| DIMMIE FLEMING AWARD PRESENTED TO JOHN BREARLEY |
DIMMIE FLEMING AWARD PRESENTED TO LCBA SECRETARY JOHN BREARLEY
The LCBA secretary John Brearley was presented with the EBU’s Dimmie Fleming award during the LCBA Mixed Pairs at St Anne's BC. This award was in recognition of John's outstanding contribution to bridge in Lancashire over the last 30+ years, including spells as Chairman (twice) and most recently LCBA Secretary. You can find the citation associated with the award by clicking HERE.
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| LCBA MIXED PAIRS 2025 |
LCBA MIXED PAIRS - 11AM SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER 2025 AT ST ANNE'S BRIDGE CLUB
The LCBA Mixed Pairs took place at St Anne's Bridge Club on Sunday 7 December 2025 starting at 11am.
Winners were S Woodcock/M Fay, 2nd L Smith/C Colson, 3rd S Kirk/P Likely.
There were 17 pairs taking part
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| Changes to LOP from 5 Jan 2026 |
Changes to LOP from 5 January 2026
Providing a match-point pairs session each week is an important part of LCBA’s service to its members. Since 2022 this has been delivered through LOP and anyone who has played regularly will be aware of a significant reduction in table numbers over the past three years. In July 2022 we averaged 11.3 tables, in July 2025 we only managed 8.5, a near 30% reduction. In recent sessions we have had as few as 7 tables. LOP is also an important part of LCBA’s income stream, enabling us to invest in education and development, whilst still keeping the county UMS fee at only 2p.
We have therefore decided from 5th January 2026, to join our Monday LOP session with Oliver Cowan Bridge Club’s Monday session. This should ensure a regular double figure attendance and protect the session’s long-term future.
This will have the following impact on players:
1) The session on BBO will have LOP in its name, so you can still search for LOP;
2) The number of boards will increase from 18 to 20;
3) The table money will be the current OCBC level of 4.25BBO$;
4) The start time will be 7:15pm.
Andrew Petrie – Chairman LCBA Competitions’ Working Group (WG3)
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| Lancashire Congress 15/16 Nov 2025 |
The Lancashire Congress was held at Bolholt Hotel, Bury on 15-16 Nov 2025. Full results can be found at Oliver Cowan Site
Winners of the Pairs were Alec Smalley/ Barbara Lewis, with S Berson/F Conquest & S Davies/A Jarvis 2nd=, J Smith/J Pye 3rd. The Consolation Final was won by D Barton/R Goldenfield.
This was also the qualifier for the EBU Corwen. The leading Lancs pairs who qualify were J Smith/J Pye, S Bentley/M Blake and B Loveridge/N Sutcliffe.
The teams was won by Paul & Catherine Fegarty, Jamie & Liam. Second was M Taylor/Justin Hackett, O.Cowan & D Lilleycroft, 3rd R Goldenfield & D Barton, J Smith & J Pye.
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| NEBA CONGRESS SUCCESS FOR LCBA TOURNAMENT SECRETARY |
Congratulations to our Tournament Secretary Oliver Cowan who, with his partner Bev Godfrey came second in the NEBA Congress Pairs and together with Liz Reese and Bohdan Hydna won the Congress Teams.
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| Organising LCBA Competitions |
LCBA COMPETITIONS
Currently Oliver Cowan undertakes the role of Tournament Secretary on a voluntary basis, and he will continue to do so next year. Currently he is significantly assisted in this by a number of other volunteers who run various events themselves (LOP, LOTL, LCBA Tof8, LCBA Tof4, LCBA Sim Pairs) and help Oliver to run others. Due to resignations and other calls on volunteer resources for 2026 we are well short of the number of volunteers required to do this work. We could of course cancel some competitions and struggle on with others but in order to provide a long term solution, that isn’t dependent on hard-to-come-by volunteers, we have decided, initially on a trial basis, to contract with Oliver’s company (OCBE Ltd) to take on the administration of many of our competitions in 2026. If this proves satisfactory to both parties, then we will have managed to secure the LCBA Competitions’ programme for the next few years.
Andrew Petrie – LCBA Chairman
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| LCBA Relaxed Pairs Sun 12 Oct 2025 |
An LCBA Relaxed Pairs event funded by LCBA was held by Oliver Cowan at St Annes BC on Sunday 12 October 2025. Entries were full with 16 tables and there was a lovely atmosphere at this event which was intended for learners and non expert players. Congratulations to the NS winners Linda Hitchen & Deb Fairweather and EW winners Susan Kirk & Alan Taylor. 2nd NS Robert & Margaret Sloss, 2nd EW Shirley Saunders & Nicola Holding.
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| Cumbria/Westmoreland GP Weekend 20/21 Sep 25 |
The Cumbria/ Westmorland annual GP weekend took place at Kendal BC on 20-21 Sep 2025. Congratulations to J & A Wilkins who won the teams with C Owen/N Cockerill. Second were J Smith & J Pye with D Barton & R Goldenfield. In the pairs, J Smith & J Pye were 2nd. Full results at Cumbria Westmorland GP Event
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| LCBA Development Programme - BTGB |
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Lancashire Contract Bridge Association
BEYOND THE GREEN BOOK (BTGB)
LCBA’S Development programme for improving players (NGS 6-10)
LCBA is planning a series of free/heavily subsidised development events particularly aimed at Lancashire members NGS 6-10. For all the details please click anywhere on this item.
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