We held the upstairs/ downstairs match. The name refers to the fact that the students used to play upstairs ( in the Simms Centre) and the duplicate players downstairs. So we have an 8 person teams match to give some experience to the students. We do the scoring by hand so that the students learn more about scoring and how to calculate cross imps.

Upstairs was represented by: Elizabeth and Josh, Sandy and Sy, Dorothy and Harvey, Madeline and Anne

Downstairs was represented by: Oliver and Paul, Ingrid and Derek, Cecilia and Dermot, David and John

After 12 boards the upstairs team was 8 imps ahead. We had a break for sandwiches and cake, and a glass of wine. At the end of the second half the downstairs had pulled a bit back, but the upstairs team was still ahead by 3 imps. So a close match throughout and played in a very friendly but competitive atmosphere.

There were some interesting hands, but I will give you one very unusual one:

Void

AQ2

Void

AKQ10987532

What would you open with that?

A team of 8 players from the RAC accompanied by 4 spouses made their way to Belgium over the April 13-14 weekend. The RAC contingent was greeted by warm weather and took advantage of this to explore the many culinary and cultural delights that Belgium has to offer. The return match of this new fixture against the Chateau Sainte-Anne, our reciprocal club in Brussels, was played on the Monday 15th of April. As luck would have it the weather held until the two teams were safely within the comfort of the Chateau and then the heavens opened! 

Our hosts, as was to be expected laid on a sumptuous meal accompanied by fine wine. We finished the meal with coffee/tea served with delicious Belgian chocolates. After the narrow defeat in the inaugural match last year the RAC redeemed itself to win the match by 69 Imps. We look forward to welcoming our new friends to London in 2025 for ‘La Belle’. 

The RAC was represented by Marina and Lester, Howard S and Pralab, Pascale and John C and Andrew and David G. 

Lester Pereira

Sport is a game often played in two halves and our annual bridge match against Lord’s Taverners progressed so brilliantly over the first 12 boards with the RAC team leading by a narrow 2 imps but sadly over the final 12 boards you might call it crash and burn as the mighty Taverners team got into their stride and took an overall lead of 57 imps.

Taverners were captained by Jonathan Hoffman, who has lead them so magnificently for some dozen years, whom with his wife Gail, has played twice in our Ros and Bob Bowman Championship Pairs winning it outright once and winning the second session on the other occasion. Why you might ask am I using so much space to talk about our opponents? Our match may have been the last which Lord’s Taverners play. Jonathan is hanging up his pads and to date a new Jonathan is not walking from the pavilion to the crease to open a new innings. We should celebrate the high quality of the matches we have enjoyed over the years and wish our many friends from Lord’s Taverners the very best for the future.

The RAC team who played their best were: Andrew Kisiel and David Glass, Marina and Paul Weston, Sally and Paul Found, David Mannooch and Michael Bailey 

Michael Bailey
 

BELOW ARE PROPOSED MATCH TEAM DETAILS SENT OUT BY JOHN CRAGGS TO ALL PLAYERS ON 10TH JANUARY

THERE MAY BE A FEW SMALL CHANGES IF PLAYERS ARE NOW UNAVAILABLE

RAC Teams with pairings for February to July 2024

Captains shown in bold

Cumberland (home) May 15, Wednesday.  Terrace Room 16.00 for 16.30 Pralab B/Trevor S David W/Mark A Martin L/Pauli L Jill P/David O

ACF (away)  June 14, Friday.  Details later Howard S/David M Pralab B/Andrea G Paul F/Sally F John C/Pascale H Howard W/Oliver W Mark A/Pearse E

Le Cercle (away) June 16, Sunday. Fiona M/Henry M John C/Mark A Sally F/Paul F Howard W/Pearse E Andrea G/ Malcolm M Simone W/Oliver W

Roehampton (home) June 25, Tuesday.  St James’s Room 16.30 for 16.45 Paul W/Marina CP Lester P/Howard S Paul F/Sally F Howard W/Terry S

Hurlingham (away) July 1, Monday.  16.00 for 16.30 Pralab B/Terry S  Lester P/Robin Andrew K/Brigitte K  Michael B/David M John C/Pascale H David W/Pears

New Club Edinburgh (home) July 13, Saturday.  Mall Room 15.00 for 15.30 Henry Mc/Fiona Mc John K/Cecilia KP Pauli L/Ina W David O/Sandy 

We welcomed RAC Woodcote Park to Pall Mall on 10 April and had a most enjoyable afternoon match against a strong team led by Stewart Broome.

The match fortunes fluctuated much like our Spring weather. Pall Mall fought hard but left their comeback a little late in the day and Woodcote Park ran out worthy winners by 27 IMPs.

Pall Mall was represented by David Wilson Martin Langdon, Pauli Laumen, Brigitte Kissiel, Mark Alcock, Jeremy Wright, Fiona McWatters and Henry McWatters.

This report is submitted by the team Captain, David Wilson.

On Wednesday 27th March the RAC had the pleasure of visiting Queens Tennis Club for our annual match - not tennis - bridge!  As usual the Queens club players were delightful and made us extremely welcome, we always have great fun and the match is played in a very friendly spirit. Sadly things didn't go so well for the RAC and at one point I did wonder if  I’d do better with a tennis racket rather than a hand of cards!  Many commented that there were some very odd distributions in the hands which made bidding quite difficult.  Yes we lost the match but we had a lovely dinner afterwards, the wine flowed and we all throughly enjoyed ourselves.

Report submitted by match captain Fiona McWatters

We now subscribe to "Pianola", a service that gives interesting analysis and stats of your results from each session, as well as showing how they have been progressing over time. To get started, please give your Email address to Victor (brianplaysbridge@gmail.com) and you will receive a signup link next time you play duplicate at the club. Some of you may be familiar with Pianola from other clubs, and Victor will be able to add the RAC to your profile.

Victor Lesk