Congratulations to Andy & Dave who came first this week with a score of 60%. Several slams were bid and made at the club, on boards 1, 17 and 24. Two that were missed on the night were those on boards 8 and 12.

After club expenses were deducted, over £66 was donated to the ECATS Charity Challenge from Thursday's takings.

In the SIMS results (36 clubs from the UK competed in the Thursday event), Andy & Dave also ended up the highest placed Royston pair in the overall rankings with almost 59%. Two other pairs, Colin & Paul and Colin & Faraj, were just a whisker behind. You can find the overall results on the ECATS website, but it's simpler to click on the handy link on the Bridgewebs results page at Royston (the tab on the far right).

ECATS certainly came up with some exciting and difficult hands in the Thursday set, so the commentary should make interesting reading.  It can be downloaded from the ECATS website along with all the results.

Thanks to the Royston team of Saroj & Alan, Jules & Paul, Linda & Colin and Anabel & Will who represented the club in the Eccles Cup on Sunday afternoon.

The winners in a disappointingly low turnout of four teams (from just three Herts clubs) were the Harpenden "Red" team. The full results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

Well done to three qualifiers from the Royston heats — Paul & Jules, Andy & Dave and Saroj & Alan — who all earned a place in April's HBA Championships Pairs Final with a top twenty finish in Sunday's semi-final, played on RealBridge. I believe this is easily the best-ever semi-final showing by the club in the HBA's showpiece Pairs event.

Paul & Jules finished in an impressive sixth place overall, scoring over 57% in a large and strong field, The other two Royston pairs clearly didn't want to peak too soon but did just enough to qualify. Both these pairs bid and made 7NT grand slams, with Saroj & Alan repeating this rare feat twice in the space of just five boards.

The full results can be viewed on the HBA website in the usual way.

Brian & Jules took part in a Swiss Pairs event on Saturday, the latest in the EBU's series of monthly online one-day green-pointed Swiss events (this one was OODGP7, if you prefer their memorable acronym)!

The event took place over 49 boards on the popular RealBridge platform (complete with "virtual screens" on this occasion), with the Royston pair finishing in a respectable mid-table position in a strong field. Full results can be found on the EBU website < here >.

The HBA Club Winners Cup took place on Sunday, with Dave & Andy representing Royston (and Saroj & Alan representing Hitchin) against pairs from nine other Hertfordshire clubs. 

The winners were Anthony Osborne & Jim Blair representing Watford. The results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

The club held its annual Children in Need SIMS last night, with £122 being raised for the charity from both table money and cake sales on the night. Special thanks to those who provided the cake.

Congratulations to Will & Sylvia who narrowly topped the club rankings with 56%, with several pairs just a whisker behind.

The highest placed Royston pair in the overall SIMS rankings are Margot & Penny with a score of nearly 57%, very well done to them.

The winners of this year's Mavis Drake Teams Trophy were Dave & Andy and Saroj & Alan with a score of +61 IMPs.

The runners-up were Will & Sylvia and Chrissy & Irene, with a score of +27 IMPs. Special thanks to Irene for standing in at short notice when one of that team became unavailable at the last minute.

Slams were bid and made on boards 8, 9 and 10 with board 10 giving the EW pairs of each team who played the board a rare opportunity to bid a 7NT grand slam... three pairs out of six bid it. Not much to the play in 7NT, alas, as there were fifteen tricks off the top — for some reason the Bridgemate wouldn't accept 7NT+2 at our table!

It's fair to say that the dealing machine didn't let us down on the night — there were plenty of distributional hands, competitive auctions, game swings, potential slams and even one or two juicy penalty doubles available.

Hope everyone enjoyed it. It's back to the traditional match-pointed pairs next week, just turn up and you'll get a game.

The winning team of Dave, Andy, Alan and Saroj are pictured, holding the coveted Mavis Drake Trophy (thanks for the photo, Chrissy).

Congratulations to this year's winner of the Mavis Drake Teams Challenge Shield: Peter & Jean and Ron & Malcolm. The winners are pictured above, being presented with the trophy by Mavis (centre).

No slams were bid on the night, though the best scores were just as good as a slam: there was one on board 5 (1100 for 4♥x-4) and another on board 10 (980 for 1NTx+4). Another unusual outcome on board 12 was almost as good (760 for 1NTxx=). The double card at teams can be a two-edged sword, resulting in big swings either way!

The club held its AGM before play on Thursday, and the chairman Will Parsons stuck to his promise of running through the agenda in time for bridge to start at 7.30pm, setting an impressive precedent.

Trophies were presented to Saroj & Alan Ellis (Pairs) and Jean Watson / John Watson (tied for the Slams). The Club Person of the Year trophy awaits the return of Will Huggins next week. Well done to all this year's winners.

The draft minutes can be viewed under Documents or by clicking Draft AGM Minutes 2023.  The club's approved AGM minutes and Treasurer's reports from previous years are filed under Notices.

Two Royston pairs, Andy & Dave and Saroj & Alan, braved the might of the county's strongest pairs, playing in the final of the HBA Championship Pairs on Sunday.

Andy & Dave did well to finish in seventh place, comfortably in the top half of a very strong field.

Tom Dessain & Tugrul Kaban retained the trophy they won last year. The results are on the HBA website in the usual way.

Congratulations to Peter & Jean who were convincing winners of the ECATS SIMS Charity Challenge with an impressive score of over 70% at the club.  Their score of 65% in the SIMS put them within a whisker of a top ten finish overall out of more than 500 pairs from 37 clubs.

As usual, full results of the SIMS can be found on the ECATS website, or [easier] by clicking the Ecats Results link in the Bridgewebs Latest Result display. The Commentary on the boards has also been uploaded to Documents on the club website for easy access.  I wonder how many of the available slams on the night the expert commentator managed to bid... it's so much easier when you can see all four hands! [Four, by the look of it — on boards 6, 7, 8 and 21.]

Malcolm tells me that the Royston event raised just over £50 net profit for the nominated charities, which this year were Mind and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Thanks to those members who have been using the club website to make a reservation for the Thursday evening club games.

As announced by the chairman before play last Thursday, the committee have decided to suspend the use of the reservation system for the foreseeable future, as numbers at the club have recovered well over recent months.

Two pairs from Royston, Saroj & Alan and Andy & Dave competed in the HBA Championships Pairs Semi-Final on Sunday. There was a strong field of 32 pairs, which included many of Hertfordshire's top players. Well done to both the Royston pairs who did well to finish in the top twenty and qualify for the Final in April.

Congratulations especially to Andy & Dave who came third overall, with a score of 59%.

