March is time for the Pottage Semi-final - starting at 2pm on Saturday 19th March. Qualifiers need to be aware that the car park at the Crosfield Hall is a paying car park on Saturdays and it is likely to be very full so people will have to come early and look for other car parking if necessary.

Looking back to February and congratulations to John Sherringham & Fred Hotchen, Michael Yeo & Guy Lawrenson winners of the valentines teams, with Michael Gwilliam & Bo Deyal John Jones & Adrian Fontes 2nd.

Congratulations also to Julian Sykes & Bo Deyal Titchfield for winning the latest club based charity event - the IBM cup and to Peter Stockton & John Kennedy and Dave Atkin & Chris Watkins both playing at Swanage who were 2nd & 3rd overall - thats first and second from non EBU clubs. Thank you all for participating.

Congratulations to Dorset raiders Janet Smith & Mark Hooper for winning the finale pairs ahead of Margaret Gale & Andy Hughes second.Full results.

Teams of 4: League 1 winners qualify to represent HIWCBA in the Pachabo.
Well done to Team Dakin (J Dakin, B McRobert, J Baker, R Hyde) for their mid table finish. 

Pairs: Top Pottage Cup pairs qualify to represent HIWCBA in the Corwen trophy.
Well done to Stuart Strachan and Eleanor Rice for their creditable mid table finish.

Teams of 8:  Solent trophy Winners represent HIWCBA in the Garden Cities trophy.
Well done to Petersfield for representing HIWCBA in the regional finals , although not particularly successfully.

All that is left is to roll up roll up to the AGM (Agenda here) and Finale Pairs on 7th June to air your views, play bridge, collect trophies, and congratulate winners including League, Knockout and Victor Ludorum winners as follows.

League 1 (HIWCBA Pachabo qualifier): Team Dakin win with Team Smith, although undefeated, runners up.
League 2: Team Lawrenson win with Team Lawson runners up.
Cahalan Cup : Team Preston  win - beating Team Baker in the final.
Solent trophy (HIWCBA Garden Cities qualifier): Petersfield win - beating Newbury in the final.
Basingstoke Cup: Titchfield win - beating Gosport in the final
HICKO : Petersfield win - beating Newbury in the final
Derek Gibbins: Steve Preston now confirmed as victor.

See tab to left for more details. Congratulations to all winners.

Congratulations to Ian Walsh & Peter Bowles, Jacek Pietrzycki & Mike Orriel winners of the HIWCBA Green Pointed Swiss Teams on 17th May.
Also to Chris & Jan Dixon, Hugh Gross & James Green who were 2nd and to Ian & Clare Fearon, Tony Page & Helen Kinloch 3rd and top HIWCBA team. Why not join them at the AGM when they will have a trophy to collect?
Full results. Well organised by Marion Rudd, well run by the EBU, and enjoyed by all (even when throwing cold games!)

The HIWCBA No Fear Pairs event was held in clubs in the last week of April.
Congratulations to John Glasscock & Martin Church overall winners, Mary Lucas & Sandra Ruffell 2nd and Lloyd Tostevin & Margaret Carr 3rd (Top players from non affiliated club).
Thanks to all clubs who participated. Lets hope to increase the number of clubs next year.

There were two Blue Point events in HIWCBA end April / Early May ::
Congratulations to Jeremy Dhondy & Andy Hughes, Steve Preston & Dave Huggett winners of the Philip Graham Blue Pointed Swiss Teams - follow link for full result.
Congratulations to Tony Page and Helen Kinloch winners of the  Petersfield Bridge Club Blue Pointed Swiss Pairs. Follow link for Petersfield web site.

Congratulations to Steve Preston & Miles Cowling who just pipped Jeremy Baker & John Sherringham in the final of the Pottage Cup (The HIWCBA Pairs Championship) last weekend.
The top four pairs qualify as HIWCBA representatives in the Corwen. Good luck to all in that.

You may remember Betty Weeks as someone who played a fair amount of Bridge around the county and particularly in this area at various clubs like Winchester, Worthy Down and Badger Farm.  She passed away last week (first week of april), aged 94.  She had been in a nursing home and recently suffered  a stroke.
The funeral will be at Basingstoke Crematorium on Friday 24th April at 3:30pm.

Congratulations to the HIWCBA team of Karen Dewar, Richard and Christine Ray and Gary Reynolds who won the Beck Cup (Oxfordshire's Premier Teams of Four event) on the 12th April. They were comfortably up in the first half, fell away in the second half but managed to hang on! 

The Beck Cup is Oxfordshire's premier Teams of Four event and is competed for by representative teams from neighbouring counties and the leading teams from Oxfordshire. This year it is on Sunday 12th April and Karen Dewar, Gary Reynolds, Richard Ray  and Christine Ray will be representing Hampshire. Good luck to them.

The pottage cup finalists are decided. - follow link for qualifiers

Congratulations to Petersfield - winners of the Solent Trophy for teams of 8. And good luck to them when they represent Hampshire in the Garden Cities Trophy.

