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Archives for July 2024

Backgammon World Championships, Monte Carlo, July 30-Aug 4 2024

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A tough opening day for the UK, but only two fatalities

 

A pleasing uptick this year with 226 players, up from 198 last year.  [72 in Intermediates].  The atmosphere has crackled with huge crowds around some of the games and some monumental matches on the live streams.  Tobias Hellwag, ranked the number 1 player in the world on one site’s global rankings, hit his opponent’s very final checker at DMP and then won it from there.  Such a rare, spectacular occurrence – backgammon at its bloodiest.

The British contingent has sent a dozen souls to try and crack the code of global domination in Al-Daftari, Barnes, Blackwell, Broomfield, Choraria, Cockerell, Foulad, Kumar, Moulton, Rogers, Squire & Wilkinson, and 10 have lived to fight another day.  Alas, just two have survived in the Main, which is significantly down on last year’s heroics, but there’s been some positive, fighting spirit in the 2nd Chance and two good-looking byes, which means our tally for the day is Won 11, Lost 12.  Chuck in those byes and it’s actually a positive return.  Not great, but not terrible.  It is just Broomfield and Choraria who we’ve lost.

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Nominations are now open for the 2025-6 UKBGF Board

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Nominations are now open for elections to the Board of the UK Backgammon Federation for the two year term 2025-6. If you’re keen to play a big part in shaping the future of backgammon in the UK over the next couple of years, if you have initiatives that you would like to drive forward with a supportive group drawn from across the country, we will be delighted to hear from you!

If you wish to stand in this election, please send an email indicating so to contact@ukbgf.com, along with a head-shot photograph of yourself taken within the last 2 years, and a statement (with a maximum of 250 words) in support of your candidacy, before 23.59 on 31st August 2024; that is, the week following the UK Open. Nominations received after that time will not be accepted. You can find examples of past statements here. If you would like to know more about what being on the Board entails, please feel welcome to ask any of the existing members. This page of the UKBGF website also gives a summary of current activities: https://ukbgf.com/what-is-the-ukbgf.

We will be electing up to seven Board members this time; as the UKBGF has grown, so has the workload and there will be an increased reliance on sub-committees and working groups in future. If you are interested in getting involved, but don’t wish to stand for election as a board member, then you may be interested in being part of a subcommittee that reports to the Board; for example the Tour/TWI, Rules, and Women’s subcommittees are already up and running. The new Board will confirm the opportunities to serve on subcommittees in due course.

We will also adopt the same regional format as in previous elections to ensure that the Board has a geographical spread that reflects the distribution of members; there will be one place guaranteed for Board members in each of three regions (London/SE, Midlands/Wales/West and North/Scotland/Northern Ireland) subject to receiving nominations in each region.

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Cambridge Open, 29-30 June 2024

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Scintillating drama as Paul Moulton Takes the Crown

Carlsberg don’t do backgammon tournaments, but if they did…  Easy to get to for most, venue next to the station, tremendous playing room and facilities, free George Clooney coffee, free bottled water, and the most impeccable tournament direction you could wish for, from someone with “delusions of expertness since 1985.”

We can compare and contrast the Swiss format here to Blackpool [which was still outstanding, don’t get me wrong].  The absolute key one is that the Sunday can now breathe and lost the feel of the day being a really tough grind.  By 13:30 hours the quarter-finals were well developed.  Goodness – were we going to be done by 5?!  Of course not.  Most of the quarters, both semis and the final ran very deep, but that’s why it’s too much to ask four souls to play five times on the Sunday, and why the day will run so long.

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Launch success for UKBGF Accredited Organiser (AO) scheme

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The UKBGF recently announced its new initiative to bring together backgammon organisers through its system of training and accreditation.  A flurry of applications has been received from around the country, and already 11 organisers have completed their training and received accreditation.  A further 10 applications are in progress, and more will be joining through July and August.  The AO scheme is led by UKBGF Board member Simon Hopper, whose professional background is in higher education.

He said: “I couldn’t be more pleased. Not only have we received more than 20 applications, but these also reflect the range of experience within the community.  For example, we have seasoned directors of national tournaments join the scheme, as well as club organisers who often work on their own with little or no access to support.”

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Filed Under: AO

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