Better days: Team Captain (Rick Hanley) reports from the County Championship.

The qualifying round of the County championship (The Tolllemache Cup) was held on 16/17 November in Daventry. Suffolk were represented by Jane Moore/David Price, Chris Chambers/Peter Gemmell, Karen/Malcolm Pryor, Rick Hanley/Michael Sherer.

Suffolk finished 4^th/9 in their qualifying group and in so doing put up their best performance in the event since the heady days of 2011 and 2012 when we qualified for the final in consecutive years. The outcome of the 42 boards played on Sunday was particularly encouraging as we picked up more victory points than any of the other counties in our group. Once again Jane Moore and David Price made an outstanding contribution to the Suffolk performance finishing as the 3^rd best pair in the cross-imp table.

Although we were no match for the top two teams who qualified for the final (Kent and Surrey), Suffolk won 5/8 matches. This included a 20-0 victory over Notts and a 15-5 victory over the 3^rd place team (Sussex) who had drafted in some internationals to partner their talented juniors. The main disappointment was a loss to the 5^thplace team (Worcs) where we were unable to fight back from a disastrous start in which one of our pairs failed to bid an easy game and then bid a grand slam missing an ace. The same duo just slightly redeemed themselves on this interesting board against Sussex when they were the only pair to defeat 5♣. 

What do you lead?

Many thanks to all the eight members of our team who made the longish journey to Daventry and back and gave sterling service by playing all 96 boards and maintaining enthusiasm and team spirit throughout the contest. My appreciation is also due to SCBA for their financial support for the Suffolk team.