Lambourne Jersey Festival

In April, for the first time for some years, I attended the Lambourne Jersey Congress. I remembered it as a friendly, relaxed 10 days at a good hotel with excellent food and I was not disappointed. However, this year there was something different. As we arrived at the Portelet Hotel we were advised that the hotel would be closing at the end of the season for redevelopment and it would no longer be suitable for bridge. This caused great consternation among the many regular visitors to the event for whom the Portelet and the Lambourne Jersey congress had become virtually synonymous. In the three decades since the congress became a joint venture between the EBU and the Channel Islands Contract Bridge Association, it has been based in only three hotels — but the Portelet had become such a fixture that the earlier venues had faded in the memory.

It subsequently transpired that Ken Wise, one of the organisers of the congress, was informed of that decision only 48 hours before the congress was due to start which, as one can imagine, was a considerable shock to him and his colleagues in the CICBA.

Undaunted, Ken and his colleagues set out to find a venue somewhere in Jersey’s 45 square miles which had everything the congress needed — good food and service, a playing hall which could take up to 80 tables, space for the TDs, relaxation areas, and accommodation with plenty of single rooms. And all at reasonable cost.

This kind of thing is hard enough when you have months in which to do it. With a maximum timescale of ten days it becomes a matter of toil, sweat and tears.

But it was done. The team arranged a flurry of meetings with different hotel groups, and in just eight days a very favourable deal had been brokered. Next year’s congress will be at Jersey’s Hotel de France — a prestigious four-star establishment with better facilities than the Portelet, ample parking, and a location within walking distance of the island’s main town of St Helier .
So as one door has closed, another has opened. Those who like spring sunshine (not guaranteed but the odds are better than a finesse) coupled with friendly bridge should make a note of these dates: Friday 24 April to Sunday 3 May 2009. The congress is on the move, but the warm welcome will stay the same.

I and my teammates have already booked our accommodation for next year and I recommend you do the same.