Eight players tonight so a nice relaxed evening and an early finish.   Clinton came top tonight with 3,780, followed by Linda with 3,100 and Iris with 3,090. After dropping a poor score Clinton now leads with 39,280, followed by Graham with 37,970 and Linda with34,690.  Pat lies in 4th place but Iris overtook Margaret and Sheena tonight to  lie in 5th place.  Thanks to Glad and Clinton for providing lovely scones and fruit with chocolate dip to keep us all going.                   

Seven pairs competed in the first Duplicate Pairs session of 2021 with all wearing masks and doing plenty of hand sanitising and anti-bacterial wiping throughout the evening.  Many thanks to everyone for doing their part to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus

The winners for the evening were the new pairing of Graham & Jean with a score of 61.7%.  In second place were DaveH & Sandy with 57.45%.  Dennis & SheenaH came third with 56.52%.  These were the only pairs to achieve more than 50%.

Twelve players took part in Individual Rubber Bridge this evening and once again it was LindaM who took the win, with a score of 4470 points.  Pat came a good second with 4220 points and Dennis third with 3870 points.

After two weeks of play LindaM has a cumulative score of 8520 points.  MargaretM lies second with 7380 points and Dennis lies third with 6730 points.  The only other player with in excess of 6000 points is Graham with 6240 points.

Numbers were down a little this week with only nine players taking part.

Sheena had by far the highest score of the night and of our very short season to date, scoring 7030 points - well done!  That was a very impressive High Score and will be quite hard to beat with only a few weeks to go in this year's competition. A long way behind but in second place was Malcolm with 4180 points.  Graham was third with 3640 points.

The big score from Sheena meant that she jumped from ninth place to first place in the rankings with 11460 points.  LindaM drops to second place with 10800 points and Malcolm moves up to third place with 10470 points.

MargaretM will be in charge next week so please give her whatever help you can.

Eleven players on Friday night.  Warm welcome back to Sheila Lyon and Margaret Kirkness.

No big scores to report this week.  Linda Milne came top with 3,930 followed by Margaret K with 3,840 and Jean Tulloch with 3,730. 

After 4 weeks Linda M leads with 14,730, Sheena Hay is second with 14,270 and Margaret M is third with 13,430 closely followed by Graham.

Ten players competed and rather than have a table of four and two tables of three with lots of running about to stand in for bidding we opted to have two players sitting out each round.  Four players had to sit out twice, which is a bit tedious, but on the plus side they each scored 500 points for each sit out.

Top player for the evening was Malcolm with 4440 points. Graham was second with 4230 points and MargaretM third with 4220 points.

The cumulative score lead is with SheenaH with 18410 points.  LindaM lies second with 17800 points and MargaretM third with 17650 points. Snapping at their heels with 17350 points is Graham.  No-one else has a cumulative score above 15000 points.

We started the evening with 7 pairs, so three and a half tables.  Unfortunately, during the evening one pair had to withdraw so, in addition to there being a sitting out pair, for each subsequent round the boards at the table where the withdrawing pair should have been sitting had to be treated as Not Played.

Top pair were SheilaW & Pat with 58.33%.  Second were Graham & Jean with 51.39% and third spot went to MargaretH & Ruth with 50%.

It is far to early to read anything into the cumulative results but for the time-being SheilaW & Pat lead with an average of 58.33%.  DaveH & Sandy lie second with 57.45% and Graham & Jean lie third with 56.55%.

Eleven players this evening and some very mixed results.  Top score went to Iso with 4810 points with SheilaL coming second with 3560 points.  In third place was LindaM with 3440 points.

There was a change to the lead in the cumulative points competition.  LindaM retook first place with a cumulative score of 21240 points.  She displaced Sheena who moved down to second place with 21070 points.  MargaretM lies third with 20750 points but is only 50 points of Graham with 20700 points.

The Club was pleased to welcome back Iris for the first time playing face to face bridge this year.  Eleven players competed so three tables were used with a stand in bidder each round.  You could probably guess our general age group by the number of times players had to be reminded to take their bidding boxes when standing in and also to take them back to their own table afterwards.

Top score went to Malcolm with 4420 points. MargaretM came second with 4050 points and LindaM third with 3900 points.

LindaM is leading in the cumulative points competition with 25140 points.  MargaretM has moved into second place with 24800 points, with Graham lying third with 24530 points.  The only other player with more than 24000 points is Sheena with 24140 points.  There is then a gap of almost 3000 points to the next placed player.  No-one has dropped a score yet and only those who compete every week for this short season will have one to drop in the final week.  For everyone else all scores will count.

Individual Rubber Bridge was cancelled on Friday, 26 November 2021 but it has been decided to treat that evening as being an evening when everyone sat out for seven rounds and scored 500 points per round, ie 3500 for the evening rather than dropping the evening completely from the competition.  This is because the competition was only going to run for eleven weeks to start with, with one score being dropped to arrive at the best ten results for a final score in the competition, and keeping to that intention enables more people to qualify with ten scores and keeps it interesting for those at the top who may be able to lose a low score.

Ten players competed with two players sitting out each round and two pairs sitting out for two rounds.

Top scorer for the evening was MargaretM with 4170 points. Graham was not far behind with 4100 points and Pat came third with 4040 points.

This evening's scores resulted in MargaretM moving into the competition lead with a total of 32470 points.  Graham lies in second place with 32130 points and LindaM lies third with 31490 points.  There are just two more rubber bridge evenings before the end of the 2021 season and it will be interesting to see who wins the trophy for their ten best scores.

Eleven players this evening so no sitting out but a substitute bidder needed at a three player table each round. Much better to be playing than sitting out but some of us welcome the 500 points awarded for each sit out round.

SheilaL scored 5330 points which was a long way ahead of MargaretH in second place with 3400 points. Iris came third with 3280 points.

There is just one more week to go in the 2021 Individual Rubber Bridge competition and the final positions are not yet determined.  MargaretM is in the lead with 35160 points and if she plays next week may be able to drop a score if she manages to score more than 2690 points for the final evening.  Graham is currently on 34730 points and may be able to drop a score if he achieves more than 2600 for the final evening.  There is then a bit of a gap to Sheena on 32250 points but she only needs to achieve more than 1830 points to be able to drop a score.  LindaM and Malcolm are lying in equal fourth place.  They will be able to add a score but will have no scores to drop.

Good luck to the leading contenders.

Fourteen players competed with two players sitting out each round and scoring a very welcome 500 points for the privilege.

It was a fairly dismal evening in terms of scores with only five players scoring above three thousand points and one player not making it to two thousand points.  Top score went to Glad with 4370 points.  Second was Sheena with 3940 and some way behind her was Iris with 3390.

There were no positional changes at the top end of the rankings but a few movements further down.  

The results announced last night at the end of play have had to be corrected in respect of boards 22, 25 and 26.

In the case of board 22, pairs 8 and 7, the direction of play had been input incorrectly.

In the case of board 25, pairs 9 v 8, the tricks taken were originally shown as just 5 but it looks as though that must have been 'making 5', ie taking 11 tricks.

In the case of board 26, same pairs, the direction of play was shown as E but should have been W judging by the lead and the tricks taken were shown as just 2 but looks as though that must have been 'making 2', ie taking 8 tricks. 

Thirteen players tonight so 3 full tables with  7 players getting 500 points when they had to sit out.  Scores were a bit mixed with 5 players scoring less than 3000 and 5 players scoring more than 4000 and the rest in between.  Top tonight was Dennis with 4,730 followed by Margaret M with 4,660 and Margaret H with 4,550.  Top table score this week was Dennis and Iris on Round 1. Apparently on the first hand of the evening Iris opened 2 clubs with 22 points and Dennis held 17 points - a little slam followed by a game on the next hand gave them a great start with 1630. There was a lot of movement on the score sheet this week and after eight weeks Margaret M remains in the lead but Iris moves up to second, Linda remains in third place and Dennis moves up to fourth place. Thanks to Glad for the delicious raspberry and white chocolate muffins - they went down a treat.

Fifteen players turned out to play on a very windy evening.  Some enjoyed good hands but others were frustrated by hand after hand of poor points.  Still, we all love to play bridge and live in hope that the good points will come around.

Top scorer this evening, by a good margin, was SheilaL with 5360 points.  More than a thousand points behind was MargaretH in second place with 4250 points.  Graham was third on 3980 points.

In the year to date rankings, after seven evenings, MargaretM leads with a total of 31740 points.  Pat lies in second place with 24210 points and LindaM lies third with 23870 points.

Fourteen players competed and fortunes were very mixed.  There seemed an abundance of slam opportunities though not many were actually bid.  At one table in one round there was one slam bid and made and two further slams made but not bid.  Malcolm was trying for the Guiness Book of Records with his score of five slams made but not bid during the course of the evening.

MargaretM again had a good evening, finishing with a score of 5830 points. Iso was second with 4490 points and when playing together those two had a round score of 1830 points which certainly helped their final scores.  In third place was LindaM with 4420 points.

In the year to date rankings, MargaretM has amassed a total of 28060 points, 6560 points ahead of Pat who has 21500 points. Not far behind in third place is LindaM with 21300 points.  There were a few positional changes further down the rankings but the only other player with over 20000 points so far is Iris with 20370 points.

Fifteen players competed this week, enjoying using the new cards.  Enjoy them while you can before the lovely goodies we often have on Fridays reduce them to the slightly sticky packs that have just been replaced. 

Graham, Sheila, Iris and Clinton all scored more than one thousand points twice during the evening with the most impressive round being the final one where Graham and SheilaL scored 1850 points.  This score helped to make Graham a clear winner with a total of 4570 points for the evening with SheilaL second with 4340 points  Iris came third with 4290 points and the only other player with more than four thousand points was Clinton with 4170 points.

There was quite a bit of movement in the year to date rankings but MargaretM remains in the lead with 22230 points, 3600 ahead of Pat in second place with 18630 points and Iris third with 17560 points.

Sixteen players competed this evening, so no rushing around just leisurely bridge.

Scores were slightly better than the previous week and there were a few small slams bid.  The top score went to Ruth with 5830 points, almost a thousand points ahead of MargaretM with 4880 points.  Clinton was not far behind with 4800 points.

There were several place movements within the year to date rankings but the three leading players are MargaretM with 19000 points which pretty good going after only four weeks of play so far this season.  She is just over three thousand ahead of Pat with 15960 points, who in turn was more than two thousand points ahead of and LindaM with 13430 points.

Thirteen players again this week with one player sitting out each round. Mostly the scores were low with one or two better scores thrown in.

MargaretM was top for the second week running with a score of 4370 points and Pat was not far behind with 4200 points.  LindaM was third with 3900 points. These three were the only three to have a round score of 1000 points or more.  They also happen to be the three players who lead the rankings after three weeks of the new season.  MargaretM has a good lead with a total of 14120 points, some 1370 points ahead of Pat in second place with 12750 points, who in turn lies 3220 points ahead of LindaM in third place with 9530 points.  It is still very early days though so lots of opportunities for others to catch up.  

There is nothing quite like nearly a month's holiday, with Christmas and New Year thrown in, to make me deviate from my normal routines.  You may well have been wondering what happened to Friday's results - they have been festering on the table waiting for me to remember to do something with them but here they are at last.

Thirteen players meant that one player sat out each round, scoring a valuable 500 points for the privilege on a generally low scoring night.  Bucking the trend and laying down the gauntlet for another battle this season was MargaretM who scored 5010 points, more than a thousand ahead of Iso with 3970 points followed by Jean with 3720 points.

At this stage in the season the year to date rankings are rather meaningless but here they are anyway.  MargaretM leads with 9750 points.  After a good start last week, Pat lies second with 8550 points. Jean lies third, a long way back, with 6740 points.

Food, fun and prizes tonight to celebrate the start of the 2020 Rubber Bridge Competition in Dounby. 

Before play began Clinton Rendall and Linda Milne, who were unable to attend presentation night in December, received small plaques to mark their achievements in 2019.  Clinton was runner up to winner Iris Clyde for the best 10 scores over the year while Linda had the highest single score of 2019.  

Fourteen players then began the competition all over again.  Small prizes were won by the highest scorers in each of the seven rounds played but scores were generally low for most folks tonight.  Pat Shearer came first with 5,030 followed by Margaret Mainland with 4,740 and Clinton with 3480.

Thanks to everyone for bringing food and drink and making the first Friday evening so enjoyable. Good luck for the rest of the year.

Well that’s the 2020 season off to a start with five full tables.

Congratulations go to Sandy and new player Graeme who came top with 55.19%.

Second were Dave & Ben on 53.88% and third place went to Graham & Sheila with 53.30%.

Twelve players again this week but no really exciting scores to report.  Clinton came first with 4,790,  just 10 points ahead of Graham with  4,780 in second place and Glad was third with 3,780. These three were the only people to drop a score this week.  Clinton and Graham both closed the gap a bit but Iris remains firmly in the lead with 55,520, Clinton now with 53,210 in second place and Graham with 51,990 in third place.  Thanks to Clinton for arriving with a tray of  creamy concoctions - they were delicious as always.

Twelve players competed on what was a generally low scoring evening.  Half the players scored less than three thousand points, five scored between three and four thousand points and just one player passed the four thousand mark.

Top scorer for the evening was MargaretM who was trying to take advantage of the absence of Graham to post a good score and catch him in the rankings.  She scored 4800 points which did enable her to drop a low score but there was no change in her ranking, just a small decrease in the gap to Graham.  Second for the evening was Clinton with 3960 points and third was Malcolm with 3660 points.

