2024 News and Results

Silver Award for Michael

Congratulations to Michael Byrne who will be given an EBU Silver Award for his contributions to junior bridge over many years.

He will receive the award at the Channel Trophy in London in December.

Tollemache Qualifier

The  inter counties teams of eight qualifier took place online on November 9-10th.  Manchester won their qualifying group, winning most of their matches to finish ahead of Warwickshire, Middlesex and London the other qualifiers.  In the other group Surrey, Oxford, Kent and Gloucester qualified for the final next February.

The team was Alec Smalley/David Barton, Michael Byrne/Gary Hyett, Rodney Lighton/Tom Dessain/Royce Alexander/Alan Mould, John Hassett/Andrew Woodcock, Rhona Goldenfield/Kath Nelson.

Congratulations to Michael & Gary who headed the cross imps with Alec & David close behind in third place.

Results can be found on the EBU web site.

Porthcawl Congress

Congratulations to John Holland and Raymond Semp who won the Swiss Pairs and Swiss Teams (with Paul Denning and Alastair Catchpole) at Porthcawl on 2nd-3rd November.  Results are here.

Northern Bridge League

The final round of the NBL took place online on Saturday 19th October.  Manchester produced their best result of the year winning on the day with a big score which moved them up into third place overall.  The Manchester team was Roger Hopton/David Fussell, Karen Reissmann/Irene Davies, Gil Fletcher/Richard Acaster, Chris Hine/Ann Thornton.  The first three pairs all did well on the cross imps, with Roger and David best pair in the division with a fine score.

Final tables are on the NBL web site.

Detailed results are on the Cumbria web site.

Higson Cup and Plate

22 teams have entered the Higson Cup this year.  Paul Beckwith has divided them into six groups of three and one group of four, with a seeded team in each group and two seeded teams in the four team group.  The winning team in each group will qualify for the Higson final and the second placed team for the Plate final.  In the four team group the third placed team will also qualify for the Plate final.

Guidelines and Conditions of Contest can be seen via the Cup page.

The group tables are on the EBU site, click here.

Manchester League

The four divisions for the league 2024-25 have been set up, there are nine teams in division one and seven teams in divisions two, three and four.  A newcomer's league is in the process of being set up.

Follow the links on the league page to see current standings.

Dimmie Fleming - Irene Davies

Congratulations to Irene Davies who will be receiving the Dimmie Fleming Award from the EBU for her contributions to the success of the MCBA during the last 15 years.  Click here for citation.

Premier League

The EBU's Premier League's second weekend was on 28-29th September.  Manchester players participating were John Hassett and Andrew Woodcock in the Hackett team, Michael Byrne in the Knottenbelt team, John Holland and Alan Mould in the Penfold team.  The Knottenbelt team remain second in the first division but the Penfold team have moved up to lead the second division.  Results are on the EBU web site.

Cumbria/Westmorland Swiss Pairs

Congratulations to the Manchester pairs who did well in this event on Sunday Sept 22nd.  Eddie Thornton-Chan/Tony Hodgson were second, Daniel Kelsall/Stuart Shalom third and Barbara Eastabrook/Karen Jones fourth.  Results are on the Cumbria web site.

Crockfords Finals

The finals of Crockfords took place from 21st to 22nd September.  Alec Smalley, Tom Slater, Michael Byrne and John Hassett finished fourth in the cup.  In the Plate David Barton and Irving Blakey played on the Solomon team.  John Holland and Alan Mould played on the Penfold Team, they finished fourth.  Results are on the EBU web site.

Northern Bridge League

Round 3 of the NBL took place on 14th September.  In the B division Manchester finished fifth on the day and are fifth overall.  The team was Eve Lighthill/David Sarabowski, Karen Reissmann/Ann Thornton, Gordon Bickley/Ann Farquhar, Richard Acaster/Gil Fletcher.  Karen and Ann and Gordon and Ann were positive on the cross imps.  Rankings are on the NBL site, detailed results on the Cumbria web site.

Guernsey Congress

The EBU's Guernsey congress took place from 9-11th September.  In the Championship Pairs Gary Hyett was second playing with Ros Wolfarth.  In the Senior Pairs John Holland and Raymond Semp won with Gary and Ros third.  These two pairs combined to come second in the Multiple Team.  In the Swiss Pairs John and Raymond were second.  Results are on the EBU web site.

