Manchester
County Bridge Association |
2010
News and Results
Year End Congresses Many congratulations to Sue Richmond and Craig Fisher who achieved their first National win in the Swiss Pairs at Blackpool on 28-29th December. The event was dominated by Manchester pairs with John Holland/Michelle Brunner, Kath and Alan Nelson third equal and John Parsons/Ed Levy, Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield fifth equal. In the Swiss Teams Gary Hyett playing with Howard Melbourne, Geoff and Ros Wolfarth won. Tracy Capal playing with a Merseyside team came third, Alan and Kath Nelson, Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield were fourth. At the London event Michael Byrne, playing with James Paul was fourth equal in the Swiss Pairs. Full results of all events are on the EBU web site. Camrose Seniors Trial The Seniors Camrose Trial was played at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club, London, on Saturday and Sunday 18th and 19th December. Congratulations to John Holland and Paul Hackett who continued their run of successes in Seniors events by winning with team mates Gunnar Hallberg, Roger O'Shea, David Price and Colin Simpson.Channel Trophy The
annual international tournament for Juniors between
England, France, The Netherlands and Belgium took place
from 17-19th December at Lille. Manchester was well
represented in the Girls' team with Amy Stout, Lavinia
Constantin, Laura Bonney and Alex Birchall playing.
Michael Byrne was captain of the under 20 team.
There were no English successes to report, France winning
all three sections.
Tom Middleton 1934-2010 Tom passed away last Thursday morning (9th December). Tom started
playing bridge in his 30s and soon developed a great passion
for the game. Unfortunately
during the past few years, as he became
more and more afflicted with Parkinson's Disease, this cruel
illness meant he could no longer play his favourite game
which was terribly frustrating for him.
Even
so,
he still required weekly updates as to who had won what, where
and ........"Any slams? Bidding please!".
He
loved
bidding slams - "Count your Romans!" was one of his
favourite expressions.
Before
his
illness he used to preside over our weekly bridge lunch in
Manchester where we all went to do bidding challenges,
steeling ourselves for his harsh reprimands if we
forgot the system or missed a slam, before continuing on to
Manchester Bridge Club for rubber bridge, Tom usually being
the big winner and recipient of our hard-earned cash!
He
was
a fine player. This was one of the hands which helped him win
the Ruia Cup in 2000.
Tom
was
East playing in 6 spades, he received a diamond lead.
How
would
you play the hand?
K54
AQ9876
KQ10
65
AK2
Q9
AJ32
Q84
Tom
won
the diamond lead with the queen, drew one round of trumps
before playing two more rounds of diamonds ditching a
....heart! Now he drew another round of trumps, which
split 2-2. Next he led a heart. His RHO won with
the ace and was endplayed. 6S bid and made. Well played
Tom! You "played it like Garozzo".
Our
sympathies
go to his beloved Deirdre, his children (we all know Jonathan)
and grandchildren. He will be greatly missed.
The
funeral
service took place on 20th Dec. at Prestbury Church.
Kath
Nelson
Ben
Franks - John and Michelle Retain TrophyManchester
County's pairs championship and qualifier for the Corwen
Trophy took place at Manchester Bridge Club on Sunday 5th
December. Twenty pairs participated, John Holland and
Michelle Brunner were leading after the first session and
held on to their lead fairly comfortably. Michael
Byrne and Michael Newman were second, with Steve Raine and
Sue Richmond third. The fourth pair, who also qualify
for the Corwen were David Matthews and Ann Thornton (they
also scored the most in the second session).
Congratulations to them all. First session prize was
shared between Alec Smalley/Barbara Lewis and Bernard and
Rhona Goldenfield. Second session prize went to John
Hassett and Jeff Morris.
Thanks to Jeff Smith, Pat Buxton and Barabara Lewis for organisation and directing. 1 John Holland & Michelle Brunner 62.09 2 Michael Byrne & Michael Newman 57.62 3 Steve Raine & Sue Richmond 56.11 4 David Matthews & Ann Thornton 55.18 5 David Pennington & Rod Franks 54.91 6 Alec Smalley & Barbara Lewis 54.69 7 Jeff Morris & John Hassett 54.60 8 Ross Allen & Philip Mott 52.76 9 Tracy Capal & John Parsons 50.54 10 John Fitzgerald & Gillian Mcmullan 49.25
Tollemache Qualifying Congratulations to the Manchester team who qualified for the Tollemache final for the second year running at Daventry on 20th-21st November. The team of Michael Newman, Michael Byrne, John Holland, Michelle Brunner, John Hassett, David Debbage, Gary Hyett and Rodney Lighton finished second in their group behind a strong Kent team and just ahead of the Lancashire team who were close behind throughout the weekend. They won seven of their eight matches, including a narrow victory over Kent. Michael Newman and Michael Byrne did especially well, topping the Butler scores for the group. Many thanks to npc Rhona Goldenfield and scorer Bernard Goldenfield for their help and support throughout the weekend. The selectors have chosen the same team to play in the final in February. Full results are on the EBU web site NEBA Congress Bill & Joyce White had a very
successful weekend at the North East Bridge Assocation
Congress held at Allensford 12-14th November.
They won the Mixed Pairs on
Friday night, won the Speedball teams on Saturday
night playing with Babs & Tim Matthews, and came
fourth in the Championship Teams, again with Babs & Tim Matthews on Sunday, with a 10th finish in the
Championship Pairs. They also won the
Arnold Deane Quaiche presented to the highest scoring
overall winner(s) of the weekend.
Bill and Joyce White Seniors' Congress A
fine weekend for Kath and Alan Nelson at Daventry over the
weekend of 13th-14th November where they won the main
pairs event and followed up by winning the Swiss Teams
with Patrick Collins and Andrew Petrie.
