The British Backgammon Awards 2021 – the nominees

It’s been rather delayed, but we can finally announce the nominees for the British Backgammon Awards 2021…

The Awards have moved to align with the calendar year and the UK Tour, so the current set cover the COVID-affected period from August 2020 right through to December 2021. We’ll be sending out a link to the voting form to all members in the regular members’ email in the next few days, so do keep an eye out on your in-boxes! Voting will be open until midnight on the 6th March, and we’ll be handing out framed certificates to the winners and taking pictures soon after.

There’s been a bumper crop of nominees this year; congratulations go to everyone who’s had a nomination, the competition is intense, and good luck to all! In no particular order, let’s go through all our stars, with thanks to Tim Cross for compiling some notes about them all:

British Player of the Year: Live

• Paul Barwick: Milan Open winner
• Andrew Darby: Brighton Summer Open winner
• Steve Bibby: Second-time winner of the UK Open and Midlands Open winner
• Simon K Jones: Newcastle Open winner
• Gaz Owen: UK Team member, world team championship runners-up. Won 7/10 on board one playing a truly impressive 2.32 PR. Also winner of the Bristol Welcome Back series.
• Radu Ciortan: Member of the Romanian team, world team championship winners. Runner-up in the largest tournament in the world, the Merit Open. Wetgammon champion at the Merit Open
• Aref Alipour: Players Championship winner. Best PR in BMAB amongst UK players
• Tim Cross: Runner-up in both weekend knockouts attended since live play resumed. In 2021, became only the second UK G2 grade Grandmaster.

British Player of the Year: Online

• Reece Hodges: 2 WBIF Rising Star victories. Member of the Worcester team that won the Clubs Championship.
• Geoff Hall: Third place in the WBIF UK Championship 2021. Member of the winning UK Men’s team with 5/5 against the women; member of the Worcester team that won the Clubs Championship with 7/7.
• Tim Cross: Florida Open ABT Event winner; West Yorkshire Open winner; had a brief stay rated #1 on Backgammon Galaxy.
• Pete Heskett: London Open winner; Wicklow Open winner; #1 rated player on Heroes September 2021.
• Gaz Owen: Winner of the Memorial Tournament 2021; runner-up in UKBGF P40 knockout 2021; inaugural winner of UKBGF League division 1
• Ian Gwynne: Member of the Worcester team that won the Clubs Championship. Undefeated player for Home Nations winners Wales. Winner of the Worcester Turkey Tournament 2021.
• Charles Hill: 2020 UK Open Online winner; 2021 WBIF UK Championship winner; 7th in 2021 WBIF World Individual out of 515.
• Stuart Mann: Winner of UKBGF League division 1 twice; only ever-present in division 1. Winner of the Irish Open 2020 and Wicklow Open 2020.

And our other categories – with some snippets of what people said about our nominees:

International Player of the Year

• Mochy: UBC winner again and in a class of his own
• Dirk Schiemann: “… for getting to the UBC final and the publishing of his book which by all accounts is superb”
• Brendan Burgess: “…quality Irish player; world individual online semi-finalist”
• Radu Ciortan: “… for his Romanian national team exploits and his individual Merit performances”
• Michy: a great supporter of UK backgammon and author of another great book to get your teeth into; “… for being everywhere and doing everything”
• Zdenek Zizka: Grandmaster and regular #1 on Backgammon Galaxy

Online Tournament Director of the Year

• Ian Tarr: “… consistently directs the most events at the best club and is the man all other directors should aspire to be like.”
• Irving Czechowicz: “has kept tournaments running regularly throughout the difficult times, always great fun and with innovative formats to keep people involved” – and of course kept the whole country going through lockdown with the Stop-At-Home Cup.
• Andrew Selby & David Potter: “… for all the organisation of the UKBGF league, London Open, Memorial Tournament and Players’ Championship”
• Steve Lee: “… for quickly adapting his WestYorkshire live event to an online event that went super smooth”
• David Sanders: “… magnificent as online TD and organiser at Worcester”
• Rich Tegna: “Rich worked early in COVID time to take the Belfast Backgammon Club online. He then with help formed the Irish Backgammon League… he has been laying but a few years and is already a force promoting the game”
• Bernhard Mayr: Bernhard works quietly behind the scenes at WBIF on a remarkable range of tournaments, including hosting the UK Online Championships in 2020 and 2021 – and so efficiently that many readers may not even realise he’s there.

