Surrey Schools Cup 2026
Richard Challoner School (RCS) hosted the Surrey Schools Cup on 6th February, providing excellent space for the Surrey County Bridge Association (SCBA) team to organise a successful and enjoyable event for 95 young players from a wide range of schools.
Congratulations go to the Habs A team of Sam Akayan, Holden Clark, Noaz Heymann & Rian Malde (pictured), securing victory by 14 IMPS over St. Paul's B, who themselves pipped the St. Paul's A team by just one point.
Habs secured further success in the second flight Salver, with a comprehensive 36 IMP victory for James Tran, Dev Shah, Louis Zeng & Jonathan Grupetta. And in the novice Crystal, there was a good win for Lancing Prep (Shiloh Duncanson, Katie Duncanson, Jessenia Henry & Ella-Rose Appelgren).
Thanks go to host France Williams from RCS and to SCBA tournament director Richard Banbury, whose teams ably managed an occasionally frenetic room to complete 18 enjoyable boards.
National Schools Championship 2026
The historic surroundings of Loughborough Grammar School once again provided a grand setting for the National Schools Championship, the annual competition for schools organised by EBED. New EBED T-shirts were popular with the 105 competitors and featured the slogan “Real Players Count”.
Faithful to those words, Habs A continued their impressive streak, retaining the top-flight Schools Cup with the same successful Surrey Schools team of Holden, Noaz, Sam and Rian. KCS Wimbledon ran a strong campaign, finishing top in the qualifiers; but in the 7-board final two hard-fought part scores accounted for most of the 14 IMPs winning margin.
The efforts of our colleagues at EBED to promote new secondary school bridge clubs are paying dividends, with Watford Boys’ Grammar School (Wilf Marshall, Dhruven Patel, Angus Marshall & Seb McCann) fielding their first school team in the Schools Plate and securing a strong win on debut, beating Westminster B by 33 IMPs.
In the Mixed Schools Harry Scully, there was plenty of local competition in the air, but the Grand Slam Girls (Sophia Ward, Annabel Sutton, Harriet Cork & Sophie Morris, picture) ultimately lived up to their name by beating Sue Johnson stablemates Acland Burghley.
The 5-table novice section brought silverware for the host school Loughborough Grammar (Max Foister, Theo Taylor, Peter Hopper & Seb Taylor), who won a tight final over Westminster by just 6 IMPs.
Thanks go to our hosts and organisers, as well as a good number of supportive parents who made the journey to spectate – in between a few hands of rubber bridge in the staff room.
March 10, 2026