Young bridge players lift “best in Scotland” trophy
16/03/10
Young bridge players from Harlaw Academy have won the title Best School Team in Scotland.
Thirteen-year-olds Jack Westland, Calum Barrett and Donald Anderson, and Callum McDiarmid, aged 12, notched up their victory at the National Schools Bridge competition in Edinburgh, where they beat teams from all over Scotland by a handsome margin.
And in a double victory for Aberdeen, Harlaw Academy 15-year-olds Jun Nakamaru-Pinder and Gareth Lake, 14-year-old Harlaw pupil Adam Crighton and St Margaret's School 17-year-old Abigail Wilson won the cup for Best Mixed Team.
The wins in Edinburgh come hard on the heels of a victory last month for Jun and Abigail. They represented their country in the "Peggy Bayer" Competition in Wales, where Scotland scored a resounding win over the four other nations.
Aberdeen school pupils also took part in the Schools Minibridge competition in Stirling this month and took first, second and third places.
First were Callum McDiarmid and Patryk Maciazek, both S1 pupils at Harlaw, and S1 Robert Gordon's pupils Anya Morrice and Abigail Hatcher-Davies. Second by just one point were S1 Harlaw pupils Charlotte Cookson and Katie Howard and S1 Aberdeen Grammar pupils Oliver Smith and Christian Lihou. In third place was the team comprising Alex Brown and Peter Stewart of St Joseph's, Andrew Wilson from Ferryhill Primary and David Andersen and Euan McDiarmid from Broomhill.
The children are coached by mature bridge players lined up by the North District of the Scottish Bridge Union, led by Education Officer Dinah Borghesi, a former principal maths teacher in Aberdeen. Two of the tutors – former St Peter's Primary head teacher Sally Reid and her husband Gibby, who is the chairperson of Aberdeen Bridge Club – are responsible for introducing the game to primary schools.