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Manchester
County Bridge Association |
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2015
News and Results
Northern
Year End Congress John
Holland and Alan Mould repeated their success of last year
when they won the Swiss Pairs at Clayton-le-Moors on
27-28th December nearly a whole match ahead of Jeff Smith
and Jackie Pye.
In the Swiss Teams with one match to go Alan Mould, John Holland, Rodney Lighton and John Currie were leading and played Bernard and Rohna Goldenfield, Irving and Joy Blakey who were 7 VPs behind in third place. The deals were very exciting including two grand slams and a small slam as well as a couple of difficult game hands. There were swings on every board; the Goldenfields and Blakeys outplayed the opposition to win 17-3 and finish second in the event. Two other teams won 20-0 in their last matches to overtake the Mould team. Full results are on the EBU web site. Michael's Juniors Win in Utrecht The
England Under 20 team has the won the 2015 Channel Trophy,
held in Utrecht in the Netherlands over the weekend of
18-20th December.
The team led throughout, becoming the first England Under 20 team to win all of their matches, including a nail biting finish against France who were in second place. The U20 squad recently attended a training weekend in Manchester organised by non-playing captain Michael Byrne, with guest speaker Alan Mould who went through a lot of defensive situations with them. The team was Kripa Panchagnula/Jonathan Clark, Liam Sanderson/Daniel Winter and Ben Norton/Sam Behrens. This was an England debut for the first pair, and a Channel Trophy debut for the first four, and a first win for all of the team. European Seniors Trials The first stage of the trials for the England Senior Team took place in Solihull from 18th-20th December. John Holland played with Gunnar Hallberg on a team captained by Paul Hackett. The Hackett team overtook the Penfold team in the last twelve board segment. The Hackett play off in January next year for the right to represent England in the European championships in Budapest in June, their opponents are Sandra Penfold's team. Results are on the EBU web site. John Holland Wins Gold Cup Many congratulations to John Holland who has won Britain's most prestigious competition at Solihull on 11-13th December. John, who has won virtually every other national event, has never won the Gold Cup, though his team only lost by 2 IMPs in the 2006 final. John and partner Ben Green played every board in the final stages beating the holders (Allfrey, Robson, Forrester, Gold, Bakhshi, McIntosh) in the quarter finals on Friday and then Peter Lee's team in the semis by 98 IMPs. John and Ben's other team members were Simon Cope, Peter Crouch and Nicola Smith. In the final against Sally Brock, Barry Myers, Taf Anthias and Chris Dixon they were virtually level after three sets, but won 34 in the fourth set. Two more sets of small losses followed by a 31 IMP gain in the seventh set, aided by a somewhat fortunate slam swing of around 30 IMPs when Myers-Brock bid a grand slam going off on a 4-1 break, left John's team 58 IMPs up with eight to play. Nothing dramatic happened in the last set and John's team ran out worthy winners by 65 IMPs.  Simon Cope, Nicola Smith, John Holland, Peter Crouch and Ben Green Tollemache Final The
selection committee met on Tuesday 8th December and
selected the following team for the Tollemache
final. Michael Byrne/Gary Hyett, John Holland/Alan
Mould, Alec Smalley/Tom Slater, John Hassett/Jeff Morris
npc Ollie Burgess. Good luck to the team they play
at West Bromwich on Feb 13-14th against Kent, London,
Middlesex, Worcestershire, Yorkshire, Surrey, Berks and
Bucks. Neither Michael Newman nor Rodney Lighton who
played and npc'd in the qualifying respectively were
available for the final.
Lytham Rose Bowl Congratulations
to Paul Worswick and Dave Hammonds who won the Lytham Rose
Bowl on Sunday 6th December in a field of 22 pairs.
Full results
are on the Lancashire web site.
Ben
Franks
The
county's annual pairs competition which qualifies for the EBU
Corwen Trophy was held on Sunday 6th December at Manchester
Bridge Club. Twenty one pairs entered, Michael Newman
and Michael Byrne won both sessions and finished with a huge
score of 67%, ten percent ahead of Ollie Burgess and Rob Myers
in second place. In third place and also intermediate
prize winners congratulations on a fantastic result for Graham
Campbell and Lindsey Barnes. The other qualifiers for
the Corwen were Gillian McMullan and Neil Thomas. The
ascenders prize went to Barbara Lewis and Alec Smalley.Mince pies and wine were served at the end and it was good to see so many players staying for the prizegiving. Thanks to Ann Thornton and Irene Davies for their hard work organising the event and to Joan Lewis for directing efficiently. Full results are on the Manchester Bridge Club site In the player of the year event Michael Newman now leads one point ahead of Ollie Burgess, with Raymond Semp third. In the intermediate category Graham Campbell has maximum points from the first two events and is ahead of Andrew Jackson in second place.
1 Michael Byrne & Michael Newman 67.69 2 Robert Myers & Ollie Burgess 57.19 3 Graham Campbell & Lindsey Barnes 53.54 4 Gillian McMullan & Neil Thomas 53.04 5 Raymond Semp & Kenneth Hassell 52.09 6 John Holland & Alan Mould 51.76 7 Gary Hyett & Margaret Howe 51.43 8 Joy Blakey & Irving Blakey 51.02 9 Toby Nonnenmacher & Peter Jones 50.38 10 Peter Foster & John Roberts 49.94 11 Irene Davies & Karen Reissmann 49.82 12 Rodney Lighton & John Currie 49.57 13 Alec Smalley & Barbara Lewis 48.64 14 Bernard Goldenfield & Rhona Goldenfield 48.62 15 Roger Hopton & Lance Bloohn 47.50 16 Ann Thornton & Peter Carey-Yard 46.21 17 Alan Nelson & Stuart Shalom 45.42 18 Eddie Thornton-Chan & Graham Currie 45.24 19 Nicholas Greer & Ross Allen 44.85 20 Chris Baker & Jim O'Neill 43.60 21 John Fitzgerald & Andrew Jackson 42.83 C Team Seminar Michael Byrne gave a seminar for C team players at Manchester Bridge Club on Saturday 5th December. Thirty players attended, they found it hard work but very good and useful. Seminars for the B team and A team will follow shortly in the new year.
Tollemache Qualifier The
inter counties teams of eight qualifier took place on
21st-22nd November in Birmingham. Manchester was
represented by John Holland/Alan Mould, Michael
Byrne/Michael Newman, Alec Smalley/Tom Slater, Jeff
Morris/John Hassett npc Rodney Lighton. They were
drawn into a group of nine with the top two counties
qualifying for the final in February. The other
counties in the group were Hertfordshire, Norfolk,
Cumbria, Lancashire, Channel Islands, Somerset, Suffolk,
Yorkshire. After trailing to Yorkshire virtually all
weekend, Manchester rallied in the last 7 boards against
Somerset and Cumbria to storm into first place, beating
their old rivals to qualify for the final in
February. Congratulations to Tom and Alec who headed
the cross IMPs for the section and to Jeff and John who
were third overall.
 John Holland, Alan Mould, Tom Slater, Alec Smalley, Jeff Morris, Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton, John Hassett Contingency Fund The county has set up a contingency fund to help finance players selected by the county to play in events who find themselves in a difficult financial position. This will be dealt with confidentially. Please contact Irene Davies if you need this help. Llangollen Swiss Teams Michael Byrne and Gary Hyett playing with Tommy Garvey and Hugh McGann of Ireland have won the two day event at Llangollen on 14-15th November ahead of Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield who played with Jim Luck and Adrian Thomas of Wales. Llongyfarchiadau. Full results on the North Wales site. Pendle Witch Pairs Brierfield held their annual Pendle Witch pairs event on Sunday 9th November. The event was well attended with 18 tables participating. A nice feature of this event is that there are first and second prizes for non-expert and middle ranking pairs based on NGS rating. Congratulations to Barbara Eastabrook and Karen Jones who were delighted to win the non-expert prize and trophy. John Currie and Rodney Lighton won overall for the second year running. Session prizes were won by Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield and Ken Hassell and Ian Kane. Click here for results.  Megan Taft with non-expert winners Barbara Eastabrook and Karen Jones Premier League The final weekend was on November 6-8th. The first division finished on Saturday with Jason and Justin Hackett's team winning and the twins being the leading pair on the cross IMPs. Michael Byrne's team survived in sixth place, but John Holland's team finished seventh and is relegated. The second division finished on Sunday, with the Hackett team dropping to third place. The second weekend of three in the premier league took place at Solihull on 31st Oct to 1st Nov. In division two the Hackett team (Jeff Morris, John Hassett, Ollie Burgess, Alan Mould, Paul Hackett, John Sansom) increased their lead with Jeff and John leading the cross IMP rankings. Autumn Intermediate Pairs Thirteen and a half tables enjoyed the Intermediate pairs at Altrincham on Sunday 1st November. Thanks to director Joan Lewis and organisers Barbara Lewis, Irene Davies and Ann Thornton for their hard work.
