David Wing: Plymouth City Cup

Plymouth Cathedral and my bike

Plymouth City Cup winners - Michael Hamon & Enid Hamon

Presentation of City Cup to Club Chairman Gloria Lankshear

Plymouth Cathedral Built 1858 at a cost of £3904. Architects Hansom brothers of "Black cab" fame. During construction a Royal Navy Officer decided to fire a new Turkish Man-of-War gun in Plymouth Sound causing subsidence.

A City Cup event will be held at every bridge club and a Cup presented (as a gift from me) to the club. Each cup will be engraved with the name of the City plus the Winners names and hopefully this can then become an annual event.

Should the clubs (or indeed anyone) wish to donate to the Alzheimers Society this can be done via the website: www.justgiving.com/citycup

David Wing - The City Cup, Part I

David Wing is currently on a cycle tour of all 51 Cities in England to include each city cathedral and an EBU affiliated bridge club, whilst raising money for the Alzheimers Society.

"At 65 I wanted to do something crazy before the "Grim Reaper" gets me. Thus the "City Cup" project evolved as a vehicle to achieve three things:-

1) A personal physical challenge - over 1000 miles of cycling

2) Involvement and promotion of our wonderful game

3) Support for the Alzheimers Society

Stage One of the City Cup project is underway. This involves a cycle tour of all 51 Cities in England to include the City Cathedral and EBU affiliated bridge club. (If successful, Stage 2 could be the 18 Cities of N.Ireland Scotland and Wales).

A City Cup event will be held at every bridge club and a Cup presented (as a gift from me) to the club. Each cup will be engraved with the name of the City plus the Winners names and hopefully this can then become an annual event.

Should the clubs (or indeed anyone) wish to donate to the Alzheimers Society this can be done via the website: www.justgiving.com/citycup

At the time of writing, five events have taken place at Plymouth, Exeter, Truro, Bath, and Bristol - all have been wonderful evenings and the charitable donations over-whelming - many thanks to all those involved."


David will be updating EBU members via this blog over the coming weeks...

David Wing


The views expressed here are David's own

Alec Salisbury Award 2011

The English Bridge Union has awarded Mary Mills the Alec Salisbury Award for 2011 in recognition of the outstanding service she has given to the development of bridge at her school: Nottingham High School, over many years.

Mary has been teaching maths at Nottingham High School (an all boys independent school) for over twenty years. Mary first started playing bridge with friends as a student at Nottingham University. However, it was not until Mary started teaching at West Bridgford comprehensive in Nottingham and became involved in a team of 8, that Mary got a feel for what the game was all about.

At Nottingham High School, Mary assisted by her colleague John Allen, runs a lunchtime bridge club. The bridge club meets three times a week and numbers vary from eight to twenty boys playing. The club is open to all age groups and beginners.

Nottingham High School bridge club have had a team in the Notts team of 8 evening leagues. This has been a valuable experience for the young players over the years and has given them a good insight into competition bridge. More recently the players have practiced on line. The school also runs a two week House Bridge Competition and takes part in various simultaneous pairs events.

Over the years, the school has achieved success at the schools challenge at Loughborough, winning the Schools Cup ,the Harry Scully Trophy and this years, Schools Plate.

The award was presented by Graham Jepson in front of many of Mary’s bridge students.

Silver Plate

The results for the Silver Plate round one draw are now available for viewing. Earlier rounds are 32 boards, to view the results of the draw, click here.

2011 Master Point Reports

The annual Master Point reports have now been published. Congratulations to Ed Scerri who has won the Sunday Telegraph Salver for the second year in a row, finishing ahead of Frances Hinden and Janet Springett. John Holland leads the Gold Points table, with David Bakhshi second and David Gold third.

• All 2011 Master Point Reports
• Expanded announcement (with a few additional facts and figures)
• Most points earned in 2011
• Gold Point ranking list

The Club Champions are also listed at the above link and a prize draw has been done, so congratulations to the following winners who receive EBU vouchers:

1. Mike Amos, Alpha Bridge Club, Norfolk (£400)
2. Linda Gardiner, Mid Sussex Bridge Club (£200)
3. Raymond Medhurst, Weald Bridge Club (£100)

Trial Sim Pairs II

The second trial of our Sim Pairs software was held on Monday evening, and we were pleased to have 114 clubs joining in. Results and commentaries are now available:

• Results


• Commentary (for reading online)


• Commentary (booklet format, for printing)


• Comments and feedback

75th Anniversary Minibridge Day, London

Children as young as 6 and 7 are being encouraged to play Minibridge in class to help them improve their Mathematics and English.

As part of the EBU’s 75th Anniversary celebrations, three primary schools were invited to demonstrate Minibridge. Pembury School, near Tunbridge Wells; St Christina’s School, Camden; and St Peter’s Eaton Square, London all brought pupils to play. All the children taught and played Minibridge with a number of journalists and other special guests on Wednesday 25 January at the famous Young Chelsea Bridge Club.

Sally Bugden, Chairman of the EBU said: "The English Bridge Union through its Youth and Education Trust has been quietly demonstrating since 2008, how the game of Minibridge can help young people to learn maths and other skills. This work is undertaken with the strong belief that bridge has the most positive effect on society’s health and wealth, as well as being great fun too..”

Thank you to all our guests, and the Young Chelsea bridge club for hosting our event.

• Photos


• Youth and Education Trust


• More information on Minibridge initiative

Masters’ Pairs 2012

If you were recently promoted to Master over the last year, you will be able to enter the Masters’ Pairs on Sunday, 4th March, free of charge. Why not give it a go?

The Ranked Masters is a group of pairs championships for players of similar ranks.

The Masters Pairs section is open only to players below the rank of Regional Master on 1 Jan 2012. It is now a 1-day event in these four regional venues starting at 11.30am, and NOT 1pm as announced in the diary, and finishing by 7pm :-

• Daventry (Barcelo Hotel)


• Richmond Bridge Club


• Tunbridge Wells Bridge Club


• Welwyn Garden City Bridge Club

Unless your partner was also promoted to Master in 2011 too, their entry fee will be £24, less than half the 2011 cost.

• View further details

England win Camrose Trophy

England have won the 2012 Camrose Trophy after a convincing second weekend in East Kilbride. They finished 21VPs ahead of Wales, winning every match. Congratulations to all the team: Frances Hinden, Graham Osborne, Chris Jagger, Ian Pagan, Jeffrey Allerton and Tom Townsend with NPC David Burn.

• Results page and information

England win silver at World Mind Games

The England ladies won a silver medal at the World Mind Games invitational event in Beijing, losing to USA in the final. Well done to Sally Brock, Nicola Smith, Heather Dhondy, Nevena Senior, Susan Stockdale and Fiona Brown.

Nicola Smith also won silver in the Individual event.