It is with great sadness that we have to report that Addis Page passed away in the early hours of Sunday 27 June at his care home near Guildford. He had been taken to hospital with what was diagnosed as untreatable double pneumonia, and was returned to his care home for his last few days.

Those who knew Addis were aware that he was first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease several years ago, an inevitably degenerative condition against which he struggled manfully, both bridge-wise and socially. When it became clear that he couldn't safely continue to live alone, he moved to a care home close to elder son Richard in early 2019.

Bridge was a major part of Addis's life, as both player and administrator. He was a founder member of Burnham club and hugely enjoyed his bridge, both at club, county, and national level. He kept the trophy-engraver busy particularly in Berks & Bucks events, winning the Rex Avery County Pairs, the Swiss Pairs [twice], and the Mixed Pairs [twice]. At the national level, he and Nigel Lancaster were regular visitors at the main EBU Summer Festival in Brighton, supporting both the EBU and the local brewery in equal measure. He was a Life Member of both Burnham Bridge Club and Berks & Bucks CBA.

But Addis gave much back to the bridge world. He served as Burnham Chairman for several years, Berks & Bucks Chairman for four years, and sat on the EBU's Tournament Committee for some 15 years. He was delighted to be asked to serve as the non-playing captain of the Berks & Bucks Tollemache team in 2010.

Addis's family would like to express their tremendous gratitude to those of his bridge-playing friends who went the extra mile in supporting him, particularly in the latter years, when his deteriorating condition meant he could often be very confused.

This is a bridge website, but he was an assiduous socialiser, particularly when it came to dinner parties. Even in his latter years of living alone, he still thought nothing of catering for a dozen dinner-guests.

Addis will be sadly missed by all his bridge partners and friends.

I would like to thank all the members who voted for me at the AGM and I am honoured to become your new Chairman. I hope I can do as good a job as Dick Davey, who has served the County so well over his seven years as Chairman.

The last year has been a difficult one for bridge and the problems that clubs have faced are not over yet.

The next challenge is how and when to get back to playing face to face. Rest assured that the County will do all we can to help clubs get back to normality. I will be contacting club Chairmen soon to discuss the way forward.

In the meantime, I hope you continue to enjoy your online bridge.

Mick Green

Our third match in the league was against Essex Yellow. The B&BCBA team was

Bob Holder and David Owen
Marc Rivoria and Gordon Maxwell
Phil Thornton and Neil Crawford
David Green and David Calcutt

Berks and Bucks CBA is very proud to promote bridge in schools.  We would like to take the opportunity to thank Nigel,Tony and all the other volunteers who go into the local schools to promote and teach children the wonderful game of bridge.  The EBU have recently put an article on their website including a letter addressed to Nigel and Tony from one of the local schools. It is very rewarding to hear from the children how much they enjoyed learning bridge and how they hope to keep it up when they leave school.   

If you would like to read the full article click here.

We are very sad to hear that Tessa passed away today after a long illness. Tessa built up her bridge school to become one of the best in the country as recognised by the EBU in an article in their magazine. Her teaching and duplicate sessions encouraged many people to take up the game at a time when numbers have been declining everywhere.

Tessa will be greatly missed by many and our thoughts are with her family.

The final of the county knockout for the Crowhurst Quaich was played on 24 April. Congratulations to the team of Carole and Herb Mueller, Chris Mooney and David Perkins  who beat Phil Thornton, Bob Holder, Dick Davey and Nigel Wolfendale by 17 imps. The winning team will be invited to represent the county in the Pachabo Cup on 12-13 June.

Our Friendly Pairs event for the Finchampstead Plate was held on BBO on Sunday 21 February. Due to a technical hiccup the event was run with a Mitchell movement rather than the proposed Howell movement for which we apologise. Congratulations to the leading EW pair, Stuart and Aine Fox who are awarded the trophy because of their highest percentage score. Cash prizes also go to the leading NS pair Deborah Astley and Diane Bell and to the second placed pairs in both directions. Well done all.

Congratulations and well done to two of our members, Ilan Sirkis and Barry Read who won the Pairs event at the Suffolk Online County Congress on the 3rd October 2020.   Great result.

We were sad to learn of the death of Steve Lee this week.  Steve played, taught and Directed at many of our affiliated Clubs for many years and also took part in many of the County Events.  He will be missed by his bridge friends and colleagues throughout the county.  

