When Paula Ceely,  20-year-old student from Redditch, Worcestershire, set out to visit her boyfriend Tom Finucane at his parents’ home in the remote Welsh village of Hebron in Carmarthenshire, it was the first time she had driven the 200 or so miles on her own. So to be on the safe side, Finucane lent her his portable SatNav. Most of the journey was straightforward enough; over the Severn Bridge, along the M4 and the A40. But on reaching St Clears in Camarthenshire, the machine saw the opportunity to save Ceely a few minutes by taking her off the main road and on to a shortcut through a maze of unclassified country lanes.

By this time, night had fallen and it had begun to rain. Within a few minutes of leaving the A40, Ceely found herself in a narrow lane with a gate blocking her way. Stopping her car, she opened the gate and drove through it, but found another gate ahead of her. Stopping again, she went back to close the first gate – only to hear a train sounding its horn as it raced towards her. She was on a level crossing!! Her car. It turned out, was straddling the South Wales main line. But not for much longer!! Within seconds, as the horror-stricken Ceely stood helplessly by, the 19.05 from Pembroke Dock to Swansea had smashed into the vehicle, hurling it aside and carrying its bonnet half a mile down the track!!

Miraculously, neither Ceely nor anyone on the train was hurt, but the car was a write-off, the line had to be closed while the wreckage was cleared and Ceely was charged with unlawfully obstructing the railway!! And so, the incident became yet another in the catalogue of misadventures blamed on SatNav – along with the woman who had to be rescued by the fire service after her car plunged into a stream near Woodbury Salterton in Devon; the 44-tonne lorry from Lithuania that became wedged in a lane in Charlcombe, near Bath, for four days; and the motorists who were sent along a barely passable track on the edge of a 100ft cliff near the village of Crackpot in North Yorkshire.

But now a multi-million pound SatNav project aims to stop lorries and other vehicles getting stuck in narrow lanes and under low-lying bridges on UK routes. Ordnance Survey is creating a database that will contain information about 200,000 miles of roadways to prevent such accidents. The Transport Secretary Andrew Jones said the digital facility would launch before the end of the year. But SatNav makers will need to pay to get access to the full data. "The new database will provide the SatNav manufacturers with the ability to make journeys for HGV [heavy goods vehicle] drivers safer and more cost-efficient and that's a big issue for us," explained Richard Burnett, the chief executive of the Road Haulage Association. "However, the new technology can only be considered a real success if each of the SatNav providers sign up to the new system."

It includes information on bridge heights, weight restrictions, road widths and bans on left or right turns at junctions, and will also be able to warn drivers about speed restrictions, roadworks and cycle lanes. The £3 million project, which has been in development for two and a half years, comes after figures published by the Department for Transport last year showed that the majority of drivers use SatNavs instead of paper maps. There are also plans to introduce SatNavs as part of the Driving Test, with a revised practical test trialled in the UK last year. "We welcome this move [and] hopefully this will lay the foundations for potential future advancements in vehicle technology," commented Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

Maybe there will be some new technology that aids us all to play Duplicate Bridge someday??!! Certainly there were plenty of keen Players wanting to participate in the Second Round  of the Tilling Trophy last night. There were a near capacity 16 + 1/2 Tables to compete in our premier Pairs Competition which is held on the third Thursday of seven months between September and March to decide who will be the Top Pair of the Year!! Many congratulations must go to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money who scored a fabulous 72.82% to race away with First place on the Leaderboard last night; they also scooped the maximum 66 Master Points. Just to emphasise the performance, this is only the fourth time in the last year that a Pair have broken through the 70% scoring barrier ar Oxshott!! Well done indeed!! Daphne Pugh & Gillian Lowe were Second with 62.44% with Sheila Price & Gabrielle Roberts coming Third with 60 64%, although they were only 0.9 of one Match point ahead of Joan Low & Liam Creagh who came Fourth with 60.50%. Julie Minards & Pauline Harris came Fifth with 59.04%, just ahead of June Buckland & Eileen Goddard who came Sixth with 58.565, and they just pipped John French & Jonathan Spring who came Seventh with 58.43%. There was then a small gap before Alan & Pat Hammond came Eighth with 56.13%, just 1.3 Match points ahead of Philip Duncan & Richard Burgess who came Ninth with 55.94%. Eric & Rowena Austin came Tenth with 55.75%, but they were only just ahead of Angie Watson & Ian Jeffrey who scored 54.55% in Eleventh place. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!!

It was the Player who played in the East position who received the "good cards" last night; they played the contract on 10 out of the 26 Boards. South and West got 6 contracts to play, while poor old North was left with only four Boards where they got to play the contract!! An amazingly high proportion of the Boards offered the higher-scoring "game" contracts; they made up 20 of the 26 Boards that we played!! Four Boards offered some kind of Slam Opportunity amd there were eight actual Slams delivered during the evening!!?? Board 24 presented the most difficult chance. West had a whopping 18 High Card Points with 5 Clubs to the AKQxx; they would open 1 Club. East had 8 HCPs with 6 Spades to the KJxxxx, 4 Diamonds to the J10xx and a singleton Queen of Hearts; they would respond 1 Spade. West may well indicate their count of 18 points with 2 No Trumps, and East would show their length by repeating 3 Spades. Now West has a decision to make between Spades and No Trumps, but also as to the overall potential of the two hands??!! Well last night one East/West Pair settled for 2 No Trumps; they made exactly 8 tricks fopr 120 points!!?? Two more E/W Pairs went on to 3 Clubs; one made 9 tricks for 110 points, while the second made 12 tricks for 170 points!! One intrepid North/South Pair bid 3 Hearts; they amde 7 tricks and so lost only 100 penalty points!! Then one East/West Pair bid game in 3 No Trumps; sadly they made only 8 tricks and so lost 50 penalty points and gave a top score to their N/S Opponents!!?? That left the ten E/W Pairs who bid game in 4 Spades; six made 10 tricks for 420 points; three made 11 tricks for 450 points; and one made 12 tricks for 480 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find along with the Travellers in the "Results" section - tells us that it is possible for West (but not East) to make a Slam contract in 6 Spades on this Board!! The secret is to finesse the Queen of Spades held by South; then take out trumps and play all 5 of the Clubs while discarding three Diamonds from East. The Slam sontract is then delivered with only the loss of the Ace of Hearts!! However it would be amazing if West were to be the first bidder of a Spade Slam contract, so it was a very unlikely eventuality indeed!!??

Board 14 gave South 11 HCPs but their 5 Hearts to the Qxxxx might allow an opening bid of 1 Heart. North has a "powerhouse" with 7 Spades to the KQJ10xxx and 18 HCPs; they will jump to 2 Spades. When South shows support with 3 Spades, North may well try "Blackwood" to see the full potential??!! Well last night one North/South Pair stopped in 2 Spades; they made 12 ticks for 230 points!!?? Seven more N/S Pairs bis game in 4 Spades; four mde 11 tricks for 450 points, while three made 12 tricks for 480 points!! One Pair took a look and settled for 5 Spades; they made 12 tricks for 480 points!! However six North/South Pairs bid a Slam contract in 6 Spades. Sadly one fell short by one trick and so lost 50 penalty points!! But many congratulations must go to Eric & Rowena Austin, to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money, to Sheila Price & Gabrielle Roberts, to June Buckland & Eileen Goddard, and to Richard Pocock & Ruth Rettie; they all bid Slam in 6 Spades; and they all made exactly 12 tricks to share an excellent 980 points!! Interestingly the "Expert Analysis" tells us that - against the best of defences - only South should be able to make a Slam contract in 6 Spades. They say that North can make a maximum of 11 tricks!! You see a Diamond lead from East forces South to play either the Queen or the 10. Whichever West overtakes with the King or the Jack and North must then play the Ace of Diamonds. That leaves two losing tricks, to the top Diamond held by West and the Ace of Hearts which is in East's hand. Now frustratingly it turned out that all five of these winning Slam contracts were played last night by North!!?? I guess Lady Opportunity passed on from this Board more than a little crest-fallen after such an Opportunity missed??!!

Board 20 gave a good Slam Opportunity to East/West. West had 17 HCPs with 4 Clubs to the AJ10x and 4 Hearts to the AK10x; they would open 1 Club. East had 11 HCPs in support with 5 Spades to the KQxxx; they might even jump to 2 Spades to show their 5 cards!! West would then show their second 4-card suit with 3 Hearts. Now it is up to East to decide how high they wish to aim??!! Well last night 14 of the 15 Pairs who played the Board settled for a game contract in 3 No Trumps; one made 10 tricks for 630 points; seven made 11 tricks for 660 points; and six made 12 tricks for 690 points!! One E/W Pair bid game in 4 Hearts; they made 11 tricks for 650 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" tells us that it is possible for either East or West to make a Slam contract in any of 6 Hearts, 6 Spades or in 6 No Trumps!! The secret is to ensure that you take King of Clubs with the Ace, so that one of the Jack and the 10 are winners thereafter despite the Queen of Clubs sitting in North. It is always much easier after the event, isn't it??

Fianlly there was Board 4 which is reproduced at the top of this Report. Do take another look just now to see how YOU would bid and play these hands to maximise their potential??!! You can see that North ahs 11 HCPs with 5 Clubs to the QJ10xx, 4 Diamonds to the A10xx and a singleton Ace of Spades; using the "rule of 20" they would open 1 Club. South has a whopping 18 HCPs with 6 Diamonds to the KQxxxx; they would jump to 2 Diamonds. Now North has 4 Diamonds of their own, so they may well jump to 4 Diamonds; and South would immediately be considering "Blackwood" and a potentially big contract??!! Well last night one N/S Pair settled for 3 Diamonds; they made all 13 tricks for 190 points!!? Four more North/South Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; one made 11 tricks for 660 points, while three made 12 tricks for 690 points!! Six more N/S Pairs bid game in 5 Diamonds; all six made the full set of 13 tricks to share 640 points!! Finally three Pairs bid a Slam contract!! Congratulations must go to Katherine Kreuter & Dave Cowell and to June Buckland & Eileen Goddard; they both bid Slam in 6 Diamonds; they both made 12 trickss for 1370 points!! But special congratulations must go to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money who bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; they made 12 tricks for a whopping top score of 1440 points!! Well done indeed!! Now the "Expert Analysis" informs us that it is indeed possible for both North and South to make a Slam in 6 Clubs; and that it is possible for both to make a GRAND SLAM in 7 Diamonds!! However the "Analysis" also tells us that, against the best of defences, the maximum number of tricks makeable by North or South is 11 tricks!!?? You see, once the North's singleton Ace of Spades is allowed to win, East and West just have to wait for their two winners in the Queen of Hearts and the King of Spades to capture their tricks. Patience is always a problem when defending a Slam contract!!?? Anyway well done to all our Actual Slam Achievers of the evening!!

Congratulations must go to Simon Whiteside & Maxine Julius of the Richmond Bridge Club who came First in the Overall Scoring for the Surrey Simultaneous Pairs Wednesday event held on Wednesday 14th September 2016; they scored an outstanding 68.66%. They were over 2% ahead of Tony & Janet Richards from the Tudor Bridge Club who scored 66.61% in Second place. Arthur & June Haddock from the Tudor Bridge Club were placed Third with a score of 65.67%. The top Pair from the Oxshott Bridge Club were Elizabeth Gray & Rosemary Collin who came Sixth with 63.66%. There were 148 Pairs who participated in the Wednesday event in the Surrey SIMS Competition from seven different Bridge Clubs. The Table above shows the scoring of every Pair from Oxshott, both on a local basis and after consolidating across Surrey. The Pairs who played North/South are highlighted in Yellow, while those who played East/West are highlighted in Blue!!

Scottish author Graeme Macrae Burnet is favourite to land this year’s Man Booker Prize – for a second novel from a tiny publishing house run by just two full-time staff. Graeme has been shortlisted for ‘His Bloody Project’, a crime story and memoir exploring the life of a 19th century crofter. The author, 48, recounts the murders, in 1869, of three people in a remote crofting community and the subsequent trial of 17-year-old Roderick Macrae, one of the writer’s ancestors. The book, released by a newcomer on the publishing scene, Contraband, features the teenager’s memoir, along with court transcripts, medical reports, police statements and newspaper articles. ‘His Bloody Project’ has been made favourite to win the prestigious £50,000 prize, which will be announced on October 25, with odds of 5/2, displacing fellow British writer Deborah Levy (3/1) into second spot. Levy is the only previously shortlisted author, with ‘Swimming Home’ making the list in 2012. Born and brought up in Kilmarnock, Macrae Burnet spent several years trying to get his work published but was knocked back. His first novel, ‘The Disappearance Of Adele Bedeau’, was only published in 2014 after he submitted it himself to Contraband, an imprint dedicated to Scottish crime, and it became a minor cult hit. The author, who lives in Glasgow, is currently working on two further novels featuring Georges Gorski, the haunted detective in ‘Adele Bedeau’.

Amanda Foreman, the historian and journalist who chaired the panel of judges, said: “As a group we were excited by the willingness of so many authors to take risks with language and form. The final six reflect the centrality of the novel in modern culture – in its ability to champion the unconventional, to explore the unfamiliar, and to tackle different subjects.” A notable absence was JM Coetzee’s ‘The Schooldays of Jesus’. Mr Coetzee was the winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature and the most celebrated author on the longlist of 13 announced in July. Each author on the shortlist receives £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. The winner, revealed at a black-tie dinner at London’s Guildhall and broadcast by the BBC on Tuesday 25 October, takes home £50,000. Jamaican author Marlon James won last year’s grand prize with his third novel ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’. The evocative book explores the attempted assassination of reggae singer Bob Marley in 1976 and its aftermath through the New York City crack wars of the Eighties. To date, more than 315,000 copies have been sold in the UK and Commonwealth. HBO is planning a TV adaptation of the story, while James has spent the past year travelling around the world to speak at a wide range of literary festivals. In addition to Ms Foreman, the four other judges on this year’s panel are the critic Jon Daly, the academic and novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, the poet David Harsent and the actor Olivia Williams; they are pictured below:-

Deborah Levy is arguably the most famous name on the shortlist after J M Coetzee and AL Kennedy failed to progress from the longlist; she offers the shortest work at 220 pages. “Usually the tendency is the opposite,” said Jon Day, a writer, academic and one of the prize judges. “EM Forster said we tend to overpraise a book if it’s long, because we got through it. You could argue there’s a commitment to quality [here] demonstrated by the fact we haven’t been swayed by the doorstopper.” A spiky mother-daughter relationship is put to the test in Ms Levy’s sixth novel, where Sofia, the book’s 25-year-old narrator, travels with her mother Rose from Britain to Andalusia in southern Spain in search of a cure for her mother’s obscure and baffling ailments. It is a “good kind of weird” novel, the Financial Times’ Lionel Shriver wrote, where Ms Levy is able to convey “out-of-kilter surreality without ever violating the rules of realism”. “There’s no magic here,” Mr Shriver said. “Aside from the supernatural powers of peculiar prose.”

Two Canadian authors have made the short list in Vancouver-based Madeleine Thien and Montreal native David Szalay. Szalay, who is now based in Hungary, was nominated for ‘All That Man Is’. This book, an exploration of modern masculinity, may raise eyebrows for its form, appearing to be a series of short stories threaded together with “clear-eyed chronicle” of manhood and Europe. The European male at times of crisis is under scrutiny in this novel, tracing the lives of nine men spread out around the continent. It is a look at what it means to be a man in the 21st century, following the journeys of the men at different times of their lives. Christopher Tayler noted the void of happiness in the collection, but said the stories’ largely depressing insights “aren’t ponderous or gloomy in the execution. There are neat dabs of lifelikeness.”

Madeleine Thien was recognized for ‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ . The story is set in China before, during and after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Thien, now based in Montreal, told The Canadian Press last month when she made the Man Booker long list that the heart of her story involves three Chinese musicians who are studying Western classical music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in the 1960s. The novel explores the revolution that occurred under Mao Zedong and the many political campaigns that pulled apart people's lives. The novel centres on a Chinese-Canadian girl whose mother in 1991 invites a young woman into their home after fleeing China following the Tiananmen Square protests.

These four books will go up against ‘The Sellout’, a searing, expletive-filled take on US race  relations hailed by judges as “taking political correctness hostage” with a plot they were “hesitant to summarise now, so toxic are the taboos he explodes”. A satire about a slave-owning black farmer who ends up in the Supreme Court after trying to reinstate slavery and segregation at a local high school outside of Los Angeles. The “bitterly ironic portrait” of the city confounded Booker judges that they hesitated to summarise scenarios in Mr Beatty’s novel. “So toxic are the taboos that he explodes,” the judges wrote.

Finally ‘Eileen’ by Ottessa Moshfegh focusses on a woman in “captivity”. A fine novel that traces the interior life of a troubled young Massachusetts woman over one momentous week. At 24, Eileen Dunlop has no friends, has never had a boyfriend and spends her time outside of work drinking, pacing around her attic bedroom and halfheartedly stalking a man from work. The judges said it will hold readers’ attention from start to finish and “has to be read”!!

So there is plenty of reading there for you to complete in order to decide on the Christmas presents list this year!! But there were 11 + 1/2 Tables who turned up to contest the Surrey Simultaneous Pairs Competition at the Oxshott Bridge Club this evening; it also served as the First Round of our Club Pairs Competition, the Tilling Trophy; so there was plenty to play for!! The Star Performers were Elizabeth Gray & Rosemary Collin who came First among the Pairs who played East/West; they scored an impressive 62.95% and scooped the maximum 40 Master points!! They were way ahead of the "chasing pack"!! Indeed two Pairs shared Second place; both Sue Osborrne & David Rotherham and Valerie Jones & Dorothy Steinart scored 52.95% to share Second place, but they were only 2 Match points ahead of Richard Burgess & Philip Duncan who came Fourth with 52.50%. Congratulations must also go to Alan & Pat Hammond who came First among the Pairs playing North/South; they scored 59.58%!! They were 11 Match points ahead of June Buckland & Eileen Goddard who came Second with 57.29%, with Eric & Rowena Austin a further 7 match Points back in Third place with a score of 55.83%. New Members Katherine Kreuter & Dave Cowell came Fourth with 54.58%, only 6 more Match Points further back!! Well done to all our Master Points Winners!!

It was South who received the "good cards" last night as they played the contract on 8 our of the 24 Boards!! West came close as they played 7 contracts; but North got only 5 Boards where they got to play the contract, and poor old East had to be content with practicing their defensive skills - they receeived only 4 Boards where they got to play the contract!!?? Two-thirds of the Boards offered the higher-scoring "game-going" contracts; that is, there were 16 Boards for game contracts compared to 8 non-game contracts to play!!?? Slam Opportunities were quite difficult to find, and even more difficult to deliver last night!!?? There were three potential Slam Opportunities, but there was only ONE actual Slam contract achieved in the whole evening??!! Board 2 gave East a superb hand; although they had only 15 High Card Points. they had 6 Hearts to the AKQ10xx, 4 Diamonds to the A10xx, a singleton Spade and a doubleton in Clubs; they would open 1 Heart. West has 10 HCPs with 5 Diamonds to the QJxxx, 4 Clubs to the A10xx and a singleton Heart; they would respond 2 Diamonds. East would jump to 3 Hearts to show their strength and to push for game; and West might then show their second suit with 4 Clubs. Now it is up to East to decide if anything big if in the "offing"??!! Well last night one East/West Pair settled for a part-game contract in 3 Hearts; they made 12 tricks for 230 points!!?? Another E/W Pair settled for a part-game contract in 4 Diamonds; they made exactly 10 tricks for 130 points!!?? Three more E/W Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; two made 12 tricks for 490 points, but one made only 8 tricks and so gave up 50 penalty points.......and a top score to their Opponents??!! Five more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; one made 11 tricks for 450 points; three made 12 tricks for 480 points; and one made all 13 tricks for 510 points. Finally one intrepid North/South Pair ventured a sacrifice bid in 4 Spades; they made 8 tricks and so lost 200 penalty points!! Now the "Expert Analysis"  - which tou can find along with the Travellers in the "Results" section - informs us that it is possible for both East and West to make a Slam contract in EITHER 6 Diamonds or in 6 Hearts!! Indeed it is possible for West (but not East) to make a Slam contract in 6 No Trumps on this Board!! Interestingly, the singleton King of Diamonds falls to the Ace in East. Then taking out trumps allows the remaining four Diamond tricks to be won, including discarding the losing Club. As it turns out the only losing trick is to the Ace of Spades!! Amazing how easy it is when you have "20-20 hindsight"!!??

