We held a very successful AGM on Wed 22nd.  John Prior spoke eloquently and affectionately about Paul Double, Brian Churchill, Cliff Orme and Sue Moss as they leave our club committee.  Each has made significant and unique contributions to our club being what it is today.  Lady and gents - thank you very much indeed.  A suitable presentation was made at the Volunteers Tea Party.  John Dutton assumes responsibility as Club Chairman, with John Prior becoming President and taking on the role of Education committee chair.  Elise will continue as secretary, Ivan Walker takes over as club treasurer from Cliff, and David Ogg keeps the Comms and PR responsibility while taking over as vice-chair.  Trustees elected are Doreen Simpson (Bridge lead), Trevor Thrower (Chief Tournament Director and County lead), Stephen Gates (Clubhouse and Property lead) and Tim Burley (Social Committee chair).  The post of IT lead remains vacant, and with that goes co-option as a trustee, bring the total of trustees to 10 and club officers to 5, as specified in our constitution.
Photo shows John Prior presenting Jan Simmonds with the final cheque in support of the 2nd Stamford Scouts - our 2025/6 charity.

Congratulations to the Stamford team which represented Northamptonshire at the regional final of the EBU Garden Cities competition.  Our team of Doreen Simpson and David Banks, Jane Reeve and Paul Collins, Angela Abbott and James Spencer and Gill Webb and Martin Brayshaw finished 5th out of 8 strong teams.  Well done, team!  Full results are here - Midlands at Leicester.

SBC has two different entities on Facebook.  The Stamford Bridge Club page is outward facing and we use it to communicate with the general public.  We advertise such events as Open Days and beginners lessons, with details of how to attend.  We do not generally feature club activities on this page, although we may reflect a media story such as Cafe Bridge which is already in the public domain.

We also have a members only private FB group, 90 strong at the time of writing (heading pictured at top of this item).  This is where you can join in discussions, start posts, view photos and keep in touch with other members.  We use it as addition to our website and email communications suite.  We also use this medium to showcase events such as quizzes, barbecue, Christmas parties and the like.  We will use photos on the page unless you have advised David, our comms man and newsletter editor, that you don’t wish to feature on social media.  We hope you will choose to join this SBC FB community - it’s great fun.  Please contact David if you want to join - reply to any newsletter email, see him at the club, or have a look at the Committee mugshots in the small bridge room where you will find his contact details.

Congratulations to the Miller team (Rob, Dan Baines, Ufuk Cotuk, Chris Wormleighton) who won the Betts Bowl by beating Churchill (Brian, Claire Winfrey, Jane Reeve, Elise Aliston, Paul Collins) in a closely fought final.

Last night saw the conclusion of the Pivot Teams competition for the winter season.  I can't bring you news of a great surprise or upset in the final reckoning, but I guess it shows that good players are good players, even if the pairings are changed round over the course of the evening.  (Pivots is the team competition where every team member partners every other team over the course of the evening - in this case playing 8 board per pairing.). Congratulations to the winning team of Mark Tilley, Tim Durdin, Don McFarlane, Ufuk Cotuk and Trevor Thrower.  Team Gibson were 2nd, with team Prior in the bronze medal position, just edging out team Reeve after a Trevor recount.  I'm being cagey in mentioning only team captains - many teams included many substitutes over the course of the winter and I wouldn't wish to offend by omission!

This is such a fun competition - there was a great atmosphere at the club last night so do consider whether you wish to enter a team come September - now is the time to start planning!  Talk to any of the bridge committee or give me a shout if you want more information.

No photo I'm afraid - they had all gone (except Trevor) by the time the counting was complete, but scroll down and you'll find them all elsewhere!