We are very sad to report the death of Elena Jeronimidis on 22 September 2020.  Elena was a member of the county association for many years and had served on the committtee.  She was also a member of several clubs in the area and, despite her health problems, was playing regularly until early August.

Elena edited a number of bridge publications, including English Bridge from 2007 to 2015, for which she was made a life member of the EBU.  There is a 2013 biography of Elena on the EBU website https://www.ebu.co.uk/biographies/elena-jeronimidis

She will be sadly missed and we send our condolences to her husband, Giorgio, and the rest of the family,

Elena's funeral will be on Friday 2nd October at 2.30 pm at the Reading Crematorium. Family only to attend in person given the limit imposed by the social rules and also according to Elena's wishes. However, for those who wish, the service will be available on stream. Please click here Elena Details.pdf for the necessary link 

The County on-line pairs event was held on Saturday 4th July 2020
There was a good turnout with 26 pairs taking part.

Top N/S pairs were  
1st Graham and Iain Mckenzie
2nd Neil Horley and David Balderson

The E/W prize winners were:
1st Claire and Oliver Dillon
2nd Giorgio and Elena Jeronimidis

Congratulations to them all.

We would like to thank all those who took part and look forward to seeing you at the next on-line event on the             4th July 2020.
 

Another sad day to mark in 2020: in late December Kevin Elstow died in Wexham Park Hospital, aged 68. Kevin was no stranger to a hospital bed, having experienced transplant surgery some years ago, struggling with his health since then and more recently undergoing cardiac surgery. Deteriorating health saw him back in hospital shortly before Christmas where he contracted Covid19 and passed away on the 23^rd December.

Kevin figured large in Berks and Bucks bridge for half a century. Having picked up the game at school in Maidenhead, he soon graduated to clubs in the Amersham area where he made an immediate impact as a resourceful and keen competitor, a formidable opponent capable of unusual insight and occasional masterstrokes at the table. For a decade or more spanning the 80s and 90s, in partnership with Phil Thornton, Kevin was one of the dominant forces in Berks and Bucks, achieving frequent success in the county KO teams, League of 8 and League of Four, representing the county regularly in the Tollemache and Pachabo events and enjoying significant progress in national KO competitions. Knock-out competition was Kevin’s preferred bridge format and he particularly enjoyed the Hubert Philips competition, playing in Carole Mueller’s team with some success and reaching the final of the plate on one occasion. Other notable highlights include  a quarter final appearance in the Gold Cup, a second place finish in the Pachabo, reaching the Seniors KO final and a winning final in the NICKO Plate.

One of his great pleasures over the last 25 years was an annual trip to the international bridge festival at the casino in Deauville, regularly in the company of the late Vic Savage, Carole and Herb Mueller, Chris Mooney, Phil Thornton and numerous other local players. He regarded the trip as his holiday, though bridge remained the primary interest, and was successful in winning the Pairs B final with Chris Mooney in 2015.

Privately, Kevin was married to Mayo and was the very proud father of a daughter, Amy. He made numerous visits to Thailand and found real pleasure in the Thai culture and the warmth of feeling he experienced from Mayo’s family. He worked as an architect and, when travelling around Berks and Bucks for bridge matches would frequently point out examples of his craftmanship and relate his latest battles with planning authorities, battles which seemed to be an aspect of many of his projects. In later years his professional business interest declined but he retained his passion for bridge and remained a committed partner and teammate up until his last appearance at the bridge table earlier this year. He will be missed by partners, teammates and opponents.

Our thoughts are with his immediate family, especially with Mayo, Amy, brother Viv and sisters Sonia and Gill

We are sad to learn that Steve Gore has died in Wexham Park Hospital after a short illness. He was 79 and had been looking forward to celebrating his 80th birthday with his close relatives at a French chateaux. Steve was an exceptional bridge player, having won many club, county and national events over a long bridge playing career and reaching the highest rank of Premier Grand Master. He was a delightful partner and opponent, a real gentleman at the bridge table and away from the table was a fund of knowledge and with whom every conversation was a delight. He loved music, especially opera and was a regular quizzer. He was so well informed and curious to learn that he was crowned Brain of Britain in 1986 and still attended the annual reunion of past winners. A recording of the 1986 final can be found on YouTube.

He will be missed by many bridge players especially at the clubs he most regularly attended which in latter years were New Amersham, Burnham and South Bucks and he was closely involved with High Wycombe before it closed. For many years he was Secretary of New Amersham and captained one of their teams. Our thoughts are with his sister Val, his nephews Mark and Paul and all his friends and family.

