Today’s column is all about the Bermuda Youth Bridge group that travelled to the ACBL Summer Nationals to take part in the YNABC Championships in Las Vegas.

The Bermuda organisers ran a three-week summer camp to prepare the students for the event and with four well-attended sessions each week the preparation was good. It seems the lure of free pizza at some of these sessions did the trick.

The group comprised 24 students, an equal number of boys and girls, coming from eight local schools. The youngest was Katiah Rogers, 11, from Somersfield, who just started this year and has shown great potential.

There was a record number of tables at the tournament, with 320 tables in play over the three days. The Bermuda group was the second largest at the event and represented close to 10 per cent of the total number of youth each day.

The results were good, and remarkably every one of the 24 Bermuda players had a good section result. For details, see the results section at the end of this article.

The trip was clearly a great success, and John Burville and his team deserve thanks and great credit for organising this. It involved dealing with the students and their parents — no easy task — and it seems the parental support was huge.

The chaperones for the trip were John Burville, Mike Viotti (Saltus), Kalreta Conyers-Steede (CedarBridge), and Fee Saunderson (Warwick). Seven of the parents attended including Bridge Club stalwarts parents Bill Pollett and Judy King. I’ve seen some of the feedback from the parents and clearly they thought the trip was a huge success.

As always, thanks to the invaluable sponsors, which included AIG, Judy and Kirk Kitson, some members of the Bridge club and some private donors.

• Results for week of July 22

Monday afternoon

North/South

1, Charles Hall/Tony Saunders

2, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

3, A Bostelmann/R Hall, L Bolton/M Taussig

East/West

1, Gertrude Barker/Julia Beach

2, Patricia Colmet/Heather Woolf

3, Ellen Davidson/Diana Diel

Tuesday evening junior game

North/South

1, Alex Ribaroff/Louis Gariepy

2, Katyna Rabain/Louise Payne

3, Marion Silver/Duncan Silver

4, Sally Irvine/Inneke Hetzel

East/West

1, Sarah Bowers/Joe Hobbs

2, Malcolm Moseley/Noula Contibas

3, John Kessaram/Barbara Elkin

4, Najmah Sillah/Daque Davis

Wednesday morning

1, Tracy Nash/Desmond Nash

2, Margaret Way/Marilynn Simmons

3, Elizabeth McKee/Sancia Garrison

Thursday evening

1, David Sykes/Fabian Hupe

2, Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

3, M Novakovic/M Way, C Griffiths/T Mardon

Friday afternoon

North/South

1, Marilynn Simmons/Molly Taussig

2, Diana Diel/Julia Patton

East/West

1, Annabelle Mann/Heather Woolf

2, Patricia Siddle/Tony Saunders

Las Vegas YNABC results

Thursday morning Pairs

1st in C Katarina Rance (BHS) and Salayah Stange (BHS)

2nd in C Maximilian Santiago (Saltus), Gareth Cooper (Saltus)

Afternoon Swiss Teams

1st in C Andrew Tobin (Saltus), Ethan Lacey (Warwick), Katiah Rogers (Somersfield), Zahra Wilson (Berkeley)

2nd in C Ross Cooper (Saltus), Scott Gilbertson (Saltus) Kirsty Pollett (Warwick) and Charlotte Emery-King (UK-Oundle)

Friday

Consolation Pairs

3rd in C Maximilian Santiago (Saltus), Gareth Cooper (Saltus)

Cardbrook Pairs

5th in A Daque Davis (CedarBridge), Michae Skinner (CedarBridge)

Saturday

Afternoon Youth Pairs

2nd B Maximilian Santiago (Saltus), Gareth Cooper (Saltus)

1st C (3rd B) Charles Boivert (Warwick), Daniel Macphee (Warwick)

4th B Brett Baumgartner (Saltus), Shane Krueger (Saltus)

3rd C Gabriella Quinn-Serera (BHS), Sydney Daponte (BHS)