Brian Stockdale has kindly agreed to conduct a seminar entitled 'Aces are for killing Kings - or are they? Making the most of your high cards'.

The seminar is open to all members both experienced and inexperienced, but will be particularly relevant to those who are interested in playing in the teams either this year or in future years.

The date is Wednesday 14th September -   7.00 pm. for a 7.15 start. £3 to cover the cost of the room hire and tea and coffee.

Brian will need to know the numbers in order to make up the boards, so please let me know if you wish to attend - preferably as soon as possible, but definitely by Monday 12th September.

12 August 2016 - Diana Bowden - Secretary

Bradgate has entered a fourth team in the Leicestershire League, which starts on 21 September.  The A team (Captain Richard Rees) is in Division 2, and the B Team (Pauline Dignan), C Red Team (Jim Wilkinson) and C Blue Team (Andy Satterthwaite) will all start the season in Division 4.

19 August 2016 - Richard Rees - League Secretary

Our last representatives in the Samani Salver (the LCBA summer competition for league teams) were Pauline Dignan's Bradgate B team (Pauline, Val Rees, Sue Tyler, Gilly Walton).  They faced Clarendon North in the semi-final last night and received a good handicap.  Not good enough, though, as they came 2nd, leaving Clarendon North to face Clarendon South in the final.  

Still, as losing semi-finalists, I think they should be awarded a bronze medal for carrying Bradgate's hopes so far into the competition!

19 August 2016 - Richard Rees - League Secretary

The Sims Pairs (13th June), organised by the County Club and involving Bradgate, Westcotes, Grantham and Melton was won by Carol Fisher and Martin Mellor from Grantham. Geoff Foldys and Larry-Stuart-Jones from Melton were runners-up.

Although Bradgate pairs did not place in the prize money, they did make up six out of the top ten pairs and was the largest heat over 30% of the players.

Dianne Conway and Teresa Daniels were top on the club results. However once all the results were merged from the other four clubs, Graham Conway and Peter Wells sneaked it by a smidgeon. Their final score was 1347.37 matchpoints compared with the ladies 1347.26. Given that you get two matchpoints for every pair you get a better score than, and one matchpoint you get the same score as, it couldn't have been much closer. 

The overall results can be found on the Ecats website

23rd June - Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary

The A Team and C Team have both lost their Samani matches, against Hinckley and Clarendon respectively, leaving the B Team as our only representatives.  They will know later this week who they will be meeting, in the semi-finals of the main competition.- either Clarendon North or Blaby A - good luck whichever they face.

[11 July 2016 - Richard Rees - league secretary]

Congratulations to the C Team, who won their Samani match v Grantham B and now play Clarendon South in the quarter-final, and to the B Team, who beat a strong Ashby A team last night and who now face Clarendon North or Blaby A in the semis.  

The A Team are still in the Plate competition, with a quarter-final match v Hinckley yet to be arranged.

23 June 2016 - Richard Rees - League Secretary

There were mixed fortunes for Bradgate teams in the first round of the Samani Salver, the handicapped summer knock-out competition.  

The A team (Richard Rees, Diana Bowden, Nick & Teresa Daniels) were giving Golf a handicap of 400; Bradgate fell behind early on, and although we clawed back a big deficit in the final quarter it was too little, too late, and we lost narrowly by 140.  

The B team (Val Rees, Pauline Dignan, Susie Tyler, Gilly Walton)  were playing Grantham A, who had finished the league season top of Division 2 and so were giving us a big handicap.  However, the B team were on top form and won handsomely without needing to draw on their handicap.  They will meet the winners of Leicester University and Ashby A in the next round.

Jim Wilkinson's C team have not yet played their first round match, against Grantham B - this is to be played on 9 June.

29 May 2016 - Richard Rees - League Secretary

Congratulations to Diana Bowden and Val Rees, who finished runners-up with 63.2% in the Olga Cup, the county-wide ladies pairs competition.  That is the best result by a Bradgate pair for many years in this competition.

29 May 2016 - David Twells, Chairman

Congratulations to Phil Watts & Nick Daniels, who finished 4th in the Hyman Crammer Trophy (the LCBA competition for top pairs from each club around the County).  Also to Val Rees & Pauline Dignan, who entered as Bradgate's 2nd pair (larger clubs are entitled to enter two pairs) who finished just below half-way.