Stephen's funeral will be on Tuesday 22nd December at 1.45pm. As you may know, Coronavirus restrictions mean that only 30 people can attend his funeral but you may wish to watch online.   

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Please click here

Steve's family we are asking you not to make floral tributes but donations to Cancer Research UK would be welcome.  Please Click link for   Fund Raising Page

The 5 top pairs from our County Pairs Championship represented Berks & Bucks in the Corwen trophy at the weekend, with 94 pairs competing. Ed Scerri and Dick Davey were second, Paul Dolphin and Steve Lynch 21st, Peter Hawkes and Roger Donato 32nd, Matthew and Heather Tan 39th and John Coleman and Marilyn Murtagh 75th. Congratulations to all.

B&BCBA played the final match in the round robin stage of the Home Counties event.

Sadly we lost by 15 - 5 to Surrey Purple. Thus, Surrey won the league and we were second. Our team was 

Paul Dolphin and Steve Lynch
David Owen & Bob Holder
Marc Rivoria and Gordon Maxwell
Mike Ribbins and Peter Jackson

Congratulations to the winners, Ponte Vecchio - from left to right  Jenny Rodgers, Figen Whittick, Liz David (captain) and Helena Hilditch

24 teams of eight representing 16 clubs competed in the 3 divisions of our online league introduced for the 2020/21 season.

The final results were:

Div 1 (8 teams): New Amersham won with 115 VP (out of possible 140); runners up were Reading A on 94 VP

Div 2 (8 teams): Lane End A won with 96 VP; runners up were Austenwood A on 90 VP

Div 3 (8 teams): Stoke Mandeville C won with 89 VP; runners up were SBBC on 86 VP

Well done to all those who played. 

Congratulations to Ruff & Ready for winning the B&BCBA 2020/2021 Graduate League Trophy. 

Here they are with the Margaret Hatch Memorial Trophy

From left to right Peter Rushforth, Helga Armstrong, Elaine Rushforth, Clare Marshall, Carl Dorsett

Congratulations to James Bond for winning the EBU Summer Seniors Swiss Pairs with Graham Marshall ( not B&B ). This was one of their successful hands.

James and Graham were EW. North the dealer. The auction was (P) - 1H - (3D) - 3H: (P) - 4H.

The 3D overcall was 11-16 and West did well to bid 3H. East expected a little more from West (of course) and raised to 4H. Most Souths would overcall 2D and then West's 2H may end the auction. The hidden spade fit made game a very good contract.

The KD lead was followed by 8H (covered) in an attempt to reduce ruffs in dummy. East realised that the long spades would cover two of the diamond losers so that meant ruffing one in dummy. So the JD was led, covered and ruffed. That also created potential for a later ruffing finesse of 10D. The spades were such that it was unlikely East could avoid a loser so at trick 4 he led a small spade from dummy. When North played low, James put in the 8. South won with the KS and returned a club. Now James drew trumps and claimed. Trumps slit 3-2 so the overtrick was made. Less than half the field were in game and not many made 11 tricks so James & Graham got 21/24 matchpoints.

Richard Bowdery of Berks & Bucks won the Swiss Pairs event at the recent Oxfordshire Green Point weekend.

Richard and his partner won six out of their seven matches and finished 3 VPs clear of second place.

This was an impressive win against a very strong field. Many congratulations. 

Congratulations to the winners of our Green Pointed events held on the

26 and 27 June 2021

Two teams tied for first place in the Richard Palmer Memorial Trophy teams event 

Team Ed Scerri - Ed, Gary Jones, Steve Eginton and Ian Reissmann 

Team Pat Dowdeswell - Pat, David Beever Mike Ribbins and Nigel Guthrie

Team Ed Scerri were declared the winners on a split-tie decision

Winners of the Anders Wallen Trophy pairs event were Oliver Tiemann and Alan Woof  

Well done to all! 

The (Berks & Bucks) team of Gordon Maxwell, Marc Rivoira, Barry Read and Ilan Sirkis won the Swiss Teams event at the recent Oxfordshire Green Point weekend.

A fantastic win against a very strong field. Many congratulations. A great performance showing the strength of Berks & Bucks bridge.

The new Chairman would like to take some credit for inspiring the team but he cannot !!

This hand was in the final match ( Board 43 out of 49 ) and gained the team 11 Imps.

Dealer S - both NV