Congratulations to Sylvia S., Stewart, Doreen and Janet who won the Spring Compensated Teams on March 23rd.

The provisional combined results for the SCCBA Open Simultaneous Pairs are now on the county web-site.  The highest-placed Crawley pairs are Veronica & David (12th), Hazel & Meryyn (13th) and Betty & Ralph (15th).  If you're wondering why the finishing order of Crawley pairs in the county results differs from that in the club results, try reading this ECats FAQ.

Despite the best efforts of Helen's sat nav, all 8 members of the Crawley BC team (Hazel, Christine, Betty, Helen, Shirley, Howard, Mervyn and Doreen) made it to Thakeham and 'played their socks off' to finish a very creditable 3rd (out of 7) in this friendly event.

The runaway winners were West Sussex BC, who put a very strong team out.  Lewes BC were 2nd.  There was also a delicious tea provided by the hosts who earnt that dubious right by winning the event last year.  Well done to all our team.

Are you a prominent club member?  Are you off to Thailand shortly?  Then, obviously, you're up to no good!!  See Daily Telegraph article.

You might remember that we held a heat of the county's David Pavey Trophy competition back in November.  Well, Veronica and David have only gone and won the final at Worthing!!!  Many congratulations to them.

Howard and his partner, David Pickford, and Richard and Debbie also did well, finishing 6th and 7th= respectively, although Richard and Debbie were playing 'without standing' which means that they weren't eligible to win the competition since they hadn't played together in the heat.

See the county web-site for an article and the full results.

Can you spot a young (well young-ish!) Tad in this picture?  Tad and other members of Crawley Bridge Club made headlines in local newspapers in October 1983 because of their exploits in the Bridge Bridge League Congress in the Isle of Man.

Not only did Tad's team (himself plus David Clifton, Frank Cooper and David Rowe) win the Teams event but a second Crawley team (Martin & Pauline Pool, John Wallace and David Ginn) finished as runners-up!  Not content with that, Tad and David Clifton also won the Open Pairs event!

See transcripts of all 3 articles.

Our Sussex Charity Sims heat on Friday January 15th raised the splendid sum of £96 to be shared by this year's county charities - Pericles and The Oyster Project.

The confirmed combined results are now on the county web-site with Wendy and Hazel (16th) and Sally and Ralph (18th) doing best of the Crawley pairs.

A good time was had by all at this year's Christmas Party on December 11th.  Many thanks to organisers Helen, Richard, Alan and Betty for putting in so much effort.

 We are running a course comprising three terms :-

• of ten two-hour sessions
• which is suitable for complete beginners
• costs £40/term plus £20 for the EBU Beginning Bridge Book 1
• starts January 2016
• and has a FREE introductory session!

Congratulations to Susie and mum Pat who won the intermediate stratification class and finished 3rd overall at Turners Hill on Saturday November 21st in the Sussex Basic Bridge Pairs event that Helen runs.  Cecile & Sumi and Shirley & Carolyn also did very well, finishing 4th and 5th overall respectively.  See results, article and pictures on the SCCBA web-site.

You can find the results on the ECats site.  From this initial screen :-

• to see the Crawley results separately, click on 'Club' in the 'Rankings' box on the right and search for 'Crawley',
• to see the complete overall results, click on 'Overall' in the 'Rankings' box on the right.

Congratulations to Stuart, Tad, Stewart and the absent Sylvia B who won the Autumn Compensated Teams on September 2nd.

Congratulations to Janet and Kerry who are pictured receiving the Liliane Massingale Cup from Richard.  Janet and Kerry won the annual handicapped pairs event on Wednesday May 20th, just hours after joining the club!  Close runners-up were Richard & Sue who were leading before handicaps were applied.

In a first for Crawley Bridge Club, 11 members spent a very enjoyable weekend (March 27-29th) of friendly bridge and fantastic food in the very comfortable Ardington Hotel in Worthing along with 29 other players from other clubs.  Tricia and Christine were our stars as they won the Saturday evening session and were presented with chocolates at the end of the final session on Sunday.  A good time was had by all and we would hope to do something similar next year!