Premier League Michael Byrne and Mike Bell have won the Premier League, and earned the right to represent England in the Camrose in 2011. The final three matches were held over the weekend of 12th-14th November and team Rosen (Byrne, Bell, Espen Erichsen, Norman Selway, Neil Rosen, Martin Jones) went in with a 20 victory point lead. A few tight matches saw their lead go down to 5 vps going into the last match. In the first set of the final match against 3rd place Crouch, Rosen started disastrously losing 53 imps in the first set, but, with Michael and Mike playing well they clawed all the imps back resulting in a draw, which left them victors ahead of Teltscher (Forrester, Gold, Bakhshi, Townsend, Silverstone) on a split tie. As a result of this success Michael and Mike have been selected to play for England in the Camrose matches in Llandrindod Wells on 4-6th March 2011. Autumn Intermediate Pairs The Autumn Intermediate Pairs at Altrincham attracted 19 pairs, everyone enjoyed the event. Thanks to Barbara Lewis, Stanley Blaiwais and Pat Buxton for their hard work in making this a successful event. First 10 places 1 Marsha Gee & Michelle Bovensiepen 2 Linda Hitchen & Jane Jones 3 Margaret Kelly & Liz Downie 4 Tony Ward & Eric Bell 5 Andrea O'Rafferty & Ann Thompson 6 Doreen Cook & Shirley Pryce 7 Karen Leigh & Helen Reid 8 Margaret Clough & Pauline Bell 9 Myrna Essayan & Eileen Cambell 10 Sue Skinner & Di Trotter
EBU Autumn Congress A team of
ex Manchester University Bridge players congregated at
Birmingham on Sunday 7th November for the above event.
Barry Myers from London played with Rodney Lighton for the
first time for over 30 years and Steve Eginton from
Berkshire played with Howard Melbourne of Derbyshire.
They won their qualifying section by a small margin and went
on to finish (a distant) third in the teams final.
Full results are on the EBU web site.
Howard Melbourne, Barry Myers, Rodney Lighton and Steve Eginton Commonwealth Games The third
Commonwealth Games Bridge event took place in New Delhi,
India from 24th to 29th October.
Manchester was well represented in the England team with Jeff Morris playing with John Hassett. Gary Hyett played with Brian Callaghan of London, Ian Reissman and Mike Perkins of Berkshire were the third pair. They finished in eighth place in the round robin out of 24 teams. World Championships Philadelphia John and Paul World Champions During
October the World Open Championships were held in the
US. Following on from their Senior's World
Championship last year John Holland and Paul Hackett
continued their success at world level by winning the Rand
Cup, the Senior's event. The other members of the team
were Gunnar Hallberg (from London) with Americans Reese
Milner and Garey Hayden.
Garey Hayden, John Holland, Gunnar Hallberg, Reese Milner and Paul Hackett In the Under 21 event the English team, with Michael Byrne as npc, won a silver medal. In the Rosenblum Cup Michael Byrne and Mike Bell playing with Martin Jones and Neil Rosen won their qualifying group in fine style, but then lost in the first KO round to a strong South African team. Northern Counties League The
final round of inter county matches for this season took
place on 9th October.
In the A division at Bradford Manchester won as they have done in every season. This year we weren't guaranteed to win before the final matches, but convincing wins over our nearest rivals Merseyside and Yorkshire increased our lead. The team was Rodney Lighton/Gary Hyett, Kath/Alan Nelson, Alan Jones/David Barton, Raymond Semp/David Adelman. The last three pairs finished in the top three places in the Butler scoring for the day with Kath and Alan being the top pair. The B Team of Sid Travers/Eve Lighthill, Joyce and Robert Jones, Joyce and Bill White, Pauline and John Rudolf played at Keighley. Going into the final match they were fifth 59 VPs behind the leaders. They managed to rise to fourth place but the gap was too much to overcome. The C team also played at Bradford and won on the day, moving up from seventh to second place overall, just behind Cumbria. The players were Kevin & Celia Comrie, Marcelo & Elena Rosenbaum, Dave Matthews and Ann Thornton, and Dhun Daji and Howard Stubbings Selections The selection committee has made the following selection for the inter county teams of eight. Tollemache at Daventry on 20/21 November Michelle Brunner/John Holland, Michael Byrne/Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton/Gary Hyett, John Hassett/David Debbage Reserves and npc/scorer Rhona and Bernard Goldenfield Derbyshire SwissPairs Well done
to Peter Greaves, playing with Marjorie
Mound (Derbyshire), who came second in the above
competition (1 victory point behind the
winners). Seventy five pairs were competing.
Premier League The
second weekend of the Premier League took place at
Manchester Bridge Club on 25-26th September.
After the end of the second weekend Michael Byrne and Mike Bell playing with Neil Rosen, Martin Jones, Espen Erichsen and Norman Selway are leading with 88 VPs, 20 VPs ahead of second place. There are three matches to play in the final weekend. Full results are on the EBU web site. Bolton Congress A good day out for David Tobias on 5th
September, partnering Bernard Kaye who won the Bolton
Congress Pairs final after also comfortably winning
the Qualifying event earlier in the day.
Other notable Manchester performances
were from Ann Thornton and Dave Mathews who
reached the final as North/South runners-up in the
qualifying event and from Rodney Lighton and Neil
Thomas ending in 5th place in the final.