The results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

Congratulations to Saroj & Alan who had an overall score of 68.52% and finished in seventh place in the overall SIMS rankings, out of over 1,350 pairs.

The full results are available on the ECATS website or (simpler) click on the Ecats Results tab on the club's Results page, which takes you directly to the SIMS results to view your overall score (click there on Club; or Ranking then Search). The commentary file has also been uploaded to Documents on the club website for the time being... see what you make of Mark Horton's expert analysis. On the night, the consensus at the club seemed to be that there were some pretty wild boards!

Congratulations to Saroj & Alan who were one of four pairs making up the winning Hertfordshire team in the recent National Inter-County League Finals, "Division C", which took place on RealBridge.

This teams-of-eight event has its own dedicated Bridgewebs website. Full details and results can be found <here> (right-click to open in a new tab or window).

The draft minutes from the 2022 AGM are now available < here >. These will be submitted for approval at the AGM next year, in the usual way.

All members should have received the following email from the chairman:

This is the official notice that the AGM will be held on Thursday 28 April at 7:15PM

The agenda can be read here. The last AGM was held in 2019 due to lockdown, so we will be approving those minutes which can be found at AGM Minutes 2019.pdf .

The treasurer's accounts are at Treasurers accounts for AGM 2022.pdf and his report is here.

The ECATS SIMS Charity Challenge took place on Thursday, with the proceeds split equally between Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie. Just over £50 was raised for the two charities combined.

It was close at the top, with Jules & Robyn just pipping Steve & Keith in the club rankings, both pairs scoring well over 61%. However Steve & Keith were the only pair at the club to bid and make a slam on board 10, sitting EW.

In the overall SIMS rankings, Jules & Robyn were the highest placed Royston pair, in 17th place out of 450 pairs from 36 clubs.

Full details of the SIMS results are on the ECATS website, and can be found easily by clicking on the Ecats Results tab on the club's results page. The traditional ECATS commentary on the boards can also be downloaded from the ECATS website if you want to compare your bidding and play with an "expert" view of how they should have gone.

Congratulations to Brian & Jules who came 28th out of a large field of 118 pairs in the Harrogate Spring Congress Swiss Pairs.

The Congress was run by the Yorkshire CBA on behalf of the EBU and the event was played online on the RealBridge platform.

See the article on the EBU website here (the full results of the Swiss pairs can be found here).

As the email from John Crosher to the club membership made clear, it is important that one member of each pair intending to play on a Thursday lets the rest of the club know by making a reservation in the club calendar.  That way all members can see that it's worth turning up on a particular week and be confident that there'll be a reasonable number of tables to make the trip worthwhile.

Be aware that if there are insufficient reservations for four tables by the Tuesday before the event (ie less than 7 reservations), the event may well be cancelled. Let's all hope this only happens very occasionally, by turning out to play if possible, and — just as importantly — entering a reservation to confirm your intention, whenever you do intend to play.

If anyone needs a reminder how to make a reservation, just login to Members Only on the club website, tick the box under PL (for PLaying) within Find a Partner there and click Confirm. You can check if your pair has made a reservation for an event by clicking the link marked (Reservations) in the calendar entry for that event.

Note that you may occasionally see (Partner?) as the link instead of (Reservations). This is because "Find a Partner" takes precedence over "Reservations" but the same information is displayed in either case.

If you are unclear how to do any of this, or simply have a comment or query about the reservation system in general, just ask. Someone on the committee will be happy to help. Full documentation on the Bridgewebs reservation mechanism (including a screenprint) can be found by clicking < here > or by going to the Documents menu on the left and clicking Using Reservations to book an event.

Well done to Saroj & Alan who — playing with their regular Hitchin teammates Bernard & Margaret Eddleston — comfortably qualified for the next round of the HBA Humble Cup, the top Teams competition in Hertfordshire.

The team finished third out of fourteen teams in a strong field, with a total of +17 IMPs. The results can be found on the HBA website.

There were no familiar faces in the HBA's 7 High tournament on Sunday (unless you're a regular at Hitchin), but a few Royston members played in the Sussex County Swiss Pairs.

Brian & Jules finished mid-table and the "hybrid" pair (Royston-Hitchin, or Herts-Beds if you prefer) of Dave & Richard finished just outside the top ten in a large and strong field of 72 pairs. Results can be found on the Sussex County website.

The HBA Club Winners Cup took place on Friday night.

Royston pair Saroj & Alan came fifth in a strong field of twenty pairs, with Elaine & Ron also representing the club. The results can be found on the HBA website.

Royston held their traditional heat of the ECATS SIMS this Thursday, with the profits of £112.50 going to Children in Need.  Thanks to everyone who took part.

Congratulations to Saroj & Alan who were the highest placed Royston pair in the overall rankings with a score of over 59%, with four other Royston pairs not far behind. The overall scores from the combined field of 74 clubs on Thursday can be viewed via the Ecats Results tab on the club's Results page.

The HBA Mixed Pairs took place on RealBridge on Friday, with Royston pair Saroj & Alan finishing in the top half of a strong field.

Celia & Derek Oram were runaway winners on the night with 68%. The results can be found on the HBA website.

As you will know, Hitchin Bridge Club has for some time been hosting a regular Thursday evening bridge session on BBO, the North Herts Area Clubs Hospice Pairs, an event open to players from all clubs in the area and with all profits going to the Garden House Hospice in Letchworth.

When this series of events finally came to an end in September 2021, £4600 had been raised this year, which, combined with the £3800 raised last year, came to a magnificent total of £8400 raised for the hospice from these games.

A big thank you to those Royston members and bridge players from other local clubs who helped achieve this total since the event started way back in June 2020, and of course everyone else involved in organising and running the event over this period.

As most regular players should be aware by now, the weekly Thursday evening North Herts Area Clubs Hospice Pairs will be coming to an end soon.

Hitchin Bridge Club, who have generously hosted these events for well over a year now, will be running a revised calendar of events for their members starting in October, so the BBO event on Thursday 30th September will be the last one in this series. Full details of their revised calendar can be found on Hitchin's club website.

If you don't play in any other games with an entry fee on BBO (such as the daily EBU games), now's the time to make sure your BB$ account has been run down to a reasonable level of credit. Be aware that BB$ are not redeemable, though I believe they are transferable if you know of another BBO regular who may be prepared to buy any unused credit off you.

As Royston members will have heard from the chairman's recent email, the club has now resumed face-to-face club bridge at Coombes Community Centre, every Thursday starting on 16th September.

Full details of the anti-Covid measures that you will find in place at the club were specified in this email. This list can also be found under the Menu item "The Club is Re-opening" towards the top left of the homepage. You should feel able to make a reasonably informed decision on whether resuming face-to-face bridge is right for you, based on this information.

