Memorial 2021

This was the second year Backgammon London put on the Memorial Tournament, and this time it took place online over the last weekend of February. To add to the excitement were extra prizes with a third consolation and, by popular request, a last chance. We also had side pools with 100% return that reached £3350.

The Memorial Tournament was devised as a way to celebrate the great backgammon friends we have recently lost, and perhaps also, to remember the people struggling at the difficult current time. Along with the Wayne Felton Trophy for the Main winner, there were four Erhan competition boards and four of the popular Silverman boards as headline prizes and Backgammon Workshop lessons for our Consolation finalists. Not bad for a £20 entry.

Registration was full pretty soon after opening. The unique Backgammon London format started on Saturday when all 128 players competed for the Sunday 32 player Main by trying to win three out of a possible five matches. Those not making the main went into one of two Consolations on Sunday.

Sunday started of with three competitions, the Main with 32 players and two Consolations with 48 players. After the first round, Main losers went into a Consolation and Consolation losers went into the Last Chance. It sounds pretty complicated but David had created a spreadsheet which handled it all. Now there were four simultaneous knockouts running plus an extra Consolation for people being knocked out from the Main. I don't think anyone could complain that they didn't get enough backgammon. In all, we had nearly 400 matches played. A big thank you goes out as ever to Jill Gibbs who entered all those results as they were reported on WhatsApp.

Our Main final started exactly on time with Gaz Owen and Steen Oernvig. It was not easy getting there. Congratulations go to Gaz on his success in the final.

First Place Second Place

Main: Gaz Owen Steen Oernvig

Consolation 1: Barry Gittleman Marius Marin

Consolation 2: Cato Fordham Steve Fitton

Consolation 3: Simon Gasquoine Chris O'Connor

Last Chance: Dave Pritchard Martyn Hamer


There are some live streams of selected matches from both days available to watch.

Saturday:

Anna Clarke vs Geoff Hall with Simon Barget

Cat Bucar vs Simon Carter with Julian Fetterlein and Aref Alipour

Sunday:

Mike Shewry vs Gaz Owen (Semi Final) followed by Gaz Owen vs Steen Oernvig (final) with Julian Fetterlein and Justin Nowell

Memorial 2021

On Saturday there was a playoff to get into the main on Sunday.  32 players qualified and all the other players went into the Consolations on Sunday.  Play was on Backgammon Heroes

Erhan 869

Silverman board

Katgammon Set

Registered