Bradgate has also entered a team from each of the A, B and C teams in the Samani Salver (summer knock-out competition for teams of 4). Their progress can be followed by using the Samani Salver menu option on the left.

9th May 2016 - Richard Rees - League Secretary

The final matches of the league season were played last night.  Bradgate A (who were already safe from the twin threats of promotion and relegation!) were beaten 4-8 by Ashby A, which was enough to save Ashby from relegation and keep Bradgate A in 4th place.

In Division 3, Bradgate B had a good result against Westcotes B (runaway leaders in the Division, with a string of big wins to their name) to lose by only 5-7, but unfortunately their relegation rivals County D won their match against Leicester University, and that was enough to push Bradgate B down to Div 4 next season.

The Division 4 season had finished in the previous round of matches, and the C Team finished in a creditable mid-table slot; they are ready for the battles with the B team next season!

14 April 2016 (Richard Rees - League Secretary)

The Club has, as in previous years, matched members’ additional table money at last Monday’s Charity Evening. The funds raised on the evening, together with voluntary donations, has raised £300 for this year’s nominated charity.   I was honoured to be asked to nominate the charity this year, which is the Peter Le Marchant Trust.

The Peter Le Marchant Trust is a not-for-profit organisation based in Loughborough.  It has, for over 35 years, provided outings and holidays on our local waterways for people of all ages with any kind of disability or serious illness.  They have three boats which are crewed by volunteers, all of whom have to be trained to a required standard; the "skippers" are assessed by the Marine & Coastguard Agency.  Two of the boats are licenced to carry up to 26 passengers and over the years many groups of passengers return year after year to enjoy the experience. Last year the trust carried 4,000 passengers; the youngest was five years old, and the oldest one hundred and eight!! 

The trust depends on donations to carry out its work, particularly for the funding of boat maintenance and volunteer training, and I am delighted that we have been able to do our bit to help them this year.

24 March 2016 (Laurie Tillen, Treasurer)

The A Team had a good 7-5 win against Blaby A last night, which cements our position in the middle of Division 2 and removes any threat of relegation in our final match of the season against Ashby A.

The C Team had a winning 6-6 draw against Glenfield B, their second winning draw against them this season; that is a good result against a strong promotion candidate. Last night was the final match of the season for the C Team, who finished 4th out of 7 in Div 4. They had an excellent finish to the season, but two early 12-0 defeats left them with too much to do to be promotion contenders this year - next year. perhaps!

24 March 2016 (Richard Rees - League Secretary)

As Bradgate A (Div 2) and County A (Div 1) both had a bye in the League schedule on 2 May, County A suggested a friendly match, which was played at the Rothley Centre. 

History does not record when these two teams last played each other in the league, but it will have been over 20 years ago back in the 1990's, under Howard Stevens' captaincy; that was the last time Bradgate hit the dizzy heights of Division 1 in the Leicestershire Leagues.  However, with Bradgate firmly cemented in mid-table in Div 2 this season, and County A near the bottom of Div 1, this may have just been a rehearsal for a 'live' match next season.

David & Julie Lashley were unavailable, so June Hummel and Teresa Daniels bravely volunteered to step into the lions den, to join the usual team of Richard & Diana, Phil & Nick and Peter & Graham.

When the half-time scores emerged, the only players more shocked than the Bradgate team were those from County A - Bradgate were leading 10-2!  We lost ground in the second half, but hung on to record a famous 8-4 victory - Howard would have been proud! 

14 Mar 2016 (Richard Rees)

TEAM JONES SUFFER SHOCK HOME DEFEAT

Team Jones were soundly beaten by Lesley Chadwick and Penny Hodgson last night, 2830 points to 4170.

Despite taking an early lead, TJ were stunned just before half time by a 1NT* -3 followed by the visitors making 4H*.

Efforts at half time by the home team to bribe the visitors with coffee, cake and wine failed miserably and despite the home side chipping away at the lead early in the second half, the visitors finished strongly to emerge as clear winners.

A good time was had by all.

26th Feb 2016 (Michael Jones)