This was a new venture held at Cheltenham, and it has been agreed to run it again in 2017, as it was so successful. Over 100 children came of whom over 25% were from Oxfordshire. Berkshire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, London, Sussex, Cardiff and Worcestershire were also represented.The tutors all freely gave their time and included the coaches of all the England junior squads (U15, U20 and U25), the food was excellent, and the only downside was the weather which curtailed the usual outdoor activities.

Welcome to Bridge For Schools, a website for schools, children and teaching staff.

Young bridge players in action at the Wallingford Bridge Club.

The Bridge For Schools Team brings bridge to all schoolchildren in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Its volunteers provide their time freely to teach bridge and minibridge in schools. Follow the Bridge4Schools tab on the left hand side of the screen for more information.

For a headteacher’s view of our activities please look at Bridge in a Village Primary School which you will find under 'Bridge & Education'.

In addition to in-school clubs the Team runs two Junior Bridge Clubs that are open to all 8 – 18 year olds wishing to play bridge or minibridge, or to receive tuition. Follow the links on the left hand side for further details.

Scroll down this page to see our recent news. 

There were some very good county players at the annual event on Sunday, and our junior members played really well against them, all of them winning at least one of their 'minimatches' as well as enjoying the substantial tea. The pairs finished as follows:- 3rd Jamie Muller/JB, 25th George Anstis/John Mewes, 28th Nathan Galpin/Jack Lawrence, 37th Dominic Cooke/ Edmund Lea. This is the 3rd year running in which the junior participation has increased, and Jamie Muller at 16, is the highest placed ever junior. 

Some Oxfordshire players attended the first of the Bridge Summer Camps this year. As you can see it was not all hard work as there was time for a refreshing break.

Aidan Saunders and Zane Soonawalla received their medals for being ‘best in their group’.

11 year old Henry Rose has every right to be beaming! He has just heard the news that he has been selected to play for the Under 15 England team in the Youth Bridge World Championships to be held in Italy in August. Henry started bridge at the Dragon School when he was 8 years old and has been attending the Oxford Junior Bridge Club regularly since it started 18 months ago; in fact, he was their first pupil.

Hers is Henry and the two teams from Salsomaggiore.

The Oxford Junior Bridge Club runs every Sunday afternoon term time, 2.30 - 4.30pm in Summertown Church Hall, Banbury Road, OX2 7EY. ALL juniors, 8 - 18 years are welcome, total beginners upwards! Enquiries:

juniorbridgeoxford@gmail.com 

Pupils from nine schools participated in the fourth annual junior bridge and minibridge competition on February 21st.

The winners of the Bridge Section were George and Elizabeth Cooper, and sharing second place were Cameron Butcher, and Jacob Potter with Zane Soonawalla.

George & Elizabeth Cooper.

The Minibridge players sharing first place:  Noah and Iris Bennett, Zac Matthews and Harry Litchfield.

This was played on Sunday 31st January- yes, you guessed it- at Abingdon. It is an adult event with a lot of VERY GOOD players. Six  juniors entered and all played and behaved well. They were George Anstis, George Cooper, Jamie Muller, Henry Rose, Lizzy van der Veen and William Wauchope. Jamie Muller, playing with his granny came second from 44 pairs. Well done to all of you.

English Bridge Education and Development has been established as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) for duplicate bridge, and is distinct from the EBU. A major element of the new initiatives from EBED concerns Youth Bridge.

EBED launched its new Junior Award Scheme in August to stimulate enthusiasm for junior bridge among young players, parents and educators. The scheme breaks down the skills required to develop from raw rookie to serious contender into a set of steps and milestones, and the participants must satisfactorily demonstrate the different techniques to achieve each level and progress to the next.

In the BB&O area a number of our young players have already received their Minibridge Certificates, and some have progressed to the Full Bridge Bronze Award. Pictured below are Arthur Anstis (left), and Lizzy van der Veen with their Bronze Awards, and in the centre is George Anstis with his Silver Award. (The Silver Award would be the level attained by our normal club player).

Minibridge Pro-Am at Marcham CofE Primary School

For the last few years it has been customary to end the school year with a pro-am tournament where local bridge players are invited to partner the school pupils who have been learning bridge or minibridge. This year there were 12 pupils playing with 12 adults.The event was ably directed by David Walton, and Gwyneth Goss worked hard to find a full complement of adults. A good time was had by both adults, and pupils, and this and the preceding year’s bridge classes are much appreciated by the school.