Local leagues are also progressing. See the local leagues tab for details of progress for the Gosport, Lymington and Southampton leagues. There is also a Isle Of Wight Winter League which is now complete, as follows:

Thirteen teams of four competed in the winter league held during January, February and March.  Players were drawn from all the major bridge clubs on the Island including East Wight, West Wight, Cowes, the Island, Ryde, Ventnor, Newport and Shanklin.  The winning team “Smilers and Grumps” (pictured below) consisted of Bud Abbott, Margaret Abbott, Jill Brereton and John Fryer.  In second place, the “Four Tops” Ian Ralph, Ann Richardson, David Saunders and Penny Carter and in third place the “Wrigglers” Eric Naughton, Christine Naughton, Sue Harrison and Colin Goodenough.

Congratulations to Steve Preston, Dave Huggett, Christine & Richard Ray (above) - winners of the Valentines Mini Swiss Teams event. Steve is now ahead in the Derek Gibbins trophy.
Congratulations also to Alan Burroughs & Sue Hands, playing at Fordingridge (unaffiliated) overall winners of the IBM cup with Ray Crawford & Arthur Dearden , playing at Andover (Affiliated) second. Commentary and results available under results on the right. Thanks to all participants and the club organisers. Look out for the final club based charity event of the season in April - the no fear pairs. March sees the Pottage semi-final at Romsey - click to see qualifiers.

League,Knockout and Derek Gibbins- see County Competitions Tab on left. In Leagues 1 and 2 Teams Dakin and Lawrenson are now top. The semi final line up for the Cahalan Cup is now complete. Gosport are first to qualify for the Basingstoke Cup final. The Solent trophy  and HICKO fnals are both between Petersfield and Newbury. All change for the  Derek Gibbins Trophy - see above.

Congratulations to Barry Tobutt & Jenny Ashby winners of the Candlestick Swiss Pairs - follow links for full results.
Well done also to Lilias Lamont & Lesley Lewis for a creditable (but non qualifying) result in the Lady Milne trials the same weekend.
Coming up are the IBM Cup at clubs during the week before the Valentine Mini Swiss Teams (15th Feb) - stratified if enough interest - follow the link to enter ;
Don't Barry and Jenny look sweet above - perhaps this will be another event for them. Pauline Serby - the new leader of the Derek Gibbins Trophy has already entered

Congratulations to Jeremy Baker, Tony Page, James Guiton and Guy Lawrenson winners of the Midwinter Mini Swiss teams on 11th January (Full results here).
This win puts Jeremy and James equal first for the Derek Gibbins Trophy. Next HIWCBA event is the Blue Pointed Candlestick Swiss Pairs on 25th January (enter here) and neither Jeremy nor James have entered yet - perhaps an opportunity for Steve Preston, or one of the other top regulars, to wrestle the lead away from them.
But its the fun of participating, not the winning that counts - please continue to support us. 
The next Mini Swiss Teams are the Valentine and Harrop events - see full calendar on the left for details.

HIWCBA  are proud to announce that the English Bridge Union has awarded one of its prestigious 2014 Dimmie Fleming Awards for services to bridge to Mike Mollart-Rogerson. Follow the links for further information.

The award was presented to Mike by Andy Hughes at the HIWCBA Yuletide Mini Swiss event (see above). The Yuletide Mini Swiss event was won by Jeremy Baker & James Guiton, John Sherringham & Fred Hotchen. Congratulations to them as well.

List of club heats (and qualifiers from heats already held) for the HIWCBA Pairs Championship - the Pottage Cup - now available via this link

For the forthcoming season HIWCBA have made changes to nearly all of our events. One (or more - hopefully) events will be stratified which is a clever system whereby pairs or teams compete for a place, prize or points with pairs or teams of a similar ranking. We are also trying out some new venues for some of our events in Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton and an IOW Congress to be held at Shanklin. View calander entries for details (next five to the right and rest via the calendar tab to the left)

Congratulations to Richard Ray & Karen Dewar, Ted Student (Tadeusz Janowski) & Christine Ray (pictured above) winners of the Bloxsom Mini Swiss teams at Basingstoke on 30th November.

Belated congratulations also to Richard Ray & Bob McRobert Chris & Helen Kinloch Christine Ray & Gary Reynolds Steve Tearle & Tracey Adams winners of the Jubilee Cup teams of 8 on 16th November

and to Lesley Lewis & David Willis and Helen & Chris Kinloch winners of the Simmos/Lincoln mixed/married pairs competition held on the 2nd November

Also to Anna Hugman & Arthur Whittaker (Basingstoke) and Garda Golding & Harry Cornforth (Island) who were 1st and 2nd in this years simple systems competition.

and finally to Bob Mcrobert & Arun Suri Pauline Serby & John Moore winners of the Wessex Blue Pointed Swiss Teams back in October.

The following team has represented Hampshre in the Tollemarche Qualifier Weekend 22nd/23rd November. The Tollemache Cup is the inter-county championships for teams of eight. Although looking well placed overnight, our team failed to qualify for the final.

David Huggett & Steve Preston
Jeremy Baker & Richard Hyde
James Clark & Owen Leigh
Andy Hughes & Miles Cowling
Bob McRobert & Chris Kinloch

The reserve Pair was
John Jones & Adrian Fontes