The Bill Jones Trophy

The late Bill Jones was an avid and popular bridge player. This competition is an annual duplicate event, in which each pair has 5 matches to play, each match is over 16 boards, arranged at their own convenience from October to March. It gives bridge players a chance to play people that they don't otherwise meet, in a fairly informal setting. 14 - 16 pairs enter each year and the top 4 pairs play in the final over one evening. The winners are the club champions for the year and get their names engraved onto a large trophy.

It has been won by a total of 13 different payers, the most frequent winners being John Peters and Les Turnham. On the right is a scene from the 2005-6 final showing the previous and current winners, plus Jacqui & Ruth holding their trophy.

Each board is played 7 or 8 times, so you are competing against other pairs playing the same hands as you. The boards are then match-pointed, so that a good result on a hand gives you a top score of e.g. 14, but a disaster results in a bottom (0).

As always, there are a few pairs who are keen to play but take a while to actually play any matches. There are therefore penalties for not keeping to the published schedule. You should start organising your matches early and not wait until November, when the more organised players are actually planning next year's summer holiday and probably have no spare slots in their diaries until after Easter.

Past winners