The final round of the 2012/13 Shelley Competition was played on April 11th.

The actual result on the night was: Team  Davies +50, Alderson +35, Elphick +32, Drinkwater +28, Laughlin +23, Sleightholme +2, Goggin +1, Metcalf -4, Whiteman -35, Eaves -47, Ullmer -85.

After applying the handicap and accumulating the results over the six rounds the results were:  Laughlin +142, Goggin +100, Sleightholme +72, Davies +53, Whiteman +26, Alderson -7, Metcalf -11, Drinkwater -12, Ullmer -44, Eaves -128, Elphick -191

Many congratulations, Linda, Paul, Glyn and Derrick

Following the Stafford heat of the Bearn, on February 28th, the following pairs have qualified for the final:

• Michael Seavers & Pat Andrews
• John Eaves & Derek Skinner
• Bill Chester & Alan Westwood
• Paul & Linda Laughlin
• Dave Rowley & Peter Collier
• Ann & John Whiteman

We wish them well in the final to be played at Stafford.

Many congratulations to Michael and his team.

Ladies' and Men's Pairs - Thursday 22nd November

No new names on the trophy boards this year! Margaret Dash and Janet Drinkwater, who won a few years back, were well ahead of the rest of the field in the Ladies' Pairs . Pat and Ann were second with Sylvia and Helen third. Geoff and Robin retained their title in the Men's Pairs with a slightly reduced lead as compared to last year. Second place was very keenly contested with Glyn and Derrick (2010 winners) on 55.56% and Dave and Peter on 55.09%. Congratulations all. Board 24 was interesting - Ed, sitting North, scored a bottom on this one, EW bid and made 6H!

Children in Need  - Tuesday November 13th 2012

Many thanks to all who supported this event and to Wednesday and Thursday players and A.N. Other who brought the total to match last year's £196 to send to the charity.  Our best placed pair came 64th out of 2063 pairs playing in 117 clubs over 4 Countries when last checked with ECATS.

Arthur Bloxham Trophy - November 7th The winners of this competition, restricted to regular Wednesday afternoon players, were Pat and Agnes.  Many congratulations to you both.  Pat and Agnes are very frequent Monday and Wednesday afternoon players, they hardly ever miss a session.   A very well desrved win and two new names for the trophy board.  2nd were Margaret and Joan with Liz and Beth 3rd.  Sadly Z was not able to play and Pauline's "stand-in" partner had not attended the qualifying 20 times on a Wednesday.

Shelley Round 2 - November 8th

Club Pairs - 25th October

The winners were Dave Rowley & Peter Collier with Geoff Davies & Robin Adey a  close second followed by Clare Lord & Ann Sleightholme who were third.  Congratulations to you all.

Shelley Round 1 - October 18th

The competition got off to a good start on October 18th with a record 11 teams thanks to Mike's organisation beforehand and David's directing on the night. The movement was quite complicated to accommodate some 2 and some 3 board contests! Provisional positions after the first round including handicapping are: Team 4, Goggin (+35), Team 6, Davies (+31), Team 8, Sleightholme (+24), Team 7, Laughlin (+21), Team 1, Drinkwater (+7), Team 9, Alderson (-1), Team 10, Ullmer (-3), Team 2, Whiteman (-17), Team 11, Metcalf (-20), Team 5, Eaves (-31) and Team 3, Elphick (-46). Next round Thursday November 8th.

The dates for the Shelley are the 3rd Thursday in October and February, none in December and the second Thursday in November, January, March and April - 6 Rounds. That is 18th October, 8th November, 10th January, February 21st, March 14th and April 11th.  This year there are 11 teams requiring each team to play 30 boards so an early start will be necessary.  The teams are (in no particular order!):

Bryan Baker

A most enjoyable afternoon took place at the club on Sunday 22nd July in the sun!!!! There was no problem at the gate, we were expected and able to park just outside the club in our usual spot. Olive had organised a wonderful spread for the players' afternoon tea. The final results were:
1st Pam Allen and Rachael 64.67%
2nd Sylvia Hilton & Michael Metcalf 56.94%
3rd Ann Stevenson & Paul 54.06%
Congratulations to you all.

Summer Cup - Results after Round 2

Please note that final round of this competition is now to be held on Thursday 6th September because of possible access problems at the end of August due to the Scope festival.

The Dash

The Dash is played over seven months on the third Thursday of the month with the same partner. The best five scores over the period are used to decide the winners. Thursday 19th April was the final round and the results are:

1. Glyn Pugh & Derrick Balsom
2. Shirley Elphick & Deirdre Newsome
3. John Eaves & Derek Skinner

The Individual Trophy

The Individual Trophy, played on Wednesday 18th April, has been won by Mike Sherriff by a length from Robin Adey.  Behind Robin by just a short head was Michael Metcalf who in turn was only just ahead of John Whiteman.  Congratulations to you all.

