As you will have seen in the Press, a series of mysterious fires have occurred at the Swan Hotel, Stafford, but at the date of going to press, we are glad to report that it is still standing. We understand that here is no truth in the rumour that an acolyte of a neighbouring county started the fires in order to frustrate the Staffordshire A.G.M., which will be held at the Swan on May 17th. We hope that all members will brave the dangers and not only attend the meeting, but stay on for the "Lucky Dip" Teams of Four competition to be held immediately afterwards.

In case members missed the announcements in the E.B.U. quarterly bulletin, we draw your attention to two items. A loose-leaf booklet of bidding systems and conventions in play, which are licensed, has been prepared. It will be kept up to date and modified in accordance with new decisions and, when received, will be held by Mrs. F.N. Lloyd, the County Secretary. So you can now quickly and conveniently check as to the legality of any conventions you want to try out, The second announcement concerns Weak Two Bids, which should now be limited to a range of 6 to 10 points.

Bearn Qualifiers

The following have qualified for the final which will be held at the swan Hotel, Stafford, on April 21st:

Dr. & Mrs Franklin
Mrs Topley and Robinson
Mrs. Hartill and Mrs Hallett
Hartill and Steel
Allen and Moss
Dumbleton and Stubbs
Boulton and Hunt
Mallett and Salway
Mr & Mrs Pharaoh
Mrs. Cane and Mrs. Rowley
Cooke and Charlton
Dr. Milewiski and Salmon
Mrs Glover and Sumberg
Mrs. Sudlow an Mrs. McCall

(First Reserves: Mrs. Dash and Ballham)

Competition Results

Mixed Pairs:
Winners: Mrs Hallett & K. Slyde
Runners-up: Dr. Milewiski & Mrs Sumberg

Ladies Pairs
Winners: Mrs Hallett & Mrs Lovell
Runners-up: Mrs Rowley & Mrs Sadler

Littleford Trophy: (Individual)
1. Dr Franklin
2. C.H. Edwards
3. J. Day

Teams of Four
Semi-Finals: B.P. Topley's team beat Dr Sartain's team
K. Slyde's team still to play H. Dash's team

Notable Achievements

Rixi Markus Cup (Ladies Individual championship)
The ladies of Wolverhampton Bridge Club bid fair to make this trophy their own. This year Mrs Adele Hartill added this prize to her many trophies, wresting it from Mrs Hallett, who had won the Rixi Markus Cup last year and on a previous occasion, but was well behind this year. It is good to see Adele and Philip Hartill playing as keenly as ever after their nasty motor accident.

Will's Bahama Tournament
John Greenhaigh and Michael Tedd did marvellously well to win this new tournament with its wonderful first prize against opposition of world standard.

John Hurst Trophy (played for by the Whitelaw Cup Contestants)
Mrs Hallett and Mrs Bayliss just failed to win this trophy being narrowly beaten by Mrs F. Abrahams and Mrs E. Harrison of London and Sussex.

Beck Cup ( Inter-County Teams of Four played at Oxford )
Mrs Hallett & Mrs Lovell and Mr & Mrs Edwards carried off this trophy for Staffordshire against 17 teams representing Midland and South Western Counties.

Portland Cup (Mixed Pairs Championship)
No Staffordshire pair was among the prize winners, but Miss O'Keefe and Oberski did well to head the Staffordshire contingent in the final list.

National Pairs
Only Topley and Brock have qualified for the final of finals, coming in third in the Midland Pairs Final held at Droitwich.

National Rubber Bridge Championship
Ian Thompson and Mike Airey are still going great guns having reached the fifth round, which brings them next door to the Final.

Dawes Trophy
The 1967/68 season opened for Staffordshire on March 31st with a home game against Northamptonshire. The First Team (Topley & Tottenham, Mr. & Mrs. Slyde, Dr. Sartain & Smith, Salway & Mallett) won by 2½ to ½. The Second Team consisted of Newcastle Bridge Club members and came rather a cropper losing by 0 to 3.

The following hand had an unexpectedly happy result both for our First and Second Teams:

The normal bidding stopped short of slam and resulted in a successful contract of 4 Spades or 5 Clubs by East-West. At Ken Slyde's table, the Northants bidding surprisingly died in 4 Hearts as follows-.

This contract was defeated by three tricks. Freddie Dumbleton and Arthur Stubbs sat East-West for the second team and West was amazed to hear South open with one spade. The bidding proceeded as follows:

Before plunging into the Grand Slam, East is reputed to have torn out any remaining hair on his head, apologised to his partner and shut his eyes tight. No one was more surprised than East, when he opened them and proceeded to land the contract.

Coming Events

It is with deep regret that we learned of the death of Joyce Turton at Christmas time and Eileen Davies in February. Both were long standing members of the County Association and much loved by their bridge friends. Our sincere sympathy goes out to their husbands and families.