| South of Ireland 71st Congress – Killarney - 18-25 May 2014 |
Ted Reveley swept the board! His successes:
Winner of the Congress Championship Pairs, with partner Paul Casselle . . .
3rd in the Goldenfield Cup Mixed Teams, with partner John Salisbury (also M&CBA) & team-mates Joy & Irving Blakey . . .
Winner of the Men’s Teams, again with John Salisbury & team-mates Bill Hirst & Alan Williams . . .
Winner of the Mixed Pairs, with Rhona Goldenfield . . .
2nd in the Lough Lein Congress Teams, with partner Chris Pope (also M&CBA) & team-mates Bill Hirst & BJ O’Brien – a particularly strong field this year, the winners Sally Brock & Barry Myers, John Holland & Padraig O’Briain (fresh from ROI’s success in the Senior Camrose) securing the lead with a 54 VP margin – but there was a much tighter tussle for positions 2-6.
SO VERY WELL DONE TO TED!
Jean Keen, with partner Suzy Lawson from Bristol & team-mates Sally Brock & Kath Nelson, won the Ladies’ Teams – in a competitive field, it was quite tight up until the last round, when a good win sealed victory with a 6 VP margin.
This year’s Congress was really well attended, with entries doubled for some events compared to last year – we’re not sure how much the change of dates affected this, and we understand they will revert to the norm of a week earlier for 2015 . . but watch this space! If you’ve never experienced Killarney, you’d be well advised to try it, if only for one or two events – a stunning area to explore, always a wonderful welcome, a truly international flavour and a brilliant team of TD & local organisers. The bridge, mostly in the evenings, is always relaxed & friendly while extremely competitive.
There’s no real need to enter much in advance, though some indication of your intent is useful for the organisers & TD - and it’s pay by event on the day – what could be easier? Organiser : Phyllis O’Regan phyllisoregan1@yahoo.ie
NB – Rhona Goldenfield of Manchester usually has the brochure to circulate when it becomes available, so if interested please email her on
bernard.goldenfield@ntlworld.com
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| EBU May Bank Holiday Congress |
Congratulations to Beth and Barry Wennell who with their team mates Gabriel Hearst and James Bond (no silly comments please, Barbara) won the Swiss Teams in a field of 44 teams.
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| Bolton May Bank Holiday Swiss Teams |
Congratulations to Mark Weeks & Paddy Murphy, David Flacks & Laurence Stone who were the winners of the above event, beating a strong field bristling with England Internationals!
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| Killarney 2016 |
A few results from the 73rd South of Ireland Killarney Congress, as special as ever and with some quite strong teams fields . . plus lots of green fields, spectacular sea & mountain landscapes and the usual warm Kerry welcome which all visitors truly appreciate.
Ted Revely & Chris Pope, with team-mates Pat Collins (Kent) & Bill Hirst (Kent), were 2nd in the Lough Lein Trophy Premier Teams event.
Dave & Jean Keen, with team-mates Pat Collins (Kent) & Bill Hirst (Kent), were 2nd in the Goldenfield Trophy Mixed Teams event.
Jean Keen, with team-mates Suzy Lawson (Bristol & Avon), Roz Bavin (Jersey) & Kath Nelson (Manchester) won the Hilda Huggard Trophy Ladies' Teams event - 3 wins in a row now for Jean & Suzy!
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| Harold Griffiths Trophy |
In the North Wales one-day teams, the Harold Griffiths trophy, held at Wrexham Garden Village, there were eight teams. All twelve players in the first three places were members of M&CBA.
1 Ted Reveley & David Stevenson, Mark Weeks & Stuart Matthews 99 VPs
2 Julian Merrill & Chris Pope, Paddy Murphy & John Hampson 97 VPs
3 Bob Pitts & Barry Jones, Jean & Dave Keen 86 VPS
All well above the average of 70 VPs
Sarah Amos directed it and played in the team who came fourth
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| Lady Connell Trophy 2015/16 |
The Lady Connell Trophy is the premier teams knock out event held by the County each year. The winners of this event are invited to represent the County in the EBU's national teams event The Pachabo Cup (click here for information).
The final was held between Reveley (Ted Reveley, Mike Swanson, Stuart Matthews, Alan Stephenson) and Hall (Peter Hall, Daniel Miller, Laurence Stone, Dave Flacks) with Reveley emerging victorious. Many congratulations to the winners.
