The County is running a course for aspiring club tournament directors. It is free for EBU members and £10 for non-members.

Depending on numbers, the course will be offered at 3 venues.

• Merseyside Bridge Centre on 7th March
• Deva Bridge Club on 21st March
• Liverpool Bridge on 11th April

Applicants should email chairmcba@gmail.com in the first instance.

The Tollemache competition is one of the most prestigious EBU events contested by teams of eight representing counties and regions from all over England & Wales. The qualifier took place on Realbridge over the weekend of 8th/9th Nov involving 30 teams playing 98 boards in 2 heats with the top 4 to qualify for the final. Merseyside & Cheshire were represented by Matt Foster/John Hampson, Chris Pope/Andy Prothero, Laurence Stone/Jerry Hopkins, Paul Roberts/Julian Merrill & Paddy Murphy/Tracy Sherman. Our team produced a very creditable performance coming in equal 6th with London (who have a very much larger pool of players to choose from) and missed qualifying for the final by just 5 IMPs. Thanks to all for taking part & especially to John Hampson for also acting as team manager.

This competition has now ended with the final round on Saturday 11th October. Our A team had a mixed day with 2 wins & 1 draw from their 5 matches. Chris Pope & Andy Prothero were however top overall on X-imps. Looking at the cummulative scores Merseyside finished joint 2nd with Yorkshire on 220 VPs with Lancashire & Scotland tied in 1st position on 230 VPs. 

The C team had a better day defeating Yorkshire & then winning the crucial match against Lancashire by a maximum 20 VPs before then managing somehow to lose their final match against the lowest placed team (Cumbria). Chris Raymond & Colin Humphrey were top overall on X-imps with all three other pairs either positive or very close to par. 41 VPs on the day puts our cummulatve score at 147 and comfortably the winners of this division which means we get to go again in the national final next year.

Thanks to all for taking part. If you have not played in this competition before but are interested in taking part next year please contact the team organiser Chris Raymond ( drcjr56@gmail.com ).

Season 4 has now been completed – thanks to all teams for taking part. Congratulations to the division 1 winners who once again were team Liz & co (Liz Commins, David Stevenson, Simon Edwards, Alex Maddocks, Paddy Murphy, Mark Roderick & Tracy Sherman) who at the end were well ahead of Amber in 2^nd place. Division 2 winners were team Arrowe (Chris Wentworth, Tony Sutcliffe, Colin Nugent & Chris Whaley) with Cosmopolitans in 2^nd place.

Season 5 will start on 15^th Sept. New applications to join the league are always most welcome (the deadline for entries is Saturday 6th Sept) – we aim to offer all taking part a chance to play a friendly flexible and leisurely schedule of teams matches over the autumn / winter / spring. Master points are awarded for matches won (blue points for div 1). Even if you do not have a team but are still interested in taking part then we want to hear from you! Please contact Chris Raymond ( drcjr56@gmail.com )  for more information and application forms.