Joan Bennett ran an event this last Sunday at Roke. We had 2 tables of bridge and 3 tables of minibridge.

Mike Fletcher, as usual calm and unflappable, TDd the bridge, which contained 2 pairs of 10 yr old twins. As one of the boys had fallen into the stream at lunch time, Mike made him take his chair with him for each move!

In the minibridge section, there was complete calm and concentration at the table run by Gill Vickers and Barbara Jordan. They have 7 boys between them. Fun was had by all concerned.

Wessex weekend at Cheltenham is on 4^th/5^th April 2020.

Oxford youngsters are still doing well in the U16 England squad

The World Youth Championships took place in Opatija, Croatia. The event, which features pairs and teams events in four age/gender categories, took place from 20th - 29th August.

Congratulations to Zane Soonawalla & James Cater (pictured) who won the B Final of the Under 16 event.

In the teams events, England had one team reach the semi-finals, in the Under 26 Open teams category, as well as one English player, Laura Covill, being in a trans-national team that reached the semi-finals of the Under 26 Women's event. Both teams won bronze medals.

Pictured are the England U16 team winning their Bronze medal in Norway. The team contains 2 Oxfordshire players, Kim Hudson and Henry Rose. Henry started playing bridge at OJBC with Holly Kilpatrick, whereas Kim started at St Hugh's School with Mike Fletcher. The U21s also won Bronze medals. Congratulations to everyone involved- not forgetting their coach, Laura Covill and NPC Giorgio Provenzo

Henry Rose and Freddie Beneat, both of whom started playing bridge at OJBC, have just partnered each other playing for the England U16s, AND THEY WON the round robin, winning ALL their seven matches handsomely and beating the favourites USA.

Congratulations to both of them, and now on to the semi-finals..

April 6th/7th was our Wessex weekend at Cheltenham. The fantastic cooperation between Cheltenham BC and the Ladies College, gave 65 children and 15 accompanying adults a wonderful time.Viccy Fleming OBC education manager, brought 4 of her grandchildren and her son-in-law, all of whom loved the event. Pictured here is Cheltenham BC oldest member, Margaret, aged 100, with Ethan aged 6, and Anna and Anias, scarcely older. Whilst the youngest ones started from scratch on Saturday morning to playing a 10 board competition on Sunday afternoon, the top groups run by Michael Byrne and Giorgio Provenza (the U20 and U16 squad coaches respectively) had their England squad training sessions. 

On Saturday night Cheltenham members played with the youngsters in a competition of 20 tables. Our local youngsters, as usual did us proud. 1st EW was Henry Rose (OBA) playing with Giorgio, 1st NS was Dominic Cooke and Edmund Lea, followed by 2nd Jack Lawrence and Nathan Galpin. All four are ex Reading schoolboys and now in their first year at uni. This years event was attended by children from 15 counties plus Wales and Ireland, which is a tremendous tribute to its rapidly growing reputation.

 Next years  date is 4th/5th April 2020, and it says a lot for the behaviour of the children that Cheltenham Ladies College have invited us back yet again.

 Contact Joan Bennett 01491 579795 (or 07548 782 538 if you are lucky!) joanmbennett@hotmail.co.uk

On 9th December OJBC held its Xmas competition, where the children played for almost 2 hours, mostly some old sims boards which they love. There were 4 tables (3 bridge and 1 minibridge) of keen youngsters who are pictured here. First prize was won by twins Ana and Maia. It was organised, as usual, by Holly Kilpatrick. This was followed by excellent food, apparently devoured by locusts, and prizegiving.

On 4th December, Nettlebed School held its Xmas competition over 2 hours. 4 tables of children were rewarded by excellent cake made by Gillian Lonsdale, a lady of many talents, where a bridge club has run continuously for 10 years..