increased to twenty points.
There were also two league matches played.
Ed beat Hazel in Premier Two Red before the tournament.
And Flora von Michel consolidated her Feeder League second place by beating Jake Mochnacz at Sportsmans.
29/06/23: Ian Anderson wins Wednesday tournament
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the twenty-sixth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner Ian Anderson.
His victims were John Curran, Gaz Owen, Kev Peters and -- in the final -- Adam Sinclair.
Adam had arrived there, after a first round bye, by beating Ian Tarr and Simonetta Herrera.
Elias Hamati took the consolation flight with wins over Ian Tarr, Nick Barham and John.
Tim Line won a post tournament jackpot.
There was also a Premier Two Blue match played, Hemal Getalal defeating Michael Petrakas.
27/06/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were six matches played on Tuesday.
At the Knights Templar Premier One league leader Neil Young and Kev Peters shared the spoils of a double header.
Similarly Andrew Cobb and James Lintell-Smith won one apiece in Premier Two Red.
And Jim Green furthered his promotion challenge in Premier Two Blue by defeating rival Natalie Singh.
Meanwhile Adam Sinclair became the latest player to exit the Brunel Trophy, losing narrowly to Tim Line, who progresses to round six with one life remaining.
27/06/23: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday, sixteen of them to contest the sixth Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix sessions across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans formed a single round robin group, while the ten online were split into two five-player groups.
Gaz Owen and Adam Sinclair won the online groups, while Stephen Little took the honours in the live group, where another welcome new player -- Gary Owston from Sea Mills -- threw himself straight into the action.
Kev Peters now holds an eight points lead in the NGP table, with Adam in second place.
There were two other matches played, both in Premier Two Blue.
Natalie Singh and Safi Tracy were the victors, Hemal Getalal and Michael Petrakas their victims.
25/06/23: Andy out of Brunel Trophy
In the only Saturday action, reigning Premier League champion Andy Boysan was eliminated from the Brunel Trophy.
His fifth round tie with Kev Peters ended in narrow defeat, so Kev progresses to round six.
23/06/23: Nick wins GP10 tournament
There were fifteen players in action on Thursday, eleven of them to contest the fifth of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament Nick Barham was the main flight winner, making the most of a first round bye in defeating Steve Morris, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Gaz Owen.
Gaz had defeated Ian Hedges, Cynthia Roberts and Simon Tracy en route to the final.
George Georgiou took the consolation flight with victories over Barry Vasili, Ian Hedges and Ian Tarr.
Gaz has moved to the top of the GP10 table, drawing level on points with previous leader Ian Tarr, but having played one tournament fewer.
There was also action in the Brunel Trophy and the Premier League.
In Premier One Neil Young defeated Andy Boysan and moves back to the top of the table.
Meanwhile Natalie Singh was exiting the Brunel Trophy at the fifth round stage, Steve Pickard progressing with one life remaining.
21/06/23: Adam wins Wednesday tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the twenty-fifth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner -- for the second time in three weeks -- was Adam Sinclair.
His victims were Elias Hamati, Stephen Little, Ian Anderson and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there by beating Safi Tracy, Chris Rogers and Phil Doubtfire.
Safi took the consolation flight with wins over Natalie Singh, Andy Boysan and Elias.
Elias won a post tournament jackpot.
There were also two Premier Two Red matches played.
James Lintell-Smith defeated Cliff Blofield and Pearl Foster pipped Hazel Harper.
20/06/23: Tuesday's Premier League round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In the top flight Chris Rogers whitewashed reigning league champion Andy Boysan at the Lock Keeper.
And online Andrew Cobb scored a much needed double over Mathew Nicholls in Premier Two Red.
20/06/23: George takes Spring Grand Prix title by a whisker
There were twenty players in action on Monday, eighteen of them to contest the tenth and final Monday Spring Grand Prix sessions of 3-point round robins across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans and twelve online made up three six-player groups.
Steve Pickard and Kev Peters won the online groups, while Stephen Little shared the live group honours with Matt Sharp.
And it was Matt's win over Nick Barham in the final match which settled the destiny of the SGP title, since a win from Nick would have given Stephen more points for winning the group outright.
Sharing first and second place points with Matt left him tantalisingly one point short of George Georgiou's tally.
There was also 11-point action, with the first of the fifth round Brunel Trophy ties played online.
And Chris Rogers moved through to the sixth round at the expense of Larry Deferville, who had enjoyed a creditable Bristol Backgammon debut.
18/06/23: Brunel Trophy fifth round draw made
The draw for the fifth round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Sunday by matching two numerical sequences.
The original field of fifty-one in this double elimination tournament has now been whittled down to just eighteen.
So there are nine ties, seven of which are effectively sudden death.
The number progressing to round five will be somewhere between nine and eleven.
Matches are to be completed by July 23rd.
Check out the full draw here.
17/06/23: Saturday's Brunel Trophy round-up
The two matches played on Saturday were the last of the fourth round ties in the Brunel Trophy.
Both were in effect sudden death ties, so the wins for Tim Line and Robin Gunney signalled the end of Simon Baker's and Frank Jones's 2023 campaigns.
The field has now been whittled down to eighteen, only two of whom have both lives remaining.
15/06/23: Ian wins to take substantial Speedgammon Grand Prix lead
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, nine of them taking part in the fourth of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino.
The nine were split into groups of five and four for the initial round robin phase.
Ian Tarr made it a clean sweep of the larger group, while George Georgiou shaded the smaller group on points difference, as five of the field progressed to the second phase, which was straight knock-out.
And Ian went through the evening undefeated, getting past George before beating Aidan Kenny in the final.
Ian's hefty points tally took him into a big lead in the SGGP table, with George some 105 points points behind in second place.
There was also action in the Premier League and the Brunel Trophy.
The fourth round 2023 Brunel Trophy winners were George and Hemal Getalal, whose victims were Andy Boysan and Simon Hughes.
Simon exits the competition, while George, Andy and Hemal each have one life remaining.
And before the tournament Jim Green beat Stephen Little to move into second place in Premier Two Blue.
14/06/23: Ian Anderson takes Wednesday honours
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the twenty-fourth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Ian Anderson.
Just a week after Adam Sinclair had ended an unsuccessful streak, Ian did the same, although his first main flight win of the year came in his fifth final.
His victims were Elias Hamati, Chris Rogers and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there by beating Stephen Little and Tim Line.
Stephen took the consolation flight with wins over Alan Joicey and Ian Tarr.
Stephen also won a post tournament jackpot.
There was also 11-point action.
In a fourth round Brunel Trophy tie, Steffen Nowak defeated Neil Young, a result which sees both players taking a single life into the fifth round draw.
And in Premier Two Red Hazel Harper notched a narrow win over James Lintell-Smith.
13/06/23: Tuesday's Red Division action
There were three matches played on Tuesday, all of them in Premier Two Red.
The winners were Cliff Blofield, Steffen Nowak and Simon Tracy, whose victims respectively were James Lintell-Smith, Hazel Harper and Andrew Cobb.
13/06/23: Thirty in Monday action
There were thirty players in action on Monday, twenty-three of them to contest the ninth and penultimate Monday Spring Grand Prix sessions of DMP round robins across two environments.
Eleven at Sportsmans and twelve online made good sized groups.
Simon Tracy won the online group, while Stephen Little took the live group honours.
George Georgiou still holds an eighteen points lead in the SGP table, and taking discards into account, second placed Stephen is the only player in a position to overhaul him in next week's final SGP session.
At Sportsmans there was yet another debut appearance, Christian Jackson throwing himself straight into competitive action.
There was also 11-point action.
Natalie Singh defeated Richard Davies in the Brunel Trophy, thus eliminating Richard from the competition, while Natalie has one life remaining.
Before the tournament Matt Sharp continued his impressive start to league life with victory over Jake Mochnacz.
And in Premier Two there were wins for Mike Smith, over Ismail Yilmaz in the Blue Division, and for Jon Organ, over Andrew Cobb in the Red Division.
11/06/23: Rosemary wins Imperial Cup last chance flight
There were lots of events and side events at the Blackpool Imperial Cup at the weekend.
After Friday's South and West triumph (see below), many Bristol players were in action on a variety of fronts on Saturday and Sunday.
The main event, the Blackpool Imperial Cup, came in two phases.
128 players were whittled down to sixteen during Saturday's Swiss format phase, and Andy Boysan and Stuart Mann qualified with ease.
Sadly Andy's last eight exit on Sunday was the best Bristol performance.
Stuart also made it through to Sunday's Fylde Trophy semi-finals, but it was the "last chance" Lancastrian Trophy which saw a Bristol (and Devon!) win, when Rosemary Whitehouse came out first from the 64-player field.
10/06/23: Mixed fortunes for Cecilia
Cecilia Rogers played two Premier One matches, one on Friday, the other on Saturday.
Friday's match was a victory over Nick Barham, but Saturday saw a defeat by Kev Peters.
10/06/23: "South and West" win Four Regions Challenge again
One of the most eagerly awaited annual UK events is this weekend in Blackpool.
The Blackpool Imperial Cup is staged at the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool, and one of the Friday warm-up events is a four way team challenge.
For the purposes of the event, the British Isles map is divided into four regions, three of which massively outweigh the fourth in both area and population.
The little old South and West, comprising Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, won the event last year with what was basically a team built around the best available Bristol players.
And that formula was successfully replicated this time, albeit with the inclusion of Andrew Darby, who plays his club backgammon in Winchester, which actually falls into the South and East area of the map.
The Bristol players in the victorious team this time were Chris Rogers, Stuart Mann, Andy Boysan and Tim Line.
08/06/23: Tim wins June Bristol Grand Prix event
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday to contest the sixth of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
Tim Line took the main flight honours this time, defeating Simon Tracy, Rosemary Whitehouse, Gaz Owen and -- in the final -- George Georgiou.
George had arrived there with wins over Cynthia Roberts and Ian Tarr.
Two players made their Bristol Backgammon debuts, and met in the opening round of the consolation flight -- Fraser Mackenzie defeating Dominic Cybulski.
Fraser then went on to win the flight with further wins, over Simon and Barry Vasili.
George extends his BGP points table lead to twenty points over Ian.
07/06/23: Adam ends Wednesday lean streak
There were just twelve players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the twenty-third of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Adam Sinclair -- in his first main flight final in twenty attempts this year.
His victims were Elias Hamati, Andy Boysan, Stephen Little and -- in the final -- George Georgiou.
George had arrived there by beating Tim Line and Nick Barham.
Tim took the consolation flight with wins over Chris Rogers and Phil Doubtfire.
Elias won a post tournament jackpot.
Earlier there had been a fourth round Brunel Trophy tie played, Adam defeating Chris Hughes.
Both players have a single life remaining.
06/06/23: Tuesday league results round-up
There were two league matches played on Tuesday.
One of them was at the Clifton Club, which hadn't seen Bristol Backgammon action since 2005.
It was there that Matt Sharp extended his Feeder League lead by defeating Richard Davies.
Online in Premier Two Red league leader Adam Sinclair hit an obstacle in the shape of Hazel Harper, whose win lifted her out of the relegation zone.
06/06/23: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday, eighteen of them to contest the eighth Monday Spring Grand Prix sessions across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans and twelve online made it three six-player groups.
Ian Anderson and Kev Peters won the online groups, while George Georgiou took the honours in the live group.
George's leadership of the SGP table now looks very imposing with just two sessions remaining and second placed Adam Sinclair nearly 27 points behind.
At Sportsmans there was a welcome Bristol Backgammon debut for Lesley Godwin from Wotton-under-Edge, while Director Ian Tarr, sitting the tournament out for numerically logistic reasons, played some friendly games witn Hina Shah.
03/06/23: The Bristol Premier League goes international
Saturday's only action was in Premier Two Red.
And It happened in Austria!
Tim Line pipped Hazel Harper by the narrowest of margins at Mark Dixon's in Zell am See.
It may surprise readers that this was not the first Bristol Backgammon result to be recorded in that country.
Nineteen years ago John Slattery defeated Simonetta Barone -- now Simonetta Herrera -- in a Premier One match in Velden.
02/06/23: Jim exits Brunel Trophy
The only action on Friday was a fourth round Brunel Trophy tie.
It happened at another new venue for Bristol Backgammon, The Duck at Burtle, Bridgwater, and Steve Pickard's win signalled the end of Jim Green's Brunel campaign for another year.
Steve has one life remaining.
01/06/23: Stephen wins GP20 tournament
There were just seven players in action on Thursday to contest the fourth of the year's eight GP20 tournaments at the casino.
In the main flight Stephen Little was the main flight winner, defeating Steve Morris, George Georgiou and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr.
