Bridge news

The European Bridge Championships at the Kursaal in Ostend, Belgium have now finished. Although none of the teams from the home countries won a medal, 5 teams have qualified to play in the 2019 World Championships, writes Julian Pottage, Bridge Correspondent.

In the Open teams, England finished 7th, thereby qualifying to take part in the 2019 Bermuda Bowl. In the Women’s teams, both England in 5th place and Scotland in 7th place have qualified to play in the 2019 Venice Cup In the Seniors teams, Ireland (combined team for North and South) finished 4th while England finished 8th, each qualifying to compete for the 2019 D’orsi seniors trophy.

The members of the teams referred to above are as follows:

England Open - Jeffrey Allerton, David Bahkshi, Tony Forrester, Chris Jagger, Artur Malinowski, Andrew Robson, Neil Rosen (non-playing captain), Andrew Murphy (coach)

England Women - Sally Brock, Fiona Brown, Heather Dhondy, Catherine Draper, Gillian Fawcett, Nevena Senior, Derek Patterson (NPC), David Burn (coach)

Scotland Women - Helen Kane, Paula Leslie, Elizabeth Mcgowan, Fiona Mcquaker, Sam Punch, Anne Symons, Alex Adamson (NPC)

Ireland Seniors - Nicholas Fitzgibbon, Adam Mesbur, Ranald Milne, Michael O’ Briain, Padraig O’ Briain, Brendan O’brien, Derek O’gorman (NPC)

England Seniors - Rob Cliffe, Alan Mayo, David Muller, Malcolm Pryor, Peter Shelley, Trevor Ward, David Jones (NPC).