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Manchester Bridge Club
30 Palatine Road
West Didsbury
Manchester
M20 3JJ

Tel: 0161-445 3712

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MIXED PAIRS
Please click here for the latest results and click here for the related travellers results.

CLUB CHAMPION
Rhona Goldenfield held off a strong challenge from Bernard Goldenfield and Eve Lighthill to win the Club Championship. Click here to see the photograph.

GEOFF NUTTALL WINNER
Eddie Thornton-Chan was the delighted winner of this Monday night competition held from the beginning of January to the end of April. Click here to see the photograph.

HARROGATE EBU SPRING CONGRESS
Well done to Manchester players Paul Hackett who won the Swiss Pairs with fellow World Champion Ross Harper and to Jeff Smith on being part of the winning team in the Swiss Teams.

Lady Milne Trophy
Kath Nelson and Tracy Capal represented England in the Lady Milne Trophy in Northern Ireland at the end of April. Click here to see the photograph.

Manchester Bridge Players Success recognised by Lord Mayor
At a special reception held in the Lord Mayor's Parlour at Manchester Town Hall the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Mavis Smitheman, said she was delighted to welcome the Manchester Bridge Association to the Town Hall and to congratulate the players on their remarkable achievements on the world stage. Other sporting heroes from last year’s Beijing Games have been honoured by the City and it was fitting that the achievements of our Mind Sports Competitors should be equally celebrated and applauded.

Kevin Comrie, Chair of the Manchester County Bridge Association,said that this gathering was to celebrate the latest achievements of three Manchester players in Beijing. He introduced Michael Byrne, Jason and Justin Hackett to the Lord Mayor.

Michael Byrne is a graduate of Manchester University. Since finishing there some 6 years ago Michael has made huge contributions to local and national youth Bridge. As a junior he represented England 14 times. Since turning 25 he has twice been selected for English Open teams. He is Squad manager of the English Under-20 team giving his time and energy over many weekends to encourage and train young bridge players. His hard work with the juniors was rewarded in Beijing in October when he captained the under 20 team to a Silver medal, losing narrowly to favourites France in a closely contested final.

Jason and Justin Hackett were previously in the Town Hall in 1996 to celebrate Gold Medals won at the World Junior Championships in Bali. Since then Jason and Justin have moved effortlessly from Junior Champions into the Open Bridge Scene and have become the backbone of the England Open team. Currently Justin is 22nd and Jason is 26th in the World Rankings. No other English players are ranked in the top 50.
Last year Justin and Jason were selected for the English Open team in the World Mind Sports. The Open teams championship is universally regarded as the premiere championship of the World Mind Sport Games. It is played over two weeks and players can play over 100 hours of bridge within this period. It requires skill, endurance, patience, intense concentration and good temperament.
England surpassed all previous achievements in reaching the final where they faced Italy, the favourites, whose six players are all ranked in the world top seven! After a closely fought contest played over two days Italy emerged as narrow winners and England took the silver medal. Arguably this was the best ever performance by an English team. Jason and Justin are a credit to Manchester and the game of bridge.

At the end of the reception the Lord Mayor presented Chairman of the Manchester County Bridge Association, Kevin Comrie, with a hand painted Manchester Coat of Arms.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! to John Fitzgerald and Gillian Mcmullen on winning the Easter Congress Swiss Pairs at Buxton and to Sue Richmond and Craig Fisher on finishing third. Well done also to Alan and Kath Nelson on winning the London Easter Congress Mixed Pairs and to David Adelman on being part of the winning team in the Buxton Easter Congress Swiss Teams.

Well done to Goldenfields and Blakeys who have reached the final of the Gerard Faulkner Salver, the National knockout Seniors Teams. They have beaten some top class teams en route to the final. Best of luck in the final.

A record 18 teams competed on the 14th May in our yearly Swiss Teams competition. The leading scores after three matches are:-

Posn	Team				Points
1	B Lewis	A Smalley	L Johnson	J Athey	48
2	M Byrne	T Slater	M Brunner	J Holland	44
3	C Draper	A Woodcock	D Debbage	J Hassett	41
4=	D Robson	V Robson	R Franks	D Daji	39
4=	M Bass	F Brown	G McMullan	N Thomas	39
6	E Lighthill	B Cook	M Rosenbaum	E Rosenbaum	38
7	P Hand	J Hand	P Rudolph	J Rudolph	35
8	J Parsons	J Morris	S Richmond	M Bell	34

Well done our Juniors this last weekend who won both the Junior Camrose and Peggy Bayer Trophies in Belfast. Mike Bell and Alex Morris were part of the winning Junior Camrose Team.This was Mike's second Camrose win and Alex's fifth (is this a record?). Michael Byrne was non playing captain of the Peggy Bayer team (under 20) which achieved a near maximum victory point score.Michael is Squad Manager of the Under 20 squad and has been working very hard with his players.

Our up and coming youngsters Laura Bonney, Alex Birchall, Jack Hassan and Luke Webb playing with four players from the Grange School, Northwich were all very encouraging in the inter-regional Arnott-Davidson Trophy against a strong North East side containing one of the Silver Medallists from Beijing. Next year the North East lose four of their best players as they will be too old...

Civic Reception for Beijing medal winners- Manchester City Council will be formally recognizing the achievements of our Manchester based players in last year’s Beijing World Mind Sports Olympiad by holding a Civic Reception in their honour. The three medallists, Michael Byrne, Jason and Justin Hackett along with their families and officials of the MCBA will be received by the Lord Mayor of Manchester at the Town Hall on Thursday 16 April 2009.