Hope to see many of you there in the coming weeks and months.

Congratulations to Dave, who (playing with his online partner from Hitchin, Richard Jones) came second out of 84 pairs in a large and strong field in the Herts & Essex Swiss Pairs on Saturday.  Wow!

Full results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

Congratulations to Royston members Saroj & Alan Ellis, who won the HBA Seniors Teams on Tuesday, playing with their Hitchin teammates Margaret & Bernard Eddleston.

They came first out of 10 teams, who included some of the strongest players in Hertfordshire.

The results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

Congratulations to Saroj & Alan who were the only Royston members playing in the final of the HBA Marjorie Lukyn event on Friday, doing well to finish in 8th place out of 37 pairs with a score of 56.60%.

Results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

A team from Royston were one of fifteen Hertfordshire club teams competing in the Eccles Cup on Friday. The match was played on the "friendly" RealBridge platform, so we were all able to chat online to our partner and opponents during the game.

The team of Dave & Jules, Peter & Therese, Colin & John and Chrissy & Alan came seventh, ahead of teams from several much larger clubs.

There were a number of exciting and distributional deals and the results are available on the HBA website in the familiar Bridgewebs format.

Worth singling out is board 18, where South was dealt the sort of hand we all dream about: a balanced hand of 30 points including all four aces and kings. A case for being careful what you wish for, as many NS pairs went on to get a substantial minus score on the board, in a doomed 6NT contract. Congratulations to Colin & John for bidding to the spade slam, and in particular to Colin, for finding the right line to make all 13 tricks in 6♠ for a well-deserved top on the board.

See Hand of the Month for 26th February 2021 for more discussion of this board.

It was good to see two Royston pairs taking part in a large and strong field for the HBA Championship Pairs Qualifier on Sunday.

Alan & Saroj qualified for the final in April by coming in the top twenty, with Colin & John also taking part.

It is also worth mentioning that this event took place on the RealBridge online platform, as will all future EBU and HBA matches during lockdown. RealBridge is like BBO with the addition of integrated audio/video links for the players, so you can see and hear your partner and the opponents during the game. This makes it about as close as we're likely to get to the experience of face-to-face bridge during lockdown.

If anyone wants more information about RealBridge, just ask, or click here for the RealBridge website.

As most of you are aware, the profits from the Thursday evening sessions all go to charity, with Hitchin Bridge Club kindly providing the directing and administrative resources free of charge.

This year a suberb total of £3,800 was raised by players from this event for the North Herts Hospice, the total including £525 from the sale of Saroj's photographic greetings cards. Thanks and congratulations to everyone involved. Margaret and Bernard Eddleston in particular deserve a big thank you for the effort they have put into making this event possible. 

Hitchin plan to continue hosting this event until Face-to-face bridge resumes... which still looks a long way off, alas.

In the meantime, best wishes to all Royston Club members and Thursday visitors for a Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year.

Dave achieved a rare hat-trick recently with a hand he submitted featuring in Andrew Robson's daily bridge column in the Times...for the third time this year since lockdown.

You can compare Dave's original write-up to Andrew Robson's version if you view the same deal as the "Hand of the Month" for 24th October on the Royston website. Andrew's version benefits from the enforced brevity that a bridge column imposes.

The HBA held their annual Club Winners Cup on BBO on Friday evening, with 19 pairs (plus a robot pair to avoid a sit-out) making up a strong field.

Saroj & Alan represented Royston and Dave was playing for Hitchin this year. No trophy to bring home (for either club) this time, alas.

Full results can be found on the HBA website.

A few Royston members tried their luck in the Bedfordshire Swiss Pairs on Saturday, a charity event with profits going to Macmillan Cancer Support.

In a strong field of 56 pairs, Brian & Jules came 16th with 52.56%. Dave & Richard (a partner from Hitchin bridge club) came 5th with 56.28%. The full results can be found on the Bedfordshire county website.

Well done to all concerned.

Royston took on neighbouring club Hitchin on Thursday afternoon. In a club representative event, this took the form of three Team of Four matches played over 20 boards, with all games played online on BBO.

Alan & Saroj and Elaine & Ron won their match by 15-5 VPs
Jules & Robyn and Peter & Ruth lost their match 8-12
Norma & Therese and Chrissy & Alan lost their match 3-17

So overall, Royston lost a close contest by 26-34 VPs.

Thanks to everyone who took part, and those at both clubs who helped organise the event.

Members will have already heard the sad news that Bruce Symes passed away on the 18th April. Due to the current health restrictions, there will be a private family funeral.

The chairman has written to Bruce's wife Dorothy with our condolences, and the club will be making a donation to Addenbrookes Charitable Trust in his memory.

It is with regret that the Committee have decided that Royston Bridge Club will be closed until further notice, with immediate effect. This is based on the strong advice issued by the EBU which can be read here and which in turn is based on advice from government/PHE. 

It seems inevitable that this closure will last for several weeks and possibly a lot longer, until the situation improves. It may well also affect the AGM, scheduled for the end of April, and the Committee will decide how that is to be handled.

I sincerely hope that when the club is able to re-open you will all be delighted with the lifting of restrictions and come flooding back to enjoy your favourite game. Meanwhile the Committee is considering an alternative, which is for club members to play bridge online — watch this space.

Good luck to each one of you, you will be missed.

John

There was a good turnout and plenty of exciting deals for the Charity Challenge SIMS event on Thursday. This year's nominated charity was the RNLI and cake sales added to the amount raised — thanks Peter.

The results have now been finalised, and the leading Royston pair in the overall field of over one thousand pairs were Suzanne & Dave with a score of 64.85%. Jules & Robyn and Malcolm & Ron also featured in the top hundred. Well done.

To view the overall SIMS results, click on the Ecats Results tab in the Results display. If you need more help or information, just ask.

Congratulations to the five pairs who qualified for the final of the HBA Ranked Master Pairs in Thursday's heat:

• Malcolm & Ron
• Will & Sylvia
• Jean & John (visitors)
• Jean & Peter
• Peter & Clare

Those pairs wishing to play in the final at Welwyn on Friday 3rd April should enter via the HBA website where full details can be found. The club will refund the entry fee to members.

STOP PRESS: The final of this event has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Please check on the HBA website for latest information.

Of the five eligible pairs who qualified in the Royston heat of the HBA Championship Pairs last November, John & Colin were the only ones who took part in the semi-final at St Albans on Sunday.

