The Midland Counties Congress Working Party Group ran a third in their series of No Fear Swiss Teams events on Saturday 19th June 2021.  This time 15 teams took part, including one from SSCBA, the winners were from Warwickshire.  If you took part in any of the No Fear events. 8High in January, 9High in March and now 6High the organisers would be pleased to get feedback so that they can build on the good points and reduce the not such good points.  Please send your comments to Paul Cutler.

Bridging Academia, Policy and Practice Online Conference: Monday 28 June – Thursday 1 July 2021 Free international conference for academics, bridge players, teachers & administrators Join Bridge: A MindSport for All (BAMSA) – a global network – and share best practice Case studies from: Australia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Madeira, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Pacific, UK, USA More than 60 presenters and panelists from 20 countries

• ·       Day 1:  Bridge as a Mindsport
• ·       Day 2:  Digital Bridge: Opportunities and Challenges
• ·       Day 3:  Healthy Ageing, Intergenerationality and Gender
• ·       Day 4:  Education, Development and Marketing

For more information or to register for any of the sessions go to: https://bridgemindsport.org/bridging-academia-policy-practice-conference/

Bridge: A MindSport for All (BAMSA) | Prof. Samantha Punch Faculty of Social Sciences, Colin Bell Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA  Email:​ bamsa@stir.ac.uk 

The 27th Shropshire Congress On Line via B.B.O.

Green Pointed Swiss Pairs Saturday, 24th April 2021 

There were 56 tables at this first online Shropshire Congress with many from SSCBA taking part, a record number of entries including a standby pair. 

Best placed of the regular Wednesday evening SSCBA players were Brian Nicholls and Keith Shuttleworth coming 11th out of 112 pairs.   Very well done all.

Green Pointed Swiss Teams Sunday, 25th April 2021

34 teams for the Swiss Teams.  Another record?

Congratulations to the SSCBA regular players James Vickers, Keith Shuttleworth, Martin Church and Mike McCartney for their joint second-place.

We surely do not want to thank covid restrictions for anything, but due to them we have experienced record numbers for both the Swiss Pairs and Swiss Teams.    To think that, back in 2019, we cancelled the teams event for 2020 because uptake was so poor! Obviously, with face-to-face bridge out of the question, on-line bridge involving no travel and no hotel bills has proved very popular in bringing players to our event from all over the country.

My thanks go to Sarah Amos and her team for organising the whole event and to everyone who entered to make it such a success. Will the future of the Shropshire Congress lie on line?
Judy Mitchell (Congress Secretary)

Another wonderful success story, 54 teams took part this time including 3 from SSCBA.  Best placed SSCBA was Viv Milne's team from Newcastle who came 5th.  Many congratulations.  Click here to see the results.  

Midlands Counties Congress (who put on the event)  will welcome feedback - via SSCBA coordinator, Paul Cutler - on this event and the option for future events of this nature.

• the format you prefer (pairs, teams, etc)?
• does the day and time work out OK?
• how often such events should happen?
• anything else you can think of .....

This is clearly a project worth encouraging so please pass comments to Paul so that the event builds on the positives and corrects any negatives.  Many players now introduced to RealBridge, another positive spin off from the event.

The 8 High No Fears event was a great success with 45 teams from 10 counties taking part,  The title "Midlands" might have been stretched a little!  Staffs & Shrops were at the northern limit but one county has a boundary on the south coast! The full results can be seen by clicking here.  Sadly only one Staffs & Shrops team entered, those players will need to pass the word on as to how enjoyable the event was to encourage more to enter next time. A great afternoon's bridge, friendly faces, best behaviour at bridge observed by all and not a mile added to wear and tear on anyone's car.