North-South 1st Adam Wiseberg & Andrew Jackson 63.69 2nd Chris Baker & Jim O'Neill 62.94 3rd Graham Winn & Susan Triggs 60.10 4th Annie Curtis & Jackie Lowrie 55.85 5th David Tattersall & Helen Nightingale 52.71 6th Lisa Czyniewska & Joan Missira 49.83 7th Carol McKinnon & Maureen Beresford 46.54 8th Chris Cleaver & Pam Hegarty 46.45 9th Faye Georgiou & Sanjeet Kamath 45.33 10th Jeanette Owen & Jennifer Birchall 45.22 11th Ally Oliver & Judith Lambert 44.91 12th Angela Ashleigh & Wendy Burton 40.57 13th Felicity Byrne & Rebe Bhaduri 35.87 East-West 1st Peter Allison & John Attree 65.18 2nd Nicki Decent & Haidee Tattersall 57.02 3rd Kathy Priestley & Graham Fletcher 55.64 4th Elaine Duwe & Sue Harrison 54.57 5th Karen Jones & Barbara Eastabrook 52.04 6th Roy Saleh & Scott Middleton 51.59 7th Anne Whitehead & Hilary Boydell 50.74 8th Hugh Searson & Anne Lowe 49.87 9th Ralph Deane & Mike Kisil 49.73 10th Hazel Powell & Geoff Densham 44.76 11th Pat Dunningham & Jean Reed 42.66 12th David Welsh & Andrea Mills 42.46 13th Estelle Megitt & Mel Megitt 42.36 14th Margaret Kelly & Liz Downie 40.10 Goldstone Trophy Spinning
Tops captained by Howard Rosemarine continued their form
of last year by again beating a team from a higher
division in the first round of the Goldstone.
Paris Open Youth Competition Sean
Mekie of Manchester (though currently resident in Devon)
plays with Nick Dean, Chris Derrick and Thomas Brass
representing England U25s from 28th Oct to 1st November.
Lancashire Swiss Teams Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield, Irving and Joy Blakey finished a close second in the green point teams at Blackburn on Sunday 25th October. Results are on the Lancashire web site. Chester Bowl Congratulations
to John Fitzgerald and Adam Wiseberg from Altrincham who
won the consolation event with a fine score of 66% in the
charity pairs at Deva on Sunday 18th October, second were
Carol McKinnon and Diane Calvert from the Trafford bridge
club.
EBU Autumn Congress At Peterborough on 17th-18th October Michael Byrne was second in the Swiss pairs with Kieran Dyke and was second (on a split tie) in the main teams event wtih Kieran Dyke, Dinah Caplan and Marion Robertson. Rhodes Overseas Congress In
the EBU holiday congress Swiss teams on 12-13th October
Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield, Joy and Irving Blakey were
second; Joyce and Bill White, Pauline Lang and Babs
Matthews (Cumbria) finished fourth. In the Ladies
pairs Pauline Lang won with Babs Matthews. Congress
results are on the EBU web site.
Northern Bridge League Final Matches The
fourth and final matches of this season's Northern league
took place at Bolton, Bradford and Leeds on Saturday 10th
October for the A, B and C teams respectively.
In the A division Manchester 1 won over the season as they have done every year bar one since the competition's inception. They were second on the day to Merseyside, but their closest rivals Yorkshire 1 finished last and only just held on to second place. Manchester 2 were fifth on the day and finished last over the season. The teams were Michael Byrne/Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton/John Currie, David Barton/Alan Jones, Kath & Alan Nelson and David Pennington/Rod Franks, Sam Herman/David Audley, Jeanne & Ron Bayly, Joyce & Robert Jones. Kath and Alan were the best pair on the cross IMP scoring. In the B division, Manchester who had been a close second to Lancashire finished fourth on the day and held on to second place overall. The team was Nicholas Greer/Neil Thomas, Peter Foster/John Roberts, Ken Hassell/Ian Kane, David Olliver/Sid Travers. Peter & John were our best pair on the cross IMPs, followed by Ken and Ian. In the C division Manchester were sixth on the day and fourth overall. The team was Ann Thornton/Irene Davies, Karen Jones/Barbara Eastabrook, Roger Hopton/Peter Carey-yard, Melvyn Pelham/Paul Worswick. Ann and Irene were the best Manchester pair on cross IMPs. Thanks to all players who have turned out for Manchester this year and to the NBL organisers, directors, host clubs and caterers for another enjoyable season of inter county bridge. Full results on the NBL web site. Autumn Simultaneous Congratulations to Ken Hassell and Ian Kane who won nationally on Wednesday 7th October with a score of 72% at Marple Bridge Club. This is now the fifth time they have won a national simultaneous. World Championships Chennai The
world championships took place in Chennai from 26th
September to 10th October. England had teams in all
three competitions, the open, the women's and the seniors as
a result of finishing third, second and first in the
respective categories in the most recent European
championships (although England may get promoted to winners
of the open as Israel and Monaco have withdrawn because of
cheating allegations involving their pairs).
Manchester players involved were John Holland partnering Gunnar Hallberg and Paul Hackett partnering David Mossop in the seniors, also playing were Colin Simpson and David Price. In the open Jason and Justin Hackett played with Tony Forrester, Andrew Robson, David Gold and David Bakhshi. Lancashire's Catherine Draper played in the women's team. The results page is here. A bit of a roller coaster for the results from Chennai. After 15 of 21 qualifying matches at the end of play on Thursday the open team (who started poorly) were in third place, the women's team were ninth place having been as high as fifth and the seniors, who were leading at various stages were in eighth place. In all three competitions the top eight qualify for the knock out stages. All three teams reached the knock-out phase at the end of play on Saturday. The open and women's teams reached the semi-finals, but the seniors lost a close quarter final match to Poland on Sunday and Monday. The seniors team then slotted into the transnational teams, where they finished tenth in the Swiss to qualify for the knock out phase which started on Wednesday. All three teams lost on Wednesday, the open team agonisingly on the last board of the semi-finals against Poland, while the women lost less narrowly to France and the seniors were well beaten in the round of sixteen in the transnational. In the bronze medal matches the women won against the Netherlands, while the open team lost to USA2 by a very small margin. Great Northern Swiss Pairs Michael Byrne and Kieran Dyke (London) followed up their win in Brighton with a comfortable win at Leeds on 3-4th October. In sixth place were Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield with Gary Hyett seventh with Margaret Howe of Merseyside. Full results are on the Yorkshire County web site. Cumbria/Westmorland Green Point Events Manchester players travelled up to Kendal for the Green Point weekend on 26th-27th September. Successes were recorded in the Swiss Teams won by Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield with Jeff Smith and Jackie Pye of Lancashire and in the Swiss Pairs where Neil Thomas and Rodney Lighton won with two good wins in the last two rounds to overtake Peter Richmond and Roger Allison of Mersey and Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield who finished third. Full results on the Cumbria web site.
Selections for Tollemache and Northern Bridge League The selection committee met on Tuesday 15th September and selected the following teams for the final Northern Bridge League match and the Tollemache.
