There were three queries arising from the results originally uploaded. Two of these related to the travellers being incorrectly completed with regard to which pair was N/S and which was E/W and the third was a case of a board having been rotated 90 degrees after the board was played on the penultimate occasion, resulting in the cards being put back in the wrong slot for the final play of the board. Amendments have been made to the results and the corrected figures for the report are highlighted in red below.

It was a slightly disrupted start to the evening. First we arrived to find we were bumped from our usual room and so had to cart all the equipment round to the stage for five and a half tables of players. Then the laptop computer chose to do a very lengthy update which did not complete until well into the bridge session so instead of using the Bridgepads we had to revert to paper travellers. This meant that I was a bit distracted at the beginning of the session and my beloved was not over-pleased at the silly mistakes in the first round. Unfortunately, the paper travellers also meant that the results were not known on the night and required manual input to Scorebridge. I had forgotten just how tedious a job that is although certainly not difficult. When I switched on the computer again this morning to do the results, blow me if it wasn't doing yet more updating. Grrr....

Anyway, that's all done and the results have been uploaded. The top pair by a significant margin were DaveH & Sandy, the latter attending Dounby for the first time (welcome, Sandy). They scored 71.88% which equals the second highest individual evening's score of 2016. In second place were Roger & Dennis with 66.67% and third were Iso & Malcolm with 59.90%.

No slams were bid. Contracts were doubled on boards 11, 13, 15, 17 and 27. Except for board 17, all the doubled contracts were brought down. On board 27, Malcolm had bid a weak 3♣ over a 1♥ opening from the opposition and persisted to bid despite lack of points to end in 5♣ doubled going down two tricks, against the opposition's 4♥ bid which looked certain to make. In every other case 4♥ made with an overtrick so pushing on to 5♥ might have been a good move.

Leading the year to date rankings are DaveH & DaveW with an average of 64.89%. Lying second are Graham & SheilaL with an average of 60.65% and lying third are Roger & Dennis with 60.50%. They are closely followed in fourth and fifth places by LindaM & MargaretM with 59.97% and Pat & SheilaW with 59.93%.

On a low-scoring Friday night in Dounby, with 12 folk present for Individual Rubber Bridge, the four leaders in the annual competition occupied the first four places for the evening. Top for the third week running came Graham Lyon, needing 4,520 to raise his season’s aggregate and 4,720 for top spot, with 4,810; only to find that overall leader Clinton Rendall, needing 4,290 to improve his own score, had bettered that by 400 – so the gap at the top widened ever so slightly. Third and fourth, though not improving their aggregates, came Roger Davies and Dennis Paice. Two less regular players, thus with lower scores to replace, did improve their scores: Sheena Hay and Tony Spencer. Overall, though, and probably for the first time all season, no change at all took place in positions in the annual competition: Clinton leads, with 54,060; Graham is second, on 53,760; and well back in third on 51,010 is Roger.

What might have been: declaring in Five Clubs Redoubled and needing to find the Trump King, Clinton ran the Queen from dummy and pondered which oppponent to play for it. After what seemed an age to anxious particpants, he ducked only to find the bare King making on his left. One down, penalty 200; a different guess and 400 below the line, 100 above and the game scored on the next hand would instead have produced a 500 rubber - arguably 700 missed. Who knows how much this may matter in December!

Last night saw three tables playing thirty boards over five movements.

Hands seemed pretty evenly divided with game bids being thin on the ground, but a couple of small slam opportunities were available on 11 and 20. Board 20 with N-S having 31 points and three 5 cards suits, six no trumps seems certainly in the ball park. Bid once but played by south it was doomed to go off, although if played by north with the likely diamond lead, as happened once but only in 3NT twelve tricks are assured as long as you play a round of clubs before losing first round control of  the other suits. On board 11, played in diamonds, twelve tricks are easily picked up on the club lead, but if east start's with their singleton trump (a thing I never like doing as it immediately marks your partner with the rest) declarer has to guess the club finesse.

Anyway enough of my inane dribble, after a couple of week’s absence from the club, Roger & Dennis were 1^st with 59.32%. 2^nd Graham & SheilaL on 58.62 and 3^rd SheilaW & Pat at 55.17%.

Positions overall remain unchanged although Roger & Dennis and Graham & SheilaL did manage to knock off their lowest scores.

Plus ça change: on the Friday night for Individual Rubber Bridge the leading positions were unchanged. Just as last week, first came Graham Lyon, second Roger Davies and third Dennis Paice. Scores, though, were not as massive at the top this time – respectively 5,260, 5,100 and 4,700; and third place was shared with Pat Shearer. This week we had four tables, admittedly only by dint of scurrying dummies bidding at other tables; and Graham in particular was left reflecting on what might have been an even higher score!

Pat moved up a place in the rankings, which were otherwise unchanged. Clinton’s lead, only so recently massive, was eroded again so that on 53,660 he is now only 190 ahead of Graham; Roger cleared 51,000, and in fourth place Dennis is the tiniest amount away from reaching 50,000.

What with severe gales and driving rain plus a good few people being away at the moment, we had the lowest turnout for some time with ten folks playing thirty hands over five movements (apologies for no hands displayed on boards 29 – 30, they seem to be missing off the data file).

With the cards only being played twice you might expect a lot of level boards but in fact there were only four. One slam was bid and made on board 29 and a couple of contracts doubled on 6 & 17 both going off.

Results this evening are Graham & SheilaL 66.67%, SheilaW & Pat 54.17% and Glad & MargaretH 45.83%.

Overall DaveH & DaveW still have a clear lead on 64.89%, but second place is becoming a real battlefield with Graham & SheilaL back in 2^nd with 60.64% after dropping to 4^th last week. MargaretM & Linda now 3^rd on 59.97% after moving from 4^th to 2^nd last week and SheilaW & Pat go from 3^rd to 4^th on the nearest of margins with 59.93%.

Somehow you get the feeling it will be all change next week again!!!!!!!

Clinton and Dennis had seemed to set a new Club record for a single table last week, but sic transit gloria and all that: Graham and Roger achieved a massive 3,490 points on the sixth round alone. They had each come to the table with modest enough scores, a little over 2,000 apiece; strangely each hand was opened with One Heart; but they bid and made in sequence 3NT, a vulnerable 7NT, Four Hearts and Five Diamonds (actually making Six, which would have been yet more spectacular had Roger, without an Ace in his hand, effectively closed down the bidding!). Graham finished the evening with a further 700 rubber, leading the night’s scores with 6,800, a personal best for the year; Roger reached over 6,000 for the first time in 2016 with 6,070; and Dennis, despite a blank on the last table, was third with 4,570.

The first five players on the night (also including Sheila with 4,100 and Ally at 3,800) all improved their aggregates, Dennis passing Iris in the process but with both overtaken by Roger.

Clinton still leads, on 53,660; but Graham is once again within three figures of him on 52,680; and Roger became the third player to total 50,000 this year.

APOLOGY: the published sheets are not quite correct as they should have shown Ally overtaking Margaret Kirkness - I will correct this after Friday next if not before. RD

With his evening's score six times the lowest on the night, Clinton returned to form with a vengeance and  was easily the night's winner, totalling 6,710, his highest for the season. In second place came Dennis, almost 2,000 adrift on 4,780, and Graham was third on 4,520. Glad (4,160) and Linda (4,060) also topped 4,000, and all these five increased their 'best ten' aggregates, only Glad though moving up a position, to tenth.

With fourteen folk across four tables there was a good deal of rushing around and perhaps by the end a little confusion entered the play sometimes! Easily the best table score of the night - perhaps of the year? - came for Dennis and Clinton on their fourth table (2,840 across four hands), with four successive games culminating in a vulnerable Six No Trumps - which made seven for good measure!

Clinton still leads of course, now with 53,660; Graham became the second player to clear 50,000 and has 50,280; Iris just retains third spot with 49,580, only 90 ahead of Dennis.

With the Flower club’s monthly meeting in the community room, the bridge club took to the stage. Although numbers were down on recent weeks with a few players being away at the moment, the show went ahead with some solid performances!

Three full tables played 30 boards over 5 movements of six games. Hands were more balanced then they have been over the last couple of evenings with few slam possibilities and not a single contract doubled.

However three small slams were bid, one by Bunty & Jean on board 19, and consecutive slams on boards 19 and 20 by MargaretM & Linda.

Winning the night on 60% were SheilaW & Pat, just behind them MargaretM & Linda scored 59.17% and 3^rd Graham & Sheila with 54.17%.

Overall DaveH & DaveW, who are away at the moment, still hold a good lead on 64.89%, but it’s all changed for the tightly grouped bunch behind them. Last week I reported there was only 0.29% between second and forth, this week it’s down to 0.17%, but MargaretM & Linda are now 2^nd, SheilaW & Pat 3^rd and Graham & SheilaL 4^th.

Once again we find out the dealing machine has a sense of humour albeit a wicked one. Dear me, only four boards without hands containing a singleton or void! Lots of six card suits and even one nine. Personally I love these types of hands because you can bid them purely on distribution and then when you go down, blame them purely on distribution!!

Board 22 had the nine card suit and a lay down six spades, though surprisingly no-one bid it. With partner opening a heart, you sitting with only 3 losers and all that spades, maybe worth a punt?

Board 23 saw everyone in six diamonds, which makes seven on anything but a spade lead.

Board 19 had the widest ranging scores of the night with E-W getting from -100 in 6 hearts to +2000 on 5 hearts doubled. North on lead, must choose between leading A-K clubs or A-K diamonds. With no outside clue getting it wrong gives west all 13 tricks!

I’ve just mentioned 3 boards but nearly all had their little quirks and when the dust settled it was MargaretM & Linda who came out on top with 63.69%. 2^nd SheilaW & Pat on 54.76% and Graham & SheilaL 3^rd on 53.57%.

Overall DaveH & DaveW still have the lead with 64.89% then Graham & SheilaL on 59.80% and moving into third are MargaretM and Linda on 59.62% above SheilaW & Pat who are just behind them with 59.51%, meaning there is just 0.29% between 2^nd and 4^th position.

Last week, thirteen folk and only one score in the 3000's; this week, thirteen folk and all but four in the 3000's. Ally Kelly comfortably led the way, totalling 5,650, with Graham Lyon (4,400) and Roger Davies (4,210) trailing behind. Four players improved their totals - the first two on the night and also Hazel Foubister and Sheena Hay; curiously Ally, Sheena and Hazel had until tonight occupied consecutive places in the 2016 competition table; Ally's score was sufficient to take her over 40,000 and just past Margaret Kirkness, but otherwise the night left the 'batting order' entirely unchanged. Graham consolidated his second position on 49,990 and moved a little closer to Clinton (becalmed on 51,060 since early August); third is Iris Clyde on 49,580.

Comparison with last year is interesting: at the same stage the same number of players (14) had over 40,000 for the year; the same three folk occupy the top three places; but the leaders are this year only modestly ahead of 'the pack'.

Thirteen folk braved the autumnal weather, and for once we took it easily, three tables only so no need for  dummy to scurry about!

Scores were strangely spread, with just one in the 3000's (Clinton), seven in the 4000s and five lower, reaching down to 1580.

Winner on the night was Dennis, with 3,380 from the first three tables but some frustrating hands thereafter, for a total of 4,940, the smallest possible margin ahead of Graham, with Pat in third place on 4,570.

Congratulations to Linda and Glad for bidding and making a Grand Slam - 34 points between them and a Spade fit...

Positions changed: Graham (now 2nd on 49,750) moved past Iris (49,580); Dennis too moved up, past Roger (48,450) into fourth spot with 49,040. The next four were unaffected, but Pat moved up two places to 10th, just 10 points beyond Glad, with Iso 260 further back. However, Clinton - who is surely due for a big score - retains the lead, still on 51,060.

With five full tables playing 27 boards of decidedly tricky hands, overall scores were comparatively low with the exception of the top two pairs on the night who got their own personal bests. Congratulations go to Maggie & Sheena coming second with 60.38% but the winners with an impressive 75.73% were DaveH & DaveW, the highest score achieved at the club so far this year. 

Twelve pairs competed playing 9 rounds of 3 boards per round, each board being played 6 times except for board 7 which was Passed Out 3 times and played three times. When it was played the higher points went to N/S on all three occasions and when it was Passed Out the higher points went to E/W so it depends which direction you were sitting whether you benefited from it being Passed Out or not.

Board 6 was scored as Not Played as it was discovered after bidding and play commenced that one player had accidentally left a card behind in the board.

Board 18 saw a straight 13 tricks being made in every case but only two pairs, Leslie & Michael and Ally & George, bid a Small Slam in 6♥ . Two others stalled at 4♥ and one at 5♥ . In at least one case this was because after opening 1♥ and receiving the reply 2♣ from partner, South immediately shut down the bidding by going to 4♥ without allowing exploration time to find the best contract. (At least that's what North thought at the time!!!)

The session was won by Leslie & Michael who score 61.54%. Second were DaveH & DaveW with 60.82% and third were MargaretM & LindaM with 58.58%.

In the year to date rankings, DaveH & DaveW continue to lead with an average of 63.08%. Lying second are Graham & SheilaL with an average of 59.80% and in very close third place are SheilaW & Pat with an average of 59.51%.

There were a few errors to correct last night so I need to remind everyone to be very focussed on making sure they count their cards at the beginning and end of each hand and that the boards are the right way round on the table before cards are removed or put back and on being careful with both the input on the Bridgepad and checking it before transmission to the computer. Many thanks.

Fourteen players competed, with two short-handed tables each round requiring dummies to stand in for the bidding.

Top scorer for the evening was Iris with 4700 points. SheenaH was second with 4650 points and Dennis third with 4350 points. Iris, Dennis, Sheena and Hazel all managed to drop a low score.

In the year to date rankings, Clinton remains in the lead on 51060 points while Iris, taking advantage of Graham's absence, managed to sneak ahead of Graham with 49580 points to his 48870 points. Roger remains in fourth place on 48450. Both SheenaH and Hazel managed to move ahead of Tony. 

The club level winning pair at Dounby for the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event held in June were Michael King and Leslie Manson. They were recently awarded their prizes of a small shield, pen and cheque from the organisers. When the final results were known the pair came 7th in Scotland, 31st in Zone 1 and 46th overall out of a total of 962 pairs. A great result. Well done.

Twelve players for Individual Rubber Bridge this week and for many of us some very disappointing hands. A hand of three 2s, four 3s, two 4s, a 5 and three other cards below 10 just about took the biscuit though.

There were some brighter moments. The best single round score was 1700 points by SheilaL and LindaM in round 7. For SheilaL this contributed to her achieving first equal for the evening with a total of 4670 points. LindaM had three zero rounds earlier in the evening so the effect was not quite so good but at least she managed to finish on a high. MargaretK scored consistently over the evening and came joint with Sheila. Malcolm also scored steadily and came third with 4170 points.

The year to date rankings remain unchanged at the top with no score changes for Clinton on 51060 points or for Iris and Graham with 48880 points and 48870 points respectively. The only person to move position in the rankings at all was SheilaL who moved above Gladys and Iso and into 9th place. 

Five and a half tables for Duplicate Pairs this week so a six table movement was used for 9 rounds of 3 boards per round. This meant that in addition to the sit out table, two other tables had sitting pairs for the night. The distribution of points should have been evenly spread N/S and E/W over the course of the evening but one of the sitting pairs was fairly fed up with a run of poor cards though some better cards did come through later in the evening.

Four Small Slams were bid and made. Three of these were on board 22 where 6♥ made 13 tricks in all three cases, by MargaretM & LindaM, DaveH & DaveW and Iso & Malcolm. In fact 13 tricks were made every time the board was played but in two cases bidding stopped below slam level. The fourth Small Slam was on board 24 where 6♠ by George & Ally made exactly.

Top equal for the evening were MargaretM & LindaM and Iso & Malcolm with 57.29%. For MargaretM & LindaM this just meant they could drop their lowest score but for Iso & Malcolm, also dropping their lowest score, this equalled their highest score of the season. In equal third place for the evening were DaveH & DaveW and SheilaW & Pat with 53.65%

In the case of MargaretM & LindaM, top spot is familiar territory but Iso & Malcolm rarely make it to such dizzy heights. Iso & Malcolm would like to be able to attribute their result this week to finally playing better but they have a sneaking suspicion that it might have rather more to do with them not having played against the two of the three leading pairs in the series, DaveH & DaveW and SheilaW & Pat. Those pairs may be regretting they didn't get the chance to improve their results by playing them.

There was no change in the year to date rankings with DaveJ & DaveW remaining on an average of 62.69%, Graham & SheilaL remaining on 59.80% and SheilaW & Pat remaining on 59.51%.

Apologies for the delay in putting up the results and report from Friday's Individual Rubber Bridge; busy with Stromness Regatta and the aftermath.

Fifteen players competed on Friday, 19 August. Top scorer was MargaretM with 5550 points, followed in second place by SheilaL with 5370 points and Malcolm with 4350 points.

In the year to date rankings there were no changes to the top five scores or rankings so Clinton remains in the lead with 51060 points for his best ten results, with Iris lying second with 48880 points and Graham just behind her with 48870 points.

Below the top five, MargaretM moved up into sixth place pushing Malcolm down into seventh. SheilaL overtook Pat to move into eleventh place and SheenaH overtook Hazel to move into sixteenth place. All the other places remained unchanged.

We had the best turnout of the season to date this week with thirteen pairs competing. We were pleased to welcome back George and Kathleen Taylor on a quick visit to Orkney. We could have been understudies for McAdie & Reeve with all the furniture and equipment removals that were involved in setting up on the stage instead of in our usual room.

The movement selected involved playing two boards per round which made each round seem very quick and any sitting out very short. Thirteen rounds of two boards per round were played.

Board 3 was Passed Out on three of the six occasions on which it was due to be played. On the other three occasions it was East that played the contracts. The two pairs that played in 2♥ both made the contracts and one of those made an overtrick taking top points. The pair that went 4♥ went down by one trick giving top points to the opposition.  Board 18 was Passed Out on four occasions. On the other two occasions the 4♣ and 3♥ contracts by E/W both went down by two tricks.

Slams were bid and made, 6♠  by Michael & Leslie on Board 11 and 6NT by Graham & SheilaL on Board 21.

The winners for the evening were MargaretM & LindaM with 63.33%, their best score of the season. Second were Michael & Leslie with 62.08% and third were DaveH & DaveW with 59.17%.

In the year to date rankings, DaveH & DaveW were able to drop a low score and further improve their average to 62.69%. They are followed by Graham & SheilaL with an average of 59.80% and SheilaW & Pat with an average of 59.51%.

Last week's 'season's best' turnout was overtaken this week with eighteen players joining in to play Individual Rubber Bridge.

There were a large number of relatively low scores this evening but three players achieved scores of 4000 points or over. Winner by a significant margin with 4790 points was SheenaH. 650 points behind her on 4140 points was Malcolm and then Iso was not far behind with exactly 4000 points.

Leader in the rankings continues to be Clinton with 51060 points. Iris lies in second place with 48880 points but is closely followed by Graham with 48870 points. They will be hoping to take advantage of any absences by Clinton to close the gap but they will have their work cut out to achieve that. Roger and Dennis also have points over 48000 but there is then a gap down to Malcolm and MargaretM in the 45000s. Further down the rankings there were two or three minor place movements.

DaveW & DaveH are clearly not going to rest on their laurels having banked ten scores in the series and immediately shot into first place. This week they managed a score of 70.83%, the second highest of their campaign, enabling them to drop one of the their (relatively) low scores and giving them a qualifying average of 62.41%. The next best average is 59.80%, held by Graham & SheilaL followed by Pat & SheilaW with 59.51%.

This week the next best pairs on the evening, Roger & Dennis and MargaretM & LindaM achieved percentages of 57.14% and 51.79% respectively. They were also two of the three pairs to bid and make Small Slams. The third pairing achieving that was Graham & SheilaL.

Congratulations to Clinton Rendall on being the first Friday night player to take his personal aggregate past 50,000, indeed past 51,000, in one excellent evening (“How much is five off doubled?”). On our best attended evening of the year, with 17 folk present, he led the night’s scores with 5,410, with Graham Lyon just behind on 5,270 (reflecting on unbiddable slams!) and Ally Kelly third, having her best score of the year (5,180), in four figures on three of the first four tables.

The season’s table has a familiar look, with the first three – indeed the top four – in exactly the order of finishing 2015: first is Clinton (51,060), with a hint of ‘clear blue water’ distancing him from four folk in the 48,000’s: Iris Clyde (48,880), Graham (48,870), Roger Davies (48,450) and Dennis Paice (48,190). There is then something of a gap to last year’s sixth and fifth players, Margaret Mainland and Malcolm Tipler, both in the 45,000’s.

The Old Order Changeth at the Dounby Bridge Club, at least for Duplicate Bridge on Tuesday evenings, as we have new leaders in the annual competition: the ‘two Daves’ (Messrs Higgins & Walker) finally completed their ten qualifying evenings, doing it in style with a score of 62.5% to take first place on the night: Linda Milne & Margaret Mainland were just one Match point behind in second place (61.5%), with Graham & Sheila Lyon third, scoring 57.3%.

It is a measure of the strength of the Daves’ performance that even with just ten scores to select from, their best ten scores already outrank the best ten that other pairs can select, even from twenty and more evenings. Half of their scores are at 60% or better; no other pair can remotely match this, next being Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer half of whose scores just exceed 55%.

In terms of ‘best ten’ averages, Dave & Dave with 59.9%; next are Graham and Sheila (59.8%) and third Sheila & Pat (59.5%).

Nine pairs turned up for the Tuesday night duplicate, or to be more accurate 17 folk and one numpty who forgot to take the bridge pads up with him. But after a quick dash home we were still underway by seven, so disaster averted!

Tonight's hands seemed to be in the weird and wonderful range with one containing an 8 card suit, six hands with 7 card suits, ten had 6 card suits, 33 had singletons and 5 with voids. The upshot of this was nearly 40% of the contracts went down.

Only four games were doubled though, 2 going down and 2 making. One of those making was the only slam of the evening, on board 13, bid by Graham & SheilaL. When I say bid I shoud say forced into, for playing against DaveH & DaveW, who had found a heart fit, we all kept bidding till I ended up in 6 clubs doubled. Thinking it might be an OK sacrifice I was amazed to see, with an ace, 3 kings and 3 queens missing it was rock solid!!

Results tonight were very close at the top with DaveH & DaveW and MargaretM & Linda equal first on 56.94. Just behind on 56.25 were Ally & George and Graham & SheilaL on 55.56.

Well done Sheena!

As in the previous week, fourteen folk played Individual Rubber Bridge at the Dounby Centre on the Friday; and, as on Tuesday, results at the top were tightly bunched, with half the field scoring between 4,620 and 4,010. ‘Top of the shop’, though, with a personal best total of 4,620 points including a personal best table score of 1,410, came Sheena Hay. Second was Linda Milne (4,430) and third was Pat Shearer (4,340).

Sheena is still compiling her ten scores for the year and did not overtake anyone, but both Linda (now 8^th) and Pat (now 11^th) moved up a spot in the annual competition. Clinton Rendall (49,670) remains in the lead, with Iris Clyde (48,880) second and Dennis Paice (48,190) third.

Competition table now amended - RD

Fourteen folk played Individual Rubber Bridge at the Dounby Centre on Friday, 22 July: we stretched across four tables but things went smoothly, with a 'dummy' almost always on hand to bid, so we were all finshed shortly after 10:30pm, Many results were closely bunched but the evening's clear winner was Roger Davies, with 5,830 points; second came Margaret Kirkness (4,780) and third Sheila Lyon (3,900). The two winners had started well, in partnership on a very competitive first table aginst Sheila and Clinton Rendall: each side bid and made Six Spades in turn, with scores for the two sides 1,350 and 980 at the end of the round. For the second week running, though, Roger's best score for a round (1,580) came in partnership with Iris Clyde, including one doubled Three No Trumps contract hanging on a single decision by declarer and going five off, netting them 1,100 points on the hand!

Only two players moved up in the 2016 championship table, Roger into fourth place, a whisker behind his Tuesday night partner, Dennis Paice; Sheila into 11th spot, Clinton (49,670) remains in the lead, with Iris (48,880) second and Dennis (48,190) third.

For the second week running we were pleased to have five full tables for Duplicate Pairs on Tuesday, 19 July.

Just the one slam was bid and made on the evening – although 12 or more tricks were made a dozen times on the night – and the successful pair, Linda Milne and Margaret Mainland, ran out deserved winners on the evening overall, scoring 61%: a surprise to them as they had not thought they had done that well! Maintaining their strong run, Dave Higgins and Dave Walker came second (58.3%), by the tiniest margin ahead of Rachael and Michael King (58.1%).

Of pairs who have completed the qualifying ten evenings, Graham & Sheila Lyon (averaging 59.8% for their ten best scores after 28 evenings) still lead the 2016 competition, with Pat Shearer & Sheila Walls (59.5%, 25 evenings) second and Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (58.5%, 20 evenings) third. However the ‘two Daves’ have an average of 59.8% with eight evenings behind them…

Numbers for Duplicate Bridge at the Dounby Club were good again on Tuesday 12 July, with 10 pairs contesting the play, making five full tables. We were pleased to welcome Rachael King, who became the Club’s 70^th member, in partnership with her father, Michael.

With results reasonably tightly bunched, the night’s winners were Sheila and Graham Lyon (58.5%), with the two Daves – Messrs Higgins and Walker – second with 57.6%, and Pat Shearer and Sheila Walls (55.8%) third. For all three pairs this was enough to raise their ‘best ten’ average for the season: Dave and Dave have yet to complete ten evenings to qualify for the competition, but their average thus far from seven events (60.2%) is enough to threaten an eventual challenge for top spot, as Sheila and Graham (59.8%) and Pat and Sheila (59.5%) do not have top scores to match.

Awesome! On a wet evening we had 16 players present, and a wide range of scores leading to significant changes near the top of our 'leader board'.

In third place on the night was Roger with 4,790 points, and second came Clinton with what would normally be a winning score - 5,300. But both, indeed all, were eclipsed on the night by Iris with a massive 6,730 points - except for Iso's 6,790 points on 4 March, the highest at the Club this year. Iris scored well enough at every table but it was her third round score of 2,210 with Roger which made all the difference: completing a two-game rubber with a vulnerable redoubled overtrick added 1,680 on a single board - Tony being the generous defender. Strangely it had been an effective pre-empt bid, also by Tony, which led to Clinton's equal best table result: over Tony's opening Three Diamonds and Clinton's Three Hearts, Roger bid Three No-Trumps - doubled by Clinton and going one off, but bizarrely giving him an extra 150 points as he held all four aces - a most unusual situation, with the defence scoring honours!

Tony moved up one place (now 14th) on completing ten scores; Glad moved up to 8th place and Roger to 5th. But the top places were reshuffled too: Clinton retains the lead with 49,670 points for his best ten evenings; Iris continued to jump places, moving into second with 48,880; and Dennis is now third with 48,190.

Fourteen players this evening and a good spread of results with five below 3000, four between 3000 and 4000 and five over 4000.

The top scorer, with 5380 points, was Iris. In second place was Clinton with 5040 points and third was Graham with 4690 points. All three of these players were able to drop one of their low scores and improve their cumulative total for their ten best scores.

In the cumulative results to date, the lead continues to be held by Clinton who now has 48340 points. Graham has moved up to second with 47610 points, pushing Dennis down to third place with 47220 points. Iris had been lying sixth but has moved up to fourth, overtaking both Malcolm and Roger.

Many thanks to the 24 players who came along on Tuesday, 28 June to play in the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs Competition.  We are not able to post our results on our own website until after Saturday because other clubs may be playing the same hands on other days. The results from Dounby have, however, been uploaded to Ecats and you can view the results Overall, Zonally, by Country and by Club by using the links on their website. The link for the relevant part of their website is:

Ecats Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs Results 2016

Please note that the Club result finishing order for pairs is not always the finishing order that applies once the Club results are amalgamated into the overall results. This is because different Clubs play different numbers of boards from 18 to 30 and much depends on the frequency a board has been played and how players performed on each board.

Finishing top at Dounby were Michael King & Leslie Manson with 60.47%. At the time of writing they were lying 7th in Scotland, 17th in Zone 1 and 21st Overall.

In second place at Dounby were Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer, very close behind with 60.08%. At the time of writing they were lying 15th in Scotland, 49th in Zone 1 and 68th overall.

In third place at Dounby were Jim Burgher & Clinton Rendall with 59.02%. In the Ecats results they now appear as the second of our pairs in the full results, lying 10th in Scotland, 35th in Zone 1 and 52nd Overall.

Well done to all these pairs but remember that in the full competition the positions and percentages will be constantly changing until the final results are posted by the end of the week.

Humble apologies!  At the end of the evening I should have handed out the post event booklets with the hands and commentary on the contracts.  I will scan a copy to email out to everyone, probably later today, but will also have hard copies available on Friday of this week and Tuesday of next week for those who competed and want to have a hard copy.

Sixteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge meant that we had a fairly relaxed evening with no rushing about as stand in bidder for short-handed tables.

Only three players scored over 4000 points, taking the first three places. These were Gladys with 5230 points, Iris with 4910 points and Malcolm with 4630 points.

The top three places in the year to date rankings are still held by Clinton with 47240 points, Dennis with 47220 points and Graham with 46890 points. Below these three there was some movement of places with Malcolm overtaking Roger to move into fourth place, Iris overtaking MargaretM to move into sixth place, Gladys overtaking LindaM to move into eighth place and Iso overtaking Pat to move into tenth place. It all makes life interesting for those of us not topping the rankings.