On such a low scoring evening there were no changes in position and no dropped low scores apart from MargaretM's.  Ruth has now competed on ten occasions and will have the opportunity to start dropping low scores from the next time she competes.

Twelve players competed.  There were no really high scores for the evening as a whole and the highest single round scores were 1280 points by Graham and Dennis and 1200 points by Iso and Sheena. There were, however, some mutterings about missed slam opportunities so maybe higher scores might have been achievable.

Top scorer was Graham with 4900 points. In second place was Iris with 4580 points and in third was Iso with 4310 points.

Graham, Iso and MargaretH all dropped a low score but there were no changes of place in the rankings.  The top three at this stage are Iris on 55520 points, Clinton on 53210 points and Graham on 52730 points.  Iris is holding onto a good lead and it is becoming increasingly difficult for those close behind her to score enough to drop low scores. 

Fourteen players competed so there was quite a bit of running around bidding at the shorthanded tables.

There were no spectacular scores but top scorer for the evening was LindaM with 4980 points.  Second was MargaretM with 4890 points and third was Clinton with 4760 points.

Six players - Clinton, Graham, MargaretM, Dennis, LindaM and Ruth - all dropped a score but there were no changes in position in the rankings.  Iris remains in the lead with 55520 points, with Clinton second with 53210 points and Graham third, close behind, with 53110 points.

Low numbers this evening with just ten players available.  Rather than having some players sitting out twice, we opted for one table of four and two tables of three with lots of running around for stand-in bidders and a later than normal finish.

There seemed to be plenty of interesting hands with voids, long suits and good points.  At least one Small Slam was bid and made and a few other slams were made but not bid.  Top scorer for the evening was MargaretM with a total of 5310 points despite one round with zero points.  In second place was Dennis with 5050 points and third was Graham with 4570 points. 

Graham, MargaretM, Dennis, Iso, Gladys and Sheena all dropped a low score and three players changed position in the rankings.  Iris remains in first place with 55520 points.  Graham's dropped score enabled him to move up to second place with 53390 points, just ahead of Clinton with 53300 points who went down to third place.  Gladys overtook SheilaL to move into tenth place and Sheena overtook MargaretK to move into 13th place.

Twelve players competed and there were several seven hundred rubbers achieved as well as at least a couple of Small Slams.

Top scorer was LindaM with 5090 points, followed by MargaretM with 4750 points and joint third for SheilaL and Clinton with 4580 points.

LindaM, Malcolm, SheilaL and Sheena all dropped a low score but the only person to move up in the rankings was SheilaL who moved from eleventh to tenth place.  The top three in the rankings remain  Iris with 55520 points, Graham with 53390 points and Clinton with 53300 points.

Twelve players competed on what was generally a fairly low scoring evening but they were well fortified by goodies thanks to Clinton and MargaretK.

It is strange how the cards can seem to run in a particular direction at a table despite the cards being shuffled and cut before each deal. That certainly seemed to be the case on table 1 for a while.  Probably it evens out a little over the entire evening but if you are receiving the low points while there that is not much consolation.

The top scorer was Jean with 4840 points, enabling her to drop a score of 3530 points and so add 1310 points to her best ten results total. Clinton came second with 4460 points but did not drop a score. Iso was third with 4050 points and dropped a score of 4030 points, thus adding only 20 points to her best ten results total.

There were no ranking changes this week so Iris (who had a really bad evening points-wise) remains in overall lead with a total of 55520 points.  Graham lies second with 53390 points, with Clinton hot on his heels with 53300 points.  With six weeks left in the series, which ends on 20 December, there is still time for things to change.

Only ten players this evening and rather than have players sitting out each round we played with one four hand table and two three hand tables.

Iso owes Malcolm an apology for failing to make a Small Slam contract which was there for the taking but conversely owes thanks to Graham for kindly doubling a game contract in the final round and contributing towards the 1970 points scored by her in the that round.

The top three scores for the evening were Iso with 5750 points, Jean with 5590 points and Clinton 5290 points.

In the year to date rankings, Iris remains in the lead with 55520 points, Clinton regained second place from Graham with 53830 points and Graham lies third with 53390 points.  Further down the rankings, Iso moved up two places to seventh place, overtaking Malcolm and Pat.  Malcolm also overtook Pat but remains in eighth place with Pat in ningth.. Jean also moved up two places, overtaking Glad and SheilaL to tenth place.

Oh boy!  What a night of generally disappointing hands, unusual distributions and low scores.  Just ten players again so lots of running about

Probably the most unusual hand was one held by Jean when she had nine Clubs, four Hearts and voids in Spades and Diamonds.  6♣ was the Small Slam contract and made easily with just the ace of Hearts being lost .  Elsewhere there were some other long suits and voids but not always accompanied by points and contracts going down was a regular occurrence all evening.

MargaretM was top with 4090 points. SheilaL was second with 3840 points and LindaM third with 3210 points.  The only other player to score more than three thousand points was Iris with 3060 points.

There were no positional changes in the rankings so Iris remains in the lead on 55520 points, Clinton on 53830 points and Graham on 53390 points.  SheilaL and MargaretH both dropped low scores.

Thirteen players this evening so three full tables and one person sitting out each round and scoring 500 points for the privilege - a welcome addition to scores on a generally low scoring eveing.

Top scorer for the evening was Iso with 5020 points, helped by scoring 1650 points in round 2 when partnered by MargaretM.  In second place was Malcolm with 3670 points and in third place was Graham with 3670 points.   Iso and Hazel both dropped a low score.

There were no changes in the ranking positions this week so Iris continues to lead with 55520 points for her ten best scores.  Some way behind in second and third places are Clinton with 53830 points and Graham with 53390 points. Catching Iris is going to be tough at this stage but a change in the runner up position is definitely a possibility. 

Thirteen players again this week so one person sitting out each round and scoring 500 points.  Scores were generally very low, as if the cards are exhausted as the end of the season approaches,  so a 500 point round was often welcome.

The top scorer was Clinton with 4380 points. In second place was Malcolm with 4290 points and third was Graham with 3990 points.

The only player to drop a low score was Malcolm but there were no changes to the rankings.  Iris remains in the lead with 55520 points. Clinton is lying second with 53830 points and Graham is lying third with 53390 points.  

Twelve players competed this evening. The new playing cards seemed to lead to a few really good hands for some folk with slams being made but unfortunately not usually bid.

Top player was SheilaL with 6340 points a very long way ahead of Pat who was in second place with 4780 points.  Malcolm was third with 4630 points.

Iris remains in first place in the year to date rankings with 55520 points.  Clinton lies in second place with 53090 points.  Graham, now with a total of 51160 points, moved up from fourth place to third overtaking MargaretM.  Further down the rankings, SheilaL moved up two places to tenth place, overtaking Glad and Jean.

Was it just me or did anyone else feel like the dealing machine had been substituted for a monkey having had it’s daily supply of bananas suspended for the last fortnight! While some boards proved difficult others were just pure evil. Having said that, Sheena & Linda M revelled in this week’s hands finishing with the by far away top score of the evening, an excellent 67.36%.

Runners up and dropping a score were Roger & Dennis with 58.33%. Third place went to Mike & Christine on 54.86%.

No slams were bid this week although twelve tricks were made on each occasion on board 3. With only a combined 26 points and 14 losers, 4 Hearts seems the correct contract but on anything but an unlikely diamond lead the small slam makes.

The doubling card was used to good effect this week with five contracts, all on different boards going at least two off and once as many as four.

Overall no change as Graham & Sheila on 62.91% still hold a tenuous lead over Dave & Sandy with 62.02% and a little further back Linda & Margaret on 60.70%.

Twelve players tonight and everyone delighted with the new comfortable chairs in the bridge room so that  only left the cards to complain about.  Quite a few distributional hands led to contracts being made with less points than you'd normally expect to succeed with.  Iris Clyde and Pat Shearer were successful in bidding and making the only  small slam of the evening which helped them score 1,730 for their round together. This also helped Iris to come first again with a lovely score of 5,190, followed by Dennis Paice with 4,520 and Ruth Sinclair with 4,200. Nobody moved up tonight but Iris and Dennis dropped a score.  Iris increased her lead to 55,520, followed by Clinton with 53,090, Margaret M with 50,680, Graham with 50,370, Dennis with 49,590 and Linda M with 47,890.  Still 3 months till the end of the year so not too late to get some good scores and catch the leaders or even pass them!

Again the Orcadian has not printed the bridge report kindly prepared by David Toms but you can access it to download to read by clicking anywhere in this box.  Many thanks for persevering, David.

David Toms prepared a report on last week's bridge for the paper but unfortunately it was not published.  Click anywhere in this box to download a copy of the report pdf to read.

Five full tables this week saw an unforgiving set of boards. The possible exception being board 13, North opens with an eight card diamond suit and 12 points to find their partner holding 19 points and although only having the singleton Ace each pair ends up in the solid six diamonds contract.

Loads of contracts were to go down on poor trump fits and bad distribution and while no-trump contracts faired better, with unbalanced hands and unlucky breaks these were often doomed to failure as well.

Having played three quarters of their boards in defence, Graham & Sheila managed to reap the rewards of the problematic hands and recorded the highest score so far this year with 69.91%. Runners up were Ben & Stephen with 58.80% and third went to Mike & Christine on 53.24%.

Overall the positions remain unchanged this week although Graham & Sheila drop a score to increase their lead to 62.71%, still in second with 60.37% are Ben & Dave and in third place Linda & Margaret have 60.06%.

Fourteen players tonight so 2 tables with 4 players and 2 tables with 3 players so that no one had to sit out. Some very mixed fortunes tonight - 3 players scored less than 2000, 4 players less than 3000, 2 players just over 3000 and then came 5 players with good scores. 

Glad with 4,460 dropped a poorer score and Doreen with 4,570 continues to score well.  Margaret M with 5,110 came 3rd and dropped a score, as did Pat in 2nd place with 5,640.  Margaret and Pat were really lucky  when they played together, bidding and making 3NT on each of their 4 hands giving them 2 seven hundred rubbers and a score of 1,980 for the round.

However  top tonight by a good margin was Iris with a lovely score of 6,430 and also dropping a poorer score and moving into 2nd place overall.

Clinton remains in the lead with 51,970 just ahead of Iris with 51,560. Margaret M moved into 3rd place tonight with 49,820 but close behind is Graham with 49,730 and Dennis with 49,060.

Thanks to Clinton for the lovely trifles and to Glad for the delicious cheese scones - made the poor scores nearly bearable.

Another good turnout this week with six full tables playing 27 boards.

There were seven small slams bid, five of these on board 24 where all thirteen tricks were made on each occasion. Board 20 also made thirteen tricks but Ruth & Margaret were the only pair to bid a small slam in hearts, the rest stopping off in either four or five. A sacrifice of 6 spades on board 4 scored just under 50% as 5 hearts made twice but really should go one off. Board 4 also saw the only redoubled contract of the evening with 4NT** going five off for a massive 2800 points.

It may have been over a year since the played together but Dave H & Dave W had the best score of the night with 67.78%. Runners up were Graham & Sheila with 62.22% and third place went to Mike & Christine on 61.11%

This week saw the first change in the top three overall positions since 18^th June. Graham & Sheila, dropping a low score, go into first place with 60.66%. Ben & Dave are second on 60.37% and Margaret & Linda third with 60.06%.

Sixteen players this evening made for relaxed play with no darting around to bid at another table, though some of us would have been glad to have the opportunity to pick up the extra odd hand or so in order to see some good points, even if not scoring from them because of being stand-in bidders.

Overall the scoring was low with half of the players having total scores under three thousand points.  The top scorer was Malcolm with 5240 points. In second place was Doreen with 4930 points and third was Freda with 4810 points.

In the year to date rankings, Clinton lies in the lead with 51970 points.  In second place is Graham with 49730 points and third is Dennis with 49060 points.

Question:- what does bridge players do on a beautiful summer evening?

Answer:- play bridge of course!

Well twenty did any way, on the warmest evening this year so far. Warm temperatures didn't deter some good results ether as the first three pairs were all well into the 60 per cents.

Six small slams were made, three of them on board sixteen. Although only 32 combined points, declarer can take all 13 tricks off the top. Six hearts was bid once on board eighteen but would surely go down on a spade lead. Six no-trumps only makes on board twenty-one when south plays the ten on the second round of diamonds, guaranteeing their queen but cost them a trick when partner is found with jack doubleton.

First for the evening were Dave & Sandy with 64.95%, closely followed by Mike & Christine with 64.49% and Michael & David on 63.94%.

In the year to date ranking Ben & Dave remain in front with 60.37%, Margaret & Linda drop a score to improve their second place slightly to 60.06% and Graham & Sheila remain in third on 59.86. Dave & Sandy completed their tenth score this week and move into fourth place with 59.60%.

For most the first four rounds were pretty low scoring but then a bit of a theme started as six players each had two 1000+ rounds and a blank over the last three tables. The best of these was Linda who had 1200 points after five rounds but ended the evening with a 1470 and a 1490 to give her a total of 4260 for forth place. Similarly Dennis boosted his score on rounds five and six with combined 2640 points giving him a third place total of 4460. Clinton also had a late surge getting 2680 on the last two rounds taking him to 5270 points for second but with a more balanced and steady evening, Iris Clyde secured top spot with 5460 points.

Quite a few folks dropped a low score this week but this had little change in the overall placing, Clinton, Graham and Dennis remain in the top three positions however Iris’s win carried her up three places to fourth.