Goldstone Draw 2024-25

Roger Hopton has done the draw for the Goldstone Trophy.  Eighteen teams have entered this year with four teams in the preliminary round to be played by 17th November and the first full round to be played by 12th January.  Good luck to all, winners will represent Manchester in the Pachabo next summer.

Gerard Faulkner 2023-24

Congratulations to John Holland and Alan Mould who won the Seniors Knockout playing for the Penfold team (Sandra Penfold, Paul Hackett, Brian Senior, Norman Selway).  They beat the Gerald Soper's team from Kent (Kay Preddy, Jeremy Willans, Colin Wilson) by 25 imps in the final.  This is John's fourth and Alan's first win in this event.

Summer League

Congratulations to St Titus (Michael Byrne, John Holland, Gary Hyett, Alan Mould, Rodney Lighton) who have won division 1 of the summer league with an impressive average of 26 VPs.  In the final match of their season they beat Grasshoppers (Alec Smalley, Tom Slater, Stephen Ward, Daniel Kelsall, Gideon Harvey, Mike Goldsmith) 19-1.  Grasshoppers finished second with a good average of 20 VPs.  In division 2 Yet Another Level (Royce Alexander, Chris Bradley, Peter Foster, Colin Mills) have won the division.  Follow the links on the league page to see the current standings.

Northern Midweek Congress

In the EBU congress at Harrogate from 27-29th August well done to Karen Jones and Barbara Eastabrook who came second in the Jack High pairs on the Tuesday afternoon and were fifth in the Open pairs on the Tuesday evening.  In the Swiss Pairs on the Wednesday Rhona Goldenfield and Raymond Semp finished fourth.  In the Swiss Teams Martin Taylor and Justin Hackett were second playing with John Sansom and Clive Owen.  Results are on the EBU web site.

NBL Round 2

The second round of the Northern Bridge League took place online on 18th August.  The Manchester team in the B division finished fifth on the day and are in fifth position overall.  The team was Alan Tranter/Andy Burnett, Karen Jones/Barbara Eastabrook, Stuart Shalom/Daniel Kelsall, Gordon Bickley/Ann Farquhar.  Alan and Andy did well on the cross imps.  Detailed results are on the Cumbria website.  League tables are on the NBL site.

EBU Summer Meeting

Manchester players had some success at the EBU Summer Meeting in Eastbourne from 8-11th August.  In the Mixed Pairs Gary Hyett was fifth with Ros Wolfarth, Raymond Semp and Rhona Goldenfield were sixth.  In the Swiss Pairs John Holland and Raymond Semp were fifth.  Best of all in the Swiss Teams Rhona Goldenfield and Kath Nelson were third playing with Dave Robinson and Rob Lawy, they were the top Seniors team.

Dave Robinson, Kath Nelson, Rhona Goldenfeild, Rob Lawy

---

Michael Wins Hubert Phillips

Congratulations to Michael Byrne who has won the 2023-2024 Hubert Phillips playing with Maggie Knottenbelt, David Gold, Kieran Dyke and Ben Handley-Pritchard.  They beat Frances Hinden's team by 1000 aggregate points online on Monday 5th August, having beaten various strong teams in previous rounds.  This is Michael's second win in the event, having won in 2017.

Green Point Swiss Teams

This annual event was held at Altrincham on Sunday 28th July.  Ably organised by Rhona Goldenfield and directed by Stuart Davies, 19 teams enjoyed a sunny day's bridge.  Thanks to Rhona and Stuart and also to Joan Lewis and others for help on the day.

The team of Nicholas Greer, Neil Thomas, Peter Grauer and Phillip Taylor were in the lead for most of the day until they dropped to third equal with Rhona Goldenfield, Kath Nelson, Irving and Joy Blakey after losing heavily to the winners Rodney Lighton, Tom Dessain, Sally Brock and Barry Myers.  Meanwhile the Lancashire team of Nick Sutcliffe, Bob Loveridge, David Costich and Andrew Lum leapt into second place with a good last round win.  Unusually the winning team only won four of their seven matches.  Well done to Nicholas and Neil who headed the cross imps with a huge score.

