The SSCBA AGM took place on zoom on Sunday 16th August. 

Sadly, Pam Booth-Jones the very able chair for the past 9 years indicated some months ago that she would have to retire as chair of SSCBA. Very luckily Kath Adams (pictured) accepted nomination as chair and was elected unanimously at the AGM held on August 16th 2026, SSCBA will be in good hands. Kath has held many roles on the committee in past years.

Two topics of general interest were raised;

• January/winter sim pairs event. Since covid the SSCBA both summer and winter sim pairs events have been held on Wednesdays as that has been the day of the week when most clubs have been willing to host a heat. It was decided at the meeting to choose a Thursday date early in 2027.
• The league has been played on BBO since 2020, previously it was f2f at Wolverhampton. It is hoped that recent changes on BBO will not prevent this continuing but meanwhile the option of playing matches on RealBridge is being investigated.

Congratulations to Jason Hackett who has just won the Mutton Cup in Madrid and to Paul Hackett who was second, click for results. 

Martin and Tracy spent the weekend playing bridge at the Montrose congress. On Saturday after qualifying for the B final they won that event. On Sunday they played in the C final in the teams, they then won that event. A successful weekend, very well done both.

Wednesday Evening 7 pm BBO duplicate session no longer available

Unfortunately the County is no longer able to offer our Wednesday evening online BBO game, as insufficient pairs are now turning up to make the game viable. The Committee is looking into alternative games hosted by other clubs or counties on a Wednesday that we could look to join. If anyone has any suggestions or preferences please contact James on jvickerstd@gmail.com. 

The National event, the Corwen, was played on 30th/31st May 2026 in Telford.  All top three pairs in the SSCBA Championship pairs, played on 29th March at Newcastle under Lyme, took part in the Corwen, The three pairs were Paul Hackett & Mike Goldsmith, Martin Aherne & Steve Smith and Tracy Aherne & Mark Booth.  Link to report of championship Pairs.

The County mixed pairs was held at Newcastle Under Lyme Bridge Club  on Sunday, 10th May 2026. Fourteen pairs took part, winners Tracy Aherne & Mark Booth with 58.33%, Helen & Peter Lees not far behind with 57.37% and Gillian Allsop & David Moir in third place with 56.73%. Earlier in the year Tracy & Mark were also winners in SSCBA Championship Teams competition and third in the Championship Pairs competition, what a wonderful season for them. David Moir third in the mixed pairs was in running up team in the Championship teams competition. 

The results can be found here. 

A very pleasant afternoon's bridge. Many thanks to James Vickers for directing and Tracy Aherne for refreshments at half time.

Five teams took part this year and the winners were Kevin Goode, Rajiv Talathi, Tracy Aherne and Mark Booth. Paul Cutler, David Moir, Martin Aherne and Steve Smith were second. The results can be found here. To view the travellers click on the individual sessions. 

1st Prize: free entry to the Pachabo on 13th & 14th June on RealBridge.  2nd Prize: free entry to the Midland Counties Challenge Bowl in June/July in Derbyshire(date tba)

Many thanks to James for directing and to Tracy for the great spread of food at "half time".  The next SSCBA event is the Mixed pairs on Sunday May 10th

The County Championship Pairs tournament was played on Sunday, 29th March at Newcastle Bridge Club. Sixteen pairs competed. The winners were Paul Hackett and Mike Goldsmith with 62.3%. In second place were Martin Aherne and Steve Smith with 61.1%, in third place Tracy Aherne and Mark Booth with 58.1%. The leading pairs qualify for the Corwen on 30th and 31st May in Telford. The overall results can be found here. To see the travellers with hand records look at the individual sessions. Thanks to all who took part, and to Tony for organising the entries, Martin for dealing the boards, Tracy for the catering, James for directing. 

The next major County championship is the Teams Tournament on 26th April, also at Newcastle Bridge Club. 

Congratulations to SSCBA players in  EBU National competitions

SSCBA member Paul Hackett won the EBU Premier Grand Master Pairs playing with Brian Senior see Group A in these results.