My apologies this morning!!! After being made aware of errors in last nights scoring I've discovered that the wrong movements were used. Fortunately the only difference in the movements were the direction played on the two stationary tables so the problem can be rectified but will mean a change in last night's results. By how much I have no idea but the amended version should be up sometime this afternoon. Again apologies!

Correct results are now up. While some gained on last night's entimated results others lost out but the good news is that Ally & George still topped the evening with 59.38%. Now in second are Mike & Christine on 56.38% and in third, Sandy & Dave with 53.65%.

Ten folks for this week’s rubber bridge meant one table of four and two tables of three.

With two tables seeking a bidder there was plenty of running around for the dummy and even on this the longest day the sun was setting as the last cards were played.

Pretty modest scores this week again, however there was a few rounds that scored over a thousand points with Dennis having the best while playing without a partner getting 1450 with a rubber and game.

Only three scores over three and a half thousand, Iris winning with 4730, Margaret Heddle getting 3840 and Dennis 3540.

Iris, Pat and Sheena managed to drop a score but no-one moved this week so the overall positions remain the same. Top three are Graham 49730, Clinton 48450 and Dennis 47430.

Another good turnout this week with 6 ½ tables, making it the best attended evening since July last year.

On the whole hands were a lot more balanced this week, only a couple of six and seven seven suiters, although an eight card suit had north sacrificing twice in five diamonds double on board 18. As it turned out west struggled to make 4 spades non vulnerable, but reminds us sacrificing whilst vulnerable against a non vulnerable game and always assume you are going to be doubled, you can only afford to go one down.

Couple of other contracts were also doubled. Three clubs on board 12 and 6NT on board 8, both going on off. The only other slam bid was 6 hearts on board 6 by Graham & Sheila, this time making the12 tricks.

Top spot this week went to Graham & Sheila with 66.67%. Second were Sandy & Dave on 59.63% and third place were Mike & Christine on 57.50%.

No change in the top two positions overall this week with Dave & Ben still in the lead with 60.37% and Linda & Margaret second on 60.05%, however Graham & Sheila regain third on 59.42%.

This week saw two full tables as some players returned from their travels while others had set off.

No 500 rubbers recorded this time but Dennis, Clinton and Graham each scored two 700 rubbers whilst partnering one another. Clinton’s doubling card earned him and his partner 300 points on two occasions and Graham’s double gave himself and Sheena 800 points on the very last hand of the evening.

Top scorer was Clinton with 4670, second place went to Dennis on 4090 and Sheena came third with 3980.

No changes in the league table this week but Clinton, Dennis and Sheena all managed to drop a score. Graham leads on 49730 points with Clinton closing the gap to 1280 with 48450 points. Dennis remains in third with 47190.

Seven players again this week and, apart from Dennis Paice and Jean Tulloch, pretty poor scores all round.  Dennis came top  this week again with 5,630 and  Jean came second again  with 4,390, Graham was third with 3,030.  Dennis, Jean and Sheena Hay dropped a poorer score but only Dennis and Jean moved up.  Graham still leads with 49,730, followed by Clinton with 47,330 in second place and  Dennis with 47,190 moved up to third place tonight. Linda Milne is next with 46,820, Iris Clyde has 44,610 and Pat Shearer 41,790. Still over 6 months to go so plenty of time for some good hands and good scores to catch the leaders.   We live in hope!

Good to see nine pairs again this week with still a good few away on holiday.

A bit of a mixture of hands this time, some good two suiters but also some fairly evenly balanced flat hands. Only the one slam bid and made, by Roger & Dennis, on board 12. With a combined 32 points and a solid heart suit the other pairs surely missed a chance bidding that one!

There was also only one doubled contract, on board 19, making an overtrick for a top for Graham & Sheila.

Winner’s on the night were Ben & Stephen Lovick with 59.03%. In second place were Mike & Christine Sinclair on 58.33% and third were Ally Kelly & George Gray with 54.86%.

Overall the placing are the same as last week with only Graham & Sheila dropping a score.

Only seven people tonight and only three reasonable scores.  Dennis Paice came top with 4,980 followed by Jean Tulloch with 3,920 and Margaret Kirkness 3,560.  No one moved up so positions remain the same as last week with Graham, Clinton and Linda holding the top three places. (Correction - Dennis  moved up a place and is now in 4th position)

With around ten of the regular players away this week it was great to get four and a half tables.

Loads of six card suits, a seven. an eight and even nine spades in one hand. In spite of all this no slams were bid and only one contract was doubled, five spades in the afore mentioned nine card suited hand, going two off for a bottom.

Winners on the night were Mike & Christine Sinclair with 66.67%. Graham & Sheila Lyon second on 65.28% and Margaret Mainland & Dennis Paice third on 57.64%.

Thirteen players this week. Probable the most for a little while as holiday season gets into full swing so a good time for anyone to come along if they fancy a quiet game!

Only five 700 rubbers made over the evening with not a single 500 one.

Just the one slam, a vulnerable six no trumps, bid by Iris & Margaret M. Clinton fancied a double which Iris immediately redoubled and preceded to take twelve tricks only losing one, to the ten of diamonds, giving them a total of 2410 points for the round.

Needless to say with that score under their belts Iris had the highest score of the night with 5270 points, closely followed by Margaret with 5150. Clinton came in 3^rd with 4570.

Overall Graham is still first with 49730, Clinton goes back up to second place with 47330 and Linda drops back into third on 46820.

Due to a correction on board 8 the results intimated last night have changed.

Top for the evening now are Dave & Sandy with 60.74% and runners up, Margaret and Linda with 57.78%.

All other placing are unaltered although percentages may have change slightly.

Fourteen players competed, which may be the most we will have playing on a Friday for a while as various people are heading off on holidays soon.

On the whole the scores were moderate but Graham finished with a total of 6200 points, helped enormously by a score of 2000 points in round 5 when partnered by LindaM. That round score also contributed to LindaM taking second place with 4980 points.  MargaretH, despite being the donor of 1700 of the 2000 points in round 5, was third with 4360 points which was her best score since April 2018.  All the players except Iso dropped a low score this week.

Graham consolidated his lead in the year to date rankings, now with a total of 49730 for his best ten scores.  LindaM lies in second place with 46820 points having overtaken Clinton who dropped back to third place with 46220 points.

Correction to this week's report in red below.

apologies for the lack of reports for the last couple of weeks.

This evening we had sixteen players so four full tables and need to enjoy the situation while it lasted as we are moving into a period when several people are going to be away on holiday.

There were several missed opportunities with hands being bid to game when a slam was on or only to part game when a full game was on. And, of course, there were times when any points at all were hard to come by.  All of this making it an evening of very mixed fortunes with several low scores but a few good ones.

Top player for the evening was Dennis with 6790 points (and he could have had more if Iso had not let him down in round 5!). In second place was Malcolm with 5670 points and third equal were Pat and Clinton with 5420 points.

There were several movements in the year to date rankings.  Despite a very poor evening by his standards, Graham remains in the lead with 47000 points for his ten best scores. In second place is Clinton with 46060 points and third is LindaM with 45290 points.

Only nine players tonight which meant one player sitting out each round and getting 500 points for doing so.

Quite a range of scores,  the lowest  being 780  while the highest  was 5,910.  Iris Clyde came top tonight with 5,910 followed by Pat Shearer with 4,960 and Linda Milne with 4,800.

Most people dropped a poorer score tonight and Glad, Pat and Iris all improved their placing on the scoresheet. 

The top three  positions remain the same as last week but  Linda improved her overall score tonight.  Graham still leads with 45,810 followed by Linda with 44,120 and Margaret M with 39,260

Three tables this week. 30 boards were played, six per round.

Seemed to have some gremlins in affecting one of the pads, traps have been set and poison laid so we should have no problems next week!!!

Only one slam bid this time round, on board 9 by Sheila W & Pat, although 12 tricks were taken on each occasion. Board 8 too was an excellent slam opportunity, although I suspect south tended to bid straight to 4 spades after east’s one diamond opener. A take out double may well lead to a small slam in spades or clubs.

Margaret M & Linda M came top this week with 60.83%, Second place went to Dave & Ben on 59.17% and third equal were Sheila & Pat and Graham & Sheila L on 48.33%.

Amongst the pairs with ten or more scores Dave & Ben go into the lead overtaking Margaret & Linda. In third place are Sheila & Pat.

Eleven players again this Friday.  Almost everyone managed to drop a poorer score tonight but only the top three players scored over 4,000. 

Glad, on a roll, was top again this week with 4,990 followed by Hazel with 4,640 and Sheena with 4,030.

Clinton, Dennis, Glad, Sheila and Sheena all moved up the scoresheet but the top three  places remain the same. Graham (45,810), Linda (42,430), Margaret M (39,260).

Thanks to Glad for the delicious gingerbread and lemon drizzle cake - not many folk managed to restrict themselves to just one piece!

Eight pairs, 28 boards over seven rounds.

Loads of six suited hands this week, lots of singletons and three seven suiters but strangely only one void. Board 5 was bid to six spades twice making eleven tricks once and the whole thirteen the other. A low club lead sets up the queen and a heart discard on the Diamond ace gives a third round ruff on the hearts after trumps are drawn. The only other slam was on board 16, where east took thirteen tricks on each occasion but only one pair found a small slam in no trumps.

Top for the evening were Dave & Ben, getting the highest score so far this year with 67.47%.

Second on 54.82% were Margaret M & Linda M and third, Graham & Sheila L on 51.81%.

Dave & Ben and Graham & Sheila both completed their tenth score this week. Roger & Dennis and Margaret H & Ruth now have nine.

Amongst those with qualifying scores (10+), Margaret & Linda are top with 57.68%. Ben & Dave are second with 57.65% and Pat & Sheila W are third with 53.37%.

Eleven players tonight and some very mixed fortunes.  The top three players all had scores over 5,000 whilst, with just over 1,500, the lowest scorer wondered why they'd turned up at all! The rest of us were somewhere in between.

Glad came top tonight with 5,940, followed by Graham with 5,850 and Linda with 5,260.  Glad, Linda, Margaret M and Pat all dropped a poorer score and Glad, Graham, Iris, Dennis and Sheila all moved up at least one place.

After 10 evenings Graham is in the lead with 44,270, followed by Linda with 42,430 and Margaret M with 38,050.

Numbers were down a bit this week with six pairs playing six boards a round. It did mean we manage to get through 30 boards though!

All north-south pairs bid a small slam on board 7 in either spades or hearts, losing only one trick to the king of spades.

Top for the evening were Dave & Sandy with 62.07%. Graham & Sheila came second (58.47%) and third went to Roger & Dennis (55.93%).

Thirteen players tonight and only the top three scored over 4,000.  Dennis was the winner tonight with 4,530, followed by Hazel with 4,250 and Glad with 4040.

Linda M is still in the lead overall with 39,700 after 10 evenings, Graham has 38,420 after 9 evenings, Margaret M has 37,050 after 10 evenings, Margaret K has 35,620 after 10 evenings, Pat has 34,750 after 10 evenings and Clinton is currently in 6th place with 32,480 after 8 evenings.

Margaret M, Margaret K and Sheena all dropped a poorer score tonight.  Graham, Clinton, Glad and Dennis all improved their placing on the score sheet tonight.

Four full tables this week.

Top were Roger & Dennis with 62.50%, second place went to Margaret M & Linda M with 61.63%, incidentally exactly what they scored last week. Third were Dave & Sandy, 55.95%.

Two pairs dropped their first low scores, Margaret & Linda and Sheila & Pat. Glad & Sheena became the forth pair to reach the minimum qualifying ten scores.

Overall Margaret & Linda are first. Amongst the regular pairing Roger & Dennis are second after having played seven nights and Dave & Ben third after nine nights.

Corrected report.  Eleven players tonight and, apart from Graham Lyon, nobody had a memorable score.  Graham was top with 6,550 followed by Linda Milne with 3,920 and Margaret Mainland with 3,120. Several people have now played 10 times and will begin to drop their worst score if they are lucky enough to get a better one.  As things stand Linda is in the lead with 35,920 after 9 evenings, Margaret M has 35,860 after 10 evenings, Graham has 35,270 after 8 evenings, Margaret Kirkness has 35,140  after 10 evenings and Pat Shearer has 34,750 after 10 evenings. Once Linda and Graham have played 10 times the rest of us will need a few good scores to catch up! 

This weeks duplicate bridge had eight pairs compete over 28 boards.

Winning the evening were Margaret M & Linda M with 61.31%. Second were Roger & Dennis on 58.93% and third place saw Graham & Sheila L on 54.76%.

Three pairs have now reached the 10 scores necessary to qualify and can start dropping low scores.

Margaret M & Linda M 55.95%, Pat & Sheila W 51.22% and Iso & Malcolm Tipler 50.97%.

Several other pairs are currently sitting on nine scores, not least Ben & Dave with 56.56%.

Fifteen players competed this evening.

Top scorer for the evening was Iso with 5460 points, helped along by a Small Slam and a 700 rubber when partnered with Pat in round 4.  Three other 700 rubbers also contributed.  In second place was Pat with 4200 points.  Third was MargaretM with 3670 points also with a 700 rubber, in this case in round 7 when partnered with Iso.

It was all change again in the year to date rankings.  MargaretM has moved into first place with a total of 32740 points. MargaretK lies in second place with 32240 points and Iso has moved back up to third place.  There have been nine weeks of play so far this season so just one more week is needed before players start to discard low scores to arrive at the total for their best ten scores.  LindaM currently holds the highest single evening score of 7550 points.

