We held the final of the Fearn Cup on Sunday (21 April), an individual tournament named after one of Deva's founding members. 20 finalists played 38 boards, with each finalist playing 2 boards partnering each other finalist, with a break for a splendid buffet lunch provided by Sophie. All in all it was a good game of bridge and an enjoyable social experience. Congratulations to Alan Sharples who won with 60.9% well ahead of Jeremy Bishop 2nd with 57.4% and Jerry Hopkins 3rd with 55.8%. We will soon all be able to see Alan's name engraved on the board in the club, and on the Fearn Cup itself.

The Ladies and Mens Pairs Championships were held on Thursday (18 April) in the club. Congratulations to the respective winners, Pat Powell & Rachel Pentecost and Brian Crawford & Frank McAleavy. Apologies for not getting the results out in the club (I don't know what came over me!) and because of that we will have to hand out the prizes when we next see you in the club. Results are now on the website in the usual place.

Last weekend saw 33 of us at the Bedford Hotel in Lytham having a good weekend playing bridge and enjoying excellent food. It went so well we have rebooked for next year (11/12/13 April 2025). Here are some photos. 

This county event will be held at the club on Saturday 18th May.

For further details and to enter please see the county website:

https://www.bridgewebs.com/merseysidecheshire/

Please contact Stephen Downes (downes75@yahoo.com) with any queries/issues.

Wednesday afternoon's bridge session was a heat of the EBU's Spring Sim Pairs. As of 10pm Thursday 11 April, all 23 clubs have submitted results. The highest Deva pairs were:

Here is a link to the overall results on the EBU's website (link to results) from where you can filter results to show Deva players and view commentary and analysis of the hands.

Congratulations to:

• Mondays: Pat Powell
• Wednesdays: Roy Clifford and Sara Miles and
• Fridays: Bernard and Gill Farrell.

Well done all of you!

This year's Fearn Cup ladder ended with last Wednesday afternoon's session (27 March). The top 20 players automatically qualify for the final on Sunday 18 April and we will shortly be contacting them to confirm places. Should any of the 20 be unable to play then the place is offered to the next lower pair in the ladder.

Congratulations to Frank Salt who was top of the ladder this year. Jerry Hopkins and David Smith were not far behind in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

The table below shows the top 8 players in the ladder, together with master points and the score achieved. Why not have a look at the final ladder to see how you did. There were 15 heats in the ladder, the ladder score is the sum of the best %age scores with up to 4 different partners.

The Championship Pairs final was help last night (Wednesday 20 March) and the winners were Philip Waring and Jerry Hopkins. They deserve double congratulations as they won last year as well and so have retained their status as Champions!

The championship started in September with the a ladder competition running over 6 months. The ladder determines who qualifies for the semi-final and 17 pairs played in that 2 weeks ago, with 10 pairs qualifying for the final last night. Andy Prothero and Chris Pope were 2nd, with Martin Church and Mike McCartney in 3rd place. Here are the top three pairs, with the winners in the centre (gold position), runners-up on the left (silver) and 3rd place on the right (bronze).