When I sent the report in to The Orcadian about the results of the Duplicate Pairs and Individual Rubber Bridge competitions for 2014, I completely forgot to include the results for the pre-Christmas presentation evening event. I did not keep a note of who won which round but the overall results for the evening for all the players are given below. There were eighteen players but it seems that only 17 players's score sheets came home, so there is one result that should be slotted in somewhere but not affecting the overall winner and runner up.

1st    Clinton Rendall (4440 points)
2nd   Sheila Walls (4360 points)
3rd    Margaret Kirkness (4040 points)
4th    Graham Lyon (3810 points)
5th    Iris Clyde (3380 points)
6th    Marjory Cook (3130 points)
7th    Iso Tipler (2820 points)
8th    Hazel Foubister (2400 points)
9th    Margaret Mainland (2780 points)
10th   Linda Milne (2330 points)
11th   Roger Davies (2060 points)
12th   Sheila Lyon (2030 points)
13th= Sheena Hay (1780 points)
13th= Pat Shearer (1780 points)
15th   Ruth Sinclair (1610 points)
16th   Ally Kelly (1440 points)
17th   Malcolm (600 points)

Friday, 19 December was an important evening in the Club calendar, being the first Trophy Presentation Evening under the new Club format. Eighteen members attended, bringing with them fabulous buffet items - enough to feed a small army - and adding to the pool of previously donated raffle prizes.  Thank you all for coming along, contributing and making it a very enjoyable final evening for the year.

The programme was to play three rounds of Individual Rubber Bridge and then have a break for the Trophy Presentation for the two main competitions and the Raffle before playing another three rounds. There was a small prize for the winning pair for each round and then an overall prize for the highest scorer for the evening and the runner up, respectively. The winner for the evening's play was Clinton Rendall with 4440 points and the runner up was Sheila Walls with 4360 points. Well done to both of them.

The evening's play and food, enjoyable as it all was, was secondary to the main purpose of the evening which was to celebrate the success of pairs and individuals in the Duplicate Pairs and Individual Rubber Bridge competitions held throughout 2014. In each competition the pair or individual had to compete in at least ten events to qualify for a final result. A short report on each of the competitions is given separately. The full results for the year can be viewed via Duplicate Pairs or Individual Rubber on the Competitions menu tab.

Pictured with this news item, from left to right, are:

• Roger Davies, half of the Runners Up pair for Duplicate Pairs and Runner Up for Individual Rubber Bridge
• Sheila Walls and Pat Shearer, Winners of the Duplicate Pairs competition and of the High Score award
• Graham Lyon, Winner of the Individual Rubber Bridge competion

Missing from the picture are Dennis Paice (the other half of the Runners Up pair for Duplicate Pairs) and Gladys Marwick (winner of the High Score award in the Individual Rubber Bridge competition). They will receive their awards in the New Year.

The Duplicate Pairs competition ended on 16 December. There a few key points to mention:

-     31 different pairings competed at some stage of the competition;

-     4 to 9 pairs (2-4.5 tables) competed on any one evening;

-     9 pairs competed on at least 10 occasions, to qualify for a final result;

-     41 was the highest number of occasions any one pair played - Margaret Mainland and Marjory Cook;

Part way through the year we switched from manual travellers to BridgePads and Scorebridge;

Later in the year Dennis Paice kindly donated a mini computer for the Club to use;

Introduction of the timer, particularly the on screen timer, helped us to keep play moving along

In the early part of the year, before ten qualifying results had been achieved, the lead in the rankings had varied between different pairings. Significantly, on 25 February, Sheila Walls and Pat Shearer achieved a massive score of 78.95% which was enough to secure them the High Score award for the year. Although that was an exceptional result, throughout the year they were usually highly placed in the weekly results and in the Spring managed to attain the lead in the year to date rankings amongst those who had managed to compete ten or more times. Despite the best efforts of others, nothing was going to knock them off the top spot and they ended the year as very deserved Winners of the Duplicate Pairs competition. They were presented with the main trophy to hold for one year between them, plus small trophies to retain and a mini trophy for their High Score success. Well done!!

Runners Up in the competition were Roger Davies & Dennis Paice who also scored consistently well over the year but could not quite catch the Winners. Roger & Dennis were awarded the Runners Up mini trophy for the Duplicate Pairs competition. Dennis was not at the Presentation Evening so his will be given to him early in the New Year. For the full results please select Duplicate Pairs from the Competitions menu tab.

2015 could be even more exciting if the same and more couples return for the new season. Roger & Dennis were getting to know their new system in the early part of 2014 but should now have that under control. Margaret Mainland & Marjory Cook are also very consistent and well up in the rankings. Graham Lyon had been missing due to illness for several weeks but when he is there and on form he and his partner, Sheila Lyon, are a force to be reckoned with. In the latter part of 2014 we also had Dave Higgins competing with his novice partner, Sheena Hay, and their results have been improving week by week. And if only we could find Dave Walker a partner he would, I am sure, be well up in the rankings. As for the rest of us - well we do try our best!

Dounby Bridge Club has been going for many years now and the competition format for Individual Rubber Bridge changed to its current annual competition basis around 2007. Prior to that Graham Lyon had won the competition for several years. In the 2007 format he won it every year from 2007 to 2013 but no trophy was awarded. It was therefore felt that before recording on the new trophy the first year of competition since the Club moved to its new structure in 2014, the Individual Rubber Bridge trophy should be pre-engraved to show '2007-2013 G. LYON'. During that period he also scored in excess of 50000 points each year for his best ten results. A very consistent record - well done, Graham.

In 2014, we started afresh in the new Club structure and here are a few points to note:

-     31 individuals took part in the Individual Rubber Bridge competition during the year;

-     20 players played on ten or more occasions and qualified for a final result;

-     The number playing on any one evening ranged between 10 and 18;

-     The player achieving the highest average points for all evenings played, not just the best ten for qualifying, was Clinton Rendall.

Early in the year the lead in the rankings changed places several times before Graham floated to the top again. Having established a lead and created a gap between himself and the next best competitor at that time, Iris Clyde, he then went off for several weeks due to illness in early April. Throughout his absence, players tried to bridge the gap but he was still in the lead when he finally returned in late May and he held the lead then through to the end of the year. He scored 56070 points for his best ten scores and was awarded the Individual Rubber Bridge trophy to hold for a year and also a small trophy to keep.

Behind Graham, there was jostling for position between Iris Clyde, Roger Davies, Dennis Paice and, latterly, Clinton Rendall. In the end it was Roger Davies who came through to take the Runner Up spot with a score of 54360 points, with Clinton Rendall third on 50430 points. These were the only three players to break through the 50000 points mark.

The High Score award for the best score on a single evening was awarded to Gladys Marwick who scored 8050 points on one occasion. She was not at the Presentation Evening and will be given her mini trophy early in the New Year.

The full year to date results can be viewed by selecting Individual Rubber from the Competitions menu tab. The week by week results for the full year can be viewed via the Results menu tab, selecting the date 12 December 2014.

We hope that all players in 2014 will return to take part in the competition again and 2015 and encourage others to join us. Although we all applaud Graham for his fantastic record, secretly (or maybe not so secretly) we would all like to be able to put up a really good challenge and enable another name to be put on the trophy in 2015. Some of it is all down to luck in terms of the cards dealt, but after that it is down to skill and experience and it is noticeable that certain players always rise towards the top. You know who you are and I am expecting great things of you in 2015. The rest of us may have to content ourselves with lower final ranking but we can still enjoy our own little battles with those around our own level. The main thing is to keep playing and practising, keep learning and, above all keep enjoying the bridge at the Club.