The first two weekends of June have seen  HIWCBA Pairs and Teams champions representing the county with pride and doing rather well to boot - congratulations to all as follows:

HIWCBA were first represented in the Corwen Trophy (the nationl competition for county pairs chanmpions) by three pairs : Jeremy Dhondy & Andy Hughes, Gordon Clarke & John Pearson (Our pottage cup winners), Eleanor Rice & Stuart Strachan - With special congratulations going to Jeremy & Andy for finishing 5th out of 94. 

Then HIWCBA were represented by the County Teams champions (Andy Hughes,Jeremy Dhondy,Steve Preston,Dave Huggett) in the Pachabo Cup (the national competition for county teams champions) and they did tremendously well (special congratulations again)  by finishing 2nd with 208.5 points - only 1.5 points behind the winners (Manchester).

Although 5th May was the last one day hiwcba level event of the season, the next weekend 10th-12th May is busy with Hamsphire / Basingstoke Bridge Club hosting the Corn Cardis friendly event between England (EBU, County (This year Hampshire) and Club (this year Basingstoke)) and equivalent Irish teams (see Corn Cairdis 2019 programme). This has  kicked off with the friday night welcome event and continued with the main events on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in a lot of friends being made and the irish triumphing Full report here on the Basingstoke website.

The 2018-2019 HIWCBA season of one day events came to a successful symmetrical end on 5th May with the Philip Graham Teams  at Yarmouth IOW (pictured above). Symmetrical because the event had the same structure as the initial event of the season - a 13 team Danish teams events directed by Mike Kinsey. Successful because it was well organised by the IOW HIWCBA members, well directed by Mike and enjoyed by all. The majority of the teams were from the IOW but at half time the first three were all teams from the mainland. However , that wasnt the case at the end. At the end of the final round the winners were the mainland based team of Jeremy Dhondy, Dave Huggett, Jeremy Baker and Steve Preston (archive pictures above) who were victorious despite failing to win either of the rounds they played against second place Tim Smith, Dave Willis, Lilias Lamont and Mike Fithyan who needed a 14-6 win in the last round for victory but only managed 13-7. The last round 3rd and 4th place match  was between two Isle of Wight teams with David & Christine Pine, Marilyn Barrell & Gay Bessant  (3rd) and  Ted Purvey & Charlie Patrick, Angela Clark & Rob Paton swapping 3rd and 4th places when David's team won their final round head to head 12-8.
The HIWCBA Hicko trophy also spent the day on the isle of wight and was presented to the 2019 winners after tea - the photo has been added to the AGM and presentation of trophies report below which also has some text and AGM minutes added to it.
Finally, because the season is now complete, this years winner of the Derek Gibbins Victor Ludorum is known; Being part of the team that was 2nd in Yarmouth was enough to secure Tim Smith victory and being part of the first place team was enough to move Steve Preston and Jeremy Baker up into second and third  places.

Congratulations to Richard Ray & Tim Smith (Pictured above) winners of the Ranked Pairs (Graham Cup) competition held after the county AGM. Congratulations also to Jenny Ashby & Rick Assad winners of the B stratification Mark Carr Cup and also to Mooneen Potter & Paul Sayer winners of the C stratification Philbrick Trophy. Richard & Tim were showing as ahead at tea and stayed there until during the last round when Andy Hughes & Christine Ray threatened to the extent that with only one result outstanding (one they were playing) they had snatched the lead. However tim's more regular partners came to his rescue and Andy & Christine registered a bad result on board 12 to finish second - and a little further second after the director (Mike Kinsey) completed his 3 outstanding rulings. This puts Tim & Richard first & second respectively in the Derek Gibbins Victor Ludorum with only one event to go - the Philip Graham Blue Point Teams at Yarmouth on the 5th May - There is still time for you to enter and enjoy a bridge based visit to the Isle Of Wight. 