Ian had got past Chris Aquilina and Nick Barham en route to the final.
George took the consolation flight with victories over Chris and Barry Vasili.
Ian's lead in the GP20 table has extended to 65 points, with Stephen and Tim Line tied for second place.
01/06/23: John worst hit by May Premier League checkpoint
The May 31st Premier League checkpoint passed at midnight on Wednesday.
And while five players incurred initial penalties, only one of them -- John Curran of Premier Three Yellow -- has had the three penalty points incurred at the March 31st checkpoint firmed up.
He has incurred two fresh ones this time, which can be erased by compliance with the July 31st checkpoint.
Others to incur fresh penalties are Cecilia Rogers of Premier One, Chris Hughes of Premier Two Blue, and Hazel Harper and Andrew Cobb of Premier Two Red.
31/05/23: Simonetta back in action with a win
There were eighteen players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the twenty-second of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Simonetta Herrera, in her first Wednesday tournament since last year.
Her victims were Andy Boysan, Cecilia Rogers, Simon Tracy and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there by beating Adam Sinclair and Mandy Macdonald.
Ian Anderson took the consolation flight with wins over Adam, Stephen Little and Kev Peters.
Stephen won a post tournament jackpot.
There were also three Premier Three matches played.
Rosemary Whitehouse scored a brace of Premier Three Yellow wins -- over Mandy and Frank Jones -- and is making a strong move for promotion.
Meanwhile, in the parallel Green Division Andy Zographou defeated Tom Chapman.
30/05/23: Tuesday's Premier League action, and a major milestone reached
There were no fewer than twelve Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
With the all-time total of Bristol league matches played standing at 9,991 after Monday's action, the customary flurry of pre-checkpoint activity was always likely to see the breakthrough to the magic 10,000.
At 8:35pm Pearl Foster and Mathew Nicholls raised the total to 9,999, and just six minutes later the 10,000th result came in, Jon Organ and Ian Tarr having the honour.
And now the total stands at 10,003 -- 3,215 of them from Premier One, 4,549 from Premier Two, 966 from Premier Three, 1,267 from the now defunct Conference League, and just six from the embryonic Feeder League.
Man of the moment Neil Young, fresh from his outstanding performance at the UK Clubs Championship, moved back to the top of Premier One with a narrow win against Ben Crowden.
In Premier Two Blue there were contrasting fortunes for Safi Tracy and Simon Hughes, both of whom managed three matches.
The fact that Safi won three and Simon lost three was due in no small measure to the fact that they played out a double header.
And while Safi is recovering from a very disappointing start to the season, Simon's inexplicable woes are continuing.
The others to play in the division were Stephen Little, who beat Hemal Getalal before losing to Safi, and Hemal, who also beat Simon.
In the parallel Red Division Ian's historic defeat of Jon was followed by a further win -- at James Lintell-Smith's expense.
Earlier Pearl had beaten Mathew.
Cynthia Roberts finished her Premier Three Green campaign, defeating Caroline Boulton.
She sits second in the league table, but it remains to be seen whether or not her 39 points haul will be enough to gain her promotion to Premier Two.
The parallel Yellow Division saw Rosemary Whitehouse having a mixed day, beating Frank Jones before succumbing to Phil Doubtfire.
Phil is well on course for elevation to Premier Two.
30/05/23: Twenty-four in Monday action
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday, twelve of them to contest the fifth Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix sessions across two environments.
Five at Sportsmans and seven online formed single groups.
Kev Peters won the online group, while honours in the live group were shared by George Georgiou and Ian Tarr.
Kev has taken over the leadership of the NGP table from Adam Sinclair, while Ian is now in second place.
There were nine other matches played.
A Feeder League match at the club saw victory for Daniel Miles over Richard Davies, who was making his league debut.
Another live match, at the Windmill Hill City Farm, signalled Mandy Macdonald's exit from the Brunel Trophy, while Larry Deferville is safely through to the fifth round.
George defeated Gerald Whitehouse in Premier One.
Jim Green moved into second place in Premier Two Blue by defeating Michael Petrakas.
Mathew Nicholls notched a brace of wins over James Lintell-Smith in Premier Two Red.
And Rosemary Whitehouse managed to fit in three Premier Three Yellow matches, losing to Fred North before overcoming both Mandy and Martha Beal.
28/05/23: Bristol "A" so close to successful title defence
The Ambassador Bloomsbury Hotel in London was the venue for the latest annual UK Clubs Championship on Sunday.
The event, this year comprising twenty-six teams of five players, was the stage for the Bristol "A" team to launch a defence of the title they won in Liverpool in 2022.
The "A" team -- captain Andy Boysan, Stuart Mann, Neil Young and Ian Hedges, with Safi Tracy replacing the holidaying Tim Line -- won two of their three group matches to qualify for the main knockout phase with relative ease, losing only to The Peasants Revolt.
Two other Bristol teams -- the Bristol Buccaneers, captained by Simon Tracy, and Bristol Clifton Cubers, with Kylie Hedges in the captain's chair -- failed to win a group match, thus going into the consolation knockout flight.
The Buccaneers again suffered dissapointment, while the Cubers had their best moment, whitewashing Cambridge Blues before losing narrowly to consolation flight winners North London "B" in the semis.
Meanwhile the "A" team were moving through the main flight.
Wins over That Ealing Feeling, Thame, and Ealing PR Rules Baby moved them into the final, where they met their nemesis for the day, The Peasants Revolt.
All of the "A" team made significant contributions, nobody more so than Neil, who won every single one of his seven matches.
Thanks are due to all three teams, and especially their captains, who performed their demanding and time consuming tasks with aplomb.
The only regrettable note involved one or two late withdrawals, which left both teams a player short, although they were able to draw on a reserve list of replacement (non-Bristol) players.
28/05/23: Sunday league results round-up
There were three Premier League matches played on Sunday.
One of them was at the Ambassador Bloomsbury Hotel, London, the venue for the UK Clubs Championship, where Stephen Little whitewashed Mike Smith and moved ahead of him into second place in Premier Two Blue.
In the parallel Red Division Mathew Nicholls hauled himself out of the bottom three by defeating Jon Organ.
And Rosemary Whitehouse took a step towards avoiding Premier Three Yellow expungement by beating John Curran.
28/05/23: Saturday win for Michael
There was just one Premier League match played on Saturday.
That was in Premier Three Yellow, where Michael Corbett whitewashed Frank Jones.
27/05/23: Friday wins for Dave and Phil
There were two Premier League matches played on Friday.
Dave Pym won again in Premier Two Blue -- Simon Hughes his latest victim -- and with just two matches to play, he has his sights on setting a formidable target for his pursuers.
And in Premier Three Yellow Phil Doubtfire scored another win, narrowly against John Curran.
26/05/23: Hazel wins May Handicap Trophy event
There were nineteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the fourth of this year's series of Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
The main flight saw Hazel Harper victorious, who defeated Simon Tracy and Tim Line, before edging the final against Steve Morris.
Steve had arrived there via victories over Kylie Hedges, Ian Hedges and Ian Tarr.
George Georgiou took the consolation flight by beating Kylie, Stephen Little and Thursday debutant Matt Sharp.
Hazel has closed to within 10 points of leader Tim in the HT table.
There were also seven Premier League matches played.
Simon Hughes played twice in Premier Two Blue, succumbing to Hemal Getalal and Jim Green.
Tim and Ian Tarr fitted a Premier Two Red match in before the tournament, Ian prevailing.
Mandy Macdonald got the better of Frank Jones in a Premier Three Yellow double header, while Phil Doubtfire beat Fred North at the Lamb Inn, Wantage.
And Marcel Bancroft beat Caroline Boulton in Premier Three Green.
24/05/23: Simon wins low-key Wednesday tournament
There were just twelve players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the twenty-first of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Simon Tracy, whose victims were Adam Sinclair, Frank Jones and -- in the final -- Ian Anderson.
Ian had arrived there by beating Chris Rogers and Tim Line.
Chris took the consolation flight with wins over Adam and Elias Hamati.
Elias won a post tournament jackpot.
There were also three Premier League matches played.
Eamonn Reay scored a brace of wins over Tom Chapman in Premier Three Green.
And Jon Organ beat Cliff Blofield in Premier Two Red.
23/05/23: Tuesday results round-up
There were twelve matches played on Tuesday.
In the fourth round of the Brunel Trophy Simonetta Herrera defeated Paul Watts, a result which signalled Paul's exit from the competition, while Simonetta has one life remaining.
There was a double header In Premier Three Yellow, Mandy Macdonald meeting Fred North at the Windmill Hill City Farm, and honours were shared.
In the same division Phil Doubtfire maintained his upward momentum with an emphatic victory over Frank Jones.
There were wins for Safi Tracy and Jim Green in their Premier Two Blue matches against Stephen Little and Hemal Getalal.
A Premier Two Red double header saw a brace of wins for Steffen Nowak over Andrew Cobb, while Ian Tarr also got two matches in, beating Jon Organ before succumbing to Tim Line.
And Cynthia Roberts and Marcel Bancroft were Premier Three Green winners against Andy Zographou and Eamonn Reay.
23/05/23: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday, including the sixteen who contested the seventh Spring Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
The sixteen were split into a single group of six at Sportsmans and two groups of five online.
Online winners were Gaz Owen and Elias Hamati, while Barry Vasili won the live group.
Barry last appeared at one of our events in July 2008, so it was good to welcome him back, especially as he brought a new player with him, Chris Aquilina.
George Georgiou's lead in the SGP table is now seven points, with Adam Sinclair second.
There were also two Premier Two matches played.
Second placed Simon Tracy lost a Red Division match to Andrew Cobb.
And in the Blue Division Jim Green defeated .
22/05/23: Sunday's results round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Simon Baker won a Premier One encounter with Gaz Owen at the Wiper and True Taproom, Easton.
In Premier Two Blue Dave Pym defeated Jim Green, and is looking to set an imposing target for his pursuers.
In the parallel Red Division Jon Organ continued his run of wins against Tim Line.
And John Curran hauled himself off the bottom of Premier Three Yellow by beating Frank Jones.
20/05/23: Saturday win for Jim
In the only action of Saturday Jim Green won a Premier Two Blue match against Paul Watts.
19/05/23: Friday's results round-up
There were five matches played on Friday.
In a fourth round Brunel Trophy match at the Rose and Crown, Kingswood, Gaz Owen kept his lives intact by beating Ian Tarr, who is thus eliminated.
The Compass, Tormarton, was the venue for a Premier Two Blue match, Jim Green narrowly defeating Gary Plant.
In the same division Michael Petrakas got two matches in, beating Hemal Getalal before succumbing to Stephen Little, who is now well placed to challenge the top two.
And Eamonn Reay beat Marcel Bancroft in Premier Three Green for the second successive day.
19/05/23: Ian extends GP10 lead
There were twenty-three players in action on Thursday, eleven of them to contest the fourth of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament Ian Tarr was the main flight winner, defeating Kylie Hedges, Simon Tracy and -- in the final -- Gaz Owen.
Gaz had defeated Aidan Kenny, Tim Line and Hazel Harper en route to the final.
Tim took the consolation flight with victories over Kylie and Cynthia Roberts.
Ian's GP10 lead is extended to 40 points, with Gaz now in second place.
There were also eight Premier League matches played.
In Premier One Stuart Mann defeated Andy Boysan.
Brookfields Farm, Swindon, saw Dave Pym score another win in his Premier Two Blue promotion quest, a nail biter against Gary Plant.
Online in the same division Safi Tracy scored a much needed win over Hemal Getalal.
James Lintell-Smith played twice in Red Division, succumbing to Pearl Foster before defeating Steffen Nowak.
And Simon beat Hazel at the casino.
Marcel Bancroft of Premier Three Green was another to suffer mixed fortunes, losing to Eamonn Reay before beating Caroline Boulton.
18/05/23: George wins Wednesday tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the twentieth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was George Georgiou, whose victims were Chris Rogers, Kev Peters, Andy Boysan and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there by beating Wednesday debutant Matt Sharp, Adam Sinclair and Natalie Singh.
Matt took the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia Roberts, Simon Tracy and John Curran.
Tim Line won a post tournament jackpot.
There were two and a half other matches played.
Eamonn Reay defeated Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
Hazel Harper beat Steffen Nowak in Premier Two Red, and in the same division there was an adjourned match.
TD Ian Tarr foolishly agreed to play Jon Organ at 5:30pm, assuming there would be enough time before running the tournament.
The match had to be adjourned, however, with Ian 6-4 ahead.
16/05/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were five matches played on Tuesday.