Update figures as more results have been added

The Club results for the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event are now available on our website and I opted all the simultaneous pair results globally will have been uploaded now so we can see how are members have done. Clicking in this box should take you to the Ecats results page.

Many congratulations to Michael King and Leslie Manson who came 1st at Dounby, 7th in Scotland, 30th in Zone 1 and 43rd Overall out of 934 pairs. No wonder the rest of us have trouble getting the better of them at Club level. And yes, Michael, your 5♦ bid over our 5♣  did earn you top points. Grrr..... In due course Michael and Leslie will receive a token something for their efforts from the organisers.

Although Pat & SheilaW were second on the evening, after all the results were in it was Jim and Clinton who were in 2nd at Club level. They were 13th at National level, 81st in Zone 1 and 122nd Overall. Meanwhile, Bunty & Jean also moved up to overtake Pay & SheilaW to move into third place.

Something very strange happened with the hands on Tuesday which seems to concern the last four boards. After investigating and thinking about it I think that the scores can stand but that it will not be possible to review the contracts against the hands. I have therefore detached the hands from the results page. I have no idea how what happened came to happen , it is a complete mystery. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Brief report now added below.

Eight pairs competed, playing 28 boards. Perhaps of most interest, as things panned out, were boards 24 and 26. Owing to either a technical error (which might have been a power cut) or just human error, board 27 was found to be the same as board 26. This was noticed on the first round and the hands of board 27 were put right. Board 26 was left unchanged. Only after the event it was discovered that board 26 was the same as board 24, though no-one seems to have realised it at the time even if playing both boards in the same direction.  Board 28 was found to be the same as the correct deal for board 26.

Top pair for the evening were MargaretM & LindaM with 55.36%. Then there were three pairs in joint second place on 51.79% - MargaretH & Ruth, SheilaW & Pat and Iso & Malcolm.

In the year to date rankings based on best ten results, Graham & SheilaL are leading with an average of 59.59%, very closely followed by SheilaW & Pat on 59.41%. Dennis & Roger lie third with 58.42%. Behind them there is quite a gap to DaveH & SheenaH on 53.74% but if DaveW & DaveH manage to get in another four sessions to reach the ten required for a series result, the should be well up in the running for topping the leader board as their current average on six results is 60.62%.

Just twelve of us, but a most enjoyable evening, even if the odd moment of inattention crept in after the occasional very late night watching the Referendum results...

Congratulations to Dennis, top for the second week running, this time with 4,190 points, enough to put him within 20 of Clinton and now in front of Graham.

Second was Iso, congratulations to her too on taking her season's aggregate above 40,000, scoring 4,150 despite two successive hands when she made 12 tricks but she and Roger had bid only the one game - what might have been!

Pat was third with 3,810, moving past Glad for the season but with Iso overtaking them both.

Malcolm and Roger, having their own contest for intermediate places each moved up modestly in terms of points, Malcolm overtaking Margaret Mainland and now in fifth spot only 250 behind Roger.

This is just to remind folk that the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event will take place on Tuesday, 28 June. If you want to take part but have not yet put your names down, please use the booking system to register you and your partner. Normal start time and table fees apply. The results on the night will count towards the Club Duplicate Pairs competition as usual. The results will be submitted to Ecats immediately after the event but no results will be posted on the Club website until after Saturday, 2 July because other clubs may be playing the boards on different evenings.

Nine pairs competed, playing 28 boards. No boards were Passed Out but one board was Not Played on one occasion. It seemed to be a night where there were wide variations in points and distributions with good fits not always being easy to find. Out of 111 contracts, only 24 were made exactly. 46 contracts were made with overtricks and 41 went down.

One Small Slam of 6NT was bid by Roger & Dennis on board 25 and all 13 tricks were taken. One other Small Slam of 6NT was bid by Iso & Malcolm on board 11, rather rashly, and went two off. 

Winners for the evening were Roger & Dennis with 58.02%, with DaveW & DaveH in second place with 56.34% and SheilaW & Pat third with 55.42%.

In the year to date rankings based on their top ten results, Graham & SheilaL are in the lead with an average of 59.59%. Lying second are SheilaW & Pat with an average of 58.70%, with Roger & Dennis lying third with 58.42%. All these pairs should be aware that they are being chased. DaveW & DaveH have not competed together on ten occasions yet but for the six times they have competed they have achieved an average of 60.62%.

Contracts were doubled on boards 7, 11 and 24 in each case with the contract being brought down. A contract was also doubled on board 19 but in that case made.

First of all, my apologies for the lack of written report last week. Overcome by other events.

This week there were nine pairs playing twenty-eight boards. There were some interesting hands with several long suits or voids. Nine contracts were doubled. Seven of the contracts were brought down but two just made.

No Grand Slams or Small Slams were bid but thirteen tricks were made by all declarers on board 1. Two of the pairs were in 5♣ but the other two pairs played the contract in 3NT and took the higher points. Thirteen tricks were also taken on board 21 but the contract was only 2NT. Two pairs made twelve tricks on board 18. One of these was in a 3NT contract, taking maximum points, but the other was in 5♦.

Top scorers for the evening were DaveW & DaveH with another excellent score of 69.44%. In second place were Roger & Dennis with 51.19% and in third equal place with 50.0% were Ruth & MargaretH and SheilaW & Pat.

In the year to date rankings, Graham & SheilaL still lead the way with an average of 59.59%, followed by SheilaW & Pat with 58.34% and Roger & Dennis with 57.78%.

For most of our 13 players, it was a relatively low-scoring evening, but well done to those over 4,000: Glad (4,050); Hazel (4,110); Graham (5,010); Clinton (5,060).

Few overall positions were affected, Glad moving up one to 8th spot, but the chief effect of the evening has been the emergence of a little 'clear blue water' at the top, with Clinton and Graham beginning to pull away from the field. Can the rest of us pull them back?

First, a warm welcome to John & Ruth. It is a long time since we last saw you and we are very pleased to welcome you back for another visit.

Eight pairs were competing playing a total of twenty eight boards.  Board 24 was passed out on one occasion, which is a little surprising as on the other occasions it was played the contracts were either 3♥ making or 4♥ going one off.

Small slams were bid and made by Graham & SheilaL on board 10 and by DaveW & DaveH and Bunty & Jean on board 13. A further nine small slams were made but not bid.

Top pair for the evening were John & Ruth with 66.67%. In second place were Roger & Dennis with 60.12% and third were Graham & SheilaL with 51.79%.

Graham & SheilaL continue to lead the year to date rankings with an average of 59.59%. Lying second are Pat & SheilaW with an average of 58.34% and in third place are Roger & Dennis with an average of 57.73%.

At the AGM on 25 March, members were asked if they were interested in taking part in the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event again this year and there was sufficient interest for a decision to be made to go ahead. The event this year will be on Tuesday, 28 June so if you are interested in taking part in that duplicate pairs competition, please put the date in your diary and also would one of your partnership please go to the event booking part of this site and put your names down as soon as possible. We will be able to cater for people right up to the last minute but to make sure that enough copies of the post event commentary are made available it is helpful to know numbers in advance.

We would be happy to welcome visitors too, so if you know of other pairs who might like to compete but are not regular players at Dounby, then please pass the information on to them. For them it may be a case of Iso booking them onto the system if they are not already on it.

Normal Dounby table money will be charged on the night (£2 for members and £3 for non members) and the club will pay over the total due for our participation in the event.

Our local results will be included in our Duplicate Pairs competition and will also be uploaded to Ecats so that we can see how we did in the overall competition in relation to other competitors in our region, nationally and globally.

It was a bit of a relief this week to find that we had 14 players not 13 as this meant marginally less running around bidding at the short-handed tables - enough though to keep folk on their toes.

Seven of the players did not manage to exceed 3000 points for the evening and then there was Ally on her own on 3320 points and the remaining five players had points in the 4000+ range. Taking the top three places were Dennis with 4900 points, followed by LindaM on 4490 points and MargaretK on 4080 points. The other two over 4000 points were Graham on 4050 and SheilaL on 4010 points.

In the year to date rankings, Clinton retains the lead with 47240 points for his best ten scores, followed by Graham with 46890 and Dennis with 46760. From amongst those who have played on ten or more occasions, Clinton also has the highest average score of 3952 points calculated over all evenings, not just the best ten.

Phew! with 15 people present there was - almost - a normal spread of scores, but returning guest John Mcinroy trumped everyone with a massive 6,810 points. Welcome to him, to Ruth, and to Ally Kelly, on her first Friday with us this year and second with 4,460 points; third was Malcolm Tipler with 4,450.

The lead changed again - Clinton Rendall is now 200 ahead of Graham Lyon, with Dennis Paice still third. Just over 2,000 points separate the top six, though.

[Apologies to Iso - I had been told that there were two equal scores in the spreadsheet, but overlooked this last week, so an eleventh crept into her aggregate, temporarily boosting it. Corrected now! RD]

Eleven folk forsook the fine outdoors for Individual Rubber Bridge, the evening's winner being Iris with 4,870 points: three folk almost tied for second, Roger with 4,590 squeezing ahead of Malcolm (4,520) and Dennis (4,510). Also above 4,000 were Graham (4,230) and Gladys (4,100) - crucially Graham's points were just sufficient to return him to the overall lead for the year, his aggregate for 2016 (45,700) putting him just 20 ahead of Clinton and a further 110 beyond Dennis - as close as one could imagine, and surely a position which will continue to change in coming weeks. Largest gain on the night came for Malcolm as he had a relatively low score of 2,640 to 'knock off' - hence he moved up by almost 2,000, although others ahead of him did well too so he is still seventh (Roger, Margaret Mainland and Iris holding the positions ahead of him).

First, a warm welcome to returning member Ally Kelly and new member George Gray who joined us for the first time this season.

Eight pairs competed, playing  28 boards, each board being due to be played four times, however, Board 3 was Passed Out on one occasion and Board 17 on two occasions. In each case the points for the Board favoured the North/South pair.

One Small Slam was bid and made by DaveH & DaveW in 6♠ playing against Iso & Malcolm on Board 10. Two other pairs each made 12 tricks but had stopped bidding at 4♠.  One other Small Slam contract was attempted in 6♥ on Board 11 but went three off.  Small Slams or Grand Slames were made but not bid also by pairs on Boards 5, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16.

The winning pair were SheilaW & Pat with 63.10%. Second were DaveH & DaveW with 57.74% and third equal were Ally & George and Iso & Malcolm with 52.38%.

Leading the year to date rankings, based on the average score for their best ten results, are Graham & SheilaL with an average of 59.59%. Lying second are SheilaW & Pat with an average of 58.34% and third are Roger & Dennis with an average of 56.83%.

On a particularly low scoring evening, with fifteen players competing, only one player managed to score in excess of 4000 points. There were several rather despondent looking people (notably Graham) as hand after hand went by with poor opportunity to score.

Hazel, making a welcome return after a few weeks absence, was top scorer with 4050 points.  In second place was MargaretK with 3960 points and third was Pat with 3710 points.

Clinton leads the year to date rankings with 45680 points for his best ten results. Graham lies second with 45190 points and Dennis third with 44460 points. MargaretM and Roger are not far behind.

The results have been updated this afternoon to take account of a contract that had been entered incorrectly on board 15 in terms of direction of play, now corrected. The change has made no difference to any scores as the two pairs involved each scored 2 points both before and after the amendment.

Seven pairs competed, playing 28 boards. Each board was played three times giving a total of 84 contracts.

43 contracts were made with overtricks and 11 of these resulted in pairs making unbid games (including 2 unbid Small Slams and 1 Small Slam making an unbid Grand Slam); 19 had already bid game (and the overtricks for 6 gave them unbid slams); and 13 had overtricks that did not take them as far as game.

20 contracts made exactly as bid, including 3 Small Slams on boards 13.

21 contracts went down, one quite spectacularly.

Top pair for the evening were DaveH & DaveW with 71.88%, giving them the highest single evening score so far this season. In second place equal were Graham & SheilaLand SheilaW & Pat with 59.38%.

The year to date rankings, based on the ten best scores to date, are led by Graham & SheilaL with an average of 59.59%, followed by SheilaW & Pat with 57.14% and Roger & Dennis with 56.83%. With more than half the season still to go there is plenty of time for things to change.

An evening of varied fortunes! We were very pleased to have 11 players, especially welcoming Dave Walker on his first Friday with us this year - and indeed Dave enjoyed a good evening's scoring, in second place with 4,510, followed by Sheila Lyon on 4,150, continuing her recent consistent run. However all these were left well behind by the evening's convincing winner, Dennis Paice, with 6,060 points, only the thrid score above 6,000 at the Club all season.

Clinton Rendall holds first place with 45,680 points; Graham Lyon closed the gap a little by taking his total to 45,190; but back in third place is indeed Dennis, two places up after tonight and with a total of 44,460 very much in sight of the leaders.

Five full tables for Duplicate Pairs this week and some rather odd card distributions to make life interesting.

No slams were bid but some pairs took twelve tricks on boards 3, 5, 13, 22 and 23. There were contracts doubled and successfully brought down on boards 5, 10, 16 and 24.

Top pair for the evening were Roger & Dennis with 62.05%. In second place were MargaretH & Ruth with 57.59% and third were Graham & SheilaL with 55.80%.

Graham & SheilaL lead the rankings amongst those who have competed on at least ten occasions, with an average of 59.23%. Roger & Dennis lie in second place with an average of 56.93% and close behind them in third place are SheilaW & Pat with an average of 56.32%.

Good luck to everyone who is heading off to Lerwick for the Shetland-orkney intercounty match this weekend.  Have a great time and we hope that the Orkney team will bring home the trophy.

Friday’s Individual Rubber Bridge proved a good evening for those who had enjoyed success lately: in first place, with 5,260 points, was Margaret Mainland, winner for the second week running, and second with 4,720 points came Sheila Lyon, who had led the field the previous week. Sheila’s score was all the remarkable in that all but 700 of it came from three tables, with two slams near the end of the evening – the latter courtesy of Gladys Marwick, bidding very competitively with an 8-card Club suit and pushing Sheila and her partner into a successful Six Diamonds! Clinton Rendall came third on the evening, scoring 4,620 points.

It was an enjoyable and well attended evening, with 16 players and hence no running round for dummies to bid, nor anyone sitting out, and a particular welcome was extended to Ruth Sinclair, joining us on a Friday for the first time in 2016.

Top spot in the 2016 competition changed hands, as Clinton’s best ten scores now total 45,680; Graham Lyon’s score is unchanged this week on 44,850, with Margaret closing the gap with her aggregate of 44,080. This close bunching extends some way with eight players now totalling over 40,000, Malcolm Tipler being the latest to join this group.

The corrected results for the competition on 3 May have been uploaded. The following report reflects the amended situation. Apologies to those who thought they had finished further up the rankings.

We were delighted to have twelve pairs competing at Duplicate Pairs this week - a great turnout, thank you.

There were no slams bid but twelve or thirteen tricks were made by pairs on boards 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14 and 25 - in a total of 22 contracts. The doubling cards were out on a few occasions, on boards 3, 6, 14, 16, 18 and 21. Four of the contracts made exactly or with overtricks and three were brought down.

Top scorers for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 58.89%, followed by DaveW & Gladys and MargaretM & LindaM in joint second place with 55.19%. 

In the year to date rankings, the lead amongst those who have competed on ten or more occasions are Graham & SheilaL with an average of 59.20%. In second place lie Pat & SheilaW with an average of 56.19% and third are Dennis & Roger with an average of 55.52%.

I have noticed more partner criticism at the table creeping into the evenings and would just like to remind folk that it is bad form to have a go at your partner after playing boards and it causes embarassment to those who are witness to the criticism. We really want to keep the atmosphere friendly and relaxed so please bear this in mind and bite your tongue no matter how provoked you may feel at the time. Thanks.

First, and just before midnight makes it too late, Happy Birthday again to Sheila Lyon!

There was no standing still at the Dounby Bridge Club for Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday 29 April – literally, as the thirteen players present were kept busy filling in for the absent bidders at three of the four tables; but metaphorically too, and most unusually, as every one of the top twelve players changed their position in the overall rankings. Those who did not go up went down!

Top on the night came Margaret Mainland, back to a decent score after a couple of lean weeks, with 5,090 points; second on 5,010, also after two modest scores, was Graham Lyon; and third Roger Davies, more than doubling his score from the previous week, with 4,830. All these were tiny improvements though compared with that by Pat Shearer, 20 points adrift of Roger in fourth place, with an evening’s score more than five times hers of the previous Friday!

All these folk moved up – Pat to sixth, Roger to fourth, Margaret to third – but the most significant move was perhaps Graham’s, as his evening’s score took him just 50 points ahead of previous leader Clinton Rendall. As these two gentlemen were respectively the 2014 and 2015 Champions, all seems to be warming up nicely! – and compared with last year there are many others in close contention.

Apologies for the incorrect scores being called out at the end of the night. This was due to some boards being corrected but for some reason the totals didn't update automatically right away.

It was a funny start to the night as well, for just as we sat down to play the power went off and remained so for the first three rounds. Although I think the biggest hardship of this was probably not being able to boil the kettle for a cup of coffee!

Six small slams were bid, twice on board five and four times on board seven. All but one made. Only two contracts were doubled giving a top to the defence on both occasions. 

The amended results were a tie for the lead with Bruce & Micheal and MargaretM & LindaM with 60.27%. Runners-up were LindaR & Christine on 59.38%.

 Overall the positions for players with 10 scores or more remains unchanged from last week.

This being the third Tuesday of the month, our normal bridge room was occupied by the Flower Club and the stage by the Boys Brigade so the twelve pairs of bridge players were squeezed into the small room behind the stage. Thank you to everyone for coping with the cramped conditions and the heat. The Boys Brigade will be finishing for the season at the end of the month and for future third Tuesdays in the month we should be able to use the stage. It was good to have a few more folk joining us from Kirkwall.

Despite being a little unhappy about not having any decent hands all evening, Michael King and his partner, Dave Higgins came top with 64.23%, well ahead of the second placed pair Graham & SheilaL with 56.34%.  In third place were Iso & Malcolm with 53.73%. The only slam bid and made was by Roger & Dennis on Board 20 against Bunty & Jean.

In the year to date rankings where pairs have competed on ten or more occasions, the lead remains with Graham & SheilaL with an average of 58.84%. Lying second are Pat & SheilaW with an average of 56.01% and third are Roger & Dennis with an average of 54.90%.

With eleven players present and scores averaging almost as low as any evening this year, there were no major changes in position. Winner was Sheila with 4,300, next Clinton (3,790) and third Dennis (3,710). Clinton remains in the lead with his margin over Graham just slightly increased, Dennis moving closer to both.

Winter's brief return kept most Kirkwall folk snugly away from Dounby, just Linda and Clinton braving the elements, so we were nine altogether, two tables with 500 points guaranteed for those sitting out in turn.

Dennis took top spot with 4,330, his Tuesday night partner Roger on his heels with 4,250 and Malcolm third with 3,740 - the latter two each adding the full amounts to their aggregates for the season, as before tonight they had not completed ten sessions, and indeed Roger has one to go yet.

Several folk moved up overall: notably Dennis to third place with 40,960, but the lead is still held by Clinton (44,250 for his best ten evenings) followed by Graham (unchanged on 43,170). The competition is perhaps more open than in 2015 - at the same stage then these two held the lead, but with scores over 45,000, and only one other player had topped 40,000, whereas Dennis tonight became the fifth to do so in 2016.

Numbers were slightly up this week with five full tables of players competing, playing 27 boards over 9 rounds. Some of the hands seemed to have depressingly few points and others were a little difficult to bid but it was the same for everyone and we can just hope that next week's boards are a little more welcoming.

Board 27 was passed out on3 occasions but on 1 occasion East played the contract in 3♦ which went down by 1 trick and on another occasion South played in 3♠ and made the contract. The upshot was on the 3 occasions when the board was passed out the E/W pairs scored 6 points each and the N/S scored 2 points.

Asmall slam was bid and made, on board 8 when 6♥ was played by Roger & Dennis sitting E/W against Iso & Malcolm. North's lead was an obvious one to make and the A♦ only lead that could prevent declarer making all 13 tricks. Unfortunately, a singleton diamond in dummy meant that following up with K♦ was not going to produce another trick for the defenders.

Top pair for the evening were Michael & DaveH, still sorting out the system for their new partnership in preparation for Shetland, who scored 60.28%. In second place were Graham & SheilaL with 58.88% and third were DaveW & SheenaH with 57.94%.

Graham & SheilaL still lead the way in the year to date rankings with an average of 58.42% for their best 10 results. Pat & SheilaW lie second with an average of 55.79% and DaveH & SheenaH lie third with an average of 53.74%. Only five pairs have so far clocked up 10 results.

Fourteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge meant a bit of scurrying around bidding at the two tables with three players each round but no-one had to sit out.

There was a wide range of scores for the evening, with Graham at the top end scoring 5560 points and LindaM at the other extreme perhaps setting a new low score record of 570 points. Looking at the score sheets, there seemed to be a good smattering of 700 rubber points dotted around and maybe Linda was the victim of more than her fair share of those against her. Malcolm came second with 4850 points and Dennis third with 4710 points.

In the year to date rankings there were a few movements in position but Clinton remains in the lead on 44040 points for his best ten results and Graham in second place with 43170 points. MargaretM moved up to third with 40270 points just ahead of Iris with 40110 points. Further down the rankings Dennis overtook Pat and Malcolm overtook Roger, MargaretK and SheilaL.

Eight pairs, including three different partnerships, competed at Duplicate Pairs this evening. Twenty-eight boards were played.

Board 10 was passed on two occasions with the East-West pairs being the beneficiaries of 5 points each.. The board was played once in 1♠  by South making with two overtricks and scoring 6 points and once in 2♦ by North making exactly but scoring 4 points. No slams were bid but 12 tricks were taken once on board 1, three times on board 15, twice on board 19 and twice on board 22.

Top pair for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 58.93%.  In second place were MargaretM & LindaM with 57.74% and third were new pairing DaveH & MichaelK with 55.36%.

Graham & SheilaL also lead the year to date rankings for those who have competed ten or more times, with an average of 57.59%. Lying second are Pat & SheilaW with an average of 55.50% and third are DaveH & SheenaH with an average of 53.74%.

April Fool's Day, yet no startling results: first came Iris with 4,280 and second Roger on 4,200, next being Pat with 3,860. We had three full tables exactly.

Iris completed her 10 scores for the year and moves into third place with 40,110, not far adrift of Graham (40,690), though both are a little behind Clinton who has 43,360. Most folk have by now played ten times, and nearly everyone improved on a previous 'tenth best'. Best average for those who have not played ten times is held by Roger, at 4,101 after eight evenings.

Many thanks to those who attended the Annual General Meeting on Friday, 25 March. The minutes are being prepared and will be circulated to members shortly. This is just a quick reminder to those who were members last year and therefore on the distribution list for the AGM, but have not paid membership fees for 2016 yet, that the circulation list is being updated and the minutes will be sent out only to members.

Only four full tables of players for Duplicate Bridge this week but at least no-one had to sit out for any round. With everyone arriving promptly we were able to make an early start and finish in good time. Twentyeight boards were played.  Board 12 was not played on one occasion due to running out of time.

Roger & Dennis came top with a score of 61.45%. Then there was a big gap to Iso & Malcolm with 54.94% and SheilaW & Pat with 53.01%.

Fifteen different pairs have competed so far this year but only five pairs have competed on at ten or more occasions. We are beginning to see the best ten results statistics coming through and.leading the way at the moment are Graham & SheilaL with an average of 54.93%, followed by DaveH & SheenaH with an average of 53.74% and SheilaW & Pat with an average of 53.54% So not a lot to choose between them. Roger & Dennis have a higher average than all of these pairs, with 55.58%, but have only competed eight times so far this year. Also looming on the horizon are DaveW & Maggie who currently have an average of 54.48% but have only competed on four occasions. If their partnership continues they will be a pair to watch going forward.

This is a reminder that the Annual General Meeting will be held at 6:50 pm, immediately before bridge, on Friday, 25 March. The meeting papers will be emailed out after bridge on Friday, 18 March. The intention is to keep the meeting as short as possible.

The current committee members all reach the end of their terms of office but have offered themselves for re-election to the same roles. That is not to say that others may not also put their names forward. If any other member does wish to stand they should request a nomination form from Iso Tipler and arrange for it to be completed by the candidate, a proposer and a seconder and returned to Iso Tipler by 7:00 pm on Friday, 18 March.

Apologies for the lack of a written report on last Tuesday's Duplicate Pairs Competition. We had an internet outage for a while which interfered with the routine. Back to normal this week, hopefully.

Twelve players present again, and an average score much in line with last week's, but this time the results were far more dispersed. Best table of the night was achieved by Iris and Roger with two small slams within one rubber, for 2,350 points; but the night's winner - just! - was Clinton with 5,480 points. Roger was 50 behind him and in third place came Iris, with 4,810.

Nine players have now completed ten (or more) evenings, so scores are becoming a little more stable, and these folk occupy most of the leading positions. In front again is Clinton, with 42,670 points; Margaret Mainland is in second place with 38,740, a fraction ahead of Graham on 38,700. Iris, with two more weeks' scores to be added in full, is well placed to challenge at least for second place.

Despite fears that we would be only ten for Individual Rubber Bridge this week and that we would have to either run around like headless chickens bidding at two three-player tables or sit out instead of playing, we actually managed to field twelve players so it was a more leisurely event. It was preceded by the AGM which we managed to reduce from twelve minutes down to seven minutes this time, even allowing ample time for folk to have the opportunity to raise any matters.

Top scorer this week was Malcolm with 5490 points. Second was Dennis with 4250 points and third was Iso with 4170 points. Dennis's score moved him up one place from sixth to fifth. Malcolm and Iso, who have not yet achieved ten results this year, increased their totals but remain in twelfth and thirteenth place.

At this very early stage in the competition the leader is Clinton with 43330  points for his best ten results, followed by Graham with 40330 points and MargaretM with 38740 points.

Please note that since the results were uploaded on Tuesday evening it has been noted that an incorrect player number was entered on a BridgePad at the start of the evening and results attributed to the wrong Sheena. This has now been corrected and the results re-uploaded.

were nine pairs competing again this week and the same movement was used as the previous week, playing twenty-eight boards. Board 12 was Passed Out on two occasions and on one occasion Board 4 was Not Played due to players running out of time.

After several slam bids last week, this week only one slam was bid and made. This was by Graham & SheilaL against Roger & Dennis on Board 24. Contracts were doubled on Boards 3 (twice),4, 18, 22 and 23 and in each case, except for once on Board 3, the contracts were brought down.

The top scorers for the evening were Katherine & Pat with 67.47% which is the highest single evening score so far this year. DaveW & MaggieP came second with 60.56% and Roger & Dennis third with 59.15%.

Only two pairs have competed on ten occasions so far and of those who have done so, Graham & SheilaL lead with an average of 54.20%, followed by MargaretM & Marjory with an average of 50.32%.

Please note that the Annual General Meeting of Dounby Bridge Club will be held at 6:50 pm on Friday, 25 March 2016 in the usual bridge room in the Dounby Centre. Further information will be emailed out to members shortly.

Nine pairs competed, playing twenty-eight boards. Board 14 was passed out on two occasions. A problem with the Table 3 Bridgepad meant that the results could not be announced on the night but the data was input and the results were uploaded later.

One Grand Slam and four Small Slams were bid and made. The Grand Slam was 6NT by SheilaW & Pat on board 18 and two of the Small Slams were also made on that board by Graham & SheilaL and by MargaretH & Ruth. The other two Small Slams were made by DaveH & SheenaH and by Roger & Dennis on board 19. There were failed Small Slam attempts also on boards 13 and 21.

Top pair for the evening were Graham & SheilaL who finished with 64.58%. In second place were SheilaW & Pat with 56.55% and third equal were Iso & Malcolm and HaveH & SheenaH on 54.86%.

No pairs have yet competed ten times but from amonst those who have competed nine times, the current lead lies with Graham & SheilaL with an average of 54.94%.

With ten folk present - and a warm welcome for Sheena Hay - we played at three tables. It was an evening of ups and downs, but overall results much more closely bunched than last week - Graham began with 2,000 across the first two tables but could manage only 1,630 across the next five; Linda had excellent but fruitless cards at first but at the fourth table scored four consecutive games for a score for the round of 1,960; but the winner with 4,280 (not as read out by me at the end of the evening, apologies!) was Margaret Kirkness. Second was Sheena (3,960) and third Linda (3,780).

For the moment Margaret Mainland is in the lead, with Graham second, but each has played one more evening than Clinton...

As we approached the ten weeks needed for players' qualifying scores for the annual competition, Friday 4 March saw 4 players scoring 5,000 or more, results which will certainly be retained at the year-end. Pat with 5,000 and Malcolm with 5,060 scored well enough, but they were eclipsed by Graham (6,420) and above all by Iso (a massive 6,790). Consistency underlay Iso's success, with two-game rubbers in each of the first five rounds and no table score below 490; Graham by contrast achieved his score with one blank but a best table of 2,210, including a vulnerable slam, in partnership with Pat.

First and foremost, a big thank you to Graham, Margaret, Roger and anyone else who helped to make sure that the Tuesday and Friday bridge sessions were able to continue successfully during Iso's six week absence looking after Dot in Spain. She enjoyed playing at the Club last summer and asked for her regards to be passed on to those she met during her stay.

