The Berks & Bucks A-Team (Ed Scerri ( C ) & Steve Eginton, Phil Thornton & Bob Holder, Carole Mueller & Herb Mueller, James Bond & John Greenhalgh, Jim Chapman & Mike Wenble, Peter Hawkes & Mike Ribbins) gained 3rd place in their flight of the 2012 Metropolitan Cup played on 9th September.     Well done to all in the three teams who took part.

Congratulations to Sally Brock on retaining the gold medal she won in 2008 in Beijing by again being part of the winning English Women's Team at the World Mind Sports Games in Lille.  

B&B did well in the Brighton Four Star Teams, with Ed Scerri & Gary Jones playing for the team that won the A final and Peter Hawkes & Ian Reissmann in the team that came second (after leading the field for much of the weekend).    Well done to all.

Congratulations to Richard Bowdery and Simon Cope who were members of the winning team in the Hubert Phillips Bowl [for the second year running].

And to Heather & Matthew Tan on winning the Swiss Teams in the recent Oxfordshire Congress.

Our outgoing chairman, Nigel Thompson, symbolically hands over the County EBU shareholder certificate to Anders Wallen as he takes over as Chairman at the AGM.

Congratulations to Joyce Baldock, James Bond, Tony Parkinson and John Greenhalgh on winning the Perkins Cup in the Teams event held at SBBC on Sunday 29th July.

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Well done to David Beever & Robin Gardiner and Nigel Marlow & Stephen Gore on winning the Richard Palmer Memorial Trophy in the GP Swiss Teams event.     Two teams shared the runners up place - Stephen Hurst, James Chapman, Luke Porter & Michael Clark and Dee & Peter Lindon, Derek & Celia Oram.

Congratulations to Debbie Roberts and Geoff Nicholas on winning the Anders Wallen Trophy in the GP Swiss Pairs event - see here with the event organiser Anders Wallen.   Runners up were Ed Scerri and Dick Davey.    104 pairs took part.

Congratulations to Sally Brock and the England team.
European Ladies Champions!

Well done to Ed Scerri, Steve Eginton, Barry Myers and Richard Bowdery on coming 4th out of the 31 teams who competed in the Pachabo Cup.

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The winning teams in the Student League were presented with their trophies at the Pro-Am event (see below).    The winning Cuebid Team - Nirmal & Joy Dutta and John & Linda O'Halloran - are shown (together with Anders Wallen and Tessa Templeton) with the Margaret Hatch Trophy.     The runners-up Ruffians Team - Ann McKellow, Gillian Foulkes, David Fryer and Vanessa Daubney (not in picture) - are shown with the SBBC Trophy being presented by Laurie Champniss.

Players from the teams who had played in this season's Student League paired up with more experienced players to play in an enjoyable Pro-Am Teams event held on Thursday 14th June.    Seven team played.     The winning team - "Ams" Nirmal Dutta & Gillian Foulkes and "Pros" Tony Williams & Hilary Hinman - are shown (front row, right-to left with their prizes) together with the director Anders Wallen, the host Nigel Thompson and the League Organiser Derek Cook.

Congratulations to Janet & Bill Irvine on winning the Friendly Pairs Finchampstead Plate, after narrowly beating the runners-up Janet Allen and Colin Dale.    The Non-Expert prize was won by Cathy & Brian Medhurst. 

Bucks repeated their success of last year to win all 3 matches against Berks.    Bob Holder, captain of the Bucks A team, is shown holding the Phil Thornton Shield, with Graham & Sue Dickens, non-playing captains of the Bucks B & C teams.     Well done to all who took part.

Congratulations to Richard Bowdery, Jack Mizel, Sally Brock and Barry Myers on winning the County Teams Knockout Championship.    They win the Crowhurst Quaich and qualify to represent the county in the EBU's Pachabo event.

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Under Joan Bennett’s leadership this has grown amazingly and there are now over 450 children in 30 + schools in Berks, Bucks and Oxon playing MiniBridge helped by 70 volunteers and we hope to start up at a secondary school, Dr Challoners Boys GS in Amersham, this September. We particularly want to recruit new volunteers in Bucks, so please contact Tessa Templeton tesstempleton@aol.com phone 07717844410 if you are interested.

Five of the school groups played in the EBU MiniBridge Sim Pairs in March – see photos of the heat in Elangeni School, Amersham – you may recognise Mike Bennett, Ed Scerri, Anders Wallen, Dory & Nigel Thompson, also helping were Clare Hodgson, Nancy Scerri and Tessa Templeton.