The odds against Adam Sinclair getting promoted from Premier Two Red are getting shorter all the time.
Another victory, this time over Steffen Nowak, kept him well on track, while Jon Organ continued his run of wins in the same division, at the expense of Mathew Nicholls.
In Premier Two Blue Gary Plant defeated Simon Hughes.
Warner Solomon maintained his hot pace in Premier Three Yellow by beating Frank Jones.
And Kev Peters won a fourth round Brunel Trophy match against Richard Owsley, a result which leaves both players with a single life remaining.
16/05/23: Twenty-five in Monday action
There were twenty-five players in action on Monday, including the nineteen who contested the sixth Spring Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
The nineteen were split into two groups of four at Sportsmans and groups of six and five online.
The group of six featured a player who attempted to play despite not having Premium Heroes status.
His failure to complete his matches forced his expungement, reducing the group to five.
Online winners were Gaz Owen and Adam Sinclair, while Richard Davies and Matt Sharp prevailed in the live groups.
George Georgiou's lead in the SGP table has been drastically reduced by Adam.
There were also six league matches played, plus the first of the fourth round Brunel Trophy ties, where Chris Rogers defeated the now eliminated Warner Solomon.
Chris was also in Premier One action, defeating Nick Barham, who had earlier lost to Gaz.
Jon Organ's Premier Two Red season gathered pace with a victory over Pearl Foster.
Meanwhile Cynthia Roberts's Premier Three Green promotion hopes suffered a double blow with defeats to Caroline Boulton.
And Daniel Miles scored his first Feeder League win at the club, beating Jake Mochnacz before the tournament.
14/05/23: League wins for Andy, Jon and Tom on Sunday
There were three Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Andy Boysan defeated Gerald Whitehouse in Premier One.
Jon Organ won a Premier Two Red match against Cliff Blofield.
And Cynthia Roberts lost her first Premier Three Green match in eight, Tom Chapman prevailing.
14/05/23: Brunel Trophy fourth round draw made
The draw for the fourth round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Sunday by matching two numerical sequences.
The original field of fifty-one in this double elimination tournament has now been whittled down to twenty-seven.
The odd number of survivors necessitated one bye which, according to the rules, goes to the player with the best record.
In this case, that meant one of the six unbeaten players whose opponents have the best record during the competition.
Safi Tracy and Neil Young tied for this, but the draw went in favour of Safi.
There are thirteen ties, eight of which are effectively sudden death.
The number progressing to round five will be somewhere between fourteen and nineteen.
Matches are to be completed by June 18th.
Check out the full draw here.
14/05/23: Saturday's Premier One action
There were two Premier One matches played on Saturday.
And Robin Gunney's disappointing start to life in the top flight continued with defeats at the hands of Nick Barham and Gaz Owen.
13/05/23: Friday's results round-up
There were five Premier League matches played on Friday.
In Premier One Robin Gunney got two matches in, but suffered defeats in both -- to Neil Young and Gaz Owen.
Neil is now top of the league.
A double header came in Premier Two Blue, and Paul Watts got the double over Gary Plant in two close matches.
Meanwhile Neil Edwards visited Richard Owsley in Premier Three Green, where he was defeated.
12/05/23: George wins May Bristol Grand Prix event
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, including the eight who contested the fifth of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
George Georgiou took the main flight honours this time, defeating Steve Morris, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Hazel Harper.
Hazel had arrived there with wins over Ian Tarr and Stephen Little.
Gaz Owen won the consolation flight with victories over Ian and Cynthia Roberts.
George moves ten points ahead of Ian at the top of the BGP points table, both having won two of this year's five events, and is the latest player to make sure of a 2024 Bristol Masters place.
There was also Premier Three action.
Neil Edwards visited Cynthia for their last Premier Three Green meeting, and Cynthia prevailed.
In the same division Marcel Bancroft had the better of a double header against Richard Owsley.
And in Premier Three Yellow Warner Solomon scored a narrow win over Michael Corbett.
10/05/23: Gaz wins yet another Wednesday tournament
There were twenty-three players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the nineteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen, who has contested fifteen of these events this year and now won eight!
His victims this time were Stephen Little, Kev Peters, George Georgiou and -- in the final -- Simon Tracy.
Simon had arrived there, after a first round bye, by beating Chris Rogers and Adam Sinclair.
Ian Anderson took the consolation flight with wins over Elias Hamati and Chris.
Adam won a post tournament jackpot.
There were six other matches played.
The last two of the third round Brunel Trophy matches featured wins for Chris Hughes over Pearl Foster and Simonetta Herrera over Kev.
Pearl is eliminated, while Chris still has both lives intact.
Kev and Simonetta have one each.
The Alma Tavern played host to a Premier One match, Andy Boysan defeating Simon Baker.
Phil Charlton scored another Premier Two Blue win, Ed Turner being his victim.
In Premier Three Yellow Martha Beal beat John Curran.
And Andy Zographou scored a much needed win over Richard Owsley in Premier Three Green.
10/05/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were three matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier Two Red Steffen Nowak defeated Ed Turner.
Phil Doubtfire closed the gap behind Premier Three Yellow leader Warner Solomon a little by beating him.
And in the third round of the Brunel Trophy Paul Watts beat James Lintell-Smith, a result which eliminates James and leaves Paul with one life remaining.
09/05/23: Friday Brunel result comes to light
A further third round Brunel Trophy result has come to light.
Steve Pickard defeated Frank Jones on Friday, a result which leaves both players with a single life remaining as they head towards Sunday's fourth round draw.
09/05/23: Twenty-one in Monday action
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, including the seventeen who contested the fifth Spring Grand Prix sessions in DMP round robins across two environments.
The seventeen were split eight at Sportsmans and nine online.
The live group featured Bristol Backgammon debuts for Junior Edwards and Jazmine Singh.
On an evening of fine margins, the online group was won by Gaz Owen, with Kev Peters in second on PR, and all nine players were clustered together with either five, four or three wins.
Six of the eight live players were similarly grouped on either four or three wins, the exceptions being Ian Tarr, who won all seven, and Simon Tracy, who did the opposite.
George Georgiou leads the SGP table, followed by Stephen Little and Adam Sinclair.
There were also four league matches played, three of them at Sportsmans.
Online Dave Pym maintained his quest for promotion from Premier Two Blue with a victory over Simon Hughes.
At the club George shared the spoils of a Premier One double header with Simon Baker, while Flora von Michel defeated Jake Mochnacz in the Feeder League.
08/05/23: Sunday action in Premier Two Blue
There were three matches played on Sunday, all of them in Premier Two Blue.
Paul Watts played twice, defeating Stephen Little before succumbing to Ismail Yilmaz.
And Jim Green defeated Mike Smith.
06/05/23: Saturday's results round-up
There were three matches played on Saturday.
In Premier One Andy Boysan defeated Nick Barham.
Premier Three Yellow leader Warner Solomon extended his lead by beating John Curran.
And in the third round of the Brunel Trophy Steffen Nowak's defeat of Simon Baker leaves both players with a single life remaining.
06/05/23: Friday win for Nick
In Friday's only action Nick Barham secured a much needed Premier One win at the expense of league leader Chris Rogers.
05/05/23: Steve wins May Speedgammon event
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, but only six of those took part in the third of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino.
The six formed a single round robin group, and Steve "I don't even like Speedgammon" Morris -- with a clean sweep of five wins out of five -- came out on top.
Ian Tarr pipped Tim Line to the runner-up prize by the slenderest of points difference margins.
Tim still heads the SGGP table, with Ian fifteen points behind in second place.
There was also action in the Premier League and the Brunel Trophy.
Tim defeated George Georgiou before the tournament in the third round of the 2023 Brunel Trophy, while there were online wins for Richard Owsley over Gerald Whitehouse and Jim Green over Warner Solomon.
That was Gerald's last life, while Richard has both still intact.
The other four players go into the fourth round draw with a single life remaining.
Mike Smith defeated Michael Petrakas in a Premier Two Blue meeting of two promotion contenders.
Pearl Foster beat Phil Charlton in Premier Two Red.
And in Premier Three Yellow there was a victory for Phil Doubtfire against Frank Jones.
04/05/23: Nick wins Wednesday tournament
There were twelve players in action on Wednesday to contest the eighteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Nick Barham, whose victims, after a first round bye, were John Curran, Chris Rogers and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there by beating Steve Pickard, Mandy Macdonald and Stephen Little.
Steve P took the consolation flight with wins over Elias Hamati, Gaz Owen and Ian Tarr.
Adam Sinclair won a post tournament jackpot.
02/05/23: Tuesday's league action
There were three matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier Two Red there were wins for Phil Charlton over Tim Line, and Ed Turner over Mathew Nicholls.
And Cynthia Roberts defeated Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
02/05/23: Gaz takes Masters title for the first time
There were eighteen players in action on Monday, including the sixteen who contested the fourth Spring Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
But the day's big news surrounded the completion of the twenty-third Bristol Masters tournament.
The final of that event, featuring reigning Masters champion Jim Green and Bristol's number one player Gaz Owen, had been held over from April 20th.
And the two arrived at Sportsmans well in advance of the Monday evening session to settle things.
Jim's title defence never quite got going, though, and Gaz took his first Masters title in twelve attempts, having lost three previous finals.
The evening's 3-pointers featured eight at Sportsmans and eight online.
Director Ian Tarr made an error in haste, however, splitting both "communities" into two round robins of four players, when the rules allow for a group of eight in the online scenario, where things invariably progress much more quickly.
Jim won one of the live groups, while George Georgiou, Stephen Little and Scott Wood tied for the other.
Scott was returning to action for the first time since August 2005.
The online winners were Adam Sinclair and Andy Boysan.
George still heads the SGP table, with Stephen and Adam not far behind.
Alongside the live tournament there was third round Brunel Trophy action.
Mandy Macdonald scored the win she needed to stay in the competition, while her victim Richard Davies also has one life remaining.
30/04/23: Sunday's league action
There were three matches played on Saturday, all wins for the leaders of the leagues in question.
Adam Sinclair maintained his hot pace in Premier Two Red by pipping James Lintell-Smith.
Dave Pym also scored a narrow win, against Paul Watts in Premier Two Blue.
And in the Feeder League Matt Sharp defeated Flora von Michel at the Tinto Lounge, Gloucester Road.
29/04/23: Saturday results round-up
There were two matches played on Saturday.
Kev Peters' winning Premier One sequence was brought to an end by Robin Gunney, who registered his first top flight win.
And in the Feeder League Matt Sharp defeated Daniel Miles at the Boston Tea Party, Whiteladies Road.
28/04/23: Friday wins for Kev, Hemal and Rosemary
There were three Premier League matches played on Friday.
Kev Peters defeated Gerald Whitehouse in Premier One.
In Premier Two Blue Hemal Getalal beat Mike Smith.
And Rosemary Whitehouse beat Phil Doubtfire in Premier Three Yellow.
28/04/23: Ian wins to take GP20 lead
There were twenty players in action on Thursday, twelve of them to contest the third of the year's eight GP20 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament Ian Tarr was the main flight winner, defeating Steve Morris, Simon Tracy, Gaz Owen and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
After receiving a first round bye Tim had got past Cynthia Roberts and Hazel Harper en route to the final.
Ian Hedges took the consolation flight with victories over Steve, Cynthia and Dicky Biddle.
Ian Tarr takes over from Tim at the top of the GP20 table, with a margin of fifteen points.
There were four more matches played on the day.
In Premier One Kev Peters defeated Cecilia Rogers.
And three third round Brunel Trophy ties were decided.
Michael Petrakas and Matt Sharp were eliminated after defeats by Hemal Getalal and Larry Deferville in what were effectively sudden death ties.
While Andy Boysan's whitewash of Adam Sinclair was the only match of the round between two hitherto undefeated players.
27/04/23: Natalie also won on Wednesday
A late reported Premier Two Blue result from Wednesday featured another win for Natalie Singh, who narrowly defeated Safi Tracy in Henleaze.
26/04/23: Yet another Wednesday win for Gaz
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the seventeenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen -- his seventh Wednesday tournament win of the year -- whose victims, after a first round bye, were Ian Anderson, Adam Sinclair and -- in the final -- Steve Pickard.
Steve had arrived there by beating Stephen Little, Cynthia Roberts and Tim Line.
Kev Peters took the consolation flight with wins over Chris Hughes and John Curran.
Ian Anderson won a post tournament jackpot.
There was just one more match played.
In Premier Two Red Cliff Blofield defeated Phil Charlton.
25/04/23: Tuesday's Premier League round-up
There were five Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Andy Boysan and Kev Peters played out a Premier One double header, and Kev scored a brace of much needed wins.