Results are here.

Winners (Kevin Comrie MCBA President) Tom Dessain, Rodney Lighton, Sally Brock, Barry Myers	Second Andrew Lum, Nick Sutcliffe, David Costich, Bob Loveridge
Third equal Peter Grauer, Phillip Taylor, Nicholas Greer, Neil Thomas, Rhona Goldenfield, Kath Nelson, Joy Blakey (Irving Blakey)	non-expert first equal Howard Stubbings, Dhun Daji, Steve Mattinson, (Pauline Lang)
non-expert first equal Karen Jones, Barbara Eastabrook, Richard Acaster, Stephen Halstead	Last round highest score Kevin and Celia Comrie, Irene Davies, Karen Reissmann

NBL Match 2

The team for the second round of the NBL on Saturday 17th August will be Gordon Bickley(capt)/Ann Farquhar, Karen Jones/Barbara Eastabook, Alan Tranter/Andy Burnett, Stuart Shalom/Daniel Kelsall.  Reserves Richard Acaster/Gil Fletcher.  After this event the selectors will be inviting applications for the third and fourth rounds on September 14th and October 19th.

Northern Bridge League

The Manchester Team for the NBL Division B match on Saturday 13th July on Realbridge was Irene Davies (Capt)/Karen Reissmann, David Sarabowski/Eve Lighthill, Ann Thornton/Chris Hine, Richard Acaster/Gil Fletcher.  They finished seventh, with Karen and Irene our best pair on the cross imps.  Manchester only entered the B division this year.  Results can be found on the Cumbria web site and on the NBL web site

Junior Europeans

Fresh from his performance in the European Mixed Teams in Denmark, Michael Byrne captained the U26 team in the Junior European Championship in Wroclaw, Poland.  The team was Daniel Winter/Liam Sanderson, Joseph Clark/Liam Fegarty, Harry Madden/Oscar Selby.  England was represented in all five categories (U21s, U26s, U31s, U16s and U26 women) with the first two categories starting on Sunday 7th July and the others on Tuesday 9th July.

All teams finished in the top eight to earn a spot at the World Championship next summer.

Click here for the event website

European Championship

The European Championship took place in Herning, Denmark from Mon 24th June to Thurs 4th July.  Alan Mould and John Holland played for England in the Seniors event, Michael Byrne in the Mixed.  The Seniors finished seventh and the Mixed team sixth, so both qualified for the World championships next year, congratulations.  John and Alan did well to finish top of the cross imps in the Seniors event.

Click here for the results.

Manchester versus Lancashire

The match against Lancashire on June 30th took place at Bolton Bridge Club.  In the open event Lancashire won by 109 VPs to 71.  The team was Rhona Goldenfield/Kath Nelson, Jeff Morris/John Hassett, Alec Smalley/Barbara Lewis, Phil Taylor(Capt)/Peter Grauer, Mike Hart/Pearl Fielding, Alan Tranter/Andy Burnett.

In the Jack High match on the same day Lancashire won by 119 to 61 VPs.  The team was Ray & Angela Ashleigh, Rachel Hardcastle/Phil Kemp, Margaret Harris/Judith Eva, Mike Kisil/Melody Slinn, Peter & Paul Berens, Mike Whiteoak/Sue Howard, Ann Taylor/Ivor Rosenberg, Suzanne & Roy Beckett, Mike Greaney/David Leigh.  Results are on the Manchester results website.

Corwen

Congratulations to John Holland and Alan Mould who won the inter county pairs Corwen Trophy at Yarnfield on 15th-16th June.  They finished just ahead of Ed Scerri and Steve Eginton of Berks and Bucks in a tight finish.  They previously won this event in 2018.  Three other Manchester pairs Rodney Lighton/Tom Dessain, Kath Nelson/Rhona Goldenfield and Eddie Thornton-Chan/Tony Hodgson also played with varying degrees of success.  Results are on the EBU web site.

Pachabo

The Manchester team of Catherine Draper, Andrew Woodcock, Jeff Morris and John Hassett finished a creditable fourth in the inter counties teams of four held online on 8th-9th June.  They had qualified for this by reaching the as yet unplayed final of the Goldstone Trophy (and being the only players who wished to play from the two finalists).

