Details for Richard’s funeral.

It will be held on Tuesday 2nd May at 2pm at the Hampden Chapel at Amersham Crematorium, Whielden Lane, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 0ND The wake will be from 3pm - 6pm at The Red Lion, Elm Road, High Wycombe, HP10 8LF

It is with great sadness that I report the death of our good friend Richard Bowdery. Richard was born on 8^th January 1965, in Chester. He moved around the country until he found his calling in London, which he called his home with a few working trips abroad in between, since 1984. He met and married Deb. Despite a parting of ways, Richard and Deb remained good friends, and Richard always spoke very fondly of her.  They had their much-loved daughter Laura, and Laura has two children who Richard adored, Ella (5) and Sienna (2).

In terms of bridge, he taught himself how to play in his teens, but then had a brief period of abstinence. On his return in 1991, he met his life-long friend and soon to be bridge partner, Steve Root. Indeed, they hit it off immediately winning a regional heat of the National Newcomers Pairs within eight weeks of forming their partnership. The next year they went further and won the final. He won the Tollemache Cup twice and the Hubert Phillips Bowl thrice. In addition to being a stalwart of the UK bridge scene, he loved to travel. In recent years he made many visits to Spain, playing pairs tournaments and enjoying the local fayre. Only a couple of weeks ago he won the tournament in Gijon with Jason Hackett. Indeed one of my favourite memories was playing overseas in Iceland with Richard in 2009, when in the pairs we played what could only be described as a “moderately poor game” of bridge. The subsequent two days in the teams with David Gold and Catherine Seale I was a bystander at our table as Richard tore up all comers. We finished second, and in true Richard style had a party that evening that was fitting!

Richard was a warm and caring man, and many young people from all different countries who moved to London for bridge were made to feel incredibly welcome in a new city. He simply loved the game, and was always willing to give up his free time to mentor new players at the Acol Bridge Club.

When I think of him, personally, the thing I think of most is fun. He was fun to be around. He played bridge in a unique and fun way. He was great to go out to dinner with and many people will be able to say their life was enriched by knowing him.

He will be, and already is being, sorely missed.

Simon Cope

We are sad to announce the death of Charles King-Farlow on March 1st.

Charles had been an active member of local Clubs and the County Association for many years and had recently been playing regularly in SBBC Sunday Online games. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

There will be a private cremation, for family only.

The final of the Waller Bowl competition was held yesterday, 11^th December, on RealBridge.

There were 36 pairs entered from qualifying rounds held in clubs.

The winners were David Owen & Bob Holder with an excellent score of 64%.

Second were David Calcutt & David Green with 59%

and third were Colin Bailey & John England with 58%.

Congrats to them and thanks to all 36 pairs for taking part. We hope you enjoyed the day.

This weekend saw the Metropolitan Cup being played on Realbridge. This competition is for teams of 8 representing each of the eight home counties. Each county puts in three teams ( A, B and C ).

The Berks & Bucks results in the three sections were :- 

The A team came 6^th out of 8, the B team came 1^st and the C team came 3^rd.

Congratulations to the B team who will go forward to the National finals representing the B section of the Home Counties.

The team were : Mike Ribbins & Pat Dowdeswell, Hanna Tuus & Daisy Dillon, Paul Dolphin & Steve Lynch, Stuart Townsend & Simon Roberts.

Berks & Bucks CBA played in the EBU Tollemache qualifying round over the weekend of 12-13 November.

The event was played on the Realbridge platform once again as last year.

Drawn in the stronger of the two sections, the team held their own against the eventual four qualifiers for the final achieving 41 VPs out of 80, but failed to capitalise against the weaker teams finishing with exactly average VPs in 9^th position out of 14.

Our team was :-

Mike Perkins (C) & Ian Reissmann,

Gary Jones & Ed Scerri,

Bob Holder & David Owen,

Dick Davey & Nigel Wolfendale,

Dee & Peter Lindon

One hand from the event showed how difficult it can be to reach the optimum contract.

AK842                  Q3

     A                           98732

AKJ109                 Q8

    92                          AJ54

Played 28 times, 26 were safely in a game contract of spades or no trumps.

Two pairs reached slam. One in 6S which failed when the spades proved to be 4-2.  

The other in 6D which made as a third round of spades can be ruffed before drawing trumps.

The successful slam was reached by the weaker hand employing a 5NT bid used as ‘pick a slam partner’, a method which is becoming increasingly popular.

We are very sad to learn of the death of Chris Burley. After a lengthy illness, he passed away peacefully at home on Saturday 17th December. 

Chris started playing serious bridge in Middlesex in the 1950s, where he had considerable success for about twenty years. He then gave up bridge for some time, before being lured back to the table in 1992. He joined Berks and Bucks and from then until 2014 (when he retired from competition bridge) was hugely successful in all our county events, winning every event at least once. His wins included the County Pairs Championship on no fewer than four occasions. He also had notable success at national level which included the unusual ‘double’ of being the winning captain in the National Swiss Teams as well as the National Seniors Swiss Teams.  Chris served on the B & B main committee for several years including a stint as Chairman and was also a member of the selection and disciplinary sub-committees. 

Although he was a fiercely determined competitor, Chris was always the perfect gentleman at the bridge table and was liked and respected by all who knew him well. He will be greatly missed. 

The funeral will be at 2.00pm on Friday 6th January at St. Mary’s Church in Beaconsfield. We send our sincere condolences to his wife Delia and family.

The annual League of 8 has been completed for another season. All matches in the four divisions were played online on Realbridge.

Congratulations to Reading A for winning Division 1. They finished with 133 VPs from their nine matches, 5 VPs clear of Burnham A in second place. Congratulations to the leading teams in the other three divisions:

Division 2 (10 teams): Chiltern 1^st, Reading B 2^nd

Division 3 (9 teams): Reading C 1^st, Basingstoke B and SBBC B joint 2^nd

Division 4 (5 teams): Stoke Mandeville C 1^st, Hazlemere 2^nd

We thank all those who played and all the team captains for organising their teams and arranging matches. We look forward to another successful season starting in September and would welcome any new teams from clubs. The League Secretary will be asking for entries as usual in June.