In the EBU Life National Regional Masters several SSCBA players took part with Aaron Bell, Flo Baldwin and Mike Goldsmith coming top in their sections

Congratulation to the SIM Pairs winners, this time from the Wrekin club: Marcus Eassom and Jan Bradley with an impressive combined score of  63.35%

Second place goes to Joanne Mclauchlan & Peter Cartwright taking part from the online club

Third place goes to Shirley & Ray Stubbs from the Newcastle club

Full results are available HERE

Well done to all of our Session winners:

Online club:  Michael Lucas & Flo Baldwin

Newcastle:  Shirley & Ray Stubbs

Wrekin:  Marcus Eassom & Jan Bradley

Combined results are now available and have been uploaded to the EBU for masterpoints.

Hand commentary is available HERE

Many thanks to all those who dealt cards, directed, scored, produced the commentary etc etc etc for this successful event,

This league has now started, runs monthly from September, on BBO.  Click here for the timetable (note division 1 at top of page, division 2 below). Captain's instructions are here. Click here for results so far for Division 1 and Division 2

SSCBA member Jason Hackett won the pairs  in Oviedo, Spain weekend 8th/9th November 2025.

1/9/25 Apologies from Judy for the delay, master points for the combined results now awarded.

The hand commentary is available under Results and SSCBA SIM Pairs Hands Aug 2025, or by clicking HERE

HEATS WERE HELD AT THESE THREE VENUES with a total of 20 tables 

Including the BBO Wednesday group allowed a number of players who do not live in the Newcastle or Wrekin areas, particularly from the west of the region, to take part in the sim pairs event.

Stafford Bridge Club moved to Beaconside Conference Centre, Stafford ST18 0BF on June 1st 2025. Click for diagram of club location at the centre.

Congratulations to the Ahern team (Tracy Ahern, Mark Booth, Steve Smith, Joanna McLaughlan) for winning the Championship Teams on a tie-break from Cutler's team (Paul Cutler, Colin Draper, Elisabeth Bingham, Toni Togneri). The results can be found here. For the hand records and scores look at the individual session results; for the overall results and masterpoints look at the overall results. The masterpoints have been added and the results submitted for the NGS reckoning. 

Many thanks to James for directing, Tracy for refreshments and Newcastle-under-Lyme bridge club for hosting the event

Winners pictured above and runners up below.

With all matches completed on 14th April, the Seymour team have won the league and the Yardley team are second -  only one vp between them - many congratulations both teams for full results see here. The winning team pictured below, from L to R: Jon Harrison, Kath Adams, Geoff Neal,  Anne Seymour and John Hartley

The season came to an end on Sunday 9th March against Derbyshire. A thank you from Paul to all who have played throughout the season and who have made themselves available for selection. The match results can be found here, and the league results can be seen on the EBU site and also in a different format on our own site here.

The national final was played on RealBridge over weekend April 12th/13th, 7 Staffs & Shrops players qualified to take part, best placed the Midland regional winners, Robin and Dave coming 15th ahead of SSCBA captain and his regular partner David, See overall results.

Some 16 players from Staffs and Shrops took part in the Midlands Counties regional heat played on 23rd March for the EBU National Pairs competition following achieving a score of 55% or better in a club event during the period 2nd to 15th February 2025. Winners of this regional heat were regular MCOL players, Stafford members Robin Adey and Dave Nelson, pictured here, many congratulations both. Several others qualified to enter the finals. . 

County Championship Pairs

Sixteen pairs took part in the green pointed "all play all" event this year which took place at Newcastle under Lyme bridge club. The winners were Paul Hackett and Mike Goldsmith (62.2%), second place Paul Cutler and David Beavon (59.8%), third place James Vickers and Keith Shuttleworth (58.6%). The full results can be found here. The results have been uploaded as the session 1 (7 rounds) and session 2 (8 rounds), and then as the overall combined results. To see the hand records and travellers, look at the session results. Many thanks to James for directing and to Newcastle Bridge Club for their hospitality 

Entries now open for Championship Teams to be played on Sunday 18th May also at Newcastle under Lyme bridge club. This time the leading team (and potentially reserves) will be invited to represent the county at the equivalent National Event, the Pachabo. This though will be Face2face at Milton Keynes, 14th - 15th June..