The AGM on 28th April commenced with the presentation of a cheque for all money raised by HIWCBA for charity to the Hampshire and Isle Of Wight Ambulance (pictured above top). This was followed by the AGM for which draft Minutes are availble here. After the AGM the ranked pairs event occured (see separate report above) and many of this years trophys were presented at the end of that events tea break (pictured above - can you recognise the trophys and winners? - answers when all leagues have completed and a full season summary is provided). Note: the final picture shows the presentation of the HICKO trophy which was delayed until may 5th at yarmouth because the trophy did not make the AGM.

Congratulations to Newbury Bridge Club (Madeline Lawson, Mac Murmohamed, Stuart Strachan, Eleanor Rice, Sula Turpin, Ann McMahon, Keith Terrel, Michael Kaye, Martin Bevan, Claire Bevan) for winning the HIWCBA team of 8 Solent Trophy - beating Basingstoke in the final back in march & qualifying them to represent HIWCBA in the Garden Cities Regional Finals. That event was held on Saturday 27th April with the Newbury team participating in the Richmond heat without much success. Hopefully the experience was enjoyable. 

Congratulations to John Pearson & Gordon Clarke, HIWCBA pairs champions for this season and winners of the 2019 Pottage Cup. They took the lead about half way through the 45 board final, and were never overtaken. Behind them a group of four pairs threatened, including last year's winners, Stuart Strachan & Eleanor Rice, the Semi-Final winners, Mac Nurmohamed & Phil Downham, and past winners Andy Hughes and Jeremy Dhondy. Lilias Lamont & Andrew Doye came with a late surge, but a less than sparkling last round saw them slip to fifth, and sent Mac & Phil into second place. The top four (I belive) pairs can now enter the Corwen Trophy - the national competition for the top pairs in each county's pairs championship - good luck to all who choose to compete.

The finals of the HIWCBA Pairs Championship (The Pottage Cup) are approaching; The results of the semi-finals (held on saturday 23rd March) are in and 16 pairs (the top sixteen with reserves taking their place if anyone drops out) will compete in the final at Crosfield Hall on the 14th April. A total of 36 pairs competed for the sixteen places in the Final. As one competitor put it 'most of the usual bandits' did well: some good players qualified too! The new venue at Romsey School was OK and the event ran smoothly. TD managed to collect slightly too much table money. So if anyone thinks they are owed £2 shout now, or it will go to the Air Ambulance. Meanwhile please dont forget to enter the season's remaining HIWCBA events (see above and also also calendar).

The Hampshire Congress at Otterbourne ( swiss pairs  and swiss teams )  is now complete having been smoothly run throughout by directors Colin Simcox and Phil Green (thank you). Congratulations to all winners and well done to all who took part. Winners of the pairs were Avon raiders Cathy & Andrew Smith (pictured top row left above) with the HIWCBA pair Jeremy Dhondy & Jeremy Baker equal second with Miles Cowling & Ron Davis (Dorset/Kent).   1st in the teams were Cathy & Andrew Smith, Ralph Smith & Steve Tomlinson (pictured top row right above).  Second were were a team that included the event organisers (Richard & Christine Ray, Nicholas Craik & Dave Hugget (pictured bottom row above)) and they are the winners of the catherine howell memorial trophy presented to the first all HIWCBA Team .

Saturday saw a sell out field compete in a 7 match Swiss Pairs event. Last years winners Miles Cowling and Ron Davis took an early lead and were clear of the field at the break after 3 matches.

Those who had chosen to have the excellent ploughman’s provided had made a good choice not least as it certainly wasn’t picnic weather.

After 5 matches the lead at the top had been closed to just 3VPs, Cathy and Andrew Smith now  in second. The penultimate round saw the Baileys record a large win and with the two Jeremys, Baker and Dhondy coming up fast on the rails a close finish seemed likely. However a large win for the Smiths over the Baileys gave them victory by a 5 VP margin as the two Jeremys beat Cowling and Davis by just enough to tie for with them for second place.