Raymond Semp playing with Peter Jones won the Consolation Pairs event. Derbyshire Match Congratulations to the Manchester team of Dave Matthews (captain) / Anne Thornton, Dave Pennington/Lesley Johnson, Haidee Schofield/David Tattersall, Frank McCarthy/Martin Taylor, Ron/Jeanne Bayley, Vivian Newgrosh/Karen Sandler who won the annual Derbyshire vs Manchester match held Sunday 5th September at Spondon Bridge Club. The whole team played well and there were slams aplenty, with many exciting hands contributing to a huge win for Manchester, outscoring their opponents by around 222 to 138 VPs, enabling Manchester to retain the trophy that they won last year. Northern League The third (of four) round of matches in the Northern League took place on Saturday 28th August. The A and B teams were in action at Bradford and the C team at Manchester. The A team of Rodney Lighton, Gary Hyett, Raymond Semp, Peter Jones, Kath and Alan Nelson, Joy and Irving Blakey beat Lancashire and Merseyside comfortably, but lost heavily to their main rivals Yorkshire to total 36 VPs and finish second on the day behind Merseyside. Fortunately Yorkshire lost to the other two teams, leaving Manchester well ahead in the overall rankings. As usual the playing conditions and buffet were excellent. The B team finished fifth on the day and are in fifth position overall. The team was David Pennington, Rod Franks, Steve Mattinson, Pauline Lang, Joyce and Bill White, Peter and Jean Hand. The C team of Irene Davies, Karen Reissmann, Pat Buxton, Alistair McKillop, Ray Ashleigh, Angela Parkinson, Lance Bloohn & Jack Hassan played at Manchester Bridge Club. The day started badly with only one win out of the first four matches but the evening session proved much more productive with three wins out of three. With one round left to be played Manchester C team lie fourth out of seven. Everyone enjoyed the bridge. We were treated to an excellent half time spread by the MBC catering staff. (Thanks to Irene Davies for this report) Full results are on the Northern Bridge League web site (and are now correct). Scarborough In
the Swiss Pairs at the EBU Scarborough Summer festival on
1st August winners were Mike Bell and Jason Hackett.
John Parsons and Ed Levy were ninth. Full results on
the EBU web site.
The
second weekend was the Swiss Teams. After Friday
evening and Saturday's play the top 8 teams play the main
final on Sunday, with the next 8 playing the B final.
The remainder continue in the Swiss teams.
Congratulations to Michael Byrne playing with Duncan Happer,
Graeme Robertson and Ben Paske who finished fourth in the
Swiss and qualified for the main final where they finished
seventh.
In the knock out teams which ran all week Michael Byrne, Mike Bell, Simon Cope, Chris Cooper, Shivam Shah and Tom Paske won from an original entry of 19 teams. In the Senior Swiss Teams on Thursday Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield, Kath Nelson and Jim Luck were the winners from a field of 51 teams, while in the Mixed Pairs Michelle Brunner and Alan Nelson were 5th out of 121 pairs. On Wedneday Tom Slater continued his excellent run with a win in the Open Pairs playing with Graeme Robertson while Michael Byrne, Mike Bell, Bryony Youngs and Andrew Murphy were second in the Mixed Pivot Teams. In the mid-week events Celia Comrie and Tom Slater did very well finishing second in the E-W section of play with the expert. In the Senior's pairs over three sessions, John Holland and Erika Slatcher were second, just ahead of Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield with Kath Nelson and Jim Luck seventh. In the Swiss Pairs over the first weekend (6-8th August) the best Manchester placings were 19th= by Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield and Tom Slater with Frazer Morgan. Close behind in 22nd position were Michelle Brunner and John Holland. 352 pairs competed. Full results of all events are on the EBU web site.
One Day Swiss Teams Manchester's Green point Swiss Teams event was held at Altrincham on Sunday 25th July. After four rounds Michelle Brunner's team were tying for the lead with Rhona Goldenfield's team. Rhona won that match 15-5 to take the lead, but after another match the two teams were tying at the top again. In the final round Michelle's team managed a convincing 18-2 win (with the help of picking up +1400 on one board) while Rhona's team lost, allowing Peter Jones, Steve Raine, Jackie Pye, Dave Audley and Alan Nelson, Kath Nelson, Jeff Smith, Andrew Petrie to overtake them to end up second equal. Gill Griffiths, Pat Burrows, Gillian Whyte and John Holland started slowly, but then accelerated to get the ascenders' prize for the second year running. Prizes of wine were awarded to the team with the highest IMP win each round. Thanks to Rhona Goldenfield for her hard work in organising the event, Kevin Comrie for presenting prizes, Alec Smalley and Barbara Lewis for preparing the duplicated boards and David and Liz Stevenson for directing efficiently. 1 5 Michelle Brunner, Rodney Lighton, Bill Hirst, Howard Melbourne 104 2.75 2= 8 Peter Jones, Steve Raine, Jackie Pye, David Audley 94 2.25 2= 19 Kath Nelson, Alan Nelson, Andrew Petrie, Jeff Smith 94 2.25 4 16 Bernard Goldenfield, Rhona Goldenfield, Joy Blakey, Irving Blakey 93 1.25 5 2 Eve Lighthill, Sidney Travers, Ian Kane, Kenneth Hassell 82 1.25 6= 24 Peter Richmond, Roger Allison, Dave Edwards, Gillian Jones 80 1.25 6= 20 Liz Commins, Paddy Murphy, Daniel Miller, Peter Hall 80 1.00 8 17 Dave Keen, Jean Keen, Peter Foster, Neil Thomas 78 1.00 9 12 Tim Matthews, Babs Matthews, Joyce White, Bill White 75 1.00 10 15 Patricia Burrows, Gill Griffiths, John Holland, Gillian Whyte 74 1.00 11 23 John Hampson, Simon Whitehouse, Paul Roberts, Julian Merrill 72 1.25 12= 9 Kevin Comrie, Celia Comrie, Alec Smalley, Barbara Lewis 71 1.00 12= 3 Raymond Semp, Gary Hyett, Dave Debbage, John Hassett 71 0.75 14= 10 John Rudolf, Pauline Rudolf, David Smith, Ian Pendlebury 69 0.75 14= 6 Rod Franks, David Pennington, Pauline Lang, Steve Mattinson 69 0.75 14= 13 Marlene Kaye, Sandra Millikin, Bernard Kaye, Roger Waddington 69 0.75 17 7 John Maclachlan, Peter Boardman, Glenda Lloyd, Bruce Denwood 68 1.00 18= 1 Irene Davies, Karen Reissmann, Peter Green, Mohammed Jabbar 60 0.75 18= 14 Jenny Morris, Jim Morris, Kevin Higgins, Richard Sinton 60 0.50 20 22 John McKenzie, Ann McKenzie, Janet Leach, Roger Lott 52 0.75 21 11 Bill Wattleworth, Liz Wattleworth, Don Cross, Jill Entwistle 51 0.50 22 4 Tony Price, Rosemary Price, Megan Taft, Alan Crabtree 45 0.50 23 21 Ann Thornton, Stephen Ward, Gillian McMullan, John Fitzgerald 41 24 18 Peter Greaves, Brenda Greaves, Peter Horn, David Hill 33 0.25
President's Cup - Manchester Retain Trophy Congratulations
to the team representing Manchester who won the Presidents
Cup held in Carlisle on the weekend of July 17th and 18th.
