On 6th August 2021, 9 ex-Reading School boys played bridge continuously for 24 hours in aid of Launchpad Reading, a charity for the homeless.

They played an incredible 245 hands and raised £1768.

You can still donate through the Launchpad Reading website.

UNDETERRED BY HOLIDAYS

OXFORDSHIRE’S JUNIOR BRIDGE COMPETITIONS CONTINUE

Buckets, spades, canoes, walking boots, swimmers and flippers were all abandoned at 4pm, UK time, on the afternoon of Sunday 16^th August 2020, whilst 18 pairs of intrepid and formidable juniors from all over the world logged on to the 4^th BBO Junior Bridge Lockdown competition.

A roundup of the variety of holiday venues proves that distance, oceans and time zones are no bar to junior competitors.

Four members of the Soonawalla family logged on in Nice; forced to share one ipad charger, at least they were not sharing Nice, as most of their fellow countrymen had fled to Blighty to beat Boris’s quarantine deadline!

The Irish Sea parted Phedra Kingston in Belfast from her regular partner Harriet Cork in England.

George Niedringhaus finished just in time for lunch, playing from sunny Florida with Zoe Soonawalla.

Alfie Lawrance played from his holiday cottage in Devon with grandfather Derek Boreham in Cheltenham.

Will Battersby abandoned his walking boots and settled down in a café in Prague where he managed to play on his iphone with scratch partner Aman Parekh in Reading.

Finally, three regular competitors, Aileen Armstrong, Andrew Newbold and Harry Minchin all live on and compete from the Isle of Wight.

Congratulations to the winners of the faster, 18 board section, Bjorn Ahl and Thomas Gardner with Zane Soonawalla and Freddie Beneat a close second.

In the 15 board section, siblings ruled again with Leo and Nola Fleming on the top of the podium and Milly and Verity Hallam in hot pursuit – watch these names everyone!

Full results of this and the three previous BBO Junior Lockdown Competitions are available on the Oxfordshire Bridge Association Website.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR JUNIOR COMPETITORS

On 2nd January 2019 twenty children plus parents, grandparents and tutors spent the day at the Chantry House in Henley. In the morning they improved their skills, 12 of them trying bridge bidding for the first time, and in the afternoon, after a pizza from Zizzis and a run around at the park, they played in a competition, many for the first time. The bridge competition was won by Elizabeth Cooper and Pat Lewis (OBC chair), and in second place were Ella (Gillotts) and John (grandpa) Chamberlain. The minibridge competition was won by Alex (Goring PS) and grandpa  Holman. The prizes were fun packs of cards collected on round the world cruises and donated to us. It was lovely to be joined by so many families including a French bridge playing grandfather called Luis. This was probably due to the fact that it was held during the Christmas holidays. Elizabeth Cooper, Iris and Noah Bennett also received their silver awards on the national junior award scheme.

This has been an exciting week starting the new year. We have held taster sessions at Badgemore and Trinity Primary Schools in Henley, as well as at Nettlebed, Crowmarsh,Sonning Common and Marcham, so all their bridge clubs are up and running with a keen group of year 5s and 6s. There are many more schools starting again in the next few weeks, but there are so far approximately 150 Oxfordshire children playing, which suggests that the total will rise to 300 or so. Apart from the weekly sessions in schools, there are at least three training days and competitions planned in January, February and March, by which time they will be experts! It is a delight to see the bridge clubs as part of the school culture in those where it has been established for up to nine years, since both the children and the volunteer helpers all enjoy themselves. There are also more children being welcomed into the local bridge clubs, reducing the average age of the players, as they improve and seriously increasing the biscuit consumption.

English Bridge Education and Development has been established as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) for duplicate bridge, and is distinct from the EBU. A major element of the new initiatives from EBED concerns Youth Bridge.

EBED launched its new Junior Award Scheme in August to stimulate enthusiasm for junior bridge among young players, parents and educators. The scheme breaks down the skills required to develop from raw rookie to serious contender into a set of steps and milestones, and the participants must satisfactorily demonstrate the different techniques to achieve each level and progress to the next.

