The AGM and Chairman's Cup took place on Sunday 10th April. Regretably, both events had to move online again this year, with the AGM on Zoom and the Chairman's Cup on Realbridge. After the handicapping was applied, the winners of the Cup were Trevor and Coby Day - very well played! Fortunately, Trevor and Coby already had the cup, intending to bring it to the AGM. Thanks to all who took part, and to Christine for directing.

With the final matches played, the winners of League One for 2023-2024 are the Hodgson team - Bob Bannister, Pat Davies, Roy France, Katharine Hodgson, Sam Sloan and Keith Williamson. They nearly completed a clean sweep of wins against every team, only drawing one match against the Hands team.

The convincing winners of League Two were the Dunlop team - James Dunlop, Susie Gall, Chris Jones, Trevor Purchas and John Treble. Congratulations to all members of the winning teams and hopefully more players will take part in the league next year.

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Philip Bennett.  Philip was a long-time member of many bridge clubs in Wiltshire and Hampshire and represented the county in many competitions over the years.  He was a Tournament Director and was also a long time Committee member and Treasurer of both Devizes and Wiltshire County Bridge Clubs.

In 2019 he received the Dimmie Fleming Award from the EBU.  An award made specifically to publicly recognise those who have worked hard promoting bridge locally and at County level - click here.  Throughout his bridge career, Phil will be fondly remembered for his sense of humour, support and advice in the running of club and county.  He was a lovely man. We will advise funeral arrangements when known.

A fantastic result for Wiltshire pair Garry Towns and Evelyne Thomas who came 7th out of 45 pairs in the final of the National Pairs competition run by the EBU which took place on 13th and 14th April. For the full list of entries and final results, please click here.

Well done to the winners of the Wiltshire 9-high which took place on BBO on Sunday 14th - Paul Winstone and Roger Harris. Congraulations also to the runners-up, Glenys Foster and Mary Oram, and the 3rd place pair, Chris Bocci and Christine Oakhill. There was a good turnout - with 18 pairs taking part in this event.

An enjoyable and relaxed Swiss Pairs competition was held on Sunday 18th September, the first face-2-face event for the 2022-23 season for Wiltshire Bridge Association. There were joint winners: Liz and Terry Butler, and Garry Towns and Keith Philpott, with third place going to Hugh Gross and Philip Bennett. Many congratulations to the winners, and to all those who took part. Thanks also to Martyn Tranter, event organiser, Christine and Stuart Macfarlane, and Megan Jones. For the full results and details of the hands, please click here.

The Wiltshire Committee hope that many of you will be encouraged to enter our next competition on 30th October at Devizes Bowls Club - the Non-Expert Pairs. 

 After a close fought battle, the winners of the Wiltshire Championship Pairs were Roy France and Sam Sloan, and the runners up were Prabir Nandi and David Jacklin. Congratulations to Roy and Sam. The top two pairs will now have the chance to represent Wiltshire in Corwen Trophy, which is due to be played on Realbridge on 28th and 29th May 2022. More information about the Corwen is available here.

For the full results of the Championship Pairs, please click here.

The Midlands Counties (which includes Wiltshire) ran a Six-high Swiss teams on Saturday 19th June. 15 teams took part, including one team from Corsham/Malmsebury, one team from Warminster and a pair from Salisbury who joined a pair from Warwickshire. The teams finished 10th, 11th and 13th. The full results are available here.

The event was played on Realbridge, and was played in a very friendly but competitive atmospehere - a good introduction to inter-county matches. If you feel you would like to take part in something like this in future, please contact Gayle Webb, gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk,

It is hard to believe that many of us have now been playing online for over a year. The good news is that there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel and we are hearing some Wiltshire clubs are starting to plan for re-opening in the coming months.

The Wiltshire committee are busy planning a calendar of events starting in September 2021 and are hopeful that many of our Sunday events will be played face-to-face at Devizes Bowls Club as in previous years. We will however maintain a few online County competitions. Once the calendar has been finalised, it will be publicised on the WCBA web site. 

The regular Tuesday and Saturday pairs competitions on BBO will continue during the summer until the new programme commences, depending on the demand from players. There has been a drop in numbers in recent weeks and if the numbers drop to a point where it is no longer viable to run a duplicate movement, we may have to drop one or both sessions.

If you are a regular player on a Tuesday or Saturday afternoon, it would be helpful if you could let us know if you intend to continue playing during the summer or if you think you will play less often. There has been a suggestion that we reduce the number of boards - is this something you would like to see happen? Please email: Gayle Webb.

If you have not played on a Tuesday or Saturday and would like to, please get in touch with Gayle.

Congratulations to Brian Johnson and Sue Hands 1st with 60.47%

Taf Anthias and Pat Davies 2nd with 58.33% and

Joseph Clark and James Dunlop 3rd with 53.42%

These three pairs will now go forward to represent Wiltshire in the Corwen Trophy at the beginning of June when they will play the winning pairs from the other counties

CHAMPIONSHIP PAIRS PLATE COMPETITION

Congratulations to Philip Meats and Alistair Spence 1st with 60.00%

Chris Clements and Jana Zlamalova 2nd with 54.63%

Chaz Cross and Malcolm Church 3rd with 53.25%

Well done to everyone who took part in this inaugual event, running alongside the Championship Pairs

There were some great results for Wiltshire players in the West of England Congress played at Weston-super-Mare last weekend, played face-to-face this year. Stuart Bridge and Roger Karn led the charge, coming second in the Swiss Pairs on Saturday and improving their placing by winning the Swiss Teams on Sunday, with their partners Warner Solomon and Trevor Ward.

