County League Finals
The national finals
of the inter county leagues were held at Solihull on Sunday 5th
July. Manchester had qualified for the A and C divisions by
winning the Northern county leagues. In the A division the
Manchester team were a closish second to Kent well ahead of third
place. In the C division the team finished third out of the five
counties competing. Full results are on the EBU web site.
Gerard Faulkner Seniors KO
Congratulations to Joy and Irving Blakey, Rhona and
Bernard Goldenfield won
the National Senior Teams of Four beating Derek and Celia Oram, Tony
Gordon and Roger Jackson by 22 IMPs in the Final on
Sat 4th July. This, I believe, the first major national event
that Joy and Irving have won.
Riviera Congress Torquay
Michael Byrne with
Simon Cope, Alan Shillitoe and Tom Paske won the Swiss Teams at the EBU
Riviera Congress on 26th June.
Congratulations also to Mike Bell playing with Ed Jones who won the
Swiss Pairs. Mike and Ed will be playing for the England U-25
team in Romania next month - more details on this event to follow next
week.
European Open Sanremo
The fourth European
Bridge Championships took place at Sanremo on the Italian Riviera from
12th to 27th June. John Holland and Michelle Brunner and John
Hassett and Bill Hirst did very
well to reach the finals of the Open Pairs and Senior Pairs
respectively. John and Michelle finished 20th (from a total
original entry of ~315) and John and Bill were 8th (from an original
entry of ~69).
Gloucester and Hereford Swiss Pairs
Congratulations to
Bill and Joyce White who won this EBU Green point event from a field of
88 pairs on Saturday June 20th.
Pachabo
The Manchester team
of Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Gary Hyett, Rodney Lighton and Mike
Bell finished 8th out of 33 teams in the Inter County Teams
Championship
at Hinckley on 13-14th June. Manchester were lying 16th after a
disappointing
first day; Mike Bell played on the Sunday, replacing Rodney Lighton and
the team performed better to reach a respectable final position.
Full results are on the EBU web site.
NICKO
Manchester's
only
representatives left in this competition are the Manchester Bridge Club
team of Michelle Brunner, John Holland, Bill Hirst and John Hassett who
have now reached the quarter finals after beating a team from the North
East.Corwen Trophy
The inter-county
pairs event at Hinckley on 6-7th June was attended by all four
Manchester Pairs who qualified via the Ben Franks last December.
Rodney Lighton and Gary Hyett finished fourth overall with Michelle
Brunner and John Holland tenth. Fred Bell and John Roberts and
Barbara Lewis and Alec Smalley started well, but fared less well in the
later sessions.
Northern League
The first matches of
this season's Northern League took place on Saturday 13th June.
Manchester are leading the A division, third in the B division and
fourth in the C division.
The A team was Denis
Robson (capt.) & Raymond Semp, Bernard & Rhona Goldenfield,
Dave Barton & Alan Jones and Dave Debbage & Mark Halliwell.
Only 5 counties took
part with the NE missing. However, Manchester performed
strongly throughout recording 71 VPs out of a possible 80, with a
creditable performance from all their pairs who finished 1st, 2nd, 4th
and 5th in the overall rankings. Pride of place goes to David Barton
and Alan Jones in 1st place. This was Manchester's best ever
score in this event.
Brierfield proved to be
an excellent venue with first class food, and the event was very
professionally directed by Jeff Smith who provided a full package
of results and rankings making the team captain's job so much easier.
In the
Junior division of the Northern League, held on the same day at
Bradford Bridge Club, Manchester won the junior division, heading the 3
team round robin.
Ross
Allen, Luke Webb, Alex Birchall and Laura Bonney finished on +21 imps,
sending both of their opposing teams minus, a very creditable
performance from 4 spirited youngsters, whose average age is only 16.
Full
results are on the Northern League
web site.
