Northern Bridge League
The Northern Bridge League is a teams-of-eight competition between county bridge associations, mostly in the north of England. Regular participants in recent years have been Cumbria, Lancashire, LIncolnshire, Manchester, Merseyside & Cheshire, Westmorland and Yorkshire. In some years, teams from Scotland, north Wales and other English counties have also taken part. There are three divisions: A, B and C, with the C division intended for players of ‘good club standard’ and B and A for each county’s strongest players.
Since the pandemic, the competition has been played online using RealBridge. There are four match days, usually Saturdays in the summer and early autumn months. On each match day there is a round robin of matches in each division, and the scores are aggregated to give an overall winner of each division for the season as a whole.
Spectators can follow the progress of the Yorkshire teams and their favourite players using the RealBridge KIbitz function with a 20 minutes delay.
The NBL has its own website and results pages, which can be accessed using the links on the right.
The 2025 season of the Northern Bridge League
The match days in 2025 will be Saturdays 5th July, 16th August, 13th September and 11th October. We will post here a short report on the outcome of all of these matches.
Round 1 – Yorkshire lead C division
The first round of the 2025 NBL was played on RealBridge on Saturday 5th July.
Six teams are competing in the A division with Manchester, Scotland and Cumbria all returning. Yorkshire are lying in second place just two points behind the leaders, Scotland. The Yorkshire team was Sandra Penfold & Brian Senior, Frank Dixon & Paul Brereton, Dave Robinson & Tony Sowter, and David Waxman & Keith Joules. Sandra & Brian were second in the cross-imps ranking.
There are also six teams in the B division, where the first round resulted in a blanket finish between four teams. Lancashire lead the way but Yorkshire are in equal third place,, just five points behind the leaders. The Yorkshire team was Catherine Thompson & Lesley Bridson, Daryl Kayes & Chris Boyes, Ian Guy & David Beresford, and Bob Marchbank & Terence Read. Catherine & Lesley were fifth in the cross-imps table.
Just four teams are taking part in the C division. Yorkshire won all their first round matches and have a useful lead of 11 points over second-placed Lancashire. The Yorlshire team was Lesley & Ron Millet, Simon & Robert Woolham, Peter Carson & Gill Copeland and Bob Brown & Ian Johns. All four pairs were plus in the cross-imps, with Lesley & Ron third in the table, and Simon & Robert fourth.
16th August – Yorkshire B win second round of NBL
The second round of matches in the Northern Bridge League was played on Saturday 16th August. Yorkshire took the honours in the B division with a convincing margin of 16 VPs ahead of the North-East and Lancashire. The Yorkshire team comprised Richard Pike & Nichola Cockerill-Smith, David Lewis & Colin Fallows, Dennis Haines & Ian Cook, and Catherin Thompson & Lesley Bridson. Richard & Nichola, David & Colin, and Dennis & Ian took the top three places in the cross-imps table.
It was a tough day for the Yorkshire A team and eventually they finished fourth, behind Scotland, Lancashire and Merseyside & Cheshire. The final match against Lancashire saw large numbers of imps moving in both directions and the lead changed three times. Having been well adrift with four boards to go, Yorkshire gained 64 imps on the next two and at that point were equal second with their opponents in the overall standings. However, 52 imps were then returned to Lancashire on the last two boards. The Yorkshire A team was Tony Sowter & Dave Robinson, Frank Dixon & Paul Brereton, Sandy Davies & Tom Gisborne, and John Hayton & Mike Jackson. Tony & Dave were the leading Yorkshire pair in the cross-imps and Frank & Paul were also plus.
Disappointment also for the Yorkshire C team, who finished fourth in their division. The C team comprised Christina Powne & Carole Kelly, Terry Childs & David Wilson, Mike Hopkins & Rob Cave, and Tricia Pearce & Margaret Allison.
In the cumulative tables at the halfway stage of the NBL season, Yorkshire A are third behind Scotland and Lancashire. Yorkshire B lead the B division ahead of the North-East and Lancashire. The C team are in fourth place with work to do in the final two matches to improve their position.
This page was last updated on 17th August 2025.