Not only was it an interesting experience playing Swiss Teams but also to gain experience of Realbridge.  Realbridge is rapidly becoming a popular platform. The results appeared after each 5 board round and teams were taken back to their home table for a team chat before going on for the next round.  Both Swiss Teams and Realbridge were certainly a new experience for the players in the Staffs & Shrops team and, from chat at the table, most of the other players too.  The Realbridge taster sessions were very helpful to get used to the system, most weeks there are a few times to give Realbridge a try however you must register at least 3 hours in advance that you wish to play in the 8 board taster, you may "turn up to play" with or without a partner.  Newcastle has set up Sunday evening sessions to which they invite others to join in, click for the link to their website.

18 pairs took part this year, 16 pairs last year, good to see numbers holding up in the on-line world. The competition, previously known as the Bearn, was played over 14 three board rounds on Sunday 7th March.

The winners were James Vickers and Martin Church with a score of 59.4%, runners-up Linda Davies and Judy Clowes with 57.9%. The results can be found here.  Many Congratulations.

This competition is the qualifying event to select players to represent the County at the Corwen Trophy to be held on 5^th & 6^th June 2021. Venue: Milton Keynes or on-line.

If Corwen Trophy is to be held in Milton Keynes you would be responsible for travel and accommodation costs. 

Well placed pairs in the Championship Pairs may be invited to take part in the Edgar Foster Cups in September.

Many thanks are due to Judy Mitchel for her organisation and to the director, Eddie, for ensuring the smooth running of the event.

Never played bridge on-line - and intimidated by what's involved? Don't be! Some clubs have set up on-line bridge groups.  Two main platforms, BBO (Bridge Base Online) and BCL (Bridge Club Live), both offer social and competitive games.  BBO offers the facility to set up a virtual bridge club. Lessons are available from Andrew Robson and Mr Bridge,  Watch over the shoulder of the experts, youtube videos, pick and possibly question, your expert in real time with Zoom.

Oswestry and Border Bridge Clubs have set up a very successful BBO virtual clubs getting 9 or more tables twice a week.   Wolverhampton and Stafford have set up BCL groups.  Stafford is running a league competition with 9 teams of 4 taking part.  Bridge is alive and well in the Staffs and Shrops area.  The unaffiliated Monday Bridge Club in the Shrewsbury area has also set up a virtual club.

Two success stories from the recent EBU ranked Masters pairs event played on February 27th and 28th.  Tony Togneri (Newcastle) playing with Elisabeth Bingham (Surrey) won the Regional Masters Pairs and Richard Woodward and Terry Alexander who in the Masters pairs came 15th out of 266 pairs with a score of 59.76%.  Well done all.

When you meet your opponents you can set up the BBO chat manager to enable you to greet them with your basic system, see links to videos on how to used  chat Manager, Using Chat Manager in BBO - Bing video, Chat manager on you tube.  For example "Hello both, Jill and Susan here, we play Beni, wkNT, stayman, transfer, wk Majors, RKCB".  In addition to using the "chat" please use the alert BBO facility, for example to show strength of 1NT bid and any conventional bids, even Stayman and Transfers.

Many congratulations to the division 7 EBU lockdown league winners, Tony Leech (captain),  Pamela Booth-Jones (chairman of SSCBA), Linda Curtis (past chairman of SSCBA) and Sue Yardley.  14 teams took part in the division, the results were very tight at the top.  Click here for the full division 7 results.  A very popular event with 9 divisions.

Many Congratulations to John Withers who has been awarded the prestigious Dimmie Fleming Award in 2020 for services to bridge. The awards are made specifically to publicly recognise those who have worked hard promoting bridge locally at County level. 

John has been a tireless supporter of the county for more than 20 years. Initially he was Membership Secretary for the County, trying to keep club lists up to date and collecting county subs from everyone – before the age of computerisation (we forget how much work that involved).

He also worked very hard on statistics relating to the introduction of P2P: who would benefit, who would lose out and at what level the county should pitch the county subscription.  Initially, Staffs and Shropshire county elected to collect from individuals via clubs in the first instance: and then John calculated how much should be added to the P2P to the EBU and, again, which clubs would lose out with the change.  His work enabled the county to diffuse any potential issues that would certainly have arisen without his work on this topic.

He was usually the representative of Wolverhampton Bridge Club at county committee meetings and a major player in the administration of that Club.