At Duplicate Pairs this week there were nine pairs competing, playing a total of 27 boards. Board 22 was Passed Out on two occasions but on the other two occasions 2♥ by East made an overtrick while 3N by South went three down, these results shifting the points advantage to East-West pairings.

Only two slams were bid, 6N by DaveH & Sheena on board 14 against Ruth & MargaretH and 6♦doubled by Iso & Malcolm on board 17 against DaveH & Sheena on board 17. Both contracts went down by one trick but the 6♦ doubled contract turned out to be a good sacrifice against a certain 5♠ by the opposition.  Elsewhere, small slams or slams were made but not bid on boards 2 (twice), board 6 (by Malcolm & Iso who had failed to bid even to game), board 13 and board 16.

Top spot for the evening went to Roger & Dennis with 64.58%, followed by DaveW & Maggie with 61.11% and Graham & SheilaL with 55.56%.

No pairs have yet competed in ten Duplicate Pairs session this year so the rankings are not yet properly developed but currently DaveW & Maggie with their one result of 61.11% are heading the average table.

Six Pairs came to play in our little oasis of heat in a contrast to the snowy winter's night outside

Playing six boards a time the night seemed to go quickly with only five moves.

Two small slams were bid and made. Dave H & Sheena got six spades on board 2, though a diamond lead would've kept it to eleven tricks. (My own recollection of the hand was after getting a positive response from opening 2 spades, I decided to bid slowly for a slam try only to be left in 3 spades and was heard to mutter something about having nine tricks in my own hand!). Board 12 saw the only other slam, with Sheila W & Pat going six diamonds. Each time all 13 tricks were taken, it can also be made in spades or no trumps.

The red card was only used twice on the night. Four hearts on board 10 going one down and 3NT on 28 two off. Out of 90 games 66 made. 22 went off and 2 passed out.

Top spot tonight went to Sheila W & Pat with 66.67%, the highest score of the year so far. 2nd equal were Dave H & Sheena and Margaret M & Marjory with 55.83%.

Overall, for the partnerships with several scores, are 1st Sheila W & Pat, 2nd Margaret M & Marjory and 3rd Graham & Sheila L. 

Ten people played rubber bridge on Friday 26th February.  It was good to see Tony back again after a few weeks' absence. Clinton was in his usual good form and came top with 4,290, Pat was second with 3,380 and Gladys third with 3,320.

Clinton has leapt ahead this week and his total is now 34,290, Margaret M is still second with 31,190 and Dennis has regained third place with 28,720, closely followed by Gladys with 28,370.  Roger has updated the score sheet so results can be viewed as normal.

Ten people played rubber bridge on Friday 19th February at 3 tables. Dummies at the table of four were kept busy bidding at the other two tables instead of sitting, watching their partners play.  Graham claimed first place with 4,470, followed by Margaret M with 4,440 and Clinton with 3,940.  After 7 evenings Clinton is in 1st place with 30,000, Margaret M, 2nd with 28,840, Iris, 3rd with 27,770, Dennis, 4th with 25,690, Graham, 5th with 25,200 and Gladys 6th with 25,150.

Roger is still away but  he has updated the scoresheet so  results can now be viewed as usual.  Thanks Roger

Thank you to Gladys for bringing along a delicious cherry and almond cake.  Very moreish!

With the Flower Club in community room one Tuesday's duplicate pairs was played in our old room at the back of the stage.

Seven pairs competed over 28 boards. No slams were bid but board one has a possible 6NT if you use dummy's only two entries to set up the spades.

The double card got a good airing tonight with seven contracts being doubled. Five made, four of them with over tricks and two went down.

Board 6 was passed out on each occasion.

Winning this evening's play were Dave W & Dennis with 61.46%. Second were Graham & Sheila L on 58.33% and Dave H & Sheena third with 57.29%.

Overall it's all change again with Graham & Sheila L on top, Margaret M & Marjory 2nd and Sheila W & Pat 3rd.

 Twelve people played rubber bridge on Friday 12th February.  Iris Clyde came first with 4,840, followed by Pat Shearer with 4,460 and Margaret Kirkness with 4,350.

Clinton has increased his lead  at the top to 26,060 with Margaret M clinging on to second place with 24,440, just in front of Iris in third place with 24,030.

Thanks to Margaret K for bringing the lovely doughrings.   Roger will update scoresheet when he returns.

Eight pairs competed this week playing twenty-eight boards.

Top scores for the evening were Margaret M & Marjory with 58.43%. They were followed by Sheena & Dave H on 57.41% and Sheila W & Pat with 56.02%.

Four contracts were doubled with three going down and four slams bid but none made.

Overall Sheila W & Pat went into first place with 55.51%, while Graham & Sheila L dropped back to second on 54.53%. Third are Margaret M & Marjory with 53.13%.

Thirteen folk gathered at the Dounby Centre for Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday 5 February - the show of hands just favouring the energetic approach of spreading ourselves over 4 tables rather than taking turns to sit out! That meant plenty of bidding practice and some excitement over redoubles, for example at the very last table when Malcolm Tipler made a redoubled contract to help him to his best score of the season. Enjoying her return to form and top for the second week running was Linda Milne with 5,600 points, with Clinton Rendall second on 5,410 and Malcolm third on 4,910. Dennis Paice and Gladys Marwick also exceeded the 4,750 mark.

After five weeks' play, Clinton returns to the lead with a total of 22,040; Margaret Mainland is second with 21,240 and Dennis, also averaging over 4,000 for the season, lies third on 20,370 points. Of those with only four evenings behind them, Linda leads the way with an aggregate 16,640 points.

There were four full tables this week with twenty-eight boards being played.

Two small slams were bid and made in spades on board 14 by Sheila W & Pat and Roger & Dennis.

Five contracts were doubled on boards 3, 8, 11, 13 and 23. One went down, two just made and two made an overtrick.

Board 27 wasn't quite bid to it's full potential tonight with only Margaret & Ruth playing in game. Although 6 diamands should be biddable, 7NT makes against any defence when you take the club finesse twice.

Out of 112 contracts 77 made, 33 went down and 2 were passed out.

1st tonight were Graham & Sheila L with 60.12%. Tied for 2nd place on 56.55% were Margaret & Marjory and Roger & Dennis.

Three and a half tables were in action last night. No slams were bid, but looking at the hands none were really on either. Two contracts were doubled, 5 clubs on board 11 going 2 off (4 hearts was also bid, going 1 down, on that board. Both can be made.) and 4 hearts on board 27, which made. Board 22 was passed out at one table but actully went on to make 4 spades at another! All 13 tricks were made on board 15 twice, but if like Pat you can find the diamond lead, defence can make the first three tricks in a hearts or four in NT. On the night 56 contracts made 27 went off and 1 was passed out.

Top pair for the evening were Sheila W & Pat on 62.50%. In second place were Glad & Jean on 59.38% and third, Graham & Sheila L on 55.21%.

Ten folk braved the wind and the cold, keeping warm by running round three tables as dummies were always in demand to bid elsewhere!

Stand-out winner on the night was Linda Milne with 5,880, including one slam in partnership with Graham Lyon, who was third with 3,950 points - in between them coming Iris Clyde on 4,000.

Margaret Mainland was fourth with 3,390 and her consistency puts her in the lead for the year, her total of 16,890 from four evenings putting her ahead of Clinton Rendall (16,630) and Dennis Paice (15,690).

14 folk turned out on a chilly mid-January evening, this time with the pace set by Dennis Paice, scoring an impressive 5,710 points; second was Dennis's Duplicate partner, Roger Davies, with 5,220 points, and third Margaret Mainland with 4,890.

After two weeks the lead is held by Clinton Rendall (10,310 points), with Dennis (9,440) second and Margaret (8,660) third.

With a few folk away 12 people braved the frosty roads to play 30 boards over 5 rounds. Not a night for high bidding with part games going off about as often as they made. Out of 29 NT contracts only 15 made!

Only 1 small slam was bid, on board 8, going one down. 3 contracts were doubled on boards 13, 20 and 21 each going 2 off. Here's hoping for kinder hands next week!!!

Top for the night were Graham & Sheila L on 60%, Sheila W & Pat came second on 59.17% and Margaret & Marjory third with 51.67%.

Nine people played rubber bridge on Friday. Margaret Mainland came first with 4,840, Gladys Marwick second with 4,070 and Pat Shearer third with 4,030. Clinton retains the overall lead with 13,520, closely followed by Margaret (13,500) and Dennis (12,450).

Roger will update the Result Sheet when he returns.

So much for New Year Resolutions!  Here we are at the start of the new bridge season for Duplicate Pairs and by the time I had played the first round my resolution not to make the same sort of silly mistakes as last year had been blown away. Conversely, DaveH & SheenaH, who only started to play as a partnership well into 2015 - by which time several other pairs had a good head start - have made their intentions clear by coming top on the first evening but I am sure that some of the other leading pairs will take their revenge as time progresses and we can look forward to a hotly contested series again this year.

Seven pairs played 28 boards over 7 rounds.  Board 15 was passed out in one round but the same board produced a contract of 2♣ with an overtrick and a contract of 1NT which also made. Board 20 was Not Played on one occasion due to running out of time.

The only pair to bid and make a slam were Roger & Dennis who made 13 tricks in a 6♥ contract against MargaretM & Marjory on board 28. There were other slams made but not bid on boards 9, 10 and 28.

DaveH & SheenaH came top with 57.45%, with SheilaW & Pat second with 55.21% and Graham & SheilaL third with 52.13%.

15 of us, and welcome back to competition Graham - yet seemingly nothing had changed, with Clinton in first place (with a massive 6,340 points) followed by Iris (4,990)! Third was Sheila with 4,190. Thanks too to everyone who contributed to the excellent repast.

Puzzling this (Monday) evening over the scores after Mrgaret Kirkness had seemngly come last despite her excellent first table with Clinton, I have checked her sheet and realise that her total should be 2,450 not 1,550! This will be corrected in the next week's scores. RD

The 2016 start dates are:

Friday, 8 January - Individual Rubber Bridge
     Token prize for each round and for overall winner. Score will count for 2016 series.
     Please bring food item for buffet, but not too much please.

Tuesday, 12 January - Duplicate Pairs
     No frills, just duplicate bridge

2016 fees 
     Membership £5
     Table Fee £2 member
     Table Fee £3 non members

The results have been uploaded but the deal file is saved on the Club computer which is currently out of action. I have scanned a printed copy of the deals and you can view them by following the link below and can print them off if you wish:

Deal1Dec2015.pdf

There were four full tables of players and seven rounds of four boards were played. Top scorers for the evening were DaveH & SheenaH with 54.76%. Second were Iso & Malcolm with 53.57% and third were DaveW & Jean with 52.98%.

Two Small Slams were made, on board 19 where 6♣ was made by Graham & SheilaL against DaveW & Jean and on board 23 where 6♠ was made by DaveW & Jean against MargaretK & Nila.

In the year to date rankings, Roger & Dennis continue to lead with an average of 62.34%. Graham & SheilaL are in second place with an average of 61.85% and SheilaW & Pat are in third place with an average of 61.60%.

The computer is back in action so the hands for Tuesday, 1 December have been uploaded to the results page in the usual way.

As several people are unavailable for the planned Presentation Evening on Friday, 18 December we are changing the arrangements. The new dates for events are given below:

Friday, 11 December - End of Individual Rubber competition and award of trophies
Tuesday, 15 December - End of Duplicate Pairs competition and award of trophies
Friday, 18 December - Individual Rubber, no frills not part of main competition. Please use website booking system for this one rubber evening. If we can't raise eight players we may have to cancel but it seems promising based on last night's straw poll.
Friday, 8 January - Individual Rubber event with token prize for each round and for overall winner and runner up. Fun evening but scores will count for new season competition. Players are asked to bring along a food item. No raffle.

Four tables of players competed with only Graham & SheilaL missing from the top three contending pairs for the Duplicate Pairs Trophy.

The leaders in the rankings prior to this evening were Roger & Dennis and they managed to come equal top with DaveH & SheenaH both with scores of 60.24%. In third place were SheilaW & Pat with 56.02%.

By securing the win, Roger & Dennis managed to pull slightly further ahead of the second and third placed pairs in the rankings and now have an average score of 62.53% for their best ten results. Still lying second are Graham & SheilaL with 61.85% and third are SheilaW & Pat with 61.60%. SheilaW & Pat would have to pull out a really good result next week to catch Roger & Dennis but with the gap between themselves and Graham & SheilaL being so narrow, attaining the Runner Up spot is still a realistic possibility with just the one more evening's play in the competition.

The trophies for the Winning Pair, Runners Up and High Score teams will be awarded after bridge on Tuesday, 15 December.

Please note that after a show of hands this evening, the new season for Duplicate Pairs will begin on Tuesday, 12 January 2016.

This is just to remind members that there will be Rubber Bridge on Friday, 18 December provided that there are enough people planning to play. Although we do not normally ask you to book in for Rubber Bridge, this time will you please use the booking system to let me know whether you are 'Playing' or 'Not Playing' so that we know how many are likely to come along. If you do not know how to use the booking system, please just send me an email to let me know. Thank you.

How dramatic was that...!

On the very last hand of the season, Iris Clyde made Six Clubs (with an overtrick), sufficent to raise her own score a little but contributing to a massive evening for her partner Clinton Rendall, who at that very last moment leapt past Iris into first place for the year and is thus our Champion for 2015! Congratulations to him, to Iris for coming second and to Graham for coming third, and warmest thanks to everyone who has played or helped this year.

Individual Rubber Bridge
Iris Clyde (Runner Up) and Clinton Rendall (Winner and High Score)

What a cliff-hanger it was! With Iris leading before the start of the final evening's play and Clinton lying in second place, Clinton was clearly on a mission to earn a high score and finish with a flourish. None of us could have imagined the drama of it all. Partnering each other in the final round and being the last table to finish playing, poor Iris was surrounded by all the other players as she played to make the slam. Is it not bad enough trying to do that without an audience? She did well to make the slam, with an overtrick, but in doing so she very sportingly handed the overall series win to Clinton. A great evening's play from Clinton and great sportsmanship from Iris. Roger, who had been holding the High Score lead for the season could do nothing but stand by and watch as Clinton claimed it in that final round. Great fun and what a way to end the season.

The final evening of the Duplicate Pairs competition perhaps lacked the excitement of the final evening of the Individual Rubber Bridge competition but the leaders going into the evening, Roger & Dennis were taking no chances that they might be caught at the last moment. They produced their third best score of the season, 63.54%, enabling them to drop a score of 59.38% from their ten best scores and increase their final average to 62.95%. This meant that they lifted the Duplicate Pairs trophy. Congratulations to you both.

Graham & SheilaL had an average of 61.85% before the final evening with SheilaW & Pat - last year's winning pair - close on their heels with 61.60%. Graham & SheilaL were not present on the last evening and SheilaW & Pat tried valiantly to close the gap but ended the evening with no change to their average. It is therefore Graham & SheilaL who will receive the Runners Up award next time they are at the Club. A great effort, well done! Having been a consistent winner for many years in the Individual Rubber Bridge competition but thwarted in both the Duplicate Pairs and the Individual Rubber Bridge competitions this year, make no mistake - Graham will be on a mission in 2016. [Shhh...someone hide the doubling cards.]

The High Score award for the best single evening score of the season went to a pairing that played together early in the year but then went their separate ways, DaveW & David. Their High Score was a massive 78.75%. DaveW was present to receive his award and David will be given his separately. This was a great achievement as the only other pairings to achieve any score of over 70% were DaveW & MargaretM with 70.83% and Roger & Dennis with 72.22%. Well done!

Thank you to everyone who has support the Duplicate Pairs during 2015 and we hope to see you back in 2016 along with any new pairs that would like to come along and join us. The next season begins for duplicate on Tuesday, 12 January 2016.

Missing from Duplicate Pairs on Tuesday, 15 December were Graham & SheilaL so the opportunity was taken at Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday to present them with their Duplicate Pairs Runners Up trophies.

Congratulations to you both and welcome back, Graham. 

After being concerned that we might need to cancel the final evening of rubber bridge due to lack of players, we managed to rustle up twelve people who had a very relaxed evening just playing bridge and munching on the goodies that a few a brought in, thank you. This evening was not part of a series so the individual scores for the evening are given below. Well done to Graham for celebrating his return with another win.

Graham 5910 points, Pat 4660, Clinton 4800, LindaM 3910, DaveW 3670,MargaretK 3590, Hazel 3520, Glad 2960,SheenaH 2560, SheilaL 2530, Iris 2120, Iso 2090.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2016

A very wet and windy night, but only one week's competition remains after this week in the 2015 series: eleven folk were present, half having made the journey from Kirkwall.

Scores were generally very low, eight of the players scoring 'two thousand and something'; but third was Margaret Mainland with 3,570 points and two folk tied for top spot with 4,900 points: Iris Clyde and Roger Davies, steady scoring rather than slam bidding underlying their success.

So Iris increased her lead with one week remaining: realistically only Clinton Rendall can catch her now, and to do so he will need 7,250 on Friday 11 December - his highest score of the year, and then some! Roger was the only other player to increase his aggregate for the year, but remains very far adrift in fourth place.

The spreadsheet has now been amended to be legible to those not carryng a magnifying glass!

This week there were four full tables of players and twenty-eight boards were played.

Two Small Slams were bid and made. Graham & SheilaL made 6♣ against Margaret & Ruth on board 8 and on the same board two other partnerships made twelve and thirteen tricks, respectively, but had not bid the slams. Dennis & Roger made 6♦ against Graham & SheilaL on board 27 while everyone else had bid 3N.

The doubling card was out on four occasions.  On boards 10 and 20 the contracts made and the doubling helped declarers Margaret & Marjory and Dave & Jean get top scores for the boards. On boards 11 and 14 the contracts were brought down by three tricks with defenders Dave & Jean and Graham & SheilaL getting top scores for the boards.

The evening's play ended in Dennis & Roger and Graham & SheilaL in equal first place on 61.90% with SheilaW & Pat in third place on 57.74%. 

In the year to date rankings, Dennis & Roger are still leading, now with an average of 62.34% and a slightly increased lead over Graham & SheilaL who are in second place with an average of 61.85% ahead of SheilaW & Pat in third place with an average of 61.60%. The lowest scores to be dropped for these three are 58.33%, 60.42% and 58.52%. With four Tuesdays left to play there is still time for things to change. 

Just ten folk braved the cold winds for Friday Bridge at the Dounby Centre, but we kept warm by playing on three tables, so dummies were busily moving to bid at other tables!

Four players scored above 4,000 and each moved up: first was Malcolm with 4,630; next Margaret Mainland with 4,530; third Dennis with 4,170; and fourth Linda with 4,130. Of these Linda was the one to move up in the yeaar;'s rankings, now in 7th place 80 points ahead of Glad.

The three leading positions are unchanged, with Iris still in front.

The results have been up since late on Tuesday but this is my third attempt at producing the report. Twice I have got almost to the end but then there has been a power cut before the item could be saved so I have had to start again. Patience is rapidly dissipating!

Nine pairs competed, playing 28 boards over four rounds, making a total of 112 contracts. 30 contracts made exactly, 49 made with overtricks and 33 went down. 14 of those that made overtricks resulted in unbid games being made.  11 of those that went down were failed game contracts. 2 contracts were doubled and both were brought down.

Perhaps the most interesting board of the evening was board 26 where pair 8 (Roger & Dennis) were playing pair 5 (SheilaW & Pat). Sitting with 19HCP and probably only two losers in a hand comprising K3♠ AKQT7642♥ 9♦ AK♣ , Pat did not want to risk not reaching the right level of contract and opened the bidding with 4♣ without having first agreed the suit. SheilaW's responses indicated that she was holding an Ace and a King, leaving only one Ace missing. Pat then signed off at 6♥ , the first natural bid of the auction, and duly made the contract.

Top pair for the evening were DaveW & Jean with 63.89%, followed by Graham & SheilaL with 58.33% and SheilaW & Pat with 56.25%.

There was no change to the top three placings In the year to date rankings so Roger & Dennis continue to lead with an average of 62.34%, followed by Graham & SheilaL with 61.85% and SheilaW & Pat with 61.60%.

There were just 11 players for Individual Rubber Bridge this week and second ranked Graham might have hoped to make up some ground on the leader, Iris, and increase the gap between himself and the third and fourth placed players, Clinton and Roger, with all three of those players having a night off. As things panned out, it was an evening of mainly low scores and it was not to be. MargaretM came first on 4340, with Graham second on 4180 and Iso third on 3810.

There were no changes to the rankings at all and the top three players remain Iris on 57330 for her ten best scores, Graham on 55810 and Clinton on 55510.

Many thanks to those who took part in or otherwise supported the Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs event. A cheque for £227 has been forwarded to EcatsBridge to be added to the total they are accumulating to pay over to Children in Need. That amount was made up of:

£66 - Tables fees for 11 pairs
£125 - Raised by the raffle
£36 - Raised by sale of Jean's Millionaire Shortbread and other miscellaneous donations

A running total of what has been raised through Ecats this year can be found on the Ecats site by following this link. Our amount has not been listed yet but I have emailed Ecats to let them know what has been raised so hopefully it will appear shortly. They are hoping to top last year's total of over £70,000.

A stormy night, Friday the 13th, but still ten folk present, and bridge played at three tables, with some of us scurrying to bid at one after another!

Top on the night was Margaret Mainland, on a roll with her fourth successive evening of improved scores and with a figure of 4,780 for the night; 100 behind her was Sheila Lyon on 4,680. with Roger Davies third scoring 4,320. Margaret and Sheila both improved their 'best ten' aggregates as did Linda Milne, in fourth place 100 behind Roger.

Margaret remins sixth overall but with the gap to Malcolm Tipler in fifth place now little over 1,000; a couple of thousand behind Margaret it is very close, with only 330 points separating the next four players - in order Gladys Marwick, Linda, Pat Shearer, and Sheila.

With a maximum of four weeks to go, though, the top five positions are undisturbed, with the top three in particular well ahead of the field and Iris Clyde maintaining what could be a significant lead.

The Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs results were uploaded last night. Click on the link below to go to the results page for the Tuesday group of playing clubs:

Children-in-Need Results

The page opens with the leading fifteen players overall but on the righthand side of the page you can follow links to show results for Club, National and Zone levels. At the time of writing this note, Mike and Davie are lying 2nd in Scotland and 28th overall. Well done guys. Please bear in mind that the percentages and placings will continue to change until the final results are in.

I will be taking the booklets for post event distribution to Kirkwall tonight to give them out to some folk. Roger will give the rest out on Friday, if possible. 

Many thanks to everyone involved with our Children in Need simultaneous Pairs event on Tuesday, 10 November. As usual, the full results will not be posted until other clubs have finished playing the hands, but a summary of the percentage scores (just compared with the other players at Dounby on the evening) and how they affect this year’s competition is given below.

First, though: when we do get the full national analysis this will not necessarily given the same percentages or even the same batting order as the immediate Dounby results – we are compared with a much wider range of folk which may well give a different picture.

Iso has booklets provided by the organisers, which cover each hand, and she and Roger will be distributing these to participants.

We do not yet know the final amount of money raised, but it seems likely to be around £200. Thanks to everyone for their generosity and hard work!

Now for the evening’s results:

Congratulations to Mike & Davie for a strong performance in first place (66.67%). Next were the 2015 competition’s three leading pairs: Graham & Sheila (60.94%); Dennis & Roger (59.38%); and Pat & Sheila (58.85%). There followed: Dave & Sheena (53.65%); Alan & Linda (47.92%); Malcolm and Margaret (46.30%); Margaret & Ruth (42.19%); Dave & Jean (39.58%); Katherine & Christine (38.89%); and Margaret & Marjory (37.50%).

Roger calculates that just three pairs improved their ‘best ten’ scores: himself & Dennis by 0.14% to 61.98%; Graham & Sheila by 0.12% to 61.70%; and Pat & Sheila by 0.05% to 61.60%. Next scores to be ‘knocked off’ are respectively 58.3%, 60.4% and 58.5%.

The Club intends to take part in a Simultaneous Pairs competition to be held on Tuesday, 10 November 2015 to raise money for Children in Need. We hope as many of our regular players as possible will come along to compete and that we might manage to rustle up a few extra pairs for the event. As well as sending our results through to ECATS, the results will count towards our normal Duplicate Pairs competition.

We will charge our normal table fees to players but the Club will then pay over the entry fee due to the organisers and meet the costs of booklets for issue after the event. In addition, we plan to hold a raffle on the evening to raise additional money to pay over to the organisers to pass on to Children in Need. Last time the event was run it raised a very substantial sum for the cause we are told.

We will be very pleased to receive any donations of items to go into the raffle, preferably in advance of the event date. Please bring any contribution along on any bridge night between now and then and it will be kept safe for the event. Thank you.

With twelve folk playing and results widely spread, congratulations are due to Iris Clyde who scored consistently on almost every table and finished on 6,530 points, including 6NT to complete a two-game rubber when partnering Hazel Foubister for a table score of 1,860; Margaret Mainland (5,610) and Dennis Paice (5,560) produced what on another night would have been winning scores.

As a result Iris resumes the lead in the 2015 competition; with five playing weeks to go her 'best ten' aggregate of 57,330 puts her 1,520 ahead of Graham Lyon, with Clinton Rendall a further 300 behind.

There were four full tables of players again this week but with some folk away there were a couple of non regular partnerships. Interestingly, those two partnerships and one other recently formed partnership were the top three pairs this week. Life's a mystery!

28 boards were each played four times, giving a total of 112 contracts.Only one Small Slam was bid and made, by Roger & Dennis against SheilaW & Pat on board 27, however, twelve tricks were also made on board 3, board 5, board 19 (twice), board 20 and again on board 27. All except those on board 19 were made by pairs in game contracts but on board 19 one was made by a pair in a 1NT contract and the other by a pair in a 2♦ contract.

The doubling card was out only once, with Graham & SheilaL doubling a 3♥ contract by Roger & Dennis and successfully bringing it down by three tricks.

The top three places went to DaveW & Jean with 61.90%, Maggie & SheenaH with 54.76% and MargaretK & Iso with 52.98%.

None of the top three results had any impact on the year to date rankings as none of the pairings can compete in ten events before the end of the season. None of the three top pairs in the rankings managed to drop a low score this week so the places are unchanged with Roger & Dennis on a average of 61.84%, Graham & SheilaL on an average of 61.58% and SheilaW & Pat on an average of 61.55%.

Don't forget it is the Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs event on Tuesday, 10 November and remember to bring along a little extra cash to buy raffle tickets. If you have not yet booked in but intend to play please book in sooner rather than later, if you can, so that we know who is playing and can get a good prompt start on the night. Many thanks to those who have already provided raffle prizes and to Jean who brought along some Millionaire Shortbread to sell this evening. Delicious.

Eight pairs competed, including the three pairs who are battling it out for top spot in the year to date rankings. It's all becoming quite exciting with so little between them.

Top pair for the evening were Roger & Dennis with 60.71%. In second place were DaveH & SheenaH with 54.17% and then there were three pairs in equal third place with 50.60% - MargaretM & Marjory, DaveW & Jean and SheilaW and Pat.

SheilaW & Pat bid and made a small slam, making one overtrick, on board 24 against Malcolm & Iso. Three of the four East-West declarers made twelve tricks on board 2 but none had bid the small slam.

There was doubling on boards 1, 9, 18, 20 and 26. Two of the contracts made and three were brought down.

It was all change in the year to date rankings as Roger & Dennis moved up to first place with an average of 61.84%. Graham & SheilaL lie in second place wth 61.58% and SheilaW & Pat are in third with 61.55%.Still very little between these three and the final outcome is difficult to call at this stage.

Well done to Ann Edwards who comfortably led the way, first with 4,980 points, followed at a distance by Linda (3,980) and Pat (3,930). Of those who had completed ten scores, only Iso improved hers, and that by not enough to move up.

With 17 folk present we played on four tables, the extra person taking turns to sit out and gain a guaranteed 500 points for the table missed.

Strangely the three folk top on the night were those fourth, fifth and sixth in the overall rankings. Top was Roger with 5,450 points; second Malcolm on 4,600; and third Margaret Mainland scoring 4,540. Each moved up, Roger by sufficient to take fourth place overall from Malcolm - but there is still a large gap between these three and the season's leaders, none of whom moved: Graham (55,810), Clinton (55,510) and Iris (55,250).

Eight pairs competed at Duplicate Pairs this week and twenty eight boards were due to be played but in all cases board 22 was Passed Out.

One Small Slam was bid and made by Dave & SheenaH on board 26 playing against MargaretM & Marjory. On the other three occasions either twelve or thirteen tricks were made but the declarers were only in game contracts.

Three contracts were doubled. On board 4, 5♦  by MargaretH & Ruth was doubled by Nila & Jean and went one off. On board 8, 4♥ by Graham & SheilaL was doubled by Malcolm & Iso but the contract made. On board 24, 3♠ by SheilaW & Pat was doubled by DaveH & SheenaH but that contract also made.

Top scorers for the evening were Graham & SheilaL (helped by the doubled contract made) with 61.31%. In second place were Malcolm & Iso with 60.12% and third were Roger & Dennis with 58.33%.

Oh boy, is it close in the year to date rankings for the ten best scores. Graham & SheilaL lie in first place with 61.58% while SheilaW & Pat are only 0.03% behind with 61.55% and Roger & Dennis are only 0.04% behind them with 61.51%. Further down the rankings, Malcolm & Iso's result enable them to overtake MargaretM & Marjory and Clinton & Jim to move into sixth place.

There were seven pairs for Duplicate Pairs this week and twenty eight boards were played.