Shelley Final Results

After 7 rounds and the handicaps taken into consideration the winning team was Team Sleightholme, second Team Metcalf and third Team Alderson.  Full results will be found on - Recent Competitions.  Thanks are due to David for keeping a cool head when last minute changes threatened the planned movement and to Mike for doing the scoring, often having to play detective with conflicting results and incomplete cards to work from!

The Mixed Pairs competition was played on March 22nd with the scores all being fairly closely grouped, in the range 50% plus or minus 6.7%.  The winners were Margaret Dash and David Alderson with Pam Alan and Derrick Balsom second.  Three pairs tied for third place!

The winners were Margaret Dash & David Alderson with runners up Linda & Paul Laughlin tying in second place with David and Janet Drinkwater.  Congratulations to you all.

Would board 2 be a good one for the Forum?  Most NS pairs made 6 Spades and only bid 2!  If EW had led hearts it would have been held to 5, nevertheless everyone missed game.  Board 10 had 5 EW, out of the 8, making 3H but one pair bid 4, were doubled and made 2 overtricks!

The results of the Teams of 4 competition on January 26th were 1st: Team Laughlin (by a country mile!), 2nd: Team Drinkwater, 3rd: Team Davies, 4th: Team Ulmer, 5th: Team Seavers, 6th: Team Alderson, 7th: Team Eaves and 8th: Team Sleightholme.  Many congratulations Paul, Linda, Derrick & Glyn.

As ever David rose to the occasion having to rearrange the movement from the simple 9 team to an awkward 8 team at the last minute and spent the hours before repreparing the movement cards. 

Eight pairs entered each of the Ladies' and Men's pairs events on Thursday, November 24th. 

The winning ladies were Pat Andrews and Pam Ewan with runners up Shirley Elphick and  Deirdre Newsome just ahead of Sylvia Ulmer and Ann Stevenson.

The winning men were Robin Adey and Geoff Davies with Ivor Clarke and Mike Sherriff  tying with David Alderson and Alan Ashmore in second place.

Congratulations to you all.

Apologies for the delay - the webmaster was out when they came through!

Team No.1:      David Alderson, Peter Collier, Beryl & Michael Metcalf
Team No.2:      David & Janet Drinkwater, John & Ann Whiteman
Team No.3:      Ivor Clarke, Pat Andrews, Ann Sleightholme, Pauline Goggin  
Team No.4:      John Eaves, Derek Skinner, Joan Bradshaw, Maureen Allard
Team No.5:      Mike Sherriff, Pam Ewan, Sylvia Ullmer, Ann Stevenson
Team No.6:      Paul & Linda Laughlin, Deirdre Newsome, Shirley Elphick
Team No.7:      Rachel Ashmore, Pam Allen, Derrick Balsom, Glyn Pugh
 
There will be 6x4 board matches played on June10,  July8,  July29 & August12 - scratch competition.

Captains to sort out subs if required otherwise refer to Mike.    

17 pairs took part in the competition for the Arthur Bloxham Trophy on Wednesday November 2nd.  Previously known as the restricted pairs competition this event is open only to regular club Wednesday afternoon players.  A Mitchell movement with the last round "arrow switched" was used.

The winners were Anthony Moore and Malcolm Roberts.  Many congratulations to you both.

The final round was played on Thursday 11th August and it was a very tight finish with just 8 competition points separating the score of the first team with that of the last.  Congratulations Ivor and team with 19 points overall coming just one point ahead of the joint second placed teams with 18 points, David and Sylvia's teams.

Team No.1 Janet & David Drinkwater, Rose Jessop, Olive Morgan, Tony Aspras
Team No.2 Glyn Pugh, Derrick Balsom, Michael & Beryl Metcalf, Joyce & Tony Brew, Michael Seavers
Team No.3 Rachael Ashmore, Pam Allen, Pauline Campbell, Pat Martin, Alan Ashmore, Michael Seavers
Team No.4 John Eaves, Derek Skinner, Clare Lloyd, David Alderson
Team No.5 Pat Andrews, Ivor Clarke, Shirley Elphick, Deirdre Newsome, Joan Bradshaw
Team No.6 Peter Collier, Dave Rowley, Pauline Goggin, Margaret Dash, Arthur Ballham, Leila Paull, Ann Sleightholme
Team No.7 Pam Ewan, Mike Sherriff, Sylvia Ullmer, Helen Jones, Alan Ashmore 

The Summer Cup third round was played on Thursday 14th July. 

