The Waterworth Cup is the County's annual pairs championship.

This year's event will be held on BBO on Friday 16th January 2026, starting at 17.30. Please support your county and enter this competition which is open to anybody with primary or secondary allegiance to M&CBA. (Others wishing to enter should contact the event organiser for clarification.)

The entry fee is BB$8 per person which is payable on registration (see below).

Format

It is intended that the event will be run as an all-play-all Howell competition of around 36-39 boards using standard pairs scoring with a mid-session break of 20 minutes. The precise format will be determined by the number of entries received and the limitations of BBO.

As always, green points are awarded to the top half of the field. The top three eligible pairs also get the chance to represent the county in the national pairs championship for the Corwen Trophy in May. 

The tournament will be directed by Simon Anderson who will also process the results including green-point awards. On the night, Simon can be contacted on BBO (username Simon 1402) or by phone/WhatsApp/text on 07927 886704. If you need to contact him regarding any non-urgent (or more complex) matters, please use simonand1402@gmail.com.

Entries

It is essential that you submit your entry in advance by completing the form below. Entries will close at 22.00 on Wednesday 14th Jan.

Please ensure that you and your partner logon to BBO and register for the tournament (search for the host name vEBU_MER) some time before it starts and that you are both online in good time for the 17.30 start.

(Early completion of the registration process helps to avoid any delays due to typos in usernames, problems with payment or issues with your tech.)

Administration

The event organiser is Chris Raymond (drcjr56@gmail.com, 0151 334 5206). He is your contact for any queries other than those for the TD/scorer.

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.

NWBA CATH SPALDING TEAMS - GREEN POINTED

DECEMBER 14th - 12.00 TILL 6.00 APPROX
LLANDUDNO BRIDGE CLUB
FREE TEA COFFEE - BRING YOU OWN FOOD
ENTRIES TO rsestates1@hotmail.com

https://www.bridgewebs.com/nwba/

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 ).

Our programme of lessons has now started but we will still be delighted to welcome you and happy to help you catch up if you miss the first week or two.

• Beginners:
  • 7-9.30 pm every Wednesday evening OR
  • 1.15-4 pm every Thursday
• Improvers:
  • 7-9.30 pm every Tuesday evening OR
  • 10 am - 12.30 pm every Thursday

for further details, email me, Simon Anderson, at lessons@devabridgeclub.co.uk or contact me by phone/text/WhatsApp on 07927 886704.

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.

The President's Cup is an inter-county multiple teams of 8 competition run over 2 days and is organised by Merseyside & Cheshire. The 2025 event took place over the weekend of 12th/13th july with 7 teams competing. Historically the competition has mostly involved northern counties but this year entrants have spanned the full breath of Great Britain from Scotland to the Isle of Wight. Detailed scores for each day are shown in the results section of the website but the cummulative scores show Hampshire & IOW as the clear winners.

Hampshire & IOW  84 VPs

Yorkshire 77 VPs

Scotland 75 VPs

London  69 VPs 

Manchester  46VPs

Merseyside & Cheshire  45 VPs

North East  24 VPs

7 teams contested the Jim Davies Teams Trophy at Deva BC on Thursday 3rd July. The clear winners were the team of Paddy Murphy, Mark Weeks, Stuart Matthews & Alan Stephenson pictured here receiving  the trophy from the organiser Chris Raymond. Thanks to all for taking part and making the event an enjoyable success, to Deva acting as host club & to David Smith as a very able and amenable  TD.

We had 24 pairs competing in the John Armstrong Swiss pairs competition on Saturday 17th May at Deva Bridge Club.  Ken Johnston directed the event for us.  Many congratulations to the winners Alex Smalley and Tom Slater (pictured with the trophy).   John Hampson and Barry Jones finished runners up with David Stevenson and Liz Commins in third place.