Please note that the Lytham Rose Bowl scheduled for next Sunday Dec 1st has been cancelled due to lack of numbers. As a nearby alternative, there is a two session Pairs (Ben Franks) at Manchester Bridge Club on the same day starting at 1pm. (Click for Ben Franks Online Entry Form)

We are sorry to report the passing of John Buck. He was 76 and had been suffering from Parklinsons for some years. John in the mid 1960’s played a lot of bridge for Southport when he was partnering George McConkey. From the late sixties through to the early eighties the Manchester team of Bernard Goldenfield, Denis Robson, John Buck and Raymond Semp were one of the finest in the North.  They reached the Gold Cup final in 1983 after which John Buck retired from competitive bridge. Click here for an obituary written by his long time partner and friend Raymond Semp.

The Lancashire Congress was held at Preston BC with 30 pairs on Saturday and 14 teams on Sunday. The pairs was won by Rodney Lighton & John Currie, second Mike Tomlinson & Linda Smith. The teams was won by Alan Purdy & Bill Nicchol, Roger Allison & Peter Richmond, second Paul Beckwith & Andy Green, Steve Ward & Paul Morrell. See full ranks on the results page

Two players from Preston Bridge Club - Kate Webb and Jan Edwards competed in the EBU Easy congress and won one Afternoon Pairs Event and were second in the SwissPairs.
See EBU website Results re full results.

There were 13 tables at this annual NWBA GP Swiss Pairs. Well done to the winners Jeff Smith/Rhona Goldenfield, with second place Bob Loveridge/Mike Tomlinson. Full results at North Wales Bridge Results

The final match of this season's Northern Bridge League took place on Saturday 12th October 2019.
In the A division at Bolton, the team of Jeff Smith/Jackie Pye, Bill Alston/Colin Mitchell, Paul Hepworth/Rick Bentley, Sue Woodcock/Stuart Clarke finished 3rd of 7 teams. Jeff/Jackie were 6th on CrossImps.
In the B division at Bradford, the team of John Dearing/Jeremy Stanforth,Angus Kirby/Stuart Challinor, David Costich/Andrew Lum,Bob Loveridge finished 2th of 8 teams. Best CrossImps were Bob/Nick (4th).
In the C division at Preston, the team of David Pendlebury/Alan Purdy,Barry Brelsford,Steve Ellis, Robin Atkinson/Pauline Holden, John Warner/Jose Mercer finished 4th of 9 teams. Barry/Steve were 2nd on Crossimps.

The Haley Cup award for 2019 has been won by John Morrell and Marianne Farr. This is based on the best two Ximps scores over all 4 NBL A team matches.

Full results and final positions are on the NBL web site. The annual NBL meeting is next Thursday 11am at Bolton BC and all interested parties are invited to attend.

The new midweek Wales congress was held in Hay on Wye in Hereford on 8-10 Oct 2019. Congrats to Roger Allison who won the Open Pairs with Peter Richmond, and to Jackie Pye who won the midweek Teams playing with John Holland, Gary Hyett / Graham Kirby. Full details at: WBU Results

There were 13 pairs playing at Poulton BC in the LCBA Mixed Pairs ably run by Ken Johnson. Winners were Jeff Morris/Rhona Goldenfield, second Stuart Clarke/Sue Woodcock, third Jeff Smith/Jackie Pye.

SAT 26th OCT LCBA Green pointed Swiss Pairs
SUN 27th OCT LCBA Green pointed Swiss teams
Both events held this year at Preston Bridge club starting at 11am Tea and coffee provided free throughout both days. No food provided so please bring a packed lunch so that a short break can be held on both days. Swiss Pair and teams are only £15 per person. This is the cheapest green pointed events you will find any where in this part of the country so please come out and support these events so that we can report back to the LCBA committee that by keeping cost down we are increasing numbers and then hopefully prices can stay low !!The entries for Swiss pairs and team come to Mike Tomlinson  and again can go through the LCBA website or direct to me and payment on the day is OK.

Mike Tomlinson, 65 Westwood Road, Burnley BB12 0HR Email: mike9.tomlinson@hotmail.co.uk  Tel: 07391 468820

MON 30th SEP LCBA Team of 4
The closing entry date for the annual knockout LCBA Teams of 4 (which is the Pachabo Qualifier) is 30th September 2019. Entries to Jeff Smith jasmith@nildram.co.uk

Congratulations to Bob Loveridge, Nick Sutcliffe, Mike Tomlinson, Jeremy Stanforth, Linda Smith who have qualified for the final of the Crockfords Plate. They beat a strong team from Young Chelsea in London in a closely fought match.  They will now play in the national final, joining 7 other teams to play in an all-play-all, multi-teams event at Coventry, on the weekend of Saturday 31 August.  Lancashire County wishes them the very best of luck in the final.

