♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

We were all very sad that Chris Kinloch passed away on 7th July.  He will be sorely missed by club members at Basingstoke and the bridge community.

We would like to capture any memories that you have of times with Chris by entering the details below. 

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Annual Teams Championship ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

The club Teams Championship was played over two rounds, one in September and the second in October.  The team with the highest aggregate score across both sessions was David Lewis' team of him, Sula Turpin, Lindsay McDougall and Graham Ledger.

Congratulations to all!
 

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Miriam Cup Results Oct 2021 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

The Miriam Cup was played on 21st October in memory of Miriam Walpole who donated the cup to encourage regular Thursday beginners and improvers.  It is played on the Thursday closest to her birthday.

The winners were Stuart Baker and Alan Jones.  Congratulations!

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ Success for Basingstoke in Hampshire Pairs event! ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

A combined Men's, Ladies, Mixed and Married Pairs event took place yesterday 28th March in Virtual Romsey.

Margaret Blewett and John Fairhurst won the event with 71.58 % (top mixed pair also)

Neil and Barbara Thomas were 5th with 53.73% (top married Pair)

Dorothy Rivers and Helen Gault were 6th with 53.26% (top ladies pair)

Congratulations to all!

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ Pottage Final Results ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  

The County's annual pairs championship final (the 'Pottage') was held on Sunday 11th April (online on BBO playing 45 boards).  The club had 4 pairs playing out of the 16 who reached this stage. A very special congratulations to:

Judi Coady and Nick Browne -  joint 2nd with 55.83% (top was 56.1%).  

Charles Nixon and Sally Miller - 5th with 54.78%

John Glasscock and Sam Golding - 11th with 49.18% 

Madeline Lawson and Sula Turpin - 12th with 47.71%. 

Well done to all who took part!

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Mixed Pairs Results ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

The Mixed pairs competition took place over two Thursday evenings with 18 eligible pairs playing in both events.  It was very close at the top - Congratulations to Margaret Blewett and Malcolm Green who were just ahead of Jill Vaughan and Brian Knight in second place.  Well done to all who took part.

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

Thank you to all of you who joined the Christmas Party on 17th December; we had 15.5 tables - our highest attendance at any of our online events.  Thanks to the organisers for an enjoyable evening.  

Prizes were awarded to 3 pairs; the first to Dayl and Ethna for unpinning the whole event, the second to John F and Phil for coming top in the ranking and finally to Richard and Judy for winning the quiz with 17 out of a possible 25. (John P and Leo were 2nd with 16 , tied 3rd were George and Cathi and Abha and Danielle)  Well done to all.'  Potentially life changing prizes will be sent in the post (Lottery tickets for Christmas Day)

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣   

57 pairs took part in the memorial Sims event from Basingstoke and Petersfield clubs.  Congratulations to John Glasscock and Sam Golding who took first place with Charles Nixon and Dorothy Rivers coming in second.

The full results are on eCats and can be better accessed from a table on our club results pages.  The hands and commentary can be accessed under Results on the lefthand menu.

If anybody who was unable to play would like to make a donation to the charities, please do so via bank transfer to the club's account.  

Our annual match against Newbury (Simmons Cup for Mixed pairs) took place recently. This year we were successful in reclaiming the trophy after it had been in Newbury's possession for the last 2 years! 

Well done to our team of Chris & Helen Kinloch, Manny & Fil Navarro, Tracey Adams & Steve Tearle, Mary and Andrew Ferguson,  Sandra Ruffell and Keith Bennett,

Viv Morris & George Collins and Ann Goss & Keith Williams and Jane Rutherford and John Fairhurst.

Special thanks to Newbury for again playing the match in such a friendly manner, an enjoyable day for all!

This year we again held  our party at the Chute Pavilion so we could all mix up together.It was good company, food, drinks and prizes.

Were these the smartest men in town?

 .

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Results of the Intermediate Pairs Competition 2021 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

There were 13 eligible pairs who played in both rounds of the competition.  There was a clear winner - doing exceptionally well on both evenings.  Congratulations to Richard and Judy Bungey!
 

