Backgammon Set
These days most backgammon sets come in the form of a small, (or not so small in the case of the larger expensive leather Dal Negro backgammons), briefcase. This opens up to reveal each players inner and outer field separated by the bar where the hinges hold the two sides together and usually, but not always, with the troughs where the stones are born off at the ends. These also serve as the compartments for the stones when the backgammon is not in use.
There are many hand made travel backgammons of between six and ten inches when closed, made of wood like Sheesham and sycamore, many of which come from India. With very small sets the problem comes with moving the stones around when they are so small without disturbing the other stones in play. For practical purposes and for serious play on the move a nine-inch set would be the minimum requirement. Most backgammon sets of the folding type come in eleven, fifteen, eighteen and twenty one inch (Tournament size) sizes and have a wooden frame covered with a cosmetic skin of vinyl, wood or leather and fasten with one or two brass clips. The interior fields are marked out with pennants either on a printed baize surface, a baize surface with stitched raised pennants in vinyl or leather, a wooden surface with inlaid wooden veneered pennants or a complete leather interior with inlaid leather pennants.
When replacing stones one should always measure the base of the pennants and then get suitable stones which have a diameter just a millimetre or two, no more, less than this diameter. Hoyle’s stock replacement stones in acrylic and wood to suit the four usual sizes of boards. Hoyles stock backgammon sets in these sizes costing between £17 and £75 for vinyl and hardwood cased backgammons, £100 plus for inlaid and fine walnut veneered Italian backgammons.
Flat backgammon boards for club play cost the best part of £150 and we stock the Dal Negro Olimpico at £185 in Tournament size and with a mahogany frame. |
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