In Premier Two Red Tim Line defeated Andrew Cobb.
Cynthia Roberts overcame Eamonn Reay in Premier Three Green.
And Martha Beal beat Fred North in Premier Three Yellow.
25/04/23: Fourteen in Monday action as Daniel and Flora make history
There were fourteen players in action on Monday, ten of them to contest the fourth Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix sessions across two environments.
Four at Sportsmans and six online formed single groups.
Gaz Owen won the online group, while honours in the live group were shared by Jake Mochnacz and Ian Tarr.
Adam Sinclair's lead in the NGP table is down to three points over Kev Peters.
There were two other matches played, one of which was a first.
The new Feeder League is off and running with the first match completed at the Tinto Lounge, Bishopston.
Flora von Michel is the league's first winner, having pipped Daniel Miles 11-10.
And in the Premier League Phil Charlton continued his fine start to the Premier Two Red season with a win over Mathew Nicholls.
23/04/23: Sunday win for Stephen
In the only Sunday match, Stephen Little defeated Paul Watts in Premier Two Blue.
23/04/23: Cecilia wins on Saturday
There was just one match played on Saturday.
Cecilia Rogers defeated Gaz Owen in Premier One.
21/04/23: Jim one step away from successful Masters defence
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday to contest 23rd Bristol Masters event at the casino.
And the final was held over until another day.
This will involve Jim Green, the reigning Masters champion, and Gaz Owen.
Jim will be bidding to become the fourth player to retain the title, after Charlie Hetherington, Stuart Mann and Alex Hodge.
Gaz will be trying not to emulate Simonetta Herrera, who has made it to four finals without winning.
Jim got past Robin Gunney, Cecilia Rogers and Kev Peters, while Gaz's victims were Hazel Harper, Cynthia Roberts and George Georgiou.
George and Stuart had met earlier to play a Premier One double header, where the honours were shared.
19/04/23: Chris wins Wednesday tournament
There were nineteen players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the sixteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Chris Rogers, whose victims were Andy Boysan, Elias Hamati, Kev Peters and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr.
Ian had arrived there by beating Gaz Owen, George Georgiou and Ian Anderson.
Andy took the consolation flight with wins over Tim Line, Gaz and Chris Hughes.
Kev won a post tournament jackpot.
There were three other matches played, all in Premier Two.
In the Blue Division Natalie Singh defeated Safi Tracy.
And the winners in the Red Division were Phil Charlton and Tim, over leader leader Adam Sinclair and Cliff Blofield.
19/04/23: Bristol "A" team line-up finalised
This year's UK Clubs Championship will take place in London on Sunday May 28th, and Bristol should have at least two teams participating.
Bristol "A" won the event in Liverpool in 2022, and will be looking to defend that title this time.
Four of the five players who triumphed last year -- captain Andy Boysan, Stuart Mann, Neil Young and Ian Hedges -- are in the team this year.
But the fifth member of that team, Tim Line, is unavailable this time, so Safi Tracy is stepping into the breach.
A second Bristol team will be announced shortly.
18/04/23: Tuesday's Premier League and Brunel Trophy action
There were eight matches played on Tuesday.
Three of the third round Brunel Trophy matches were completed.
The Rose and Crown, Two Mile Hill, saw Gaz Owen score a narrow victory over Jake Mochnacz, while there were online wins for Robin Gunney and Chris Rogers over Ed Turner and Simon Hughes.
While Gaz has both lives intact, Robin, Chris and Simon have one apiece remaining.
Jake and Ed are eliminated.
In Premier Two Blue Mike Smith, Paul Watts and Stephen Little consolidated their challenges with wins over Natalie Singh, Alan Joicey and Simon.
Phil Charlton scored a narrow victory over Hazel Harper in Premier Two Red.
And Cynthia Roberts defeated Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
18/04/23: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday, including the sixteen who contested the third Spring Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the ten online formed two groups of five.
George Georgiou won the live group, while Cynthia Roberts and Ian Anderson took the online honours.
In Cynthia's group the side pool was won by Tim Line.
George has taken over leadership of the SGP table from Stephen Little.
Stephen had earlier exited the Brunel Trophy when Neil Young recovered from 3-10 in arrears at the Lodekka.
16/04/23: Sunday's Premier Two results
There were three matches played on Sunday -- all of them in Premier Two.
Ed Turner had his revenge for a defeat at the hands of Simon Tracy the previous day, then Simon succumbed to a further Red Division defeat at the hands of Pearl Foster.
And Blue Division leader Dave Pym suffered a setback against Paul Watts.
16/04/23: Simon maintains promotion quest
There was one match played on Saturday.
Simon Tracy pipped Ed Turner to maintain his strong start to the Premier Two Red season.
14/04/23: Phil goes second
In Friday's only match Phil Doubtfire moved into second place in Premier Three Yellow by defeating Martha Beal.
14/04/23: Ian first to qualify for 2024 Masters
Just a week before the Rainbow Casino hosts the 2023 incarnation of the Bristol Masters Ian Tarr has become the first player to qualify for next year's event.
This was achieved by winning multiple Bristol Grand Prix events -- the March and April tournaments.
14/04/23: New league to replace the Conference announced
The dearth of new players which assailed us in 2022 appears to be over, with the emergence of many new players early this year.
So there will be a league -- to be contested between now and the end of the season -- to replace the Conference League, which fell into abeyance in 2022.
Entitled the Bristol Feeder League, it will provide interim league action for those players who have future Premier League aspirations.
Although the format will be broadly similar to that of the former league, the distinction between Premier Status players and "intermediates" is now gone forever.
Come November, players will be invited to join the Premier League purely on the strength of their Feeder League conduct, and not on the basis of results.
13/04/23: Ian wins April Bristol Grand Prix event
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, including the twelve who contested the fourth of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
Ian Tarr took the main flight honours this time, defeating Hazel Harper, Gaz Owen, Safi Tracy and -- in the final -- George Georgiou.
George had arrived there with wins over Simon Tracy and Tim Line after receiving a first round bye.
Stephen Little won the consolation flight with victories over Simon, Gerald Whitehouse and Steve Morris -- Stephen's third consolation flight win in the four BGP events so far.
Ian, who also won the equivalent March event, has overtaken the indisposed Nick Barham at the top of the BGP points table.
There was other action too.
Last week's Handicap Trophy consolation final was resolved alongside the evening's tournament, Dimitrios Panagiotopoulos narrowly defeating Wally Alecci.
Before the tournament, there were wins for George and Ian -- George defeating Gerald in Premier One and Ian eliminating Rosemary Whitehouse from the Brunel Trophy.
Online in Premier Two Blue Mike Smith beat Michael Petrakas.
13/04/23: Gerald takes Wednesday honours
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the fifteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gerald Whitehouse, who took full advantage of a first round bye, defeating Elias Hamati, Kev Peters and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there by beating Stephen Little and John Curran.
Simon Tracy took the consolation flight with wins over Elias, Ian Anderson and Adam Sinclair.
Stephen won a post tournament jackpot.
There were three other matches played, all in Premier Two.
In the Blue Division there were wins for leader Dave Pym and Natalie Singh, over Safi Tracy and Michael Petrakas respectively.
And Red Division leader Adam also registered a win, over James Lintell-Smith.
11/04/23: Safi wins on two fronts
There were two matches played on Tuesday, both involving Safi Tracy.
A Premier Two Blue whitewash of Ismail Yilmaz was followed by a third round Brunel Trophy defeat of Elias Hamati.
While Safi goes into the fourth round draw unbeaten, Elias is eliminated.
10/04/23: Nineteen in Monday action
There were nineteen players in action on Monday, including the fourteen who contested the second Spring Grand Prix sessions in DMP round robins across two environments.
Four at Sportsmans (playing each other twice) and ten online formed single groups, with Andy Boysan winning the online group and Ian Tarr the live one.
Stephen Little has extended his lead of the SGP table to ten points.
Meanwhile the first of the third round Brunel Trophy ties was completed, and Natalie Singh's victory sent Ian Hedges out of the competition.
Natalie later added a Premier Two Blue victory over Mike Smith, who was fresh from defeating Paul Watts.
And in Premier Two Red Steffen Nowak defeated second placed Simon Tracy.
09/04/23: Brunel Trophy third round draw made
The draw for the third round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Sunday by matching two numerical sequences.
The original field of fifty-one in this double elimination tournament has been whittled down to thirty-eight.
Of the nineteen ties, there is only one where both players are guaranteed to make it to the fourth round, so the number in round four will be somewhere in the range of twenty to thirty-two.
Matches are to be completed by May 14th.
Check out the full draw here.
09/04/23: Safi wins Brunel Trophy match
In the only action of Sunday Safi Tracy defeated Jim Green in the second round of the Brunel Trophy.
Safi has both lives intact, while Jim is down to one.
06/04/23: Ben takes special Handicap Trophy honours, and thanks to John
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, fourteen of them to contest the third of this year's series of Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
And the identity of the mystery sponsor who added £90 to the tournament prize pot was revealed!
John Curran's idea was to boost the attendance by adding that amount in honour of his recent 90th birthday, and it proved a great success.
The field included a welcome Bristol Backgammon debut for Wally Alecci, a regular poker player.
The main flight saw Ben Crowden triumphant, and he seems to have developed a liking for this format, having been very successful in last year's series of tournaments.
He defeated sponsor John, George Georgiou and Stephen Little, before edging the final against Geoff Paffett.
Geoff had arrived there via victories over Aidan Kenny, Steve Morris and Frank Jones.
The consolation flight final was held over.
It will be contested by Wally and Dimitrios Panagiotopoulos.
Wally received the only quarter-final bye, before defeating Cynthia Roberts, while Dimitrios got past John and Gaz Owen.
Tim Line, absent in Denmark, still holds a 70 points HT lead, with Ben second and Hazel Harper in third.
And in other action Andy Boysan scored a whitewash win over Cecilia Rogers in the second round of the Brunel Trophy, signalling Cecilia's elimination from the tournament.
Meanwhile Natalie Singh scored the only league win of the day against Chris Hughes in Premier Two Blue.
06/04/23: Gaz wins another Wednesday tournament
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the fourteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen, who has now contested ten of these events and won six, an extraordinary statistic.
His victims, after receiving a first round bye, were Adam Sinclair, Safi Tracy and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati.
Elias had arrived there by defeating Gerald Whitehouse, Cynthia Roberts and Ian Anderson.
Adam took the consolation flight with wins over Stephen Little and George Georgiou.
Stephen won a post tournament jackpot.
There were two other matches played, both in Premier Two Blue.
Stephen defeated Alan Joicey, and Natalie Singh beat Ismail Yilmaz.
04/04/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were five matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier Two Blue there were wins for Stephen Little and Ismail Yilmaz over Natalie Singh and Chris Hughes.
And in the second round of the Brunel Trophy, James Lintell-Smith beat Ed Turner at the Sugar Loaf, Easton, while online Larry Deferville scored his first ever Bristol Backgammon win at the expense of Gerald Whitehouse and Simon Hughes pipped Kylie Hedges.
Kylie is now eliminated, while James, Ed, Larry and Gerald have one life apiece remaining.
Simon still has both lives intact.
04/04/23: Round robin wins for Stephen and Frank
There were twenty-one players in action on Monday, including those in Brunel Trophy ties (see the story immediately below this one).
And twelve contested the opening Spring Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans and six online formed single groups, with Flora von Michel making a welcome competitive debut at Sportsmans.
Stephen Little won the live group, while Frank Jones triumphed online.
In Stephen's group the side pool was shared by joint second placers George Georgiou and Andy Zographou.
So Stephen, then Frank, lead the SGP after the opening forays.
04/04/23: Monday's Brunel Trophy round-up
There were five Brunel Trophy matches played on Monday.
As the deadline for completion of second round matches approaches, many minds were concentrated on tidying up the many loose ends.
The Fox Den, Stoke Gifford, played host to Frank Jones's victory over Mike Smith.
And George Georgiou defeated Andy Zographou at Sportsmans before the Monday tournament.
Online there were wins for Rosemary Whitehouse, Simon Baker and Richard Davies, over Mandy Macdonald, Robin Gunney and Eamonn Reay.
For Mike, Andy and Eamonn the defeats brought about their elimination from the tournament.
Robin, Mandy and Rosemary are down to a single life.
But Frank, George, Simon and Richard retain both lives.
Six second round ties remain to be completed before Sunday's third round draw.
02/04/23: Sunday's results round-up
There were four matches played on Sunday.
In Premier Two Blue Stephen Little defeated league leader Dave Pym.
Michael Corbett beat Martha Beal in Premier Three Yellow.