On the Friday, Gayle and Colin Webb came 5th in the Championship Pairs, while Helen Holden and Jo Seddon came second in the Ladies Pairs. For the full results of the Congress, please click here.

Many congratulations to the above players.

Sunday 9th May

After a closely fought competition, there were joint winners in terms of Victory Points of the Teams of Four event held on Sunday 9th - with 87 VPs each were the Bridge team and the Webb team. The Webb team though had 5 wins against the Bridge team's 4 and half wins. Many congratulations to the Webb team - Gayle and Colin Webb, John Perry and Marianne Lewin and also to the Bridge team - Stuart Bridge, Roger Karn, Susie Gall and Trevor Purches. The winners will go forward to represent Wiltshire in the Pachabo which will be held on 12-13 June on Realbridge, more informaiton about the Pachabo may be found here.

For the full results from Sunday, click here.

Congraulations to Gayle Webb on being voted in as the club representative on the EBU Board. We are very lucky to have someone like Gayle representing the interests of all EBU affiliated clubs and we wish her every success in this new post. For more details, click here

Wiltshire Chairman's Cup 2021

Congratulations to Anita Williams and Linda Locke who won this year's Chairman's Cup on Saturday 10th April at 1pm on BBO. They were also the winners after the handicapping had been applied, such was their overall lead. A very well done to Sheila Pearson and Helen Cleland, a scratch pair, who came second in the handicapped result.

Playing in a Congress in Cornwall last weekend, Gayle won her 600th Green Point and achieved her lifetime ambition of promotion to Grand Master. At about the same time, Jenny Gray, Gayle's long time friend and bridge partner of almost 10 years between 2002 qnd 2012, was also promoted to Grand Master.  This is an extraordinary feat of perseverance and ability on the part of both Gayle and Jenny.  A magnificent achievement - congratulations to them both.

They join a very select group of just four other Grand Masters in Wiltshire.

Warminster Bridge Club emerged victorious in the Graden Cities Qualifier held on Sunday 20th March. They will go forward to represent Wiltshire in the regional final, to be held on 8th May on Realbridge. Many congratulations to the winning team of 8:

Colin and Gayle Webb, Marianne Lewin and John Perry, David Thackaberry and Mary Giles, Ian Bell and Brian Campbell. For full results and hands, please click here.

Katharine has just returned from London where she received her Dimmie Fleming Award.

In her own words....

I had a very memorable day last Wednesday when Silverio and I travelled to London and I received the Dimmie Fleming award at the EBU AGM.  It was lovely to have an official recognition of my time on the WCBA committee when I helped, along with many others, to organise the hobby that has given me so much enjoyment over the years.  Thank you to everyone in Wiltshire who supported the nomination for my award – it was an honour to receive it.

The final two matches for the Wiltshire League 2021-2022 took place on Sunday 27th March on Realbridge. Results for Sunday are available here, and the final tables are available here.

The winning teams for this season are:

League 1: Bridge Team - Stuart Bridge, Roger Karn, Gavin Bailey, Keith Radmall, Andrew Parkes and Richard Samter

League 2: Buck Team - Martin Buck, Nick Pegg, Bob Bannister, Jana Zlamalova, David Marder and Michael Curtis

League 3: Paul Cooper, Martyn Tranter, Liz and Terry Butler, Marion Cowley, Frances Ind, David Jacklin, Marion Loudoun and Prabir Nandi

Many congratulations to the winners and thanks to Richard Samter for organising the teams this year. If you did not take part this year, but would like to try teams, then why not give it a go? Entries will soon be open for the new season, 2022-2023 - watch out for further information.

Congratulations to Kathy Hodgson and Roy France

Kathy and Roy came top at the West of England Blue Point Swiss Pairs event on 27th September

Many congraulations to local Wiltshire bridge pair, Graham and Hazel Moxey, who scored an amazing 76.74% in a EBU Relaxed pairs competion on BBO on Sunday 2nd August. They earned a mention in the Daily Telegraph for their efforts. Well done to you both. It shows that anyone can play online and do well. If you are not playing online and wish to start, please contact any committee member, who will be pleased to help you get started. To see the full results please click here.

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

Congratulations to Brian Johnson and Sue Hands winners of the Butler Pairs held at Devizes Bowls Club on Sunday 28 October with a Butler Score of +47.  

In 2nd place James Dunlop and Joseph Clark with +43

and in 3rd place Hugh Gross and Bob McMurray with +40

On Sunday 5th November whilst attending the EBU Seniors Competition in Reading, Jeremy Dhondy, Chairman of the EBU, presented Pat Davies with a Diamond Award in recognition of her contribution to International Bridge.  It was appropriate that many Wiltshire players were attending this event and we would like to also thank Pat for her support of Wiltshire Bridge over the last few years and in particular for mentoring some of the junior players.

Well done to the Webb Team of Lucy Cross, Chaz Cross, Anne Rogan and Pete Webb with 88 VP's, winners of the Mixed Ability Teams of Four played at the Bowls Club, Devizes on Sunday, 18 November.

Also to the Winstone Team of Alan Perkins, Heather Spalding, Paul Winstone and Roger Harris with 67 VP's in 2nd place

and the Moxey Team of Hazel and Graham Moxey, Mary Overton and John Evans 3rd with 65 VP's.

We are extremely pleased to advise that Katharine Hodgson is to receive the Dimmie Fleming award from the EBU.

Dimmie Fleming awards are given to publically recognise those who have worked hard and selflessly at promoting bridge locally and at County level over a significant period of time.

The award will be presented to Katharine on 28 November in London.

The last Wiltshire member to receive a Dimmie Fleming award was Betty Bartley in 1999.

Congratulations Katharine