FIXTURES and RESULTS 2023/24
22nd October 2023 Brunton A (Home)
In the first match of the new season Bishop Auckland hosted last year's runners up Brunton A who were nip and tuck with eventual winners Darlington until the very last weekend. After a poor first stanza Bishop were behind by 15 IMPs and although there was an improvement in the second set of 8 boards a further 8 IMPs went the way of the visitors. After a number of game swings in the third quarter Brunton collected another 40 IMPs before a break for tea. Heading for a 20-0 Victory Points defeat, an attempt to claw back a few VPs was unsuccessful and only strengthened Brunton's position and after picking up another 22 IMPs in the final round, the end result was a margin of 85 IMPs giving Brunton a 20-0 Victory Points win.
Team: Denise Barham Hall (capt) & John Portwood; Audrey Bainbridge & John Dobson; Allan Blackett & Malcolm Dawson; Roger Carpenter & Brian Myers.
19th November 2023 Morpeth (Away)
Bishop Auckland made the long journey to Morpeth having had to juggle the partnerships following the unavailability of one of the original team, meaning that only one of the partnerships that were originally selected actually played together. Many thanks to Roger for his willingness to leave the subs' bench and ensure that we could complete the fixture. A disappointing first set of 8 boards put us on the back foot as we lost by 28 IMPs, and although things improved the following three rounds all went the way of the home side by 7, 7 and 4 IMPs. This left Morpeth with a final winning margin of 46 IMPs translating into a 17 to 3 Victory Points result.
Team: Denise Barham Hall (capt) & Audrey Bainbridge; Brian Myers and Roger Carpenter; John Portwood & Alison Young; Malcolm Dawson and Allan Blackett.
10th December 2023 Brunton B (Home)
Bishop Auckland arrived at Kirk Merrington for their fixture with Brunton B only to find that two of the opposition had not appeared with their team mates and so there was no alternative but for the match to be awarded to Bishop with a score of 14 Victory Points to 0. However all was not lost and with an excellent tea provided and with the visitors having made such a long journey, it was agreed that we would play a shortened friendly match with Peter and Claudette, originally reserves for the home side, agreeing to come at the last minute from Durham to play with the Brunton team to allow the resulting friendly to take place. Many thanks to them for responding so quickly to an unexpected call at 2.00pm. The friendly match comprised 4 rounds of 6 boards, with two of the originally scheduled boards each round removed from play. Although not significant with respect to the Inter Club the resulting 24 Boards were scored in the usual way and although going into the final stanza of six boards trailing by 19 IMPs, having lost the first set of 6 by 23 IMPs, Bishop turned things around to eventually win by 10 IMPs which over a full 32 board match would equate to a 12-8 VP win. Many thanks for those who attended and for the lovely tea and especially to Peter & Claudette for rescuing a tricky situation.
Team: Denise Barham Hall (capt) & John Portwood; Brian Myers and Roger Carpenter; Audrey Bainbridge & Alison Young; Malcolm Dawson and Allan Blackett.
Brunton B Guest substitutes: Claudette & Peter Whitton
21st January 2024 Darlington A (Away)
Bishop Auckland were no match for a strong Darlington A team who were last year's Inter Club Champions. A first stanza deficit of 9 IMPs was followed by two heavy losses of 22 and 39 IMPs respectively meaning we went into the last set of eight boards already looking at a 20-0 Victory Point defeat. Despite our best efforts another 19 IMP swing to the home team sealed the result and gave Darlington a strong result in their efforts to retain the title. Thanks to the team of Denise Barham Hall (capt) & John Portwood, Malcolm Dawson & Allan Blackett, John Dobson & Audrey Bainbridge and Roger Carpenter and Brian Myers.
3rd March 2024 Stannington A (Home)
The season ended for Bishop with a disappointing 17-3 loss to Stannington in the NEBA Inter Club League. Having retained our place in the top division last year, this season was always going to be challenge if we were to stay in the top flight with some strong opponents. And so it proved. With several regular players unavailable for selection we fielded a slightly shuffled team including the brand new partnership of Roger Carpenter and Peter Whitton, but the visitors proved just too good on the day. We lost 6 IMPs in the first stanza, but it was the second and third where we really came to grief, losing those by 21 and 17 respectively, before finishing the last stanza for the loss of 1IMP. Overall this translated to a final IMPs score of -45 IMPs converted to a 3-17 Victory Points defeat. This result means unless other clubs withdraw from the competition we shall be playing in Division B next season.
Team: Denise Barham-Hall (capt) & John Portwood; Audrey Bainbridge & Brian Myers; Malcolm Dawson & Allan Blackett; Roger Carpenter & Peter Whitton.
Many thanks to all who have played over the course of the season.
The most recently published Results and League tables can be viewed by following the link
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwor/bw.cgi?club=neba&pid=docs_Final%20results.pdf
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