Porthcawl Congress

The Early Years 

The attached poster shows the first Welsh Open Bridge Congress at Porthcawl took place from Thurs 3^rd – Mon 7^th March 1949 at both the Seabank and Esplanade Hotels.  According to an an item in the WESTERN MAIL this was organised by the WBU and was open to all bridge players whether members of the Welsh Bridge Union or not.  A brochure giving full details of the complete programme shows this to be a much grander affair than of late, including Golf on the Saturday morning and culminating in a Congress Dance!  The programme having been carefully arranged so that the real enthusiast could have “an orgy of playing” for four consecutive days, whereas the “more moderately inclined” could play in individual sessions as and when.  Attached photos show some of the participants and a fine array of trophies and prizes.

A special Congress Edition of the WBU Bulletin included the following wording which we would all do well to bear in mind for this year:

…..the finest arrangements in the world would be of little use in the absence of competitors, and next year it is hoped that all South Wales players good, bad and indifferent will give the W.B.U. their fullest possible support and co-operation.

In 1950 this congress was held in Llandudno and for some years alternated between South Wales and North.

In November 1951 the first South Wales Bridge Congress, directed by Terrence Reese, was held in Porthcawl.  The brochure shows pre-congress pairs in the evening of 31^st October with a 4-day programme of Bridge 1^st-4^th November, interspersed with coach tours of the local area and possibly even golf in the mornings.

The introduction in the brochure begins:

Have you considered the possibility of a Bridge Congress which is also a holiday, combining the gaiety of the seaside on a natural unspoilt coastline with the pleasures of a restful countryside, set amongst some of the most enchanting scenery in Wales?  You haven’t?  Then it’s time for you to get acquainted with Porthcawl, overlooking Somerset and Devon from the Welsh Coast.

The 1952 brochure shows that the congress had expanded; besides the Seabank and Esplanade they were using the Marine hotel.

However, this growth appears to have been short lived as by 1954 the Marine had been dropped as a venue.

Well, there was much wailing, howling, door-banging and lashings at Porthcawl for the Congress—and that was just the weather!!

Well done and thank you    Irene Thomas,  for again organising an excellent weekend – no easy task with so many Competitions.  Our thanks also to Jim Proctor, David Stevenson, Ian Mitchell and Ivor Hodgekinson who, as Directors and scorers contributed so much to the success of the weekend. Our thanks also to Hugh Arnold who Directed for the NO FEAR Event.

This year, Irene has turned in a profit of £500. A tremedous result after more or less just breaking even last year. This is the Western Area's only source of income apart from subscriptions. So 

    Our thanks to all the players who supported this Congress: it’s appreciated.

          Western Area players did well.

   The Ladies Cup was won by  Becky Watkins and Margaret Lane.(see above)

 Becky is one of our Juniors; an excellent result Bexs

Peter and Margaret Lane won the Mixed Pairs  And The Harold Townsend Cup was won by another Swansea Club pair, Val and Steve Kennewell.

The new No Fear Event,  for less experienced players, was a good Competition that all 17 pairs seemed to enjoy. Winners were Joan Boother and Margaret Algar from Mumbles.

The Seagull Cup was won by the team of Irene Thomas and Graham Jones of Bridgend with Sandra Love & Ron Tapp.

The Teams Event on Sunday was won by Patrick Jordain’s E. Wales team. However, the Prince of Wales Consolation Final was won by 

 Peter Milewski, Mike Baker, Ian Haston and Lee Collier. from Haverfordwest.

The full results will be on the WBU website at the end of November.

Meanwhile, other results,On Friday, Russell Day and Ernie Sutton won the Men's Pairs, with Tom Reddy and Liam Sheridan 2nd.

John Dakin & Gulden Kesimoglu won the Open Pairs with Gorden Clarke & Peggy Moss in 2nd place.

On Saturday, The Red Dragon was won by Gerald Tredinnick and Gilly Clench with Patrick Jourdain and Mike Vail 2nd. The Little Dragon was won by Jane Ewington and Robert Morris with Rob Charlesworth and Roger Penton  as runners up.                                                                                                                                            

2009 was the 58th Congress and was as enjoyable as ever.

Irene Thomas must have been exhausted after all her hard work in pulling the Congress together, but she can certainly chalk up another successful year.

The main competitions held were:

Ladies Pairs (the Phyllis Rowe trophy)
Mens Pairs (the Max Powell trophy)
Mixed Pairs
Friday Open Pairs
Championship Pairs Qualifying
Red Dragon Pairs Final
Little Dragon Pairs Final
Consolation Pairs
Seagull Mixed Pivot Teams
Teams Qualifying Green Section
Teams Qualifying Red Section
Teams Qualifying Blue Section
Teams Championship Final
Prince of Wales Consolation Teams
Sker Trophy Teams

The only results we have were for the Novice Event :

       Pair                                                                          Score %   Point

1        1        Pat Smith & Valerie Legg                       182/270 = 67.41     48

2        9        Eira Jones & Lynne Roberts                   154/270 = 57 04     36

3=      7        Marjorie Ellery & Vivienne Trollope       151/270 = 55.93     18

3=      10      Lyn Holt & Bob Hughes                         151/270 = 55.93     18

5        5        Pat & Richard Pledger                            150/270 = 55.56

6        8        Gwenda Davies & Daphne Jones            146/270 = 54.07

7        3        David and Gillian Hutchinson                   132/270 = 48.89

8        4        Alice Zangouras & Martha Walters         127/270 = 47.04

9        11      Bryn Gough & Alan Grant                      123/270 = 45.56

10      2        Celia Rossiter & Janet Van                     106/270 = 39.26

11      12      Pam & David Jennings                            105/270 = 38.89

12      6        Julia Evans & Chris Impey                       93/270 = 34.44

Yet again the weekend was organised superbly by Irene Thomas.