Although not lying in the first three places as  they have played on fewer occasions, Clinton, Graham and LindaM have the highest average scores for the number of weeks they have played so we can expect to see some realignment when everyone has played on ten occasions or more.

Fifteen players and some widely differing fortunes during this evening but to compensate there were a range of goodies to serve as comfort food for the downhearted.

The most significant score of the evening was a massive 3200 points in round 3 by Graham and Clinton.  Well done guys.  Graham had another two good rounds of 1740 and 1090 points, helping to give him a total for the evening of 7150 points which is the second highest score of the season so far.  In second place was Clinton with 5280 points and third was SheilaL with 4930 points.  MargaretH's score was slightly higher than read out at the end of the evening as her final round score had not been added in to the total.

There were several positional changes in the year to date rankings so please have a look at the Competitions page for Rubber Bridge to see all the new positions but the top three in the rankings are MargaretK with 28940 points who moved back ahead of LindaM who has played one less time and has 28890 points. MargaretM has moved up to third place with 28850 points.

Thirteen players this evening with one player sitting out each round.

After two weeks being the top scorer, Iso was brought down to earth with a bump and came twelfth of thirteen.  Meanwhile, after a lean few weeks, MargaretM returned to her winning ways with a score of 5940 points.  Dennis, Clinton and Graham have played less than the full quota of evenings and all made progress, scoring 5390, 4670 and 4290 points respectively.

In the year to date rankings, Iso dropped from first place down to fourth.  LindaM is leading with 25440 points.  MargaretK is second with 25320 points and Malcolm is third with 24520 points, just 10 points ahead of Iso.

Fourteen players competed this week so we played with two tables of four and two of three. 

Top scorer for the evening was Iso with 4860 points, which was exactly the same as her winning score of the previous week.  Glad was partnered with Iso in round 5 and put her into a 6♣ slam which made with one overtrick.  There were also two rounds, with MargaretK and LindaM where 700 point rubbers were scored.  In second place for the evening was Clinton with 4470 points, scoring one 700 rubber with SheilaL.  The only other 700 rubber was scored by Malcolm and Iris in the final round.  In third place was Dennis with 4260 points.

After six weeks of play, ignoring one week when there was no play due to bad weather, there were several changes in the year to date rankings.  Iso moved into the lead with a total of 21960 points, overtaking LindaM who retained second place with 21830 points but last week's leader, MargaretK was moved down to third place with 21410 points.  LindaM has played only five or the six evenings and currently has the highest average score of 4366 points.  The second highest average score is 4250 points, held by Clinton who has only played on four occasions.  Jean has the third highest average score of 3810 points but she also has only played on four occasions.

With eight pairs present for Duplicate Pairs Bridge at Dounby on the Tuesday, results were largely bunched, the top six pairs all within ten percentage points, more or less in the fifties, with a couple of outliers. Only twice this year has the magic 60% boundary been crossed, and the two pairs with that achievement were the evening’s winners, scoring more modestly though perhaps usefully: Pat Shearer/Sheila Walls led with 98 Match Points for 58.3%, with Dennis Paice/Roger Davies second (57.1%) two MPs behind. Third were 2018 Champions Graham Lyon/Sheila Lyon (92 MPs, 54.8%).

Thirteen players competed with one player sitting out each round to avoid the sprinting between tables we have sometimes endured in the past.

There seemed to be rather a lot of poor hands which was reflected in the scoring for the evening.  Having missed a few weeks and not having brilliant hands to play with this evening, Graham decided to exercise the doubling card on about five occasions.  On one of those occasions, Malcolm gave Graham and Iso a great score by going five tricks off, doubled and vulnerable.  Thank you Malcolm!

Top scorer for the evening was Iso with 4860 points, followed by SheilaL with 4270 points and Graham with 4160 points.

It is still very early days in the season but in the year to date rankings.  MargaretK moved into the lead with a total of 18850 points, overtaking LindaM who moved down to second place with 18340 points.  Iso moved up to take third place with 17100 points, overtaking a few players in the process.

Twelve players competed with very mixed results.  There seemed to be an awful lot of 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s in all the decks.

Glad and Iris had an excellent start to the evening, scoring 1930 points for the first round.  This did help their final placings but the top player for the evening was Clinton with a total of 5370 points, including three rounds over 1000 points.  In second place was Jean with 4900 points and third was Iris with 4740 points.

Leading the rankings at this stage after four weeks of play in the new season is LindaM with 18340 points.  She has a good lead over MargaretK in second place with 15440 points.  Lying third is Malcolm with 15250 points.

Tuesday night in Dounby saw eight pairs present, with Dave/Ben Lovick scoring 59.5% and Iso/Malcolm 3 Match Points behind for 57.7%. Third place on 53.0% was shared between Graham Lyon/Sheila Lyon (welcome back to you both!) and Glad Marwick/Sheena Hay.

Four tables did indeed suggest four different contracts, and to your correspondent’s delight there was at last one board – Board 10, with both sides vulnerable – where the contract was in a different suit every time! This was not about powerful hands gaining success, though, only Margaret Mainland/Linda Milne’s restrained bid succeeding. The best outcome is probably Two Clubs by North/South for 90 points!

Both Dounby competitions are determined at Christmas by players’ ten best scores. A winning percentage for the Duplicate may be an average of around 63%, so aspiring pairs need a decent clutch of scores in the 60s; as yet there have been only two of these, both by past winners, so there is very little shape to the year as yet.

With the weather a little kinder, ‘normal service’ was resumed for Bridge, though more than one regular pair was missing at Dounby on Tuesday 5th February: there were just three tables for Duplicate Bridge, ideal for those present as 30 boards could be played with minimum delays, but a little alarming for the absentees as this is exactly the situation when statistically freak scores abound! As things turned out, though, everyone scored within the 60%-40% range, top spot going to Pat Shearer/Sheila Walls (58%) with Margaret Mainland/Linda Milne (56%) second and Iso Tipler/Malcolm Tipler (50%) third.

Only eight players this evening but it was an interesting evening of play.

In the first round, MargaretK & LindaM bid and made a slam in 6NT with the score for the slam and 150 for holding all four aces contributing to a round score for them of 1750 points.  That was followed in round 3 by another slam bid and made,by Malcolm & LindaM this time, in 6NT.  Again four aces were held and as the pair were vulnerable between them they clocked up 2010 points for the round.

Top player for the evening was LindaM with a massive score of 7550 points, thanks on several occasions to the points held by her partner rather than herself.  That score is bound to be in contention for the High Score of the year and will take some beating. Well done Linda.  In second place was MargaretK with 4980 points and third was Malcolm with 4430 points.

After three weeks of play, LindaM leads the rankings with a total of 14900 points.  MargaretK lies in second place with 12650 points and Pat lies third with 11090 points.

In the absence of some of the ‘usual suspects’, there were just three tables in play on Tuesday night, with seven pairs present. Small numbers can make it easy for those playing to obtain unusually good – or unusually bad! – scores, but to the relief of at least one absentee there were no runaway victors on the evening, all scores being bunched between a 15-point range and even a triple tie for fourth place! Top spot with 58% was shared by Dave & Ben and Linda & Margaret, solo third place going to Glad and Sheena.

A wide range of contracts was reached, only 6 boards being played in the same denomination by three pairs, and even amongst those outcomes ranged widely, most spectacularly Board 5, always played for a No Trump part score by North-South: with just 23 points, both Iso & Malcolm and Margaret & Linda took 11 tricks whereas on the other table defenders Glad & Sheena restricted Declarer to seven tricks.

Memo to self..... if there are only thirteen players present DO NOT have one table of four and three tables of three players.  Don't let me forget that next time it happens - it was a nightmare tonight with lots of delays and a late finish.  We will have one player sitting out each round instead. 

There was a compete change around in the results this week, with last week's winner bringing up the rear this time.  The top player this time was LindaM who regularly seems to have poor hands.  She managed to score 4820 points this week but even then some of the good hands came from partner rather than her own cards. Second place went to MargaretK with 4660 points.  Third was Jean with 4360 points.

After just two weeks of the new season, Jean leads with 8320 points, followed by Pat with 8100 points and MargaretK with 7670 points.

Quietly challenging hands were the theme of Dounby’s second week of Duplicate Pairs Bridge in 2019, the 28 boards – and 112 hands – producing just 3 voids and 19 singletons (against 6 voids and 29 singletons the previous week); perhaps this was why even 12 tricks were made only twice, no slams at all being attempted. But “softly softly catchee monkey” – this did not inhibit good scoring, 65% being exceeded for the second successive week although in all of 2018 it was passed only 16 times. Winners were 2014 Champions Sheila Walls and Pat Shearer (65.7%) and there were useful scores for Dennis Paice and Roger Davies (58.6%) and Dave Higgins and Ben Lovick (57.2%).

The first Individual Rubber Bridge evening of the new season was very relaxed with a splendid buffet to keep us all happy.  Many thanks to everyone for their excellent contributions of food or drink.  Margaret Mainland had organised prizes for the winners of each round, and the winner and runner up overall, so there were more goodies for the fifteen players to aim for.

Round 1 - MargaretM & Jean (1490 points)
Round 2 - Malcolm & Sheena (1040 points)
Round 3 - Iris & Glad (520 points)
Round 4 - MargaretM & Graham (1350 points)
Round 5 - Dennis & Sheila (750 points)
Round 6 - Graham & Iris (1010 points)
Round 7 - Jean (940 points)

The winner for the evening with 5340 points was MargaretM and the runner up with 4080 points was Iso.  The bottom two scorers for the evening won consolation prizes.

MargaretM was the runner up for the 2018 season and it is clear she is still on form as we enter the new season.

“They’re off!” No, not the lights, this was the Dounby Bridge players taking their positions as two new competitions opened with the calendar year. Tuesday saw eight pairs for Duplicate Pairs and a resounding success for Dennis Paice and Roger Davies as they began their campaign to recover the trophy: six outright tops and no bottoms for 67%, for once the duo recording their better performance whilst defending – in recent years that has been their weakness, but they began with almost 72% for that element. Second, also marking out their position after a good run last autumn, were Dave Higgins and Ben Lovick at close to 60%, with Iso and Malcolm Tipler fresh off their Edinburgh plane to score 54%.

Bidding the major suit game, Iso and Malcolm were the one pair to make the most of the East-West hands on Board Five, where it is the Losing Trick Count – rather than High Card Points – which best describes the potential score. Seven losers in each hand and a good Heart fit: 14 losers, and the Rule of Eighteen suggesting that Four can be made, as indeed it can. Unlucky their hapless opponents (on this occasion Linda Milne and Margaret Mainland) who watched them bid the game – but their moment would come in Kirkwall the next night!

The final evening of the 2018 Duplicate Pairs season saw eight pairs compete, all trying to better the average for their best ten scores of the year and finish on a high.

As it turned out, only one pair managed to drop a low score and that pair was Ben & DaveH.  They came top for the evening with 66.67%, followed by MargaretM & LindaM with 55.36% and SheilaW & Pat with 52.38%.  MargaretM & LindaM were one of only two pairs who bid and made a slam on board 15, the other pair being Glad & Sheena.  Every declarer made thirteen tricks on that board but the other two declaring pairs only bid to game.  Unbid slams were also made on boards 6, 12, 14, 19, 24, 26 and 28.

The evening's results had no impact on the top placings in the season's rankings.  Graham & SheilaL won with an average of 63.19% for their best ten scores, closely followed by the runners up, Roger & Dennis with 63.06%.  MargaretM & LindaM were not far behind with 62.19%.  Fourth were DaveH & DaveW with 61.37% and fifth were Ben & DaveH with 61.08% who also took the High Score award with 72.92%.  This latter partnership only began in the Autumn and they moved quickly up the rankings which begs the question of how things might have turned out if they had been competing all year. Very close result I imagine.

Many thanks to all 40 partnerships that competed during the year and especially to the 14 partnerships that were able to compete ten or more times and featured in the year to date rankings.  We value the support of all players and look forward to welcoming everyone back for the new season which starts on Tuesday, 8 January 2019.  It was good to have several couples battling it out for the top spot and let's hope that there will be good, keen competition in 2019 to keep everyone on their toes.

Photos of the award winners to follow.

Fourteen players competed on the final evening of the Individual Rubber Bridge competition.  The top scorer for the evening was Dennis with 4840 points, followed by Pat with 4560 points and Jean with 4430 points.  Jean was the only player to move up in the rankings, overtaking MargaretK and Sheena.  Any hopes of others making a big move to upset the overall competition results were a bit forlorn.

Many congratulations to Graham who set out on a mission to regain the trophy in 2018 having lost it to LindaM in 2017.  MargaretM and Clinton, in particular, put up a great fight to take the lead but Graham was able to build up a substantial lead and takes the title of Winner with 60270 points, so that the fight then was for the Runner Up spot.  In the end it was MargaretM who managed to hold onto second place and take the Runner Up award with 54480 points.  Graham was given his trophy on the night but MargaretM was not present and will be given her award on the first evening of the new season.

Thank you to all twenty-two players who took part in the competition throughout the year, and especially to those who turned up come rain or shine and often came bearing treats for us all. Thanks also for contributions of coffee, tea and biscuits which have taken the pressure off the finances.  Pat was very often the one who took on the task of doing the washing up with some others also helping.  We need to share out that task a bit more next season so that we all do our bit.