Merville Goldstone Trophy (County
Cup)
Michelle
Brunner's
team (John Holland, Bill Hirst, John Hassett) prevented Michael Byrne's
team (Mike Bell, Michael Newman, Gary Hyett, Rodney Lighton) from
getting a clean sweep of the major teams events this year when they
outplayed them to win by 17 IMPs in the final held at Manchester Bridge
Club on 5th June. Michelle's team are, however, playing in the
European Open, so Michael's team will represent Manchester in the
Pachabo on 13th-14th June.
John Hassett, Kevin Comrie (MCBA Chairman), Michelle Brunner,
John Holland and Bill Hirst
Player of the Year
Congratulations to
Michelle Brunner who has won the Expert Category and Di Lyons who has
won the Intermediate Category.
Michelle
receives her
prize from Kevin Comrie
Intermediate Pairs
Congratulations to
Daphne and Gordon Youles who won the Intermediate Pairs at Altrincham
on Sunday May 31st by a convincing margin. Daphne is a regular
player at Bramhall, Gordon is a keen player but doesn't get the
opportunity to play often.
Thanks to Barbara Lewis and Pat Buxton for organisation and to Stan
Blaiwais for directing.
Pat Buxton
presents the prize to Daphne and Gordon.
| Rank |
Names |
Score |
| 1 |
Gordon
Youles & Daphne Youles |
66.67% |
| 2 |
Helen
Reid & Karen Leigh |
57.94% |
| 3 |
Gill
Cuthbert & Joyce Blanchard |
54.37% |
| 4= |
Myrna
Essayan & Eileen Campbell |
52.38% |
| 4= |
Pauline
Cull & Michael Cull |
52.38% |
| 6 |
Joyce
Downie & Margaret Kelly |
51.19% |
| 7 |
Angela
Donnelly & Pat Fairs |
50.79% |
AGM
The AGM of the MCBA
was held on
Thursday May 21st at Manchester Bridge Club. There was a good
turn out of members to a meeting well handled by Chairman Kevin
Comrie. The main topics of discussion were pay to play and league
rules on substitutions.
The association thanked retiring committee members Bernard Kaye (11
years as treasurer) and Boris Ewart (4 years as league secretary) by
giving them gifts.
League trophies were also given to team captains present.
Joyce Goldstone, widow of the MCBA's first Chairman, Merville
Goldstone, was present to see the unveiling of the Merville Goldstone
Trophy which will replace the County Cup for the Pachabo Qualifier
competition (see honour's page).
The new selection committee is Denis Robson, Joyce White, Jenny Morris,
Alec Smalley and Boris Ewart.
Bernard Kaye with Kevin Comrie
Boris Ewart with Kevin Comrie
Eve Lighthill
presents the Division 4A trophy to David Tattersall of
Petersfield
David is the new
league Secretary.
Val and Ian
Hempstock receive the Division 5B trophy
for the
Manchester Cardinals
Schapiro Spring Fours
The Schapiro Spring
Fours took place at Stratford over the May Day bank holiday
weekend. Congratulations to the Hackett team
(Paul Hackett, Tony Waterlow, Michelle Brunner & John Holland) who
reached the semi-finals of this extremely strong event, losing narrowly
to the eventual winners Allfrey, Robson, Forrester and Bakhshi.
Corn Cairdis
Pauline
Lang and Steve Mattinson played for England
against the Irish in Malahide, Dublin on Saturday and Sunday 25-26th
April.
"Pauline and I played very nicely to bring in some good swings and
the English won by a comfortable margin - 180 - 165VPs, although it was
only in the last set that we eventually pulled away.