And in Premier Three Green Neil Edwards overcame Andy Zographou.
Meanwhile in the second round of the Brunel Trophy, Chris Hughes beat Hazel Harper, so Hazel is now eliminated.
01/04/23: Saturday's action
There were three matches played on Saturday.
In the top flight Neil Young continued his impressive campaign with a victory over Cecilia Rogers, which moves him to within three points of the lead.
Martha Beal won her Premier Three Yellow encounter with Phil Doubtfire to displace him in second place.
And Steffen Nowak defeated Simon Tracy in the second round of the Brunel Trophy, eliminating Simon from the competition.
(This was earlier assumed to be a league match).
01/04/23: Added money boost for Thursday's Handicap Trophy tournament
An anonymous sponsor has added £90 to the prize pool for this coming Thursday's Handicap Trophy tournament at the casino.
The idea is to boost the attendance, not only in attracting back some players who may not have been along much recently, but also in drawing in newer players who will benefit from the chance to play their more experienced counterparts with the benefit of a few points start.
The sponsorship would have the effect of, for example, doubling the tournament prize pool for a ten player tournament.
01/04/23: Sixteen penalised at the first Premier League checkpoint
The first Premier League checkpoint of the season passed at midnight on Friday.
The good news was that everyone avoided the dreaded fate of expungement from the league.
But sixteen players have incurred either one, two or three penalty points for being behind the relevant schedule.
That's three players in Premier One, six in Premier Two Blue, three in Premier Two Red and four in Premier Three Yellow.
Only Premier Three Green had a clean bill of health.
All of the penalties can be clawed back by complying with the terms of the May 31st checkpoint.
31/03/23: Friday's Premier League results round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Friday.
Premier Two Red was the busiest division, with three results.
There were wins for Ian Tarr, James Lintell-Smith and Jon Organ, over Pearl Foster, Steffen Nowak and Adam Sinclair.
Jon's win was the result of the day, being bottom of the league against top.
The day's other winner was Rosemary Whitehouse, who defeated Michael Corbett in Premier Three Yellow.
31/03/23: George wins GP10 tournament
There were just ten players in action on Thursday, seven of them to contest the third of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament George Georgiou was the main flight winner, defeating Hazel Harper, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Stephen Little.
Stephen had defeated Tim Line in the semi-final after receiving a quarter-final bye.
Cynthia Roberts took the consolation flight with victories over Hazel and Tim.
Ian has moved into the GP10 lead, just ahead of George and the absent Gaz Owen.
There were three Premier Two matches played.
In the Blue Division the Swan, Almondsbury, was the latest new Bristol Backgammon venue, hosting Stephen's victory over Alan Joicey.
And an online double header saw 11-10 wins for both Ed Turner and James Lintell-Smith in the Red Division.
29/03/23: Ian wins Wednesday tournament
There were just eleven players in action on Wednesday, eight of them to contest the thirteenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Ian Tarr, whose victims were Elias Hamati, Chris Hughes and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there by defeating John Curran and Adam Sinclair.
Stephen Little took the consolation flight with wins over John and Elias.
Ian also won a post tournament jackpot.
There were two other matches played.
If Ian's evening went well, his afternoon had offered a stark contrast, when he suffered a Premier Two Red whitewash at the hands of Steffen Nowak.
In Premier Three Green Richard Owsley beat Caroline Boulton.
29/03/23: Tuesday's Premier League and Brunel Trophy round-up
There were nine matches played on Tuesday.
In the second round of the 2023 Brunel Trophy Richard Owsley defeated Simonetta Herrera.
Simonetta still has one life remaining, but Richard retains both of his.
Kev Peters suffered a damaging day in Premier One, losing to Simon Baker before being beaten twice by Stuart Mann.
Another busy player was Chris Hughes in Premier Two Blue.
A defeat by Alan Joicey was followed by a double header with Simon Hughes, where each player won once.
And in the same division league leader Dave Pym lost narrowly to Stephen Little.
Meanwhile in Premier Two Red it was business as usual for leader Adam Sinclair, who defeated Ed Turner.
28/03/23: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday, fourteen of them to contest the third Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix sessions across two environments.
And for the second time this season live players outnumbered those playing online.
Nine at Sportsmans were split into groups of five and four, while the five online formed a single group.
Adam Sinclair won the online group, while George Georgiou won the larger of the live groups.
The smaller live group saw honours shared by Tim Line and Stephen Little.
Adam moves fractionally into the NGP lead, ahead of Tim.
There were also four Premier League matches played.
A top flight win still eludes Robin Gunney, who lost at DMP to Chris Rogers.
In Premier Two Blue Simon Hughes became the last of the fifty-nine Premier League players to begin his campaign, but needs to wait for his opening win, having been pipped twice by Mike Smith.
And in the same division Alan Joicey defeated Hemal Getalal.
26/03/23: Sunday's results round-up
There were five matches played on Sunday.
Premier Two Blue saw wins for league leader Dave Pym and Jim Green, over Alan Joicey and Paul Watts.
Simon Tracy beat Jon Organ in Premier Two Red.
And in Premier Three Yellow Michael Corbett beat Rosemary Whitehouse and Frank Jones pipped league leader Warner Solomon.
25/03/23: Saturday's action
In the only match played on Saturday Phil Doubtfire defeated Rosemary Whitehouse in Premier Three Yellow.
24/03/23: Friday league win for Alan
There was just one match played on Friday.
In Premier Two Blue Alan Joicey beat Mike Smith.
23/03/23: Tim wins March Speedgammon event
There were eleven players in action on Thursday, just five of them to take part in the second of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino -- the lowest turnout ever in eighty-four incarnations of this event.
The five formed a single round robin group, and Tim Line -- with three wins out of four -- came out on top.
Tim succeeds Hazel as the SGGP leader, by just five points.
There was also action in the Premier League and the Brunel Trophy.
George Georgiou scored a Premier One victory over Andy Boysan before the tournament.
Gary Plant defeated Chris Hughes at the Compass, Tormarton, in Premier Two Blue.
Meanwhile online Phil Charlton pipped Steffen Nowak in Premier Two Red.
And there were second round 2023 Brunel Trophy wins for Gaz Owen (over Ian Hedges) and Michael Petrakas (over Ian Tarr).
22/03/23: Gaz returns with a win
There were seventeen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the twelfth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen, whose return from holiday coincided with a fifth Wednesday victory this year, his victims being Mandy Macdonald, John Curran, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Ian Anderson.
Ian had arrived there after a first round bye by defeating Chris Hughes and Andy Boysan.
Elias Hamati took the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia Roberts and Chris.
Ian also won a post tournament jackpot.
There were three other matches played.
Pearl Foster defeated Matt Sharp in the second round of the Brunel Trophy, leaving both players with a single life to take into the third round draw.
Steffen Nowak beat Phil Charlton in Premier Two Red.
And Cynthia continued her Premier Three Green revival with a victory over Tom Chapman.
21/03/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were eight matches played on Tuesday.
In what was effectively a sudden death encounter in the second round of the Brunel Trophy, Stephen Little defeated Cynthia Roberts.
Reigning champion Andy Boysan played two Premier One matches, and was on the receiving end of a whitewash at the hands of Gerald Whitehouse before defeating Robin Gunney.
Andy has already lost as many league matches as he did during the whole of his magnificent 2022 season, while Gerald is proving to be the surprise packet of the division, with the highest percentage of wins thus far.
Robin is still searching for his first league win of the season.
Premier Two Blue saw wins for Mike Smith and Chris Hughes, over Safi Tracy and Alan Joicey.
Ed Turner and Cliff Blofield were the Premier Two Red winners, Steffen Nowak and Tim Line being on the wrong end of those results.
And Richard Owsley beat Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
21/03/23: Adam wins Winter Grand Prix by a whisker
There were twenty-four players in action on Monday, sixteen of them to contest the tenth and final Monday Winter Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans formed a single group, while those online initially split into groups of six and five, until one player's technical problems reduced that to a lop-sided six and four.
Andy Boysan and Ian Anderson took the honours online.
But the live group is one match short of reaching a conclusion, with Hazel Harper's four wins putting her into a lead, which would be shared were Jake Mochnacz to win the unplayed match.
The final top overall WGP positions cannot be affected by the unplayed match, with George Georgiou destined to fall just short of threatening the top two, Adam Sinclair and Kev Peters.
Kev began the session five points adrift of Adam, who didn't contest the session.
Kev's second place finish -- just marginally behind Andy on PR -- in the larger online group gained him exactly five points after discards, so Adam took the prize on the strength of contesting one session fewer than Kev.
If Adam's absence was a calculated one, it worked a treat!
There were four other matches played.
The Lodekka, Brislington, was another new Bristol Backgammon venue, hosting the Brunel Trophy second round meeting of Chris Rogers and Neil Young, where both had two lives remaining.
Neil won to preserve his double lifeline.
There were Premier Two Blue wins for Hemal Getalal and Ismail Yilmaz, over Alan Joicey and Paul Watts, who thus lost his undefeated record.
And in Premier Two Red Pearl Foster defeated Jon Organ.
20/03/23: Premier Three prize money boost
The prize pool for Premier Three has, for the second successive year, been boosted by a £100 injection from an anonymous sponsor.
This represents a 22% addition to the total entry fees for Premier Three, and pushes prize levels closer to those in Premier Two, where there are more players.
19/03/23: Sunday's Premier League results round-up
There were six matches played on Sunday.
Neil Young and Simon Baker played a Premier One double header at the Pump House, and shared the spoils.
Premier Two Blue leader Dave Pym suffered a narrow defeat to Mike Smith.
Phil Doubtfire played two Premier Three Yellow matches, succumbing to league leader Warner Solomon before defeating Frank Jones.
And Neil Edwards beat Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
19/03/23: Saturday win for Michael
There was just one Premier League match played on Saturday.
And that was Michael Corbett's victory over John Curran in Premier Three Yellow.
17/03/23: Friday's Premier League results round-up
There were four matches played on Friday.
In Premier One Robin Gunney played twice, succumbing to both Gerald Whitehouse and Andy Boysan.
And in Premier Three Yellow there were wins for league leader Warner Solomon and Phil Doubtfire, Martha Beal and John Curran being their victims.
17/03/23: Tim wins GP20 tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, just seven of them to contest the second of the year's eight GP20 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament Tim Line was the main flight winner, defeating Hazel Harper, Cynthia Roberts and -- in the final -- Ian Tarr.
Ian had got past George Georgiou and Chris Rogers en route to the final.
George took the consolation flight with victories over Hazel and Steve Morris.
Tim takes over from holidaying Gaz Owen at the top of the GP20 table.
There were also six Premier League matches played.
In Premier Two Blue Safi Tracy, Michael Petrakas and Jim Green were winners, over Mike Smith, Alan Joicey and Ismail Yilmaz respectively.
Phil Charlton and Steffen Nowak scored Premier Two Red victories over Andrew Cobb and Mathew Nicholls.
And Cynthia Roberts completed what was almost certainly a unique hat-trick of 11-10 wins over Richard Owsley in Premier Three Green.
15/03/23: James wins Wednesday tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the eleventh of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was former Premier League player James Newman, whose victims were Cynthia Roberts, Robin Gunney, Andy Boysan and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati.
Elias had arrived there after a first round bye by defeating Chris Hughes and Alan Joicey.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight with wins over Ian Anderson, Cynthia and John Curran.
Elias also won a post tournament jackpot.
There was also Premier League and Brunel Trophy action.
Cliff Blofield and Steve Morris were eliminated from the Brunel Trophy, Cliff losing to unbeaten Kev Peters while Steve succumbed to Jake Mochnacz, who has one life remaining, at the Kensington Arms.
And in Premier Two Red second placed Simon Tracy defeated Steffen Nowak.
14/03/23: Elias sets a target for the Green Division
Just seventy-three days into the 334 day Bristol Premier League season we already have a player who has completed his campaign.
Elias Hamati won the fifteenth of his twenty-four match Premier Three Green allocation against Richard Owsley and can now sit back and wait to see whether he has done enough.
In terms of promotion, the odds would appear to be in his favour, while the destiny of the Green Division title seems less certain.
14/03/23: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday, seventeen of them to contest the ninth Monday Winter Grand Prix sessions in DMP round robins across two environments.
Eight at Sportsmans and nine online formed single groups.
Kev Peters pipped Frank Jones online, while George Georgiou and Stephen Little tied for the leadership of the live group.
Kev has moved to within five popints of WGP leader Adam Sinclair with just next week's session remaining.
There was also Premier Two action.
In Premier Two Blue Mike Smith scored a narrow victory over Jim Green, while Phil Charlton notched a win against Jon Organ in Premier Two Red.