World Bridge Games Seniors Trials

The trials for this event in Buenos Aires in October take place at the West Midlands Bridge Club from 8th to 9th June.  Alan Mould and John Holland played in the Mossop Team against the Pryor team.  The Pryor team won by 25 imps over 112 boards.

National Inter Counties League

The Manchester team finished third in the C Division of the National Inter Counties League played online on Sunday 2nd June.

The team had qualified by winning the C division of the Northern Bridge League in 2023.  The team was Grodon Bickley/Ann Farquhar, Gil Fletcher/Richard Acaster, Ann Thornton/Karen Jones, Sally Leigh/Judith Dunkerley.  Gordon and Ann were our best pair on cross imps finishing second overall.

AGM

The AGM of the association was held on Thursday 30th May at Bramhall.

Irene Davies retired as Chair after many years of service.  She was presented with a retirement gift by MCBA President Kevin Comrie.

Minutes are now on the document page.

Irene Davies with Kevin Comrie

League Secretary Royce Alexander with Jeff Morris Division One Winner

League and Goldstone Update May 29th

The league is now finished for 2023-24.  Thanks to Royce Alexander for arranging, hope to see everyone back next season.

Congratulations to The Griffins (Catherine Draper, Andrew Woodcock, John Hassett and Jeff Morris) who have won division one of the league, defeating Michael Byrne's St. Titus in the final match of the division.  In division two congratulations to Mike Hart's North Star who won with Eddie Thornton-Chan's Petersfield second.  In division three Four Dummies (Barbara Eastabrook) have won, Adrian Shiers' Help finished second.  In division four The Transfers (Ruth Bertfield, Susan Lentin, Jeffrey and Sandra Marks) have won.

In the Goldstone the final is between Catherine Draper's Griffins and Michael Byrne's St Titus, the winners qualifying for the EBU's Pachabo Trophy to be held online on June 8th-9th

Garden Cities Regional Final

Congratulations to the Bramhall and Cheadle team who came second in the regional final of the Garden Cities at Bradford on Saturday 11th May and thus qualify for the national final in June.  The team was Michael Byrne/Gideon Harvey, Rodney Lighton/Tom Dessain, Tom Slater/Fly Leung, Peter Grauer/Stephen Ward.  Results are on the EBU web site.

Jersey Congress

John Holland and Raymond Semp played in the EBU's Jersey Congress which ran from 6th-12th May.  They did well coming second in the Seniors' Pairs and the Open Pairs and winning the Multiple Teams with Nick and Sue Woodcock from Lancashire, followed by winning the Swiss Pairs.

Chair's Newsletter

Click here for the latest newsletter from Irene Davies.

Madeleine Berney Swiss Pairs

Congratulations to Kath Nelson and Rhona Goldenfield who were second (on a split tie) in this Lancashire event at Brierfield on Sunday 5th May.  Results can be found via the Lancashire web site.

Spring Fours

The EBU's prestigious double elimination event took place over the bank holiday weekend from 3rd to 7th May.  Manchester players involved were Michael Byrne on the Knottenbelt team, John Holland and Alan Mould on the Penfold team and Phillip Taylor and Nicholas Greer on the Taylor team.

The Taylor team was eliminated quickly, the Knottenbelt team lasted until losing in Round 4, the Penfold team did well to reach the semi-final.

Results are on the EBU web site.

World Bridge Games Trials

Trials for the World Bridge Games Open Team took place from 26th to 29th April at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club.  Michael Byrne was playing on the Knottenbelt team with Kieran Dyke.  Despite a late surge the Knottenbelt team finished third in the round robin phase and thus failed to reach the play offs on the final day.  Michael and Kieran were, however, the best pair on the cross imp scoring.  Results are on the EBU web site.

Festival of Bridge

Click here for news of an event held by Bramhall members as part of the charity fund raising for the Festival of Bridge

National League Final

Manchester won the C Division of the Northern Bridge League last year so go on to represent the region in the National League final online on Sunday 2nd June.  The team selected is Gil Fletcher(Capt)/Richard Acaster, Gordon Bickley/Ann Farquhar, Sally Leigh/Judith Dunkerley, Ann Thornton/Karen Jones.