In addition, he was at the forefront of ‘computer’ scoring for the county and his club (Wolverhampton Bridge Club) and for coping with sending results to the EBU.  If there was any sort of computer problem (including sorting out problems with bridge scoring systems from other clubs) – John was your man. 

More recently he was at the forefront of starting up the county on-line bridge clubs, liaising with the TD for them and taking on the role of Membership Secretary for the two new on-line clubs. 

Over the years he has represented the County at various EBU national meetings, always ready to stand in for another representative in his/her absence.

Always a person willing to take on any task or problem.  John is a classic example of an unsung hero, and thoroughly deserves the nomination.

Staffs & Shrops Contract Bridge Association

AGENDA for the  ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

to be held on Sunday, 27th  September 2020 at 5 p.m. on ZOOM*

1. Apologies.
2. Minutes of the A.G.M. held on 1st September 2019. 
3. Matters arising.  
4. Chairman’s Report.
5. Treasurer’s Report.
6. Competition Secretary’s Report.
7. Shropshire Congress Secretary’s Report.
8. Webmaster/Membership Secretary’s Report.
9. Captain’s Report.
10. Proposal from Paul Cutler, seconded by Pam Booth Jones, that the word “Duplicate” be removed from the Constitution as recommended by the Midlands Counties Working Group (see **note below).   A copy of the Constitution can be found on the County’s website.
11. Election of Officers (no nominations as yet).            
12. Any Other Business.

*ZOOM    Jane Sheehan, our Treasurer, is willing to host the meeting, and if you want to attend you must provide her with your e-mail address so she can send the electronic invitation details.   She will also give you her mobile phone number in case you are having difficulties.  By having these e-mail addresses she will also send you copies of the Accounts.  Please note the time, a different time was indicated on an email.

So, beforehand you will need to download Zoom onto a suitable laptop or phone which has microphone/sound/speaker facilities so that you can hear and be heard (and video if you want to see people or be seen).

This is her email address : jane_sheehan_13@hotmail.com.   (There is an underline between her names and the number!).    When you email her, please include me in the mail shot, because I shall need to know who will be attending, and I shall also want to send you copies of the other Reports for the AGM.

** Note:  At a meeting of the MCWG it was agreed that the EBU and individual counties should be there representing all bridge players and that the word “duplicate” should be deleted from counties’ constitutions.

N.B.  Reports will be emailed to those who let me know that they will be attending the meeting.

J. Mitchell, 

S&SCBA Hon. Secretary

01743 235374;  

mitchellmj@btinternet.com

10/9/20.

STAFFS & SHROPS ONLINE BRIDGE CLUB   entered Simultaneous Pairs in aid of E.B.E.D,which raises funds for EBED, . on Wednesday, 9th September 2020.  This was very well attended with 14 tables.  At the time of writing, 10:30 the following morning, results are in for 116 pairs with possibly more to come,  Claire Marsh and Celia Day, winners EW at SSCBA, came third in the overall results, winners NS at SSCBA event.  Next best placed SSCBA players in the overall results were were Jolanta Coggle and Michael Lucas coming 12th, 2nd EW at SSCBA.  NS winners at SSCBA were James and Judy coming 17th overall.  A very good evening with 24 boards played, more than the usual number, feedback on the number of boards welcome, just right or too many?

Peter Jones, member of Newcastle bridge club, won the Second Mutton cup satellite thus gaining entry to the final in Madrid August 13th - !5th August.  Peter being able to take part will be confirmed when the inbound quarantine from Spain to the U.K. is lifted (expected to be this week)

The EBU organised an online seminar by Suffolk County Bridge Association, on The Virtual Club and their experiences in developing this resource within their County

I watched the seminar this is what I “took away” from the presentation.

Lockdown has universally changed the bridge world, now “the only game in town “ is online.

Playing bridge sitting opposite your opponents, in clubs, is unlikely to resume before September and maybe as far away as the New Year.

