Bridge news

Last week the highest score in the English Bridge Union’s High Noon Fast Games was 69.44%, writes Julian Pottage, Bridge Correspondent. Two pairs achieved this score, the all-human pair of Tim Blackstone and Kitty Teltscher on Monday, and Fowki Baroukh in partnership with an Advanced BBO Bot on Friday.

The highest score in the EBU morning Relaxed Games was 69.58%, which Heather Green and Nick Green achieved on Monday. The highest score in the EBU evening Relaxed Games was 76.89%, achieved by Anne Hitchin and Ruth Letcher on Thursday.

Elsewhere, the first event of the 2023-24 Home International Series, Camrose weekend one, has taken place at the Holiday Inn Coldra in Newport, Gwent. The results were as follows:

1st English Bridge Union (Maggie Knottenbelt, Ben Handleypritchard, Michael Byrne, Kieran Dyke and Tom Townsend: playing captain), 69.13 VPS. 2nd England (John Atthey, Neil Rosen, Graham Osborne, Frances Hinden, Chris Jagger, Derek Patterson and David Burn: non-playing captain), 59.83 VPS. 3rd Ireland (Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Conor Boland, Ciaran Coyne, David Walsh and Gráinne Barton: NPC) 57.81 VPS

4th Wales (Tony Ratcliff, Julian Pottage, Tim Rees, John Salisbury, Dafydd Jones, Adam Dunn and Paul Denning: NPC), 47.50 VPS.

5th Scotland (Samantha Punch, Stephen Peterkin, Alex Wilkinson, Douglas Piper, Iain Sime, Derek Diamond and Anne Symons: NPC), 42.94 VPS.

6th Northern Ireland (Ian Hamilton, Ian Lindsay, Sam Hall, Hastings Campbell, Rex Anderson, David Greenwood and Michael Mcfaul: NPC), 21.79 VPS.

The second and final weekend of the 2023-24 Camrose will take place at the Best Western Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham, Greater Manchester in early March.