The, now annual, Wessex Youth weekend, jointly organised by OBA and GCBA, is a fantastic event and was held in April 2018. Cheltenham Ladies College and Bridge Club provide wonderful facilities. On the Saturday night the club and the youngsters play in the same duplicate session- 24 boards of approximately 10 tables of U20s and 10 of over 70s, followed by speedball 18 boards at 7.5 minutes per round! That's youth bridge.This years' youth event on Sunday was won jointly by the Potter brothers and Aidan Saunders(partnered by Roland Bourne Sussex) from Oxfordshire whilst the Saturday night winners were members of the U20 squad, beating some august members of Cheltenham BC.

Several of the youngsters from OJBC are now training with Giorgio Provenza's U16 squad, and an article from Holly will follow. Numbers playing in schools are slightly down, but the quality of play is increasing, and therefore more children are starting to play in our clubs..