Lally and Alistair hosted the event this year in their lovely secluded garden so many thanks are due to them. The weather was kind and a good time was had by all.

Great to see a new name on the trophy this year with Jane Hall victorious with an impressive average of 62.41%. Very well done to Jane.

Congratulations to this year's winner Kate Vantreen who improved her average score from 2022 to 2023 by the substantial margin of 6.46%.

One old lag (Stephen) handing over a bottle of wine to another old lag (Alan) the winner of this year's competition and next year's judge, so be nice to him at the bridge table in 2024!

Many thanks to Sally Burke for hosting this event on a rather damp June evening. Whilst the weather might have been rather damp the spirits certainly weren't with a good time had by all, inside this year rather than in Sally's wonderful garden.

Chew Valley Bridge Club entered this competition for the first time this year. Congratulations go to to Langport Bridge Club who had a narrow win over Cheddar & Wedmore Bridge Club followed by Nailsea Bridge Club and Chew Valley Bridge Club. Not quite as impressive as it might look as only four Somerset clubs were represented. It proved to be a challenging afternoon of bridge with a splendid spread for tea at half time. Many thanks go to Barbara Mabbutt & Cecile Pothecary, Jackie & Stephen Banks, Jane Hall & Peter Dawes, and Mary & Alan Rodgman who represented the Club.

It was good to revive this popular club event post Covid. Not quite the same online! Mary & Alan hosted this year on a pleasant Summer evening in their garden, looking out to the Mendips and down the valley to Blagdon. A good time was had by all.

After a few fallow years due to Covid it was a pleasure to present the trophy to Olwen Symons who has won it for the third time wth the highest percentage in Pairs this year.. Olwen has achieved this by being an excellent card player with superb judgment and above all by "keeping it simple darling".

Pairs: Chew Valley Bridge Club entered five pairs in the Non Affiliated category of this competition and shared first place with a pair from Weston-super-Mare Bridge Club. Congratulations go to Alan & Mary Rodgman who were joint first with 55.99% very closely followed by Stephen & Jackie Banks in third place, only half a match point behind. Well done also to Mike Henton & Roger Stone fifth, Suzi McArthur & Vanessa Mann sixth, and Janet Gardener & Wendy Evans eighth

Teams: Chew Valley entered two teams in the Non Affiliated category of this competition with Team Banks & Rodgman winning all their matches and therefore securing first place. Well done to them and also to Team Paul Burgess & Barbara Mabbutt with Lally Gibson & Suzi McArthur.

The combined results ensured Chew Valley Bridge Club retained the Inter Club (Non Affiliated) trophy for the second consecutive year.

Very well done to Olwen Symons who won the 'Player of the Year' trophy for 2019 with an average score of 56.41%. A fairytale ending to Olwen's bridge year, which saw Olwen celebrating her ninetieth birthday and still showing the youngsters in the club how to play the game!

Congratulations to Christine Sadler on winning the 'Most Improved Player' trophy for 2019 having increased her average score by 3.78% over the previous year.

This splendid engraved decanter was presented to the outgoing Chairman, Alan Rodgman, who has retired after thirteen years in the post.

Congratulations go to Paul Burgess and partner who came second out of eighteen pairs in this event, against some stiff opposition and with a score of 59.09%.

Eric's magic touch with the weather and Liz's superb organisation ensured a most successful and enjoyable evening in their lovely garden. Very many thanks to them both, not forgetting the grandchildren.

A photograph of the trophy won by the club in 2018/19.

Sheila Coda presents the Somerset Inter Club trophy for 2018/19 (non affiliated) to the Club Chairman at the Somerset AGM. Retaining the trophy next year will be the difficult bit! Well done to: Jackie Banks, Stephen Banks, Paul Burgess, Lally Gibson, Barbara Mabbutt, Suzi McArthur, Alan Rodgman, Mary Rodgman, and Olwen Symons who all represented Chew Valley Bridge Club.

Congratulations also to Paul Burgess who was re-elected to the SCBA Committee. Paul will continue to be responsible for Non Affiliated Clubs Liaison and will also take on the extra role of Newsletter Editor.

In the Swiss Teams competion which followed the AGM congratulations also go to Paul Burgess whose team came second out of sixteen with 66 Victory Points, Barbara Fowler & Faith Stinchcombe whose team came seventh equals, Stephen & Jackie Banks whose team came ninth equals, and Alan & Mary Rodgman whose team came twelfth.

This competition consisted of two parts, the Pairs Competition held on the 4th November 2018 and the Teams Competion held on the 20th January 2019. The points accrued in each are combined to find the overall winning club. There are three categories, the Open, the Below National Master, and the Non Affiliated. Congratulations go to Chew Valley Bridge Club who won the Non Affiliated Clubs category. The overall results were:

1. Chew Valley 15 points

2. Weston-super-Mare 13 points

3. South Petherton 5 points

4. West Harptree 4 points

5. Badgworth 2 points

6. Cross 1 point

so Chew Valley Bridge Club were the champions in this category for 2018/19.

