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"WEB-BLOTTER"
Edition
Date
19/10/2021 16:31
Next Meeting:
ROUND 13, Postponed until further notice due to lock down
Club Charlestown, 5 Lincoln St Charlestown
18:45 for 19:00
New Meeting Dates
Latest News
Newy Result
2021 Captain's Trophy
Results
Possible return
to play
As of time of writing, we have been booked in for meetings at Club
Charlestown on the following dates, all subject to change to prevailing
conditions.
All Tuesday nights: November 9th- Ungraded, November 16th- Graded odds and
evens, November 23rd- Graded in order, November 30th- President's Trophy,
December 7th- Top 8. A 15 round comp is a better representation of a club
championship than the current 12 played but the competition will be declared
as final if there can be no further play due to changes in circumstances.
As the Australian Open is scheduled for December 10-12 on the Gold Coast,
the date for the Presentation will be decided after a chat with players over
the nights in November though it could be the 14th if everyone is coming
back on the Monday. It will definitely be on the 14th if the Open isn't on
because of border restrictions. We will just need to make a booking for the
dinner as per the last couple of years with everyone ordering their own and
the club paying afterwards.
Of course, all covid safe conditions of Club Charlestown are to be met by
players in regards to masks, vaccination and anything else that is in vogue
legal wise at the relative time.
Cross fingers and hope we can fulfill the schedule.
2021 Australian Open
In a third change of date due to border restrictions, the 2021 Australian Open, Masters and Speedgammon Championships will be held at the Diggers and Sports Club, Level 1, 9 Beach Road, Surfers Paradise from the 4-6 February 2022. Full details on the Upcoming Tournaments page . Please pre register via https://bglog.org/2021-bg-registration.php
Newy Result
The 2021 Newy Open has been completed with a Newcastle victory by Mick Dyett over Mehmet Tuglu 21-9 on Saturday 9/11/21.
The full grid is available on the Open page
Meeting Cancellations, Newy Draw and Future of Championship
Sorry to say that the lockdown has forced the cancellation of the Club Championship until further notice at Club Charlestown.
The Newcastle Open live event scheduled for September 12 is abandoned and we will again play the Newy tournament on line for those interested (see Open page). The draw for the 2021 Newy is now available on the Open Page.
FURTHER TO THE ABOVE (4/10/21), the Newy is up to the Final to be played
between Mick Dyett and Mehmet Tuglu. The match will be to 21 points on
Galaxy under normal clock conditions at a date and time to be advised.
There will be a cut off point of November 16th for any more
play in the 2021 Club Championship. This is one week after our scheduled
last night of competition. If we are unable to play any further competition
nights and as we have completed over half the nights for the year, the 2021
Club Championship will be declared at the current standings. If we are able
to get back at some time in the next few weeks there will be a change to the
calendar to fit as many meetings in to the year as possible (eg: weekly
meetings).
Not much else we can do under the current conditions.
FURTHER TO THE ABOVE, Club Charlestown has indicated that the Club will be trying to open around the 11th of October planned easing of restrictions but WILL NOT be hosting any event until possibly November. We may be able to squeeze in a couple of meetings (weekly) if they open up to events in November.
Latest News
The first final of the EBT between Steve Quinn and Craig Elfenbein is on 5/9
at 2pm AEST on Galaxy. Not sure of Craig's nick but Steve is Steve55 so
search for that name. This is a best of three with the second match to be
played Saturday 11/9 at 2pm and the third on Sunday 12/9 if required.
CONGRATULATIONS to Craig Elfenbein taking out the Final series of the Eva
Bitel Tournament 2 rubbers to nil.
12/9 is the start date for the Newy tournament. It is also the starting date
for the WBIF Online teams Championship in which an Australian Team has been
entered this year which includes Mick Dyett playing as the reserve. Saeed Nourmohammadi, Simon
Ustick, Hossein Haydari, Kevin Jessup and Craig Elfenbein make up the team. Matches are to be played on the Backgammon Heroes
platform so you may need an account to watch any of the matches although
with events of this magnitude there have been You Tube live streaming so
I'll keep a watch for that possibility to pass on links.
