SHIVAM SHAH
Congratulations to Shivam Shah who has won a bronze medal in the teams competition at the World Youth Open Championships.
Shivam was playing with Christian Bakke (of Norway) and Guillermo Minutti (of Uruguay) & Maximo Crusizio (of Argentina)in the Villa Fabbriche team.

NORTHERN BRIDGE LEAGUE
The second Northern Bridge League match (intercounty teams of 8 for the Northern region) took place in Manchester this Saturday.  Despite defeating the Manchester team our 4 valiant pairs finished 6th out of 8 teams for the second time in a row this season.  Two pairs performed particularly well in the Cross-Imps: Fred Robinson & Peter Li-Ping were 5th and Sue & Dick Davies were 10th out of the 32 competing pairs. 
Currently the NEBA team is standing 7th out of 8 overall, but the scores are close with only 30 VPs separating us from the top position.  Everything to play for in the final two matches."

KATHY PIKE CHARITY EVENT
Congratulations to Guy Herzmark and Peter Avery who won the Kathy Pike charity event at Stannington onWed.23rd Aug. Runners up were Susan Green & Gill Gold with Liz Muir & Don Reid third. The highest placed newcomers were Mary Oldfield and Kathleen Scott, who were 10th overall

The players were a mix of 'experienced' players and newcomers, the event was smoothly directed by Norman Gray, the cakes were delicious and the event organiser, Mary Page, was very pleased with the 800+ pounds raised for cancer research. A big thank you to everyone who helped to make this another very enjoyable afternoon of bridge!! Full results HERE.

I suggest that you read these
new laws on bidding

OTHER
CHANGES

SBU AUTUMN CONGRESS 20th - 22nd October 2017
The Scottish Bridge Union would love to see NEBA members at their Autumn National & Bronze Congresses at the Peebles Hydro Hotel.
Download a Congress Brochure HERE

NEBA PACHABO ENTRY
After winning the North East Bridge League, the team that will represent NEBA in the Pachabo Cup this year is: Val Gibson, Bill March, Julian Gibson, Damian Hassan, Clive Owen and Shivam Shah.

SCARBOROUGH CONGRESS
Congratulations to Steve & Georgia Ray who came 3rd in a field of 129 pairs that competed in the Swiss Pairs competition at Scarborough. 29/30July

UPLOAD SUCCESS
In case there are any of you who have problems uploading websites, I suggest that you check your tracker/hit counter. Almost accidently I found that the source of my problems was 'Sitemeter' (which, I think, has now closed down). Having removed it from all 470 pages of the NEBA website, uploads are now as smooth as silk.

PLEASE NOTE
There is an error in the NEBA programme booklet.
The Swiss Pairs to be held at Durham is on 6th September 2017 NOT the 17th! Details HERE

NEBA OPEN PAIRS
22 pairs, including some newcomers to NEBA events, contested the NEBA Northern Open pairs at Castle Morpeth Bridge Club today, the event being well supported by pairs from the home club.  The event ran in a very friendly, but quite noisy, fashion this being the norm for this venue and we were treated to a good selection of pastries, sandwiches and cakes, there being no leftovers when I had a look.  John Portwood was introduced as a new director and coped very well in his first event.

Congratulations to Audrey Bainbridge & Denise Barham Hall who now stand as winners of three NEBA events in the last 12 months and to Isobel & Alistair Markham, winners of the NGS ranking prize. - Norman Gray

EUROPEAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
After a fantastic final day, England's U16 team has finished in 4th place in the European Youth Team Championships.
England's U16s have now finished 4th on both occasions that the competition has been held and will be invited to play in China next summer.

After day 5, Shivam Shah and the under 26 team are in 3rd position. The under 26 women are also lying 3rd and the under 21 team are leading the field. - July 14th

KATHY PIKE CHARITY EVENT
This year's Kathy Pike Charity event will be held at Stannington on 23rd August at 1.30 pm
It is a friendly all ticket event for club players AND newcomers to bridge.
As well as the bridge, there will be tea, cakes and a raffle. Tickets will be available shortly from Mary Page and Inga Aiston. MORE HERE

NEW SECRETARY
The new Darlington Bridge Club secretary is Christine Simmons. Her email address is andyandchris@talktalk.net

HEXHAM BRIDGE CLUB CHARITY EVENT
Yesterday, Hexham Bridge Club raised 700 pounds for the Charlotte Straker Respite Service in  Corbridge. 
It was an excellent competition that attracted 15 tables. 
We would like to thank everyone who supported us in making the event a huge success. - Jocelyn Gordon - Sunday, 2nd July

SHIVAM SHAH
Good luck to Shivam Shah part of the U26 England team that is participating in the European Youth Team Championships, which start on Sunday 9th July in Slovakia.
(2ND AFTER DAY 2) -12th July

GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS
In the annual NEBA v Eastern District of Scotland, the NEBA 'B' team of Steve Kitching & Neil Oliver, Mary Page and Aileen Cunningham, Bev Godfrey and Nichola Cockerill-Smith, John Boughey & Eddie Nord, won their 48 board match by over 100 IMPS

The bad news is that NEBA 'A' team lost and Steve can only look on enviously as Liz McGowan is presented with the Journal Salver. - Sunday 2nd July

*RULE CHANGES BEGINNING IN AUGUST
John Portwood of the Durham Bridge Club has produced a very helpful summary of the rule changes that will come into effect in August 2017.
Access the pdf from the Durham site or CLICK HERE

*EBU LAW BOOK - DIRECTOR'S COURSE
The EBU Law Book is updated about every 10 years (the last edition was 2007) and a new Law Book 2017 has been issued by the EBU. The new laws must be brought into use by 30 September, 2017. There are quite a lot of changes but many of them are minor, clarifying meanings and resolving anomalies.

Chris Benneworth has been on a refresher day for national TDs and has offered to run two similar events during September (afternoon or evening) for county/club TDs in the North and South of the region, the dates and venues to be confirmed.

Printed copies of the new Law Book can be obtained from the EBU shop at £8 plus postage.

You can also download a file from EBU website and print your own copy and there is a file with all the changes highlighted also available to download.

*

*Items from last month's news in case you missed them!