We look forward to welcoming you back to Individual Rubber Bridge for the start of the 2019 season which begins on Friday, 11 January 2019.  On that date, if you are coming along please bring a contribution of food or drink for the buffet.  

Nine pairs competed and it is clear that although there is just one more week to go of the 2018 season there is still a battle going on for the trophy, runner up and high score awards.

Unlike last week, when there seemed to be lots of slams to be made on several boards, this week there was just one Small Slam bid and made.  This was by MargaretM & LindaM on board 26.  Two other pairs also made unbid slams on that board.  Unbid slams were also made by one pair on board 6, by two pairs on board 17, by one pair on board 20 and by three pairs on board 28.

The top scorers for the evening were DaveH & Ben with 72.92%.  In second place for the evening were SheilaW & Pat with 54.17% and third were Graham & SheilaL with 53.47%

For the main trophy, Graham & SheilaL still lead with 63.19%.  Roger & Dennis lie second with 63.06% and MargaretM & LindaM lie third with 62.19%.  DaveH & Ben's evening score of 72.92% snatched the single evening high score position from MargaretM & LindaM who held the previous highest score of 69.44%, just ahead of Roger & Dennis with 69.29%. Still some battling to be done on the final evening.

We hope to award the trophy for the Duplicate Pairs on the last evening of the season but, if it looks too close to call and calculate quickly, the award may have to wait until January.  Unfortunately, we cannot upload the results to Scorebridge and the website until Iso gets home as our wifi connection at the Dounby Centre is no longer working. 

Fourteen players so there was quite a bit of running around to bid and the two short-handed tables each round.

A few players were mourning the fact that they had missed bidding slams.  For example, in one round Malcolm & Iso missed one Small Slam and one Grand Slam in their first two hands of the round. Elsewhere, Pat and Gladys managed to bid and make a slam in round 2.

Top scorer for the evening was MargaretM with 5310 points.  Clinton was second with 4160 points.  Jean was third with 3960 points.

Graham remains the untouchable leader in the year to date rankings with a total of 60270 points.  MargaretM was able to drop a low score and consolidate her second place with 54480 points, ahead of Clinton with 52150 points.  It is technically possible for Clinton to catch MargaretM but he would have to have an exceptionally good score to achieve that.

The last playing evening of the season will be on Friday, 14 December and the aim is to present the Individual Rubber Winner, Runner Up and High Score trophies on that evening.

Eight pairs competed playing 28 boards over 7 rounds.  Board 13 was Passed Out on one occasion. No contracts were doubled.

Several Small Slams were bid and made.  DaveH & Ben bid 6♠ on board 18 and took all thirteen tricks.  MargaretM & LindaM bid 6NT on board 9 and took all thirteen tricks.  Iso & Malcolm did the same on board 9 and also bid and made 6♠ on board 22.  Graham & SheilaL bid 6♠ on board 1.  In addition to the bid slams, there were sixteen unbid slams made on boards 1 (three), 7 (four), 9 (two), 11 (one), 18 (three) and 22 (three).

Top pair for the evening were Pat & SheilaW with 56.55%.  Second equal with 55.36% were DaveH & Ben and MargaretM & Linda M.

None of the leading pairs in the year to date rankings dropped a score so, with just two more weeks to go, Graham & SheilaL remain in the lead with an average of 63.19%.  Roger & Dennis lie second with 63.06%.  MargaretM & LindaM lie third with 62.19%.

Double the number of players this week, giving us three full tables, and some excellent goodies to eat again.

There were no really spectacular total scores for the evening, with the lowest being 1280 points and the highest 4410 points.  Pat was top scorer with the 4410 points and Iso was second with 3840 points, both their scores having been boosted by bidding and making a Small Slam in round 6.  In third place, was LindaM with 3830 points.  For the avoidance of doubt, at the fourth time of counting, Malcolm's score was finally confirmed as the results were being uploaded at 3230 and not 4230.  (You were right Graham!).

There are just two more weeks to go in the Individual Rubber Bridge competition.  Graham is in an unassailable lead with 60270 points and perhaps the best that anyone can hope for is to nick the High Score award off him.  MargaretM remains in second place with 53440 points.  Clinton is third with 52150 points and it is still possible for him to overtake MargaretM and move into second place.  Some movements may still be possible too further down the rankings.  Keep trying, folks!

Sorry folks but there has been a late amendment to last night's results.  Corrected names/figures are given in red below.  Ten pairs competed playing 27 boards.  No boards were Not Played or Passed Out.

Three small slams were bid and made by DaveH & Ben in 6♣ on board 3, making 13 tricks, by LindaR & Bob in 6♥ doubled and redoubled on board 6, making 13 tricks and by SheilaW & Pat in 6♣ on board 3 making 12 tricks .  Unbid slams were also made by two pairs on board 3, by one pair on board 4 and by two pairs on board 6. 

Top pair for the evening were MargaretM & LindaM with 58.80%. In second place were Roger & Dennis with 57.87% and third were DaveH & Ben with 55.56%.

In the year to date rankings, it is incredibly close at the top with Graham & SheilaL leading with an average of 63.19% for their ten best scores, followed by Roger & Dennis with 63.06%.  MargaretM & LindaM lie third with 62.19%.  Just three more weeks to go to the end of the season and it looks as though this could go right to the wire.

Four full tables played over seven rounds with twenty eight boards.

I think most players would agree that these were not the easiest of hands to bid this week. Saying that, a few boards made game if you could bid them but for most, part scores only. However three slams were bid, two on board 15 in 6 Hearts by MargaretM & LindaM and DaveH & Ben. The other, 6NT by Graham & SheilaL on board 17. Four contracts were doubled, going down on each occasion.

Winners this week were Graham & SheilaL with 62.50%. DaveH & Ben were 2^nd on 54.17% and ShielaW & Pat 3^rd with 52.98%.

In the year to date ranking, Graham & Sheila’s win has put them into first place overtaking Roger and Dennis. Margaret & Linda remain in third. As both these pairs have lower scores to drop than Graham & Sheila things remain incredibly tight for the top spot with now only four weeks remaining!

Only six players this week again.  Jean Tulloch came first with 4,830, Graham Lyon second with 4,760 and Sheila Lyon third with 4,200.  Both Jean and Sheila dropped a poorer score but everyone's position remained the same.

Only six players tonight so  just one table of 4 players each round with the other  two people playing cribbage while claiming 500 points for sitting out.  Graham Lyon had the only exciting hand of the night.  The bidding went 2 clubs by Graham, a negative 2 diamonds by Sheena Hay  and a confident jump to 6NT by Graham. Sheena laid down 5 points in her hand and after making the 12 tricks to claim a little slam Graham announced he had picked up 28 points in his hand. On the last hand of the evening Jean Tulloch and Graham scored the only rubber of the night so another low scoring night for most.  Graham came first with 4,510, Jean second with3,780 and Sheena third with3,660. Jean and Sheena both dropped a poorer score.  The top six  positions remain the same with Graham 60,270, Margaret M 53,440, Clinton 52,150, Iso 51,670, Pat 50,900 and Iris 50,860. Graham's lead is pretty well unassailable but the other places are all up for grabs.  All that's needed is a couple of good scores before the end of the year.  Thanks to Sheila for the lovely oat biscuits.

Twelve players ventured out  tonight.  High winds and  low scores was the story  tonight as nobody reached 4000. Margaret M came first with 3,990, Iris second with 3,920 and Sheena third with 3,700.  Only Sheena dropped a poorer score but positions remain the same.   The only good result tonight was Margaret K's delicious fruit squares. 

Four full tables this week, played over 28 boards.

Interestingly on board two, 13 tricks should be made in no trumps on the heart lead. Declarer has no choice but to go up with the king, but then by finessing the clubs twice and playing for the diamond split secures all tricks. Played in 3NT twice it only just made once and went two off the other time.

While Ruth & Margaret H were the only pair to find the small slam on board 15, board 20 was bid to a small slam on each occasion, three times in no trumps and once in hearts. Dave H & Ben got the top on this board by getting an overtrick. Graham & Sheila Lyon bid the only grand slam, 7NT on board 21.

The evening’s top scorers were Dave H & Ben with 62.50% follower by Sheila W & Pat on 61.31% and Margaret M & Linda M taking third spot on 58.33%.

Overall four pairs managed to drop a score this week but the top three positions remain the same. Roger & Dennis 63.06%, Graham & Sheila 62.78% and Margaret & Linda 62.05%.

Please note:- An incorrect entry has been corrected on board one leading to only a slight change in percentages.

Nine pairs took part in the year’s Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs Competition.

Four slams were bid, all making. Two by Graham & SheilaL, one by Sandy & Sheena and one by George & Inga. Only one contract was doubled, going one down and board 23 was passed out once.

At club level, winner’s were Graham & SheilaL with 61.81%, 2^nd MargaretM & LindaM 59.72% and 3^rd DaveH & Ben 59.03%.

Once again this week there were no change in overall positions, although Graham & Sheila and Margaret & Linda did drop a score. Roger & Dennis remain in the lead but now only by 0.05% over Graham & Sheila while Margaret & Linda are less then 1% behind.

While there may be more clubs to upload results, at the moment the Simultaneous Scores show Graham & Sheila(11th) 12^th in Scotland and(153rd) 103^rd overall with(60.81%) 60.73%. Margaret & Linda(15th) 14^th and (182nd)117^th with(60.04%) 60.34%. SheilaW & Pat come in at(31st) 30^th and(339th) 219^th George & Inga(40th) 38^th and(438th) 282^nd Dave & Ben(45th) 39^th and(498th) 293^rd.

Assuming all scores are now in, final results are shown in red.

Full results can be found on the ECatsBridge web site.

Three full tables this week lead to a relatively early finish.

Yet another night of poor hands and for most, low scores. Only four rubbers were made the entire evening and most cards returned with scores above the line rather then in making many contracts!

Three scores did exceed the 4000 mark though. Malcolm with 4100 came in third place, Graham just ahead on 4140 was second but a good way in front and with a winning score of 5440, Margaret M took top spot after having four tables with 900+ points.

There was no change in the overall positions this week although Margaret M and Malcolm did drop a score. 1st Graham 60270, 2^nd Margaret M 53440 (up by 1200) and 3^rd Clinton 52150.

Eight pairs competed playing 28 boards. No boards were 'Not Played' or 'Passed Out'.

No slams were bid and made by any pair but pair 2, LindaM & MargaretM managed to make 12 tricks in a 3NT contract on board 17 and DaveH & Ben did the same on board 27.  Pair 8 Graham & SheilaL managed to make 12 tricks in a 4♥ contract on board 22 and pair 2, LindaM & MargaretM, made 12 tricks in a 4♠ contract on board 28.

MargaretK & Hazel's 5♣ contract on board 6 was doubled by Iso & Malcolm after one of their regular misunderstandings about hand strength and cheeky interference bidding. The contract made giving MargaretK & Hazel the top E/W score on that board.

Top pair for the evening were LindaM & MargaretM with 64.29%.  In second place were SheilaW & Pat with 58.33%.  Third place was shared by Iso & Malcolm and DaveH & Ben both with 54.17%.

In the year to date rankings, the lead is still held by Dennis & Roger with an average of 63.06% for their ten best scores.  Lying second are Graham & SheilaL with 62.78%.  LindaM & MargaretM dropped a low score and have moved up to 62.05%.  With seven weeks still to go there is still something to fight for at the top.

With several regulars away only 10 players tonight, so two tables of 3 and one of 4 giving some people plenty of exercise and  bidding practice. Lots of doubling and some redoubling helped six players over the 4000 mark but only Gladys Marwick made it over 5000.  Thanks to Clinton Rendall's crafty redoubling card, he and Glad scored 2200 at their opening table helping Glad come first with 5290.  Sheena Hay was second with 4700 and Iris Clyde was third with 4390. Glad, Sheena, Iris and Margaret Kirkness all dropped a poorer score and Glad and Sheena moved up a place.  The first six places remain the same as last week. Online scoresheet will be updated next week when Iso returns.

Eight pairs thought where better to be on a windswept rainy Orkney evening than in Dounby to play twenty eight boards of duplicate bridge.

Looking at the boards there were lots of shapely hands, and although voids and singleton abounded, the long suits and bad fits seemed to make no-trumps the best contract on many of these hands.

Two small slams were bid and made on board 10, one in clubs and the other with no-trumps.

The only other slam was a well bid sacrifice by Roger & Dennis on board 8. Three down for a top as six spades is on for the opposition although it was only ever bid to game making all thirteen tricks twice.

First this week were Ben & DaveH with 63.69%, not too far behind and in second place were SheilaW & Pat who scored 60.12%(dropping a score). The only other pairs above 50% were Roger & Dennis(53.57) and Graham & SheilaL(51.19).

Although a couple of pairs did drop a score this week the top three positions remain unchanged.

1^st Dennis & Roger(63.06), 2^nd Graham & SheilaL(62.78) and 3^rd MargaretM & LindaM(61.32).

One final thought, Roger & Dennis are absent for the next few weeks, are the rest of the field going to be able to take advantage???

The results have been updated.  The report will be done on Wednesday.

Twenty-three players went out to Westray for a weekend of social rubber bridge and what a weekend we had.  Most of the players stayed at The Barn and we used the Graand Owld Byre as the main base. Teenie and Michael Harcus were fantastic hosts, providing an unexpected musical interlude during which they sang a range of well-known songs concluding with a much appreciated rendition of the Westray Love Song. It was a shame that neither Pat Shearer nor Maggie Paterson was able to make it - Pat due to the untimely arrival of mist that grounded planes on Saturday morning and Maggie due to work commitments. 