12/03/23: Sunday's results round-up
There were two matches played on Sunday.
In the second round of the Brunel Trophy Tim Line defeated Hemal Getalal, so both players will go into the third round draw with a single life remaining.
And in Premier Two Red league leader Adam Sinclair scored another victory, this time against Jon Organ.
12/03/23: Saturday's Premier League results round-up
There were three matches played on Saturday.
In Premier One there were wins for Ben Crowden and Cecilia Rogers, over Kev Peters and Simon Baker respectively.
And in Premier Two Blue Michael Petrakas scored a narrow victory against Gary Plant.
12/03/23: Paul beat Mike on Thursday
In a hitherto unreported result, Paul Watts scored his third successive Premier Two Blue victory over Mike Smith online on Thursday.
10/03/23: Ian wins March Bristol Grand Prix event
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, eight of them to contest the third of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
Ian Tarr took the main flight honours this time, defeating Tim Line, Hazel Harper and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there with wins over Neil Young and Stephen Little, making it to his third successive BGP final.
George Georgiou won the consolation flight with victories over Neil and Tim.
Nick has extended his BGP lead to 70 points, with Ian now in second place.
There was also Premier League action.
Neil had defeated Nick at V-Shed before the tournament in a Premier One encounter.
In Premier Two Blue the venue was Brookhouse Farm, Swindon, where two of Bristol Backgammon's most eminent Wiltshire residents met, Dave Pym clinching victory over Gary Plant with a very necessary double six to consolidate his divisional leadership.
Tim and Ed Turner met before the tournament, Ed winning their Premier Two Red match emphatically.
And Elias Hamati is now one match from completing his Premier Three Green season after a brace of victories over Marcel Bancroft.
With fourteen wins so far he will be hoping to defeat Richard Owsley in his final match to set an imposing title target for his pursuers.
08/03/23: Cecilia takes Wednesday honours
There were twenty-one players in action on Wednesday, fourteen of them to contest the tenth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Cecilia Rogers, whose victims after a first round bye were Gerald Whitehouse, Elias Hamati and -- in the final -- Ian Anderson.
Ian had arrived there by defeating Chris Rogers, Tim Line and Ian Tarr.
Chris took the consolation flight with wins over John Curran and Stephen Little.
There was also Premier League and Brunel Trophy action.
Elias secured his spot in the third round of the Brunel Trophy by defeating Natalie Singh, both players having one life remaining.
Andrew Cobb and Ian Tarr played out a Premier Two Red double header, Ian prevailing twice.
Richard Owsley defeated Neil Edwards in Premier Three Green.
And the Premier Three Yellow winners were Martha Beal and Phil Doubtfire, over John and Fred North respectively.
07/03/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were nine matches played on Tuesday.
The first of the second round Brunel Trophy matches saw victories for Steve Pickard and Adam Sinclair over Phil Charlton and Alan Joicey.
Phil and Alan have both lost twice, so are the first to be eliminated from this year's competition.
Premier One rookies Gerald Whitehouse and Ben Crowden met, and it was Gerald who prevailed to maintain his promising start to top flight life.
Four Premier Two Red matches included a double header between Andrew Cobb and Hazel Harper, where Hazel won both times.
In the same division leaders Simon Tracy and Adam met differing fates, Adam edging home against Ian Tarr while Simon was losing to Tim Line.
And in Premier Two Blue there were wins for Paul Watts and leader Dave Pym over Alan and Chris Hughes.
07/03/23: Nineteen in Monday action
There were nineteen players in action on Monday to contest the eighth Monday Winter Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
Eight at Sportsmans formed two groups of four, while the eleven online were split into groups of six and five.
George Georgiou and Mathew Nicholls won the live groups, while Adam Sinclair and Andy Boysan took the honours online.
In Andy's group of five every player won twice, which left the PRs to decide finishing positions.
In Kev Peters' absence Adam took advantage, and has moved into a nine points WGP lead.
Before the live event Mathew met Hazel Harper in a Premier Two Red match, where Hazel prevailed.
05/03/23: Brunel Trophy second round draw made
The draw for the second round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Sunday by matching two numerical sequences.
The fifty-one entrants all survived the first round, as this is a double elimination tournament.
The lucky recipient of the only bye of the round is Warner Solomon.
Matches are to be completed by April 9th.
This time, of course, there will be players eliminated, and there could be anything between five and twenty casualties.
Check out the full draw here.
05/03/23: Sunday's results round-up
There were five matches played on Sunday.
The final first round Brunel Trophy match saw George Georgiou score the narrowest of wins over Cecilia Rogers.
In Premier Two Red there were three matches.
Pearl Foster shared the spoils of a double header with Andrew Cobb, while Adam Sinclair took over at the top of the division by defeating Mathew Nicholls.
And Michael Corbett beat Frank Jones in Premier Three Yellow.
03/03/23: Friday win for Gary
In Friday's only action Gary Plant scored a Premier Two Blue win over Safi Tracy.
02/03/23: Thursday's results round-up
There were three Premier Two matches played on Thursday.
In Premier Two Blue Alan Joicey defeated league leader Dave Pym online, while Michael Petrakas beat Stephen Little at the casino.
Another match played at the casino was Tim Line's Premier Two Red victory over Ed Turner.
01/03/23: Gaz wins another Wednesday tournament
There were twelve players in action on Wednesday to contest the ninth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen, who has now won four of this series of Wednesday events this year.
His victims were Robin Gunney, Alan Joicey, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Andy Boysan.
Andy had arrived there by defeating Adam Sinclair and Elias Hamati after receiving a first round bye.
Robin took the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia Roberts, Chris Rogers and Stephen Little.
Elias won a post-tournament jackpot.
28/02/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were five matches played on Tuesday.
The Alma Tavern hosted a Premier One match, where Andy Boysan began his title defence with a narrow defeat to Simon Baker.
Premier Two Red pace setters Simon Tracy and Adam Sinclair kept up their strong starts with victories over Cliff Blofield and Ed Turner.
And two more first round Brunel Trophy ties were resolved -- Safi Tracy edging home against Michael Petrakas and Kev Peters defeating Hazel Harper.
28/02/23: Nineteen in competitive Monday action
There were nineteen players in action on Monday, eleven of them online for the year's second Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix session.
And while five turned up at Sportsmans, two of those were playing a first round Brunel Trophy match, so the three others were denied the chance of competitive Nackgammon action and played random friendly matches.
The eleven were split into groups of six and five, where Nick Barham and Kev Peters took the honours.
Nick has taken over as NGP leader, five points ahead of Kev.
The Brunel Trophy match, between Steffen Nowak and Richard Davies, adjourned downstairs to the Hideaway Bar -- later described as a mausoleum by Richard -- but it was Richard who prevailed.
Online in the Premier League there were three matches played.
Phil Charlton scored a Premier Two Blue win over James Lintell-Smith.
And in Premier Three Green there were wins for Andy Zographou and Eamonn Reay over Marcel Bancroft and Caroline Boulton.
26/02/23: Sunday's results round-up
There were three matches played on Sunday.
Premier Two Blue leader Dave Pym defeated Safi Tracy.
In Premier Three Green Cynthia Roberts had her revenge over Eamonn Reay after the result of the previous day.
And in Shepton Mallet Tim Line beat Hazel Harper in the held over main flight final from Thursday's Handicap Trophy tournament.
This latter match was a second attempt, after an earlier effort had failed to take into account the handicap differential.
Tim has won both of this year's HT events, and has established a 70 points lead over second placed Hazel.
26/02/23: Saturday's Premier Three action
There were two Premier Three matches played on Saturday.
In the Yellow Division Martha Beal defeated Frank Jones.
And Eamonn Reay scored a Green Division victory over Cynthia Roberts.
24/02/23: Friday's Brunel Trophy round-up
Four first round Brunel Trophy matches were played on Friday.
At a new venue for Bristol Backgammon -- the Dark Horse, Redfield -- Frank Jones defeated James Lintell-Smith, to the accompaniment of a heavy rock sound-track.
And online there were wins for Gerald Whitehouse, Warner Solomon and Simon Baker, who respectively despatched Pearl Foster, Alan Joicey and Cynthia Roberts.
Just four of the first round matches remain to be resolved before the second round draw on Sunday March 5th.
24/02/23: Tim and Hazel in Handicap Trophy final
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the second of this year's series of Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
And the day featured two Bristol Backgammon debuts.
The main flight final was held over, as Hazel Harper and Tim Line decided to play it over the weekend as a "local derby".
Hazel came through the long side of the draw with victories over Frank Jones, George Georgiou and Ed Turner, while Tim's victims were Steve Morris and Stephen Little.
The HT leadership depends on the outcome of the final.
Should Hazel win, the pair will share the lead, but the reverse result would see Tim open up a 70 point gap.
The consolation flight honours went to Ian Tarr, who overcame Frank and Nick Barham.
Aidan Kenny enjoyed his competitive debut, and also had the satisfaction of a consolation flight victory over Steve.
And in other action the second debutant, Larry Deferville, was pipped by Jim Green in the first round of the Brunel Trophy.
A Premier One match before the tournament saw Nick fall to defeat by Neil Young at the Pump House.
Natalie Singh beat Alan Joicey in Premier Two Blue.
And Caroline Boulton played twice in Premier Three Green, succumbing to Richard Owsley before defeating league leader Elias Hamati.
23/02/23: Nick wins Wednesday tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Wednesday, including the twelve who contested the eighth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Nick Barham, who defeated Simon Tracy, Adam Sinclair, Alan Joicey and -- in the final -- Tim Line.
Tim had arrived there by defeating Ian Anderson and Chris Rogers after receiving a first round bye.
Chris Hughes took the consolation flight with wins over Andy Boysan and John Curran.
Ian won a post-tournament jackpot.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Mathew Nicholls scored a Premier Two Red win over Hazel Harper.
And in Premier Three Green Richard Owsley defeated Neil Edwards.
21/02/23: Tuesday's results round-up
There were three matches played on Tuesday, one in the Premier League and two in the Brunel Trophy.
In the first round of the Brunel Trophy there were wins for Chris Hughes (at the Lock Keeper, Keynsham) and Simon Hughes over Stephen Little and Tim Line.
And in Premier Two Red Ed Turner defeated Phil Charlton.
20/02/23: Twenty-three in Monday action
There were twenty-three players in action on Monday, twenty of them to contest the seventh Monday Winter Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
Six at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the fourteen online were split into groups of seven.
Stephen Little won the live group, while Nick Barham and Natalie Singh took the honours online.
Andy Boysan won the side pool in Natalie's group, while George Georgiou did likewise live.
Kev Peters still holds the WGP lead, with Adam Sinclair eleven behind.
There were three other matches played.
Matt Sharp won a first round Brunel Trophy tie against Jake Mochnacz at the club, and the same pair took a step towards resolving the unfinished Nackgammon Grand Prix session from three weeks ago.
Meanwhile Hemal Getalal was scoring his first Premier Two Blue win of the season against league leader Dave Pym.
19/02/23: Sunday's results round-up
There were four matches played on Sunday, three in the Premier League and one in the Brunel Trophy.
The Plough, Easton, became the latest new Bristol Backgammon venue, when James Lintell-Smith scored the narrowest possible win over Premier Two Red leader Simon Tracy.
Online in Premier Two Blue Ismail Yilmaz halted Chris Hughes early season winning run.
And Michael Corbett defeated Mandy Macdonald in Premier Three Yellow.
And the first round Brunel Trophy action saw a narrow win for Ian Tarr over Paul Watts.
18/02/23: Saturday's results round-up
There were six matches played on Saturday, four in Premier Three and two in the Brunel Trophy.
In Premier Three Green Elias Hamati scored a brace of wins over Andy Zographou to pull away at the top of the league.
Martha Beal played twice in the parallel Yellow Division, succumbing to league leader Warner Solomon before defeating Mandy Macdonald.
The first round Brunel Trophy action saw wins for Neil Young and Hemal Getalal over Elias and Simon Tracy repectively.
17/02/23: Friday's Premier League action
There was just one Premier League match played on Friday.
Elias Hamati pipped Eamonn Reay in a Premier Three Green match, and moves to the top of the league.
16/02/23: Ian wins GP10 tournament
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the second of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament Ian Tarr was the main flight winner, defeating Tom Chapman, Nick Barham and -- in the final -- George Georgiou.
George had got past Tim Line and Gaz Owen en route to the final.
Steve Morris took the consolation flight with victories over Hazel Harper and Tom.
Gaz's early GP10 lead has been cut to 5 points by Ian.
There were two other matches played.
In the Brunel Trophy first round Adam Sinclair defeated Andy Zographou.