There were also some other familar names from the club in the rankings, including two other Royston pairs Brian & Valerie and Alan & Saroj who qualified at the Hitchin heat a month earlier. Results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

Special congratulations to Brian & Valerie for coming in the top half of a strong field, and qualifying to play in the final in April. Good luck!

Two qualifying teams from the Royston heat of the Humble Cup took part in the first knockout day of the competition at St Albans on Sunday. Ron & Elaine were playing with Andy & Katka (from Hitchin) and Brian & Valerie were teamed up with Chrissy & Gordon (another Hitchin player).

Well done to those from the club who took part, with special congratulations to Ron & Elaine whose team came through both their matches to qualify for the next round(s) of the competition in February. Good luck!

Royston played in the HBA Eccles Cup on Friday night. Thanks to the team of Saroj & Alan, Carole & Peter, Colin & John and Peter & Ruth who braved the elements and the drive to Hemel Hempstead to represent the club.

The winners were a team from Watford & Bushey Bridge Club, with Royston and Hitchin tied in second place just one point behind. The travellers and team placings can be viewed on the HBA website under the Results tab.

Thursday was definitely the best day of the week to play in the ECATS Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs (SIMS) events this year. The dealing machine had gone into overdrive, with any number of exciting distributional hands.

According to the deal statistics, makeable slams were available on an incredible EIGHT of the 24 boards played, and by my reckoning, only one of these was in reality impossible to bid. Hope you all had at least one moment of glory to look back on.

The result has now been finalised, with the leading Royston pair in the rankings being Saroj & Alan in 50th place overall with a score of nearly 64%. The overall results, commentary (and more) can be viewed on the ECATS website in the usual way, by clicking on the ECATS tab in the Results ranking.

The club raised £110 for Children in Need. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the successful evening.

Congratulations to "Team Titchner" for their convincing win in this year's Humble Cup heat, with a score of +101 IMPs. The winning team are pictured right (Dave & Suzanne, Miriam & Phil).

It was a hard-fought contest, with every team registering at least one win and no team remaining undefeated over the six rounds played.

The four highest-placed teams qualify for the next round of the HBA Humble Cup on Sunday 5th January 2020, should any of them wish to compete further.

An exciting board from the Royston heat features as October's Hand of the Month.

As most of you will know by now, the club has moved to the Coombes Community Centre, with the first event at the new venue taking place place on Thursday, 15th August.

The club's new address is Coombes Community Centre, Burns Road, Royston SG8 5PT. Full details of how to get to the new venue are available on the club website (see Information / How to Find Us etc), but if you're unclear how to get there, just ask.

The committee hope that the majority of members will find the new clubroom a significant improvement, but also recognise that the move may involve a slight increase in journey time or complexity for some.

If anyone has genuine difficulty getting to the new location, for example because it is no longer within walking distance, just mention it to someone on the committee. The club may be able to arrange a lift from one of the members who drive to bridge regularly on Thursdays.

Congratulations to Norman & Elaine and Valerie & Brian (pictured left), who were winners of the Mavis Drake Teams Challenge on Thursday. In a large field of eight teams, they came first by a convincing margin with a score of +99 IMPs, streets ahead of their nearest rivals.

It's the second time both pairs have won this trophy (though with different teammates). Elaine & Norman were joint winners last year and Valerie & Brian the year before.

For the second week running at Royston, there was not only a laydown grand slam and a Eurovision-style null points (board 1), but also a genuine Yarborough in the same round (board 4).

Congratulations to Brian & Dave for coming 11th out of over 100 pairs in a strong field in the Berks & Bucks Swiss Pairs on Saturday.

Resuts can be found on the Berks & Bucks CBA website.

Suzanne & Dave were one of four Hertfordshire pairs who qualified to represent the county in the Corwen Trophy, competing over the weekend of 1st-2nd June against other top pairs from each County Association in England.  They came a respectable 27th out of 94 pairs in a very strong field, with a score averaging over 52.5% across the four sessions.

Results can be found (in Pianola format) on the EBU website under Latest Results, by clicking here.

Well done to Saroj & Alan, who tied for first place in the Hitchin Spring Blue Pointed Swiss Pairs on Saturday 1st June, with five wins out of the six rounds for an overall score of 89 Victory Points.

Results can be found on the Hitchin Club website by clicking here.

• 

  Improver of the Year 2018
• 

  Pairs 2018
• 

  Butler Pairs 2018/19
• 

  Third Thursday 2018/19
• 

  Slams 2018
• 

  Club Member of the Year 2018

The club's AGM took place on Thursday, 25th April.

The Chairman John Crosher and Treasurer Malcolm Dean delivered their annual reports. The Treasurer's report and Accounts for 2018/19 can be found on the club website under Notices, for those who were unable to attend on the night.

Trophies and prizes were then presented by the Chairman. Congratulations to all the award winners (pictured above):

Pairs                                Suzanne & Dave
Butler Pairs                      Saroj & Alan
Third Thursday                 Malcolm & Ron
Slams                              Dave
Club Member of the Year   Will
Improver of the Year         Brian

Congratulations to Suzanne & Dave for coming second in the HBA Championship Pairs at Welwyn, the county's premier pairs event, with a score of over 59%.

The field included many of the county's strongest pairs, with only Celia & Derek Oram outscoring them by a narrow margin (the top pair winning the trophy for an incredible thirteenth time)!

The results can be viewed on the HBA website in the usual way.

John & Colin represented the club at Friday's HBA Cadet Pairs Final at Welwyn.

They narrowly missed a "podium finish", coming fourth with 56%. Better luck next year.

The results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

A number of the club's members played in Friday's Marjorie Lukyn Charity Cup Final, including three pairs who qualified from the Royston heat of the HBA competition last November.

Congratulations to Suzanne & Dave who came second in a large field of 38 pairs with a score of over 63%, with Saroj & Alan not far behind in fifth place.

The full results can be viewed on the HBA website in the usual way.

Thanks to everyone who turned out for the Charity Challenge SIMS on Thursday evening.

We were rewarded with some exciting and challenging boards, including seven distinct slams bid and made on five separate boards. The charity nominated by ECATS, the RNLI, also benefited from the net proceeds by a total of £93, which included cake sales from "The Director's Kitchen".

Congratulations to Norma & Therese who came first on the night. They were also the highest-ranking pair from Royston in the overall standings by some margin, finishing 44th in a field of nearly 1,100 pairs.

Two pairs from Royston took part in the semi-final of the HBA Championship Pairs on Sunday, and both qualified for the final in April. Suzanne & Dave came 14th, and Saroj & Alan came 23rd.

Well done to both pairs.

The results can be viewed on the HBA website in the usual way.

