| 2012 Junior Channel Trophy This event featuring three junior teams – under 25s, under 20s and girls – from each of four countries – England, France, Netherlands and Belgium – is hosted by each of the four countries in turn. This year it was England’s turn and the competition was held over the weekend of 21st-23rd December 2012 in London. Gordon Rainsford was match manager on behalf of the EBU and the LMBA was asked to help with the organisation. Steve Eginton organised the BBO presentation, arranging for the event to be included in the BBO schedule and organising commentators as well as acting as one of the operatives throughout the weekend. He was helped by David Muller and Jonathan Lillycrop who also acted as operatives. Brian Callaghan was present throughout as Bulletin Editor, working hard into the night to get the bulletins produced and ready for the players each morning. His bulletins can be seen on the EBU website – go to the” Latest Results” page and follow the link to the Junior Channel Trophy Information page, then click again on “Results”. (The last one may not be there yet – he is still working on it as I write this!) Brian was also Chief of Appeals, but fortunately was not needed in this capacity, the event being played in extremely good humour throughout. I organised goody bags to be given to each of the players and helped with registration of players on arrival. This year’s bag was deemed to be the best ever and we were extremely grateful to the following sponsors: - The Chess & Bridge Shop – who provided a bridge book and a copy of Bridge Magazine for each player; - The Andrew Robson Bridge Club, who provided a copy of Andrew’s book on End Plays and Squeezes for each player; - The Young Chelsea Bridge Club, who provided a pen for each player. In addition the LMBA supplied copies of the latest MetroNews magazine and the EBU topped up the bag with, for each player, a copy of English Bridge magazine, an EBU pen, an EBU key ring, an EBU 2013 diary and a packet of Haribo sweets. A few books were left over after supplying all the players, and these have been added to the LMBA stock of books to be used as prizes. The Netherlands won the Under 25s event, with the English team rather unlucky to drop to third place after lying a strong second going into the last match. The Netherland s also won the Girls event, with the English girls finishing equal second. In the Youngsters event, however, the Dutch had to make do with second place, as the young England team beat them into first place. It was particularly pleasing that the team included two of our own London members, Toby Nonnenmacher and Michael Alishaw. Chris Duckworth 23.12.2012 |