I am retired both from full-time work and from tournament bridge. My main bridge interest is researching the history of the tournament game in England: the first (and possibly only) instalment, covering the period up to the end of WW2, was published on the EBU website in December 2016.
My first serious bridge partner was Richard Granville and he suggested that I sign up to this site.
Read more »The Gold Cup is widely regarded as the most prestigious event in British bridge. The semi-finals and final (64 boards in each case) are taking place this weekend.
In one semi-final, Sally Brock's team (Barry Myers; Martin Jones-Neil Rosen; Kay Preddy-Norman Selway) beat John Reardon's (Richard Butland; Pat Collins-Peter Law; Bill Hirst) by a relatively comfortable 33 IMP. This will be the third consecutive final for Barry and Sally - they lost the two previous ones.
In the other semi-final, Alexander Allfrey's team (Andrew Robson; David Bakhsi-Tony Forrester; Mike Bell-David Gold; partnerships possibly flexible) outscored Derek Patterson's (Willie Whitaker; Andrew Black-Gunnar Hallberg; Phil King-Andrew McIntosh) by 3 IMP. Allfrey had a 42 IMP lead with 16 boards to go but was outscored 57-18 in the final quarter.
However, Patterson played 4 IMP more quickly: his team was fined 9 IMP for slow play whilst Allfrey was fined 13 IMP. So Patterson won by 1 IMP!
UPDATE EDIT: Patterson beat Brock in the final by 127 IMP (conceded after 56 boards)