There is a growing number of Counties and local bridge clubs that are organising online Tournaments, in which players pay table money to compete with people they played/socialised with prior to March 23^rd. The organisers receive 50 – 70 % of the table.

The organisers of Tournaments must have access to a qualified host/director to run the competition, practical experience recommends that initially two directors are needed to ensure the smooth running of the event.

Sixty percent of players in Suffolk on now playing online.

I urge members of SSCBA committee to watch the recording of the meeting, available via the EBU’s website, It runs for an hour. If the committee is then interested in pursuing/promoting the introduction of a Virtual Club/s within the County, it could quickly determine if any local clubs are organising or playing in online Tournaments and what is needed to “Marshall” or train directors.

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No Fear Pairs - Thursday 27th February 2020. This day time event took place at Wolverhampton Bridge Club with a delicious light lunch included. One player came from as far as Manchester to take part. 30 boards were played using a Mitchell movement.  North South winners were Janet Bradley & Christine Hartley, East West winners were Brian McLaughlan & Isobel Rees with a special prize for Michael & Hilary Sedgley as the best scoring runners up.  Congratulations to you all. A very enjoyable day and thanks are due to those who provided the lunch, the organisers, the scorer and to Jeff Jones for directing.  

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Championship Pairs - Played Sunday 8th March 2020

This all play all green pointed event was played at the County HQ, Wolverhampton Bridge Club on Sunday 8th March in two sessions with a total of 45 boards.  The winners were Paul Hackett & David Debbage with Kath Adams & John Hartley second and James Vickers & Martin Church third.  These first three pairs have qualified to play in the national event for the Corwen Trophy on 30th and 31st May 2020 at Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, Milton Keynes,  MK7 6BZ.  

Four Pairs from this event will be invited to represent the County in the Edgar Foster Cups to be held on 20th September 2020, this year hosted by Staffs and Shropshire.

Many thanks are due to James Vickers for directing and scoring, Jeff Jones for the organisation and Tracy Aherne for the catering.

The Congress has to be cancelled in line with EBU and other directives regarding Coronavirus. Judy Mitchell will be contacting those who have entered and sent money so that she can refund them..

County Simultaneous Pairs - Played at clubs on Monday 27th January 2020

6 clubs took part in this event, results in from all 6 with a total of 39 tables as of Tuesday 28th January just short of midnight, thanks to John Withers burning the midnight oil.  First are Linda & Paul Laughlin (playing at Stafford, pictured), with Robert Hunt & Cyril Walker (Oswestry) second by a short head from Mike Sherriff  & Robin Adey (Stafford) who were themselves a short head from Val Prentice & Jill Bird (Nantwich) now fourth after the 6th club's results included.   Slight increase in the numbers taking part this year, 35 tables last year.  Many thanks to John Withers and Jeff Jones for all the work they put in to make the event so successful. Next SSCBA sim pairs is Wednesday 12th August 2020.

Congratulations to Kevin Goode and Peter Cartwright, and Helen and Peter Lees, who finished second and third in the Edgar Foster Cups on Sunday 22nd September 2019. Sadly, it wasn't quite enough to bring home the trophy, which was lost on a tie-break to Warwickshire. Full results can be seen here. .

Staffs and Shrops finished 5th of 9 in group D of this national event played in Daventry over the weekend 16th/17th November.  SSCBA had 4 wins & 4 defeats. Wins against:

• Berks and Bucks, the eventual winners, their only defeat
• Norfolk,
• Warwickshire,
• Northants.

Team :  Paul Hackett  & David Debbage, Jason Hackett  & Adrian Kenworthy, David Beavon & James Vickers, Geoff Davies & Paul Cutler.
 

The AGM was held on Sunday, 1st September 2019. An EGM was held in order to ratify the Proposal by the Committee that the current rate of the county fee paid via P2P should remain at 6p per session per player, which was agreed nem con but without a quorum at the Annual General Meeting held on Sunday 1st September 2019.  The motion was passed at the EGM.