And in Premier Three Green Richard Owsley beat Eamonn Reay.
16/02/23: Chris Hughes wins Wednesday tournament
There were twenty-three players in action on Wednesday, including the twelve who contested the seventh of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Chris Hughes, who defeated Ian Anderson, Gaz Owen, Alan Joicey and -- in the final -- Stephen Little.
Stephen had arrived there by defeating Ian Tarr and Elias Hamati after receiving a first round bye.
Ian Anderson took the consolation flight with wins over Adam Sinclair, Tim Line and Frank Jones.
Ian Tarr won a post-tournament jackpot.
There were also six Premier League matches and two Brunel Trophy first round ties played.
In the Brunel Trophy there were wins for Simonetta Herrera and Ed Turner, over Steve Pickard and Cliff Blofield respectively.
Tim and Mathew Nicholls played a Premier Two Red double header after the tournament, with honours shared.
Ismail Yilmaz defeated Gary Plant in Premier Two Blue.
Neil Edwards had his amazing run of Premier Three Green wins ended by Eamonn Reay.
And Fred North ventured into Bristol from Wantage to play Frank Jones at the Fox Den, Stoke Gifford, and Mandy Macdonald in Windmill Hill.
He won both Premier Three Yellow encounters.
14/02/23: Tuesday's Premier League round-up
There were four Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
In Premier Two Blue Chris Hughes continued his winning start to the season at the expense of Hemal Getalal.
Ian Tarr visited Simon Tracy in Henleaze for a Premier Two Red match and was defeated, while online Adam Sinclair narrowly beat Hazel Harper.
And Elias Hamati scored a Premier Three Green win over Eamonn Reay.
There was also a first round Brunel Trophy match played, Andy Boysan defeating Mike Smith.
14/02/23: Twenty-two in Monday action
There were twenty-two players in action on Monday, eighteen of them to contest the sixth Monday Winter Grand Prix sessions in DMP across two environments.
There was a group of seven at Sportsmans and one of eleven online.
Andy Boysan won the online group, while the live group saw a tie for the lead between Tim Line and Ian Tarr.
Kev Peters holds the WGP lead, with Adam Sinclair eleven points behind.
There were also three Premier League matches played.
Simon Baker met Stuart Mann at the Pump House, where they shared their Premier One spoils.
And Fred North defeated John Curran in Premier Three Yellow.
13/02/23: Premier Three sponsorship boost
An anonymous player has added £100 to the prize pot for Premier Three Green and Premier Three Yellow.
The initial prize pot of £450 reflects the entry fees paid by the eighteen Premier Three starters.
That total is lower than the pot for Premier Two, where there are more players.
So the overall Premier Three total is now £550.
12/02/23: Sunday's Premier League action
There were seven Premier League matches played on Sunday.
In Premier One Gaz Owen defeated Ben Crowden.
Premier Two Blue saw most action, with victories for Michael Petrakas, Alan Joicey and Chris Hughes over Jim Green, Mike Smith and league leader Dave Pym.
Tim Line visited Simon Tracy and came away with a Premier Two Red victory, Simon's first league defeat of the season.
And Neil Edwards continued his remarkable return to action with a ninth successive Premier Three Green win, this time over Tom Chapman.
In the same division Andy Zographou beat Elias Hamati.
11/02/23: Saturday's results round-up
There were five matches played on Saturday.
In Premier One Ben Crowden had a busy day, defeating Cecilia Rogers before succumbing to Chris Rogers -- for Chris's first league win in seven -- and Gaz Owen.
The other two results came in the first round of the 2023 Brunel Trophy, where Natalie Singh beat Nick Barham and Gaz defeated Rosemary Whitehouse.
10/02/23: Friday's action
There were two matches played on Friday.
In Premier One at the Pump House Gerald Whitehouse defeated Neil Young.
Online Eamonn Reay and Chris Rogers met in the Brunel Trophy, Chris prevailing.
10/02/23: George wins February Bristol Grand Prix event
There were eighteen players in action on Thursday, ten of them to contest the second of our twelve monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournaments of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
George Georgiou missed the January tournament, but took the main flight honours this time, defeating Steve Morris and Rosemary Whitehouse before beating January winner Nick Barham in the final.
Nick had arrived there with wins over Stephen Little and Gaz Owen.
Stephen won the consolation flight for the second successive time, beating Ian Tarr and Hazel Harper.
Nick has extended his BGP lead to 65 points, with George in second place.
There was also Premier League and Brunel Trophy action.
Premier One leader Chris Rogers is in the middle of an uncharacteristic slump, and his double loss to George before the tournament made it six league defeats in succession.
Gerald Whitehouse also finished off an adjourned match against Nick Barham before the tournament, adding the two points he needed for victory.
Meanwhile online Cecilia Rogers was beating Ben Crowden.
Eamonn Reay began his Premier Three Green campaign with a narrow defeat to Elias Hamati.
Richard Owsley was a Brunel Trophy first round winner at the casino, defeating Steve Morris.
And in the same competition Ian Hedges defeated Phil Charlton.
08/02/23: Another Wednesday tournament win for Gaz
There were fourteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the sixth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen, who defeated Simon Tracy, Adam Sinclair, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Ian Anderson, to record his third Wednesday tournament win of the year.
Ian had arrived there by defeating Andy Boysan and Chris Hughes after receiving a first round bye.
Andy took the consolation flight with wins over Elias Hamati and Nick Barham.
Stephen Little won a post-tournament jackpot.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Cliff Blofield beat Hazel Harper in Premier Two Red.
And Rosemary Whitehouse began her Premier Three Yellow campaign with a victory ver Fred North.
06/02/23: Seventeen in Monday action
There were seventeen players in action on Monday, fourteen of them to contest the fifth Monday Winter Grand Prix sessions in 3-point round robins across two environments.
Five at Sportsmans formed a single group, while the nine online were split into groups of five and four.
While Ian Anderson and Adam Sinclair won the online groups, the live group saw a tie for the lead between Jake Mochnacz and Ian Tarr.
Kev Peters holds the WGP lead, with Adam six points behind.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Ben Crowden defeated Kev in Premier One, while Gary Plant was beating Safi Tracy in Premier Two Blue.
05/02/23: Sunday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Natalie Singh beat Ismail Yilmaz in Premier Two Blue.
Meanwhile Warner Solomon was losing for the first time this season in Premier Three Yellow against Fred North.
05/02/23: Saturday's Premier League action
There was just one Premier League match played on Saturday.
Warner Solomon continued his unbeaten start to league backgammon with win number six over Phil Doubtfire in Premier Three Yellow.
03/02/23: Hazel wins opening Speedgammon Grand Prix event
There were twelve players in action on Thursday, eight of them to take part in the first of the year's eight Speedgammon Grand Prix sessions at the Rainbow Casino.
The eight were split into two round robin groups of four, with reigning SGGP champion George Georgiou and Ian Tarr scoring clean sweeps to win their groups.
They were joined in the semi-finals of the knock-out phase by second placers Hazel Harper and Tim Line.
And it was Hazel and Tim who turned the tables to reach the final, where Hazel recovered from 0-4 down to win.
Hazel is thus the opening SGGP leader.
There was also action in the Premier League and the Brunel Trophy.
Nick Barham defeated George in Premier One before the tournament.
Meanwhile online Natalie Singh pipped Alan Joicey in Premier Two Blue.
And Robin Gunney registered the 2023 Brunel Trophy's first victory, a narrow one over Kylie Hedges.
01/02/23: Tim wins latest Wednesday tournament
There were just twelve players in action on Wednesday to contest the fifth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Tim Line, whose victims were Chris Hughes, Adam Sinclair, Ian Anderson and -- in the final -- Elias Hamati.
Elias had arrived there by defeating Frank Jones and Nick Barham after receiving a first round bye.
Ian Tarr took the consolation flight with wins over Frank, Robin Gunney and Chris Hughes.
Elias won a post-tournament jackpot.
01/02/23: Phillip Hill RIP
Sad news to report is that Phillip Hill, a regular player between 2001 and 2012, left us on December 22nd.
A unique character, who will be well remembered by all who knew him.
He won three Bristol Open Grand Prix main flights between 2003 and 2004, and spent one season (2006) in Premier One.
31/01/23: Brunel Trophy first round draw made
The draw for the first round of the tenth incarnation of the Brunel Trophy was made on Tuesday.
There are fifty-one entrants, just one short of last year's all-time record.
The lucky recipient of the only bye of the round is Mandy Macdonald.
The matches are to be completed by March 6th.
Check out the full draw here.
31/01/23: Tuesday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Gaz Owen defeated Kev Peters in Premier One.
And Simon Tracy continued his fine start to the Premier Two Red season by beating Cliff Blofield.
31/01/23: Twenty-three in Monday action
There were twenty-three players in action on Monday, nineteen of them to contest the opening Monday Nackgammon Grand Prix sessions across two environments.
And the great news for purists was that the live players outnumbered those playing online.
Eleven at Sportsmans were split into groups of six and five, while the eight online formed two groups of four.
While Nick Barham and Adam Sinclair won the online groups, things were less clear cut live.
Tim Line won the smaller group outright, but the larger group was not finished in the prescribed time slot, with three matches still to be played.
Ian Tarr heads the provisional group table, but can be caught should Jake Mochnacz win his two outstanding matches.
For the moment Tim is the NGP leader, but should Jake fail to win those matches, Ian will edge ahead.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Michael Petrakas defeated Ismail Yilmaz in Premier Two Blue, while Marcel Bancroft was beating Andy Zographou in Premier Three Green.
29/01/23: Sunday's Premier League action
There were four Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Ben Crowden scored his first win in Premier One at the expense of Robin Gunney.
In Premier Two Blue league leader Dave Pym continued his fine form by defeating Michael Petrakas.
Cliff Blofield defeated Pearl Foster in Premier Two Red.
And Cynthia Roberts notched her fourth win in five matches, beating Marcel Bancroft in Premier Three Green.
28/01/23: Saturday's Premier League action
There were four Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In Premier Two Blue there were wins for league leader Dave Pym and Michael Petrakas, Dave defeating Hemal Getalal while Michael was beating Gary Plant.
Hazel Harper began her Premier Two Red campaign in Henleaze, where she lost narrowly to unbeaten Simon Tracy.
And another to maintain an unblemished record was Warner Solomon, whose fifth Premier Three Yellow victory came at the expense of Michael Corbett.
27/01/23: Friday's Premier League action
There were four Premier League matches played on Friday.
Chris Hughes and Gary Plant began their Premier Two Blue season, Chris prevailing.
Tom Chapman completed two Premier Three Green matches, pipping Cynthia Roberts before succumbing to league leader Neil Edwards.
And Martha Beal notched her first Premier Three Yellow win of the season, overcoming Phil Doubtfire.
27/01/23: Gaz wins opening GP20 tournament
There were sixteen players in action on Thursday, eight of them to contest the first of the year's eight GP20 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament Gaz Owen was the main flight winner, defeating George Georgiou, Ian Tarr and -- in the final -- Stephen Little.
Stephen had got past Steve Morris and Tim Line en route to the final.
George took the consolation flight with victories over Steve and Hazel Harper.
So Gaz is the early GP20 leader, 35 points ahead of Stephen.
There were also five Premier League matches played.
In Premier One Neil Young defeated Chris Rogers online, while Nick Barham beat George before the tournament.
Dave Pym and Paul Watts were the winners in Premier Two Blue, defeating Natalie Singh and Hemal Getalal respectively.
And Richard Owsley's habit of being involved in 11-10 finishes in Premier Three Green was maintained -- unfortunately for him, in defeat by Cynthia Roberts.
26/01/23: Gaz wins second successive Wednesday tournament
There were just twelve players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the fourth of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner -- for the second successive Wednesday -- was Gaz Owen, whose victims were Warner Solomon, Stephen Little, Nick Barham and -- in the final -- Cecilia Rogers.
Cecilia had arrived there by defeating Elias Hamati and Tim Line after receiving a first round bye.
Elias took the consolation flight with wins over Chris Hughes and Andy Boysan.
Ian Tarr won a post-tournament jackpot.
There was also one Premier League match played.
Cynthia Roberts pipped Richard Owsley in Premier Three Green, the third time in as many matches that Richard has been a part of an 11-10 score-line.
24/01/23: Tuesday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Ismail Yilmaz defeated Hemal Getalal in Premier Two Blue.
And Elias Hamati scored a narrow victory over Richard Owsley in Premier Three Green.
23/01/23: Twenty-three in Monday action
There were twenty-three players in action on Monday, twenty-one of them for the fourth instalment of our Monday Club Winter Grand Prix competitions across two environments.