Board 5 gave a really interesting hand to North; they had 14 HCPs, with 6 Hearts to the AQ10xxx, 4 Diamonds to the AKxx and a void in Spades; they would open 1 Heart. East also has an interesting hand with 11 HCPs, 6 Spades to the AJ10xxx, 4 Clubs to the AQxx, a singleton Heart and a doubleton in Diamonds; they might venture a bid of 1 Spade. South has 12 HCPs in support with KJx in Hearts and 5 Diamonds to the QJxxx; they might well jump to 3 Diamonds. Now West has only 3 HCPs but they do have 4 Spades to the Kxxx; aggressive bidders might support their Partner with 3 Spades!! Now North has a decision to make; is there enough evidence to support a "big contract" in Hearts or Diamonds?? Well last night five North/South Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; all five made 12 tricks for 680 points!! Two more N/S Pairs bid game in 5 Diamonds; one made 12 tricks for 620 points; but the second was doubled; they made the full set of 13 tricks for a whopping 1150 points!! One more N/S Pair went up to 5 Hearts; they made 12 tricks for 680 points!! One intrepid East/West Pair bid up to 5 Spades; they were NOT doubled; they made 7 tricks and so gave up only 200 penalty points!! But two brave East/West Pairs bid a Slam contract in 6 Hearts!! Sadly they both made only 11 tricks and so they both gave up 100 penalty points and a top score to their E/W opponents!!?? Now the "Expert Analysis" confirms that it is possible for both North and South - even against the best of defences - to make a Slam contract in either 6 Diamonds or in 6 Hearts!! The secret seems to be to play a Club from North early to force the Ace from East. This frees up the King of Clubs in South as a winner!! Taking out trumps too early can expose N/S to a surprise Spade loss after the Ace of Clubs gains entry for East!! 

Finally there was Board 19 which is reproduced at the top of this Report!! Take another look just now at these hands. How would YOU bid and play these hands to maximise the Opportunity presented?? You can see that Dealer South has 15 HCPs with 5 Spades to the KQJxx and a void in Hearts; they would open 1 Spade. North has 10 HCPs with 6 Hearts to the Axxxxx, 5 Diamonds to the KQJ10x and a void in Clubs; they would respond 2 Hearts!! South now bids 3 Clubs to show a 4-card suit, and North responds with their second suit. Now 3 Diamonds might be misconstrued as "Fourth Suit Forcing", so they might well jump to 4 Diamonds. Now the fun starts as North and South try to resolve the ideal contract??!! Well last night five N/S Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; two made 9 tricks for 400 points, while three made 10 tricks for 430 points!! One N/S Pair bid game in 4 Spades; sadly they made only 9 tricks and so gave up 50 penalty points??!! Three more N/S Pairs bid game in  5 Diamonds; one made 11 tricks for 400 points, while the other two made 12 tricks for 420 points!! However two North/South Pairs attempted a Slam contract. Many congratulations must go to Philip Goldenberg & Dave Bowen who bid Slam in 6 Diamonds; they made exactly 12 tricks for an excellent top score of 920 points!! The second N/S Pair may have got a little over-excited!!?? They bid up to a GRAND SLAM in 7 Hearts!! Not surprisingly they were doubled; sadly they mad only 10 tricks and so gave up a whopping 500 penalty points, which turned out to be the top score for East/West on this Board!!?? Now the "Expert Analysis" conforms that it is possible for both North and South to make a Slam contract in 6 Diamonds!! Interestingly South can make 3 No Trumps, but North can only make 7 tricks against a good defence in No Trumps!!?? How did YOU get on with these interesting hands?? They were difficult to bid, weren't they?? All the more reason to congratulate our only Slam Achievers of the evening!!

Muirfield Golf Club – which was one of the 10 courses which rotate the right to stage The Open Golf Championship - will not again be considered as a venue for The Open after members voted against allowing women to join the East Lothian club. A ballot of the club’s 648 voting members failed to reach the two-thirds majority required. The decision, which was announced by club captain Henry Fairweather this morning, follows a two-year membership review. The R&A instantly reacted to the vote by stating that Muirfield would not be able to host The Open again until it changed its policy. Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, stated: “The R&A has considered today’s decision with respect to The Open Championship. The Open is one of the world’s great sporting events and going forward we will not stage the Championship at a venue that does not admit women as members. Given the schedule for staging The Open, it would be some years before Muirfield would have been considered to host the Championship again. If the policy at the club should change we would reconsider Muirfield as a venue for The Open in future.”

The Muirfield club’s board had recommended that membership should be offered to women on the same terms as the men. But a 33-strong ‘No’ lobby has scuppered that proposal after sending out a letter to fellow members. Under a headline entitled "the risks", the letter states: "We are not an ordinary club. "Our special nature - 'a gentleman's club where golf is played' - is quite unique with its fraternity built inter alia on foursomes play with a round taking only the same time as lunch and leaving enough time for a further round after lunch (even in mid winter). This is one of the miracles in modern day play and is much admired. Our foursomes and speedy play would be endangered."

The letter, circulated among a group of 33 club members, said: "The introduction of lady members is bound to create difficulties. Regardless of the conventions when they first join they are likely over time to question our foursomes play, our match system, the uncompromising challenge our fine links present, our lunch arrangements. It will take a very special lady golfer to be able to do all the things that are expected of them in the template which is suggested and the ladies' membership as a whole may not meet this standard." Of the 648 eligible voters, 616 cast ballots, with 397 members in favour of admitting women. The resolution fell 14 votes short of the two-thirds majority required to pass. Muirfield is one of two clubs in the British Open rotation to exclude women. Royal Troon, site of this year’s event, is the other. Back in 2012, Augusta National Golf Club, site of the Masters, announced that it was opening its membership to women. Following suit two years later was the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which is headquartered at St. Andrews, another regular British Open course. Now apparently Royal Troon announced yesterday that it had written to its 800 male members “seeking views on the issue of the admission of women members”; it may well be that there is a decision in favour before The Open starts in July this year!!??

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon (pictured below), said Muifrield’s stance was “simply indefensible”. English golfer Melissa Reid, twice a member of Europe's Solheim Cup team, described the decision as "embarrassing". "You know it was an opportunity for Muirfield, but they've wasted it," she said. Gary Player, who won the 1959 British Open at Muirfield, released a statement on his Twitter account condemning the vote. “As much as I love and respect Muirfield as a club where I won The Open, I totally agree with the R & A that staging the championship at any venue that does not admit women as members is simply unacceptable,” he wrote. “I hope Muirfield will reconsider their position soon and continue hosting one of the world’s greatest golf events.” However Peter Allis, the BBC’s ‘voice of golf’ defended the Muirfield ban today, insisting that women can play at the club for free as guests but would baulk at paying a joining fee. He said: “The fact is if you talked to the wives of members of Muirfield they would be horrified at the prospect of being allowed to join!!”

Well there were no contentious motions in consideration to exclude any Members on the basis of religion, Nationality, sex or beliefs thankfully at the Oxshott Bridge Club last night!!?? But it was the Final Round of this year's Tilling Trophy, which is our premier competition to determine the Pairs Championship for the Year. Everyone was excited and ready for action as 12 full Tables sat down to play. Many congratulations must go to George Gardiner & Renate Lane who were the Top Performers, running away with First place with an outstanding score of 65.72%; they also scooped the maximum 48 Master points!! They were a full 31 Match Points ahead of Robin & Hilary Lane who came Second with 59.85%, and they were 10 Match points ahead of Jonathan Spring & John French who came Third with 57.95%. The next few Pairs were very closely matched, but Stephanie Postlethwaite & Pam Oliveira came Fourth with 56.44%, 8 Match points ahead of Gail Norman & Therezinha Gold who scored 54.92% in Fifth position. Alan & Pat Hammond were just two Match points further back in Sixth place with 54.55%, and June Buckland & Eileen Goddard were another 3 match points back in Seventh poosition with 53.98%. finally two Pairs shared Eighth place just 4 more Match points back; both Peter Thompson & Peter Tarran and Richard Burgess & Philip Duncan score 53.22% to share the Eighth spot. Many congratulations to all our Master Points Winners!!

It was East and West that received the "good cards" last night as they played the contract on 8 Boards each out of the total of 24 Boards that were in play!! That meant that poor old North and South had to content themselves with playing only 4 Boards each where they got to play the contract!!?? Interestingly there were many more game-going contracts; in fact 15 of the Boards offered the higher scoring game contracts while only 9 boards offered only part-game contracts!! There were three Boards that offered some kind of Slam Opportunity but - surprisingly - there was not even one Slam bid at Oxshott last night??!! Maybe everyone was being extra careful given it was the final Round of the Pairs Championship??!! Board 24 gave West 12 High Card Points with 5 Diamonds to the AJxxx; they would open 1 No Trump. North has interesting hand with 15 HCPs , 5 Hearts to the AQxxx and 5 Clubs to the AQ10xx and a singleton Diamond; they might bid 2 Hearts. East has only 3 HCPs so they will pass, and South has 10 HCPs with 5 Spades to the AQxxx; they will respond with 2 Spades. Now North can mention their second 5-card suit with 3 Clubs. South can either repeat their Spades at 3 Spades or brave a 3 No Trump bid. Whichever, it passes the decision to North to decide if something "really big" is in the offing??!! Well one East/West Pair ended in 2 Diamonds; they made 7 tricks and so lost 50 penalty points, which turned out to be a top score for their side!! Four North/South Pairs bid 2 Hearts; one made 8 tricks for 110 points; a second made 9 tricks for 140 points; the third made 10 tricks for 170 points; and the fourth made 11 tricks for 200 points!! One North/South Pair bid 2 Spades; they made 9 tricks for 140 points!! Three N/S Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; two made exactly 10 tricks for 420 points, but the third made 11 tricks for 450 points!! One more N/S Pair bid 4 Clubs; they made 11 tricks for 150 points!! Finally one N/S Pair bid game in 4 Spades; they made 12 tricks for 480 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find along with the Travellers in the "Results" section - suggests that it is possible for South to make a Slam contract on this Board in either 6 Spades or in 6 No Trumps!!?? You see, with the lead coming from West, they will lead the Ace of Diamonds, which frees up the King of Diamonds in South and taking out trumos and winning a finesse in Hearts makes the 12 tricks an easy Slam victory!! Easy after the event, isn't it??

Board 19 gave West a super hand; although they had only 16 HCPs, they had 5 Clubs to the AJ10xx, 4 Spades to the KJxx and a singleton Ace of Diamonds; they would open 1 Club. North too has an unusual hand with 6 Diamonds to the KQJxxx and 5 Clubs to the Qxxxx; even though they had only 8 HCPs, they would bid 1 Diamond!! Now East has an exciting hand, with 9 HCPs with 6 Hearts to the AQJxxx and 4 Spades to the Qxxx; they would maybe bid 2 Hearts!! When West mentions 2 Spades, East will repeat 3 Hearts. Now who will brave an inquiry about Aces?? Well one East/West Pair settled for a part-game in 2 Spades; they made 12 tricks for 230 points!! A second E/W Pair bid 3 Hearts; they made 10 tricks for 170 points!! Two E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; one made 11 tricks for 650 points, while the other made 12 tricks for 680 points!! Four more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; three made 10 tricks for 620 points, while one made 11 tricks for 650 points!! Two intrepid North/South pairs bid game in 5 Diamonds; one made only 7 tricks and so lost 200 penalty points; the second was doubles and made 9 tricks, so they lost 300 penalty points!! Finally one E/W Pair bid 5 Hearts; they made 12 tricks for 680 points!! now the "Expert Analysis" tells us that -even against the best of defences - it is possible for either East or West to make a Slam contract in 6 Hearts on this Board!!

Finally there is Board 7 which is reproduced at the top of this Report. You can take another chance to review this Board just now. How would YOU bid and play this Board to maximise the Opportunity offered?? You can see that West has 12 HCPs with 6 Diamonds to the AKQxxx; they will open 1 Diamond. East has a whopping 17 HCPs with 5 Clubs to the AKJxx; they would jump to 3 Clubs. There has to be a ripple of excitement going through East and West at this stage, and most would be looking for possibilities in No Trumps from here??!! Well at Oxshott last night, one East/West Pair bid 3 Hearts; sadly they made only 7 tricks to lose 200 penalty points!! Four North/South Pairs bid 3 Spades; all four made 8 tricks and so sacrificed 100 penalty points!! Four more East/West Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; one made 11 tricks for 660 points, but the other three made the full set of 13 tricks for 720 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that - against the best defences - it is possible only to make a Small Slam in 6 No Trumps on this Board!! But there is no defence that can stop either East or West making a GRAND SLAM in 7 Diamonds!! Amazing what is possible when you really try??

Everyday Sexism has criticised a newspaper’s report on the Budget that focused on Theresa May’s top as a “depressing, disrespectful and downright misogynistic” portrayal of one of the UK's most senior female politicians. George Osborne unveiled his Budget in the House of Commons today, where he announced a sugar tax on soft drinks, plans to turn all schools into academies and another £3.5 billion in public spending cuts by 2020.

But the news story bannering the Daily Mail about the Chancellor’s plans also made reference to Ms May's outfit with a headline claiming Mr Osborne “gets an eyeful from Theresa”. It also included two pictures of the Home Secretary sat next to him on the front bench. Articles by The Mirror and the Daily Express also suggested the public was “distracted” by Ms May’s “cleavage enhancing” outfits. The story elicited furious responses on social media and was branded “unbelievable” by Channel 4 anchor Cathy Newman. 

Laura Bates, the founder of Everyday Sexism, exclaimed: “I'd say this is depressing, disrespectful and downright misogynistic. We do not see male politicians being belittled and reduced to their body parts in the press in this way and nor should we. Little wonder so many women still feel that politics is a male domain when media outlets still feel it is acceptable, in 2016, to treat senior female political figures in this way.”  

Budget Day is traditionally a time when all eyes are on the Chancellor of the Exchequer. But the Daily Mail said that Theresa May managed to upstage George Osborne’s speech – not through any political statement but with her daring choice of clothing. As the Chancellor ploughed through the statistics, many could not help but find the 59-year-old Home Secretary, sitting to his left on the front bench in the House of Commons, something of a distraction. So great was the attention she received that one Twitter user posted: ‘I think Theresa May may have just broke the internet.’ Others defended the Home Secretary’s dress and matching jacket. One poster said: "Theresa May’s bosom was a bit of a focus puller. Good on her." The furore was all the more surprising as Theresa May wore the same outfit last year at the Budget presentation!! Below she is pictured leaving Downing Street for the House of Commons yesterday.

There were lots of eye-catching and attractive Members at last night's Fifth Round of the Tilling Trophy at the Oxshott Bridge Club; indeed there was almost a "full house", with 16 +1/2 Tables sitting down to compete in our premier Pairs Competition of the year. Congratulations must go to Jonathan Spring and his Automated Scoring Team and to Director Vernon Morton for ensuring that the evening went smoothly!! The Star Performers were Jonathan Spring & John French who ran away with First place with an outstanding score of 63.87%; they also scooped the maximum 66 Master Points!! They were more than 5% ahead of the "chasing pack" who were led by Vernon Morton & Annemie Bisgood who came Second with 58.17%. Victoria Hemy & Fiona Ross were Third with 57.68%, but then the scoring got very close indeed!! Joyce Gibbs & Jean Hutchinson just claimed Fourth spot with 56.62%, but they were only 1.2 Match points ahead of Daphne Pugh & Gillian Lowe who came Fifth with 56.62%. Our welcome visitors, Philip Goldenberg & Dave Bowen, were Sixth with 55.83%, but they were just ahead of Don Porter & Doris Butterworth who scored 55.54% in Seventh position. Sheila Price & her guest Gabrielle Roberts were Eighth with 53.91%; they just held off Stephanie Postlethwaite & Pam Oliveira who were just 1.6 Match points back in Ninth place with 53.67%. Penny & Ormonde Webster-Smith came in Tenth position with 53.47%, and the final Master Points placing went to Julie Minards & Pauline Harris who came Eleventh with 52.62%. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!!

There were lots of interesting hands to play, with no less than 16 out of the total of 26 Boards offereing the higher-scoring "game" contracts!! It was East that appeared to receive the "good cards" as they played the contract on 9 Boards; South played a further 7 contracts, and North played the hands on 6 Boards. That left poor old West with only 4 Boards where they got to play the contracts!!?? There were three Boards that offered a Slam Opportunity, but there were only three actual Slam contracts bid and made during the evening!!?? Board 3 gave West an unusual hand with 5 Spades to the Kxxxx and 5 Clubs to the J10xxx; they had only 10 High Card Points, but under the "Rule of 20" they might open 1 Spade. North had 12 HCPs with 5 cards in Hearts to the Qxxxx and 5 Diamonds to the AKxxx; they might well double. Now East has a great supporting hand with 5 Clubs to the AQxxx and four good cards of their Partner's Spades to the AQ10x; they might jump and change suit to 3 Clubs!! South has only 6 HCPs, but they do have 5 Hearts to the KJxxx; they might respond to their Partner's double with 3 Hearts!!?? Now the next bid from West is crucial!! If they rebid 3 Spades to show five cards, then a Slam bid is possible. Alternatively if they bid 4 Clubs, it will take particular courage for their Partner to bid more than a game contract in this minor suit!!?? Well one North/South Pair bid a part-game in 2 Hearts; they made 9 tricks for 140 points!! Two East/West Pairs bid 4 Clubs; one made 11 tricks for 150 points, while the second made 12 tricks for 170 points!! A second North/South Pair braved a game bid in 4 Hearts; surprisingly they made 10 tricks for 420 points, which turned out to be the top score for their side!!?? Five East/West Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; all five made 12 tricks for 680 points!! One E/W Pair bid game in 5 Clubs; they made 12 tricks for 620 points!! One intrepid N/S Pair bid up to 5 Hearts; they were doubled; they made 9 tricks and so lost only 300 penalty points, a useful sacrifice!! Finally two E/W Pairs bid up to 5 Spades; they both made 12 tricks for 680 points!! now the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find attached to the Travellers in the "Results" section - suggests that, even against the best of defences, it is possible for both East and West to make a Slam contract in either 6 Clubs or in 6 Spades!!

Board 11 gave East a "powerhouse" 22 HCPs with a balanced hand; they would open 2 No Trumps. West had 7 HCPs with 5 Spades to the Jxxxx and 4 Hearts to the J10xx; crucially they had a singleton Ace of Diamonds; they would probably bid "Stamen" with 3 Clubs, asking their Partner for a four-card major. When East responds 3 Hearts, West can either bid 3 Spades or game in 4 Hearts. Then it is up to East to determine how aggressive they are prepared to be to squeeze the maximum potential out of this Board!!?? Well 5 East/West Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; one made 10 tricks for 430 points, while the other four made 11 tricks for 460 points!! Six more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; two made 11 tricks for 450 points, while four made 12 tricks for 480 points!! Then four E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; all four made 12 tricks for 480 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" informs us that - even against the best of defences - it is possible for both East and West to make a Slam contract in 6 Hearts and in 6 Spades!! So Lady Opportunity had to pack her bag without any successes being achieved on this Board, sighing gently and looking forward to a "better fututre"!!??

Finally Board 7 gave a Slam Opportunity to North/South this time. This Board is reproduced at the top of this Report, so you can take another look and see how YOU would bid and play these hands to maximise the Opportunity presented!!?? Dealer was South and they had 15 HCPs with 5 Hearts to the K10xxx, 4 Clubs to the AJxx and a singleton in Diamonds; they would open 1 Heart!! North had an amazimg hand with only 8 HCPs but no less than 8 Spades to the K10xxxxxx; they would jump to 3 Spades!! East appeared to have a good hand as well, with 12 HCPs and 6 Clubs to the KQ10xxx; they might well offer a token 4 Clubs. Now South supports their Partner because of their AKJ of Spades with 4 Spades. Now it is up to North to decide if anything larger is possible with such spectacular Spades!!?? Well nine North/South Pairs settled for a game contract in 4 Spades; eight made 12 tricks for 680 points, and one made all13 tricks for 710 points!! Two N/S Pairs bid on to 5 Spades; they both made 12 tricks for 680 points. One more Pair also bid 5 Spades; but they were doubled; they made 12 tricks and so scored an impressive 1050 points!! but finally three N/S Pairs bid a Slam contract in 6 Spades!! Many congratulations must go to Judy Hickman & Kay O'Gorman, to Penny & Ormonde Webster-Smith, and to Jonathan Spring & John French; they all bid Slam in 6 Spades; all three made exactly 12 tricks to share a very satisfying top score of 1430 points!! Well done indeed!! Of course, the "Expert Analysis" confirms that a Slam contract in 6 Spades was the optimal contract on this Board!! Well done to all of our actual Slam Achievers of the evening!!

