We are sad to report the passing of Ross Garratt who had a heart attack on the 9th December.  Our deepest sympathy is extended to Jan and family. Ross had success in many of the County competitions, including winning the Championship Teams twice, the Championship Pairs 3 times, the Healey Cup 4 times, the Men's Pairs twice, the Mixed Teams 5 times, League Division 1 8 times, the Garden Cities Qualifier 9 times, the Phillipps Pairs twice and the Phillipps Final 4 times. Ross will be remembered, and sorely missed, as a true gentleman, at the table and away from it. The picture is from 2012 when a team from the Worcester Bridge Club consisting of Mel Downing, David Thomas, Ross Garratt & Jimmy Ledger won the Healey Cup.

The funeral was held on Monday 30th December at 12 noon in Pershore Abbey. If you could not get to the funeral you can still watch it online at https://www.youtube.com/live/oDcNKZ4Kq_4.

Sue's funeral is on Monday July 8th at Worcester Crematorium at 1.45pm and afterwards at the Swan at Newland. If you cannot get there the service will be live streamed, use the following details to access the stream.

Website - https://watch.obitus.com

Username - taji4605

Password - 789994

I am sad to report that Sue Lane passed away on the 5th of June. She had been ill for quite a long time but continued to play bridge until about a month ago. Her last game was partnering Sue Evans in a Multiple Teams event at Hallow at which they had the highest Cross Imp score and are pictured here. No particular dress code, donations to St Richard's Hospice. Please look at the Worcester Bridge Club website for more information.

It was with great sadness that we announced the death of Lyn Jackson on Monday 5th February, a familiar figure in Worcestershire Bridge for many years.

We were advised of her passing back in February, and the family has now notified us of a "Celebration of Life" event, afternoon tea for family and friends, at G&Tea in Worcester on Sunday April 23rd. Lyn's son Nick has asked Mike Vetch to let him know of numbers for this event, as space is limited, so please contact Mike, or a member of the WCBA committee, if you would like to attend.

We are sad to report that Suzanne Griffin has passed away. She was a long standing Member of the County and played her bridge at Worcester and other local Clubs. 

We are sad to report that Annie Croot passed away recently. She was a long standing Member of the County and played her bridge at Stourbridge. The funeral will be on Thursday 2nd February at 2.50pm at Stourbridge Crematorium.

Very sadly, Simon Harrison died suddenly from an aneurism on 2nd November. Simon was one of Worcestershire’s most successful players, both locally and nationally. He learned the game before he went to prep school – his parents occasionally needing a fourth player. If only they’d known…..

Simon won the County Championship Teams an astonishing fourteen times, with a number of different partners including Stuart McPhee, Peter Edwards and Ian Thompson, and the County Championship Pairs three times, on one occasion going on, in 1987 with Arthur Williams, to compete successfully against the best players in the country and win the prestigious Corwen Trophy. He was also a longstanding member of Worcester Bridge Club and, most recently, won the Pairs, Men’s Pairs and Teams Championships with the late Roger Bowles in a single year, 2015. Prior to lockdown, Simon played regularly at the club, most notably with John Dowbiggin, and had just started to play more regularly online.

Stuart McPhee, Simon’s bridge partner from the 1980s and 1990s, whom many in Worcestershire will remember, writes: -

Shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden loss of Simon H. He was my bridge partner and close friend for many years - especially while I was living in Worcestershire. We also won many events with Diana and Arthur Williams including Div 1 of the Cheltenham/Gloucestershire league in the 80's and 90's. We were close friends away from the table as well. He lent me some money to start my first company and I have very fond memories of afternoon tea and sandwiches at his mother's house (OG - Old Girl as he used to call her) before he would drive me to some obscure part of Herefordshire to play golf.

At the bridge table, he was definitely a flair player. One of my favourite hands was when he held:

void KJxxx xx AJxxxx

I opened 1NT at favourable and next hand made a penalty double. We had a bid in those days to show a competitive hand major/minor and once I supported C he bid unerringly to 6C over their 5S bid. The oppos thought he was sacrificing but he and I knew that he had bid it to make!! 6C doubled was, unsurprisingly, a top.

Away from the bridge table, Simon was an excellent golfer and generous opponent on the course and a keen table tennis player. He was active in local politics, being a member of the Worcester Conservative Association, and was also, being a proud Lancastrian, a keen supporter of Liverpool Football Club.

