The Ellis Cup semi final and final were played on Monday18th November. It was won by Mike and Sally-Ann Rothwell, Robin Rose and John MacLachlan who beat the team comprising Babs Matthews, John Farmer, Ian Reeves and Tim Matthews by 4 imps. In the semi Finals, Team Rothwell beat Team Wilkinson (Chris Wilkinson, Martyn Harris, Tim Harrison and Richard Brazier) by 31 imps and Team Matthews beat Team Mitchell (Janice Mitchell, Janice Hornby, Bob Boyd and John Nicholls) by 28 imps. The 3rd place play off was won by Team Wilkinson by 1 point.

In a phenomenally close competion which saw the top 4 separated by a mere 0.5%, victory went to Shaffin Jaffer and Ken Orford. They scraped in ahead of Lynn Percival and Diana Smethurst closely followed by Margaret and Dennis Pook and Sabina and Bernard Houssin.

You have just a week to register for the Christmas Party, so if you haven't booked your slot - do it NOW!

Well done to the magnificent seven promoted in October:
Robin Rose to Life Master, Helen Smithson to 3*Premier Master and Hilary Parker to 1* Master.
Also Rita Davies and Brenda Richardson to Area Master, Bob Churchward to Club Master and Lynn Percival to Local Master.

In our efforts to keep costs down, we seem to have ignored the fact that not everyone likes Christmas Pudding. We have negotiated with the hotel for alternatives, namely:

Sticky Toffee pudding and Ice cream
Ice Cream

If you are one of the forty odd people who have already said you are coming along and want to change your selection, please email Amanda at amanda.etherington@yahoo.co.uk with your new choice. Please put MENU CHANGE as the email title.

The Christmas Party will again be held at Castle Green Hotel on Monday 16th December.

Timetable:

5:30 - Arrive and drinks
6:15 - Take seats for Dinner
7:15 - Speeches
7:30 - Take seats for bridge (18 hands) - partners chosen randomly
10:30 - Carriages

As with previous years, the club will subsidise the evening so the cost is only £15 per person and partners/spouses are very welcome.

If you would like to attend, please complete the form below (one entry for each person please, regardless of whether they are playing bridge).

Please register by November 25th as the hotel require final numbers by then.

For menu details click here.

The EBU are running a course locally for aspiring Tournament Directors. So if you want to learn how to handle revokes, leads out of turn, insufficient bids and some of the quirky things that can go wrong - then this is the course for you. The club will cover your course fee and any materials, so if you woulkd like to give it a go, please email ken.orford1@gmail.com for further details.

Thursday Mornings are now an established session, with play taking place from 10 to 12.30, including a break, though players should be present by 9.50 to enable a prompt start. Results are sent to the EBU for both Master Point and NGS purposes. Whilst the session was formed by and is run by the graduates of David's most recent teaching group, all members of the club are welcome to attend.

Qualifiers for the Ellis Cup Finals on Mon 18th November are the teams of Babs Matthews, Mike Rothwell, Chris Wilkinson and Janice Mitchell.

The draw for the semi-finals is Matthews v Mitchell, Rothwell v Wilkinson.

First reserves should any of the above be unable to field a team without breaching the 6 player limit are Lynn Percival's team.

There will be a separate teams event on finals night for any other teams interested in playing then.