Seven Scottish tourist attractions recorded more than one million visitors last year, according to new research. Edinburgh Castle drew most visitors, with 1,568,508 people passing through. Now 2014 was a “banner year” for Scottish tourism as the country hosted events such as the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup; but the study – carried out by the Moffat Centre at the Glasgow Caledonian University – found that the number of visits to the top 10 attractions in 2015 had actually increased by a further 5%.

Following its refurbishment, the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh (pictured below) was the top free attraction, with 1,567,310 visitors. The others were Glasgow's Riverside Museum and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Scottish National Gallery and St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, and Loch Lomond Shores in Balloch. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the Famous Blacksmiths Shop in Gretna Green, the Helix park in Falkirk and the Falkirk Wheel  were also in the top 10 free attractions. They all welcomed more than 600,000 people.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said: "Glasgow is a world-class city, with a world-class cultural offering. In 2014 Glasgow delivered the best ever Commonwealth Games and the city came alive during the Games as hundreds of thousands of UK and overseas visitors travelled to the city which helped contribute to the increase in visitor numbers over July and August." Fergus Ewing, Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism, added: "I'm especially pleased to see for the first time, Scotland now has 6 attractions visited by over 1 million visitors which is a fantastic achievement."

The top paid-for sites included Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh Zoo, Edinburgh Bus Tours, Stirling Castle, Glasgow Science Centre and Urquhart Castle in Drumnadrochit. The Royal Yacht Britannia and the Scotch Whisky Experience, both in Edinburgh, the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick (pictured below) and Culzean Castle and Country Park in Ayrshire completed the top 10 paid-for list. Prof John Lennon, director of the Moffat Centre, said: "Scotland is clearly punching above its weight in visitor attraction performance. It is a testament to the range and appeal of Scotland's paid and unpaid offer that we continue to attract international and domestic tourists as well as local visitors to our visitor attractions."

There were a few "flights of fancy" and some more "monstrous bids" at the Oxshott Bridge Club last night as 12 Tables fought out the Teams Championship with the Winner claiming the right to contest the Wanborough Cup at Winbledon Brudge Club later this year. Many congratulations must go to David Rotherham, Sue Osborne, Richard Burgess & Philip Duncan who made up the Winnning team with +39 IMPs; they also scooped the maximum 40 Master points!! They were just 5 IMPs ahead of Mike Mulligan, Elisa Money, Jonathan Spring & John French who came Second with +34 IMPs. Judy Hickman, Kay O'Gorman, Daphne Pugh & Gillian Lowe came Third with +22 IMPs; but they were only 6 IMPs ahead of Gail Norman, Eileen Goddard, June Buckland & Janet Kefford who came Fourth with +16 IMPs. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!! 

It was North that received the "goood cards" as they played the contract on 7 out of the 22 Boards; West played a further 6 Boards!! That meant that East and South were left with only 5 and 4 Boards respectively where they got to play the contract!! The split between game contracts and part-games was heavilly biased towards the former, with 15 out of the 22 Boards offering the higher-scoring Game-going contracts!! Indeed 5 of those Boards offered some kind of Slam Opportunity!! Board 2 gave East a balanced hand with 13 High Card Points and 5 Diamonds to the AKxxx; they would open 1 No Trumps. But West had a fantastic hand with 16 HCPs but, more importantly, they had 7 Spades to the AKxxxxx; they would jump to 3 Spades. It was only a question of how high to bid now!!?? Well one East/West Pair settled for 3 Spades; they made all 13 tricks for 260 points!! Another E/W Pair bid game in 3 No Trumps; they made 11 tricks for 460 points!! Seven more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; one made 12 tricks for 480 points, while six made all 13 tricks for 510 points!! However congratulations must go to Susan & Gordon McIntosh  who bid Slam in 6 Spades; they made the full set of 13 tricks for 1010 points!! But special congratulations must go to Valerie Jones & Dorothy Steinart who bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; they also made all 13 tricks for 1020 points, which was the top score on this Board!! Now the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find along with the Travellers in the "Results" section - advises that both East and West can make a GRAND SLAM in either 7 Spades or in 7 No Trumps!!

Board 11 gave South 13 HCPs with 6 good Diamonds to the AKQ10xx and a singleton heart; they would open 1 Diamond!! North had a void in Diamonds but, with 17 HCPs they had 5 Spades to the QJxxx and 5 Hearts to the AKQxx; they would jump to 2 Spades. Now clearly North and South were getting excited at the prospects for a big contract, but you have to remember that the distribution of cards between your two Opponents is not always as even as you might wish??!! Well four North/South Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; two made exactly 9 tricks for 400 points, one made 11 tricks for 460 points, and one made all 13 tricks for 520 points!! Four more N/S Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; three made 10 tricks for 420 points, but one fell short by one trick and so sacrificed 50 panalty points!! One Pair bid game in 5 Diamonds; sadly they made only 9 tricks and lost 100 penalty points!! Another Pair bid up to 5 Spades; they made only 10 tricks and so lost 50 penalty points!! Finally two N/S Pairs bid Slam in 6 Spades; sadly one made 10 tricks to lose 100 points; the second Pair was doubled, and made only 9 tricks, so they lost 500 penalty points!! It transpired that the split of the Spades between West and East was 0-5, so all East had to do was sit tight until North presented three Spade tricks!! There was never a prospect of a Slam contract on this Board!!??

Board 16 and Board 19 showed how difficult it is to recognise a Slam Opportunity in a Minor suit!! Board 16 gave North 16 HCPs with 5 Spades to the AK10xx and 4 Diamonds to the KQxx; they would open 1 Spade!! South had 8 HCPs in support with 4 Clubs to the A10xx and 4 Diamonds to the A10xx; they would respond 1 No Trumps!! There was not much to encourage strong bidding with such a start??!! Well one North/South bid 1 No Trumps; they made 8 tricks for 120 points!! 5 more N/S Pairs bid 2 Diamonds; one made 9 tricks for 110 points; one made 10 tricks for 130 points; and three made 11 tricks for 150 points!! Another N/S Pair bid 2 Spades; they made 10 tricks for 170 points!! Two Pairs bid 3 Diamonds; one made 10 tricks for 130 points, while the second made 11 tricks for 150 points!! Two Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; sadly they both made only 8 tricks and so gave up 50 penalty points. Finally one Pair bid game in 5 Diamonds; they made only 10 tricks and so also gave up 50 penalty points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" informs us that - even against the best defences - it is possible for BOTH North and South to make a Slam contract in 6 Diamonds on this Board!! This Board is reproduced at the top of this Report. Take another look just now to see how you would play the hands to deliver the 12 tricks necessary for a Slam contract in 6 Diamonds!!?? The secret seems to lie in the Spades tricks. Once North takes the Ace and King of Spades, they can trump the next Spade in South, therby leaving the last 2 Spades as Winners. But it is always so much easier after the event, is it not?? Then Board 19 West 11 HCPs with 5 Clubs and 4 Hearts; using the "Rule of 20", they would open 1 Club. East had a whopping 16 HCPs with 5 excellent Clubs to the AKQ10x and two doubletons in the major suits; they would jump and change suits with 2 Diamonds!! West then shows their 4-card Hearts suit by bidding 2 Hearts, and East knows that a big contract is in prospect!!?? Well 4 East/West Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; one made 10 tricks for 630 points, while three made 11 tricks for 660 points!! The remaining 8 E/W Pairs bid game in 5 Clubs; two made 11 tricks for 600 points, while the other 6 Pairs made 12 tricks for 620 points!! now it will not surprise you to learn that the "Expert Analysis" suggests that BOTH East and West can make a Slam contract in 6 Clubs on this Board!! Taking the Clubs out of their Opponents allows East to cast away a Spade on the top Hearts; then a couple of cross-trumping tricks brings the Slam contract home!!

Finally there was Board 20, where West had a very unusual hand with only 7 HCPs, but they has 6 Spades to the K10xxxx and 5 Hearts to the KJ10xx with a void in Clubs; they would probably pass, but they might open 1 Spade!! East had a whopping 23 HCPs with 6 Clubs to the AKJ10xx and all the Aces; they would open a strong 2 Clubs. Now there was certainly going to be a big contract made here, but the challenge was to see where the optimal contract should settle!!?? Well one East/West Pair settled for a game contract in 3 No Trumps; they made 12 tricks for 690 points!! A second E/W Piair bid game in 4 Hearts; they made 11 tricks for 650 points!! Another E/W Pair bid game in 4 Spades; they made 10 tricks for 620 points!! All the other nine East/West Pairs bid Slam contract!! Congratulations must go to Susan & Gordon McIntosh who bid Slam in 6 Spades; they made excatly 12 tricks for 1430 points!! But special congratulations must go to Susan & Mike Sadler, to June Buckland & Janet Kefford, and to Jonathan Spring & John French; they all bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; they all made 12 tricks for 1440 points!! Interestingly two more Pairs who bid Slam in 6 No Trumps fell short of their target; they made only 10 tricks and so they gave up 200 penalty points!! However very special congratulations must go to Peter Tarran & Peter Thompson and to Richard Burgess & Philip Duncan; they also bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; but they made the full set of 13 tricks to scoop an outstanding 1470 points to share the top score on this Board!! Well done indeed!! Now here we come to the deaded "Expert Analysis". You can check this out for yourself (!!??) by examining the Traveller for Board 20, but the "Expert Analysis" suggests that a "good defence" would hold a Slam contract bid by either East or West to 11 tricks!! They suggest that BOTH East and West can make a GRAND SLAM in either 7 Hearts or in 7 Spades!! Anyway many congratulations to all our actual Slam Achievers of the evening!!

The results from the Surrey Charity Simultaneous Pairs Competition have been collated by the Surrey County Bridge Association and have appeared on their website. There were 8 Bridge clubs who entered the Wednesday Competition, including Acacia, Bletchingley, Caterham, Farnham, Oxshott, Tudor, Woking and Yateley & Hawley Bridge Clubs. A total of 154 Pairs contested the Wednesday event, and the Winners were Ali Baig & Gillian Hannah from the Acacia Bridge Club with an outstanding score of 70.17%. Well done indeed!! Colin Bailley & Jill Cook from Yateley & Hawley Bridge Club were Second with an equally impressive 69.13%; but there was then a small gap before we came to Rosemary Linington & Jane O'Hare of the Caterham Bridge Club came Third with 65.91%. The highest placed Pair from the Oxshott Bridge Club were Bill Hood & Meena Samani who scored 59.70% under the composite SCBA scoring in Twelfth place. 

The following Table compares the Ranking and Scores under the local scoring at the Oxshott Bridge Club with the Overall Rankings and Scoring from the Surrey County Bridge Association. Under the former, each of our Pairs is compared only with the other 21 Pairs who played at Oxshott last Wednesday; under the latter the results from all 156 Pairs are entered to compare against our scores, with the reult that the Percentage Scores are somewhat different. Those Pairs who played East/West are highighted in Maroon, whereas those who played North/South are highlighted in Green.

A City finance worker who took a £40,000 pay cut to pursue greater job satisfaction in the classroom has been named the best teacher in Britain. Colin Hegarty, 32, quit his job at the accountancy firm Deloitte after realising that he found more fulfilment during the time he spent volunteering with children than in his corporate role. “I was doing very well and I did like it,” he said of his City career. “But they ran this scheme where once a week on a Wednesday – we went down to a local school in Bethnal Green and became reading partners of the children. I realised that was my forte – the day of the week that I was most looking forward to was Wednesday.  It seemed only right, then, that I should become a teacher.”

Colin Hegarty, 34, swapped Deloitte’s in the City of London to train as a maths teacher six years ago, taking up a job at Preston Manor School, an Academy in Wembley, West London. He is now on a shortlist of 10 for the Global Teacher Prize – an annual $1m (£700,000) award given to teachers who have made an outstanding contribution to their profession. His ability was quickly recognised and he won a UK award for the teacher who made best use of technology. He had set up a website that can help other teachers to teach maths – a tool that’s of vital use at a time when there is a national shortage of maths teachers. The website (HegartyMaths at mathswebsite.com), which he has taken a year-long sabbatical from his job to develop with the aid of the charity Shine, is used by 5,000 children a day in 200 different territories around the world. It provides questions for pupils to answer by themselves. 

He refines the website through an internship programme that involves 20 GCSE and A-level Maths students coming to his home every day during the week and trialling the questions. “They come in for three hours a day, Mondays to Thursdays,” he said. “They have helped with the questions on the site. Some of the teachers using it have said things like, ‘It’s the best system [for teaching maths] that I’ve seen for years,’” he said. “I don’t want to take the maths teacher out of the classroom, though, so I’d prefer it if it was used in conjunction with a teacher.” He tells of one pupil who was in the bottom set of his school for maths and used the online aid with its questions for eight weeks – and shot up by three classes during that period. “It is not a gimmick,” he said. “It is the real deal.” Mr Hegarty, who was raised in Kilburn, north-west London, became the first person in his family to go to university and gained a first-class honours degree at Oxford in Maths before going into the city. His former Deloitte colleagues, he says, are now probably earning between £30,000 and £40,000 more than him — but he would not swop his present job for the world.

Mr Hegarty will know whether he has won the award at a ceremony in Dubai next month. The Global Teacher Prize, set up by the Varkey Foundation, the charitable arm of the Gems international education firm, is aimed at "unearthing thousands of stories of heroes that have transformed young people's lives". The final top 10 shortlist has been published, after entries were received from teachers in 148 countries. Mr Hegarty is the only UK finalist, alongside teachers from the United States, Australia, India, Finland and Kenya. The shortlist also includes Aqeela Asifi, who teaches refugees in Pakistan, and Hanan Al Hroub who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp and is now a teacher. Last year's global teacher prize winner was Nancie Atwell, pictured above, from the United States, who donated her prize money to her school.

Well we could certainly have done with a few Maths Teachers to help the 10 + 1/2 Tables who sat down for some important Duplicate Bridge at the Oxshott Bridge Club last night. Not only were we playing Round 4 of out Tilling Trophy - which is our premier Pairs Competition for the year; we were also contesting the Surrey Simultaneous Pairs comptetition as well!! Unfortunately we had to play the complicated "Hesitation Mitchell" format with extra "Arrow-Switches" to derive one Leaderboard for the Tilling Trophy. Well the requirement for every East/West Pair to take a turn at scoring on the "Hesitation" Table meant that out Scorer, Jonathan Spring, had to make a nightmare of late corrections for wrong inputs; but then this was compounded by someone completely messing up one Board by replacing the cards in the wrong slots!!?? I fear that we are in for a serious lecture on improved scoring and less meddling with the Boards when we meet again next week!!

The Star Performers were our welcome Visitors, Bill Hood & Meena Samani; they came in First place with an outstanding score of 62.08% to collect the maximum 42 Master points. They were some distance ahead of Peter Wardle & Peter Sharpe who came Second with 58.80%. The "Chasing Pack" were led by Jonathan Spring & John French who just picked up Third place with 56.61%; they were just a single Match point ahead of two Pairs who tied for Fourth place; Gail Norman & Therezinha Gold and Susan & Mike Sadler both scored 56.35% to share Fourth place. June Buckland & Eileen Goddard were placed Sixth with 55.80%, and Robin & Hilary Lane came Seventh with 54.23%. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!! It was North who received the "good cards"; they played the contract on 8 Boards; and East followed close behind with 7 Boards where they played the contract!! That left South with only 5 Boards where they played the contract, and poor old West who had to concentrate on their defensive skills as they received only 4 Boards where they played the contract!! There were a lot of part-game contracts; they made up 14 of the 24 Boards in play; but five of the remaining ten Boards offered some kind of Slam Opportunity!! Board 21 gave North a nice hand with 13 High Card Points, 5 Clubs to the AJxxx and 4 Hearts to the KQxx; they would open 1 Club. South had a whopping 5 Clubs to the King in support, with nice Spades and 4 Diamonds to the AQxx; they might well jump to 3 Diamonds, forcing their partner to bid again!! North then mentions their 4-card Hearts suit with 3 Hearts, and South is almost certain to look to Blackwood to see how high to bid!!?? Well one North/South Pair bid 2 Diamonds; they made 9 tricks for 110 points!! Four more N/S Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; three made 11 tricks for 660 points, and one made 12 tricks for 690 points!! Two more Pairs bid game in 5 Clubs; one made 11 tricks for 600 points, while the other made 12 tricks for 620 points!! That left the three North/South Pairs who bid a Slam contract in 6 Clubs!! Many congratulations must go to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money, to Judy Hickman & Kay O'Gorman and to Don Porter & Doris Butterworth; they all bid Slam in 6 Clubs, and they all made exactly 12 tricks to share the top score of 1370 points!! There was no doubt that the Ace of Hearts was a "loser", but the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find along with the Travellers in the "Results" section - confirms that both North and South can make a Slam contract in 6 Clubs, even against the best defence!!

Board 18 gave East a balanced hand with 12 HCPs; they would open the fateful 1 No Trump!!?? West had a fantastic 21 HCPs, but they did not know the best suit yet; given they had two 4-card major suits, they might bid "Stamen", asking for a 4-card major from their Partner??!! When East reples in the negative with 2 Diamonds, then West must move straight to "Blackwood", you might think??!! Well one East/West Pair bid 1 Heart; they made 12 tricks for 230 points!! Another E/W Pair got stuck on 4 No Trumps; they made 11 tricks for 460 points!! One E/W Pair bid Slam in 6 Diamonds; sadly they made only 11 tricks and so gave up 50 penalty points!! Another E/W Pair bid Slam in 6 Hearts; congratulations must go to Alan & Pat Hammond who made 12 tricks for 980 points!! But special congratulations must go to George Gardiner & Keith Williams, to Jonathan Spring & John French, to Rosemary Collin & Elizabeth Gray, to Valerie Bornhoft & Ursula Oscroft, and to Dorothy Steinart & Valerie Jones; they all bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; they all made exactly 12 tricks to share the top score of 990 points!! In fact the "Expert Analysis" confirms that both East and West can make a Slam contract in ANY of 6 Diamonds, 6 Hearts, 6 Spades or in 6 No Trumps on this Board!! Board 12 gave West 14 HCPs with an amazing 7 Spades to the AQJxxxx and a void in Clubs; they would open 1 Spade. East had a similar 14 HCPs in support with 6 Clubs to the AJxxxx and a singleton Heart; with three Spades to the King, they would have to jump and change suit to 3 Clubs!! You might think that the sky would be the limit for West after this??!! Well four East/West Pairs settled for a game contract in 4 Spades; all four made 12 tricks for 480 points!! But 6 E/W Pairs bid Slam in 6 Spades!! Congratulations must go to Robin & Hilary Lane, to Jonathan Spring & John French, to Deanne & Kevin Goddard, to George Gardiner & Keith Williams, and to Bill Hood & Meena Samani; they all made excatly 12 tricks to share 980 points!! But special congratulations must go to Don Porter & Doris Butterworth; they also bid Slam in 6 Spades; but they were doubled; they made the required 12 tricks and so they scored the top score on theis Board of 1210 points!! Well done indeed!!

Then there was Board 11, where West had 13 HCPs with a 4441 distribution; they might open 1 Diamond. East had a fantastic 17 HCPs with 5 Spades and 4 Diamonds; they would jump to 2 Spades. It is clearly "all systems GO!!" here!!?? Well one East/West Pair bid game in 3 No Trumps; they make 11 tricks for 460 points!! Three more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; all three make 12 tricks for 480 points!! One more fearful Pair bids on to 5 Spades; they too make 12 tricks for 480 points!! But 5 East/West Pairs bid Slam in 6 Spades; many congratulations must go to Robin & Hilary Lane, to Penny & Ormonde Webster-Smith, to Gail Norman & Therezinha Gold, to Susan & Mike Sadler, and to Deanne & Kevin Goddard; they all bid Slam in 6 Spades; and they all made exactly 12 tricks to share the top score of 980 points on thus Board!! It turns out that there is no way to avoid losing a trick to the ace of Clubs, and the "Expert Analysis" confirms that BOTH East and West can make a Slam in EITHER 6 Diamonds or in 6 Spades!!