See  also Tony's news of  5th April here

A good chance to see the faces now that some competitions are on line,  webmaster not cracked how to match order pictures shown to the ranking in this event but there is a clue as you roll over the thumbnails! Regular Dawes/MCOL and SSCBA league players were well placed in this event.  Many thanks to Rose for the pictures.

Heats for the SSCBA Summer Sim Pairs were played at 3 clubs, Eccleshall, Newcastle and Wrekin with a total of 20½ tables. A minor correction was made and so close were the top three the order has changed if you looked earlier, apologies.  Winners Jan & Ronnie Bhageerutty playing at Wrekin  with joint second Michael Metcalf & Alan Codling also playing at Wrekin and Keith Healey & Judy Healey playing at Newcastle.  

3 clubs held heats in the SSCBA sim pairs held on 29th January 2025, 19 tables in total,  Click here for the overall results (corrected 3/02/2025), here for the hand records and here for the commentary (updated to include suggested auctions). 

* Heat winners at Newcastle were Lesley Russell & Aideen Walsh. 

Apologies for the hiccup with the overall results.

2024 Holders: Mike Cornes & Sandra Fenton. 

Border, Stafford and Wolverhampton have either moved or are about to move from premises that they have had a long association with.  Please note the new venues that may or may not be better for you.

Our county team finished ninth out of fourteen teams in our group in the Tollemache Qualifier, the national inter-county teams-of-eight tournament, winning six out of thirteen matches. Thanks to Paul Hackett and David Debbage, Tony Togneri and Elizabeth Bingham, Paul Cutler (captain) and David Beavon, Robin Adey and David Nelson, James Vickers and Keith Shuttleworth (Saturday only) and Michael McCartney and Martin Church (Sunday only). Tony and Elizabeth were our top-scoring pair with an average of +0.61 cross-IMPs per board. 

An E.G.M.

of the
Staffordshire & Shropshire Contract Bridge Association

was held at 5 p.m.on ZOOM

Tuesday 8th October 2024.

The proposals put forward at the AGM were ratified, click here for EGM Notice.

Congratulations to SSCBA members Dave Debbage,and  Paul Hackett for their success in the Mutton Cup event idirected by Jonathan Lillycrop. Players from some 15 countries took part in the competition played 22nd-24th August 2024 in Madrid.

Congratulations to Worcestershire A (Stewart Fishburne, Mike Willoughby, Joyce and Chris Taylor) who won the event, scoring a total of +81 IMPs over 49 boards. Staffsshrops B (James Vickers, Keith Shuttleworth, Martin Church, Mike McCartney) were runners-up with +31 IMPs. The full results can be found here. 

Paul & David with a pair from Worcestershire retained the Worcestershire league in the 2023/24 season.  Heavily disguised as "Noble Rot" the results can be seen here. Many congratulations both

Move "mouse" over thumbnail to change

This event was played at Stafford Bridge club at the county showground with 7 tables and players from far and wide within the county.  The winners were Anne Seymour & Geoffrey Neal with Terry Maltby & Liz Clarke second and Alan Codling & Ann Sleightholme third, congratulations all.  David Drinkwater directed a very friendly event which is sadly the end of the near 50 year spell at the showground.  Stafford bridge club is moving to the Hayling Dene centre in June as the lease at the showground premises comes to an end.  Hopefully the competition will be played at Hayling Dene next year..  Pictures by David Drinkwater show SSCBA chair,, Pam Booth Jones presenting the prizes to the winners and runners up. 

This green pointed teams of four event was played on Sunday 21st April at Newcastle bridge club, five teams took part and the winners were John Hartley & Geoff Neal,  Kath Adams,& Anne Seymour.  

The event was played over two 24 board sessions, click for session 1, session 2 and combined results.

Many thanks to James Vickers for directing and to Tracy Aherne for all the refreshments.  

Best placed SSCBA member in the national final played on 13th/14th April 2024  on RealBridge was Jason Hackett coming 14th.  County Captain, Paul Cutler and his partner Martin Aherne came not far behind 19th. 