Higson Cup and Plate Finals

The multi-team, handicap finals of these competitions took place at Bramhall on Sunday 21st April for the teams who had survived the knockout rounds.  Thanks to Paul Beckwith for organising and Stuart Davies for directing, also to Bramhall for hosting the event.

In the Cup Inverted Minors (Jeff Smith, Rhona Goldenfield, Joy and Irving Blakey) won ahead of St Titus when the handicap was taken into account.

In the Plate event Ashton United won, their handicap moving them up to first place from fourth on raw scores.

Paul Beckwith with Jeff Smith, Rhona Goldenfield, Joy and Irving Blakey

Ashton United with Paul Beckwith

Cup

Seniors Trials

The second weekend of the Seniors Trials was on 6-7th April.  David Mossop/Gunnar Hallberg, John Holland/Alan Mould played a match against Trevor Ward/Rob Cliffe, Patrick Shields/Richard Chamberlain to determine who will represent England in Denmark in June.  The Mossop team won by 33 imps, so congratulations to John and Alan who are selected.

Results are on the EBU web site.

Congratulations to John Holland and Alan Mould who finished a close second in the first weekend of the European Trials at West Midland Bridge Club from 8th-10th March.

Easter Festivals

Congratulations to Roger Hopton and Irene Davies who finished third in the Swiss Pairs at Harrogate on Saturday 30th March.

Results are on the EBU web site.

National Pairs

Congratulations to Janet Tolan and Peter Grauer and George & Sally Leigh who finished in the top 50 nationally in the regional heats of the national pairs on Sunday 24th March.  They qualify to play in the national final in April to be held online.  Results are on the EBU web site.

Denis Robson

Denis Robson, who died on March 10th at the age of 89, was one of Manchester's best players from the late fifties on.

He formed a strong partnership with Bernard Goldenfield.  Together with team mates John Buck and Raymond Semp, they were one of the top teams in the North of England for several decades.

He won the Manchester League and Cup several times as well as other county events.  At national level he reached a Gold Cup final and won the National Swiss Teams and Tollemache Cup.  His crowning achievement was to play for England in the Camrose Trophy in 1976.

On the administrative side he was the EBU chairman for four years.

He was an accountant by profession, becoming a senior partner in his firm and also the chairman of Thwaites Brewery.

He married Val in 1959, they had five children Alison, Jacqui, Nicole, Robert and John.  After giving up bridge at the top level he played with Val in local events.  When Val died in 2021 Denis returned to his roots living in a nursing home in Sunderland.

Thanks to Raymond Semp for much of this information.

A well attended funeral was held on 27th March where two of his daughters gave a nice eulogy and revealed many other facets of Denis' life which most bridge players did not know about.

GP Swiss Pairs

The Green Point Swiss Pairs was held on Saturday 2nd March at Altrincham.  38 pairs competed with a good number of non-expert pairs there.  Thanks to Stuart Davies for directing with his usual efficiency, Rhona Goldenfield for organising and to Joan Lewis and others for their help in setting up and clearing away.

Rodney Lighton and Tom Dessain reached the top tables quickly and continued to win throughout the day finishing with a good score of 110 VPs from the seven matches.  They were well clear of David Sarabowski and Jeff Morris in second place, with Tracy Sherman and Chris Child third.  Top non-experts were Graham Burns and Anthony Lipson with Ann Edwards and Anne Jordan second.

Detailed results are on the MCBA entries site.  The PotY spreadsheet has been updated, Rodney Lighton increased his lead in the Expert category, there was no change in the non-expert category, where Karen Jones and Barbara Eastabrook lead.

Winners Rodney Lighton (Kevin Comrie MCBA President) Tom Dessain	Second David Sarabowski, Jeff Morris
Third Chris Child, Tracy Sherman	Fourth John Holland (with Gillian Whyte)
Second non-experts Ann Edwards, Anne Jordan

Camrose Trophy in Manchester

The second weekend of the Home Nations Internationals took place from Friday 1st March to Sunday 3rd March at the Cresta Court Hotel WA14 4DP in Altrincham.  Thanks to Alec Smalley, the match manager, and his team of helpers for their efforts over the weekend. The England team won the event with the EBU team finishing second.  Michael Byrne played for the EBU team as a reserve.

