Tim Cross writes:
NEBA club nights came to an abrupt end in March this year but John Horton (aka Tigereye) was not going to take it lying down. After consulting with NEBA and UK Team Captain Martin Barkwill , John recruited me as his assistant and took on the task of keeping the club together through online tournaments.
Our first event was the online club championship, which was an all-play-all event during the darkest days of Lockdown, and this was completed way ahead of schedule – but this speedy finish inspired John to organise more events. It was decided that we would run seasonal tournaments and name them imaginatively The Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Cups. After trying out a couple of formats it became apparent that Swiss type events suited our requirements perfectly, the main reason being that anyone could drop out and the integrity of the tournament wouldn’t be damaged in any way. Other online tournaments have also been successfully organised by our B team captain Don Irving for which we are also really grateful. In order to facilitate all this activity we set up a Facebook page which had the pleasant side effect of recruiting a couple of new members who have joined our merry band even though they haven’t had a chance to come to a live club night yet.
We have had a really successful time this year also in that the first team of Martin Barkwill, Alex Schofield, John Horton, Oliver Squire and David Gallagher won the UKBGF National Clubs Championship. We are obviously all longing to get together to celebrate this fact, but it’s not yet the right time so instead Martin has organised a Zoom get together and I will give a short Backgammon Presentation/Lesson on the 1st October. Hopefully club nights will resume soon, but if not, John and Don have every intention of keeping the club spirit going.
We’d love to pass on stories of how other clubs are managing during these difficult times – please do drop us a line!
Any one who plays in the north east and is interested feel free to join at north east online backgammon facebook site thx. tigereye