And while eleven contested the online 3-point round robins in groups of six and five, the live session at Sportsmans was also well attended, featuring ten players -- including debut player Liam Connolly -- split into groups of five.
The online groups saw Kev Peters and Adam Sinclair victorious, while the winners at the club were Mathew Nicholls in one group and Hemal Getalal and Ian Tarr who tied for the lead in the other.
Kev has extended his lead in the MCWGP table to eleven points, with Adam now in second place.
And there was also Premier League action.
Chris Rogers suffered his third successive Premier One defeat, losing narrowly to Neil Young.
And Adam increased his Premier Two Red lead by defeating Mathew.
22/01/23: Sunday's Premier League action
There were three Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Pearl Foster defeated Mathew Nicholls in Premier Two Red.
And Elias Hamati shared the spoils of a Premier Three Green double header with Caroline Boulton.
21/01/23: Saturday's Premier League action
There were three Premier League matches played on Saturday.
Dave Pym defeated Ismail Yilmaz in Premier Two Blue.
And Marcel Bancroft shared the spoils of a Premier Three Green double header with Cynthia Roberts.
21/01/23: Friday's Premier League action
There were two Premier League matches played on Friday.
Kev Peters inflicted a rare whitewash on Nick Barham in Premier One.
And Elias Hamati defeated Marcel Bancroft in Premier Three Green.
20/01/23: Tim wins opening Handicap Trophy tournament; Stuart gives Premier One some hope
There were fourteen players in action on Thursday, just eight of them to contest the first of this year's series of Handicap Trophy tournaments at the Rainbow Casino.
Tim Line was the main flight winner, defeating Mary French, George Georgiou and -- in the final -- Steve Morris.
Steve had overcome Hazel Harper and Ian Tarr en route to the final.
The consolation flight honours went to Hazel, who beat Stephen Little and Cynthia Roberts.
There were also four Premier League matches played.
And after Gaz Owen ended his recent run of Premier One defeats at the expense of Neil Young, Stuart Mann was giving hope to other title contenders by halting the progress of Chris Rogers.
The pair met at the Pump House, where Stuart inflicted two heavy defeats on Chris, whose attempt to set a forbidding target for his pursuers now looks a little less imposing.
Then Tom Chapman inflicted another late night defeat on Elias Hamati in Premier Three Green.
19/01/23: Gaz wins Wednesday tournament
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, ten of them to contest the third of the year's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Gaz Owen, whose victims -- after a first round bye -- were Ian Tarr, Elias Hamati and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there by defeating Ian Anderson and Cynthia Roberts.
Ian Anderson took the consolation flight with wins over Stephen Little and Ian Tarr.
There were also three Premier League matches played.
Chris Rogers defeated Gerald Whitehouse in Premier One after losing a quadruple gammon.
Mathew Nicholls and Steffen Nowak got their respective Premier Two Red campaigns under way, Mathew prevailing.
And Tom Chapman defeated Elias Hamati in Premier Three Green after the tournament.
17/01/23: Tuesday's Premier League action
There were three Premier League matches played on Tuesday.
Simon Tracy met Adam Sinclair in Premier Two Red, and Simon prevailed.
And Elias Hamati played two Premier Three Green matches, losing narrowly to Richard Owsley before defeating Tom Chapman.
17/01/23: Twenty in Monday action
There were twenty players in action on Monday, eighteen of them for the third instalment of our Monday Club Winter Grand Prix competitions across two environments.
And while ten contested the online 3-point round robins in two groups of five, it was heartening that the live session at Sportsmans featured eight players split into groups of four.
The online groups saw Kev Peters and Tim Line victorious, while the winners at the club were George "Gnasher" Georgiou and Matt Sharp.
Kev has taken over at the top of the MCWGP table, five points ahead of George.
And in the only league action Neil Edwards continued his astonishing start to the Premier Three Green season with victory over Marcel Bancroft.
15/01/23: Sunday's Premier League action
There were four Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Simon Tracy and Adam Sinclair were winners in Premier Two Red, defeating James Lintell-Smith and Pearl Foster respectively, Simon versus James taking place at a new Bristol Backgammon venue, Cote, The Mall, Clifton.
In Premier Two Blue Stephen Little got his revenge over Ismail Yilmaz for Saturday's defeat.
And Neil Edwards kept up the pace at the top of Premier Three Green by defeating Caroline Boulton.
15/01/23: Saturday's Premier League action
There were six Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In the top flight Cecilia Rogers played twice, succumbing to Neil Young before defeating Gaz Owen.
Adam Sinclair was another to suffer mixed fortunes, beating Pearl Foster in Premier Two Red before losing to Simon Tracy.
In Premier Two Blue Ismail Yilmaz defeated Stephen Little.
And Phil Doubtfire notched his first Premier League win since 2000, narrowly defeating Michael Corbett in Premier Three Yellow.
13/01/23: Friday Premier Two win for Dave
The only Premier League action on Friday was a Premier Two Blue encounter.
And Dave Pym beat Natalie Singh in a nail-biter.
13/01/23: Nick wins to take early Bristol Grand Prix lead
There were thirteen players in action on Thursday, nine of them to contest the opening monthly Bristol Grand Prix tournament of the year at the Rainbow Casino.
Nick Barham took the main flight honours, shrugging off the disadvantage of having to play the only first round match, defeating Rosemary Whitehouse, Tim Line, Ian Tarr and, in the final, the fit again Hazel Harper.
Hazel had arrived there with wins over Gerald Whitehouse and Gaz Owen.
Stephen Little won the consolation flight, beating Steve Morris, Rosemary and Tim.
So Nick is the first BGP leader, with a 50 points cushion, and has an odds on chance of qualifying for the 2024 Bristol Masters.
There was also Premier League action.
Runaway Premier One leader Chris Rogers suffered a rare setback, losing to Kev Peters online.
And in the same division Nick and Gerald almost squeezed in a double header before the start of the tournament, Gerald registering his first top flight win before adjourning the return encounter with the score tantalisingly at 9-7 in his favour.
Elias Hamati has finished his second set of three Premier Three Green encounters.
Having previously defeated Cynthia Roberts three times, it has been a different story against Neil Edwards, who completed his hat-trick of wins yesterday to surge ahead in the division.
12/01/23: Andy wins Wednesday tournament
There were fifteen players in action on Wednesday, twelve of them to contest the second of 2023's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Andy Boysan, whose victims -- after a first round bye -- were Simon Tracy, Ian Anderson and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had arrived there by defeating Gerald Whitehouse, Ian Tarr and Gaz Owen.
George Georgiou took the consolation flight with wins over Stephen Little, Gerald and Tim Line.
George also won a post-tournament jackpot.
There were also two Premier League matches played.
Neil Young defeated Gaz in Premier One, while Neil Edwards beat Elias Hamati -- inadvertently omitted from the tournament draw -- in Premier Three Green.
10/01/23: Reformatted Monday standings are now in place
The reunification of the Monday Club Winter Grand Prix has taken place.
Director Ian Tarr's original attempt to rectify an anomaly in the points tariffs has now been revisited, and the results of that exercise show Adam Sinclair leading the standings, with Gaz Owen in second plvce.
10/01/23: Tuesday's Premier League action
The only Premier League matches played on Tuesday made up a double header in Premier One.
And Neil Young and Stuart Mann shared the spoils at the Pump House.
10/01/23: Jake, Matt and Richard to the rescue
Once again there were seventeen players in action on Monday for the second instalment of our Monday Club Winter Grand Prix competitions.
And while the twelve who contested the online DMP round robin made it pretty much business as usual, the evening's real story surrounded the live session at Sportsmans.
For some time now numbers have been perilously low for the live Monday session, the traditional breeding ground for new players to be welcomed to the fold, and sure enough the live session appeared doomed to non-existence when only two of the more regular Monday players turned up.
But the evening was saved in style with the emergence of no fewer than three new players!
Jake Mochnacz had been in touch and was expected, but then Richard Davies and Matt Sharp arrived from out of the blue to give the evening an altogether more healthy appearance.
All three threw themselves into the live DMP round robin, and all three emerged with credit -- Matt and Richard sharing the top grand prix points spoils with Stephen Little.
The online group saw Adam Sinclair victorious, with George Georgiou -- playing from Turkey -- in second place.
Director Ian Tarr is on the point of finalising a revised series of points tariffs, with the projected Winter Live Grand Prix and Winter Online Grand Prix being unified once more into a single competition.
The new tariffs will enable live contestants, who effectively had no chance of winning the MCGPs under last year's rules, not to be disadvantaged by the rewards stemming from the differing formats of competition in the two environments.
As well as encouraging live play rather than discouraging it, players who choose to play some live and some online sessions will also not be disadvantaged.
08/01/23: Sunday's Premier League action
Chris Rogers is setting the Premier One pace in more ways than one.
After completing three more matches on Sunday, he is already one third of the way through his programme of fixtures, eight days into the 334 day season!
And he has won seven of the eight he has played.
Today he struck a major blow to Gaz Owen's title hopes by defeating him twice, and in between those two matches he found time to defeat Gerald Whitehouse.
Dave Pym suffered mixed fortunes in his Premier Two Blue activities, suffering defeat to Mike Smith before bouncing back to beat Ismail Yilmaz.
Warner Solomon maintained his strong start to the Premier Three Yellow season with victories over Michael Corbett and Mandy Macdonald.
And Neil Edwards leapfrogged Elias Hamati to the top of Premier Three Yellow, having inflicted Elias's first league defeat.
07/01/23: Saturday's Premier League action
There were seven Premier League matches played on Saturday.
In Premier One Chris Rogers beat Cecilia Rogers in Chippenham, while online Gaz Owen got his season off to a winning start against Kev Peters.
Adam Sinclair notched a brace of wins over Cliff Blofield in Premier Two Red.
Neil Edwards made his long awaited return to league action with two Premier Three Green victories over Cynthia Roberts.
And Warner Solomon beat Fred North in Premier Three Yellow.
06/01/23: Friday's Premier League action
There were three Premier League matches played on Friday.
In Premier One Chris Rogers beat both Ben Crowden and Kev Peters.
And Warner Solomon made his league debut, defeating Martha Beal in Premier Three Yellow.
05/01/23: Gaz wins opening GP10 tournament
There were just twelve players in action on Thursday, nine of them to contest the first of the year's ten GP10 tournaments at the casino.
In the tournament Gaz Owen was the main flight winner, defeating Stephen Little, Ian Tarr, Tim Line and -- in the final -- Nick Barham.
Nick had got past Frank Jones and Steve Morris en route to the final.
Ian took the consolation flight with victories over Andy Zographou and Stephen.
So Gaz is the early GP10 leader, 50 points ahead of Nick.
There were two Premier League matches played.
In Premier One Chris Rogers beat Robin Gunney.
And before the tournament Stephen found the time to play a Premier Two Blue match with Jim Green, which Jim won.
05/01/23: Tim wins the year's opening Wednesday tournament
There were eighteen players in action on Wednesday to contest the first of 2023's series of stand-alone Wednesday online tournaments.
This week's winner was Tim Line, whose victims were Simon Tracy, Ian Anderson, Alan Joicey and -- in the final -- Gerald Whitehouse.
Gerald had arrived there by defeating Stephen Little, Nick Barham and Gaz Owen.
Adam Sinclair took the consolation flight with wins over Cynthia Roberts, Robin Gunney and Warner Solomon.
Ian Anderson won a post-tournament jackpot.
Before the tournament Cynthia and Elias Hamati played their second and third Premier Three Green matches, Elias winning both.
03/01/23: Seventeen kick off the 2023 Bristol Backgammon year
There were seventeen players in action on Monday to start off what we all hope will be a momentous and enjoyable year of Bristol Backgammon competition.
The newly configurated grand prix competitions, the Monday Club Winter Live Grand Prix and Monday Club Winter Online Grand Prix got off to a slowish start, with nine -- split into groups of five and four -- online and five in a single group at Sportsmans.
There were clean sweeps in all three groups, Adam Sinclair and Kev Peters winning online and Gaz Owen winning live.
The new format attracted some criticism, and Director Ian Tarr is very likely to have a re-think.
The first two Premier League matches of the year were also played.
In Chippenham Cecilia Rogers scored a resounding victory over Chris Rogers in Premier One.
And after the online round robins Elias Hamati completed his first ever league match with a win over Cynthia Roberts in Premier Three Green.
01/01/23: And then there were fifty-nine
The single vacancy mentioned in the December 28th story below has been filled.
Warner Solomon has taken it up, and now the two Premier Three divisions are the same size, with nine players in each playing 24 matches apiece.
News items from 2022 (second half)
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