Over 100 junior players took part in the Young Bridge Challenge in Loughborough on 5th March. Haberdashers' Aske school, from north London, won the main event, the Schools Cup, for the seventh consecutive year.
The team of Jonathan Clark, Dylan Dissanayake, Jack Ronayne, Kripa Panchagnula (see picture here) beat a team from Westminster School (Liam Sanderson, Theo Gillis, Luke Dunne, Isaac Channon) by 9 IMPs in the final. Teams from Nottingham High School, and Dragon School in Oxford, were the losing semi-finalists.
This was a third victory each for the members of the HABS team, and came at the end of a busy and very enjoyable day of bridge for all involved.
Twenty junior teams started a Swiss teams event, with the leading school teams moving on to the semi-finals of the Schools Cup, and the remaining teams continued the Swiss event. The team of Jasmine Bakhshi, Elizabeth Gahan, Harry Madden and Oscar Selby claimed the Harry Scully Trophy (see picture here) for winning the Swiss teams event. They finished on 86 VPs from five matches, with the team of Alex Pemberton, Andy Cope, Megan Jones and Henry Rose second on 65 VPs. The third placed finishers were Loughborough Grammar School - Sam Parry, Robin Nutkins, Roshan Lealh, Robert Dowsett (see picture here) - who won the School Plate as the leading school team remaining in the competition.
The minibridge event was won by Kazas Li and Jeffrey Chin from Loughborough Grammar School (see picture here).
Thanks to Loughborough Grammar School for hosting the event, and to all the volunteers who made the day such a success.