Another success for Irene Thomas.

The event was organised as efficiently as ever - thanks Irene for all your hard work.

Winners from West Wales:

Championship Teams - Tony Disley and Roger Penton - with Patrick Jourdain and Mike Hirst           

Ladies' Pairs - Mary Moore and Diana Jones

Seagull Cup Mixed Teams - Vida Halford, Glyn Williams, Linda Pinnock and Marjorie Morris.

In 2019, due to falling numbers, the congress moved from its recent home in the Seabank Hotel to The Hi-Tide Venue at Coney Beach. 

The booking form for 2019 shows that the congress included the following competitions:

Fri 15th Nov

Ladies' Pairs - The Phyllis Rowe Trophy

Men's Pairs - The Max Powell Trophy

Mixed Pairs

Newcomers Pairs

Sat 16th Nov

Championship Pairs - Red Dragon Trophy

Consolation Pairs Final Little Dragon Trophy

Seagull Teams (Mixed pivot teams with one change of partnership)

Saturday Open Pairs

Sun 17th Nov

Porthcawl Championship Teams of Four

Prince of Wales B Teams Final

Sker Consolation C Teams Final

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣   ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣

The weekend was off to a flying start for the Western area with Mike Reed & Barry Thorne from Carmarthen winning the Max Powell Trophy (Mens Pairs) and Pembroke pairs Julie & Peter Milewski the Miixed and John Bowen & Julia Gilbertson the Novices events.  The Phillis Rowe Trophy (Ladies Pairs) went to Joyce White & Babs Matthews (England) while the best placed WW pair were Lee Collier & Margaret Lane (5th)

The East Wales team of Julian Pottage, Tony Ratcliff, Filip & Diane Kurbalija won Saturday's Swiss Teams event, while hot on their heels were WW pair Jennifer Wardell & Keith Davison with their Irish friends Kay Clement & Phyllis O'Reagan.

Sunday saw Gwynn Davis & Sue Ingham (East Wales) win the Red Dragon trophy, whilst the consolation event was led by two West Wales pairs: Bob Alderdice & David Melville (Swansea) won the Little Dragon trophy with Ian Grove & Keith Davison in 2nd place.

Congratulations to you all!!

Many thanks to Ian Mitchell and Sarah Amos, our superb directors for the weekend and particularly to Ian for ensuring that the results appeared promptly on the WWBA website.

Unfortunately, this year's online "Porthcawl" Congress produced so few entries that the majority of competitions had to be cancelled 

Congratulations to all the winners!

Many thanks to Sarah, Ian and the IBEx team for running this congress on our behalf.

Congratulations to Stefan Lindfors & Ian Walsh, winners of the Red Dragon Championship Pairs for the second year running!  It was a close competition this year with Margaret Lane & Lee Collier hot on their heels in 2nd place and Fu Cheung & Viking Yuen 3rd.

Sadly this was the only event we were actually able to run; like last year the Swiss Teams event planned for the Saturday attracted insufficient entries and had to be cancelled 

Many thanks to Sarah and her team at IBEx for organising and running the event for us once more.

Hopefully next year we will be able to return to the traditional full weekend of Face to Face bridge -

Watch this space!

 Porthcawl's 75th Anniversary Congress at the newly refurbished Seabank Hotel was deemed a huge success. The Friday afternoon kicked off with an Open Pairs session for the twenty-eight enthusiastic pairs who had arrived for an early start.  This was won by Susan Munday & Pat Jenkins. After dinner the competition began in earnest with fifty pairs competing in the first session of the Green pointed Swiss Pairs competition for the Red Dragon Cup,  Two further sessions were run on Saturday, resulting in a 3-way tie between John Holland & Raymond Semp, Ollie Burgess & Alice Coptcoat and Oliver Cowan & Stephen Berson. After an evening in the bar followed by a good night's sleep most returned on Sunday where they were joined by number of local teams to compete in the Swiss Teams event.  Thirty teams competed in two sessions, with an excellent finger buffet provided at half time. The eventual winners were John Holland & Raymond Semp, Paul Denning & Alistair Catchpole who were just 1 VP ahead of Ollie Burgess & Alice Coptcoat, Jason Hackett & Maria Whelan. 

Running a 'Holiday Congress' alongside the main Green Pointed events gave the place a great atmosphere, as did the singer who entertained us in the bar on Saturday evening.  For those preferring a more relaxed  game the Holiday Congress provided three stand alone Pairs sessions with seven pairs playing on the Friday evening and nine at each of the two Saturday sessions. The Friday winners were Jenny Rogers & Elizabeth Redrup and the  Saturday morning by Gail Wicks & Debbie Page. On the Saturday afternoon, Dave Nicklin & Linda Spiri shared the honours with Paul Sutton, whose original partner was unable to play. 

The whole weekend was planned and organised by Sarah Amos & Lee Collier (pictured above) and directed by Sarah, ably assisted by Rachel.

Full Results below                                     Click names to see photo of winners