On the Saturday the team of Joy and Irving Blakey, Rhona Goldenfield and Boris Ewart, Raymond Semp and David Adelman with Dave Audley and Peter Jones left the team well placed in third position. On the Sunday the team changed to Raymond playing with Gary Hyett, Peter Jones again with Dave Audley, Tom Slater (lowering the average age) partnering Alec Smalley and Michael Newman once again forming a makeshift partnership, this time with David Barton. The team stayed in third positon and then dropped to fourth. However, a tremendous rally over the final set of 12 boards saw the team run out comfortable winners! This means that Manchester become the first team to retain the trophy in many many years, (having won it last year in Derby) and also that they continue their trend of winning in Carlisle having won the trophy when it was held there in 2002. European Youth Pairs Championship This
event took place in Opatija, Croatia from the 14-17th
July. Laura Bonney, Alex Birchall, Lavinia Constantin
and Sinead Bird from Manchester all took part, but
unfortunately there was no great success to report.
National League Final The
National Final of the inter county leagues was held in
Solihull on Sunday 11th July. The Manchester A and B
teams won the Northern League last year and qualified.
Many congratulations to the Manchester B team of Fred Bell and John Roberts, Pauline and John Rudolf, Ian Kane and Ken Hassell and Sid Travers and Eve Lighthill who won against teams from Berks and Bucks, Avon, Herts and Oxford. Everyone played very well and they all enjoyed the event. This is, I believe, the first National win for John Rudolf, Ian Kane and Eve Lighthill. The others have all won National events, but some a long time ago. In the A team final the team of Gary Hyett/Raymond Semp, Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield, Kath and Alan Nelson, David Barton/Alan Jones finished a close second to Warwickshire. Riviera Congress Congratulations
to Michael Byrne who won the Riviera Congress Teams
Championship held on Friday June 25th in Torquay. Michael
was the holder of the event, having won last year with a
team of England Junior Squad members. This year he teamed
up with England's leading Junior pair Ben Paske and Graeme
Robertson, and partnered U25 and Ladies international
Alice Kaye from London. The team won all of their matches,
winning by 10 vps, making it the third year in a row
that a junior team has won the event.
In the
second round of Northern League matches on the 3rd July
the A Team of Gareth Hyett/Michael Newman,
Bernard/Rhona Goldenfield, Kath/Alan Nelson, Dave
Barton/Alan Jones were second on the day, leaving them in
first place overall.
The B team: Barbara Lewis/Alec Smalley, Dhun Dhaji/Howard Stubbings, Dave Audley/Peter Jones, Joyce/Peter Hishmurgh were also second in their division, now seventh overall. The C team of Jeanne and Ron Bayley, Anne Super/Ray Ashleigh, Paul Worswick/Paul Beckwith and Clive and Helen Worthington finished in last place, but are in third place overall. European Chamionships The
50th European teams Championships took place in Ostend from
22nd June to 3rd July. Representing England in the
Seniors Team were John Holland and Paul Hackett. Jason
and Justin Hackett played in the Open Teams; completing the
Hackett family participation Barbara played for the German
women.
The England Women's team finished fifth - out of the medals, but qualifying for the World Championships. The Open team were 12th out of 18 in the final group. The Seniors ended up in 14th place. Pachabo The
Goldstone
Trophy qualifies a Manchester team for this event which
was held on 12-13th June at Daventry.
Unfortunately the Goldstone winners Alec Smalley and
Barbara Lewis were unable to play because of
holidays, so a composite team was formed with Tom Slater
of the winning team partnering Rodney Lighton and
Michael Byrne and Michael Newman also from the losing
finalists playing.
The team finished sixth equal, playing particularly well on the Sunday to move up from fourteenth place overnight. Full results are on the EBU web site. Northern League In the Northern League matches on 12th
June the A team (Kath and Alan Nelson, Michelle
Brunner and John Holland, David Barton, Alan Jones,
Tracy Capal,
Rhona Goldenfield finished first on 63Vp, second were
Merseyside with 40VP.
All
pairs
finished positive in the overall Butlers and the Nelsons
finished first in overall Butlers.
Thanks
to
Irene Davies and Rhona Goldenfield for reports.The B Team of Mark Halliwell/Mike Ardron, John and Pauline Rudolf, Dhun Daji/Howard Stubbings, Ken Hassell/Ian Kane finished equal seventh out of eight teams. In the C league the team
of Irene Davies, Sue Richmond, Gillian McMullan, John
Fitzgerald, Marcello & Elena Rosenbaum, Viv Newgrosh
and Karen Sandler won 5 of the 7 matches, beating
Merseyside 20-0 and Lancashire 19-1. At the end they were
in second place on 93 VPs, with Cumbria leading on 100
VPs.
They all had a really good time and didn't care about missing the football, being happy to be active participants rather than passive spectators. Corwen Trophy The
inter-counties pairs was held at Hinckley on 5-6th
June. Manchester pairs had qualified via the Ben
Franks in December. Congratulations to Bernard and
Rhona Goldenfield who had a consistent set of results
throughout the weekend and finished in 6th place (out of
113). John Holland and Michelle Brunner also started
fairly well but dropped a little to 25th finally.
Rodney Lighton and Gary Hyett started with an indifferent
first set, but two good sessions saw them climb to tenth and
they eventually finished twelfth. Full results are on
the EBU web site.