Geoff Nuttall Trophy - After six of the possible seventeen sessions on this Monday night competition Barry Hobden leads with an average 59.62%, Dave Matthews is second with 58.99% and Tean and Craig Porteus lie third with 57.15%. Best eight percentage scores of each player over the whole period count.

BEGINNERS COURSE - David Adelman will be starting a new course for beginners on TUESDAY 3rd March 2009 at 7.00pm.To enrol please e-mail jeff@manchesterbridge.co.uk or telephone the club 0161-445-3712

Dave Debbage Workshop Sunday 8th March 2009 - Dave's next workshop will be on the subject of DOUBLES and PROTECTIVE BIDDING. Session time is from 2.00pm-4.00pm and costs £10 per person. Afternoon tea, sandwiches and cake are provided.To enrol please e-mail jeff@manchesterbridge.co.uk or telephone the club.

SIMULTANEOUS PAIRS - the next simultaneous is the Charity Challenge which will be held on Thursday 12th March 2009 at 7.30pm

International Honours for Club Players.

Mike Bell,Adam Hickman Jenny Marvin and Amy Stout all took part in the Channel Trophy for under-25 players just before Christmas.

This weekend sees Michael Byrne and Michael Bell make their International debut for England in the Camrose trophy.

Alex Morris plays in his fifth Junior Camrose in February -this time partnering Fiona Brown of Harrogate.

John Holland and Michelle Brunner will be playing in their first Camrose match playing together in March.

Kath Nelson and Tracy Capal will be playing for England's Women's team in the Lady Milne Trophy in April.

Santa Claus Pairs 2008

19 tables took part in this always enjoyable event. Scottish internationals Alex and Tony Wilkinson notched up their third win ending up well clear of new partnership John Parsons Jnr and Ed Levy and two times winners Eve Lighthill and Dave Debbage who finished 2nd and third respectively.

BGB WINTER SIMULTANEOUS PAIRS

OTHER MAGNIFICENT RESULTS

IN DECEMBER JASON AND JUSTIN HACKETT WON THE GOLD CUP FOR THE FOURTH TIME !!!!!

MANCHESTER CONGRESS-The pairs was won by John Hassett and Dave Debbage, closely followed by John and Pauline Rudolf (who were awarded the Mixed Pairs) .PAUL HACKETT was part of the winning team in the Congress teams.

Year End Congress Blackpool-

Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield won the Mixed Pairs and David Adelman and Jeff Smith were once again part of the winning team in the Swiss Teams

MONDAY NIGHT DUPLICATE -5TH JANUARY 2009

This was the first session of the Geoff Nuttall Trophy played for on Monday nights between January and the end of April.We were delighted to welcome to no less than three BEIJING SILVER MEDALLISTS who played in the duplicate that night.

MERVILLE GOLDSTONE -We are very sad to inform members of the club of the death of Merville Goldstone on New Years Day.Merville was a great supporter of Manchester Bridge Club and bridge in the Manchester Area.He was Chairman of both the Club and the MCBA for many years.Our thoughts and sympathies are with Joyce and her family at this difficult time.

Record Win in Seniors Congress Swiss Teams by Club Players

John Hassett and Bill Hirst playing with Southern players Keith Stanley and Derek Rue decimated the Seniors Congress Swiss Teams by scoring an incredible 136vps out of a possible 140vps at Daventry on Sunday 9th November.

They won every match either 19-1 or 20-0!! This score is believed to be a record in any National Swiss Teams competition.

SILVER MEDALS in TWO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS for club players !!!

Well done to Jason and Justin Hackett on their silver medal in the World Open Teams Olympiad in Beijing and to Michael Byrne and his team for winning silver in the World Under 21 Teams Championship.

All the Under 21 team are well known in Manchester through their attendance at the Manchester Congress and the training sessions at the club.Best known is of course Adam Hickman who plays regularly in club duplicate sessions.The rest of the team are Ed Jones/ Tom Paske, Rob Myers/ Ben Paske, and Dan Macintosh. Michael was of course non-playing captain.Over the last two years Michael, as Under-20 Squad manager, has worked tirelessly to train,enthuse and prepare his players and deserves much credit for the success of his team.

Gold medal winners at Beijing were the England Women's team.Players in the Eve Lighthill trophy will no doubt remember one of the team, Catherine Draper, playing with Junior Internationals Andrew Woodcock and Edward Levy in a team captained by Dave Debbage.The rest of the Gold Medal winning team was Nicola Smith,Sally Brock,Heather Dhondy,Nevena Senior and Ann Rosen.

In the World OpenTeams the English team that won the silver medal was Jason and Justin Hackett,Tom Townsend, David Gold,Nick Sandqvist & Artur Malinowski.Their performance was the best ever by an English team in an Olympiad.Three of the team (Jason Hackett,Justin Hackett and Tom Townsend) have previously won Gold in a Bridge World Championship when in 1995 they all played in the British Under 26 team that won the Under 26 World Bridge Championships in Bali.

PREMIER LEAGUE
Congratulations to Paul Hackett, Tony Waterlow, Michelle Brunner and John Holland who won the first round-robin of the Premier League after two weekends of intensive play.Well done also to John Hassett's team of Bill Hirst,Peter Czniewiscki,Howard Melbourne and Ian Panto who finished third. The sixteen teams now split into two divisions of eight and will play another round robin on 14th-16th November.On the butler scoring over the 300 boards played so far the best performance by any of the top players in the country was that of John Holland and Michelle Brunner!!

ENGLISH BRIDGE UNION CONGRESS -DUBROVNICK
Well done to John and Pauline Rudolf on winning both the teams and pairs at the recent EBU Oversaes Congress in Croatia.

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BEGINNERS
The next Beginners' Course starts on Wednesday 7^th April 2010 at 7.00pm
(Limited Accommodation)

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