Congratulations to Lawrence Haynes and Keith Shuttleworth on winning the Staffordshire and Shropshire County Championship Pairs, which took place on Sunday 24 April and replaced the Bearn Final.  They beat a strong field by over 20MPs and, with an overall score of 61%, qualified for this year's Corwen Trophy, although unfortunately they are unavailable for that event.  Well done Lawrence and Keith.

In the Shropshire Congress, which was held over the weekend 16/17 April 2016, Mike Amos, playing with Peter Foster, went into the final round dead level with the eventual winners, but lost the match, and the competition, by only 2 VPs, to finish in joint second place overall.  Congratulations to Mike on a fine performance.

Team Shuttleworth (Keith Shuttleworth, Monica Scott, Ian Storm and David Small) completed a grand slam of victories in the Shropshire Teams of Four.  They topped the final league table with a magnificent 81 out of 100 VPs for the season as a whole.

Congratulations to Brian Nicholls and Keith Shuttleworth for a fine performance in topping the Shrewsbury Swiss Pairs on Saturday 5 March 2016 - a convincing win in a field of 18 pairs.  Pam Cooper and Yvonne Mancey, who had not played together before, came a creditable 4th, having tied with Brian and Keith in the second round.

At the Chester Congress on Saturday 30 January, Keith Shuttleworth and Seb Jones won the Championship Pairs event with a score of 63.5%, which was a full 27 Match Points ahead of the second placed pair in a very competitive event.  This followed a first place in the qualifying stage, with another score of around 63.5%.  Congratulations to Keith and Seb for this magnificent performance.

At the Midland Counties Congress in Solihull on 9 January Lawrence Haynes, and his partner Marcus Eassom, came third overall in the Swiss Pairs - out of 96 strong pairs.  They also won the Cooke Porter Cup – Stratification B.   Congratulations to Lawrence and Marcus for a fine performance.

We are sorry to report a number of recent deaths:

Roger Leland, a former member and stalwart of the club, died on 26 January 2016, having been ill for some time.  

Roger Bowles died following a fall at home on 27 December 2015.  Roger will be a huge loss to bridge generally - being a Grand Master and one of the top 100 players in the country according to the latest National Grading System.  While highly competitive, with a tremendous capacity for thinking through the deepest of bridge puzzles, he was always a gentleman at, and away from, the bridge table.  Mike Amos wrote "I think Roger was the nicest man I’ve ever played bridge with (and that over more than fifty years).   One common feature of bridge players is that they think they are much better than they really are.  Roger was truly modest.  He didn’t bully weaker players, but was generous in his time and pleased to help those who asked him for advice.  He was a great team-mate.  I’ve missed playing with him since his move back to Worcestershire and am deeply saddened that I will not see him again to talk of hands, squeezes and advanced plays."

Our former president Geoff Roberts passed away on 22 December 2015. Geoff was a loyal member of Shrewsbury Contract Bridge Club for around 40 years and a strong supporter of the club throughout that period.    

Condolences to the families and friends of all concerned.

Shrewsbury Contract Bridge Club Committee

Members and Responsibilities:

Keith Shuttleworth:  Chairman;  TD Rota;   Club Captain

Judy Mitchell Secretary:  Chief Scorer.

Tony Leech:  Treasurer 

Helen Lees:  Membership Secretary

Dominic Wilson

Mike McCartney