PotY The
annual player of the year competition for 2009-2010 has been
won by Michelle Brunner in the Expert category. In the
Intermediate category, there was a triple tie between Howard
Stubbings, Ben Beever and Eddie Thornton-Chan. Prizes
will be presented to them at some suitable occasion.
Yorkshire Congress A
few Manchester players crossed the Pennines to play at
Harrogate in the Yorkshire congress over the bank
holiday weekend. Congratulations to Peter and
Brenda Greaves, playing with Peter Hempson of Yorkshire
and Norman Stephenson of the North East, who came fourth
in the main final of the Teams event which attracted an
initial entry of 41 teams. Also to John and
Pauline Rudolf who were second in the Championship
Pairs.
Spring Bank Holiday Congress Congratulations to Gary
Hyett, playing with Geoffrey Wolfarth of Sussex, who won
the major pairs event at Bournemouth over the bank
holiday weekend. Results are on the EBU web site.
Seniors' Camrose In the home
international Seniors' event at Glasgow over the weekend of
28th-30th May, England won comfortably, with England 2 in
second place. Well done to the England team of John Holland,
Gunnar
Hallberg,
Patrick Collins, Malcolm Lewis, Ross Harper, Paul Hackett.
Garden Cities On 22nd May Bramhall Village Club team of
eight (Fred Bell & John
Roberts; Joyce & Bill White; Jenny & Jim Morris;
Kevin Higgins & Frank Brown) represented Manchester
CBA at the regional final of the Garden Cities
Tournament. The team won four of their seven
matches but finished a disappointing 6th= on 60
IMPs. York and Bolton will go through to the
National Final.
AGM The AGM of the association was held at Manchester Bridge Club on Thursday 27th May. There was much discussion of changes at the EBU and a few polls were taken so that Manchester's views could be reported back to the EBU. Thanks to Alan Nelson for his clear explanations of the reasons behind the mooted changes. Kevin Comrie ran the meeting well and it finished not too late. The elected officers all remained in post. Thanks to them all for their work over the year. The new selection committee is Denis Robson, Jenny Morris, Joyce White, David Tattersall and Michael Newman. John Rudolf takes over as handbook editor from Jeff Smith. The handbook will, in future, be available as a printable document on the web site. Hard copies will also be available from John Rudolf for those who do not have the means to print a copy. The President, Eve Lighthill, presented League Trophies to team captains of division winners.
Merville Goldstone Trophy Congratulations
to Barbara Lewis's team (Sam Herman, Alec Smalley, Tom
Slater) who won a tightly contested and exciting final on
Monday 10th May against Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Gary
Hyett and Rodney Lighton. After 24 boards Barbara's
team led by 1 IMP. Michael Byrne refused to concede
and won the last eight boards by 1 IMP. Four more
boards were needed to break the tie, three of them were
flat, but on the fourth Tom Slater and Alec Smalley bid and
made an excellent slam to win by 11 IMPs. The final
featured several exciting deals, the best being one where
both teams bid a cold Grand Slam and both teams found the
good save over it.
Barbara's team had previously beaten Michelle Brunner's team in the semi final and now have the opportunity to represent Manchester in the Pachabo final in June. Sam Herman, Barbara Lewis, Alec Smalley and Tom Slater Higson Cup and Plate Finals The
Higson Cup and Plate finals were played at Manchester Bridge
Club on Sunday 9th May. Thanks to David Tattersall for
organising the event, Jeff Morris for directing and Bob
Cooke for presenting the prizes.
Congratulations to Joy and Irving Blakey, Jeff Smith and David Barton who won the Cup by a good margin from Robert Jones, Royce Alexander, Norman Southern and Derek Gray. In the Higson Plate AZ Stars won, again by a good margin, from Red Bull with AZ Kings third. Higson Cup Final results 1 Inverted Minors 108 Joy Blakey, Irving Blakey, David Barton, Jeff Smith 2 Finesse 94 Robert Jones, Royce Alexander, Nornan Southern, Derek Gray 3 St.Titus 83 Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton, Gary Hyett 4 Manchester S 78 Barbara Lewis, Peter Jones, Sam Herman, Alec Smalley 5 Bananas 65 Antony Lipson, Graham Burns, Alex Wiseman, John Stell 6 Polar Bears 52 Bob Cooke, Howard Kay, Joyce Jones, Gill Griffiths 7 Sedgeley 44 Sid Travers, Len Gorodkin, Bernard Kaye, Roger Waddington 8 Altrincham A 36 Mike Asher, Ann Jordan, Lindsay Barnes, Ken Hughes
Eric Rose We
are sorry to report the death of Eric Rose on 30th April
at the age of 85. Eric had been a member at
Altrincham (formerly Sale) bridge club since before 1970
and played frequently at Altrincham and also at the
Stretford and Trafford clubs. He was a former chair
at Altrincham and also directed there for many
years. Despite suffering from ill health for the
last ten years he continued to play regularly. He
played in the league and EBU competitions until
recently. In the late 1980s he won the Infirmary
Plate twice. He also played for Manchester B
teams. Eric qualified as an engineer at university
where he also learned to play bridge. After a short
career in engineering he went on to study and practice
dentistry. Our condolences to his wife Margaret,
also a long standing member at Altrincham, his daughters
and grandchildren.
Thanks to Peter Dawson, Chair at Altrincham Bridge Club, for this information. Jersey Congress Congratulations
to
John
Holland and Michelle Brunner and Martin Taylor playing
with Harry Peck (Yorks) who came second in the Swiss
Teams in Jersey on 3rd-4th May. Full results of
the Jersey Congress are on the EBU web site.
Martin Taylor, John Holland, Michelle Brunner and Harry Peck Dave Debbage continued his run of success in Lancashire events, winning this event with Catherine Draper on 2nd May. Second were Rhona and Bernard Goldenfield. Full results are on the Lancashire web site. Selections The selection committee has made the following selections for Northern League and National League finals in June and July.
