BOARD WITH LIFE

Will Cockerell writes:  As a neat sequel to Gerald’s magnum opus in the summer, we present another heart-warming BG life-story from Rosemary Whitehouse, who also writes with great pathos.  The stand-out feature of this piece is highlighting the importance of the club scene and how heart-warming it is to see so many clubs springing up like wildflowers in the Southwest.  My favourite line from the piece is the lady who states that her club is her “lifeline”, and I know I speak for countless thousands, the world over, who know exactly what she means.  Great clubs like these have the perfect mesh of drama, stimulation, excitement and pleasant, vital social interaction.  Reading Rosemary’s words here, four words spring to mind.  “Blimey, what a pioneer.”

Rosemary writes:

I have a childhood memory of unclasping some fiddly brass catches on the side of an old box, on opening it I found a patterned interior, contrasting coloured discs and a pair of small bakelite dice. I quite likely slid the discs over the surface, maybe made patterns with them, piled them up high but I had no understanding of their real purpose, it was meaningless – lifeless.

Many years later, shortly after meeting Gerald, he asked if I’d like to learn to play backgammon. A box was opened and it stirred a memory, the pattered surface, the coloured discs, a set of dice. I must have thought ‘Oh this is going to be dull…’ But no… The discs I learned were called checkers, they were placed in a pattern and fifteen of them became my soldiers, an army that I could command. The dice ignited a spark within the board and also in me, they provided choices, sometimes the choices were easy, often difficult, occasionally really hard.

They created order and chaos in unequal measures. There was meaning and purpose within the board – life happened. The simple contents of this box could create laughter, panic, joy, anger, anticipation and delight, a whole smorgasbord of life’s emotions in the course of a single afternoon, not in the least bit dull or meaningless.

The game was beguiling – we continued to spend many hours, months and years throwing dice and moving checkers but our combined knowledge of backgammon was limited, we played tavla, single games, no cube. We could try and hold our own over apple tea and a backgammon board in Turkey, throwing the tiny bone dice from our fingers like the locals but was there more…?

In January 2019 we found a group of people who had started playing regularly a few miles from us, across the border into Cornwall. They were having their first competition the following Sunday and they invited us to take part. On arrival we were introduced to twenty other equally wild eyed players from the village and surrounding area and the first round was drawn, we were asked to play to five points. I settled at a board with my first opponent and with trembling hands we began to play, we reached two all, he then won the next game, making it three two and he declared himself the winner. On hearing the score the organiser said no not that five, play until one of you reaches five, so we continued and I won the match five three.

Upping the Ante

Trembling a little less, I played another opponent and then another, I was beating people and I was enjoying it… I played Gerald in the final and early that evening I walked away with my first backgammon trophy, a bottle of Prosecco and a question – was there more? In May 2019 we found Ian Tarr’s Bristol club, a two and a half hour jaunt door to door. The club met at the Rainbow Casino. I’d not been to a casino before and it was a quite daunting just walking through the door but the Rainbow became a favourite place to play over the next five years, feeling as at home there as in my own living room.

We found our way to the Rainbow’s huge backgammon playing room. There were already two boards set up and four players, heads down, studiously going about their business. I’d not observed people playing before and wondered if they’d mind having an audience, I took a chance and wandered across and watched Cecilia Rogers playing her opponent and then on to the other board where a guy with presence and a deep voice was playing. The room began to fill and I was asked to play a three point match against the scary guy with the deep voice and he invited me across to play on his super smart Geoffrey Parker board. A big intake of breath and we were off. Not used to playing with a shaker, after my opening move I stupidly set the shaker down on the playing field. My opponent without a word simply lifted it, smiled and set it down on the table, after a few more moves, deep voice offered me the doubling cube, I chose to take and I was pleased (and lucky enough) to go on and gammon him.

The scary deep voice belonged to the kindly Andy Boysan. I believe this match was played to ‘prove my worth’ – was I good enough to play in the 9 point tournament that evening. It seems that I was as I made the draw and went on to beat Daniel Eldridge, then Ian Tarr but was eventually beaten by Roland Herrera in the semi final. Gerald’s opening match was against some guy called Gaz Owen, beating him 9:0 – Gerald then lost his subsequent match but we were both elated with our respective evenings – there really was more…

We’ve not been to very many tournaments – our results have been a mixed bag of course but we have always really enjoy ourselves – playing backgammon and making new friends – what’s not to like! I was delighted to win the Lancastrian Cup in Blackpool in 2023 – a field of 64 Intermediates and Masters. Gerald and I were runners up in the Consulting Doubles in Bristol in 2024 and I won a beautiful M Gammon backgammon board at Breezy Brighton in 2025.

Some really pretty hard Clubbing

The real excitement over the last three years has come from setting up several clubs in Devon, we can now play live backgammon every night, Monday through to Thursday in Plymouth and Tavistock – Devon is no longer a barren wasteland. One lady recently said to me that the backgammon club had thrown her a lifeline… Other Devon players have also felt their community deserved a backgammon club and there’s now a club at The Sportsman near Dartmouth, the Ship in Exeter, the Old Cinema Totnes, the Taphouse Newton Abbot and at South Molton with the Torbay and Bovey Tracey clubs pending…

This year I decided to turn my attention to organising tournaments as I’ve always found them so thrilling but with very little happening within the South West. Our first 16 player Devon Monthly was in February this year and we attracted players from all corners of Devon and Cornwall, with several players rated in the top 100. When the waiting list goes beyond 4 its made into an 8 player supplementary tournament. In August we held an additional 32 player fundraiser tournament for intermediates and beginners to enjoy a full day of backgammon. It took a bit of organising but so worth it. The proceeds bought a Silverman backgammon board for two of the club venues and the raffle started a backgammon book library. We have another such event in Plymouth on November 2nd which has drawn 48 players – 16 Masters, 16 upper Intermediates and 16 lower Intermediates and as these events are proving so popular they will take place quarterly. So yes there is more and hopefully more to come…

Happy rolling!