English Bridge Union, English Bridge Union

Castner Team win Brighton Bowl

The Swiss Teams competition for the Brighton Bowl was won by the team of Kevin Castner, Phil King, Stephen Kennedy & Charlie Bucknell (pictured), with 93 VPs. They were 10 VPs ahead of the second placed team of Kieran Dyke, Michael Byrne, Tom Townsend & Ben Norton. In third place was the team of Roger Mallinson, John Griffin, Paul Madden, John Squibb with 81 VPs.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

William Battersby
Andrew Bradkin
Thomas Bradkin
Aman Parekh

Updates to the Blue and White Books for 2022

Please note that we will be publishing a new Blue Book and a new White Book, with changes taking effect from 1st September and they will incorporate online regulations that are currently contained in the Sky-Blue Book. You can read draft versions with the proposed changes and the changes document using the links below. Finalised versions of both books will be available to view and download shortly.

Tournament Directors will be expected to be understanding while players get used to the changes.

The Last Round-Up

Brian Senior has written his last report from this year's Summer Meeting Eastbourne. Read the full article.

Bradkin Wins Bronze at the World Junior Transnationals

Congratulations to Thomas Bradkin who won a bronze medal in the U16 Individual at the World Junior Transnationals. The World Junior Transnationals was this year held in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy from 7th - 14 August.

Photos of the medal ceremony can be seen in the latest event bulletin.

Thomas Bradkin's success following silver medals earlier in the week for England youth squad members William Battersby and Aman Parekh.

Swiss Pairs – Day One

By Brian Senior:

Lending credence to the old story about the monkeys and typewriters, my partner, Nigel Bird and I, led at the end of day one of the Swiss Pairs. We did well on defence on this deal from match four:

Read the full article

The First 24 Hours

Brian Senior has written about a key board from Thursday evening's Mixed and Open Pairs. Full article

Daly & Hillis win Mixed Pairs

In the Summer Meeting Mixed Pairs Huey Daly & Sonya Hillis finished first with a score of 65.17%. In second place was Debbie Sandford & Gad Chadha, with a score of 64.53%. In third place were Louise Selway & Norman Selway, with a score of 61.00%.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

Assaraf & Rosenthal win Open Pairs

The Open Pairs was won by Eran Assaraf & Lee Rosenthal with a score of 62.36%. In second place were Alan Sparkes & Eric Campbell with a score of 59.34% and in third place were Gary Carpay & George Dragt with a score of 58.24%.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

Battersby and Parekh win Silver at the World Junior Transnationals

Congratulations to William Battersby and Aman Parekh (pictured) who won a silver medal in the U16 pairs at the World Junior Transnationals. Well done as well to Andrew and Thomas Bradkin who qualified for the U16 final after a late burst through the field.

In the U21 pairs, Charlotte Bedford and Venetia Anoyrkatis qualified for the main final along with Henry Rose and Imogen La Chapelle.

Photos of the medal ceremony can be seen in the latest event bulletin.

The championships continue with the teams events over the next few days. There are players from the English youth squad playing in the U16's and U21's, full team details. Best of luck to everyone.

You can watch along live on BBO Vugraph.

Live scores and results

Summer Meeting Underway

The 2022 Summer Meeting is now underway, with the Mixed and Open Pairs. Thank you to Eastbourne's Deputy Mayor for Opening proceedings.

Details for the weekend's events can be found on the Summer Meeting Hub

If you are going to arrive late to a session, please call to our TD in charge on 07780 673522. Please note that text messages can’t be forwarded to our TD.

Countdown to Eastbourne

There are now just 3 days to go until the start of the Summer Meeting! Come and cool off in air conditioned luxury at the Floral Hall this weekend.

10 Board Challenges

The Under 26 Women would like to challenge teams of any strength to take them on in a 10 board challenge match on BBO. Monday or Tuesday evenings around 7pm would work well but other timings can be discussed.

There are 10 active members of the U26W squad. The squad has recently qualified for a place in next year's junior World Championships and are looking for as many practice matches as they can get in order to make themselves sharp and well-prepared for next year's championships.

If you are interested in playing a challenge match against four members of the squad, please email Squad Leader, Claire Robinson, geordieclairerob@gmail.com. All you will need to do is share BBO names, turn up at the allotted time on BBO and play the match. There's no charge but if you or your team are interested in making a donation to the junior teams you can do so via the Bridge Warehouse.

Watch the World Junior Transnationals

The 7th World Youth Transnational Championships is currently taking place this week in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy.

There are a number of self-funded English players in the Under 16s and Under 21s Pairs and Teams events, a full list of players is below.

You can follow live coverage of the event via BBO Vugraph.

Under 16s:

Under 21s:

Jamie Fegarty
Liam Fegarty
Imogen La Chapelle
Henry Rose

Rufus Barnett
James Cater
Raffy Sinclair
Theodore Sinclair

Venetia Anoyrkatis
Charlotte Bedford
Tom Furness
Lucy Norman

Updates to the Blue and White Books for 2022

Tournament Directors will be expected to be understanding while players get used to the changes.

Squad Leader Wanted for Under 16 Team

The EBU Selection Committee is looking to appoint a new Under-16 squad leader.

The job description and person specification are available here.

Applicants should familiarise themselves with the EBU safeguarding policy and the Code of Conduct for those working with Junior squads.

Applications, with a brief summary of what you would bring to the role and how you meet the person specification, should be sent to sc.chair@ebu.co.uk

If you wish to discuss the role further, this can be done with the chair of the Selection Committee who can be contacted via the same email address.

Applications close at noon on Monday 22nd August.

Nominations for Awards

A a reminder, counties are invited to complete any nominations for the Dimmie or Silver Awards by 19th August. The Silver Award is given for outstanding contribution and recognition of long service as a volunteer at national and/or County level. The Dimmie Fleming Award recognises those who have made a significant contribution to county bridge through voluntary work over a long period.

All members can put forward suitable candidates, however the nominations should be submitted to the EBU by a County official, to confirm that it has the approval of the County Committee.

Dimmie Fleming Nomination Form
Silver Award Nomination Form

**Advert** Bedfordshire Bridge Association

Green Pointed Swiss Pairs

Saturday 3 September 2022 at 11:00am on RealBridge

Entry fee £15 per player (£7.50 under 26) for 7 x 7-board matches

Click to enter online

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee considered the following charges against Trupti Shah at a hearing in November 2021.

That on up to ten occasions between 20th March 2019 and 24th July 2019 at the Leverstock Green Bridge Club, she changed the scores via the ArcScorer scoring tablets in use at the club, with the result that the score recorded in the scoring software for the boards in question was more favourable to her side than the score earned at the table.
That on up to sixty occasions between 6th June 2017 and 29th May 2018 at the Watford & Bushey Bridge Club, she changed the scores via the Bridgemate scoring devices in use at the club, with the result that the score recorded in the scoring software for the boards in question was more favourable to her side than the score earned at the table.

The defendant denied the charges, and a disciplinary hearing was held. The Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendant's conduct constituted an offence under paragraphs 3.2(iii), 3.2(iv) and 3.2(v) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being a breach of the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge and unfair or dishonest play.

The Committee imposed a sanction of a ban on becoming a player member of the EBU for a period of four years. The defendant appealed and the Appeal Committee upheld the decision of the Disciplinary Committee.

Currently Sanctioned Members

Nominations for Awards

All members can put forward suitable candidates, however the nominations should be submitted to the EBU by a County official, to confirm that it has the approval of the County Committee.

Dimmie Fleming Nomination Form
Silver Award Nomination Form

Cheadle Hulme A win Nicko 2019-2020

Congratulations to Michael Byrne, David Barton, Gary Hyett & John Holland (pictured) (not pictured are Raymond Semp and the late Michael Newman who played in earlier rounds) who won the final of the 2019-2020 NICKO (National Inter Club Knockout) yesterday at Coventry Bridge Club as part of the Cheadle Hulme A team.

They beat the Young Chelsea I team (Mike Bell, Paul Russell, Susanna Gross, Phil King, Sarah Bell & John Cox) by a margin of 41 IMPs over 48 boards.

This was a first time win for David Barton, 2nd for Gary and Michael, and 3rd time for John.

There was an original entry of 200 teams for this competition. There is still time to enter for the 2022/23 competitions, the entry deadline is midday Monday 10th October

Bid72 EBU Bidding Contest - July Results

Following the July monthly score the pairat the top of group A is the partnership of Mark B - Lawman with a current average score of 8.00. In second place are Alex G - Paul G, and in third place are Gerard T - Andrew M.

In group B, four partnerships will be promoted to group A, they are; Mike R - ch5295; simonb - carolinem; Robin H - Ray T and Olivier L - Caroline L.

In group C five partnerships will be promoted to group B, these are; Linda T - Malcolm W; Harry F - Tony Q; Robert H - Simon A; Graham L - Sid B and Jonathan F - Portia F

For more information and to register see Bid72 EBU

July Robot Ladder Competitions

July's robot ladder competitions, have now concluded.

In the 12-board ladder for July, Gordon Rainsford won the top prize of £30 with an average score of 70.64% over six games. Jeremy Baker was second, with 69.86% and Matt Foster third with a score of 68.86%. There were also prizes for fourth and fifth place.

In the main July matchpoints ladder, Dominic Connolly finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 64.03%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by David Dawson with an average score of 62.62%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Paul Hawkins finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 10.42, winning £25. The second place prize went to Luis Barbero with a score of 7.35. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
July Matchpoints Ladder; July Handicap Ladder; July 12-board ladder
Archive of previous winners

Autumn 2022 Antalya Congress

Join us for some autumn sun in Antalya at the Autumn Overseas Congress, from 5th – 12th October. There are only a few rooms left so book early to secure your place. The congress will take place in the beautiful city of Side, on the Southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, close to Antalya.

It will be held at the 5-star Sense De Luxe Hotel & Spa, a beach-side resort close to Antalya. Two fantastic excursions are included. More details about the local area can be found via TripAdvisor.

All Covid-19 restrictions in Turkey have been lifted. UK citizens no longer require a visa to enter Turkey for holidays. UK government travel information for Turkey.

Bookings can be made via First for Bridge website. Book your flights early as space may be limited. We recommend that you book and confirm your place with them before entering the bridge on My EBU.

First for Bridge's holidays are ABTA and ATOL protected. They have a flexible booking policy which allows you to move your monies to another EBU Congress or Arena Travel Holiday, should there be a need to change your booking at a later date.

For further details, please visit the Antalya First for Bridge Congress webpage.

2022 European Youth Bridge Team Championships

The 28th European Youth Bridge Team Championships at the NH Eindhoven Conference Centre Koningshof, Veldhoven, Eindhoven, in the Netherlands has now concluded.

Congratulations to the Under 16 Team, Under 21 Team and Under 26 Women's Team who all finished in the top 8 places in their category and so have qualified to play in the World Youth Championships.

England had representation from four teams in the competition: Under 16, Under 21, Under 26 and Under 26 Women; full details of each team are listed on the EBU website.

Warm thanks to the donors and supporters that made it possible for the youth teams to attend. More details can be found on the Supporting Youth Bridge page.

News and results will be updated via the Eurobridge website

Under 16s Win Silver Medal & Qualify for World Youth Championships

Congratulations to the England Under 16 Team. They finished second in their group at the 2022 European Youth Bridge Team Championships, held in the Netherlands over the last few days.

The team of Charlotte Bedford, Lucy Norman, Tom Furness, Aman Parekh & William Battersby, (Pictured, along with NPC: Giorgio Provenza and Coach Laura Covill) finished with a score of 207.23. Poland finished in first place, with host team the Netherlands in third. The top eight teams qualify from Europe to play in the 2023 World Youth Championships. The Under 26 Women's Team will also qualify for the World Championships.

NPC Giorgio Provenza has been writing daily reports following the Under 16 team through the event, you can read all the details on the EBU Blog.

Below the team are pictured with their silver medals (from Left Charlotte Bedford, Tom Furness, William Battersby, Lucy Norman, Aman Parekh, Giorgio Provenza and Coach Laura Covill):

EBU Under 16s Youth Team all smiling at the camera and showing off their silver medals

Stevenson & Commins win at Scarborough Summer Congress

David Stevenson & Liz Commins (pictured) were the victors in the Scarborough Summer Congress's main event, winning the Swiss Pairs event by 12 VPs. In second place were Graham Cox & Pat Barton, with 154 VPs and in third place were Chris Jagger & Jane Jensen with 149 VPs.

The Multiple Teams event was won by John Atthey, Diana Nettleton, Andrew McIntosh & Sara Moran (picture). They finished 44 IMPs ahead of the team of Steve Raine, Chris Cooper, John Sansom & Jason Hackett. In third place was the team of Alan Hayward, Tom Copeland, Robin Jepson & Alan Brosgill.

The Seniors Pairs was won by Sue Woodcock & Nick Woodcock (picture) with 59.52%. In second place were Andrew Petrie & Veronica Petrie with 54.76%.

The Pre-Congress Open Pairs was won by Gary Hyett & Margaret Howe (picture) with 54%. In second place were Barrie Partridge & Linda MacFarlane with 50%.

Results
Previous winners: Pairs; Teams

Entries for the 2022 Premier League Close Soon

As a reminder, applications for those wishing to play in the 2022 Premier League close this week.

The event takes place over three weekends in the autumn, and acts as an international trial, with the winners of the First Division earning selection to represent England in one weekend of the 2023 Camrose Trophy series. It is also part of the Championship Series, with points earned towards the Player of the Year competition.

Entries will be closing on Friday 29th July. Entry is for teams of 6 and costs £900 per team. Teams wishing to enter should email comps@ebu.co.uk.

The venues will be confirmed at a later date and the dates are:

First Weekend 10th - 11th September 2022

Second Weekend 15th - 16th October 2022

Third Weekend 5th -6th November 2022

For full details see Premier League webpage

International Events on RealBridge

RealBridge have been busy organising a number of new international events.

Their International Junior Festival was held across two days, on 3rd and 10th July, 2022. In total there were 23 nations taking part, including England. On one of the days USA, Chile and Hong Kong all participated in the same event - a feat considering the time difference! The total number of players and coaches was approximately 250.

“Bridge Across The Ditch” was an event run by two bridge clubs, one in Sydney, Australia and the other in Auckland, New Zealand. The event went well with a total of 124 pairs, covering a range of abilities from novice to tournament players. Both clubs enjoyed the event are looking forward to holding similar events in future.

RealBridge also helped the ACBL Education Foundation’s fundraising team to raise a total of $53,000 towards junior bridge. The event included an array of stars like Kit Woolsey and Bob Hamman.

Returning closer to home, the Warminster Bridge Club in Wiltshire recently organised a game with the Waverley Bridge Club in Melbourne, with the help of RealBridge. Play started at 10am UK time (7pm in Melbourne). This time was chosen as both clubs usually have a supervised play or social duplicate session at this time of the week. The clubs were divided so that Warminster BC players sat north/south, and Waverley BC players sat east/west, this helped both clubs overcome the uncertainty of the strength of each other's players. The event was a great success, with a follow up match due to be played in the Autumn.

If your club would like to organise an international partnership event, please contact Shireen at clubs@realbridge.online

EASTBOURNE - ORDER COLLECTION

Would you like to collect your Bridge Warehouse order at the Eastbourne Summer Congress to save on postage?

Order online by 12pm Monday 8th August and we will arrange for the order to be sent to Eastbourne for you to collect.

Use code EBU119 to remove the postage for your online order and please put EASTBOURNE in the comments section.

Your order will be waiting for you at Reception

Thank you to all donors for your fantastic response to our appeal!

The good news is that the total raised will cover the costs for the Junior teams at the 2022 European Youth Bridge Team Championships, with a small amount left over which will go towards training weekends and other junior events. Here is hoping for a great result in the competition, but what is more important is that we continue to support our young players, and your donations make this possible.

2022 European Youth Bridge Team Championships

The 28th European Youth Bridge Team Championships starts today (20th July) at the NH Eindhoven Conference Centre Koningshof, Veldhoven, Eindhoven, in the Netherlands.

You can watch the event live via VuGraph from 8.30am each morning.

England have representation from four teams in the competition: Under 16, Under 21, Under 26 and Under 26 Women; full details of each team are listed below.

Warm thanks to the donors and supporters that made it possible for the youth teams to attend. More details can be found on the Supporting Youth Bridge page.

News and results will be updated via the Eurobridge website

Full article

Lockdown League 19 entries closing soon

As a reminder entries for the Lockdown League will close next Tuesday 19th July, at 12 noon. The new season will begin on Monday 25th July.

Entries remain at £30 per team and prizes also remain at £40 for first and £20 for second placed teams. If you would like to enter a team please fill in the entry form below:

Autumn 2022 Antalya Congress

It's not too early to start planning your autumn holidays abroad. The Antalya First for Bridge Congress, will take place in the beautiful city of Side, on the Southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, close to Antalya.

It will be held at the 5-star Sense De Luxe Hotel & Spa, a beach-side resort close to Antalya. Two fantastic excursions are included. More details about the local area can be found via TripAdvisor.

All Covid-19 restrictions in Turkey have been lifted. UK citizens no longer require a visa to enter Turkey for holidays. UK government travel information for Turkey.

Bookings can be made via First for Bridge website. Book your flights early as space may be limited. We recommend that you book and confirm your place with them before entering the bridge on My EBU.

For further details, please visit the Antalya First for Bridge Congress webpage.

Nominations for Awards Now Open

Nominations can now be made for two teaching awards which are awarded jointly by EBU and English Bridge Education and Development (EBED).

The Alec Salisbury Award is made to the school teacher who has made the most effective contribution to promoting bridge. The Tom Bradley Award is made to the (non-school) teacher who has made the most effective contribution to promoting youth bridge.

All members can put forward suitable candidates. Nominations should initially be submitted to EBED, giorgio@ebedcio.org.uk . The closing date for nominations is Sunday 31st July 2022.

Nomination forms for both of these awards can be found on our website at https://www.ebedcio.org.uk/awards (The forms are available in pdf or Word versions)

You can read more about the awards and see previous award winners

https://www.ebedcio.org.uk/awards (includes nomination forms)
https://www.ebu.co.uk/information-resources/alec-salisbury-award
https://www.ebu.co.uk/information-resources/tom-bradley-award

Hackett team wins Hubert Phillips Plate

The Hubert Phillips Plate - the consolation event in the EBU's mixed pivot teams competition - has been won by the team of Barbara Hackett, Jason Hackett, Paul Hackett & Martin Taylor.

They beat Neil Crawford, Bob Holder, Joan Murphy, David Owen & Phil Thornton in the final.

2021-22 Plate results

Entries Open for 2022 Premier League

Applications are invited for those wishing to play in the 2022 Premier League.

Entries will be closing on Friday 29th July. Entry is for teams of 6 and costs £900 per team. The easiest was to enter is via My EBU, go to the Utilities menu, then book events.

The venues will be confirmed at a later date and the dates are:

First Weekend 10th - 11th September 2022

Second Weekend 15th - 16th October 2022

Third Weekend 5th -6th November 2022

For full details see Premier League webpage

**Advert** West of England Congress

West of England Congress

Friday to Sunday 7th - 9th October

Includes two Green Pointed events

Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare

www.bridgewebs.com/somerset

Email woecongress@mail.com

Appointment of U26W Squad Leader

Claire Robinson has been appointed by the Selection Committee as Squad Leader for the junior women's squad, with immediate effect.

Claire replaces Sally Brock, who has stepped down after more than six years' service. We thank Sally for all her work, and wish Claire every success in her new role

Bid72 EBU Bidding Contest - June Results

Following the June monthly score the pairat the top of group A is the partnership of Stephen W - Bill M with a current average score of 8.32. In second place are Alex G - Paul G, and in third place are Dave S - Brian A

In group B, three partnerships will be promoted to group A, they are; Buzzy Bee - The Saint; Stuart K - Stephen T and Thearb - noozman.

In group C five partnerships will be promoted to group B, these are; Saf - John Me; Hol - Carolin; Jon B - Graham D; Fran - Lesley C and Marilyn H - David J.

For more information and to register see Bid72 EBU

Burgess & Seale win Riviera Mixed Pairs

Ollie Burgess & Catherine Seale (pictured), have won the Mixed Pairs at the English Riviera Congress online this weekend, with a score in the final of 59.36%. In second place were Jim Hay & Jackie Davies with a score of 58.82% and in third were David Dawson & Christine Dyer with a score of 56.64%.

The Stratified Mixed Swiss Pairs event was won by Nichola Cockerill-Smith & Ivan Leung (picture), with a final score of 92 VPs. Just behind in second place were Angela Treen & Mark Mortimer with a score of 90 VPs and in third place were Paul Barden & Claire Robinson with a score of 84 VPs.

Full Results

English Riviera (Mixed Pairs) Congress - Player Information

For players booked to play in the English Riviera (Mixed Pairs) Congress this weekend please see the below information which has also been sent via email:

Play will start at 11:00am on Saturday 2nd July.

