Janet de Botton

Janet de Botton is The Spectator's bridge columnist.

Bridge

23 January 2016 9:00 am

The New Year got off to a great start with TGR’s annual auction pairs, the best run tournament I have…

Bridge

9 January 2016 9:00 am

Call me nuts but on 29 December I left lovely, sunny, delicious France for the fairly unlovely Royal National Hotel…

Bridge

12 December 2015 9:00 am

2015 leaves many bridge players with mixed emotions. I have played in more wonderful, high-level tournaments than ever before (Iceland,…

Bridge

28 November 2015 9:00 am

Last weekend saw the qualifying matches for the Tollemache Cup, the inter-county championships for teams of eight. I didn’t play…

Bridge

14 November 2015 9:00 am

The EBU’s Premier League takes place over three weekends and decides who will represent England in next year’s Camrose (home…

Bridge

29 October 2015 9:00 am

If you like extremely high-level Pairs tournaments you would love Pierre Zimmermann’s Cavendish Monaco. Sixty pairs are auctioned off and…

Bridge

17 October 2015 8:00 am

Two weeks playing the Bermuda Bowl (world championships) in Chennai ended heartbreakingly for England’s awesome Open Team and their loyal…

Bridge

3 October 2015 8:00 am

The 42nd Bermuda Bowl has kicked off in Chennai, and after several weeks of cheat-busting Boye Brogeland (‘The Sheriff’) has…

Bridge

19 September 2015 8:00 am

The cheating scandal rages on. The latest to be accused is the world’s number one-ranked pair, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio…

Bridge

5 September 2015 9:00 am

No doubt you have heard about the huge cheating storm that has blown up over the last 10 days. Here…

Bridge

22 August 2015 9:00 am

I have great respect for top French bridge players but I think it’s fair to say they don’t go in…

Bridge

8 August 2015 9:00 am

Sweden’s flagship event is the brilliantly well organised Chairman’s Cup held in Orebro, attracting great players from all over Europe. …

Bridge

25 July 2015 9:00 am

Moving house is traumatic but moving bridge club is worse. Young Chelsea left Barkston Gardens, its home for over 30…

Bridge

11 July 2015 9:00 am

Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman. The European Championships in Tromso kicked off with a week of Mixed and…

Bridge

27 June 2015 9:00 am

A feast of bridge is looming! Tromso in Norway is host to the Open European Championships starting on Saturday, and…

Bridge

13 June 2015 9:00 am

Andrew (Bertie) Black started his bridge life many moons ago but stopped to found Betfair, which became the world’s largest…

Bridge

30 May 2015 9:00 am

If you live in or around London you can play a pairs duplicate every night (or day) of the week…

Bridge

16 May 2015 9:00 am

The best EBU tournament of the year is, IMHO, the Schapiro Spring Foursomes, held at the beginning of May in…

Bridge

2 May 2015 9:00 am

When I first started playing bridge, about 15 years ago, I ‘trained’ at TGR’s rubber bridge club, which was located…

Bridge

18 April 2015 9:00 am

When I was growing up, the loudest, most explosive arguments erupted when my parents played bridge together. Not surprisingly, when…

Bridge

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Wednesday night is league night. Sacrosanct. I’ve missed only one in seven years and that was when my daughter was…

Bridge

21 March 2015 9:00 am

You either love rubber bridge or you hate it. Personally I love it: I love the freedom it gives you…

Bridge

7 March 2015 9:00 am

What a week it’s been. On Thursday night the incomparable Terry Hewett held her annual charity bonanza Night of the…

Bridge

21 February 2015 9:00 am

Couples that play together stay together is not a mantra you hear too often in the bridge world. Indeed most…

Bridge

7 February 2015 9:00 am

There is something decidedly Groundhog Day about the international bridge calendar. The second weekend of January is TGR’s Auction Pairs…