Frank Hollendoner and Robin Kilborn faced up to David Mannooch and Michael Bailey in the Club Room at 9.00am on the morning before the Bridge Circle Christmas Dinner to play the final of the 2019 Cotton Cup, so desperate were the four to produce a winning pair to be presented with the champagne and Cup at the dinner! After two hours Mannooch and Bailey held a 2-0 lead in the rubbers and the overall score was virtually breakeven but it was downhill for them for the final 90 minutes and Frank and Robin ran out worthy winners.

See Cotton Cup ladder

On Wednesday, the RAC played its annual match against the Cambridge Alumni at the O&C and kept its record of losing by 41 IMPs. The RAC players were Howard S. /Colin, Tony/Paul W., Andrew/David G. and Terry/Marina. Howard bravely captained his team against TWO – I mean TWO! – players just back from playing in the world bridge championship in Wuhan. We’ll do better next time.

— Marina

A bit like Formula one racing or Premiership Football our annual Open carves up into the top 6 or so very experienced, high quality bridge pairs, the majority of experienced Pairs who threaten a Leicester City performance and the less experienced Pairs who gain enormous know how and development by competing and one year will move up the groupings.

Played over two sessions of 24 boards per session the leading pair changed position countless times. After the first session the leading were: Marina and Terry, Gitte and Mary, Ruth and Sami. The second session leaders were: Paul and Brigid, Richard and Rhonda, Malcolm and Susi.

Leaders session 1: Marina Chaning Pearce & Terry Smith

Leaders session 2: Paul Weston & Brigid Battiscombe

The overall winners of the Cup were Gitte Hecht-Johansen and Mary Gordon-Smith with 110 VPs followed incredibly closely by joint second with 108 VPs: Richard and Rhonda Collins and Paul Weston and Brigid Battiscombe.

Overall winners: Gitte Hecht-Johansen and Mary Gordon-Smith

As a club the RAC can claim some success as Gitte is a regular friend of ours replacing Nicole as TD when she is not available and Paul Weston is home grown. Marina and Terry, last year’s winners and early leaders after session one came 5th and Andrew Kisiel and David Glass came 6th.

Thank you to the Club for making the Mountbatten Room available to us on a particularly busy Sunday in the events calendar and for the Banqueting team who provided a beautiful array of coloured sandwiches high tea.

Michael