You will find the programme and other information on the event results page along with the links for the sessions as they become available. After the sessions are complete you will also find results there.

Please note that you are required to have video and audio, and you must use them unless technical issues prevent it.

This event uses self-alerting without screens as detailed in the programme, with typed explanations sent to both opponents by the player making the call. Requests for further information also go as typed messages to the player making the call.

You must provide a link to your system card to your opponents each round. If you do not already have one, please upload your system card as a pdf to your My EBU, under utilities, system card, and follow the instructions provided. Help in creating a system card and converting it to a pdf can be found on the EBU Members Wiki under Help Creating a System Card.

Undos are only allowed in the auction for mis-clicks, or for cases of misinformation. You should always first call the TD when an undo is requested (you may need to refuse the undo request first in order to access the TD button).

When you log on to play, please enter your name as found on your EBU record, in proper case (eg John Smith, not JOHN SMITH, john smith or John S), along with your EBU number without leading zeros (105719 not 00105719).

For emergency assistance on the day, please contact Robin Barker Deputy Chief TD on 01296 317223 or email robin@ebu.co.uk.

Dominic Connolly wins Quarterly Online IMPs Ladder

The quarterly IMP competition for our online games, hosted by Funbridge, has concluded.

In the second quarter in 2022 April to June, Dominic Connolly finished top of the leader board. He scored 323 total IMPs from his best six games, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by David Dawson with a score of 304 IMPs, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
April to June IMPs Ladder
Archive of All winners

June Robot Ladder Competitions

June's robot ladder competitions, have now concluded.

In the 12-board ladder for June, James Bond won the top prize of £30 with an average score of 71.91% over six games. Dominic Connolly was second, with 71.21% and Gordon Rainsford third with a score of 69.08%. There were also prizes for fourth and fifth place.

In the main June matchpoints ladder, Robin Prestwich finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 65.51%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Dominic Connolly with an average score of 64.19%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Robin Prestwich finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 9.96, winning £25. The second place prize went to Jonathan Bennett with a score of 6.92. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
June Matchpoints Ladder; June Handicap Ladder; June 12-board ladder
Archive of previous winners

Eton College Presented with the Inaugural Lords Trophy

On Wednesday the 29th of June, Eton College, winners of the Inter-schools League, were presented with the new Lords Trophy during a visit to the House of Lords.

Following on the Schools Cup having been played online in 2020 and 2021, EBED decided to build upon the success of those events. Following an idea by Stuart Haring and the relentless work of Joan Bennett (EBED’s national youth coordinator), in September 2019 the Inter-schools League was up and running.

Forty teams from seventeen schools, divided in three divisions with promotions and relegations have fought all year round – playing online matches on RealBridge. Finally, Eton college – who were undefeated in the final round – emerged as winners, topping Haberdasher school, in what has become a recent classic (the Habs boys won the 2022 Schools Cup, taking back the crown from Eton, winners in 2021).

Thanks to Baroness Ruth Henig, who chairs the all-party parliamentary bridge group, the House of Lords have become the patrons of the event and John Deech has donated the beautiful salver you can see in the picture.

After a tour of the House, brilliantly led by Lord Hamilton of Epsom and a wonderful tea served on the terrace along the river Thames, the winners - Henry Rose, Roland Bourne, Andrew Bradkin, Jacob Potter, were presented with the Lords Trophy.

It was then time for bridge; after 12 boards packed with swings, The Eton boys topped a team of Peers by 11 IMPs. A longer report about the event will be published in the next Issue of English Bridge.

If you run a bridge club in a school or know someone who does so and you want to enter next year’s Inter-schools league, get in touch with Joan Bennett (joan@ebedcio.org.uk).

2022 European Team Championships

The 55th European Team Championships, which started on 12th June in Madeira, Portugal, finished yesterday 22nd June.

England had representation from four teams in the competition: Open (picture), Women's, Mixed (picture) and Seniors (picture), full details of each team are listed below.

The top eight teams in each category will qualify for entry into the World Championships in 2023. Unfortunately none of the England teams finished in a qualifying position, however they all gave creditable performances. The final positions of the England teams:

Open	12th
Women's	12th
Senior	11th
Mixed	10th

Of the home nations teams, the only team to qualify was the Irish Open team, so congratulations to them and good luck for the World Championships.

Full details for the event can be found on the Eurobridge website.

Scores for all England team matches can be seen on the EBU website.

County Chairs Meeting

The video from the recent County Chairs meeting is now available to view on the EBU YouTube channel.

The minutes from the meeting, including the presentations are also available: County Chairs Meeting Minutes.

Minutes from all previous meetings can be found on the EBU minutes page.

Entries Extended for 2022/23 Gerard Faulkner Salver

Applications for the 2022/23 Gerard Faulkner Salver have been extended until Monday 27th June, so there is still chance to enter. The popular Seniors Knockout Teams event was first introduced in 2002.

This is the 'Seniors Knockout Competition', and is for teams of four (though you can have a squad of six), all of whom must have been born in, or before, 1959. There is a repechage, so all unseeded teams are guaranteed at least two matches.

The event is played as a knockout throughout, with matches played privately. Matches in the early stages will be arranged so as to avoid long journeys wherever possible, and matches can also be played online at the agreement of both teams. If you would prefer to play online, please let us know following your entry and you will be drawn against other teams wishing to play online as much and for as long as possible.

More information about the competition is available on the Gerard Faulkner Salve competition page of the EBU website.

Entries are £80 per team. To enter please use the online booking system through My EBU, or contact the Competitions Department on 01296 317203 or comps@ebu.co.uk.

The closing date for entries has been extended to 27th June. We look forward to receiving your entry.

Surrey and Mayfield Bridge Club win Garden Cities

Congratulations to Mayfield Bridge Club (Surrey) for winning the 2022 Garden Cities Trophy for club teams of eight. They finished 12 VPs ahead of second-placed Torquay Bridge Club (Devon). Menagerie Bridge Club (Oxfordshire) were third.

The team comprised: Julian Hemsted, Neil Gayner, David Dawson, David Norman, Peter Lee, Mike Scoltock, Andrew Southwell & Richard Fedrick

Garden Cities results

Ian Payn joins EBL Executive

At the elections of the European Bridge League on June 18, EBU Chair Ian Payn was voted on to its Executive Committee. EBL President Jan Kamras is standing down to become President of the World Bridge Federation later in the year and his place in the EBL will be taken by the current Treasurer, Eric Laurant from the Netherlands.

Countdown to the 2022 Summer Meeting

With just 58 days to go until the start of the Summer Meeting, the fourth blog from local Eastbourne resident Ros Wolfarth gives details of some hidden gems and places to visit during your trip to Eastbourne for the Summer Meeting + a short lesson in how to save money! Read the full blog Wish You Were Here part 4.

The Summer Meeting will again return to Eastbourne and the grandeur of the newly refurbished Floral Hall of the Winter Gardens.

We have decided to run a reduced 4-day Summer Meeting at Eastbourne, to take place from the evening of Thursday 11th - Sunday 14th August.

Thursday 11th - Mixed/Open Pairs
Friday 12th - Swiss Teams
Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th - Swiss Pairs

Book early to receive £10 off the price of the full congress!

We hope to see you in person at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne, for a lovely long weekend of face-to-face bridge. Please send enquiries to comps@ebu.co.uk, 01296 317203 or book online via My EBU.

From the Chair

The European Championships are underway – four English teams have flown to Madeira to compete in the Open, Womens, Mixed and Seniors events. We wish them all the best of luck. I’ve been to Madeira a couple of times – it’s a refined island, although the second time that I visited I noted the encroachment of all the leading fashion names into Funchal city centre, replacing local stores. Our players, however, won’t have much time for tourism or fashion shopping, so whether what’s on offer is Gucci ties or hand-knitted yoghurt is a matter of some indifference to them.

Last week I went to Northampton, for the official opening of the new Northampton Bridge Club. I had been invited by Richard Gibson (pictured at the reception desk) and greeted by Richard Tickle, club chairman. It’s a splendid club, and it has grown out of a genuine community spirit. I also met (pictured, L to R) Dave Smith, a committee member and one of the prime movers behind the acquisition of the premises, John Josephs, a recent trustee, and club secretary, Ross Stacey, described, as most club secretaries are, as the person who does everything. Like all clubs or counties, Northampton is only as strong as its volunteers. It seems to me that Northampton is a very strong club indeed, and it was an honour to be invited to the opening.

Man sat behind desk taking entries for duplicate ridge session Three men standing and smiling at the camera after having played duplicate bridge

Closer to home, I attended the funeral of Cecil Leighton. Cecil’s achievements are noted elsewhere on this website, but I felt a particular link to him, because he ran the first bridge competition I ever entered, a few decades ago. The London Trophy (predictably, a London event) was a knockout competition for non-bridge clubs (tennis clubs, golf clubs etc) and four of us kitchen bridge players decided to enter under a slightly spurious banner. You were only allowed one player above the rank of Regional Master in your team, but there was no danger of crossing that line in our team. We played our first matches in an office block in London, a house in Westerham and Roehampton club. How we won any of them is a mystery to me, but the event was played in good part by all. There used to be a huge number of teams entered, and Cecil coped with them all, long before the invention of e-mail. It came to light at the funeral that his wife assisted with the admin, and it was implied that “assisted” might have been a bit of an understatement, but never mind: I’m not the only person to have made my start at the bridge table under Cecil’s aegis – a lot of us have much to be grateful for. Of the remainder of my London Trophy team, by the way, two have given up bridge altogether, and one of them is the Chair of Sussex. The team was clearly a heady mix of the power-crazed and deserters.

Another figure who has recently died won’t mean much outside London- won’t indeed mean much outside London rubber bridge circles. Bill Elvin ran the Green Street club off Park Lane for an astonishing 47 years (from 1958 to 2005). I didn’t know him well, but he seemed like a decent man to me. Only one major rubber club in London remains now (TGRs in Paddington). A shame that this form of the game is dying out – it does no harm at the bridge table if occasionally, just occasionally, you have to put your money where your mouth is!

As you may be aware, we have had to reduce the funding available to English Junior teams – the effect of Covid on our finances will continue to be felt for a while yet – and my friend Jeremy Willans has set up a fundraising page. Please help out if you feel that you can, whether as a club, a county or an individual. The response when we raised funds for Juniors a few years ago was tremendous. I’m not expecting the same sort of success this time around – times is ‘ard for everyone, but all support is gratefully received.

We’re getting to the stage where the first people to be disciplined for online cheating will have done their time and will be rejoining the fold if they want to. Please welcome them back. They’ve done their time, they deserve a chance to be rehabilitated into the bridge world if that’s what they want. I don’t buy into this “once a cheat, always a cheat” argument. It’s not the way we do things. People who have been judged to have cheated have paid the price. There is no call for snide comments, nor for refusing to play against people. Both will be offences under Best Behaviour at Bridge.

On a more upbeat note, Eastbourne draws ever closer. The event has changed shape, perforce, so have a look at the revised calendar – if you haven’t already – and see if there’s anything you fancy. My Eastbourne partner asked me if this year we could play in the teams rather than the pairs. “But,” I said “the teams is only one day”. She looked me in the eye, and said “Precisely”.

Ian

Squad Leader Wanted for Under 26 Women's Team

The EBU Selection Committee is looking to appoint a new Under-26 Women's squad leader.

The job description and person specification.

Applicants should familiarise themselves with the EBU safeguarding policy and the Code of Conduct for those working with Junior squads.

Applications, with a brief summary of what you would bring to the role and how you meet the person specification, should be sent to sam@ebu.co.uk

If you wish to discuss the role further, this can be done with the chair of the Selection Committee who can be contacted via the same email address.

Applications close at noon on Monday 20th June.

Maureen Hiron (1942-2022)

Maureen Hiron has died. As well as being the widow of Alan Hiron, Maureen was a well-known bridge player in her own right, and succeeded Alan as bridge correspondent for the Independent. Long resident in Spain, Maureen enjoyed great success at creating games. Perhaps the best known were Continuo and Quizwrangle. She also set questions for early seasons of the popular TV quiz show Fifteen to One, and devised puzzles for The Krypton Factor. At the bridge table she was on the winning England team in both the 1974 and 1975 Lady Milne Trophy and represented Great Britain in the European Championships of 1974.

Our condolences to her family and friends.

Middlesex win Pachabo Cup

The Pachabo Cup took place over 11-12 June and was won by Middlesex who were represented by Neil Rosen, Anne Rosen, John Atthey, Richard Hillman & Keith Bennett (pictured, Anne Rosen not pictured).

The event is for the winners of the county teams championship of each County Association of the EBU.

The event uses hybrid scoring and Middlesex's winning score was 245.5. London (Ollie Burgess, Susanna Gross, Phil King & Kevin Castner) were second with a score of 223 and Gloucestershire (Patrick Shields, Garry Watson, Daniel McIntosh & Robert Myers) were third with a score of 219.

Results

2022 European Team Championships

The 55th European Team Championships, starts this weekend 12th June in Madeira, Portugal, running until 22nd June.

England have representation from four teams in the competition: Open, Women's, Mixed and Seniors, full details of each team are listed below.

You can watch all the action on BBO VuGraph from 1.45pm on Sunday 12th June.

The top eight teams in each category will qualify for entry into the World Championships in 2023.

Full details for the event can be found on the Eurobridge website.

Open Team

Ben Norton and Mike Bell

Tom Townsend and Ben Handley-Pritchard

Stefano Tommasini and Ben Green

NPC: Paul Barden

Coach: Claire Robinson

Women's Team

Ewa Kater and Ewa Wieczorek

Catherine Seale and Catherine Draper

Anne Rosen and Nevena Senior

NPC: Paula Leslie

Mixed Team

Frances Hinden and Graham Osborne

Diana Nettleton and Tom Paske

Michael Byrne and Sarah Bell

NPC: Nick Smith

Seniors Team

Chris Dixon and Taf Anthias

Gunnar Hallberg and David Mossop

Sally Brock and Barry Myers

NPC: Simon Cochemé

Coach: Alan Mould

Welcome to Louise Crisp

We are pleased to welcome Louise Crisp who joined the staff this week. Louise has joined the Tournament Department and will fill the role previously held by Charlie Bucknell.

Louise's biography

Entries Open for 2022/23 Gerard Faulkner Salver

Applications are invited for those wishing to play in the 2022/23 Gerard Faulkner Salver. The popular Seniors Knockout Teams event was first introduced in 2002. It is open to teams consisting of four to six players, all of whom are EBU members born in 1959 or earlier.

The event is played as a knockout throughout, with matches played privately. Matches in the early stages will be arranged so as to avoid long journeys wherever possible, and matches can also be played online at the agreement of both teams. There is a repechage for unseeded teams which lose their first match, so every unseeded team is guaranteed at least two matches.

Entries are £80 per team. To enter please use the online booking system through My EBU, or contact the Competitions Department on 01296 317203 or comps@ebu.co.uk.

The closing date for entries will be 21st June. We look forward to receiving your entry.

Updates EBU Office Services Price List

Please be aware the from 1st July there will be slight changes in prices for services that the EBU provide to clubs. You can view the new price list linked below. For more information about the resources the EBU provides for clubs visit the Clubs & Counties section of the website.

Celia & Derek Oram win Swiss Pairs at Spring Bank Holiday Congress

The Spring Bank Holiday Congress took place this weekend online. There was a 9-High Improvers Pairs on Saturday run by Kent CBA on BBO and the Swiss Pairs on Sunday on RealBridge.

The Swiss Pairs was won by Celia Oram & Derek Oram. Their score of 103 VPs was just enough to push Norman Selway & Kay Preddy into second place with a score of 102 VPs. The top two pairs were tied when they had both finished play, but one of the last results at another table gave the Orams an extra VP to win outright. Paddy Murphy & Mark Roderick finished in third.

The two session Improvers Pairs, was won by Linda Holroyde & Mollie Temple with an overall score of 60.88%. Daphne Lesley Twinberrow & Janet Patrick finished in second place, with Daphne Patteson & Karen Murphy in third.

Full Results

Rita Keable

We are sad to report the death of Rita Keable. Rita was a recipient of a Dimmie Fleming Award in 2005 for her work with Bedfordshire.

Rita Keable died peacefully on Monday morning 30th May 2022 after a long illness. She was 86 years old, had been playing bridge for 60 years, and had been a key member of Bedfordshire (BBA) for more than 40 years.

Rita was a member of the Bedfordshire County Committee for more than 25 years, prior to which she also ran the Acol Club with her former husband. She held various roles within the Bedfordshire County Committee including Congress Secretary and Committee Chair.

Her funeral will be held on the 13th of June in Llanelli. For further details about the funeral please email Brian Keable briankeable@compuserve.com or Robert Amsbury rjamsbury@gmail.com. or to call Brian Keable ring 01554 4891621 and ask for Julia Amsbury.

We extend our sympathy to Rita's family and friends.

EBU Closed for Jubilee Bank Holiday

Office hours: The EBU office will be closed for the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend from 5pm Wednesday 1st June until 9am on Monday 6th June.

The Bridge Warehouse: No orders will be now be dispatched before Monday 6th June. Orders can be placed online over the Bank Holiday weekend - www.ebu.co.uk/bridge-warehouse - and will be dispatched when the office re-opens next week.

Competitions: If you wish to enter the Spring Bank Holiday Swiss Pairs please enter online through My EBU. For entry to the 9-High Improvers Pairs, please enter via the KCBA website.

For all other competitions, please enter online via My EBU or if you would prefer to call, phone lines will reopen at 9am Monday 6th June (01296 317203).

Spring Bank Holiday Congress - Player Information

For players booked to play in the Spring Bank Holiday Congress Swiss Pairs this weekend please see the below information which has also been sent via email:

Play will start at 11:00am on Sunday 5th June.

Please note that you are required to have video and audio, and you must use them unless technical issues prevent it.

For emergency assistance on the day, please contact Robin Barker Deputy Chief TD on 01296 317223 or email robin@ebu.co.uk.

May Robot Ladder Competitions

May's robot ladder competitions, have now concluded.

In the 12-board ladder for May, Jack Terry won the top prize of £30 with an average score of 70% over six games. Richard Creamer was second, with 69.65% and Dominic Connolly third with a score of 69.56%. There were also prizes for fourth and fifth place.

In the main May matchpoints ladder, Olivier La Spada finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 68.21%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Dennis Haines with an average score of 64.23%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Paul Hawkins finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 7.14, winning £25. The second place prize went to Luis Barbero with a score of 6.80. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
May Matchpoints Ladder; May Handicap Ladder; May 12-board ladder
Archive of previous winners

Invitation to World Bridge Series - Wrocław 2022

The Polish Bridge Union, have created this beautiful video inviting players to the 16th World Bridge Series to be held in Wroclaw from 19th August – 2nd September 2022.

For more details about how to enter the event, check the World Bridge Series page on the World Bridge Federation website.

Lockdown League 18

Entries for Lockdown League Season 18 are now open!

The format remains the same, with three 8-board matches per week. Entries remain at £30 per team and prizes also remain at £40 for first and £20 for second. The season will begin on Monday 13th June. Furthermore, the top 4 of each division will be promoted and the bottom four will be relegated to the division above and below respectively.

If you would like to enter a team please fill in the entry form below. The closing date for entries will be Wednesday 8th June at 1pm.

Returning Captains form

New Teams Captains form

Cecil Leighton

We are sad to report the death of Cecil Leighton. Cecil was a recipient of a Dimmie Fleming Award in 1992 and the EBU Silver Award in 2011 following nomination by London Metropolitan Bridge Association in recognition of his truly exceptional services to the County and to bridge.

Cecil served on the LMBA Committee in a number of different capacities, including a period as Chairman, for some 54 years until his retirement at the LMBA AGM in the summer of 2011. This length of service deserves very special recognition in itself, but it is worth emphasising that he has been a very hard and active worker on behalf of bridge in the capital during all that time.

The funeral will be held on Monday 30 at 2pm at Woodland Cemetery, Bulls Cross Ride, Goff's Oak, Enfield, EN7 5PF.

Sitting shiva is at 8pm on the 2 evenings, Monday at 6 The Bowls, IG7 6NB and Tuesday at 73 Bawdsey Avenue, IG2 7TN.

For further details from Karen Leighton (daughter of Cecil), please email sam@ebu.co.uk.

Baines & Miller win Corwen Trophy

Daniel Baines & Robert Miller, from Northamptonshire, have won the Corwen Trophy which took place this weekend, 28th - 29th May.

The event is for the leading pairs in the most recent pairs championship of each County Association of the EBU.

In second place were Andy Hughes & Jeremy Dhondy from Hants and the Isle of Wight, and from Worcestershire, John Sansom & Richard Jephcott, were third.

Countdown to the 2022 Summer Meeting

With just 76 days to go until the start of the Summer Meeting, the third blog from local Eastbourne resident Ros Wolfarth gives the perfect itinerary for the 3 generation family for your trip to Eastbourne and the Summer Meeting: read the full blog Wish You Were Here part 3.

