Latest results Calendar Information Match booking

The first scheduled date for our Spring 2025 Super League matches is 22 January—Wednesday this week.

The Friday evening duplicate this week on 17 January is upstairs in the Warwick Room.

The Friday evening duplicate is cancelled on 13 December but will be held at the club in the Main Hall as usual on the day before—on Thursday 12 December.

Please allow extra time travelling to or from the club from the Richmond direction if using public transport at the weekend, 5 & 6 September. There is no service on the District line between Turnham Green and Richmond at the weekend.

Congratulations to the YC members listed below who attained a promotion in EBU rank during December!

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Item posted 9 January 2025

Poster

Revived last year, the Young Chelsea Pairs Championship, a one‑day two‑session matchpointed event, takes place again this year on Sunday 2 February starting at 11.30am. The winners will hold the Franklin To Cup (a handsome trophy, generously donated to the club in 2024 by Franklin’s widow Macille) for a year and will have their names recorded for posterity on the club’s honours board.

Please would you register, if you would like to play.

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Item posted 2 January 2025

The Autumn 2024 Young Chelsea Super League finished on Wednesday 18 December, the last scheduled date of the season.

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Congratulation to winning team Hillman (Richard Hillman, Keith Bennett, Neil Rosen, John Atthey, Heather Dhondy, Rob Cliffe, Nicola Smith, Brian Callaghan), who finished strongly after a slow start. Prizes were the same as in the Spring season. First place received £600. [See more…]

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Item posted 29 December 2024

The Goldhawks celebrated Christmas with members bringing a selection of mostly home‑cooked treats for lunch during their Tuesday meeting on 17 December.

Club Chair, Chris Duckworth, directed the event as a seventeen‑player individual movement (one player sitting out in each of the rounds). Congratulations to the winner, Jayne Barber on 68.75% who keeps the Goldhawks Trophy for a year. Commiserations to second‑placed Robert Twell on 63.54%.

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Results

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Item posted 18 December 2024

New Matchpointed Pairs Ladder Competition

Poster

Following a request made at the club’s AGM last month, we are introducing a regular matchpointed pairs duplicate game that we hope will be attractive to all our members. For the first six months of 2025 it will be held once a month, on a Tuesday evening, on the following dates:

• 28 January
• 25 February
• 25 March
• 29 April
• 20 May
• 17 June

Members are encouraged to play in as many of these as they can manage—there will be a Ladder cash prize for the three best games with at least two different partners over the season.

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Item posted 11 December 2024

The club hosted the LMBA’s Palmer Bayer pairs, a “no fear” event with methods restricted to simple systems, on Sunday 1 December. Six tables played 27 deals at a relaxed pace in the main hall. Afterwards the prizegiving took place in the bar, with complimentary drinks for the competitors and a hand discussion led by bridge luminaries Ian Payn and David Burn

Congratulations to Pete Challis and Sam Oestreicher who won with a score of 62.52%. This was Pete’s first win, but Sam has turned out for this event over many years and has previously won with a variety of partners.

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The youngest player in the field, taking part in her very first competitive duplicate, was Bianca Baratta. Club Chair Chris Duckworth presented her with a special award to mark the occasion.

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See the LMBA website for full results.

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Item posted 2 December 2024

Club member Ian Payn was the recipient of the 2024 EBU Gold Award. Here he is pictured at the Young Chelsea just prior to the duplicate on 29 November 2024 being presented with the his award by EBU Chief Executive Gordon Rainsford (also a club member).

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The following encomium comes from the EBU website:

Ian Payn has been involved in bridge administration for two decades: at local level when he was the Chair of the Young Chelsea Bridge Club who oversaw the transition of the club from a proprietary club to a members club; at county level when he was Chair of the LCCBA for many years; at national level as an EBU board member, as Chair of the then Tournaments Committee, as Vice‑Chair and then Chair of the EBU board, steering the organisation through the difficult period of Covid and responding to the online cheating issues that ensued; and finally at international level as the EBU’s representative on Bridge Great Britain and then as a member of the Executive of the European Bridge League, for which he is now the Secretary. The Board is delighted to recognise this outstanding and long‑term contribution to bridge by awarding Ian its highest honour, the Gold Award.

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Item posted 30 November 2024

YCKO 2024

Seventeen teams have entered this year’s competition. The club will contact those teams which entered last year and have not yet done so this year.

After seeding the teams by NGS, the draw (updated regularly with match results) has been made. The competition is now under way and teams should contact their opponents to arrange a match date. Once the teams have a date agreed they should book the match in with the club at bookings@ycbc.co.uk. Round Five has (eventually) completed. The tournament is running late as the notional play‑by date for the Quarter‑final matches was 29 September. Would teams play their next matches as soon as practicable, please?

The club made a draw on Sunday 20 January to decide the Quarter‑final matches (from possibilities that prevent teams which have already met from facing each other again):

The one semifinal match is:

The final match is:

Once your match has been played, please notify the result to the club at manager@ycbc.co.uk, stating the names of the players in both teams as well as the outcome. Team captains will be notified of their opponents for their next match as soon as the team to be played is known.

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The Young Chelsea Knockout (YCKO) is the club’s annual teams event that runs on “double elimination” lines—every team has to lose two matches before it is knocked out. Teams may consist of up to six players, all of whom must be YC members.

For 2024, the event will be played as a face‑to‑face competition with matches held at the club. Table money (inclusive of refreshments) per match will be £12.50 per player, all of whom must be paid‑up club members before taking part in a match. (Anyone who needs to may subscribe via the payments page.) Should the club exceptionally allow you to play a match online, the charge per match (debited from the captain’s/organizer’s YC account) will be the same as if played face to face. No other entry fee will be charged. Prize money will be £800 for the winning team, £300 for the runners‑up.

The winning team will hold the YCKO Trophy for the following year and will be eligible for a play‑off match against the team winning the LMBA London Championship Teams‑of‑four to decide which team will represent London in the 2024 Lederer invitation tournament.

Please enter by January on the registration page of the website. or by emailing the club manager at manager@ycbc.co.uk. (Entries are now closed.)

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Team Rosters

[See more…]

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Page last updated 20 January 2025

We are delighted to announce that we have raised the grand total of £5,521.21 for the Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal. The club organised a special fundraising duplicate on 6 March and our Ukrainian staff rallied round baking cakes and donating Ukrainian goods for sale. The event attracted a great mix of club members and others, all of whom gave very generously and the funds rolled in. We are very grateful to all, and every penny will go to the Ukrainian people. [See more…]

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Item posted 9 March, updated 19 March 2022