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The Last BBL Gold Cup - December 1999

As always, the Gold Cup Congress organisers had done a superb job in running the finals alongside a major congress. The Scottish hospitality was first class, but we have come to expect that over the years. We have also come to expect typical Scottish weather over the Finals weekend, and this year was no exception with a significant snowfall making driving conditions treacherous for the journey home the next day. For the losers, a disappointing end to a long season. Losing a final makes you all the more determined to have another shot next time around, and DURMUS already have their sights on another visit to the frozen north next year.

Since the British Bridge League was set to devolve on 31 December 1999, this was the very last BBL Gold Cup. The 2000 Gold Cup will be run by Bridge Great Britain, a new organisation which has been sent up to take care of the Gold Cup, the British Home Internationals and the British Simultaneous Pairs which are going to be run to try and raise extra funds for the new Federations of England, Scotland and Wales. [Editor]

After eight rounds of knock-out matches, the last two teams faced off in the final of the BBL Gold Cup at the Peebles Hydro Hotel in southern Scotland. MOULD (Alan Mould, Gary Hyett, Howard Melbourne, Jim Mason, John Collings and Martin Jones) took an early lead against DURMUS (Unal Durmus, Ian Monachan, Espen Erichsen, Brian Senior, Glyn Liggins and Joe Fawcett), but then DURMUS came back at them. With 16 of the 64 boards still to play, the two teams broke for dinner with the momentum looking to be with DURMUS. The penultimate set proved to be decisive, including a number of swing boards. Board 49 was a good example ...