Northern Bridge League Match 3 The
third round of four matches took place on Saturday 12th
September.
In the A division at Bradford Manchester 1 (Rodney Lighton/John Currie, Tom Slater/Alec Smalley, Alan & Kath Nelson, Bernard & Rhona Goldenfield) won comfortably to increase their overall lead over Yorkshire 1 (who were fourth on the day). Manchester 2 (Joy & Irving Blakey, Peter Jones/Craig Fisher, Eddie Thornton-Chan/Tony Hodgson, Robert & Joyce Jones) finished last. In the cross IMP scoring pride of place goes yet again to Alec and Tom who were overall best at the venue by a large margin. Kath and Alan and Joy and Irving also scored well. In the B division at Keighley Manchester (Sylvia Massey/Herbert Potts, Ron & Jeanne Bayly, Eve Lighthill/Ken Hassell, Neil Thomas/Michael Newman) were a very close second and are now lying second overall to Lancashire, with a realistic chance of overtaking them with a good result in the final match. Thanks to Michael Newman for stepping in as a late substitute. Sylvia and Herbert and Ken and Eve were our best pairs on the cross IMPs. In the C division at Brierfield Manchester (Ann Thornton/Peter Carey-Yard, Howard Stubbings/Dhun Daji, Gordon Bickley/Ann Farquhar, Karen Jones/John Fitzgerald) were third and now lie fourth overall. Howard and Dhun were our best pair on the cross IMPs. Premier League in Manchester This is one of the strongest events in England, with most of England's best players on view. Manchester players competing were John Holland, Michael Byrne, John Hassett, Jeff Morris, Alan Mould and Ollie Burgess. In the second division Paul Hackett's team of Paul Hackett, John Samson, Alan Mould, Ollie Burgess, Jeff Morris and John Hassett are leading with Jeff/John and Alan/Ollie both highly placed on the cross IMP scores. Full results are on the EBU web site. NICKO Well
done to the Manchester Bridge Club team of Dave Debbage,
Jason Hackett, Catherine Draper, Andrew Woodcock and Ollie
Burgess who have reached the semi-finals of the National
Inter Club KO having beaten a Young Chelsea team on 6th
September. Good luck to them in the final rounds.
Bolton Congress Bolton
Bridge Club's annual congress was played over the weekend of
4-6th September. There were various successes for
Manchester players.
In the Ladies pairs Rhona Goldenfield won with Marianne Farr. Roger Hopton and Lance Bloohn were second in the pairs. In the teams Rodney Lighton, John Currie, Neil Thomas and Nicholas Greer won their first five matches to be over a match ahead, which was fortunate, as they lost their last match when a slam went off unluckily with the trumps breaking 3-0. They still finished 20 VPs in front of Kath and Alan Nelson, Jackie Pye and Jeff Smith. Thanks to Bolton Bridge Club for hosting a friendly and enjoyable event with excellent food. Full results are on the Bolton Bridge Club web site. 80%
+
Congratulations
to
Pauline
Lang and Steve Mattinson who achieved the remarkable score of
81.67% at the Bramhall Club duplicate on Friday 4th September.Goldstone Trophy 22
teams have entered this year's Goldstone Knock Out, with
the winners proceeding to play in the inter county Pachabo
next June, with Manchester being the current
holders. Click above on Goldstone to see the draw
and play by dates. Note the draw has been amended on
31st August.
Northern Bridge League Match 2 County
teams were in action at Bradford (A and C divisions) and at
Blackburn (B division) on Saturday 29th August.
In
the A division Manchester 1 (Kath & Alan Nelson,
Bernard & Rhona Goldenfield, Gary Hyett/John Holland,
Rodney Lighton/John Currie) finshed a distant second to
Yorkshire, but retained a small overall lead over
Yorkshire. Kath and Alan were our leading pair on
the cross IMPs with Gary and John also good. Manchester 2
(Steve Mattinson/Rod Franks, Raymond Semp/Sam Herman, Alan
Jones/David Barton, Joy & Irving Blakey) were fourth
and moved up a place to fifth overall. Raymond and
Sam were the best of the pairs on the cross IMPs.
In the B division Manchester (John Roberts/Peter Foster, Bill & Joyce White, Sylvia Massey/Herbert Potts, Joyce & Robert Jones) ) finished fourth, but retained their second place overall, though Lancashire have now built up a sizeable lead. Bill and Joyce had a very good cross IMP score and Peter and John were also good. In the C division the Manchester team of Haidee Tattersall/Andrew Green, Roger Hopton/David Fussell, Paul Beckwith/Melvyn Pelham, James Sheppard/Michael Wymer finished last and dropped to fourth place overall. EBU Northern Midweek Congress Congratulations to Paul Worswick and Dave Hammonds who finished second in the pairs at Clayton-le-Moors on 25-26th August. John Holland and Pat Davies were fourth, Pauline Lang and Eve Lighthill fifth. Full results are on the EBU web site. Brighton Congress The EBU's Summer meeting, the major congress in the EBU calendar, took place from Friday 14th August to Sunday 23rd August. Many Manchester players were playing. Results are available on the EBU web site. Congratulations to Michael Byrne playing with Kieran Dyke who finished first equal in the four session Swiss Pairs in a field of 287 pairs (they won the trophy on a tie splitting procedure). Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield were 20th and Kath Nelson and Jeff Smith, who led at the halfway point, were 22nd. In the U25 pairs on Tuesday Sean Mekie won with Basil Letts. Congratulations to Sean on his first national win. Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield were fourth in the Senior Pairs, with John Holland and Erika Slatcher second in the B final. Rhona Goldenfield and Michael Byrne were second in the Mixed Pairs. Michael Byrne won the midweek knockout teams with Tom Paske, Steve Raine, Chris Cooper, Tom Townsend and Alastair Kent.
Northern Bridge League The
first round of the Northern League took place on 1st
August with a generally good start for Manchester
teams.
In the A division at Brierfield Manchester 1 (Michael Newman/Alan Mould, Gary Hyett/John Holland, David Barton/Alan Jones, Rhona & Bernard Goldenfield) took a good lead over Yorkshire 2. Manchester 2 (David Pennington/Rod Franks, David Audley/Peter Jones, Kath & Alan Nelson, Tom Slater/John Currie) finished in last position, though still not far behind most of the teams. Michael Newman and Alan Mould were the best Manchester pair on cross IMPs just ahead of the irregular pairing of John Currie and Tom Slater. In the B division at Leeds Manchester (Raymond Semp/Ken Hassell, Sid Travers/David Olliver, Nicholas Greer/Neil Thomas, Herbert Potts/Sylvia Massey) were second to the Lancashire team. On the cross IMPs Raymond and Ken were our best pair just ahead of Nicholas and Neil with all pairs doing well. In the C Division at Manchester, Manchester (Irene Davies/Karen Reissmann, Dhun Daji/Howard Stubbings, Joan Lewis/Roy Higginbottom, Elena & Marcello Rosenbaum) were third behind Yorkshire SE and Lancashire. On the cross IMPs Dhun and Howard were top of all the pairs in the division; Elena and Marcello also did well. Full results are on the Northern Bridge League site. Scarborough Summer Congress Congratulations to John Holland and Alan Mould who have won the teams event on 24th July with Jeremy Dhondy and Bill Hirst. They then completed the double double by winning the Swiss Pairs on Saturday and Sunday with an exceptional session on Sunday where they moved from sixth to first place to win by nearly a whole match. This repeated their wins in both events last year. Full results are on the EBU web site. Green Point Swiss Teams The Green Point Swiss Teams was held at Altrincham on Sunday 19th July. The event attracted many players who had come up for the weekend to play here and at the Michelle memorial event the day before, including internationals Barry Myers, Sally Brock and Susanna Gross. This year's winners by a good margin were Raymond Semp, Alan Williams (from Bristol), Marianne Farr and Mike Nicholson (Lancashire), ahead of Alan Mould, Michael Newman, Ollie Burgess and Barry Myers who leapt into second place with a 20-0 win in their last match. The non-expert prize winners were Chris Hine, James Sheppard, Michael Wymer & Steven Ward. Thanks to Rhona and Bernard Goldenfield for organising and to David Stevenson and Joan Lewis for directing. This is the first event in the 2015-16 PotY season with the new Intermediate classification and scoring. The PotY spreadsheet is now updated, Raymond Semp leads the expert category as the only Manchester member in the winning team, Karen Jones, Graham Campbell and Andrew Jackson lead the Intermediate category. The full results are on the Altrincham Bridge Club site. 1 Marianne Farr & Mike Nicholson, Alan Williams & Raymond Semp 99 2 Michael Newman & Alan Mould, Barry Myers & Ollie Burgess 86 3= John Holland & Gillian Whyte, Patricia Burrows & Pauline Lang 82 3= Bob Loveridge & Helen Montgomery, Nicholas Sutcliffe & David Costich 82 5= Tim & Babs Matthews, Bill & Joyce White 81 5= Neil Thomas & Nicholas Greer, Dave & Jean Keen 81 7= Roger Allison & Peter Richmond, Liz & Bill Wattleworth 80 7= Bernard & Rhona Goldenfield, Irving & Joy Blakey 80 9= Michael Wymer & James Sheppard, Chris Hine & Stephen Ward 77 9= Susanna Gross & Sally Brock, John Currie & Rodney Lighton 77 11 Cathy & John Ashworth, Duncan & Diane Ault 74 12= Steve Mattinson & Rod Franks, Howard Stubbings & Dhun Daji 73 12= Liz Commins & Paddy Murphy, Stu Matthews & Alan Stephenson 73 14= Eve Lighthill, Jeff Morris, Ian Kane, Sidney Travers, Ken Hassell 70 14= Michael Tomlinson & Ewart Evans, Barrie & Julia Newall 70 16 Alec Smalley & Barbara Lewis, John Athey & Kevin Comrie 69 17 John Fitzgerald & Karen Jones, Graham Campbell & Andrew Jackson 67 18 Jeff Smith & Peter Jones, Alan & Kath Nelson 63 19 Haidee Tattersall & Anne Whitehead, Angela Parkinson & Wendy Burton 61 20 Roger Waddington & Bernard Kaye, Mohammed & Mariam Jabbar 60 21 David Welsh & Andrea Mills, Peter Allison & John Attree 54 22 Jeremy Harris & John Ellwood, Michael Howse & Peter Jeffreys 52 23 Karen Reissmann & Irene Davies, Gillian McMullan & Roger Hopton 48 24 Wyn Williams2 & Edward Jones, Andrea Knox & Jean Hand 47 25 George Leigh & Sally Bray, Adam Wiseberg & Peter Jackson 44
Michelle Brunner Memorial The annual mixed pivot teams event in memory of Michelle Brunner was held at Manchester Bridge Club on Saturday 18th July. An enjoyable afternoon of bridge saw 18 teams (with some very strange line ups) participating, with entrants coming from all over England. Thanks to Jeff Morris and Manchester Bridge Club for all their efforts in hosting the event, to Eve Lighthill and helpers for the raffle and to directors David Stevenson and Gordon Bickley. Joy Blakey and Barry Myers spoke movingly of their memories of Michelle. The event was won by Sally Brock, Alan Mould, Michael Newman and Neil Thomas (thanks to Neil for stepping in as substitute at the last minute). Full results are on the Manchester Bridge Club web site. The event raised over Ł1650 for Christie Hospital and St Anne's Hospice.
Selections The selection committee met on 9th July and made the following selections for Northern League matches in August.
Ben Beever We
are sorry to report the death of Ben Beever at the age of 39
as a result of a fall from a balcony. Ben was a well
known bridge player in the Manchester area and an
inspirational teacher of bridge at Manchester Bridge
Club. As a player his major achievements were winning
the Ben Franks with Eddie Thornton-Chan in 2011 and winning
the second division with the Petersfield team in 2014.
He was also a regular player at Bramhall Bridge Club where
he won several trophies and served as Chairman for a year.
Ben was also well known as an expert juggler, performing and running workshops; hence the naming of his complicated Juggler's Club bidding system. He held some world records for a time and wrote a book on the subject. He was a regular attender of the Monday night workshop, Quirkus, in Chorlton and appeared in most of the Manchester Juggling Convention shows over its sixteen year history. The funeral took place on Thursday 23rd July at 2 pm at Southern Cemetery and afterwards at Manchester Bridge Club where Ben's mother, Pru, was able to meet many of his friends. If you would like to make a donation to the Red Cross in Ben's memory, Ben's sister Beth has set up the link http://www.justgiving.com/BenjaminBeever Riviera Congress Congratulations
to Nicholas Greer and Sean Mekie who have won the Swiss
Teams at Torquay on 3rd July playing with former
Manchester player Mike Bell and Bill Gardner of
Kent. Full results are on the EBU web site.
Derbyshire Match The
Derbyshire match took place on 5th July at Manchester
Bridge Club, Manchester won by 34 imps to regain the
trophy. Derbyshire cleverly retained the trophy,
however, by forgetting to bring it with them!
 The Manchester Team Richard Sinton, Kevin Higgins, Ron Bayly, Herbert Potts, Howard Stubbings, Dhun Daji, Marcelo Rosenbaum Karen Reissmann, Irene Davies, Jeanne Bayly, Sylvia Massey, Elena Rosenbaum Third National Win for Manchester Manchester
won the National Counties League final held at Coventry
Bridge Club on Sunday 28th June to add to their recent
wins in the Pachabo and Garden Cities .
The
team
was John Holland/Gary Hyett, Tom Slater/Alec Smalley, John
Currie/Rodney Lighton and Michael Byrne/Michael
Newman.
The
final
is held between the winners of the Northern League, Southern
League, Eastern Counties, Midlands League and Western
league.
The
team
started as heavy favourites on paper, but Manchester have a
poor record in this event (finishing second nearly every
year, winning it only once before in 2011). They won every
match comfortably, and had a small half time lead which they
more than doubled in the second half.
In
the
B division Lancashire (winners of the Northern League B
division) led at half time but slipped to fourth at the end,
in the C division the Yorkshire team came second behind
Devon.
The
best
pair on the cross-IMP scoring of all the pairs were John
Holland and Gary Hyett by a large margin, the other pairs
were all plus though and it was a good team effort, although
perhaps slam bidding might be the topic of the next County
Training Seminar. This was John Currie's first
National win. Full results are
here.
 John Currie, Gary Hyett, Rodney Lighton, Michael Newman Michael Byrne, John Holland , Tom Slater, Alec Smalley President's Cup An unfortunate scheduling clash with the Inter Counties League Final (see above) meant that Manchester sent two completely different teams to the two days of the President's Cup at Derby on 27-28th June. There was a record entry of 13 teams. After Saturday Manchester had a small lead, but slipped to third by the end of Sunday's play. The event was won by Yorkshire with Derbyshire second. The teams were: Saturday John Currie/Rodney Lighton, John Holland/Gary Hyett, Alec Smalley/Tom Slater, Alan Jones/David Barton; Sunday Gillian McMullan/Neil Thomas, Jeff Morris/John Hassett, Ken Hassell/Raymond Semp, Peter Jones/David Audley. Top on the cross imp scoring were Gary /John, with Alan/David next. The other pairs on Saturday both had a good score too. On Sunday Raymond/Ken and Neil/Gillian did well. Full results are here and here (though the Butlers shown are incorrect). John Bird It is with great sadness that we report the death of Dr. John Bird. John was a member of the Manchester Bridge Club for very many years and also a regular player at Bramhall where he used to partner Geoff Storry amongst others. He was a gentleman at the bridge table and will be greatly missed. His
funeral
will be at St. Catherine’s Church, School Lane, Didsbury at
3.30 pm on Thursday 9th July 2015.