Crockford's Congratulations
to Dave Debbage, who has qualified for the English
National Teams Final playing with Catherine Draper, Ollie
Burgess and Andrew Woodcock of Lancashire.
Good luck to them in the final on May 15-16th.
The
Manchester Bridge Club team of Rhona and Bernard
Goldenfield, Michael Newman and Michael Byrne are
Manchester's last representatives in the NICKO this
year. They are now through to the last 16, having
beaten South Shropshire in the latest round.
League and Cup All the
results are in for this year's league which finished on
April 30th. Congratulations to the promoted teams and
division champions, commiserations to the relegated
teams. The finals of the Higson Cup and Plate are on
May 9th and then after the summer break we hope that
everyone will re-enter the league and cup for next
year. The results of the final KO round of the Cup and
Plate are posted (25th April).
Thanks to David Tattersall who has done a fine job in his first year as league secretary. Lady Milne in Manchester The
winning
EBU team
Susanna Gross, Sandra Penfold, Sally Brock, Nevena Senior, Simon Cope (npc), Nicole Cook, Chris Duckworth I once played a tournament in America that
was ended by rain*. But that’s another story which was
trumped by an Icelandic volcano. The Irish teams due
to fly to Manchester for the Lady Milne on 16-18th April had
to change their travel plans at short notice. By
taking overnight ferries and driving long distances they
arrived, but the play on Friday was cancelled, the
matches were shortened and the schedule was re-arranged. Despite
this hiccup the weekend was enjoyed by all. England,
as the host nation, had two teams. They played each
other in the first round and drew 15-15. After
the first day’s play Scotland had a good lead, but still
had to play both England teams.
By the final match England, EBU, Ireland and Scotland were all in contention. England played Ireland while the EBU played Scotland. Both matches were being shown on screens in the vu-graph theatre and there was a good sized audience (plus hundreds on BBO) to see the exciting last few boards. The EBU team pulled off a double coup when Nevena Senior and Sandra Penfold bought a contract in 2S when opponents could make 5D. In the other room Sally Brock and Susanna Gross overbid to 6D. However, the Irish defender discarded incorrectly and this contract came home. Meanwhile an English pair missed an easy 7NT (BBO commentator “The limit on this deal is 7NT”). The sitting out EBU pair Chris Duckworth and Nicole Cook as well as their captain, Simon Cope, were now getting very excited. On the penultimate board Sally Brock and Susanna Gross had to bid a fairly easy 6H to seal the victory. This they duly managed and the EBU had won by a margin of 6 VPs over the England team with Scotland and Ireland only 1 VP further behind in joint third place. Thanks to all the Manchester volunteers
Michael Byrne, Eve Lighthill, Kath Nelson, Steve
Mattinson, Elena and Marcelo Rosenbaum, Rhona Goldenfield,
Jeff Morris, Martin Taylor, Kevin and Celia Comrie,
Barbara Lewis, Ben Paske, Alex Roberts, Tom Slater, Laura
Bonney, Ross Allen, Barry Wennell, Steve Peterkin;
vu-graph commentators Denis Robson, Bernard Goldenfield,
Jim Luck and Simon Cope; EBU officials Sandra Claridge,
John and Maggie Pyner, Michael Clark, Jeff
Smith. And anyone who I've missed off the
list. Chancellor’s
proved to be, yet again, a good venue having hosted this
event previously in 2005 and the Junior Camrose and
Peggy Bayer in 2008. Full
results are on the EBU web site. The Trophy dating back to 1934
League - Isolated Menaces win Isolated Menaces have won the first division for the first time since 2006. Congratulations to Michelle Brunner, John Holland, Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield who have won or drawn all their matches so far and averaged 23+ VPs. Since their first win in 1982 Isolated Menaces have won the league 14 times in 29 years. Ever present in the team has been their captain Michelle Brunner. Congratulations also to LNW (Ed Levy, Dave Debbage, John Parsons, Adam Hickman, Sue Richmond and Rob Myers) who are the first team to gain promotion from the very closely contested division 2. Easter Festivals An
outstanding
success
for Bill and Joyce White who won the three session
championship pairs on 2nd-3rd April at Buxton (they also
had to play two qualifying sessions). Other good
results by Manchester players were third place for Rod
Franks and David Pennington, sixth John Holland and
Michelle Brunner, eighth Bernard and Rhona
Goldenfield. John Parsons/Lavinia Constantin and
Peter Green/Irene Davies also reached the final.
Gillian McMullan and John Fitzgerald were fourth in the
Swiss pairs.
John Holland, Michelle Brunner, Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield won the Swiss teams with Pat Burrows, Paul Worswick, Dhun Daji and Gill Griffiths doing very well to finish fourth. Meanwhile in London Michael Byrne won the open pairs with Graeme Robertson and Kath and Alan Nelson were third in the Swiss teams playing with Steve Aucterlonie and Malcolm Lewis. In the National U-25 pairs an excellent result for Rob Myers who was first equal playing with Daniel McIntosh. In the National U-19 pairs Jack Hassan and Luke Webb did well to come third. Laura Bonney and Alex Bishop were above half way in eighth place. Full results of these events are on the EBU web site. Buxton Pairs and Teams winners Rhona Goldenfield, John Holland, Michelle Brunner, Bill White, Joyce White and Bernard Goldenfield Cantor Cup Almost all the players were Novices and playing in a duplicate competition for the first time. The hands were duplimated and so everyone was able to take the hand records home with them. Thanks as usual to Barbara Lewis and Pat Buxton for organising and to Stan Blaiwais for directing. Also thenks to the Cantor family for their continued sponsorship of this event. Results
University Bridge Manchester
University
A team won their Portland Bowl Quarter Final against
Leeds A on Friday 12th March to reach the finals of this
prestigious national competition.