In the BB&O area a number of our young players have already received their Minibridge Certificates, and some have progressed to the Full Bridge Bronze Award. Pictured below are Arthur Anstis (left), and Lizzy van der Veen with their Bronze Awards, and in the centre is George Anstis with his Silver Award. (The Silver Award would be the level attained by our normal club player).

April 2017

“Never work with children or animals” – whoever thought of that one? Whomsoever it was had never run a Junior Bridge Club or an end of term competition for 8 to 12 year olds, with a heavy imbalance of males!

What fun and what joy we ‘middle aged’ volunteers experienced as Summertown Church Hall filled up with 21 eager children (17 boys and just four girls) on the afternoon of Sunday 19^th March.

With ten ‘bidders’ and eleven mini-bridgers, tables were hastily made up with adults, and scorer, Diane Coe gave Holly Kilpatrick, TD, the correct movement. Meanwhile at the Mini bridge end of the room, the cry went up all too soon: “Please Ma, we’ve already played these hands……” More juniors were arriving – did we have enough tables? Would we have enough tea? Were enough Easter eggs hidden in the church hall garden?? Another latecomer……another table; thank goodness, a parent clutching cakes, the tea problem temporarily solved.

“Director Please! Lead out of turn and a revoke” “Really……?” (misunderstanding of the meaning of revoke……!

“Director Please! (from the mini-bridge end?) This hand is badly sorted” – “Really? Ah, I see, each player seems to have thirteen cards of the same suit.” No problem, Anthony Harris has adopted pragmatism and has turned it into a lesson: “Now then, who is most likely to win this contract??”

More movement problems with the mini bridgers; “Quiet please, who are pair 5?” – up shot four hands. “Are you sure”? Help! where are the table slips;” “I think our pair number changed when we moved for the first round Ma…”

“Have you a key to the kitchen, Holly? The door has locked itself.” No key and we are locked away from the Easter feast , the prizes and 48 sausage rolls browning themselves in the oven! No problem, Clare jumps on a chair and climbs through the hatch, nobody notices. Another call from the bidding end “Are we playing Teams or Pairs Ma?”

Finally, we call a halt to proceedings; time for the egg hunt. They may be outnumbered but the girls’ eyes were sharper and Easter eggs were scooped up in record time while everyone descended upon the groaning tea table.  Miraculously, we seemed to feed everyone, young and older, while Diane feverishly calculated a ‘fair’ result for both sections.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the juniors who joined us on that Sunday afternoon! The hall exuded the usual good humour and bonhomie generated by youth and, on this occasion, winning simply wasn’t important!

Alas, there was no time to take photos but it really did happen.

Holly Kilpatrick

More pictures from the Young Bridge Challenge held at Loughborough on April 4th 2017

Henry Rose has every right to be beaming! He has just heard the news that he has been selected to play for the Under 15 England team in the 2016 Youth Bridge World Championships to be held in Italy in August. Henry started bridge at the Dragon School when he was 8 years old and has been attending the Oxford Junior Bridge Club regularly since it started in 2014; in fact, he was their first pupil.

Pictures of Henry Rose and the two teams at Salsomaggiore.

• This was held at Roke on yet another sunny Sunday in February and was attended by 28 children from nine schools. There were 5 tables playing minibridge and 3 tables of bridge players.
• The results were. Bridge 1st Max Potter and Freddie Beneat, 2nd Thomas and Jacob Potter
•                           Minibridge, 1st Sam Soonawalla + adult, 2nd Charlie Lutyens-Humfrey and Alex Byrne, 3rd Amelia Beecroft and Harry Ellis.
• As usual, the food was excellent, all home cooked and provided by volunteers, and the children were able to play outside in the(chilly) sunshine during their break. For most of the minibridge children, it was the first time that they had played 10 hands at a time, and they rose to the occasion magnificently. The bridge players, despite being very young, are an experienced lot and thought nothing of their 15 hands.

Oxfordshire's James Paul played in the Under 26 Team which came 4th from 18, whilst Freddie Illingworth and Laura Covill played in the Under 21's who came 13th from 16 in Tromso Norway in July

They struggled in their opening qualifying matches, finishing fifth of the six teams in their group. They bounced back well, however, finishing second in the next group phase to move on to the 5th-8th playoff. They lost their 'semi-final' but an emphatic victory in their final match saw them claim 7th place and improve on their good performance in the 2015 competition.