Manchester Bridge Club Win Garden Cities Congratulations to the Manchester Bridge Club Team of Michael Byrne/Michael Newman, Alan Mould/John Holland, John Hassett/Jeff Morris and Andrew Woodcock/Catherine Draper who won the Garden Cities trophy at Solihull on Saturday 13th June. They competed against seven other club teams who had qualified from regional finals. Lying second to Cambridge after the first session they overtook them to win by six VPs with third placed Chislehurst (Kent) some way behind. Manchester have won the trophy previously in 1988, 2000 and 2003. Full results are on the EBU web site.  Jeff Morris, Alan Mould, Michael Newman, Michael Byrne Catherine Draper, John Holland, Andrew Woodcock, John Hassett Manchester Win Pachabo Congratulations to the Manchester team of John Holland, Rodney Lighton, Michael Newman, Alan Mould and Michael Byrne who have won the Pachabo Trophy for Manchester for the first time since Manchester became a separate county in 1987. They played at West Bromwich on 6-7th June qualifying as Goldstone Trophy winners. The first four played all day on Saturday and built up a good lead ahead of Surrey by the end of the day winning 13 out of 15 matches. Michael Byrne joined the team on Sunday. Manchester started badly with three losses followed by a win and three more losses to be in fourth place with three matches to go. Fortunately three good wins over Middlesex, Suffolk and Lancashire left Manchester 5.5 points ahead of Surrey. This win breaks a streak of Manchester teams finishing second in National Events. Hopefully it presages a succesful Tollemache next season. This was the first national win for a long time for Rodney Lighton and Alan Mould.  John Holland, Alan Mould, Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton Summer Intermediate Pairs 25 pairs competed in the Summer Intermediate Pairs event at Altrincham on Sunday 7th June. Congratulations to the winners Annie Curtis and Jackie Lowrie (N/S) and Scott Middleton and Roy Saleh (E/W). Thanks to Irene Davies and Barbara Lewis for organising and to Joan Lewis for directing and to Ann Thornton, tournament secretary for presenting the prizes.
Rank North-South 1st Annie Curtis & Jackie Lowrie 57.17 2nd Shirley Pryce & Doreen Cook 56.64 3rd Chris Baker & Jim O'Neill 54.90 4th David Tattersall & Helen Nightingale 54.02 5th Adam Wiseberg & Peter Jackson 52.80 6th Simon Alexander & Carol Maman 50.70 7th Lisa Czyniewska & Diane Saxon 48.95 8th Sally Bray & George Leigh 48.25 9th Graham Winn & Susan Triggs 46.68 10th Paul West & Rak Kapur 44.23 11th Suzanne Beckett & Adele Hodari 43.36 12th Peter Collinson & Kate Durham 42.31 Rank East-West 1st Scott Middleton & Roy Saleh 62.50 2nd Mel Megitt & Estelle Megitt 59.85 3rd Richard Cross & Carol McKinnon 57.01 4th Don Walton & Peter Allison 56.82 5th Catherine Kramer & Dianne Hutchinson 55.49 6th Judy Yates & Sue McGeechan 53.22 7th Mike Kisil & Ralph Deane 49.43 8th Adrienne Stone & Mark Gomme 45.83 9th Hugh Searson & Barbara Searson 45.45 10th= Ally Olliver & Joan Missira 43.56 10th= Vanessa James & Brigitte Grassick 43.56 12th David Welsh & Andrea Mills 39.96 13th John Davies & Alan Swarbrick 37.31 Online Knockout The
National Online Knock Out Championships has been won by the
team led by Michael Byrne (Hugh McGann, Kieran Dyke, Fiona
Brown, with Ed Jones and Tommy Garvey in earlier matches).
They beat the team of Pottage (Julian Pottage, Pat Shields,
Johnny Richards and father Simon Richards, Mike Pownall and
Richard Plackett) over 32 boards played on June 4th over 4
sets of 8 by a comfortable margin.
Corwen Trophy In
the Inter County pairs (for which the Ben Franks qualified
four Manchester Pairs) on 30-31st May Ken Hassell and
Raymond Semp did well to finish fifth, with Ben Beever and
Eddie Thornton-Chan 17th. Our other two
representatives, Peter Carey-Yard/Gary Hyett and Pat
Burrows/Paul Worswick finished near half way. Full
results are on the EBU web site.
EBU Oxford Mid-Week Congress Congratulations to John Holland playing with Pat Davies of Wiltshire who finished second in the Swiss Pairs on 26-27th May. MCBA AGM The AGM of the association was held at Altrincham Bridge Club on Wednesday 27th May. Bob Cooke retired after 2 years as Chairman and 25 years of service in various positions on committees and Joan Hinchliffe retired as treasurer after several years service. The new Chair, Irene Davies, thanked them for their efforts and made presentations. Haidee Tattersall is the new treasurer and Ann Thornton takes over from Irene as chair of the tournament committee. The selection committee will be Michael Newman, Peter Jones, Alan Mould, Ken Hassell and Gillian McMullan. The rules for the Intermediate Player of the Year competition have been drastically altered and were presented to the AGM by Rodney Lighton. Players who are NGS Jack or below and Regional Master or below at the start of the competition (i.e just before the Green Point Swiss Teams in July) will be counted as Intermediate and separate ranking lists for Intermediates within the main ranking lists will be used to award points. See the PotY page for more details. Presentations were made for the 2014-15 season to league winners and for the PotY, see photos below.
Goldstone Final The
Goldstone
Trophy
has been won for the fourth year running by Team Byrne,
Michael Byrne, Rodney Lighton, Michael Newman, Alan Mould,
John Holland (and Gary Hyett in earlier rounds). They
beat Jeff Morris, John Hassett, Ollie Burgess, Rhona
Goldenfield by 28 imps.
The
match
was close throughout and team Morris were leading by 2 imps
at half time. A big third set saw Byrne pull away and in the
fourth set two key finesses failed in a game and a slam to
make the result seem deceptively comfortable.
This
event
is the qualifier for the Pachabo, the inter-county teams of
four championship in which Manchester finished 2nd last
year; this year the final is on June 6th/7th.
John
Holland increases his number of wins in the event, he has
won it 13 times, then Gary Hyett on 11 and Michael
Byrne/John Hassett with 9 victories each.
 Michael Byrne, Michael Newman and Rodney Lighton. Presenting the trophy organiser Roger Hopton. (Missing from photo Alan Mould, John Holland) Bernard's 50th Killarney Congress To
honour Bernard Goldenfield's 50th appearance at the annual
Killarney congress he was appointed honorary president of
the congress.
Manchester players won many events at the congress - click here for results.  Bernard bottom centre. Regional Improvers Pairs Congratulations
to Howard Rosemarine and Jonathan Berg who won the
Manchester heat of the Regional Improvers Pairs on Sunday
17th May at Manchester Bridge Club with Eamonn Scott and
Roger Galletly in second place. This event was
played simultaneously at four centres in the Northern
counties. Results for the Manchester heat are on the
Manchester Bridge Club web site and the overall results
are on the Yorkshire CBA web site.
Selections The selectors met on 12th May and selected the following teams for various events. Sunday June 28th National Leagues Final - A Division John Holland and Gary Hyett John Currie and Rodney Lighton Michael Byrne and Michael Newman Tom Slater and Alec Smalley President's Cup - June 27th and 28th 27th David Barton and Alan Jones John Holland and Gary Hyett John Currie and Rodney Lighton Tom Slater and Alec Smalley 28th Joy and Irving Blakey Jeff Morris and John Hassett Ken Hassell and Raymond Semp Neil Thomas and Gillian McMullan Derbyshire Match - July 5th Irene Davies and Karen Reisssmann Marcelo and Elena Rosenbaum Richard Sinton and Kevin Higgins Sylvia Massey and Herbert Potts Dhun Daji and Howard Stubbings Jeanne and Ron Bayly Garden Cities Regional Final The
Manchester Bridge Club team, who qualified as our county
representatives by winning the Gazette Trophy, have
qualified for the National final of the Garden Cities by
finishing a close second to Bolton Bridge Club in the
regional final at Bradford on Saturday 9th May. The
players were Catherine
Draper, Andrew Woodcock, Michael Byrne, Michael Newman,
Alan Mould, John Holland, John Hassett and Jeff Morris.