It was a really
brilliant weekend with laughter, singing and a few tears from an
emotional CBAI president who was honoured on Sunday with an 80th
birthday cake. The Irish were so hospitable". (SM)
"Everyone played
their part in this win despite the Irish Team's
desperate attempt to nobble us with fantastic hospitality. We
were well and truly wined and dined and even forced to the table on the
Saturday lunchtime after just having flown in and made to play 54 hands
with a few minutes break midway through. An exhausted English team went
to dinner late Saturday evening but soon recovered as the drinks
flowed. Sunday - back to the table for 11 a.m. but finished at
4.00 p.m. and were again wined and dined very liberally before being
sent back to the table for a fun evening". (PL)
Easter Congresses
Congratulations to
Kath and Alan Nelson who won the Mixed Pairs at the London Easter
congress on Good Friday. Also to Gillian McMullan & John
Fitzgerald who won the Swiss Pairs at Buxton with Craig Fisher and Sue
Richmond in third place, followed by Robert and Joyce Jones who were
fourth. In the Championship Pairs John Holland and Michelle
Brunner were second, with Joy and Irving Blakey
third. In the Swiss teams Manchester's David Adelman won playing
with Mike Theelke, Grahame Weir and Alex Hogg. Full results of
the Easter events are on the EBU web site.
Higson
Cup and Plate
Congratulations
to St Titus, who won the Higson Cup held on April 19th. The team
consisted of Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Mike Bell, Rodney Lighton
(with Gary Hyett in earlier rounds) and this was a first time win for
all four players. Rodney Lighton has won the league with three
different teams
but has never won the Higson Cup before, finishing second four
times!
Second were Inverted Minors - Joy Blakey, Irving Blakey, Jeff
Smith and Dave Barton and third Isolated Menaces - Michelle Brunner,
John Holland, Bill Hirst, John Hassett and Boris Ewart.
St Titus
started off losing the first of their five matches 18-2, and
then clawed their way back winning 17-3, 15-5 and 14-6 in their next
three.
That still left them a long way behind Isolated Menaces, and they
needed to win the last match by 10 imps to overtake them. In the
event they won by 32 imps (20-0) on an interesting set of deals,
capturing the title.
This
completes a cup and league double for the team, who were confirmed
league winners last Tuesday with a match to spare.
Ironically
St Titus had the closest round 3 match of any of the
finalists, having to play extra boards! After 32 boards the
scores were level against Manchester S, but in the 5th set ending at
midnight they won by 23 imps.
The
Higson Plate was won by Double Diamonds, (Richard Acaster, Di
Lyons, Peter and Brenda Greaves) who emerged victorious, 3 vps
over 2nd placed Manchester A (Ray Ashleigh, Anne Super, Denis Robson
and Val Robson).
Thanks to
league secretary Boris Ewart who ran the Cup and Jeff Morris
the Plate and also to Pat Buxton for presenting prizes.
Full
results on the Cup page.
Michael
Byrne, Michael Newman, Rodney Lighton, Pat Buxton and Mike Bell
Pat Buxton
with Peter Greaves, Richard Acaster, Di Lyons and Brenda
Greaves
Civic Reception
Manchester
Bridge Players Success recognised by Lord Mayor
At a
special
reception held in the Lord Mayor's Parlour at Manchester Town Hall
(16th
April) the Lord
Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Mavis Smitheman said she was
delighted to welcome the
Manchester Bridge Association to the Town Hall and to congratulate the
players
on their remarkable achievements on the world stage. Other sporting
heroes from
last year’s Beijing Games have been honoured by the City and it was
fitting
that the achievements of our Mind Sports Competitors should be
equally celebrated and applauded.
Kevin
Comrie
responded by saying that as a Mancunian he was proud of his home town
and proud
of the successes of Mancunians especially those he knew personally. He
introduced from the Manchester Bridge Association delegation a number
of
distinguished players - Michelle Brunner, former World and European
Champion and
current England player, Barbara Hackett former World Champion and
current
German International, John Holland current England Player, Kath Nelson
former European Silver Medallist and current England Player, and
Paul
Hackett, former World Championship finalist, England player,
and captain
of the winning European team in last year's Europe vs
America match.
He also
introduced two Manchester members of
the
Board of the English Bridge Union who have done much for bridge on the
National
stage, Alan Nelson, former Chairman of the English Bridge Union
Tournament
Committee and Jeff Morris owner of Manchester Bridge Club and the
inspiration behind the inaugural Commonwealth Nations Bridge
Championship,
held in Manchester in 2002. Kevin then went
on to say that today's gathering was to celebrate the latest
achievements of
three Manchester players in Beijing. He introduced Michael Byrne to the
Lord Mayor.