European Championship Jason and Justin Hackett were in the winning team in Turkey at the European Championship Open Teams competition representing England.  The event started 15th June 2019 in Istanbul.

Spring Foursomes

Jason and Justin Hacket were in the winning Scharpiro Spring Foursomes team, played 3rd - 7th May 2019

National Swiss Teams

On May 12th 2019 Dave Debbage and Paul Hackett finished second in the National Swiss Teams with team mates Croz Croswall and John Sansom.  

Buffett Cup

The Hackett family much involved in the European team taking part in the Buffett Cup April 2019 in China, in the southern coastal city of Haikou, capital of Hainan Province. Paul was captain and Jason and Justin both in the team. The final result was down to the last board with Europe finally losing to the USA and China coming third.

The County Mixed Pairs took place at Wolverhampton Bridge Club on Thursday 13th June 2019.  The winners were John Withers & Judy Mitchell, with Roger & Elaine Taylor second and Dan Crofts & Celia Day coming third.  Congratulations all.

Trying to attract a younger demographic to the game of bridge, the Students’ Union at Staffordshire University are offering their current students 4 taster sessions.  These will be held from 4-6pm on Wednesday March 27th, April 3rd, May 1st and 8th.  Newcastle-under-Lyme Bridge Club members have kindly offered to come to the university to deliver sessions to the students.  It is hoped that students are inspired and may set up a bridge club at the university but let’s not get ahead of ourselves as firstly, we need to entice the students to try the game.  If you know of any Staffordshire University students or staff please encourage them to go along.  A report will follow these events.

The winners of the Swiss Pairs are Giles and Gabriel Ip from Norfolk, narrowly beating Sandra Nicholson & Krys Kazmierczak in second, with Eddie Lucioni & John Dakin in third.

There joint winners for the Swiss Teams:

Giles & Gabriel Ip, John Dakin & Eddie Lucioni (who received the trophy) and Sheila Shea, Edward Jones, Wyn Williams and Margaret Barnes. In third were Andrew Thompson, Tom Fisken, Dan Crofts, Ollie Burgess.
  
Very sadly, because of the diminishing numbers entering the Swiss Teams over recent years, and particularly this year, there will no Swiss Teams next year.   We hope that there will be a one-day Swiss Pairs on Saturday 25th April 2020.
 

The SSCBA Championship Pairs, previously the Bearn, were played at Woverhampton Bridge Club on Sunday 17th March. The winners were Mike Cornes & Annette Lucas with Barbara Hackett & Dan Crofts second and Keith Shuttleworth & Brian Nicholls third. Apologies no photographer on hand, archive picture used from an Edgar Foster cup event!  The top players may go on to compete for the Corwen Trophy, a national event, on 1st/2nd June in Daventry.  The SSCBA team for the Edgar Foster Cups are also chosen from the results of this competiton which is to be played in Warwickshire this year, date yet TBA.

Paul Hackett playing in the Norwegian team won the open teams event in the Southeast Asia Bridge Federation Championships, Manila, Philippines 1st December 2018. Paul was also in the winning team at the Seniors Trials, 15th - 16th December 2018, which took place at West Midlands Bridge Club.

Jason Hackett playing with Richard Bowdery won the Oviedo tournament on 23rd November 2018 

Many congratulations all.

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The winners of the Shrewsbury Open Swiss Pairs were Michelle Davies & Jolanta Coggle with Patricia & Henry Ramsay second and the non-expert prize going to Linda and David Glasscock.  A most enjoyable afternoon with entries from a wide area, the tea lived up to its billing, "superb" and the prize giving on time, even a few minutes ahead of schedule!  Many thanks are due to Judy and the Shrewsbury club for hosting and organising the event and to James for directing.

Lawrence Haynes playing with Trevor Thrower won the West of England Congress Swiss Pairs played on 29th September 2018. 

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12½ tables took part this year in this popular event at Wolverhampton. The results were:

*Won prize for highest scoring losing %

Many thanks are due to Jeff, for organising, Alma for scoring and Linda and her team for the wonderful lunch

Five clubs took part, Chasetown, Newcastle, Oswestry, Stafford and Wolverhampton with a total of 35 tables. The results are now confirmed as:

A very close result at the top!