Congratulations to Saroj & Alan who made up half the winning team in the HBA Humble Cup Plate competition which took place last Sunday, 13th January.

Playing with Bernard & Margaret Eddleston from Hitchin, the team (who qualified from the Humble Cup heat at Royston last October) were narrowly defeated in Session 1 of the 1st Qualifinal, but then went on to convincingly win the Plate competition against six other teams.

The results of the Plate competition can be seen on the HBA website.

The Royston heat of the Marjorie Lukyn Charity Cup was held last Thursday. The Marjorie Lukyn is a long-running HBA event in support of local charities, but it is the first time that Royston has participated. Table money for this event was increased to £5 to support the nominated charities, which this year were Jackie's Drop-In Centre and Herts Musical Memories.

The top 50% of the field (as indicated in the rankings) are eligible to compete in the single-session final, which will be held at Welwyn on Friday evening 8th March 2019.

Full details can be found on the HBA website.

Contratulations to Brian & Dave, who won a prize as the highest-placed "non-expert" pair at the Middlesex Congress Swiss Pairs on Saturday, by finishing 27th out of 130 pairs in a very strong field.

In fact, the field was so strong that there were only two non-expert pairs who managed to finish in the top fifty, and eight in the top hundred!

The full results can be found on the Middlesex County Bridge Association website by clicking here.

Royston came fifth in the HBA Eccles Cup this year, competing against teams from some of the largest and strongest clubs in Hertfordshire. So an unprecedented hat-trick of consecutive victories was not to be, alas.

Thanks to the four pairs who represented the club: Jules & Dave, Clare & Peter, Valerie & Brian and especially Geoff & David, who stepped up when the club was struggling to find a fourth pair to make up the team.

Jules & Dave came first in their section with a score of over 61%. Ron & Elaine also did well, playing for a strong Hitchin team who came second overall, narrowly behind the winners, Harpenden A.

Full results can be found on the HBA website (via the Results tab on the left).

The club enjoyed the annual Children in Need SIMS event, hosted by ECATS, and raised £165 for the charity.

There were plenty of exciting boards, including a tricky slam bid and made by Ron & Malcolm. And if the bridge wasn't enough, some delicious cake was provided by Saroj and Peter as an additional fund-raising idea.

Suzanne & Dave were the highest placed Royston pair, finishing in 77th position in the overall rankings with 63%. Full results can be found on the ECATS website, or simply click on the "Ecats Results" tab on the results page to see how you've done. Any queries, just ask.

Clare & Peter did even better in the equivalent event the day before at the Morden Ruffians, coming 13th with over 68%!

Two pairs from the club, Suzanne & Dave and Saroj & Alan, represented Royston in the HBA Club Winners Cup at Welwyn on Friday, both finishing in respectable mid-table placings in a strong field.

A special mention must be made of another club member, Brian Combridge, who was representing Hitchin on this occasion. Brian and his partner won the event, and by a convincing margin. Full results and a photo of the winning pair can be found on the HBA website.

The Royston heat of the Humble Cup teams event provided plenty of exciting and challenging deals.

There was little to separate the top three teams, with no team remaining undefeated throughout. In the end, a retrospective scoring correction made all the difference.

Congratulations to the winning team of Suzanne & Dave and Miriam & Phil, and to the runners-up Therese & Norma and Jules & Ron.

Thanks also to Peter Grice for directing, and Peter & Ruth for acting as host pair.

• 

  Charity event prizes
• 

  Charity event

In a new initiative for the club, Royston held a charity event on Thursday 13th September to raise funds for a local charity, Herts Young Homeless.

Those who attended enjoyed a great evening of cake-eating, interspersed with the occasional hand of bridge!

We must have all been feeling very charitable, as not only was over £300 raised by the event, but the winners on the night were a visiting pair from Hitchin Bridge club... well done Christine & Angela.

Thanks to everyone at the club who helped make the evening such a success, especially those who contributed food or donated raffle prizes (including one from Tesco Extra). A special mention must go to Saroj, the driving force behind the event.

The short trial period for displaying the percentage score at the Bridgemate after each board is now over.

The majority verdict from the feedback received was No, so the display has been discontinued.

Details of all the hands, including the percentage score and the full deal and traveller information (including the lead) are of course available on the club website soon after each event has finished — usually by 11pm and certainly by the next morning.

For those who miss the percentage display, it is perhaps worth pointing out that the information on Bridgewebs is much more meaningful than any Bridgemate display. The latter is by definition incomplete, and can be misleading in the early rounds.

Well done to three pairs from Royston (Valerie & Brian, Elaine & Ron and Jules & Dave) for braving the heat to tackle a very strong field at the popular HBA Swiss Pairs event recently.

Additional congratulations to Jules & Dave as prize-winners in the "non-expert" category, finishing 16th out of 108 pairs after a storming finish.

Full results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

PS. Forty-nine boards obviously wasn't enough for Brian, who showed admirable stamina by also taking part in the Swiss Teams the following day with three team-mates from Hitchin (two of whom, Katka & Andy, are familiar to many at Royston as occasional visitors).

There was an excellent turnout for the club's annual Mavis Drake Teams Challenge which took place on Thursday 5th July, with seven full teams taking part.

Congratulations to the clear winners, the team of Saroj & Alan and Elaine & Norman with a score of +78 IMPs. The winning team are shown receiving their trophy from Malcolm (Norman not pictured).

A number of players from Royston entered the Hitchin Swiss Pairs event on Saturday.

Jules & Dave, Brian & Valerie, Elaine & Ron and Chrissy (with a partner from Hitchin) all took part, with Jules & Dave finishing highest out of the Royston contingent, in seventh place out of a field of forty pairs.

The full results can be viewed on the Hitchin website.

A new release of Bridgewebs has been implemented for the Royston club website, with a number of minor enhancements specifically catering for GDPR.

The good news is that these enhancements give all members improved control over their personal data held on the club website. The even better news is that you don’t have to do anything. Your Bridgewebs Account preferences are still set according to the box(s) you ticked on your 2018 Membership Application form.

You can of course change these at any time in the future via the Account tab in Members Only... for example, you might prefer to supply a contact phone number as well as (or instead of) an email address for use with Find a Partner.

The choice is yours... just “Opt In” using the appropriate Y/N setting(s) in your Bridgewebs Account. This is fully documented in the club’s Privacy Notice, which has been revised to reflect the recent Bridgewebs changes.

Any queries or concerns, just ask.

As most of you must be aware by now, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is now in force. We believe that the club has made every reasonable effort to conform to both the spirit and letter of the law as regards this legislation.

