| TEACHING PROGRAMME: INTRODUCTION Our classes Our introductory programme can be completed in 12 weeks, at the end of which students will be able to play and enjoy basic bridge. The classes are held at the Bridge League Headquarters at 23, Pine Road, Belleville, obliquely opposite 6th Avenue, on Monday evenings at 7.30 p.m. Cost of the 12 week course is $100.00. This fee includes the student text. Follow-up courses are arranged to suit the demand. Courses for special groups can be arranged on request. For further information call us at 427-4839 or e-mail barbadosbridge@gmail.com. Now read on: About bridge The Origins of the Game Whist, the precursor of Bridge, was played in England as early as the sixteenth century. In Whist the 52 cards of a standard pack (no jokers) are dealt out, 13 to each of the four players. The two players facing each other across the table form a pair or partnership. Each player faces a card in turn, and at each round of four cards, which constitute a trick, the highest card wins. The object is for each partnership to win as many tricks as possible. One of the suits, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds or Clubs, may be designated as the trump suit. If a player cannot follow suit to the card led he may take the trick with a trump card. The metamorphosis from Whist to Bridge began with use of an auction to determine the trump suit and the innovation of having the partner of the player who won the auction place his cards on the table face up as the dummy. The change was virtually complete when, in 1925, Harold Vanderbilt developed the modern method of scoring. Since 1925 players have added little to the high standard of card play which the whist players demonstrated, but the refinement of the early bidding systems and the introduction of completely new treatments continues to this day. The Many Forms of Bridge Bridge is a partnership game and at its simplest all that is required is a pack of cards and two pairs of players. Such an arrangement is usually styled Rubber Bridge, and the object is to outscore the opponents at the table. In Duplicate Bridge each hand is played in turn by several different pairs at a given number of tables. The object here is to outscore the other pairs that played the same hand that you held. This is the form used for tournaments. Further modifications of format permit two pairs to play as a team-of-four and to compete against other similar teams. This format is generally accepted to be the one which reduces the element of luck to the minimum. The Benefits of Bridge Bridge requires skills which develop memory and concentration. It also assists in the improvement of judgement, logical analysis and planning. It requires players to develop communication skills in creating a partnership. It provides a healthy form of indoor entertainment in which the whole family can participate. Bridge as a World Sport Bridge, once regarded largely as a social pastime, is now more widely played as a worthwhile and serious mind-sport. The World Bridge Federation, formed in 1958, is the body responsible for the staging of world championships in many categories, including junior events. The Barbados Bridge League operates in, and was a co-founder of, Zone 5 of the WBF – The Central American and Caribbean Bridge Federation. Barbados is always represented at regional events, and teams and pairs from this country have on occasion competed in WBF tournaments in North America and Europe. The significance of Bridge as a mind-sport is recognized to the extent that the WBF has been accepted as a member of the International Olympic Movement. Bridge is now played as a demonstration sport at the Winter Olympics. The Bridge League is a member of the Barbados Olympic Association, and also operates under the aegis of the National Sports Council. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ |