2005-2006

21-Sep-2006

Congratulations also to CMS Cameron McKenna, winners of the Leslie Dodds Cup. In the final, Roy Griggs, Ed Colley, David Reuben and Mark Nichols overcame the Young Chelsea 96-55.

17-Sep-2006

Congratulations to BT'B', winners of the Gainsborough Plate. Tim Pelling, Bill Linton, Roland Gronau and Andrew Welsh edged out Office for National Statistics - Tom Bryson, John Francis, John Bernard and Nigel Stuttard - by 4 IMPs.

16-Aug-2006

At last - an update!

Apologies for the delay but it's been hot, I've been away, busy, etc. etc. Until recently there haven't been that many results but rather surprisingly, a few have just turned up.

We now have just the two finals to be played in the cup competitions:

Leslie Dodds:

CMS Cameron McKenna v Young Chelsea v BT 'C'
Gainsborough Plate:
BT 'B' v ONS (East)
First named team is at home. If there are any problems playing these matches, please let me know as soon as possible.

A reminder that it's fast approaching AGM/Captains' meeting time again. The date to arrange your fixtures for the 2006/7 season, pay your subs (if you haven't posted them already) and collect your trophies, is Thursday 28th September at the Civil Service Recreation Centre, Chadwick Street SW1 at 18:15 The agenda is here and also avaliable as a MS Word document here, a copy of the 2005 minutes is also available in MS Word.

Note that with the new season comes the Surdoc Trophy the traditional season warm-up, a multiple teams of four. This will take place at the same venue as the AGM on Thursday 12th October commencing at 18.30 sharp.

04-Jun-2006

A few results have been trickling in heading up to the committee meeting tomorrow (Monday 5th June). If there's anything you don't see that you have played, send them to my work email (details in captains' listing) so we can figure it in our discussions.

In the Leslie Dodds we have got confirmed semi-finals:

The situation is a little more complicated in the Gainsborough Plate. One finalist is known, BT 'B' but at the bottom of the draw we wait for the result of the June 7th match:

I've been asked a question or two about the play-offs; no, there aren't any. At last year's AGM we decided on separate trophies (though we're still one short) for all of the divisions, east and west.

22-May-2006

Quite a few results in from stragglers over the last week or so but I'm sure there are a few more out there. I'll be chasing the captains still in the Cup and Plate when a couple of near fixtures I know about are complete.

13-May-2006

I've shaken up the KO draws a bit and most of the matches have been arranged

I received a an advert from the Young Chelsea Bridge Club; their famous every-year-and-a-half even , the YC Marathon still has a few places left. Details of the whole experience from their website but briefly it's 165 boards in 24 hours with only 30 minute breaks between sessions. June 3rd/4th, 'pairs' of up to three players allowed, entry is £50 each, first prize is £3000. Better value than any EBU Green Point and you're part of a legend.

9-May-2006

Now we are technically past the end date of the season but I'd much rather see matches played than have positions and relegation/promotion decided by adjudication so please play matches if you can. However, I would like to be kept informed as the 'pools panel' will have to meet soon.

In addition I feel sure that there are outstanding results - I've been told by teams they have completed but the cross-tables say not. The results you see are up to date, so please resend any that don't appear. The on-line submission works fine - I'm sorry it doesn't acknowledge, that looks like a development for next season.

24-Apr-2006

Results are now completely up to date - well almost. I've just tidied and discovered two cards lurking under papers; I'll do them tomorrow.

11-Apr-2006

I've done another partial update. I'll complete and add some technical improvements over the holidays.

15-Mar-2006

I've done a partial update. The spreadsheet I use for all record-keeping, updating the site, writing local points etc. has started to crash. According to the good people at Microsoft this can be cured by a service update of Office and that, it appears, it a time consuming business. I'll catch up when I get Excel back.

I've also had to be a lot more strict with email addressing. After several years of not having too much trouble with spam, suddenly the flodgates have opened. I've done my best to avoid it by encrypting the address wherever it appears on the site but, from now on, that will be the only address recognised. The majority of the unwanted mail comes directly through the Freeserve address - the old freeserve.co.uk one. Accordingly, anything that uses that will not get through my mail filter. I'll do my best to monitor as I have in the past (mainly to try an encourage people to look at the web-site).

15-Feb-2006

Quick update - league, cup and plate. Captains of teams still in Gainsborough Plate and Leslie Dodds Cup please check draw for quarter-final opponents.

4-Feb-2006

Belated new year update - league, cup and plate. Division 3 captains please note that Judith Jackson has taken over the running of the Bank of England team. Her details were on the contact sheet as vice-captain but I've updated the list, available through the link to the left.

Also now with a front page link is the Form for submitting league results - I'm glad to see so many of you using it. I've also done a bit of dithering to the format so it should look better in Internet Explorer now.