However, if you still have any queries or concerns about the way the club holds and processes your personal information, it is all documented in the club's Privacy Notice which can be found on the club website under the Documents tab (left).

If you need further explanation of clarification, just ask John, Jules or Dave (their email addresses are available in the Members list under Members Only), and they will do their best to help.

• 

  Pairs 2017
• 

  Third Thursday 2017/18
• 

  Improver 2017
• 

  Club Person 2017
• 

  Slams 2017
• 

  AGM 2018
• 

  Butler Pairs 2017/18
• 

  Mavis Drake Challenge 2017

Congratulations to the winners of the club's annual competitions, pictured here receiving their trophies from John at the recent AGM:

Pairs...  Suzanne & Dave
Butler Pairs... Suzanne & Dave
Third Thursday... Saroj & Alan
Improver of the Year... Penny
Club Person of the Year... Peter
Slams... Dave

A couple of late additions, photos taken on a sunny evening at the club two weeks later:

Butler Pairs... Suzanne & Dave (Suzanne not pictured)
Mavis Drake Challenge (Teams)... Norma & Therese and Valerie & Brian

Thanks to Saroj for taking the pictures.

It's not that often that a pair from Royston make it through to the finals of the HBA Championship Pairs. So congratulations to Saroj & Alan, who not only qualified but also scored over 50% in the two-session event on Sunday against a very strong field containing many of the top-ranked pairs in Hertfordshire.

The full results can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

The club is proposing to change the Bridgemate options so that the opening lead is entered at the Bridgemate along with the other contract information. This will be trialled for a few weeks followed by a quick vote on the proposal with a show of hands, at the club's AGM on 26th April.

Full details can be found in Bridgemate Proposal under Documents on the website menu to the left, or by clicking anywhere here. Give it a quick read before Thursday if you're planning to play at the club this week.

Note especially the advice that the best time to enter the contract details (including the lead) is during the period when the lead is being made and dummy is being put down. This minimises the elapsed time taken to score the board (regardless of whether the lead is being captured or not).

By now members should have seen references to the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, in this month's English Bridge magazine (see the April edition, p3). If you didn't receive a paper copy, the latest edition can also be viewed online from the EBU website via My EBU.

Royston Bridge Club are legally obliged to comply with GDPR, and have revised the Membership renewal form to conform to the GDPR legislation, in time for the run-up to the AGM at the end of April. The form refers to the club's Privacy Notice, which is now available on the club website under Documents.

In the meantime, it would be helpful if all members could check their personal details to ensure they are accurate on both the club and the EBU databases, as follows:

a) Club... Logon to < Members Only > from this website and select the Account tab

b) EBU... Logon to < My EBU > from the EBU website and select Account -> My Details

In both cases, the userid is your EBU number (the password may differ, however). If you don't know your EBU number it can be found in the < List of Members (Public) > and you can reset your password in either system if you've forgotten it.

Remember, it's your personal data, not the club's. 

Any queries or problems, just ask.
Dave Simmons

Very encouraging to see such a good turnout for the Charity Challenge on Thursday. The club raised £108 for the nominated charity, the RNLI.

Suzanne & Dave were the best-placed Royston pair in the overall rankings, scoring 64.5% and coming 29th in a field of over 1,000 pairs. They narrowly pipped Malcolm & Ron who scored 63.8%, and were only a few places behind them. Local and national results are available from the club website via Latest Result and the Ecats website respectively.

For those who may have not have noticed, there's a handy additional tab on the Bridgewebs results page for the Charity Challenge, which links directly to the overall SIMS results on the Ecats website:

Congratulations to Brian & Dave who managed a top ten finish in this year's EBU Masters Pairs, finishing 9th out of a national "SIMS" field of 66 pairs playing across 5 locations. They achieved a score of 55.36% for the two sessions combined.

They also deserve a special award for persistence, as the Welwyn heat was cancelled at the last minute, and they had to travel to Billericay in deepest Essex to compete.

Watch out for their guest appearance in the next series of TOWIE.

Congratulations to Malcolm & Ron who came third out of 21 pairs in the HBA Cadet Pairs Final at Welwyn on Friday with a score of over 60%. Let's hope a Royston pair can bring home the trophy next year!

The results are available on the HBA website, and (for those who are interested) note that the opening lead is captured along with the traveller and deal for each board, something Royston hope to introduce in the near future.

The Royston club has recently implemented a Host system, so that visitors without partners can just turn up at the club and be sure they will get a game.

The host system is aimed primarily at potential visitors. Members should use Find a Partner in preference, to alert all members (including a solo host, if applicable) that they're looking for a partner.

See the club calendar for details of this and other club rotas.

Thanks to those volunteers (and their partners) who have made this initiative possible.

Congratulations to the Royston team of Carole & Peter (Jackson), Jules & Dave, Clare & Peter Rice and Colin & John, who successfully defended the HBA Eccles Cup on Friday.

The team's three best results were to come first, first and second in their respective sections on the night, ensuring a convincing win for Royston.

This makes it three wins for the club in the last five years in this Herts inter-club competition, a feat only previously achieved by Welwyn Bridge Club in the early years of the competition.

It also marked a personal hat-trick of wins in the competition for three of this year's victorious team (Jules, John and Dave).

Pictured (left to right) are John, Peter R, Clare, Peter J, Dave, Jules, Colin, Carole.

The full results can be found on the HBA website.

Royston was one of well over 100 clubs in the UK (and abroad) who participated in the annual Children in Need SIMS event last Thursday, hosted by ECATS.

Our club raised over £200 for the charity this year, with special thanks to Saroj for baking the delicious cakes which raised over £40.

The local and national results are available via the club website, and congratulations to Suzanne and Dave who finished in third place overall, with a score of well over 70%.

Two pairs represented the club at the HBA Club Winners Cup at Welwyn on Friday 10th November, both pairs finishing in the top half of a strong field.

Congratulations to Miriam and Phil who came seventh with 52%, with Suzanne and Dave close behind in ninth place. Another Royston member, Brian Combridge, was also playing, although he was representing Hitchin Bridge Club on this occasion.

Full details can be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

This week's Pairs event doubled up as a local heat for the HBA Championship Pairs, with the top half of the field qualifying. So here is the provisional list of qualifiers for the semi-final at Welwyn in January:

Colin and John
Jules and Robyn
Laszlo and Shelagh
Kevin and Paul
Mel and Geoff
Saroj and Alan
Carole and Ruth

Congratulations to all the above, and good luck to those pairs who decide to compete further.

(Note: Eric and Dave played "Without standing" as Dave had already played in a previous qualifing heat at Hitchin Bridge Club with another partner.)