New EBU Calendar

The EBU calendar, showing forthcoming competitions, has been improved and is now live on the site. The different types of event are now clearer and easier to filter. Details for how to use the new calendar can be found below or watch our video calendar guide.

Please note: The old version of the calendar will remain available (EBU Google calendar) if you find it more convenient.

How to Use

The default view shows all events in date order. To change your view click the filters button in the top right. You can pin the filter so that it is always visible by clicking the pin.

By clicking on the column headings you can sort the data, for example clicking on the name column will sort events by name into alphabetical order.

To change the search, press the clear button to remove all filters and then repick new filters and click search.

If you want to save your regular search click the padlock, this will save your search for when you return the website.

By clicking on the name of the event you are interested in you will be taken to the event details page which will show further information about the event.

By clicking on the event link, this will take you to the event webpage.

You can change how you view the calendar, either in list form or calendar form by clicking the toggle button next to the filters button on the top right. This will toggle between the options "view calendar" or "view event grid".

How to Add Events

All counties will be able to add, edit and delete their own events (You won’t be able to edit or delete anyone else’s).

To add events to the calendar you will need a login. To get your username and password so you can start to promote your events please contact comps@ebu.co.uk.

Once you have received your username and password, you can login. The option for this is at the top of the page.

Click Add New Event. Please fill in as much detail about your event as possible. This will help more people find your event using the filtering system.

If you are entering a multi-day event you can save and copy to add your event across multiple days, changing any sections as appropriate.

Edit events by clicking the action button next to the event you would like to edit.

You can save events as draft if you do not wish them to be published immediately. There is a tick box to show if events are published.

We hope you find the calendar a useful tool for promoting your bridge events. If you have any questions, please email comps@ebu.co.uk

Countdown to the 2022 Summer Meeting

With just 80 days to go until the start of the Summer Meeting, the second blog of our countdown series gives a look at the interior of the Winter Gardens and a fun packed family itinerary: read the full blog Wish You Were Here part 2.

Kent win at National Inter-County League Finals

The National Finals of the Inter-County Leagues took place online on Saturday 21st May. Champions from each of the five regional Inter-County leagues were invited to compete alongside last year’s national champions.

Congratulations to Kent 'A', Surrey ‘B’ and Hertfordshire ‘C’ who won their respective divisions.

The winning Kent team was: Norman Selway & Kay Preddy; Steve Auchterlonie & Peter Law; John Amor & John Hemington; Gerald Soper & Colin Wilson.

Full results and details

Getting back to face-to-face alerting

Now that many players are back to playing face-to-face, some of them have found they are no longer clear about how alerting and announcing work in the live game.

There is a summary of the current alerting rules available on this website, although some of the announcements may be updated later this year, but here are a few tips to simplify things even more for the most common cases.

Alerting and announcing are done by the partner of the player making the call (self-alerts only apply in some online games);
Doubles of natural suit bids below 3NT are assumed to be for takeout; if they are not then they are alerted (it doesn’t matter how normal you think the situation is, just follow the rule);
Doubles of NT bids up to 3NT are assumed to be for penalties; if they are not (such as (1H)-P-(1NT)-X for takeout of hearts) then they are alerted;
Calls above 3NT are not usually alerted, except:
- suit bids on the first round, like splinter bids (the first round is considered to start with the first bid, regardless of the number of passes that might have preceded it) – 4NT is not alerted even on the first round;
- Lead-directing passes;
- Doubles or redoubles that are ‘artificially’ lead-directing [lead directing but ask for the lead of a suit other than the suit doubled (or redoubled)], such as a double of a splinter bid asking for a lead of the next lower-ranking suit, or the double of a slam asking for the lead of dummy’s first bid suit;
- Doubles and redoubles of no trump contracts that call for a specific suit to be led.

Team Hinden Wins The Hubert Phillips Bowl

The Hubert Phillips Bowl, the National Championship for Mixed Pivot Teams, has been won by Frances Hinden’s team (Jeffrey Allerton, Jon Cooke, Tony Forrester, Frances Hinden, Chris Jagger & Graham Osborne), who beat Sally Brock’s team (Sally Brock, Phil King, Barry Myers & Rob Sheehan) in the final played over 60 boards at the The MindSports Centre in London.

It’s not too late to enter a team for the 2022/23 season. For more information about the Hubert Philips Bowl competition and how to enter a team click here.

Scotland win Teltscher Trophy

The Teltscher Trophy - the 'senior Camrose' competition - took place this weekend, hosted by Northern Ireland in Belfast and also broadcast live on RealBridge.

Scotland finished top of the table, with a total score of 62.86 VPs. The Scotland team was Bob McPaul, Sandy Duncan, David Shenkin, Cameron McLatchie, Harry Smith, Roy Bennett, Anne Perkins (NPC)

The England team of Patrick Shields, Richard Chamberlain, Gary Hyett, John Holland, Malcolm Pryor, David Kendrick & NPC David Jones, finished in a very close second place with 61.98 VPs. In third place was the Republic of Ireland team with 49.62 VPs.

Squad Leader Wanted for Under 26 Women's Team

The EBU Selection Committee is looking to appoint a new Under-26 Women's squad leader.

The job description and person specification.

Applicants should familiarise themselves with the EBU safeguarding policy and the Code of Conduct for those working with Junior squads.

Applications, with a brief summary of what you would bring to the role and how you meet the person specification, should be sent to sam@ebu.co.uk

If you wish to discuss the role further, this can be done with the chair of the Selection Committee who can be contacted via the same email address.

Applications close at noon on Monday 20th June.

Countdown to the 2022 Summer Meeting

With only 85 days to go until the flagship of event of the English bridge calendar, now is the time to start planning your journey. Ros Wolfarth has written the first in a series of blogs bringing you ideas to help you plan not just your bridge, but how to make the most of your time in Eastbourne.

The Summer Meeting will again return to Eastbourne and the grandeur of the newly refurbished Floral Hall of the Winter Gardens.

We have decided to run a reduced 4-day Summer Meeting at Eastbourne, to take place from the evening of Thursday 11th - Sunday 14th August.

Thursday 11th - Mixed/Open Pairs
Friday 12th - Swiss Teams
Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th - Swiss Pairs

Book early to receive £10 off the price of the full congress!

We hope to see you in person at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne, for a lovely long weekend of face-to-face bridge. Please send enquiries to comps@ebu.co.uk, 01296 317203 or book online via My EBU.

Watch the Teltscher Trophy starting today at 7pm

This weekend is the prestigious home nations event, the Teltscher Trophy (Senior Camrose). The first matches start this evening at 7pm, with games taking place across the weekend.

This year the Teltscher Trophy is being held in Beflast and hosted by NIBU. Coverage of the event will be broadcast on RealBridge, you can follow all the action via the RealBridge kibitzing website.

The inaugural event was in 2008, this is the 15th in the series. Last year the Republic of Ireland won the event, which was hosted by England. The England team had won four of the five years prior to that and will be hoping to reclaim the trophy.

Representing England are:

Patrick Shields & Richard Chamberlain
Gary Hyett & John Holland
Malcolm Pryor & David Kendrick
NPC David Jones

Masters Pairs - 27th February

This event is for members below the rank of Regional Master who will be competing for the Ann Staveley trophy. The competition is an excellent opportunity for players to play in a national event that allows them to play against other players of their standard, rather than entering an event with an ‘open’ field. The competition should be held over two-sessions on either BBO or RealBridge. Host clubs have the option to start the first session of 24 boards between 10.30am and 1pm (this window ensures that no club will have finished the first session prior to another club starting). The second session of 24 boards can be followed immediately or after a break.

Current Clubs hosting in 2022:

Adam Wiseberg Bridge - details TBC

Caterham Bridge Club - Starts at 11.30, on BBO. Entry £13 per person. Enter via the Caterham website. All welcome.

Richmond Bridge Club - Starts at approx. 10.45am, live at the club. Entry £15 per person. Enter via Richmond website. All welcome.

Somerset - Starts at 10.45 am, on RealBridge. Entry £10 per player. Enter via Somerset website. All welcome.

National Pairs Regional Heats - 13th March

The heats will be run by clubs, and the top 50 pairs will qualify for the National final taking place on RealBridge 8th-9th April. The only cost to clubs will be for the two-session UMS, there is no additional charge. This is not only a qualifying event for the National Pairs final but also up for grabs are five regional trophies, awarded based on the organising clubs’ geographical locations. Clubs can run this event on BBO, Bridge Club Live or RealBridge. The event will be played over two sessions, host clubs will have the option to start at whatever time they wish between 10.30am and 1pm (this window ensures that no heat will have finished the first session prior to the starting time of any other heat).

Current Clubs hosting in 2022:

Allendale Bridge Club - on RealBridge, first session starting at 11am with a break between sessions. Entry £5 per player

Caterham Bridge Club - on BBO, first session starting at 11.30am

Deva Bridge Club (Chester) - on BBO, first session starting at 11am

Oliver Cowan Bridge Club - on BBO, first session starting at 11am, with a 1 hour break and the second session starting at 3pm. Entry is £6 per player please email ocbridgecomps@gmail.com with BBO usernames and EBU numbers.

Reading Bridge Club - on BBO, first session starting at 10.30, with a one hour break after the first 24 boards. The entry fee is BBO$6 payable on the day. Participants should sign up on the Reading website.

Richmond Bridge Club

Tyler Hill Bridge Club - on BBO, first session starting at 11am, with the second session aiming to start at 2.30pm. Entry 5 $BBO per player per session

If your club would like to participate in either event, please email sam@ebu.co.uk.

Please enter directly with your local club.

Lockdown League 16

Entries for Lockdown League Season 16 are now open!

The format remains the same, with three 8-board matches per week. Entries remain at £30 per team and prizes also remain at £40 for first and £20 for second. The season will begin on Monday 28th February. Furthermore, the top 4 of each division will be promoted and the bottom four will be relegated to the division above and below respectively.

If you would like to enter a team please fill in the entry form below. The closing date for entries will be Wednesday 23rd February.

Catherine Seale & Catherine Draper

Murphy & Roderick win in the Harrogate Spring Congress

The Harrogate Spring Congress took place this weekend, held online via RealBridge and BBO.

The Swiss Pairs event was won by Paddy Murphy & Mark Roderick. Second place went to the pair of Steve Root & Stefano Tommasini, with Mike Fawcett & Roger Forster in third.

The main Swiss Teams event was won by the team of Jacek Pszczola, Martin Seligman, Michal Kwiecien & Wlodzimierz Starkowski, with the team of Catherine Draper, Gillian Fawcett, John Hassett & Andrew Woodcock taking second place.

The 9 High Improvers Pairs was won by Patsi Barnes & Joan Watson, ahead of second place Maresa Cook & Philip Goldenberg.

The Congress was run by Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association on behalf of the EBU.

Full results

Bedfordshire Blue Pointed Swiss Pairs **Advert**

Bedfordshire Bridge Association, Blue Pointed Swiss Pairs

Saturday 5 March 2022 at 11:00am on RealBridge

Entry fee £15 per pair for 7 x 7-board matches

Click to enter online

Young Bridge Challenge

Entries are now welcomed for the Young Bridge Challenge, which we have decided to run online again this year – on Saturday, 5th March.

The Young Bridge Challenge is a historic annual schools cup competition hosted by EBED. It is a one-day bridge event for school-aged players of all experience levels.

More information including the online entry form can be found here. It is completely FREE to enter, and entries of single players, pairs or complete teams are welcomed.

Also, it is not too late to enter the third event of the Grand Prix (held online on Sunday the 13th of February, from 4 - 6 pm), the year round competition for players U21. To sign up please fill in this form.

More info about the Grand Prix can be found here: Youth Bridge Grand Prix competition 2021-2022 | English Bridge Union (ebu.co.uk)

Jeremy Dhondy steps down as L&E Deputy Secretary

Jeremy Dhondy has now stepped down from his role as Law & Ethics Deputy Secretary, having joined us a year ago during a busy period for the Law & Ethics department. We would like to thank him for his invaluable help during this time.

Lederer Memorial Trophy

This year's Lederer Memorial Trophy, run by the London Metropolitan Bridge association, takes place in just a few short weeks, at the RAC in Pall Mall.

Ten top-flight teams are invited to take part and there is as usual, a great line-up.

Play starts at 12 noon on Saturday 26th February and continues at 11 am on Sunday 27th. You can spectate in person or on Vugraph.

If you're planning to drop by and watch in person, please observe the RAC weekend dress code.

GDPR Update

We would like to make you aware that we have added a small change to our GDPR policy.

The additional wording appears at the end of the first section of the policy, “What personal data does the English Bridge Union (EBU) collect”. It reads as follows:

We collect device information when you make transactions on our website, in order to help us identify and solve any technical problems that may arise. This information is only used for that purpose and is not stored any longer than necessary.

You can read the full GDPR policy on the GDPR page.

EBU WROXTON HOUSE PARTY 2022!

Come and enjoy a relaxing weekend in the lavish Wroxton House Hotel the weekend of 19th and 20th February. Our experienced director Christine Macfarlane will guide you through a thrilling weekend of bridge and relaxation.

For only £50 per person you can have two days of bridge with a seminar including a Blue Pointed Swiss Pairs competition!

Enter via your My EBU. Or you can call 01296317203 or email comps@ebu.co.uk.

Please note that you need to book the hotel separately from the bridge. Make sure to mention that you're booking the EBU Wroxton House Party 2022 to get special discounted rates on your room booking!

Women's Trials Concluded

The Women's Trials took place this weekend at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club.

Congratulations to the top three pairs who qualified to represent England:

Anne Rosen & Nevena Senior

Ewa Wieczorek & Ewa Kater

The above pairs will be invited to represent England at the 2022 European Women’s Championship.

Support for Junior Squad Sim Pairs this week

Please be aware that due to the Junior Squad Sim Pairs taking place this week, travellers and hand records for all EBU Virtual Club games will be suppressed for non-players between 12 noon and 10pm each day from Monday 7th - Thursday 10th February. This means that if your club is using a non-playing director they will not be able to process the results for the session until after 10pm regardless of whether it is a Sim session or not. Those playing in the games will be able to see their results on BBO as usual.

If your club would like to enter one of the events, you can still do so via the club My EBU log in, under utilities, sims events.

Apologies for any inconvenience this will cause but it is necessary to avoid the boards from the Sims being seen whilst they are still live and being played at other clubs.

How to take part

For 2022 the entry fees are £2.90 per player, plus the usual Universal Membership Subscription payment.

Information on the benefits of participating in the event, including entry in the prize draw and more details on how clubs can participate, are available on the Sims page.

February Update from Aylesbury

The new Update from Aylesbury with news for Clubs and Counties is now available.

It contains news, articles to help you in the running of your clubs, details of forthcoming events, and important information about club administration. If you need any advice, or have any suggestions for issues you would like covered in the next newsletter, then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

New Funbridge Challenge Beat the Champion

This weekend is your second chance to play the Funbridge Beat the Champion Challenge.

EBU member and England International, Ben Norton, is the current Funbridge champion.

Ben will play a tournament this Sunday 6th February (Funbridge Points), you can play against him and have a chance to win 25 Funbridge Diamonds by beating his score!

The entry fee for the event is 25 Funbridge Diamonds. You can register for the event now.

Read more about the competition and an interview with Ben

Watch the Women's Trials this Weekend

The Women's European Trial takes place this weekend live at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club.

The top three pairs will be offered a place to represent England at the 2022 European Women’s Championship.

Play begins today (Friday 4th) at 12.30pm and continues throughout the weekend. Matches can be watched on RealBridge, with a half-hour delay.

Anne Swannell

We are sad to report the death of Anne Swannell. Anne was awarded the Dimmie Fleming award for her services to Gloucester County Bridge Association as a committee member. She was also a long time member of Cheltenham Bridge Club, having served on their committee for over 20 years. Our heartfelt condolences to all her family and friends.

Her obituary can be read on the Cheltenham Bridge Club website, here.

England and EBU Junior teams selected for Junior Camrose and Peggy Bayer

The teams have been selected for the forthcoming Junior Camrose and Peggy Bayer, to be held on RealBridge 18th-20th February. You will be able to watch the matches on RealBridge, with a half-hour delay.

Peggy Bayer - England Team

Lucy Norman and Tom Furness

Charlotte Bedford and Venetia Anoyrkatis

Raphaela Sinclair and Rufus Barnett

NPC: Giorgio Provenza

Junior Camrose - EBU Team

Oscar Selby and Harry Madden

Jamie Fegarty and Liam Fegarty

Thomas Gardner and Andy Cope

NPC: Nick Smith

Junior Camrose - England Team

Jonathan Clark and Kripa Panchagnula

Ewa Wieczorek and Charles Bucknell

Sam Anoyrkatis and Daniel Winter

NPC: Nick Sandqvist

Coach: Stephen Kennedy

Further details

January Robot Ladder Competitions

January's robot ladder competitions, have now concluded.

In the 12-board ladder for January, Gordon Rainsford won the top prize of £30 with an average score of 71.95% over six games. Roman Khatskevich was second, with 69.96% and Ambrose Holmes-Mackie third with a score of 69.09%. There were also prizes for fourth and fifth place.

In the main January matchpoints ladder, Olivier La Spada finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 64.34%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Dominic Connolly with an average score of 64.00%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Paul Hawkins finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 7.12, winning £25. The second place prize went to Robin Prestwich with a score of 5.90. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
January Matchpoints Ladder; January Handicap Ladder; January 12-board ladder
Archive of previous winners

Teltscher Trophy Trials Concluded

The Teltscher Trophy Trials took place this weekend in Manchester Bridge Club.

Congratulations to the top three pairs who qualified to represent England:

Patrick Shields & Richard Chamberlain

John Holland & Gary Hyett

Malcolm Pryor & David Kendrick

The above pairs will be invited to represent England in the 2022 Teltscher Trophy, to be held in Northern Ireland, 20th May to 22nd May this year.

Support our Junior Squad by playing in February's Sim Pairs

The next EBU Simultaneous Pairs takes place Monday 7th to Thursday 10th February.

All clubs are welcome to join in the "Junior Squad Sim Pairs" which aims to celebrate and promote junior bridge in England. Funds raised from the event go directly into the junior squad budgets. The event remains in the familiar fun format, suitable for everyone to play, not just juniors!

I hope you will support this event and look forward to you playing.

This Sim Pairs is slightly different to others Sims events, the first set of deals can be played on Monday or Tuesday. The second set can be played on Wednesday or Thursday. This means a larger field in each competition, making it more interesting and enjoyable for those who take part.

How to take part

Your club can quickly and easily register in the usual manner, through the club's account on My EBU. You can register right up until the start of the session in question. Commentary booklets will be available via your clubs My EBU page. Full details of how to register, and information on downloading the hands and submitting the results, can be seen here and here. For clubs playing on BBO instructions on uploading hands can be found here.

For 2022 the entry fees are £2.90 per player, plus the usual Universal Membership Subscription payment.

Information on the benefits of participating in the event, including entry in the prize draw and more details on how clubs can participate, are available on the Sims page.

Plackett team wins National Point-a-Board

The National Point-a-Board Teams has been won by the team of Espen Erichsen, Richard Plackett, Simon Cope & Peter Crouch. They finished 5 points ahead of Neil Rosen, John Atthey, Ben Green & Stefano Tommasini, with Trevor Ward, Rob Cliffe, Graham Orsmond & David Muller in third.

The event was part of the Championship Series, with points available in the Player of the Year competition. By finishing in second place Simon Cope and Peter Crouch moved up to fifth place in the table, they are just one point behind first place. There is still a four way tie for first place between David Bakhshi, Janet de Botton, Artur Malinowski & Tom Townsend.