Finally there was Board 10 which is reproduced at the top of this Report. Take another look at these hands and see how YOU would bid and play the cards to maximise the potential of these hands??!! You can see that Dealer East has an excellent opening hand with 17 HCPs, 5 Diamonds, 4 Spades and a singleton Club; they would open 1 Diamond!! West has terrific Clubs - 7 to the AKQ10xxx - and 14 HCPs; they would jump to 3 Clubs!! Now East has a big decision to make??!! Do they have enough information on the desired contract to go to "Blackwood", or do they need some more information; and how do you do that without screwing up a Slam Opportunity?? Well only one East/West Pair got to play this Board before it was tampered with??!! Many congratulations must go to George Gardiner & Keith Williams who bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; they made exactly 12 tricks for a whopping 1440 points!! The "Expert Analysis" confirms that East and West cannot make any more than 6 No Trumps although chucking away all the Diamonds from East on the Club winners from West would allow a brilliant finesse of the Queen of Spades and 13 tricks for East/West!! Meanwhile after someone fiddled with the cards and transposed North with East, it was no wonder that everyone stared at the Automatic Scoring device and wondered how could East possibly bid Slam with only four points and that in the Ace of Diamonds!!?? We will no doubt hear more about the foibles of looking at the cards during a "sit-out" next week??!! Meanwhile many congratulations to all our actual Slam Achievers of the evening!!

The high-profile British Inquiry into the poisoning of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer turned critic of the Kremlin (pictured above), concluded in a Report released on Thursday that his murder “was probably approved” by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the head of the country’s spy service. The finding by Robert Owen, a retired High Court Judge, in a 328-page report, represented by far the most damning official link between Mr. Litvinenko’s death on Nov. 23, 2006, and the highest levels of the Kremlin. The Report could revive strains in relations between Britain and Russia, which were plunged into a chill reminiscent of the Cold War by the death of Mr. Litvinenko, a whistle-blower who had fought corruption in Moscow’s security services. Speaking after the release of the report, Mr. Litvinenko’s wife, Marina, said she was “very pleased that the words my husband spoke on his deathbed, when he accused Mr. Putin, have been proved by an English court.” Mr Litvinenko died 22 days after ingesting green tea laced with polonium 210 — a rare and highly toxic isotope — in the company of two Russian associates, Andrei K. Lugovoi and Dmitri V. Kovtun. He was 43. The three men had met in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London.

Mr. Lugovoi, now a member of Parliament in Russia, said the accusation that he murdered Mr. Litvinenko was “absurd,” the Russian news agency Interfax reported, and a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov, said the Litvinenko case “is not among the topics that interest us.” The Inquiry was called after years of dogged efforts by Ms. Litvinenko to press for a full accounting of her husband’s death. The British police have accused Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun of murder, charges they deny. The killing also raised questions in London about the potential involvement of Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s F.S.B. security service, the domestic successor to the K.G.B., at the time of Mr. Litvinenko’s death, and Mr. Putin. “Taking full account of all the evidence and analysis available to me,” Judge Owen said in the Report, “I find that the F.S.B. operation to kill Mr. Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr. Patrushev and also by President Putin.”

Although the wording seemed to suggest a degree of caution, the Report left no doubt that Mr. Litvinenko’s death had, in the judge’s view, been an act of murder planned by a Russian state agency. “I am sure that Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun placed the polonium 210 in the teapot at the Pine Bar” on Nov. 1, 2006, Judge Owen’s Report said. “I am sure that Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun knew that they were using a deadly poison.” He added: “I am sure that Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun were acting on behalf of others when they poisoned Mr. Litvinenko.” Judge Owen suggested, however, that the two men were not aware “precisely what the chemical that they were handling was, or the nature of all its properties.”
As motives for Mr. Litvinenko’s poisoning, Judge Owen listed various possible factors, including a belief that he had betrayed the F.S.B. during his time working for the organization as an investigator in Moscow and had begun to work for British intelligence after he fled in 2000. He was also a close associate of prominent opponents of the Kremlin based in London, including Boris Berezovsky, a former oligarch and enemy of Mr. Putin’s who died in 2013, the report said. “Finally, there was undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism between Mr. Litvinenko on one hand and President Putin on the other,” the Report said. It excluded any role in the poisoning by the British security services, organized crime gangs, Mr. Berezovsky or other associates of Mr. Litvinenko.
Mr. Litvinenko, his wife and their son, Anatoly, had lived in Britain since fleeing Russia in 2000 and had secured British citizenship weeks before he died. Ms. Litvinenko has told the inquiry that her husband worked as an agent of the British MI6 spy service. They are pictured below at the Press Conference following the release of the Report.   Testimony at the inquiry suggested that Mr. Litvinenko was seeking to trace links between Mr. Putin, his entourage and organized crime groups. He was planning to travel to Spain to meet with investigators there when he was poisoned. Despite the chill in relations between London and Moscow that his death caused, ties gradually improved as Prime Minister David Cameron, like other Western leaders, sought Mr. Putin’s support on key issues such as the civil war in Syria and the Iranian nuclear program. In recent days, news reports have indicated that British diplomats were eager to maintain those ties with the Kremlin, whatever the outcome of Judge Owen’s Inquiry, which began almost one year ago on Jan. 27, 2015. Judge Owen heard public testimony from 62 witnesses in 34 days of hearings. Closed-door hearings were held to interview other witnesses, however, and their testimony will not be included in the final Report. The official secrecy reflected a determined effort by British government ministers, citing the needs of national security, to limit the scope of the inquiry’s disclosures.

Well there seems to no evidence of radioactive polonium being administered last night (so far??!!) as 20 Pairs sat down to compete for the Third Round of the Tilling Trophy - our premier Pairs Competition at the Oxshott Bridge Club. However everyone was focussed on achieving the highest placing possible!! But there was controversy over one Board where the results were not in accord with possible contracts!!?? It seemed that there had been at least one instance of "mis-boarding"!! Scorer Jonathan Spring commented:"It seems that the South and West hands were transposed by one Pair!!?? I have therefore used a "Split-Board" scoring to re-score this Board as two separate sections. Effectively this just means that no one is advantaged/disadvantaged by what had happened." He added : "In accordance with precedent, I then applied a Fine of 3 IMPS to both NS and EW on the Table where it was last thought to be correct." It all goes to reinforce the advice given to all Members to be very careful to ensure that the cards are carefully returned to the Board in the correct positions before passing on each Board!! We were warned..........and now we learn our lesson again!!

Many congratulations must go to Daphne Pugh & Gillian Lowe who scored an outstanding 64.81% to claim First place last night; they also scooped the maximum 42 Master Points!! They were well clear of the next two Pairs who battled it out for Second place. Judy Hickman & Kay O'Gorman  just captured Second place with 61.27%, but they were just ahead of Alan & Pat Hammond who came Third with 61.53%. Kevin & Deanne Goddard were Fourth with 59.49%. Philip Duncan & Edwin Jones just captured Fifth position with 57.41%, with Penny & Ormonde Webster-Smith coming Sixth with 54.05%, the final Master points place went to George Gardiner & Gail Norman who scored 53.82% in Seventh position. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!! It was South who received the best cards, and they played the contract on 8 out of the 24 Boards; West played a further 7 contracts, and that left East with only 5 Boards and North with only 4 Boards where they played the contract!! There were lots of game-going contracts to go for, although it was not always obvious that the higher-scoring game-going contract was possible; in the end, it turmed out that two-thirds (i.e 16 out of 24) Boards offered game-going contracts!! And there were lots of Slam Opportunities as well among these 16 Boards; although they were quite difficult to spot in some cases, and even more difficult to deliver in other cases!! Over the evening there were four successful Slam bids achieved!! Board 1 gave East 13 High Card points, with 5 Spades to the AKxxx and 4 Hearts to the Qxxx; they would open 1 Spade. West had 14 HCPs in support, with 5 Hearts to the AKxxx, 5 Clubs to the KQxxx and a singleton in Diamonds; they might jump to 3 Hearts. Now it is up to East to decide whether a "big contract" is in prospect or just a game bid??!! Well nine East/West Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; seven made 12 tricks for 480 points, while two made all 13 tricks for 510 points!! But one E/W Pair braved a Slam contract!! Many congratulations must go to Daphne Pugh & Gillian Lowe who bid Slam in 6 Hearts; they made exactly 12 tricks for a very satisfying 980 points, which was the top score achieved on this Board!! Conveniently the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find attached to the Travellers in the Results section - confirms that both East and West can should make a Slam contract in 6 Hearts on this Board, even against the "best defence"!!

Board 2 seemed to offer a fantastic Slam Opportunity to East/West!! East had 12 HCPs with 5 Spades to the Axxxx and 4 Diamonds to the AQJx; they would probably open 1 Spade. This would excite their Partner, West, who had fantastic Spades in support; they had 5 Spades to the KQJxx, along with 5 Clubs to the AQxxx and a singleton diamond; they might well jump to 3 Clubs. When East confirms the 5-4 distribution with a second bid of 3 Diamonds, it would be a very unemotional player who did not dream of a "big contract" from West!!?? Well four E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; three made exactly 10 tricks for 420 points, but one made only 9 tricks and so lost 50 penalty points!! Two more E/W Pairs bid up to 5 Spades; one made 10 tricks and so lost 50 points; but the second made only 9 tricks and so lost 100 penalty points!! That left the four East/West Pairs who braved a Slam contract in 6 Spades; two made 10 tricks to lose 100 points; but two made only 9 tricks and so lost 150 penalty points!! The "Expert Analysis" confirms that there was never any chance of a Slam on this Board; indeed the maximum contract for East and West is to achieve 10 tricks in 4 Spades, even against the "best defences"!! Board 10 gave Dealer East only 9 HCPs, but they had a void in Spades and 5 Diamonds to the J10xxx; they might well Pass!! West had 14 HCPs with 5 Diamonds to the KQxxx and 4 Clubs to the KQJx; they would open 1 Diamond!! North had an interesting hand as well; they had 11 HCPs with 6 Spades to the AKQxxx and a void in Diamonds; they would bid 1 Spade. East might well respond very favourably to their Partner's opening; with 5 Diamonds in support, they might well jump to 3 Diamonds!! Now South had only 6 HCPs, but they had 5 Spades to match their Partner's suit and might well return 3 Spades. All this bidding must begin to introduce uncertainty that a "big contract" was possible, but it is up to West to decide where to take the bidding from here?!! Well one North/South Pair played a part-game in 2 Spades; they made 9 tricks and so won 140 points - which turned out to be the top score for North/South!! A second N/S Pair bid up to 4 Spades; they made 9 tricks and so lost 100 penalty points!! Eight East/West Pairs bid game in 5 Diamonds; all 8 made 12 tricks for 620 points!! Of course the "Expert Analysis" confirms that - in fact - both East and West can make a Slam contract in 6 Diamonds on this Board!! Indeed West - but not East - can make a Slam contract in 6 Clubs also!! So this was one occasion where Lady Opportunity had to pass on without any success being achieved in the Slam Opportunity stakes with this Board!!

Board 22 gave East a most unusual hand; they had 6 whopping Spades to the AKQJ10x and 6 Clubs to the Kxxxxx, with a singleton Diamond and a void in Hearts; they would open 1 Spade. You can take another look at this hand at the top of this Report as the four hands are reproduced there. How would YOU bid and play these hands to maximise the Opportunity??!! South has a fantastic 6 Hearts to the AKQ10xx with 16 HCPs; they would bid 2 Hearts!! West has only 5 HCPs; altjough they have 5 Diamonds to the Axxxx, the bidding has probably become too rich for them to do other than Pass; and North would also Pass. That meant it was up to East and South to fight it out to win the contract, and they also had to gauge the potential of their hand without too much guidance from their Partner??!! Well one East/West Pair bid 2 Spades; they made 11 tricks for 200 points!! Two North/South Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; one made exactly 10 tricks for 420 points; but the other made only 9 tricks and so they gave up 50 penalty points!! Four more East/West Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; three made 12 tricks for 680 points, while one made 10 tricks for 620 points!! One N/S Pair bid 5 Hearts; they were doubled; they made only 10 tricks aand so lost 100 penalty points!! One East/West Pair bid up to 5 Spades; they made 12 tricks for 680 points!! Finally one North/South Pair bid Slam in 6 Hearts; they were doubled; sadly they made only 10 tricks and so gave up 300 penalty points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" confirms that North and South can only made 10 tricks in Hearts on this Board; but it also suggests that - even against the "best defences" - it is possible for both East and West to make a Slam contract in EITHER 6 Clubs or in 6 Spades!! How did YOU get on when you reviewed these interesting hands?? Then Board 24 gave East a whopping 22 HCPs with 5 Spades to the AKxxx, four excellent Hearts to the AKQJ and a singleton King of Diamonds; they might open a strong 2 Spades!! West had just enough, with 8 HCPs, to respond positively with 3 Hearts, and so East might well immediately aim for a "big contract" from there??!! Well one East/West bid game in 3 No Trumps; they made 12 tricks for 490 points!! Three more Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; all three made 11 tricks for 450 points!! Three more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; two made 11 tricks for 450 points, while one made 12 tricks for 480 points!! One more Pair bid up to 5 Hearts; they made 12 tricks for 480 points!! That left two East/West Pairs who braved Slam bids!! Sadly one bid Slam in 6 Hearts; they made only 11 tricks and so lost 50 penalty points!! Similarly another bid Slam in 6 Spades; but they too made 11 tricks and so lost 50 penalty points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that it is possible for both East and West to make a Slam if BOTH 6 Hearts and in 6 Spades!! The secret seems to be playing the Jack of Spades from West either as a finesse or to collect the Queen of Spades from North; that allows East to win the remaining Spades and the Slam contract is available - but you only know that after the event ??!! 

Board 12 gave North a fantastic hand with 19 HCPs and 5 Diamonds to the AKQ10x; they might open 1 Diamond!! South had a great supporting hand with 11 HCPs and 6 Spades to the KJxxxx; they might well jump to 2 Spades. This should stir North into action as clearly something big was an option??!! Well 5 North/South Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; one made 11 tricks for 660 points, while four made 12 tricks for 690 points!! Three more N/S Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; one made 11 tricks for 650 points; one made 12 tricks for 680 points; and one made all 13 tricks for 710 points!! But two North/South Pairs were brave enough to bid a Slam contract!! Many congratulations must go to Jonathan Spring & John French and to David Rotherham & Sue Osborne; they both bid Slam in 6 Spades; they both made exactly 12 tricks to share a whopping 1430 points, which was the top score achieved on this Board!! Well done indeed!! Now the "Expert Analysis" confirms that both North and South can make a Slam contract in either 6 Spades or in 6 No Trumps!! Finally there was Board 14, where South had 12 HCPs with a balanced hand; they would open 1 No Trump. North had a fantastic 22 HCPs with can see nothing other than Slam points on this Board; but the challenge was how to maximise the potential of the hands!!?? Well one North/South Pair bid game in 3 No Trumps; they made 11 tricks for 460 points!! One more N/S Pair bid game in 4 Spades; sadly they made only 9 tricks and so gave up 50 penalty points!! Two N/S Pairs bid 4 No Trumps; one made 11 tricks for 460 points, while the other made 12 tricks for 490 points!! All the rest bid Slam contracts!! One Pair bid Slam in 6 Hearts; they made only 11 tricks and lost 50 penalty points!! Four more N/S Pairs bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; three made only 11 tricks and so gave up 50 penalty points!! But many congratulations must go to Kevin & Deanne Goddard who bid 6 No Trumps; they mde exactly 12 tricks for an outstanding 990 points, which turned out to be the top score achieved on this Board!! Well done indeed!! But one intrepid Pair saw a real Opportunity, and they bid a GRAND SLAM in 7 No Trumps; sadly they made only 11 tricks and so gave up 100 penalty points!! The secret lies in the Clubs; North/South can certainly make two Club tricks by forcing the King out by playing the 9 of Clubs; if East plays the Jack, then the Queen forces the King; otherwise a fonesse means West still has to play the King!! Funny how easy it is when you can look at all the cards!! Anyway many congratulations to our four actual Slam Achievers of the evening!!

It seems that it is not all happiness among the animals at the London Zoo. It turns out that a London Zoo worker, sacked after glassing a female colleague in a love triangle clash over a llama keeper, was unfairly dismissed — but she will not receive a penny in compensation. Meerkat keeper Caroline Westlake (pictured above taking part in the Zoo’s stock-taking) hit monkey handler Kate Saunders in the face at a work Christmas party last year after they came to blows over fellow animal expert Adam Davies. Mr Davies had dated Ms Saunders for five years before striking up a new relationship with Westlake, 30. A central London employment tribunal heard Ms Saunders needed stitches after the glass cut through her cheek. 

Westlake was fired and launched a claim against the zoo for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination, claiming she had ADHD and dyspraxia, a condition which she said made her exceptionally clumsy. The tribunal yesterday concluded she was unfairly dismissed because both women were culpable over the fight and should have faced the same punishment. The row was over relations with the Zoo’s llama-keeper, Adam Davies, who is pictured below.

The Zoo’s disciplinary process, conducted by manager Jayne Heason, was found to be flawed. But the panel refused to award Westlake any compensation and rejected her disability discrimination claim, saying Ms Heason did  not know about her disability and therefore she could not have discriminated against her because  of it. Westlake was convicted of assault by beating at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 25. Her lawyer said she planned to appeal. She is no longer in a relationship with Mr Davies and found work at another zoo.

The tribunal had been told how the fight began because Ms Westlake had overheard her rival talking about her in the toilets saying “Have you seen the state of her?”. They also heard that the monkey handler Kate Sanders (pictured below) had accused Caroline Westlake of being 'mad' and that no-one liked her. Ms Westlake then launched the attack in the cloakroom of the venue. During the fight, Miss Sanders hit Ms Westlake and spat on her while holding her backwards over a balcony, which had a 30ft drop. But despite also being involved in the violence, Miss Sanders was only given a final written warning and banned from attending company social events.

The tribunal found Ms Heason differentiated between the two women solely due to the difference in physical injuries sustained. The panel said she took no account of impartial witnesses who said that Ms Sanders started the second part of the fight. In their judgement, the tribunal panel wrote: “We conclude that no reasonable employer would have reached the decision that the entire responsibility for the incident should be placed at the Claimant's door and that Ms Sanders was not blameworthy. On the independent evidence before Ms Heason, the only reasonable conclusion was that the incident took place in two parts. The first part, it might be reasonably concluded, could have been started either by the claimant hitting Ms Sanders in the face with the glass (as Ms Sanders alleged) or by Miss Sanders hitting the claimaint on the jaw (as the claimant alleged).” Let’s hope the meerkats, the monkeys and the llamas get on better than their keepers??

Now there were no llamas or meerkats in attendance last night at the Oxshott Bridge Club, but everyone was on their toes as we competed in Round 2 of the Tilling Trophy, our premier Pairs Competition!! There are seven Rounds between October and May and the Pair who achieve the "Best Four" placings win the title of Pairs Champion for 2016!! It was a really close contest last night with only 2% sparating the top five Pairs. Indeed there was a tie for First place!! Many congratulations must go to John French & Jonathan Spring and to Enid & James Pickering; they both scored 58.59& to share First place; they also shared 39 Master Points!! They were three Match points ahead of George Gardiner & Gail Norman who came Third with 57.83%. David Rotherham & Sue Osborne were just squeezed out into Fourth place with 57.64%, and Daphne Pugh & Gillian Lowe were Fifth with 56.57%. There was then a small gap before Elizabeth Gibbons & Janet Kefford claimed Sixth place with 54.55%, and Vernon Morton & Annemie Bisgood captured the Seventh spot with 53.94%. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!! It turned out to be a night for East/West as the won the "Top Three" placings and five out of the seven Master Points Winners were from East/West!!

