The Portland Club have been regular players in the Devonshire Cup but have never previously enjoyed an inter club 8 aside match with the RAC. We extended an invitation last February which was readily accepted and resulted in our inaugural match played in the St James Room on 17 September. Portland have a fierce reputation as strong rubber bridge players and we were unsure how their experience would translate in an imp scored 24 board teams match. We found out. Perhaps the most challenging moment was one of their pairs bidding a small slam without 2 aces which was a lay down due to their void in one of the suits. All the more exciting as the void was not conveyed in the bidding so I guess a bit of a punt which totally worked.

Victor had unusually provided a higher than average selection of slam potential boards which resulted in 10+ imp swings all over the place. However as good play, or was it good fortune, would have it overall the RAC ran out winners by a net 17 imps, 113v96. Dinner overran due to the bonhomie and friendly chat and everyone considered it a successful evening and are looking forward to the return match in 2025.

Thank you to the team who helped lay out the boards, score sheets and pencils and collected them at the end of play and to the banqueting team who, as usual, did a first class job.

The RAC Team consisted of Michael B/David M, Paul W/Lester P,  Pralab B/John C, Paul F/Sally F, 

Michael - Team Captain

Our annual 12 aside 24 board match was played from late afternoon at the picturesque Hurlingham Club in south west London on Monday 1 July 2024. Hurlingham are one of our strongest opponents and have beaten us in recent years and so I was a little nervous when a number of our original selections could not play. Oh me of little faith! Bluntly the substitutes performed magnificently and supported the team to a nailbiting tie. Yes, an actual tie. A new zero imp result. This is a first for me! At half time the RAC lead by a handsome 25 imps which was brutally clawed back by a ravenous Hurlingham, some of whom took risks with their bidding which worked brilliantly for them. With a few boards still to be played Hurlingham had taken a net 8 imps lead. It was a bit like watching the scoring of the Eurovision one contest as the RAC whittled away at the lead as one by one the final boards were scored. There were so many permutations which could have given either side victory but a tie somehow felt rather bizarrely like we had 24 winners.

Dinner was excellent and served in the soon to be retired formal dining room and our special thanks to Gitte for creating a year ago a movement format so that all players played each other which she repeated again this year and to Ruth and Kitty for organising the match so effectively.

Our team consisted of : Michael B/David M Pralab B/Terry S Robin K/Lester P John C/Mark A Andrea G/John K David W/Pearse E

Michael Bailey

A lovely evening was played out in the St James Room in our annual team of 8 bridge match against the Roehampton Club. We fielded 3 substitutes Trevor Southam, Howard Wand and Michael Bailey who stood in for members originally selected and could not play. The RAC ran out winners by 14 imps which is a narrow winning margin reflecting the overall solid performance by both teams. As captain for the night I would like to thank Howard W, Sally, Paul and Lester for assisting me in setting up the boards, scoring cards and pencils and tidying up at the end of the evening. Victor continues to provide predealt playing boards and results sheets, thereby allowing self review after the end of play, and banqueting did an excellent job looking after us. 

Team:

Lester and Howard S
Howard W and Robin
Sally and Paul
Trevor S and Michael B

Report submitted by Team Captain Michael Bailey

On the 15th May the RAC welcomed the Cumberland Club to Pall Mall.  The match was played in great spirits and by all accounts a thoroughly enjoyable evening except for the result. A competitive first half saw RAC trailing narrowly by 7 imps but the second half somehow got away from us . Regrettably the final result was a loss of 43 imps. The  arrangements for the game as well as the dinner were spot on- thanks to the RAC team for looking after us all so well. The RAC team consisted of:- Pralab Barua/Trevor Southam, David Wilson/Mark Alcock, Martin LangdonPauli Lauren,  Jill PAtterson/David Owen.

Match report kindly submitted by Team Captain Pralab Barua 

Our first weekday afternoon Duplicate pairs Bridge session was held on Monday 22nd April. Participants were encouraged by Victor our TD to play in a business like manner and everyone did their best to comply, despite the distraction of noise from building works outside the Terrace room. We had 8.5 tables and the session without a break at half time concluded in just over 3 hours. We were pleased to welcome some players from Anne’s class taking the plunge. Apart from the regulars at the Thursday club nights, the afternoon Duplicate pairs sessions cater to RAC members and our invited guests from ‘St James‘ Clubs’ who are keen to occasionally play Bridge on a weekday afternoon. Given the success of this opening session, we expect to host similar weekday afternoon sessions in the future - if interested please stay tuned for dates in the future. 
 

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?

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
 

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

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.

2024 is the fourth time the Triangular Cup has been competed for by teams of 8 selected from the Bridge Committees of 3 Clubs and after an extraordinarily close match the Hurlingham Club pipped the Roehampton Club to win the Cup by a single Imp followed by the RAC in third place. The RAC and Hurlingham have each won the cup twice with Roehampton yet to cross the line in first place. Lester and David Owen are to be congratulated for contributing to a phenomenal result on one board by successfully doubling their Roehampton opposite pair in 6NT which produced a swing of 17 Imps on a single board. Without this result Roehampton would have run out winners by a significant margin.

In her welcoming speech over dinner Fiona referenced the social nature and friendships of the inter Club teams and this was taken up enthusiastically by both Roger Lawson and Malcolm Bricknell the Bridge Committee Chairs of Hurlingham and Roehampton respectively.

A special thanks to Gitte for directing the complex movement and scoring of the match and the banqueting team for delivering up a successful meal. 

The RAC team comprised: Fiona and Ina, Lester and David O, Fay and Pearse, Michael and John 

In 2025 the Roehampton Club will host the match.

Michael Bailey