There were four scheduled sessions for the main competition, two on Friday and two on Saturday, but wherever four or more bridge players and some packs of cards are gathered together there is the prospect of more bridge.  All the bridge was played with due reverence but also amidst much hilarity. In the main competition, the overall winner was Margaret Mainland with a score of 13660 points. Runner up was Clinton Rendall with 13200 points. Click anywhere in this box to see a copy of the full results.

The other bridge included a late night session with twelve players on Friday where the first round partners became a pair with their scores combined at the end although they played as individuals throughout the session. Katherine and Iso won with a combined total of 5960 points. Runners up were Jim and MargaretK with 5490 points. A smaller group also played on into the wee small hours on Saturday night but I have no results from that.

There was nothing planned for Sunday and, with a bit of drizzle in the air, seven players stayed in to play more bridge.  Round by round the numbers increased until there were nineteen players, It all got a bit confusing because as new players were added each round we had to change the table movement to accommodate them.  Latecomers were awarded a flat 500 points for rounds they had missed. Glad Marwick finally emerged as the winner with 5210 points. As if that wasn't enough bridge for one weekend, twelve players occupied tables in the lower deck lounge on the ferry and played all the way back to Kirkwall.

As usual, we were not short of food or drink - a mixture of items brought by players, meals at the Pierowall Hotel, takeaway suppers from Jack’s Chippy and, for some, light lunches at Rendall’s café. Katherine's son, Stephen Kemp, very kindly donated a supply of Kirkjuvagr Gin and Fever Tree Tonic which went down a real treat. Special thanks go to Clinton for organising the whole event, with support from Iso Tipler, and to Dounby Bridge Club for the loan of bridge equipment.

Only 11 players tonight and not very exciting scores apart from Iris who  came first with a very nice score of 5,480.  Jean was second with 3,870 and Dennis third with 3,820. Iris, Jean, Dennis, Sheila and Freda all dropped a poorer score and  Iris moved up a place. For the year to date Graham remains firmly in the lead with 58,700, Margaret hanging on to 2nd with 52,110, just ahead of Clinton  with 52,080 in 3rd place.  Iso is 4th with 50,670, Iris is now 5th with 49,400 and Pat 6th with 48,120.  Thanks to Roger for updating scoresheet.

Four full tables played 28 boards.

Board 26 seems to have been played in the wrong direction, i.e. north played south’s hand, for all games, so no harm done!

In duplicate bridge, no trumps are usually the preferred contract if possible, followed by major suits and then more reluctantly the minors. So it seems unusual that 24 diamond and 8 club contracts were bid this week.

Only 28 game contracts were bid out of 112 hands played, with just 18 of those making. Overall 38 contracts were defeated.

Keeping this in mind just two contracts were doubled, 4H on board two making and 5C on board 27 going 4 off.

This week’s winners were Graham & SheilaL with 63.10%. Runners up, DaveH & Sandy, scored 55.95% and joint third place went to Linda & Bob Ross and SheilaW & Pat with 52.38%

In the year to date ranking, Roger & Dennis continue to lead with an average of 62.36%. Graham & SheilaL move up to second with 61.71%, DaveH & DaveW move down to third on 61.37% and LindaM & MargaretM remain in forth with 60.74%.

Fifteen players competed and with a few exceptions it was a low scoring evening.

Top score went to Iris with 5380 points, closely followed by Pat with 5300 points.  In third place was Graham with 4680 points.  There was one correction to the scores announced on Friday evening as Malcolm had understated his cumulative points total by 100 points.

Iso, Iris, Pat, Dennis and MargaretH all managed to drop a low score but there were no positional changes.  Graham remains in the lead with 58700 points. MargaretM lies a fairly distant second with 52110 points and Clinton is just 30 points behind her with 52080 points. Behind them there is a battle for fourth and fifth places between Iso on 50750 points and Iris just 110 points behind on 50640 points.

Nine pairs competed playing 27 boards over 9 rounds.

Board 4 produced 1 Grand Slam in 7♠ by Graham & SheilaL and 3 Small Slams by SheilaW & Pat, DaveH & Sandy and Iso & Malcolm with all three Small Slams also making 13 tricks. Unbid Slams were also made on boards 7, 9, 11, 12, 21 and 25.

Top pair for the evening were Michael & Bruce 59.72%, Second were SheilaW & Pat with 59.03% and third were DaveH & Sandy with 56.94%.

It remains very close at the top of the rankings with Dennis & Roger on an average of 62.36%, Graham & SheilaL on 61.71% and DaveH & DaveW on 61.37%. LindaM & MargaretM are a close fourth with 60.74%.

Grrr.... I just spent ages doing the report for tonight's Individual Rubber Bridge and clicked on the button to Save it but omitted to wait long enough for the saving to be completed before leaving the page and so lost it all.  So annoying!  So here it is again but not exactly as it was.

Thirteen players competed on what was a generally low scoring evening.  Seven players each sat out for a round and were grateful to receive the 500 points for sitting out.  Eight of the thirteen players had scores below 3000 points.

Most of the rounds seemed to be punctuated by contracts going down by one or more tricks.  Iso and Jean managed to make a Small Slam in 6♦ with one overtrick.  From the scoresheets it looks as though SheilaL and MargaretK also made a Small Slam in 6NT with an overtrick (perhaps Graham could check with SheilaL that I have that right).

Once again, the top scorer for the evening was Graham with 4840 points which was just 10 points short of what he needed to drop a low score and increase his lead over the rest of the players.  In second place was Iso with 4050 points and third was MargaretK with 3940 points.

Graham remains in the lead in the year to date rankings with a total of 58700 points for his ten best scores.  MargaretM continues to lie second with 52110 points and Clinton is in third place with 52080 points.  Further down the rankings, MargaretK, Jean and Freda all dropped a low score.  Jean moved ahead of Sheena and Freda moved ahead of MargaretH.

Ten pairs competed playing 27 boards over 9 rounds. Three Small Slams were bid and made on board 17 by Roger & Dennis, DaveH & Ben and MargaretH & Ruth.  In two cases thirteen tricks were made.  Two other pairs did not bid the Small Slam but made thirteen tricks.  Malcolm will probably never forgive Iso for treating her response as merely a relay and bidding 2♦ over his 2♣ opening bid (when he was holding the most points he had ever had) instead of bidding her hand properly!

There were some tricky hands to bid.  For example, everyone bidding 3♠ or 4♠ on board 1 or in 2♠ on board 11 all going down, and all those bidding hearts on board 25 and stopping below game making eleven tricks. There were other examples where cheeky bids paid off.

Top pair for the evening were Roger & Dennis with 63.89%.  In second place were Iso & Malcolm with 59.72%.  Third were DaveH & Ben with 56.02%.

Roger & Dennis remain in the lead in the year to date rankings, slightly improving their position by dropping a low score.  Graham & SheilaL and DaveH & DaveW remain in second and third places with no changes to their scores.  Iso & Malcolm also dropped a low score but remain down in seventh place.

Fourteen players meant having two tables of four and two tables of three and some running around for the bidding.  Most players seemed to be bemoaning the poor hands that they were being dealt but there were, of course, exceptions.

The doubling card is quite often in evidence on Fridays, particularly in the hands of Graham and Clinton.  This evening the redoubling card was also much in evidence from Graham.  In round 5, he bid 5♠ which was doubled and Graham then redoubled, making the contract.  In the very next hand he bid 5♥ which was also doubled and then redoubled by him, again making the contract.  This contributed to him scoring 2150 points for that round alone.  Then in round 6 he was at it again with his 4♥ being doubled by the opposition and then redoubled by him.

Not surprisingly, Graham was top player for the evening with a score of 6420 points.  In a good second place was Pat with 5690 points and some way behind them in third place was Clinton with 3740 points.

Graham was able to drop a low score and further consolidate his lead, sitting now on a total of 60270 points.  There was no change to second or third place, with MargaretM remaining on 52110 points and Clinton on 52080 points.  Pat was able to drop a low score and leapfrog over Iris and Iso to move into fourth place. Further down the rankings, Freda was the only player to drop a low score. 

Four full tables this evening, playing 28 boards over seven rounds. Board 7 was Passed Out on two occasions.

There was just one Small Slam bid and made, by DaveH & Ben in 6♠ on board 28.  An unbid Grand Slam was made on board 25 and unbid Small Slams were made on boards 9 and 25 (twice).  In each of these unbid slams, the declarers were in non game contracts in minor suits.

Top pair for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with a score of 65.48%.  In second place were Glad & Sheena with 52.98% and in third place were DaveH & Ben with 52.38%.

Dennis & Roger remain in first place overall with an average of 63.06%, followed by Graham & SheilaL with 62.40% and DaveH & DaveW with 61.37%.

Eleven players this evening and we must have played reasonably quickly despite having a three player table as we were cleared up and on our way home by 10:00 pm.

It was another low scoring evening with all except four players scoring less than 3000 points. There were a few highlights.  Pat and Iso managed to bid and make a Small Slam, with an overtrick, and Clinton & MargaretM scored 1820 in one round though I am not sure about the details.  In the sixth round, Linda and Iso scored 1420 points but missed a couple of slams.  Iris kindly worked out that if they had bid their hands correctly they ought to have scored 3170 for that round.  What a missed opportunity!

Top scorer for the evening was Iso with 4710 points.  Second was Clinton with 4490 points and third was MargaretM with 4280 points.

In the year to date rankings, Graham remains in the lead with 60270 points.  MargaretM remains second with a slightly improved total of 52240.  Clinton remains third, also with a slightly improved total of 52150 points.  The only other person to drop a score was Iso who moved onto 51110 points, overtaking Pat who had overtaken her the previous week.

Nine competed playing 27 boards over 9 rounds.  Lots of abnormal distributions to make life interesting and tempt some into bidding when discretion would have been the better plan.  Board 9 appears to have been Not Played on one occasion when DaveH & Ben were playing the round against Roger & Dennis.

Only one Small Slam was bid and made, by LindaR & Bob in 6♠ on board 4.  One other pair bid the Small Slam but went one off in the contract.  Three pairs bid 3NT on board 15, in each case making 12 tricks but the fourth pair played the contract in 3♣ making just 9 tricks.  A particularly cheeky opening ♣  bid by East on board 26 eventually resulted in playing the contract in 5♣ making 12 tricks where all the other contracts were 3♦ by North/South making 10 tricks. Unfortunately, several other cheeky bids during the evening received the punishment they deserved.

Top pair for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 63.19%.  In second place were MargaretM & LindaM with 61.27% and third were Sandy & Sheena with 54.23%. 

Dennis & Roger lead the year to date rankings with an average of 63.06% for their best ten scores.  Not far behind are Graham & SheilaL with 62.78% having dropped a low score this evening. DaveH & DaveW (no longer partnered together) and MargaretM & LindaM are just a whisker apart with with 61.37% and 61.32% respectively. MargaretM & LindaM also managed to drop a low score this evening.

Thirteen players tonight so one person sat out each of the seven rounds.  Apart from Iso Tipler nobody had a great score and the 500 points for sitting out was one of the better scores for some.  Iso came first with 4970, Linda Milne second with 3960 and Sheena Hay third with 3530. Both Iso and Sheena  dropped a poorer score with Sheena moving up a place. The first 6 places remain the same -  Graham  60270, Margaret M 52240, Clinton 52150, Iso 51670, Pat 50900, Iris 50640.  Thanks to Margaret K for the  lovely dough rings.  They made up for the poor scores.  The score sheet will be updated in due course.

Nine pairs competed this week over nine rounds. 26 boards were scored after it was decided to treat board 18 as not played because the south and west hands had been switched halfway though the evening.

No slams were made but board 22 looked the most hopeful with 6 clubs being bid twice but fails on the diamond finesse, although 12 tricks were somehow made in 3NT.

Four contracts were doubled, three went down and one made. Four spades redoubled on board 10 making an overtrick gave a top to Iso and Malcolm.

With a mixed bag of tricky hands 71% of the contracts made, 40% were in game contracts and 62% of those making.

Top spot went to Sandy & Dave W with 62.32%, 2^nd on 59.42% were Graham & Sheila L and Iso & Malcolm got 3^rd place with 58.70%.

Although five pairs did drop scores this week there was no change in the top three positions.

Dennis & Roger lead with a slightly improved 62.36%, Dave H & Dave W remain in second with 61.37% and closing the gap, Graham & Sheila L are now on 61.24%

The results can now be treated as confirmed as the points raised have been clarified and boards 6 and 27 were both 'Not Played' on one occasion. No other late amendments have been notified to me.

Eleven pairs competed and it was good to welcome visitors, Caroline and Ian, who were passing through on holiday.  Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Roger & Dennis, Glad & Sheena and SheilaW & Pat all found and made a Small Slam contract in 6♠ on board 22 but they were pipped at the post by DaveH & Ben who also made a Small Slam but in 6NT. On the fifth occasion, Caroline & Ian were in game contract at 4♠ but managed to take all thirteen tricks.

Unbid slams were also made on boards 3, 5 and 23. Board 5 is the only board where the doubling card came out.  Three contracts, 5♣ , 3♠ and 4♠ were all doubled. The Club contract made with an overtrick and the two Spade contracts were brought down by one and two tricks, respectively.  The other two contracts were both 5♣  not doubled and in onc case it made with an overtrick and in the other went down by one trick. In the case of board 23, although no slam was bid, three 3NT contracts all achieved thirteen tricks and a 5♦ contract made twelve tricks. On the other occasion some bidding confusion resulted in the contract faltering at just 3♦ and eleven tricks being taken.