Two small slams were bid, on board 9 by LindaR & Christine and on board 28 by Graham & SheilaL both against Iso & Malcolm (we're feeling a bit paranoid now).

Three contracts were doubled, on board 3 where 5♣ doubled made, on board 18 twice where 4♥ doubled made and 4♠ doubled was brought down, and on board 28 when the small slam contract was doubled but made.

Top scorers for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 63.54%, LindaR & Christine with 53.13% and Bob & DaveL with 50.00%.

Things are getting quite exciting at the sharp end of the year to date rankings. Pat & SheilaW are just hanging on to their lead with an average of 61.55% for their ten best scores but snapping at their heels in joint second place with 61.38% are Dennis & Roger and Graham & SheilaL. Still time for things to change though.

Thirteen folk were present for Individual Rubber bridge on the Friday, the consensus being to play just the three tables rather than dummy constantly moving to fill in as a fourth bidder! Scores varied widely, but comfortably in the lead were Margaret Mainland (1^st, with 5,780 points) and Clinton Rendall (2^nd, 100 points behind). Much of their success came at the table where they played in partnership, with one rubber followed by a bravely bid and well played Six No Trumps. Third on the evening was Roger Davies with 4,810 points – enough to take his aggregate over 50,000 for the year.

Margaret leapt an impressive six places; Clinton too moved up, just the one place but a significant one! Graham Lyon remains in the lead with 55,810; but Clinton is now second 300 behind, having passed Iris Clyde who is now third, a further 260 points back.

A dozen folk played Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday, including Ann Edwards making a welcome return to the Club. Top on the evening was Sheila Lyon with 4,640 points, pushing her up the annual rankings to 9^th overall, with Dennis Paice second on 4,520 and Tony Spencer third with 4,360 points.

There remains all to play for in the 2015 competition, the three leading players not altering their ‘best ten’ aggregates this week: Graham Lyon leads with 55,810; Iris Clyde is second with 55,250 points; and Clinton Rendall has 54,620.

First of all, apologies for the report heading that appeared in this week's Orcadian relating to last week's bridge. I always leave the heading to the Orcadian staff when I do reports but I really cringed when I saw this week's article heading. Not my doing!!!

Six pairs competed this week and with the numbers being lower than usual it was decided to play thirty boards. This involved ten rounds of three boards but players remained in the same place for two rounds at a time and so it seemed more like five rounds and we finished in good time.

No Small Slams or Grand Slams were bid but on three boards pairs managed to take twelve tricks. On board 2, DaveH & SheilaH made 3NT with three overtricks against Graham & SheilaL. On board 4, MargaretM & Marjory made 3NT with three overtricks against Iso & Malcolm, Graham & SheilaL made 4NT with two overtricks against Jean & MargaretK, giving the declarers joint top for the board, and DaveH & SheenaH made 2♠ with four overtricks against Roger & Dennis. Then on board 15, Roger & Dennis made 3♥ with three overtricks against  Jean & MargaretK.

Top pair for the evening were DaveH & SheenaH with 58.33%, followed by Roger & Dennis with 57.50% in second place and MargaretM & Marjory with 55.83% in third.

In the year to date rankings, the relative positions remained unchanged down to sixth place, with very little difference in average scores for the first four of these. Further down, MargaretM & Marjory quickly regained seventh place from Iso & Malcolm who had taken it from them the week before. Their scores are also very close so maybe there will be more changing of positions to come.

It was an interesting evening for the five tables of players competing. During the evening it felt as though there were a high number of long suits and shortages and a bias towards North-South in terms of points but if you click on the Results menu tab, go to the event date and then click on Hands you will be able to see the analysis of the set of hands used. That reveals that the average High Card Points were split evenly between the competing pair directions and you can see also the split between balanced hands, voids, singletons and long suits. 

There was a potential for 135 contracts to be played (each of 27 boards being played five times) but one board was Passed Out one round and another was Not Played one round. Of the remaining 133 contracts, 77 were played by North/South and 56 by East/West. This suggests that although the HCP averages were the same in each direction over the evening, North-South were able to find better fits.

Four Small Slams were bid by North/South partnerships, with 6♣ by North on Board 1 going down, 6♥ by North on Board 3 making twice one of which was with an overtrick, and 6♥ on Board 22 by South going down.

In addition, another fourteen Small Slams were made but had not been bid - across Boards 1, 2, 3, 7, 18, 20 and 25. Eleven of the fourteen were played by North/South and three by East/West. Twelve of the fourteen were made when in game contracts but two were made when in part score contracts. Of course, it is always arguable that had the Small Slams been bid the defender play might have been quite different.

Top Scorers for the evening were MichaelK & Leslie with 67.13%, their best score so far. They were followed in second place by Iso & Malcolm with 62.50%, also with their best score this year. In third place were Graham & SheilaL with 55.09%, one of their lower scores of the year.

In the year to date rankings, based on their ten best scores, the three pairs currently leading are Pat & SheilaW with an average of 61.55%, Dennis & Roger with 61.23% and Graham & SheilaL with 60.91%.There is still time for things to change.

There were 15 players for Individual Bridge on Friday, 25 September, when low scores were prevalent, one table seeing four successive contracts going one off with not even a double to sharpen the scoring. Play and bidding seemed appropriate, but it was just one of those evenings…

Top, though, and the one player to raise her ‘best ten’ aggregate, was Margaret Kirkness on 4,710 points; second was iris Clyde with 4,280; and third Roger Davies on 3,780.

Margaret advanced one place in the annual rankings, while the top three players remain very tightly bunched, their scores not altered since last week: Iris leads with 55,190 points; Graham Lyon has 54,870, and Clinton Rendall 54,620.

After a delayed start due to a problem with Bridgepads after upgrading the laptop to Windows 10, play got underway with four tables playing 28 boards and a combined total of 112 contracts. Unfortunately, the problem meant that we had to revert to manual travellers.  UPDATE: Thanks to advice from Davie at Orkney Bridge Club, the Bridgepads are now up and running again but in Windows 7 Emulation mode, so all should be well on Tuesday.

There was not a lot of excitement to be gleaned from the hands. No Grand or Small Slams were bid but DaveH & Sheena did manage to make twelve tricks on board 2. Only one contract was doubled, successfully, by Graham & SheilaL against Margaret & Ruth on board 8.

There were 39 game contracts bid, 21 of them in No Trump. Of the 39 contracts, 14 went down and 10 of those were 3NT contracts. Of the remaining 25 game contracts, 10 made exactly and 15 were made with overtricks.

More by luck than anything else, the top pair for the evening were Iso & Malcolm with 57.74%. In equal second place were Graham & SheilaL and DaveW & Dennis both with 54.17%.

In the year to date rankings, Pat & SheilaW lead with an average of 61.55% for their best ten scores. In second place lie Dennis & Roger with 61.23% and in third place Graham & SheilaL with 60.91% - so very little separates these three pairs. Behind these pairs, relative positions from fourth to sixth place remain unchanged but this week's result saw Iso & Malcolm overtake Margaret & Marjory to move into seventh place.

Thirteen players seemed to be a bit unlucky for most of the competitors this week, with a distinct lack of good hands and not a lot of point scoring for the majority.On the more positive side, we did have a prompt finish just after 10:00 pm.

Only three players were able to drop a low score, two of those being Iris and Graham who had been sitting in first and second places, respectively, and the other was Ally who has only recently achieved ten results in the series and was able to drop a much lower score. The clear winner was Graham with 5670 points, followed by Iris with 4450 points and Clinton Rendall with 3950 points.

These results mean that Graham has retaken the lead in the series with 55810 for his ten best scores, Iris moves down to second place with 55250 and Clinton remains third with 54620. The only other person with more than 50000 points is Malcolm.

There were twelve pairs competing at Duplicate Pairs, playing nine rounds of three boards.

Top scorers for the evening were SheilaW & Pat with 58.52%. Second were Roger & Dennis with 55.77% and third were DaveH & SheenaH with 52.31%.

There was one slam bid and made, one slam bid but not made and three slams not bid but made. Two contracts were doubled with one being brought down and the other making.

On board 8, the board was Passed Out on three occasions and played on the other three, with top score going to one of the played contracts. Conversely, board 21 was Passed Out once with the top score going to one of the pairs that had Passed Out. Board 12 was Not Played on one occasion and board 21 was Not Played on two occasions.

In the year to date rankings, based on the ten best scores in the year to date, the lead is currently held by SheilaW & Pat with an average of 61.55%. In second place are Roger & Dennis, not far behind, with 61.23% and in third place are Graham & SheilaL with 60.91%.

It was a select group of ten players that came along to play Individual Rubber bridge this evening. This meant that there were two full tables and two people sitting out each round. Unfortunately, four people had to sit out twice but received points of 500 on each occasion. Whilst sitting out can be tedious, for some the 500 per round score earned was a significant contribution to their total score.

Iris took good advantage of the absence of Graham this week and she achieved a score of 5590 points. MargaretM was second with 5430 points and third Clinton with 4380 points.

The good score by Iris enabled her to drop a low score and leapfrog ahead of Graham and Clinton to take the lead in the year to day rankings. Clinton was not able to improve his score and so remains in third place behind Graham. The only other person to move position this week was MargaretM who moved ahead of Tony.

It remains very close at the top and there are still several weeks left to go before the end of the playing year so anything might happen. 

There were 15 players for Individual Bridge on Friday, 11 September, when redoubling seemed almost as common as doubling once was; not that the use of the blue card was always accurately judged, contracts in question twice going three off – a particularly expensive business when vulnerable! Iris Clyde led the early scoring, averaging 1,000 a table after the first three rounds, but with only 970 across the last four tables she was not able to push up her annual aggregate of her ten best scores.

Winner on the night, even then lamenting what might have been – one 22-point hand played in One Club, another hand where a slam was missed – was Dave Walker with 5,430 points, followed by Linda Milne (5,160) and Sheila Lyon (4,700).

Dave and Sheila each advanced one place in the annual rankings; not so Linda, although three of our regular players from Kirkwall (Pat Shearer, Gladys Marwick and Linda) are now separated by only 150 points! The top three players remain very tightly bunched: Graham Lyon has 54,870; Clinton Rendall 54,620; and Iris Clyde 53,940.

Just like the Medes and the Persians, the Dounby Bridge Club seems – for the moment at least! – to have certain immutable laws, to wit: that Graham Lyon shall lead the Individual Rubber Bridge competition, and that Pat Shearer & Sheila Walls shall lead the Duplicate Pairs competition. It has been some time in coming (and the year is far from over yet!) but that is now exactly how things stand.

We had thirteen pairs for Duplicate Bridge at the Dounby Centre on the second Tuesday of September, with scores wide-ranging but the field led by Michael King & Leslie Manson (65.7%), ahead of Pat & Sheila (62.9%) and Graham & Sheila Lyon (61.3%).

All this made for an important change to the leader board, based on the average of the ten best scored for 2015: Pat & Sheila have now taken up the lead (61.5%), with Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (61.2%) still second but having had some pretty terrible results lately, so increasingly threatened too by Graham & Sheila (60.9%), ever closer in third.

Thanks to everyone for observing the discipline of the clock so well. We were finished pretty much at ten o’clock, so a 9-round movement of three boards a round may be worth considering for the future.

Fourteen players contested Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday, 4 September, and with many scores bunched around 3,000 for the night, only four of those who had already completed ten evenings managed to raise their ‘best ten’ aggregates. Roger Davies led on the evening with 5,210, followed by Glad Marwick (4,020) and Margaret Kirkness (3,880). Redoubles were not uncommon – but not always successful for declarer! – but Roger and Glad benefited particularly from one hand on which Glad bid Seven No Trumps, which Roger managed to make – and the next hand saw them in 3NT, completing a very handsome rubber!

Amongst players with ten scores, there were no changes of position, but Ally Kelly is already breaking into those scores, despite having played only eight times – indeed only two players in the entire table above her have higher averages. The top three players remain very tightly bunched: Graham Lyon has 54,870; Clinton Rendall 54,620; and Iris Clyde 53,940

It was good to see Bruce Pilkington back at the Duplicate Bridge table, resurrecting his partnership with Michael King, and indeed they triumphed on the night, coming first with 63.0%, with Pat Shearer and Sheila Walls second on 61.5% - there was then something of a gap, with third place taken by Linda Milne and Alan Leslie, scoring 55.2%.

It should have been the Evening of the Eighteen Heart Slams: on Boards 8, 14 and 18 twelve tricks were there for the taking, but only twice was the opportunity taken – Bruce & Michael and Dennis & Roger (otherwise languishing at the foot of the evening’s table) being the successful pairs.

Perhaps the collected works of Ian Fleming should be compulsory reading for Bridge players. In Moonraker, James Bond sets up the villain Drax  - Drax and his partner have 32 points between them including the K J 9 of trumps, yet Bond cannot be stopped making Seven Clubs Redoubled…

The point of the story is that High Card Points are not all: on Board 8, with 30 points between the two hands, 12 or 13 tricks were made; on Board 14, with 27 points, 10 to 13 tricks were made; and on Board 18, with 25 points, 10 to 12 tricks were made.

Somehow Dennis & Roger are holding on to their lead for the annual competition, but Pat & Sheila are closing the gap, with Graham and Sheila Lyon in third.

The results that were announced after bridge on 1 September were incorrect as it was discovered afterwards that there was a mismatch between the Table Cards movements and the Bridgepad movements although the starting positions were exactly the same. This only affected tables 2 and 3 where there were pairs sitting at the same table all evening but switching direction in certain rounds as per the Table Cards. Unfortunately, the Bridgepad movement set up was one that had them sitting in the same place all evening without switching. The corrected results reflect the actual movement that took place at the tables. This had a significant impact on the overall results and positions for the evening.

A further complication was that boards 11 and 12 played by pairs 3 and 1 in round 8 and by pairs 8 and 5 in round 9 had been rotated 180 degrees so that north was playing south's hand and east was playing west's hand. The contract direction (ie N/S or E/W) and outcome in terms of score is not affected but I have amended the declarer's position so that it ties in correctly with the lead card position.

I hope that everything now reflects the correct results and placings but if you do spot anything else please let me know.

Iso

There had been eleven pairs on the evening, most fairly tightly bunched in percentage scores but with the field led by Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook (61.6%), ahead of Graham & Sheila Lyon (58.9%) and Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer (56.8%). Board 25 saw slams bid and made at four of the five tables, the highlight being Sheila & Pat’s Grand Slam; 13 tricks were taken on every occasion. Occasional other boards saw 12 tricks being made, Dennis Paice being the successful declarer twice.

There was only the most minute adjustment to the leader board: Dennis & Roger (61.2%) remain in front, with Pat & Sheila (60.9%) second and Graham & Sheila (60.7%) fractionally closer in third.

Seventeen players meant five tables, with three dummies needed to bid, so we were all kept busy! Welcome back Ally, not seen since March - where did the summer go?

Ally indeed scored well, coming second with 5,330, still building her '10 best scores' so not changing position. Behind her came Sheila with 5,040, enough to take her up one place, but the star of the evening was Graham, who came needing 5,820 to catch Clinton but exceeded that by 350, taking first place on the night indeed but more significantly establishing himself again at the top of the annual rankings!

Numbers were comparatively modest on Friday, 21 August, with just twelve folk playing – it seems a rare occasion to have an exact number of tables, and indeed we did finish our 28 boards comparatively early. Gladys Marwick (5,060 points) and Tony Spencer (4,150) made decent progress, but they were second and third as the good cards seemed to follow Roger Davies around; he and his seven partners made good use of them, with game bid and made on ten boards, giving Roger a personal best of 7,320 points, which is also the year’s highest score at the Club.

The leading positions were unaffected, with things still very tight at the top: Clinton Rendall leads with a ‘best ten’ aggregate of 54,620; Graham Lyon has 53,940; and Iris Clyde has 53,240. Malcolm Tipler is fourth with 50,640 points and Roger jumped four places higher to fifth, on 48,320.

Tuesday, 18 August saw our biggest numbers yet, with no fewer than 15 pairs present on the Hall Stage as we vacated our usual room for the Flower Club. Bunched we were, too, with fewer than 20 percentage points separating the entire field. The night’s winners, playing together for the first time, were Gladys Marwick & Margaret Heddle, with 59.3%; two strong regular pairs then shared second place, scoring 58.3%: Graham & Sheila Lyon and Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer.

Leading percentages in the yearly competition changed very slightly, but Dennis Paice and Roger Davies still hold the lead on 61.2%, followed by Graham & Sheila with 60.6% and Sheila & Pat on 60.4%.

Friday, 14 August saw 17 players – our 16 top scorers for the season plus visitor Phil West, welcomed back on his annual holiday here. Last week’s average scores had been just over 4,000 but this week they crashed to just below 3,000 – and none crashed further than  Duplicate Pairs leaders Roger (bottom with 1,530 points) and Dennis (next with 1,660). From one extreme to the other: three players topped 5,000, with Iso and Malcolm completing a family triumph: Iso after a fortnight away leading the field with 5,390, Malcolm continuing his purple patch with 5,040, and Graham third on 5,020.

The top three became a little more bunched after Graham’s good score: it now reads Clinton (54,620), Iris (53,940) and Graham (53,240). All to play for!

Malcolm became the fourth player this year to top 50,000; below him comes Pat; Linda Milne moved up to sixth and Iso positively leapt into seventh!

Tuesday, 11 August saw steadily growing numbers as 7pm approached – what looked like 4 tables becoming 4½, then 5, then 5½ and finally 6, leaving the temporary organiser a little perplexed! All went well though, and despite most pairs being bunched together one pair – the occasional grouping of Margaret Mainland & Dave Walker – led the field by 6 percentage points, scoring just over 62%. A dozen match points back (57%) came Sheila & Graham Lyon, and one match point behind them were two pairs: Shelley Bell & Peter Bishop and Dave Higgins & Sheena Hay.

The annual competition is based on a pair’s best ten scores: others will be relieved that Margaret & Dave have played together only four times, so they do not yet qualify! Graham & Sheila did not quite score enough to change things and remain second, with an overall 60.6%, still a little adrift of Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (61.2%). Third remain David Toms and Dave Walker (60.3%).

Welcome to Dave Linklater and John Burgess (the latter from New Zealand)! Numbers were good again with 6½ tables; and with the chosen movement we had thirteen rounds of two boards, everyone sitting out once.

In first place were Graham and Sheila Lyon (although the computer appears to have recalculated their percentage downwards, sorry!) with 64%, followed by Sheila Walls and Pat Shearer, who found the night’s one slam, on 60% and next Dave Higgins and Sheena Hay with 56%. Eight pairs were then bunched between 52 and 46%.

Dennis Paice and Roger Davies found their overall lead for the season reduced: they have 61.2%, with Graham and Sheila next on 60.6%, and Dave Walker in partnership with David Toms on 60.3%; Sheila and Pat are now very close with 60.2%.

Of the season's top-ranked 16 players, 14 made up Friday evening's company of bridge players, and half managed to improve their 'best ten' aggregates although there were low scores too. Two stood out, each exceeding 6,000 points on the night (the first time this has happened in 2015): Malcolm Tipler with 6,670 (raising his overall score by 3,510 on the night) and Iris Clyde (6,230, going up 2,290 and taking her beyond 50,000 for the season). Hazel Foubister was third with 4,670 (plus 1,790).

The evening seemed characterised by weird card distributions such as 6-5-1-1, with one player even picking up a 9-carder! Just as a few years back the Doubling card crept into use, now we are seeing Redoubles more often, Malcolm for example being one beneficiary.

Malcolm's continued good form puts him on fourth place on 48,120, but for the three leaders things are tighter after Iris's high score: Clinton leads with 54,600, which is 1,960 ahead of Graham, with Iris now only 940 further back. There is all to play for!

Welcome to Bob Ross, to Leslie Manson and to Michael King, all playing in the Tuesday competition for the first time.

Congratulations to Alan Leslie and Linda Milne who led Tuesday’s field of twelve pairs with an overall score of 62%, followed by Graham and Sheila Lyon with 60%; third were Sheila Walls and Pat Shearer, scoring 59%.

Amongst partnerships who have played ten or more times this year (the qualifying number for the annual competition), Dennis Paice and Roger Davies lead with an average of 61.2% for their best ten results, with Dave Walker and David Toms second on 60.3%; with 60.0%, Graham and Sheila are closer now in third place.

Seventeen players competed at Individual Rubber Bridge and it was good to welcome new member Bruce. This evening was also the last at the Club for Dot who is heading south again to complete her holiday and then return home to Spain.

Top player this week was Iso with a score of 5130, followed by husband, Malcolm, with 4840 points. In third place was Pat with 4680 points. The only other players to score in excess of 4000 points were LindaM and Clinton. Probably the most notable aspect of the night was that 4140 of Clinton's 4460 points were scored above the line, thanks mainly to some overbidding by opposition and successful doubling of those doomed contracts.

In the year to date rankings, the first three placed players - Clinton (54600), Graham (52630) and Iris (49410) - had no change to their scores. Pat (46000) remains in fourth place and slightly reduced the gap between herself and Iris, while Glad (44880), in fifth place also had an unchanged score. Malcolm (44610) has overtaken Roger (44240) to move into sixth place and Iso (43790) has moved up to eighth place, leapfrogging MargaretM, LindaM and Tony.

Results have been amended to allow for pairs 3 and 8 having apparently sat the wrong direction for boards 17-21. The corrected results are now on the Results calendar and the amended commentary is given below.  Also a couple of contracts had been put in showing the wrong player as playing the contract but the input had not been properly checked at the end of the board. 

Nine pairs competed at Duplicate Pairs this week and twenty-eight boards were played.

Three small slams were bid and made, by Jim & Clinton and SheilaW & Pat on board 2 and by SheilaW & Pat again on board 13, in each case making twelve tricks. Two other pairs made thirteen tricks on board 13 but had not bid the slam. Thirteen tricks were also made by one pair on board 2 but on the same board a small slam contract was brought down by three tricks. Another slam attempt was brought down on board 7.

The biggest single score of the night went to Margaret & Marjory when their 4♠ contract was doubled and redoubled but successfully made. All other doubled contracts, on boards 3, 12, 14 and 20 were all defeated. Board 12 was passed out in one round.

Three boards were Not Played because players ran out of time, having not started to bid the last board of the round when the alarm sounded.  Seven minutes are allowed per board, with the countdown alarm being set to go off three minutes before the end of the time period. As long as you have started to bid the last board before the alarm sounds it is okay to play it out but do please remember that others get restive if they have completed within the seven minutes per board period and have to wait too long for others to finish. The clock is clearly visible and all players are urged to keep to time,ing in mind that bidding or playing slowly not only affects your own partnership's score but also that of the opposition and the overall scoring relationships for the evening. [End of nag!]

Top scorers for the night were Alan & LindaM with 59.52%.  Jim & Clinton were second with 57.25% followed by Malcolm & Dennis on 53.62%.

In the year to date rankings, Roger & Dennis remain in the lead with an average of 61.23%. DaveW & David lie second with 60.33% and Graham & SheilaL third with 59.63%.

Rather later than planned, but better late than never, here is a brief report on the Individual Rubber Bridge played on Friday, 17 July. Please note that there will be no report in the Orcadian this week as I ran out of time due to reporting duties relating to the annual Inter Club event between Stromness SC and Holm SC on the 16th and Stromness Regatta on the 18th.

Fifteen players competed on Friday and there was a complete change of fortunes. Clinton, who had an unusually low score the week before, came out top with 5890 points. Conversely, Tony who had been top the week before came last. Which brings to mind the words of Rudyard Kipling:

"....
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...."
(Rudyard Kipling)

Difficult to feel quite the same about Triumph and Disaster in bridge, I know, but it is only a game - really.  LindaM also scored well with 5220 points and Iris was third with 5080 points.

The top seven places in the rankings remained unchanged although there was some widening and narrowing of score differences within that group. Tony's misfortune's meant that he dropped from eighth place down to tenth, while Malcolm moved up to eighth and LindaM overtook both Tony and Iso to secure ninth place, thus bumping Iso down to eleventh place. The only other change was SheilaL overtaking Dennis to move into twelfth place. It could easily be all change again this Friday.

The results for Friday's Individual Rubber Bridge have been added to the results spreadsheet and the year to date competition rankings table has been updated. A fuller report will be prepared on Sunday or Monday. In the meantime, well done to Clinton for scoring 5890 and winning on the night.

After setting up ready for Duplicate Pairs this week, Iso started the evening's play and then left Graham to supervise the rest of the evening, being unable to play herself. Fortunately,whene she returned later, there had been no problems for Graham to deal with and all seemed peaceful.

Top pair for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 58.33%. Second were SheilaW & Pat with 56.94% and third were Jim & Clinton with 55.56%.  Three slams were bid and made, two by Graham & SheilaL (boards 13 and 16) and one by DaveH & Sheena (board 16). One other pair attempted the slam on board 16 but the contract was defeated.

The doubling card was used effectively by DaveH & Sheena on board 13 with the doubled contract being brought down but their double on board 23 was less successful with the doubled contract making with two overtricks. In another round, Jim & Clinton also doubled a pair in the same contract on board 23 and managed to bring the contract down by two tricks, having led a different card at the start of play. So a swing of four tricks for that board and contract. Bunty & Jean and Graham & SheilaL both successfully doubled and brought down contracts on board 14. 

Pairs passed out hands on boards 5 and 12. On board 5, all those who played contracts were defeated. Meanwhile on board 12, all those who played contracts made them with overtricks.

In the year to date rankings the leading three places are held by Roger & Dennis with an average of 61.23%, DaveW & David with 60.33% and Graham & SheilaL with 59.63%. SheilaW & Pat are just 0.31% behind.

The number thirteen was unlucky for some at Individual Rubber bridge as most scores of the thirteen players were under four thousand points.

The only player to break the five thousand points barrier was Glad who scored 5300. Well done, Glad. In second place was Tony with 4650 points and third was Iso with 4060. No-one else scored above four thousand points and no-one had an exciting enough hand to lead them to put notes on the reverse of their scoresheet to aid reporting. Ah well, there is always next week.

The first three places in the year to date rankings were unchanged after this event with Clinton leading with 53340 for his best ten scores, Graham in second place with 52630 and Iris in third place with 48260. Pat remains in fourth place but Glad moved up to fifth place, overtaking Roger. Further down the rankings, Tony moved up from tenth to eighth place, overtaking both Malcolm and Iso.

Before bridge began this week, the Club were lucky to have a brief visit from Anna Gudge and Mark Newton of ECATS, who are now based in Orkney. ECATS is the organisation that handled so efficiently the scoring of the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs competition in which the Club participated last week. They are very involved with the World Bridge Federation and other bridge bodies and for more information about what they do please visit the About Us page on the ECATS website. Part of the reason for their visit was to encourage the Club to participate in the Simultaneous Pairs competition they will be running in order to raise money for Children in Need in November. I hope that the Club will agree to support that fund-raising effort.

This week there were five and a half tables for Duplicate Pairs and 27 boards were played. By some quirk of fate, the top scoring pair were Iso & Dot with 59.90%. Second were SheilaW & Pat with 55.73% and in joint third place were Nila & MargaretK and Jim & Clinton on 55.21%.

Note: It looks as though the hands were rotated 180 degrees when put back in the board at the end of round 1 on board 12. It is probably not material to the overall result for the board.

Leading the rankings, based on their ten best results, are Roger & Dennis with an average of 61.23%. DaveW & David lie second with 60.33% and Graham & SheilaL 59.47%.

Briefly - congratulations to Iris for another huge score, taking her into second place overall!

More later

The full results for the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event are now up on ECATS and you can see the results by following these links or you can do it all from the Overall Results page:

Overall Results
Zonal (Zone 1)
National (Scotland)
Dounby Bridge Club

Jim & Clinton (3rd at Dounby) fared best in the overall competition after all the other pairs and frequencies had been taken into account, finishing a very creditable 73rd out of 816 pairs, with Alan & Wilma (1st at Dounby) coming 122nd, Graham & SheilaL (4th at Dounby) coming 134th and Dave & Sheena (2nd at Dounby) coming 151st.

If you go to the Dounby Bridge Club results page and click on the individual pair names you will be able to view personal scorecards.

Jim & Clinton came 49th out of 572 pairs in Zone 1 and 6th in Scotland out of 86 pairs.

Thanks again to everyone for taking part. Please note that our own travellers, scorecards etc will not appear until 7 July though our own Club competition result is shown on our website now.

Despite the temptingly glorious sunshine - should we play on the veranda? - twelve folk were lured to the Bridge tables, including Worcestershire visitors Lorna and Terry, welcome to them!

Four of the regular players increased their 'best ten' aggregates, two by small margins but two significantly: Graham closed on Clinton with an impressive 5,830, including the only slam of the night; but 'top of the shop' was Gladys with 5,990 points (of which 1,600 were thanks to Graham's own generosity, as he redoubled a vulnerable contract which finished three off!). These two were first and second on the night, with visitor Terry third on 4,290.

Gladys jumped four places into sixth where she now threatens Pat and Roger, but the top three places retain their order: Clinton leads with 53,340, now only 710 ahead of Graham, with Iris a further 4,370 back.

Many thanks to the thirteen pairs who took part in the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event yesterday evening and well done to Alan & Wilma, DaveH & Sheena and Jim & Clinton for taking the first three places on the evening at our event in isolation (ie as if it was just one event of our normal series and not part of the simultaneous pairs competition).