Michael
Byrne is a
graduate of Manchester University.
Since finishing there some 6 years ago Michael has made huge
contributions to local and national youth bridge. Michael
is a very good player in his
own right. As a junior he represented
England 14 times. Since turning 25 he
has twice been selected for English Open teams. He is squad
manager of
the English Under-20 team giving his time and energy
over many
weekends to encourage and train young bridge players. His hard work
with the juniors was
rewarded in Beijing in October when he captained the under 20 team to a
silver
medal, losing narrowly to favourites France in a closely contested
final.
Kevin
then went on to
introduce twins Jason and Justin Hackett. He
recalled with
pride that in 1996 he was lucky enough
to be in
the Town Hall to celebrate gold medals won at the World Junior
Championships in
Bali by the British team containing the twins. Since then Jason and
Justin have
moved effortlessly from Junior Champions into the open bridge scene and
have
become the backbone of the England open team. Currently Justin is 22nd
and
Jason is 26th in the world rankings. No other English players are
ranked in the
top 50. Last
year Justin and Jason
were selected for the English open team in the World Mind Sports. The
open
teams championship is universally regarded as the premiere
championship of
the World Mind Sport Games. It is played over two
weeks and players can play over 100 hours of bridge within this
period. It requires skill, endurance,
patience, intense concentration and good temperament. England
surpassed all
previous achievements in reaching the final where they faced
Italy,
the favourites, whose six players are all ranked in the
world top seven! After a closely fought contest played over
two days
Italy emerged as narrow winners and England took the silver
medal. Arguably this was the best ever performance by an
English
team. Jason and Justin are a credit to Manchester and the game of
bridge. At the end of
the
reception the Lord Mayor presented Chairman of the Manchester
County
Bridge Association, Kevin Comrie, with a hand
painted Manchester Coat
of Arms.
Councillor
Mavis Smitheman with Kevin Comrie
|
Jason
Hackett, Councillor Mavis Smitheman and Justin Hackett |
Justin
Hackett, Michael Byrne,
Councillor Mavis Smitheman and Jason Hackett |
Michael Byrne with Councillor Mavis Smitheman |
Olivia
Hackett, Celia Comrie, Jason Hackett, Alec Smalley, Barbara Hackett,
Justin Hackett, Kath Nelson, Kevin Comrie, Bob Cooke,
Jeff Morris, Councillor Mavis
Smitheman, Alan Nelson, Paul Hackett, Michael Newman, Sid Travers,
Michelle Brunner, John Holland, Michael Byrne,
Heather Byrne, Paul Byrne, Anne Byrne (Michael's parents and sister)
All
photos courtesy of Mike Pilkington Manchester City Council Photographer |
Gazette Trophy
The
Gazette Trophy was held on Sunday 5th April at Altrincham Bridge Club
and attended by 5 teams, representing their respective clubs.
At half time Altrincham A held a narrow lead over Manchester A, and
both teams continued to do well in the 2nd half with Manchester A
just pulling away thanks to good performances from all 4 pairs.
They will go on to represent Manchester in the regional final to be
held on May 16th at Bradford Bridge Club.
Manchester A: +202 imps Bernard Goldenfield, Rhona Goldenfield, John
Hassett, Bill Hirst, John Holland, Michelle Brunner, Michael Newman,
Michael Byrne.
Altrincham A: +106 imps Ian Kane, Ken Hassell, Mike Asher, Sidney
Travers, Geoffrey Fink, Raymond Semp, David Oliver, Ken Hughes
The other 3 teams were Altrincham B, Bramhall, Manchester B.
Many thanks to Boris Ewart who directed and did the scoring, and Pat
Buxton who arranged the refreshments and took entries
Northern
Pairs
Michelle Brunner and
John Holland were Manchester's only pair to qualify for the National
Pairs final in the regional heat at Bradford on Sunday 22nd March, when
they finished third.
Newcomer's
Teams
