It takes both skill and a bit of good fortune to win a tournament. The UKBGF Tour 2020 is designed to identify the most consistent performers, as well as taking top-flight backgammon right around the UK. The tournaments are a mixture of one-day and two-day, single-elimination, double-elimination and Swiss tournaments, supported by some of our leading clubs. Each tournament awards Tour Points to UKBGF members who take part – your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to collect as many as you can. The scoring is explained in more detail here. Our highest scorer over the course of the year will be crowned Tour Champion – and there will be trophies for the top three. Plus, there are places up for grabs in the Tour Winners’ Invitational tournament to be held in January 2021.
For intermediate level players – that is, people rated 1600 or below on average over the last quarter of 2019 – there’s the UKBGF Intermediate Tour 2020. Accumulate points at at one or more of the five events for intermediates, as well as at the single-division events in the same way. Scoring works in the same was as for the main tour – details here. In 2020 there are two new one-day events exclusively for intermediates!
The qualifying events are:
1. West Yorkshire Open
20th-22nd March, at Clayton Village Hall, Clayton, nr. Bradford
Tournament Directors: Steve Lee, Tim Cross
2. North West Intermediates
4th April, at The Moor Club, Heaton Moor, Stockport
Tournament Director: Steve Allott
3. Ealing Intermediates
18th April, at Ealing Bowls Club, Craven road, Ealing, London, W5 2UA
Tournament Directors: John McNeill, Peter Bennet
4. St Albans Open
2nd-3rd May, at Greenwood Park Community Centre, St Albans
Tournament Director: Chris Purchase
5. London Open (+Intermediates)
22nd-25th May, at Ambassador Hotel, nr Euston station, London
Tournament Director: Andrew Selby
6. Blackpool Imperial Cup
5th-7th June, at the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool
Tournament Directors: John Wright, Kevin Jones, Mark Calderbank
7. Cambridge Open
27th-28th June, at the University Centre, Cambridge
Tournament Directors: Peter Booth, Julia Hayward
8. Liverpool Open
10th-12th July, at Leo Casino, Liverpool
Tournament Director: Simon Jones
9. Midlands Open
August, dates TBC
Tournament Director: Shaun Goode
10. UK Open (+Intermediates)
4th – 6th September, at Woodland Grange, Leamington Spa
Tournament Directors: Peter Bennet, Raj Jansari
11. Newcastle Open
2nd – 4th October, at the Royal British Legion, West Jesmond, Newcastle
Tournament Director: Keith Gill
12. Bristol Open (+Intermediates)
30th October – 1st November, at Rainbow Casino, Bristol
Tournament Director: Tim Line
13. Manchester Open
November, dates TBC, at Grosvenor Casino, Didsbury
Tournament Directors: Mark Calderbank, Peter Snape and Gregge Madan
Note that some tournaments have fixed entry limits, so do book early. If any are fully booked, prospective players will have to join a waiting list and await cancellations.
Tour Prizes
The Tour Champion will be able to hold the UKBGF Tour Trophy for a year, and have their name engraved on it – joining our past champions:
- 2016: Sebastian Wilkinson
- 2017: Steve Bibby
- 2018: Tim Cross
- 2019: Kevin Jones
The top three finishers will also receive a personalised memento.
Rules
All tournaments on the tour are played to UKBGF rules.
Registration
You’ll need to register with each event individually. Registration and entry fees are determined by the Tournament Director at each event. There are reduced fees for UKBGF members at some events on the tour; where fees are uniform there will instead be a side event or extra bonus prize for UKBGF members, so there’s a little extra for you all everywhere.
Eligibility
All UKBGF members are eligible to take part in the Tour, and you need do nothing to be included – we will collect up the results and publish Tour standings. If you join the UKBGF part-way through the year, then you can still take part for the rest of the Tour, but Tour Points from events that started before you joined are not awarded retrospectively so to maximise your chances, join early! Also, memberships cannot be processed in person by organisers of the Tour events. Therefore you must join online before the day of the tournament in order to accrue Tour Points for that event.
UK Ratings
All match results will count towards the UKBGF UK Ratings.
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