Winners of the Student League 2024: their team name is Beaconsfield Ladies and the picture shows (from left to right) Jo Barrett, Ingrid Hamilton (Captain) Sue Morgan and Debbie Raven. Deborah Holmes also played but is not in the picture as she was not at the end-of-season pairs event.

The other trophy visible on the table is the Bridge Plus trophy for the end-of-season pairs (open to everyone who played in either the Graduate or Student League) and this year it resulted in a triple tie! with three pairs all finishing on 60%. So the trophy is being shared between Sharon Christie & Jane Davis, Ingrid Hamilton & Debbie Raven, and Jane Barker & Karen Kelly (who won it the previous year - does being in a triple tie count as retaining your trophy?!).

The Friendly Pairs for the Tony Boothroyd plate  was held on Sunday 27th October at SBBC. 

23 pairs took part over 20 boards and the winners were Sarah Summerbell & Sheila Mason with a score of 63.06%. Second were Elaine & Ted Crump and third were  Norma & Paul Lord .

Thanks to all those played. We hope you enjoyed this event as the County are keen to encourage all levels of players to County events.

A team won by Bucks 60 - 2

B team won by Berks 54-52

Overall result was a tie, broken by net imps results, so Bucks won by 31 imps.

The A team led until their last match (we sat out the last round, but sadly were overtaken by Sussex at the death and finished 2nd). All the pairs were plus on the cross imps analysis.  Click for A team results

Our B team also performed creditably finishing in mid table. We didn't field a team in the C division.  Click for B team results 

A team

Steve Eginton & Bill Souster

Bob Holder & David Owen (Captain)

Barry Read & Marc Rivoira

Simon Roberts & Stuart Townsend

B team

John Coleman & Marilyn Murtagh

David Corbett & Nigel Thompson

Giorgio Jeronimidis (Captain) & Iain Mackenzie

Heather Tan & Matthew Tan

The county teams of 4 KO championship will once again take place this season. This event is a Green point one and the winners  will represent the County in the Pachabo, entry for which  is paid for by the County.  Matches will be played on BBO, or any other suitable online platform agreed by the two captains. The playing regulations for online matches are the same as set out in the Rules and Guidance for Playing Brown Cup Matches Online. If both captains agree, matches may be played face-to-face.  Entries will be free and as BBO does not currently charge for setting up and playing matches there will be no charge to play. If the captains agree to play on RB they will have to contact Mike Ribbins to ask for the match to be set up.

If you are interested in entering this year please send me (p@ribbins.co.uk) the details of your team by the 9th of September.

The home team captain will be responsible for setting up the match on BBO/RB. For this season all matches will be 2 stanzas of 12 boards.

I hope you will be able to put a team together.

For teams who have won their county teams of Four Events.

B&B was represented by: Ed Scerri,Steve Eginton, Peter Lindon and Dee Lindon.

They did well to finish in the top half in a field of 29 county teams.

B&B had 5 pairs playing in this prestigious event.

Ed Scerri & Steve Eginton

David Owen & Bob Holder

Dee Lindon & Peter Lindon

Daisy Dillon& Hanna Tuus

John Coleman & Marilyn Murtagh

Congratulations to them all as they were all 50% plus, a great result for the county. Special congratulations to Ed and Steve who came 2nd with 59.37 % (75 pairs played).

We almost had a new world champion in the most unlikely of circumstances!
Ed Scerri was not selected for the England Senior team for what used to be called the Olympiad, in Buenos Aires,  He didn’t even play in the trials!
But when a medical problem prevented one of the team from playing at the last minute, he stepped into the breach to play with a regular partner of his, Malcolm Prior. Arranging last minute flights and accommodation.
But things, at first, did not go well.  Bad weather left one of the team’s pairs stranded in the UK, only arriving after the first day was completed and struggling to find form after that, as did all the pairs.  It got worse, two of the team were ill and Ed got mugged in the “Paris of South America”.  Unsurprisingly by the end of the round robin qualifier for the knockout stages they were well off the pace.
At this point, you might think that, like two of their team-mates, they would have given it a day, but not Ed and Malcolm.  They decided to play in the pairs event, lasting over nearly a week, in the same field as the open pairs, and with feed ins from the teams losing in the late Knockout stages of the teams. 
At this point their luck changed and they were never in doubt for qualifying, first for the semi-final round and then into the final of just 14 pairs.
In the two days of finals they were never out of the top places.  Although Ed also picked up his teammates’ virus on the last day, he headed into the final session of 14 boards with a comfortable lead.  
But, sadly, it seemed that  opponents could do no wrong and when the dust cleared he and Malcolm were agonizingly fewer than 4MPs (from a total of 650) behind the Canadian winners.
Nevertheless, it was a fantastic result - the only English medalists of the games and an outstanding achievement.  

Congratulations Ed!

The committee is sad to hear of the recent death of Joyce Baldock in Basingstoke Hospital. Joyce was a former Berks & Bucks Committee member and Treasurer, and had continued to play until recently. She played in nearly all the county competitions, winning the Green Point Swiss Teams, the County Pairs and County Pairs Plate, and both the multiple teams and swiss teams versions of the Perkins Cup.