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BGonline.org Forums
UKBGF will run The London Open May 8th, 9th, 10th
Posted By: stw672
Date: Saturday, 25 April 2015, at 10:03 p.m.
Dear Backgammon Player,
For the avoidance of doubt, the UKBGF have not been involved in any way with the Backgammon London Open 2015 apart from promoting it on our website at the organiser’s request as we would be happy to promote any other significant British backgammon event.
The news that it was being cancelled was received with dismay by the UKBGF at the same time and in the same manner that it was received by the rest of the backgammon world.
The recent history of the London Open is that two years ago Sean Williams took it over from Mike Main. He grew the tournament from 32 players to one that last year boasted 160 players from around the world, was hosted at the prestigious and central location of the Hippodrome Casino, had a prize fund in excess of £40,000 and produced some of the best live backgammon television footage ever produced.
Due to other commitments this year (including being on the board of directors of the UKBGF) Sean reluctantly stepped away from the London Open and Graham Read took it over. For reasons that are not as yet fully ascertained, this has not worked out as any of us would have hoped.
Despite being in no way responsible for the cancellation, the UKBGF does believe that it has a general responsibility to British backgammon and has taken the decision to take over and underwrite the Backgammon London Open 2015 and therefore the event will go ahead as originally planned but under the entirely new management of the UKBGF (Sean Williams, Peter Bennet, Raj Jansari, Ian Tarr, Simon Morecroft, Jon Barnes and Eric McAlpine).
The UKBGF will make sure that this event is as good as it possibly can be and your help with making it so would be very much appreciated.
We will run the London Backgammon Open (free entry), the Professionals Tournament (£250 entry with 100% return) and the Super Jackpot (entry fee to be decided but probably £500 with a 97% return). The UKBGF will guarantee at least £250 prize money in the Open and £4,000 in the Professionals Tournament and Registration will remain at £50. We also hope to run a Speed Gammon Tournament as well as other side jackpot events.
The taking over of the Backgammon London Open 2015 in order to avoid the general disappointment and inconvenience of such a late cancellation has required the UKBGF to guarantee to the Hippodrome Casino at least 100 entries. So please play your part in turning a crisis into a successful rescue and join us!
Please contact us at sean@ukbgf.com if you wish to attend and want to reserve your place for any of the events. Please also note that we will be taking cash entries on the day itself.
Please bear with us as taking over such a large event at less than 2 weeks’ notice is a formidable task and some changes to the envisaged program may well be necessary.
Keep watching this space where we will post further details of the events schedule.
UKBGF
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