Congratulations to the Lancashire Team who beat the Cumbria Team by 232 Imps in the annual encounter. Best pairs on the Crossimps were Mike Nicholson/Des King, Jeff & Ann Wilkins and Barry Brelsford/John Dearing for Lancashire. The match was ably run by Ken Johnson. full details at Cumbria Website

Congratulations to the winners Neville Edmondson and Susan Brennan who represented Bury
Runners up were Trevor Mayes and Eric Holden who represented Brierfield.  Full results on the results page.
I would like to thank Andrew Petrie for helping me at the start and thank Maxine, Catherine Draper and Catherine's mother for the excellent catering and for the support during the day 

Bill Alston

In the Senior's Pairs on July 24-25th, Jackie Pye and John Holland were second.  In the Teams on July 26th, Jackie and John won the Multiple Teams B Final with Bill Hirst and Jeremy Dhondy.  Sue Woodcock and Stuart Clarke, Nick Woodcock and Sue Fjortoft won the Open Teams Consolation. In the main Swiss Pairs on July27-28, Nick Woodcock and Sue Fjortoft finished second, and Sue Woodcock and Stuart Clarke finished 5th out of 108 pairs. Congratulations to all. Full results are on the EBU web site.

Congratulations to Sue Woodcocks team (Nick Woodcock, Stuart Clarke & Bill Carr) who have won the 2019 LCBA County Team of 4 Plate. In the final, they beat Mike Nicholson's team (Des King, Stuart Norris & Rod Greenhalgh) by 31 Imps.

Lancashire finished a creditable 4th of 9 teams in the annual Presidents Cup held at Bradford BC on Sat/Sun 29/30 June 2019. The winners were Merseyside.
The leading pair was Degsy Williams & Bob Loveridge who topped the crossimps when they played on the Saturday having not played together for 6 years! Full details at: Merseyside County Site

The Garden Cities Final took place on Sat 15 June 2019 with the Preston Team:
Mike Tomlinson with Bob Loveridge
Don Hilton and Dagmar
Catherine Draper and Andrew Woodcock
Andrew Petrie and Bill Alston

Seven seven matches, after 5, preston was leading the field...but then lost the 6th heavily 20 0 and the last match marginally and came a respectable 4th

The team of Ross Shine & Dave Costich, John Brearley & Dagmar Fazackerley represented Lancashie County in the annual Pachabo Cup competition. They finished 19th of 29 teams.

We are sorry to report the death of Bernard Goldenfield, one of Manchester's strongest and best known and loved bridge players and a constant presence at bridge events both locally and nationally for around six decades. An obituary can be found on the Manchester County Bridge site

Bury Athaneum A team has reached the latter stages of the Nicko Plate beating the Preston A team in the 3rd round. The team is Paul Worswick, Dave Hammonds, Andy Green & Paul Beckwith. Good Luck in the next round!

Well done to John Brearley and Ross Shine who have finished 3rd out of the 94 pairs in the EBU Corwen played over 4 sessions on the June 1/2 weekend.

The Madeleine Berney Swiss Pairs was held at Brierfield BC on Sunday 5th May. The winners were Andrew Petrie & Don Hilton, second Andrew Lum & David Costich. Full details on Results page.

Well done Preston BC Team of 8 that finished 2nd in the Regional Garden Cities Heat at Bradford on 28th april 2019 and qualify for the Final later in the year.
The Regional Finals of the Garden Cities trophy took place over the weekend in four locations. The top two teams at each qualified for the National Finals, which will take place on 15th June. In the heat at Bradford BC,  Preston (Lancashire) finished 2nd - (John Brearley, Andrew Lum, Bob Loveridge, Mike Tomlinson, Don Hilton, Dagmar Fazackerley, Bill Alston, Andrew Petrie)

Congratulations to Jackie Pye who played with John Holland, Alan Mould & Michael Newman to win the Swiss teams in the Northern Easter Festival at Ilkley. Other good performaces from Lancs players were Jeff & Ann Wilkins, Linda Smith & Mike Tomlinson finished 4th, Sue Woodcock & Stuart Clarke, Nick Woodcock & Sue Fjortoft finished 6th,  John & Judy Brearley, Barrie & Julie Newall finished 7th. There were 28 teams and full results on EBU web site.

Congratulations to Andrew Petries Team (Veronica Petrie, Andrew Lum, David Costich and Ian Edwards) who won the LCBA Teams of 4 competition and thus qualify to play in the EBU Pachabo cup later in the year, They beat John Brearleys team (Ross Shine, Dagmar Fazackerley & Don Hilton) in the final by 47 Imps.