Several SSCBA members took part in the regional finals played on Sunday 24th March.  Jason Hackett was top  in the Midlands regional finals just ahead of regular Wednesday evening players, Tony Spiers and John Sanders.  When combined with the results from all regions the positions are reversed with Tony and John in first place  and Jason and partner in second place. The top 50 pairs, who will be entitled to play the National Pairs Final on RealBridge on 13th - 14th April 2024 also include SSCBA captain Paul Cutler and his partner Martin Aherne.  Very many congratulations to you all

Several  SSCBA members took part in the the EBU Combined Premier Life, Life, National and Regional Masters Pairs competition was played  on RealBridge,  A total of 101-102 boards over two days, Saturday 24th and  Sunday 25th February,  Robin Adey &  Dave Nelson had an overall average score of  +0.39 in the Life Master section,  Lis Bingham & Tony Togneri 4th in the National Master section with +0.10  and Flo Baldwin 4th in the Regional Master section.

The 2023 Chester Bowl was held at Deva Bridge Club in Christleton, CH3 7AS near Chester, on Sunday 15th October.
SSCBA member Keith Shuttleworth, who after qualifying in third, won the final playing with Seb Jones from Merseyside and Cheshire.

Many thanks to all those who took the trouble to vote following the email sent through the website on 10th September.  Voting has now closed. The result:  an overwhelming vote for John Hartley to be the next  SSCBA Treasurer.

 If you have unsubscribed to receiving email from the website and wish to resubscribe then click here for information on how to resubscribe to receive email from this website.. If you have no email address on the system click here for help on how to set one up.

County Simultaneous Pairs heats were held f2f in four clubs on Wednesday, 16th August: Eccleshall, Newcastle, Wolverhampton and Wrekin,.  A total of 21½ tables, up 2 tables from this time last year.   

Winners were County Captain Paul Cutler and his partner Martin Aherne playing at Newcastle, second Nick & Frank Cheadle playing at Eccleshall and third Ronnie & Jan Bhageerutty playing at Wrekin.  Click here for the overall results.

The commentary on this hand showed EW likely to end in 4♥ but that 7♣ or even 7NT could make.  On the day no one bid a slam, 9 ended up in game in hearts and one pair made all thirteen tricks in clubs but only bid game.  Highest score went to those that bid at least game in NT making 11 tricks

The commentary on this hand showed EW likely to end in 4♥ but that 7♣ or even 7NT could make.  On the day no one bid a slam, 9 ended up in game in hearts and one pair made all thirteen tricks in clubs but only bid game.  Highest score went to those that bid at least game in NT making 11 tricks

The final round of the SSCBA league was completed spot on time on Thursday 11th May 2023 with Paul's team of Paul, David, Geoff and Anne the winners, second Jo's team, Jo, Peter, Tony and Lis who were only just ahead of James' team, James, Keith, Martin  and Mike.  Would you believe it no substitutes played in these three teams all season! Not quite true, in one match, Mike McGarry subbed for Mike McCartney  in one match, The results were close, only 20 VP between 1st and 3rd. Well done all.  Any chance of photo ops for any or all of these teams?  For full results click here.

The Championship Multiple Teams of Four was played on Sunday 23rd April at Newcastle Bridge Club  This competition replaced the Staffs Cup knock out teams competition of previous years.  The event was played in two 20 board sessions with 5 teams taking part

This competition is the qualifying event to select a team to represent the County at the Pachabo Cup to be held on 10th/11th June 2023 - on RealBridge
Prizes:  Winning or 2nd Team (or a mix of the two) has free entry to the Pachabo. (Extra green points to the winner of a head-to-head match between the leading two teams.)

Many thanks are due to Neil Morley for directing and to Tracy Aherne for providing the refreshments at the interval.

We played our final Midland Counties Online League (Dawes) match of the 2022-23 season on Sunday, 12th March, against Leicestershire. All three teams won, the division 1 team by 13-7 VPs, division 2 by 20-0 VPs, division 3 by 19-1 VPs. Those results should see the Staffshrops teams finish around mid-table in the second and third divisions, and the first team should at least not finish bottom. Thanks and well done for all who played. The final scoring tables are yet to be updated, but can be found at EBU Results | Midland Counties League 2022-23 Division 1. The full results of the day's matches with player lists and travellers can be found at Midland Counties Congress, Warwickshire CBA (bridgewebs.com). 

