The Shell Simultaneous Pairs

In 1966, after contacting the Shell Clubs at Lensbury (Teddington, England) and Te Werve (The Netherlands), Gregor H Riesser of Houston organised the first Shell Worldwide Bridge Tournament.  The clubs loved the idea and offered help.  With this support, it became the first worldwide duplicate bridge tournament ever.  At the time all results were scored by hand but the following year Jan Bots volunteered to have it scored by computer in Holland and he followed through with this task until 1979.

Since 2007 John Greuel of the Calgary Research Centre in Canada has been the man in charge with result processed by ECatsBridge, a company firmly established in the role of scoring simultaneous pairs events (SIMs).

Over the last three years the tournament has maintained its truly international flavour with participants from the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia.  There is huge interest in the Netherlands in particular where entries can appear from up to four different locations.

Scotland too produces a consistent number of pairs playing at the Pecten Bridge Club.

The tournament attracts about 300 players every year.  It is played in the autumn of each year over a two-week period with a date to suit a majority of local participants.  In order for each local event to run, the location needs a minimum of three tables or six pairs.

Entry is open to Shell pensioners, employees, select relations of employees playing with the employee, and contractors working for Shell making this an event of tremendous age range and interest.

Enquiries should be addressed to John Greuel of Calgary, Canada
Email jlgreuel@shaw.ca