League The
league season is now finished with the final
match in Division 3 having been played -
congratulations to all division winners and
promoted teams.
In division 1 Isolated Menaces (Rhona Goldenfield) and Agamemnon (Kath Nelson) have finished third and fourth respectively behind Grasshoppers (Alec Smalley) and St Titus (Michael Byrne). Relegated are IMPs R Us (Tracy Capal), Petersfield (Eddie Thornton-Chan) and Vicki Christina Barcelona (Graham Burns). In division 2 DASH (Ken Hassell), North Star (Mike Hart) and Leaders with Attitude (Jeanne Bayly) are promoted. In Division 3 Sedgely (Bernard Kaye) have won the division with a fine average of 23 VPs, New Connections (Roger Hopton) are also promoted. In division 4 Manchester A (Ray Ashleigh) and Altrincham Z (Roy Higginbottom) are promoted. Division 5 has been very close all season; Spinning Tops (Howard Rosemarine) are promoted along with Trafford Tigers (Jean Santo) who won their last match 30-0 to just snatch second place. In division 6 Enigmas (Heather Saunders) are champions with Overtrick Lunatics (Faye Georgiou) also promoted. In division 7 3 Reds and a Rebel (Annie Curtis) have won the division, with Nemesis (Denise Phythian) also promoted. Player of the Year Congratulations
to Peter-Carey Yard who has won the intermediate category
of the Player of the Year competition, just ahead of last
year's winners Stephen Ward and Christopher Hine. In
the Expert category John Currie has won followed by Alan
Mould and Michael Byrne.
The rules for the intermediate category will change dramatically next year if approval is given to proposals at the AGM on 27th May. Madeline Berney Congratulations to Neil Thomas and Gillian McMullan who were first equal in the Swiss Pairs in Lancashire on Sunday 3rd May. Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield were third. Full results are on the Lancashire County web site. Higson Finals The finals of the Higson Cup and Plate competitions took place at Manchester Bridge Club on Sunday 26th April. In the Higson Final St Titus held a small lead at half time, but an average second session allowed three teams to overtake them. Justin Hackett's Curry Eaters made up for a disappointing league season by having an enormous second half to win ahead of Inverted Minors and Agamemnon in joint second place. The Plate final was very close with City Aces beating Midland Railway on a split tie; third and salver winners were Spinning Tops. Matches in the Cup Final were broadcast on BBO - thanks to students Henry Bissell, Rocky Bullin and Josh Clarke for running the BBO. Thanks to Kath Nelson for running the cup and league competitions, to Jeff Smith and Joan Lewis for directing and to everyone else involved in organisation and to the staff of Manchester Bridge Club for hosting the event. Detailed results are on the Manchester Bridge Club web site. As a result of the league and cup competitions John Currie has won the player of the year competition for 2014-2015 - congratulations.
Higson Cup
Higson Plate
Portland Bowl The
Manchester University team of Kirstyn Fuller, Mitchell
Dytham, Kelvin Lau and Max Sampson (Alex Combe in earlier
rounds) did well to reach the final of the Universities
event by beating Oxford, but lost to a strong Cambridge
team in the final at the Portland Club in London on 11th
to 12th April.
Yeh Bros Pairs Congratulations to Michael Byrne playing with Mike Bell of London, who won the pairs event at the international Yeh Bros event in Shanghai by a large margin ahead of Paul Hackett and Tom Hanlon, beating many international stars and current and former world champions. In
the teams England had qualified for the knock out event but
lost to India. The other two pairs were Sally Brock/Barry
Myers, frequent visitors to the Manchester Congress, and
Brian Callaghan/Heather Dhondy.
Shropshire
Congress
Congratulations to
Rodney Lighton and John Currie who won the Green Point Swiss
Pairs at Telford on 11th April. Third was Gary Hyett
playing with Dan Crofts. In the Swiss Teams on Sunday Gary and
Dan won with Ollie Burgess and Ed Levy.Full results are on the Staffs and Shrops web site. Knutsford Bridge Club At an EGM
on 31st March 2015 the members voted to disband the EBU
affiliated Knutsford Bridge Club due to low
attendances. Their last meeting will be on 14th
April.
Easter
Bridge
A
successful weekend for Alan Mould and John Holland at
Ilkley in the Northern Easter Festival. They were
second in the Open Pairs on Good Friday, third in the
Swiss Pairs on Saturday and won the Swiss Teams with Gary
Hyett and Willie Crook on Easter Sunday. Joint
second in the Swiss teams were Nicholas Greer, David
Debbage, John Parsons and Ed Levy, with Millie Jones, John
Atthey, Val and Julian Gibson. Full results are on
the YCBA site.
Meanwhile at London, Rob Myers was fourth in the Swiss Pairs with Dan McIntosh and Michael Byrne and Ollie Burgess were second in the Swiss Teams with David and Heather Bakhshi. Results for London are on the EBU web site. Norfolk
Congress
Congratulations to
Peter Greaves who won the Mens Pairs at the Norfolk Congress
on 27th March playing with Malcolm Thompson of Norfolk.Grasshoppers Win League Congratulations
to Alec Smalley, Tom Slater, John Currie and
Royce Alexander who won the league on 27th
March finishing with an emphatic 30-0
victory against Bare Bones. They won eight,
drew one and lost one (narrowly) of their
matches to finish with a fine average of 22
VPs. This is the first league win for
all four players in their first full season
in their current line up. St Titus
(Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Alan Mould,
Gary Hyett, Rodney Lighton, Ollie Burgess)
have finished second also with eight wins, a
draw and a narrow loss (to Grasshoppers),
but finishing 19 VPs behind Grasshoppers.
Cumbria
Congress
Congratulations to
Bill and Joyce White who won the Swiss Teams at the Cumbria
Congress with Tim and Babs Matthews on Sunday 22nd March.National Pairs Congratulations
to Tony Coley and John Holland who have qualified for the
National Pairs final in April by finishing seventh in the
Northern Pairs at Bradford on Sunday 15th March.
Silver Plate Congratulations
to Gary Hyett who has won the 2014 Silver plate with Graeme
Robertson, Dan Crofts and Andrew Thompson.
Mersey Green Point Teams In the Merseyside Swiss Teams on Sunday 8th March congratulations to Bill and Joyce White who won with Babs Matthews and John Farmer of Cumbria. Full results are on the Merseyside web site. Green Point Pairs The
annual
EBU/MCBA Green Point Pairs was held at
Altrincham on Saturday 7th March. As usual
the event was full and everyone had an enjoyable
time. Thanks to Rhona and Bernard
Goldenfield for organising and to David
Stevenson and Joan Lewis for directing as well
as other helpers from the MCBA.