Two Staffs & Shrops pairs took part in the event on 25th March, with Penny Grocott & Frances Bradley winning the competition, click here for the results. Overall county winners were Nottinghamshire with pairs coming 2nd, 3rd and 6th. The session was again followed by Q & A on some of the hands led by Ben Norton, a leading young international. 

Three Staffs and Shrops pairs took part in the event on the 28th January, best placed were Ken Davies and Steve Lister coming 4th.  Click here for the results  Overall county winners were Oxfordshire with pairs coming 1st, 5th and 7th. The No Fears have been aimed at pairs with an average NGS grade of 9 or lower.  

Liz Bingham, playing with a partner from Surrey, was the best placed SSCBA player coming 2nd in the region and 18th overall. Martin Church & Michael McCartney coming 5th in the region and 26th overall also qualify to play in the final. Martin and Michael won the SSCBA Championship Pairs played recently at Newcastle, see Pam's picture of them with the report on the news page.  Jason Hackett, playing with a partner from Worcestershire, was the best placed SSCBA player in the finals played on 15th/16th April.  Eleven other SSCBA players took part in the regional finals but did not make the top 50 who qualified to compete in the national finals on 15th/16th April. 

Winners with their cups 5th March 2023

The championship pairs, a green-pointed event, was played on Sunday 5th March 2023 at Newcastle Bridge Club.  Two Howell sessions were played with 22 boards in each. The result was so tight it was not until the final board that was scored that the winners, Michael McCartney & Martin Church, were decided coming just ahead of Warren Perks & Michael Goodall. Third and fourth places also very close, Tony Togneri & Kevin Goode were third just ahead of John Hartley & Kath Adams.  The top pairs are eligible to play in the Corwen Tropy event on 3rd - 4th June.  Well done all. 

So many thank you's, first to the pair who stood in at the very last minute, to Neil Morley aided by John Whitelock for directing, to Pam for the picture, to Rita for looking after everyone, to Martin and Tracy for providing the great refreshments at the interval and to Judy for all the organisation beforehand to ensure the event ran so smoothly on the day.   

Three Staffs and Shrops pairs took part in the event on the 28th January, best placed were Ken Davies and Steve Lister coming 4th.  Click here for the results  Overall county winners were Oxfordshire with pairs coming 1st, 5th and 7th.. The session was followed by Q & A on some of the hands led by Ben Norton, a leading young international.  The next one of these No Fears events is likely to be played at the end of March. The No Fears have been aimed at pairs with an average NGS grade of 9 or lower.  

Thee competitions are hosted on RealBridge so that you get to see and talk to your partner and the opposition – it is as close to face-to-face as we can get. If you haven’t played on RealBridge yet, you can log on to RealBridge and play some practice games.  Free taster RealBridge sessions are held once a week, mainly on Sunday evenings (these have to be booked at least 2 hours in advance).  Click here to test your camera on RealBridge.

Originally it was planned to hold this on a Monday in January but eventually, after consultation with the clubs, a Wednesday was chosen, 25th January. There were 20½ tables playing at Eccleshall, Newcastle, Wrekin and Wolverhampton.  The winners were Nick Cheadle & Libby Dale playing at Eccleshall, Pam Booth-Jones (SSCBA charman) & Margaret Tomkinson playing at Wrekin came second just ahead of Tony Togneri & David Owen in third place playing at Newcastle.  A commentary is available here.  Congratulations all.

As of 3rd August 2022 this website has moved on to release 2.19q, click here to see "what is new".  The most noticeable change is to the way the results may be viewed with an option to view in the "classic" style or the "2022" style.    There are other features introduced in release 2.19p - should we make use of them on this site?

Six pairs from SSCBA took part in this enjoyable event organised by the Midland Counties Congress played on 26th November 2022.   Overall the winning county was Worcestershire with Staffs & Shropshire coming second just ahead of Gloucestershire (click for the results).  Frances Bradley & Peggy Grocott, Newcastle members, were the best placed SSCBA pair coming 4th overall.  Next of these events is planned for Saturday January 28th, don't miss out on playing in this fun event if your NGS permits, see the poster for the last event for general information.

This Award, in memory of Tony Priday, was instituted in 2015 and is usually given to individuals for an outstanding contribution to bridge and enhancing the game in all its aspects. For 2022 however, it was decided to give it to the EBU membership “for supporting the game, the EBU and each other during the COVID pandemic.