To see the countries competing and pics of the Aus team go to https://ausbgf.org.au/wbif-online-team-championship/
. Match times will also be displayed on that page when available
Meeting Day and Venue Transition
Newcastle Backgammon Club changed meeting day and venue on TUESDAY,
July 27th, 2021.
We resumed play back at Club Charlestown on TUESDAY nights at a slightly
earlier time of 6:45 for 7:00 pm start. The new dates are available on
the Dates page . Note that there is a one week break between meetings
on the 10th and 17th of August to allow for those going to the Australian
Open the following weekend. We'll then follow a fortnightly agenda until the
President's Final/Top 8/ Presentation triple between 23/11/21 and 7/12/21
Important things to note and changes:
- Masks will need to be worn at both venues and eating/drinking regulations
of Club Charlestown will need to be adhered to.
- We have 2 members who are locked down on the Central Coast, Tony and Ken.
We are going to endeavour to have them play via the Backgammon Galaxy
website. Assistance will be provided to those who haven't had experience
with online play when the draw dictates that they need to play on the
computer.
It will be appreciated if any player who can't make the 6:45 time let's me
know beforehand so they can be included in the draw.
Newcastle Backgammon Club would like to acknowledge and thank the Principal and Staff of Shortland Public School for allowing us to play at the Schools Library for the first half of our yearly competition.
Round 11 and 12 Results
Round 11 of the 2021 Club Championship was played at Shortland School Library on July 23rd with 12 players, 11 on site and 1 remote. We were to have 2 players on line but connection issues caused some problems. The draw had been done and some matches were started before we identified the connection problem so 4 groups of three were run instead of the normal 3 groups of four.
Tony Walker, from the comfort of home, managed to win both his matches 7/0 to be the early leader in the President's Trophy section of the Club Championship. Other winners on the night were Greg Mitchell, Alan Cathcart and Robert Disney. Those results see Greg move to the top of the Club Championship ladder over Mick Dyett and Dave Bower holding 3rd on count back from Tony.
Round 12 of the Club
Championship was held at Club Charlestown on July 27th with 16 players, 14
in house and 2 remote. All connections for the remote players were good so 4
groups of 4 played.
Home is where the luck is apparently as both Tony Walker and Ken Vaughan won
their sections, Tony so far being undefeated when playing remotely. The
other two groups were won by Robert Disney and Greg Mitchell. Greg has
extended his lead from 2 to 7 points by both winning and Mick Dyett
finishing 4th on the night. Tony moves into second spot ahead of Mick.
2021 Captain's Trophy
The 2021 Captain's Trophy was
conducted on June 25th with 14 players, 8 in the Trophy and 6 in the 2nd
Division.
Brian Ramsey survived a comeback from Dave Bower to win the Final 7/6 after
leading 5/1and Adrian Marisescu defeated Alan Cathcart 7/3 in the Captain's
2nd division. Special note to Les Pierpoint with a strong come from behind
victory over Club Champion Mick Dyett in the first round.