Interestingly the good cards seemed to fall to North, South and East, as they each played the contract on 7 boards each; that left poor old West to play the contract on only 3 Boards all night!! Just over half of the Boards offered game-going contracts, with 13 out of the 24 Boards offering the higher score. There was only one Board the offered any kind of Slam contract, but there was not even one Slam bid attempted!! Board 16 gave West zero High Card Points, and North had only 9 HCPs; they would both Pass!! East had 12 HCPs with a balanced hand; they would open 1 No Trump. Now this always poses a problem for South; they have 19 HCPs with 5 Spades to the AQ10xx and 4 Diamonds to the A10xx; will they double, or will they be even more aggressive and bid 3 Spades?? The four hands from this Board are reproduced at the top of this Report. Take another look just now to see how YOU would maximise the potential of this Board?? Well last night, amazingly one North/South pair ended in a part-game contract of 2 Diamonds; they made 11 tricks for 150 points!!?? No less than four N/S Pairs ended in 2 Spades; one made 10 tricks for 170 points; one made 11 tricks for 200 points; and two made 12 tricks for 230 points!!?? One more N/S Pair went up to 3 Spades; they made 12 tricks for 230 points!!?? Three North/South Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; all three made 12 tricks for 490 points!! Finally one N/S Pair bid game in 4 Spades; they made 11 tricks for 450 points!!?? Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that both North and South can make a Slam contract in ANY of 6 Diamonds, 6 Spades, or 6 No Trumps!! Sadly "Lady Opportunity" left the Club shaking her head and lamenting "the passing of last Opportunities"!! Maybe next week we will see a return of courageous bidding. See you there at 7.30 pm prompt!!

Congratulations to Elizabeth Taylor & Sheila Bean of the Woking Bridge Club who secured First place with 67.64%  in the Overall Rankings for the Surrey Sims on Wednesday 16th September. They were just ahead of our own Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money who were placed Second with 66.70%; and Rosemary Linington & Bill Lumb from the Caterham Bridge club were Third with 65.24%. The Overall Rankings of all the Oxshott Pairings who participated in the Dorin Salver event are shown in the Table above. The Pairs who played North/South are highlighted in Yellow - you will  note that they occupy 7 of the Top & placings (!!??) -  and the Pairs who played East/West are highlighted in Blue - you will note that they occupy 7 of the Bottom 7 placings (!!??). The difference between the local Oxshott scoring and the Overall Rankings is shown in the right-hand column with those who added to their score being shown in Green , and those who reduced their score being shown in Red. 

There’s a split-second moment, between stripping a Kit Kat of its wrapper and snapping off the first finger, where you go to pierce the foil crack and remember there hasn’t been one for over a decade!! Well Nestlé has just failed in an attempt to convince European judges to let it trademark the shape of the four-finger version of a Kit Kat in the UK. The European Court of Justice ruled that the Kit Kat’s shape was not distinctive enough for consumers to associate it with the chocolate covered wafer. Nestlé is not seeking to trademark its two-fingered version of Kit Kat. Nestlé had argued that even without its red and white packaging or the words Kit Kat embossed on the chocolate, the shape of the bar should be regarded as distinct.

The dispute between Nestlé and Cadbury, which has fought to prevent Nestlé securing a trademark, will go back to the UK High Court for a final ruling that will determine whether rivals will be able to launch copycat Kit Kats in Britain. Nestlé, the world’s biggest food group, and Cadbury, owned by US group Mondelēz, have been in a tit-for-tat battle over the distinctiveness of their chocolate products. Cadbury decided to try and thwart Nestlé’s attempt to trademark Kit Kat in 2010 after Nestle blocked Cadbury’s effort to trademark the shade of purple used for its chocolate wrappers.

The original four-finger bar was developed after a worker at Rowntree’s York factory put a suggestion in a recommendation box for a snack that “a man could take to work in his pack”. The bar was launched on 29 August 1935. Each bar consists of fingers of three layers of wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from a bar separately. Bars have two or four fingers, although the larger Kit Kat Chunky bars are a single solid block marked into three sections. Nowadays Kit Kat bars contain varying numbers of fingers depending on the market, ranging from the half-finger sized Kit Kat Petit in Japan, to the three-fingered variants in Arabia, to the twelve-finger family-size bars in Australia and France. Kit Kat bars are sold individually and in bags, boxes and multi-packs (see above).  In 1958, Donald Gilles, an executive at JWT Orland, created the iconic advertising line “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat”. In the United Kingdom, the product has traditionally been wrapped in silver foil and an outer red paper band. In 2001, “flow wrap plastic” was substituted as the confectionery’s packaging for cost-saving purposes.

Many children from the Forties and Fifties will remember the ritual unwrapping of their Kit Kat from their lunchbox at school. First, the red paper encircling the bar was removed and read to see if there were any competitions advertised. Then the glistening silver foil was rubbed over the embossed chocolate beneath until the words “Kit Kat” made an almost magical appearance on its surface. This was followed by the foil being torn down the middle by running a nail along the groove between the two fingers. Finally the chocolate was snapped along the tear to get two neat fingers of eating joy. The beauty of this being that you could theoretically save one for later; however in most cases, this was never going to happen!!??

In the summer of 2015, Nestle are undertaking the biggest wrapper redesign since the Kit Kat brand came to market almost 80 years ago; they are changing the logo on more than 100 million packets to reflect the different ways consumers spend their breaks – including one with “YouTube my break” branding below.

There was little time to "Have a Break" or to "Have a Kit Kat" last night as 13 + 1/2 Tables sat down to compete in the Surrey Simultaneous Pairs Competition; it was also the First Round of our own Tilling Trophy - our premier Pairs Competition of the year - so everyone was keen to do well!! Sadly there was some real confusion about the "Arrow-Switch" finall two Rounds and the accompanying scoring, but more about that later in this Report!! The "good" cards fell to North and West, as North played the contract on 8 Boards and West received 7 Boards on which to play the contract. That meant that South and East were restrained to a more supportive role, as they played the contract on only 4 Boards each. Surprisingly for a Surrey SIMS competition, there were very few game-going contracts to aim for!! The "Arrow-Switch" allowed us to produce a single Leaderboard, but it was clear that the better results came from the Pairs who played North/South. Four out of the top five Pairs played North/South, while six of the bottom seven Pairs in the final Ranking played East/West. But congratulations to our Organiser, Jonathan Spring, for ensuring that there were two sets of 24 Boards for us to play. we could have had a larger number of Boards which would have meant that even fewer "common Boards" would have been played by all 27 Pairs who competed!! No doubt the debate over the "Card Draw" for initial placings and the number of "Arrow-Switch" tables will continue..............you can revisit the previous learned offerings in the "Improve Your Bridge" section (Items 4 and 3) of this Website.

Many congratulations must go to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money who raced away with First place with a very impressive score of 64.33%; they also scooped the maximum 64.53%. They were a clear 34 Match points ahead of the chasing pack, who were led by Penny & Ormonde Webster-Smith who came Second with 58.63%; they were just one single Match point ahead of Alan Hammond & George Gardiner who came Third with 58.45%; and Judy Hickman & Kay O'Gorman were only 4.4 Match points further back in Fourth place with 57.69%. Jonathan Spring & John French were Fifth with 565.22%, but they were only 0.4 of one Match point ahead of Susan & Mike Sadler who came Sixth with 56.15%. There was then a small gap before Daphne Pugh & Gillian Lowe claimed Seventh place with 53.75%; they were just ahead of Gail Norman & Nicole Lambourne who came Eighth with 53.16%, and Janet Kefford & Margaret Monaghan who came Ninth with 52.75%. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!! Now we wait for the Surrey County Bridge Association to collate, compute and publish the Overall Leaderboard for the whole County. This will be produced hopefully over the weekend and the result will quickly appear on this website when it is available.

Out of the 24 Boards that we played, no less than 18 offered only part-game contracts, while 6 Boards presented the chance for the higher-scoring game contracts!! Despite the small number of game-going contracts, there were still three Boards that ellicited Slam bids and two of them were pretty clear Slam Opportunities!! Board 3 gave South a really interesting hand with 6 Clubs to the KQJ10xx but only 10 High Card Points; many of our more aggressive Members would open 1 Club!! North had a fantastic 20 HCPs woth a singleton Ace of Clubs and four cards good cards in the other three suits. They would not want to rush the bidding until they had determined the suit, so they might well responds 1 Spade. Now South would repeat 2 Clubs, and North has a decision to make:- "Will the two hands support a Slam bid of should they bid 3 No Trumps right now?" Certainly it is unlikely that they will get a third opportunity to bid from South. Well nine East/West Pairs settled for a game contract in 3 No Trumps; one made 11 tricks for 460 points, three made 12 tricks for 490 points, and five made all 13 tricks for 520 points!! That left the four Pairs who braved a Slam bid!! Many congratulations must go to Vernon Morton & Annemie Bisgood, to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money, to Jean Knott & Pat Hammond, and to Susan & Mike Sadler who all bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; all four made the full set of 13 tricks to share an outstanding 1020 points and the top score on this Board!! Interestingly the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find accompanying the Travellers in the Results section - suggests that, against good Defence, East or West can only make 12 tricks on this Board!!??

Board 7 presented West with 17 HCPs and a balanced hand; they would open 1 Spade. North had 11 HCPs with five cards in Clubs to the QJxxx; they might well counter with 2 Clubs. Now that is exactly what East wanted to bid since they have 5 Clubs to the Axxxx and four Spades to the KQxx; they might well double OR they might jump to 4 Spades. Just how West interprets their Partner's response was going to be interesting; was it a "close-out" bid or does it promise some real potential from these two hands?? Well two East/West Pairs setlled for a part-game contract in 3 Spades; one made 10 tricks for 170 points, while the second made 11 tricks for 200 points. Eight more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; four made exactly 10 tricks for 620 points, one made 11 tricks for 650 points, and one made 12 tricks for 680 points!! But one Pair made only 9 tricks and so gave up 100 penalty points, and the eighth made only 8 tricks and so gave up 200 penalty points........and a top score to their opponents!! But two Pairs ventured further..........!! One bid up to 5 Spades; they made only 10 tricks and so lost 100 panalty points!! The final East/West Pair attempted a Slam bid of 6 Spades; sadly they made only 11 tricks to give up 100 penalty points!! Now the "Expert Analyis" confirms that a Slam is not attainable on this Board against "good defence" and the best contract achievable by East is 5 Spades and by West is 5 No Trumps!! So there you are!!

Then there was Board 21 where you needed to pay particular attention to optimise your score. The hands are reproduced at the top of this Report. Take another look just now to see how you would bid and play these hands!!?? North has a really strange hand with 7 Spades to the AKxxxxx, four Clubs to the Qxxx, a singleton Ace of Diamonds and a singleton small Heart, all within 13 HCPs; they would probably open 1 Spade!! South had a whopping 20 HCPs in support with 5 Diamonds to the KQ10xx within a balanced hand; they would have to jump but "How high?" you might well ask?? It is probable that South will jump to 3 Diamonds. Now a bid of 3 Spades from North would be stronger than 4 Spades, but how would YOU take the bidding from here??....Well last night two North/South Pairs bid 5 Spades; they both made 13 tricks for 710 points!! The remaining 11 N/S Pairs bid a Slam contract!! Congratulations must go to Stephanie Postlethwaite & Pam Oliveira, to Gail Norman & Nicole Lambourne, to Jean Knott & Pat Hammond, to Richard Burgess & Edwin Jones, and to Penny & Ormonde Webster-Smith; they all bid Slam in 6 Spades  to share 1460 points!! But they were surpassed by three Pairs who bid Slam in 6 No Trumps. Congratulations therefore should go to Jonathan Spring & John French, to Angie Watson & Ian Jeffrey and to Mary Bushell & Mikiko Gissing who all bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; they all made the full set of 13 tricks for 1470 points each!! But three North/South Pairs ventured a step further. Spacial congratulations must go to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money, to Alan Hammond & George Gardiner, and to David Rotherham & Sue Osborne who all bid a GRAND SLAM in 6 Spades; they made exactly 13 tricks to share the top score on this Board of a whopping 2210 points!! Well done indeed!! It seems a little irrelevant to refer to the "Expert Analysis" but it does reveal that both North AND South can make a GRAND SLAM in EITHER 6 Spades or on 6 No Trumps!!?? Whatever, many congratulations to all the SLAM ACHIEVERS of the evening!!

Finally let's return to the Mayhem that seemed to accompany Round 9 and to the errors that other Pairs made in scoring the "Arrow-Switch" Boards. It proved a major probllem to our Chief Scorer, Jonathan Spring, as he tried to play his own hands while dealling with the counter-claims and different confusing demands of the Pairs who were involved. Anyway well done to Jonathan for producing a Leaderboard for both the Surrey County Brdge Association and for our own Webssite. We have contacted Jonathan Spring to ask - now that he has the benefit of a night's sleep and some contemplation time - what we can learn from last night. Apparently the problems were that some Boards were not scored at all (!!??) and some Pairs forgot that they had changed position at the "Arrow-Switch" and that this had to be reflected in the Automated Scoring System!! Here are the "Suggestions for Learning" from Jonathan Spring:-

1) At the Start of the Round, check the NAMES of the Pairs are correct on the Bridgemate.

2) Check WHO is listed North/South and WHO is East/West on the Bridgemate.

3) Check the RIGHT BOARDS are on the Table according to the Bridgemate. It may help if you enter the Board Number into the Bridgemate BEFORE you start to bid the Board.

4) Bid the hands.

5) ENTER the CONTRACT into the Bridgemate and also the LEAD before starting to play the contract.

6) Play the hands and agree the result.

7) ENTER the RESULT into the Bridgmate.

8) Other Pair to VALIDATE the result.

9) Put the CARDS BACK in to the Board.

10) Then (and only if time permits - i.e. only if the Director has not yet called the next Round) you can check the other Results for the Board.

11) Then North/South should PASS the Boards (Note: East/West must NOT themselves take the Boards off the Table - they can take them from N/S and then pass them as N/S instructs, but E/W must not initiate ANY movement of the Boards).

As they say in the "Compare the Market.com" advert......SIMPLE!! Let's see if we can apply these simple procedures when next we play at the Oxshott Bridge Club!! See you next week!!

How often have you travelled on public transport when someone is loudly discussing their private affairs on their cell-phone?? Well this week a secret plan to close both Epsom and St Helier Hospitals and replace them with an 800-bed "super hospital" in Sutton has been leaked by health consultants. According to a BBC News report on Tuesday night, management consultants were overheard on a conference call about the plans on a commuter train to London Waterloo after meeting Mr Daniel Elkeles, the Chief Executive of the Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust . The BBC said the hospital trust had commissioned consultants to "build a new super hospital for the area" on the former Sutton Hospital site - a partially used mental health facility, some of which has been sold to Sutton Council for a school.  This is understood to be the "preferred option". Two other options were mentioned: building a new hospital at St Helier and rebuilding Epsom Hospital.

According to the BBC, one of the consultants on the train was heard to say they were "making progress" with Mr Elkeles (pictured above) on the plans. The BBC said last night: "One of them [the consultants] said: “I had a brief discussion with Daniel afterwards. He said he felt pretty good about the meeting. We are making good progress. Actually getting him to agree on the number of beds to start with is a very big accomplishment'." The consultants were also overheard discussing details about plans for a new A&E, what it would be called and what services it should provide.

Plans to merge Epsom with Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals in Surrey were halted in 2012. Both Epsom and St Helier were part of the Better Services Better Value review of NHS services in the area, which was abandoned in February 2014 after previously recommending that the A&E and maternity departments at Epsom be closed.

In a statement last night, Daniel Elkeles said: "This is a long-term plan and any of the options being looked at here are many years away from being implemented and will need a lot more discussion, agreement and consultation before happening." He added: “The trust board has always been very open that it is committed to retaining both hospitals for at least the next five years – and that remains the case. At the same time it is right that longer term planning should start now to tackle the serious problems facing local services and local NHS buildings, many of which were built in the 1930s and mean patients are being treated in inadequate conditions.”

A spokesman for NHS Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: "We recognise that Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust's estate needs significant improvement - health services are being delivered from buildings that in some places are from the 1930s - and we are supportive of the trust undertaking a full estates review, which has been funded by Surrey Downs CCG, Sutton CCG and Epsom and St Helier University Hospital Trust. However, the trust has not got to the point where they have discussed with us, as their local commissioners, the results of their review or any proposals arising from it. Of course, any proposed future developments would need to be considered in line with the south west London CCGs' strategy for health services in South West London."

The news broke on the same day as a Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Tom Brake, standing for re-election as MP for Carshalton and Wallington visited St Helier Hospital. Speaking to the gathered crowd, Nick Clegg said: “Tom Brake’s record in campaigning for St Helier's Hospital behind us, keeping it open, keeping the maternity ward open, keeping accident and emergency going, is second to none." Mr Clegg (pictured below) spoke of the 20,000 plus signatures in support of the campaign, calling it a "fantastic achievement" before leading a charge against the Conservative Party that had made it "quite quite clear" that they want to cut money on local nurseries, schools, colleges and that only a vote for Tom Brake would protect them.

Jeremy Hunt, the outgoing Health Secretary, has said he is against plans to create a “super hospital” replacing both Epsom and St Helier. Reacting to the leaked proposals to create an 800-bed centre after 2020, Mr Hunt, who is expected to be Health Secretary again in the Tories form a Government, said: “The Conservative party doesn't support these plans and wouldn't implement them in government. We believe smaller local hospitals have a vital role to play in the future of our NHS.” Whatever the future of Epsom or St Helier, there may be a management consultant looking for further employment after this public relations disaster!!?? 

There was lots of excitement also at the Oxshott Bridge Club yesterday evening as we reached the Final Round of the Tilling Trophy, our premier competition to determine the Top Pair at Oxshott for 2015. There were two Pairs who came into the Final Round neck and neck, with the title going to the two who achieved the highest placing on the evening. Fortunes waxed and waned throughout the session, and the decision was in the balance even as we came to the final Table. Indeed two Pairs tied for the First place and  all four of the top Pairs acheived above the outstanding score of 60%!! So many congratulations must go to Jonathan Spring & John French who finished in First place with an impressive 65.53%; they won the maximum 45 Master points and they win the Tilling Trophy as our Pairs Champions for 2015!! Well done indeed!! They shared First place with Jean Knott & Pat Hammond who also scored impressively with 65.53%, and this was enough to move them into overall Third place in this year's Tilling Trophy competition. Third place last night went to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money who fought valiantly as the other "challengers" throughout the evening; they were only 10 Match points back with a score of 63.64%. Peter Wardle & Peter Sharpe came Fourth with 60.04%. Then leading the "chasing pack" were Penny Webster-Smith & Sandra Doyle who came Fifth with 57.95%; they were 7 Match points ahead of Richard Burgess & Philip Duncan  who came Sixth with 56.63%. Rosemary Collin & Elizabeth Gray came Seventh, just 3 Match points further back, with 56.06%, and Tony Scott & Barbara Shaw came Eighth with 55.30%, just four moe Match points behind. Well done to all of our Master Points Winners!!

