Wednesday October 26th 2022

 A very select little group of 15 arrived for tonight's competition – maybe the sight of sunshine encouraged the rest of our group to stay outdoors!

 

Peter Voulgaris was drawn as the jackpot player, and, for the first time in many months, the stars aligned and the jackpot was “scooped”!! 

 

Well done Peter !

This month's Giantslayer match upset the applecart with Dilhun Akpinar wresting 336 of Ladder Leader Gary Stavrou's hard-earned points. This allowed Adam Makda to nudge into the Ladder Leader position with the prospect of facing his own Giantslayer next month.

 

The full final results are as follows:

 

1^st           Peter Voulgaris

 

2^nd          Dilhun Akpinar and David Reitzin (tied)   

4^th          Jim Bean

 

See you all, and hopefully a few more , next week.

A busy match between Rafael Chattah and Adam Makda.

Angelo Voulgaris looks serious in his match against Jenny Saunders as Rafael Chattah looks on.

John Symon looks to consolidate his lead over Mohammad Nejati
as a thoughtful Amir Tehrani looks on.

Wednesday 19th October

Last weekend we ran the NSW Open Backgammon tournament. Our club did particularly well, our members taking four of the five prizes.

A good turnout of 20 players tonight including three brand new faces. We welcome to our happy family Sean Ghodsi (our Iranian cohort, wonderfully, keeps growing), Mohammed Ali (no, not the one you are thinking of) and Andrew Mowbray (a regular supporter of our major tournaments). John Symon was the drawn jackpot but failed to take the pot by just 8 points.

Results were:

1st Place Hammon Mans

2ns place John Symon

3rd Place Gary Stavrou

4th Place Mohammad Nejati and Sean Ghodsi (tied)

Sean Ghodsi and Hammon Mans seem deep in negotiations while Jim Bean awaits his opponent

Jackpot hopeful, John Symon, came from behind to beat Malcolm Stradwick

2022 NSW Open October 15-16

 The 2022 NSW Open Backgammon tournament attracted 36 players who came from as far afield as Adelaide, Melbourne, Wollongong and the Gold Coast.

After eight gruelling rounds over two days Terry Christodoulou emerged as this year’s NSW Champion.
Apart from scooping 50% of the pool money, Terry was presented with the Sydney Backgammoners Champion Cap and the coveted crystal doubling cube.

The placings in the Main Flight were:
1st Place Terry Christodoulou
2nd Place Gary Stavrou (ever the bridesmaid)
3rd Place Stephen Davy
4th Place Breck McCormack

The winner of the Second Flight was Peter Voulgaris
1st and 2nd place in the Side Pool were taken by Ben Phillips and Hammon Mans respectively.

Our thanks to all who participated.

Looking forward to an even bigger and better 2023 reprise.

Jubilant winner Terry Christodoulou wearing the Sydney Backgammoners Champion Cap
and giving the thumbs up to getting the coveted crystal doubling cube

Tournament Director Gary Stavrou was runner-up and is being presented
with his prize by ANZBGF Secretary John Symon

Steve Davy came 3rd in the Main Flight

Peter Voulgaris won the Second Flight

Breck McCormack came 4th in the Main Flight

Hammon Mans came 2nd in the Side Pool

Wednesday October 12th 2022

The last opportunity for some match play practice prior to the NSW Open Backgammon Championship brought a very healthy 22 players on the boards.

 

Hossein Haydari made the trek  - by car  - from South Australia to play and will no doubt make a solid attempt to take the NSW  Open Trophy back over state lines!

 

We also had a new player, Bruce Phillippi, a visitor from Ohio, who  scored the jackpot player spot on his first visit, but to no avail.

 

 The final results were:

 

 1^st              Hammon Mans

 

2^nd             John Symon and Hossein Haydari (tied)

 

 4^th              Jim Bean and Koosha Hedjripour (tied)

 

 Good luck to all on the weekend – see most of you next week!

Tonight's winner Hammon Mans and Amir Tehrani having a happy match.

Gang of 4 - Amir Tehrani and Matt Bridges in the background whilst Carol Wakelin and Jenny Saunders do  battle in the foreground.

A couple of happy chappies - Jeremy Whitelaw and John Symon enjoying the match.

Wednesday October 5th 2022

 Despite a day of atrocious weather and a Jewish high holiday thinning our numbers we managed to cobble together 16 eager beavers for the night's play .

We also welcomed another new player – hello to Otto Alexander.

 

The first Wednesday of the month brings some house keeping – the player of the month was John Symon, but as he was absent his opportunity for a free ride was missed.

 

Dilhun Akpinar scored both the jackpot player and Giantslayer gigs – he accepted being the Giant-slayer – we will report  on whether he succeeded in relieving Gary Stavrou of some of his points later 

 

 

Final results were :

 

1^st           David Reitzin

 

2^nd          Adam Makda

 

3^rd           Gary Stavrou 

 

4^th           Carol Wakelin 

 

See you all next week!

Jim Bean and Malcolm Stradwick  enjoying the tussle.

Everyone is waiting on Jenny Saunders and Dilhun Akpinar .

Wednesday September 28th 2022

A robust 19 players made up tonight's competitors – nice to see the numbers getting up again.

Matt Bridges  was drawn as the jackpot player but was not able to scoop it up - 4^th place does not qualify!

 

Final results were :

 

1^st           John Symon

 

2^nd          Koosha Hedjripour

 

3^rd           Amir Tehrani

 

4^th           Matt Bridges 

 

See you all next week!

 

The green machine - Amir Tehrani and Dilhun Akpinar match shirts and board

 

TD Gary Stavrou and Jenny Saunders having a happy match

And so it begins  - Angelo Voulgaris takes on Matt Bridges observed by Raffael Chattah and John Symon.