Abingdon Bridge Club is holding a Cafe Bridge event on Thursday 29 September, in Abingdon. Cost is £60 per pair, to include lunch and tea/coffee. All profits will be donated to the charitable organisation Myeloma UK. 

For further details, please click on this box. 

Our Blue Pointed Swiss Pairs event, held jointly with OBC, went very well. We had 14 tables and raised somewhere around £450 for our chosen charity, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Claire MacDonagh laid on a magnificent tea, including a variety of delicious cakes kindly donated by members, and everyone seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the day.

The overall winners were David Patterson and Andrea Smith. Carol Benzie and Aleks Lishkov were second, Carol Wadsworth and Irene Holland won the Ascenders prize and Rosemary Dorey and Ursula Bowler won the Non-expert prize.

The raffle produced £240, so many thanks to all those members who generously donated some excellent prizes, as well as to everyone who supported the event by playing and buying raffle tickets. Besides Claire and the cake bakers, special thanks also to Rob Dixon, who directed the event free of charge, aided by John Rowe; Steph Bliss for managing the entries and fees; Cliff Pavelin who, together with Herman de Louw from OBC, dealt all the boards; and the host pair Joanna Donkin and Hazel Hobbs.

Overall winners David Patterson and Andrea Smith

Rosemary Dorey and Ursula Bowler won the non-expert prize

Please click here to view photos from Holly's annual party for Wessex League players plus Junior Bridge volunteers. After a very cold and dull day the sun came out just before everyone arrived. 

The Wessex League season has now finished.

Congratulations to our A team who has finished a very respectable 4^th out of 8 teams in Division 2; our B Team has finished 7^th out of 8 in Division 3 and regrettably, will be demoted, and our C Team did very well indeed to finish 5^th out of 8 teams, in  Division 5.

Match reports and links to the league tables are available on the Wessex League page (see left-hand menu for a link). 

Holly took two teams of juniors to the Loughborough EBU Junior event yesterday and her team from the Dragon School came fourth out of 24 teams.  Some of them also go to the Sunday afternoon club. All but 4 of the teams were sixth formers from prestigious public and grammar schools. All of us involved with Junior Bridge are completely over the moon!  The second team came 12^th and it contains an eight year old and a 10 year old, Jacob and Zane. 

We are sorry to report the sad news that Hilde McIlvenna passed away on 1 February after a short illness. Our condolences go to her family. 

Hilde played regularly at Summertown, and was always good humoured and a pleasure to play against.  We will all remember her for her great determination to continue playing bridge into her 90s. 

Funeral details are: 

Monday 15th February at 1pm, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Headington (junction of Margaret Road and Wharton Road), followed by 2.30pm Burial, Forest Hill Village Cemetery (opposite St Nicholas Parish Church, Church Hill) and 3.30pm Reception: Talk House Pub, Stanton St John.

Club members are welcome at any or all of these three events.

Click on this box to read Peter Sherry's obituary. 

We are delighted to report that Oxford Junior Bridge Club pupil, Henry Rose, has been selected to play for England in the Under 15’s World Championships in Italy this year.  This is the most brilliant achievement, especially as he is still only 11 years old. 

Henry started bridge at the Dragon School Bridge Club when he was 8 years old and took to it like the proverbial duck to water.  He was the first pupil at the OJBC. In fact, for a whole week, he was the ONLY pupil.  He has worked really hard at the game and truly deserves this recognition.

Oxfordshire Bridge Association is no longer holding club-based heats for the County Pairs. In their place it is holding two simultaneous qualifying events on 7 February 2016 at Oxford and Wallingford Bridge Clubs. The top 20 pairs will qualify to play in the final on 24 April 2016. For further details please click on this box. UPDATE: This event will be taking place at Oxford Bridge Club only. 

We are very grateful to Richardsons Chartered Accountants of Thame, who have just given us enough packs of free bar-coded cards to change all our sets next time we need new cards. Special thanks are due to Simon Husband, a long-standing Oxfordshire bridge player and one of their Directors, for his role in this.

Richardsons specialise in services for small and medium-sized businesses and can also advise individuals on financial issues. Please see their website for further details.