The McCutcheon Trophy recognizes the best players of the year based on total masterpoints earned in all events contested in Australia.

This year, as expected, the stand- out performer for Victoria was James Coutts, who despite a stellar year where he won multiple national events, was very lnarrowly pipped by Tony Nunn (NSW) for the overall McCutcheon title. James’ points tally would have won the title in many recent years. To read about James and his extraordinary year, please refer to the article on the opening page of the December issue of the VBA Bulletin.

The only other Victorian to finish in the top five of the categories for which the earning of gold points is mandatory (Life Master and above) was Sue Beckman, who finished a very creditable 5th in the Life category.

In the non-gold point requirement categories, the stand-out Victorians were Simon Tissera and Ted Robson, who easily won the McCutcheon’s for Local and Graduate Master respectively, while Leo Saoud was runner-up in Silver National.

For full details of the McCutcheon results visit the ABF Masterpoint Centre Website .  You can also see the top player listing of all time and full details of masterpoints.

Top performing Victorian Players in 2022

	NAME	RANK	TOTAL MPs	2022 MPs	2022 Rank
1	Coutts, James	Silver Grand	3,748.37	556.77	2
2	Mill, Justin	Silver Grand	4,692.37	323.82	12
3	Fruewirth, Robert	Silver Grand	4,074.75	234.17	30
4	Ewart, Neil	Gold Grand	6,085.63	230.90	31
5	Hinge, Simon	Emerald Grand	10,558.41	230.62	32
6	Frazer, Kim	Silver Grand	2,615.73	228.24	33
7	Thompson, Ben	Gold Grand	6,578.20	211.48	41
8	Thompson, Jenny	Silver Grand	4,178.09	180.96	66
9	Hughes, Chris	Silver Grand	4,986.64	168.91	90
10	Lester, Stephen	Silver Grand	4,942.27	148.55	121

Congratulations to all the above and we look forward to great bridge in 2023.

– Christopher Leach.