Wiltshire Chairman's Cup 2021

This year's Chairman's Cup will take place on Saturday 10th April at 1pm on BBO, replacing the usual Saturday pairs. If you have not played in a Wiltshire Saturday or Tuesday event, please contact Gayle Webb, gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk, providing your BBO alias and EBU number.

The event will be handicapped, the winners on the day will receive the master points and this result will be uploaded to the EBU. The winners after the handicapping has been applied will be announced at the AGM on Sunday 11th April. If you have not received your invitation to the AGM which is being held via Zoom, please contact Sue Phillips, suephillips222@gmail.com.

Sunday 9th May

WCBA will be holding a qualifing competition for the Pachabo Cup on Sunday 9th May, starting at 2pm and played on Realbridge. For full details of how to enter and pay, click here.

Notification of Wiltshire Contract Bridge Association AGM 2021

This year's Annual General Meeting will be a virtual one, held on Zoom at 2pm Sunday 11th April 2021. The agenda and Zoom invitation will be sent out at least 3 weeks before the meeting, with a repeat Zoom invitation sent a couple of days before the meeting just in case. As the meeting will be a virtual one, we are asking for questions to be sent to me, Sue Phillips, at suephillips222@gmail.com by 28th March 2021.

The constitution requires WCBA to have 3 officers and up to 10 other committee members. Below is a list of current committe members who are willing to stand for nomination and the nominations I already hold. The closing date for new nominiations is 8th March 2021.

Current committee willing to stand:

Treasurer - Chaz Cross

Secretary - Sue Phillips

Committee members - Gayle Webb, Richard Samter, Richard Gwyer, Stuart Bridge, Andrew Parkes

Nominations:

Chairperson - Lucy Cross

Committee - Dave Latchem, Ian Roach, Trevor Day, Martyn Tranter

Sue Phillips, WCBA Honarary Secretary

Congratulations to the following teams and their members for their success in the sixth season (played February/March) of the Wiltshire Online Teams competition. If you would like to get involved in the next season, please contact Richard Samter

Division 1     Sue Hands, Brian Johnson, Sonia Blandy, Georgie Dalton

Division 2     Rina McGarel-Groves, Meri Stefanovic, Tim Kiteley, John and Wenda Wray

Division 3     Lucy and Chaz Cross, Pete Webb and Anne Rogan

Wiltshire Green Point Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th March 2021

Congratulations to Babs Matthews and Joyce White, Marc Chawner and Ray Clarke who came equal 1st in the Swiss Pairs on Saturday 6th, and congratulations to Alan and Jette Bailey, Eric Cummings and Ceri Pierce who came top in the Swiss teams. Well done to Wiltshire pair David Alsford and Heather Spalding who came 3rd in the Swiss Pairs, and also to the Meats Team, Phil Meats, Alastair Spence, Mike Toft and Ray Walder who came 6th in the Swiss teams. For the full results for both Saturday and Sunday, click here.

Thank you to the director, Gary Conrad, who made everything run smoothly.

Garden Cities Qualifier

Congraulations to Trowbridge who won the Garden Cities Qualifier on Sunday 28th March. The full results are available via the results calendar. The winners will go forward to the regional final to be held on 8th May 2021, and the national final will be held on 19th June. In light of the prevailing Covid-19 situation, the EBU may scrap the regional finals, more information may be found here. 

Further to the EBU AGM on 25th November where the issue of online cheating was discussed, the EBU has increased the sentences for online cheating. The full details are available by clicking on this link. Wiltshire Contract Bridge Association supports the efforts made by the EBU to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy their bridge.

Congraulations to Amanda Cooper, Ruth Hodgson, Gilly Baker and Sue Savin from Marlborough who were the highest placed Wiltshire team, winning 4 of their 5 matches. The full results are available here.

The next tournament the Midlands Counties are planning is an NGS 5 or 6. Look out for more details when the date is fixed.

Congratulations to the winners of the Championship Pairs, who will go forward to represent Wiltshire:

1st Tina Cottee and Sriram Chari

2nd Brian Johnson and Sue Hands

3rd Stuart Bridge and Roger Karn

Congratulations also to the winners of the Plate competition:

Susie Gall and Trevor Purches

For full results, click here

Wiltshire Clubs Online

The country is now in the third period of lockdown and although there is hope with the current vaccination programme, it seems unlikely that face-to-face bridge will resume until early summer 2021.

In the meantime, many of you are already playing online at your local club or at Wiltshire events, or taking part in the online Teams League. Clubs are offering support and help to any of their members who wish to play online, and many Wiltshire clubs are happy to include members from other clubs in their online sessions. For details, click here for the list of Wiltshire clubs and click on the web link for the club to see what they are offering.

Wiltshire Online Bridge

Whilst the doors of our various Wiltshire clubs remain closed, our members have been learning new skills and online bridge is growing at a rapid rate.  Many of the clubs are now running “Virtual club” duplicate sessions, and teams matches and leagues have been evolving.

Wiltshire is running two weekly online competitions which are open to all Wiltshire players and members of Wiltshire clubs. 

On Tuesday and Saturday afternoons we have an 18 board match-pointed pairs, Tuesdays starting at 2pm, and the Saturday session starting at 1pm. 

Both these events are suitable for players of all standards.  The cost is $3.00 BBO per session and they last approximately 2 hours. 

This is a great way of getting a competitive game of bridge and for meeting up with old friends from your own club or neighbouring clubs throughout Wiltshire.

Results of these events are shown in our results tab in the main menu.

If you would like more information or would like to enter to play on either day, please contact Gayle Webb gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk .  It is essential that you contact Gayle prior to entering on the day as these events are “closed” events so as to ensure only Wiltshire players are involved.

If you have not played online and would like some help with how to get started, please contact anyone of the three below, all of whom will be happy to help you

Gayle Webb         gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk

Stuart Bridge      stuartbridgeuk@yahoo.co.uk

Richard Samter  richardsamter@gmail.com