This year the winning pupil was Lara Withers who was playing with Martin Cutler. The runners up were Bo Sanders and Alex Porter.

OXFORD JUNIOR BRIDGE CLUB  WINTER COMPETITION 22^nd November 2015

The average age of the Oxford Bridge Club attendee was lowered dramatically on the afternoon of Sunday 22^nd November when thirty children, aged 8 – 18 years descended upon the balloon decorated premises generating laughter and good will. With roads closed in the city centre, the A40 permanently jammed and both Banbury and Woodstock Road roundabouts “under re-construction,” it was a miracle to see so many children actually arriving from different parts of the country, including Cheltenham and Reading.

With three sections to run, mini-bridge, novice bidders and experienced bidders, an accolade must surely go to our scorers and TDs, Diane Coe, Mike Fletcher and Peter Sherry, who managed to keep boards and children moving, in spite of the speed differentials of players and the cross table chatting!

At 4.15pm, we called a halt and everyone descended upon the tea table, groaning with goodies mostly donated by parents, many of whom joined us for tea, while the scorers feverishly attempted to get a result.

The prizes were presented by Richard Sills, Chairman of the Oxford Bridge Club, who had kindly given us their premises free of charge. In the mini-bridge section, first prize went to the Reading siblings, Jacob and Alice Hathaway (in spite of one of them trumping the other’s ace!!!) In the novice bidders section our winners were John Wood and Freya Baldwin and in the “experienced” bidders section first prize went to the Anstis brothers, Arthur and George.  Some of the results were extremely close and congratulations to all the children who took part. Full results are listed below:

EXPERIENCED BIDDERS

George and Arthur Anstis                                                          +34

Megan Stanton-Cole and Alison Withers-Green (adult)                 +2

Max and Thomas Potter                                                              -2

Freddie Yu and Richmond Yeung                                                 -34

NOVICE BIDDERS

1^st        John Wood and Freya Baldwin                    59.72%

2^nd       Max Cronin and Karla Maria Unwin              51.39%

3^rd        Natalie Kong and Diana Cai                        50%

            Freddie Beneat and Zane Soonawala           50%

            Thomas Eadie and Rachel Wills                   50%

6^th        Sally Hung and Cecelia Su                           48.61%

7^th        Jacob Potter and Aidan Saunders                 45.83%

8^th        Jennifer Reynolds and Ava Reynolds            43.75%

MINI-BRIDGE

1^ST        Jacob and Alice Hathaway                                         +10

2^nd       Zach Matthews and Harry Litchfield                              +8

3^rd        Clemmie and Edmund Fry                                             +6

            Bruno Keyworth playing with Sean Terry (adult)            +6

Hand records for the bidders may be found at http://www.simpairs.com/files/005690%20Tuesday%20commentary.pdf

For pictures from the day please click on 'Blog' in the panel to the left.

The Oxford Junior Bridge Club continues to thrive and grow.  This term we have five new children from both state and independent schools around the city and county. Frequently, we have 10 children learning mini-bridge and bidding and, following a meeting of volunteers, we now have a curriculum for the bidders, following the EBU book, “Really Easy modern Acol.”

After much debate, we re-structured our fees and now charge £5.00 per child with the first visit free of charge and a maximum of £10.00 per family of three or more children and adults. (Sometimes families start off together.)

Our ‘regulars’ continue to improve and on Sunday 1^st November Max, Thomas and Jacob Potter and Aidan Saunders went to Andrew Robson’s Club for a junior competition, with teams scoring,  for ‘children still at school.’ Max and Thomas came a staggering 4^th out of 10 pairs, ahead of two of the U15 internationals! They are aged 9 and 11 years and Jacob and Aidan (aged 8 and 10) came 8^th.  Henry Rose, aged 11, continues to attend training days for the U15 squad and Alecksander Lichkov has very kindly agreed to take Henry under his wing and do special sessions with him on Sunday afternoons, at the club, and to play online with him.

