The 2026 Chester Congress will be held at the Deva Bridge Club on the weekend of 24-25th January.

On Saturday 24th there will be a two-session Swiss pairs competition for the Capel Cup with a two-session Swiss teams event for the Latham Knox Trophy on Sunday 25th.

Both events are blue-pointed and will be run by EBU Senior Congress TD James Vickers.

For further details including registration, click here.

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.

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.