The top three teams qualified for the next round of the Humble Cup, a teams event, following Thursday's Royston heat of the HBA event.

Congratulations to Phil & Miriam and Suzanne & Dave, who were convincing winners on the night. Full results are on the club website.

Thanks to all the teams who took part and to Peter Grice for directing.

Congratulations to the following three pairs who qualified from the Royston heat of the HBA Cadet Pairs last week:

• Jane Tulloch & Pat Holroyd
• Malcolm Dean & Ron Raine
• Jean & Peter Morris

The club are happy to pay the entry fee for any qualifying pairs who wish to enter this event... the more the merrier!

So good luck to any of these pairs who put themselves forward for the finals at Welwyn in February next year.

Royston had some representation at the recent HBA Swiss Pairs competition at Wodson Park, Ware.

Ron & Elaine just pipped Brian & Dave in the rankings, with the former pair favourites to win the non-expert prize until well into the final round, but it was not to be. Ron & Elaine ended up in 21st place out of 64 pairs, with Brian & Dave just one point behind. Well done to both pairs, and better luck next year.

This obviously wan't enough bridge for Brian, as he also competed in the HBA Swiss Teams the following day as part of a team from the nearby Hitchin club. This time, they did win the non-expert prize, coming 15th out of 30 teams in a very strong field.

For the mathematically minded, Brian held one extraordinary hand in the Swiss Pairs with a 7600 shape (seven clubs and six hearts) — what are the odds against that?

The full results can all be found on the HBA website in the usual way.

For those who missed it, the club held a small celebration of Bruce's up-and-coming 90th birthday before play on Thursday 17th August. Martin made a brief speech and presented some prizes on Bruce's behalf on the bridge-related theme of "Scoring 90" (something to do with 1NT so they tell me). Therese & Norma, Ron & Malcolm and Saroj & Alan were the lucky winners.

Once again, congratulations Bruce. Here's to many more.

By now, you should be aware that the Bridgemate options were changed at the start of July, for a trial period. Those who played in last Thursday's Pairs event will already have seen these changes for themselves.

The traveller information and the percentage match-point score are no longer displayed at the Bridgemate after the score has been entered for each board. This is to discourage "post-mortems" at the table and thus speed up play significantly.

Once the score has been entered, the Bridgemate simply displays ENTRY COMPLETE which can be OK'd so that the Bridgemate is ready to receive the next score. 

The other options remain unchanged, so at the end of each round the scores for the boards just played at that table will be displayed, enabling NS and EW to double-check that they agree with the scores entered, before moving on. And at the end of the event, the RANK button can also be used to obtain a provisional position and match-point percentage for the two pairs at that table, as before.

Of course, the full traveller information and percentage score (including the deals and makeable contracts) is available on Bridgewebs, usually by about 11pm that evening.

These changes to the Bridgemate options are for a trial period of 6 weeks which started with the Teams event on July 6th. At the end of the trial the committee will consider whether the experiment has been a success, based on observation and feedback. So whether you like it or dislike it, let the committee know, preferably by email to the chairman.

Very well done to the winners of the Mavis Drake Challenge trophy:
Therese & Norma and Brian & Valerie who won the Teams event by a convincing margin.

A deal from the event also features in the latest Hand of the Month.

By now you should all have received the email from John Crosher outlining the proposed changes to address slow play at the club, starting in July for a six week trial period.

The Bridgemates will be tailored to suppress both the display of "traveller" information and the Match Point percentage score after each board.  This change will be for a trial period to enable everyone to experience the change for themselves, and comment as they see fit.

Like all change, this one will no doubt be received with mild suspicion and hostility in some quarters, so here's some personal thoughts on the change, which is being introduced largely at my suggestion.

The obvious benefit is to speed up play, and avoid unnecessary timeouts, which are universally unpopular. It will do this by preventing some/all players at the table poring over the Bridgemate after every board going through the traveller and speculating as to whether they were in the right contract or whether declarer or defence could have made more tricks.  It seems obvious to me that this wastes a significant amount of time that would be better spent ensuring all the boards in the round are played and completed in good time.

In a nutshell, I'd much rather play bridge at the club... the post mortems can wait.

This policy has been implemented recently at Hitchin Bridge Club, resulting in a time saving of between 5 and 10 minutes on an average session. To be fair, I was initially unconverted, but having experienced it in action, I soon realised that the loss of the traveller information was in reality no great loss. And stating the obvious, the best time by far for any post mortems is after the event, preferably in conjunction with the excellent and informative BridgeWebs displays which include the deals, the travellers, makeable contacts and the double-dummy "Play it Again" facility.

Here's a few reasons why inspecting the traveller and percentage at the Bridgemate on the night is essentially a waste of time:

a) without details of the full deal and "makeable contacts" for unhurried analysis, the traveller information is largely meaningless
b) there are many other factors that determine contract and outcome, so a traveller summary is insufficient for informed discussion
c) during the early rounds, the available scores provide much too small a sample to be meaningful
d) for Butler Pairs events, the percentage displayed is irrelevant, as percentage score only applies to match-pointed events

Finally, I'd ask all members to approach the trial period with an open mind. Once you've played in a few sessions with the new setup, I hope you'll agree that this is a sensible initiative to address the perennial problem of slow play that affects almost all clubs (not just Royston). The committee look forward to hearing your views on the trial in due course, but be aware that — even in a democracy — you can never please everyone.

Dave Simmons, June 2017

It's official!  No more late nights at Royston Bridge Club.

The club has formally adopted a policy to play a maximum of 24 boards on normal club nights, to ensure a finish by 10.30pm (or very soon after).

Thanks to Peter Grice and Dave Simmons who have recently provided a set of revised club movements that implement this policy.

It's good to see Find a Partner being used increasingly by club members. Here's a reminder of how it works, for those who haven't yet tried it.

Find a Partner (Members) is available to all via the menu on the left. However, if you wish to update it, typically to submit a Find a Partner request, you will have to logon to Members Only.

Once you've logged in, you need to fill in the appropriate details on the Find a Partner screen:

• Show Email / Phone / Mobile... tick box(es) as appropriate
        depending on how you wish to be contacted
• Select Event and tick the PR box
        There are in fact three tick-boxes per event: 
        PR = Partner Required, NP = Not Playing, PL = Playing
• Click Confirm to submit your Find a Partner request

This request will now appear on the club Calendar, as a visible flag "(Partner?)" against the event, acting as a link to Find a Partner.  In addition, the club will reinforce this request by circulating an email to the entire club membership summarising the request.