The Dounby results have been submitted to ECATS and these can be seen changing as more clubs submit their results. The ECATS results appear on the following page but will keep changing for now:

http://www.simpairs.com/ranking.asp?session=005892&ClubID=Overall

Click on Club to the right of that page to see the Dounby results as submitted but also please be aware that adjustments are made to results and positions as more and more results come in and the final ranking positions, even within Dounby, may look quite different as part of the overall. I am assured by Anna Gudge at ECATS that this is normal and is affected by frequencies of boards being played and individual scorecards for the boards. Individual scorecards are not visible yet on the ECATS site but will be after Saturday, 4 July. I make no attempt at explaining how it all works but explanations for the amendments can be seen by referring to the following in turn, in conjunction with the personal scorecards when they are available:

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/sims/FAQ/numbers.asp

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/sims/FAQ/why.asp   

No results will be posted on the Club's own website until Sunday, 5 July at the earliest.

Numbers were good again on Friday, with 14 folk present on a wet night. Thanks again to Glad for the tasty treats!

Scores averaged a little more than last week  but were notably more spread, with only six players adding to their best ten aggregates, and for the first week this year none of them changing position. Two gained 180 points; two gained about 500 points; and two (Margaret Kirkness going up 1,570 and Graham going up 1,560) gained substantially. Margaret was actually on the losing end of one of the unusual tables of the night, playing against Graham and Clinton who doubled all four contracts - three times they picked up 500-point penalties, and once Margaret made her contract.

Leading scores on the night were Graham (5,910), Clinton (4,630) and Dot (4,210); Clinton still leads, with 53,340; Graham is second on 51,170; and Iris is third, with 48,260.

This is just to remind Dounby players that on Tuesday, 30 June the Club will be taking part in the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event. Dounby and Orkney Bridge Club players have been emailed to remind them about the competition and have been asked to registered with Iso Tipler by 6:00 pm on Sunday, 28 June if they intend to take part. After the event, it will be about one week before the Club results will be added to this website. This is because not all clubs play on Tuesdays and because of the need to allow time for all clubs to submit their results for processing by the organisers.

Another milestone was reached this week with six and a half tables of players competing, including Dianne and Brian paying a fleeting visit from Canada. Pleased to welcome you both to the Club. Twenty six boards were played, with two boards each round.

When the provisional results were given immediately after play, there was an outstanding query to be sorted out with regard to board 10. It looks as though the cards were put back in the wrong place after being played by pairs 12 and 4, so for the last two rounds the contracts were played by N/S rather than E/W which had been the case beforehand. To deal with this, the pair numbers for the last two rounds have been switched round so that the pairs that actually played the contract are shown as having played in the direction that matches the cards. Please always be careful on returning cards to boards.

There seemed to be quite a number of long suits, voids and singletons across the boards.There were many tempters to bid game and many of those paid off but an example where game was not the place to be and the opposition waved their doubling cards to good effect was board 5. All except one contract was doubled and all of the doubled contracts went down. No slams were bid and made but twelve tricks were won by pair 7 on board 3 in a contract of 4♠.

Top pairing for the evening was DaveH & MargaretM who scored 69.58%.Second were Jim & Clinton with 65.00% and third were DaveW & David with 60.83%.

In the year to date rankings, Roger & Dennis lead with an average of 61.23% for their best ten results. Lying second are DaveW & David with an average of 60.33% and third are Graham & SheilaL with an average of 59.42%.

Surely the holidays are not already over! - yet we had 16 folk for Bridge, four full tables, welcoming Iso's Mum, Dot, to our company for Fridays as well as Tuesdays.

Average scores were on the low side though most folk managed to advance their 'best ten' aggregates, albeit generally by penny numbers. Exceptions with decent advances were Margaret Kirkness (+1,700, now 15th overall), Iso (+1,330, jumping four places to 8th) and Iris (+980) - the batting order on the night having begun with Iris (4,530), Graham (4,370) and Iso (4,360).

Positions are more stable as the year passes, and the top four places have been unchanged for weeks, only the gaps varying. Clinton's lead is now 3,250 over Graham, himself 1,350 ahead of Iris, with a 3,060 gap then to Pat in fourth place. Lower down, the table is more bunched: less than 3,500 separates the next eight players, so there is plenty of scope for change!

With several people back from holiday, there were five full tables for Duplicate Pairs. The Club welcomed new Member, Dot Cuthbert (Iso's Mum), who is in Orkney for a few weeks' holiday. She was partnered by Iso while Malcolm spent a good part of the evening sitting on the naughty chair in the corner. Please note that the hands in boards 7 and 8 seem to have been switched. No idea how that has come about but it appears not to affect scores as both hands were played as presented in their boards, just in the wrong boards, and played by the right people as in the same batch of three.

Twenty-seven boards were played over nine rounds. No slams were bid and made. One pair did bid 6♥ on board 2 but the contract was brought down by two tricks.Top pairing for the evening were Graham & Sheila with 57.87%. Second were Mike & Christine with 56.02% and third were Iso and Dot with 53.70%.

In the year to date rankings, based on the best ten scores, Roger & Dennis have an average of 61.00% and lie in first place. DaveW and David have an average of 59.48% and Graham & Sheila have an average of 59.42%. Still six months and more to go so plenty of time for others to creep up and challenge the leaders.

Five pairs took part in Tuesday's Duplicate Bridge, the smallest number for some time and limiting each hand to being played at two tables - in consequence there was more of a random element to the tops and bottoms earned. Nonetheless, in another consistent performance, Dave Walker and David Toms were convincing winners with 63%, ahead of Graham and Sheila Lyon who scored 60%, with Dennis Paice and Roger Davies third on 52%. As a result, Dave and David move into second place amongst the season's regular players.

Quite like old times - eight of us, so two tables and everyone partnered everyone else during the course of the evening. Star of tonight's show was Sheila Lyon, for whom things began quietly until on the last board of the second table ("At last!" from Sheila!) she had a Strong Two opening bid in Spades - raised quickly to Six, doubled, and made for a total of 1,090 points. Good cards followed until the last table, but even so Sheila led the way comfortably on the night with 5,340 points; second, with her best score of the year, was Jean Tulloch on 4,870 and third Graham with 4,540, completing a strong week for the Lyon family.

Unusually, no overall positions were changed, though Sheila and Iso are now exactly equal and both within touching distance of 40,000 for the year. Clinton remains on 52,840 with his lead over Graham (49,440) slightly reduced, with Iris (who did not play this week) third with 47,280.

Finally, thanks for the goodies and Happy Birthday to Glad!

A quiet evening for our last meeting in May, with just ten folk present, so we opted for the two-table option, without the madcap scurrying of dummies to bid on other tables, so with all those who sat out guaranteed 500 a table; indeed some (including the writer) would have done better to score on that basis all night...

One table had a mind of its own, with eleven of the first twelve hands bid only to the two level, so a slow start to the scoring, and no massive achievements this week. Three gentlemen emerged in the lead on the night: Malcolm (4,340), Dennis (4,070) and Clinton (3,910). Four players improved their 'best ten' aggregates, and Glad and Dennis moved up the table, but our leaders (Clinton, Graham and Iris) are unchanged - though with nine players now over 40,000 there is much to play for.

We send good wishes to those on holiday and will try to move up whilst they are away!

The holiday season may be taking some folk away, but we still managed three full tables for Duplicate Bridge on Tuesday 2 June. Once again there were decisive winners, this time Margaret Mainland and Dave Walker, over 70% when nobody else could reach 50% - second being Dave Higgins and Sheena Hay on 49% and third Jim Burgher and Clinton Rendall on 48%.

We did achieve two completely flat hands on the night, one of them an interesting 3NT contract where despite having 29 points no North-South pair could make more than the 9 tricks! Slam bidding was, as ever, the province of Graham and Sheila Lyon, with the night’s only two successes.

Many thanks to Graham and to Dave Higgins for helping Roger Davies to manage the computer. All went well in the end, with the scores finally retrieved - although Roger and Graham both wished they had not been!

Amongst the regular pairs present there were no scores sufficiently high to disturb the leading places in the year's competition.

We had 10 folk present on Friday, this time scurrying round over three tables, so that everyone played 28 hands and some bid many more! Clinton was massively top with 5,820, pushing up by almost 2,000, and his lead over Graham now just over 4,000; second came Dennis on 5,060, taking him over 40,000; and third was our Danish visitor Bjarne with 4,760. Clinton's score was built largely on rubbers made, and indeed on the last table - playing without a partner - he came within a trick on the very last hand of achieving two rubbers at the table! Elsewhere the penalty cards were evident: three out of four hands were doubled against opponents where Roger sat alone, including one 6NT contract by Dennis and Bjarne making an overtrick; and at the table where Tony sat alone, Graham's Redoubled card was twice in use, once successfully but the second, vulnerable time conceding three undertricks and 1,600 to Tony!

Overall, the leading players' order was not altered, but elsewhere Roger moved up to 5th and Tony to 8th.

There were five full tables for Duplicate Pairs this week and the Club was pleased to welcome Sheena Spence who was playing with Pat Shearer in the absence of Sheila Walls.

Two Small Slams were bid and made by Jim & Clinton and by Dave & David, both pairs bidding 6♥ by North. Board 22 was Passed Out by all but one pair, Nila & Margaret, who bid 1NT and made an overtrick. This gave them maximum points for the round. Contracts were doubled on boards 2, 6, 7, 12, 18. Three of those contracts made and two were brought down.

Top pair for the eventing were Roger & Dennis with a score of 72.22%. In second place were Jim & Clinton with 58.80% and third were Dave & David with 56.02%.

In the year to date rankings, based on the best ten results, Roger & Dennis lead with an average of 61.00% and in second place are Graham & Sheila with 58.59%. In third place, by a whisker, are Sheila & Pat with  57.99%, just ahead of Dave & David who have 57.89%.

Fifteen players resisted the lure of the Folk Festival - or were seduced by Clinton's splendid trifle! - and played bridge on Friday 22 May. The average score was almost the highest of the season, and remarkably all bar one player (no names, no pack drill!) pushed up their ten best scores for the year.

The outstanding performance was that of Tony Spencer, clearing the 6,000 hurdle by 90 points, a personal best and achieved by consistent scoring across the night - just the one slam (when he had to defend against his own contract!), and one particularly successful double, but otherwise making game or rubber on six of the seven tables. Second on 5,230 was Gladys Marwick, scoring game on most tables and with 1,600 points on the very last hand when oppponents' optimistic redouble went three off, vulnerable! Margaret Mainland came third, also clearing the 5,000 barrier, with 5,040 points.

For the season overall, the top four players (Clinton, Graham, Iris and Pat) remain fairly comfortably in front, but beyond them, with two on 42,000-plus, two on 40,000-plus and three between 39,500 and 39,750, there is plenty of competition and jockeying for places!

With the Flower Club in the normal bridge room and five and a half tables of players, bridge took place this week on stage. This was much better than being cramped in the little room behind the stage but the heating system keeping us cosy sounded as though it needed a double dose of Andrews Liver Salts.

Twenty two boards were played. Only one Small Slam was bid, 6NT on board 15, but it was brought down by one trick. Twelve or thirteen tricks were, however, made by pairs on boards 3, 8,  10 and 19. Contracts were doubled on boards 4, 10,13 and 16. The board 10 contract made but the other three were all brought down. 

The outstanding performance of the evening came from DaveW & David who were clear winners with a score of 78.75% which was 21.87% ahead of Graham & SheilaL on 56.88%. In third place were Jim & Clinton on 56.25%, playing Duplicate Pairs at Dounby for the first time. It was great to have Michael & Christine and also Doody with us this week too.

In the year to date rankings, based on their best ten results, the leaders are Roger & Dennis with an average of 59.19%, followed by Graham & SheilaL with an average of 58.59% and SheilaW & Pat with an average of 57.99%.

Please note that the results spreadsheet and competition summary have been updated since the report was prepared. Something had not saved properly first time around.

The results for Individual Rubber Bridge on 15 May have now been added to the website.  Eleven players competed this week but those present were able to have a fairly relaxing evening of rubber bridge.

Clinton was again top of the heap with a score of 5060 points with the next highest scores going to Malcolm with 4790 points and Iso with 4170 points.

This result enabled Clinton to drop another low (for him) score of 3880 points and further increase his lead over Graham who was not able to drop a score. Clinton's total for his best ten results now stands at 50960 points. In second place is Graham with 47940 points and in third is Iris with 47280 points. 

Ten pairs contested the Duplicate Pairs Competition on Tuesday 12th May, and the outcomes were quite closely bunched, with all but one between 60% and 45%. Winners were Graham and Sheila (59.3%) - and second, to warm applause at their personal achievement, were Ruth and Margaret H (56.9%). Third were Roger and Dennis (55.6%). As a result, Roger and Dennis still lead overall (59.2%) but with a reduced margin over Graham and Sheila (58.3%), who have captured third place from Pat and Sheila (57.9%).

Interesting deals included: Hand 8, where an Acol 2 should guarantee a major suit game, but only one pair got there; Hand 11, completely flat - our first ever? ; and Hand 21, where surely the major suit game bid by most should be achievable.

All things considered, a very decent turn-out of 13 folk, between a late Election Night and the Inter-County! We scurried round trying to run four tables with three dummies missing, but by 10:30pm the clock looked likely to defeat us so 500 each was awarded for the last round. Scores were modest overall with fewer than half above 3,000: good evenings were enjoyed by Sheila in third place with 4,040, Dennis second on 4,250 and Roger leading the way with 5,380 - though he was left to lament one grand slam opportunity not tried for and another occasion when oppposite a 2NT opener and holding six Diamonds to the AJ he let discretion be the better part of valour, stopping in 3NT and making six...

Each of these three improved their overall position though the 'leader board' was undisturbed: Clinton, Graham, Iris and Pat well ahead, though three others are now also above 40,000 on their 'best ten' for the season.

Ten pairs were present, so five full tables; somehow we survived without Iso to run the evening!

It was tight at the top with Dennis & Roger just one match point ahead of Dave & Sheena, with Dave Walker and David Toms five points further back in third. There was then quite a gap, with no percentage scores in the 50's.

As a result Dennis & Roger are back in the overall lead, with an average of 58.9% from their best ten evenings of 2015, a full percentage point ahead of champions Pat Shearer & Sheila Walls; they in turn are little over 0.1% ahead of Graham & Sheila in third.

Sixteen players - one a little later than the others - made up four full tables, and a wide range of scores was achieved, with the top two spots being taken by husband and wife team Malcolm and Iso Tipler, both posting their best totals of 2015, Malcolm in first place with 5,740 and Iso next on 5,510. Third, ominously for those close to the top of the leader board, was Clinton Rendall on 5,380.

The first four positions remain as last week (Clinton, Graham, Iris and Pat) although Clinton has stretched his lead and Iris is closing on Graham.

Eight pairs competed at Duplicate Pairs on Tuesday, 28 April and played twenty-eight boards.

Top scorers for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 60.71%. They were followed by Jean & Dennis with 55.95% and SheilaW & Pat with 52.98%.

One Small Slam was bid by Iso & Malcolm on board 14 and all thirteen tricks were taken. The other three times the board was played the contract was 3NT, making twelve tricks on one occasion and thirteen tricks on two. Slam tricks were also taken on boards 16 and 17 but the slams had not been bid. In one round, board 4 was Passed Out. It was played on three other occasions but each time the 2♥  or 2♦ contract went off.

In the year to date rankings, it is extremely close for the first three places with only 0.24% separating first and third. The leaders are SheilaW & Pat with an average of 57.88% for their best ten scores. In second place are Graham & SheilaL with an average of 57.76% and third are Roger & Dennis with 57.64%. There is then a bit of a gap to fourth placed pair DaveH & Sheena with an average of 55.63%.

What an evening! 16 folk were present and for ten or a dozen of us there was a dour struggle to reach some lofty score towards 3,000; but there were others present: Gladys and Margaret Mainland both just above 4,000, and Clinton with what would have been a clearly winning score on most evenings (5,470) - but with the year's highest score to date by over 1,000 points, and beating her tenth best score by almost 6,000 points, way out in front was Iris Clyde on 7,260. Her evening began, and finished, with slams; but the key was consistent scoring across the tables. Well done, Irisi!

It was as a result 'all change' at the top: Clinton was delighted to move ahead of Graham; Iris went past Pat into third place; and Margaret took fifth place from Linda.

In case of interest to any of you, I have downloaded a copy of the EBU pdf for Standard English Modern Acol that was published in March 2014 and provided a link to it in the Bulletin box to the left on the Homepage. Thank you to DaveW for drawing my attention to this document.

I have also provided a link to a pdf of the Modern Acol Convention Card.

There have been several instances recently where a player has revoked during play at Duplicate Pairs or at Rubber Bridge. It is not a new phenomenon but has perhaps happened a bit more than normal recently. In the past we have been quite relaxed about players sorting things out amongst themselves, without having too much concern about whether it was done correctly (not least because I was unclear myself about the proper course of action and penalties!). Undoubtedly some players will have lost out because it has not been dealt with properly under the bridge Laws and the correct penalty tricks have not been awarded. This is particularly important in Duplicate Pairs when results are compared with those of other pairs. From now on, we ask that all players take special care not to revoke but be aware that if it does happen the correct procedures must be followed and any penalty tricks due must be awarded.

Roger has very kindly produced a guidance note based on the full Laws to help us understand what happens in different revoke situations. A copy of the note can be viewed by clicking anywhere in this box or by following the Revokes.pdf link in the lefthand bulletin box on the Homepage. You can also find in that box a link to the full Laws in which the revokes section starts at Law 61.  

We ask that you do read Roger's guidance note so that you are aware of what to expect if a revoke take places. A copy of the note will be kept on the Club laptop and the Director will have a hard copy available on bridge evenings. Extra copies will be made in case you want to have a copy to keep yourself or need to refer to a copy on any evening. Or you can open the document in one of the links from this site and print it off yourself. If a revoke situation arises, we are happy that the players at the table sort it out themselves as long as all the players agree to do that and as long as it is done in accordance with the guidance note. If in doubt or if any player requests it, please call for the director.

I don't want to be a nag but please all be very careful when both inputting and checking scores to the Bridgepads! I was notified this morning of a correction to board 17 where the direction of play between pairs 7 and 2 had been wrongly input. I have made the correction and re-run the results for the sake of proper records but there was no change to the overall results for the evening.

We had four full tables for bridge this week and played a total of twenty-eight boards, with some strange distributions.

Top scorers for the evening were Roger & Dennis with 60.71%, followed by David & DaveW with 57.74% and SheilaW & Pat with 55.36%.  There was one Small Slam bid on board 23 but the contract was brought down by three tricks. However, twelve or thirteen tricks were made in unbid slams on boards 10, 12, 13, 21 and 23. Contracts were doubled on boards 9 and 14, both of which made, and on boards 23 and 25, which were brought down. In one round board 28 was Passed Out.

In the year to date rankings nine pairs have now competed ten or more occasions. For their best ten results, Sheila W & Pat lead the way on 57.72%, very closely followed in second place by Roger & Dennis on 57.64%. In third place are Graham & Sheila L with 56.93%.

Malcolm & Iso would quite like to play in the teams event on the Sunday afternoon of the Inter-County weekend. At the moment we do not have another pair to make up a team of four so if there is another pair from Dounby or Orkney Bridge Club who would be willing to put up with us in a team or knows of another pair looking to make up a team, please let Iso know. Thank you.

It was good to have five full tables for Duplicate Pairs this week and to have an evening when the technology and the controller of the technology seemed to be behaving okay. Many thanks to Geraldine for the homebake contribution - much appreciated!

The top pair for the evening were LindaR & Christine with a score of 60.75%. Second were SheilaW & Pat with 56.54%  and third were Roger & Dennis on 56.07%.

The only slam bid was 6♠ doubled on Board 12 but the contract was brought down by one trick.  On another occasion a pair played that board in 4 No Trump but made twelve tricks. All E/W pairs made either twelve or thirteen tricks on Board 4 and two pairs made twelve tricks on Board 19 but no-one had bid a slam. Board 15 was Not Played due to lack of time by one table in round 6.

In the year to date rankings, looking just at those who have competed on ten or more occasions, the lead is currently shared by Graham & SheilaL and SheilaW & Pat, both with an average of 56.93%. Not far behind are Roger & Dennis with an average of 56.50%

Just three full tables for Individual Rubber Bridge this week, so no rushing around and a slightly earlier than normal finish.

Clinton competed for the tenth time to ensure a placing in the eventual final rankings and marked the occasion by achieving top score for the evening with 6200 points. In second place was Hazel with 5590 points and Tony was third with 5270 points. Iris, Tony and Hazel have now competed in nine events and may be expected to move up the rankings when they have competed ten times.

In the year to date rankings, Graham again had a lowish score but held on to his lead with 46420 points for his ten best results. Clinton's good score moved him into second place on 46010 points. Pat lies in third place on 44320 points. No other players currently have more than 40000 points.

The highest average score over all the times a player has competed belongs to Clinton with an average of 4601 points. The next best is Pat with an average of 4226 points. The only other player with an average over 4000 points is Graham with an average of 4081 points.

15 players took part on a fine evening on Friday 17th April. With the fourth highest average score for the year and yet no huge scores, it is not surprising that almost all players were able to drop off their worst score, nor that there was very little change in overall positions - the main exception being Iris's move to fourth place on completion of her ten scoring evenings. Top came Margaret Kirkness on 4,700 points with Malcolm second on 4,640 and Graham third with 4,350.

Graham rebuilt something of his lead and his best ten scores now total 47,510, with Clinton next on 46,200 and Pat third with 44,420.

It's not been a good week for bridge scoring this week. If you think Dounby had problems, spare a kind thought for those who are left to sort out the scoring from Wednesday evening at Orkney Bridge Club where the problems were even worse.  Since the Dounby results were sorted out and uploaded yesterday, a further amendment has been made to the results on boards 12 and 19. The change on board 19 did not affect the scores but the change on board 12 does involve a slight change to the outcome but not the placings as the contract had been entered as played by North when it should have been by West. Please see the detailed analysis on the Results page for the full revised picture. The revised information for this report is shown in bold and underlined below with the previous information left there but in brackets.

After a bit of a blip, to do with Tables 4 and 5 and the movement cards versus the Bridgepads in Round 1, the rest of the evening seemed to run reasonably smoothly. The blip left some amendments to be done before the results could be uploaded to the website but they are up now.

There were four and a half tables and the Club was pleased to see Maggie coming along to partner Sheena in the absence of DaveH, who mentors them both. I am sure he will be pleased to see that his pupils fared very well in the evening results.

Top pair for the evening were DaveW & David on 63.19%. Maggie & Sheena came second on 57.64% (59.03%) and Graham & SheilaL were third on 54.86% (53.47%). Small Slams were bid and made by Graham & SheilaL and by SheilaW & Pat on Board 7. Graham & SheilaL having gone to 6N instead of the 6H bid by SheilaW & Pat gave them the top score. On the other two occasions the board was played, twelve tricks were made but the slam had not been bid.

Board 12 was Passed Out on one round but on the other occasions it was played in 2♠ contracts by W (and by N) that made overtricks and a 2♥ contract by S that went down by three tricks.

In the year to date rankings, Graham & SheilaL are leading with an average of 56.93% (56.79%), followed by SheilaW & Pat with 55.98% and Roger & Dennis with 55.41%.

With fifteen players this week there were three full tables and one three-player table, which meant somewhat less dashing about than last week. Many thanks to those who brought along tasty goodies to keep us fuelled during the evening.

One of our most regular high scorers, Graham, started the evening badly. It was not until the third round that he even put pen to paper on his scoresheet and then only because his partnership brought down a contract in that round and a couple in the next. For six of the seven rounds his total score amounted to just 410 points. The odd round out was round 5 when he was partnered by Pat.  Towards the end of the bidding, Graham bid a Small Slam of 6NT which was then doubled by Tony and redoubled by Graham. It was Pat who was left to play the contract with a lot of points resting on the outcome. She succeeded and, with another game made in the same round, she and Graham collected 2260 points for the round.

That single round score made Graham's evening's result look a little more respectable and helped towards Pat becoming top scorer for the evening with 5020 points. She was followed by Malcolm who, despite a senior moment in the final round when he bid his hand thinking he had a void in spades when in fact he had two to the queen, managed a total of 4560 points. In third place was DaveW with 4210 points.

In the year to date rankings for the best ten results, Graham did not manage to drop a score and so remained on 46420 points. Pat was in second place after last week and this week managed to drop a low score to move up to 44320 points, closing the gap on Graham. Clinton has the third highest total at 39810 points but as he has completed only nine of the ten events required for an official placing, the third place honour at the moment lies with LindaM who is on 36990 points.

If you read the report before 09:50 on Wednesday, 1 April,please note that the results have changed because of the transposition of pair direction on one round of the manually input results. The correction has a knock-on effect to the final outcome and this report. The amended figures for this report are shown in bold below. Please note the ranking positions are also changed.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a disaster with the wireless transmission of results last night when the unit on Table 2 failed and we were unable to recover results. Once it was realised that the results were not going through, the contracts were written down but some earlier results on that table were missing. Because of incomplete results for Boards 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22 and 24 these boards are being treated as Not Played. Rather disappointingly, some of my own partnership's best results came in those boards that have had to be treated as Not Played.

In addition, after the third time Board 23 was played, the North and West hands were put back in the wrong place and this only came to light when the results were compared after the last time it was played. It was noted at the time that one of the hands had already been re-sorted when the last player came to pick it up, suggesting that the hands had been reviewed after play the previous time and then put back in the wrong place.  

Based on what was left after discounting the boards mentioned above, top pair for the evening were MargaretM & Marjory on 60.42%. In second place were Graham & SheilaL on 58.82% and third were SheilaW & Pat on 56.14%.

In the year to date rankings, taking account only those who have competed on at least ten occasions, Graham & SheilaL lead the way with an average of 55.88%, followed by Roger & Dennis on 55.41% and SheilaW & Pat on 55.36%. Very little gap between these three. It is also very close between the fourth, fifth and sixth placed pairs who are all on 52 point something per cent.

There were fourteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge and to avoid sit-outs there were two tables of four and two of three players, so plenty of darting about by dummies to act as stand in bidders.

The top three scorers were Hazel (4510 points), Dennis (4450 points) and Clinton (4130 points). Hazel & Clinton played together in round 2 and managed a score of 1490 for that round. SheilaL & Iris also had a score of 1490 points, in round 3.

In the year to date rankings, Graham remains in the lead on 46420 points but his evening score was one to be dropped. He was followed by Pat on 41470 points and MargaretM on 36500 points, both of them improving their total points this week.

Clinton has the fourth highest total points (36430 points) but has not yet racked up the ten results needed to qualify for a final position in this competion, but he does have the highest weekly average, currently standing at 4554 points. The only other two with averages over 4000 points are Graham (4364 points) and Pat (4147 points). Only three months have been completed so there is plenty of time for others to improve their scores over the rest of the year - if only these high scorers will let us!

Ten pairs meant that we had five full tables for Duplicate Pairs this week, playing twenty-seven boards over nine rounds.

In a rare moment of glory, Iso & Malcolm came top with 61.57%. Graham & SheilaL were second with 55.09% and SheilaW & Pat were third on 53.24%.

Four Small Slams were bid and made, all four of these being on Board 3. Two pairs made all thirteen tricks but one of those was in 6NT and the other in 6♥. In the other two cases when the Small Slam was bid and made, the contract was also 6NT but only twelve tricks were made. A contract of 4♥ also made twelve tricks on that board.

In two rounds, hands were Passed Out on Board 2. On that board, two pairs were successful in 2♣ but one pair went down in 3NT.

Six pairs have now played on ten or more occasions and in some cases a low score could be dropped this week but Roger & Dennis continue to lead the rankingsfor those who have ten results, with an average of 55.41%. In second place lie SheilaW & Pat with an average of 54.33% and in third lie Graham & SheilaL with an average of 53.81%.

13 players were present at the Dounby Centre on Friday, 20 March, for an evening of interesting hands and high scores, the average being the second highest of 2015.

Top on the evening was Graham Lyon with 5,360 points, one highlight being a doubled vulnerable Six Spades. Next was Margaret Mainland (Graham's partner for the slam) on 5,070, and third Clinton Rendall with 4,770 - three-quarters of his points coming from the first four tables.

Graham continues to set the overall pace with a "best ten" for 2015 of 46,420. Next is Pat Shearer with 37,840 from just nine evenings, and third - but only for the moment! - Roger Davies with a best ten of 35,290. Others closing in on third place - and perhaps higher! - with fewer evenings played include Margaret (33,720 from nine) and Clinton (32,300 from only seven!). Ally Kelly and Iris Clyde also have high average scores from fewer evenings.

For those who contested the top spot in 2014, by the year-end all were seeking to drop tenth scores of about 4,500. On the basis that perhaps only scores over 4,500 will be important in deciding the title this year, it is interesting to note that Graham has five such scores, Clinton four, Pat three, Margaret and Ally each two, and nobody else more than one.

I spoke to soon when I wrote my report last night as I have been informed this morning that one contract had been shown as played by North when it was actually played by West. The results have been updated on the website, with other points for that board being amended in some cases as a knock on effect. In the report below I have shown the corrected information in this colour but please look at the Results and Competitions pages for the full details.

This week we had four full tables for Duplicate Pairs and played seven rounds of four boards per round. There was a slight mix up in round five when pairs 4 and 8 sat in the wrong directions for boards 1 to 4 but otherwise things seemed to run smoothly.

Top pair for the evening were DaveH & Sheena scoring 55.95%. They were closely followed in second place by DaveW & David on 54.76% and by Roger & Dennis on 54.17% in third place.