Winners by a large margin were Alan Nelson and Jeff Smith with Peter Kauffman and Chris Pope of Merseyside in second place again well ahead of third. Congratulations to Stephen Ward and Chris Hine who came third belying their Intermediate status. Rodney Lighton and John Currie won their last match 20-0 and leaped a large number of places to finish fourth. More detailed results are on the Altrincham and Manchester Bridge Club web sites. The player of the year spreadsheet has now been updated, John Currie has increased his lead over Alan Mould to two points and Alan is now two points ahead of Michael Byrne with several other players close behind. 1 Jeff Smith & Alan Nelson 112 4.00 2 Peter Kaufmann & Chris Pope 103 2.82 3 N Stephen Ward & Chris Hine 95 2.56 4 Rodney Lighton & John Currie 93 2.11 5= Michael Newman & Alan Mould 90 2.24 5= Tracy Capal & Paddy Murphy 90 2.12 7 Patricia Burrows & Michael Byrne 89 1.74 8 Craig Fisher & Peter Jones 88 1.37 9 Ken Hassell & Ian Kane 86 1.38 10 N Gwen Beattie & Peter Jackson 85 1.00 11= Jeff Morris & Kath Nelson 79 1.25 11= Gordon Bickley & Ann Farquhar 79 1.25 13 John Ashworth & Catherine Ashworth 78 1.00 14= Stu Matthews & Mark Weeks 77 1.13 14= Peter Foster & Boris Ewart 77 0.88 16= Rhona Goldenfield & Bernard Goldenfield 76 1.00 16= Eve Lighthill & Sidney Travers 76 0.88 18= Nick Woodcock & Sue Woodcock 75 1.00 18= Irene Bowers & Wynn Sutherland 75 1.00 18= Pauline Lang & Rod Franks 75 0.88 21 Babs Matthews & John Farmer 74 1.01 22= Mohammed Jabbar & Mariam Jabbar 73 0.75 22= Bill White & Joyce White 73 0.75 24 Peter Richmond & Roger Allison 72 1.00 25= Angela Parkinson & Ray Ashleigh 71 1.00 25= N Michael Wymer & James Sheppard 71 1.00 27= Tony Hodgson & Eddie Thornton-Chan 70 1.00 27= Julian Merrill & John Hampson 70 0.75 29 Max Richman & Sandra Richman 69 0.50 30 Trevor Hails & Chris Ryall 66 0.75 31= Gillian Whyte & John Holland 65 0.75 31= Kevin Higgins & Richard Sinton 65 0.63 33= Gordon Rice & Stefan Bielecki 64 0.88 33= Barbara Lewis & Alec Smalley 64 0.50 33= David Pennington & Bob Cooke 64 0.50 36 Liz Wattleworth & Bill Wattleworth 63 1.00 37 John Morrell & Marianne Farr 62 1.00 38 Chris Baker & Jim O'Neill 61 0.75 39 Roger Waddington & Bernard Kaye 60 0.50 40 Steve Mattinson & Tony Coley 58 0.75 41 N Karen Sandler & Vivienne Newgrosh 56 0.75 42 N Haidee Tattersall & Andy Green 55 0.88 43 N George Leigh & Sally Bray 54 0.63 44= Celia Comrie & Kevin Comrie 52 0.38 44= N Adam Wiseberg & Jonathan Engler 52 0.38 46 Irene Davies & Gillian McMullan 51 0.50 47 N John Browning & Jean Bryan 43 0.38 48 Martin Thorne & Margaret Howe 37 0.25 49 N Pat Dunningham & Peter Horn 34 0.50 50 N Barbara Eastabrook & Karen Jones 31 0.25
Portland Pairs Nearly 440
pairs competed over the country in the National Mixed Pairs
on Sunday 2nd March. Congratulations to highest place
Manchester pair Joy and Irving Blakey at 13th just ahead of
John Holland playing with Pat Davies of Wiltshire.
Millie Jones was 25th with John Atthey and Eve Lighthill and
Ian Kane were 31st. Full results are on the EBU web
site.
Goldstone
Congratulations to the Division 5 team Spinning Tops (Howard
Rosemarine, Adrian Shiers, Jonathan Berg, Jeffrey Bor, David
Marks) who have beaten Tempo (Division 2) to reach the
semi-finals of the Goldstone Trophy. All the quarter
finals are now complete. St Titus (Michael Byrne,
Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton, John Holland, Alan Mould,
Gary Hyett) play Manchester S (Peter Jones, Craig Fisher,
Kevin Comrie, Celia Comrie) and Jeff Morris (John Hassett,
Rhona Goldenfield, Ollie Burgess) play Spinning
Tops
Cantor Cup The
Cantor
Cup
for inexperienced duplicate players was held at
Manchester Bridge Club on Sunday 22nd February.
There were eight tables, including several students - good to see them. Everyone enjoyed the afternoon, directed by Joan Lewis and with scones and tea/coffee in the break. Thanks to Joan for directing and to Irene Davies and Barbara Lewis for organising the event. Also thanks to the Cantor family for their continued sponsorship of this event.
2nd Annie Curtis & Jackie Lowrie 63.23 3rd Joan Missira & Kate Stec 61.57 4th Henry Bissell & Corin Hoad 55.82 5th Geoff Densham & Hazel Powell 54.30 6th Lisa Czyniewska & Diane Saxon 50.00 7th John Bridgeman & Paul Batstone 47.88 8th Mark Bradbury & Dave Eason 47.35 9th Nigel Campbell & Jackie Mickelson46.28 10th John Davies & Alan Swarbrick 45.90 11th Rocky Bullin & Joshua Clarke 44.71 12th Mitchell Dytham & Kirstyn Morris 43.72 13th Shirley Leak & Phillipe Noel 42.32 14th Julie Woodhead & Diane Warburton 42.20 15th John Curtis & Mike Whiteoak 41.73 16th Wendy Verber & Simon Alexander 40.48 Harrogate Spring Congress The
EBU congress at Harrogate took place from 20th to 22nd
February.
Congratulations to Joyce and Bill White who won the Mixed Pairs on Friday and to Gary Hyett and Alan Mould who won the Swiss Teams with Willie Crook and Richard Winter. Full results are on the EBU web site. Derek Gray We
are sad to report that Derek Gray died on February 19th.
Derek was a long standing member of Cheadle Hulme Bridge
Club and made many contributions to the Club: as chairman,
developing bridge lessons, starting the Tuesday evening
duplicates, organising a club bar, and being instrumental in
the move to the current club premises. His endeavours
on behalf of the club consolidated its position in the
Manchester bridge community and have enabled it to continue
as a leading club within the MCBA.
Tollemache
Final
The
inter
county teams of eight final took place on Feb 14-15th at
West Bromwich. The Manchester team of Michael
Byrne/Michael Newman, Jeff Morris/John Hassett, Alec
Smalley/Tom Slater, Gary Hyett/Alan Mould/Ollie Burgess
were leading after four matches on the first day.
They then lost to Berks and Bucks to drop to second,
followed by a good win against London to go virtually
level with Middlesex who they played in the final
match. Manchester were leading early in the match,
but unfortunately fell behind to finish second
overall. This equalled Manchester's best ever result
achieved recently in 2011, 2010 and 2003.
Congratulations to Alec and Tom who were second best pair
overall on the cross IMPs. Jeff and John also scored
well on the cross IMPs and Gary and Ollie did well
together. Full results are on the EBU web site.NEC Cup Japan The
NEC cup was played from Tuesday 10th to Saturday 15th
February. Congratulations to the Hackett team
(John Holland, Gunnar Hallberg, Jason Hackett and
Brian Senior) who won the Swiss qualifying and their
quarter and semi-final matches. In an exciting
final against a Dutch/English team on Saturday they
came from behind to win by 9 IMPs. For full
results click
here.
Gazette
Cup
The
Inter
clubs Teams of Eight, which is a qualifier for the Garden
Cities Trophy
was held on Sunday 8th February at Altrincham Bridge Club.
Nine
teams entered (a record) with Manchester (Newman) winning and
Cheadle Hulme second.The winning team go on to represent Manchester in the regional finals in May. The prize for best Intermediate team (average NGS J or below) went to Manchester Triggs. John Currie has now taken a narrow lead in the player of the year competition. Thanks to Joan Lewis for directing and Irene Davies for organising. Detailed results are on the Manchester Bridge Club web site. Results have been amended (12/2) because of a scoring error
.
