British Backgammon Awards 2020: The Nominees

We’ve had a lot of nominations over the last month for the British Backgammon Awards, and it’s time to reveal our shortlists ready for the final vote. Members should get a personalised voting link in their email this evening, and you have until midnight on the 8th September to cast your votes – the winners won’t have to wait long as the results will be announced at the AGM the following day. So… let’s see who you nominated and some snippets of what you said about them:

British Player of the Year – Face to Face

• Jon Barnes: “UK number 1, TWI winner, BMAB winner”
• Tim Cross: “for winning the UK Open”

British Player of the Year – Online

• Tim Cross: “absolutely a permanent fixture at the top of Galaxy’s ratings”; “for winning the LA Open and being #2 on Galaxy” “…taking part in the UBC 2020 Contenders Tournament”
• Gaz Owen: “awesome in all forms of the game – MSO’s Blitz [4sec/move] champion – and a great commentator too. Thanks for the exhibition matches with Julian!”
• Oliver Squire: “A rapid ascent right up to the top levels of the game, including playing for the UK – surely a regular future champion”

International Player of the Year

• Jon Barnes “awesome results overseas and online for the UK”
• Tim Cross “flying the flag in the US online tour!”
• Michy: “for his extensive travelling to international tournaments”; “great player and great author/teacher too”
• Hideaki Ueda: “UBC 2020 Contender tournament Winner.”

Online Tournament Director of the Year

• Richard Biddle “The Champions League is the model of organisation”
• Irving Czechowicz “for the Stay at Home Cup”
• Christoph Deiter “a relative newcomer to the TD world  who has stepped up to organsise weekly events, and team challenges”
• Julia Hayward: “for the Online Championships and UKCC online”; “her charity tournament is one of the most friendly and enjoyable there is”; “directing and streaming lots of internationals from lockdown”
• Steve Lee: “He has been running a weekend tournament – every weekend – since April… He has done a fantastic job of keeping people engaged & connected”, “one of the earliest on-line adopters who has organised weekly events for the last 5 months, helping to keep us all sane”
• Marc Olsen: “For big events and comprehensive streaming on Galaxy” 
• Dave Sanders: “actively organises and promotes Worcester weekly events, excellent updates, and spreadsheets!”

Club Organiser of the Year

• Richard Biddle (numerous clubs) “does a fantastic job”; “he has been part of UK backgammon’s furniture for so long, the amount of work that Dicky does for UK backgammon is incredible. Its easy to come up with great league ideas, but it takes a great organiser to be able to put it into practice year after year”
• Guy Haslam (Bone Club) “great work keeping things running!”
• Chris Purchase (St Albans) “extremely helpful; organised and very hardworking”, “unflagging good humoured admin during the Covid quarantine”, “without Chris this club would not function the way it does”
• Tariq Siddiqi (Holland Park) “looks after a thriving and fun club”
• Ian Squire: (St Annes) “for establishing and publicising backgammon in Lytham and St Annes”
• Colin Whiers (Harrogate) “an unsung hero who has set up a local club running weekly meetings and early morning backgammon sessions (6:30am – what’s that about!)”

Most Significant Contributor to British Backgammon of the Year

• Peter Bennet: “The UKBGF wouldn’t function as it does without his sterling efforts”
• Tim Cross: “for putting UK BG on the map”
• Tim Parfitt: “A stalwart of backgammon on the South Coast, and running events to bring the rest of the world here”
• Andrew Selby and David Potter: “TD of the Players’ Championship, the Memorial Cup, and production of the UK Open Online.”; “Great as a team and also what they are individually organising and promoting”

Online Backgammon Site of the Year

• Backgammon Galaxy: “bringing automated analysis and big tournaments to everyone”
• BG Studio Heroes “hugely improved; the tournament rooms make organising events much easier – and more enjoyable socially too”, “As good a playing experience as GridGammon with the further advantages of instant registration, open to Mac as well as Windows users and a clock”; “excellent tutorial content and tournament hosting”

Most Courteous Player of the Year

• Deana Fawcett: “a friendly face on the backgammon scene both as a player and behind the TD desk. She’s a pleasure to play against, gracious in defeat and humble in victory.”
• Mike Ireland
• Kev Jones
• Julian Minwalla
• Alex Polden
• Martin Reade
• Cecilia Sparke: “We’ve played a few times and always a pleasure to play, a good sport win or lose!”

Good luck to all our nominees, and we look forward to sharing the results – even though the certificates may take a little longer this year…