(*well, the Greenwich Mean Timers at least)
We started the New Year with our first regular tournament on Monday. More on that below. But first we bring you news of a truly time-bending experience.
On Tuesday our intreprid Ealing team braved the snow and London transport to travel to Greenwich for a return club match with the Greenwich Mean Timers. (you can read about our first match with Greenwich here).
At the lovely Plume & Feathers pub, which sits firmly upon the Greenwich meridian, we settled in for three rounds of closely-fought matches. Ealing leapt into the future with a 6-2 lead, before Greenwich proved that time is relative by pulling back to within one point.
It all came down to the final match between Cihan and Roubina, with Cihan playing a perfectly timed backgame at DMP. The crowd looked on as Roubina was forced to leave two blots. Surely Old Father Time had come calling for Ealing.
But this is backgammon! A poor roll meant Cihan couldn't hit, and Ealing's collective sigh of relief nearly blew out the pub fireplace. Despite having to leave another blot later in the bear-off, Roubina rolled us safely home. Our adventures in time were done.
Ealing 10 - 8 Greenwich.
Thank you Graham and Mike and all the Greenwich players for being such excellent hosts and fun opponents. We look forward to the return-return-match soon.
Meanwhile our regular Monday night tournaments resumed, with 22 players turning out for the first club event of the year. Three Swisses were won by Florin, Steve, and Gavin (playing under an alias for technical reasons). Congratulations to all three.
Next week sees the kick-off of our 2025 Grand Prix. We announced some changes to the format here, and we'll send out a reminder later in the week. We now have both F1 (£30 entry) and F2 (£0-£20 entry options), each limited to 16 players. Get ready to start your engines. See you all next week.
Super exciting and well organised. 👌
Congratulations to Team BGiE, a great start to 2025!