John Summerhayes and Azam Khan scored an impressive 73% in week 3 of the Hercock Summer Trophy.

This gets their names in the 70% Club and they get to hold the Pam Leeson trophy under another membership pair scores 70% on a Monday evening.

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 1st July 2019

As you may know, Leicestershire won the Midlands Counties League in the 2018-19 season, and were presented with the Dawes Trophy at last week's LCBA AGM.

Winning the league entitled them to enter the Regional Inter-County League Teams-of-Eight competition, which is open to the champion counties of each division in England.

This competition was played yesterday (Sunday 16th June), and Leicestershire won; the team was: Duncan Happer & Ben Norton, Ian Bruce & Simon Stokes, Colin Dean & Nick Stevens and Jim Mason & Dick Pathan.

Congratulations to all for this tremendous feat!

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 17th June 2019

Congratulations to Brian Stockdale and Michael Ellerby for winning the Bradgate heat of the County Bridge Club Sim Pairs.

Simon Stokes' commentary can be found here.

The combined results from all the clubs can be found on the ECATs website. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 17th June 2019

Bradgate pairs did well in the LCBA's winter pairs league, which finished its final round last night.  24 pairs took part in 3 divisions, and 7 regular Bradgate pairs were in the field.

Mick Mahoney (partnering Ian Bruce) won Division 1. Steve & Anne Wright won Division 2 and Nick Daniels & Peter Wells were runner-up. Lucy Pathan & Anne Morris won Division 3 with Richard Rees & Diana Bowden runners-up.

For those whose who have not entered before, the league runs on one Thursday each month from January to May, played at the Rothley Centre, and the divisional structure means that it is open to players at all levels.  You might want to put it in the diary for next year.

Margaret Butterworth - Chairman - 17th May 2019

Congratulations to Michael Ellerby and Brian Stockdale for winning the Hyman Crammer competition. They were neck and neck with the Westcotes' top pair for most of the evening, pulling away to win with two good rounds at the end.

Also a well done to Paul Emberton and Mark Lansdale who walked off with the Non-Expert prize. They had a strong start and were even leading a third of the way through, before fading away near the end to finish above average and beating four "expert" pairs. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 8th May 2019

The new County Club venue at St.Oswalds (near New Parks) is now open.

They have just completed a week of free bridge at the new venue to iron out the problems of being in a new venue. All the Club sessions have moved from St. James to St. Oswolds, with the exception of Saturday evening which is staying at St. James for tax purposes.

The first LCBA event is being held there on Sunday 28th April and is the Gimson Final. Five Bradgate players are in the final and we wish them all the best.

The Grand Opening is on Saturday 11th May where EBU Chairman Gordon Rainsford will officially open the building.

On the Sunday 12th May there will be a Swiss Pairs event (at a modest £3) which is open to visitors. This starts at 2pm and will finish about 7pm with a break for tea in the middle. Details of how to enter can be found here. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 27th April 2019

What was the real story of the Robson Ladies Pairs and the Davis Gentleman's Pairs?

Was it that members playing a visitor came top on the night in both competitions, but couldn't win it as it is a members' only competition?

Or maybe it was Michael Ellerby, playing with Steve Francis, who topped the Davis event scoring over 70%. They get their name in the 70% Club for that, but Michael doesn't get the Pam Leeson Trophy as you can't win it with a visitor.

Could the story be that Sandra Middleditch helped her partner Susie Perrett to win the Robson Ladies, thus making it two trophies in a month for Susie?

Maybe it was Brian Stockdale and Steve Wright winning the Davis Gentlemen Trophy for the third year in succession (no they don't get to keep the trophy!)

Or possibly it was the Director's panic when he realised that both competitions had the same number of tables. In the past, these two competitions are played as separate events at the same venue. There are usually more ladies than gentlemen, hence a different number of tables in each event and thus one set of Howell cards would suffice. But with both events requiring a 7 table movement, we didn't have two sets OF 7-table Howell cards ... OOPS.

After a short panic, the Director came up with the plan to sit all the ladies North/South and all the gentlemen East/West and play a 2-winner Mitchell. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 27th April 2019

Congratulations to Paul Anderson and Susie Perrett for winning the Charity Pairs.