On Sunday, St Patrick’s day, 32 teams competed in the Swiss Teams event. Before proceedings  commenced thank yous were given and  congress secretary Christine Ray was presented with a  bouquet of flowers and received a well deserved large round of applause.

At the break after 3 matches our congress secretary’s team of Christine & Richard Ray, Dave Huggett and Nick Craik were leading the field. After overseeing the provision of a fine plated tea of homemade cakes and a selection of sandwiches Christine returned to the cards and continued to be amongst the front runners.

Going into the final round it appeared as though the Ray team had a clear lead from the Muller and Middleton teams, who were playing each other in the last round with the Rays playing the Smith team. The Muller team won and the Ray team lost, provisional results showing them equal first on 94 VPs and the Smiths in third. However, there was to be late drama, when it was realised that a result in the Smith vs Muller match in the penultimate round had been incorrectly entered, a -800 instead of a +800. This resulted in a swing of 10 VPs to the  Smith team leaving them clear winners on 101 VPs with the Ray team in second place on 94 VPs.

Congratulations to Fred Hotchen & Steve Preston, Dave Huggett & Nick Craik (pictured above), winners of the Valentine Teams on 17th February. First and second at half time were also first and second at the end. At half time the directors team (Guy Lawrenson & Hugh Kevill-Davies, Andrew Bennett & David Hinkin) were tied first but the winners pulled away in the  second half. Well done to Guy for directing and playing.
In the Derek Gibbins Victor Ludorum, Tim Smith was lucky - he played badly in the Valentine event but still managed to increase his lead. Steve Preston is now in second place in that competition.

The IBM cup charity simultaeneous was played in 9 HIWCBA clubs during the previous week and congratulations go to two pairs who played in Winchester - winners Guy Malcolm & Ray Crawford with Peter Crouch & Geoff Oldfield 2nd and well done to Winchester for fielding 3 of the top 4 pairs in the event.

The last weekend of january was thrilling for Martin Garvey. First AFC Wimbledon pulled off a FA Cup shock by beating West Ham. Second Ian Swanson & Martin Garvey  (pictured above) pulled off a rather less shocking succesful Surrey raid on the HIWCBA Candlestick Swiss pairs . Like last year, the position at the end of round 5  was swiss working like it should with the top two pairs playing each other in the last round. This year Helen Kinloch & Tony Page were the potential Hampshire heroes - needing a 12-8 last round win for victory. According to director Mike Kinsey, who did a stirling job of directing, they got off to a good start but unfortunately they failed to maintain that momentum and lost 12-8 to finish 2nd. During the last round Mike announced that all would be playing people of similar standard and could perhaps look to form a team for the valentine teams with their opposition - well it cant have felt like that at the bottom of the field with the final ranking showing all of the bottom five pairs losing the last round 20-0.
And what about the Derek Gibbins victor ludorum trophy? Well, going into the candlesticks as part of the pair defending the trophy, Tim Smith had high hopes of extending his lead. In practice though he only did just enough to keep his lead and now has defending Derek Gibbins champion Andy Hughes  close behind in 2nd place.
The next HIWCBA event in Romsey is the Valentine Teams on the 17th February and we hope to see you all there.

The Mid Winter Teams on the 13th January was a well organised 10 team all play all event well run by playing director Guy Lawrenson and technical director Michael Yeo. 1st and 2nd were the same at half time as at the end with the clear winners being camera shy Jeremy Baker & Alan Wilson playing with John Sherringham & James Guiton (pictured above). Second place was, however, close at the death. Team Dakin (John Dakin, James Clark, Tim Smith & Tony Truluck) had slipped to 3rd 5 imps behind 2nd with only board 39 to play; John & James were at the table and Tim & Tony thought it unlikley that a big swing would result. However, luckily for them, John & James managed to defeat 4H for a 13 imp swing and 2nd place. The result leaves members of those two teams (Tim & Jeremy) in first & second place in the Derek Gibbins Victor ludorum.  Congratulations to the winners, the directors and all who played and hope to see you all return later in the season - e.g. to the blue pointed Candlestick Swiss Pairs at the end of January and the Valentine Teams in mid february