Henry Rose (on the right of the picture) started learning bridge at the Dragon School when he was 8 years old and has been attending the Oxford Junior Bridge Club regularly since it started in 2014; in fact, he was their first pupil.

November 2016

OXFORD JUNIOR BRIDGE CLUB COMPETITION

20^th November 2016

The second Oxford Junior Bridge Club Competition was held at the Oxford Bridge Club on the afternoon of Sunday 20^th November when twenty-five children, aged 9 – 15 years, descended upon the balloon decorated premises, generating laughter and good will. The juniors came from a variety of schools around the city and county and from as far afield as Sonning Common, Reading and the Midlands!

Congratulations to our scorer, Diane Coe and TDs, Mike Fletcher and Peter Sherry, who managed to keep boards and children moving, in spite of the speed differentials and the cross table chatting! and thanks to David Bygott for all the competition photos.

This year we merged the experienced bidders with the novices and awarded prizes in both sections. 

The mini-bridge players (left) might have been low in numbers but were high in enthusiasm and played eight boards from a recent simultaneous pairs competition. Two young entrants have only been learning for four weeks!

At 4.15 p.m. we called a halt and everyone descended upon the tea table, groaning with goodies, mostly donated by parents, many of whom joined us for tea, while Diane feverishly attempted to get a result.

When presenting the prizes, organiser, Holly Kilpatrick warmly thanked the Chairman and Trustees of the Oxford Bridge Club, who had kindly given their premises free of charge. In the mini-bridge section, first prize went to Carl Shelley, whom, although playing with an adult, had played all the hands and chosen the contracts.  In the novice bidders section our winners were Jennifer Ellis and Jacob Hathaway from Sonning Common.

In the “experienced” bidders section first prize went to Richmond Yeung and Inigo Sanchez-Asiain from the Dragon School.   Some of the results were extremely close and congratulations to all the children who took part. Full results are listed below:

EXPERIENCED BIDDERS

1^st Richmond Yeung and Inigo Sanchez Asiain

2^nd Megan Jones and Henry Rose

NOVICE BIDDERS

1^st Jennifer Ellis and Jacob Hathaway

2^nd Jacob Potter and Freddie Beneat

MINI-BRIDGE

1^ST        Carl Shelley

2^nd       Freya Cook and Louisa Alvey

3^rd        Harry Litchfield and Zach Matthews

4^th        Merlin Kavanna and Hanmer Hanbury

The fourth Oxford Junior Bridge Club competition was held at Oxford Bridge Club on the afternoon of 3rd February, when forty-four childrem, aged  8-16 years, descended upon the elegantly refurbished premises, generating laughter and goodwill. The juniors came from near and far for this event.

Congratulations to our scorer, Lisa Furnival and TDs Mike Fletcher and Peter Sherry, who managed to run three sections and to keep the boards and children moving. The four tables of mini-bridge players were high in enthusiasm and, in some cases, low on experience! The winners, Olivia Zamora and Isabella Bravo, had only been playing for a week! Second place went to Emily McAndrew and Martha Ward, who had been playing for two weeks!

Novice bidding winners, Lawrence Crean and Thomas Rice achieved a staggering 80.56%, more than 16% more than the second pair, Daniel Bruce and Grace Harrison. James Cater and Theo Sinclair just pipped Zane Soonwalla and Freddie Beneat to top position in the Advanced Bidding section scoring 70.83% and 69.17% respectively. WELL DONE TO ALL OF THEM.

At 4.15.p.m. we called a halt and everyone descended upon the tea table, groaning with goodies, mostly donated by parents, many of whom joined us for tea, while Lisa and Mike feverishly attempted to get a result.

When announcing the winners, organiser, Holly Kilpatrick warmly thanked the Chairman and Trustees of Oxford Bridge Club, who had kindly given the beautiful premises free of charge. Pat Lewis, Chairman of OBC, presented the prizes.

Some Oxfordshire players attended the first of the Bridge Summer Camps this year. As you can see it was not all hard work as there was time for a refreshing break.