We offer our condolences to Simon’s wife, Diana, daughter, Florence, and the rest of his family. Simon’s funeral will be held on Friday 26th November at 12 noon, at the Vale Crematorium, Pershore, WR10 2QR, and later at the Vale Golf Club, Evesham, WR10 2LZ.

We are sad to report the news that Alan Reid has passed away after a long illness. Alan was a long-standing Worcestershire player until moving away from the area in recent years, and was a regular and accomplished TD. He made a significant contribution to bridge in Worcestershire, having been Events Secretary for a number of years and helped to resurrect the Malvern Congress. Our sincere condolences go to his family.

Ian had been fighting his pancreatic cancer with great fortitude for some time but finally succumbed on 20^th August.  He had been a generous and hard-working member of Worcestershire CBA since resuming playing the game around the turn of the century.  His work as Education Officer extended into delivering a variety of teaching experiences both in Worcestershire and beyond, mainly in Warwickshire. 

Ian’s first bridge success in Worcestershire was in winning the Championship Teams in 1967/68 and one of his most recent was winning the same event in 2018/2019 – having won it a further ten times in between.  He also won the Phillipps Heats in 2018/2019 and was in the team leading the First Division of the League in 2019/2020 before Lockdown intervened.  His other successes in the County are too numerous to mention here but can be found on the County Honours Board.  His successes were not confined to Worcestershire, having won the Goodman Cup (Warwickshire’s Championship Teams event) in 1970/71 and 1974/75.  In 1971, partnering John Greenhalgh and representing Warwickshire, he won the Pachabo Cup.  More recently, he won the Warwickshire Pairs League Division A in 2016.  He was a member of the Worcestershire team that won the National Counties Teams of Eight in 2013/14, having won the Dawes Trophy that same year.  He won the Gerard Faulkner Salver in 2005 and, as a result, going on to represent England in the European Seniors Teams Championship in 2006.

Outside of bridge, Ian worked for IBM for many years and, on his “retirement”, turned his considerable talents to IT consultancy work for the NHS.  He was also Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Parenting Project charity. 

Ian had lived in Alcester with Loraine, his wife, for many years.  Our thoughts are with Loraine, his wife, and his daughters, Shona, Hannah and Joanna.  He was a generous and kind friend as well as an excellent and enthusiastic bridge player.   We will miss him.

Ian's funeral will be streamed live at 2pm on Wednesday the 9th of September; You can watch it using the following link:

Ian Thompson

We were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Jessie Newton, a much-loved Member who had supported Worcestershire bridge for 30 years.

Jessie was born 4/4/1922 in Oxenhope in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest of 2 daughter's of Harry and Florence Bolton. She had a wonderful childhood and loved walking on the moors and cycling around the country.

Jessie was very bright and after the local school went to Keighley Girls Grammar school. She wanted to attend university and become a teacher but her father, a wool sorter in the local mill, said this was not possible as he could not afford for her to go. Jessie was determined not to work in the mill and took the Civil Service examinations.

She did very well and was offered a post in the Inspector of Taxes office in Leeds. During the war she was moved to the Cardiff tax office. She was told she had to stay in post as the Government needed taxes collected to pay for the war effort.

It was during the war that she met Hubert, at a dance at Catterick army base. Where Hubert was after recovering from being wounded at Dunkirk and before he returned to fighting in the desert campaign. She married after the war and due to the rules at the time then had to leave the Civil Service. She also had to leave her beloved Yorkshire as Hubert was in business with his father in a village in North Wales, near Wrexham.

It was Hubert who introduced Jessie to bridge, which became  a very big part of her life. In the capacity of a player, Jessie was a Grand Master, she won all the trophies in Wales many times in particular the Welsh Cup, she also won the English National Womens Pairs. She also represented Wales, first in Womens events where she was a regular player and with 4 different partners over the years and then in the Open events for the Camrose trophy. Again Jessie had 4 different partners, first her husband and later John Salisbury and Paul Griffiths. She was the first woman to represent Wales in the Open category, and achieved another two firsts with her other partner, her daughter Jean - first female pair and first mother and daughter. She also represented Great Britain in a Mixed Teams event playing with John Salisbury and a pair for Scotland, achieving a bronze medal.

But Jessie did not just play bridge she was heavily involved in its administration. For many years she ran the Llandudno Congress (which was at one stage a 9 day event attracting around 400 players) and another week long Congress at Prestatyn. She founded the Llangollen Swiss Teams and this was the first event of its type, hugely successful and raising a great deal of money to support the British team costs.