The grids are below:
| 2021 Captain's Trophy Final | |||||||
| 1 | MICK DYETT | 6 | |||||
| LES PIERPOINT | 2 | ||||||
| 8 | LES PIERPOINT | 7 | |||||
| BRIAN RAMSEY | 7 | ||||||
| 5 | BRIAN RAMSEY | 7 | |||||
| BRIAN RAMSEY | 7 | ||||||
| 4 | GERHARDT MACOR | 2 | |||||
| BRIAN RAMSEY | |||||||
| 3 | DAVID BOWER | 7 | WINNER | ||||
| DAVID BOWER | 7 | ||||||
| 6 | TONY WALKER | 5 | |||||
| DAVID BOWER | 6 | ||||||
| 7 | ROBERT DISNEY | 7 | |||||
| ROBERT DISNEY | 4 | ||||||
| 2 | GREG MITCHELL | 5 | |||||
| 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | |||||
| 2021 Captain's Trophy 2nd Division | |||||||
| 1 | MICHELLE TAUBMAN | 7 | |||||
| MICHELLE TAUBMAN | 6 | ||||||
| 8 | BYE | 0 | |||||
| ADRIAN MARISESCU | 7 | ||||||
| 5 | JULIE CASTLES | 1 | |||||
| ADRIAN MARISESCU | 7 | ||||||
| 4 | ADRIAN MARISESCU | 7 | |||||
| ADRIAN MARISESCU | |||||||
| 3 | KEN VAUGHAN | 7 | WINNER | ||||
| KEN VAUGHAN | 0 | ||||||
| 6 | CASSIE CREBERT | 4 | |||||
| ALAN CATHCART | 3 | ||||||
| 7 | BYE | 0 | |||||
| ALAN CATHCART | 7 | ||||||
| 2 | ALAN CATHCART | 7 | |||||
| 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | |||||
NBC Online Club Championship
We had 6
entries for the NBC Online Club Championship to fill a spot in the Newcastle
Club Champion of Champions against NEBA at a time to be determined but most
likely after the clocks go back in April.
The Tournament was a round robin of 13 point matches with the top 2
playing a 15 point Final.
Winners decided on WINS, POINTS FOR, POINTS AGAINST
and HEAD TO HEAD. This is the same as club nights.
Matches to be played on
the Galaxy site unless otherwise agreed. Both players to report the result.
Congratulations to Mick Dyett on winning the Final 15/4 to complete a clean
sweep of the Championship.
The result grid is
available on the Tables page
2021 Inter Club Challenge
Newcastle Backgammon Club along with Backgammon ACT, Melbourne Backgammon Club, the Backgammon Association of South Australia, Sydney Backgammoners and the Victorian Backgammon Association of Victoria are currently taking part in the 2021 Inter Club Challenge on line.
Six players
from each club are playing a modified Swiss style tournament organised by
Gary Stavrou of the Sydney Backgammoners.
Each round is of 11 points per match. Results will be posted as they come to
hand each week.
Newcastle lead the interclub challenge by a point from the Sydney Backgammoners after round 1. The Backgammon Association of South Australia was in 3rd followed by the Victorian Backgammon Association, Backgammon ACT and the Melbourne Backgammon Club.
After round 2, The Backgammon Association of SA had skipped away to a clear lead on 1056 to Newcastle's 713 followed closely on 710 by the Victorian Backgammon Association.
Round 3 saw things tighten up a little with The Backgammon Association of SA's lead cut to 119 by the Victorian Backgammon Association with Newcastle only another 3 points back in 3rd.
After 4, SA and Victoria were all square on 1319, 3 points ahead of Newcastle (1316), Sydney 1204, Melbourne 1164 and ACT way back on 878.
Round 5 and the competition was turned on it's head. Sydney had an enormous round and leapt to 1840 points, 337 ahead of Victoria (1503) Newcastle was still third on 1502 and Melbourne 4th (1470). The big drop was by South Australia which fell to fifth on 1408 and ACT remained at the tail with 1277pts.
The Final
round saw Sydney retain it's lead and become the 2021 Inter Club Champions
with Newcastle second and Melbourne finishing over Victoria into third. The
Final points are below. Congratulations to the Sydney Backgammoners.
Scoring was 100 for a win PLUS the Margin of
Winner's Score - Loser's Score. Losing player scores minus the difference in
the scores eg: a 13-10 result scores 103 for the winner and -3 for the loser
| SYDNEY BACKGAMMONERS | 2,139.00 |
| NEWCASTLE BACKGAMMON CLUB | 1,897.00 |
| MELBOURNE BACKGAMMON CLUB | 1,770.00 |
| VICTORIAN BACKGAMMON ASSOCIATION | 1,694.00 |
| BACKGAMMON ACT | 1,688.00 |
| BACKGAMMON ASSOCIATION OF S.A. | 1,612.00 |
2021 Season
Newcastle
Backgammon Club will resume playing live this year.
