CROYDON BACKGAMMON CLUB HISTORY
The club was formed on 17th April 2005 by Danny Gallagher, Aliki Panitsa, Bill Bryant, Richie Newbold and Guy Jewsbury after the inaugural Croydon Backgammon extreme tournament held at the Hogshead Pub (Now the Green Dragon).
Originally Danny and Aliki used to play against each other regularly in local pubs when Danny saw the Chris Bray independent column advertising the London Live tournament founded and run by Mike Main (AKA Mike Mad Monk).
Both players went to the tournament in 2003 and had a great time and met Guy coming out of Rotherhite Station on the way (also from Croydon).
Upon return talking about the tournament at a local club to some friends Richie and Bill it was found they both played the game and were interested in playing locally.
However the nearest place to play was in Stoke Newington at the Fox Reformed run by Robbie Richards and Mike Main it was a bit too far away for regular attendance for players from south of the river.
After talking with Aliki, Danny decided to attempt to run a small tournament and got in contact with Mike Main to ask advice in setting one up, with a view to starting a regular club in Croydon.
Aliki and Danny went to see Mike in Islington and spent four hours talking about the requirements of a successful tournament. The date was set for the Sunday 10th April 2005.
23 players turned up for the first go running four singles tournaments (main, consolation, last chance and suicide) a doubles tournament and a greek style Tavli tournament.
The winner was Jon Kinsey one of the writers of GNU gammon who beat Mike Main a close final.
The players enjoyed it so much Danny and Aliki decided to start the club at Ruskin House in Coombe Road and make the tournament a regular event.
Initially the club ran along with no gambling involved and some players came and went as they could not win any money.
A big change happened after the April 2006 tournament when optional pools were introduced, a website set up, a move to Thursdays and a new venue the Glamorgan gastro pub nearer East Croydon Station.
At this time the club started to grow the first week at the Glamorgan we had an attendance of 8 and now regularly the club has 8-12 player weekly. Unfortunately the Glamorgan became too popular and was too small to continue to accomodate us.
In October 2006 the club moved to its prsent location the Porter and Sorter even closer to East Croydon station and seems to be settled there.
I predict the club should soon have 12-16 with the growing interest in the game on both television and the internet.
Danny Gallagher
Chairmans report 2004-2006