Firstly belated congratulations to Phil Downham & Mahmood Nurmohamed  (pictured above left in Real Romsey) - winners of Virtual Romsey 28 on the 10th January (full results here). The next Virtual Romsey is 24th january - enter now. 
And then.... a brilliant turnout for the Candlesticks Pairs on Sunday 17th January. We would never have fitted 33 tables into Crosfield Hall. Especially nice to 'see' new faces. HIWCBA hope all our visitors enjoyed the event and will come back for more. The director thinks it was an 'interesting' afternoon for all: BBO has a unique take on Swiss! So apologies to all those who had re-matches. And it keeps the detailed scoring to itself until the very end!. As the event progressed many of the usual suspects started appearing at the top tables. Finally Miles Cowling & Ron Davis (Pictured above right - Miles in Real Romsey) prevailed. Tony Truluck & Mike Fithyan and Andy Hughes & Steve Preston (2020 holders) were helped by big wins in the last two rounds and finished in the minor places.  Rosemary Jackson & Joan Mossop 'travelled' all the way from Cumbria to finish 4th and take the Non-Expert prize. Neil & Barbara Thomas, who earlier threatened to take up residency at Table 1, were runners up in the Non-expert category. Full resuts here

Happy New Year to you all from HIWCBA.
Looking back to before christmas, Virtual Romsey 26 was held on december 20th Congratulations to the winners Angela Clark & Rob Paton (full results here) - pictured in one of the articles below when also winning Virtual Romsey 24.
Looking back to the first HIWCBA event of 2021 (Virtual Romsey 27 on 3rd January), congratulations to the winners Ian Lewis and Judi Coady (full results here).

Now looking forward to future virtual events -  the next two sundays feature Virtual Romsey 28 on 10th January and the blue pointed Candlestick pairs on the 17th January (click entry links higher up this page to enter). And maybe you could enter featured neighbouring county events as well!

Finally, and perhaps more importantly, you can enter the Pottage Cup - the - HIWCBA County Pairs Championship which will qualify HIWCBA members to enter this years Corwen Trophy (if it is held) - details here. Many of you have already entered but if not there is still the Basingstoke heat on the 11th January and the second Virtiual Romsey Heat on 21st February.

The first HIWCBA charity simultaeneous of the season - the Chidwick Cup occured online at the end of November. Congratulations to the winners : Andy Fry & Phil Brown ( Basingstoke, England ) (full results here) A slightly reduced turn- out but over £250 was still raised for the Hampshire Air Ambulance

Congratulations to John Wilson & Roger Johnson winners of Virtual Romsey 25 on the 6th December.(full results here)

On the 13th December HIWCBA moved from BBO to Realbridge for the HIWCBA Xmas competitiion - the Yuletide Teams. We hope you all had a merry time - almost face to face! Congratulations to the winners Andy Hughes & Fred Hotchen, Peter Crouch & Geoff Oldfield (full results here)Yo Ho Ho. 

There is the final Virtual Romsey before Xmas this afternoon - the 20th December. Lets hope for more festive cheer.

There was no Virtual Romsey on Sunday 29th November. Instead  two teams of 8 represented HIWCBA in the Metropolitan Cup and other teams of 4 visited Virtual Dorset. The HIWCBA Metropolitan Cup A division team (John Dakin & James Clark, Adrian Fontes & Karen Dewar, Gabriel Hearst & Tim Smith, Stuart Strachan & Eleanor Rice) acquited themselves well finishing a respectable 3rd against tough opposition (full results here) - congratulations to them. The HIWCBA team in the C Division (Madeline Lawson & Mahmood Nurmohamed, Steve Martin & Gill Weeks, Ann McMahon & Sula Turpin, Michael Yeo & Stevie Parker) also seemed to enjoy themselves and managed to win/draw 3 of their 7 matches (congratulations) but their final position was less than ideal (full results here). The Dorset Weymouth and Hardwick Cup competition (full results here) was won by a Dorset team with members who regularly visit Virtual Romsey (Jon Holland & Hugh Kevill-Davies, Philip Norman & David Willis -  Congratulations to them) and also well done to all HIWCBA members who made the journey to Virtual Dorset although the results may have not quite been what they had hoped for.

Congratulations to Angela Clark (pictured above with Father Christmas - dont forget to enter the Yuletide Teams on the 13th december) and Rob Paton winners of Virtual Romsey 24 on 22nd November - full results here. Also well done, but commiserations, to the HIWCBA Tollemache team (Jeremy Dhondy/Andy Hughes, Peter Crouch/Geoff Oldfield, Dave Huggett/Steve Preston, Jeremy Baker/Fred Hotchen, Lilias Lamont/Andrew Doye) who finished 9th in the Tollemache Qualifier with only the top 8 teams qualifying for the final - full results here.

