Open Singles progress: Roland Tchertoff won his match against James Gardner in two straight frames. In the Open Doubles Andrew Taylor and Roland Tchertoff won their match against James Moore and James Webb again in two straight frames.
Both Teams 1 and 2 won their matches on Thursday night. Team 1 playing away beat Stade Français 2 4-1 and thereby have virtually secured their place in 2nd Division next year. Team 2 beat Oxygène at home 3-2. "Thanks to Emil's crazy balls", according to the captain, Jean. Read on for a photo of Team 1.
Warm congratulations to the two pairs who tied for 1st place in North-South - Jane & Françoise and Claude & Dougie with 57.5%. 1st in East-West were Joyce and Jenny with 56.88%, but with only a tiny margin over Nicole and Jean-Paul who scored 56.25%! Don't forget the Workshop on Friday 28th and the next dinner/tournament on Tuesday 3 March. Read on for more details, the results and the answers to the quiz.
Another good 4-1 victory for Team 1 who played Les Touristes St Cloud 2 in St Cloud. Alec, Charles and Greg each won their matches 3-0 at positions 1, 4 and 5, Jean-Guillaume at number 3 secured a 3-2 victory, but Aurélien, unfortunately, injured his leg and lost 1-3.
Team 2 was up against Cygne, second in the pool, but, with only 3 players available, lost 5-0 :-(
The date of the next dinner and tournament (a simultaneous "souplesse") is confirmed for Tuesday 4 February. Please sign up as soon as possible with Ann (). Do let us know if you would like to play but do not have a partner. Read on for a short quiz and explanation of the Blackwood convention, which is the theme of the tournament.
This week Team 1 had two important matches. On Monday evening at home, they played against Squash 95 4, a match that had been rescheduled due to the December strikes. SAC 1 won 4-1. On Thursday they played Altiplano St Cloud (the only team to beat us in the first part of the season) also at home. This time, we mercilessly took our "revanche" 5-0. It definitely felt like Division 2 is getting closer for Team 1... Team 2 did not play this week.
In preparation for Friday's Workshop, please find attached to the main article a short quiz on "Control-showing bids". There will be a short lesson starting at 10.30 followed by a mini-tournament and, after lunch, there will some supervised play or a little match depending on the numbers. Please let Claude () know if you can attend and whether you will also be there for lunch and/or the afternoon. Also attached for those who couldn't attend the tournament are the answers to last Tuesday's (24 Jan) quiz. The date of our next dinner and tournament is confirmed for Tuesday 4 February.
After a review of the year's activities and the perspectives for 2020 Sue Hall, outgoing Section Head, announced that, after some 20 years of service to the Section, including several years as Chair, she would be standing down from the committee and not seeking reelection.
The remaining members of the committee, John Greenwood (Treasurer), Joan Cosgrove (Hon Sec), Claude Jacques (Competitions), James Moore, and Frédéric Thiriet all stood for re-election and were duly voted in. John McCallum was voted in as a new member of the committee.
Frédéric Thiriet was nominated Chairman to replace Sue and promises to carry on her good work in the future. Most weeks he's up at the Club for Sunday Brunch and would be delighted to talk to anyone who is interested in finding out more about Villarceaux or the Golf Section.
Team 1 played away against Verrières, a strong team that we had beaten previously at home; they were rumoured to be out for revenge and fielding their best possible team. We, on the other hand were missing 2 players. In the end, Team 1 won 3-2. Team 2 played Chaville at home and unfortunately lost 3-2. Read on for a full report and photo!
The next bridge events are the Dinner/Tournament on Tuesday 14 January and Friday 24 January for the Workshop. The theme of the workshop will be "Controls" - making sure - before using the Blackwood - that the opponents cannot take 2 tricks on the lead even if you have enough aces to envisage a slam. Please contact and if you would like to enrol in either of the foregoing (with copy to )
We will again be using a simultaneous "souplesse" tournament onn Tuesday evening, the theme of which is "Leading against a 3 No-Trump contract". A little quiz is attached. There are a number of signalling conventions for leading in such a case, each card sending a different message...There's still time to sign up if you haven't already done so. For the moment, I believe we are just 5 tables.
Please find attached to the main article the results of Tuesday's tournament. Warm congratulations to Richard and Leon, 1st in EW with 61.88%, and to Anne and Henri, 1st in NS with 56.88%. Very close seconds in EW - Annick and Didier - with 61.25%, and close 2nds in NS - Joan and Naomi - with 55.63%.