The Annual Review Meeting of the NBL will take place on Thursday 24th October at 10am online on Google Meets. All are welcome with the joining link as:

The final fourth round of the Northern Bridge League was played on Sat 19th Oct 2024 on RealBridge. 
In the A division, Lancashire were 2nd of 4 teams. (S Woodcock/M Fay, M Farr/M Nicholson, J Brearley/A Lum, B Irlam/P Hepworth).S Woodcock/M Fay were 2nd in the XImps.
In the B division  Lancashire were 4th of 8 teams (J Morrell/C Henderson, J & A Wilkins, P Richmond/J Dearing, S Bentley/M Blake).
In the C Division, Lancashire were 2nd of 6 teams (B Perry/S Fanning, P Meadowcroft/Judy Brearley, B Apfel/G Beattie, D Akhurst/M Rushworth). B Apfel/G Beattie were 2nd on XImps.

In the final tables, the A team was 3rd, the B team was 6th, the C team was 4th of the respective divisions.

Full results at Cumbria BW but will be eventually on the Northern Bridge League site.

The winners are Andrew Lum and Bill Alston

Second Andrew Petrie and Jeremy Dhondy

In the restricted Category 

The winners Arthur Southwood and David Quick

Second Joan Cann and Jane Jones 

All accounts credited accordingly

There were 23 pairs playing 19 x 2 board rounds in the LCBA Online Championship Pairs on 13Oct24. Congratulations to the winners Jeremy Dhondy & Andrew Petrie, with Stuart Clarke & Mike Fay close behind in second place. See Result section for full rankings.

LCBA Trophies

LCBA has 14 trophies (click LCBA - Trophies.pdf for a list), donated over a long period by various generous benefactors.  They have previously been kept, free of charge and insured, by one of our clubs, for which the county is very grateful, but the club is no longer able to continue doing this.  As LCBA has no premises, if we retain the trophies, we will have to pay significant insurance and storage costs.  Trophy winners no longer want to be responsible for looking after a trophy for a year, so the trophies are not presented anymore - they are just gathering dust and deteriorating.  We are sure the benefactors would not have wished their gifts to be wasted in this way and as the charity is only able to dispose of any of its assets for charitable purposes, we have decided to sell them and put the proceeds into a charitable fund restricted in use to investing in Education and Development across the county.  We will call this restricted fund "The LCBA Benefactors Fund for Bridge Education & Development".  As a charity we are allowed to fundraise under the Gift Aid scheme and in the future, we will be able to invite individual members to donate to this fund.

We believe all the trophies on the list have been donated to LCBA or its predecessors and therefore belong to the charity.  If anyone or any organisation believes they have a call on any of the trophies, they should contact the LCBA Secretary, John Brearley at jmbrearley1611@outlook.com or mob: 07948 513863 before 31^st October 2024.  After this date we will start the process of selling the trophies.

Well done to Cumbria who won the annual Cumbria v Lancs matchby 14 Imps on Sunday 29 Sept 24. Best Lancs Ximps were Andrew & Veronica Petrie, Bob Loveridge & Nick Sutcliffe & Jeff & Ann Wilkins. Full results at CumbriaLancsMatch

Congratulations to Jeff & Ann Wilkins who won the Cumbria/Westm Congress Swiss Pairs at Kendal on 22 Sep24. Linda Smith & Keith Stewart finished 5th. Jeff,Ann, Linda & Charlie Colson finished 3rd in the teams. Full Results at Cumbria Congress

LANCASHIRE CONGRESS 2024

Barton Manor Hotel & Spa, Preston 16th & 17th November 2024

LCBA is again partnering with Oliver Cowan to deliver our annual face-to-face Congress.  You can find full details on the flyer (click Congress 2024 - Event flyer.pdf).  We are incredibly lucky to have an event of this stature available on our doorstep, so please take the opportunity to secure your place and enter as soon as possible.

Some particular highlights are:

● Lovely 4* country hotel, close to the Lancashire motorway network and close to Preston rail station (Click HERE for hotel details)

● Superb playing conditions with free tea, coffee and sweets on tap throughout

● Green points

● Prizes

● Chief TD – Jonathon Lillycrop, Deputy Chief TD of the English Bridge Union

● Jack High event meaning there’s something suitable for all players.  You won’t meet any opponents with a NGS above a Jack in the Relaxed Pairs and only Simple Systems will be allowed but there will still be Masterpoints and Prizes!

The next season of LOTL fixtures Sep-Dec 2024 are now available via the links below.

There are two divisions with 19 teams in total.

DIV 1           DIV 2

FESTIVAL OF BRIDGE – Play Without The Experts (PWTE) - Sunday 8^th to Wednesday 11^th Sept

As part of the Festival of Bridge,the EBU is holding a national event at Barton Manor Hotel near Preston, for players, NGS 10 and below.  This PWTE Congress will be a tremendous opportunity for developing players in Lancashire to experience a national bridge congress with a new format offering both competitive match point sessions and seminars, all taking place at a luxury spa hotel.  Oliver Cowan, who is building a national reputation for enjoyable and well run bridge events is organising this event as a volunteer, with all proceeds being donated to Cancer Research UK.

Players can book into the whole event or particular sessions, and you can find all the details by clicking HERE.  Continuing its investment in developing players in the county, LCBA is offering Lancashire members who are booking individual sessions, a £2 discount. Any member can book up to 4 sessions under this scheme.  It’s first come, first served - once the £200 budget has been allocated it will be full price.