This term we have started a bridge club at Headington Prep School run by Peter Sherry and Joan Bailles, with 10 signed up, and at Magdalen College School we have three tables run by Paul Walter.  Bridge at Oxford Girls High continues to thrive, ably run by Peter Finbow and Pauline Wyman, who usually have 4 tables and at the Dragon School, there are two sessions of six children beginners/intermediate and advanced. Rob Dixon has two tables at D’Overbroecks and Summerfields School runs a small club on Tuesday afternoons. Ludmilla Checkley runs beginner bridge sessions at St Clares, a Baccalaureate College for 16 years +.Therefore, there are well over 60 juniors learning bridge on a regular basis in North Oxford alone.

We could do with two more volunteers who could help with the Oxford Junior Club.  Those we have are wonderful and supportive but, in order to give the service we would like, we really need four adults on a Sunday afternoon and this can be a struggle!

Holly Kilpatrick

November 2015

JUNIOR TEACH-IN August 28^th – 30^th 2015

A number of children from Berks, Bucks, and Oxon attended the Annual EBU Junior Teach-In held at Loughborough University. All standards of Bridge and MiniBridge were catered for, and judging by the comments we received afterwards all children and adults had a good time.

The Dragon School’s Henry Rose (right) with ZakTenquist from Brighton,

and Sarah O’Connor the Under 15’s coordinator.

Oxfordshire’s Iris and Noah Bennett (back right) with other participants.

For more information and pictures visit the EBU website www.ebu.co.uk, and follow the links to the JTI.

These are some of the comments received after the event:

“Aidan and I very much enjoyed the bridge weekend at Loughborough. I was very impressed with the bridge available for adults”

“It all seems to have gone very well indeed. They really loved all the practice and it seems to have been difficult to get them from the card table into bed at a sensible hour - they just wanted to keep playing!”

“They are keen to go back next year.”

This was held at Roke on 22nd March. Five tables of bridge players and three of minibridge players took part from 16 schools in the area. It was particularly good to see so many year 7 and upwards children, who had started playing at their primary schools, present. The hands played were from the EBU student Sims and results can be seen on the EBU (English Bridge Union) website. Click on 'Sims, past events , education bridge or minibridge to find your results. Prizes were kindly presented by Richard, Earl of Macclesfield.

The results from the Goring, Sonning Common/KE and Nettlebed heats can also be seen there. Well done to all of you.

The winning national student pair were Arthur Anstis and Cameron Butcher of Wallingford BC, whilst  Jacob Potter & Aidan Saunders finished third nationally in the minibridge competition

For more information and pictures see the 'Third OBA Annual Junior Congress' tab to the left.

OXFORD JUNIOR BRIDGE CLUB

LOUGHBOROUGH SCHOOLS CHALLENGE

28^th February 2015

On Saturday 28^th February six members of the Oxford Junior Bridge Club travelled to Loughborough Grammar School for the Annual Schools Challenge.  The team of four: Max Potter, William Wauchope, Henry Rose and Theo Rich were up against fierce and mature competition in the form of sixth formers from St Paul’s, Westminster, Haberdashers, and older pupils from Oxford Girls High and other prestigious schools! During the afternoon, they were required to bid and play 30 hands of bridge, with only a short supper break. Not only did they play well, they remained courteous and cheerful to one another and their competitors throughout! Thomas Potter, our team reserve, stepped in for the last round of six hands. Our team of x 4 finished an amazing 10^th out of 13 teams.

The team from Oxford Girls High finished in 8^th place, which was much higher than they expected.

Thomas Potter, playing with his 7 year old brother, Jacob, won the separate mini-bridge competition.

Oxfordshire's James Paul played in the Under 26 Team which came 4th from 18, whilst Freddie Illingworth and Laura Covill played in the Under 21's who came 13th from 16 in Tromso Norway in July

Since we started in Berkshire the Bridge4schools team has taught bridge in over 45 schools in Berks, Bucks and Oxon, and typically teaches to around 600 children in our busiest terms.

If you would like to learn to play bridge at your school, or would like to become one of our volunteer helpers, please phone your area contact .

S & W Oxfordshire Alison Nicolson 01235 851403.

S Oxon(W Berks) Joan Bennett 01491 579795.

Central Oxfordshire Holly Kilpatrick 07753 672001.

Bucks (E Berks) Tony Aston 01753 885166 

For email addresses see 'Organisers' under 'Information' tab