Welcome to Newly Affiliated Clubs

The EBU has welcomed the following clubs since March 2020:

Regis Bridge Club	Bedfordshire
Beaconsfield Bridge Club	Berks & Bucks
Bridge Home and Away	Berks & Bucks
Chiltern Bridge Club	Berks & Bucks
English Bridge School	Berks & Bucks
Haddenham No Fear Bridge Club	Berks & Bucks
Queen Ediths Bridge Club	Cambs & Hunts
Bridge Extras	Cumbria
Stanwix	Cumbria
Club 52	Derbyshire
Axe Vale & Seaton Bridge Club	Devon
BridgeClubUK	Direct UK
East Dorset Lawn Tennis & Croquet Bridge Club	Dorset
Fyfield Bridge Club (2015)	Essex
Four Parishes Bridge Club (Grateley)	Hants & I.O.W.
Barnet U3A RealBridge Group	Herts
Hartbourne County Club	Herts
Ramsey Bridge Club	Isle Of Man
Ace Bridge Club	Kent
Mike Hampton Online Bridge Club	Kent
Friendly Online Bridge Club	Lancashire
Lancashire Online Pairs	Lancashire
Charnwood Bridge Teacher	Leicestershire
The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Ltd	London
Adam Wiseberg BC	Manchester
Chorley Monday Bridge lub	Manchester
Larkhill Bridge Club	Manchester
Brookdale Virtual Bridge Club	Merseyside & Cheshire
Ealing Golf Golf Club - bridge section	Middlesex
Great Yarmouth Bridge School	Noefolk
Darlington Online Bridge Club	North East
Reach Bridge Club	Nottinghamshire
Chew Valley Bridge club	Somerset
Coxley Bridge Club	Somerset
Crewkerne Bridge Club	Somerset
Ilminster Bridge Club	Somerset
Lou Hobhouse Bridge	Somerset
Stone Bridge Club	Staffs & Shrops
By the Wey Bridge Club	Surrey
Church Hill Bridge Club	Surrey
East Horley Bridge Club	Surrey
MJ Bridge	Surrey
Surrey and Friends Bridge Club	Surrey
Westcott Bridge Club	Surrey
Harlequin Bridge Club	Sussex
Rottingdean Bridge Club	Sussex
Seaford Bridge Club	Sussex
Your Own Event Bridge Club	Warwickshire
Ace of Club	Yorkshire
OliverCowan Bridge Club	Yorkshire

Tollemache Cup Final Moved Online

Due to the continued uncertainty surrounding Covid-19, and having asked the views of all the participating counties, we have decided to move the event online. The dates will remain the same (19th and 20th February), but it will now take place on RealBridge, with play starting at 10.30am each day. Full details can be found on the competition webpage.

New Funbridge Challenge Beat the Champion

EBU member and England International, Ben Norton, has accepted to become a Funbridge champion.

For his role with Funbridge, Ben will play two tournaments: 20th January (EBU) and 6th February (Funbridge Points). Play in the EBU tournament on Thursday 20th January and pit yourself against Ben. There will be 10 deals, with MPs scoring. If you score higher than the champion you will earn 25 Funbridge Diamonds!

The entry fee for the event is 25 Funbridge Diamonds. You can register for the event now.

Read more about the competition and an interview with Ben

Teltscher Trials

The Teltscher Trials will be held Face to face in Manchester bridge club 28th - 30th January

The top three pairs from the trials will be selected to represent England in the 2022 Teltscher Trophy organised by Bridge Great Britain.

More information

Mixed Team Selected for European National Teams Championships

Stage Two of the Mixed European Trials took place over the weekend, held online on RealBridge.

Congratulations to the top three pairs who qualified to represent England:

Frances Hinden & Graham Osborne

Michael Byrne & Sarah Bell

Tom Paske & Diana Nettleton

The pairs above will represent England in the Mixed category at the European National Teams Championships, is due to be held in Funchal, Madeira, in June this year.

U26 and U21 Pairs event

The second annual Bridge Great Britain Junior Pairs, will this year be hosted by England on behalf on BGB. The home nations event will take place on Sunday 20th March, with free entry.

Depending on numbers, there will be two separate events - Under 26 and Under 21.

The U26 winners will win the Liz McGowan trophy and the U21 winners will receive the Paul Porteous trophy. It is hoped to be able to present these in person the next time a home international event is held in the country of the winning pair.

Mixed pairs of U21 and U26 are welcome but will be expected to play in the U26 category.

If you would like to enter, please contact Charlie via phone 01296 317203 or email comps@ebu.co.uk

2021 International Bridge Press Association Awards

Bridge player and regular English Bridge contributor Simon Cochemé, has received the bridge book of the year award from the IBPA (International Bridge Press Association) for his book Bridge with a Twist.

Simon is the only English winner at the 2021 Awards. Simon says he is both honoured and delighted. He adds that the odds on him receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature have shortened considerably.

Forthcoming Trials

The Selection Committee has decided that Stage 2 of the Mixed Trial will now be held online on RealBridge.

They have also decided that a decision as to whether or not the Teltscher Trophy (seniors) Trial should be held online will be made not later than Monday 17th Jan. If it is decided to hold it online then entries, which close on 10th Jan, will reopen for a short period to allow entries from those who only want to play if it is online.

NICKO Winners 2020-2021

Brunton A have won the 2020-21 National Inter-Club Knockout (NICKO), beating Ispwich and Kesgrave A in the final.

The winning Brunton A team were: Dave Armstrong, Jill Armstrong, Liz Muir, Don Reid, Georgia Ray & Steve Ray. The Ispwich and Kesgrave A team was Christopher Chambers, Chris Green, Karen Pryor, Malcolm Pryor, Peter Sutcliffe & Gary Rogerson.

In the NICKO Plate Sutton Coldfield A defeated Amersham Community Centre A.

The winning Sutton Coldfield A team were: John Collin, Steve Wood, Mike Leese & Malcolm Oliver. The players in the Amersham Community Centre A team were: Carole Mueller, Herb Mueller, David Perkins & Chris Mooney.

Robert Northage

We are sad to report the death of Robert Northage. Robert as awarded the Dimmie Fleming Award in 2014 for his services to Leicestershire Contract Bridge Association. He was also made a Life Member of the LCBA in 2011. Dave Pollard has written a lovely obituary for Robert which you can read here.

Our heartfelt condolences to all his family and friends.

Watch the Camrose Trophy this Weekend

The first weekend of the Camrose Trophy takes place this weekend online on RealBridge.

Play begins tomorrow (Friday 7th) at 5pm and continues throughout the weekend. Matches can be watched on RealBridge, with a half-hour delay.

Representing England are:

Dame Janet de Botton and Artur Malinowski

Tom Townsend and David Bakhshi

Espen Erichsen and Glyn Liggins

NPC: Peter Hasenson

You can also view the system cards each pairs will be playing: Janet de Botton & Artur Malinowski, Tom Townsend & David Bakhshi, Glyn Liggins & Espen Erichsen

EBU Clubs Playing on RealBridge

Over the past 18 months the number of EBU affiliated clubs playing their club sessions online has increased substantially. We now have a list of clubs playing their weekly sessions on RealBridge, which was provided to us by a member.

If you would like to join any of the sessions, please contact the clubs involved to ask if they accept visitors.

If your club is on the list, please let us know if your club welcomes visitors for online sessions. If you are not on the list and should be, please let us know and we'll be happy to add you to it.

Further details are available on RealBridge

Still Time to Enter the British Winter Sim Pairs

There is still time for your club to take part in the first Simultaneous Pairs of 2022, the British Winter Sim Pairs, starting Monday 10th January.

The heat on Tuesday 11th is again being held in memory of the much loved Peter Jordan. Peter was the EBU’s widely-known Competitions department member who for many years was also responsible for running our overseas congresses. Trophies for the winners will be donated by Barbara Jordan and will be sent to the winners of Tuesday's event. Last year the inaugural event was won by Julian Pottage & Tony Ratcliff, from Helston BC (see here for details).

How to take part

This event will support your EBU. The proceeds from the event help us to provide services to the members, clubs and counties. By participating you are enabling the EBU to do more for bridge in England, and your club and members will see the direct benefit.

For 2022 the entry fees are £2.90 per player, plus the usual Universal Membership Subscription payment.

You may also wish to take part our next Sim Pairs in support of the Junior Squads, 7th - 10th February. This Sim Pairs is slightly different to others Sims events, the first set of deals can be played on Monday or Tuesday. The second set can be played on Wednesday or Thursday. This means a larger field in each competition, making it more interesting and enjoyable for those who take part.

Information on the benefits of participating in the event, including entry in the prize draw and more details on how clubs can participate, are available on the Sims page.

We hope to see you at your local club for this great nationwide event.

Uploading pre-dealt hands to your Deal Archive

December Robot Ladder Competitions

December's robot ladder competitions, have now concluded.

In the 12-board ladder for December, Roman Khatskevich won the top prize of £30 with an average score of 69.54% over six games. Gordon Rainsford was second, with 69.33% and Matthew Covill third with a score of 67.99%. There were also prizes for fourth and fifth place. This is the new competition which started in September and is run on both Funbridge and BBO, combining the existing BBO day-long individual games with the new 12-board Funbridge games.

In the main December matchpoints ladder, David Dawson finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 65.77%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Jonathan Lillycrop with an average score of 62.64%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Paul Nicholas finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 5.68, winning £25. The second place prize went to Bryan Hutton with a score of 3.60. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
December Matchpoints Ladder; December Handicap Ladder; December 12-board ladder
Archive of previous winners

Dennis Haines wins Quarterly Online IMPs Ladder

The quarterly IMP competition for our online games, hosted by Funbridge, has concluded.

For the final quarter in 2021 October to December, Dennis Haines finished top of the leader board. He scored 316 total IMPs from his best six games, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Dominic Connolly with a score of 305 IMPs, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
October to December IMPs Ladder
Archive of All winners

Senior Team Retains Gerard Faulkner Salver

The 2019/2020 Seniors Knockout has now concluded. For the second year running the Seniors Knockout competition for the Gerard Faulkner Salver has been won by Brian Senior (Captain), Tony Forrester, Paul Hackett, Sandra Penfold and Norman Selway.

They played the Kaufmann team in the final (Peter Kaufmann, Christopher Pope, Andrew Prothero, Ted Reveley, Alan Stephenson and David Stevenson).

2019/20 results; Previous winners

Lockdown League 15

Entries for Lockdown League Season 15 are closing soon!

The format remains the same, with three 8-board matches per week. Entries remain at £30 per team and prizes also remain at £40 for first and £20 for second. The season will begin on Monday 10th January. Furthermore, the top 4 of each division will be promoted and the bottom four will be relegated to the division above and below respectively.

If you would like to enter a team please fill in the entry form below. The closing date for entries will be Friday 7th January at midnight.

Currently Sanctioned Members

Filip Kurbalija

We are sad to report the death of Filip Kurbalija, Welsh International of many decades standing who also regularly played in all the major English events and won a number of them. Obituaries by Jeremy Dhondy and by Patrick Shields are on the WBU website.

Year End Congress Winners

Congratulations to Chris Hart & Christine Wood who won the Jack-High Swiss Pairs with 85 VPs over six matches and to Ben Norton & Stefano Tommasini who won the main Swiss Pairs with 181 VPs over twelve matches.

Congratulations also to Naomi Gibbs & Mike Rawlins who won the Mixed Pairs Championship with 61.90% and to Giles Ip & Mark Hill who won the Open Pairs with 60.97%.

The 9-high Improvers Pairs run on BBO by Kent on behalf of the EBU was won overall by Michi Ashikaga & Ray Connew with 62.03% overall, having also won the first session, while the second session was won by Bernadette Mathias & Ron Morley with 61.46%.

The final event of the congress, the Swiss Teams, was won by the Guttman team (Michael Strafer & Simon Weinberger, Davies Guttman & Heinrich Berger) with 105 VPs, 10 ahead of joint runners up, the Woodcock and Draper teams.

Well done to all of them and to all the many other notable achievements in the various events.

Full results are available.

Merry Christmas from the EBU

Merry Christmas to our members from all EBU staff and officials

The EBU Office and Shop is now closed for the festive period and will re-open at 9am on Tuesday 4th January. Any emails or telephone messages will be answered as soon as possible after the office re-opens.

Orders for the Bridge Warehouse can be placed online over the Christmas period, and items will be dispatched when we re-open in the New Year.

Competitions: If you wish to enter the Year End Congress Online please do so through your My EBU account. Information for players in the event can be found, here.

EBL Women's Series

Teams of women players are invited to play in the next event of this series taking place on BBO on Dec 29th at 10am UK time on BBO. It's a Swiss Teams event, 60 boards and free to enter. Sponsorship has been offered by BBO. The invitation is for women who either play internationally or have competed in trials to play internationally. To enter please complete the form here: https://forms.gle/anpftgrtC4mGXD9Q7 and email geordieclairerob@gmail.com so that credentials can be checked.

Channel Trophy Successes

The annual junior event held between France, Belgium, England and the Netherlands took place this weekend on RealBridge when the Covid situation prevented it from being held in Belgium as planned. A face to face version is planned for March 11th - 13th.

The English U26 Women's team (Lily Kearney & Meg Jones, Charlotte Bedford & Lucy Norman, Kim Hudson & Dido Coley) were the runaway winners in their group and England achieved second place in all three of the other categories, in each case losing out to France. Congratulations to all of them!

Transatlantic Seniors Online Cup

The Polish Bridge Federation are organising a Transatlantic Seniors Online Cup (Julian Klukowski Memorial Trophy ) from Jan 24th-Feb 11th 2022 ( excluding playing on Saturdays and Sundays ) to be held on BBO. Players must be born in 1959 or earlier and at least 11 players are allowed in each team.

Full details of the event are available in this invitation.

Entries will be considered by the EBU Selection Committee and teams that wish to apply should send details of the proposed team to sc.chair@ebu.co.uk by 1st January at the latest.

Lady Milne Trials now online

Due to the Covid situation, the Lady Milne Trials to be played on 17-19 December will now be played online on RealBridge.

Kibitzing delayed by 30 minutes will be available showing all tables in play.

Specific Conditions of Contest for this event, including a link to the Sky-Blue Book, are now available.

EBED is recruiting an Education & Development manager

An opportunity has arisen to join EBED, the charity presiding over the development of the game in England, and help shape the future of the game as we develop new ways of learning bridge in a post-Covid world.

Year End Congress Entries Now Open

We are now accepting entries for the Year End Congress. The event will take place online on RealBridge, 27th - 30th December.

Monday 27th December	Stratified Swiss Pairs
Tuesday 28th December	Stratified Swiss Pairs & Jack High Swiss Pairs
Wednesday 29th December	Mixed or Open Pairs
Thursday 30th December	Stratified Swiss Teams & 9-High Improvers Pairs

The Mixed Pairs and Open Pairs will be played both online and live at various club venues around the country, all playing the same boards. To see which clubs are hosting heats, and for full detail of the congress visit the Year End Congress page.

For all events excluding the 9-High Improvers Pairs, play will start at 11am each day, on RealBridge. For the main events, entry is £35 for one day, £67 for two days or £98 for three days or £130 for the full four days.

The Jack High Swiss Pairs entry fee is just £25 per person.

The easiest way to enter is online through My EBU. Log-in and select 'Book Events' from the Utilities menu. You can also call 01296 317203 or email comps@ebu.co.uk

The 9-High Improver Pairs is being run by Kent CBA on behalf on the EBU. It will be held on BBO. Play will start at 11.30am and the entry fee is just 5 $BBO per person. To enter this event, please do so directly with Kent CBA, here.

More information available on the Year End Congress webpage

Mixed Trials Stage One

Last weekend, the first stage of the Mixed Team Trials took place at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in London. The top 10 pairs qualified for stage two.

Congratulations to the following pairs for qualifying to the next stage which will be held at the Young Chelsea from 14th-16th January.

Helen Erichsen & Espen Erichsen
Frances Hinden & Graham Osborne
Sally Brock & Barry Myers
Catherine Seale & Ian Pagan
Tom Paske & Diana Nettleton
Debbie Sandford & Gad Chadha
Ewa Wieczorek & Charlie Bucknell
Ollie Burgess & Susanna Gross
Nathalie Shashou & Nick Sandqvist
Michael Byrne & Sarah Bell

AGM Minutes

The minutes from the AGM have now been published, you can view them on the minutes page.

A Message from the Chair

It is with regret that I tell you that Vice-Chair of the EBU, Gillian Fawcett, has stepped down from the board, for personal reasons. She carries away my gratitude for all her hard work and support during the last two difficult years.

The board has exercised its option to elect from amongst their number an Interim Vice-Chair until an election at the next AGM. I am delighted to announce that Cath Fox has been unanimously voted in to fill this role temporarily, with immediate effect.

Seniors Congress Winners

The Seniors Congress took place on RealBridge this week.

The Championship Pairs was won by Gabriel Hearst & James Bond (pictured), who finished on 65.15%, ahead of second place pair Paul Hackett & Paul Murray with 58.98%. Clive Owen & Charles Outred were third with 56.40%.

The Swiss Pairs competition - for those eliminated from the Championship Pairs, or joining the congress later - was won by Alan Brosgill & Robin Jepson, who were 6 VPs ahead of second placed Celia Oram & Derek Oram with 104 VPs. In joint third place were Pat Alexander Carine & Liz Kelly and Michael Kaltz & Jim Niblett with 97 VPs.

The Swiss Teams event was won by the team of Trevor Ward, John Hassett, Malcolm Pryor, David Muller, Dave Robinson & Tony Sowter finishing 21 VPs ahead of joint second placed teams: Jeremy Dhondy, Fred Hotchen, Steve Preston & David Huggett and Tony Waterlow, Jacqui Tobias, Celia Oram & Derek Oram.

Results
Previous winners: Championship Pairs and Swiss Teams

New Disciplinary Convictions

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Linda Greenland (deri31) & Ken Richardson (ruff dog) at a hearing in early November.

That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform, organised by the Leeds Bridge Club and the Oliver Cowan BC, they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.
That they took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which they were unlikely to have made had they not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of their bridge scores in those sessions.

The defendants denied the charges. A disciplinary hearing was held. The Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendants’ conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 3 years.

Covid-19 Update: Updated Rules on Face Coverings

In light of the recent update from the UK Government (8th Dec) we would recommend that clubs playing face-to-face follow these guidelines:

The government has announced that England will move to Plan B in response to the risks of the Omicron variant.

From Friday 10 December the public, and staff in public facing areas, are required to wear face coverings in these additional settings:

community centres (including village halls), youth centres, members clubs and social clubs

Full Government Guidance

Watch the Mixed Trials this Weekend

Stage One of the Mixed Team Trials takes place this weekend at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in London.

The top ten pairs in the trials will progress to Stage Two, taking place 14th - 16th January.

The teams are competing to represent England at the European Mixed Team Championships.

Play begins tomorrow (Friday 10th) at 11.15am and continues throughout the weekend. Matches can be watched on vugraph via Bridge Base Online.

New Club Hosting Hybrid Session at the Year End Congress

As part of the Year End Congress, on Wednesday 29th December, the Mixed Pairs and Open Pairs will be played both online and live at various club venues around the country, all playing the same boards.

We now have three club taking part in this event. With the latest addition to the list being a new club in the north: Oliver Cowan Bridge Club (at Leeds Bridge Club). Entry for the sessions will include free tea/coffee/limited soft drinks and a sandwich lunch. If you would like to join in the live session in Leeds, please contact Oliver direct on OCbridgecomps@gmail.com or call 07946 393033.

There are also satellite sessions taking place in Richmond Bridge Club and Mid-Essex Bridge Club. If you would like to join a live session, please enter direct with the club. If you would prefer to play online, please enter via My EBU.

Results from all the satellite sessions will be merged with the EBU online games.

If your club is interested or has further questions, please email gordon@ebu.co.uk

November Robot Ladder Competitions

November's robot ladder competitions, have now concluded.

In the 12-board ladder for November, Liz Clery won the top prize of £30 with an average score of 68.59% over six games. Jon Cooke was second, with 68.50% and Jeremy Baker third with a score of 67.88%. There were also prizes for fourth and fifth place. This is the new competition which started in September and is run on both Funbridge and BBO, combining the existing BBO day-long individual games with the new 12-board Funbridge games.

In the main November matchpoints ladder, Dominic Connolly finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 65.12%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by David Dawson with an average score of 65.06%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Russ de Haney finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 6.30, winning £25. The second place prize went to Paul Hawkins with a score of 5.15. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
November Matchpoints Ladder; November Handicap Ladder; November 12-board ladder
Archive of previous winners

Contributions to bridge Recognised at AGM

The EBU presented awards in recognition of various members' contributions to bridge in England at the AGM via Zoom yesterday.

Silver Award, for outstanding contribution and recognition of long service as a volunteer at national and/or County level
- Robert Procter (Oxfordshire)

Tony Priday Award, for an outstanding contribution to bridge and enhancing the game in all its aspects
- RealBridge

Dimmie Fleming Award, recognising a long and valuable contribution to county bridge
- Sarah Mathews (Herefordshire), Dick Pathan (Leicestershire) (picture), John Wilcox (Leicestershire) (picture), Malcolm Carey (Suffolk) (picture)

Youth Bridge Award This year a special award has been given in recognition of outstanding contribution to Youth Bridge during 2020/21.
- William Clennell (Surrey) (picture)

Tom Bradley Award for services to Education, this award recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to Youth Bridge
- Holly Kilpatrick (Oxfordshire)

Congratulations to all recipients, and we thank them for their contribution.

Strong Performance in Soloway Knockout at American National

Congratulations to the Leslie Team (Tim Leslie, Ollie Burgess, Michael Byrne, Mike Bell & Ben Norton) on reaching the quarter finals of the prestigious Soloway Knockout. On the way to reaching the quarter finals the team beat some tough competition, first the Moss team (including world-class pairs Lauria-Versace and Nowosadzki-Kalita) and then the Amoils team (including another world-class pair Bessis-Lorenzini).

Various members of this team will be representing England at next year's Bermuda Bowl and European Championships.

