Friday 3 April 2009

Youth Bridge Challenge 2009

Just under a hundred junior bridge players took part in the Youth Bridge Challenge on Saturday 28th March. Each team represented schools or Bridge Clubs, and in some cases just themselves. There were a number of veterans who have been coming for years (surely Rob Myers must be too old soon!) and some players who came to their first ever bridge event. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day and we are extremely grateful to Loughborough GS for their continued support and hospitality. Detailed results can be found here.

The Schools Cup has a long history and in recent years, Reading School have twice finished in second place. Unluckily (though they were the convincing winners in the qualifying round), they repeated this near-miss again when they lost a close final by just ten imps to the Grange School, Hertford.

The corresponding trophy for teams made up of bridge players from clubs or different schools is the Harry Scully trophy . The final was between Harrogate Bridge Club and a team from Nottingham. The result was perhaps a bit of a shock as the two teams had met earlier in the qualifying Swiss competition, and Harrogate Bridge Club had emerged with a small victory. Roles were reversed in the final with Nottingham winning by 35 to 9 imps

The Schools Plate was won by a team from Haberdashers School who finished first in the Swiss competition. They just pipped a team from Reading School who were given prizes as the next highest in the Swiss.

Minibridge players from Harrogate, Fionnuala, Harrison and Dominic had fun playing with Graham Jepson, an EBU Board member, who spent the day with us supporting the event and presented the prizes and trophies to some successful and also some less successful teams.

Dominic came out on top and was awarded the Minibridge trophy.

See all the photos from the event here.