The Preston BP two session Pairs was held at Preston BC on 14th April. There were 24 pairs with nearly half the field being manchester Players. The winners were Andrew Petrie & Jeff Smith, second were Jackie Pye & John Holland and third John Hassett & Jeff Morris. Full results at the Preston site.

The Fylde league Div 1 Team of 8 was won by Preston BC. Among players representing them were Mike Tomlinson & B Pickering, Don Hilton & Dagmar Fazackerley, Andrew Lum & John Brearley, Andrew Petrie & Bill Alston, Bob Loveridge & Nick Sutcliffe, Jackie Pye & John Holland. Full details at Fylde site. The East Lancs League Div 1 Teams of 4 was won by John Morrell's team (Jeff Smith, Brian Irlam & Paul Hepworth). Full details at East Lancs site

Congratulations to Mike Tomlinson and Linda Smith, Jeff & Ann Wilkins who won the NWBA Spring Congress Teams held at Wrexham on Suinday 7th April with 15 teams taking part. In fourth place were Sue Woodcock & Michael Faye, Nick Woodcock & Sue Fjortoft. Full rankings on NWBA Wensite.

Madeleine Berney Swiss Pairs

(Holders: Not Held in 2018)

A two session pairs Swiss event held at Brierfield Bridge Club, 2 Clitheroe Road, Brierfield, Nelson, BB9 5PT
(Tel 01282 694175) on Sunday 5 May 2019 starting at 1:30pm

Entry Fee £20 per player (juniors £10) including meal. Payment in advance or on the day.
Entries to: Mike Tomlinson, 65 Westwood Road, Burnley BB12 0HR Email: mike9.tomlinson@hotmail.co.uk  Tel: 07391 468820
Prizes: Dependent on the number of entries.
Master points Blue Pointed
Permissable Systems and Conventions: Level 4
General Conditions: All players must be EBU members.

Sun 14th April Blue Pointed pairs at Preston BC at 11am

St Walburge's Gardens, Weston Street, Preston
Entry Fee £24 per pair.  Bring your own lunch!
Entries to Catherine@acesbridgeclub.co.uk or Tel 01772 815255 / 07734053494

Preston BC Summer Teams Festival

Wed 3 April         Multiple Teams (1^st session) (changed from Swiss)
Wed 1 May          Multiple Teams (2^nd session)(changed from swiss)
Wed 5^th June       Point-a-Board teams
Wed 3^rd July        Multiple teams
Wed 7^th August   Pivot Teams

• Prize giving
• Complimentary buffet

Table money                      £5/night for PBC members          £6 for visitors

The LCBA Teams of 4 has reached the final stage with Andrew Petries team (Veronica Petrie, Andrew Lum, David Costich) facing John Brearleys team (Ross Shine, Don Hilton, Dagmar Fazackerley).

In the Fylde League A Division, Preston BC will play Bolton BC in their final match on 20 March 19 which will determine the Division A winners.

Jackie Pye and Jeff Smith playing with John Holland and Alan Mould have reached the final of the Hubert Phillips (Mixed Pivot Teams) 2018-19 competition. They will face the winners of the other semi final between teams captained by Janet De Botton and Sally Brock.

Following their win at Deva the previous week, congratulations to another success for Andrew Petrie & Catherine Draper who won the National Pairs Heat at Bradford on Sunday 10Mar2019 and qualified for the 50 player final at Stratford on 6/7 April 2019.

Andrew Petrie was part of the winning team at Deva BC in the Eric Howarth Cup on Sun 3rd March 2019. He partnered Catherine Draper with teammates Dave Debbage and Andrew Woodcock

Congratulations to Sue Woodcock & Stuart Clarke who won the Manchester GP Swiss Pairs held at Altrincham on Sat 2nd March 2019. Sue & Stuart are pictured with Manchester CBA chairman Irene Davies. Full results at Manchester BC Website

There were 15 pairs playing in the LCBA Championsip Pairs ably run by Rob Turner at Bolton BC. Congratulations to the Winners J Dearing/J Stanforth, second were J Smith/J Pye, third J Brearley/R Shine and fourth N Sutcliffe/BLoveridge. These four pairs have earned the right to represent LCBA in the Corwen to be held on 1st/2nd June 2019 at the Mercure Hotel, Daventry.

Congratulations to Mike Tomlinson and Jeremy Stanforth who won the LCBA Butler Pairs just ahead of Sue Woodcock/Stuart Clarke and Rodney Lighton/John Currie.
There were 21 pairs in the all play all competition held at Preston BC. Full rankings on Results page.

Congratulations to Jeff Smith & Jackie Pye who won the annual Manchester Congress Teams playing with John Holland and John Hassett. Well done to Cros Croswell and Degsy Williams who finished 3rd in the Pairs competition. Full results on Manchester Bridge Club site.