The UK Backgammon Federation
Martin Barkwill writes:
The WBGF World Team & Individual Championships, Forges-Les-Eaux, France, January 2020
If ever there were a hard act to follow, it is surely following Tim Cross under whose captaincy the UK team won the Worldwide Team Tournament in Tbilisi in 2016, the Nordic Open team event in 2018 and were runners up in the European Team Championships in 2017.
Chris Rogers writes:
As the current captain of the UK Online Team, I am very pleased to announce our participation in the WBIF World Team Championships commencing on 1 September.
The team contains the usual suspects in the form of myself (Chris Rogers), Gaz Owen, Leo Waters, Sebastian Wilkinson and Tim Cross, but I am pleased to announce the participation of our new secret weapons in the form of Oliver Squire and Chris Bray.
This will be both Oliver’s and Chris Bray’s debuts in the team competition and I am hopeful of strong performances from both. They both have excellent PRs and high grid gammon ratings, so I am sure my hopes will not be unfounded.
The UK came third in 2015 and won the competition in 2017. “Odd” years seem to be good for us, so I am hopeful for more success in 2019! With the competition being opened up to more and more nations worldwide, the challenge will be tougher than ever, but I have full confidence in our team – the old stalwarts and the newbies alike!
If you have a Gridgammon account and see any of us involved in a 13 point match, then please come and support us, as the more support we get, the better.
Last year I incautiously mentioned to a few players that my club (North East Backgammon Association, aka NEBA) were minded to host the 2019 UK Clubs Championship. Several of those I used as a sounding board expressed caution that holding the event in the Far North would be a deterrent and we would be challenged to match the attendance of previous years. I am therefore very grateful to my NEBA colleague, Keith Gill, for recommending York University as a possible venue and for making many site visits to check on its viability, suitability of the proposed playing room, facilities and likely costs.
First of all, we would like to thank all 128 players for making 2019 a sell-out.
Many players took advantage of the cheap Thursday night hotel rates to arrive early and miss the Friday traffic. This resulted in over 70 players being in the room at 2pm on Friday for the first of our added money Freerolls, and what proved to be the very popular cashouts (an idea we stole from Roger Porter).
After four years in the job, during which time the UK has been well and truly put back on the world backgammon map, Tim Cross is stepping down as UK Team Captain at the end of this year. It will be a tough act to follow, because Tim has led teams to phenomenal successes during his tenure, but someone must do it!
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