Our flagship event, the Lord’s Teams competition for MCC members and candidates, took place on Sunday 17th March with the team of Lester Pereira, Nigel Clayton, Paul Filer and Simon Alterman (pictured L-R) coming out on top. Six teams of four competed in two sessions of 20 boards each.

The winners were strong favourites and they duly set the pace in the first session with a score of 54 imps, with Team Barua/Lane/Southam/Soanes compteting well with 29 imps in second place. The second half was more even but the gap between the two leading teams remained unchanged. 

The event, formerly known as the Lord's Trophy, was renamed this year so that the winners can collect the Peter Donovan Trophy. For full results, click here. 

Many thanks to Ronnie Bourne for organising the event and to our TD Victor Lesk for making the day go very smoothly.

MCC Members or Candidates for membership can sign up to receive emails about Bridge Society activities from the Club and from committee members organising events. You can access the form here

For those of you who enjoy playing Bridge on line Dominic Flint is keen to reach out to those interested in representing the club. Currently he is on the hunt for opposition near and far with games against Hurlingham, the North of England and on the other side of the Atlantic. To register your interest complete the form 

The 2023 Mixed Swiss Teams Competition took place on Sunday, 8th October with 30 teams playing in a packed Long Room. The team of Joan Murphy, David Killick, Paul Dolphin and Steve Lynch (pictured) pulled away from the field to score a resounding victory, averaging a remarkable 17 Victory Points out of a possible 20 across the six seven-board rounds.

Runners-up were Nigel Clayton, Pralab Barua, Geoff Foley and Suzanne Obrart. Thanks to all who took part in the event -- MCC Members, Candidates, and Guests, for making it a memorable day.

Full results available here.

It is with a sense of sadness regret and loss that we have to report the passing of one of our own!

On Thursday 16^th November 2023 Peter Donovan died. PD as he was affectionately known was probably the best bridge player that many of us ever played with or against.

He was a  larger than life character and we would like to express our condolences to his life partner Michele whom he always referred to as ‘the frog’ whereas she in turn in her persisting French accent addressed him as ‘toad’.

PD first attended MCC pairs bridge on the third Tuesday following our start up-  he won and came first, and went on to join our founding committee with enthusiasm and much valuable input. Under his guidance we started the Rubber Bridge competition. He represented the club in our Guest Teams events on many occasions invariably with distinction. Peter continued as the World’s longest serving Bridge journalist with his daily column in the Daily Mail in fact many members will recall the pre publication phone call ‘Do you remember that hand… … hand by hand suit by suit sometimes weeks after being played. In his pre abstinence days if you were lucky enough to be invited to play with him the invitation invariably carried the rider ‘meet you in the pub before for a half gallon’!!  PD didn’t suffer fools and the recriminations following  a missed "agreement" or signal could be almost violent. We Bridge playing MCC members were indeed privileged to have known him and few of us will fail to remember those meetings.

Nigel Parmenter 2023

Russell Tenzer took over from Simon Alterman as Chair of the MCC Bridge, Chess and Backgammon sub-committee from 1st October. Simon will remain on the sub-committee after his six-year term as Chair.

After the drama of the Ashes test, the MCC Bridge Society secured a comfortable victory over our friends from Melbourne CC in the President's Box at Lord's on 3rd July. The teams of 16 match was the third encounter between the clubs, all won by MCC. There were also wins against our partner club in cricket, real tennis, and golf.

The iconic Bridge Ashes trophy -- a box with the charred remains of playing cards -- was handed to Society Chair Simon Alterman by Helen Fitzpatrick who established the fixture in 2009 with George Meyer. The trophy now goes back to Australia while we keep the other Ashes urn in the MCC Museum. We've been invited to Melbourne at the end of 2025 to see how we perform in the harsher environment of an Australian summer. Game on!