Well done to Michelle Brunner and Rhona Goldenfield on winning bronze in the Women's European Teams Championship in Warsaw. which has been taking place over eight gruelling days.  First place went to France with the Netherlands second. 22 countries took part. 
This placing ensures the team has qualified for the World Championships which will take place in Shanghai from 29 Sep – 13 Oct 2007 where they will compete for the Venice Cup, the highest ranking bridge prize for Women’s Bridge Teams in the world.
The England seniors came second in group B.In the 16 team round robin the best performing pair in the whole of Europe ( 91 pairs played in the seniors including some very distinguished players) were our very own John Hassett and Bill Hirst who gained over an imp a board on average
In the Open the English team with John Holland and John Armstrong finished tenth.

Michelle Brunner Workshops for Improving Players

Wednesday 13th September 2006 starting at 1.30 pm. finishing at 4.00pm. The
subject is 'The power of the weak no trump and subsequent hand evaluation'. The cost is £10.00 per person. Please let me know if you would like to attend.
After this Michelle will be coming again on Wednesday 11th October 2006 and
the topic is 'Everything you thought you knew about Stayman but probably do
not!'

MIKE BYRNE AND ANDREW WOODCOCK WIN BRIGHTON TEAMS

Michael Byrne and Andrew Woodcock playing with London players David Bakshi and Glynn Liggins won  England’s biggest congress teams at Brighton in great style over the weekend of the 17th-20th August.

106 teams enter on the Friday night to play 10 rounds of Swiss before the top eight teams are creamed off to play an all play all final over two sessions. The competition finished on Sunday evening with Michael and Andrew’s team convincing winners.

PLAY WITH AN EXPERT THURSDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER 2006 USING HANDS FROM LEDERER

Manchester Bridge Club will be using the hands and booklets provided for the London Metropolitan Bridge Association’ 60th Anniversary Simultaneous Pairs for a Play With an Expert Competition on Thursday 28th September 2006 starting at 8.00pm. In addition to scoring as a Play with an Expert the results will be amalgamated into the Sim Pairs results(without counting).

The English Bridge Union’s Brighton Summer Congress has finished and the club can be very proud of two of its young players who were part of the winning team in the main event. Well done to Michael Byrne(25)  and Andrew Woodcock(26)  who won the Four Stars Teams Championship. The Brighton teams is regarded as one of the most prestigious events in the English Bridge Union’s calendar with almost 200 teams competing. Three sessions of Swiss Teams are played  before the leading eight teams are qualified for the Four Stars 'A' final playing for the Four Stars Trophy ,in an all play all format. The next eight play the 'B' final  for the Mayor's Cup  and the remainder of the field play one further session for the Brighton Bowl .

Michael and Andrew’s team were in a qualifying position all the time and eventually finished 3rd in the Swiss qualifier, earning entry into the A final with room to spare. In the final itself they won every match, averaging   an impressive16 out of 20 victory points a match. Their team-mates were David Bakhshi (32) and Glynn Liggins (44), both from London..
In 2nd place was the team captained by  Norwegian football agent Rune Hauge, whose players included three top Norwegian professionals (bridge players-not footballers!). It was Rune who arranged the loan of Norwegian footballer of the year, and keen bridge player, Martin Andressen to Blackburn in 2005.

Ruia Cup 2006
Never has there been a more convincing victory in any of our Annual Swiss team competitions than in this year’s Ruia Cup when Paul Hackett,Justin Hackett,Mike Alexander and Brian Cornelius finished 30vps clear of the second place teams in what was quite a strong field.

Final results for Ruia Cup 2006

1st Justin Hackett, Paul Hackett, Mike Alexander, Brian Cornelius - 109vps
2nd= Michael Byrne, Kath Nelson, Craig Fisher, Alan Nelson - 79vps
2nd=Ian Kane, Barry Davies, David Oliver, Ken Hassell,Ray Semp - 79vps
4th Eve Lighthill, Bob Cooke, Marcello Rosenbaum, Elena Rosenbaum, Dhun Daji - 78vps
5th Sam Herman, Barbara Lewis,Sid Travers,George Balon - 68vps
6thDave Audley, Frank Brown, Mark Bass, Maurice Super, Ann Super - 63vps
7th  Neil Thomas,Ray Ashleigh,Denis Robson,Val Robson - 61vps
8th Pete Foster, Phil Callow, Peter Jones,Boris Ewart,Tracy Capal - 59vps
9th  Mike Hart, Dave Matthews, Barry Hobden,Jonathan Smith,Ann Thornton - 56vps
10th Alec Smalley, Mike Goldsmith, Mark Halliwell, Mike Ardron,Ian Pendlebury - 48vps
11th Ted Cadman, Dave Collier, Ian McKie,Simon Townsend, Jane Randall,Bryan Randall - 46vps
12th Ruth Bertfield,Helen Lister, Lance Bloohn,Karen Sandler - 37vps
13th Karen Reismann, Irene Davies, Peter Jackson, Maggie Jackson - 32vps
14th Susan Triggs, Graham Winn, John Parsons,Jonathan King, Ron Monroe,  Linda Williams - 24vps

(Right) Christine Boal, winner of the Charles Wade Cup -the Tuesday night rubber bridge competition played over 13 weeks-being presented with the trophy by Michael Byrne.

Michael Byrne's 25th Birthday

To celebrate reaching the age of 25 and therefore no longer being qualified as a Junior, Michael Byrne held a party at Manchester Bridge club on 3rd June.  The guests included a large selection of England's finest Junior players, and many of Manchester's bridge playing community.  There were even a few non-bridge players;  Michael claimed at least 10.  The absence of many people aged between 30 and 50 was notable.  An excellent party was enjoyed by all - and not a pack of cards in sight.  Kath Nelson got busy with a digital camera.

World Mixed Pairs

Michelle Brunner and John Holland put in a tremendous performance in the World Mixed Pairs Championship in Verona finishing 14th in the final from an original field of nearly 500 pairs.The next best performance by a pair from England was that of former World Champion Nicola Smith and John Armstrong who finished 44th.

Pachabo Final
The Manchester team of Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, John Hassett and Bill Hirst finished a creditable 6th out of 30 teams in the Pachabo final at Kettering on 11th-12th June.

Garden Cities Final

The Manchester Bridge Club team of Jeff Smith,David Adelman,Dave Debbage,Mike Newman, Bill Hirst ,Jeff Morris,Bernard Goldenfield and Rhona Goldenfield finished a disappointing sixth in the final.Star pair were Bernard and Rhona who played extremely well but unfortunately there were too many errors  made by the rest of the team.

Second in the final were Staffs and Shrops who had Manchester players Kevin and Celia Comrie,Peter Jones ,Gary Hyett and Barbara Hackett all playing in the team!

Risley Green Point Weekend -May 2006

Swiss Pairs Saturday 13th May

Manchester pairs did well.  Congratulations to winners Tracy Capal and Boris Ewart, second were Michael Byrne and Michael Newman.

Swiss Teams Sunday 14th May

1st   Paul Hackett, Justin Hackett, Brian Cornelius, Gary Hyett
2nd Ted Reveley, Ralph Churney, Tracy Capal, Bill Niccol
4th  Michael Byrne, Kath Nelson, Jeff Morris, Alan Nelson