Club Organiser of the Year

• Ian Tarr: “… Bristol Backganmon’s heartbeat … has run a full programme of events this year, online and offline, and has even managed to run them simultaneously every Monday night!”
• Keith Gill: “Keith is the NEBA club secretary and acted as TD for the last four Newcastle Opens as well as ad hoc one day events. Keith’s steady hand and calm demeanour have ensured the success and popularity of these events such that the Newcastle Open is firmly established on the UK tour.”
• Chris Purchase: St Albans remains a busy and much-loved club under Chris’s care
• Andrew Selby: “… extremely good at encouraging new and beginner players. And despite juggling organising with keeping scores and handling the money on busy club nights, he manages to keep cheerful and abundantly friendly”
• Dicky Biddle: “His Fulham backgammon club has re-opened and is going stronger than ever.  He really excels in making it a friendly environment for beginners to high rollers.  And is especially conscious of making it a club which encourages and welcomes women.”
• Tim Cookson: “The Union Backgammon Club – His patience and determination to keep us playing as a club during lock down make him a deserved winner.  Not just ladder nights, but competitions against other clubs both national and international!”
• Sean Jones: “Worcester seems to go from strength to strength!”
• Rob Daniels & Bob Young: “Romsey is a brilliant club with 4 online and 4 offline leagues”
• Richard Carter and Matthew Fisher: “Birmingham has seen a lot of growth with leagues, an Open to rival the regulars, and more”

Online Site of the Year

• WBIF
• BG Studio Heroes: “… for always adapting to players needs and wishes and developing a site which leaves nothing out”
• Backgammon Hub: “Backgammon in Ealing used it very successfully for all its online weekly club tournaments from Feb to Sep 2021. We were able to work with Alfie in developing features we wanted and it’s the only site that has the ability to transfer results directly to the UKBGF ratings system which is a great help for TDs.”
• Backgammon Galaxy

Most Significant Contributor of the Year

• Tony Lezard: “For the online Rankings, Online League and contributions to other National Federations including the WBIF”
• Roland Herrera: “His tireless work to encourage and educate players and inspire improvement is not just seen in this country but indeed world wide”
• Julia Hayward: “… Always willing to help with any sort of problem, be it IT, contacting someone, organising something. She’s always willing to do live-streaming, commentate, keep scoreboards online…..just about anything! … She’s an absolute treasure!”
• Martin Barkwill / Team UK: “[Martin] for captaining the UK side to a huge success … [Team UK] for a superb performance in Trier and raising the standard to aim for across the country”
• Simon Barget: “Simon’s series of free instructional videos have been a great way to keep me improving my game”
• Alfie Kirkpatrick: “Backgammon Hub has been a welcome addition to online play and its focus on making tournament admin smooth will no doubt ensure its future success”.

Most Courteous Player

• Ann Pocknell: “Always a pleasure to play and polite win or lose. “
• Simonetta Herrera: “…charming musical maestro”
• Julia Hayward: “…a lovely nature, always a delight to play”
• Peter Hodson: “Peter will be instantaneously recognisable to most tournament players as you can hardly miss his bright shirts! Moreover, his flamboyant personality matches his loud shirts and he is always a pleasure to be in the same company”
• Jon Barnes: “No matter how the game turns, Jon is always a delight to play”
• Oliver Squire: “Oliver is unfailingly polite when playing and away from the board. A fine example to players of his generation”
• Paul Plumptre “…studious theorist…gentleman at the board”

 

Note that there have been a couple of omissions rectified since the post was originally published. The voting form will be correct when you get it – Ed.