Kevin & Clare come Second in Dan Gifford Final

It's no small honour to reach the final of the annual National Rubber Bridge competition. You must get through four or five matches then the quarter finals and the semis ... it was a long road that ran out on Thursday night. The gods that deal the cards on BBO gave them mostly all to East-West who were Stuart Grant and Tony Quinlivan of Christchurch. It was a bit of a bad dream for our pair who had very little to work with. It took until the 21st board of 30 for them to notch up their first game. Two hands later they had their first rubber. But the come-back was too late in coming and the cards weren't there.

The closing rounds of this year's competition was the first ever played on BBO. Most of the qualifying rounds were played face-to-face with the finals scheduled to be played at Congress ... which never happened.