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| President's Cup |
Many members of the County probably do not realise that this inter-County event has been run by our County ever since the break-up of the old NWCBA, many years ago. It started as an Inter-Area event for the NWCBA and developed into an inter-County event after the break-up. It has also developed from being an event for the North West to cover a rather wider area, usually getting between six and nine teams, and is held at various venues around the whole area.
This year it was at Derby, and got an amazing thirteen teams, including three teams that had not played before. This might cause a rethink over venues since some of the venues we use cannot hold the 26 tables this requires. However, we should be very pleased that a Green point event run by our County is so successful.
Our County came fourth. If you want to see full results, including the details of how our own team did, please go to
http://blakjak.org/president.htm
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| Jean Keen Teams 2016 |
 With apologies for the delay in posting, a report on this year's event is now available. Many congratulations to the winners: Stephanie Howard, Pat Arthur, Rekha Gatfield and Pauline Norman. Click here for the full write-up.
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| Northern Congress 2015 |
Congratulations to Al Stephenson, Stuart Matthews, Mark Weeks, who with B Burns of Yorkshire were 2nd in the teams at the above congress.
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| Welsh Foursomes |
First in the Welsh Foursomes this year, a weekend Swiss Teams organised by the WBU, were Liz Commins David Stevenson Mark Weeks Stu Matthews.
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| A Keen Year! |
A great year for Jean and Dave Keen!
Representing M&CBA in the 2012/1 3 season, Jean & Dave
achieved some impressive results:
In the two Blue Ribbon events -
The Tollemache - leading M&CBA pair
The President's Cup - leading M&CBA pair
In the Northern Counties 'A' Division, they played 3 times finishing :
2nd M&CBA pair
2nd M&CBA pair
leading M&CBA pair
Jean and Dave always do their best to make themselves available
to represent the County as well as all the other ways they have in
the past and do still serve the County. If only we all had their
combination of talent, commitment, energy and time!
They are certainly an inspiration to me - I hope everyone will
add supporting the County to their New Year's Resolutions!!
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| David & Liz do it again...and again! |
There really is no stopping David Stevenson and Liz Commins! Here is the latest list of successes and near-misses:
"Liz Commins and I played in the Celtic Congress in Fishguard. Even the Mixed Pairs was Green Pointed! We won the Mixed Pairs, our fifth Green Point win of the year. However, our team-mates, arranged weeks before, and checked the previous week, claimed no knowledge of this event and went home! The organisers found us a local pair, who played very well, but sadly we could only manage second place.
On to the Swiss Pairs. We played against another local pair, and I had to find a difficult lead. We finished third, but would have won if I had found the correct lead!
In the Bedfordshire 1-day teams, we lost the last match heavily, so finished second, one VP behind the winners. Our team-mates were John and Pauline Rudolf."
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| Late Summer Results for David and Liz |
EBU Brighton Summer Congress Open Teams
1 David Stevenson-Liz Commins John Dakin-Nigel Guthrie
Bolton Congress Championship Pairs
2 David Stevenson-Liz Commins
NIBU L'Derry Autumn Congress Mixed Pairs
2 David Stevenson-Liz Commins [with nearly 65% !]
Impressive, as always!
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| M&CBA Successes in Great Northern Swiss Pairs 5/6 Oct 2013 |
Congratulations to Pauline and John Rudolf who were joint 1st in the above event. This is a very tough congress, so this was a superb win.
Other good results were Peter Kaufmann and David Stevenson 5th and Paul Roberts & Julian Merrill 11th.
For full results please click here.
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| Westmorland green Pointed Swiss Pairs |
 Congratulations to M&CBA member Peter Richmond who, with his partner Roger Allison won the Swiss Pairs in Kendal on 29 September. Also well placed was Neil Thomas who was 7th with his partner Rodney Lighton from Manchester.
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| Merseyside Cup Sunday 10 November |
The Merseyside Cup was held at Deva this year and 7 teams were entered. It was a very pleasant event, smoothly run by Liz Stevenson and catered excellently, as always by Angie Pinnington and her sister Andrea. Full results are in the results section; well done to MBC whose two teams were 1st and 2nd. It was sad to note that LBC, Hartford and Deva were unable to field any teams but that may have been due to the clash with Lancashire's popular Pendle Witch pairs on the same day. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I certainly did!
photo shows winners from left to right: Pauline Norman, Pat Arthur, Stephanie Howard and John Fay with TD and organiser Liz Stevenson
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| Success for M&CBA players in Telford Mid Week Congress |
Congratulations to Bill Niccol and Richard Silcock who came 2nd in the pairs competition at the above event. Also high in the rankings were Peter Kaufmann and Simon Edwards in 5th place and Chris Pope and Andy Prothero in 12th.