It was North that received the good cards; they played the contract on eight of the 24 Boards in play; South and East played a further 6 boards each; and that left poor old West with only 4 Boards to play. There were plenty of game-going contracts, there being 13 out of the 24 Boards that presented the higher scoring possibility, and there were indeed five of them that offered some kind of Slam Opportunity!!  Board 23 presented West with a difficult 4441 hand with 11 High Card Points and a singleton in Spades; they might well open 1 Club. East had a whopping 17 HCPs with 5 Diamonds, 4 Spades and a singleton Club; they would jump to 2 Diamonds. East might then show their four cards in Hearts by bidding 2 Hearts. Now the temptation may be for East to jump to a game contract in 3 No Trumps, but a more patient approach which showed the four cards in Spades might well open up the full potential of this hand!!?? Anyway one East/West Pair surprisingly settled for a part-game contract in 1 No Trumps; they made 12 tricks for 240 points!! Three more East/West Pairs chose for a part-game contract in 3 Diamonds; one made 10 tricks for 130 points, while the other two made 12 tricks for 170 points. One E/W Pair settled for 3 Hearts; they made 11 tricks for 200 points. Then three E/W Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; one made 10 tricks for 630 points, while the other two made 11 tricks for 660 points. Three more Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; all three made 11 tricks for 650 points. Finally one E/W Pair bid game in 5 Diamonds; they made 12 tricks for 620 points. Now the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find accompanying the Travellers in the Results section - suggests that both East and West can make a Slam contract in 6 Diamonds on this Board!! However this was one occasion where Lady Opportunity had to pass on quitely sighing at yet another chance foregone!!?? On Board 21, there was a very surprising set of hands to consider. East had 13 HCPs with no less than 7 Spades with the full set of high cards - AKQJ10 - and singletons in Hearts and Diamonds; they would open 1 Spades. Now West had 17 HCPs, 6 Diamonds to the AK, and a singleton in Spades; they might well jump to 3 Diamonds. Clearly a big contract is in the offing, but the bidding from here is crucial!!?? You can take another look at this Board because it is reproduced at the top of this Report. How would you bid this hand to optimise the potential of these fantastic cards?? Then take a look at how you would defend from South and North!!?? Well five East/West Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; one made 11 tricks for 450 points, while the other four made 12 tricks for 480 points!! One E/W Pair bid game in 4 No Trumps; they made 12 tricks for 490 points!! One Pair took a look and settled for 5 Spades; they made only 10 tricks and so lost 50 penalty points!! That left the five East/West Pairs who bid a Slam contract!! Congratulations must go to Richard Burgess & Philip Duncan, to Susan & Mike Sadler, to Don Porter & Doris Butterworth, and to Alan Hammond & George Gardiner; they all bid Slam in 6 Spades; and they all successfully made excatly 12 tricks for 980 points!! But special congratulations must go to Sue Osborne & David Rotherham who bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; they also made 12 tricks but they scored the top score on this Board of 990 points!! Well done indeed!! Now the "Expert Analysis" contains one or two surprises, which I am sure that you will have picked up when you consider how you would defend from South these Slam contracts!!?? It turns out that a well played defence would bring down a Slam contract in 6 Spades!! A lead of the Ace of Clubs by South is followed by a second low Club which is trumped by North and it is curtains for East/West's Slam aspirations after only two tricks!! The "Expert Analysis" does confirm that both East and West can make a Slam contract in 6 No Trumps, even against the best defence. Now isn't that interesting??

Then there were three consecutive Boards that seemd to offer Slam Opportunities??!! Board 15 gave West 15 HCPs with four cards in Clubs and Hearts, both to the AQ; they would probably open 1 Club. East also had 15 HCPs and a balanced hand with four Hearts to the King; they might well respond 1 Heart. West might jump to 3 Hearts and a big contract is in prospect!!?? Well four East/West Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; three made 9 tricks for 400 points, while one made 10 tricks for 430 points!! Six more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; two made 10 tricks for 420 points, while four made 11 tricks for 450 points!! One E/W Pair went up to 4 No Trumps; they made 11 tricks for 460 points. That left the single East/West Pair who braved a Slam contract in 6 Hearts; sadly they made only 10 tricks to yield 100 penalty points and a top score to their opponents!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that both East and West CAN make a Slam contract in 6 Hearts!! It is worth studying the Traveller for Board 15 to see how the Slam contract is made, because it requires some brave finesses in clubs through South, and in Diamonds through North; more importantly it requires a heroic finesse in the Hearts trumps to overcome the uneven distribution between South and North!! 

Board 14 gave East a whopping 18 HCPs with 5 Spades to the AK10, four cards in Hearts and Clubs, and a void in Diamonds; they would open 1 Spade. West had 11 HCPs in support with four cards in Clubs to Q10 and 4 Hearts to the AJ; they might well reply 2 Clubs. East might well show their alternative major and strength by jumping to 3 Hearts, and a big contract is clearly in prospect!!?? Well two East/West Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; both made only 9 tricks for 400 points!! Three more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; all three made 12 tricks for 480 ponts!! One E/W pair bid game in 5 Clubs; they made exactly 11 tricks for 400 points!! Two more Pairs bid up to 5 Hearts; one made exactly 11 tricks for 450 points, but the other fell short by one trick and so gave up 50 penalth points!! That left the four East/West Pairs who bid a Slam contract!! Two bid Slam in 6 Clubs; sadly one fell short by one trick and so gave up 50 penalty points; but congratulations must go to Jonathan Spring & John French who bid Slam in 6 Clubs; they made exactly 12 tricks for 920 points!! But special congratulations must go to Gail Norman & Therezinha Gold and to Valerie Jones & Dorothy Steinart; they both bid Slam in 6 Hearts and they both made exactly 12 tricks to share the top score of 980 points on this Board!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that both East and West can make a Small Slam contract in either 6 Hearts or in 6 No Trumps!! But it also suggests that they can both make a GRAND SLAM in 7 Clubs!! Now how about that!! Finally Board 13 gave the only Slam Opportunity of the evening to North and South. Here North had 13 HCPs with 6 cards in Hearts to the AQJ10 and two doubletons in Spades and Diamonds; they would open 1 Heart. Just to confuse matters, East had 10 HCPs with 6 Clubs to the AKQ, so they would almost certainly bid 2 Clubs. South had an exceptional supporting hand with 5 Spades to the AKJ and five matching Hearts to the King with a void in clubs; they might well jump to 3 Spades to show good support and 5 cards in the other major. West has a pretty useless hand except that they have 4 supporting Clubs and a very useful void in Hearts; they might be encouraged to bid 4 Clubs. So it is anyone's guess as to where the bidding will end up on this Board??!! Well 6 North/South Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; all six made the full 13 tricks for 710 points!! One E/W Pair bid up to 5 Hearts; they made 13 tricks for 710 points!! That left the five North/South Pairs who braved a Slam bid!! Many congratulations go to Alan Hammond & George Gardiner, to Peter Wardle & Peter Sharpe, to Penny Webster-Smith & Sandra Doyle, to Robin & Hilary Lane, and to Jean Knott & Pat Hammond; they all made the full 13 tricks to share a very satisfying 1460 points!! Well done indeed!! The "Expert Analysis" suggests that South (but not North) can make a Small Slam in 6 Spades!! It also suggests that both North and South can make a GRAND SLAM in 7 Hearts!! Don't you just hate these "smart Alec's"!!?? Anyway well done to all the Slam Achievers of the evening!!

The Solar Eclipse will hit the UK tomorrow morning, in what is to be one of the rarest occurrences of the phenomenon ever documented in the British skies. It is understood that 90 per cent of the UK's rays will be blacked out by tomorrow morning's eclipse, while 95 per cent of Scotland's sunlight will be blocked when the first total solar eclipse since 1999 gets underway.

To get the best views of the solar eclipse in the UK tomorrow, you’ll want to either head to the Midlands or south west England. That’s according to the latest weather forecast, which is predicting large swathes of cloud across the country when the eclipse peaks around 9.30am. However there may be breaks in the clouds in certain areas that allows observers to at least enjoy a portion of the two-hour event. This type of eclipse is known as a partial eclipse, because not all of the sun will be covered - but you should still, under no circumstances, look at it directly. The Met Office said it is “nigh on impossible” to predict exactly where breaks in the cloud will occur, but there should be areas where skies will be clear. “There will be swathes where clouds look much thinner,” explained a spokesperson. But even if your location is heavily covered in cloud, you should notice a dip in light levels as the moon passes behind the sun. “Anywhere, even if it’s cloudy, shouldn’t stop you going out and taking part in the event,” they continued.

Under no circumstances should you ever look directly at the sun with your naked eyes, during maximum eclipse. While some of the sun will be covered, it is extremely bright, and looking at it for even just a second or more can cause temporary or permanent damage to your vision. Instead you could buy a pair of CE-approved solar eclipse glasses, which are made of mylar and block 99% of the sun. If you haven’t got time to get these, you could also use a pinhole camera. Create a small hole in a piece of card or paper, turn your back to the sun, and hold the card or paper up in line with the eclipse and another piece of card which acts as your screen. The image of the Eclipse should be projected on to ot, once you’ve lined everything up properly. Another method is simply to grab a colander and place it on top of a sheet (see below). The holes in the colander will protect multiple images of the sun and the eclipse as it happens.

The earliest the eclipse will begin for anyone is at 8.19am at the very top of the south west of the UK. As you move up the country, the time of the eclipse starting moves back, with very northern Scotland being the last to being at 8.36am. In London, the event begins at 8.24am, Liverpool is 8.26am and Edinburgh is 8.30am. Over the next two hours the sun will then become more and more obscured by the moon, with the time of maximum eclipse again differing. In the south west, where visibility should be good, this will be around 9.23am. In London and Liverpool this will be around 9.31am, will Edinburgh maximum eclipse occurs at 9.35am. How much of the eclipse you can see will also depend on which part of the country you are in. Less of the sun will be obscured by the moon in the south than in the north, so the effect of the eclipse will not be as pronounced. In London, about 87 per cent of the sun will be covered, so at maximum eclipse a thin sliver of the sun will still be visible. In Nottingham it is about 89 per cent, in Liverpool it is about 91 per cent and in Edinburgh it is 93 per cent. 

Experts have also said that the two-hour event could pose problems for solar power stations across Europe. About three per cent of the total European energy consumption comes from solar power, and scientists have warned that the risk of blackouts is greater than ever. The effects of a momentary dip in output has not been studied before, leading to the suggestion there could be a 'cascade of electricity blackouts' as power grids struggle to cope. This is because the dip in light occurs during peak operation times. At night, the demand for power is much less. The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) said that, on Friday, 35,000 MW of solar energy will fade from Europe’s electricity systems, before being gradually re-injected. This will be ‘all in the space of two hours while Europeans and their offices begin a normal working week day,’ they said in a statement. Many countries are planning to mitigate the event by using additional energy from other power stations. 

There was no shortage of Stars at the Oxshott Bridge Club last night as we reached Round 6 of the Tilling Trophy, our premier Pairs Competition for the year. Played over seven Rounds on the third Wednesday of each month, the "Best Four" placings count and the Pair with the lowest total is awarded the Tilling Trophy and the proud title of Oxshott Pairs Champions for the year. The final Round will be played on Wednesday 15th April. Many congratulations must go to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money who turned out to be the Star Performers last night; they came First with an excellent score of 63.89% to claim the maximum 42 Master points. Well done, indeed!! Penny Webster-Smith & Sandra Doyle were the leaders of the "chasing pack" in Second  place with 58.33%, but they were only a single Match point ahead of Gail Norman & Therezinha Gold who came Third with 58.08%. John French & Jonathan Spring were just one further Match point back with 57.83% in Fourth place, and they held off Fiona Ross & Marjorie MacVicar by two Match points; they came Fifth with 57.32%. Jean Knott & Pat Hammond were placed Sixth with 55.09%, and Philip Duncan & Ormonde Webster-Smith captured the final Master points place with 52.02% in Seventh place. well done to all our Master Points Winners!!

It was South that received the best cards, playing the contract on 8 Boards; they were closely followed by East who played the cards on 7 Boards. North played the contracty on 6 Boards, and poor old West had to concentrate on defence since they received only 3 Boards on which they played the contracts!! 14 out of the 24 Boards offered game-going contracts, but an amazing 5 of them presented a Slam Opportunity!! Board 23 gave West a super hand with 17 High Card Points, including 6 Hearts to the AQ, 4 Spades to the KJ and a void in Diamonds; they might well open 1 Heart. East had 8 HCPs with 4 cards in Diamonds and Spades; they would likely respond 1 Spade. Now West might go straight to Blackwood or - more cautiously - might jump to 3 Spades, but whatever a big contract was in prospect!!?? The four hands from this Board have been reproduced at the top of this Report, so take a look and see how you would bid and play this Board. Well one East/West Pair settled for a part-game contract in 3 Spades; they made 11 tricks for 200 points!! Five more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; one made 12 tricks for 680 points; one made 11 tricks for 650 points; two made 10 tricks for 620 points; but one Pair made only 8 tricks to lose 200 penalty points!! One more E/W Pair bid game in 4 Hearts; they made 11 tricks for 650 points. That left the three Pairs who bid Slam in 6 Spades. Sadly two of them made only 10 tricks to lose 200 penalty points. However many congratulations must go to Gail Norman & Therezinha Gold who bid Slam in 6 Spades; thye made exactly 12 tricks to achieve a whopping 1430 points and the top score on this Board!! you can see that the Slam contract requires some very careful playing, but the "Expert Analysis" - which you can find attached to the Travellers in the Results section - confirms that a Slam contract can be successfully achieved by either North or South when played correctly!!

Board 18 presented South with 18 HCPs with 5 Hearts to the AJ10 and 4 Diamonds to the Q10 and a singleton Ace of Clubs; they might open 1 Heart. North had only 7 HCPs but 4 cards in Diamonds to the AK; they would respond 1 No Trumps. You might think that there would be no big score achievable on these two opening bids, and that was bourne out by the contracts determined upon at Oxshott last night. One West Pair bid 2 Spades; they made 7 tricks to sacrifice only 50 points!! One South Pair bid 2 Diamonds; they made 9 tricks for 110 points!! A second N/S Pair bid 2 No Trumps; they made exactly 8 tricks for 120 points. Two more N/S Pairs bid 3 Diamonds; one made 11 tricks for 150 points, while the second made 12 tricks for 170 points!! One N/S Pair bid 3 Hearts; they made 12 tricks for 230 points!! One North/South Pair bid game in 3 No Trumps; they made 10 tricks for 630 points. Finally three N/S Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; all three made 12 tricks for 680 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that both North and South could make a successful Slam contract in either 6 Diamonds or on 6 Hearts!!

Board 14 gave East  an odd hand with 7 Clubs to the KQ10 and 10 HCPs; they would pprobably open a weak 3 Clubs. South had a whopping 19 HCPs with 5 Diamonds to the AQ10 and 4 Hearts to the AK; they might double to force their Partner to bid. Now North had a really unusual hand with 7 Spades to the KQ and 4 Hearts to the QJ and a void in Diamonds; they would respond 3 Spades. Well the sky was the limit here!!?? Bur last night one North/South Pair bid game in 4 Hearts; they made 10 tricks for 420 points!! Eight more N/S Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; seven made 12 tricks for 480 points while one made 11 tricks for 450 points!! But one intrepid East/West Pair bid up to 5 Clubs; they were doubled; sadly they made only 7 tricks and so gave up 800 penalty points and a top score to their N/S opponents!! However the "Expert Analysis" suggests that both North and South can make a Slam contract in 6 Spades on this Board!! Then Board 8 gave West an odd hand with 9 HCPs and 7 cards in Spades to the Ace; they might well open a weak 3 Spades. East had a fantastic supporting hand with no less than 5 Spades to the KQJ10, 14 HCPs and a singleton in Clubs. However it takes a brave partner to bid the Slam given the weak start from West. Last night all 10 East/West Pairs settled for a game contract in 4 Spades; and all 12 made 12 tricks to share 480 points. Now it will not surprise you that the "Expert Analysis" confirms that a Slam contract will be made by either East or West in 6 Spades!! 

Finally Board 7 gave South a strong hand with 15 HCPs and 6 cards in Spades to the AQJ; they would open 1 Spade. North has an excellent supporting hand with 13 HCPs, 5 Spades to the K10 and a singleton King of Clubs; they would probably jump to 3 Spades. Now Opportunity Knocked for a big score!!?? Well 5 North/South Pairs bid 4 Spades; all five made 12 tricks for 680 points. Two more N/S Pairs bid up to 5 Spades; they too both made 12 tricks for 680 points. That left the three N/S Pairs who bid a Slam contract!! Many congratulations must go to Alan Hammond & George Gardiner, to John French & Jonathan Spring and to Joan Low & Liam Creagh; they all bid Slam in 6 Spades; all three made exactly 12 tricks to share 1430 points, the top score on this Board!! Well done to all our Slam Achievers of the evening!!

Wanted: Directors for 20 of Italy’s leading museums, including the Uffizi in Florence (pictured above) the Galleria Borghese in Rome and the Accademia in Venice. Strong art history background, management experience and an interest in improving visitor experience a must. Fluency in Italian a definite plus, but not a requirement. With an advertisement in the Economist and other publications, Italy this month announced its first-ever international search for museum directors, part of a shake-up at its major art and archaeology institutions. The deadline for applications is Feb. 15. Under the current system, the Culture Ministry manages Italy’s museums and directors have little autonomy. The changes are intended to help bring museums closer in line with counterparts like the Louvre and the Prado.

“It’s a giant leap ahead,” Dario Franceschini, Italy’s culture minister, said in a recent interview in his ballroom-size office. “Italian museums should be more dynamic. They should have more bookshops, more restaurants. They should be attractive and have more multimedia.” Mr. Franceschini has championed the changes at the Culture Ministry as part of the can-do spirit of the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who faces the challenging task of rousing Italy from a protracted recession. Simply changing directors won’t have any effect “if the state doesn’t change, if the structures of the museum don’t change,” said Antonio Natali, Director of the Uffizi. He also said that unless the director has control of the museum’s crucial technical, administrative, legal and personnel offices, then “not even the descent of a new redeemer” would make Italian museums function at their best. Last year, the country’s museums attracted more than 40 million visitors and took in nearly 135 million euros, or $156 million, the Culture Ministry said. The 20 top museums include some of the most-visited in Italy — the Uffizi, the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (pictured below), the Archaeological Museum in Naples — but also sites that the ministry thinks have untapped potential, like the archaeological museums in Taranto and Reggio Calabria in southern Italy.

The new directors are expected to be in place by the summer and will serve four-year terms before the positions reopen. The current museum directors — typically experts in art history, archaeology or architecture but for the most part with little professional training in arts management — will have to reapply for their own jobs. Mr. Natali of the Uffizi said he would do so “to keep faith in my dignity as a man.” Since the job was posted on Jan. 8, at least 50 people have applied. The Italian-language application has been downloaded 12,000 times and the English application 50 times, a spokesman for the Culture Ministry said.  Under the present system, museum directors are named by career state culture officials, not by the minister, who is a political appointee. After the Feb. 15 deadline, a five-member committee selected by Mr. Franceschini will choose a shortlist of three candidates for each museum, and he will make the final decisions this spring. Mr. Franceschini dismissed the idea that the changes would centralize power and run the risk of cronyism. “The selection procedure presupposes that very high-level candidates will apply,” he said, adding that committee members will also be able to give their recommendations.

Some worry that the changes might be the first step toward dismantling an established and widely respected system of cultural stewardship and replacing it with one that favors crowd-pleasing blockbuster shows over quality and research. “There is social, cultural, educational value in museums that is underused because of the current system of cultural management,” said James Bradburne, the Director General of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. “If, on the other hand, it is just a way to get politicians closer to the decision-making structure to transform them into tourist cash cows,” he added, “then it’s a mistake.” The Accademia in Venice is pictured below.

It was Round 4 of the Tilling Trophy last night; this is the annual Competition to determine the Top Pair at the Oxshott Bridge Club which will see battle on the third Wednesday of the next three months as well. There were 11 + 1/2 Tables in attendance, and the Leaderboard recorded quite some changes before the end of the evening. Many congratulations must go to Sue Osborne & David Rotherham who came First with an excellent score of 68.18%; they also captured the maximum 48 Master Points. They were 17 Match points ahead of Mary Bushell & Mikio Gissing who came Second with an impressive score of 64.32%. There was then a small gap before Alan Hammond & George Gardiner came Third with 59.38%; they were 8 Match points ahead of Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money who came Fourth with 57.51%. Richard Burgess & Philip Duncan were placed Fifth with 57.50%, but they were only two Match points ahead of Jonathan Spring & John French who caame Sixth with 57.05%; and Dorothy Steinart & Rosie Branch were only one further Match point back in Seventh place with 56.82%. The final Master Points place went to Susan & Mike Sadler who scored 54.58% in Eighth place. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!!

It was North who played the most Boards; they played the contract on 7 Boards!! West played a further 6 contracts, and that left South and East to play the contract on 5 Boards!! There were a lot of part-game contracts among the 24 Boards; only 10 Boards offered a game-going contract. There were two Boards that presented Slam opportunities but they were each of a very different nature!!?? First Board 5 gave North a fantastic hand with 22 High Card Points including 6 Spades to the KQJ, the AK of Hearts and Diamonds and a singleton Club; they might open a strong 2 Spades!! Now South had 10 HCPs in support with 4 Diamonds to the QJ10 and 4 Hearts to the QJ. It was clear that a big contract was in prospect but it was important to communicate effectively end in the correct place!! Well four North/South Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; all four made 12 tricks for 680 points. Six more N/S Pairs bid Slam in 6 Sspades!! Many congratulations must go to Kevin & Deanne Goddard, to Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money, to Stephanie Postlethwaite & Pam Oliveira, to Gail Nornam & Edwin Jones, to Elizabeth Gibbon & Janet Kefford, and to Peter & Bernice Rowley; they all bid Slam in 6 Spades; and they all made exactly 12 tricks to share a whopping 1430 points!! But one intrepid North/South Pair attempted a Slam bid in 6 No Trumps; sadly thye had no cover in Clubs; they were lucky to make 9 tricks and so lost 300 penaltry points and gave a top score to their East/West opponents!! The "Expert Analysis" - which you can find attached to the Travellers in the Results section - suggests that a Slam can be made by North and South in both 6 Diamonds and in 6 Spades on this Board!!

