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5th Newcastle Mini Congress
The usual crowd scene.
Round 2. The U165 section in action in the background, whilst to the fore Nick McLean (plus red Bull) takes on Steve Emmerton in the U120 section.
At one stage the fifth incarnation of the Newcastle Mini had attracted over 40 entrants for the first time, but the weather inevitably took its toll and only 33 made it to the starting line. However there were plenty of hard fought games. The final round was typical, with only two games finished within 90 minutes and a third still going into the final half hour.
Despite odd numbers in various sections at various times I was able to arrange for all present to get games throughout.
Lest anyone should think it was a one man organising effort I shall pass on my thanks publically to
- John Day, who not only acted as contact with the bridge club but also helped me set the venue up on Friday evening. As ever the comfort of the venue made it one of the stars of the weekend.
- Pete Shaw, Paul Clapham, James Rothwell and Stephane Pedder who helped John and myself put things away afterwards (with apologies to anyone else whose presence at the end I appear to have overlooked).
- Sandra Blackburn, who donated refreshments.
- Francis Westfield for his donation.
- All the players who behaved impeccably despite any apparent evidence to the contrary in the pictures!
Prize winners were
U165: First Carl Gartside, second Steve Lloyd.
U120: Joint First Nick McLean and Ken McNulty.
U90: First Karol Grzybowski, second Richard Cantliff
Junior Prize: Ben Scattergood.
Kangaroo Prize: Pavlo Nefyodov.
A spy (right) was spotted Sunday pm, but no panic ensued.
As ever the pictures on these pages have been cropped and degraded, though in several cases the originals are not wonderful! However originals are available if anyone really wants them.