In July Joan will be taking 20 children, from these BB & O schools, to the House of Lords to play MiniBridge with their Lordships! On previous occasions this featured on the front page of English Bridge.

An attractive feature is that the volunteer ‘teachers’ find it very enjoyable, supported as they are by fully developed materials, hands to use, etc, etc, supplied by the EBU. All that is required is attendance at a one day training course (funded by BBCBA), enjoyment of the company of eager children doing something they find great fun, and the time, typically an hour/week at lunch-time or after-school during the two winter terms.

Joan and Tessa would be delighted to hear from any club players who are interested, and also from Primary School heads who would like this to happen at their school.

Congratulations to Pauline Serby & Alan Boothroyd on winning the Director's Cup (presented here by Chris Burley) in the Senior Pairs event.    Runners up were John Spiers & Ed Brennan, with James Bond & John Greenhalgh in 3rd place.    The winning "Veterans" were Tara & Stan Harding, and Sandra & Michael Baily were the leading "Non-Experts".    Well done to all.

Congratulatons to Chris Tucker & Tony Aston who won the Master Pairs and to Mike & Joan Bennett who were third in the Regional Masters category at the EBU's Ranked Masters.

Burnham's team of Norma Lord, Alan Boothroyd, David Herod and David Benjamin were the overall winners (and 2nd Session winners) in the Final of the Club Teams Championship played at Windsor on 4th March.     Teams from Finchampstead and Thame were 2nd and 3rd.     Five Aces team of Naomi Whittard, Malcolm Burch, Anne Barnes and Joanna Rockall won the 1st Session.    Congratulations to all.

Elaine and Ted Crump collected all of the silverware at the Mixed Pairs & Flitch on Sunday 19th February - the Mixed Pairs Cup for coming top in the event - and the BBL Cup for doing so as a married couple.    Second place went to Elaine Lloyd and Keith Goswell, and Jenny and Keith Sheppard were third.   Well done to all.

 Irina Woods and Aleksander Lishkov were very comfortable winners of the Pat Husband Trophy.  They won all six matches and finished 25 VPs ahead of the second pair, Rob Wilkinson and Colin Johns, with Liz Pratt and Carol Aitken third.

Richard Palmer, Joan Murphy, Chris Burley & Ed Scerri were the winners of the Carole Mueller Trophy in the Mixed Swiss Teams event held at Windsor on 4th December.  Well done to them, and to runners up David Owen, Charles Chisnall, Evelyn Crossley & Mary Hughes.    12 teams took part.

This year’s Tollemache qualifier (the main inter-county event organised by the EBU) took place over 26 & 27 November.      The team representing Berks & Bucks was:
 
John Howard & Tim Rees                 Gary Jones & Ed Scerri
Ian Reissmann & Mike Perkins        Sally Brock & Barry Myers
Dick Davey & Richard Palmer
 
With Middlesex, Surrey and London in the same division,it was a tough week-end.  After struggling on the Saturday, the team made a good come back to finish in fourth place.  We will thus not be represented in the final.  The results in the B division were:
1   MIDDLESEX                       112.5
2   SURREY                               111
3   AVON                                   102
4   BERKS & BUCKS              101

The Tony Boothroyd Plate for the winners of the Friendly Pairs event held at SBBC was won by Trevor Passby & Richard Porter.     Runners up were Janet & Bill Irvine.    Congratulations to both pairs.   26 pairs took part.

We are delighted to announce that the Student League for students just starting their second year of bridge classes has been reintroduced after several years of absence.   Six teams have entered and the winning team will be awarded the Margaret Hatch Trophy.    Derek Cook is the League Secretary.

Heather & Matthew Tan were the winners of the Jarrett Cup for the Butler Scored Pairs event held on 30th October.     Runners up (again) were Maxine Julius & David Arundel, and the Non-Expert prize was won by Paul Dolphin & Steve Lynch.    Well done to all three pairs.   24 pairs took part.

Congratulation to Charles Chisnall and David Owen on winning the Denys Jenkins Trophy in the Swiss Pairs held at SBBC on Sunday 16th October - the first event of the 2011-12 season.   Runners up were Maxine Julius and David Arundel.

Ed Scerri is presented with the Daily Telegraph Salver (for the most EBU Master Points won over the year) by Sally Bugden at the Brighton Congress.