Please find the dates for this year's Club Championship nights
here . (All subject to change, Government
restrictions permitting).
After
Friday night's trial night, we will be meeting, for the time being, at
Shortland Public School library, Sandgate Rd Shortland.
Hand sanitizer and wipes are available.
For those that attended on Friday night, there is a boom gate that wasn't
working the other night that will be coming into operation soon. You will
need to contact Sharne Dyett to get it raised if it is down. Contact NBC
via email if you are a prospective member for details.
The Club Championship first round was Friday night, February 5th. Meetings will be mostly fortnightly but please be aware there are a couple of changes to that format to work around Easter.
The Newcastle Open is included in the dates but a live tournament will probably be dependent on Club Charlestown being available for facilities and space.
There will be a Champion of Champions qualifier for a player to play against the NEBA club of Newcastle Upon Tyne when it is arranged. The competition is a knockout of only 4 players so will only take 2 weeks.There is a representative from the Newy Open played last year (Tom Chysostomou from Canberra) but as there was no 2020 Club Champion an online Tournament for CLUB MEMBERS ONLY is required. Nominations are now open. Draw to be done Feb 12th, format depends on number of players.
Nominations are also open to play in the Novocastrian Challenge between NBC and NEBA. Depending on numbers, this competition will run between 4 and 8 weeks on a round robin basis with all playing all. This is an open nomination and there is no qualifying other than being an NBC member.
Dates for the Novocastrian and C of C to be advised.
2020 AGM
The report for the 2020 Newcastle Backgammon Club AGM is now available on the AGM page.
There has been a change on the committee with Tony Walker appointed Captain and Cassie Crebert taking up the Vice Captain duties. We acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of Bruce Parr on the committee for the last number of years in the capacity of Captain and Vice Captain.
Live play at Club Charlestown is still restricted by Covid-19 protocols but an alternate venue is being explored and will be notified when and if play is possible.
Queensland Open Results 6-8 November 2020
From Simon Woodhead via Facebook:
Congratulations to Morteza Ghanei, winner of the Queensland
Open from Adrian Pitt. Tipsy Pig stars Craig Duffy and Rhys Osborne were the
semi finalists. A terrific performance by Morteza to best a field of 32 in
his first major tournament.
The 2020 Australian Speedgammon champion is Steve Roberts who
somehow managed to turn the DMP final game against Simon Woodhead. Which was
ok actually, because sometimes the dice gods do play nice with the dice...
The Queensland Masters title was taken from 2019 champ
Michelle Taubman by Simon Woodhead who could do no wrong
against Craig Duffy, who, like Morteza was playing in his first major
tournament final.
Another first time winner was Chris Muir, winner of the
Sunday Tournament from Sasha Senica.
Thanks to all who came, and all who helped, especially
Barbara Salomon and Sharne Dyett for running the desk so efficiently, the
Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club for accommodating us and a special
mention for the Newcastle contingent who braved the border crossing only to
return home empty handed! How often does that happen?
A clean sweep for the Tipsy Pig club here on the Gold Coast. Nice Pics to
come.
The "Newy" Open Tournament
Congrats to Tom Chrysostomou (ACT) on winning the final of The Newy from the Fighter's bracket 9-8, 9-7 over Robert Disney (Newcastle).
Thank you again to everyone who joined and played and good luck to all in your next events.
Tom now wins the kudos of having his name on the Newcastle Hall of Fame list and the opportunity, should he want it, of playing in the Newcastle Champion of Champions next year, if it can be held, against players from NEBA in the UK
The full results are now available via this link to the Open Details Page .
Latest News
Update
29/9: Mick Dyett has won a tense and back and forth Final of the Eva Bitel
Tournament. defeating Simon Ustick of Melbourne 17/14 today.