The team was Phillip Mott, Lavinia Constantin, Sinead Bird and Ross Allen, their opponents were captained by Amy Stout and contained two further members of the England U25 squad. The home team led after the first two sets but fell behind in the 3rd set. They pulled it all back and more to win by a comfortable 7 imps in the final set of 8 boards. This was the first of the Quarter Finals played, the other semi finalists are expected to be Durham A, Oxford A and Cambridge A, all of whom contain junior international players. Northern
Pairs
Congratulations
to Terry McCaughey/Eddie Thornton-Chan and Paul
Beckwith/Paul Worswick who finished third and sixth
respectively in the Northern Pairs at Bradford on Sunday
21st March. They qualify for the National Pairs final
in April, good luck to them.
School's
Cup
In the School's Cup on the weekend of 20-21st March Manchester's Jack Hassan, Alex Birchall, Luke Webb, Laura Bonney came second in the Swiss Teams event out of 14 teams competing. Well done to them - it is good to see that another set of Manchester Juniors is having success. Southport Teams Dave
Debbage
ventured
out successfully to Lancashire on Saturday 5th March to win
the Southport Pivot Teams with Lancashire's Andrew Woodcock,
Catherine Draper and Ollie Burgess.
Swiss Pairs - a Presidential Triumph The
annual
EBU/Manchester
one day Swiss Pairs was held on Saturday March 13th at
Altrincham Bridge Club. 48 pairs competed with entrants from
as far afield as Aberdeen and as near as Altrincham.
Well done to our President and Vice President Eve Lighthill and Sid Travers who won. Full results are on the EBU web site. Ken Hassell and Ian Kane from Altrincham were a close second. Third equal were Roger Allison/Peter Richmond and Raymond Semp/Peter Jones with Jeff Smith and Andrew Petrie fifth. Non-expert prize went to Altrincham's Mohammed and Mariam Jabbar and ascender's to John Roberts and Rodney Lighton who won their four matches after the break to move up 25 places (it's a game of two halves). Many thanks to all who worked hard to make this a most enjoyable and successful event: - Rhona Goldenfield, Pat Buxton, Kevin Comrie (and any others who I have forgotten). Also thanks to the tournament directors David Stevenson and Stan Blaiwais. Sid Travers and Eve Lighthill with MCBA Chairman Kevin Comrie Ken Hassell and Ian Kane Andrew Petrie and Jeff Smith Roger Allison and Peter Richmond Rodney Lighton and John Roberts Mohammed and Mariam Jabbar Newcomers League Congratulations
to
Joan
and Alan Hinchliffe, Denise Phythian, Anne Groome, Andrea
Bell, Geoff Ashcroft, who won the Newcomers League
comfortably after the final evening held on Thursday
March 4th, with a total score of +139.
Second place was Wendy Gonsalkorale's team with 87, in third place were Sonia Hopkinson and Peter Hallsworth, Christine Barraclough and Nick Tarrier with students Harry Yu and Toby Searle, who won the last evening with magnificent score of +38 Newcomer's
Winners
Andrea Bell, Joan Hinchliffe, Anne Groome & Denise Phythian Final scores:
First:
Joan
Hinchliffe, Geoff Ashcroft, Denise Phythian, Anne Groome,
Alan Hinchliffe, Andrea Bell +139 IMPs
Second: Wendy Gonsalkorale, Jill Birch, Jian Pang, Faye Giorgiou +87 IMPs Third: Nick Tarrier, Christine Barrowclough, Sonia Hopkinson, Peter Hallsworth, Harry Yu, Toby Searle, Luke Webb, Steve Parr +14 IMPs Fourth: Jo Krasner, Amy Dean, Paul Batstone, Fiona Alcock, Hans Kurer Fifth: Lionel Cox, Danny Doherty, Peter Clothier, John Hurst Sixth: Anne Kerr, Jenny Rowley, Sanjit Kamath, Anthony Lawrence, Val Morgan Seventh: Michael Coop, Susan Tarr, Mike Blundell, Moira Bloomfield, Malcolm Allum, Mac Norgate Harrogate Spring Congress In
the
Spring congress held on 26-28th February Manchester players
were out in force. Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield were second
in the Mixed Pairs with Michael Byrne and Amy Stout close
behind. In the Teams former Chairman Jeff Smith (with
Jackie Pye, Dave Robinson, Richard Pike) scored a big win
ahead of Michael Byrne's team of "juniors" (Ben Paske,
Duncan Happer, Chris Dixon). Alan and Kath Nelson were
fifth, playing with youngsters Phil Stevens and Adam Skalski
from Lancaster. In the Open Pairs on Friday Eddie
Thornton-Chan and Ben Beever were second.
Tollemache Congratulations
to the Manchester Team who achieved their best result in
the Tollemache for a long time when they were second to
a strong Middlesex team at Hinckley on 13-14th
February. The team was John Holland, Michelle
Brunner, Michael Byrne, Mike Bell, Gary Hyett, Rodney
Lighton, John Hassett and Dave Debbage.
They won six out seven matches, including beating Middlesex. All the team's pairs played well and were positive on the Butler scoring. Unfortunately the team failed to beat other counties as heavily as Middlesex and a loss to East Wales in the penultimate round left Middlesex too far ahead. Full results are on the EBU web site. Many thanks to Rhona Goldenfield (NPC) and Bernard Goldenfield (scorer) who dealt brilliantly with all the administrative and social details, leaving the players to concentrate on the competition. Mike
Bell, Michael Byrne, John Holland, Michelle Brunner
Rodney Lighton, John Hassett, Gary Hyett, Dave Debbage Rhona and Bernard Goldenfield Gazette Trophy Congratulations
to
Bramhall Bridge Club who, by winning for the second time
in three years, showed that this event isn't exclusively
for Manchester Bridge Club! They go on to
represent Manchester in the Garden Cities Regional Final
on May 22nd. Thanks to Pat Buxton for providing
excellent refreshments and to Jeff Smith for
directing. The event was held at Altrincham Bridge
Club on Sunday 24th January. Six teams from four
clubs entered.