Aidan Saunders and Zane Soonawalla received their medals for being ‘best in their group’.

OXFORD JUNIOR BRIDGE CLUB

LOUGHBOROUGH SCHOOLS CHALLENGE

28^th February 2015

On Saturday 28^th February six members of the Oxford Junior Bridge Club travelled to Loughborough Grammar School for the Annual Schools Challenge.  The team of four: Max Potter, William Wauchope, Henry Rose and Theo Rich were up against fierce and mature competition in the form of sixth formers from St Paul’s, Westminster, Haberdashers, and older pupils from Oxford Girls High and other prestigious schools! During the afternoon, they were required to bid and play 30 hands of bridge, with only a short supper break. Not only did they play well, they remained courteous and cheerful to one another and their competitors throughout! Thomas Potter, our team reserve, stepped in for the last round of six hands. Our team of x 4 finished an amazing 10^th out of 13 teams.

The team from Oxford Girls High finished in 8^th place, which was much higher than they expected.

Thomas Potter, playing with his 7 year old brother, Jacob, won the separate mini-bridge competition.

This was held at Roke on 22nd March 2015. Five tables of bridge players and three of minibridge players took part from 16 schools in the area. It was particularly good to see so many year 7 and upwards children, who had started playing at their primary schools, present. The hands played were from the EBU student Sims and results can be seen on the EBU (English Bridge Union) website. Click on 'Sims, past events , education bridge or minibridge to find your results. Prizes were kindly presented by Richard, Earl of Macclesfield.

The results from the Goring, Sonning Common/KE and Nettlebed heats can also be seen there. Well done to all of you.

The winning national student pair were Arthur Anstis and Cameron Butcher of Wallingford BC, whilst  Jacob Potter & Aidan Saunders finished third nationally in the minibridge competition

For more information and pictures see the 'Third OBA Annual Junior Congress' tab to the left.

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  Club/Reading School Anthony Euan
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  Reading School David Ed
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  Reading School Dom Will
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  Reading School Jack Nathan

On 17th January a team of 8 Reading schoolboys travelled to London with their teacher, Judy Honikberg, to play against St Paul's School. Many of the the Reading Boys have been playing, when school work permits(!), at Reading Bridge Club, where they have halved the average age some nights. The match was played over 20 hands as 2 teams of four. All the boys played magnificently, but in particular on one hand, one Reading pair bid and made 7 No Trumps, whilst the other Reading pair bid to 7 Hearts which failed on a 5-0 split. Neither St Paul's pair bid a slam, probably due to vigorous interference bidding by the Reading boys. The final result was 86 IMPs to Reading with no negative scores, which was a stunning result. 

Congratulations to Joan Bennett who has been awarded the 2012 Tom Bradley Award

This award is presented in memory of former Board Member and EBU Treasurer Tom Bradley and is given to a non-serving school teacher who has made a significant contribution to junior bridge.

The schools bridge programme was an idea that Joan formulated in the summer of 2009. Joan sold her accountancy practice and retired from business. At the same time she retired from coaching synchronised swimming and looked for a new outlet for her energy and enthusiasm. She decided she wanted to help increase the number of bridge players by concentrating on teaching bridge to school children. She attended the Partner Teacher course at the EBU and soon after was appointed as the teacher at the local sixth form college who wished to add bridge to its sixth form enrichment programme. Joan worked from the set EBU teaching hands for Minibridge and Bridge and felt she could use the approach at Primary Schools.

She recruited volunteers to join her and, with the help of Alison Nicolson, developed two one-day teaching courses which allow a volunteer to gain confidence in their ability to teach minibridge and bridge to school children. With the help of the EBU the first twenty volunteers were trained, and a application to lottery fund allowed the purchase of two dealing machines, a thousand boards and packs of cards.

Joan is for ever seeking to expand the list of volunteers and has persuaded Berkshire & Buckinghamshire CBA and Oxfordshire BA to share the funding of future courses for volunteers. They also set aside budgets to support the more general expenses of running the project. The county sponsorship has meant that events, including minibridge sims competitions, have been run free of charge with the counties paying the rent and the refreshments. As the project has grown the positive experiences of head teachers means that new schools are actively seeking the chance to take part. Ofsted has been very positive about all of the school bridge clubs.