Mick picked up the winner's check as well as the bonus pool with the win
continuing on his streak in online tournaments this year. Congratulations
Mick
More 28/9: The Final of the Eva Bitel will be played on Backgammon Galaxy on Tuesday 29/9 @ 1730. Userids are beekind2me and Ueyustick
Update
28/9: Mick Dyett has made it to the Final of the Eva Bitel Tournament with a
come from behind 15-11 win over Breck McCormack in today's Semi. In a
marathon 2.5 hour match, Breck was up 10-5 and 11-8 before Mick got on his
bike rattling off the last 7 points.
Mick plays Simon Ustick of Melbourne, the winner of the other Semi over
Martin Pikler from Canberra 15-13.
Update 24/9 @ 1045 EBT: Gin Jones' run of 7 straight wins in the competition ended with a 15-5 loss to Martin Pikler in the Quarter Final knockout match. Mick Dyett defeated Tim Hochgrebe and then Syd Moore to reach the SemiFinal at a time yet to be decided.
Update 21/9/20 @ 20.45: Eva Bitel Tournament : Mick Dyett plays Tim Hochgrebe to 13 points in a round of 16 match on GridGammon at 1700 AEST Tuesday 22/9/20. Gin Jones plays Martin Pikler to 15 in a quarter final TBA. Final Grid can be found at http://results.ausbgf.org.au/international-and-inter-club-challenges/tournament?tid=554
The Eva
Bitel Tournament is approaching the knockout stage with the majority of the
round robin matches, 8 groups of 8, having been played.
Five Newcastle players entered with 2 going on to the knockout phase.
Gin Jones is one of only 2 players (Syd Moore the other) to win all 7
matches in their group. Mick Dyett is the other to qualify whilst Michelle
Taubman, Tony Walker and Robert Disney missed out.
Qualifiers are as follows. The criteria to qualify was 1st and second in the group as well as any player that won more than 5 matches thus a 4 player and possible 3 player group going on. The knock out grid is to
G1 Syd Moore, Kevin Jessup
G2 Taeed Athari and Mick Dyett
G3 Simon Ustick and Ian Dunstan
G4 Breck McCormack, Cynthia Belonogoff, Stephen Davy and David Kinston
G5 Tim Hochgrebe locked but other to be determined as incomplete
G6 Gin Jones and Hossein Haydari
G7 Martin Pikler and Shane McNally
G8 Steve Quinn and Tim Chambers locked with Michael Myska needing to win
out (2
matches) to qualify.
If Gin and Mick post on to me game times and site info I'll pass them on for those who'd like to watch.
Remember,
to view a match via a link on Galaxy:
1) log on to your Galaxy account bringing up the match list page
2) click on the link in the email and the match SHOULD open in another window (depending on how your browser is set up).
Accounts on Galaxy are free to set up and are played in a normal browser window
To view matches on Gamesgrid you need a Gamesgrid account.
2020 Club Championship now Abandoned
Further to the below, as of 10/8/20 all Newcastle Backgammon Club live activities have been abandoned for 2020 including the Club Championship, the 2020 Newcastle Open (scheduled for September 13) and the Presentation/AGM scheduled for December 4. Any future activity for the club will be dependent on issues concerning Covid-19 and the ability of players to be able to play in a safer environment than can be assured at this time.
A recent announcement posted on Facebook by Sonia Hornery as to community
sport resuming on July 1st prompted Tony Walker to ask if that meant
backgammon would be resuming.
Following is the chat stream from that question for those not on Facebook.
Michelle Taubman: How many are allowed in clubs now
Robert Disney: I think it's 50 per area
Robert Disney: There will have to be some sort of discussion amongst the
group on that. As far as the Club Championship is concerned, I think we've
now probably lost too many rounds for a viable competition as well as it
being unfair to those who will not be able/willing to come along in the
early meetings back. Any play will be social which could be good if there is
anyone that has joined the public group or page on here that wants to come
along, there will be no competition pressure. There are also issues we have
no real control over as in the availablity of space at the Club. Distancing
over the board (which I think has got to be less than the 1.5m even over the
large boards), shared pieces/equipment and cleansing of such if required
will need to be the responsibility of individual players to assess their own
risk. I'll go up to the Club tomorrow to see how they are set up and what we
may be able to do.