Only one Small Slam was bid, by DaveH & Sheena on Board 28 playing in 6♦.  Twelve tricks were made but Small Slams had not been bid on Boards 2, 6, 7, 21 and 28.

Looking at those who have now completed the required ten results to qualify for an overall result in the series, the leaders are SheilaW & Pat with an average of 53.41%, followed by DaveH & Sheena with an average of 52.23% and Graham & SheilaL on 51.68%. However, Roger & Dennis only need to play one more evening to complete their ten events and for their nine completed events have an average of 55.96% so unless they have a bad week next week they should be mixing it with these other leaders.

So this was Week Ten - the starting in earnest of the annual competition, since only a player's ten best scores count at the end of the season. Fittingly after ten weeks it was perennial champion Graham Lyon who was the first to complete his initial ten, although six others have nine, and three have eight; and after ten weeks Graham is massively in the lead in terms of aggregates, on 44,040, second place currently being held by Pat Shearer with 'only' 33,530, though from eight, and third by Roger Davies with 31,050 from nine.

One significant way to look at the results is in terms of average scores - three players average over 4,000 for the season: Graham (4,404); Pat (4,191); and Clinton Rendall with an impressive 4,588 per evening across his six weeks of playing to date.

"Friday the 13th" saw 17 players, all kept very busy by the need for those who were 'dummy' to bid at another table. Top score for the night was achieved by Clinton with 5,740 points; second was Pat with 5,110; and third Graham with 4,410. One other player, Gladys Marwick, topped 4,000 for the night. Best table result was achieved by Clinton and Pat, 1,900 points on Table 6, making a doubled small slam, then completing the two-game rubber over two boards, and finally picking up 200 points as opponents went off.

My apologies for keeping you in suspense for the results but there was a technical hitch which I thought it might be something that would take me some time to resolve but in fact it was sorted within a few minutes before leaving the Club. Thank you for your patience.

We had five full tables playing a total of 28 boards and were pleased to welcome a new player, David Toms, who responded to the appeal for someone to partner Dave Walker this week and we hope to see David back again.

Top pair for the evening were Sheila & Pat with a score of 68.47%, Followed by Roger & Dennis on 60.65% and Dave & David on 53.15%, an encouraging start for a new partnership. 

No slams were bid and made but pairs managed to make twelve tricks on Boards 2, 3, 4,13, 24 and 28.  Conversely, two slams were bid but not made on Boards 3 and  26.

Four contracts were doubled on Boards 9, 10 and 28. The double on Board 9, doubled the opponents into game when the contract made, giving them a top score. In one case on Board 10 the contract made with two overtricks and in the other the contract was brought down by two tricks.. On Board 28 the contract made with two overtricks.

There was one issue in the second round when a player was found to have played the hand one card short at the end of Board 18, only discovered at the end. Consistent with the previous occasion on which that happened, that board was treated as Not Played by those pairs for that round. There was another occasion on which the number of cards at the start of the round was found to be wrong, the previous players having not put their cards back correctly, but in that case it was sorted out before the board was played. Please always remember to count your cards at the beginning and at the end of the round to avoid these problems arising.

Looking just at the regular pairings, Roger & Dennis have played eight times and are leading the rankings with an average of 56.19%. They are followed by Sheila & Pat with an average of 54.25% an Graham and Sheila with an average of 53.19%. The only pair to have competed ten times and able to start dropping low scores is Iso and Malcolm (and we have plenty of them!). Three other pairs have competed nine times and will soon be starting to drop their low scores.

13 players were present on Friday 6 March, so we played 3 tables with one person sitting out for their guaranteed 500!

Top on a higher-scoring evening was Dave Walker, fresh from top spot with Graham Lyon in Kirkwall on Wednesday; Dave scored 4,170 with Roger Davies second on 4,080 and three players sharing third spot on 3,940: Clinton Rendall, Margaret Mainland and Sheila Lyon. 10 points behind them was Graham who had started so well - 2,480 on the first two tables (700 with Clinton then partnering Roger, scoring nothing on the first two hands but then twice opening to find Roger with 16-plus points. They stopped in a major game the first time but bid and made a vulnerable Six Spades the second) but scoring only 570 across the next four!

In Round 3, one table saw three players each with a seven card suit! Iso Tipler held Diamonds but against her Linda Milne and Ann Oag each had a major - the final contract being Four Hearts by Linda, making six.

Graham continues to dominate the annual competition, with 39,630 points from nine evenings. Well placed next is Pat Shearer (28,420 from seven) and next come three players at just above 27,000 from eight, Linda on 27,490 being the first of these.

Dave Walker is very keen to play Duplicate Pairs at Dounby on Tuesday evenings. On a few occasions he has partnered one of the other duplicate players when that person's regular partner has not been available but so far he has not been able to find a regular partner or even a series of irregular partners for every week. It's all very frustrating for a keen player to be kept away from the table. Can you help?

The most immediate need is for a partner for this coming Tuesday, 10 March, whether or not the person can commit to a longer term partnership.

Beyond that it would be good if he could find someone to partner him more regularly. We all know he is a good player and does well when he has the opportunity to play - he and Graham won at Orkney Bridge Club last night - but I also have it on very good authority that he is an encouraging and helpful partner which is great for anyone who happens to have less experience but might consider partnering him and learning from him. Please give it some thought and if you think you can help please either speak to Dave directly or send a message to the Club via the website (select 'Information' on the side menu and then click on 'Secretary - Iso Tipler' to open a blank email) and I will put you in touch with him. Or if you cannot help yourself perhaps you could suggest someone else who might be willing. Thank you.

Nine pairs competed this week, playing nine rounds of three boards per round and each pair sitting out once.

Top scorers for the evening were Roger & Dennis making 61.27%. In second place and bidding the only successful slam of the night were Graham & Sheila on 59.72%. Third were Dave & Sheena on 58.45%.

Although only one Small Slam was both bid and made - 6♣ making thirteen tricks on Board 2 - there were also Small Slam attempts by two pairs on Board 25. In both cases they attempted 6♦ but went one off when they found they could not avoid losing the A♠  and one heart trick. Elsewhere, twelve tricks were made by pairs on Boards 6, 15, 21, 22 and 23 but in all five cases no slam had been bid.

Owing to cards on Board 23 having been put back in the wrong place by one pair, not discovered until towards the end of play the next time it was played, that board had to be treated as Not Played on that later occasion. The blame is shared between those who put cards back in the wrong place and by the next players of the hand (yours truly and partner) who omitted to count their cards at the beginning of the next time it was played. A shame because it was a nice hand!  Please always be careful to check on putting the cards back in the boards and on taking cards out of the boards to play.

If you look at the year to date rankings on the Competitions page, you will see that Dave Walker is listed in first, second and fifth places having played and performed well with three different partners, with averages of 62.91%, 57.04% and 55.36%. However, looking just at the regular partnerships, Graham & Sheila are leading the way with an average of 55.61%. Just a tad behind them are Roger & Dennis on 55.55% and then come Margaret & Marjory on 53.00%. Next week will be the first week on which any partnership has competed ten times, though most will have another week to go before that happens, and then we will start to see things getting more interesting as low scores are dropped (hopefully) and the averages creep up.

16 folk were present for Rubber Bridge on Friday 27 February, an exact number of tables so no scurrying around as dummies bid for others!

Scores were generally low, the lowest average for this season, the one outstanding performance being Ally Kelly's: she led by a distance on 5,020 points, with Hazel Foubister second on 3,770 and Dennis Pacie third with 3,630. Only one other player topped 3,000 points. There were many absorbing hands and a good deal of laughter was heard!

Eight weeks have now been played so it will not be long before lowest scores start to be dropped. Graham Lyon remains top with an impressive 35,700 points, having played each week; second is Pat Shearer on 28,420 and third Linda Milne with 24,630, both having played seven times.

Only three folk now average over 4,000 points for the season: best so far are Graham and Clinton Rendall who bizarrely have exactly the same average, Clinton having played half as often for half the points. Pat also averages just over 4,000 and Ally is close.

There were four full tables for duplicate pairs on Tuesday, 24 February and 28 boards were played.

There were six Small Slams bid and made - on board 4 (four times) and board 28 (twice). The other twice board 28 was played the declaring pairs each made twelve or thirteen tricks but had not found the slam contract.

A Grand Slam of 7♥ XX was bid on board 12 but not made. On the same board, the other three declarers played in either 4♥  or 3♥  with two pairs making the thirteen tricks and the third twelve tricks. A Small Slam was also bid on board 22 but again it was not made.

Top scorers for the evening were Graham & Sheila on 62.50%, who claimed two of the Small Slams. In second place were Iso & Malcolm on 55.36% and third were Dave & Sheena on 52.38%.

By the end of March we will start to see the rankings based on the best ten results along with the dropping of low scores. For the moment, looking just at the regular pairings, Graham & Sheila are leading the way with an average of 55.03% followed by Roger & Dennis on an average of 54.60% and MargaretM & Marjory not far behind on an average of 54.16%.

Many thanks to all those who came along for the Annual General Meeting on Friday, 20 February. In the interests of playing bridge we went through the business of the meeting very quickly but I hope we covered everything adequately and that no-one felt that they did not have the opportunity to speak out on any issues. The minutes will be prepared in the next few days and will be made available to members.

Turning now to bridge and the Individual Rubber Bridge competition. Speaking has one who had two zero scoring rounds and who after five rounds had only managed to scrape enough scores to just squeeze past the 800 points mark, I was disappointed in the cards I seemed to be getting all evening.

The same cannot be said for Graham who over the course of the evening must have been getting good cards as he scored both a 700 rubber and a 300 game in two rounds plus a 300 or a 350 for games/part games  in four more rounds, leaving only one round without a score below the line. Not content with that, he also managed to bring down contracts, scoring 500 and 400 above the line in two cases for the privilege. He ended with a total score of 6000 points putting him in first place for the evening. In second and third places were Ally on 5320 points and Pat with 5100 points.

These results consolidate Graham's top place in the rankings for the year to date on 32720 points, with Pat in second place on 25250 points and Linda third on 24630 points. Graham and Pat are both averaging over 4000 points and, further down the ranking having missed two or three evenings' play, Clinton and Iris are also averaging over 4000 points for the times they have played.

There were four full tables of players for Duplicate Pairs this week which made it somewhat warm and cosy in the little room behind the stage. Top pairing for the evening were Dave Higgins & Sheena Hay with a score of 60.71%. Runners up were Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook on 58.93% and Dave Walker & Dennis Paice were third on 55.36%.

The hands were very mixed and there were some unkind distributions, not to mention random over- and under-bidding of contracts (by some of us at least!). Two slams were bid on boards 12 and 16 - 6♠ on board 12 went two off and 6♥ doubled on Board 16 went three off. Also on board 12, all thirteen tricks were taken twice when the hand was played in 4S and on board 16 twelve tricks were made on one contract of 4♥ . On two occasions pairs made twelve tricks in contracts of 5♦. Isn't life perverse?

Just a peedie note to remind you that the Club AGM is on Friday, 20 February 2015 at 7:00 pm before bridge. If you want to have papers for the meeting, please print them off from the email previously sent out to Members as I will not be taking along extra copies. If you will not be attending and have not already let me know, please send apologies so that I can present them at the meeting. Thanks.

Friday the 13th - unlucky for some on a second successive evening when the scores were very well spread, but another very good one for Graham Lyon, comfortably top with his season's best score, 5,940 points, a whole thousand clear of second-placed Margaret Mainland (4,900) and third placed Roger Davies (4,630), also both enjoying their highest scores of the year. Graham achieved just the one slam on the night but is a master of consistent scoring based on good card play, missing very few opportunities. He will be a hard act to catch, again!

Graham is of course first in aggregate scores for the season and also now has the highest average, although there are three other players (Iris Clyde, Clinton Rendall and Pat Shearer) averaging over 4,000 a night. Pat and Iris were fourth and fifth respectively, and Pat's 3,950 squeezed her into second place looking at the season's aggregate scores, just one major suit trick's points ahead of Linda Milne.

The evening was well attended with 17 folk playing five tables with three borrowed dummies, keeping everyone busy. We were pleased to welcome Sheena Hay and Maggie Paterson, playing their first Individual Rubber Bridge with us this year - and we did enjoy Gladys Marwick's cake!

We were delighted to welcome a total of ten pairs, five full tables, our highest yet! It was good too to have a new member, Gloria O'Shea, join us.

There were many interesting hands and much combative play. Slam bidding, though, eluded everyone - this should not have been the case as it is almost impossible to avoid making twelve tricks in Hearts on Board 12; three pairs were tempted on Board 6, but 31 points were not quite enough in No Trumps and there was no fit that worked.

Congratulations to Pat Shearer & Sheila Walls (61%) on their top spot (Pat carrying over her winning form from Friday) - the 'leader board' had a familiar ring with them first and Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (58%), getting used to their new bidding system, in second place. Third place went to Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook (56%).

For the season as a whole, Dennis & Roger have the highest average amongst regular pairs, with Pat & Sheila second and Graham & Sheila Lyon third.

Roger Davies wrote on 4th February:

"I have amended last night's Duplicate results after Graham spotted a major error on Board 4, Nila & Margaret allegedly taking only 2 tricks when they made 11! This affects relative positions on that board so most overall scores look slightly different. Graham and Sheila are still top although by less. Thank you, Graham, very decent of you!

"In relation to the paper recording of Fridays' Individual Rubber Bridge results, the practice has been to make changes to scores only until the end of the evening. Things remembered afterwards will be just bad luck, I am afraid!"

We are just a month into the new season but a few rumblings have been filtering back to me from various sources so rather than let it all fester and spoil the relaxed atmosphere, I feel I ought to raise a few points, all of which are to do with showing consideration and respect to other members and avoiding doing anything that interferes with their concentration on bidding and playing hands. We are probably all guilty in one way or another and I don't wish to give offence to anyone in doing this so please take these comments in the good spirit in which they are intended. If we all 'think on', hopefully the rumblings will fade away. Thank you.

• If you finish a round before others, please keep your voices down so as not distract others who are still playing. This applies also and especially so if you are sitting out a round. Voices carry more than you may realise and can really ruin concentration.
• Between boards there is often a desire to say something about the hand just played but, if you must do, please keep it very short and stop as soon as the next hand is picked up so that everyone at the table can focus on the new hand.
• If your partner does something wrong, please don't criticise their play while at the table. It makes others uncomfortable.
• Please avoid slow bidding and play at all times so that all boards can be completed within seven minutes each and when the alarm sounds the three minute warning for the end of the round, make a real effort to finish within the next three minutes.
• If you and your partner have bits of your system you need to fine tune, please don't discuss these at the competitive table. 

The Annual General Meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Friday, 20 February 2015 before bridge and we will try to keep it short. Click anywhere in this box to see the Notice that is being displayed at the Club on bridge evenings. Papers have been sent out be email to those on the emailing list or by post to those not on email. If you have not received your copy please contact the Secretary. If you wish to have papers at the meeting please bring along your own copy.

At the time of writing this note, the five current Officers and Ordinary Committee Members have all been re-nominated for their current roles BUT this should not deter Members from nominating other Members. If there is more than one nomination for any position, there will be a ballot at the AGM.

We hope to see as many as possible at the AGM but if you are a Member and do not plan to attend please let the Secretary know so that your apologies can be presented at the meeting.

Tuesday, 6 January 2015 sees the start of the new season's Duplicate Pairs competition and Friday, 9 January 2015, the start of the Individual Rubber Bridge competition. We hope to see plenty of players back refreshed and ready for battle and to be able to welcome some new members during the year.

It is also the start of the membership year and 2014 members are reminded that the membership fee for 2015 has been set at £5. Table fees remain at £2 per session for members and £3 for non members.

If the personal details provided on your original application form are unchanged then all you need to do is pay your membership fee to the Treasurer or Secretary when you attend the Club for the first time in 2015. If your details have changed, please ask the Secretary for a new form to complete.

Good luck, good cards and have fun!

From left to right:

Roger Davies
Sheila Walls
Pat Shearer
Graham Lyon

Congratulations to Pat Shearer on a convincing top score of 5,330 points; second was Graham Lyon on 4,820 and third Dave Walker, newly returned form South, scoring 4,450.

Ominously for the rest of us, perpetual champion Graham is already in the lead, the only player with an aggregate over 20,000 over five sessions. Linda Milne is now in second place with 17,840, and Pat's good score took her into third with 17,200. Pat though has played one fewer week than those above her - she is one of four players averaging over 4,000 for the season, a demanding standard to maintain - Graham averages 4,156 and Clinton Rendall 4,263; Pat has 4,300 but the season's highest average to date is that of Iris Clyde (4,413).

Attendance was good again on the third evening of this year's Duplicate Pairs competition, with nine pairs present for the second week running, and at last Northlink had safely brought Marjory Cook back to Orkney! Margaret Mainland's excellent run continued as - this time resuming her regular partnership with Marjory - she was in top spot for the third consecutive week. Their score at 61% put them comfortably ahead of Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (just under 57%) and Sheila & Graham Lyon (just above 56%).

The top two pairs both bid a successful small slam in Diamonds on Board 19, while on Board 26 Isobel & Malcolm Tipler were the only pair to find the slam in Spades - well done to them!

Congratulations to Ruth Sinclair and Margaret Heddle on obtaining their first top spot, an achievement warmly saluted by their fellow players. They scored 56.6%, with Iso & Malcolm Tipler next on 54.8% and Graham & Sheila Lyon third with 54.2%.

There were no 'huge' hands on the night, and no slams were bid, although 12 tricks were made on three boards.

It is early yet to report progress on the year's competition; of the regular pairs, Dennis Paice & Roger Davies are currently in the lead, averaging just over 58%, with last year's champions, Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer, in second place.

Fifteen folk were present for the fourth evening of the 2015 season, and winner by a good margin was Iris Clyde with 6030 points, well ahead of Clinton Rendall on 5210 and Roger Davies on 4410. Successful doubles provided part of this although there was also a moment of amusement when Graham Lyon (having at a previous table been doubled into game by Roger) redoubled when Roger did the same again - only then to sit as Roger's partner and to be the one who brought the contract down: thank you Graham, a true gentleman!

Linda Milne stil leads the season's scores on 16,230 points with Graham ominously close on 15,960 and Roger well back in third on 12,930. Interesting scores though are being built up by Iris and Clinton, both of whom (like Linda) average over 4,000 to date - a high standard if this can be maintained.

Fifteen folk were present for Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday 23 January - a particular welcome to Ally and Tony on their first Friday evening this year! Average scores were low for the second week running, with the cards oftten producing bizarre distributions. Good individual moments included +800 for Pat and Graham on a successful double (it was not Graham who got out the red card...!), Sheila being doubled into a 700 rubber, and on their very last hand Six No-Trumps for Graham and Linda Milne.

There were moments when the shifting partnerships of a Friday evening meant that players could not communicate accurately enough for those good cards that did occur to be bid to the full - perhaps we should make available, only for those who wish to use it, something of a standardised bidding system...

Scoring for the week was dominated by Sheila and Graham - 4,000 and 4,200 respectively. Looking at the developing season, Linda is in first place, with Graham second and Malcolm third. Not everyone has played the same number of sessions: looking at average scores instead, five members are currently averaging aover 4,000: in order Linda, Malcolm, Iris, Graham and Pat. Keep it up folks!

Ten folk defied Friday evening's weather to enjoy an evening's Bridge at the Dounby Centre. We welcomed two new members - Barbara Foulkes and Ann Oag - and they quickly settled in, both achieving decent scores, Barbara particularly so. However for the second week the star of the show was Linda Milne - not quite living up to her 6,000-plus of the previous week but scoring exactly 4,000, with Barbara on 3,770 coming second and Gladys Marwick just behind, in third place on 3,750. It was indeed Linda and Ann who achieved the evening's one slam. The results will take ten weeks to start to settle down as it is the season's best ten scores that count in the overall competition, but Linda (10,040) is of course in the lead - and there are no prizes for guessing that next is already Graham Lyon (8,350); Gladys is third on 7,070.

Nine pairs braved slippery conditions for the new year's second week of Duplicate Bridge, and things were 'tight at the top' with three pairs within a whisker of each other when it came to the evening's results. Dave Walker and Margaret Mainland continued their impressive start, top again with an even higher score (64.8%), but this time sharing top spot, with last year's second-placed pair Dennis Paice and Roger Davies. 2014 champions Pat Shearer and Sheila Walls were hot on their heels though at 64.6%.

Slam bidding continues to be a challenge - well done to Graham and Sheila Lyon who bid and made two, including a Grand Slam on Board 18.

Thanks to some respite from the stormy weather, we managed to hold our normal Individual Rubber Bridge session, with thirteen players taking part.  Before play began the opportunity was taken for Chairman, Roger Davies, to present Gladys Marwick with her High Score mini trophy for having achieved the best single evening result of 2014 with an impressive score of 8050. Congratulations, Gladys.

Getting off to a good start this year and laying down a marker was LindaM on 6040 points - well done Linda - followed by Malcolm on 5720 points and Graham on 5090 points. There were only two more players, Iris and Pat, with scores over 4000 with the rest of us languishing way behind.  Many of the Friday players arrived hoping to put up a good challenge to Graham's dominance of the competition this year but clearly he has no intention of making life easy for us. Still, it's early days yet and we can live in hope that opportunities will arise.

The new season got off to a good start with six pairs competing on the first evening and playing 30 boards.

When the results were given on the evening it was mentioned that there was an error to be corrected but that it would not affect the results (a contract that had gone one down). That was sorted but then it was realised that a board showing as Passed Out should have been shown as Not Played. That correction has also been made but does affect the results, reversing the third and fourth pair order given on the night. The amended results have been uploaded to the website.

Top pair for the evening were MargaretM & DaveW with a score of 61.02% In second place were DaveH & Sheena on 57.63%, followed by Iso & Malcolm on 52.59%.

Only one slam was bid and made, which was a Grand Slam of 7♠ by Iso & Malcolm on Board 9, played by South. The other contracts on that board were 1♠ by South making 5 overtricks and 3N by North making 4 overtricks.  On boards 3, 7, 14 and 21 enough tricks were taken by one or more declaring pairs to make Small Slams but these had not been bid.

Dounby Bridge Club is taking a break over the Christmas and New Year period. The dates for the start of the new competitions are:

Duplicate Pairs - Tuesday, 6 January 2015
Individual Rubber Bridge - Friday, 9 January 2015

During the break there will be some work going on in the background to prepare the scoring software and the website for the new season so odd things might appear from time to time while I experiment!

Numbers were a little depleted for the final scoring evening of the Individual Rubber Bridge competition, with only ten players present. This meant two players sitting out each round and four of them sitting out twice. Always a bit tedious sitting out but the upside is scoring 500 points on each occasion and thus perhaps boosting personal score on an otherwise not high scoring evening.

Malcolm came top for the evening scoring 4920 points. Iso came second on 4580 points and Gladys third on 4110 points. Malcolm and Iso's result was achieved with the help of the highest round score of 1570 points in round 6, having bid and made a small slam and also making a 700 point rubber.

In the year to date rankings based on the best ten results over the scoring year, Graham held his lead to the end and finished on a total of 56070 points. Roger and Clinton were both missing for the final evening but retain their second and third positions on scores of 54370 and 50430, respectively. Iris retained her fourth position with 49290 points. Malcolm's final evening surge meant that he moved up two places in the rankings to fifth place on 48640 points, overtaking Gladys (48400 points) and LindaM (48100 points). 

Friday, 19 December will be the Presentation Evening when trophies for the Duplicate Pairs and the Individual Rubber Bridge competitions will be presented. Please bring along a contribution for the finger buffet. There will be a raffle and we will play Individual Rubber Bridge as usual but with small prizes for each round and for the overall winner and runner up.

On the final Duplicate Pairs evening of 2014, there were six pairs competing and thirty boards were played. Board 2 was passed out by one table and Board 26 by another table.

Only one small slam was bid, 6N doubled by declarers Graham & SheilaL against Iso & Malcolm but the contract went three down. Slams were not bid but twelve tricks were made by one pair in each case on Boards 12, 20 and 24, and thirteen tricks by one pair in each case on Boards 24 and 27.

Top scorers for the evening were again SheilaW & Pat with 57.50% followed by MargaretM & Marjory with 55.83% and DaveH & Sheena with 50.83% DaveH & Sheena were the only pair to drop a lower score from their top ten best scores.

These final results mean that SheilaW & Pat have successfully defended their position in the year to date rankings and that Roger & Dennis are the runners up.  Well done to both pairs. Their achievements will be properly recognised when the presentation of trophies takes places on Friday, 19 December and a fuller report on the year as a whole will be put up on the website shortly after that event.

The next Duplicate Pairs evening will be on Tuesday, 6 January 2015. We hope as many pairs as possible will come along on Tuesday evenings, even if you have never played duplicate before. It adds interest through building up a relationship with a regular partner and seeing how you fare against other partnerships and what you can learn from the post event analysis. We do all play in the hope of scoring well but, as always at Dounby, we want to maintain a relaxed atmosphere so that the evenings are enjoyable rather than stressful.

The results have finally uploaded.  Seven pairs competed, playing seven rounds of four boards per round.

On two ocassions, Board 2 was Passed Out and on the third occasion a 3N contract by East went two off, neatly demonstrating that passing out the hand would have avoided giving away four winning points to the opposition and ending with zero for the declaring pair. Conversely, on one occasion Board 5 was passed out but on the other two occasions it was played by N/S in contracts that made so this time by passing out the hand the N/S pair of the table that passed out the hand ended up with no points.  If only you could be sure in advance that the other partnerships were also going to pass out the hand.......

No slams were bid but on Board 6 pair 3, SheilaW & Pat, bid to 5♠ and made twelve tricks and on Board 18, the same pair bid 5♦ and made all thirteen tricks. On Board 17, on all three occasions the contract was 4♠  by East and made with either two overtricks (once) or three overtricks (three times). More by luck than anything else perhaps, on Board 8 West (Malcolm) played the contract in 2♥ and made four overtricks. The same board was played the other two times by South in a 2♠  contract that either made or made with one overtrick. 

Top scorers for the evening were Graham & SheilaL on 60.42%, with SheilaW & Pat second on 55.21% and DaveH & Sheena in third place on 54.17%.

SheilaW & Pat continue to head the year to date rankings based on their ten best scores. They are on an average of 66.63% and the next placed pairing are Roger & Dennis on 64.38%. Lying third are MargaretM & Marjory on 60.76%. The last chance to change the outcome will be on Tuesday, 16 December when this competition ends.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Three and a half tables of pairs played 28 boards with each board being played three times and each pair sitting out for one round. There were a few missed opportunities but also some better than expected results for individual boards.

Roger was away so Dennis paired up with DaveW for the first time and it was this scratch pairing that performed best over the evening, achieving 64.58%. In second place were Dave H & Sheena Hay on 57.29% and third were Iso & Malcolm on 56.25%.

On Board 4, thirteen tricks were made each time the board was played but in each case declarer (N) was only in the game contract of 4♥.

On Board 9, SheilaW & Pat bid 3N and made three overtricks, while the other times it was played contracts of 3N and 4♥ each made exactly. 

On Board 11, 6N was bid and made twice, by MargaretM & Marjory and by SheilaW & Pat, but on the third playing of the board the bidding stopped at 3N twelve tricks were made.

On Boards 14 and 17 DaveW and Dennis in each case made 3N with three overtricks while on other occasions the 3N contracts either made with one overtrick (Board 14) or made exactly (Board 17).

On Board 17, by some fluke perhaps, Iso & Malcolm bid 5H and made twelve tricks, while on the other occasions the board was played a 4♣ contract went two down and a 2♠ contract made one overtrick.

SheilaW & Pat (average 66.63%) still head the rankings for the best ten results in the year to date. Lying second are Roger & Dennis on an average of 64.38% and third are MargaretM & Marjory on an average of 60.76%. Graham & SheilaL are close behind. There are only two more scoring evenings left in this competition.

Click anywhere on this page to view the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Fourteen players joined in the merry-go-round of playing individual rubber bridge, with two three-player tables each round needing to call on a dummy from another table for the bidding stage. A bit hectic and it does mean finding a moment to grab a cuppa and biscuits can be difficult but at least it means that no-one has to sit out. One new visiting player, Peter Taylor, joined us for the evening having played bridge in Dounby many moons ago. Good to see you, Peter.

Graham had already secured a strong hold on the leader board for the individual rubber bridge competition but just to make sure he came top for the evening with a score of 4620 points, with Malcolm second on 4140 points and Peter third on 3880 points.

In the year to date rankings, only Graham and Malcolm managed to drop a low score from their best ten scores. In doing so, Graham strengthened his lead and now has 56070 points. Still in second place is Roger on 54370 points and third is Clinton on 50430 ponts. Although Malcolm dropped a low score, his new total did not move him up in the rankings and he remains in seventh place.

There is just one more scoring week to go, on 12 December, but it would take a score of at least 6530 points by Roger to drop his lowest counting score of 4830 and equal Graham's total and then only if Graham does not manage to drop a score too.

Don't forget that the Presentation Evening with food, raffle and individual rubber bridge will be at the usual time on Friday, 19 December. As it is Christmas and the evening will not count towards the main competition, there will be small prizes for each round and for the overall winner and runner up for the evening. Please let Iso know whether or not you plan to attend. Thank you.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed spreadsheet. Select Individual Rubber Bridge from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Despite travel difficulties and a slightly late start, fifteen players competed at Individual Rubber Bridge and still managed to finish on time. It was good to see John & Ruth again because their departure from Orkney had been delayed and we wish them a safe journey home.

