Many thanks to everyone who took the time to send in nominations for the British Backgammon Awards. We’re now in a position to announce the shortlists. All the awards are really competitive and just being nominated is something to be proud of.
Update 21st August: voting closes at midnight this Saturday, 24th August!

British Player of the Year:

• Brian Lever
• Gaz Owen
• Kevin Jones
• Tim Cross

International Player of the Year:

• Allen Tish
• Eli Roymi
• Jesper Carlsson
• Kimon Papachristopoulos
• Michy
• Mochy

Club Organiser of the Year:

• Darren Woodcock
• Ian Tarr
• Richard Biddle
• Sean Jones
• Steve Lee

Tournament Director of the Year:

• Chris Purchase (St Albans)
• Julia Hayward and Peter Booth (Cambridge, online)
• Kevin Jones, John Wright & Mark Calderbank (Blackpool)
• Sean Jones (Worcester, UK Clubs)
• Tim Line (Bristol)

Board Designer of the Year:

• Bone Club (Guy Haslam)
• Gammoner (Volker Wenzlaff)
• Geoffrey Parker

Most Significant Contributor to British Backgammon of the Year:

• Keith Gill
• Richard Biddle
• Tim Cross
• Tony Lezard

Most Courteous / Sporting Player:

• Darren Woodcock
• Peter Hodson
• Richard Furborough
• Roland Herrera
• Steve Bibby
• Uli Koch

Voting is about to start on SurveyMonkey, and a link/password to access the voting page will be mailed out to members imminently. If you don’t receive yours or need assistance, drop julia@ukbgf.com a line. Voting will close at midnight on Saturday 24th August and the winners will be revealed at the UK Open! To give you some help, we’ve collated the things said about our nominees; read on… and if you’d like to add your tributes, please let me know!

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Those of you who were at Coombe Abbey on Sunday morning for the presentations will already know who our winners are – we’re delighted to re-announce them to the world! Many thanks to Simonetta Herrera for the pictures.

British Player of the Year: Jon Barnes

Certainly a category with a lot of strong contenders. Jon started the year with the World Doubles Championship in Monte Carlo with Eric McAlpine, and being part of the victorious St Albans A team. A year ago another doubles title came at the UK Open 2017 with Anna Clarke, then runner up at Brighton BIBA, and two UK Tour wins at West Yorkshire and Blackpool. He has continued his incredible form at Cambridge (quarter-finals) and Liverpool (semi-finals) respectively – and having got the award, a strong run in the UK Open 2018 Consolation followed.

Overseas Player of the Year: Akiko Yazawa

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Many thanks to everyone who took the time to send in nominations for the British Backgammon Awards. We’re now in a position to announce the shortlists. All the awards are really competitive and just being nominated is something to be proud of.

British Player of the Year:

• Aref Alipour
• Jon Barnes
• Peter Bennet
• Sebastian Wilkinson
• Steve Bibby
• Tim Cross
• Yan Kit Chan

International Player of the Year:

• Akiko Yazawa
• Carter Mattig
• Michy
• Mochy
• Nodar Gagua

Tournament Director of the Year:

• Keith Gill
• Kev Jones, John Wright and Mark Calderbank
• Richard Biddle
• Rick Janowski and Mark Adkins
• Simon Morecroft
• Steve Lee
• Tim Line and Ian Tarr

Club Organiser of the Year:

• Chris Purchase
• Ian Tarr
• Kevin Jones
• Richard Biddle
• Sean Jones
• Sean Thomas

Most Significant Contributor to British Backgammon of the Year:

• Julia Hayward
• Mark Calderbank
• Richard Biddle
• Tim Cross

Board Designer of the Year:

• Andrew Pinkus
• Bone Club
• Erhan 869bg
• Geoffrey Parker
• P40

Most Courteous / Sporting Player:

• Andrew Selby
• Anna Price
• Bek Barbaros
• CJ Uttley
• Dave Pritchard
• Derek Cooper
• Gaz Owen
• Lawrence Jones
• Lawrence Powell
• Michael Flesch
• Peter Bennet
• Sue Keeble

Voting is about to start on SurveyMonkey, and a link to access the voting page will be mailed out to members imminently. If you don’t receive yours or need assistance, drop julia@ukbgf.com a line. Voting will close at midnight on Friday 24th August and the winners will be revealed at the UK Open! To give you some help, Tim has penned some biographies of our leading players; read on…

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