The Club is going to be running a  scheme whereby pairs who wish to work towards improving their game will be allocated a mentor. This is a great opportunity for members to take their bridge to a higher level.  For full details please see the poster on the front page of the website or refer to the one on the Club noticeboard.  

September winners so far are 3rd Harry Hoyle 10th Paul Belsten 17th Margaret Brayshaw

In the Manx Bridge Union Congress Stuart Davies and Paul Belsten won the Mixed and Open pairs event held on the 10th September and they came second in the Swiss Pairs on the 8th.  It was a long way to travel but worth it!  Congratulations.

Many congratulations to Hazel and John who won the trophy given in memory of Joan Aspland and competed for on September 1.  Mark and Louise were second. Well played.  You can see the full results on the Club website.

Stuart has been organising the production of our very useful diary/information booklet for a number of years and we are very grateful for this.  However, he is extremely busy at the moment and this means that this year the diary will appear at a later date than usual.  Ideally Stuart would like someone else to take over the task in 2019.

Is there anyone who would be prepared to do this?

This relaxed Charity Drive will be held on Saturday 1st September 2018 at 1.00pm. All proceeds will go to Manorlands Hospice. Complimentary refreshments will be available at the interval.  Everyone is very welcome.  For catering purposes, please sign the list in the tearoom if you would like to attend.

Ray Foster has very kindly said that he will act as host - so you can come without a partner.

This year the EBU Summer Festival 'Play with the Experts'  was held as a multi-venue competition, with the same hands played at a few venues around the country, and then scored across the field.  It was a pairs event, but used team-style scoring. At the  end of the evening all N/S pairs  'scored-up' using the scorecard of a pair of experts who previously played the E/W cards. The E/W pairs  scored-up with the 'expert' N/S pair.

Stuart Davies and George Bak, sitting N-S in this national competition, played extremely well and came 3^rd out of the 62 N-S  competing pairs.  A great result!

Also at the Summer Festival,  Stuart and George, with an excellent  score of 61.05%, came 13th out of 185 pairs in the GCH Fox championship held on 7th August.

Yorkshire League Dates

We will, once again, be entering teams in the 2018-2019 Yorkshire League.  This is just an advance notification that the dates are as follows, so please put them in your diary and keep them free:-

Next Season's Pro-Am Evening League competition begins on Tuesday 2nd October.

Teams of 4 compete on a Tuesday evening once a month for approximately 7 sessions.  Each team is captained by a more experienced player who will provide encouragement and talk about the hands at the end of each session.

If you are interested, please sign the sheet in the tearoom by Friday 31st August.

If you have any queries, please contact Jacqui Hutchinson.

Georgina Wooler, playing with Olga Bartram from Leeds, came 4th in Yorkshire's Play Without an Expert competition held at York on 23rd July. Twenty pairs competed. Well done.

Congratulations to Steve, Stuart, Gill and George - the winners of our Club Championship Mixed Pivot Teams competition.

Lauri and Margaret Andrews came fourth in the Yorkshire County Flitch competition held at Doncaster on July 15th. Well played.

Congratulations to George and Stuart, this year's winners of the Hill Pairs competition. They overtook the runners up - Madeleine and Sue - in the last round.  Well done to both pairs.

The Jackpot competition is hotting up and the current rank order and points of the leading ten members can be seen on the board in the Teaching Room. 

After 18 events the top five so far are:-

1= George Bak and Stuart Davies (1138)    3. Mark Armitage (1066)   4. Robert Eaton (781)    5 Harry Hoyle (685)

Closely following  are  Steve Blackburn, Alan Jarvis, David Donaldson, Jacqui Hutchinson and Jean Britteon

The Waddington Cup final is a Yorkshire County competition.  Initial  rounds are played within each qualifying club and the best Club teams then go forward into the final.  Thirteen teams from different clubs competed.  

Stuart Davies’ team of Stuart, George Bak, Mark Armitage and  Steve Blackburn played very well and were the runners up.   Our other team of Alan and Kath Jagger, Margaret and Lauri Andrews came ninth.   Very well done to both teams.

Many apologies for inadvertently missing off further really important Club news in the item about the Malton Cup.  Bradford member Tom Copeland, playing with three others from Sheffield, was in the winning team!!!

Congratulations to the team of  Stuart Davies. George Bak, Gill Copeland and Steve Blackburn.  They came second in Malton Bridge Club's Malton Cup, held at York Bridge Club on 24th June, losing by only 3 IMP!.  Bradford new member Pete Franks, playing with three others,  came third. Well done to all concerned.

Congratulations to Lauri and Margaret Andrews. They came third in the final of the Yorkshire Mixed Pairs held on 17th June. This is a competition that is open to any mixed pairs from Yorkshire, so very well done, you two!

The Club is about to purchase a defibrillator and on 8 August the Red Cross will be running a one-hour training course at the Club covering use of the machine and other related first aid matters.. It will be held in the downstairs room at 5.30 p.m.  There is no charge and we are looking for volunteers from across all club drives so that there will always be someone on hand who can use the machine immediately. Reportedly the defibrillator is very simple to use.