In the teams, Peter, Simon, Chris and Andy finished in 5th place, while Bill and Richard, together with Mark Weeks came 8th in a team with Grahame Weir of Shropshire.
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| Mid Wales Congress |
Congratulations to M&CBA members Sheila Shea, Wyn Williams, Beth Wennell, Barry Wennell who came 7= in the above event.
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| NWBA Welsh Swiss Pairs Congress 06/07/2013 |
NWBA Welsh Swiss Pairs Congress 06/07/2013
Great results for Merseyside players in the above Congress - taking three of the top five places.
Liz Commins and Paddy Murphy 2nd
Julian Merrill and Paul Roberts 4th
John Hampson and Simon Whitehouse 5th
Other members of M&CBA finishing well were Beth and Barry Wennell, Mark Weeks (with partner Grahame Weir), Liz and Bill Wattleworth, Chris Pope and Peter Kaufmann, Neil Thomas (with partner Sue Richmond), Bill Niccol (with partner John Gladders), Geoff Cowie and Robbie Roberts.
For full results on the North Wales Bridge Association website click here
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| Bill Hughes Sim Pairs |
Congratulations to M&CBA members Sheila Shea and Paddy Murphy on coming 5th out of 910 pairs in the Bill Hughes last month. They were playing at Colwyn Bay. A good result too for Alan Sharples and Simon Anderson playing at the Deva and finishing in 11th place. For full results please click here.
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| President's Cup 2013 |
The Merseyside team were 3rd in the President's Cup - a good result considering Manchester and Yorkshire fielded very full strength teams. The Butler scores show the following results for team members:
Dave & Jean Keen +45
Peter Hall & Daniel Miller +26
Stuart Scholes & Richard Davies -2
Paul Roberts & Julian Merrill -43
Well done to all the team!
You can view the full results by clicking here.
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| County Friendly Match v Derby 2013 |
In the friendly match against Derby held at Spondon on Sunday 23 June, Derby took the title back from M&CBA by 100 imps. Despite a mix up over times which gave the visitors an unexpected hour's waiting time, it was a lovely day and our hosts were very welcoming.
The team were:
Margaret Howe & David Burrows
Earl O’Keeffe & Rob Roberts
Barbara Serres & Gareth Thomas (Capt.)
Ric & Julia Dearing
Angie Pinnington & Roy Wallwork
Elsie Goodwin & Geoff Marsden
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| Notable Successes by M&CBA players over the past year or so |
Notable Successes by M&CBA players over the past year or so in external events - an extract from the Chairman's report to the County AGM June 2013
(If you spot any omissions please use the "contact us" facility to let us know)
2012
In the North Wales Swiss pairs congress in early July, Neil Thomas won partnering Sue Richmond of Lancashire.
Dave & Jean Keen , David Stevenson and Liz Commins were equal 2nd in the Mid‐Wales teams Congress in July.
In the Westmoreland Swiss Pairs that took place on Sept. 30th, Bernard Kaye and Roger Waddington finished equal second, on the same score as Neil Thomas, who was partner‐ing Sue Richmond of Lancashire.
David Stevenson and Liz Commins won the LCBA October green‐pointed pairs event.
David and Liz along with Paddy Murphy and Matt Foster won the LCBA Foundation Cup event at the beginning of November.
John Hampson and Julian Merrill have an excellent record in the EBU Seniors’ Congress. Last year they won the A’ final of the pairs event from a very good field. This year they managed a very creditable 5th in the A’ final and then went on to achieve success in the Swiss teams, finishing 2nd with team‐mates Barry and Barbara Stoker from Surrey.
During 2012 David Stevenson and Liz Commins won eight green pointed events and several black point ones in partner‐ship. It did not seem to matter whether they were pairs events or teams they were equally successful
Ted Reveley and Stuart Matthews were part of the foursome that finished second in the teams event at the Manchester Congress in January.
