On Saturday 11th July we have A, B & C teams taking part in the 1st round of the Northern Bridge League. This event is  for teams of eight & runs over 4 weekends during the summer / autumn. Use this Realbridge link  to watch our teams taking part ( via delayed kibitzing & starting at approximately 10.50). 

https://kibitz.realbridge.online/

The Presidents Cup is a prestigious teams of eight competition contested by counties and regions from all over the British Isles and is hosted and organised by Merseyside & Cheshire. This year’s event was played out on Realbridge over the weekend of 4^th/5^th July. Our squad (John Hampson / Matt Foster, Julian Merrill / Paul Roberts, Mark Roderick / Paddy Murphy, Laurence Stone / David Smith & Mark Weeks, Chris Pope / Andy Prothero with Alan Stephenson as NPC) performed creditably finishing in 4th place is a very strong field albeit some way behind the top three teams. Our top pair on X-imps were Paddy & Mark but all were above or close to par. The overall winners were the team from Dublin who were well ahead at the end of day 1 & never lost the lead. Full results can be found on the Cumbria County website at:-

https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwos/bw.cgi?pid=display_rank&event=20260705_2&club=cumbria

Thanks to all for taking part and representing M&CBA & to our chief county TD David Stevenson for organising and running the competition so successfully.

Eight teams played in an enjoyable, friendly and high standard competition over 28 boards. The clear victors (carrying on from their win last year) were the team of Paddy Murphy, Alan Stephenson, Mark Weeks and Stuart Matthews - see pic below.

The final of this competition which is the county teams championship took place on Tuesday 26th May. The match was played in four stanzas of 8 boards each and was initially closely contested with only 2 IMPs seperating the teams at the half way stage. However, the winning team had a very good third set (35:0) and there was no way back thereafter for team Merrill with the last set a tie. Congratulations to team Stevenson (Liz Commins, David Stevenson, Tracy Sherman, Paddy Murphy, Bob Pitts & Peter Kaufmann) who will now go forward to represent M&CBA in the national finals for the Pachabo Cup. 

Paddy Murphy, Liz Commins and David Stevenson from the winning team.

Many congratulations to Ted Hulme and Robert Smith who finished second in the Nine High Corwen Cup. This is a National competition for club players with an NGS of 9 or less.  Our pairs qualified through the recently revived Liverpool Open. This is the first time that Merseyside and Cheshire  have  entered anyone in this competition and we hope that it will not be the last! Look out for future qualifying events on our website.

The county teams league, contested by 15 teams in 2 divisions, has now been completed. In division1, the Sutton Invincibles team of Bob Pitts, Peter Kaufmann, Alan Stephenson & Stuart Matthews were clear winners with Liz & co (Liz Commins, David Stevenson, Mark Roderick, Paddy Murphy, Alex Maddocks & Simon Edwards) in 2nd place 8 VPs behind. In division 2, We need a name (Stuart Hunter, Keith Perry, Sian & Jeremy Lawes) came in 3 VPs ahaed of Cosmopolitans (John Griffith, Tom Green, Linda Bennett, Jackie Theeten &  Mark Madeley). 

Season 6 will start in September - anyone interested in entering a team should contact Chris Raymond (drcjr56@gmail.com)

With regret, the County have taken the difficult decision to cancel the John Armstrong Swiss pairs event that was scheduled for Saturday 16 May.

Unfortunately, the number of entries is insufficient for a viable competition.  We would like to thank all pairs who entered and apologise for the inconvenience.  Refunds will follow forthwith.

Nineteen pairs played in the Liverpool Open Pairs on Sunday 29th March at Liverpool Bridge Club, superbly directed by David Smith.  This prestigious competition, returning after a break of a few years, took place for the first time in the club’s excellent new premises.

Congratulations to David Stevenson and Liz Commins who won for the fifth time, edging out Julian Merrrill and Paul Roberts in second place.

Congratulations also to the highest place 9 High pair, Gabriel McCarthy and Penny Roberts, who finished in third place overall.  They, and two other pairs, qualify for the EBU 9 High Corwen in May.

The Tollemache competition is one of the most prestigious EBU events contested by teams of eight representing counties and regions from all over England & Wales. The qualifier took place on Realbridge over the weekend of 8th/9th Nov involving 30 teams playing 98 boards in 2 heats with the top 4 to qualify for the final. Merseyside & Cheshire were represented by Matt Foster/John Hampson, Chris Pope/Andy Prothero, Laurence Stone/Jerry Hopkins, Paul Roberts/Julian Merrill & Paddy Murphy/Tracy Sherman. Our team produced a very creditable performance coming in equal 6th with London (who have a very much larger pool of players to choose from) and missed qualifying for the final by just 5 IMPs. Thanks to all for taking part & especially to John Hampson for also acting as team manager.

This competition has now ended with the final round on Saturday 11th October. Our A team had a mixed day with 2 wins & 1 draw from their 5 matches. Chris Pope & Andy Prothero were however top overall on X-imps. Looking at the cummulative scores Merseyside finished joint 2nd with Yorkshire on 220 VPs with Lancashire & Scotland tied in 1st position on 230 VPs. 

The C team had a better day defeating Yorkshire & then winning the crucial match against Lancashire by a maximum 20 VPs before then managing somehow to lose their final match against the lowest placed team (Cumbria). Chris Raymond & Colin Humphrey were top overall on X-imps with all three other pairs either positive or very close to par. 41 VPs on the day puts our cummulatve score at 147 and comfortably the winners of this division which means we get to go again in the national final next year.

Thanks to all for taking part. If you have not played in this competition before but are interested in taking part next year please contact the team organiser Chris Raymond ( drcjr56@gmail.com ).