First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who has supported our County’s bridge activities over the past year, whether by serving on one of our committees, undertaking a specific role, organising an event, or simply playing in a County event.

People/positions

During the year two people who have given sterling service to the County over many years resigned from key posts:

•   Angus Clark has resigned as County Secretary, and also from being one of our two Shareholders.

•   Jean Keen resigned as Webmaster wef from the AGM ( but continues to work for the County in other ways)

  Both people have worked very hard in support of our County Association for many years, and I am sure everyone will share my appreciation for all their efforts.

  Their replacements – appointed by the Executive Committee – are:

•   Richard Alcock as Secretary

•   Barbara Serres as Webmaster

•   Myself – as Chairman – as Shareholder

  I’d like to thank Richard and Barbara for volunteering to take over these key positions. I understand that they will be happy to continue in these posts if elected at the AGM.

  Many other Counties appoint their Chairman as an “ex officio” Shareholder. Subject of course to the willingness of the incumbent, I would recommend this approach for M&CBA.

  Our other shareholder has – for many years – been our President, Grattan Endicott, but in recent years he hasn’t been able to attend many shareholders’ meetings. Since he is entitled to attend almost all EBU meetings, including those of shareholders, in his own right as an EBU Vice President, he has told us he is happy to stand down as a MCBA shareholder. I would therefore suggest that – for continuity ‐ there would be merit in electing our current Vice Chairman as our second shareholder.

  I would also like to thank two other people who kindly agreed to fill posts which were not filled at last year’s AGM:

•   Liz Stevenson has taken over the chair of the Tournament Committee

•   Phil Nuttall (of Deva BC) is now our County Club representative.

  Unfortunately we have not succeeded in identifying anyone willing to take up the key role of County Youth Officer.

  I have also just heard that Dave Keen has decided not to seek re‐election as Chairman/Secretary of the Selection Committee. Dave has worked very hard in this role, and I doubt there are many people who are aware of the extent of his efforts in organising the many different teams that the County puts out each year, so I am really sorry that he has decided not to continue in this role.

   

  Perhaps in the future the Selection Committee might consider some way of spreading the load – with different individuals organising teams for different events: The Dublin match, the Derby match, and the County Trials might all be candidates, though it might be more difficult to share the organisation of the Northern League between several people.

  County successes

  At last year’s AGM it was agreed that it would be desirable to recognise the successes of our players as individuals, pairs or teams. Unfortunately we haven’t established a mechanism for logging such successes, beyond those reported in the County newsletter, so I apologise if the attached list misses out your own achievements.

  English Bridge Union developments

  •   The EBU plan to form a “Charitable Incorporated Organisation”. As I understand it, this will take over those EBU activities which are accepted as fitting within the auspices of a Charity. The remaining activities will continue to operate outside the Charity.

  •   They have produced a strategic plan “Bidding for the Future” – a number of copies are available here, for anyone who would like to peruse them. There is an EBU County Chairmen’s meeting on 26 June, at which I – if re‐elected as Chairman – am happy to raise any questions or concerns.

  •   The EBU are planning some – relatively minor – changes to the alerting and announcing rules. Again, I’ve got a few copies here if anyone wants to look at them. These seem pretty sensible and non‐contentious to me, but I’m not entirely clear how/when they are to be implemented.

    MCBA Selection processes

    Selection for top teams in any sport is never easy, and is not helped by the fact that no‐one can ever prove whether it is correct: However well a selected team does, it may be thought other players would have done even better; however badly, there can be no certainty that others would not have produced even worse results.

    Nevertheless, it is always good to look for opportunities to improve the processes, if only to try to reduce the potential for – often unfair – criticisms of the selectors. It is therefore suggested that two changes be trialled:

  •   For the major events (the Tolly and the President’s Cup in most years) a small (2 or 3 person) sub committee be formed. The criteria for membership of this group would be that members should either be top players – whose selection (with a regular partner) – would be universally accepted as automatic, or very experienced tournament players who are not candidates for selection for the relevant competition

      This sub committee record the reasons for their decisions. (Not for publication, but to be made available in confidence to those players who would like to understand the reasons for their non‐selection) 

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  Notable Successes by M&CBA players over the past year or so

  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 partnering 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 teammates Barry and Barbara Stoker from Surrey.

  During 2012 David Stevenson and Liz Commins won eight green pointed events and several black point ones in partnership. 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.

  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 and Peter Hand of North Wales/Manchester, reached the final of the Cambria Cup where they lost to a very strong team from South Wales.