A full list of award winners can be seen by clicking here.

A team from Staffs and Shrops competed in the Tollemache Qualifier, the EBU's inter-county teams-of-eight tournament, on 12-13th November. They were Paul Cutler and David Beavon, Paul Hackett and Dave Debbage, Toni Tognieri and Elisabeth Bingham, James Vickers and Keith Shuttleworth (Saturday only), Martin Aherne and Steven Smith (Sunday only). They finished 10th in their group of fourteen teams, winning five and drawing one of their thirteen matches. Thanks to all who took part in what is always a tough competition. 

Paul Hackett played in the Rand Cup earning a Bronze medal as part of the Penforld team in the seniors section, see.16th World Bridge Series Wrocław, Poland 19 August – 3 September 2022 (results) and the EBU report.

Nearer home SSCBA members John Hartley and Robin Adey came 8th in the Bedfordshire green pointed Swiss Pairs played on Saturday 3rd September 2022 with 92 VPs.  Paul Cutler and Colin Draper not far behind them.

Very well done all.

19½ tables at 3 clubs, Eccleshall, Newport and Stafford took part.  Overall winners were Paul Barnet & Ruth Timmis playing at Eccleshall with Paul Cutler & Martin Aherne at Stafford second and Anne Seymour & Geoff Davies also at Stafford third (result corrected 15:37 18/08/22). Fourth equal Peter Cartwright & Joanne Mclauchian with Nick Weaver & Anne Hidderley both playing at Eccleshall.  Many thanks to John Withers for collating  the scores and for John Weston, Joan Kershaw and Terry Maltby for the organisation at the partaking clubs.  The  next SSCBA sim pairs on Monday 30^th January, time to put the date in your diary.

Regional event - Midland Counties Challenge Bowl 10th July 2022 (click for results)

The county sent two teams to play in the above event, hosted by Worcs, (on realbridge). Ten teams played, our teams were 4th and 6th. Paul Cutler, David Beavon : John Sanders, Irene Jan-du-Chene were 4th with a score of +30 imps James Vickers, Keith Shuttleworth : Martin Church, Mike McCartney were 6th with a score of zero.  The winners were Warwickshire whose teams came 1st and 2nd.

National event - Pachabo Cup 11th/12th June 2022 (click for results)

the S&S team participated in the Pachabo, one team of 4 from each county. We finished 12th out of 24, a story of two days, 20th after Saturday, joint 5th best score on Sunday lifted us up to 12th. Team was James Vickers, Martin Church : David Beavon, Paul Cutler.  

National event - Corwen Trophy 28th/29th May 2022 (click for results)

Following the championship pairs three pairs went on to represent the County at the Corwen Trophy on 28th & 29th May 2022, our leading pair was David Beavon and Paul Cutler who came fourth in a field of 78 pairs. Many Congratulations to David and Paul.

SSCBA Championship Pairs 8th May 2022 (click for results)

12 pairs took part, all the top three pairs are regular Dawes/MCOL team players. The winners were the SSCBA chair, Pamela Booth-Jones & Sue Yardley, with Tony Togneri & Elisabeth Bingham coming second and David Beavon & county captain Paul Cutler coming third.   A very enjoyable afternoon at the bridge table.

Pam Booth-Jones and Sue Yardley are not available to play in the Corwen on 28th and 29th May. Therefore the next four places are all involved in the Corwen: Tony Togneri & Elisabeth Bingham,  Paul Cutler & Dave Beavon, Celia Day & Claire Marsh together with James Vickers & Martin Church who have agreed to be the stand-by pair.

The Edgar Foster Cups (Gloucestershire) and the Midland Counties Bowl (host Worcestershire) dates not confirmed yet.

Staffs and Shrops players took part in a number of sessions to raise money for the Ukraine appeal funds:

• Nantwich on 11th April
• Stafford took part in the ECATs sim pairs each day during the week 11-15th April with a first place in Thursday session
• Stone on March 22nd
• the two big Kent, Surrey and Sussex eventson April 2nd, (Green-Pointed Swiss Pairs  and 9(NGS)-High Pairs,) 
• The Thursday Club Cambridge April 8th event 

Through these events Staffs and Shrops players raised over £1,600.