Congratulations to Phil Downham & Adrian Fontes (pictured above in real romsey) on following up their Bloxsom Teams success with victory at Virtual Romsey 23. Full results here.

The committee has selected the following 5 pairs to ‘send’ a team to the 2020-2021 Tollemache inter-county teams of 8 Championship: Jeremy Dhondy/Andy Hughes, Peter Crouch/Geoff Oldfield, Dave Huggett/Steve Preston, Jeremy Baker/Fred Hotchen, Lilias Lamont/Andrew Doye.  (The committee may, at its discretion, add either another pair or up to 2 additional players to make up the permitted 12 team members.) The EBU is running the qualifying event online on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November. Good luck to the team this weekend. Each pairs convention card is accessible by clicking here.

HIWCBA has been invited to send up to three Teams-of-Eight to the Metropolitan Cup.
This is a stratified event restricted to the Home Counties.
It will be played on BBO on the 29th November. The following two teams have been chosen. Good luck.
For Division A John Dakin & James Clark, Adrian Fontes & Karen Dewar, Gabriel Hearst & Tim Smith, Stuart Strachan & Eleanor Rice
Reserve pair  Madeline Lawson and Mahmood Nurmohamed.
For Division C Madeline Lawson & Mahmood Nurmohamed, Steve Martin & Gill Weeks, Ann McMahon & Sula Turpin, Michael Yeo & Stevie Parker
Reserve Pair Rick Assad & Jenny Ashby

Congratulations to Mahmood Nurmohamed & Jane Davis  (Pictured above in real romsey) on their Virtual Romsey 22 triumph on 1st November (full results here)

8th November saw the running of the third in the HIWCBA 20/21 season of annual one day events - the blue pointed Bloxsom Swiss Teams (full results here). This event, like the Candover Swiss Teams earlier in the year,  ran exactly to time and without any apparent issue.  Also, moving online has once again attracted more teams than the previous equivalent HIWCBA face to face event, although face to face bridge is still  missed. Congratulations to the winners Adrian Fontes & Karen Dewar, Phil Downham & Julian Sykes (pictured above winning the 2019 yuletide event in real romsey - perhaps christmas has come early this year). Their last round victory took them above Dorset raiders Tim Dunsby & Mike McMorran Janet Smith & John Gardner who finished second. Congratulations also to Eileen Barratt & Nicola John Foster & David Barratt on winning the non expert prize, to the directors for doing such a fine job, and to those from afar for 'travelling' to the  HIWCBA event.

The last event played F2F by HIWCBA was the 2020 Pottage Final.
We are launching the 2021 Pottage Pairs Championship as an on-line event.
A number of Clubs will be running heats, see below.
However we are aware that a number of Clubs are not operating on-line.
So we will run two extra heats at Virtual Romsey, on December 6th 2020 and 21st February 2021,

     Petersfield Wednesday 18th November 2020

     Basingstoke  Monday 11th January 2121

     Lymington   tbd

To enter any of these heats please contact the relevant Club or HIWCBA.
The semi-final will be played on 7th March 2021 and the final on 11th April 2021

Congratulations to Bill Gardner & Peter Griffin (Kent & Sussex) winners of the Petersfield Bridge Club Swiss Pairs on Saturday 23rd October. Full list of prize winners here & full results here. Then on sunday 24th October, congratulations to Dave Willis & Lesley Lewis (pictured above in Real Romsey) winners of Virtual Romsey 21. Full Results here.
Coming up is the HIWCBA Bloxsom Swiss Teams on 8th November (enter here).

Congratulations to two pairs on tying in first place at Virtual Romsey 20 on Sunday 18th October. One pair are HIWCBA regulars Mike Burley & Peter Lang the other pair are Dorste / Wiltshore Raiders Royd Laidlow & Catherine Lynn. However, in both cases your webmaster has no access to pictures of the pair in real romsey or elsewhere. If gifted one then the webmaster will post it.
Next weekend sees HIWCBA events on both days - the Petersfield Blue Point Swiss Pairs on Saturday 24th & the next Virtual Romsey on Sunday 25th (as well as the virtual EBU autumn congress). We hope to see see you at at least one of those events. You can also now enter the HIWCBA Bloxsom Swiss Teams coming up in mid November.

