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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Nominations are now open for the British Backgammon Awards 2018

Another year has passed and we want you to tell us who in the backgammon world has made a real difference over the course of the last year, since nominations were last invited for the Awards a year ago. We’ll collate the nominations and voting will happen over the course of August, with the deserving winners being announced at the UK Open in September. We’ve featured a lot of tournament winners on the UKBGF blog over that time, the international teams have carried on their run of success, we’ve seen new events come on to the calendar, and we’ve seen more clubs spring up in various parts of the country. Backgammon wouldn’t be what it is without the tournament directors, the club organisers, the unseen helpers, and the players – some of whom may never even have won a trophy but whose presence makes an evening session a highly enjoyable experience.

Nominations are being accepted in the following categories:

• British Player of the Year
• Overseas Player of the Year
• Tournament Director of the Year
• Club Organiser of the Year
• Most Significant Contributor to British Backgammon of the Year
• Board Designer of the Year
• Most Courteous Player of the Year

There is also an award which is not voted on; instead the winner is drawn from the UKBGF’s ratings system records over the calendar year since 30th June 2017, and that is:

• Most Improved Player of the Year