Click here for program and live results

Cantor Cup

The annual event for new and inexperienced players was held at Manchester Bridge Club on Sunday 25th Feb.

The event is sponsored by the Cantor family in memory of Trudy and Oliver Cantor who taught and played bridge in Manchester many years ago.

The event was ably directed by Nicholas Greer, with support from Anne Naylor of the Manchester Bridge Club.  Thanks to Susan Triggs for organising and for the report and pictures.  Detailed results are on the Manchester Bridge Club web site.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Some of the players were very new to bridge - a few of the players only started their bridge lessons in September 2023 and so were brave to enter and also did very well (Meg Warner, Eddie Clift, Vic SIngfield and Rod Dean).  Congratulations to the winners Angela and Prakash who had never partnered each other before.

Winners Prakash Mehta (Susan Triggs) Angela Petrious	Second Susan Holden and June Ellicott
Third Anne Humphries and Sarah O'Neill

Tollemache Final - Manchester Win

Congratulations to the Manchester team who won the inter counties team of eight for the second year running in Coventry over the weekend of 17-18th Febuary.  They won six and drew one of their matches against the other counties to finish well clear of Middlesex in second place.  The team was Tom Slater/Alec Smalley(capt), John Holland/Alan Mould, Jeff Morris/John Hassett, Phil Taylor/Nicholas Greer, travelling reserve Rhona Goldenfield. John and Alan were the best pair on cross imps.  Especial congratulations to Phil and Nicholas who were drafted in as last minute replacements for their first ever Tollemache.  Well done to the selectors in selecting a fine team despite various withdrawals and non-availabilities.

Results are on the EBU web site.

Chair's Newsletter

Click here for Irene Davies' February newsletter.

Harrogate EBU Spring Congress

Congratulations to John Holland playing with Jackie Pye who finished second of seventy pairs in the Swiss Pairs at Harrogate on 9-10th February.  Results are on the EBU web site.

England Mixed Trials

Trials for the Mixed Team to represent England in the European Championships took place from 2nd to 5th February in Solihull.  Michael Byrne played in Team Knottenbelt, Catherine Draper and Andrew Woodcock in Team Seale.  Both teams qualified from the round robin on Friday and Saturday to play in the semi-final matches on Sunday.  Team Seale won the round robin and Team Knottenbelt were third.  Both teams went on to win their semifinals on Sunday, they played each other on Monday. 

Congratulations to Michael Byrne and team (Maggie Knottenbelt, Kieran Dyke, Heather Dhondy, Mike & Sarah Bell) who won the final convincingly and will represent England in the European Championships in Herning Denmark in June.  Commiserations to Andrew and Catherine who did very well, especially as they were a four player team.

Results are on the EBU web site.

Gazette Trophy

The inter club teams of eight competition was held on Sunday 4th February at Manchester Bridge Club.  Eight teams competed, three each from Manchester and Bramhall & Cheadle and two from Altrincham.  Bramhall A held a small lead at half time with the strong Manchester A team languishing in the bottom half of the field.  A late surge from Manchester A saw them leap into second place, but they couldn't catch Bramhall.  Congratulations to Alec Smalley, Tom Slater, Peter Grauer, Stephen Ward, John Holland, Raymond Semp, Gary Hyett and Rodney Lighton. Tom and Alec headed the cross imp rankings.  Manchester A were Paul Hackett, Mike Goldsmith, Jason Hackett, Martin Taylor, Jeff Morris, David Sarabowski, John Hassett, Rhona Goldenfield.  In third equal place were Bramhall C Steve Mattinson, Tony Hodgson, Julia Bannister, Joyce White, Howard Stubbings, Dhun Daji, Barbara Lewis, Ann Thornton and Manchester B Ann Wood, Dee Connolly, Susan Triggs, Graham Winn, Ceilia and Kevin Comrie, Jon Middleton, Andy Brocklehurst.

The winning team goes on to represent Manchester in the Garden Cities Regional Final in May.

Thanks to Jeff Smith for directing, Michael Byrne for organising and providing half time desserts and to Manchester Bridge Club members for hosting.

Detailed results are on the Manchester Events site.