Sadly this normally very popular event has had to be cancelled due to lack of support in 2022, players still lack confidence for face to face bridge.  Don't miss out on a No Fear event though, there is the online RealBridge 9-High No Fear Pairs on March 26th

SSCBA member Paul Hackett is one of Brian Senior's team who have retained the Gerard Faulkner Salver (as reported on January 4th 2022 by the EBU). The full team: Brian Senior (Captain), Tony Forrester, Paul Hackett, Sandra Penfold and Norman Selway. 

Jason Hacket was a member of the winning team at the Midlands Counties Congress, played on BBO, on 9th January.  Many Congratulations Paul and Jason.  Several SSCBA members took part in the Congress Friday and Saturday sessions.

Two teams entered the 9-High event  on Saturday 29th January 2022.  Staffs1, Newcastle players came second overall, Congratulations Neville, Viv, Tracy and Neil.  Staffs 2, made up of Stafford players, came 6th.  What a shame there wasn't a third SSCBA team to enter the county ranking.

The next of these events is the 6-high 9-high Swiss Pairs competition on Saturday 26th March, see https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=midlandcc&pid=display_page28,.  What about finding a partner now?  You can check your ranking click here and search for your name.to see if you qualify to take part. NB on 3rd March the decision was made to  change to a 9-high Swiss Pairs event rather than the originally planned 6-high Swiss teams.

The event that was due to be held at the end of January at clubs is unable to go ahead in the present situation.  The committee will look at this again in the summer, when perhaps there will be more confidence in face to face bridge around the county!

The SSCBA team that took part were: Paul Cutler, David Beavon, James Vickers, Keith Shuttleworth, Mike Amos, Paul Hackett, David Debbage, Jason Hackett, Diego Brenner. The event was played on RealBridge and the results can be seen here, RealBridge or Bridgewebs style options.  A good picture of some of the team in the winning Crockfords team played 4th-5th September can be seen on the SSCBA "News page"

At the regular Wednesday evening session 18 Staffs and Shrops pairs took part in the EBU Autumn Sim pairs on 13th October 2021.  As at 10:50 a.m. 14/10/21 best placed SSCBA pair were Tony Spiers and John Sanders, playing EW being 8^th out 133 pairs, Sue Maxwell and Michael McCartney playing NS not far behind, there may be more results yet to come. Congratulations Tony & John and Sue & Michael. EBU links here for the session full results, club results and commentary in addition to the usual SSCBA Wednesday results for the session. A commentary on hand 19 can be found here. 

Finally, September 2021, Covid restrictions have eased enough to allow Pamela Booth-Jones, the SSCBA Chairman, to present John Withers in person with the the prestigious Dimmie Fleming Award which John was awarded in 2020 for services to bridge. Read more from the original notice in 2020.

16 teams took part in this most enjoyable event, sadly only two teams from Staffs and Shrops, best placed of which were Viv Milne's team coming 4th with 62 VP.  The winning team, the Sheppard team from Oxforshire, scored 75 VP over the 5 rounds. Oxfordshire and Avon were well represented, 6 teams from Oxfordshire!  A  discussion of interesting hands followed on after the event itself took place on zoom.   The organiser was able to bring up the hands, scores and bidding as the hand selected was discussed, at the start players were encouraged to make a note of suitable hands to talk over at this zoom meeting. Those that entered will be able to see the scores here.

The next Midlands 9 high event takes place 29th January 2022 and there will be 6 high events 27th November and 29th March.

In addition the Malvern Congress is holding 9 high pairs event on Friday 29th October 2021.

2020/21 Season Winners

Firstly congratulations to James Vickers' team for the 2020/21 season victory just pipping Paul Cutler's team to the post with 127 to 122 VP when the competition finally completed.  

2021/22 Season

10 teams have entered the league this year making a single division with 9 rounds to be played between now and mid May 2022. The time table can be found here

Several SSCBA clubs have already reopened.  Best place for the latest information are the clubs' own websites.  Each club is making their own arrangements/restrictions.  In general bringing your own glass and drinks is the order of the day and keeping the club informed of when you wish to play.