Main (85)
Amid the noise, hustle and bustle of the West Hall, filled with Crossword Puzzlers, Draughts, Chess, etc; the British Open got underway 30 minutes late due, according to entrants, to the London traffic; which apparently took many (Londoners included), by surprise!

After a hectic, last minute rush we finaly got registration out of the way and the draw began. Some of the early casualties were, John Broomfield, Andrew Serjeant, Al Hogg, Simon Gasquoine, Pietro Rossi, Enrico Colanguiolo, Dario de Toffoli, Graham Brittain.

As usual, backgammon players are confused by using clocks, despite many postings in the Bibafax and the fact that the Clock Rules are nailed to the walls of the West Hall. There's no doubt that clocks require different tactics and many players will be a long time before they come to terms with them.

John Clark (inevitably) has already grasped the tactics required to use clocks to his advantage and has worked out the difference timings and scores affect his doubling. Unfortunately for him, David Robbins failed to be overwhelmed by this new-gained knowledge knocking him out in his 3rd round match.

Sunday sees the last 8 battling it out for a chance not only of being the British Open Champion, but of winning an Olympiad Gold medal as well.

Playing through to the last 16 are:

• Rachel Rhodes v Mike Grabsky
• Paul Arnott v James Vogl
• Paul Lamford v David Robbins
• Dod Davies v Chris Andrescu
• Salvador Leong v Felix Vink
• Will Richardson v Jac Arama
• Stavros Elia v George Stafanopolous
• Gavin Anderson v Steve Pickard

At around 8:00pm on Sunday we will have whittled the above down to 4 players who will battle it out for Gold, Silver and Bronze. Who do you fancy?

Progressive Consolation (81)
Great for competitors, horrible for Directors! That's the Progressive Consolation. Working out the draw, getting matches played, keeping on at players to start their next round; these are just some of the problems facing me as I strive to keep this element moving along. At the moment it looks as if it might overflow into Monday (Finals Day) as time (6 hours per day) eats away at the number of games played per hour.

Current Consolation 'leaders' are:

• George Christofides
• Tim Collins
• Brian Lever
• Gary Lee
• Tom Townsend
• Ed Rogers
• Garreth Bell

Sunday will also be the start of the Last Chance tournament when those players not in the Main or Consolation will play in the 5-pointer. Look here for details on Monday morning.

• British Open 1999