Congratulations to Frank who is pictured being presented with the Saeed Salver by Helen for being the club's most improved player over the past 12 months.

Congratulations to the winners of the Spring 2015 Compensated Teams - Tad, Veronica, David and Betty.

Several learners from the Improvers Class bravely turned up to play at a club evening on Wednesday March 18th.

Congratulations to the Ladies Team (pictured minus Wendy, Cecile, Sylvia W. and Christina) who, after a recount, are this year's winners of the Sheila Becarevic Cup by 14 IMPs.  The match was a 14-a-side match played over 24 boards.  See full results.

The next 'event' at Crawley BC is a Compensated Teams on Wednesday March 25th.  You wouldn't want to miss it, would you?

Congratulations to Helen & Mervyn who won the the Valentine Pairs prize for being the highest-placed mixed pair CBC members on Friday February 13th.

Very well done to visitors Alan and Mick who finished an excellent second overall in the SCCBA Seniors Simultaneous Pairs.  See results and article on the SCCBA web-site.

They may have only finished 3rd in the Crawley heat of the SCCBA Charity Simultaneous Pairs but Susie and Debbie also finished 3rd overall!!   Very well done to them.  See results and article on the SCCBA web-site.

Following a very enjoyable party on Friday 12^th December, there are a lot of people for me to thank.

Firstly, thanks go to Mervyn for his sterling work organising the movement and for scoring the Club section so quickly.  Thanks also to Richard for running the improvers section.  It was lovely to see so many from our class and we hope to see them at a club night in the not too distant future!  Judging by the noise that came from that end of the room, it certainly sounded as if they were having a good time!

Thanks to Betty for running the raffle and for planning the food with the Grattons caterers.  They certainly gave us a splendid spread!  Finally, thank you to our very efficient treasurer for organising the pairings and the prizes for the Club section and for ensuring that the £125 raised by the raffle will go to Last Chance (our chosen charity for this year).

Thanks to all who attended, contributed to the raffle prizes and bought tickets.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Helen

(Helen and Tad are pictured with their prizes for winning the bridge in the Club section. - Ed.)

P.S.  The Improvers Section was won by .....

..... Sue Snelling and Gwendoline Berry who were presented with their awards at the start of the new term.

One of Santa's not-so-little helpers dropped in to run the Improvers class recently!

Congratulations to the winners of the Autumn 2014 Compensated Teams - Betty, John, Sylvia B. and Veronica.

Congratulations to Peter and Cecile who won the Liliane Massingale Cup (handicapped pairs) on Friday May 23rd.

Congratulations to Sumi for being the club's most improved player over the past 12 months and so becoming the 6th winner of the Saeed Salver.

Congratulations to the winners of the Spring 2014 Compensated Teams - Debbie, Susie, Tricia and Christine.

On February 26th, the Gents team won the Sheila Becarevic Cup for the third successive year - this time by the fairly comfortable margin of 115 IMPs.  See full results.

Commiserations to ........

........ the Ladies team.  Better luck(-ish!) next year.

The club's next special event will be a Compensated Teams event on Friday March 21st.

Attendance was down at this year's Christmas Party but 30 members still enjoyed 18 hands of bridge and a first-class buffet.

Congratulations to ......

..... the winners and runners-up in the bridge  - Jean & Bert and Jim & Doreen respectively.

Many thanks to organisers Betty, Alan and Richard and that other chap who did the directing and scoring.

Crawley pairs did very well on Saturday November 23rd in the Sussex Basic Bridge Pairs event that Helen runs.  Hazel and Betty won the event overall and Christine and Tricia won the intermediate section.  Congratulations to them all.  For full details, see the Sussex web-site.

Congratulations to the winners of the Autumn 2013 Compensated Teams - Helen, Carol, Betty and Tricia.