Then Board 11 presented some very unusual hands!!??..........and they are reproduced at the top of this Report. Take a look once more to see how YOU would bid this hand!!?? Remember no one is vulnerable and a sacrifice bid may be a possibility??!!  Dealer South had 16 HCPs with 5 Clubs to the AK and 5 Diamonds to the A10, with a singleton Queen of Spades; they might well open 1 Club. Now West had an amazing hand with no less than 9 Spades to the AKJ, but only 8 HCPs with a void in Clubs; they might well jump to 4 Spades!! Now it would take a very brave North to bid with only 5 HCPs but they do have 4 Clubs to the Queen and 4 Diamonds to the Jack. If they pass then the likely result is a game contract in 4 Spades. Well last night 8 East/West Pairs ended in game contracts in 4 Spades; all 8 made exactly 11 tricks for 450 points!! But two more E/W Pairs were pushed up to 5 Spades; they too made 11 tricks for 450 points. But one intrepid North/South Pair bravely bid Slam in 6 Diamonds; they were doubled!! They made only 9 tricks and so lost 500 penalty points and gave a top score to their N/S opponents!! C'est la vie!! Interestingly the "Expert Analysis" also confirms that the best that East or West can make in Spades is 11 tricks and that South can make only 9 tricks even with the best play!!

Short of ideas for a gift for the children this Christmas?? Back in the 1970s and 1980s, a Wendy house consisted of 16 plastic tubes and a wad of brightly coloured material with windows and a door printed on. These days, the buildings are made of solid wood, with functioning windows, lighting and even colour schemes. But these young people's palaces don't come cheap. These elaborate Wendy houses for toddlers modelled on castles and Victorian houses are on sale for $20,000 (£12,770). The unbelievably detailed models come with Roman pillars, slides and even castle turrets. Amazingly, some of the houses can even be hooked up to electrical mains and come with fully operable doors and windows. The mini-dwellings, designed for kids aged three to ten years old, are nearly double the price of Britain's cheapest two-up two-down property. In April, a house in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire was put up for sale at an asking price of £7,000 ($11,000)!!??

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what the “Cotton Candy Manor”, pictured above, is made of!! Clad in cotton-candy colour siding, this sweet estate will entertain its wee occupants for hours. Built in a traditional style, the front entrance is created with a custom styled front door topped with a sunburst transom window, protected by a peaked roof line. This home’s rich features include dormers, a wing surrounded by elegant palladian windows, a side entrance door with window, and slate grey window shutters which accent the operable windows. A brass plated doorbell and door knocker are perfect for announcing visitors to this delightful home.   Inside, a loft leads to an outdoor balcony, while the columned porch below creates a shady spot for reading or resting. Once featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, delectable details inside this home include textured-painted walls, simulated hardwood floors, and a sunny skylight. It is available in stock for only $ 9,899.00 today!!

Stephen Chernicky, owner of Lilliput Play Homes, said: “Twenty years ago, my wife and I searched for a playhouse for our daughter, Alyssa, but were unable to discover a product special enough for our little girl. Soon after we created the first Victorian Mansion playhouse and Lilliput Play Homes was born. We take personal pride in every wooden playhouse that our company creates.” He continued: “We share the feeling of our customers, that children should have a special place of their own to grow and discover.” If operable windows, doors and electricity isn't enough, Lilliput even give the option to customise the colour schemes inside the houses. In fact, with prices on the property market going through the roof in much of the UK, it wouldn't be too surprising if cash-strapped twenty-somethings start snapping up the buildings as an alternative to bricks and mortar.

However, if you really want to push the boat out this year, you can delight your grandchildren with the “Grand Victorian” which is available now for only $ 19,999.00!! The Grand Victorian Playhouse for children pictured below is an enchanting play home straight out of a fairy tale. The outside is picture perfect, with a wraparound porch, elegant stained glass window, window boxes full of fresh blooms, a sunny skylight, and a working doorbell and brass door knocker. Victorian trim details are abundant, and a shake shingle gable, supported by fanciful corbels, adds to the beauty of home.  Inside, the decorative details continue with a cozy window seat hugging the bay windows, textured-painted walls, and simulated hardwood floors. A white fireplace mantel on which to place your treasures, houses a hand- painted flame, and an upstairs cozy loft space is accessed by a ladder. The most luxurious Lilliput play home, this Victorian is truly grand indeed….. and could be yours for less than $20.000!!??

There was plenty of competition last night at the Oxshott Bridge Club as 12 + 1/2 Tables turned up to contest the Third Round of our premier Pairs Competition of the year, the Tilling Trophy; and in a really close finish, there was less than one-half of one percentage point separating the top five Pairs when the final Leaderboard was published!! Many congratulations must go to Gillian Lowe & Daphne Pugh who captured First place with 58.26% together with the maximum 48 Master Points; but they were only 0.08% ahead of Alan & Pat Hammond who came Second with 58.18%. Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money were only 0.2 of one Match point back in Third place with a score of 58.14%, with David Rotherham & Sue Osborne coming another 0.2 of one match point further back in Fourth place with a score of 58.11%!! The "leading pack" were completed by Elizabeth Gray & Rosemary Collin who came Fifth with 57.83%. There was then a small gap before Jonathan Spring & John French came Sixth with 55.95%. They just beat off Philip Duncan & Edwin Jones who came Seventh with 54.81%, and Nethie White & Eileen Goddard came Eighth with 54.42%. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!!

There was a fair distribution of the cards between the different players; although South played the contract on 8 Boards and West played a further 7 Boards, there were still 6 Boards where North played the contract and 5 Boards were left for East to play!! The split between game-going contracts and part games was also pretty even; there were 12 Boards that offered the chance for a game-going contract, whereas there were 14 Boards where only a non-game contract was all that was possible. There were four Boards that appeared to offer a Slam Opportunity among the 26 Boards that we played. Board 4 gave West 6 Hearts to the King but only 6 High Card Points; they would probably pass!! But North had 5 Spades to the AK10 and 11 HCPs; they would open 1 Spade. Now South had 16 HCPs and a nicely balanced hand, so the bidding might well head sharply upwards at this point!!?? Well last night one North/South settled for a contract in 1 Spade; they made 9 tricks for 140 points!!?? Three more N/S pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; one made exactly 9 tricks for 600 points; another made 10 tricks for 630 points; but the third made only 8 tricks and so gave up 100 penalty points!! One N/S Pair bid game in 4 Hearts; they made 10 tricks for 620 points. Then five more N/S Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; two made exactly 10 tricks for 620 points, while three made only 9 tricks to lose 100 penalty points!! That left the one intrepid Pair who bid up to a Slam contract in 6 Spades; sadly they made only 10 tricks and so lost 200 penalty points - and gave a top score - to East/West!!

Board 20 gave West an outstanding hand with 19 HCPs, 5 Hearts to the AQJ and four Diamonds to the KJ; they might open 1 Heart. East had 11 HCPs with a 4441 distribution, the singleton being in Hearts; they would probably respond 1 Spade. When West responds with 2 Diamonds to show their four-card suit, this would excite East who had four Diamonds to the AQ in support. Now the trick was to communicate effectively to maximise the opportunity from this Board. Well 7 East/West Pairs decided on a game contract in 3 No Trumps; two made exactly 9 tricks for 600 points while five more made 10 tricks for 630 points. Two more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; they both made 10 tricks for 620 points. The remaining two Pairs chose to bid game in 5 Diamonds; one made 11 tricks for 600 points, while the other made 12 tricks for 620 points!! Now it is worth having a look at this Board in the Travellers Section of the Results. The "Expert Analysis" suggests that both East and West can make a GRAND SLAM on this Board!!

Then on Board 23, there were some very uneven distributions among the four hands. Dealer South had 6 Diamonds, 5 Hearts and a void in Spades, but only 7 HCPs. West had 7 Clubs, 4 Spades, a doubleton to the Ace of Diamonds and a void in Hearts; they would probably open a weak 3 Clubs. Now East had 15 HCPs with a singleton Ace of Clubs; since they had 5 Spades to the A10, they may well respond 3 Spades. Now West had four Spades to the Jack, so maybe "Oppoertunity Knocked"??!! Well three East/West Pairs settled for a contract in 3 Clubs; all three made 10 tricks for 130 points. Three more Pairs went up to 4 Clubs; two made 11 tricks for 150 points, while the third made only 9 tricks and so lost 100 penalty points!! Three more E/W Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; one made 10 tricks for 620 points, while two made 11 tricks for 650 points. One Pair bid game in 5 Clubs; sadly they made only 10 tricks and so gave 100 points away!! Finally one E/W pair bid up to 5 Spades; they too fell short with only 10 tricks and so gave up 100 penalty points!! So no one actually attempted a Slam contract on this Boards!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that - with the best play - both East and West can make a Slam in 6 Spades!! Don't you just hate these "clever-cloggs"

Finally there was Board 10, where East/West had super hands and a Slam contract looked to be a real possibility. Now these hands have been reproduced at the top of this Report, so you can take a look once more and see how you would bid and play this Board. Remember Dealer is East and everyone is vulnerable!! East has a fantastic 20 HCPs with 5 Diamonds to the AK and four Clubs to the AQ; they also had three Hearts to the AK and a singleton Spade; they might open 2 Diamonds; Now West had 12 HCPs with outstanding Spades including five cards to the AKQJ and five cards also in Clubs to the 10. They would respond 2 Spades. Now where would you take the bidding from there?? Well seven East/West Pairs settled for a game contract in 3 No Trumps; one made 10 tricks for 630 points; five made 11 tricks for 660 points; and one made 12 tricks for 690 points. One E/W Pair bid game in 4 Spades; they made exactly 10 tricks for 620 points. But three East/West pairs braved a Slam bid!!?? Two attempted a Slam contract in 6 No Trumps; one made 11 tricks to lose 100 penalty points; but the second made only 9 tricks and so they sacrificed a whopping 300 points and gave a top score to their N/S opponents!! But the remaining East/West Pair bid Slam in 6 Clubs!! Many congratulations must go to Nethie White & Eileen Goddard; they bid Slam in 6 Clubs and made exactly 12 tricks to score an outstanding 1370 points and a top score on this Boards!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that both East and West can make a Slam contract in EITHER 6 Clubs or in 6 No Trumps!! Have one more look at the hands above this Report. Amazingly it is really easy when you know the answer..... Anyway well done to our only Slam Achievers for the evening!!

The Queen has paid tribute to British and Commonwealth First World War dead by visiting a unique poppy memorial commemorating their sacrifice and laying a wreath. Surrounded by a sea of red ceramic poppies in the former moat of the Tower of London, the Queen laid her own floral tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. With almost all of the 888,246 poppies now in place, the Queen was rendered almost invisible as she walked through the sea of ceramic crimson blooms during a tour of the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation at the Tower of London today. Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, himself a former naval officer, Her Majesty looked sombre as she inspected the display which includes one flower for every British or Commonwealth soldier killed during the First World War. The Queen was making her first public appearance since returning to London from her summer holiday at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire last month, with much of the last fortnight has been spent completing a series of investitures and meetings at Buckingham Palace. The Duke of Edinburgh has also been enjoying a busy time of late and last week delighted the men of the 7 Air Assault Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers when he joined them in the cockpit of an Apache helicopter. But, like the Queen, the Duke was sombre as he inspected the installation.

The installation will remain on display until the 1tth November, after which the poppies will be sold off for £25 each to raise funds for military charities such as Help for Heroes and Combat Stress. By then all four sides of the ancient dry moat that surrounds the fortress, built by William the Conqueror, will be blanketed in a sea of scarlet. The very next day, the same army of 8,000 volunteers that planted them will begin to uproot each bloom individually - before sending it off to be washed and posted on to its new owner. There had been fears that that recent rains would make it impossible for the 88-year-old monarch and her husband, 92, to traverse the waterlogged moat but both insisted on viewing the instalment in person. 

Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was created by ceramic artist Paul Cummins and by Armistice Day on November 11 there will be 888,246 ceramic poppies planted, one for each British and Colonial death during the conflict which began 100 years ago. Mr Cummins, who met the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during their visit to the Tower, said: "I was inspired to create this installation after reading a living will by an unknown soldier who we think may have been from Derby. I approached the Tower as the ideal setting as its strong military links seemed to resonate. The installation is transient, I found this poignant and reflective of human life, like those who lost their lives during the First World War. I wanted to find a fitting way to remember them."

Stage designer Tom Piper helped Mr Cummins make his vision a reality along with a team of 8,000 volunteers who installed the flowers. "We didn't just want regimented rows of poppies, so the installation is like a sea with waves and peaks and troughs. There are poppies tumbling out one of the windows and over the bridge. It really brings it to life." Each individual poppy, which varies both in shape and height, ranging from 30 cm to a metre, takes three days to make from start to finish. Mr Cummins has had a team of 40 volunteers working on making the flowers in his studio in since January. So far more than 670,000 poppies have been planted - and more than 700,000 sold. The poppies are available to buy for £25, with ten per cent of the money raised going to six service charities: Cobseo, Combat Stress, Coming Home, Help for Heroes, SSAFA and the Royal British Legion.

It was the Second Round of the Tilling Trophy last night at the Oxshott Bridge Club; this is the premier Pairs Competition to determine the Top Pair at Oxshott for 2015 and will be played on the third Wednesday of seven months up to April 2015; the Pair who scores the best total positions over four of those Rounds will be crowned the Tilling Champions for 2015!! The star performers this month were Jonathan Spring & John French; many congratulations must go to them for capturing First place with an excellent score of 60.24%; they also received the maximum 36 Master Points for their efforts!! They were closely followed by Philip Duncan & Richard Burgess who came Second, only 1.4 Match points behind, with a creditable score of 59.76%. There was then a small gap before Margaret Monaghan & Janet Kefford claimed Third place with 55.30%. They were 0.61% ahead of June Buckland & Eileen Goddard who came Fourth with 54.69%. Peter Wardle & Peter Sharpe came Fifth with 52.86%, but they were only 0.8 of one Match point ahead of Don Porter & Doris Butterworth who came Sixth with 52.32%. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!! Now the Tilling Trophy is decided by the cumulative placings of each Pairing over the four best Rounds out of a maximum of seven Rounds that are played each year. After two Rounds, it is worth noting that Jonathan Spring & John French have made an outstanding start by coming First in each of the first two Rounds. Clearly they are the target for everyone else to aim for............but there is still plenty of time for your Pairing to star!!?? The Competition Tables will be reset to reflect the new Club Year during the next four weeks after the Annual General Meeting when the prizes for 2013-14 have been presented. You will then be able to see clearly the Standings in the Tilling Trophy for 2014-15 by clicking on the Tilling Trophy League Table tab in the Competitions section. Watch out for this change in the next few weeks!!

It was East who received most of the good cards!! Indeed they played the contract on 11 out of the 30 Boards that we played!! That left seven Boards where North played the contract, and South and West got 6 Boards each where they played the contract. A surprisingly high proportion of Boards offered game-going contracts!! No less than 21 out of the 30 Boards allowed the player to make a game contract, which meant that only 9 Boards limited the players to a non-game-going contract. Slam Opportunities were harder to find than usual, but that did not appear to stop contestants having a go??!! Board 23 presented Dealer South a really nice hand with 15 High Card Points, five Diamonds to the AQ10 and four Hearts to the Queen; an opening bid of 1 Diamond was likely. West also had a good hand with six Clubs to the KQ, the AK of Hearts, a singleton in Spades, and 13 HCPs. They would certainly bid 2 Clubs. Now North had an interesting hand; they had four Diamonds including the King of their partner's suit and five Hearts, but only 5 HCPs. The fact that they had a void in Clubs would probably ensure that they responded with a weak 2 Diamonds!! Then East entered the frame with a matching 5 Clubs in their partner's suit, six Spades to the AQ and singletons in both Hearts and Diamonds; even though they had only 7 HCPs, they would probably bid 2 Spades. Now one might have assumed for the bidding so far that there might be more than 40 High Card points between the four hands!!?? This Board is reproduced above, at the top of this Report, so take a look at what you would bid on this Board to maximise your score; remember it can sometimes be worthwhile bidding up as a sacrifice to ensure that your opponent does not secure a game score!!?? Well at Oxshott last night one North/South Pair bid 3 Diamonds; they made 8 tricks and so lost 100 penalty points to E/W. Another N/S Pair bid 4 Diamonds; they made 9 tricks and so also lost 100 penalty points. Four East/West Pairs bid game in 5 Clubs; one made 9 tricks and so lost 200 penalty points; one made 10 tricks and so lost 100 penalty points; the third made exactly 11 tricks for 600 points; and the fourth was doubled and made the necessary 11 tricks for a top score of 750 points!! One North/South Pair bid up to 5 Diamonds; they made 8 tricks and so lost 300 penalty points!! Finally one East/West Pair was forced up to a Slam bid in 6 Clubs; they were doubled; sadly they made only 11 tricks and gave up 200 penalty points..........which turned out to be a joint-top score for North/South!! So the "Expert Analysis" that you can find accompanying the Travellers in the Results section suggest that the maximum contract achievable against good opposition is 5 Clubs by East or West; but a sacrifice bid from North/South is potential, although the fact that both sides are vulrnerable may cause you to hesitate as the bidding gets higher!! How did you get on in reviewing how you would bid and play this hand?

Then Board 16 gave North a good hand with 13 HCPs, six Hearts to the AQ10, four Spades to the AK, a doubleton in Diamonds and a singleton in Clubs; they would open 1 Heart. South also had 13 HCPs with five Spades to the Jack, and three cards in their partner's suit including the KJ of Hearts!! They would probably jump to 2 Spades to indicate their strength. Interestingly East had seven Clubs to the J10 but only 3 HCPs while West had three more Clubs to the Ace abd 11 HCPs but the challenge was to communicate this without overexposing yourself to a disasterous doubling since East/West were vulnerable. Well on Wednesday night, three North/South Pairs bid game in 4 Spades; all three made 12 tricks for 480 points!! Two more N/S Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; one made 10 tricks for 420 points, while the other made 11 tricks for 450 points. Another N/S Pair bid up to 5 Hearts; they made 11 tricks for 450 points. Finally one intrepid N/S Pair attempted a Slam bid in 6 Hearts; they were doubled!! Sadly they made only 11 tricks abd so gave up 100 penalty points.....and a top score.......to their E/W opponents!! Now interestingly the "Expert Analysis" confirms that a Slam is not obtainable on this Board; but it also suggests that a good defence would limit any North/South contract in Spades to a maximum of 8 tricks. A lead of the Queen of Diamonds (if the contract is from North) neutralises the King in South since West has the Ace, and a lead of any Heart by West (if the contract is from South) is immediately trumped by East and they quickly make 5 tricks!! Isn't it interesting how easy it is when the cards are all openly visible for us all to see!!??

Finally Board 9 gave some success to the "Bounty Hunters" at Oxshott!! Here East had a balanced hand with 13 HCPs with four cards in both Clubs and Spades; they would open 1NT. South had no less than 8 Diamonds to the J10 with a void in Hearts, but they had only 3 HCPs so it would be a brave player who bid from this hand!!?? West had an outstanding hand with 17 HCPs, seven Hearts to the AKQJ, four Clubs to the Ace and singletons in Spades and Diamonds. Clearly there was a big contract in prospect here!! Well five East/West Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; all five made the full set of 13 tricks for 710 points!! But the remaining two East/West Pairs braved a Slam bid!! Congratulations must go to Gail Norman & Therezinha Gold who bid Slam in 6 Hearts; they made all 13 tricks for an excellent 1460 points!! But special congratulations must go to James & Enid Pickering who were courageous to bid up to 6 No Trumps; they again made all 13 tricks to achieve a top score of 1470 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" confirms that both East and West can make a GRAND SLAM in either 7 Hearts or 7 No Trumps; indeed East could also make a GRAND SLAM in 7 Clubs!! So there you are!! Whatever, one has to say "Well done!!"to our two Slam Achievers of the evening!!