Women's success in American Nationals

Congratulations to Maggie Knottenbelt and Heather Dhondy on winning the NABC Whitehead Ladies' pairs in the US National in Austin, Texas. They won with a whopping score of 66.86%.

Board and Standing Committees announced

The EBU AGM took place yesterday, 30th November. The following people were elected/re-elected to the EBU Board and Standing Committees:

Election for Board of Directors

There were four nominations for four positions, the top three persons duly elected will serve for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024 and the fourth for a one-year term of office expiring in 2022.

The votes received were as follows: Elected for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024: Kay Preddy, Tony Russ & Cathryn Fox. Elected for a one-year term of office expiring in 2022: Ron Millet.

The current elected Board of Directors are as follows:

	Term ends		Term ends
Ian Payn (Chairman)	2023	Gillian Fawcett (Vice Chairman)	2022
Kay Preddy (Treasurer)	2024	Adrian Darnell	2023
Cathryn Fox	2024	Rob Lawy	2023
Ron Millet	2022	Patrick Shields (appointed by Board)	2021
Tony Russ	2024	Gayle Webb (elected by Clubs)	2023

In addition to those elected the Board of Directors may also appoint three Directors for one year at a time. Appointments for 2022 will be considered at the meeting of the Board in January.

Treasurer

One candidate for the position of Treasurer was received and agreed, Kay Preddy (newly elected).

The Laws & Ethics Committee

There were four nominees for four positions, the top two persons duly elected will serve for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024 and the third will serve for a two-year term expiring in 2023 and the fourth will serve for a one-year term expiring in 2022.

The votes were as follows: Elected for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024: David Bakhshi & Stephen Green. Elected for a two-year term expiring in 2023: Peter Hasenson. Elected for a one-year term of office expiring in 2022: William Clennell.

The current elected members of the Committee are as follows

	Term ends		Term ends
David Bakhshi	2024	David Burn	2023
William Clennell	2022	Stephen Green	2024
Peter Hasenson	2023	Tim Rees	2022

Selection Committee

There are three nominations for three positions the top two persons duly elected will serve for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024 and the third will serve for a one-year term expiring in 2022.

The votes were as follows: Elected for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024: Mike Bell & David Burn. Elected for a one-year term expiring in 2022: Alan Wilson.

The current elected members of the Committee are as follows:

	Term ends		Term ends
David Bakhshi	2023	Paul Barden	2022
Mike Bell	2024	David Burn	2024
Claire Robinson	2023	Jeremy Willans	2023
Alan Wilson	2022

2021 Sim Pairs prize winners drawn

At this week's AGM the 2021 Sim Pairs prize draw took place.

2 clubs were drawn from those which entered the EBED Sims and 6 from those entering the other sims. Each receives £200.

The winning clubs were:

Club names	County
Caterham Bridge Club	Surrey
Woodberry Bridge Club	London
Aylesbury Aces Bridge Club	Oxfordshire
Abingdon Bridge Club	Oxfordshire
Horley Bridge Club	Surrey
Northfield Bridge Club	Warwickshire
New Hertford Bridge Club	Hertfordshire
Bromley North Bridge Club	Kent

The 2022 entries for all events are open now. We hope you will take part as the proceeds from each of the events helps to support bridge in England.

The British Sim Pairs (in January, April, July and October) and Club Stratified Sim Pairs (in March) help to support the work of the EBU in providing services to you, the members, and to your clubs and counties
The Junior Squad Sim Pairs (in February) helps to celebrate and promote junior bridge in England, with funds raised from the event going directly into the junior squad budgets
The EBED Sim Pairs (in May and September) helps to support the work of the charity English Bridge Education and Development
The Tuesday session of the British Winter Simultaneous Pairs, will be held in memory of Peter Jordan, with a trophy awarded to the winners of the event. The trophy is a donation from Peter’s wife Barbara

For more information on the competitions, and how clubs can register to take part, see the information via the Sim Pairs webpage.

December issue of English Bridge out now

The December 2021 issue of English Bridge is out now and printed copies will be delivered to eligible members soon. We hope you enjoy it. You can also read the digital version via your My EBU account.

2021 Premier League

The 2021 Premier League had a clear winner. David Bird discusses some of the best hands from the competition, page 58.

Virtually Amazing

Sue Maxwell pays tribute to the amazing bridge teachers and their students that have continued teaching and learning throughout lockdowns, page 48.

Junior Bridge Camp

EBED CEO Giorgio Provenza reports on the first Junior Bridge Camp since 2019, page 46.

England Junior Teams Announced for the Channel Trophy

The England Teams for the Channel Trophy have now been announced.

The U26 team will be Oliver Powell and Aaron Hutton; Kripa Panchagnula and Jonathan Clark; Ewa Wieczorek and Charles Bucknell. The NPC is Nick Sandqvist and the Coach is Stephen Kennedy.

The U26W team will be Dido Coley and Kim Hudson; Charlotte Bedford and Lucy Norman; Megan Jones and Lily Kearney. The NPC is Neeraj Tanna.

The U21 team will be Imogen La Chapelle and Henry Rose; Jamie Fegarty and Thomas Gardner; Andy Cope and Theo Anoyrkatis. The NPC is Michael Byrne.

The Channel Trophy will take place, 17th – 19th December 2021, in Leuven, Belgium.

We are delighted to be able to send our junior teams to Belgium but it is expensive. We would be most grateful if any members would like to come forward and donate to our junior teams by helping to fund their trip to Leuven to play in the Channel Trophy. Please get in touch with charlie@ebu.co.uk if you would like to support our junior teams.

Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup Teams Announced

The England Teams for the World Bridge Team Championships have now been announced.

The Open Team for the Bermuda Bowl will be: Ben Norton and Mike Bell; Michael Byrne and Kieran Dyke; Tom Townsend and David Bakhshi. The NPC is Paul Barden and the coach is Claire Robinson

In the Venice Cup, the team will be Sally Brock and Fiona Brown; Nicola Smith and Nevena Senior; Catherine Draper and Gillian Fawcett. The NPC is David Burn.

The Championships take place 27th March – 9th April 2022, Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy

Gerard Faulkner

We are sad to announce the death of John Gerard Eastham Faulkner. Gerard was a former EBU Board Member, Chair and member of various EBU committees.

The funeral will be held, Tuesday 7th December at 11am at St Mary the Virgin's Church Stonham Parva, Church Lane, Little Stonham, Stowmarket, IP14 5JL

Malta Congress February 2022

We are pleased to announce that the Malta 2022 overseas congress is now confirmed. There are still places available, if you would like to join the congress we would encourage you to book now.

As a reminder, the congress will take place 2nd - 8th February 2022 in Qawra, Malta and run by our travel partner First For Bridge. Full details can be found via the First for Bridge website. It will be held at the 4* Superior db San Antonio Hotel & Spa, located in the northern part of the island of Malta, right in the heart of Qawra and just 100 metres from the bus terminus which offers direct routes to all areas of Malta. Information on included tours can be seen here.

Malta was one of the first countries added to the UK's green list, they have a high vaccination rate and low Covid infection rates.

Excellent flight prices are available with EasyJet (Gatwick and Manchester on 1st - 8th Feb), Ryanair (Luton, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh 2nd - 9th Feb) and Air Malta (Heathrow 2nd - 8th Feb). We have noticed that some flights are not always showing up on flight scanner websites, you will need to book directly with individual airlines, once you are notified by First for Bridge the event is confirmed. First for Bridge will be happy to assist with any flight enquiries if you need help with flight bookings. Call 0371 346 0588, lines are open Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm.

First for Bridge's holiday's are ABTA and ATOL protected. They will continue with their flexible booking policy continue with our Flexible Booking policy that allows for a transfer until the 90 day balance due date (42 for UK departures). If you need to transfer you holiday due to Covid19 related issues you can transfer your booking and deposit up to 90 days (42 for UK departures) before departure free of charge, excludes the costs incurred of flights purchased where airline admin or cancellation fees may apply.

Full details Overseas Malta Congress

Entries for the Mixed Trials are closing soon

Applications to enter the 2021 Mixed Trials close Friday 26th November at noon.

Stage one of the Mixed Trials will take place from the 10th - 12th December, at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club. Entries are £135 per person (50% for juniors).

The top three pairs will be guaranteed selection to represent England in the European Mixed Teams Championship, taking place in Italy in 2022.

Please send your applications to charlie@ebu.co.uk or phone 01296317203.

Entries for the Lady Milne Trials are closing soon

Applications to enter the 2021 Lady Milne Trials close Monday 29th November at 9am.

The 2021 Lady Milne Trials will take place from the 17th - 19th December, at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club. Entries are £100 per person.

The top three pairs will be guaranteed selection to represent England in the Lady Milne Trophy, taking place 22nd – 24th Apr 2022, managed by Wales.

Please send your applications to charlie@ebu.co.uk or phone 01296317203.

England European 2022 Open Team Selected

The Open Trials were held at the weekend, taking place at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in London with players playing face to face.

The top three pairs earned their place in the England open team for the 2022 European National Teams Championship.

It was a great weekend if your name was Ben, or you had a partner called Ben. In first place were Ben Handley-Pritchard & Tom Townsend, followed by Ben Green & Stefano Tommasini in second place and Ben Norton & Mike Bell in third place.

Full details:

Disciplinary Conviction Overturned

At a new hearing on November 1st following an appeal, a verdict of dishonest and unfair play against Colin and Jenny Hearn was overturned by the Disciplinary Panel. The case fell short of the criteria to reach a guilty verdict and as a consequence Mr. and Mrs. Hearn were found not guilty, and the previously levied sanction was withdrawn.

Qualifiers known for Tollemache Final

Qualifying for the finals of the Tollemache Cup - the inter-county championships for teams of eight - has taken place. The top four teams in each group have progressed to the final.

Manchester comfortably topped Group A, with Devon in second, Warwickshire in third and Herts in fourth. In Group B, London finished in a very comfortable first place, with Berks & Bucks in second, Gloucestershire in third and Norfolk taking fourth place.

The final will take place on 19th-20th February 2022 at Chesford Grange Hotel, near Warwick.

Results; Previous winners

Victor Silverstone

We are sad to learn of the death of Victor Silverstone. Victor was a great International player, he represented Great Britain in two European championships, won three Gold Cups and played for Scotland in over two dozen Camrose matches. He was also a six-times Lederer winner.

His friend Barnet Shenkin, has written an obituary, you can read it here.

Our heartfelt condolences to all his family and friends.

De Botton Team Finishes 6th for England in the European Champions Cup

England's representatives were sixth in the European Champions Cup which took place in Pezinok Slovakia, online via BBO, over the weekend.

England were represented by the winners of the 2019 Premier League, Janet De Botton, Tom Townsend (Captain), David Bakhshi, Espen Erichsen, Glyn Liggins & Artur Malinowski. The team were unlucky to miss out on the semi-finals by just one VP.

The competition can be likened to football's Champions League, with Europe's twelve leading countries represented by the winners of their domestic competition. The winners were Bergen Akademiske Bk of Norway, who beat the Swiss team Bridge Contact Club in the Final. Thor Erik Hoftaniska, EBU London member was part of the winning Norwegian team.

Black team win Premier League

Andrew Black, David Gold, Simon Cope, Peter Crouch, Andrew McIntosh & Tom Paske (pictured, Andrew Black not pictured) have won the Premier League title for 2021.

In second place were the De Botton team of Janet De Botton, Artur Malinowski, Tom Townsend, David Bakhshi, Glyn Liggins & Espen Erichsen. The Mossop team finished in third.

By virtue of their victory, the Black team will receive an invitation to represent England in one weekend of the Camrose Trophy.

The Premier League is part of the series of competitions contributing to the Player of the Year Championship. Following this weekends results, there are currently four people in joint first place David Bakhshi, Janet De Botton, Artur Malinowski & Tom Townsend.

In the Second Division, Team Phoenix: Ali Ahmed, James Thrower, Steve Raine, Chris Cooper, Fiona Brown & Liam Sanderson, finished first. The Kendrick team (David Kendrick, Claire Robinson, Jonathan Mestel, Paul Barden & Malcolm Pryor) finished in second place.

In the Third Division - Team Li, consisting of Ewa Wieczorek, Yining Yang, Lawrence Wang & Charlie Bucknell (picture) finished in first place, ahead of runners up, the Portland: Christopher Kemp, Oliver Lawrence, David Barker, John Wilson, Jeremy Willans & Patrick Lawrence.

Board and Standing Committee nominations announced

**Revised November 4th**

The Board

There are four nominees for four positions, the top three persons duly elected will serve for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024 and the fourth for a one-year term of office expiring in 2022.

The nominees are:

Cathryn Fox
Ron Millet
Kay Preddy
Tony Russ

The election for terms of office will therefore take place before the AGM.

In addition to those elected the Board of Directors may also appoint three Directors for one year at a time. Appointees for 2021 will be considered at the meeting of the Board in January 2022.

Treasurer

One candidate for the position of Treasurer has been received and has agreed to stand, Kay Preddy (newly elected). Therefore, no election is required.

The Laws & Ethics Committee

There are four nominees for four positions, the top two persons duly elected will serve for a three-year term of office expiring in 2024 and the third will serve for a two-year term expiring in 2023 and the fourth will serve for a one-year term expiring in 2022.

The nominees are:

David Bakhshi
William Clennell
Stephen Green
Peter Hasenson

The election for the terms of office will take place before the AGM.

Selection Committee

The nominees are:

Mike Bell
David Burn
Alan Wilson

The election for the terms of office will take place before the AGM.

Hybrid Sessions at Year End Congress

As previously announced the EBU’s annual Year End Congress, which is usually in London on 27-30 Dec, will this year be online on RealBridge as it was last year. However, we would also like to allow people to play in part of it live in clubs or county premises if they wish.

On Wednesday 29 Dec we will hold the Mixed Pairs and Open Pairs events of the congress and these lend themselves to having further sections playing the same boards live in various venues around the country. This would also provide an opportunity for clubs to run this as a special Green-Pointed event to encourage their players to move back to face-to-face bridge.

The way it would work is that clubs (or counties) would play the same boards at the same time as those playing online and their results would all be combined into one ranking list for each of the two events for the purpose of Green Points, but there would be separate prizes for those playing online and those playing live.

We would like the sections not to be too small (7+ tables) so we initially only directly contacted a selection of larger clubs around the country, and we do not want to have two clubs playing which are too close to each other as that would dilute the entries. However we would now welcome further offers from clubs to run these events. If a club does not have enough players for sections of this size for the two events, they would be welcome to just run the Open Pairs and not the Mixed Pairs, to ensure a larger field.

Clubs would deal with all the organisational matters themselves, such as taking entries, deciding on the table money and arranging a TD. They would be free add on extra features such as a lunch if they wish, to make it all into a more special, festive day. The charge to the club would be £10 per person (£5 per session) and there would be no additional UMS. This compares very favourably with what players would pay to play in it online, and includes Green Points for the top half of the field and prizes for the top pairs.

Clubs currently playing are:

Richmond Bridge Club

Mid-Essex Bridge Club

If your club is interested or has further questions, please email gordon@ebu.co.uk

Alan Cooke

We are sad to learn of the death of Alan Cooke.

There will be a service held on Friday 12th November at 4pm at North Herts Chapel. You can watch live online https://watch.obitus.com

Username: jono5710

Password: 075518

People are most welcome to attend in person too and there is a reception afterwards at The Rusty Gun.

If you would like to make a donation in honour of Alan, please donate to the The Butterfly Volunteer Service at the Lister, as their volunteers were so kind to both Alan and his family in his last days. Donations can be made via the Chenery Funeral Services website.

October Robot Ladder Competitions

October's robot ladder competitions, have now concluded.

In the 12-board ladder for October, Roman Khatskevich won the top prize of £30 with an average score of 72.69% over six games. Matt Foster was second, with 70.63% and Dominic Connolly third with a score of 69.79%. There were also prizes for fourth and fifth place. This is the new competition which started in September and is run on both Funbridge and BBO, combining the existing BBO day-long individual games with the new 12-board Funbridge games.

In the main October matchpoints ladder, David Dawson finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 65.53%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Dennis Haines with an average score of 65.51%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Paul Hawkins finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 9.18, winning £25. The second place prize went to Justine Thompson with a score of 6.11. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
October Matchpoints Ladder; October Handicap Ladder; October 12-board ladder
Archive of previous winners

Kenneth Barbour

We are sad to announce the death of Kenneth Barbour (1938-2021). Kenneth was a former England International player, competing in the European Championship (1962) and the Camrose vs Wales (1961) and vs Northern Ireland (1963). He also won the Gold Cup (1963), the Crockfords Cup (1963) and the Tollemache (1963).

Our heartfelt condolences to all his family and friends.

House of Lords wins annual match v. Commons

The House of Lords defeated the House of Commons in their annual bridge match yesterday. The match was extremely close for the earlier part of it, with the Commons slightly ahead at half time, but after the tea break the Lords found their stride and raced ahead to a very convincing win. In particular, they did well in finding slams. The House of Lords now leads the series 25-21.

The Tony Berry Trophy, for best played hand, was won by Aaron Bell. He is pictured here receiving the trophy from judge Tom Townsend.

The match was sponsored by Lord Kalms, and organised by the two captains, Baroness Henig, and Bob Blackman MP.

The hands were set by Heather Dhondy. The details and commentary are available for you to read in full below.

Ranked Masters Pairs 2022

Following feedback from those who have previously played in the Ranked Masters Pairs, it has been decided that this event will be played online. The results of the survey were two to one in favour of online play.

The Ranked Masters Pairs is a group of pairs championships for players ranked Regional Master and above. Players are split into different sections based on rank, so you only play people of similar ranking to yourself.

The event will take place 26th - 27th February 2022, on RealBridge

Members who have attained a landmark promotion to the rank of Master are entitled to free entry in the Masters Pairs.

If you would like to enter this event, the easiest way to enter is online through My EBU. Log-in and select 'Book Events' from the Utilities menu. You can also call 01296 317203, or email comps@ebu.co.uk.

Closing date for entries: 23rd February 2022

JUNIOR BRIDGE CAMP

38 juniors aged 8-17 and 24 teachers, parents and grandparents joined the South-Eastern Counties Junior Bridge Camp in the beautiful Sussex countryside at Bowles Rocks on 23rd and 24th October. It was the first face to face junior event since the lockdowns. The children enjoyed an intense weekend of training, competitions and much more. The England U-16 squad were there as well and used it as a training session, as they prepare for next year European Championships.

The first main competition was the Saturday evening pairs, won by William Battersby and Lottie Bedford, comfortably ahead of Zane Soonawalla and Theo Sinclair. The U-14 section resulted in a tie between Millie and Verity Hallam and Thomas Bradkin and Aleks Birdsall, and the Novice section was won by Tristan Humphreys-Cook. This was followed by the speedball event, where Rufus Barnett and Marco Vann (EW) were winners over top NS pair Raffy Sinclair and Andrew Bradkin.

Finally, the Priday Cup was held on Sunday afternoon over some feisty boards. The winners were Zane Soonawalla and Theo Sinclair with 65%, only 0.25% ahead of William Battersby and Lottie Bedford with Tom Furness and Lucy Norman not far behind. The U-14 section almost resulted in a tie again, but Cecilia and Aleks Birdsall squeaked it by 0.25%. The Novice section was won by Ben and Hannah Cusack – Hannah being the youngest person there.

There wasn’t only bridge though. Saturday afternoon the kids engaged in a variety of activities, from rock climbing to dry skiing, from archery to bushcraft.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this weekend such a success. In particular, Sussex CCBA who run it, Kent and Surrey CBAs who sponsor it, teachers Michael Rushworth, Jessica Mauve, Diane Rogers, Alison Nicholson, and Giorgio Provenza, Director William Clennell, and Bowles Rocks for being such wonderful hosts. They even coped with some unexpected guests when the local Premier Inn had to close down at no notice. Last but most definitely not least a huge thank you to William Bourne, the heart and soul behind the event, whose commitment to bridge and junior bridge in particular is unparalleled.

Senior & Bird win Two Star Pairs

The Two Star Pairs, the main competition at the Autumn Congress, has been won by Brian Senior & Nigel Bird. They finished with a score of 57.43%, just 1.47% ahead of Marcos Thoma & Stefano Tommasini in second place, and Anton Mauve & Kostadin Vasilev were third with 54.67%. These results have also changed the positions in the Player of the Year table, with Brian Senior and Nigel Bird are now sitting joint 12th position.

Denis King & Mike Fawcett were the winners in the Swiss Pairs Championship for the Lewis Levy Cup, with 130 VPs and 7.5 wins from 9 matches. Robin Jepson & Alan Brosgill finished in second place, with Richard Edwards & Robert Ross in third.

In the multiple teams event, the 'A final', for the Eastbourne Bowl, was won by Michael Byrne, Martin Stephens, Chris Cooper & Dan McIntosh (pictured), with the team of Catherine Draper, Andrew Woodcock, David Gold & Catherine Seale in second, and the team of Rob Lawy, Stefan Lindfors, Patrick Shields & Filip Kurbalija, finished third.