Pairs: Chew Valley Bridge Club entered four pairs in the Non Affiliated category of this competition distinguishing themselves by winning the group. Congratulations go to Stephen & Jackie Banks who were first with the impressive score of 63.10%. Honour is also due to Paul Burgess & Olwen Symons who claimed the runners up spot, followed by Alan & Mary Rodgman who were fourth, and Lally Gibson & Suzi McArthur who were joint fifth. West Harptree were third, Badgworth joint fifth and seventh, and Cross eighth. All participants thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon especially the excellent tea.

Teams: Chew Valley Bridge Club entered two teams in the Non Affiliated category and on this occasion didn't really do themselves justice. However the club gained enough points from the Pairs to claim the top spot overall. Weston-super-Mare claimed the first, third, fifth, and eighth places; South Petherton were second, Chew Valley were fourth with 14 IMPS (Paul Burgess & Olwen Symons, and Stephen & Jackie Banks) and seventh (Lally Gibson & Barbara Mabbutt, and Alan & Mary Rodgman), with West Harptree sixth. Again it was a very enjoyable afternoon.

(Suzi McArthur doesn't appear in the photograph as she was unable to play in the Teams.)

A very well done to Paul Burgess who won the 'Player of the Year' trophy for 2018 for the fifth time, pictured here with his regular partner Olwen Symons. Paul had an average score of  57.58%. Olwen partnered Paul on 32 out of 34 occasions and with an average score of 57.38% was the worthy runner up for this award.

Congratulations to Janet Gardener who won the 'Most Improved Player' trophy for 2018 having increased her average score over the previous year by 2.64%.

Two teams from Chew Valley Bridge Club participated in the inaugural Inter Club Teams event held in Portishead on Saturday 28th July 2018. Ten teams entered in total, three from Clevedon & Portishead Bridge Club, two each from Chew Valley and Kingston Seymour Bridge Clubs, and one each from Backwell, Nailsea and Yatton Bridge Clubs. Three are EBU affiliated clubs and three are non affiliated clubs. The Chew Valley team of Paul Burgess & Olwen Symons, Jackie & Stephen Banks distinguished themselves by claiming second place with a score of 31 IMPS, and the Chew Valley team of Alan & Mary Rodgman, Angela Harris & John Croxford came fifth with a score of -1 IMP. Congratulations go to the team from Clevedon & Portishead Bridge Club who were top with 88 IMPS. It proved to be a most enjoyable afternoon in an upstairs room at 'The Ship Inn' with refreshments readily available and wonderful views across the Bristol Channel to the Welsh coast.

This was probably the best summer evening we have ever had for this event, very warm and sunny in a beautiful rural setting. Our thanks go to Suzi & Dayrell McArthur for being such welcoming hosts for a most enjoyable party.

Congratulations to Paul Burgess who was elected to the Somerset Contract Bridge Association committee at the AGM held on 27th May 2018, with resposnsibility for 'Non EBU Affiliated Clubs Liaison'.

A good showing too for Chew Valley Bridge Club members in the Swiss Teams competition, which followed the AGM, with Team 1 (Mary & Alan Rodgman and two others) and Team 10 (Paul Burgess and three others) tying for second place out of fifteen teams, with 64 Victory Points, a little way behind Team 3 who came top with 75 Victory Points.

On Saturday the 10th of March four intrepid members of Chew Valley Bridge Club (Jackie & Stephen Banks, Mary & Alan Rodgman) set off for Woolavington Village Hall near Bridgwater, joining forces with four other players to make up a team representing Winscombe & District Bridge Club in the Somerset Inter Club Teams of Eight competition. Eleven teams were entered from all over Somerset (Cheddar, Langport, Nailsea, Taunton, Wedmore, Wells, Winscombe, and Yeovil) with three of these clubs entering two teams. We had been e-mailed whilst on holiday and asked if we wanted to play and what had seemed like a a good idea after a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc in the sunshine of New Zealand appeared to be a rather more daunting prospect in the grey, chilly weather back home. After a pep talk from our captain, ('we don't expect to win, there are some very good teams here, play the cards not your opponents, just enjoy yourselves.....') we embarked at two o' clock on the first of ten four board rounds, convention cards at the ready! The first two or three pairs were very friendly with a couple of familiar faces and with a few game contracts bid and made we soon settled down and started to enjoy it. After four rounds there was a brief scoring break, mainly for interest as we were using Bridgemates with electronic scoring. Another two rounds and it was time for tea and a very lavish spread it was too. Then it was into the final four rounds finishing around seven o' clock. Taunton were the winning team. Our team had five wins and five losses with our losses outweighing our wins so not suprisingly we ended up lower mid table, eighth equals out of eleven. However we enjoyed the competition and the challenge of some serious bridge and we will be back for more. The time went very quickly and forty boards didn't seem too many at all. After driving back to the Chew Valley we rounded off the day sharing a very nice bottle or two of red wine with a few healthy nibbles!