Are you aware of the August 1st 2013 changes to Announcements and Alerts?  The main change is that the No Trump strength, Stayman and red-suit transfer Announcements now apply to 2NT as well as to 1NT.  Please read the full summary to see if you are affected.   You can find more details of these and other changes (e.g. replacing the Orange Book with the Blue Book) on the county web-site and in the August edition of English Bridge.

After this year's AGM on Friday May 3rd run by Officers Alan, Richard and Helen, presentations were made to .........

.....  Liliane Massingale Cup winners, Mike & Tom.......

........ Best Improver for 2012-13, Tim ......

....... and to a representative of March's Compensated Teams winners, Tim, without the rest of the team (Alan B, Frank and Bill).

The full list of 'honours' for 2012-2013 can be seen in the Competition Report.

..... as the full results show, the Gents team retained the cup by a margin of 49 IMPs.

A new county constitution has been proposed and it will be discussed and voted on at an EGM during the SCCBA Autumn Congress at Adur Indoor Bowling Club on Sunday September 15th.

38 people attended the Christmas Party on December 14th.  A very good time was had by all!  18 boards were played with a break for an excellent buffet.  This year's winner of the John Wallace Cup is .....

You just might recognize the two people on the left of this picture.  Richard and Helen have been attending a two-day SCCBA teacher training course this month at Shoreham in preparation for the beginners classes that they intend to start on behalf of our club in February.  If you know of anybody who might be interested in attending these classes or would even like to attend them yourself, please let Richard or Helen (see attached for contact details) know ASAP.

Congratulations to this year's winner Bryan who was presented with the trophy by Chairman Helen at the AGM.   The full list of 'honours' for 2011-2012 can be seen in the Competition Secretary's Report.

Congratulations to Frank who won the SCCBA Survey draw and so receives free entry into a pairs or teams county event of his choice for himself and a partner.

The players eagerly await the announcement of the results of this year's Compensated Teams event on Wednesday March 21st before hearing that ......  

....... the clear winners are Sonia Lee, Alan Bailey, Sylvia Webb and Tim Kirkup.  Congratulations to them all.   In second place, 46 IMPs behind, were Jenny & Hilary Breeden, Frank Sansom and Bill Draude.

Many thanks to Alan Litchfield who brought in the prizes and didn't even get to play!

The scorers are hard at work before eventually agreeing that ........

.... this year's winners are the Gents team (including guest player Sue!).  The full results show that, like last year when the Ladies won, the winning margin was quite small at just 13 IMPs.

Thanks to all who took part in this 'Teams of 12' event played over 24 boards.  No doubt everybody will now be eager to take part in the club's next special event which is the Compensated Teams event on Wednesday March 21st.  You can just turn up as a pair as normal but it would be appreciated if you could put your names on the sheet on the noticeboard or tell Betty that you'd like to play in this event.

The winning team in full was Richard (captain) & Cecil, Jim & Barrie, Alan & Tim, Frank & Bill, Bryan & Sue, John & Mervyn.

Betty and Alan did win the club heat of the county Charity Simultaneous Pairs on Friday but I'm afraid that they haven't now won the event overall.  Please see the county web-site for an explanation and the full amended results.  Of course, they've still done excellently to finish in second place overall.

Thanks to everybody who turned out to play in this event - one of the largest attendances we've had at the club (apart from the Christmas party) for several years!

Our next special event will be the Sheila Becarevic Cup (Ladies v Gents) on Wednesday February 22nd so please put this date in your diary now!

...... the North/South winners were Mervyn and Wendy.

The prize winners for Steve's puzzles were :-

• Pascal's pyramid: Christina, Richard, Bill, Iris, Alan L, Angela I.
• Card challenge: Christina

Sadly, George Calvert has died.

George was born in N. Ireland in 1914.  He trained as a dentist and practised in Holywood, N. Ireland and also served in the Middle East during the Second World War.   He came to England after retirement to be near his son.