Richard Coles completed his 4 day league campaign today, transporting his beautiful (but enormous) hand-built oak board in a dashing, growly (but more modestly sized) sports car.

First stop was Diss, where Steve Holman could do nothing to combat the unstoppable mojo engendered by the open-top backgammon odyssey:

Richard Coles  11   Steve Holman  7

Richard Coles  11   Steve Holman  7

That’s not a typo, it was the same result twice.

On then to Swavesey, to take on Rob “voodoo” Bolter. The first match looked to be going Rob’s way but Richard fought back from 10-5 down (or something like that) to take it 11-10.

That left the final game as the league decider (Rob had better goal difference so drawing on points would be enough). Rob hared out of the traps again to an 8-0 lead, and though Richard rallied to 8-5, Rob ended up winning 11-5.

Warm congratulations to Rob (I mean that in the fires of hell sense), as he returns to the premiership for the first time since the inaugural season. Richard stays put, as does Neil, who may or may not be rueing dodgy match-leading recubes. Steve will be playing division 3 backgammon next season, but it’s been a close-fought season and anyone could’ve gone up or down.