Well how close is that! Only 5 competiton points separate the first from the last so the final round, to be played on Thursday 11th August, is all important.
.
Team No.1 Janet & David Drinkwater, Olive Morgan & Tony Aspras
Team No.2 Glyn Pugh & Derrick Balsom, Michael Metcalf & Michael Seavers
Team No.3 Rachael Ashmore & Pam Allen, Pauline Campbell & Pat Martin
Team No.4 John Eaves & Derek Skinner, Clare Lloyd & David Alderson
Team No.5 Pat Andrews & Ivor Clarke, Shirley Elphick & Deirdre Newsome
Team No.6 Margaret Dash & Arthur Ballham, Leila Paull & Ann Sleightholme
Team No.7 Pam Ewan & Mike Sherriff, Sylvia Ullmer & Helen Jones

The Stone match, played on Friday 17th June at Stone, was a very friendly affair.  18 pairs took part, 9 from Stafford and 9 from Stone.  The top pair scored 18 points, 2nd 17 points etc.  The full results are on the club notice board.  Stafford scored a total of 79 points to Stone's 94.  Stafford was represented by David and Janet(16), Ivor and Pat(14), Beryl and Michael(13), Mike and Pam(11), Polly and Geoff(8), Rachael and Pam(7), Olive and Ghayur(5), Tony and Rose(4), Sylvia and Ann(1).  How good to see members from both the afternoon and evening club sessions taking part.

The Summer Cup , Round 2 - played on Thursday 9th June. The results:

Players on 9th June:

Team No.1 David & Janet Drinkwater, Tony Aspras & Olive Morgan
Team No.2 Derrick Balsom & Glyn Pugh, Joyce & Tony Brew
Team No.3 Rachael Ashmore & Pam Allen, Alan Ashmore & Michael Seavers
Team No.4 Derek Skinner & John Eaves, David Alderson & Clare Lord
Team No.5. Ivor Clarke & Pat Andrews, Shirley Elphick & Joan Bradshaw
Team No.6 Dave Rowley & Peter Collier, Pauline Goggin & Ann Stevenson
Team No.7 Mike Sherriff & Pam Ewan, Sylvia Ullmer & Helen Jones
 
Next round Thursday. 14th July

The Summer Cup started on Thursday May 12th with 7 teams taking part. The results:

Team No.1 David & Janet Drinkwater, Tony Aspras & Rose Jessop
Team No.2 Derreck Balsom, Glyn Pugh, Michael Seavers & Michael Metcalf 
Team No.3 Rachael Ashmore, Pam Allen, Pat Martin & Pauline Campbell
Team No.4 Derek Skinner, John Eaves, David Alderson & Clare Lloyd
Team No.5. Ivor Clarke, Pat Andrews, Shirley Elphick & Deirdre Newsome 
Team No.6 Dave Rowley, Peter Collier, Pauline Goggin & Ann Sleightholme
Team No.7 Mike Sherriff, Pam Ewan, Sylvia Ullmer & Ann Stevenson
 
Next round June 9th

Congratulations to you all.

The final round of The Dash Competition was played on April 21st.  Ivor and David had an excellent final round and came in well ahead of the 2nd placed pair who had been in the lead at the start of the evening.

Congratulations to Ivor & David

The Individual Trophy, played on Wednesday 20th April,  has been won by Pat Andrews with Sylvia Ullmer second just ahead of Ivor Clarke in 3rd place. Congratulations to all three.  There were 16 players competing, the perfect number of this event.  Each player played 2 boards with each of the other 15 players, 30 boards altogether.  Something of a nightmare for David doing the scoring with each player submitting a scoresheet, some more legible than others!

Congratulations to the Captain and his team, David, Janet, Pat and Alan.  This is the second competition at the club  within a month where David has captained the winning team, Janet better clear a large area for all the cups!

The winning team, by a couple of country miles, was David Drinkwater's followed by Pauline Campbell's with third, not far behind, Mike Sherriff's.  These three were the only teams, out of the eight, with positive scores for the evening!!!

Congratulations to Margaret and Arthur for winning this closely contested event, less than two and a half percentage points separated first from third place.  In second place were Pam and Mike and third were Beryl and Michael.

Congratulations to Pam Ewan and Pat Andrews on winning the Ladies' pairs event with Margaret Dash and Janet Drinkwater, the defending champions, as the runners up.  The event had been put off from the autumn and by happy coincidence 8 pairs had entered the pairs event and 8 pairs, mostly chaps, had not.  This led to a great arrangement the ladies played North/South and the gents played East/West.   The illustration does not reflect this correctly!!!