Lots happened in the first two weeks of October that give rise to congratulations from HIWCBA.
Wessex Swiss Pairs
The two weeks ended with the second event of the 2020/21 HIWCBA online event season (running in parallel with the Virtual Romsey events) - the Wessex Swiss Pairs. Congraulations to all who turned up online - there were two more tables than turned up to the equivalent 2019/20 face to face event - and special congratulations to the winners Mahmood Nurmohamed & Jane Davis. Full results here. The winners had a pretty solid set; and scored well in the final matches. Also congratulations to the  raiders from Wiltshire, Richard Turner and David Alsford, who took the non-expert prize and were riding very high until the last two rounds.
Season 3 of HIWCBA Leagues
At about the same time, the third season of HIWCBA online inter club leagues completed. In online division 1 it was a return to season 1 with Badger Farm (Jeremy Baker, Nick Craik,Jeremy Dhondy,Fred Hotchen,Dave Huggett,Andy Hughes, Steve Preston) well ahead in first place and Sussex (Peter Burns, Lindsay Geddes, Philip Hunt, Yves Lebrec, Andrew Morris, Chris Phillips, David Telfer)(formally Chichester) in second place. Congratulations to both. Unlike season 1, however, Badger Farm did fail one hurdle losing their last match 8-12  (2-7 in imps) to Petersfield L who finished 3rd. In online division 2 the winners were Basingstoke P (Abha Patel, Marjorie Rowledge, Barbara Thomas, Neil Thomas) with Lymington Lions (Andrew Bingley, Tony Elliott, Paul Londesborough, John Taylor) second and also promoted. Congraulations to them. The fourth season of the leagues has its schedule drawn and is almost underway.
HIWCBA Heat Of National Handicapped Pairs
On Sunday 4th October the regular Virtual Romsey event became longer and morphed into the HIWCBA heat of the National Handicapped Pairs. 16 pairs entered the HIWCBA heat. Charles Nixon & Macushla Stewart  were the top HIWCBA heat pair both locally before handicap and nationally after handicap. They were 8th nationally. Pauline Davis & Steve Davis rose from 3rd place unhandicapped locally to become the 2nd placed HIWCBA pair (33rd nationally) after handicaps were applied nationally. Congratulations to both pairs and all who entered. Full handicapped and non handicapped results here.
HIWCBA & Dorset raid On West Of England Congress
Also on the 4th October a joint Kent, Dorset & HIWCBA team (Ron Davis & Miles Cowling, Steve Preston & David Huggett), travelled virtually to the West Of England Congress and won the Green Point Swiss teams. Congratulations to them.
HIWCBA raid on Virtual Dorset
Finally, on 3rd October, Ted Purvey & Charlie Patrick mounted a successful Isle Of Wight raid on virtual Dorset. Congratulations to them.

Congratualtions to Clare & Ian Fearon (pictured above in Real Romsey / Virtual Romsey 16) winners of Virtual Romsey 19 on 27th September (full results here).
There are two HIWCBA approved events in October on weekends when there will be  no Virtual Romsey on the Sunday. These are the HIWCBA Heat of the National Heat of the National Handicap Pairs on Sunday 4th October (enter here), and the Blue Pointed Wessex Swiss Pairs on Sunday 11th October (enter here). There is also the Blue Pointed Petersfield Swiss Pairs, run by Petersfield Bridge Club, on Saturday 24th October (enter here) and on that day there will be no Virtual Dorset - Virtual Romsey will still take place on Sunday 25th.

Sunday 20th September saw what some had feared was impossible - an online Swiss Teams event (The Candover Swiss Teams) of the length of a face to face event running perfectly to time without becoming an intense isolated bridge experience that challenges your concentration. In this case the intensity that sometimes  haunts online bridge was lessened by playing at a scheduled 6 boards an hour that gave participants time to refresh and chat (at home or online) between rounds.It was also good to be able to see the current positions at the end of each round online on this website. Extreme congratulations to Mark Hooper, Robin Wright and Mike Kinsey for achieving this. HIWCBA will now schedule in their complete 2020/21 pairs and teams county fixture list as well as continuing to run virtual romsey in between. Full details coming soon. Congratulations to the overall winners (Full results here) Andy Hughes & Jeremy Dhondy, Fred Hotchen & Jeremy Baker (pictured above 4,2,3,1 in Real Romsey) and also to Martin Bevan, Keith Terrell, Neil & Barbara Thomas winners of the b flight/non expert catagory.
Next weekend you have plenty of choice: Join us again on sunday for the next virtual romsey, join Dorset on saturday for the next virtual dorset, or maybe play in surrey's  green point weekend events, or (not much further afield especially in the virtual world) the west of england online bridge congress.

From June 2016 webmaster policy is to highlight names of primary HIWCBA members with public NGS grades & report on their notable achievements in HIWCBA events, national events & neighbouring county events, in addition to reporting HIWCBA  events & major HIWCBA club events & news.