John Armstrong was a fine international player and a gentleman at the bridge table. He was based in Liverpool and highly regarded by all who new him. He died suddenly and prematurely of a brain haemorrhage. Our annual Swiss pairs competition is held in his honour.

For those unfamiliar with the format, Swiss Pairs is a variant of duplicate where your opponents in the next round will be the pair closest to you in the results so far. Please do enter – it’s an opportunity to play pairs from around the county and further afield in a different format from a traditional club night and can be a lot of fun for pairs of any standard.

See below for details and how to enter.

• Date and time: Saturday 17 May 2025 with an 11.00 am start, finishing approximately 6.00 pm.
• Venue: Deva Bridge Club, WI Hall, Village Road, Christleton, Chester CH3 7AS
• Tournament Director: Ken Johnston
• Format: The tournament will consist of 7 rounds with 7 boards in each round. There will be a short lunch break after round 3.
• Green points will be awarded on the standard EBU scale.
• Tea and coffee will be available all day. There will not be any food on sale at the venue. You are welcome to bring your own food to eat at the break.
• The entry fee is £20 per player.

To enter, please register on the form below and pay by BACS to:

Merseyside and Cheshire Bridge Association
Sort code: 09-01-50
Account number: 05876354

Please reference your payment: JA25surname.

The closing date is Sunday 11th May. Entry is limited to 20 tables to allow for adequate spacing.

Both our teams scored well in the final round of this competition which was held on Saturday 19th October.  

Despite missing several regular pairs, the A team finished first on the day winning 2 from 3 matches & only just losing to Lancashire. The performance was anchored by Chris Pope & Andy Prothero who were in top position on X-imps for the entire session.  The C team also finished top winning every match with Bernard Kaye & Bob Mitchell top overall on X-imps. 

Over all four rounds, both teams finished in 2nd place behind Yorkshire. To check the detailed cumulative scores visit: http://www.manchesterbridge.org.uk/NBL/r2024.html

Congratulations and thanks to all for taking part and supporting our county teams. 

The Tollemache Cup is the prestigious inter-county teams of 8 competition for England & Wales which invariably involves many of the very strongest players in the UK. Merseyside & Cheshire last won this event  back in 1993 & the qualifying round for this season’s trophy took place on 9^th / 10^th Nov. Our team had mixed results on day 1 though still managed to win  5/8 matches & with a strong finish ended the day in equal 4th place. All pairs were +ve on X-IMPs with Paddy Murphy & Tracy Sherman near the top of the leader board.

Day 2 followed a similar pattern of mixed results but our team were still in contention for a place in the final going into the last round. Sadly, we only managed a draw in our last match against a strong London team and other results did not go our way so we missed out on going through to the final next year by the narrow margin of 3 VPs. Paddy & Tracy were again our best pair on X-IMPs.

Thanks to all for taking part and supporting our county & particularly to John Hampson for acting as team manager.