Tony Walker: yep... it was a starter for discussion... there are lots of
valid points there and its probably not the safest thing to do until we get
things in better shape
Robert Disney: With the 1.5m rule in force it is impractical to play face to
face at the club. The tables are about 80cm squares which means you still
have to sit back from the edge about 40cm each side. I had someone sit
opposite me and you would have to be shifting the chairs in and out to make
a play and to reach the other side of the board to play back men. The
cleaning of pieces has the concern of whatever is in the sanitizer possibly
affecting the playing surface of boards (I'm not a chemist so don't know but
always a chance of happening). So, as we don't want to run foul of our hosts
(free room is greatly appreciated) we're still in limbo.
The Newcastle Champion of Champions
The
NBC and NEBA have organised a Newcastle Champion of Champions event
pitting the winners of the respective Newcastle Opens and the Club/League
Champions of 2019 in a knockout competition.
2019 Open winner, Robert Disney, plays Alastair Woods of Scotland (diz vs
aliwoods) on Friday
June 5th on GamesGrid at 1900AEST/1000UK.
Mick Dyett, 2019 Newcastle Club Champion will play a rematch from the
Novocastrian Challenge against Tim Cross on
Tuesday June 9th, 1930AEST/1030UK on GridGammon (beekind2me vs timcrazy)
It's an Aus vs UK Final after Alastair Woods defeated Robert Disney 13-9 in the Open winners section and Mick Dyett won 13-3 over the newly crowned Los Angeles Online Open winner, Tim Cross, in the Club Champion/League Winners heat.
The Final of the Newcastle Champion of Champions between Mick Dyett and Alastair Woods culminated with a 53 move marathon game at 11-11 on a 2 point cube. The reason for so many moves was that at one stage Alastair had 11 men back in a backgame. Mick eventually managed to get by the assembled masses to become the inaugural Newcastle Champion of Champions 13-11. Congratulations to both on a great match.
2020 Novocastrian Challenge
The 2020 Novocastrian
Challenge has been completed!
Newcastle Backgammon Club players recently did battle with players from
the North East Backgammon Association (NEBA) based in Newcastle Upon Tyne,
UK.
On team NBC were Robert
Disney, Mick Dyett, Michelle Taubman and Tony Walker.
Team NEBA was made up of Martin Barkwill, Pol Lapidakis, Gary Bratton and Tim Cross.
All the results
are on the 2020
Novocastrian Challenge page or on FaceBook through
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3367725816588896
Congratulations to NEBA on their victory 10 matches to 6 over NBC
2020 Australia-New Zealand Challenge
The 2020 Australia-New Zealand Challenge (organised by the Australian Backgammon Federation and Backgammon NZ) has pitted 32 Australian and 32 New Zealand players in 16 round robin qualifiers. Four players from Newcastle, the Novocastrian Challenge players, Mick, Michelle, Tony and Robert played on the Australian side with Robert Disney going through to the 16 player knockout.
Robert Disney has
managed to wriggle through to the last 4 which means 2 more matches to
complete the Tournament.
Hossein Haydari (SA) is already through to the Final with a win over Steve
Clarry.
RD
plays Grant Hoffman (NZ) for the second place in the Final Tomorrow (Sunday
31/5) at 1000 local time on Backgammon Galaxy. Links will be available via
the NBC Facebook pages and email just after the start of the match.
The winner will play Hossein in the Final whilst the loser will play Steve
in the 3rd/4th playoff.
31/5/2020 Robert Disney has won the 2020 Australia-New Zealand Challenge defeating Grant Hoffman in the semi and Hossein Haydari in the Final. The last 16 grid is below.
