Despite Storm Isha’s best efforts, last weekend saw the 4th UKBGF Tour Winners Invitational take place in the snow-covered environs of Shrigley Hall Hotel. A fitting place for the Top 16 Masters and Intermediate players from the 2023 UKBGF Tour to do battle over 2 days to become the UKBGF Tour Winners Invitational Champions.

 

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The 2 winners, in addition to receiving beautiful boards by ArtGammon, get a year’s worth of bragging rights as the 2023 UKBGF Tour ‘Champion of Champions’ having won 2 x 13 point matches on Saturday and the best of 2 x 7 point matches – with a 5 point decider – on the Sunday.

The tournament was played in a great atmosphere, lots of fun, many exciting matches, dramatic finishes, and two stalwarts of UK backgammon becoming worthy champions.

A number of both Masters & Intermediate matches were streamed live (you can find full days’ coverage on Youtube for Saturday and Sunday) with a variety of commentators sharing their expertise and insight. Huge thanks go to Alec Barr, Dan Rovira, Geoff Hall, Ian Gwynne, Julian Fetterlein, and Tim Cross for generously giving up their time for our benefit.

Congratulations to all 32 qualifiers and to the TWI event winners:

Masters

• TWI Champion – Jon Barnes
• Runner up – Darryl Artt
• Consolation Champion – Gaz Owen
• Runner up – Adrian Jones

Intermediates

• TWI Champion – Phil Tutchings
• Runner up – Merrin Rose
• Consolation Champion – David Tulip
• Runner up – Peter Hodson

Combined Last Chance

• Champion – Cristi Cozos
• Runner up – Mike Snowdon

 

Full tournament results can be found on the TWI Website. Photographs from the event can be found on the UKBGF Facebook page.

Please don’t forget that you need to be ‘in it to win it’ so make sure you are a UKBGF member prior to participating in Tour events. The first Tour tournament of 2024 kicks off in sunny Scarborough at the beginning of February.

More information on the Tour together with a calendar of Tour events can be found here.

As players and members we’re grateful to the UKBGF for their continued support and funding of both the UKBGF Tour and Tour Winners Invitational event. Of course, we also appreciate the many TDs who organise any form of backgammon in the UK. Special thanks to Julia Hayward for setting up the streaming service over the weekend as well as competing and to Sarah Jolliff for helping run the event.

Good luck to all players for the 2024 UKBGF Tour, hopefully January 2025 will see you regaling all & sundry with hard-luck tales whilst relaxing in Shrigley Hall’s spa pool!