Alan Rodgman - March 2018

We all endure a bit of pain with bridge and thankfully this is more than compensated for by the pleasure; the times we pick up a two club opener, sneak a ninth trick in 3NT, play up to an ace queen to see the queen hold for a slam. Bridge can get the adrenalin going quite unlike any other card game that does not involve large sums of money. Adrenalin however prepares us for two courses of action. We end up with hearts in mouths, butterflies in stomachs and butter fingers as the anxiety gets the better of us. Stage fright I suppose and we all experience it the first time we enter the fray at a new club or venture out of our comfort zone into a more serious tournament or league game than that which we are used to.

For me the comfort zone is my local Chew Valley club where I play once a week with my most excellent partner Olwen Symons. The bridge is of a good standard but is light on some of the more complex strategies that abound today. Venturing out meant a trip to Woolavington to play in the Somerset pairs with a partner who I had played with but once and then firmly on home turf. This meant entering a room where most of the players seemed to know each other, the technology being employed and a variety of systems which were more than somewhat foreign to me and where a trophy hinged on the results. There was a feeling of slight trepidation, not knowing quite what to expect and nervous of making an idiot of myself but also the excitement of a new challenge.

Unsurprisingly I soon found that everyone was very affable that the game still involved 13 cards of familiar suits and denominations and that the stage fright was swiftly overtaken by the pleasure of wrestling with the problems that bridge games present with every hand. The fact that the competition was provided by those with so much more experience enhanced rather than detracted from the occasion. Frank told me how he had been playing against team Allfrey recently which he likened to an FA cup match between Manchester United and a less gilded side (I won't say which in case any supporters of Frome Town are reading this). Those are the days that live long in the memory and days like that only come about if we are prepared to venture out of our comfort zones so I would encourage everyone to try to push themselves a little, just have a crack at the next level up and you will soon see that the players are just as friendly, the hands hold no new terrors and that the adrenalin rush makes the effort well worthwhile.

Paul Burgess - December 2017

(This article was first published in the December 2017 edition of the Somerset Contract Bridge Association Newsletter. For the record Paul and his partner Tony Russ came a very creditable third in the competition with 56.13%.)

Another good year for Jackie Banks who won 'Player of the Year' for 2017 with an average score of 57.47%, with a little help from her ever reliable partner Stephen.

Well done to Debbie & Geoff Jones who jointly won 'Most Improved Player' for 2017 having increased their average score by 3.91%.

A lovely garden to enjoy but unfortunately the rain drove us inside. A big thank you to Angela Harris and menagerie for hosting a very happy and memorable evening.

Many congratulations to Jackie & Stephen Banks on jointly winning this trophy for the second time with an average score of 58.51%. They have also won it separately, once each.

Happy times at Olwen's. For once the sun didn't shine but somehow it didn't matter. Very many thanks to Olwen Symons for hosting.

Congratulations again to Paul Burgess who kept this trophy firmly in his grip after another fine year, aided and abetted as usual by his regular partner Olwen Symons. Paul scored an average of 59.79% marginally ahead of Olwen on 59.45%.

A three way tie between, Cecile Pothecary, Alan Rodgman, and Mary Rodgman who all improved their performance over 2014 by 3.40%. Congratulations to them all. At least the engravers were happy!

(Photo L to R: Alan, Cecile, Mary)

As always a most enjoyable event held on a perfect summer evening. Very many thanks to Wendy and Jeff Evans for hosting the Summer Drinks this year.

Congratulations go to Paul Burgess who has now completed a hat trick of wins to retain the 'Player of the Year' trophy for another year thanks to his great consistency, with a little help from his excellent regular partner, Olwen Symons. Paul achieved an average score of 58.73% in 2014.

Congratulations go to the inaugural winner of the 'Most Improved Player' trophy, Suzi McArthur, whose average score in 2014 was a very impressive 7.69% higher than in 2013.

Congratulations to Maurice & Jane Sanders on winning the Melbourne Cup at their bridge club near Brisbane, with a score of 59.7% from a field of 18 pairs, gaining 0.54 Green Points in the process. The day started at 9.00 am with three hours of bridge, followed by lunch and drinks, and then the race was watched on television. No news on whether they backed the winning horse! They certainly do things in style in Australia. Nice to see Chew Valley Bridge Club members keeping the flag flying down under.

This event was held on a perfect Midsummer Evening in a wonderful setting. Very many thanks to Sally Burke for all her hard work in hosting and for a most memorable occasion.

Congratulations to Paul Burgess who won 'Player of the Year 2013' with an average score of 59.82%.

Midsummer Day didn't quite live up to its name but a great time was had by all. A very big thank you to Suzi and Dayrell McArthur for kindly hosting this event.