Category: Uncategorized

IN LIGHT OF UPDATED ADVICE FROM GOVERNMENT AND HEALTH AUTHORITIES RELATING TO SOCIAL DISTANCING, THE SUSPENSION OF NON-ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES AND THE CLOSURE OF PUBLIC VENUES, THE AUSTRALIAN BACKGAMMON FEDERATIION INC FORMALLY RECOMMENDS THAT ALL MEMBER CLUBS SUSPEND REGULAR FACE-TO-FACE CLUB MEETINGS FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE, PENDING UPDATED ADVICE.

Authorised by Dr Greg Ash, President, AusBGF

THE FOLLOWING CLUBS HAVE ANNOUNCED SUSPENSION OF ALL FACE TO FACE ACTIVITIES:

ACT BACKGAMMON CLUB, CASTLE HILL RSL BACKGAMMON CLUB, PERSIAN ROSE BACKGAMMON CLUB, SYDNEY BACKGAMMONERS, VICTORIAN BACKGAMMON ASSOCIATION AND THE THURSDAY NIGHT SYDNEY CHOUETTE GATHERINGS.

IN EVERYONE’S INTEREST WE URGE ALL CLUBS TO ADHERE TO SOCIAL DISTANCING ETIQUETTES AND SUSPEND FACE TO FACE GAMES.

Australian Backgammon Federation

Clearly the effects of this pandemic are having huge consequences. It is inevitable that the backgammon community is also effected.

Though so far the ABF has only received news of one tournament cancellation, that being The Sydney Open, slated for April 5th,  (which will be rescheduled when circumstances allow), we urge all players to check with the directors of tournaments which you are planning to attend.

We will attempt to keep the ABF website up to date as information comes to hand but “in this ever changing world we live in”, we may not receive the information in a timely fashion. Please check for yourself.

As we roll into 2020 it seems that the Board of the Australian Backgammon Federation Inc can now move forward with more certainty. I would like to thank members for their patience during this process and thank and congratulate all who have put their hands up to fill the various Board positions. The full roster of Board members should be available via the website.

Firstly, we should acknowledge the tremendous sadness felt at the passing of Founding President, Eva Bitel. Her considerable efforts at getting us to share her vision for Australian backgammon have led us to where we are today, and provide an inspiration and springboard for efforts to move forward. In accepting the role of incoming President, I am fully aware of the big shoes I have to fill.

Thanks also to outgoing Board members for their work – in particular, I would like to single out Simon Woodhead who is going to be busy doing other BG things but is still willing to help out on the technical side. Simon was instrumental in getting us on board with our own version of the UK BGF ratings scheme and I firmly believe that this is our most significant achievement to date.

I have some ideas for the kind of things we as a national body should be doing to improve the lot of ordinary members and member clubs – I will be putting those thoughts to the Board, and once they have had an opportunity to dissect, embellish and refine those ideas, I would like to put those ideas out to the membership to see where you think the priorities for us should lie. We have a very modest budget, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do some innovative things to promote backgammon.

I will be asking the Board to “meet” more often than it has in the past and I commit to making some communication from those meetings available to members in a timely fashion (this is not a criticism of past practice, more a reflection of the way I like to operate!).

Dr Greg Ash

President, AusBGF

31 January 2020

The 2019 Australian Backgammon Championships and Master’s was played over the weekend of the 23^rd and 24^th 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 feint hearted). After two rounds and 12 deaths we had four survivors. These Gladiators were Greg Mitchell from Newcastle, Habib Shalala from Sydney, Martin Sargadian also from Sydney and Pat Halpin from the Central Coast.

Martin Sargadian and Pat Halpin

Habib Shalal and Greg Mitchell

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 Australian Champion and congratulations to Runner Up Martin for putting up a hell of a fight.

The 2019 Australian Champion,                                                            and the Runner-Up

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 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.

2019 Masters Champion Habib Shalala, being congratulated by Taeed ,

And on his way to a close second, Ian Dunstan .

There are some people that deserve a big thank you or 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. Thankyou also goes to Zvi Bendavid who has donated all trophies for both these tournaments, and has done so for many years. 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.

