Following promotion and relegation from the league matches, the new leagues are here:

We’re hosting a new tournament just for Intermediates early next year. The event will be held at the Gateshead Masonic Hall in February. Full details about the tournment, along with how to register and fees can be found at: https://northeastbackgammon.com/2024-ukbgf-clubs-championship/

Congratulations to our division winners for the first league competition of the year. The final standings are: We’ll be running another league competition for the second half of the year and will be reviewing the format. In the meantime, the next club day meeting at St John’s, Kingston Park is on August 17 starting at 10.45am, with the next meeting at the Old George on Wednesday, August 21 at 6.45pm.

We have now booked our new venue at Kingston Park until early next year. Following successful days at the upstairs meeting room at St John’s Church at Kingston Park, NE3 2HB (near the Metro station), the following Saturday dates have been added: August 17, September 7, November 9, December 7, January 11, February 8. August 17 will be our Autumn Cup, November 9 will be the Winter Cup and January 11, the club’s Anniversary Cup. There will be no Saturday meeting in October due to the Newcastle Open being held that month.

Here are the current standings for the NEBA league, with games to be completed by the end of July:

Some key dates for your diary: Wednesday, June 19: Club night at Old George, Newcastle. 6.45pm Saturday, July 6: Day tournament at St John’s, Kingston Park. 10.45am (£5 reg. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided.) Wednesday, July 17: Club night at Old George, Newcastle. 6.45pm Saturday, August 17: NEBA autumn cup at St John’s, Kingston Park. 10.45am (£10 reg, £20 entry) Wednesday, August 21: Club night at the Old George, Newcastle. 6.45pm. Saturday, September 7: Day tournament at St John’s, Kingston Park. 10.45 (£5 reg. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided.) Saturday, November 30: Club match v Scottish Central team at Berwick… Read more: Club meetings

Six members of NEBA travelled to Aberdeen at the weekend for the Scottish Open – the first time the tournament has been held for 12 years. Keith Gill and Mike Snowdon reached the finals of the Consolation and Last Chance competitions but fell at the last hurdle. This Saturday sees the latest club meeting at St John’s Church in Kingston Park. This was the venue for one of our regular one-day events a couple of weeks ago. Saturday’s meeting is a trial event – to see if there is interest among members for it to become the date (the first… Read more: Close, but not close enough

Andy Debenham came out tops in our latest one day tournament. Eighteen members took part in the NEBA Summer Cup at Kingston Park, part of our quarterly one-day tournaments held through the year. Runner-up in the main event was John Horton, with Keith Gill winning the consolation event and Dave Gallagher the victor in the last chance. Alan Hind and Richard Rowland were runners-up in those two events. Pictured is Andy being presented with the Summer Cup trophy from club teasurer Graeme Turner.

It’s England 1 Scotland 1 in the second part of a bi-annual tournament between the North East Backgammon Association (NEBA) and a team from Central Scotland. It the autumn, the Scottish team romped to victory in the first match between the two teams, but NEBA were able to turn their fortunes around yesterday, coming out 27-21 winners. The teams were made up of 12 players, with four rounds of five-point matches. It was all square after the first two rounds, but NEBA opened up a four-point lead after Round 3 and extended that to six in the fourth and final… Read more: Revenge for NEBA at Berwick

From May, we will be moving our monthly meetings at The Old George to the third Wednesday of the month. However, the next two meetings will still be held on the third Tuesday of the month. The confirmed dates are: The next two meetings are on Tuesdays: March 19, April 16. After that we move to Wednesdays: May 15 June 19 July 17 August 21 September 18 October 16 November 20 December 18 January 15, 2025 February 19, 2025