INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE

Barbara Hackett won a silver medal in the Women’s World Championships in Shanghai in October – playing for Germany!

Michelle Brunner and Rhona Goldenfield provided Manchester's main interest in the World Championships at Shanghai. Representing England they qualified last year by winning Bronze medal in the European Women's event.  This was their 17th joint appearance together representing England or Great Britain. Michelle has had a further 21 appearances with other partners and Rhona two with Bernard in mixed teams events.

England finished in the last qualifying spot in the round robin but were beaten by China in their quarter final match.  Rhona and Michelle played well in both the qualifying and the match against China. Since this event Michelle has announced her retirement from international bridge due to her health problems of which we are all sadly aware. Her career has been remarkable with World and European Championships to her name in addition to an enviable record in domestic bridge competitions.

John Holland (playing with John Armstrong) had been selected to represent England in the Home International Camrose Match in March

Junior Internationals

In the Junior Camrose and Peggy Bayer Trophies over the weekend of 17th-18th February the England teams won both events.  Mark Reeve and David Collier of Manchester  were in the Junior Camrose team.  Michael Byrne was npc of the England Peggy Bayer winning team.

Jennie Marvin and Adam Hickman have just returned from Holland after being on the winning teams in the Channel Trophy competitions for Girls and Under-20s respectively. Michael Byrne was the non-playing captain who inspired his Under-20 team to a fairy tale victory. Michael Bell and  Alex Morris played in the Under-25 event.

Juniors Michael Bell and Alex Morris had been selected for the Junior Camrose in Manchester in February. Kath Nelson and Tracy Capal will be competing in the English Women’s Trials for the Lady Milne and the European Championships.

In Australia last February Bill Hirst, Paul Hackett and Jason Hackett made it three years in a row that club players  have won the teams trophy in  one of Australia’s  top events, the Gold Coast Congress. Previous winners, John Holland’s team, were knocked out in the semi –final.

Bonn Nation's Cup

A successful England debut for Michael Byrne and Andrew Woodcock in May. Playing with Tom Townsend and David Gold of London they finished in third place in this high standard invitation event.  The England team finished a close second in their group in the round robin.  The top team in each group in the round robin played a final while the remainder carried their scores over into a Swiss event, which England won.

In November  John Hassett  won the national Cuba pairs  with Peter Czerniewski and came second in the teams with Manchester's Irving and Joy Blakey. He then went on to San Francisco to play in the American Nationals reaching the final of the Blue Ribbon Pairs. In 2006 Paul Hackett and  John Armstrong  produced what must rate as one of their best ever performances in very distinguished bridge careers, finishing 2nd in the American Life Masters in Honolulu .In 2007 they produced another fabulous result qualifying for the final of the Reisinger and finishing fourth.

Manchester Bridge Club can be justifiably proud of the achievements of its players on the International stage.

NATIONAL EVENTS

Manchester Bridge Players also have a great record in National Events .

This year Manchester Bridge Club represented by  DAVE DEBBAGE, MICHAEL NEWMAN, MICHAEL BYRNE,ANDREW WOODCOCK  (Kath Nelson played in earlier rounds) were WINNERS OF THE ENGLISH BRIDGE UNION NATIONAL INTER-CLUB KNOCKOUT .

AFTER AN ORIGINAL ENTRY OF 355 TEAMS IN SEPTEMBER 2006 THE FINAL OF THIS NATIONAL KNOCK OUT EVENT FOR CLUB TEAMS WAS PLAYED ON SATURDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2007 AT SOLIHULL BRIDGE CLUB BETWEEN MANCHESTER BRIDGE CLUB (CAPTAINED BY MICHAEL BYRNE) AND CHELTENHAM BRIDGE CLUB (CAPTAINED BY KEITH STANLEY). AT THE END OF THE 48 BOARD MATCH MANCHESTER BRIDGE CLUB WERE COMFORTABLE  WINNERS BY 66IMPS.

THIS IS THE THIRD TIME MANCHESTER BRIDGE CLUB HAVE WON THIS EVENT AND IT WOULD BE TRUE TO SAY THAT IT GETS TOUGHER EVERY YEAR! RHONA AND BERNARD GOLDENFIELD,JOHN HOLLAND,MICHELLE BRUNNER,GARY HYETT AND HOWARD MELBOURNE  WERE WINNERS IN THE INAUGRAL YEAR OF THE EVENT IN 1990 AND THE SAME TEAM WITHOUT GARY AND HOWARD REPEATED THEIR SUCCESS IN 1993.SINCE THEN THE CLUB HAS ALWAYS DONE WELL IN THE EVENT BUT  HAVE NOT MANAGED ANOTHER WIN UNTIL NOW.

Gold Cup

The ultimate event in British Bridge was won in 2005 by Jason and Justin Hackett for the third time. 2006 saw   Michael Byrne, Alex Morris, Bill Hirst, John Hassett, Michelle Brunner and John Holland come within a whisker of being the first all Manchester team since the 1950’s to win the Gold Cup. They lost in the final by a mere 2 imps. This year three club teams were in the last 32. Jeff Smith’s team (Alan Nelson,Mike Clarke, Martin Braid) did the best  knocking out the number 1 seeds to reach the last sixteen but could not get past Nick Stevens Leicestershire team who reached the final.