Following the AGM bridge was played for the Phoenix Trophy, the winners were Pam and Tony.

The SSCBA Summer Sim Pairs were played at 5 clubs, a total of 38½ tables, on Wednesday 15th August 2018.  The final results are now complete.   The winners were Pam Booth-Jones (SSCBA Chairman) & Tony Leech playing at Wrekin, Barbara Tams & Joyce Maddock playing at Newcastle came second with Mike Cornes & Lawrence Haynes playing at Wrekin third.  Congratulations all.

Northern Mid-Week Congress

Justin Hacket playing with Martin Taylor won the pairs on 22nd August 2018

HCL tournament New Delhi

Jason and Justin won the 2nd prize in the pairs event played 14th August 2018.

Gloucestershire Green Point Event

Congratulations to Dom Wilson and Jeff Jones who came second in the Swiss Pairs at the Glouscestershire Green point event on Sat 21st July in a very close contest with the winners scoring 100 vp  to their 99 vp. 

Midland Counties Challenge Bowl

SSCBA was represented by two teams in this event played at Cheltenham Bridge Club, Gloucesterhire headquarters, on 8th July 2018. Roger Keane's team came third and Dave Clarke's ninth.

Llandudno Swiss Pairs

Jason Hackett playing with and John Sansom won the Llangollen Swiss pairs on 8th July 2018

Hubert Philips Bowl

Some Staffs and Shrops players have done well during 2017/18 season in this competition with Justin Hackett, as a member of Brian Senior's team, eventually being the losing finalists to Paula Leslie's team in the seventh round.  Along the way, in the third round, Brian Senior's team played against Dan Crofts team that also included SSCBA member Celia Day.

A good number of players took part in this competition on the revised date of 14th June following the bad weather earlier in the year.  With 2 board rounds every pair played every other pair, most enjoyable. The winners of the Championship Mixed Pairs were Kath Adams & John Hartley (Stafford) with Pamela Booth-Jones & Tony Leech (Wrekin) second and John Day & Pat Stacey (Newcastle) third.  Winners of the Championship Flitch Pairs were Roger and Elaine Taylor (Wolverhampton).   Many thanks to James Vickers for directing and Jeff Jones for organising the event.

Adrian Kenworthy and Jason Hackett have won the pairs in Cordoba, Spain on 17th/18th March 2018.  In addition to the money prize they also won a ham each!

Nearer home, Barbara Hackett won the Easter Festival Swiss Teams and came fourth in the Swiss Pairs.  Barbara has been selected to play for Germany in the European championships and she came to the Easter tournament to practise with her German partner Anne Gladiotor.  Barbara regularly plays in the SSCBA Dawes team.

Dave Debbage, playing with John Sansom, won the Godiva Swiss Pairs on 14th April at the Coventry Congress.  Several SSCBA players took part in this event.

1) 9 March 2:30pm-5:30pm A bridge taster session in the Radbrook Community Centre, Shrewsbury 2:30pm - 5:30pm. (bring a tablet or laptop) Contact richard.croot@ebedcio.org.uk

2)  5-6 April the EBED Spring Youth Camp at the Pioneer Centre, Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire.

Please contact Lisa Miller: 01296 317217 (Mon - Thurs 7:15am to 3pm) to find out more or book a place. (lisa@ebedcio.org.uk).

The youth camp is for young people aged 9-19. However, parents and grandparents are able to attend with their young family members and take part in all of the lessons and duplicate sessions.

There will be teaching groups from complete beginners, improvers, through to the England U16 and U21 squads. Michael Byrne and Charlie Bucknell will be among the teachers at the event.

The camps are great fun and include other activities besides the bridge teaching and competitions.

Please contact Lisa Miller: 01296 317217 (Mon - Thurs 7:15am to 3pm) to find out more or book a place. (lisa@ebedcio.org.uk).