Please add your name to the list on the coffee table.  Thanks.

At their most recent meeting the Committee decided that the trial use of a timer in the main drives had been a success and this will now become standard practice.

The conversion of the downstairs gents to a disabled cubicle is underway. The plumber is currently working on the gents cloakroom conversion and will be fitting in the work around other jobs. The works are scheduled for completion by the end of July and there will never be an occasion where there are no facilities available.

Many congratulations to Sheila Kaye and Clive Naylor - this year's winners of the Vera Walton Trophy.  They played an excellent match on 13th June, beating their nearest rivals by nearly 6%   Well done Sheila and Clive.

The  Corwen Trophy competition is a prestigious event where the leading pairs from each county are invited to compete against each other.  This year the event was held in Daventry over the weekend of 2^nd and 3^rd June with 92 pairs from all over the country participating.  Stuart Davies and George Bak from our Club came 12th overall and they had the highest score of the Yorkshire County pairs.  Gill Copeland and Steve Blackburn - the other pair from Bradford - also did well in this top national event.  Well done to both pairs - we are proud of you!!

The Joyce Allard Trophy was won by the team comprising John Bastow, Madeleine Newby,  Susan Hoyle and Pat Benson.  A very good result - Well done!

Congratulations to Bradford members Stuart Davies and Alan Jarvis. They won the Castle Swiss Pairs organised  by Huddersfield Bridge Club. There were six matches in the competition and Stuart and Alan won three of these 20-0!  Well done.

Don't forget that it is a Championship Team Event this coming Monday 21st May.  Members will be competing for the Joyce Allard trophy.  Do try to get a team together! if you would like to play but do not yet have a full team please put in a partner request on Pianola.

Thanks to the many people who put something into the Charity Bottle on the bar. Every so often this is emptied and the contents are given to charity.  David organised this recently and you will be pleased to know that a cheque for £59.00 is being sent to Manorlands.  Manorlands is a Sue Ryder hospice, based in West Yorkshire. They are there for people aged 18 and over living with conditions such as cancer, heart failure and lung disease. 

Recent changes to this act have required us to formalise our privacy policy. Accordingly a link to the Club Privacy Statement is now available on this page and in the Members Lounge.

Congratulations to George Bak and Stuart Davies who won the Bradford Open Swiss Pairs on 22nd April.  It was a really closely fought competition with the Bradford pair winning by just one VP.  It was great that the winners this year came from the home club.  Well done.

It is hoped that, eventually, the minutes of each Committee meeting will be published on the members’ area of our website.  In the meantime, this is a reminder that copies of the minutes are always available to members and can, as usual, be found in the blue file in the cupboard in the main bridge room. 

Congratulations to Alan and Kathleen Jagger winners of the Haslock trophy. Well done.

Over seventy people came to Peter’s 80^th birthday party on April 7^th and we had a wonderful time. The bridge was handicapped, with the winners being

N/S
1st Jacqui Hutchinson & Georgie Ramseyer
2nd Robert Eaton & Lynn Nutton

E/W
1st Pat Benson & Rita Trickett
2nd Chris & Pauline Fort

The results without the applied handicap can be seen on the website.

We knew Peter had said that there would be wine and cheese in the interval – but it turned out to be a lovely buffet as well.  Thank you so much Peter.   Thanks  also  to Sue Sheldrick,  Sheila Kaye and Joyce Carey who shopped and helped to set everything up     and to Stuart Davies for organising the bridge so efficiently.

There was a collection for  Peter’s chosen charity - The Children’s Trust, which supports children with a brain injury.    £211.50 was raised.  

HAPPY 80^th BIRTHDAY, PETER   and MANY, MANY THANKS.

In a thrilling finale to this year's competition, team Berry managed to hang on to their 1VP lead. So they are this season's champions. Well done!

Thanks to everyone who supported this competition during the dark winter nights especially to Stuart Davies who organised everything.

The final league table and all the results can be viewed here.

Apologies for the prior erroneous news item.

The Club session on Wednesday April 11th will run as usual.   Pairs who play in the session are eligible for the Haslock Trophy if they have an average handicap of 52% or less, either on that day or in the preceding month.

Gill Copeland and George Bak have won the Mixed Pairs Event in the EBU's Northern Easter Festival on the 30th March.  They scored 62.04% in a field of 22 competing pairs.  An excellent result and well deserved.

Also to be congratulated are John Bastow and Hazel Greenwood who, playing in the Improvers pairs section at the same Festival, came 6th with 54.69%.  Well done John and Hazel.

A new EBU competition has been introduced for bridge players who are below the rank of Master (less than 5000 black local points)

A qualifying heat will be held at Bradford on Thursday 12th April, starting at 7.10 p.m. - and the leading 50% will be eligible to play in the area final

The area final  (24 boards) will be held at York Bridge Club on Tuesday 15th May, the entry fee for which will be £10.00 and will include afternoon tea -   and trophies and prize money for the winners