1 BRAMHALL 65 Jenny Morris,Jim Morris,Joyce White,Bill White Kevin Higgins,Richard Sinton,Howard Stubbings,Dhun Daji 2 MANCHESTER A 63 Gary Hyett,Michael Newman,Peter Jones,Tom Slater David Adelman,Jeff Morris,Rob Myers,Dave Debbage 3 CHEADLE 54 Royce Alexander,Mary Costagliola,David Pennington,Rod Franks Pauline Lang,Steve Mattinson,Barbara Lewis,Alec Smalley 4 MANCHESTER B 47 Karen Reissman,Irene Davies,Gillian McMullan,John Fitzgerald Dave Matthews,Ann Thornton,Eddie Thornton-Chan,Ben Beever 5 ALTRINCHAM A 45 David Olliver,Ray Semp,Geoffrey Fink,Sid Travers Ian Kane,Ken Hassell,Ann Jordan,Geoff Hull 6 ALTRINCHAM B 26 Eric Rose,Lindsey Barnes,Mike Asher,K Hughes Ann Edwards,Anna Drysdale,Mohammed Jabbar,Mariam Jabbar Lady Milne and Seniors Trials The trials for the Lady
Milne (Womens home internationals) took place in London
from 22nd-24th January. The Manchester pairs
attempting to qualify were Kath Nelson/Tracy Capal and
Rhona Goldenfield/Michelle Brunner. Unfortunately
neither pair had a good weekend, finishing in the bottom
half of the field.
Meanwhile the Senior's trial play-off also took part in London. The Gold medal winning team of John Holland, Gunnar Hallberg, Colim Simpson, David Price, Paul Hackett and Ross Harper beat Denis O'Donovan, John Short, Patrick Collins and Malcolm Lewis by 235-168 IMPs. As a result this team has been selected to play in the European Championships in Ostende from 22nd to 30th June. Midland Counties Congress Congratulations
to Steve
Mattinson
and Pauline Lang who won the championship pairs
for the Foster Cup at the Midlands County
Diamond Jubilee Congress at Bransford on January
9th.
Camrose First Weekend The
first
weekend of the home internationals for this
season took place in Edinburgh from Friday 8th
January to Sunday 10th January.
Playing for England were Manchester's John Holland and Michelle Brunner. This was John's eighth Camrose appearance and Michelle's fourth. Current record holders for Manchester are Gary Hyett and Alan Mould each with nine appearances. Paul Hackett is non-playing captain for England. England
finished
in second place just 1 VP behind the Republic of
Ireland. The second weekend is from 5-7th
March in Northern Ireland.
Manchester Congress 2010 Detailed result files are too large to put on the web server, if you still wish to see the results please e-mail Rodney for them. Final Pairs
Results
Teams A Final Teams B Final Teams C Final The
annual
congress took place at the Renaissance Hotel on 2nd-3rd
January. Despite snow showers there was a good
attendance for the first day with 64 pairs competing
including a good turn out of juniors from all over the
country. Unfortunately the first session was played in
freezing conditions - a large supply of portable heaters
brought the temperature up to acceptable by the
evening. Coping best with the cold were Alan Nelson
and Jeff Morris who led after the first session.
Intermediates Tony Coley and Dieter Salden from the Cheadle
club did extremely well to be third after the first
session. They went on to win the Tournament Master
prize, with Tean and Craig Porteus in second place in this
category.
In the second session Rhona Goldenfield and Michelle Brunner improved from 14th to win overall, Bernard Goldenfield and Adrian Thomas (Wales) were second and Men's Pairs winners. Kath Nelson and Tracy Capal won the Ladies Pairs and Bryony Youngs (Oxford) and Tom Slater were fifth overall and won the Mixed Pairs. Second in the Mixed Pairs category were Gillian McMullen and John FitzGerald. Alan Nelson and Jeff Morris dropped to fourth place overall. The ascender's prize was won by Brian Irlam and Michael Tomlinson. John Atthey won the prize for the best Junior over the weekend. In the Teams the A division was won by the de Botton team (Jason & Justin Hacket, Janet de Botton and Nick Sandqvist) with Michelle Brunner's team second and Michael Byrne's team third. The B Division was won by Tony and Alex Wilkinson, Phil Stephens and A Skalski. The C Division was won by Sue Richmond's team. The Novice pairs events were unfortunately poorly supported, probably because of the weather. On Saturday afternoon Barbara Eastbrook and Michelle Lees won a 9 pair competition ahead of Marjorie Blackham and Mary Wilson. On Sunday afternoon Wendy Lunas and Jan Coull won a 6 pair event ahead of Stella Beswick and Rita Bradbury. On Sunday evening only 5 pairs played with Jo Krasner and Amy Dean triumphing. Many thanks to Kevin Comrie and his large team of helpers for all their hard work to make this, yet again, a successful event in difficult circumstances. Winners Michelle Brunner and Rhona Goldenfield being presented with trophy by John Holland Second and Men's Pairs Trophy Bernard Goldenfield and Adrian Thomas Kath Nelson and Tracy Capal Ladies Pairs Tournament Master winners Dieter Salden and Tony Coley Second in the Mixed Pairs Category John FitzGerald and Gillian McMullan First Session and Fourth Overall Jeff Morris and Alan Nelson Barbara
Eastbrook
and Michelle Lees
Stella Beswick and Rita Bradbury Wendy Lunas and Jan Coull Jo Krasner and Amy Dean Jason
Hackett,
Justin Hackett, Janet de Botton and Nick Sandqvist
Teams winners Mike
Bell, Michael Byrne and Simon Cope
A teams third (missing is John Atthey) Jim Morris, Jean and Peter Hand and Jenny Morris B Teams second John
Hassett,
Dave Debbage, John Holland and Michelle Brunner with Paul
Hackett
A teams second Sue
Richmond,
Craig Fisher, John Parsons and Ed Levy
C Teams winners Tony and Alex Wilkinson B teams winners (with Phil Stephens and A Skalski) Novice Pairs Sat Afternoon
Novice Pairs Sun Afternoon
Novice Pairs Sun Evening
League 2009-2010 List of Players
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