Hubert Phillips

Kath Nelson’s Hubert Philips team lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winners after knocking out the holders (Catherine Jagger’s team) and Michelle Brunner (seven times winners).

National Swiss Teams

Another fine result for the young(ish) team of Michael Byrne and Andrew Woodcock (Manchester), Ben Green and Duncan Happer who won the National Swiss Teams at Kettering on 20th-21st January.

Year End Congress –Blackpool

The Nelsons had a field day at this event last weekend winning the Swiss Pairs (113 Pairs) on the Saturday and finishing 2nd  in the teams with Tracy Capal and Jeff Morris on the Sunday. However ,Dave Debbage’s team of Andrew Woodcock, Catherine Draper and Edward Levy were winners of the teams.

Great Northern Swiss Pairs
In the Great Northern Swiss Pairs held on 6th-7th October Michael Byrne and Andrew Woodcock were 2nd, Mike Bell and Dave Collier were 3rd, John Hassett and Bill Hirst were 6th.

Whitelaw Cup –the English Bridge Union’s  National Women’s teams championship was  won  in September by the English Team  including Michelle Brunner, and Rhona Goldenfield.

Crockford's Final

In the final of the Crockfords Cup the English National Teams Championship on 12th-13th May Michael Byrne's team (Andrew Woodcock, John Holland, Michelle Brunner, John Hassett, Bill Hirst) finished fourth (Andrew Woodcock and Bill Hirst did not play in the final). The winners were Justin and Jason Hackett playing on Janet De Botton's team.

Northern Pairs

The Northern Pairs Trophy remained in Manchester hands when John Holland and Michelle Brunner won the regional final at Bradford Bridge Club on 25th March.  Last year Michael Byrne and John Hassett won the event and then went on to win the National Final. Unfortunately John and Michelle were unable to play in the final .

National Bridge Organisation

The club continues to contribute highly significantly to the organisation of bridge in England with  Jeff Morris and Alan Nelson  re-elected to the board of the EBU. Alan Nelson is also now Chairman of Tournament Committee which includes Paul Hackett .  Paul is also on the EBU Selection Committee.

Area Events

The Manchester Congress at the Renaissance is the highlight of the year for Manchester Players.2007 saw a win for Jeff Smith and Bernard Kaye in the Pairs and Michael Byrne and Andrew Woodcock in the teams.

Ben Franks

The holders, the Manchester Bridge Club management team of Dave Debbage and Jeff Morris lost the trophy to the Manchester Bridge Club Teaching  team of Michael Byrne and Michael Newman.  However both pairs qualify for the Corwen Trophy in June.

Club Competitions

Geoff Nuttall Memorial Trophy  – This individual competition held on a Monday night in the weeks running up to Easter was won jointly by Gillian McMullen and John Fitzgerald. They then went on to win the Cheadle Royal Cup which finished just before Christmas

Ruia Cup 2007

There was a very exciting finish in the Ruia Cup when Paul Hackett’s team of all stars were overhauled by Jeff Smith’s team in the final match.
 
Club Championship – Rhona Goldenfield won this year’s event finishing in April 2007.  Sam Herman is challenging strongly for the current year.
 
Eve Lighthill Trophy
In an exciting finish the trophy was won by Dave Audley’s team (Frank Brown, Mark Bass, Tony Lipson, Jeff Smith, Barry Keen, Stuart Hunter ) who won on a split tie from Eve Lighthill's team ( Ian Kane, Barry Davies, Ken Hassell)

The Santa Claus Pairs was won in 2007 for the first time by Alec Smalley and Barbara Lewis.

Club News
Bridgemates have proved popular despite some initial teething problems with the technology.  A duplimate machine has now been obtained and all our duplicates now incorporate the latest technology –pre-dealt hands with instant scoring and hand records at the session end.

Please also tell your Golf-Playing friends about the bridge competition for Golf Clubs to be held on Thursday 31st January 2008 at 7.30 pm. Called the Golf print Challenge this is an excellent opportunity for Golf Clubs to get  a team together for a fun event.  Each team can have at most one player of regional master or above.

On Thursday the 24th January 2008 there is a qualifying competition  for  the National Pairs. If you are interested please add your name to the list in the hall.

On Sunday  17th February 2008 there is a heat of the Gazette Trophy for teams of eight and the format is much more laid back this year so if you fancy playing in a team from the club please let me know.

Also in March on the 16th  there will be a heat of the National Newcomers Pairs. This  is a great opportunity for Newcomers to play in a National event without having to travel as it is played simultaneously in clubs around the country yet scored Nationally.

Concluding Remarks

It remains for me to conclude my report to thank the members of the Club for their support during the last year. Manchester Bridge Club has continued to be a centre of excellence for bridge producing considerable numbers of talented players at all levels of the game. The Club supports Bridge both locally and Nationally and is the venue for a variety of activities and events, qualifying competitions, newcomers and charity events. It is also a resource for the County  Association for meetings and a venue for such diverse activities as Junior Training Weekends and EBU teachers courses.

To maintain this resource, which gives so much to the bridge playing community, we need the support of local bridge players not only in our regular competitions but also in their commitment to membership of the club.

Finally, I would like to thank the Club Committee so ably chaired by Eve Lighthill for making this year such a success.