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.
The NBL has its own website and results pages, which can be accessed using the links on the right.
The 2024 season of the Northern Bridge League
The match days in 2024 will be Saturdays 13th July, 17th August, 14th September and 19th October. We will post here a short report on the outcome of all of these matches.
Day 1 – Yorkshire teams lead all three divisions of the NBL
Yorkshire teams dominated the first round of matches, played on 13th July, in the 2024 season of the Northern Bridge League.
Only four teams entered the A division, with Manchester notable for their absence. Yorkshire won all their matches, scoring 49 victory points out of a possible 60, and were 24 clear of their closest rivals, LIncolnshire. The team was Dave Robinson & Tony Sowter, Frank Dixon & Paul Brereton, Alan Jarvis & Tom Copeland, and Brian Senior & Sandra Penfold.
Yorkshire entered two teams in the B division, along with six other counties. Yorkshire’s B2 team lead the way with 94 victory points, six ahead of B1 on 88, with Lancashire third on 74. The B2 team comprised Bernard Burns & Paul Below, Ian Johns & John O’Sullivan, Daryl Kayes & Chris Boyes and Bob Marchbank & Terry Read. The players in the B1 team were Nichola Cockerill-Smith & Richard Pike, David Lewis & Colin Fallows, Ian Cook & Dennis Haines, and Catherine Thompson & Lesley Bridson.
Yorlshre also entered two of the six teams in the C division. The C1 team were first with 84, well clear of Yorkshire C2 on 62 and Merseyside & Cheshire on 58. The C1 team comprised David Beresford & Ian Guy, Matt Brash & Robin Ashdown, Richard Hilton & Pauline Cooper,and David Butler & Bob Brown.. The players in the C2 team were Ian Johnson & Carol Heron, Peter Carson & Gill Copeland, Bill Barraclugh & David Duckworth, and Judith Biles & Tish Hpokins.
This page was last updated on 14th July 2024.