M&CBA players had a lot of success at the Blackpool end of Year congress with pride of place going to David Stevenson, Liz Commins and Paddy Murphy, who with Tracy Capal of Manchester won the Swiss teams. Well done also to Margaret Howe and David Burrows, who won a prize in the Swiss pairs as the highest placed category B pair.
The Open Pairs was won by Geoff Cowie and Rob Roberts.
2013
The Deva Bridge Club team – representing the county – have reached the National Final of the Garden Cities Cup (for teams of 8). The team that qualified was John Hampson, Bob Pitts, Al Stephenson, Stu Matthews, David Stevenson, Liz Commins, Julian Merrill, Paul Roberts.
For the second year running, Deva Pair Laurence Stone and Martin Cutbill qualified for the National Pairs B final.
Julian Merrill and Joan Marray, together with Jean & Peter Hand of North Wales/Manchester, reached the final of the Cambria Cup where they lost to a very strong team from South Wales.
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| Garden Cities - updated |
With apologies for the delay, we now have the Butler scores for the qualifier:
Garden Cities Qualifier Butler scores
Sess 1 Sess 2 Total
David Stevenson/Liz Commins 32 -2 30
Alan Stephenson/Stuart Matthews -3 30 27
Julian Merrill/Paul Roberts. 39 -24 15
Bob Pitts/John Hampson -36 -9 -45
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| 70th SOUTH OF IRELAND CONGRESS - KILLARNEY |
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 70th SOUTH OF IRELAND CONGRESS - KILLARNEY
11-19 May 2013
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CONGRATULATIONS TO WELL-PLACED M&CBA PLAYERS!
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| Ted Reveley * & Chris Pope *, with team-mates Patrick Collins & Bill Hirst,were WINNERS in the Lough Lein Trophy, the main Congress Teams event |
| Ted Reveley * & Alan Williams, Bill Hirst & Pat Collins were runners-up in the Men's Teams |
| Jean Keen * & Suzy Lawson, Roz Bavin & Phyllis O'Regan were runners-up in the Ladies' Teams |
| Jean Keen * & Dave Keen * won the first session prize in the main pairs event |
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Another most enjoyable bridge experience in this delightful location and with its uniquely relaxed, yet still extremely competitive style - extra bridge sessions this year made for a very full programme, and as usual the social interaction with our Irish friends was also a winner!
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| NIBU GP SPRING CONGRESS |
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NIBU GP SPRING CONGRESS
April 2013 - Armagh
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David Stevenson & Liz Commins won the Mixed Pairs event and, together with team-mates Robin Burns & Iain Lindsay of Northern Ireland, also won the Championship Teams.
Many congratulations!
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| NWBA SWISS TEAMS CONGRESS |
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NWBA SWISS TEAMS CONGRESS
6-7 April 2013 - Colwyn Bay
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CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNING M&CBA PLAYERS!
and to other well-placed M&CBA members
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Pos
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VP's
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1st
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Ted Reveley* & Bill Niccol *
Alan Stephenson* & Stuart Matthews* |
189
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2nd
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Mike Tedd* & John Salisbury*
Barry Lloyd Jones* & Bob Pitts*
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171
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3rd
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David Stevenson* & Liz Commins* Paddy Murphy* & Matt Foster* |
159
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4th
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Andy Prothero* & Chris Pope*
Peter Kaufmann* & Simon Edwards*
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150
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5th
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Sue Richmond & Neil Thomas*
Babs Matthews & John Farmer |
148
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| FALKIRK BC CONGRESS - Mona Reid Kerr Trophy |
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FALKIRK BC CONGRESS - Mona Reid Kerr Trophy
16-17 March 2013 - Montrose, Angus
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CONGRATULATIONS TO M&CBA WINNERS OF THE
CONGRESS MAIN TEAMS EVENT
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A trip up to NE Scotland was a successful outing for Liz Commins & David Stevenson and Jean & Dave Keen, who won the 7-team final from an original entry of 14 teams. A very warm & friendly welcome, which more than made up for the inclement weather!
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| EBU RANKED MASTERS PAIRS |
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EBU RANKED MASTERS PAIRS
2-3 March 2013
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CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNING M&CBA PLAYER!
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Very well done to Pete Foster * who, with partner John Liebeschuetz from Cambridge, won the EBU Life Masters Pairs - an excellent result, with a superb winning score - well ahead of the rest of the field!
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