The Yuletide HIWCBA Xmas event was a happy event (merry xmas again to all) with spot prizes, raffle and £250 raised for Hampshire Air Ambulance. The swiss teams event ended with a successful family raid from Dorset in the form of Hugh Kevill-Davies & (camera shy) Jon Holland, Lucy & Philip Norman (winners and pictured above) who chose the event to give Lucy Norman her first county level tournament success as a junior. Congratulations indeed to that team.  The event was well directed by Mike Kinsey who achieved his second HIWCBA second of the month when his team (Mike Kinsey, Tony Olech, Tim Smith & Tony Truluck) came second overall. This gives Tim Smith a narrow xmas lead in the Derek Gibbins Victor Ludorum.

Earlier in advent more money was raised for Hampshire Air Ambulance by the Chidwick Cup charity simultaneous in clubs. Congratulations go to the winners Fred Hotchen & Andy Hughes with Mike Kinsey & Gabriel Hearst second.

Congratulations to Tim Smith, Lilias Lamont, Mike Fithyan & Mike Kinsey (top picture) winners of the wessex/bloxsom teams event on 2nd December. They win the Wessex trophy. Congratulations also to Bob McRobert, Chris Kinloch, Geoff Oldfield & Peter Crouch (bottom picture) who were second and winners of the Bloxsom trophy. The event was run as a multiple teams and standings were not available until near the end. Team Smith & Team McRobert were playing each other in the last round and with 4 (and then 5) of the last round of 6 boards  scored for that match team smith were just 1vp ahead and Tim/Lilias could see that their last score was not good. Fortunately for them though, Mike F and Mike K managed to bring home 4S on board 12 to increase their winning margin and secure victory. A good event enjoyed by all and well directed by Keith Bennett.

The HIWCBA tollemache team of Jeremy Dhondy,Andy Hughes,Sonia Zakrzewski,Gareth Birdsall, Jeremy Baker,Guy Lawrenson,Steve Preston,Dave Huggett, Adam Dunn and Graham Allan competed in Group A of  the 2018-19 Tollemache qualifier on the weekend of 17th-18th November and almost qualified in a hard qualifying group. With two teams qualifying they were in the pack competing fiercely for the second qualifying spot, eventually missing out by 3vps.

Congratulations to Jeremy Dhondy & Jeremy Baker, Jason Frost & Fred Hotchen, Clare & Ian Fearon, John Folkes & Tony Page – winners of the Jubilee Cup for teams of 8 on Sunday 11^th November because they scored the most victory points even though  Guy Lawrenson & Christine Bradley, Richard Vessey & Claire Hillyard,Janet Smith & John Gardner Mike Jackson & Michael Yeo (2^nd overall) won all their matches and therefore accumulated the most masterpoints. Of course it wouldn't be the Jubilee Cup without a scoring issue! But the director, Mike Kinsey, says he has now put in the missing scores and generated the correct results.

This was enough to put Jeremy Dhondy into the lead of the derek gibbins victor ludorum.

The next HIWCBA adventure is competing in the Tollemache (National inter county teams of 8) Qualifier and good luck to the selected team of Jeremy Dhondy,Andy Hughes,Sonia Zakrzewski,Gareth Birdsall, Jeremy Baker,Guy Lawrenson,Steve Preston,Dave Huggett, Adam Dunn and Graham Allan who are competing in that event on the 17^th/18^th November.

Congratulations to Phil Johnston & Robert Hills of Meon Bridge Club - the winners of the simple systems pairs in clubs between 29th October and the 2nd November. Full results here.  112 pairs took part - 4 more than last year - obviously an enjoyable event that people return to. The event has raised nearly £200 for Air Ambulance.