Sunday October 6 th saw the 2 nd Sydney Open Backgammon Tournament being held at the Canada Bay Club in Five
Dock
Twenty three players attended, slightly less than last year , but a combination of school holidays, the NRL grand final ,
a long weekend and the start of daylight saving time may have all contributed to this, and these factors will be taken
into consideration when picking next year's date.
All players competed in the first round with the top 12 after 3 rounds going on to compete for the main prize and the
remainder participating in a second flight tournament .
All matches were to 7 points, with two being played before the lunch break and last match of the 1 st flight and all 3 of
the two second flight matches taking place over the afternoon and early evening.
Arthur Ramer was the eventual victor taking home not only the Main flight prize money and a beautiful crystal
doubling cube, but also an entry to a $1000 satellite tournament in the upcoming Melbourne tournament – thanks to
Ralph Burd for supporting us in this way – your generosity is very much appreciated.
Robbie Solomon picked up 2 nd place and also the side pool as he was the top-placing player of the five who entered.
Ron Shaked took out the main flight consolation prize
Kee Yio Wan won the Second flight tournament
Mahnaz Rostami took home the Second flight consolation prize.
Thank you all for your support and we hope to see you all again next year .

 

While the wind blew down south, the weather was cool but sunny on the
Gold Coast for the 2019 Queensland Backgammon Championships held at the
Surfers Paradise SLSC on the Gold Coast.

44 players attended over the weekend, plus 4 novices. Half a dozen
players were stranded in Sydney and Canberra due to the extreme weather.
This took many top contenders out of the equation, including the likes
of Ian Dunstan, Jim Bean and John Symon.

Friday night saw around 25 players turn up, eager for a go at
Speedgammon. We expected to fill a total field of 16, or maybe 32 in
this tournament, but on Friday alone we filled 32. So Speedgammon
quickly became a 64 field. We also ran two satellites for the Masters,
won by Peter Brown and Steve Roberts.

Saturday arrived and the rest of the field turned up and the Open was
quickly under way, filling up by early afternoon. The Masters was held
to a field of 16, with Speedgammon still popular and the Last Chance
tournament now taking entries. Backgammon was played well into the
evening with rounds progressing in all tournaments.

On Sunday, we had a few spots left in the Speedgammon and Last Chance
which the perennial desperadoes soon filled. So we came to the money
rounds and the tension in the room heightened as people gathered around
to watch the lucky/skilful few battle it out for the major prizes.
Incredibly (well, it was all planned this way of course!) we were dead
on time, with all 4 finals under way at the same time, and all
completing shortly after the advertised time of 6PM.

The Open quarter finals saw Steve Clarry defeat Hossein Haydari, Simon
Ustick was incredibly lucky to overcome partner Maricar, who should
probably file for immediate divorce after what Simon did to her! In the
bottom half, Melbourne’s Steve Quinn overcame Barry Ross, and Taeed
Athari from the Persian Rose pipped Bill Marczak to the post in a
marathon. It was to be Melbourne’s final when Uey beat Steve Clarry and
Steve Quinn beat Taeed. Congratulations to Steve Quinn who showed not
only skill but serious stamina after 3 days of playing.

The Masters was limited to 16 players and was keenly fought at every
round. Ivo Zarnic from New Zealand made it to a semi-final date with
Newcastle’s Michelle Taubman who had dismissed Peter Sun and Steve
Roberts (both past Australian champions!) as if they were novices. The
bottom half of the draw saw one of the match-ups of the weekend with
young experts Martin Sagradian and Hossein Haydari caught in a
down-to-the-wire battle that Hossein eventually won. Michelle was not to
be denied, it was destined to be her weekend. In a see-saw battle that
could have gone either way for much of the match, Michelle kept her
cool, playing superbly to claim her title of Queensland Masters
Champion. A well deserved reward for all her hard work behind the scenes
as well as over the table.

The success of the weekend was the Speedgammon tournament, which filled
64 places and everyone took to like ducks to water. People who’ve never
played with clocks, let alone under the pressures of speedgammon
settings, just couldn’t get enough. I hope we’ll be seeing speedgammon
events appear in other tournaments around the country. The top 32 of the
draw had been played on Friday, with Adelaide’s Shane McNally and the
Gold Coast’s Vince Turner reaching the semi. Shane beat Vince sometime
during Saturday, allowing Vince a last chance to re-enter – he bought in
at position 58. Then won all the way through again, beating Simon
Woodhead (aaarggh!) in the semi for another match-up with Shane but this
time in the final. It was to be Vince’s day, he was truly inVincible at
speedgammon!

