The Roxburghe Hotel, Scottish Borders  March 2013

The Roxburghe Hotel

An assortment of Stockens descended upon Kelso for Claudia and Zebedee’s first bridge break in Scotland: Claudia flew in from Milan, Zebedee from London and Dinah and I drove up from Yorkshire to look after the guests who themselves had braved the perils of winter travel to enjoy four days of relaxed bridge and fairly intensive tuition.

We were very lucky with the weather. The first two days were gorgeous with temperatures reaching double figures and though it clouded over on the Sunday, it was sufficiently mild for eight of us to indulge in a croquet match in the afternoon. This became highly competitive, the winners being the pair that managed to steer their way best round the rabbit droppings and the worm-casts. Hardly Hurlingham, but great fun. The superb championship golf course adjacent to the hotel was put to good use by the golfers in the party.

The Hotel itself was splendid with log fires burning in every room, the bridge room beautifully decked out and very friendly staff who went out of their way to make us all feel at home. 

All in all, it was a delightful weekend, meeting old friends, making new ones, triumphs and disasters at the bridge table and laughter throughout.                                                                                                                                                                            

Peter Stocken

Excellent trip, very well done. I would definitely go again to Roxburghe. Golf and bridge are a winning combination.

I really enjoyed the trip to Roxburghe. Thank you for all the trouble you went to in order to make it successful.  The bridge was fun as well as the chance to play croquet with such an expert.

I want to thank you all for looking after me so well last weekend. I had a great time and learnt a huge amount in a very short space of time. Your mother was SO patient and SO encouraging!

Thank you very much indeed for a lovely weekend at the Roxburghe Hotel. V well organised. It was a bit daunting at first, but everyone was so friendly and I really enjoyed myself.  It was a real pleasure to meet your parents and you and I do hope to see much more of you in the future.