The Bone Club story

My name is Guy Haslam and I set up Bone Club out of a passion for the game of Backgammon. I have been playing backgammon for over 30 years. I was introduced to the game by my Mum when I was seven. I have always been a keen player of all kinds of games, from the first Ataris to playing Chess, which I still do online every day.

I know backgammon has had a huge revival in recent years and as such I wanted to introduce my friends to the game, from here Bone Club was born. Originally centered around a group of friends getting together over a few beers to part take in some friendly competition. We have met regularly for the last 5 years and we’re still going strong. Players in my group range from the novice to friends who have travelled the world playing the game on their faithful board.

One thing I noted in the group where the different range of boards people owned or had played on. From the pocket travel kind to the championship size game and the impact this had on their enjoyment of the game and the overall experience. I myself had a medium size board for over 20 years but playing on a friends competition size board 5 years ago took my game and love of the game to a whole new level.

There and then I decided I would love to design and sell competition size backgammon boards at affordable prices. So everyone had the chance to enjoy the game of backgammon on the optimum board, in my opinion.

My background is in design, I have been a web designer for over 20 years, running my own small business and I am also keen furniture designer and maker designing key peices for friends and family. As an aside I am also a magician part of the Blackpool Magician clubs, so I guess you could call me a man with many passions!

Using my passion and skills for design and my love for the game of backgammon I set about designing my perfect board. I tested, researched, tested again and perfected the board designs that have lead to Bone Clubs first range of boards.

I know from my experience that leather and baize make the best surfaces but as I wanted an affordable range. So I have worked with suppliers to source a high end leather look outer and suedette surface that offers the slide and feel of suede or baize, but at a more affordable price. I still work with baize and suede, but these are offered in Bone Club’s bespoke and custom ranges.

Colour selection was key to me in the design of the boards, I wanted the Bone Club brand to stand out and I wanted a range of colours that where contemporary and appearing to a wide range of people. My love of some classic music helped me with the names for my boards!, (if you hadn’t already spotted the a board names and album title connection here some pointers: Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, A Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Purple Rain by Prince and Back to Black by Amy Winehouse)

I really hope you enjoy the boards we have developed and enjoy your game of backgammon on them. Bone Club is fairly new with plenty of ambition so look out for a Bone Club night near you soon and our series of videos providing helpful hints and tips sign up to our newsletter for details or follow up on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Also if you are at any tournaments – we are sure to be there so pop in and say Hi and we could even play a few games!

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