The Last Chance tournament sent another trophy Newcastle’s way for Greg
Mitchell who patiently waited while we caught the tournament up. Dave
Berry from Canberra eventually won through to the final but Greg’s
patience was rewarded with the winners trophy.

Four lovely ladies turned up for the Novice tournament, with Olga
Sagradian winning from local Miranda Miranda on countback in a
round-robin format.

The major prize in the raffle was won by local Zoe Anghel Richmond, who
also had a good run in the Open, winning her first two rounds. She now
has Michy’s excellent new backgammon books to cement her game in solid
foundations.

Thanks to everyone who came, especially thanks to those who booked and
were denied by the weather. Next year – bigger and better! Thanks to our
venue sponsor the Surfer Paradise SLSC Nippers, to our trophy sponsor
George Beyreuthi from FS Securities and to Barb, Margie, Denise and
Maria for their tireless and invaluable work on the desk. Thanks to
Taeed Athari for bringing his wonderful Persian Rose boards all the way
up from Sydney, as did Rob Disney with the Newcastle boards. Special
thanks also to Moya Holmes of the Nippers, who liaised with the venue
and made sure that everything ran smoothly for us. None of this would
have happened without all of you – we sincerely thank you 🙂

You can see completed draw sheets by clicking on the tournament names
here: https://results.ausbgf.org.au/queensland-championships/tmanager

Keep following the facebook page for pics from this year and updates for
next year: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357307341547212/

Until next year, happy rolling from Steve Roberts and Simon Woodhead
August 2019, Gold Coast, Queensland

AND THE WINNERS ARE
James Noble (NZ) 1st Place
Cedric Marchant (NZ) 2nd Place
Grant Hoffman (NZ) 3rd Place
Tony Marquette (NZ) Plate Champion

Want to thank James for keeping the NZ BG Championship Trophy in New Zealand & in Auckland.
James had a clean sheet. Did not lose any Matches as he powered his way to 1st place.
Congratulations to the WINNERS and congratulations to all of the participants in the 2019 New Zealand BG Championship. It was a really fun Tournament.

The tournament was played on June 1st and 2nd and was a progressive double elimination format. Each participant needed to lose twice to be knocked out. There was an undefeated winner bracket and a second chance bracket. As  players lost a match they dropped into the corresponding draw in the second chance bracket.
The tournament attracted 25 starters including most of Australia’s best players, travelling from as far as the Gold Coast, NSW South Coast, Newcastle and all parts of Sydney.
After many 9-point matches and nearly 2 days of playing, Peter Brown won the tournament undefeated. He played Arthur Ramer in the finals, while John Symon and Steve Clary came 3 rd and 4 th respectively.              

The undefeated champ,                                     The worthy runner up,
Peter Brown                                                              Arthur Ramer

              

Semi finalists,  John Symon                                     and Steve Clary

On the Sunday there was a $300 jackpot tournament with 8 players participating.
Semi-finalists were Taeed Athari v Zvi Bendavid and Mick Dyett v Simon Woodhead. Taeed and Mick were finalists, choosing to split the winnings.
The day was both warm outside and inside as there were smiles all round. A great comradery between the players with many battles, laughter and post mortems.
As director, I would like to thank everyone who participated, contributed to or
supported the tournament and made it such a success, in particular Taeed Athari for his on going generosity in allowing the tournament to be played at his venue at no cost, Sharne Dyett for organising the desk, and the ABF for sponsoring the trophies,

Mick Dyett
Tournament Director

The 2019 Angie Hambour Memorial Double Elimination Backgammon Tournament will be held on July 7th 2019.
There will also be a Free Unlimited Consolation Tournament.
The venue is the Metropolitan Hotel in Adelaide. For full information please click here.

After the very successful 2019 Sydney Open Backgammon Tournament, the director, Gary Stavrou will launch the inaugural Spring 2019 Sydney Open Backgammon Tournament on October the 6th. The event will again be held at the Canada Bay Club.

For full information click on the Events Link