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2020 Club Championship Round 3
Round 3 of the 2020 Newcastle Backgammon Club Championship was held on March 6th with 17 players. It was a welcome back to Kyle Rhoades and Gheorghe Baleanu for their first meetings of the year. This brings the total number of players for the year so far to 22. It will be an interesting night if all are able to attend on the one night.
Kate Smith won her first round robin and the resultant $10 winnings came as an unexpected bonus
Winners on the night
were Cassie Crebert, Kate Smith, Tony Walker, Adrian Marisescu and Greg
Mitchell.
New Upcoming Tournaments
Preliminary details added for the 2020 Australian Open, Masters and Speedgammon, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, November 6-8, 2020 on the Upcoming Tournaments page
2019 AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Huge
Congratulations to Newcastle stalwart Greg Mitchell on taking out the 2019
Australian Open on the weekend on November 23 and 24.
Mick Dyett's report on the Australian Open and Masters is below.
2019 Presentation and Annual General Meeting Night Report
The
2019 Presentation Night and Annual General Meeting took place at Charlestown
Bowling Club on Friday night December 6th.
There were a couple of new initiatives adopted by the club.
Firstly, Club Membership fees have changed to the following: $10 General
Membership, $5 Concession Membership and $5 Junior Membership. Club
Charlestown memberships will still be paid for by the Backgammon Club for
all current financial members.
Life Members of the Backgammon Club will have their Club Charlestown
Memberships paid for by the Backgammon Club.
From General Business: a) A member may get 2 points credit on the Club
Championship Table if they are unable to attend but pay the $5 per night
playing fee either before the date of the missed meeting(s) or the at the
meeting directly after the missed week(s). This is a rule that was in vogue
a number of years ago but was discontinued.
b) In order to play in the Captain's and President's Finals, a member must
have played at least 1 week in the 10 week qualifying cycle.
See the AGM page for the minutes of the 2019 AGM
Australian Open and Masters Report
The 2019 Australian Backgammon Championships and Master’s was played over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th November. 34 players competed for the National Championship. There were players from New Zealand, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Newcastle and of course Sydney. The venue for the tournament was The Persian Rose Restaurant in Turramurra.
The format for the Open was Round Robin with the top two players from each group advancing to a 16-player knockout.
As is normally the case before such a big tournament there was much excitement in the room as players anticipated winning Australia’s most coveted Backgammon Competition and becoming the 2019 Australian Champion.
The Games began at 10 am. By mid-afternoon the Round Robin brawling had stopped and there were 16 players left standing. The rest were …well…defeated. It was time for the knockout, sudden death where insanity can be just one roll away, (this game is not for the faint hearted). After two rounds and 12 deaths we had four survivors. These Gladiators were Greg Mitchell from Newcastle, Habib Shalala from Sydney, Martin Sagradian also from Sydney and Pat Halpin from the Central Coast. Greg overpowered Habib while Martin outmuscled Pat. The scene was set for a blockbuster match between two very fine players. They certainly did not disappoint the crowds as they fought a long and very exciting match, their experience was evident in their play. The match was very tight with Greg Mitchell coming out the victor. Congratulations Greg, you are the 2019 Aussie Champion and congratulations to Runner Up Martin for putting up a hell of a fight.
Next up was the Master’s with 11 players competing. The format was knockout with five byes in the first round. After two rounds we got to the Semi-finals. The match-ups were Zvi Bendavid against Habib Shalala and Ian Dunstan playing Ron Shaked. Both these matches were very close with Habib defeating Zvi while Ian took care of Ron. Both Habib and Ian are very seasoned players. The match reached 6 away 6 away when Habib found a backgammon on a two cube to finish Ian off. A big congrats to the Masters Champion Habib and to runner up Ian.