But again local administration was not enough and she became Secretary to the British Bridge League, a post she held for many years. One of her first tasks as Secretary was to present the case on behalf of the BBL to the European Bridge League on the cheating allegations against Terence Reece and Boris Schapiro. This she did remarkably well and this started a long association with European delegates who clearly admired Jessie. Later she represented Britain at EBL meetings.

Whilst Secretary she started another bridge congress on the Isle of Man recognising that bridge players like a holiday by the sea, this was copied by many to become bridge holidays.

She was a representative for North Wales on the Welsh Bridge Union and became the first female President a position she held several times. After she resigned as Secretary of the British Bridge League she became a Welsh delegate and later was appointed the first female President of the British Bridge League.

As mentioned Jessie wanted to be a teacher and she did fulfil that ambition by attending Cartrefle Teacher Training Academy in Wrexham as a mature student. She then taught maths, history and business studies at a school in Oswestry for a number of years, but later said that the Tax office was where her skills were best used and that she wished she could have remained in the Civil Service.

Jessie moved to Worcester in 1990 with Hubert when her granddaughter was born. Hubert died in 1994. Naturally she continued playing bridge, though not at international level as, being born in England, she was no longer eligible to play for Wales. But she did participate in Worcestershire bridge events and won many more trophies. Her last trophy was the Worcestershire Rubber Bridge event that she won several times, the last time in 2017 when she was 95 years old.

Jessie loved reading and when not playing or reading about bridge enjoyed a good book as well as reading poetry. Keats was her favourite. She also loved music ballet and theatre. There were regular trips to Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Symphony Hall and Malvern Theatre.

She found walking increasingly difficult in recent years which she blamed on all that walking and running on the moors. Shortly after her 97th birthday her knees finally gave up and that and certain other infirmities meant she could no longer be cared for at home and she spent the last 6 months on her life in a nursing home.

She contracted COVID19 and though it appeared she had beaten the virus with the same determination she showed throughout her life, at 98 it was too much.

She will be remembered.

It is with great sadness that I must report that John Turner died on the 16th August 2019. He was a true gentleman, respected by all, and had supported Worcestershire bridge for 50 years.

• He had been a member of the County Committee since 1970 until he retired from it in 2017 and was the Chairman on 4 occasions. 
• He had also been a member of the Conduct Committee and the Selection Committee as well as being a qualified Tournament Director.
• He was the Events Secretary for 7 years from 1997. 
• He was a Member of the Midland Counties Congress Committee from 1973 until Warwickshire took over the Congress in 2016 and had been Chairman of the Congress on a number of occasions. 

John was presented with a Dimmie Fleming Award in 2002 for his contributions to bridge in Worcestershire.

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WCBA is sad to report the death of Roger Bowles following a fall at home over the Christmas period. This is terrible news and the County has sent our condolences to his wife Shirley and our sympathies go to his family at this sad time. Roger will be a huge loss to bridge generally - being a Grand Master and one of the top 100 players in the country according to the National Grading System. 

Having started out as an English Teacher, Roger made a significant contribution to Birmingham’s Further Education during his working life, moving into Senior Management positions at Josiah Mason College. His bridge career can be traced back to the 1970s and, in the time that he played in Warwickshire with his friends Roger Flood and Pip Whitehouse, he won the County Championship Pairs seven times, the Goodman Cup six times and the Warwickshire Pairs League twice. He also won the Corwen Trophy, the national inter-County Pairs event, and was County Secretary for a number of years.

Moving to Wales, Roger won the Welsh National Pairs Championship and then the Perry Shield (mid-Wales winning for the first time ever) with John Waller. He went on to win the Webber Cup (the Welsh Teams of Four Championship) twice and the Welsh Teams of Eight with John, Keith Shuttleworth and Brian Nicholls. He also won the Bearne, representing the Shrewsbury club.

Arriving in Worcestershire in 2013, Roger soon established himself as a force within the county, winning the Championship Pairs at his first attempt and helping the County to qualify for the Tollemache Final for the first time in over twenty-five years. He initiated a mentoring scheme to bring on promising players: this has just very successfully completed its pilot phase and, as it continues into 2016, will form a permanent reminder of how much he contributed to the County’s bridge in the short time that he lived in Worcestershire.