Team Captain : Joseph Mela
B Team Captain: Timothy Saunders
Fixtures Secretary: Bob Hargrave
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Balliol College Bridge Club welcomes Bridge players of all standards. And especially welcomes complete beginners. If you are interested in joining us, or learning to play The Only Game in Town, contact Emily Middleton or Joseph Mela.
Balliol College Bridge Club, the only independent Bridge Club in the University, was founded in 2001 with the twin aims of providing a congenial haven for Bridge players of all standards and of introducing beginners to the delights of the Great Game.
We take the social side seriously. There are two Bridge Dinners each year, one in Michaelmas and one in Trinity. And you can usually find a casual game in the JCR (at any time) or in the Buttery (when it is open). For those who wish to take the game more seriously, we offer continuous training, entry to local and national competitions, and regular duplicate sessions. And since we are affiliated to the English Bridge Union and have a qualified tournament director, we award EBU Master Points.
There is no doubting Balliol's hegemony over the Oxford Bridge scene.
We enter as many teams as we can for the Inter-Collegiate Cup Competition (‘Cuppers'), to give everyone the experience of match-play.
And our record is outstanding – finalists at our first attempt in 2001, finalists again in 2004, outright winners in 2002 and 2003, finalists again in 2004, and winners in 2005 and 2006. Indeed, in 2005 the four teams left in the semifinals were Balliol A, Balliol B, Balliol C, and Balliol D. And in 2006 the last three teams standing were Balliol A, Balliol B and Balliol C.
Outside the narrow confines of Oxford University Bridge we also prosper and thrive. In 2002 we joined the Wessex League, being the Teams-of-Eight competition for clubs throughout the region. And gained promotion in each of our first four seasons, even though we rarely put out our best side – we rotate the team to give everyone a game. That means we are now in Division I. And this year we also enter a second team, Balliol B, who - perforce - will start the season in Division V.
We have also performed rather well in the Portland Bowl, the nationwide cup competition for British Universities. In 2003-4 we hammered Warwick and Bristol, and were narrowly defeated in the quarter-finals by a Cambridge team stuffed with young internationals. And in 2004-5, with two teams entered,...(Results, please, Secretary). We enter a team every year in The Gold Cup, the national knockout competition for teams of four. Alas, we have yet to make it beyond the second round. But next year... We have just entered a team in the NICKO (National Inter-Club Knockout), and are through to the second round.
And there are individual successes too numerous to mention. Here are just four. Balliol pairs have: won the Oxfordshire section of the EBU simultaneous pairs; won the first stage of the England Junior Trials; placed 8th in the U-25 National Pairs Championship, placed 5th in the National Newcomers Pairs.
As you can see, we are pretty good.