A total of £265 was raised for Myeloma UK. 

Gail Tillen - Treasurer - 27th April 2019

At this week’s committee meeting, we approved a proposal from David Betterley that we should designate one of our Wednesday afternoon sessions as a charity session, as we already do for one of our Monday nights.

The Committee has agreed to this proposal, and it will be held annually on the first available Wednesday in June – this would be 12^th June this year.  Members will be asked, if they wish, to donate an additional £2 on top of the existing table money, (more if they wish) and the club will match the amount raised by each additional donation (capped at £2 per member attending).  Donations will be voluntary.

We propose to ask Wednesday afternoon members to nominate a charity by a random draw in May each year; however because David has come forward with the proposal, we have asked him to nominate this year’s charity.

David has chosen The Normandy Memorial Trust, which is commissioning a permanent National Memorial in Northern France to commemorate those who lost their lives in the D-Day landings – see http://www.normandymemorialtrust.org/the-memorial/

It is particularly timely this year, as our June charity afternoon will be held just after the 75^th anniversary of D-Day. 

Margaret Butterworth - Chairman - 6th March 2019

Congratulations to David Mitchell and Susie Perrett, who have won the inaugural Wednesday Winter Pairs competition for the best 4 scores in December, January and February. 

Runners-up were Terry Stevenson and Gail Tillen, with John Dignan and Lucy Pathan in 3rd place. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 4th March 2019

Congratulations to Mary Johnson and  Mick Mahoney who joined the 70% Club on Monday evening.

But as visitors, they are not eligible to receive the Pam Leeson Trophy. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 26th February 2019

Well done to Anne Wright and Brian Stockdale for winning the Tyler Trophy last night.

This is a best three out of four week competition. Interestingly, six out of the top seven pairs only played three weeks. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 26th February 2019

Congratulations to David Betterley who captained the winning team in the Wilde Cup. They were the defending champions.

Also to Don Walker's team (Susie Tyler, John Dignan and Cathy Moloney) who were runners-up. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 13th February 2019

The Pam Leeson Trophy for scoring over 70% on a Monday Evening has changed hands again. This time it is Brian Stockdale and Steve Wright who have won it.

Although Brian & Steve have been in the 70% Club before, this is the first time that they have achieved it as a partnership. 

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 22nd January 2019

Such is the interest in playing for Bradgate's team in the Leicestershire League, that we will be running FIVE teams next season.  This is more than any other club in Leicestershire.

The A and B teams will continue to be run by myself and Pauline Dignan, and the three lower teams will be captained by Jim Wilkinson, Julie Jones and Andy Satterthwaite. 

Once the current season has finished in May, we will have a clearer idea of which teams will be in which division; then, over the summer, Jim, Julie and Andy will be recruiting players for their various teams. 

Richard Rees - League Representative - 9th January 2019

When something goes wrong at the table, the TD sometimes has to adjust the score.

When a player revokes, the TD often takes tricks away from the revoking side. (If you ruff and win it then you lose that trick. If your side wins any more tricks after the revoke then you lose one of those as well).

If a player hesitates and passes, and then their partner takes advantage, the TD will adjust the score if they gain an advantage. The TD just overrides the contract at the table and assigns what he thinks would have been the outcome had they'd not been naughty.

But what happens when the TD can't figure out what would have happened had the offence not taken place? For example, the board wasn't played due to slow play. In those cases the TD awards an average - but what does that mean?

An AVERAGE is 50% for that board.

An AVERAGE-PLUS is 60% for that board or your session average if that is better. If your session average is 56% then you will get 60% for that board. But if your session average is 65% then you will get 65% for that board.

An AVERAGE-MINUS is 40% for that board or your session average if that is worse. So if your session average was only 35% then you would only get 35% for this board.

So what do you score for boards that you sit-out? Do you get an average? The short answer is that you always get your session average. This is called a NOT-PLAYED and refers to boards that you were never scheduled to play. Not-Played is always scored as your session average. This means that in a skip-movement if you were the pair that skipped the sit-out table then you would not get an unfair advantage or disadvantage compared to the players that had to sit-out.

Steve Wright - Senior TD - 5th August 2018