The Sussex Cup (the consolation final) was won by Fiona Brown, Helen Erichsen, Ollie Burgess & Diana Nettleton, with the team of Paddy Murphy, Mark Roderick, Chris Pope & Liz Commins in second place..

Congratulations to all who played.

Full Results
Player of the Year Competition
Previous winners: Two Star Pairs; Eastbourne Bowl; Lewis Levy Cup

New: System Cards Upload on My EBU

We now have a new "system cards” area in My EBU.

If you are playing in an online EBU event, you must provide a link to your system card to your opponents each round. If you do not already have one, you can now upload your system card as a pdf to your My EBU account. From the main page, go to "utilities" then "system card", and follow the instructions provided. Help in creating a system card and converting it to a pdf can be found here.

Malta Congress February 2022

There are still places available to join the first overseas congress of 2022, EBU Malta Congress next February.

The congress will take place 2nd - 8th February 2022 in Qawra, Malta. Full details can be found via the First for Bridge website. It will be held at the 4* Superior db San Autonio Hotel & Spa, located in the northern part of the island of Malta, right in the heart of Qawra and just 100 metres from the bus terminus which offers direct routes to all areas of Malta. Information on included tours can be seen here.

Malta was one of the first countries added to the UK's green list, they have a high vaccination rate and low Covid infection rates.

We strongly recommend that you book your place early so we can confirm the event and to allow you to secure the best flight prices available. Secure your place on this holiday with deposits of £150 per person.

Excellent flight prices are available from only £45 return plus baggage. Extra nights on all inclusive basis are available from only £55 – arrive earlier or stay later to secure best flight availability.

Flights are available with EasyJet (Gatwick and Manchester on 1st - 8th Feb), Ryanair (Luton, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh 2nd - 9th Feb) and Air Malta (Heathrow 2nd - 8th Feb). We have noticed that some flights are not always showing up on flight scanner websites, you will need to book directly with individual airlines. First for Bridge will be happy to assist with any flight enquiries if you need help with flight bookings. Call 0371 346 0588, lines are open Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm.

First for Bridge's holiday's are ABTA and ATOL protected. They will continue with their flexible booking policy. If you need to transfer your holiday due to Covid19 related issues you can transfer your booking and deposit up to 90 days (42 for UK departures) before departure free of charge, excludes the costs incurred of flights purchased where airline admin or cancellation fees may apply.

Full details Overseas Malta Congress

Lockdown League 14

Entries for Lockdown League Season 14 are now open!

The format remains the same, with three 8-board matches per week. Entries remain at £30 per team and prizes also remain at £40 for first and £20 for second. The season will begin on Monday 25th October. Furthermore, the top 4 of each division will be promoted and the bottom four will be relegated to the division above and below respectively.

If you would like to enter a team please fill in the entry form below. The closing date for entries will be Wednesday 20th October at midnight.

https://neapolitanclub.altervista.org/eng/ebl-qualifier-italian-federations-statement.html

De Botton Team Wins Gold Cup

The prestigious Gold Cup, organised by Bridge Great Britain, has been won by De Botton Team of (pictured, from top left) Thor Erik Hoftaniska, Janet de Botton, Dror Padon, Artur Malinowski, David Bakhshi & Tom Townsend (centre).

They defeated the Leslie team of Michael Bell, Tim Leslie, Michael Byrne, Kieran Dyke & Ben Norton by 128 - 108 in the final. The defeated semi-finalists were the Mossop and Hinden teams.

The Gold Cup provided the first scores in the EBU's Player of the Year Championship, with the de Botton team taking an early lead. The next scoring event is the Two Star Pairs at the Autumn Congress.

Full details:

RealBridge Kibitz Link
BGB Gold Cup Final
Semi-Final A results - RealBridge - Bridgewebs
Semi-Final B results - RealBridge - Bridgewebs
Final results - RealBridge - Bridgewebs

Curtis Team wins Silver Plate

The Silver Plate, the consolation event for the Gold Cup, has been won by the Curtis team.

The Silver Plate is for English or Welsh teams defeated in either the first or second round of the Gold Cup. Scotland has a separate consolation event, the winners of which drop into the Silver Plate at the quarter-final stage.

The 2021 Silver Plate involved 54 teams. The final, played last week was between the English Curtis team and Scottish Hay team. The Curtis team of Catherine Curtis, Paul Fegarty, Jonathan Mestel & Paul Barden beat the Hay team of Jim Hay, Sandy Duncan, Robert McPaul & Derek Peden by 32 IMPs.

Full results

British Autumn Sim Pairs

The British Autumn Simultaneous Pairs will take place this week and you'll be able to find all the results and commentaries at the links below.

Results will be finalised, and Master Points credited, once all the results have been submitted and checked.

Monday 11th October	Commentary	Booklet
Tuesday 12th October	Commentary	Booklet
Wednesday 13th October	Commentary	Booklet
Thursday 14th October	Commentary	Booklet

For clubs not playing in the British Autumn Sim Pairs, please be aware, travellers and hand records for all EBU Virtual Club games will be suppressed for non-players between 12 noon and 10pm each day from Monday 11th - Thursday 14th October. This means that if your club is using a non-playing director they will not be able to process the results for the session until after 10pm regardless of whether it is a Sim session or not. Those playing in the games will be able to see their results on BBO as usual.

If your club would like to enter one of the events, you can still do so via the club My EBU log in, under utilities, sims events.

Apologies for any inconvenience this will cause but it is necessary to avoid the boards from the Sims being seen whilst they are still live and being played at other clubs.

Online Club Teacher Training course 24th and 31st October 2021

EBED will be running an online Club Teacher Training course on the 24th and 31st October.

This 2-day course is aimed at bridge teachers with some experience in the classroom who wish to run lessons online. The agenda covers 'tools of the trade' for online teachers: Zoom, BBO, RealBridge, Bridge Composer, setting up technical tests for students and how to use all of these to produce and deliver rewarding and engaging online bridge lessons. We will also discuss different types of teaching resources and how they suit different learning styles and overcoming barriers to learning. Each delegate will be asked to undertake two short assignments and present them to the rest of the group on the second day.

The timings are approx. 9.30am to 4.30pm each day.

Affiliated club discounts are available, full details and booking instructions can be viewed on our course calendar EBED Club Teacher Training page. The course is suitable for teachers intending to deliver lessons remotely.

Please contact Jacks Morcombe (jacqueline@ebedcio.org.uk) if you would like to attend.

Ray Team win Online Teams Knockout

The 2021 Online Teams Knockout has now concluded, with the team of Georgia Ray, Steve Ray, Bill Niccol & John Gladders finishing in first place beating the team of Michael Hornung, Mark Hooper, Ewa Kater & Tom Townsend by 48 imps.

Similarly, the online knockout teams plate from 2020 concluded yesterday, with the team of Charlie Bucknell, Ewa Wieczorek, Oliver Powell & Stephen Kennedy beating the team of Dan Macintosh, Rune Hauge, Robert Plumley & Andy Hall by 28 IMPs.

Full results

Open European Trials Stage One

Last weekend, the first stage of the Open European Trials took place in the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in London. Of the 20 playing pairs, the top 8 would qualify.

Congratulations to the following pairs for qualifying to the next stage which will be held in the Young Chelsea from November 19th-22nd where they will be joined by Michael Byrne and Kieran Dyke as well as Ben Norton and Mike Bell

Ben Handley-Pritchard and Tom Townsend
John Sansom and Jason Hackett
Neil Rosen and John Atthey
Andrew Black and David Gold
Ben Green and Stefano Tommasini
Simon Gillis and Espen Erichsen
Stephen Lee and Gad Chadha
Artur Malinowski and David Bakhshi

Inter-Schools League for the Lord's Trophy

With the match between Eton and Habs B played Last Thursday (Eton won 52-25), the first edition of the Inter-schools League for the Lord's Trophy is underway.

After the schools Cup went online last March, given the tremendous success of it, EBED decided to put together an all year round competition for schools to be played online.

Thanks to many people's effort, particularly Joan Bennett and Stuart Haring, over 30 teams from 17 schools will be taking part, divided in 3 Divisions, according to experience with the game of bridge.

At the end of the school year, the winners of Division 1 will be awarded the Lords Trophy. It is also hoped the pupils will be invited to visit the House of Lords, reviving a great tradition that Covid has brought to a halt.

EBED CEO Giorgio Provenza has said: "I would like to thank Baroness Ruth Henig and the Lords for their patronage of the competition.

If any school is interested to join the league, please contact EBED's National Youth Coordinator Joan Bennett (joan@ebedcio.org.uk).

Good luck to all the participants and have fun!"

New 12-Board Robot Ladder

September saw the launch of our new daily 12-board robot games on Funbridge and we now also have a monthly ladder which will be based the best six results from these new games and our existing 12-board daily BBO robot games, with modest cash prizes for the top three EBU members each month.

Update - new October ladder has now started.

Online Partnership Bidding Contest, and Individual Online Games

As most members will know, the EBU has been running many daily online games on BBO for the last 18 months. You may also know that for several years we have offered daily individual games on Funbridge where you play with and against robots. You may not know that we also run Daylong 12-board Games on BBO, where you play with and against BBO robots at any time in the 24-hour period, pausing and re-starting as you wish. All of these games offer EBU master points.

At the beginning of September we expanded the Funbridge daily games so there is now an additional 12-board daily robot game, scored by match-points and costing 29 Diamonds. This is accessed in the same way as the existing Funbridge games, by logging on to Funbridge and navigating to Federation Tournaments.

We also launched an exciting new collaboration with bid72, the EBU Bidding Contest at the end of August. Every week each participant receives in-app (tablet or mobile phone) 5 hands to bid with their favourite partner in accordance with their own bidding system. One week later hand records, results and rankings are emailed to all participants and placed in divisions according to how well they do, moving up and down divisions according to their results. This service is completely free for EBU members and made available by bid72, the premium app on bridge bidding.

Remaining Congresses for 2021 Moved Online

Many of our members are showing caution with regard to attending live events and so we have decided to move the remaining congresses in 2021 online. Because of this, we have also reduced the price of entry for all these congresses and significantly moreso for the Autumn Congress. If you were previously unable to attend, you may now like to join us online. The congresses now due to be played on RealBridge are:

The Autumn Congress will be played on the same dates (22nd - 24th October) and follow the same format: Two Star Pairs, Swiss Pairs and Teams-of-Four but with an 11am start time each day.
The Seniors Congress has been moved mid-week, to be held on 7th - 9th December. The format will remain the same, with Pairs, Swiss Pairs and Swiss Teams, but also with an 11am start time each day.
The Year End Congress will be held on the same dates as usual, 27th - 30th December, with the format as similar as possible to last year's event.

Full details can be found on the competitions webpages by clicking the links above. Please enter via My EBU or email comps@ebu.co.uk.

We hope to see you on RealBridge.

Rosanne Spurrier & Kathryn Evans Win National Handicap Championship Pairs

The final results from the National Handicap Championship Pairs have now been processed. Congratulations to Rosanne Spurrier & Kathryn Evans from CICBA (Guernsey), who finished in first place, with a score of 62.76.

In second place were Adrian Alexander & Brian Drabble, from Patcham Bridge Club, with a score of 61.30 and in third place were Christine Thomas & Heather Tarbard, from Lymington Bridge Club, with a score of 59.44.

Full results

Mossop team leads Premier League after first weekend

The team of David Mossop, Gunnar Hallberg, Justin Hackett, Jason Hackett, Phil King & Derek Patterson are leading Division 1 of the Premier League after the first weekend. They currently lead by just 1.51 VPs ahead of the Black team (Andrew Black, David Gold, Simon Cope, Peter Crouch, Andrew McIntosh & Tom Paske). The De Botton team is currently in third.

Division 2 is being led by the Hackett team (John Sansom, Paul Hackett, Dave Debbage & Croz Croswell), 13.6 VPs ahead of the Ever Hopeful team (Joe Fawcett, Gillian Fawcett, David Burn, Ian Payn, Jim Grant & Stefan Lindfors), with the Harris team in third.

The Juniors U26 team (William Clennell, Dominic Cooke, Senthur Shanmugarasa, Kavinthan Vickneswaran, Theo Sinclair & Giorgio Provenza) are ahead by just 4.82 VPs in Division 3. The Li team (Ewa Wieczorek, Yining Yang, Lawrence Wang & Charlie Bucknell) is second, and the Juniors Red team in third.

The second of the three weekends of matches takes place on 16th-17th October. There will be coverage of Division 1 on BBO.

Results; list of competing teams

Joan Burgess

9 May 1935 - 4 August 2021

We are sorry to report the sad news of the death of Joan Burgess. Joan was awarded the Dimmie Fleming Award in 2015 for her services to Nottinghamshire CBA. Joan was a member of the Nottinghamshire CBA Committee from 1991 to 2015. She was its Masterpoint Secretary until 2010. She was Teams of 8 League Secretary from 1992 – 2011, and Team of 4 Secretary from 2011 to 2015. She was Secretary from 2001-2003 and Shareholder for Nottinghamshire from 2001 to 2014. Our heartfelt condolences to all her family and friends.

More details on the Nottinghamshire CBA website.

Mossop team wins 2019/20 Crockfords Cup

The 2019/20 Crockfords Cup has been won by the Mossop team of Paul Hackett, Diego Brenner, David Mossop, Jason Hackett & Justin Hackett. They prevailed by 8 VPs in the eight team final which took place this weekend. The event, which should have been completed last year was delayed due to Covid.

The Hackett team finished on 98 VPs from their seven matches, with the Leslie team of Tim Leslie, Fiona Brown, Mike Bell, Sarah Bell, Michael Byrne & Kieran Dyke finishing on 90 VPs. Just behind in third place on 87 VPs was the De Botton team.

The Crockfords Plate - the consolation competition for those beaten in the early rounds of the Cup - was won by Ben Green, Ollie Burgess, Ben Norton & Duncan Happer (picture). They finished on 91 VPs, with the Lee team of Peter Lee, Mike Scoltock, Graham Sadie, Richard Granville & Richard Fedrick in second place with 73 VPs. The Lee team won the 2020/21 Crockfords Cup final last month.

Entries for the 2021/22 Crockfords Cup are now open.

EBED Autumn Sim Pairs

The EBED Autumn Simultaneous Pairs took place last week and you'll be able to find all the results and commentaries at the links below.

Results will be finalised, and Master Points credited, once all the results have been submitted and checked.

Monday 6th September	Commentary	Booklet
Tuesday 7th September	Commentary	Booklet
Wednesday 8th September	Commentary	Booklet
Thursday 9th September	Commentary	Booklet
Friday 10th September	Commentary	Booklet

For clubs not playing in the EBED Autumn Sim Pairs, please be aware, travellers and hand records for all EBU Virtual Club games will be suppressed for non-players between 12 noon and 10pm each day from Monday 6th - Friday 10th September. This means that if your club is using a non-playing director they will not be able to process the results for the session until after 10pm regardless of whether it is a Sim session or not. Those playing in the games will be able to see their results on BBO as usual.

If your club would like to enter one of the events, you can still do so via the club My EBU log in, under utilities, sims events.

Apologies for any inconvenience this will cause but it is necessary to avoid the boards from the Sims being seen whilst they are still live and being played at other clubs.

August Funbridge Competitions

August's competition for our online games, hosted by Funbridge, has concluded.

In the main August matchpoints ladder, Andy Hughes finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 66.03%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by David Dawson with an average score of 64.56%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Paul Hawkins finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 7.11, winning £25. The second place prize went to Joshua Caplan with a score of 6.03. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
August Matchpoints Ladder; August Handicap Ladder;
Archive of previous winners

Roger O'Shea

Roger O’Shea died on Sunday 29 August. He played regularly at the Weald of Kent and Chislehurst Bridge Clubs. He represented England in the Teltscher Trophy in 2011, and came third, playing in the Chairman’s team, at the Commonwealth Bridge Championship in Australia in 2018. He was the founder and CEO of Pharon Independent Financial Advisors, who became major sponsors of Senior bridge. His funeral will held in Canterbury Cathedral.

Our heartfelt condolences to his wife Claire, his children Nicholas and Andrew, and his extended family and friends.

Open & Women Qualify for World Championships

An exciting finish in the European Qualifier for the World Championship saw the English Open team qualify for the World Championships next year, when a huge swing on the final board, as well as a huge swing in another match, saw them pip the Hungarian team for ninth spot (Italy qualify in addition to eight other teams due to hosting the event). The English Women's team qualified too in seventh place after a 20-0 victory over France in the final match. Congratulations to both of them

World Championship Qualifier

England is disappointed in the response of the Italian Bridge Federation (FIGB) to the forfeiting of matches by their opponents in the European online world championship qualifier:

We believe that international competitions should be free of unethical practice. We have introduced policies that prevent players being selected for England for at least 10 years if they have been convicted of unethical behaviour, and it is difficult to imagine that any England player would consent to play in a team with a player who had consistently acted improperly in international championships over a significant period. We congratulate all countries who have expressed their displeasure and fully support any decision our own open team makes when it is their turn to play Italy. International players have the right to decide whether or not they want to play against individuals who have taken advantage of them for years. FIGB’s statement seems to suggest that players who refuse to play against cheats and NBOs that permit this are acting dishonourably and, in some respect, losing credibility. We do not believe this to be the case.

Ian Payn

Chairman

English Bridge Union

New Disciplinary Convictions

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against David Green & Hilary Barnett-Green (BBO names fournine and hils48) at a hearing in August.

That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by the Avenue BC and Patcham BC between February 2021 and April 2021, they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other. It is alleged that they both took advantage of this information to make plays which they were unlikely to have made without such knowledge, to the benefit of their bridge scores in the sessions concerned.

The defendants admitted the charges. A disciplinary meeting was held and the Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendants’ conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play. They considered the mitigation offered.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 2 years.

Currently Sanctioned Members

Brogeland and Lindqvist win Player of the Year Championship

Congratulations to Boye Brogeland and Espen Lindqvist, winners of the Player of the Year Championship for 2020/21.

The Championship awards points for finishing in the top positions of major competitions, and Boye and Espen topped the table with a joint 20 points after both winning the Point-a-Board Teams and the Spring Foursomes.

1st=	Boye Brogeland	20	5th=	John Carroll	18	5th=	Mark Moran	16
1st=	Espen Lindqvist	20	5th=	Nick Fitzgibbon	16	5th=	Fredrick Nystrom	16
3rd=	David Bakhshi	18	5th=	Tommy Garvey	16
3rd=	Simon Gillis	18	5th=	Adam Mesbur	16

The full list of points scorers, and information on the 2021/22 competition, which restarts in October with the finals of the Gold Cup and the Two Star Pairs at the Autumn Congress, can be seen via https://www.ebu.co.uk/competitions/player-of-the-year-championship

Lee team wins Crockfords Cup

The Crockfords Cup has been won by the Lee team of Graham Sadie, Richard Granville, Mike Scoltock, Peter Lee & Richard Fedrick. They prevailed by 7 VPs in the eight team final which took place this weekend.

The Lee team finished on 100 VPs from their seven matches, with the Allfrey team of Ed Jones, Tom Paske, Simon Cope, Peter Crouch & Alexander Allfrey on 93 VPs. In third place on 80 VPs was the Barden team.

This was a first victory in the event for all of the Lee team.

The Crockfords Plate - the consolation competition for those beaten in the early rounds of the Cup - was won by Paul Spencer, Marc Chawner, Ross Shine & Stuart McPhee. They finished on 82 VPs, with the team of Celia Oram, Derek Oram, Peter Lindon & Dee Lindon just one VP behind in second place.

Entries for the 2021/22 Crockfords Cup will open shortly.

Lockdown League Season 13 Entries are now OPEN!

I am delighted to say that we are continuing the Lockdown League as a permanent fixture despite the lifting of restrictions, because people have enjoyed it so much and it can fit in well alongside live bridge. We are keeping the 3 match per week format with 8 board matches. Entries will remain at £30 per team and prizes will also remain at £40 for first and £20 for second. Furthermore, the top 4 of each division will be promoted and the bottom four will be relegated to the division above and below respectively.

Entries for Lockdown League Season 13 are now open, so please do fill in the entry form below, entries close on Wednesday September 1st at noon.

Team Bucknell wins Four Star Teams to conclude Summer Meeting

The Summer Festival has concluded with the Four Star Teams competition, which was won by Team Bucknell, consisting of Phil King, Kevin Castner, Ben Norton & Mike Bell (pictured), with 99 VPs. They were just 4 VPs ahead of the second placed Byrne team, Graham Osborne, Frances Hinden, Michael Byrne & Kieran Dyke. In third place was the Mossop team (Paul Hackett, David Mossop, Jason Hackett & Diego Brenner) with 92 VPs.

