Sad to learn that Wendy Thornton, bridge partner and wife of the late Wally Heaton, has passed away. Wendy was a leading light of Cornish bridge in the 90s and 00s before the two of them retired to West Wales. Wendy won all major titles in Cornwall and many, many of the annual leagues that used to run in both the West (and East) of the county.

The Western League has concluded for another year. Thank you to all 27 players who represented the county during the season. Despite winning only two of their seven matches (they had four very narrow defeats) the C team faired best finishing 3= with 68 VPs (70 is average). The A team finished sixth in their league with 63 VPs (3 wins, 4 defeats) with the B team finishing last in their league with 52 VPs (2 wins, 1 draw, 4 defeats). 

Six teams played in this event on 17 March. In a very close finish, Richard Blyth (Geoff Jones, Ian Marriott, Paul Lindsay) was victorious with 59 VPs ahead of joint second equal Heather Holder-Powell (John Golding, Graham Ramsey, Peter Scott) with Geoff Smith (Glyn Meredith, Jo Bryant, Mick Robson) on 57 VPs. The winning team qualifies to represent Cornwall in the Pachabo Cup in June. Congratulations to them, and we wish them well in the national final.

Congratulations to Geoff Smith & Chris Bickerdike for finishing 6th out of 31 in the combined event for Premier Life, Life, National and Regional Masters on RealBridge on 24/25 February. They won 6.69 green points for their efforts.

Liskeard BC ran a F2F heat of the Masters Pairs, and were rewarded with five pairs winning green points. Judy & Kevin Channer won 2.00GPs for 12th out of 140; Roger Jones & Barbara Rogers 1.33 for 9th place; Michael Smith & Judy Dixon 1.46 for 36th , Elizabeth & Tom Little 0.64 for 37th and Gillian Swann & Sylvia Smith 0.55 for 44th.. Well done to all of you. 

The John Perks Pairs, our premier pairs event, was held on RealBridge on Sunday 21 January. Congratulations to Mick Robson and Jo Bryant who won with over 61%, followed by Geoff Smith and Glyn Meredith on 57%, with last year's winners, Wendy Williams and Henry Gompertz, finishing in third place with 52%. These three pairs have qualified to represent Cornwall in the National final, the Corwen Trophy, in early June.

It is sad that only 8 pairs played in the John Perks this year, compared to 11 pairs last year. When I first played in the event less than 20 years ago, there were three heats in the county with the leading 14 pairs playing in the final.

There are currently nine bridge clubs in Cornwall that are affiliated to the English Bridge Union (EBU). They meet either online or face-to-face or both on a variety of weekday evenings.