It was not a very high scoring night with the highest single round score being 1380, including a two game rubber and a game score, achieved by Pat and Linda in round 3. Pat (4660) also had the highest overall score for the evening and the only other player to score more than 4000 was Clinton (4540).

Pat (46650) was also the only person to change position in the rankings based on the best ten scores in the year to date, moving up from tenth to ninth place and overtaking Iso (45920).

Graham (55970) continues to hold first place, followed by Roger (54370) and Clinton (50430). The lowest scores they each have to drop in favour of any higher scores are, respectively, 4520, 4830 and 4610 and the amount by which their totals would increase if they did exceed those scores would, of course, only be the difference between their higher score and their dropping score. It is therefore looking extremely difficult for anyone to overtake Graham in the two scoring evenings that remain. Elsewhere in the rankings there are still opportunities for individuals to move up, or down, in the rankings over the next two weeks.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the date to view the detailed week by week results.  Selecte Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings summary.

Amended report

There were four and a half tables for Duplicate Pairs this week. We are approaching the end of the season but if we can manage to carry that level of participation forward into 2015 and build on it further that will lead to even better competition. If any of you members out there have not tried duplicate yet, why not give it a try on Tuesdays over the next couple of weeks with a view to playing regularly from the start of the new season

There were nine rounds of three boards each and each board should have been played four times but board 3 was Not Played

As things currently stand, the top pair for the evening were Graham & Sheila L (59.56%).  Second equal and very close behind them were Dave H & Sheena (59.29%) and Sheila W & Pat (59.29%).

Out of 108 board plays - 33 contracts were made; 34 made with overtricks; 37 went down; 3 hands were passed out; and 1 hand was not played.  The computer generated deals seemed, on the whole, to produce rather uninteresting hands but, despite that, there was one attempt at a slam by pair 9 (Roger & Dennis) on board 5 but it went one down. Perversely, two 4♠ contracts on board 14 made twelve tricks, as did a 3N contract on board 18. 

In the year to date rankings, based on the best ten results of those who have played ten or more times, Sheila W & Pat continue to lead on an average of 66.63%. Roger & Dennis lie second on 64.38% and Margaret M & Marjory lie third on 60.76%. With just three more scoring weeks to go, there will need to be some impressive scoring to knock Sheila W  & Pat off the top spot. 

Click anywhere in this box to go to the results box and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

With fourteen folk present we once again played four tables with two ‘dummies’ to be borrowed to bid the hands, a successful way of making for a busy evening with everyone playing 28 hands by 10:30pm. This week the scores were high overall, the average being one of the best half-dozen of the year, and the cards just ‘working’ for people – or at least for some lucky people! Chief amongst the fortunate ones was Roger Davies, with 6NT bid and made twice within a total of 6,310, though he admits this should have been higher: “My partner opened an Acol 2C so with 10 points myself I had no business passing her 3NT rebid, it should have been 6NT!” said Roger. Second on the night was Linda Milne with 5,520, taking her into sixth spot overall, and third Hazel Foubister on 5,050.

Graham Lyon remains in first place on 55,970 points, with Roger closer now on 54,370 and Clinton Rendall in third place with 50,430.

Click on the Results Calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed schedule. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

It was good to have eight pairs present, so that we could play four complete tables, welcome everyone! Roger & Dennis enjoyed some good fortune in coming out first with 67%, with Graham & Sheila on 57% and Iso & Malcolm making a return to form in third place on 56%.

Slams could be made on Boards 3 and 8 but only one pair found each.

The Losing Trick Count should have propelled everyone further on Board 4 where both sides missed out on vulnerable games – something for partnerships to think about.

The gap at the top is a little smaller after this week but Pat & Sheila still look pretty secure!

For further information go to the tabs on the left: ‘Results’ will take you to this week’s competition in detail (having next selected the evening in the Results Calendar, click on ‘Travellers’ for a blow-by-blow account), and ‘Competitions’ shows how all the pairs lie at this stage in the season.

Eleven established players were present on Friday evening, 14^th November, and we also welcomed two visitors who had come to see what it was all about – and thanked Gladys for a splendid tin of fudge!

As Harold Wilson might have said, ‘A week is a long time in bridge,’ so much so that many of last week’s positions were reversed. Dave Walker (3,870) was top though, maintaining his consistent start at the Club, and equally consistent was Sheila Lyon, yet again producing one of her ten best scores (3,640); tied third equal (3,460) were Gladys Marwick and newcomer Tony Spencer, enjoying his best score yet.

Overall scores were low, though, as for only the second week this year we had nobody above 4,000. No slams were made, though Graham Lyon and Roger Davies came within one trick; and the lie of the cards enabled Dave to make 12 tricks in NT playing with Roger, but the slam seemed wholly unbiddable.

Looking to the season’s results as a whole, Graham’s top spot looks more secure with each week that passes: he is 3,300 ahead of Roger (and when the two played together on Friday they scored exactly zero!) with Clinton Rendall 2,240 further back. Only a monster score will do it now: if Roger and Clinton each scored 6,000 every week that they are available for competition (which between them they have achieved just once in 2014) Graham would still be ahead.

Perhaps more likely is the achievement of significant personal targets for those in fourth and fifth places: Iris Clyde and Gladys Marwick could both pass 50,000 for the year – never before have more than two players achieved this, so good luck to both!

Click on the Results Calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed schedule. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

I am hoping that this will be third time lucky, following a further correction to one of the manually input results, which changes the results and the report from what had been put up on the website earlier.

Top for the evening were DaveW & MargaretK (63.54%) with MargaretM & Marjory (60.42%) second and John & Ruth (54.17%) third. A good result for DaveW & MargaretK as this was only the second time they had played duplicate together. 

Only one slam was bid, by Ruth & MargaretH on board 6, but their 6♣ doubled contract went down by one trick. Twelve tricks were made by Ruth & MargaretH on board 15 when their 4C contract made 6C. Twelve tricks were made by John & Ruth on board 25 when their 2N contract made 6N.

Five contracts were doubled and in four of those the contract was successfully brought down. In the fifth, the contract made with one overtrick.

Leading positions in the year to date rankings remain unchanged. Only the ten top results for each partnership count and the partnership must compete at least ten times to qualify for a final ranking. 

Click anywhere in this box to go to the results calendar and choose the date to view the detailed analysis. Click on Duplicate Pairs on the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Five weeks to go after this one, and 15 players gathered at Dounby after a power cut had briefly threatened cancellation. For many folk the cards just did not combine well, and it was a low-scoring evening – only three nights have seen a lower average since Easter – but two stalwarts of the Club led the way, both improving their overall positions. Top was Dennis with 4,740 points, twenty ahead of Sheila – it’s been a particularly good run for Sheila lately, with her last four weeks all amongst her best scores of the year. Hazel played her tenth evening and so moved up a couple of places.

Clinton was in third place with 4,650 points and next was visitor John McInroy on 4,460; Clinton’s score moved him up very slightly but there are not many weeks now to change the overall top three positions: Graham and Roger are respectively 5,000 and 2,000 ahead of him. However Clinton does have a very secure top spot in terms of average scores across all evenings: he is less than one point short of an average of 4,000, a really impressive consistent performance.

Bidding slams remains something for us all to think about: one pair bidding two major suit games in three hands achieved twelve tricks on each occasion, missing 1,250 points.

We were thrilled to have nine pairs for Duplicate Bridge on 4^th November – the best since January, when the Tuesday evenings started. It was good to welcome John & Ruth on one of their regular visits, to see new member Dave Walker in partnership with Margaret Kirkness, and especially to see Hazel experiencing Duplicate for the first time, well supported by Pat – and with a good result!

As last week, most results were bunched, but this time just below 50%, the outliers above the line being Dennis & Roger on 65%, John & Ruth over 56% and Pat & Hazel just above 52%. This enabled the week’s winners to close a small part of the gap that separates them from annual competition leaders Pat & Sheila – something about ‘a bridge too far’ might come to mind were the pun not so appalling…

All Iso’s hard work in setting up the website gives pairs an excellent learning resource, as hands can be studied and lost opportunities considered. Most spectacular this week was Hand 16, where East had a massive hand with only three losers; opposite, West had eight HCP and the three missing cards, yet three pairs out of four failed to get even to game. Sitting East on the other occasion though was our best exponent of the Losing Trick Count, and he (Graham of course) made no mistake whatever in bidding the Grand Slam! There was a safe minor suit slam, just the twelve tricks this time, to be made on Board 8, but only Dennis & Roger reached it; and Six Hearts on Board 26, though never bid, can be made if East trumps two diamonds to establish the last card in the suit.

For further information go to the tabs on the left: ‘Results’ will take you to this week’s competition in detail (having next selected the evening in the Results Calendar, click on ‘Travellers’ for a blow-by-blow account), and ‘Competitions’ shows how all the pairs lie at this stage in the season.

Congratulations to Clinton for his score of 5,870: best on the evening, taking him past Iris and also clearing a total of 50,000 - the first season in the Club's history that three people have passed that mark, and there are weeks to go yet! Linda and Iso also did well and moved up, well done them too.

It was good to have another decent turn-out: 4 full tables so everyone was busy, and we were pleased to welcome Dave Walker for his first visit and also John and Ruth on one of their visits to Orkney - John says they have come for a rest but is not sure they are getting one!

As Iso observed in her report last week, many of the results have become more bunched recently, and this week’s results were similar, with six of the seven pairs scoring percentages in the 50’s. It would be ideal if this reflected consistent, similar play by all pairs but in fact there was only one “flat hand”, and every pair scored a mix of tops and bottoms. On the night Dennis & Roger were ahead by four points, with Sheila & Pat and Margaret & Marjory tied in second place.

It was not a great evening for slam bidding though, and almost all pairs missed opportunities, with 12 or 13 tricks in Spades possible on Boards 1, 18 and 27, but nobody bidding that high. Perhaps sometimes we are too concerned about point count, especially when looking for slams outside No Trumps: High Card Points totalled only 28, 23 and 24 across the three pairs of hands in question. In each case, though, at least one of the hands involved had very promising ‘shape’ – two singletons in one case, a singleton and a void in another – and it may be worth partnerships thinking about ‘cue bidding’ or looking at how many (or few!) losers a hand has got.

Sorry for the delay - washing machine and computer problems this morning.

We had a great eighteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge this week. The Movement for nineteen players was used, with number seven missing, so that dummies were borrowed for the bidding stage at two tables each round and no players had to sit out a round.

It was another good night for Pat who scored 5760 points, making 700 point rubbers on three rounds and scoring for completed games and part games on all the other rounds. In second place was Roger (4830 points) and in third place was Hazel (4610 points). Pat's good score meant that she leap-frogged ahead of Margaret M and Iso but none of the leaders scored high enough to drop a low score.

Click on the Results Calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed schedule. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Six pairs of players meant that there were three full tables competing at Duplicate Pairs bridge this week and thirty boards were successfully played within the scheduled time.

Top pair for the evening were Roger & Dennis (55.00%) with Sheila W & Pat and Margaret M & Marjory in equal second place on 54.17%.

One small slam was bid and made by Sheila W & Pat on board 2, making one overtrick. Other pairs did not bid slams but thirteen tricks were taken by two pairs on board 11 and twelve tricks by one pair on boards 11 and 17. It is quite likely that on board 11 the leads would have been different if a slam had been bid.

Contracts were doubled on boards 2, 16 and 24 and in each case the contracts were successfully brought down.

This week's percentages were lower than in many previous weeks and for the leading four pairs in the rankings were lower than the lowest of their best ten scores in the series and so there was no change to the ranking positions.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results Calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs on the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Please note that the spreadsheet for 17 October has been amended.

We were pleased to welcome new member, Tony Spencer, to the Club this week and hope he was not too confused by all the different bidding systems used.

Top scorer for the evening was Graham (5800 points) whose score was boosted to that level by 1980 points scored on a single hand when he was in a contract of 7NT doubled and redoubled which he made. In second place was Roger (5140 points) and in third place was Iso (4850 points).

In the overall rankings for their best ten scores to date, the top three places are currently held by Graham (55970 points), Roger (52240 points) and Iris (49290 points).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed week by week scores. Selected Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

If you read this report earlier, you will know there was a problem with the hands file. I have now managed to retrieve a copy of the deals file from a back-up copy of my files and so can display the hands as normal.  Many apologoies for all the confusion and delays this morning. Hopefully, normal service will now be resumed.

Top scorers for the evening were the recently formed pairing of the very experienced Dave and the more novice Sheena who scored 60.00%. In second place were Sheila W & Pat (54.17%) and third were Graham & Sheila L (52.50%).

No slams were bid but twelve tricks were taken by Sheila W & Pat on board 3 and by Graham & Sheila L on board 7. The only doubling was on board 10 where Graham & Sheila L (probably  Graham eh?) doubled a 4♥ contract by Margaret H & Ruth which went down by one trick and on board 29 where Graham & Sheila L doubled 4♥ by Dave & Sheena which made. Click anywhere in this box to go to the detailed analysis.

Sheila W & Pat continue to lead the year to date rankings with an average score of 66.63% for their best ten results. Roger & Dennis lie second with an average of 62.88% and Margaret M & Marjory lie third with an average of 60.34%. Select the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings table.

With thirteen players and one person sitting out each round, play was a little quicker than usual and we managed to be finished and cleared up well before 10:30 pm this week. There were some interesting hands with a few Small Slams being bid.

Despite failing to make one Small Slam through forgetting what had been played and a few other faux pas, Iso managed to sneak a top place for the evening on 4920 points, finishing the evening partnering Graham who made thirteen tricks in a contract of 6NT doubled. Second for the evening was Graham on 4790 and third was Jean on 4770.

In the year to date rankings, Graham managed to drop a low score and maintains his lead with 54750 points. Roger stays second on 51240 and Iris third on 49290.There were a few other moves so check out the rankings schedule to see who is where now.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the week by week results. Selected Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

This evening we had three full tables and played 30 boards. The clock was running and we over-ran but only by a few minutes. There seemed to be some interesting hands with lots of long suits, singletons and voids and the opportunity to bid for slams. Board 18 was passed out on one occasion.

Top pair for the evening were Iso & Malcolm (62.50%). Roger & Dennis (54.17%) were second and Graham & Sheila L (49.17%) third. Small slams were bid and made by Sheila W & Pat on board 5, by Graham & Sheila L on board 19 (taking all thirteen tricks) and by Roger & Dennis on board 28. There were also a few boards where game was bid but slam tricks were taken.

The doubling card was out only once, by Dave & Sheena against a 4♥ contract by Sheila W & Pat which went two down. 

In the year to date rankings, Pat & Sheila remain in the lead with an average of 66.63% for their best ten scores. In second place are Roger & Dennis on 62.88% and in third place are Margaret & Marjory on 60.34%. Only Iso & Malcolm improved their average score but they remain in the same ranking position.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis for the evening. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

I managed to put the results up yesterday but did not have time to do a report so here it is, somewhat late and brief.

Top score for the evening was Clinton (4790 points), with Roger (4610 points) second and Linda M (4600 points) third.

In the overall rankings, Graham (54010 points) did not manage to drop his lowest score but second ranked Roger (51240 points) did and so moved closer to Graham's total. In doing so he widened the gap slightly between himself and the third placed player, Iris (49290 points), who also did not drop a score. Meanwhile, Clinton (48640 points) is creeping up slowly on Iris, having reduced the gap now to just 640 points. Meanwhile, Glad (47740 points) was the only one to move up the rankings having seized back fifth place from Malcolm (47680 points).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed week by week results. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

After a minor glitch getting our 'new' mini laptop (kindly donated by Dennis) to talk to the BridgePads at the start of the session, we managed to get under way only a few minutes late, with seven pairs competing.

It was a rare treat for Iso & Malcolm who came top for the evening with 64.58%. In second place were Roger & Dennis on 58.33% and third were Margaret M & Marjory on 50.00%. The only pair to bid and make a Small Slam contract were Roger & Dennis on board 24. Small Slams were made but not bid by various pairs on boards 2, 6, 7, 18, 22. The doubling card was out each time board 11 was played and once each on boards 26 and 28. The doubled contract was brought down on all occasions except board 26 where declarer made one overtrick. Board 8 was passed out on one occasion.

In the year to date rankings, Sheila & Pat (average 66.63%) continue to lead the competition followed by Roger & Dennis (62.88%) and Margaret M & Marjory (60.34%).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Only two of the eleven players achieved scores over 4000 points this week.  The first three places went to Pat (5040 points), Sheila L (4090 points) and Iris (3910 points).

Pat (total 41980 points) was the only player to move up the rankings, overtaking Margaret K (41150 points) to move into eleventh place.  At the top end of the rankings, although the total scores have changed the positions remain the same - Graham (54010 points), Roger (50740 points) and Iris (49290 points). Then there is a gap down to three players with scores between 47000 and 48000 points (Clinton, Malcolm and Glad).

Seven pairs again this evening though we nearly made it to eight pairs. Twenty eight boards were played and we experimented with a high visibility countdown clock on the computer to encourage us to keep better to time. We started promptly and were packed up to go home by 10:15 pm.  Well done all!

Although folk generally did keep well to time, finishing before or shortly after the countdown clock bell went, in one round where Graham & Sheila played against Margaret M. & Marjory, play was behind the clock and board 4 had to be left as 'Not Played'.

The top three pairs for the evening were Margaret M & Marjory (61.96%), Roger & Dennis (60.64%) and Sheila & Pat (56.38%).  Three small slams were bid, by Roger & Dennis on board 11 and by Dave & Sheena on boards 13 and 18. There were a couple of failed small slam attempts by pairings on boards 2 and 13 and small slams made but not bid on boards 4, 11, 14 and 18. Most of us need to to sort out our bidding when we get into potential slam territory (well Malcolm and I do anyway!).

In the year to date rankings, Pat & Sheila continue to lead the way with an average of 66.63%. Roger & Dennis lie second with an average of 62.80% and Margaret M & Marjory are in third place on 60.34%.

Following on from last week's relatively low scores with no-one achieving above 4000 points, this week's results were not much better but four of the fifteen players did score over 4000 points. These four were Clinton (4950 points), Margaret M (4410 points), Pat (4210 points) and Roger (4110 points).

In the year to date rankings based on the best ten results in the year, the first three players are Graham (54010 points - no change), Roger (50740 points - slight increase) and Iris (49290 points - no change). Meanwhile, Clinton (47780 points) moves up two more places into fourth place, overtaking both Malcolm (47680 points) and Glad (47460 points).

The low scores to be dropped next by the top three players if they score above these scores are 4230, 4110 and 4100 respectively.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the week by week scores. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Seven pairs competed at Duplicate Pairs Bridge, playing 28 boards. The winners for the evening were Roger & Dennis with a score of 60.42%. Knocked of top spot this week were Sheila & Pat who came second with 58.33%. Third were Margaret M & Marjory on 55.21%.

One rare treat for the session - for Roger & Dennis if not their opponents - was a Grand Slam of 7H bid and made on board 26 when playing east-west. Not surprisingly against a Grand Slam contract, the opposition led an ace, in this case the ace of spades. It was unfortunate for them that west had a void in spades and so could trump that lead and go on to clean up. On the other two occasions when the board was played, 3N made two overtricks and 4H also made two overtricks.

This evenings result does not affect the overall positions of the leading pairs. Sheila & Pat continue to top the rankings for those pairs that have competed at least ten times, now with an average of 66.63%. Roger & Dennis are in second place with an average of 62.46% and Graham & Sheila L are in third place with an average of 59.90%.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competition menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Seventeen players competed in the Individual Rubber Bridge competition on 12 September. Although there were a few exceptions when Small Slams were bid and sometimes made, on the whole it was an evening of low scores and mediocre hands.

The top three players for the evening were Glad (3680 points), Graham (3570 points) and Margaret K (3450 points).  The low scoring meant that only a few people managed to drop their lowest score but even those who did so did not change their ranking positions.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the week by week results. Select Individual Rubber on the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings. 

First of all, a warm welcome to new member Dave Higgins and partner, Sheena Hay. It is great to see you both at the Club. 

There were three and a half tables for duplicate and 28 boards were played. Despite Sheila W and Pat feeling that they had not done well this evening, their score of 57.29% put them in clear first place. Iso & Malcolm (54.17%) were second and equal third on 51.04% were Graham & Sheila L and Roger & Dennis. This result means that Sheila W & Pat continue to lead the year to date rankings.

Three Small Slams were bid and made, by Iso & Malcolm and Graham & Sheila on board 11 and by Roger & Dennis on board 26. On board 26 Dave & Sheena took all thirteen tricks but only game had been bid. Iso & Malcolm conceded points unnecessarily on board 10 when they bid up to 6N through misunderstandings and then went two off doubled. Twelve tricks were taken by pairings on boards 4 and 7 but no slam had been bid.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

There were fifteen players for individual rubber bridge. Top points for the evening went to Roger (5300 points), with Glad (4440 points) second and Linda M (4350 points) third.

Roger's score increased his total for his ten best scores to 50570 points and enabled him to move up to second place behind Graham (54010 points) and pushing Iris (49290 points) down to third place.  Glad (47390 points) took advantage of the absence of Clinton to overtake his 47390 points. Malcolm continues to cling on to fourth place.  The rest of the places remained unchanged.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date to view the week by week results. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions page to view the year to date rankings.

We had three and a half tables for Duplicate Pairs and, with a sharp eye on the clock, managed to complete 28 boards in good time. After sorting out a minor glitch where the computer seemed to think that Nila & Margaret K were doubling up and playing as two pairs and that Iso & Malcolm were not playing at all (can't work out why that happened), here are the results.

Top pair for the evening were Roger & Dennis with an impressive 69.79%. Next best were Margaret M & Marjory (56.25%) and Graham & Sheila (54.17%).

Small slams were bid and made on Board 1 by two pairs and on Board 8 by one pair. Although slams were not bid the other times the boards were played, in each case game contracts were bid but twelve tricks were made.  Small slams were bid but not made by one pair in each case on Boards 2 and 28. In the latter case, the slam bid had been doubled.

In the overall rankings, Sheila W & Pat continue to lead with an average of 66.63%. Roger & Dennis (62.05%) are in second place and Graham & Sheila L (59.90%) in third. Margaret M & Marjory are very close behind on 59.65%.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page to review the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Fifteen players played Individual Rubber bridge and it was good to see the return of Dennis after three weeks' absence.

Top scorers for the evening were Malcolm (5780 pts), Linda M (5570 pts) and Clinton (4600 pts). Malcolm's score was helped in rounds 3 and 4 by Small Slams bid and made - one Non Vulnerable and the other Vulnerable - when partnering Margaret K and Ruth, respectively.

Clinton's points meant that he dropped a lower score and moved up in the rankings with a cumulative score of 46760 pts, overtaking both Glad (46480 pts) and Dennis (46360 pts) but this feat was surpassed by Malcolm (47680 pts) who overtook all three of them to move up to fourth place behind Graham (54010 pts), Iris (49290 pts) and Roger (49170 pts).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to review the week by week scores or select Individual Rubber from the Competitions tab to view the rankings table.

Thank you to Roger for running the bridge this Tuesday. There were two and a half tables of players and thirty boards were played. I say 'played' but Roger was just a tad over-optimistic on his time target to start with and there were some boards that were Not Played which meant that with no comparative pair scores those who did play the boards received no points. Fortunately, Roger corrected the stopwatch time later.

Two small slams were bid and made by Roger & Dennis on Boards 23 and 25, making an overtrick on Board 23. There were boards on which 12 tricks were made by other pairs but no slam had been bid (Board 4, 11, 18, 19, 25 and 29).

The top three places for the evening went to Roger & Dennis (59.52%), Sheila & Pat (56.82%) and Nila & Margaret K (54.76%).

Sheila & Pat (average 66.63%) continue to lead the year to date rankings, followed by Roger & Dennis (average 60.67%) and Graham & Sheila L (average 59.90%).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

On Friday, 22 August, there were thirteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge and it was Clinton Rendall who came top with a score of 4920 points for the evening. Graham Lyon (4900 points) was second and Margaret Kirkness (4370 points) was third.

In the overall rankings, Graham Lyon leads on a cumulative score for his best ten results of 54010 points. Second and third places are currently being closely contested by Iris Clyde (49290 points) and Roger Davies (49170 points). 

Each week players have a lowest evening score which they try to drop by having a higher score to count but as the level of the lowest score increases, it becomes more and more difficult to score well enough to be able to drop a score. This gives others the opportunity to make up some ground on the leaders but it will take a lot of good scores by someone to erode the lead held by Graham Lyon.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results Calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Individual Rubber on the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings. Only those who have competed in ten or more events will qualify for final placings for the year

Tuesday, 12 August

There were three full tables playing and the honours for the evening went to Sheila W & Pat (61.40%) first, Marjory & Margaret M (57.02%) second and Mike & Christine (48.25%) third.

It seems to have been an event of big contracts, Grand Slams were bid and made on Board 3 by Mike & Christine and by Roger & Margaret K. A Small Slam was bid and made on that Board by Marjory & Margaret M. Small slams were also bid and made by Mike & Christine on Board 8 (making 13 tricks) and on Board 11. Although only games had been bid, thirteen tricks were taken by Marjory & Margaret M and by Mike & Christine on Board 17 and twelve tricks were taken by Mike & Christine and by Graham & Sheila L on Board 30.

Hands were Passed Out on one occasion each on Boards 7 and 23. Board 12 was played only once and Not Played on the other two occasions. With no second playing for comparison, the pairs who did play received no points.

Tuesday, 19 August

Again there were three full tables. and again it was Sheila W & Pat (61.02%) first. Graham & Sheila L (58.47%) were second and in joint third place (sorry I missed the = sign when I read out the results last night) were Iso & Malcolm (50.85%) and Roger & Phil (50.85%).

No Grand or Small Slams were bid but thirteen tricks were made in game contracts by Sheila W & Pat and Nila & Doody on Board 5 and by Nila & Doody and Iso & Malcolm on Board 29. Thirteen tricks were also made by Roger & Phil on Board 29 but they were not in a game contract.

On one occasion Board 30 was Not Played due to lack of time.

Rankings

Sheila W & Pat (average 66.63%) have a clear lead of 6.33% over the field in the rankings and they deserve congratulations for their consistency of good results week by week. But it is not all over for many weeks yet and there are others currently battling over second, third and fourth place who could yet come through and spoil the party.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results Calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs on the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings. Only those who have competed in ten or more events will qualify for final placings for the year.

The Club welcomes new member Phil West who is visiting from South. 

There seem to have been some good scores around while I have been away on holiday. Congratulations to all who managed to score over 4000.  On 8 August, Malcolm had a score of 7550 and there were a few other good scores that night - Roger (5630), Margaret Kirkness (4470), Graham (4400) and Iris (4170). On 15 August, Iris had another high score of 7010 with Hazel next best on 5180. No-one else managed over 4000.

All this still leaves Graham in the lead on 53330 for his ten best scores and then a gap to Iris (49290) and Roger (49170). Graham has to score more than 4220 to drop his lowest score, Iris (4100) and Roger (3900). So it is up to the rest of us to try to stop them doing that whilst boosting our own chances by dropping our own lowest scores.

This will have to be a very short report as I am racing to get things done before going off on my hols.

There were two and a half tables for Duplicate Pairs Bridge and twenty five boards were played. The winners for the evening were Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer (55.00%), with Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook (52.50%) in second place and Iso & Malcolm Tipler (50.00%) third.

The hands seemed to be rather a motley selection and there were several part game contracts. No Grand Slams or Small Slams were bid and made but twelve tricks were made by Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook on board 5, by Linda Milne & Linda Ross on board 15 and by Iso & Malcolm Tipler on board 18.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the date to view the detailed analysis. Choose Duplicate Pairs on the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

Please note that, owing to holidays, results for the Individual Rubber Bridge on Fridays 8 and 15 August and for the Duplicate Pairs Bridge on Tuesday, 12 August will not be posted on the website until a few days after the end of that period. There will also be no report in the Orcadian for that period.

The results for the Individual Rubber Bridge for the evening of Friday, 1 August have been put up on the website. Sorry for the delay.

Top scorers for the evening were Pat Shearer (5530), Clinton Rendall (5500) and Graham Lyon (4230). Pat was the only person to score in excess of 1500 in two separate rounds with different partners - 1580 when playing with Jean Tulloch and 1590 when playing with Margaret Mainland. Graham Lyon and Iso Tipler scored 1560 in one round.

Graham Lyon (53120) continues to top the rankings with Roger Davies (47360) second and in third place Dennis Paice (46360), who crept above Iris Clyde (46240).

Sorry for the delay in putting up the results - busy, busy, busy....

Six pairs played 30 boards and the top pairing for the evening was Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook on 60.83%. Second and third places went to Graham & Sheila Lyon (55.00%) and Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer (50.00%).

Two Small Slams were bid and made on board 12 by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice against Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer and by Linda Ross & Linda Milne against Graham & Sheila Lyon. A Small Slam was also bid on board 19 by Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook against Roger Davies & Dennis Paice but went down by four tricks. Board 6 was passed out by one table.

We did have a bit of an issue with timing again this week. The time allowance is seven minutes per board, so for the six boards played at each table (ie two rounds) the allowance was 42 minutes. Most tables managed to complete all six boards well within the time limit but there were some who were repeatedly finishing their last board of the round several minutes after the buzzer sounded and everyone else had finished and they did not always appear to be making any effort to speed things up once they realised they were over the time limit. In the interests of avoiding having the majority of players hanging around for a long time waiting for one table to finish, we need to be a bit more strict on applying the time limit so next week, at least as a trial, if any table has not finished the bidding for any board when the buzzer sounds then the board(s) should not be played out and should be scored as 'Not Played'. Let's see how that works.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Choose Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings. Only those players who have played in ten or more events qualify for a final placing in this competition, based on their best ten scores.