Golfers' WAGs have come to the fore and are stealing the show ahead of the Ryder Cup. Team Europe’s other halves, including the wives of Ian Poulter, Sam Torrance and Justin Rose, were having a ball as they arrived at the famous course in Perthshire. But the American girls were not to be outdone as they arrived at the Gleneagles Hotel in matching outfits (pictured above). Many of the US wives are former cheerleaders, including Phil Mickelson's wife Amy, 40, a former cheerleader with the Phoenix Suns.

The clash, between Europe and the US, starts on Friday and 45,000 spectators are expected every day with an estimated 500m viewers in 183 countries watching on TV. Every two years, Europe's top golfers take on the USA's in a matchplay battle. The Americans used to dominate, but Europe have won five of the last six events - including Colin Montgomerie making up for never claiming a Major with victory as non-playing captain in 2010.The Euro WAGs were captured on camera at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire below. They are led by Allison McGinley, wife of Paul, the European captain, who played golf for England herself and on the Ladies European Tour.

Last-minute preparations have been underway across Gleneagles. Every road and pathway has been busy with golf carts, mobile cranes and trucks. Fairways are being groomed and regroomed, with some of the tractor-drawn mowers flying two flags — one the United States’ stars and stripes, the other the blue flag of Ryder Cup Europe.

The marquees, too, have a nonpartisan air, with one inscription, 30 feet high, quoting Tom Watson, the 65-year-old captain of the American team, on his delight at serving as a Ryder Cup captain for a second time, after his victory as captain in 1993. Watson’s five victories in the British Open — four of them on Scottish courses, although none at Gleneagles — have made him a hugely popular figure among visitors, both European and American, as he tries to end a run in which the United States has been defeated in five of the last six Ryder Cups.

Although local bookmakers have made Europe the favourite, the sense among many visiting the course in recent days has been that an American victory to redeem the team’s loss at the last Cup, in 2012 — when Europe won an astonishing eight of the 12 last-day singles matches at Medinah, outside Chicago, to retain the trophy by a single point, 14 ½ to 13 ½ — would be almost as much of a crowd-pleaser. Lapel buttons with Watson’s image have been even more popular than booster buttons for Rory McIlroy, a 25-year-old from Northern Ireland who will lead the European players.

Interest in the Competition is reaching fever-pitch. Ryder Cup tickets were being offered for resale for more than £1,000 on the leading online exchanges on Tuesday night in defiance of warnings that anyone buying them faced being refused entry. Second-hand tickets listed as “general admission” were on the Viagogo and Stubhub websites three days before golf’s biggest team event tees off at Gleneagles. Stubhub were involved in the unauthorised resale of tickets despite posting a disclaimer on its site admitting customers were not permitted to purchase them. The Competition starts on Friday and the 12 Single matches which form the climax are on Sunday. Here is a picture of the crowds at the first practice sessions in Gleneagles on Tuesday.

There was something unusual at the Oxshott Bridge Club last night as the Committee had organised a "Random Pairing" Teams Competition as a fun event to complete the 2013-14 Club Year. Each Pair drew a card from the Card Lottery as usual, but the partners who sat down at the same Table as you turned out to be your team Members for the evening!! In the end it was indeed a lot of fun and a useful innovation to try. It was really unfortunate that the number of tables totalled eleven which meant that the most complicatred Movement had to be employed and - at three Boards per Table -  the total number of Boards exceeded the 32 available in our set!!?? Well everything was resolved by Director Rowena Austin and Automated Scoring Guru Peter Wardle, and we found our way to complete 24 Boards each before the end of the evening. 

There were seven Surrey Bridgs Clubs that played the Wednesday competition of the Dorin Salver last Wednesday, 17th September. A total of 149 Pairs competed coming from Horley, Old Woking, Oxshott, Richmond, Roehampton, Tudor and Yateley & Hawley. The runaway Winners were Trevor & Barbara Hobson from Yateley & Hawley who scored an impressive 69.86% to capture 2650 District Master Points. Gerald Searle & Niki Thompson from Tudor came Second with 68.86%, and they just pipped Andy Margetts & Brian Barrow by 0.01 0f one Match Point into Third place. The First placed Members from the Oxshott Bridge club were Jonathan Spring & John French who were placed 10th with a score of 59.43%. 

The table above shows where each Oxshott Pairing came in the Overall Surrey Rankings, and these positions are compared against the Local Oxshott Scoring. Those Pairs who played North/South are highlighted in Yellow while those who played East/West are highlighted in Blue; of course there were one or two "Arrow-switches" in the final Rounds to equate the scores between the two sides. Finally the last column shows where the Surrey scoring exceeds the local Oxshott scoring - highlighted in Green - and where the Surrey scoring is less than the local Oxshott scoring - highlighted in Red.

Campaigners fighting plans to turn Cherkley Court into a luxury hotel and golf course have announced that they will appeal the latest court decision “without delay”. A panel of three judges from the Court of Appeal unanimously decided on 11^th May to overturn the judgement of the High Court, which quashed the original permission given by Mole Valley District Council in 2012. Campaigners must now persuade the Supreme Court -  the final court of appeal in the UK – to hear their case as it only hears those “of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population”.

Cherkley Campaign member Kristina Kenworthy admitted the group was "extremely disappointed" by the decision. She said: "Mr Justice Haddon-Cave in the High Court last year said in the strongest terms that the Council had acted illegally in the way it had reached its decision. It went against the firm recommendations of its Officers.” Ms Kenworthy added: “The group was launched as we were fearful that if the planning system could not protect the Cherkley Estate then no countryside in England would be safe from developers. In our view it is right and proper for the Courts to continue to intervene in environmental cases such as ours and accordingly we shall be appealing to the Supreme Court without delay.” Fellow objectors to Longshot’s plans include the National Trust, Friends of Box Hill and the Campaign to Protect Rural England. Among their objections is that Surrey does not need another golf course, as it already has 141, and that the development would cause irreparable damage to the North Downs green belt landscape. Some of the members of the Cherkley Campaign and CPRE were pictured below outside the Court of Appeal.

The £1 coin is to be replaced by a new model based on the old threepenny bit, George Osborne announced in the Budget. The Chancellor said that the current coin, which has been in circulation for 30 years, is no longer suitable for use because it has become vulnerable to sophisticated counterfeiters. The new 12-sided coin will be as secure as modern banknotes and will save taxpayers’ money by cutting down on millions of pounds worth of fraud. “After 30 years loyal service, the time is right to retire the current £1 coin, and replace it with the most secure coin in the world,” the Chancellor told MPs. The Royal Mint estimates that about 45m £1 coins in circulation are now forgeries. The Government expects the new coin to be introduced in 2017. As with all British coins, the Queen’s effigy will be on the “heads side”. However, there will now be a public competition to decide the design for the “tails” side of the coin.

The Treasury said: “With advances in technology making high value coins like the £1 ever more vulnerable to counterfeiters, it’s vital that we keep several paces ahead of the criminals to maintain the integrity of our currency. We are particularly pleased that the coin will take a giant leap into the future, using cutting edge British technology while at the same time paying a fitting tribute to past in the 12-sided design of the iconic threepenny bit." A source said that the new coin, which will be roughly the same size as the current £1, will still fit in supermarket trolleys, parking meters and vending machines. The threepenny bit was in circulation from 1937 until decimalisation in 1971. It replaced the old silver threepence, known as a "Joey". It was particularly popular during the Second World War, when its distinctive size and shape made it the easiest coin to recognise during blackouts. By the time of decimalisation 1.2bn of the coins had been issued for circulation.

There were none of the male Members who were brave enough to turn up with one of their 15 wives to play at the Oxshott Bridge Club last night but - with Table Money remaining at £2 per head - it had to be a bargain whether in old money or new coins!! We had 12 full Tables competing in Round 5 of the Tilling Trophy. This is the Competition to determine the top Pair at the Oxshott Bridge Club. Played over seven Rounds on the Third Wednesday of each month, the prize goes to the Pair that achieves the lowest score from their positions in the best FOUR Rounds that they play. The Final Round will be held on Wednesday, 21st May, 2014.

The star performers in Round 5 were Stephanie Postlethwaite & Pam Oliveira who achieved an outstanding score of 65.15% to capture First place and the maximum 48 Master Points. Well done indeed!! They were 14 Match points ahead of Philip Duncan & Edwin Jones who scored 62.50% in Second place. There was then quite a gap before Margaret  Lawson & Rosie Branch, who came Third with 58.52%; they were only 2 Match points ahead of Jonathan Spring & John French who scored 58.14% in Fourth place. They in turn were just 6 Match points ahead of Peter & Bernice Rowley who came Fifth with 57.01%, with David Rotherham & Sue Osborne only a further 5 Match points back in Sixth place with 56.06%. Judy Hickman & Kay O'Gorman were placed Seventh place with 54.36% and Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money were Eighth with 53.41%. Well done to all our Master Points Winners!!

It was South who received the good cards, playing the contract on 11 Boards; East played the hands on 5 Boards; and that left North and West to play only 4 Boards each. Just over half of the 24 Boards were "game-going" contracts - there were 13 Boards that offered game contracts while another 11 Boards gave non-game contracts.

There were six Boards that seemed to offer some kind of Slam Opportunity. On Board 9 North had 14 High Card Points with 6 Clubs, a void and 2 Aces; they opened 1 Club. East had 7 Diamonds and an outside Ace, so they jumped to 3 Diamonds!! South had 4 Clubs in support and good Diamonds; they bid 4 Clubs. West has 10 HCPs with 4 good cards to the King, Queen in both majors!! With all this strength, a big contract looked to be in prospect. Well one N/S Pair bid 3 Clubs; they made 9 tricks for 110 points. Two E/W Pairs bid 3 Diamonds; they were both doubled; they both made exactly 9 tricks to share a top score of 670 points!! One N/S Pair bid 4 Clubs; they made 11 tricks for 150 points. Two E/W Pairs bid 4 Diamonds; they made only 9 tricks and so both gave up 100 penalty points. Three N/S Pairs bid game in 5 Clubs; one made 11 tricks for 400 points; a second made only 9 tricks and so lost 100 penalty points. The third was doubled; they successfully made 11 tricks for a superb top score of 550 points. That left the single intrepid Pair who attempted a Slam in 6 Clubs; they made only 11 tricks and so gave up 50 penalty points!!

Then on Board 10, South had 8 Hearts and 3 Aces, while North had King, 8 in Hearts and the missing fourth Ace!! Opportunity knocked, you might think?? Well 9 North/South Pairs settled for game in 4 Hearts; 7 made 12 tricks for 680 points, while two made all 13 tricks for 710 points. That left the 3 Pairs who bid Slam in 6 Hearts. Sadly one Pair made only 11 tricks and so gave up 100 penalty points - and a top score - to E/W!! But congratulations must go to Jean Knott & Pat Hammond who bid Slam in 6 Hearts; they made 1430 points; and special congratulations should go to Stephanie Postlethwaite & Pam Oliveira. They also bid Slam in 6 Hearts; and they collected all 13 tricks for 1460 points!!

Board 13 gave North great Spades and 16 HCPs, while South had great Hearts and another 16 HCPs!! Opportunity knocked, but the big difficulty was where were the two missing Kings??!! Well 3 North/South Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; one made 10 tricks for 620 points; one made 11 tricks for 650 points; and the third made 12 tricks for 680 points. Another Pair bid game in 4 Spades; they made only 8 tricks and so gave up 200 penalty points!! One Pair bid game in 3 No Trumps; they made 12 tricks for 690 points. Then one Pair took a look but stopped in 5 No Trumps; they too made 12 tricks for 690 points. That left the six North/South Pairs who bid Slam!! Two bid Slam in 6 Hearts; one made 10 tricks to lose 200 points, while the other made 11 tricks to lose 100 points!! A third Pair bid Slam in 6 Spades; they made only 9 tricks and so lost 300 points!! Then three Pairs bid Slam in 6 No Trumps; 2 made 11 tricks to lose 100 points; but one made only 7 tricks to lose 500 penalty points!! The "Expert Analysis" suggests that 6 No Trumps is makeable, but only from the South hand and depends on finessing a Spade in North!!?? You can study this hand by going to the Traveller for Board 13.

On Board 15 West had 6 Diamonds to the Queen with a singleton outside Ace and 9 HCPs, while East had a good balanced hand with 16 HCPs. Well, one N/S Pair bid 1NT; they made only 5 tricks and lost 200 points. Three East/West Pairs bid 2 Diamonds; all three made 12 tricks for 170 points. Another E/W Pair bid 2 Hearts; they made 10 tricks for 170 points. Three more E/W Pairs bid 3 Diamonds; one made 9 tricks for 110 points; another made 11 tricks for 150 points; and the third made 12 tricks for 170 points. That left the four E/W Pairs who bid game in 3 No Trumps; three made 9 tricks for 400 points, while one made 11 tricks for 460 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that a Slam contract in 6 Diamonds was possible from either East or West..........but sadly no one was brave enough to bid this contract last night!!

Board 23 gave South 7 Hearts to the King, Jack and a void in Spades; meanwhile North had 16 HCPs with Ace, 2 in Hearts!! Well 8 North/South Pairs bid game in 4 Hearts; two made 10 tricks for 620 points while 6 made 11 tricks for 650 points. One canny N/S Pair bid 3 No Trumps; they made 12 tricks for 690 points!! Two more N/S Pairs bid up to 5 Hearts; they both made only 10 tricks and so lost 100 penalty points!! But one intrepid Pair attempted a Slam bid in 6 Hearts; sadly they made only 10 tricks to lose 200 points!! Now interestingly the "Expert Analysis" suggests that a Slam bid in 6 Hearts by either North or South would be successful!!?? The secret appears to lie in a clever finesse in Hearts from south through West!!

Finally there is Board 5 which is presented at the top of this Report. Now have a look at these hands and assess what would be the maximum contract that YOU could make from thes hands??!! North has 5 good cards in both Spades and Diamonds, while South has 5 cards in Hearts, and 4 in both Diamonds and Clubs, with a void in Spades. Well last night, one N/S Pair bid 2 No Trumps; they made 10 tricks for 180 points. Six more N/S Pairs bid game in 3 No Trumps; three made 9 tricks for 600 points; one made 10 tricks for 630 points; and two made 11 tricks for 660 points. Four more N/S pairs bid game in 5 Diamonds; two made 12 tricks for 620 points, while two made 13 tricks for 640 points!! Now the "Expert Analysis" suggests that a GRAND SLAM can be made from either North or South for a satisfying "optimum" score of 2140 points!! Have another look at how you might actually bid and make such a whopping contract!!?? Meanwhile many congrastulations to the Pairs who actually were our Slam Achievers last night!!

Ailsa Craig is a wee North Atlantic isle off Scotland that looks like a big curling stone. If you don't know what those are, you probably haven't been watching the sport of curling at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. It's played with brooms and a shiny stone that's made exclusively from rare granite mined on Ailsa Craig. "It's the Olympics' most relatable and honest of endeavors, an odd mixture of shuffleboard and chess featuring unassuming athletes seemingly lifted from your next-door neighbor's porch," says columnist Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times. Guide Mark McCrindle of Girvan, Scotland, takes visitors to Ailsa Craig on his small boat. He says some come to climb to the top of the volcanic isle while others want to see where curling stones come from. "It's the toughest granite in the world, and ideal for curling," McCrindle says. Others come to see vast numbers of seabirds like gannets and puffins.

Well a major operation is under way to take 1,500 tons of granite from Ailsa Craig — to meet the demand for new curling stones. And Scottish women’s curling success at the World Championships and the success of the GB Men’s and Women’s teams at the Olympics have given a boost to the six-week enterprise. For it is envisaged the game will gain new popularity in the wake of the silver and bronze medal triumphs. And Ayrshire firm Kays of Scotland are ready to produce new stones to meet the anticipated demand. Mauchline-based Kays have exclusive rights for the unique Ailsa Craig granite, and the firm has ferried heavy lifting machinery from Girvan harbour on to the rock. A company spokesman said: “Weather held us back, but we finally got the machinery on to the island, and we’re now ferrying granite twice or three times each day.”

Kays stress that the operation, originally planned for a year ago, has been planned in co-operation with the conservation watchdogs at Scottish Natural Heritage. And it is understood that no blasting or quarrying is taking place - large granite boulders being simply collected from former quarries. Most of the larger 'Common Ailsa' boulders will come from the south end of the island, while the rarer 'Blue Hone' will be collected from the north. Ailsa Craig's large gannet colony - boasting more than 20,000 pairs - is located on the west of the island, and should be unaffected by work which is now at the halfway stage. Kays are a small business employing around seven people at a factory in Mauchline's Barskimming Road; and they admit that the Scottish women's curling successes have boosted interest in their products. For, as well as making regulation curling stones, the firm also makes a range of giftware, including miniature curling stones particularly popular with foreign visitors.

Kays say the range will be promoted in a number of retail outlets including the Sweetie Shop in Girvan, the Turnberry Golf Pro shop, the Tam o'Shanter Experience in Alloway, and the Scottish Craft Centre in Buchanan Street , Glasgow. Kays last took major shipments of granite from Ailsa Craig in 1989, although they have regularly collected smaller quantities as the need arose. The 245-acre rock amd its little castle were recently on the market at an asking price of £2.5 million. The Guardian newspaper calls it the "granite jewel of the Firth of Clyde". The paper reported in December that it may be taken over by a conservation trust and that the asking price had been reduced to $2.4 million!! 

 So there were 11 Teams of Four playing in the Teams Championship last night at the Oxshott Village Hall with the special incentive that the Winners would represent the Oxshott Bridge Club in the Wanborough Cup in Wimbledon later in the Spring. The Competition was fierce as always, with the Winners being decided on the basis of one single IMP point!! Here are the final Standings:-   

Many congratulations must go to David Rotherham & Sue Osborne and Marjorie Neal & Ursula Oscroft who capped a spectacular evening by capturing First place with a massive score of +45 IMPs; they were just one IMP ahead of Mike Mulligan & Elisa Money and Jonathan Spring & John French  who came Second with an excellent score of +44 IMPs. Third place went to Eddie Jones & Bob Melbourne and Jean Knott & Therezinha Gold with +19 IMPs and Fourth place went to Susan & Mike Sadler  and Philip Duncan & Richard Burgess who scored +14 IMPs.

The crucial hand came on Board 26 in the head-to-head clash between our first two placed Teams. Our "fly-on-the-wall" Reporter has provided a graphic account of the play, although its total veracity cannot be fully vouched for??!! Well apparently North opened with a whopping 22 high card points with a Benji 2 Diamonds. Partner South had ZERO HCPs and so replied in the negative with 2 Hearts. Now unfortuately North had forgotten the convention and took the Hearts bid to be real; she responded with a brave game bid of 3 No Trumps!! Well East also assumed that the 2 Hearts was a real bid and so led another suit. North cashed in her 9 tricks and banked her game points and a top score before anyone changed thier minds!!?? As they say, you have got to be lucky to be good!! How many times have we all recsived a slice of luck to pull off a famous victory. Well done to our Winners of the Team Championship and to all who competed!!

Sue Osborne has emailed your Editor with a nicely titled email: "The Infamous Board 26 - to put the record straight...." She says:-

   "I've just read Mike Sadler's match report above and felt impelled to set the record straight a bit:

As North, and having 22 points, I opened 2C (not 2D, as above). South (David) responded 2H.  North took a deep breath and optimistically went to 3NT.  West asked David the strength of my bid, which he correctly gave as strong 21-22, and West then asked me the meaning of David's 2H response, which I clearly gave as having less than 5 points. This does mean that neither David nor I misled East or West - North was simply guilty of outrageous optimism and great good luck!!

I rest my case.

PS: Lucky, yes, but I've never claimed to be good!

With best regards from North, aka Sue Osborne"

As always, Sue enjoys her Bridge and enters into the spirit of the Competition. Thanks very much to Sue for providing clarity to the situation on Board 26..........and well done for being part of the Winning Team!! 

The Team Scoring Cross-Chart is presented for those who would like to agonise through where it all went wrong. Good luck in your search??:-