There are some people that deserve a big thank you for making the weekend a huge success. In no particular order, a big thanks to Taeed Athari who has made The Persian Rose Restaurant home to the Australian Open and New South Wales Open for many years without cost. Thank you also goes to Zvi Bendavid who has donated all trophies for both these tournaments for years as well. The kind generosity from both these wonderful men has enabled me to return all entry fees as prize money. And last but not least I thank my wife Sharne Dyett for her selfless engagement in running these tournaments while I play. If not for her I would be unable to lose as often as I do. (thanks honey).
All in all, everyone I spoke to had a ball and look forward to next year.
Mick Dyett.
2019 Top 8 Result
Brian Ramsey has won his second Top 8 Trophy in a row, defeating Dave Bower 9-1 in the Final on November 29. Following is the grid (incomplete score wise as I had to leave early)
| 2019 TOP 8 TROPHY | ||||||
| 1 | GERHARDT MACOR | 7 | ||||
| GERHARDT MACOR | 3 | |||||
| 8 | ADRIAN MARISESCU | 0 | ||||
| BRIAN RAMSEY | 9 | |||||
| 5 | TONY WALKER | 3 | ||||
| BRIAN RAMSEY | 7 | |||||
| 4 | BRIAN RAMSEY | 7 | ||||
| BRIAN RAMSEY | ||||||
| 3 | ALAN CATHCART | 0 | WINNER | |||
| GREG MITCHELL | 6 | |||||
| 6 | GREG MITCHELL | 7 | ||||
| DAVE BOWER | 1 | |||||
| 7 | ROBERT DISNEY | 6 | ||||
| DAVE BOWER | 7 | |||||
| 2 | DAVE BOWER | 7 | ||||
| 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | 9 POINTS | ||||
2019 President's Trophy Results
Mick Dyett continued on
his merry way in 2019 by taking out last week's President Trophy Final. Mick
defeated Tony Walker 7/5.
The second division was taken out by emergency starter Costea Ianculescu
over Les Pierpoint. The grids are below.
| 2019 PRESIDENT'S TROPHY FIRST 8 | ||||||
| 1 | GERHARDT MACOR | 4 | ||||
| TONY WALKER | 7 | |||||
| 8 | TONY WALKER | 7 | ||||
| TONY WALKER | 5 | |||||
| 5 | ADRIAN MARISESCU | 5 | ||||
| BRUCE PARR | 2 | |||||
| 4 | BRUCE PARR | 7 | ||||
| MICK DYETT | ||||||
| 3 | MICK DYETT | 7 | WINNER | |||
| MICK DYETT | 7 | |||||
| 6 | ROBERT DISNEY | 5 | ||||
| MICK DYETT | 7 | |||||
| 7 | ALAN CATHCART | 6 | ||||
| DAVE BOWER | 5 | |||||
| 2 | DAVE BOWER | 7 | ||||
| 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | ||||
| 2019 PRESIDENT'S TROPHY 2ND DIVISION | ||||||
| 1 | BRIAN RAMSEY | 6 | ||||
| COSTEA IANCULESCU | 7 | |||||
| 8 | COSTEA IANCULESCU | 7 | ||||
| COSTEA IANCULESCU | 7 | |||||
| 5 | MICHELLE TAUBMAN | 7 | ||||
| MICHELLE TAUBMAN | 4 | |||||
| 4 | GREG MITCHELL | 2 | ||||
| COSTEA IANCULESCU | ||||||
| 3 | CASSIE CREBERT | 5 | WINNER | |||
| LES PIERPOINT | 7 | |||||
| 6 | LES PIERPOINT | 7 | ||||
| LES PIERPOINT | ||||||
| 7 | JULIE CASTLES | 1 | ||||
| ROBERT SEBOK | 4 | |||||
| 2 | ROBERT SEBOK | 7 | ||||
| 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | 7 POINTS | ||||
2019 Newcastle Open
The 2019 Newcastle Open Backgammon Tournament final was an all Newcastle affair but who were the finalists and the winner? Go to the Open Details page for the report and some photos!!