Joan has further expanded the scheme into Hertfordshire and Dorset, with more targets in sight. There are 100+ volunteers and some claim that their own game has improved as a result. There have been very few schools or volunteers drop out, and nearly all the large number of volunteers and pupils involved thoroughly enjoy the experience.

Joan is pictured receiving the award from Michael Byrne.

We were awarded a grant from the trust worth £2500 to cover the purchase of 500 new boards and 1000 packs of cards in December 2012. This will enable us to continue to support new schools with pre dealt hands from the EBU minibridge teaching hands.The original purchases, together with two dealing machines, were financed by a lottery grant to the Chiltern League in 2010.We are also supported by the Berks,Bucks and Oxon associations- effectively local players.   

George Anstis and Lizzy van der Veen have completed their silver award using bridge as their skill, and are both continuing bridge towards their gold award. Scarlett Anstis has obtained her bronze award. Congratulations to all three of them.

The average age of the Oxford Bridge Club attendee was lowered dramatically on the afternoon of Sunday 22^nd November when thirty children, aged 8 – 18 years descended upon the balloon decorated premises generating laughter and good will. With roads closed in the city centre, the A40 permanently jammed and both Banbury and Woodstock Road roundabouts “under re-construction,” it was a miracle to see so many children actually arriving from different parts of the country, including Cheltenham and Reading.

With three sections to run, mini-bridge, novice bidders and experienced bidders, an accolade must surely go to our scorers and TDs, Diane Coe, Mike Fletcher and Peter Sherry, who managed to keep boards and children moving, in spite of the speed differentials of players and the cross table chatting!

At 4.15pm, we called a halt and everyone descended upon the tea table, groaning with goodies mostly donated by parents, many of whom joined us for tea, while the scorers feverishly attempted to get a result.

The prizes were presented by Richard Sills, Chairman of the Oxford Bridge Club, who had kindly given us their premises free of charge. In the mini-bridge section, first prize went to the Reading siblings, Jacob and Alice Hathaway (in spite of one of them trumping the other’s ace!!!) In the novice bidders section our winners were John Wood and Freya Baldwin and in the “experienced” bidders section first prize went to the Anstis brothers, Arthur and George.  Some of the results were extremely close and congratulations to all the children who took part. Full results are listed below:

EXPERIENCED BIDDERS

George and Arthur Anstis                                                          +34

Megan Stanton-Cole and Alison Withers-Green (adult)                 +2

Max and Thomas Potter                                                              -2

Freddie Yu and Richmond Yeung                                                 -34

NOVICE BIDDERS

1^st        John Wood and Freya Baldwin                    59.72%

2^nd       Max Cronin and Karla Maria Unwin              51.39%

3^rd        Natalie Kong and Diana Cai                        50%

            Freddie Beneat and Zane Soonawala           50%

            Thomas Eadie and Rachel Wills                   50%

6^th        Sally Hung and Cecelia Su                           48.61%

7^th        Jacob Potter and Aidan Saunders                 45.83%

8^th        Jennifer Reynolds and Ava Reynolds            43.75%

MINI-BRIDGE

1^ST        Jacob and Alice Hathaway                                         +10

2^nd       Zach Matthews and Harry Litchfield                              +8

3^rd        Clemmie and Edmund Fry                                             +6

            Bruno Keyworth playing with Sean Terry (adult)            +6

Picture gallery:

George Anstis and Lizzy van der Veen played 36 hands in 5 hours on Sunday 8th February 2015 and both received prizes. The entry contained a lot of VERY good players and George, playing with his grandfather, came 27th from 40. Very well done.

On Wednesday 19^th July, a group of 16 juniors, (15 boys and 1 girl!) from schools in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, visited the House of Lords for a friendly bridge match. Divided into small groups, the children were given fascinating tours of the historic building, after which the bridge match began in the beautiful River Room, overlooking the Thames.  The Lords were outnumbered by the juniors and tables were made up by visiting teachers,  so the winners, from Reading School, were the pair with the most plusses on their scorecard! The children were all given a lovely memento of the afternoon.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a very generous tea in the River Canteen and at the end of the afternoon some of us were lucky enough to be shown the secret underground route to Westminster Tube Station.