1 1 Manchester (Newman) 132 Ollie Burgess,Michael Newman,Edward Levy,David Debbage John Hassett,Jeff Morris,Kath Nelson,Alan Nelson 2 2 Cheadle (Jones) 117 Royce Alexander,John Currie,Tom Slater,Alec Smalley Bill White,Joyce White,Joyce Jones,Robert Jones 3 5 Cheadle (Lighthill) 93 Eve Lighthill,Barbara Lewis,Dhun Daji,Howard Stubbings Neil Thomas,Gillian McMullan,Roger Hopton,David Fussell 4 6 Bramhall (Higgins) 88 Frank Brown,John Roberts,Kevin Higgins,Richard Sinton Eddie Thornton-Chan,Tony Hodgson,Doris Kirwan,Gilbert Fletcher 5 3 Altrincham Eagles 87 Kenneth Hassell,Ian Kane,Gary Hyett,David Olliver Steve Mattinson,Pauline Lang,Sidney Travers,Raymond Semp 6 4 Manchester (Triggs) 76 Graham Winn,Susan Triggs,Patricia Gorham,Anthony O'Neill Karen Reissmann,Irene Davies,Ross Allen,Phillip Taylor 7 7 Manchester (Green) 59 Nicki Decent,Haidee Tattersall,Andy Green,James Sheppard George Kasnicki,Simon Alexander,John Moran,Carol Maman 8 8 Altrincham (Robins) 46 John Fitzgerald,Richard Acaster,Karen Jones,Barbara Eastabrook Graham Campbell,Terry Wild,Mohammed Jabbar,Mariam Jabbar 9 9 Manchester (students) 22 Nicholas Greer,Emma Page,Charles Purle,Mitchell Dytham Rocky Bullin,Josh Clarke,Alex Combe,Henry Bissell Lanzarote
Overseas
Congress
Congratulations to
Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield who have won the Swiss Pairs at
the EBU holiday event on 7th February.They also won the Swiss Teams with Joy and Irving Blakey. All results from this congress are on the EBU web site.  Rhona & Bernard Goldenfield, Irving & Joy Blakey Lady Milne Trials Sarah
O'Connor,
playing
with Anne Rosen of London has finished second in the Lady
Milne Trials and thus earned the right to be selected on the
EBU team when the event is held in April in Birmingham.
This will be Sarah's first appearance on the full England
team, although she has previously represented England U25s and
girls teams, and played in the Ladies invitation event in
China in 2013.
Tracy
Capal
narrowly missed selection when a poor last two sets saw her
drop from 1st to 6th.
The
trials
were won by Sally Brock, current holder of the Michelle
Brunner Mixed Pivot teams, partnering Anita Sinclair.
Sarah, who lived in Manchester for a few years, is now resident in London, but still registered as a Manchester player. The trials were held at Richmond Bridge Club on 23-25th January, full results are on the EBU web site. Chester
Congress
John Currie and Rodney
Lighton continued their recent run of fine form when they won
the Pairs at Deva Bridge club on Saturday 17th January, just
ahead of Dan Crofts and Gary Hyett with Bernard and Rhona
Goldenfield third. In the consolation final Neil Thomas
and Gillian McMullan won with an impressive 70% score.Full results are on the Deva Club web site. Manchester Congress 2015 Sixty years ago, in 1955, Sid Travers won the Manchester Teams. It was wonderful to see him, still in fine form, at this year's congress competing on Sunday and presenting the prizes. In the pairs on Sunday Rodney Lighton and John Currie had a reasonable 56% first session to lie about fifteenth, but then had a fine evening session to just edge out Michael Byrne and John Atthey (who win the Men's pairs) and win this event both for the first time. Ed Jones and Shivam Shah were third, with Kath and Alan Nelson fourth also getting the Mixed pairs prize. In eighth place, visitors from Scotland, Lucia Barrett and Laura Middleton won the Ladies pairs. Shivam Shah won the prize for best junior over the weekend. The intermediate prizes this year were based this year on an NGS grading of 10 or below, winning were John Moran and Andy Green with Duncan and Diane Ault second. In the teams on Sunday Rob Myers, Adrian Kenworthy, Mike Goldsmith and Dave Debbage were half a match clear of last year's winners Marianne Farr, Rhona Goldenfield, Jim Luck and Bernard Goldenfield. In the B final Rodney Lighton (who won the B final last year) won again, this time with John Currie, Tom Slater and Alec Smalley and in the C final Karen Reissmann, Irene Davies, Gillian McMullan and Dave Hammonds were winners. Raymond Semp and Michael Byrne provided quizzes to keep players entertained between sessions. As usual the congress was most enjoyable, with many visitors from all over the country and a large contingent of junior players. Thanks to all the committee members and all those who helped with the organisation and to the directors for running the event smoothly. The Player of the Year spreadsheet has now been updated, Alan Mould and Michael Byrne are now joint leaders. There was a good turnout for the two events for inexperienced duplicate players, thanks to the organisers for running these events. Results and photos are below. If you have any comments (preferably constructive) about the congress please email Irene Davies Pairs Results Team A Final Team B Final Team C Final Team Qual Black Team Qual Green Team Qual Grey More detailed scores (travellers etc.) are on the Manchester Bridge Club web site. Michael Byrne's Quiz 1st
Dianne Saxon / Liza Czyniewska
and
friends 59 /70
2nd = England U20s
and friends
49/70
2nd = Liz Downie and
friends
49/70
4th
John Haslegrave / James Sheppard
43/70
Players’ Progress Cup (Saturday) 1st Peter Berens & Paula Berens 60.00 2nd Peter Collinson & Kate Durham 59.58 3rd Annie Curtis & Jackie Lowrie 57.08 4th Mike Downie & Liz Downie 56.67 5th John Banbury & George Falzon 55.83 6th Hazel Powell & Geoff Densham 54.17 7th Vanessa James & Brigitte Grassick 53.33 8th Paul West & Rak Kapur 48.75 9th Malcolm Allum & Mark Saperia 47.92 10th Sue Jones & Carol Straffon 47.50 11th Sue Bloor & Sally Duncombe 44.58 12th E Czyniewska & Diane Saxon 42.08 13th Barbara Dickie & Cath Shekelton 39.17 14th Bernard Shea & Pat Shea 33.33 Kevin Comrie Cup (Sunday) 1 Gill Butterworth & Hari Gohil 61.31 2 Sheila Cornwell & Janet Bailey 61.01 3 Mike Kisil & Ralph Deane 59.82 4 Liz Downie & Margaret Kelly 58.04 5 Pat Denham & Del O'Sullivan 57.44 6 David Welsh & Andrea Mills 55.36 7 Annie Garry & Peter Watts 54.46 8= Peter Allison & John Attree 53.87 8= Rak Kapur & Linda Williams 53.87 10 Paul West & Hazel Powell 50.60 11 Leslie Jowsey & Ian Semmell 48.21 12 Annie Curtis & Jackie Lowrie 47.02 13 Pat & Bernard Shea 44.94 14 Joan Hinchliff & Peter Butterworth 44.64 15 Carole Whitehurst & Sue Berry 44.05 16 Denise Phythian & Elaine Preece 43.75 17 Lisa Czyniewska & Diane Saxon 42.86 18 Helen Herdman & Lilian Syme 42.26 19 Felicity Byrne & Reba Bhaduri 39.88 20 Catherine Shekelto & Sally Freeman 36.61
Merville Goldstone Trophy 2014-2015
St Titus: Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton, John Holland, Alan Mould, Gary Hyett Tempo: Dhun Daji, Rod Franks, David Pennington, Bob Cooke Morris: Jeff Morris, John Hassett, Rhona Goldenfield, Ollie Burgess Tricksters: Kevin Higgins, Richard Sinton, Ann Thornton, David Matthews Trafford Tigers: Jean Santon, Clive Worthington, Helen Worthington, John Mcintee Manchester S: Peter Jones, Craig Fisher, Kevin Comrie, Celia Comrie Nemesis: Joan and Alan Hinchliffe, Denise Phythian, Jeff Ashcroft Dash
- Ken Hassell, Ian Kane, Raymond Semp, Eve
Lighthill, David Olliver
Conquering
Hearts
- Haidee Tattesall, Daphne Youles, Nicki Decent,
Wendy Burton, Angela Parkinson
Barbara
Lewis:
Alec Smalley, Tom Slater, Barbara Lewis and Sam
Herman
Spinning Tops: Howard Rosemarine, Adrian Shiers, Jonathan Berg, Jeffrey Bor, David Marks 2014-2015 League Click here for the final league table Click below for the lists of players Division 1 Division 2 Division 3 Division 4 Division 5 Division 6 Division 7 |
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