| WOODBRIDGE MID ANGLIA PAIRS |
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Congratulations to Dave Walker and Sue Smith - Winners of the Woodbridge Mid Anglia Pairs.
Thanks to Rob Richardson for directing and to Woodbridge Bridge Club for hosting.
Click SCORES for all the results.
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| CAFE BRIDGE |
Suffolk Bridge in association with Victor Lesk is delighted to announce it will be holding an inaugural Café Bridge event in aid of the ‘St Nicholas Hospice Care’ charity on Thursday 19 th September in Bury St Edmunds town centre.
What is Café Bridge? Click Café Bridge to find out more. Essentially this is an opportunity to play relaxed Bridge in a social setting in Cafés and Restaurants in the town centre, moving between them after each round, with lunch included in the entrance fee.
Eight separate venues in the town centre have signed up to participate in this event and a choice will be offered as to where you would like to have a light lunch, along with a bespoke menu selection.
Registration for the event will open in mid-July, along with further details of the event.
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| SUMMER SWISS PAIRS |
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Suffolk Bridge is hosting a new Blue Pointed Swiss Pairs event of 36 boards at the Blackbourne Centre, Elmswell (IP30 9UH) on Sunday July 28, 2024.
Play will start at 11am and is expected to finish by 4pm
Not familiar with Swiss Pairs events? You will play six 6-board rounds – the first against a random pair but subsequent rounds against a pair close to you in the event rankings (#1 vs #2, #3 vs #4 etc, but never playing the same opponents twice)
Entry fee is just £12/head.
Refreshments are included but please bring your own lunch.
Prizes for the winning pair and highest ranked NGS 9-High pair.
Click HERE for the entry form
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| HOSPICE BRIDGE |
Friday 18th October at the Blackbourne Centre, Elmswell IP30 9UH
1:15 for a prompt start at 1:30
About 18 boards at a gentle pace, with a break for a delicious home made tea, fabulous raffle prizes
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| ZEB STOCKEN AT HINTLESHAM HALL |
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Seventy-two players enjoyed an entertaining day with bridge teacher Zeb Stocken at Hintlesham Hall, including an excellent buffet lunch, with topics including slam bidding and planning your play.
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| SUFFOLK SUCCESS IN SENIOR TEAMS TRIAL |
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The Senior Teams Trial for The World Bridge Games took place from the 8th -9th June at West Midlands Bridge Club.
Congratulations to Malcolm Pryor (pictured 2nd from the left) and his team who will now represent England at The World Bridge Games in Buenos Aires. Suffolk is Malcolm’s county of affiliation despite moving to the West Country, and runs the Suffolk On-line Teams of Four League.
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| SUFFOLK BRIDGE AGM |
The Suffolk Bridge AGM was held at Elmswell on Sunday May 12.
The new Executive Committee was elected as proposed. Click COMMITTEE to see who now represents you.
The AGM Pairs event was won by Jill & Roger Tattersfield (on left, with the Director, Paul) with the Handicap prize going to Paul & Chris Rickard (on right). Click RESULTS to see all the scores.
 
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| CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS FINAL |
Rick Hanley's team (Rick Hanley, Michael Sherer, Chris Chambers, Chris Green, Malcolm Pryor, Peter Sutcliffe) have won the 2024 Suffolk Championship Teams of Four with a 35 IMP victory in the 40 board final over Jenny Price's team (Jenny Price, Norbert Voelker, Tony Philpott, Nigel Bardsley). Team Hanley got off to a fast start and led by 39 IMPS after 16 boards. Team Price then made an excellent comeback and led by 2 IMPS with 10 boards remaining. However, a strong final 10 boards by Team Hanley secured their 2nd successive victory in this event.
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| CHAMPIONSHIP PAIRS WINNERS |
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The Championship Pairs Final was held at The Blackbourne Centre, Elmswell on Sunday 21st April. 26 pairs took part in a close fought 50 board marathon, eventually won by Bury St Edmunds and Abbeygate Bridge Club members Tim Evans and Chris Park.
The runners up were Richard Evans and John Bloomfield, Roger and Jill Tattersfield third and Guy Lesser and Mike O'Reilly taking fourth place. Barely 2 percentage points separated the top four pairs.
The full results can be seen by clicking on Championship Pairs Result. Thanks to Rob Richardson for directing and scoring
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| WOODBRIDGE WIN CLUB TEAMS OF FOUR |
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The SCBA Club Teams of Four event was held at the Blackbourne Community Centre, Elmswell, on Sunday the 24th of March with a record entry of 23 teams. The event was closely contested with only six points between the first three places.
In first position was the Woodbridge team of Dave Walker & John Skinner playing with Humphrey Carey & Clive Rowe with a score of +81 IMPS.
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In second place (pictured below) was the Stowmarket team of Brian Pinson & Paul Wilcox playing with Bim & Sam Wilson scoring +76 IMPS and in third place were the Stratford St Mary team of Debbie & Martin Burwood playing with Derek & Rita Brinkley.
Congratulations to them all.
The Director/Scorer was Rob Richardson, boards were provided by Paul Rickard and the Event Manager was Tim Evans.
Click RESULTS to see all the scores.
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| SUFFOLK C TEAM FINISH AS RUNNERS-UP IN FINAL ECL TABLE |
Captain’s Report by Rick Hanley
Suffolk v Northants 17th March 2024
Overall, the Suffolk team put up a good performance in the final match of the 23/24 ECL season. Sadly, the A team lost by 14-6. However, unlike the Welsh rugby team the previous day, they secured enough points to avoid the wooden spoon. The B team won by 12-8, due in part to a fine card from Caroline and Mark.
The main focus, however, was on the C team who needed an 18-2 win to finish top of the table. Unfortunately, the Northants C Team won their division last season and went on to win the national C Team championship. So, the C team did well to achieve a 13-7 victory. Chris and Andy were the best performers with an excellent card. The C Team should be very proud of a great season winning 5 of their 6 matches and achieving what I believe is the best ever finish by a Suffolk C Team.
I found board 20 to be the most interesting deal in Sunday’s match (see below).
After my right-hand opponent had opened and rebid spades, I found it difficult to communicate the strength of my hand to my partner and played in 3D. I was disappointed when dummy went down and we had a combined 26 count. Others played in 3NT and several made it when unaccountably a spade was not led. Bill and John did lead a spade and John made the excellent play of the queen of spades preserving communication with partner. When Bill won the ace of hearts, he could return a spade to defeat the contract. Shame on you to all those who not lead a spade! I was surprised that RealBridge claimed that 3NT can be made even if a spade is led. I cannot see how this can be done but if anyone has the answer, please let me know.
As you will know, this was my final match as captain. I have enjoyed every minute. The only match I missed during my tenure was the very first one in July 2017 when I had tickets for the Wimbledon final and witnessed Roger Federer’s last victory in the championship. I would like to pay tribute to Richard Evans who I believe has played in all the matches when I was captain. I wish my successor (Paul Whetton) all the best for the future of the Suffolk Team. Finally, I will offer some advice for the future. Paul has written some articles on the SCBA website advocating a 5 card major system in preference to a 4 card major system. As someone who has played 5 card majors for the last 25 years I would not disagree. However, it seems to me that some of the Suffolk team play a sub-optimal version. In particular I recommend the 2 over 1 system in preference to standard American. 2 over 1 has really taken over amongst the top players in the UK and the USA. If you want to learn more about 2 over 1 then I suggest you purchase a copy of Andrew Robson’s excellent new book ‘Strong and Fives’. In it he outlines a very logical rationale for the 2 over 1 system and suggests some other conventions that it is best to incorporate within a 5 card major system.
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