11-Dec-2005

Results update including Cup and Plate draws. There are a couple of unreported/unplayed fixtures from the first round - I'll be chasing them.

I've also made some technical changes to the site which may, just may, upset bookmarks. If that's the case, sorry, you'll just have to do them again. Those amongst you fascinated by such things can refer to the technical section.

29-Nov-2005

Results update. There is a committee meeting on 30-Nov-2005 during which the draw for the next round of the Cup and Plate will take place. Any first-round matches without a fixed date (and a good excuse) will be double defaulted.

The BP 'garage sale' is going well - if you fancy some kit for your club, get in touch sooner rather than later.

16-Nov-2005

As I catch up with left over business from the season start I discovered a mail from Michael Hill from the BP bridge club, sadly no longer with the LBHCBA. However, he had a tempting offer:

As you recall, BP withdrew from the LBH a year ago because most of our staff were being moved out of London, so the team was no longer viable - and we were scheduled to lose our City venue, too. The latter was delayed a little - it was originally due around the start of this year but now will be early next year. But that does mean we have all our old kit to dispose of - for a small consideration (or even free for some items or if the case is deserving enough).

Would any LBH clubs be interested? What we have available are:-

Anyone interested, please get in touch with me and I'll pass you Michael's contact details (or, if you know him from back when, get in touch directly).

Updated captains' details and league/cup layout, and a few more results to boot

15-Nov-2005

A few more results, from both cards and emails. The KO round one wasn't connected and consequently wasn't up to date - it is now.

11-Nov-2005

A few more results. It's good to see a lot of you using the on-line league scorer. I know it's not perfect and I'll upgrade it given time, but it's certainly making it easier to do updates. (The link from the league page was broken in some browsers - wrong '\' - but that's fixed now).

9-Nov-2005

Hurrah! Some results in at last. The reshaping of the divisions has taken quite a lot of time and effort and I hope it's back to normal now. Quite a few results in but only half the cup matches. Get on with it! And get the results in for those you have played.

Honourable mention to Temple Bar and RAC 'C' in 3 Central - they were the first results of this season - I might instigate an award for the first completed season..

I've also updated the hardcopy of the List of captains' details (as handed out at the AGM). This is a PDF (Portable Document Files) and requires Adobe's Reader which is a free download. I've chosen the format on the understanding that it can't be easily read by evil spammers who might steal email addresses and bombard you with rubbish. If you know different then get in touch - and of course, I'd like to know if your contact detail is wrong too.

18-Oct-2005

Back from holiday and I've started to patch the division listings - 3 Central now appears. The format looks a little unwieldy with nine teams there so I might well make a few adjustments.

The whole function of the League is run from a single Excel spreadsheet (scoring, generating web pages, local points etc.) and I never thought that we'd have more than eight teams in a division. Consequently there has been a not inconsiderable amount of re-work to get everything functioning again. At least it generates the HTML for the pages - we'll have to see if it will still actually score matches in a day or so...

6-Oct-2005

The division listings for all except 3 Central are now correct. This will be fixed but not for a few days, thanks for being tolerant of the disruptions.

4-Oct-2005

I have had to make some changes to the start of the season divisional structure announced at the AGM.

I like to think this is for the best possible reason: more people will get to play more enjoyable bridge. It has been brought about by the most recent newcomer to the LBHCBA, the Bank of England, being confused with the fearsome team of the same name that played in the Banks League. Our BoE team are tyros and will have a much better time in division 3 Central. Also we have a second team from the LSE. Our AGM is poorly timed for the academic year but we are glad they are playing, again, in 3 Central.

The move of BoE out of 1 East leaves five teams there and seven in 1 West. Accordingly I have moved RAC B from 1W to 1E to balance that division. They were not at the AGM so have no fixtures to break. That's sadly not going to be the case with 3 Central which now has nine teams. The will play single-headed matches. I'm sorry, half your fixtures will need re-arranging - but at least you have dates marked. I hope the varied nature of competition will compensate for the reduction in matches from twelve to eight.

So, to summarise:

The change from a maximum of eight teams to nine has been traumatic for the website - I'll get a posting there as soon as possible.

25-Sep-2005

New season, new look website - I hope you like it. I'd be happy to take comments, especially concerning usability in different browsers etc.

The new league layouts were handed out at the AGM but there were two (very) late entering teams and they are now included. The first round of the knock-out is unaffected. Both those are, of course, in the links to the left even though this text may be superseded.

The ability to submit results from the site that I spoke of at the AGM is up and running - please make use of it and report back.

A reminder that the traditional opener to the season, The Surdoc Trophy is held next Thursday 29th September at the Civil Service Recreation Centre, Chadwick Street SW1, start at 18:30. Please warn Peter Cogliatti if you are entering and haven't already done so.