The weekend of 27th/28th October was not a HIWCBA event weekend, but there were teams events in/nearby Hampshire on both days. Petersfield Bridge Club held its blue point swiss teams event on Saturday 27th with victory for HIWCBA members Steve Preston, Richard Ray & Christine Ray playing with Miles Cowling (Dorset) with Peter Crouch, Geoff Oldfield, Bob McRobert(all HIWCBA)  & Arun Suri (Surrey) second.  On Sunday 28th some HIWCBA members  travelled to the Dorset Flemmich Cup teams event  and  the all HIWCBA team of Roger Johnson & Michael Gwilliam, John Jones & Adrian Fontes  triumphed, beating the  combined HIWCBA/Dorset team of Philippa Bateman & Lesley Lewis,Tim Dunsby & Robin Wright. Congratulations to all who won and all who did well

Last weekend saw two HIWCBA members - Peter Crouch & Jeremy Dhondy - who had both competed in the first HIWCBA event of the season (the candover teams),  shun the second (the HIWCBA Mixed and married pairs at Crosfield hall - see below)  in order to compete in the BGB Gold Cup finals - with the equivalent result to our own candover teams result. i.e. Peter's team triumphed over Jeremy's team  who were runners up. Congratulations and well done to both. Hopefully this will inspire more HIWCBA teams to enter the competition - although in practice some dont get very far!

Congratulations to Madeline Lawson & Mahmood Nurmohamed (above left) winners of the mixed and married pairs in a busy Romsey on 14th October (Lots of cars in the car park and lots of enjoyable bridge in the crosfield hall).  Richard & Christine Ray (above right), retained the married pairs trophy for the third year in a row although only 4th on the day with Angela Clark & Rob Paton and Jenny Ashby & Rick Assad also ahead of them.

The 2018-2109 HIWCBA season is now upon us and has has started with an exciting, well directed  Candover Teams (full results here), in 'Danish' teams format which worked flawlessly and resulted in the top four teams being within 5 Vps of each other with one match to go. Team Cowling (Miles Cowling & Bob McRobert, Peter Crouch & Geoff Oldfield) triumphed, beating Team Lamont by more than Team Dhondy beat Team Baker. Congratulations to all and especially the director Mike Kinsey who somehow also managed to play in the event.
The winning team were not photographed at the event but some 2017-18 trophies were presented at tea - see above.
All county league and knockout competitions have been drawn and all HIWCBA events up until the end of 2018 can be entered now (as highlighted above) The first Dave Huggett seminar takes place on the 30th September - these seminars are always enjoyed by all who attend - so dont miss out.  The next HIWCBA pairs event in Romsey - the mixed and married pairs - is coming up on the 14th October. The HIWCBA simple systems competitions in clubs also occurs at the end of october - clubs please confirm when you wish to hold a heat, 

Congratulations to all HIWCBA members who achieved success in 2017-2018. This includes all HIWCBA trophy winners, plus remember:

The Petersfield team of 8 (Steve Preston,James Clark, Mike Fithyan,Tony Truluck,Gabriel Hearst,Mike Kinsey, Lilias Lamont,Andrew Doye) reached the final of the Garden Cities trophy.
The HIWCBA Tollemache team (Jeremy Dhondy,Andy Hughes,Sonia Zakrzewski,Gareth Birdsall, Jeremy Baker,Guy Lawrenson,Steve Preston,Dave Huggett, Adam Dunn and Graham Allan) reached the Tollemarche Final. 
and in other ebu reported  events since June:
Andy Hughes's Crockfords Team reached the Crockords final, although the team seemed to miss Andy's leadership in the final.
Andy Hughes & Jeremy Dhondy finished 7th in the EBU summer meeting main pairs event.
Bill Taylor was part of the winning team in the riviera congress.
and any others the webmaster has unintentionally missed/forgotten.