The Swiss Teams for the Brighton Bowl, which continued after the top teams progressed to the finals, was won by Mark Hooper, Michael Hornung, John Gardner & Janet Smith (picture). The Penfold team of Brian Senior, Sandra Penfold, Kay Preddy & Norman Selway in second and the Stynes team of Kath Stynes, Debbie Sandford, Gilly Cardiff, Ned Paul were third.

The rest of the weeks winners were:

Harold Poster Trophy Swiss Pairs: Szczepan Smoczynski & Claire Robinson (picture)
Swiss Pairs C Stratification for the Brighton Plate: Benjamin Gardner & Liam Fegarty (picture)
GCH Fox Pairs Championship: Rachel Bingham & Anne Catchpole (picture)
Mixed Pivot teams Championship for the Middlesex Cup: Liam Fegarty, Jamie Fegarty, Catherine Curtis & Anne Catchpole (picture)
Patton Teams Championship: Keith Nash, Simon Few, Kathy Williams, Robert Miller & Mark Tilley (picture)
Mixed Pairs Championship: Henry Rose & Megan Jones (picture)
Point-a-Board Teams: Imogen La Chapelle, Andy Cope, Ian S Hamilton & Hastings Campbell (picture)
Saturday One-Day Swiss Pairs: Simon Few & Keith Nash
Sunday One-Day Swiss Pairs: Elisabeth Bingham & Tony Togneri

https://www.marshcommercial.co.uk/coronavirus/

Summer Meeting Hub (for results, articles, and more)

Club Restart Seminar 17th August Video Now Available

This morning, Tuesday 17th August, we held the second Club Restart seminar via Zoom. Thank you to all those who attended the meeting. The recording of the meeting is now available to watch via the EBU YouTube channel, here. The video from the first session is available to view here.

Please find below some highlights from this session and the previous one from last month:

All Covid-19 Links
Nicky Bainbridge talked about club re-opening and risk assessments
Link to TryBooking.co.uk
Link for combining results in Hybrid Sessions
Link to Lovebridge
Link to Scorebridge
Details about Pianola Play
For more information about Pianola Play / Bridgemate Play contact James@pianola.net or info@bridgemate.com
Details about TD Training and the TD Training Calendar or email jacqueline@ebedcio.org.uk
For help with new member recruitment email tim@ebu.co.uk - see also his article about restarting on the EBU Membership Development website
Douglas Wright from 3 Counties - advise putting taster sessions for new members online, advertise in local papers and Parish What's On leaflets. 3 Counties website
Cashless Payment Options for Clubs
Short videos about sharing the game of Bridge

Point-a-Board Teams winners

The Point-a-Board Teams has been won by the team of Imogen La Chapelle, Andy Cope, Ian S Hamilton & Hastings Campbell. In second place was the team of Sati McKenzie, Hazel Keith, David Willis & Tim Smith.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

Rose & Jones win Mixed Pairs Championship

The Mixed Pairs Championship has been won by Henry Rose & Megan Jones, with a score of 63.94%. The event was run both in Eastbourne and in clubs around the country. In overall second place was Denise Miller & Nigel Clayton, playing in Caterham BC, with a score of 63.51%. In third place was Maria Whelan & Vinod Khanna, also playing in Caterham.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

Patton Teams Championship Winners

The Patton Teams Championship was won by the team of Robert Miller, Kathy Williams, Simon Few, Keith Nash and Mark Tilley (not pictured), with a score of 124.5 out of 196. In second place was the team of Hazel Keith, Sati McKenzie, Mick Woolley and Neil Hulbert.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

Mixed Pivot Teams Championship Winners

The Mixed Pivot teams Championship for the Middlesex Cup, has been won by the family team with brothers Liam Fegarty and Jamie Fegarty, their mum, Catherine Curtis, and their aunt, Anne Catchpole. They finished the night with a score of 46 IMPs over 24 boards. In second place was the team of Brian Senior, Gary Hyett, Ros Wolfarth and Sue Millard, with a score of 21 IMPs.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

Bingham & Catchpole win GCH Fox Pairs

Rachel Bingham & Anne Catchpole have won the first hybrid GCH Fox Pairs Championship, with an overall score of 57.85%. Daniel Miller & Colin Jones finished in second place, and David Barnes & Janet Barnes were third.

The event was played over four sessions, split across Monday and Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Restarting face to face bridge after lockdown

Membership Development Officer Tim Anderson has written a new blog entry. In it he describes the challenges of returning to face-to-face bridge after lockdown and what opportunities this may bring.

You can read the full blog here.

Smoczynski & Robinson win Harold Poster Trophy

Szczepan Smoczynski & Claire Robinson are the winners of the Harold Poster Trophy Swiss Pairs which has been taking place this weekend at the Summer Meeting in Eastbourne.

The Brighton Plate, for leading C stratification pair, was won by Benjamin Gardner & Liam Fegarty.

More details from the congress are available on the Summer Meeting Hub.

Turkey Overseas Congress - Postponed Until 2022

Please note: Due to the latest government restrictions, Turkey is still on the red list of countries for travel. Due to this, a decision has been made to postpone the congress until October 2022.

The next overseas congress will be held in Malta, February 2022.

We already have a further two congresses planned for next year, the River Congress cruise to the Gardens of Holland and Floriade. Full details will be available shortly.

First for Bridge will be in touch with all those booked for Turkey congress shortly and they are able to transfer any deposit to any of the above 3 congresses for 2022.

EBU Summer Meeting

The 2021 Summer Meeting is now underway, with the Swiss Pairs (session 1, pictured). We are looking forward to a great weekend of face to face bridge. If you can't make it to Eastbourne join an online session or follow the action on the Summer Meeting Hub.

If you are going to arrive late to a session, please call to our TD in charge on 07780 673522. Please note that text messages can’t be forwarded to our TD.

England U17 team in the semi-finals of the Europa Trophy

The team of Bjorn Ahl, Venetia Anoyrkatis, Charlotte Bedford, James Cater, Jamie Fegarty, Thomas Gardner, Lucy Norman and Raphaela Sinclair are through to the semi-finals of the U17 Europa Trophy, having topped the table after the Round Robin.

The U17 Invitational Europa Trophy is played by the ten European nations that had qualified for last year’s World Championship in the U16 category. The event was first postponed to 2021 and then definitely cancelled.

The event has been organized by the coaches of the ten teams, spearheaded by our own Giorgio Provenza, and has received financial backing by the EBL.

The semi-finals (on the 5th of August) and the finals (on the 6th) can be watched on RealBridge kibitzing website.

July Funbridge Competitions

July's competition for our online games, hosted by Funbridge, has concluded.

In the main July matchpoints ladder, Dominic Connolly finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 64.5%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Andy Hughes with an average score of 64.08%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Paul Hawkins finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 9.25, winning £25. The second place prize went to Steve Thomas with a score of 8.66. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
July Matchpoints Ladder; July Handicap Ladder;
Archive of previous winners

England U26 Team in the Chairman's Cup

The English U26 team of Kripa Panchagnula & Jonathan Clark, Oliver Powell & Stephen Kennedy, Ewa Wieczorek & Charlie Bucknell (C), is through to the semi final of the Chairman's Cup, arranged by the Swedish Bridge Federation on Real Bridge. After a strong 3rd place in the qualifying Swiss over the weekend, they won two 32-board matches on Monday, followed by a stunning victory on Tuesday - beating a Swedish team full of international stars by 56 IMPs over 64 boards.

You can follow their semi final vs the Polish Senior Team on Real Bridge via this link from 10 AM Wednesday morning: https://kibitz.realbridge.online/

EBED Welcome New Chair Lee Guy

As previously communicated, the EBED Board of Trustees, last week appointed Lee Guy as the new Chair of English Bridge Education & Development.

Lee takes over from Andy Margetts, whose term as Chair of the Board has come to an end. During his three-year tenure as Chair, EBED has grown from strength to strength, with an almost complete overhaul of staff bringing more bridge expertise into the team and the launch of English Bridge School, an online platform dedicated to the teaching and the learning of the game. Under Andy’s leadership EBED has also successfully weathered the storm of the pandemic and is ready to navigate the post-Covid bridge world.

Lee, together with the Board of Trustees and EBED team will be leveraging his experience of strategy and change management to develop more bridge teachers, tournament directors and ultimately, bridge players. This will support the mission to increase the number of and lower the average age of bridge players and bridge club participants. Lee Guy commented “working with the EBU and the whole bridge community I am sure this strategy will help to sustain and grow the game of bridge which we all love”.

EBU Summer Meeting and Covid-19

In response to requests from members, here is some more information about arrangements for the Summer Meeting with regard to Covid-19.

Our Risk Assessment is available to view on the website and players may wish to make their own assessment of the risks involved. Players will not be asked for “vaccine passports”. The venue has high ceilings and state-of-the art air-conditioning. Tables will be more generously spaced than usual and we will not display updating results in areas that might lead to crowds forming. Instead we will provide results and assignments on the EBU website and using the Bridgemate app, as well as on the Bridgemate units.

We will not insist on players wearing masks, but we will provide some for those who want. Anyone who wants a greater degree of protection may wish to purchase masks with FFP2 or FFP3 protection, such as these.

Players are asked not to come to the event if exhibiting signs of Covid infection. Individuals can get Lateral Flow tests online, from pharmacies and from community centres such as public libraries.

Updates to the Blue and White Books for 2021 now available

The annual updates to the Blue Book and White Book have been made by the Laws & Ethics Committee. The finalised versions can now be viewed and downloaded.

Blue Book (Marked version - changes are shown in green text)
White Book (Marked version- sections which have changed from 2019 are shown with a mark in the left margin)

There are no major changes to the regulations in the 2021 Blue Book, but a small number of changes to wording have been made to address points which had caused difficulty in practice, and to clarify the intention of the regulations.

The content of these books applies to all events held on or after 1st August 2021.

Club Restart Seminar Video Now Available

Friday 30th July, was the first of two Club Restart seminars held by the EBU via Zoom. Thank you to all those who attended the meeting. The recording of the meeting is now available to view on the EBU YouTube channel, here.

Some highlights from the meeting:

All Covid-19 Links
Nicky Bainbridge talked about club re-opening and risk assessments
Link for combining results in Hybrid Sessions
EBU hybrid sessions taking place at the Summer Meeting
For more information about Pianola Play / Bridgemate Play contact James@pianola.net or info@bridgemate.com
Details about TD Training and the TD Training Calendar
For help with new member recruitment email tim@ebu.co.uk - see also his article about restarting on the EBU Membership Development website
Douglas Wright from 3 Counties - advise putting taster sessions for new members online, advertise in local papers and Parish What's On leaflets. 3 Counties website
Cashless Payment Options for Clubs
Short videos about sharing the game of Bridge

A second restart meeting will take place on 17th August, 9-11am. If you would like to attend, please email sam@ebu.co.uk

Derek Povah

We are sorry to report the sad news of the death of Derek Povah. Derek was awarded the Dimmie Fleming Award in 2011 for his contribution to bridge in Derbyshire. He was a long standing member of the Derbyshire County Bridge Association for many years, playing primarily for Rolls Royce, but also having established Allestree Bridge Club in 1990. Our heartfelt condolences to all his family and friends.

More details on the Derbyshire website

British Summer Sim Pairs

The British Summer Simultaneous Pairs takes place this week and you'll be able to find all the results and commentaries at the links below. Results will be finalised, and Master Points credited, once all the results have been submitted and checked.

Monday 26th July	Commentary	Booklet
Tuesday 27th July	Commentary	Booklet
Wednesday 28th July	Commentary	Booklet
Thursday 29th July	Commentary	Booklet

Heather Bakhshi joins as Law & Ethics Administrator

After two stints on the EBU staff over a period of at least two decades, in a variety of roles, we are very sorry to say goodbye to Nick Doe who has moved away from Aylesbury and decided it is time to slow down. However we are delighted to welcome Heather Bakhshi as his replacement in the role of Laws and Ethics Administrator and we know that her knowledge, skills and personality will make her ideally suited for this role.

BridgeClubLive now Provides a HYBRID F2F Session Capability

BridgeClubLive now provide hybrid sessions for their clubs. Clubs can upload their hands ready for play both in their real world club and existing virtual sessions, with results from both merged. Those at home can participate fully when they play the same hands at the same time as those in their real club. A minimum number of 3 virtual tables is all that is required.

This could be beneficial for clubs that are thinking about re-opening as the Covid-19 restrictions ease, but have some members that would still prefer to play online. This feature is also very useful for SIMS and Charity events across multiple clubs.

For any club, there is no cost to have their own Virtual F2F Session other than the requirement that all participants are full members of BCL. For more information email: f2fclubs@bridgeclublive.com

For more information about hybrid sessions, EBU Club Liaison Officer Jonathan Lillycrop has written a report about how to combine results from an online section and a face-to-face section to help clubs who might be considering this as part of their restart strategy.

Board member Patrick Shields has also written some more about these ‘hybrid sessions’

EBU Summer Meeting 2021 at Eastbourne

We are delighted that the government’s confirmation of the relaxation of the rules and regulations currently in place in response to the COVID pandemic means that we can continue with our planned Summer Meeting being run face-to-face in Eastbourne on Aug 6-15.

We have already received quite a number of entries for all events there and we anticipate that many members will have been waiting for this confirmation before making their entries. Although we will take entries up to and including the start of each event, we would welcome players entering as soon as they decide they are coming, so that we can get a sense of the numbers well in advance for planning purposes. If you subsequently change your mind, you can get a full refund of your entry fee.

As usual there will be a £2 surcharge for each event booked in person at the venue itself, rather than online using My EBU or by phone in advance. We hope this will encourage people not to wait to pay in person, which in turn will allow us to minimise queueing before the start of each day. In the same way, to try to avoid crowds in the venue, we will not display results near the playing areas, but players will instead be able to access current results on Bridgemates and by using smart-phones.

Since the government regulations will no longer limit the number of people who can meet in a group and the “1m-plus rule” will be removed, there will be no requirement for players to wear masks beyond the government’s statement that it "expects and recommends" people to wear face coverings in crowded areas. However, we will provide masks for those who wish to use them.

The only venues that are being advised to ask for evidence of vaccination or negative COVID tests using “vaccine passports” are night-clubs and large events so we will not need to do this, but of course we require that anyone exhibiting symptoms of COVID does not come to play.

Full details of the congress and all the events contained in it, including some events for less-experienced players. are available on the Summer Meeting webpage. For those who are not able to come in person, the Monday and Tuesday mid-week sessions are able to be played online and the Wednesday and Thursday evening games will be offered as “satellite events” in a few clubs, as listed on the website.

We look forward to seeing as many of you at Eastbourne as possible and we are sure that you too will be keen to see old friends and renew acquaintances.

Previous Covid-19 updates

July 19 changes to COVID rules and restrictions

The government has confirmed that the rules and regulations currently in place in response to the COVID pandemic will be relaxed from next week in England. There will no longer be a limit on the number of people who can meet in a group and the “1m-plus rule” will be removed.

Face coverings will no longer be required except that the government "expects and recommends" that people wear face coverings in crowded areas.

Only night-clubs and large events are being advised to ask for evidence of vaccination or negative COVID tests using “vaccine passports”.

Many bridge clubs will be keen to re-start face-to-face bridge, either alongside online bridge or in place of it entirely. The decisions about how and when to do this, and which extra mitigations to adopt, need to be made by each individual club itself, taking account of its premises, its members, their preferences and their demographic composition.

It does seem that clubs will no longer be required to employ any of the more extreme measures that have been discussed, like having separate cards for each table, to comply with the regulations. It does, though, remain sensible for clubs to spread out tables as much as possible to avoid crowding, to ensure adequate ventilation and to encourage the frequent use of hand sanitizer.

Clubs have also been enquiring about the position of legal liability with regard to Covid and our insurers’ most recent information about this says of clubs that “for a liability claim to be upheld, it would have to be proven that they had been negligent”. Therefore you should ensure you take all reasonable steps to comply with the new regulations.

Previous Covid-19 updates

Covid-19 and Club Insurance - July 2021 update

Our communications officer, Sam Kelly, recently asked our insurance brokers “following the government statement that the current legal requirements will ease from 19th July, is there any update to the requirements for our EBU clubs to remain covered by your insurance policies with regards to Covid?”

Their response was:

The position remains the same as was previously advised. The Public Liability section covers a clubs legal liabilities; for a liability claim to be upheld, it would have to be proven that they had been negligent.

The policy contains a Duty of Care requirement under “Important Information”:

You should also take all reasonable care to prevent accidents or Bodily Injury. In particular You should:

• keep all work equipment and premises in good and safe condition

• exercise care in the selection and management of Employees

• comply with all statutory obligations and regulations imposed by any authority.

Clubs should be reminded that they are obliged to follow any government guidelines and restrictions and to keep abreast with current COVID requirements.

This link may provide useful information:

In addition, a reminder that they should refer to their Policy Schedule and Wording to ensure they comply with all policy terms and conditions.

The policy does not specifically cover COVID, nor does it exclude it; it all comes down to whether or not a club is held legally liable for an incident and in turn, whether or not they have complied with the policy terms and conditions.

Gloucestershire & Hertfordshire successful at Inter-County League Finals

The National Finals of the Inter-County Leagues took place online on Sunday 11th July. Champion Teams of the various regional leagues in each of the last two seasons were invited to compete.

Congratulations to Gloucestershire whose 'A' and ‘C’ teams both won their respective divisions. The ‘B’ division was won by Hertfordshire ‘B’.

The winning Gloucestershire team was: Dan McIntosh & Paul Denning; Rob Stevens & Richard Butland; Garry Watson & Richard Chamberlain; Joe Angseesing & Andrew Kambites

Results

Ash and Ferrari win Summer Seniors Pairs

The Summer Seniors Congress took place this weekend, online via RealBridge.

The Championship Pairs Final was won by Mike Ash & Bob Ferrari with Clive Owen & Brian Senior second and Norman Selway & Nick Irens third.

The Swiss Pairs was won by James Bond & Graham Marshall, with George Summers & Tanja Summers second and Mike Fawcett & Roger Forster third.

The Sansom team of Paul Hackett, John Sansom, Brian Senior & Clive Owen, won the Swiss Teams. The Bennett team were second, with the Clinch team in third.

Full results

Nominations for Awards Now Open

Nominations can now be made for two teaching awards which are awarded jointly by EBU and English Bridge Education and Development (EBED).

All members can put forward suitable candidates. Nominations should initially be submitted to Steve Hull at EBED, stephen@ebedcio.org.uk . The closing date for nominations is Friday 30th July 2021.

Alec Salisbury Award nomination form: pdf version

Tom Bradley Award nomination form: pdf version

You can read more about the awards and see previous award winners

https://www.ebedcio.org.uk/awards (word versions of the nomination forms can also be found on this page)
https://www.ebu.co.uk/information-resources/alec-salisbury-award
https://www.ebu.co.uk/information-resources/tom-bradley-award

New EBU Online Magazine - Discovery, Issue 1

We are pleased to introduce our new online magazine - Discovery - a publication designed to provide tips and tricks that will help you improve your club bridge scores quickly.

In this first issue we have great articles on dealing with auctions when the opposition interfere, how far to push the auction, and some invaluable tips on play – both as a defender and as declarer. We have tried to address the pitfalls which so many players fall into when participating in club bridge. This magazine is clearly not aimed at expert players, though we hope there will be something of value for all our less-experienced members, whether beginners, novices or intermediate.

Link to the July 2021 issue - or click the image
(feel free to pass this link to anyone you feel may be interested)

Highlights from this issue:

Interactive Hands

For this online magazine, we are able to include interactive hands, which you can play through, starting on page 26.

Declarer Play Quiz

David Bakhshi’s Declarer Play Quiz stimulates your approach to declarer play to ensure you think about all possible avenues and illuminates some which you may not have previously considered, page 38.

EBU Diary Opt-In Deadline

Please remember: if you have sufficient magazine points you can receive a free diary with the September issue of English Bridge, but you will need to positively opt in (if you have not already done this). If you do not have enough points you can become a Direct EBU Member regardless of how often you play. The deadline for opting in is 19th August. Register through My EBU or call 01296 317200 or email karend@ebu.co.uk

June Funbridge Competitions

June's competition for our online games, hosted by Funbridge, has concluded.

In the main June matchpoints ladder, David Dawson finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 66.45%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Dominic Connolly with an average score of 64.66%, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Jonathan Bennett finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 17.07, winning £25. The second place prize went to Paul Hawkins with a score of 10.60. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
June Matchpoints Ladder; June Handicap Ladder;
Archive of previous winners

Robert Plumley wins Quarterly Online IMPs Ladder

The quarterly IMP competition for our online games, hosted by Funbridge, has concluded.

For the second quarter in 2021 April to June, Robert Plumley finished top of the leader board. He scored 394 total IMPs from his best six games, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Dennis Haines with a score of 377 IMPs, he wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
April to June IMPs Ladder
Archive of All winners

Lockdown League Season 12

Final Reminder: Entries will close tomorrow (8th July) at 12 noon.

The new season of the Lockdown League will begin on Monday July 12th and entries close on July 8th at 12pm noon.