With fourteen players and operating two moving three player tables, with borrowed bidders each round, life can become a bit confusing. On one occasion, Iris Clyde went off to bid on a three player table and forgot she was supposed to hand over to another player at the table to play the hand and stayed on to play it out. And later in the evening, Iso Tipler went off to bid but instead of returning to her correct table for the round, proceeded to sit at another table, not even noticing that she was with the wrong partner.  She would have quite happily sat there and played had she not been ousted by Margaret Mainland who had returned from bidding a hand only to find her correct seat occupied. Life's a mystery!

Despite all the comings and goings, we did manage to get through the evening okay with only one hand not played due to being out of time. It was Roger Davies (5340) that came top. Ally Kelly (4270) was second and Graham Lyon (4190), who had been remarkably restrained with his doubling card until he began to have withdrawal symptons, came third.

Neither Iris Clyde (46240) nor Dennis Paice (46220), who had been lying in second and third places behind leader Graham Lyon (52790), had a good enough score to drop one of their previous best ten scores and so they were leapfrogged in the rankings by Roger Davies (47360) who did.  Linda Milne (42300) took advantage of the absence of Malcolm Tipler (42130) to knock him down a place in the rankings but most of the other placings remained unchanged.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the date to view the week by week scores. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings.

Seven pairs took part in the Duplicate Pairs competition this week and it was Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer who came top for the night with 59.38%. In second place were Graham & Sheila Lyon on 57.29% and third were Roger Davies & Dennis Paice on 56.25%.

No Grand or Small Slams were bid but on board 12 a 3♦ contract by West made with three overtricks and on the same board 3NT by East made with three overtricks.

The double and redoubled cards were used to good effect this week on

• Board 1 - 5♦ doubled and redoubled, by Graham & Sheila Lyon against Linda Ross & Linda Milne made
• Board 9 - 3N doubled, by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice against Linda Ross & Linda Milne went one off
• Board 19 - 4♥ doubled, by Graham & Sheila Lyon against Roger Davies & Dennis Paice went three off
• Board 19 - 3N doubled, by Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer against Linda Ross & Linda Milne went two off
• Board 20 - 4♥ doubled, by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice against Graham & Sheila Lyon went one off
• Board 28 - 4♠ doubled, by Linda Ross & Linda Milne against Iso & Malcolm Tipler, went three off

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

With Stromness Regatta having to be cancelled because it was too windy, that gives me the opportunity to update the website with the results for last night's Individual Rubber Bridge.

There were fifteen players so one table each round had to borrow a bidder from another table. Top scorer for the evening was Glad Marwick (5420 points), followed by Margaret Mainland (4340 ) and Linda Milne (4310). Having my mind back home at Stara and focused on the outstanding preparations for the planned Regatta, the evening seemed to be a bit of a blur of poor hands and some very bizarre bidding and play on my part, as I struggled hard not to yawn too much or fall asleep. Unfortunately, that means that I can't quite remember what was happening with other players and whether there were any exciting hands to report. Sorry folks.

In the overall standings for the year to date, Graham Lyon continues to have a strong lead over the rest of the field and has amassed a total of 52460 points for his best ten scores. The top four positions remain unchanged but only 20 points separate Iris Clyde (46240) in second place from Dennis Paice (46220) in third place.  Both Roger Davies (45790) and Glad Marwick (45630) are not far behind but then there is a bit of a gap to Clinton Rendall (42740) who continues his tramp up the rankings by moving from seventh to sixth place just 40 points ahead of Margaret Mainland (42700) who leapfrogged both Tiplers to move into seventh place.

Click anywhere in this box to view the detailed results week by week. Select the Individual Rubber tab from the Competitions menu tab to view the summary for the year to date rankings.

The results for Tuesday, 15 July have been updated to reflect the correction to board 8 where one hand had previously been entered on the BridgePad as 'Not Played' when it should have been entered as 'Passed Out'.

The final outcome is a win for the evening for Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer (65.00%), with Graham & Sheila Lyon (61.67%) in second place and Iso & Malcolm Tipler (54.17%) in third.

One small slam of 6♠ was bid and made with one overtrick, by Graham & Sheila Lyon on board 22. On the same board, a small slam of 6NT was bid by one pair but went down by three tricks. A small slam was also bid on board 26 but went down by one trick.

Contracts were doubled on boards 12, 14, 16, 20, 23 and 29. Of these, half of the contracts made and half were brought down.

In the year to date rankings, from those who have competed in ten or more events, Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer continue to lead the way with an average of 64.61% for their ten best results. Currently in second and third places are Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (average 60.21%) and Graham & Sheila Lyon (average 59.25%).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

The results produced last night have been posted on the website but please note that there is a query on board 8 which is likely to lead to an amendment. One table played the board and one Passed Out the hand but the other recorded the hand as Not Played which produces a different outcome. I think it should have been Passed Out in both cases but am checking that. As I am going to be out most of today and this evening, it may be tomorrow before I can update the results and do the report.

We had a grand turnout of eighteen players for Individual Bridge including new member Hazel Foubister. It was really good to have her join us and we hope that she will become a regular at the Club. With such a good turnout five tables were used. This resulted in mutterings from those who ventured onto table 5 and found that there was no cloth and some very slippery brand new playing cards. Comments ranged from putting in a request to Malcolm for him to make a fifth table cloth to reflecting on his pessimism for not having catered in advance for this potential growth.

Each round is supposed to take roughly 28 minutes, allowing 7 minutes per hand, but we started the evening without the clock and, unfortunately, the first round took a whopping 40 minutes as one pair struggled and failed to make a tricky contract when doubled and vulnerable, giving the opposition a score that had been worth their double. Meanwhile the other four tables of players were left twiddling their thumbs or grabbing a quick tea/coffee. After that we reverted to the clock and tables were allowed to finish a hand when the 25 minute buzzer went but not start a new one. This did speed things up a little but there was still a situation where one table had a hand 'Not Played' later in the evening, scoring zero for both pairs. The evening over-ran the scheduled 10:30 pm finish by 15-20 minutes - reminder to self to remember to set the clock from outset next time. Apologies to all for the poor time management this week.

Top scorer for the evening was Jean Tulloch (6150) who, along with Roger Davies (second with 5290), had benefited from the opposition's failed first round contract referred to earlier and received a good score of 2070 for that round. In third place was Iris Clyde (4700).

One interesting manoeuvre came from our worthy Chairman in the final round when partnered with our not so worthy Secretary who took the contract to 6NT, doubled. Completely forgetting that it was a three person table and that, after the borrowed bidder had left the table, he would be switching places to play the hand out in opposition to his partner, he nipped round to have a look at partner's good hand that had produced the 6NT bid. He then played against the hand and the contract was defeated - but to be fair it was doomed from the outset and in terms of points he was on the losing side and so did not benefit from his faux pas.

Despite not dropping the lowest of his counting scores this week, Graham Lyon (52390) remains in first place for the year to date. Iris Clyde (46240) dropped a score of 3870 and managed to retake second place by just 20 points from Dennis Paice (46220). It could be interesting next time as Iris's lowest score to drop is now 4060 while Dennis's is merely 3830. Meanwhile, Roger Davies (45790) is within striking distance of making it into the top three. Clinton Rendall continued his tramp up through the rankings and has now reached seventh place.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date to view the week by week results. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date summary.

After a slightly delayed start, caused by the Secretary having taken a power nap and forgetting to press the Start button on the countdown timer she had so carefully set, three and a half tables of players played seven rounds of four boards.

Top spot for the night went to Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook who scored 61/96 Match Points, giving them a finishing percentage of 63.54%. Second were Iso Tipler & Nila McCallum (59/96, 61.46%) and third were Jean Tulloch & Bunty Pottinger (53/96, 55.21%).

Only one slam was bid, 6NT by Graham Lyon on board 10, but the contract went one off. On the same board, twelve tricks were made by Nila McCallum but in this case the contract was 4♥ . Twelve tricks were also made by Marjory Cook on board 25, but the contract was only 3♥, and by Dennis Paice on board 27 when a contract of 5♣ doubled by Graham Lyon, made one overtrick.

In the year to date rankings, based on the best ten scores by those who have competed ten or more times, the lead continues to be held by Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer (average 60.32%). In second place for the moment are Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (average 58.24%) and Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook (average 56.32%).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and choose the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Selected Duplicate Pairs on the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings.

We were thirteen for Individual Rubber Bridge on 4 July and, while thirteen may be unlucky for some, for Pat Shearer it was a better evening than many Friday evening Individual Rubber Bridge evenings have been for her. She finished top on a score of 5410, which included a small slam bid and made with one overtrick when partnered with Malcolm Tipler in Round 1. The score for that round of 1560 was the highest of the evening. In second and third places were Dennis Paice (3890) and Iris Clyde (3870).

The ranking positions, based on the best ten scores in the year to date, were unchanged for the leading eight players, with Graham Lyon (52390) leading, Dennis Paice (46220) in second place and Iris Clyde (46010) third.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view detailed scores week by week. Selected the Individual Rubber option from the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings.

The settings for the Duplicate Pairs rankings were incorrect as the average score was being based on all the events in which the pairing had competed instead of only the best ten events. The settings have been amended and should now be correct but if anyone spots any other oddities please do not hesitate to contact Iso Tipler.

On the Competitions, Duplicate Pairs page, all the pairings are listed so that folk can see how they are performing but a note has been put at the top of the page to indicate that the competition is based on the best ten results and that, in the final rankings, only those who have competed in ten or more events will be given final positions.

If you click on a pairing name, the list of all the events the pairing has competed in will be displayed. The best ten scores are given in black and used to calculate the average percentage for the ranking. All other scores are in red and scored through and these are not included in the calculation.

We had three full tables for Duplicate Pairs this week, with Margaret Heddle and Ruth Sinclair being very welcome additions. We hope you will become regulars for Tuesday evenings as the more folk we have the more interesting it all becomes.

Top for the night were Graham & Sheila Lyon (61.21%), very closely (and rather surprisingly) followed by Iso Tipler & Nila McCallum (61.02%). Third were Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook (55.08%). 

Two small slams were bid and made by Graham & Sheila, on boards 16 and 28, and by Margaret & Marjory on board 28. Iso & Nila also made twelve tricks on board 16 but somehow managed to stop bidding at the 1♣ level. On board 8, Graham & Sheila made twelve tricks but had not bid the slam.

Hands were Passed Out by one table in each case on boards 4 and 12. One table had to treat board 18 as Not Played as they reached the end of play only to discover that one hand had been playing with fourteen cards and another with twelve cards. This does happen from time to time and really emphasises the need for each player to count their cards at the beginning of the round (when the Director can still sort out the problem before play begins by referring to the printed deal sheet) and also again at the end of the round before the board is passed on to the next players.

We do not often mention the handicap results but please note, if you look at those results, that the file applied this week was the file for 17 June instead of for 24 June because there was no Duplicate Pairs play on 24 June and therefore no change in handicaps.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis. Select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu to view the year to date rankings.

With a few folk away or unavailable this week, we were down to eleven players for individual rubber bridge. Scores generally were not as high as they had been in recent weeks but guess who came top - again. That's right, it was Graham Lyon on a score of 4520. A final opposition contract, against him and his partner, that was doubled and went down contributed substantially to that result. Iris Clyde was the poor person playing the contract which she had been bid into by an over-ambitious and now grovelling Iso Tipler, the stand-in bidder for the three player table that round. Margaret Mainland was second for the evening on 4390 and Iris Clyde third on 4340. The highest single round score of the evening went to Margaret Mainland & Sheila Lyon with a score of 1680 in round seven.

The year to date ranking positions are unchanged for the top six places with Graham Lyon leading on 52390 points, followed by Dennis Paice (46070) and Iris Clyde (45940). 

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page to view the detailed week by week scores. Selected Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the updated rankings for the year to date.

Due to a few folk being away or otherwise unavailable, please note that there will be no Duplicate Bridge pairs this evening, Tuesday, 24 June. Unless there is further notification to the contrary it will take place as usual the following Tuesday.

Individual rubber bridge will go ahead as normal on Friday, 27 June.

There were fifteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday, 20 June and mixed fortunes over the evening.

Graham Lyon continued on his winning ways with a score of 7070, helped by making a doubled and redoubled contract. That good score might have been even better if a contract in the second round that was bid to game had been bid as a Grand Slam which is what was made. Second for the evening was Dennis Paice (5660) and third was Margaret Mainland (4410).

Graham's score reinforces his lead in the overall competition where his best ten results total is 51360. Dennis has moved into second place on a score of 45770, some 5590 points behind. Iris Clyde has moved down to third place but is only  480 points behind Dennis. As expected, Clinton Rendall is tramping up the rankings and has now moved into seventh place.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page to view the detailed week by week results. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to see the year to date rankings summary.

It was a fairly uneventful evening as far as operations were concerned, although Roger Davies did raise Iso Tipler's stress levels towards the end when he alerted a possible error in using the BridgePads. Thankfully this turned out not to be a problem after all.

After a week's absence, Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook were back and celebrated by coming top for the evening with a score of 60.42%. Iso Tipler & Nila McCallum continued their yo-yo effect (top then bottom then next to top), taking second place with 58.33%, with Graham & Sheila Lyon third on 54.17%.

Two small slams were bid and made. The first was on board 3 with the contract being 6♠ by pair 3 (Roger Davies & Dennis Paice) against pair 2 (Iso Tipler & Nila McCallum). The other time that board was played, twelve tricks were made but only game had been bid. The second was on board 30 with the contract being 6♣  by pair 1 (Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook) against pair 3 (Roger Davies & Dennis Paice). Through poor declarer play or good defence, the other time that board was played the contract was only 3♣ which made but with no overtricks. 

The doubling card was in use again. On board 7, 3♣ by pair 3 (Roger Davies & Dennis Paice) was doubled by pair 4 (Graham & Sheila Lyon) and the contract was made. On board 11 the contract was doubled both times the board was played. 1♠ by pair 3 (Roger Davies & Dennis Paice) was doubled by pair 5 (Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer) and made and 2♦ by pair 1 (Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook) was doubled by pair 4 (Graham & Sheila Lyon) and made with two overtricks.

In the year to date rankings, based on the best ten results, the lead continues to be held by Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer (average 55.73%), followed by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice (average 54.58%) and Graham & Sheila Lyon (average 53.15%).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the detailed analysis for the evening. Select the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings for the year to date. Only those shown as having competed on ten or more occasions are qualified for the final rankings.

There were fifteen players, playing seven rounds of Individual Rubber bridge. Many thanks to Glad Marwick for bringing along some homebakes for our refreshments. Wonderful!

Having been absent for a couple of weeks Iris Clyde returned with her usual form this week and took first place for the evening with a score of 5060.  Graham Lyon came second with 4220 points and Clinton Rendall was third with 3930 points.

In her absence, Iris had dropped from second to fifth place for her ten best scores in the year to date but her good result this week meant that she regained her second place with a total of 45070, behind Graham Lyon (47730).  Roger Davies (44170) is in third place.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date to view the week by week results. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings for the year to date and average scores.

I was notified on Friday that an incorrect score had been input (and checked by the opponents!!!!) via the BridgePad on board 30. I have made the correction which has had a knock-on effect on all the results and rankings. I am using this colour to input the amendments to this report rather than re-do the text but have left the old information there in brackets so that you can see the effect of the correction. The revised results have been uploaded to the Results page and Competition Duplicate Pairs. It is really important that both the person inputting the score to BridgePad really thinks about what they are entering and that the person checking really does check not just inputs the authorisation code before transmitting. It only takes seconds to check the input properly. 

Another new member joined us this week, Ann Marie Manson visiting from Kirkudbright. Welcome Ann Marie and we hope to see you again next time you have an opportunity to visit Orkney.  There were three full tables and the ten round Howell movement was used, playing thirty boards. There was a slight over-run on time but we did manage to complete them all.

Top scorers for the evening were Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer with a score of 64.17% (65.83%). They were followed by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice on 55.13% (54.27%) and Graham & Sheila Lyon (Nila McCallum & Ann Marie Manson) on 51.57% (49.17%).

Board 9 was passed out by pairs 3 and 4.  Not a single slam was bid but on board 28 a contract of 5♣ made one overtrick showing that a small slam might have been possible.

Deleted (On board 30 there is an unusually bad result, unless there was an error in the scoring, with 3♠  by Graham & Sheila Lyon against Nila McCallum & Ann Marie Manson going off by seven tricks.)

There was some doubling and even re-doubling.  Contracts were doubled/redoubled on:

• (corrected) board 3 - 4♠XX by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice against Iso Tipler & Margaret Kirkness, going one trick off

• (added) board 3 - 5♥X by Joy Ritch & Marian Ashburn against Nila McCallum & Ann Marie Manson, going five tricks off

• board 17-  2♠X by Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer against Graham & Sheila Lyon, making the contract and two overtricks

• board 27 - 5♠X by Nila McCallum & Ann Marie Manson against Iso Tipler & Margaret Kirkness, going two tricks off​

In the overall rankings, Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer continue to lead the way with an average of 56.87% (57.00%), followed by Dennis Paice & Roger Davies (55.24% (55.13%)) and Graham & Sheila Lyon (53.05% (52.72%)).

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the date for this event. Choose Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions Menu tab to view the year to date rankings. The 'real' rankings are for those who have competed in ten or more events only.

Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook came top this week with a score of 62.50%, followed by Sheila Walls & Pat Shearer (56.25%) and Roger Davies & Dennis Paice (55.21%).  Joy Ritch & Marian Ashburn (41.67%) may have been pleased, at the other end of the results table, to see that it was Iso Tipler & Nila McCallum (38.54%) who brought up the rear this time. 

It was not a night for slams. 6S was bid by Linda Ross & Linda Milne, on Board 4 but went one off. 6C was bid by Graham & Sheila Lyon on board 15 but also went off. 

The X card was out a few times, with varying effect. On board 15, 5C by Linda Ross & Linda Milne was doubled by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice but made. On board 17, 5C by Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook was doubled by Linda Ross & Linda Milne and went three off. On board 20, 3H by Joy Ritch & Marian Ashburn was doubled by Graham & Sheila Lyon but made.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date for this event. Click on Duplicate Pairs on the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings for the year to date. Only those who have played ten or more times qualfiy for the final results, with the best ten results to count.

Wow!  What a night of individual rubber bridge we experienced on Friday, 6 June. There were eleven players, playing seven rounds and after the first round the old, and by now rather sticky, cards were replaced with new packs. How or why it should happen is a mystery but from then on the hands seemed to perk up a bit and there were an unusual number of high scores for the evening. Slams are not recorded on the score sheets for rubber bridge but there were a few during the evening. Maybe we should be changing the packs of cards more often.

Roger Davies must have thought that in almost any other week he was destined to be the leader for the evening as his score was building to 6730 points but this was mere chicken feed compared to Glad Marwick's massive total of 8050 points, a clear 1320 ahead of Roger. Dennis Paice also had a good score of 5860 to give him third place for the evening. Whilst not the highest score ever recorded at the Club (which is somewhere around 8700, according to Graham Lyon), Glad's score is certainly the highest score seen for several years.  Well done, Glad!

Turning to the year to date rankings, there were several position changes - too many to mention them all but here are some key points.  Despite lying only sixth for the evening, Graham Lyon's score of 3440 meant that he was able to drop a relatively low score from his best ten results and hold on to his lead with a total of 46500. Roger Davies (44170) moved from fourth up to second and Glad Marwick (43680) moved from eighth up to third. The most significant losers in all this were Iris Clyde (43450) who dropped from second to fifth and Dennis Paice (43650) who overtook Iris Clyde but still dropped from third to fourth.

Further down the rankings, Clinton Rendall (37890) has finally managed to register ten scores and has moved from 'not qualified' up to tenth place, in the fourteen so far qualified, but those ahead of him need to beware as he has two quite low scores to drop soon. It's a case of 'watch this space' as, given his usual form, Clinton may be expected to move quite quickly up the rankings once those low scores are dropped. The rest of us in the middle rankings will, of course, try to fend him off.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date in order to view the week by week scores. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings for the year to date.

The Club was pleased to welcome George and Kathleen Taylor, on holiday in Orkney, and especially pleased because this meant that there were four full tables and no sitting out.  The aim was to play seven rounds of four boards, giving a total of twenty-eight boards but without the clock running there was some fairly slow bidding and play at some stage which meant that we had to drop the final round.  We will be back on the clock next week!

Owing to a mental aberration when preparing the hands, the hands for Board 28 were incorrect at the outset and when it was first played a switch was made so that the hands intended for Board 29 were moved to Board 28 and everyone then played the new cards.  I have not been able to correct the hands for the results but if you ignore the hand linked to the contract for Board 28 on the results page and look instead at the hand for Board 29 in the Hands schedule you will see the hands played for Board 28. The revised Board 28 hands are also shown above. Ignore the bidding box and the show all hands button.  Are you following this????

Iso Tipler & Nila McCallum came top with a score of 57.5%, followed by George & Kathleen Taylor (55.83%) and Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook (55%). There was one Small Slam bid and made by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice on Board 11 and in fact they made all thirteen tricks. The two other pairs playing E/W on that board made thirteen and twelve tricks, respectively, but had not bid a slam. A Small Slam was bid but not made by Linda Ross & Linda Milne on Board 26. Twelve tricks were made by George & Kathleen on Board 2 and by Roger & Dennis on Board 10 but no slam was bid. Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the full results.

To view the rankings for the year, select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab. The competition is based on the best ten results over the year to date but the table shows pairs who have completed less than ten times. To see the 'real' rankings, just ignore the pairs who are shown on the table as having played less than ten times.

We had two four player tables and two three player tables for Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday, 30 May. This involved a fair amount of dodging about during the bidding stage of hands so that there were then four at the short-handed tables for the bidding but at least no-one had to sit out.

The best single round score of the evening was 1740 in Round 2 when Glad Marwick partnered Iso Tipler. This contributed significantly to Iso achieving the top score for the evening, ending on 4680. Just think what the score might have been if Iso had bid the two slams she made in the early rounds. In second place was Clinton Rendall (4610) and third was Glad (3530).

It was great to see the return of Graham Lyon after an absence of several weeks and whilst his score this week was amongst the 'also rans', he remains in the lead in the rankings for the year on best ten results score of 44890. Iris Clyde (43450), who was not playing on Friday, holds on to second place with Dennis Paice (41320) in third. We may all have missed our chance to grab the lead off Graham but we can but try.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the relevant date to view the detailed week by week results. Selected Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the year to date rankings. 

There were 10 players for individual rubber bridge and we were pleased to welcome Maggie MacGregor to the Club.

To avoid a couple of players having to sit out for two rounds we experimented with using Movements for 11 Players and having no player 7. This meant that throughout the evening there was one four player table and two three player tables, with the consequent need for a player to fill in on each of the three player tables for the bidding of each hand. It seemed to work okay until the last round when two fill-in players were needed - but with a bit more forethought we might be able to solve that problem too.

Top score for the evening went to Pat Shearer (4320), with Roger Davies (3940) second and Dennis Paice (3930) third. For the full breakdown of results week by week, click anywhere in this box to go to the results page and select the relevant date.

Despite being absent from the Club since early April, Graham Lyon continues to lead the rankings for the year. Select Individual Rubber from the Competitions tab on the Menu to view the rankings.

There were two and a half tables of players, playing twenty five boards and the movement used was the three table, 4 round Alternative Howell.

First place for the evening was shared by the pairs of Roger Davies & Dennis Paice and Linda Ross & Linda Milne, both scoring 55%. Third place went to Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook on 50%.

One small slam of 6H was bid and made by Roger Davies & Dennis Paice on board 2. On boards 1, 2 and 25 a game was bid but all thirteen tricks were taken. A 2D contract on board 8 by Iso Tipler & Nila McCallum made twelve tricks, completely missing both game and the small slam.

The doubling card was used three times, with 4HX on board 20 going 3 off, 5CX on board 15 going four off and 2NX on board 22 going five off. Some rather over-ambitious bidding methinks.

Board 14 was passed out by one table, which means that although it was played by one table there was no comparison and therefore points were shared.

With several people away competing in the Orkney v Shetland intercounty match this weekend, it was a select band of five players available to play Individual Rubber Bridge. Although all sought to achieve a good score to take advantage of the absences and move up the rankings, there was only minor change.

Top score for the night was Malcolm Tipler (4310) with Iso Tipler (4110) and Margaret Kirkness (3540) second and third. Fourth and fifth were Roger Davies (3350) and Dennis Paice (3150).

These scores enabled Roger Davies to overtake Linda Milne and Iso and Malcolm Tipler both to move ahead of Glad Marwick in the rankings for the year to date. However, the top three places in the ranking continue to go to Graham Lyon (44620), Iris Clyde (43450) iand Dennis Paice (40890) in third.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the results page and select the relevant date to view the detailed results week by week, or choose Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab to view the rankings summary.

There is never a dull moment. First we were bounced from our normal room. Then I messed up on the pairings and gave Bunty a wasted journey. I am so sorry, Bunty. Then there were a couple of revokes to sort out with awarded penalty tricks and to cap it all I thought that I had either lost the electronic transfer of results or was going to have to retrieve them manually to put onto Scorebridge. It has all worked out okay in the end and the results are now uploaded.

There were three full tables and the 5 Round Howell Movement was used, playing 25 boards.  Margaret M & Marjory came top with 63%, their score being helped in part by a penalty trick awarded for an opposition revoke on board 20. Second were Margaret K & Sheila L on 54% and third were Iso & Nila on 48%. The penalty trick awarded for a revoke on board 9 allowed a contract that would have been down by one trick to in effect make. This in turn affected the resultant points for the board and the overall rankings. A lesson for us all to be vigilant.

It was not a good night for slam contracts. Small slams were bid but not made: by Roger & Dennis on board 17; by Sheila W & Pat on board 23; and by Roger & Dennis also on board 23. Conversely, slams were not bid but could have been made on boards 7, 16 and 22. The results suggest that a small slam could have been made on board 20 but the extra trick in that case came from a revoke penalty.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results calendar and select the relevant date to view the full results. Or go to the Competitions menu tab and select Duplicate Pairs to see the rankings for the year to date. At present these show all the rankings but the competition is based on the best ten results so just ignore those with less than ten events played to see the real rankings.

Twelve players competed at Individual Rubber Bridge on Friday, 9 May and this week it was Glad Marwick who came top with a score of 5120 points, including three rounds with scores of over 1000. Second and third places went to Margaret Heddle (4570) and Margaret Mainland (4270).

For the series as a whole, Graham Lyon (44620) remains in first place with Iris Clyde (43450) second and Denis Paice (40890) third. Both Margaret Mainland (40180) and Linda Milne (40020) have sneaked ahead of Roger Davies (39870) and Glad Marwick's win this week saw her move ahead of Iso and Malcolm Tipler.

Click anywhere in this box to view the detailed schedule or select the Individual Rubber option from the Competitions tab on the Menu to view the year to date summary.

Please note that it was drawn to my attention after the original results were uploaded that the result for board 12 had been incorrectly input using the BridgePad on the night. The correction to the board result has been made and all the outputs updated for the Results page and the Competitions - Duplicate Pairs page. A brief note is being made to have on tables to remind folk of what needs to be done when entering scores.

The remainder of the commentary remains as before, see below.

Thank you, thank you, thank you...... It was a case of 'third time lucky' with the BridgePad technology working like a treat, which was just as well as it was decided not to use the paper travellers as back up.  The contract for each hand was not shown on the tabletop handsets but the upside of that was that it avoided time being lost while folk thought about how their table's contract compared with other contracts for the same hand. Folk can, of course, analyse next day when the results are up on the website.

There were three full tables and twenty-five boards were played using the Howell three table, five rounds movement.

Two tables Passed Out Board 12 and one table passed out Board 17.

Two small slams were bid and made on Board 11 - 6H by Iso & Dennis against Jean & Bunty and 6N by Sheila W & Pat  against Sheila L & Margaret K. 

Small slams were made but not bid: 

• on Board 2 by Margaret M & Marjory against Iso & Dennis;
• on Board 10 each time it was played but only one pair was in even game contract - Sheila W & Pat against Iso & Dennis; and
• on Board 23 by Sheila W & Pat against Margaret M & Marjory.

Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and select the date for this event to see the full analysis. Select Competitions from the Menu and then Duplicate Pairs to view the year to date rankings.

There were sixteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge this week and it was great to welcome back Margaret Heddle for the first time this year.

Top this week was Clinton Rendall with a good score of 5310. Clinton also had the highest single round score of 1760 when partnered with Ally Kelly in round three. Second and third places for the evening went to Margaret Kirkness (4990) and Iris Clyde (4060). Click anywhere in this box to go to the Results page and then select the relevant date in order to view the detailed results schedule.

Despite having missed the last four Fridays, Graham Lyon continues to top the rankings with a total score of 44620 for his best ten scores this year. Iris Clyde is moving ever closer having reached a total of 43450. Dennis Paice (40890) lies in third place with Roger Davies (39640) and Margaret Mainland (39300) not far behind. Only about half of those who play on Fridays have so far competed on ten evenings in 2014 but once others also have ten results to count we may start to see some changes in positions especially at the lower end. From the Competitions menu, select Individual Rubber to view a summary of the rankings for the year to date.