Once the Find a Partner request has been satisfied, the requestor should out of courtesy update Find a Partner by simply removing the request (untick the PR box and Confirm). Alternatively, they can tick the PL box, add their partner's name for this event as comment, and Confirm as before. The request will now appear on the Calendar as "(Reservation)".

Remember, it's your club and the BridgeWebs facilities are there to be used. There's more on the club website than just the Latest Result!

The club held its traditional spring ECATS SIMS event, the Charity Challenge, on Thursday, 9th March. Thanks to everyone who helped make the event a success, with Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research benefiting from the proceeds.

Alan and Saroj were the highest placed Royston pair nationally with a score of over 58%, just ahead of Keith and Denis. However, on this occasion no-one from the Royston club managed to make it into the top 100 places overall.

Full details are on the ECATS website: just click on the "Ecats Results" button in the Latest Result or click here to go direct to the club standings.

Royston Pair finish fifth in the EBU Masters Pairs

Congratulations to a scratch pairing from Royston, Brain Combridge and Dave Simmons, who came fifth out of 99 pairs nationally in the EBU Master Pairs competition held on Sunday 26th February. The Masters Pairs takes place simultaneously at seven locations throughout the country, and Brian and Dave played in the Welwyn heat.

They came 37th overall with 52.4% in the first session, and a storming first place overall with 71.1% in the second session, just enough to get them into the top five on aggregate. The full results can be found on the EBU website, under Latest Results / Ranked Masters Pairs.

Very well done to both of them.

The final of the HBA Cadet Pairs competition took place at Welwyn on Friday 17th February.

Ron and Malcolm were the only qualifying pair from the club who entered this year, and scored just over 50% in an unexpectedly large field.

Full results can be found on the HBA website.

Some of you may not yet have noticed a useful new feature of the club's Bridgemate system, available after a software upgrade last year: the NAMES key has been added to the number of function keys available at the Bridgemate keypad. If your name is entered incorrectly (or not entered at all, for that matter), you can now correct it using the NAMES and CORREC keys at the Bridgemate (*).

The NAMES key allows you to review and/or re-enter any player's number at the table — either the club number or the EBU number will be accepted — and the player's name will be changed dynamically, ie it will display correctly at the Bridgemate at the start of all subsequent rounds. (In much the same way, a score can be corrected during the current round with the SCORES and CORREC function keys.)

So you don't need to trouble the long-suffering TD or Scorer if you notice that your name has been entered incorrectly at the start of round one, you can simply ask North to change it during any subsequent round at a convenient moment. Remember, the Bridgemates are a shared resource available to everyone at the table, not just North — though traditionally it is up to North to enter the scores.

If only this feature had been available in the past, I would have been saved the embarassment of being identified as "Gaynor" throughout an entire session at Hitchin, and — believe me — by the twelfth round the hilarity that this inevitably caused had worn a bit thin with at least one person at the table.

Dave

(*) For more detailed instructions on how to use the Bridgemate, a User Guide can be found under Documents on the club website.

There were some familiar faces from Royston competing in the Championship Pairs semi-final at Welwyn on Sunday (29th January), competing against a strong field from across the county.

Well done to Malcolm & Ron who were the only pair who entered courtesy of qualifying in the Royston heat in October, and two other pairs who are members at Royston also took part (Saroj & Alan and Valerie & Brian) as a result of them qualifying a day earlier at a similar heat held at nearby Hitchin Bridge Club.

Full results can be found on the HBA website. The final takes place in April.

Royston win the Eccles Cup

A team from Royston competed for the Eccles Cup on Friday 25th November and came first, beating eight other Hertfordshire clubs in the process. The club has now won this trophy twice in the last four years.

Congratulations to the four pairs who made up the team: Carole Parker & Peter Jackson, Denis O'Brien & Dave Simmons, Robyn Farquhar & Jules Davidoff and Colin Barnes & John Crosher.

Pictured (left to right) are Jules, John, Denis, Robyn, Dave, Carole, Colin, Peter.

The Eccles Cup is a club representative event, with each club team of restricted Master Point ranking consisting of four pairs who compete in two separate sections as N/S and E/W. So there are in effect four separate competitions played with the same boards, and each pair is awarded points from 1 to 9 based on their position in their respective ranking list. The team with the lowest aggregate score from their best three positions is the winner. Royston had a combined score of 5 (first, first and third), making them convincing winners of the event.

Both the aggregate team scores and the detailed scores from each section are available on the HBA website via the Results tab on the left.

The BBC's Children in Need extravaganza took place on Friday 18th November and, as is customary, Royston Bridge Club did its bit towards fund-raising by hosting their annual Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs event.  This year it took place on Thursday 17th November and the club raised £215 for the charity (table money plus sales from Saroj's homemade cake).

The highest placed Royston pair in the overall ECATS SIMS standings for Thursday's Children in Need event were Dave Simmons & Suzanne Sheasby, coming 35th out of 2049 pairs, with 65.93%

Full details of this and other SIMS events can be found on the ECATS website, at www.ecatsbridge.com/sims/default.asp

Congratulations to the winning team of the Mavis Drake Challenge teams event:

Therese & Norma, Morgan & Steve, with an excellent score of +22 IMPs.

Congratulations to Morgan Bunday and Paul Merryweather for their impressive win last week . This was a 'national' event [and some clubs were entered from overseas] . Morgan and Paul are coming in at 13th in the entire competition so far [ out of over 1100 clubs !] . If you want to see their details or your own score then go to http://www.simpairs.com/default.asp?session=004570 and enjoy 

Winners of the club's Humble Cup teams heat: Ruth Katz & Peter Grice, Kevin Clark & Paul Kemp

Winners of the Mavis Drake Challenge teams event:

Dai Rowley-Jones & Fergus Moynihan and Carole Parker & Peter Jackson (not pictured), with Mavis Drake

Very well done to Dave and Roger, who won the HBA Cadet Pairs trophy last night.  This is the first time that a pair from the club have won this trophy.

In fact, it was a good night for the club all round, as Peter and Jean Morris joined Roger and Dave on the "virtual podium" in third place, and Pat Fletcher and Pat Bridges came ninth.

Full results can be found on the HBA website.

Royston win the Eccles Cup

Royston are proud winners of the Eccles Cup, the first time the club have won this coveted HBA trophy!

The team was made up of the following four pairs: John Crosher & Keith Darley, Peter Grice & Ruth Katz, Peter Rice & Clare Rice, and Dave Simmons & Jules Davidoff

Congratulations to everyone who took part in what turned out to be a convincing victory.

See also the press cutting below from the Royston Crow, retrieved from the club archives some years later. 
Pictured (left to right) are (back) Jules, Peter R, Dave, Keith; (front) John, Peter G, Clare, Ruth.