£30 for at least 13 games of bridge is great value, and only 8 boards a match does not eat into your evenings. Quick, fun and easy to arrange, the Lockdown League gives you the chance to play the country’s best and bravest.

Returning Captain’s Entry Form

New Team’s entry Form

Addis Page

We have just received the sad news of the death of Addis Page, who was a diligent member of the former Tournaments Committee for the 14 years he served on it. We will provide more information as it becomes available.

Burnham Bridge Club have written an obituary for Addis, available to read on their website.

Austin Barnes

We are sorry to report the death of Austin Barnes on Fri 25th June after a few years of illness.

He was a former Welsh Camrose International player and major contributor to Lancashire CBA and especially to Bolton BC, for which he won a Dimmie Fleming Award in 2019.

Aside from bridge, he was a leading world authority on magnetic resonance spectroscopy with 122 research papers at Salford University.

Update: Austin Barnes' funeral service will be held at 10:30am on Thursday 8th July at East Lancashire Crematorium, Cemetary Road, Radcliffe M26 4EU. Although attendance is restricted to 50 people in the service room, there is an overflow area for more people to attend. This will be followed by an entirely private burial / reception at a different venue with respect to Covid rules. Anyone needing further details may contact Stuart Norris Tel 01995 602431.

Phil Lloyd

We are sorry to report the death of Phil Lloyd at the age of 67. Phil was General Manager of the EBU and Company Secretary from 1998 to 2001. Our condolences go to his family and friends.

Barrie Partridge, "senior kibitzer" on Bridge Club Live (BCL) writes:

In BCL, he played, as Hotspur, nearly 40,000 boards in the 16 years of which he was a member. His regular partner was Sue Maxwell (Smaxi) to whom condolences as well as to Phil's family.

Phil will also be known as having been the General Manager of the EBU from 1998 till 2001 in the very early years of online bridge. It was his support of Sue Maxwell (then EBU Marketing Manager) and Nick Justice in creating an online bridge club for the EBU that changed the course of my life. (The EBU club ran alongside Nick's already established International Online Bridge Club and the two merged in 2002 to become the Bridge Club Live we all know today.)

I got to know Phil very well. He and Sue would often meet up with me and my father for evenings of rubber bridge. Phil was a great and lovely chap, as well as having been a superb General Manager for the EBU.

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Malcolm Boyack (BBO Name MBoyack)at a hearing in May.

That when he played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by Cullompton Bridge Club, he had knowledge of the layout of the hands obtained whilst acting as the director of the sessions concerned.

That he took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which he was unlikely to have made had he not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of his bridge scores in those sessions.

The defendant denied the charges. A disciplinary hearing was held. The Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendant’s conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 3 years.

Sheffield wins Garden Cities Trophy

Sheffield BC (Yorkshire) has won the Garden Cities Trophy, the competition for each county's 'teams-of-eight champions'.

The final featured the eight teams which qualified from the Regional Finals which took place in April, and Sheffield finished in first place with 85 VPs. Tunbridge Wells BC (Kent) was second with 83 VPs, and in third was The Avenue BC (Sussex) with 79 VPs. This is Sheffield's third time winning the competition, with their last win in 1994.

The winning Sheffield team was Dave Robinson, Tony Sowter, Richard Pike, David Waxman, Sandy Davies, Bazil Caygill, Arthur Hughes and Dave Banks.

Results; Previous winners

The end of lockdown!

The government has delayed the end of Stage 4 of the lockdown by four weeks, but this still means it will be over 2 ½ weeks before the start of our flagship Summer Meeting in Eastbourne, which we are excited to be providing as our first national face-to-face event for about 18 months, subject to any unexpected changes to this revised road-map.

Although government restrictions will have ended entirely by then, we will be working with the venue to put in place arrangements to help minimise any risks, by means of table spacing and one-way traffic where possible. We also expect all players to regularly use anti-bacterial hand gel and to do their best to accommodate any requests from opponents to wear face-masks, which we will provide for those who don’t have their own.

We would welcome members entering for the Summer Meeting as soon as possible so that we can get a sense of numbers for planning. As always, if you later change your mind for any reason, you will be able to get a full refund from us. Similarly, if you are uncertain about attending, you should make bookings at hotels that allow full refunds on cancellation within a stated time.

Clubs who planned to re-open on June 21 will doubtless have been disappointed to learn of this delay, but whenever they do open it is essential that they have completed their own risk assessment together with that of any shared premises they use, and that if they have any doubts they tell their local authority of their plans to get their approval.

Further information about a variety of matters to do with the COVID-19 pandemic is available on our website and we are planning an online seminar at the end of July for clubs and counties to come together and share information to plan their re-starts.

Manchester win Pachabo Cup

The Pachabo Cup has been retained by the holders, Manchester and the team of Jeff Morris, John Hassett, Alan Mould, John Holland, Catherine Draper & Andrew Woodcock (pictured). Manchester have now won the cup four times, in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2021. John Holland has played in all four winning teams.

The Pachabo Cup is contested by the holders of the teams-of-four Championship of each County Association of EBU, and 26 counties took part in the event held on 12th - 13th June. It uses a hybrid system of scoring, combining both 'point-a-board' and IMPs converted to VPs.

Manchester scored 249.6 with Surrey (Graham Osborne, Frances Hinden, Mike Scoltock & Jeffrey Allerton) (picture) in second on 237. Hants & Isle of Wight were third with 234.5, and Devon fourth with 228.5.

Results; Previous winners

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Terry & Ann Yearsley (BBO Names Terryy46 & Anny48) at a hearing in early June.

· That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised Clevedon & Portishead Bridge Club and in teams matches eg. Somerset League between the months of December 2020 and March 2021 they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.

· That they took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which they were unlikely to have made had they not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of their bridge scores in those sessions.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 2 years.

Currently Sanctioned Members

Hotchen and Preston win Corwen Trophy

Fred Hotchen & Steve Preston representing Hants & Isle of Wight won this year's event with 59.49% over four sessions. The Corwen is the EBU's inter-county pairs championship for which pairs qualify from their county's pairs championships. This is Fred and Steve's first win at the Corwen Trophy.

Second place was taken by John Hayton & Mike Jackson from Yorkshire with Stuart Strachan & Eleanor Rice of Hants & Isle of Wight in third.

Philip Mason

We are sorry to hear of the death of former EBU Board Member and Vice-Chair, Philip Mason, who passed away on 5th June. Philip was elected to the EBU Board of Directors in 1996 serving as Vice-Chairman during the years 2002 - 2006 and elected to the Tournament Committee in 1994 until 2016 serving as Chairman between 1997 and 2002 where he brought the EBU Northern Summer Congress to Scarborough.

Colin Woods

We are sorry to hear that Dimmie Fleming Award winner Colin Woods has died by his own hand during lockdown. One of the reasons cited by the coroner was the loss of playing bridge regularly. Colin was not only a fine player but a huge asset to bridge administration in his area. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Although the pressures of lockdown are easing, we would ask that members continue to keep an eye out for, and keep in contact with, those who feel vulnerable and isolated, as things for most of us aren’t going to return to normal immediately.

County Chair Meeting 2021

The County Chair meeting took place last week via Zoom. You can view the meeting on the EBU YouTube Channel.

The minutes will be published shortly.

Bridge News in the National Papers

There have been two articles published the national papers this weekend. The Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph both feature articles about the recent rise in cheating allegations following bridge being played more online.

You can read the Sunday Times article online

May Funbridge Competition

May's competition for our online games, hosted by Funbridge, has concluded.

In the main May matchpoints ladder, David Dawson finished top of the leader board. His best six scores in the month averaged 64.30%, and he wins £30. Second place was claimed by Marion Robertson with an average score of 63.48%, she wins £20. There were also cash prizes for third to fifth places.

In the handicap ladder, for the players whose scores exceed their NGS by the greatest amount. Jonathan Bennett finished top of the leader board over the top six games, with a handicap score of 7.36, winning £25. Just behind in second place, the prize went to Jennifer McCloskey with a score of 7.35. There were also prizes for third and fourth place.

For more information and to download the app, see the Funbridge FAQs
May Matchpoints Ladder; May Handicap Ladder;
Archive of previous winners

Youngest Ever Winners at the Spring Bank Holiday Congress

The Swiss Teams event in the Spring Bank Holiday Congress this weekend, was won by Sam Anoyrkatis, Harry Anoyrkatis, Venetia Anoyrkatis & Bjorn Ahl. Venetia and Bjorn are both part of the England Under 16 Youth Squad. They finished with a total of 94 VPs, ahead of the Capal team in second with 89 VPs and the Aris team in third with 87 VPs.

The main Championship Pairs was won by Bob Brown & Alan Hayward. Their score of 60.34% was just enough to push Alex Crystol & Sara Moran into second place with a score of 59.67%. Celia Oram & Derek Oram were third with 55.21%.

Those not reaching the Final, or joining the Congress on the second day, contested a Swiss Pairs which was won by Keith Joules & David Beck, with David Strawbridge & Martin Baker in second.

There was also a two session Improvers Pairs, won by Barbara Antrobus & Lesley Sixsmith with an overall score of 66.15%. Ian Marriott & Paul Lindsay finished in second place, with Martyn Moxley & Neville Shorrick in third.

Full Results
Previous winners: Championship Pairs; Swiss Teams

Tessa Templeton

We are sad to report the death of Tessa Templeton on 25th May, following battle with a long illness.

From Bev Purivs:

The EBU was saddened to learn of the recent passing of Tessa Templeton. Tessa‘s eponymous bridge club in Bucks. grew in just 10 years from a class of bridge students to a thriving bridge club with over a thousand members. Tessa’s aim was to run ‘the friendliest bridge club anywhere’ and this proved to be a winning formula. Whilst Tessa often said that her club’s success was down to a top-notch tea, her members would disagree. They know that it was due to Tessa’s warm and caring nature, her hard work and her determination to maintain the friendly ethos of the club as it grew. Tessa will be sorely missed by her husband David, her family and every member of Tessa Templeton’s School of Bridge.

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against John Franklin (Blenmar) & Vivianne Franklin (Rosewood3) at a hearing in May.

• That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by the English Bridge Union and Surrey, they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.

• That they took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which they were unlikely to have made had they not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of their bridge scores in those sessions.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 3 years and 2 months (including two months for a breach of their interim playing suspension).

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Roew Macdonald & Brenda Macdonald (BBO names Macky3 and MacBren) at a hearing in May.

That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by the English Bridge Union and at Bramhill Green Bridge Club and Brookdale Club, between 1st October and 31st December 2020 they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.
That they took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which they were unlikely to have made had they not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of their bridge scores in those sessions.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 2 years.

Currently Sanctioned Members

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Robert Macrae (BBO name rob2121) & Sylvia Desert (BBO Name des6161).

• That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by Tudor Bridge Club and Border Bridge Club, they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.

The defendants did not contest the charges. A disciplinary meeting was held and the Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendants’ conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of two years. The sanction is subject to appeal.

Currently Sanctioned Members

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Colin Hearn (BBO Name CHearn1) & Jennie Hearn (BBO Name Jhearn3) at a hearing in May.

• That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by the Ned Paul Bridge Club, they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.

The defendants denied the charges. A disciplinary hearing was held and the Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendants’ conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 3 years.

This decision is subject to an appeal process.

Currently Sanctioned Members

Message from the EBU Chairman

It’s been a busy week for the volunteers at the EBU. As the County Chairs’ meeting draws near, various subsets of the Board have been beavering away, agreeing and honing their presentations, and the County Chairs have no doubt been reading papers that have been sent to them. The Selection Committee has had to start confirming plans for the Premier League, and dealing with revived events, including the online qualifier later this year for the World Championships, now due to take place in February or March of next year. On top of that, this week we have had five, five disciplinary hearings. I won’t go into details because there are appeals floating about, but that means there have been five cases that have been investigated by the Online Ethics Investigation Group (OEIG) (this week’s cases were all online), five cases scrutinised by the Prosecution Panel and deemed worthy of charge, five cases which have then had Disciplinary Panels appointed, and five cases which have had a prosecutor and various expert witnesses. Then there will be some appeals, usually presided over by a panel of three. And let’s not forget that there are a couple of staff members who have to devote all their time to this as well.

The overhead to dealing with online cheating has been horrendous. I can’t imagine how many man hours go towards the completion of the case. And some cases – the more confrontational ones – can be very stressful. Disciplinary Panel members are just normal members – people like you and me. They are in situ as peers of whoever is accused of anything, not in any sense as some sort of superior beings. And further down the line, the prosecutors and the investigators take on a great deal of work and carry a heavy burden of responsibility, which, I happen to know from talking to some of them, they take very seriously indeed. And yet they are willing to carry on, as everybody is, with one intention: to clean up the game, to make it a level playing field for everyone. There is a mistaken belief that the idea behind these cases is to target cheats and punish them. Well, that’s partially true, but it’s not the only reason that we have to go through all this. The ultimate aim of a Disciplinary Panel, supported by everyone who has helped a case get before them, is to find out the truth. As simple as that. The truth can be anything – it can be that someone has been cheating like the clappers, or it can be that it’s all a mistake, and that everything can be explained away perfectly rationally (this happens less with online cases, which tend not to get as far as they do without a reasonable expectation of a proven case) – but the truth is only one thing – it doesn’t belong to anyone, it’s objective. And that’s the burden the Disciplinary Panels bear.

So, why am I banging on about all this now? Well, five cases in one week was one prompt (the number of hearings per week can be as low as zero, of course, five in a row is exceptional), the other was the results of a survey carried out prior to the County Chairs’ meeting. It seems that amongst many things that the respondents appreciated about the EBU, one was “keeping the game clean”. Bearing that in mind, I thought I’d take the opportunity to go on record and express my gratitude to those who make it come about. To the dozens of members of the Prosecution Panel, the Disciplinary Panel and the OEIG, to those who give their time to help their friends who have been subjected to a charge (yes, really), to the pro bono advisor, to the appeals committees, to Nick and Jeremy in the office, I offer, on behalf of all the membership, my thanks for taking on such a taxing task, and running with it.

And I hope you don’t all take this the wrong way, but I really, really hope that by this time next year, you’re all pretty much redundant.

BBO Video Chat

As mentioned earlier this month, BBO are launching a new video chat option.

Members playing in virtual club games will be able to see and talk with one other at the bridge table on BBO.

They will start by running lots of very short, 5 boards tournaments with video chat in the next few days to make it easier for players, clubs, anyone interested to hop in and try video chat.

Info about how to join video, for players

For mobile devices, video works only on web -- so players who prefer to use a mobile device need to login at https://www.bridgebase.com/v3/ (recommended browsers: Chrome and Safari)

If you are looking for an easy way to just try video chat, without going through the trouble of setting it up yourselves, you're welcome to try one of these mini-games.

If you prefer to set up your video chat games from your own club account, BBO will be happy to waive the fees so you can experiment as much as you need, to arrange this contact BBO via email tournaments@bridgebase.com to make sure you won't be charged.

Rosen team victorious at National Swiss Teams Congress

The team of Neil Rosen, Anne Rosen, John Atthey, Kay Preddy & Norman Selway were overall winners at the National Swiss Teams Congress, which took place this weekend.

They finished on 181 VPs, just 6 VPs ahead of 2nd placed team John Sansom, Dave Debbage, Paul Hackett & Croz Croswell. The team of Nick Sandqvist, Nathalie Shashou, Oliver Powell & Stephen Kennedy were 13 VPs behind in third with 164 VPs.

The winners of the consolation Stratification B prize were Nick Stevens, Clive Owen, Frank Dixon, Paul Brereton. In 2nd place there were the joint teams of Giles Ip, Andy Cope, Aleksandar Lishkov & David Joyce and Warner Solomon, Alex Maddocks, Stefan Lindfors & Jim Grant.

The competition was run by Warwickshire CBA on behalf of the EBU.

Results; Previous winners

Lockdown League Season 11

Entries for Lockdown League Season 11 are now invited. We are inviting entries from all players to come and join the popular Lockdown League, at only £30 per team for 13x8 board matches over 4-5 weeks, complete with Masterpoints, it’s a bargain. Plan your campaign as you play to the top to join some of the top English players in our Lockdown League.

The deadline for entries is Thursday 20th May at noon. Please send any queries to charlie@ebu.co.uk

A Return to Face-to-Face Bridge?

We are on course for the next stage in the lifting of Lockdown and many clubs are thinking ahead to 21st June when we hope all restrictions will be lifted. Nevertheless many clubs will have concerns as to how and when they should re-open and it is not our role to tell them what to do, since the circumstances they face will vary greatly.

We do however have information that might be of use in making those decisions, on the Covid-19 pages of this website, on the EBU Forums, and an example of how one club, Mid-Essex Bridge Club in Billericay, is planning their re-start.

Our Club Liaison Officer Jonathan Lillycrop has written a report about how to combine results from an online section and a face-to-face section to help clubs who might be considering this as part of their restart strategy.

Board member Patrick Shields has also written some more about these ‘hybrid sessions’

New Disciplinary Conviction

An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Michael Quinn (BBO name Smiler19) and Norma Quinn (BBO name myboys12) at a hearing in March.

That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by the EBU and by the Horsham Bridge Club between June and September 2020, they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.
That they took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which they were unlikely to have made had they not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of their bridge scores in those sessions.

The defendants denied the charges, and a disciplinary hearing was held. The Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendants’ conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play.

The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of three years.

The defendants appealed and the Appeal Committee summarily dismissed the appeal as disclosing no grounds for concluding that the Disciplinary Committee had erred, and forfeited the deposit.

Currently Sanctioned Members

Update to Skyblue Book

An update to the Skyblue book is now available. The Skyblue book was created a year ago as a supplement to the Blue Book and White Book for online bridge, the updated version of the Skyblue book is available to be viewed online and downloaded.

Laws & Ethics Publications

EBED Spring Sim Pairs

The EBED Spring Simultaneous Pairs starts today (Monday 10th May). You can find all the results and commentaries via the links below. Master Points will be credited to the accounts of the top third of the field once the results are finalised in a few weeks' time.

Monday 10th May	Commentary	Booklet
Tuesday 11th May	Commentary	Booklet
Wednesday 12th May	Commentary	Booklet
Thursday 13th May	Commentary	Booklet

Garden Cities finalists known

The Regional Finals of the Garden Cities trophy took place over the weekend via RealBridge. Eight teams in total qualified for the Garden Cities Final in the summer National Finals, which will take place on 19th June.

Regional Final North

Manchester (Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre) - (John Currie, Rodney Lighton, Alec Smalley, Tom Slater, Michael Byrne, John Holland John Roberts & Peter Foster)

Cambs & Hunts (Cambridge) - (Jonathan Mestel, Julian Wightwick, Paul Fegarty, Catherine Curtis, Graham Hazel, David Kendrick, Jon Cooke, Paul Barden)

Oxfordshire (Oxford BC) - (Diana Nettleton, Emily Middleton, Nigel Birks, Matthew Covill, Diana Nettleton, Mary-Ann Sheehy, Denis Talbot, Kathy Talbot, Ewa Wieczorek & Charlie Bucknell)

Yorkshire (Sheffield BC) - (Tom Gisborne, Sandy Davies, Tony Sowter, Dave Robinson, Arthur Hughes, Dave Banks, Richard Pike & David Waxman)

Regional Final South

London (Young Chelsea BC) - (Ollie Burgess, Paula Leslie, Margaret Nygren, Phil King, Peter Taylor, Susanna Gross, Sally Brock & Barry Myers)

Sussex (The Avenue BC) - (Oliver Powell, Gunnar Hallberg, David Dickson, Matt Read, Julian Mitchell, Peter Clinch, Andy Ryder & Mike Allen)

Berks & Bucks (Burnham/New Amersham BC) - (Nigel Wolfendale, Dick Davey, David Owen, Bill Godenzie, Nigel Marlow, Nigel Lancaster, Bob Holder, David Beever, Evelyn Crossley & Eva Wallen)

Kent (Tunbridge Wells BC) - (Jeremy Willans, Ian Draper, Helen Erichsen, Espen Erichsen, Colin Wilson, Gerald Soper, James Lee & Ravi Athwal)

Full Results

Under 16 Play with the Experts won by Gunnar Hallberg and Rufus Barnett

The second under-16 ‘Play with the Experts’ took place this weekend. The winners were Gunnar Hallberg & Rufus Barnett on 61.61% followed by in second place on 59.82% Nicola Smith & Venetia Anoyrkatis. Third place were Barry Myers & Charlotte Bedford on 58.48%.

The event was a great success and played in a fun and sportspersonlike way. The squad loved playing and interacting with the experts. Following the bridge, the squad talked through the hands on Zoom led by David Gold. I am sure that every one of them could tell you something they learnt.

It is hoped that the event will run every 3-4 months. Please get in touch with Claire Robinson, the Junior Liaison Officer – geordieclairerob@gmail.com if you are an expert who would like to play or if you are interested in supporting junior bridge in any way (including financially).