The Tollemache is the English National County Teams Championship, for teams of 8. Each county enters one team.
The qualifying round was held on 25-26th November 2000. Cambs & Hunts narrowly failed to qualify for the final.
Chris Larlham has written a brief report:
The qualifying round for the Tollemache Cup, the inter-county competition for teams of eight, took place at the usual dreary venue, the Britannia Hotel in Coventry, over the weekend. Cambs & Hunts were represented by Chris & Catherine Jagger (Catherine making her Tolly debut), David Kendrick & Fiske Warren, Edmund Linfield & John Young and Julian Wightwick & Giles Woodruff. I had the honour of being their NPC.
Only 35 teams took place this year. There were thus 3 groups of 9 and one of 8, with 2 teams qualifying from each group; Cambs & Hunts was drawn in the group of 8, with (in theory) a better chance of qualifying. The results and the butler scores of our pairs were as follows:
| Opponents | IMPs | VPs | Jagger / Jagger |
Kendrick / Warren |
Young / Linfield |
Wightwick / Woodruff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northants | 112-125 | 8-12 | +11 | -20 | +2 | -7 |
| Lancashire | 89-98 | 9-11 | -6 | +7 | -15 | +7 |
| Wiltshire | 159-76 | 18-2 | +16 | +30 | -5 | +5 |
| Oxfordshire | 137-128 | 11-9 | -11 | +35 | -27 | +8 |
| Manchester | 120-126 | 9-11 | +13 | -1 | +1 | -17 |
| Gloucestershire | 162-73 | 18-2 | -9 | +30 | -7 | +35 |
| Derbyshire | 142-130 | 11-9 | -9 | +2 | -1 | +8 |
| Totals | 921-756 | 84-56 | +5 | +83 | -52 | +39 |
The group was won by Manchester with 86 VPs. Northants were 2nd with 85. We were 3rd, missing out by two VPs. Just one more IMP in our first match against Northants and one more in our last against Derbyshire would have been worth 2 more VPs and we would have qualified. Frustrating game, bridge.