Chester Congress

The annual congress at Deva Bridge Club took place on 27th-28th January.  Congratulations to Kath Nelson who won the pairs playing with Tracy Sherman; Alec Smalley and Tom Slater were second.  In the teams Kath Nelson, Rhona Goldenfield, Jeff Smith and Leslie Klein won. Click here for results.

Reykjavik Festival

A large international tournament took place in Iceland from 25th-28th January.  In the Swiss Pairs, Michael Byrne, playing with Kieran Dyke, finished 12th in a field of 158 pairs.  Results are here.

Richard Bowdery Swiss Pairs

Congratulations to Alec Smalley and Tom Slater who finished a close second of 56 pairs in this event run by Oliver Cowan on 13th January.

Results are here.

European Open Trials

The pairs trials for the England team for the European Championship took place from 12th-15th January in London.  Six pairs, including Michael Byrne playing with Kieran Dyke competed for two places to join the pre-selected pair of David Gold and Andrew Robson.  The last two days were very exciting, with the positions (especially 2nd to 5th) changing rapidly.  Michael and Kieran were lying second with a few boards to go, but eventually finished fourth, disappointingly for them.

Manchester Congress

The popular MCBA congress returned as a face to face event on January 6th and 7th 2024 at a new venue, the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham, ably organised by Oliver Cowan and directed by Stuart Davies.  Thanks also to Barbara Lewis and Manchester committee members for their hard work in making this a well supported and successful event.

The event attracted an entry of 47 pairs, 24 teams and 21 pairs for the Kevin Comrie non-expert pairs.  This is not as many as pre covid, but an encouraging number for a return to face to face play.  Entries came from all over the country and we welcomed back women's world champion Jovi Smederevac from Austria.

The pairs event on the Saturday was comfortably won by Sally Brock and Jovi Smederevac nearly 4% ahead of Claire Robinson and Paul Barden, who won the mixed pairs title.  In third place and Mens Pairs winners were veteran pair Paul Casselle and Raymond Semp (who is 90).  Ladies pairs went to Rhona Goldenfield and Marianne Farr.  The non-expert prize went to Anne Whitehead and Haidee Tattersall who did well to finish 16th in a strong field.

The teams on Sunday was run as two all play all sections with teams qualifying for main and consolation finals.

The main final was won by Ollie Burgess, Susanna Gross, Paul Barden and Claire Robinson, ahead of Martin Taylor and Paul, Barbara and Justin Hackett.

The consolation final winners were Joy & Irving Blakey, Rhona Goldenfield and Jim Luck, with Sally Brock, Barry Myers, Jovi Smederevac and Rodney Lighton second.

Victor Ridding directed the single session non-expert pais with a good entry of 21 pairs.  The event was won by Melanie Foster and Gail Jones, with Paul Jones and Peter Wilson second and Patricia Gorham and Anne Naylor third.

The Player of the Year spreadsheet has been updated with the congress results.  In the expert category Rodney Lighton now leads just ahead of John Holland with John Hassett and Kath Nelson close behind.  In the non-expert category Karen Jones and Barbara Eastabrook are joint leaders.

For results of all events click here.

Congratulations to Janet Tolan who won Michael Byrne's quiz.  Answers are here.

Kevin Comrie Trophy Winners Melanie Foster and Gail Jones with Kevin	Kevin Comrie Trophy Second Paul Jones and Peter Wilson
Kevin Comrie Trophy Third Patricia Gorham and Anne Naylor
Winners Jovi Smederevac and Sally Brock with Kevin Comrie MCBA President	Second and Mixed Pairs Paul Barden and Claire Robinson
Third and Men's Pairs Paul Casselle and Raymond Semp	Ladies Pairs Rhona Goldenfield (Marianne Farr missing)
Session one prize David Smith (Jeremy Bishop missing)	Consolation Teams winners Joy Blakey, Rhona Goldenfield, Irving Blakey, Jim Luck
Teams Winners Ollie Burgess, Susanna Gross, Claire Robinson, Paul Barden

Camrose

The first weekend of the home internationals took place on 5th-7th January in Newport.  Michael Byrne played for the EBU team with Kieran Dyke, Maggie Knottenbelt, Ben Handley-Pritchard and Tom Townsend.  They won ahead of the England team.   Results are here.

Goldstone 2023-24