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ Annual Club Pairs Results 2021 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣

Results of the Annual Club Pairs held over 2 sessions are below.

Congratulations to Judi Coady and Nicholas Browne!

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣   Charity Challenge Sims Results  ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

On Thursday 18^th March, the club ran a heat of the Charity Challenge Sims event hosted by eCats.  This year the nominated charities are Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie.  We had 15 tables – a very good turnout.  The Basingstoke pair coming highest in the overall online eCats ranking wins the Whitbread Trophy.  Overall, 418 pairs took part.  The positions of the top 5 Basingstoke pairs are shown below.  Congratulations to the winners Tracey and Sandra.

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Club Weekend Away - October 2021 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

I am glad to say that the club weekend away in Bournemouth appeared to be a great success. A measure of this was the noise in the bridge room and the many smiling faces. How good it felt to be back in the real world. Wall to wall duplicate, relaxed, teams and a session of military bridge run by Jean, was interspersed with a quiz by ringmaster Robbie.

We were very well looked after by the Connaught Hotel with marvellous food. Many thanks go to Ann Welch and Anne Todd for putting the weekend together but mainly to all those who supported the club by attending. Well done everyone!  John F

Thank you to Barbara Seymour, John Glasscock and John Fairhurst for the pictures.

Not all of the weekend was spent playing bridge!

♠ ♥ ♥ ♣  Charity Walk in aid of Wessex Heartbeat (Robbie Burns) ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

On Sunday 12 September Robbie and others including several club members completed a half marathon walk in aid of Wessex Heartbeat who support the work of the cardiac unit at Southampton General Hospital. It was from his house in Twyford to Southampton General Hospital.  Robbie's fundraising account is still open if anyone else wants to contribute:    Click here to donate

Well done everyone!!

Thanks to Charmaine for the photos below.

Read Charmaine's account of the event and see more photos by clicking here

Bridge club photo - back row, Charmaine Hoey, Sue Peel, Peter Kelly,  Ivor Cobbold
Middle - Sally Cobbold
Front - Caroline Sutton, Robbie, Annette Kelly

Move "mouse" over thumbnail to change

Back in 1982 bridge players were suddenly invited to participate in the annual Basingstoke/Alencon twinning Festival of Sport. Two Alencon players arrived for the weekend to stay with Chris & Helen Kinloch. Since then firm friendships have been made.

Although the other twinning visits have fallen away, the exchange between the Bridge clubs has grown and every year, each club has hosted the Bridge match along with social visits.

This year it was the French hosting the visit and although it normally takes place in May, it was an Autumn weekend this time.

The Basingstoke team, Chris & Helen Kinloch, John & Barbara Glasscock, Andrew & Mary Ferguson, Graham & Liz Bragg, David Walton & Anne James and May Lawn & Danielle Sissingh, arrived in bright sunshine in Alençon  to the usual warm welcome from French friends, old and new. There were nine tables for the bridge tournament in the afternoon. Unfortunately none of our pairs came top, so we had to relinquish the Raymond Guérin trophy which we won in Basingstoke last year.  However, as usual, the bridge competition was only one small part of the weekend and it was followed by several  apperitifs and a delicious meal at the club.

On Sunday we visited Le Perche, an area of natural beauty situated around the town of Belleme in the south-east of the Orne department of southern Normandy. Despite the light rain and mist which continued throughout the day, everyone really enjoyed looking round the picturesque villages and trying to find answers to quiz questions about the area. After lunch at the golf club some brave souls took part in a two hole putting competition, the scores for which were added to our team's quiz totals.

Anne & David were the worthy winners of the Sunday events. Back at the Alençon bridge Club there were more apperitifs and another beautiful meal. We did manage to sing an adaptation of the well known French song "Ma Normandie" as a thank you to our hosts.

 Dates are still to be arranged, but we look forward to welcoming our French friends in Basingstoke again next year.