Teaching bridge in Botswana

The most popular sport in Botswana is football, closely followed by cricket and rugby. However additionally, and maybe surprisingly, many people in Botswana are also dedicated to the learning and playing of the card game bridge!

In October 2007, the Botswana Bridge Federation contacted the EBU’s Education Department manager, John Pain and asked him to visit Botswana and teach their bridge teachers and tournament directors. Such a unique opportunity was not to be missed and John started a full week of teaching on 19 May 2008 in Botswana.

View photos and videos here.

Alec Salisbury Award winner - Richard Croot

The English Bridge Union has awarded Richard Croot the Alec Salisbury Award in recognition of the outstanding service he has given to the development of bridge at his school: Hereford Cathedral School, over many years.

Richard Croot was initially taught rudimentary bridge by his father at the age of six, which was followed by lessons from his maths teacher at Fettes school. His passion for bridge continued whilst studying at the universities of Bristol and Durham and in the past few years Richard has represented the county of Herefordshire.

He has been teaching bridge at the school since 1995 and has seen a number of his pupils go on toEngland junior success. Richard has also entered his school teams into the Herefordshire county leaguesand the Hereford bridge club competitions.

At the moment Richard teaches bridge to his Year 7 classes and plans to set up an after school bridge club in the next academic year.

The award was presented by EBU Chairman, Peter Stocken in front of many of Richard’s bridge students. Please click here to view the photos from the day of bridge.

Law Book 2007

The Board of the English Bridge Union will provide one copy of the new law book free of charge to every affiliated EBU club who has paid their current affiliation fee and one free copy to each County. This has been made possible due to the generosity of the Portland Club which has waived its rights to a copyright royalty in this instance as they fully support the Union in their development of bridge in England.

We will make arrangements for bulk delivery to the counties who can make arrangements for onward delivery to their clubs.

Click here for our guide.

Ian Spoors

The EBU is sad to report that National Tournament Director, Ian Spoors, died this week after a brief illness.

View Ian's Obituary here.

Bingo Lotto

The English Bridge Union is delighted to announce it will be amongst the beneficiaries of BingoLotto - a new TV game, set up by the CCPR. The game will raise money for sport and recreation and will help towards the EBU’s commitment in promoting the game of duplicate bridge.

BingoLotto will be a weekly game broadcast on digital TV channels Virgin1 and Challenge every Friday night, starting on 29 February. Tickets are on sale from outlets around the country and will allow viewers to take part in the BingoLotto game from the comfort of their own home. The game will be hosted by popular entertainers, Joe Pasquale and Suzanne Shaw.

Masterpoint reports 2007

Congratulations to Ron Davis, who has won the 2007 Master Point race! Ron finished just ahead of his Bedfordshire colleague Jon Williams who had won it for the last several years. Third was Michael Byrne of Manchester.

In the Gold Point rankings, David Bakhshi of London ended the year in first place, ahead of Michael Byrne and last year's leader Tim Rees of Berks and Bucks.

Click here for all the rankings lists

Raymond Brock (1936 - 2008)

Patrick Jourdain writes:
Raymond Brock, who has died aged 71, was, for four decades, one of Britain's leading bridge-players and administrators. He was a member of the British team in 1987 that won silver at both the European and World Championships and was a World Bridge Master.

In the Home Internationals Brock had 26 caps for England as a player and, later, four as non-playing captain, including last year. Whilst resident in Glasgow in the early 70s he had seven matches for Scotland in the era when Scotland won the Camrose Trophy three times. Brock won the Gold Cup, the British knockout championships, on seven occasions.Brock was educated at Manchester University and became a Physics teacher at a Manchester school. His international bridge career began in 1960 partnering Roy Higson of Lancashire. In 1968 Brock became a computer manager for Honeywell and moved to Glasgow. After his return to England in 1975 he lived in Middlesex and initially formed a partnership with Bill Pencharz, earning four caps for England. But his success in British teams came from the eight-year partnership with Tony Forrester, bridge columnist of the Daily Telegraph, which began in 1982. This included the World and European silver medals and two bronze medals at Common Market Championships.
Of numerous national titles his most recent was the England Teams Championship for the Crockford's Cup in 2004. This was his sixth win in Crockford's.

As an administrator Brock was twice President of the British Bridge League and non-playing captain of many of its teams, including a world bronze for the Women in 1980, and gold for the Juniors at the 1989 World championships in Nottingham. He was a key figure in coaching young players and in 1994 captained the British Junior team that won the Europeans and went on to win the world title the following year in Bali. Brock was an England selector.

Brock married for the first time in 1993. His widow, Sally, is one of Britain's leading bridge players. They won the England Mixed Teams title six times and the British Mixed Pairs twice. They had two children.

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Paul Soloway

Paul Soloway of Seattle, who has died aged 66, was one of the world's leading bridge-players. He won the Bermuda Bowl, the World Open Teams title, on five occasions and took silver in two Bermuda Bowls and two Olympiads.

View full obituary here.

Naturalists V Scientists

A unique and interesting game of bridge took place in London on 1 until 2 November, pitting together the bridge playing talents of some of the greatest and world renowned players. Stakes were high and tensions were at an optimum level.

Final scores were:
Thursday was won by the Scientists by 78 imps.
Friday was won by the Scientists by 58 rubber points.

The two days of bridge were played by the “Naturalists” and the “Scientists” - both at very different spectrums of the game and who last met 15 years ago. The “Naturalists” are a team from the traditional Portland bridge club in London, who believe in playing an old fashioned version of bridge from the pre-conventions age; whilst the “Scientists” favour the playing of modern bridge. It made the two days very interesting and a challenge of two extremes for high stakes.

Playing in the “Scientists” team were some of the best known international bridge players, captained by Zia Mahmood (world champion). The other players were Andrew Robson (author and world champion), Boye Brogeland (2007 world champion from the Norway team) and English internationals - Gunnar Hallberg and David Gold. The “Naturalists” were captained by ship owner, Dimitri Marchessini, with his team of Giles Hargreave, Patrick Lawrence and David Wolfson.

Our press release can be found here.