Congratulations to Rob Miller, Mark Hodgson, Ufuk Cotuk, Chris Wormleighton and Maggie Jones on winning the Anglia Teams Trophy.  Despite not having a particularly good last session this top team had done enough in the previous rounds to stay ahead of Mark Tilley’s team.  In the Bowl, Marlene Jones led her team of David Banks, Bob Wakerley and Paul Double to victory along with a cast of various substitutions over the course of the event, but not one of these 6 substitutes played more than once!  Congratulations to all the teams who enjoyed this excellent competition and a big thanks to Trevor Thrower who masterminded the scoring and results.  Full results are here.

Winners pictured above - Chris, Rob, Mark and Ufuk

This year's final of the Broke Cup (County teams of 4 knock out) was a re-run of last year's Betts Bowl final, Chadwick (Bill, Don McFarlane, Trevor Thrower, Tim Durdin) v Gibson (Joan, Ben Gibson, David Banks, Marlene Jones). The two matches proceeded on similar lines. In both cases, Chadwick took an early lead only to be pegged back. Their half time lead of 17 IMPs soon evaporated and with 4 boards to play Gibson led by 7. However, a late rally saw Chadwick home by 8 IMPs. 

Thanks to Mark Tilley for directing a match played in the right spirit.

The victorious team pictured above (L to R Bill, Don, Tim, Trevor) qualify to represent Northants in the Pachabo Cup.

Photo - Mark Hodgson and Paul Collins - winners by quite a margin

Northamptonshire Contract Bridge Association Green Pointed Swiss Pairs

Stuart and I played in this event on Saturday 16th May.  ‘Green Point’ events tend to attract good players and for us playing against better players is something we enjoy - there is always something to learn.  Green points are a step up from the ‘Black’ points awarded by the club - see link in the comments for a Masterpoints tutorial page.  (Or ask Trevor….)   There were a good few Stamford pairs in attendance, and others who visit our club on occasion.  The ‘Swiss’ format means that there is a random draw for the first round with subsequent round draws being based on whether you have won or lost the previous round.  It ends up being a sort of ‘squash ladder’ format, and means that you end up playing against more pairs close to your standard, rather than being beaten up by the better players in every round.  And so it turned out…

We were drawn against Alastair and Tony from Cheltenham BC for the 7 boards of round one.  We were soundly beaten and when I checked later discovered they were AC and Q respectively on the NGS scale.  Much higher than us!  The 2nd round paired us against David and Francesca, who again proved too strong for us.  I recognised them, and discovered that they are occasional visitors to SBC, although they play mainly in and around London.

The 3rd round of 7 boards paired us against Judy and Steve.  Judy is a SBC member, playing with Bill on a Wednesday afternoon.  Similar story - outgunned.  By this time we felt we weren’t getting many breaks and so it wasn’t a surprise when Catherine and Frances pinned us firmly to the foot of the table at the session break.  28 boards down, with 21 (or so we thought) to play.

The gremlins in the computer system made themselves known at this point and there was a lengthy delay while our valiant EBU Director, Daniel, attempted to produce round 5 pairings.  We ended up having to re-enter all the scores into the tablets and this meant that play would be over 42 boards (6 rounds of 7) rather than 49.

Having taken sustenance on board we played Melvene and Patrick only to get some points and record a comprehensive victory.  Off the bottom of the table!  The final act took place as we won well again against Roger and David to finish with 2 wins out of 6, and unbeaten in the second half!  We also picked up half of a green point, which is something new for us both, and is welcome - I think.

Elsewhere in the room Stamford’s Bill C and his partner Chris finished mid-table, just behind Graham F and Gerry.  Nick and Ruby finished just behind Mick C and Gill W, who were 10th with Dan B and Rob M further up the top 10.  Ufuk and Chris W were 3rd, but Mark Hodgson and Paul Collins finished a long way ahead of our first round opponents, Alastair and Tony.  Congratulations to Mark and Paul - a stunning performance and well deserved victory.

It was a pity about the tech issues, but I really enjoyed my first green point event, and would encourage others to give it a go.  Everyone was very welcoming and we didn’t feel out of place in any way.   

David Ogg