Congratulations to Julie and Ian Grant on winning the Timber Trophy, the World's only Double Elimination Knockout Pairs, held each year on Bridge Club Live, with a format based on the EBU Spring Foursomes. They remained undefeated throughout while every other pair was defeated twice!

In the final, they beat the No 7 seeds, a pair of Kent County players. Ian and Julie were seeded No 3. Both these pairs had earlier beaten the No 1 seeds from Bristol and Bulgaria. Two years ago, Ian and Julie reached the final.

Yesterday, Julie and Ian played the final of the BCL Annual Open Teams Chamionship but lost to the same team that had knocked out a team containing Linda MacFarlane and myself in the Semi-finals.

Ian and Julie have also won Division 1 of the BCL IMPed Pairs League after 11 matches of 18 boards held over the last six months. 96 pairs played across 8 divisions.

This has been a huge season for Julie and Ian and has included finishing 2nd in Division 1 of the Yorkshire League with Richard Pike and Arthur Hughes.