The sixteen pupils, who took part, attend the following schools: Abingdon School Oxon, Dr Challoners Bucks, Epsom College, Highdown Oxon, Reading School, Berks, the Dragon School, Oxford, Summer Fields School Oxford, Magdalen College Oxford and the Oxford Junior Bridge Club.

Many thanks to the Lords for their time and generosity.

Oct 2017

In March each year schools and clubs play the same hands of cards in different places. These are called Simultaneous Pairs or 'Sims'. As they are all playing the same hands, they can be scored nationally when they are put together.
This year, Berks, Bucks and Oxon did fantastically well as the results show below.
BRIDGE - 219 pairs
4th George and Arthur Anstis, Wallingford
11th George Cooper and Joan (adult)
MINIBRIDGE - 60 pairs
1st Lynne Puddifoot & Jamie Arlott, Faringdon
2nd Lewis Crossley & Aaron McNeille, Elangeni Amersham
4th Caitlin Nugent & Ellie Vockins, Nettlebed
6th Rutendo Ganga & Mia Wright, Faringdon
7th Katie Jarvis & James Wilson, Wallingford
9th Elizabeth Cooper & Jemima Smith, Kidmore End
10th Ishaan Chaudhury & Mathew Stan, Wallingford

England had qualified for the final in all four age groups which was fantastic. Oxfordshire provided 3 members of the squads with Laura Covill and Eva Wieczorek playing in the U26 girls team and Henry Rose in the U16 team. Sadly, all our teams were knocked out in the round robin stage.

September 2018

Freddie Illingworth formerly of The Dragon School and MCS, and now an undergraduate at Cambridge has just been awarded the title of young player of the year by the EBU. He is a member of the England Under 20 team and played in China, France, Netherlands, Ireland Denmark and Poland.
He first joined the Under 20 squad when he was 13-even though he only had a basic knowledge of bridge, he soon picked new things up every time he attended a training weekend and went from strength to strength. The opportunity of playing a lot of hands, combined with learning about new bidding systems improved his bridge no end, and the chance to make new friends and play with and against different people his own age is a huge benefit.
The great thing about the Under 20 squad is that it is open to everyone-even very new players who have only just started. There is NO minimum standard and everyone is welcome to come and have a go.
Anyone interested should contact the squad leader Michael Byrne on abbot_hugo@hotmail.com

At the First Oxfordshire Junior Congress, held on 24th February at Roke, Oxfordshire, the following children came joint first:

Bridge

George Cooper and Louis Johnson, Kidmore End Primary School; Kayleigh Smith and Beth Summers, Charlbury Primary School.

Minibridge

Roos Goette Hoosch and Carla Russell, Nettlebed Primary School; Henry Neal, Kidmore End Primary School

For a full report with pictures click on the link to the First Junior Congress in the left hand panel. On some PCs and ipads it may be necessary to click on the Home Page link first. 

On 21st May 2013 five tables of children played in an end of year bridge competition. They came from Cookham, Downley High Wycombe, and St Peters Marlow.

The joint winning pairs North-South were Leon Bennett and Bradley Powell from Downley and Will Reeve +adult from Cookham with 66%.

The East-West winners were James le Fleming and Jon Tindal from Cookham with a remarkable 91%.

The children all left with badges and goodies having enjoyed the spice of competition that made the day different from a routine session. Many of them are year 5s and will be returning in the Autumn.

The EBU national simultaneous pairs has finished. Schools players can look on line to see how they compared against others across the country: Sim Pairs Results

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  March Roke2
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  March Roke
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  March Sims

Children and volunteers from Oxfordshire and Berkshire at the March 2012 heats of the English Bridge Union minibridge simultaneous pairs in Roke and Henley.

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Baroness de Souza with Amersham children in the river room before playing against their lordships. (top)

Joan Bennett with Stoke Row children on the terrace with the London Eye in the background. (middle)

Pupils from Kidmore End. (bottom)