The Winter Congress

This year’s Winter Congress has come and gone. Four days of fun and food! Sponsored by TBIB. There were 205 session tables, which was slightly down on last year’s numbers. Overall, the single session events were well attended. In particular, the Restricted Pairs, the Welcome Pairs and the Farewell Pairs all had more players than last year.

The catering was excellent, with an abundance of lovely plates on the Friday and Saturday provided by club members with enough left over for Sunday morning tea. The club provided platters for the end of play on Saturday and Sunday. Many thanks to our volunteers (Jane Clough, Lee Hazell, Tessa Myall, Ursula Maitland, Louise Dickson), and Kerry Barns who does so much behind the scenes, and to our committee members who helped with the food and in the mornings (Prue Hart, Jacqui Ecclestone, Kate North, Sylvia Bray, Shirley Lavarack, Brian Embleton). Also thanks to Geoff Holman for the honey display.

David Burn, the Congress Director, worked tirelessly and was never fazed with last minute withdrawals and entries. David Grenside and Chris Mulley were the Reviewers used. Martin Doran was the Review Advisor. The Recorders were our own club recorders with John Aquino, Jane Henderson and Brian Embleton all covering sessions.

The big winners on Friday were Shirley Lavarack & Ziggy Morewiec who started the day by winning the East/West field in the Restricted Pairs and then followed this up with an even more convincing win of the East/West field in the Welcome Pairs.