Top pair for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 65.57%.  In second place were Roger & Dennis with 58.96% and third were MargaretM & LindaM with 52.66%.

In the year to date rankings, Roger & Dennis continue to lead with an average of 62.16%, having dropped a low score this week.  DaveH & DaveW remain second with 61.37% and Graham & SheilaL lie third, very close behind, with 61.13%, having posted their best score of the season this evening.  So very little separates these pairs but MargaretM & LindaM also need to be watched as they lie fourth with 60.74%.

Fourteen players competed and on the whole the scores were quite low with only four players scoring above four thousand points.

Top player for the evening was Clinton with 5020 points. In equal second place were Dennis and MargaretK with 4160 points.    Graham came fourth with 4120 points.

In the year to date rankings, although some players were able to drop a low score, there were no movements in positions. Graham remains in first place on 58700 points.  MargaretM is second place on 52110 points but Clinton's score means that he moves up to just 30 points behind her on 52080 points.

A correction notification has been received this morning as board 28 was not in fact 'Not Played' but the result did not show up on the system.  That has been corrected and the change affects percentages but not positions. The amended report is given below.

Eight pairs competed playing 28 boards over 8 rounds. Board 16 was 'Passed Out' on one occasion.

There was just one Small Slam bid and made, 6♠ by DaveH & Ben against MargaretK & Hazel on board 7.  Two contracts were doubled, 4♥ doubled on board 3 went off by 6 tricks and 5♣ doubled on board 12 made with one overtrick.

Top pair for the evening were DaveH & Ben with a score of 64.88%.  In second place were Graham & SheilaL with 59.52% and third were LindaM & MargaretM with 54.82%.

In the year to date rankings, Dennis & Roger remain in first place with an average of 61.81% followed by DaveH & DaveW with 61.37%.  Third place continues to be held by LindaM & MargaretM with 60.74% but Graham & SheilaL were able to drop a low score and closed the gap just a little with their new average of 60.13%.  Meanwhile, DaveH & Sandy and Pat & SheilaW are tied in fifth place on 58.61%.

Fifteen players this evening and it seemed that there were an unusually high number of failed contracts although there were also a few good hands to be found here and there. 

Top player for the evening was Clinton with a score of 4410 points. In second place was Graham with 3850 points and LindaM with 3780 points came third.

No player moved position in the rankings but three players - Clinton, Hazel and SheilaL - all managed to drop a low score.  Graham leads with 58700 points. MargaretM has 52110 points and Clinton has 51470 points.

Nine pairs competed playing 27 boards over 9 rounds. No boards were Not Played or Passed Out.

Board 9 provided the opportunity for East/West to make 12 or 13 tricks.  DaveH & Sandy made 13 tricks playing a Small Slam contract in 6NT by East and Graham & SheilaL played the contract in 6♥ by West, making 12 tricks.  On the other two occasions, once by East and the other by West, 3NT made 12 tricks.

On Board 15, three pairs played in game contracts but made 12 tricks.  On the fourth occasion, owing to a miscommunication over the number of aces held, the contract was played in 7NT vulnerable with a missing ace which was sitting in the opening lead hand. In the excitement the ace-holder omitted to double the contract but, as it happened, the comparative result was not affected.  Had that happened on a Friday evening, it would have been a very expensive omission.

Top pair for the evening were DaveH & Sandy with 57.64%.  Iso & Malcolm came second with 56.94% and MargaretM & Linda were third with 54.17%.

In the year to date rankings, Dennis & Roger remain in the lead with an average of 61.81%, with DaveH & DaveW second with 61.37% and LindaM & MargaretM third with 60.74%.

With  players this evening there was a fair amount of table-hopping to bid on two shorthanded tables each round. Overall it was a rather low scoring evening.

Top player was Graham who scored 4850 points who scored a massive 1870 points in round 6 when playing with Pat, helping her to take second place with 4330 points.  Malcolm came third with 4090 points.

In the year to date rankings there were no changes to the top four places which continue to be held with no change in score by Graham, MargaretM, Clinton and Iso.  Although there were a few people who dropped a low score, the only positional change was achieved by Pat who overtook Iris to move into fifth place.

Four pairs competed this evening playing 28 boards over 7 rounds, a total of 112 hands.

Even by Dounby standards, the number of long suits of six or more cards, voids and singletons was particularly high - 27 hands had six or more cards in a suit, 9 had voids and 37 had singletons. Only the hands on boards 3, 6 and 23 did not display any of these features.  We do not influence the dealing programme that we use to produce such results.  We will try changing to a different dealing programme for a while once the boards that have already been prepared (three sets) have been used up and see if that produces any different outcome.  We did try that once before but with little noticeable change in outcome. This time we will try another different programme to see how that works.

Two Small Slams were bid and made this evening. SheilaW & Pat made 6♦ on board 10 and DaveH & Sandy made 6♥ on board 16.  On the latter board, on all other occasions the contract was 4♥ but all thirteen tricks were taken.  There were failed Small Slam attempts on boards 9 (6♣ doubled) and board 15 (6♣ ).

In a complete turnaround from the previous week when they came last, Iso & Malcolm came top this week with 58.93%. DaveH & Sandy came second with 55.95% and SheilaW & Pat came third with 51.19%.

In the year to date rankings, Dennis & Roger remain in first place with an average of 61.81% for their ten best scores, closely followed by DaveH & DaveW with 61.37% and LindaM & MargaretM with 60.74%.

Only eleven players competed this evening, including visitors John and Ruth who were paying us a final visit before returning south.

Top player for the evening was John who scored 5070 points, 1100 of which were gifted to him by Malcolm in the final hand of the final round. In second place was Pat with 4900 points and third was Graham with 4550 points.  Pat, Iris, Malcolm, Jean and Freda all dropped a low score but the only person to move up in the rankings was Malcolm who overtook Dennis to move into eighth place.

The top three places in the year to date rankings were unchanged with Graham on 58550 points, MargaretM on 52110 points and Clinton on 51300 points.

Eleven pairs competed playing 27 boards over 9 rounds. Board 27 was Not Played on one occasion.

There seemed to be plenty of game contracts to be found during the evening and there were 10 Small Slam attempts made on boards 4, 8, 9, 10, 18 and 22 and 1 Grand Slam attempt on board 18.  Seven of the Small Slam contracts were successful but the attempts on boards 8 and 9 and one attempt on board 18 were brought down as was the Grand Slam. Well done to those who were successful.

Four contracts were doubled and three of those were brought down. The fourth contract, on board 9, was made with an overtrick and proved very expensive for the doublers, giving their opposition the top score for the board.

The winners for the evening were visitors John & Ruth with 63.16%. In second place were Graham & SheilaL with 61.58% and third were SheilaW & Pat with 58.70%.

In the year to date rankings, Dennis & Roger, continue to lead with way with an average of 61.81%, closely followed by DaveH & DaveW with 61.37%. LindaM & MargaretM lie third with 60.74%.

Twelve players competed this evening and there were some high scoring rounds, with five players having single round scores in excess of 1500 points.

The highest single round score of the evening went to Iris and Iso who scored 2200 points in round four.  This helped them take first and second place, respectively, for the evening overall.  Iris ended with a score of 5520 points and Iso with 5360 points.  Third place went to Graham with 4080 points.

The top three players in the year to date rankings continue to be Graham on 58550 points, MargaretM on 52110 points and Clinton on 51300 points.   None of those players dropped a score this week.  Iso continues to lie in fourth place and slightly closed the gap to Clinton, by moving up to 50670 points.  Some other players also improved their total scores but the only positional change of the evening was Iris who moved from seventh place to fifth place, overtaking Pat and LindaM.

There was a fantastic turnout of thirteen pairs for Duplicate Pairs bridge this evening and it was good to welcome back John and Ruth McInroy.

The movement was selected to give us twenty-eight boards to play but this did mean that pairs did not play every other pair and so maybe it was not a very fair representation of relative success for the evening. Some of us maybe benefitted from that, of course. It also seemed a little strange to have the missing pair number cropping up at different tables during the evening rather than being anchored to one table.

There were quite a number of hands with unusual distributions and very often they seemed to be in the minor suits. Only two Small Slams were attempted during the evening, on boards 2 and 10, but both contracts were brought down. On board 2 three pairs did, however, make unbid Small Slams.

Top pair for the evening were MargaretM & LindaM with 62.86%. In second place were Iso & Malcolm with 62.50% and third were John & Ruth with 58.75%.

Leading the year to date rankings are Dennis & Roger with an average of 61.81%, closely followed in second place by DaveH & DaveW with 61.37%. Lying third are MargaretM & LindaM with 60.74%.  Graham & SheilaL and Pat & SheilaW lie fourth and fifth.  Coming up behind them are DaveH & Sandy who have now competed on ten occasions so look out for them starting to drop low scores.

Fifteen players for Individual Rubber Bridge this week.

There were a lot of part scores and, speaking for myself, rather a lot of long Club suits.  LindaM and Iso missed the boat when they needed just 60 points to complete a game.  Iso opened with 15 points and LindaM was sitting with 16 points.  The bidding stopped at the low level needed for game but a Small Slam was made.  Why does that happen so often.... really good hands when only a part score is needed?

Top scorer for the evening was Hazel with 5980 points. In second place was Clinton with 5350 points.  Third was Iris with 4510 points.

In the year to date rankings, the positions remain unchanged although Clinton did drop a low score. The three leaders are Graham on 58550 points, MargaretM on 52110 points and Clinton on 51300 points.  Hazel's good result enabled her to move up from 14th place to 11th place and MargaretH moved from 17th to 16th place.

The evening began with Dennis being presented with a cheque for £13, shield and pen as his share, along with DaveW, for coming top in Dounby in the overall results of the Bill Hughes simultaneous pairs competition. They also came 60th overall in the final results.  Well done both of you! DaveW was not present and will be given his award at a later date.

This week, nine pairs competed playing 27 boards over nine rounds. No boards were Passed Out or Not Played.

Five attempts at Small Slams were made on boards 10, 17, 18 24 and 25. On board 10, 6♠ doubled by East was brought down by 2 tricks. On boards 17 and 18, 6♠ by MargaretM & LindaM and 6♦ by DaveH & Sandy made exactly. On board 24, 6NT doubled, a contract arrived at owing to a misunderstanding in the bidding, was brought down by 4 tricks. while on board 25 6♦ was brought down by 2♦  tricks.  

Top pair for the evening were MargaretM & LindaM with a very good score of 69.44%. In second place were SheilaW & Pat with 61.81% and third were DaveH & Sandy with 56.25%.

In the year to date rankings, the leading two pairs of Roger & Dennis and DaveH & DaveW are very close with their current averages being 61.81% and 61.37%, respectively. It is also very close for third, fourth and fifth places with MargaretM & LindaM, Graham & SheilaL and Pat & SheilaW being on 59.94%, 58.96% and 58.28%, respectively. Expect things to be shaken up a little soon as DaveH &Sandy have now competed on nine occasions so from the next time they compete their results will qualify in the year to date competition. Their average is a little lower at the moment but no doubt they will get that sorted soon.

Fifteen players competed and there seemed to be a fair amount of disappointment at poor hands, with some exceptions of course.

One player, having missed an opportunity in the first round, was not forgiven by the cards for the rest of the evening and ended with a score below 2000 points.  Five players scored between 2000 and 3000, seven scored between 3000 and 4000.  The highest placed in that batch was Pat who scored 3990 points to come third for the evening.  There was just one player in the 4000 to 5000 range, which was Linda with 4120 points.  The remaining player was Iris who scored 5640 points (minor correction from 5660) to come top for the evening.

In the year to date rankings, nine players dropped a low score and six did not.  None of the top three in the rankings dropped a score.  Graham, who was not playing this evening, remains in the lead with 58550 points for his ten best scores.  MargaretM remains second with 52110 points and Clinton remains third with 50130 points. Those who had dropped a low score saw minor improvement to their total but the only positional change was Iris who moved up from eighth place to seventh place, overtaking Dennis.

Ten pairs competed playing 27 boards over 9 rounds.

There were some very interesting hands. We do not often see Grand Slams bid but this week 3 pairs (MargaretM & DaveW, George & Ally and Michael & David) all bid and made 7NT on board 26 where South, opening the bidding had 18 points and North had 16. Roger & Dennis also made the Grand Slam but owing to some interference bidding from West, who had only 4 HCP but 8 clubs and 2 singletons, they bid only to the Small Slam level. On the other occasion the board was played the bidding stopped at game but a Small Slam was made.

Top scorers for the evening were Graham & SheilaL with 61.68%. Second were DaveH & Sandy with 59.81% and third were MargaretM & DaveW with 52.80%.

Roger & Dennis continue to lead the year to date rankings with an average score of 61.81% for their ten best results.  Lying second and very close behind are DaveH & DaveW with 61.37%. In third place are Graham & SheilaL with 58.96%. LindaM & MargaretM are a very close fourth with 58.48%.

Apologies for the delay in putting Friday's results up on the website - busy with Stromness Regatta and results.

A convenient sixteen players competed on Friday so no rushing about.  You could almost believe that the cards had been pre-dealt by the computer to test awkward distribution handling but these were hands resulting just from shuffling and dealing each time.  There was a wide range of results with half of the players having scores below 3000 points, two in the 3000s, four in the 4000s and two in the 5000s.

Top player for the evening was Malcolm who scored 5680 points, achieving this by steady scoring of at least 620 points per round rather than spectacular scoring in just a couple of rounds.  In second place was MargaretM with 5480 points and third was Iso with 4550 points. 

In the year to date rankings, Graham remains in the lead with 58550 points with no low score dropped this week.  MargaretM remains second but dropped a low score and stands on 52110 points. Clinton remains third with no change to his score of 50130. Further down the rankings, Pat overtook LindaM again (they seem to swap places regularly) to move into 5th place. Malcolm overtook Glad to move into 9th place.

The results were uploaded last night but an amendment has had to be made this morning.  Members please remember that it is important to distinguish between hands that have been Passed Out (ie the only bids were passes) and hands that were Not Played (ie the bidding of the final hand had not been started when the buzzer went).  In the case of Passed Out hands the Pass button om the Bridgepad should be used.  In the case of Not Played the NP/LP button should be used. The amendment made has altered most pairs' percentages but only one positional change from what was announced last night.

Eleven pairs competed playing 27 boards over 9 rounds.We were pleased to welcome visitors Ann and John Nelson and hope that they enjoyed their evening with us and will return if they have time to spare during their visit.

The only slam bid and made was 6NT by Graham & SheilaL on board 11 against Michael & David. Slams were attempted in 6♥ by two pairs on board 8 but one was brought down by one trick and the other by two tricks.

Top pair for the evening were DaveH & Sandy with 62.50%. MargaretM & LindaM came second with 59.14% and Graham & SheilaL were third with 56.11%

Dennis & Roger continue to lead the rankings with an average of 61.81%, closely followed by DaveH & DaveW with 61.37% and a little further back by MargaretM & LindaM on 58.48%. Graham & SheilaL are chasing them with 58.17%

Hopefully all the results for the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs event that was held on 26 June will now have been loaded onto the Ecats site. If that is the case then the following are the results for our top three pairs.  You can view the full results on the Ecats page by clicking in this box.

DaveW & Dennis - 60.56% - Overall 60th/869; Zonal 38th/543; National 13th/177.
MargaretH & Ruth - 51.13% - Overall 378th/869; Zonal 237th/543; National 74th/177.
MargaretM & LindaM - 49.87% - Overall 440th/869; Zonal 277th543 ; National 87th/177.

NB The percentages will differ from what was achieved on the night at Dounby but this is normal.

Congratulations to these three pairs in particular and many thanks to all who took part. A small prize for the top Club pair should arrive at some point but this may take a while.

A great turnout of seventeen players this evening and, to avoid running around with three tables of three players, one player sat out each round scoring 500 points for the privilege. For some this was a very welcome boost to their score even though they would rather have been playing the round.

Top scorer was Clinton with 5240 points. In second place was Iso with 4850 points and third was MargaretK with 4550 points.

In the year to date rankings, Graham remains on 58550 points for his ten best scores and MargaretM remains on 50550 points in second place. Clinton remains in third place but he managed to drop a low score and  moved his score up to 50130, slightly reducing the gap to MargaretM.  Further down the rankings, LindaM overtook Pat to move into fifth place and MargaretK overtook Hazel, Sheena and Jean to move into elevent place. Although several others dropped a score their positions did not change.

Nine pairs competed playing 27 boards.  Board 1 was Passed Out on one occasion.

Many of the hands had unusual distributions.  Perhaps the most unusual of these was board 5 where the player sitting North had two suit voids and just 4 HCP. The temptation to bid with two voids was irresistible to North when pair 2 played against pair 10 but with South sitting with Spades a battle of wills ensued with South winning and ending in 5♠ doubled, as they battled to keep East/West from winning the contract in 5♦ .  In the end persevering was not a good decision and 5♠ doubled went down by seven tricks giving the opposition a neat 2000 points.  All other contracts were played East/West in 5♦ (making once and going down once by one trick) or in 3NT (making with two overtricks).

The top pair for the evening were George & Ally with a very good score of 67.36%.  DaveH & Sandy were second with 58.33% and MargaretM & Linda were third with 56.94%.

Dennis & Roger lead the year to date rankings with an average of 61.81%, very closely followed by DaveH & DaveW with 61.37% and MargaretM & Linda with 57.92%.

The highest single evening score is currently 69.29% achieved by Dennis & Roger.

Fifteen players competed and there were some interesting hands played.

The top scorer for the evening was Graham with 6500 points. In second place with 5510 points was Clinton, with Malcolm taking third place with 5370 points.

Graham's score helped him to further increase his lead in the year to date rankings at the end of the first half of the year, dropping a score of 4620 and increasing his total for his ten best scores to 58550 points.  MargaretM continues to lie second but was not able to drop a score.  She now has a total of 50550 points. Clinton was able to drop a score of 3940 and increased his overall total to 48940 points.

Further down the rankings Pat overtook LindaM and Sheena overtook Hazel and MargaretK.

Twelve people played tonight. The distribution in some hands spoiled what appeared to be promising contracts so there were more scores above the line than below on some scoresheets. Glad came out top with 4,590, followed by Clinton with 4,180 and Ruth with 3,940 just ahead of Pat with 3,930. Glad, Clinton, Pat, Dennis, Sheila L, Sheena and Freda all dropped a poorer score tonight but positions overall remain the same.  Graham leading with 56,670 followed by Margaret M (50,550), Clinton (47,370), Iso (46,430), Linda M (45,780), and Pat (44,250). Thanks to Glad for the delicious cheese scones - almost everyone had to go back for a second one! 

The bridge went back to its roots this week as for the first time in a long while we played in the room it all started in around a quarter of a century ago!

A good turn out with five and a half tables had twenty seven hands played over seven rounds.

Although there were no passed out boards, three and twenty seven were not played once due to lack of time. Only two contracts were doubled, both going off.

Not too many slam opportunities this week with just two making, one by Kathleen & George and the other by Roger & Dennis.

Board twenty five looked like the best opportunity though. With a combined thirty two points, all but one pair ended up in 6NT. Even when dummy goes down it looks a good contract, knock out the diamond ace and job done! But with horrendous splits in both spades and diamonds, defence always takes it one down.

Top again this week with another good score were Roger & Dennis with 66.04%.

Runners up on 60.99% were Michael &David and Iso & Malcolm came in third with 53.16%

It’s now around mid way through this years event and a change at the top. Roger & Dennis overtake DaveH & DaveW to go into lead, Graham & Sheila remain third and Margaret & Linda forth.

With a few people away or otherwise unable to play this week there was just a select group of eight players for Individual Rubber Bridge.

It was an interesting evening with several slams either bid and made, bid but not made or not bid but made. There were also contracts doubled on at least three occasions in which the contracts were successfully brought down. There may have been more but not mentioned.

Top scorer for the evening, by a country mile, was Graham with 7130 points having bid and made slams with LindaM and Iso.  In second place, was Iso with 5230 points having made a slam with Graham but missed one with LindaM.  In third place was LindaM with 4180 points.

At the end of the evening Graham announced the results and indicated that although four players dropped a low score, no-one changed position. In fact there were two position changes.  Graham remains in first place with 56670 points and MargaretM remains in second place with 50550 points and Clinton remains in third place with 46690 points. Iso overtook LindaM to move into fourth place and Dennis overtook Iris to move into seventh place.

Eight pairs competed playing twenty-eight boards which included some distributionally interesting hands.

The results are slightly different from what was announced on the night as one board that had been shown as Passed Out had in fact been Not Played.

Top pair for the evening were Roger & Dennis with 63.25%. In second place were DaveW & Ben with 60.24% and third were Iso & Malcolm with 55.42%.

The year to date rankings are being led by DaveH & DaveW with an average of 61.37%.  In second place are Roger & Dennis with 60.71% and in third place are Graham & SheilaL with 57.78%.

A few people were away this week and with only ten players we played with one table of four and two tables of three.

Top score for the evening went to Graham with 5160 points.  Iso was second with 4330 points and LindaM third with 4040 points.  Despite it being a relatively low scoring evening overall, all players except one managed to drop a low score.  Freda has now competed on ten occasions and is eligible to start dropping low scores.

Graham remains in first place in the year to date rankings with a score of 54130, slightly improving his lead over MargaretM who remains on 50550. Clinton remains in third place but improved his score to 46690. The only place change after this evening's play was Iso overtaking Pat to move into fifth place.

PLEASE NOTE THAT RESULTS ON TWO BOARDS HAVE BEEN CORRECTED – WELL SPOTTED GRAHAM, AND THANKS ISO!

There’s no stopping Dennis at the moment! Off the back of a first place, a joint first place and a third place over the Club’s previous three evenings, he resumed his regular Tuesday night partnership with Roger only for the pair to set a record score for the 2018 competition: making two of the evening’s four successful slams, they posted 69.3%. Second came Dave Higgins and Sandy McConnachie (57.9%), and two pairs shared third spot on 52.9%: Bunty and Jean, and Michael King and David Toms (playing together for the first time this season, welcome back!).

Of pairs with ten or more evenings behind them, Dave Higgins with a ‘best ten’ of 61.37% retains the lead in his other partnership, with Dave Walker; Dennis and Roger are back in second, on 59.39%; and Graham and Sheila (57.78%) are third.

Ten players turned up tonight so one table of four and two tables of three were played to avoid some people having to sit out twice.  This meant a busy night for the person who was dummy at the table of four.  Some very mixed results this week again.  Some people pleased with their  scores and others thinking they could have found something better to do on a nice Friday evening.  1st tonight  was Margaret M with 6,640, 2nd was Linda M with 4,780 and 3rd was Dennis with 4,210 followed by Jean with 4,050.  Graham remains firmly in the lead with 53,540 for his best 10 scores.  Margaret M in second place moves a little closer with 50,550 followed by Clinton with 46,690. Linda M overtook Pat and Iso tonight to move into fourth place and Jean moved up a couple of places as well.  

Thirteen players played tonight.  A few good scores, but mainly pretty mediocre hands for most folk.  1st tonight was Dennis with a score of 5,100, closely followed by Graham with 5,080. Margaret M came 3rd with 4,150 followed by Iris with 4,140.  The remaining scores were all less than 4,000. Dennis overtook Glad this week but the top six places remain the same.  Graham and Margaret M each dropped a poorer score but Graham is still way out in the lead with 53,540 ahead of Margaret M with 47,750 and Clinton with 46,690.  Thanks to Roger for updating the scoresheet.

With a few of the regulars missing, numbers were a bit down on recent weeks but thanks to Elaine and Keith, who are holidaying in Orkney at the moment, we were able to make up four full tables.

There were some crazy boards around which made for some interesting bidding with games hard to come by. No slams were bid, probably the best chance though was on board 12. With north opening 2NT, South has 10 HCP and a 5 card suit and may think it shouldn’t be too far away. But with two kings missing everyone stopped short of six no trump.

Board 7 was passed out on each occasion and Board 8 once.

Five contracts were doubled, 2 going down and 2 making an overtrick.

SheilaW & Pat came first this week with 61.31%, second on 55.95% were George & Ally. Third place went to visiting pair Elaine & Keith on 55.36%.

Overall DaveH & DaveW remain in the lead and Roger & Dennis are still second but with SheilaW & Pat’s winning score this week they have leapfrogged up two places to reach third.

With several regular players away, eleven people played tonight. Graham picked up some lovely hands and made good use of them to come first with 7,310, the highest score of the year to date. Margaret M was 2nd with 4,270 and Linda M was 3rd with 3,990. Current scores for the year shows  Graham in 1st place with  52,730,  Margaret M in 2nd place with  46,970,  Clinton in 3rd place with  46,690 followed by Pat and  Linda M who overtook Iso tonight.

Many thanks to everyone who helped to make the evening go smoothly, not least Graham  for turning up and getting us started when not playing himself - and very best wishes to Sheila for a prompt and full recovery from her cold!

There seemed to be many interesting and challenging hands on the evening: five slams were bid and made. A good spread of scores emerged, with Dennis and Roger the night's winners (66.2%), ahead of Linda and Margaret (58.8%) and Pat and Sheila (56.5%). Of those with ten or more  games behind them, Dave and Dave remain firmly in the lead for the season at 61.4%, with Dennis and Roger just a little closer at 57.5%, and Graham and Sheila third (56.8%).

For a beautiful sunny evening it was an excellent turn out of five full tables, especially as a few of the regulars are away.

Firstly though, many thanks to DaveH for managing to retrieve the scores from the pads on tables two and five. Although we knew there was an issue from early on we decided to carry on and ‘sort it out at the end’.

Last week I mentioned there were a few crazy boards around but they would have fallen into the average category this week with six card suits being the norm, a good few seven suiters and even three boards having an eight card suit!

Although five boards offered twelve tricks, only four small slams were bid. Two by visiting pair Elaine & Keith on boards one and three. One by DaveH & Sandy on board five and one by MargaretM and LindaM on board twelve.

Five contracts were doubled, four going down, the other making an overtrick. Boards two & sixteen were both passed out twice.

There was a tie for first this week with MargaretM & LindaM and DaveW & Dennis on 62.04%, just behind on 61.57% were Graham & SheilaL.

Looking at the results to date DaveH & DaveW still lead with 61.37%. Graham & SheilaL regain second place on 57.78%. Roger & Dennis are third with 57.46% and MargaretM & LindaM overtake Pat and Sheila into forth place on 57.43% and 56.96% respectively.