Congratulations to Jim Tomlinson, Richard Hodgkins, Chris Rogers and David Briggs on winning the Bate Cup in convincing style

Once again on the fourth Tuesday of the month we will be running 2 events - normal Derby Tuesday and a separate event for Improvers with fewer boards, slower pace and an earlier finish.

Everyone welome!

The teams of 8 final placings are as follows:

Derby A - 2nd in Division 1

Derby B - 3rd in Division 1

Derby C - 5th in Division 2

Derby D - 2nd in Division 4

Derby E - 4th in Division 5

Well done to everyone who played!

Derek George, who was a stalwart member of Derby Bridge Club for over 50 yeas, died last Friday (19 February).   The funeral will be at Bretby Crematorium, Geary Ln, Bretby, Burton upon Trent DE15 0QE, on Thursday 3rd March at 2.15pm.

Just to let you know

Overall the ECatsBridge team raised £71,347.32 in the Sim Pairs last year

This year's event will be on Monday afternoon November 14 2016

Make a note in your diaries

Congratulations to Cedric Cockroft and John Reavy on winning the Jubilee Pairs

In view of the lack of interest, there will be no Bridge on Tuesday 29th December.   Tuesday bridge continues the following Tuesday (5 January).

Best wishes to everyone for a Happy & Healthy New Year!  

Terri Jolland would like to thank all the Bridge players that attended Ray's funeral and the Repton Tea Rooms. Ray would be very proud to think that you all took the time to be there, I am sure that he was smiling down from his cloud. I was very touched by the messages and offers of support from Ray's past acquaintances.

I'm sure everyone will be pleased to learn that we raised £300 for Children  in Need

Congratulations to all who took part

This year's President, Richard Edwards, chose the British Heart Foundation as the Club's Charity.

We raised a total of £280

Thanks to all who contributed and those who helped

On Saturday 20th June, Sue Birch and her daughter completed the St Giles Hospice Solstice Walk, raising over £500.

See DCBA website for picture

Well done to them both and thanks to her sponsors!

The teams of 8 final placings are as follows:

Derby A - 2nd in Division 1

Derby B - 1st in Division 2

Derby C - 4th in Division 2

Derby D - 5th in Division 3

Derby E - 5th in Division 5

Well done to everyone who played!

Congratulations to David Briggs, Jim Tomlinson, Chris Rogers and Richard Hodgkins for winning the Bate Cup.   Results are now on our web site as you can see

There will be no bridge on Tuesday 23rd December or Tuesday 30th.

No Bridge on Christmas Eve afternoon but normal Wednesday afternoon on December 31st, New Year's Eve

The results are now on our website and on the ECats Bridge website - see Useful Links

We raised £320 over the 3 events

Well done to everyone who contributed by playing and thanks to the TDs and organisers

Congratulations to Cedric Cockroft and John Reavy on winning the Jubilee Pairs

Press here to see the draft new constitution. Many thanks to Jennifer for her efforts. It's not intended to alter our normal way of operating. The main reason for the changes is to ensure that we adopt suggestions from the EBU to ensure that the liabilites of the Club (and thus its members) are limited

The AGM will take place at 6:30 pm onTuesday October 14th. This will be followed by normal Tuesday Bridge starting no earlier than 7:00 pm. Bridge will be free for those who attend the AGM promptly.

I am sure that everyone who participated in the Charity Week will be pleased to know that the Bridge sessions and the raffle raised £350 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Well done everybody!

Special thanks to Jennifer and Miranda for all their efforts

The highest winning percentage was achieved by Patricia Hill and Margaret Avery who therefore win the President's Cup

Congratulations to Maggie Beale, Jim Parker, David Briggs and Jim Tomlinson on winning the Cup. With a bit of luck (and ingenuity)  scores and hand details will appear sooon

Clearing out the loft at the weekend, I found the article below. It was written by Jock Milton, who was the Derby Evening Telegraph's Bridge correspondent and started Tuesday evening Bridge at Derby. It was published on April 13, 1978(which happened to be a Friday).

This Week's Hand

I had to admire the careful, efficient manner in which this hand was played. Declarer was young Geoff Alderman, of the Littleover Club.

West led the seven of hearts. East won the Ace and King, and West ruffed the third Heart. He now led a low diamond, and East's queen lost to the Ace. Declarer started with a trump and learned at once that it would take four rounds to draw those held by East.South knew that the contract hinged upon the location of the Queen of Clubs and, mindful of East's intervening bid, felt it would probably be with that player. He noted, however, that East was already known to have started with nine cards in the majors.

South now drew the four trumps and played off the King of Diamonds, observing that East produced a second card in that suit, and must now have only two unknown cards, one of which might easily be that: elusive Queen of Clubs. Declarer might have had to Place his Bet at this very moment if he had not cautiously kept one more investigation move.Earlier, when he won the fourth trump, he had had the foresight to discard from dummy, not a Diamond but the nine of Clubs. He was able, therefore, at trick 10 to ruff dummy's low diamond.

When East followed to the Diamond lead it mattered no longer that he might hold the Club Queen, for his distribution was now fully disclosed - he could have no more than one Club. So South played King of Clubs and took the certain finesse against West.

This was Hand 21 on Tuesday 18th December,

I don't know what happened on Table 9, but everyone else played in 4

Since there are clearly 2 losers in Spades, the key question is how to play the Hearts.

There is nothing declarer can do if East  holds KJx(x), but otherwise there is a guaranteed line to lose only 1 Heart.

Win the opening lead and play A. If an honour comes from one of the defenders, no problem! If no honour appears, cross to the South hand and lead a small . If East shows out on the first round, cross to dummy twice to lead twice towards North's tenace.

This is a hand from Tuesday 6 November. Pretty phenomenal. Well done to those who got to the Grand Slam. Shame on them for not getting to 7NT!

This was a deal which occurred recently. Cover up the EW hands before you decide how to play it!

West leads Q.

Clearly declarer has 12 top tricks (2 , 1, 7and  2). As an aside, if dummy had only 6 Diamonds, the obvious play of leading the J guarantees the contract and if E has the King you make all thirteen tricks,

However, since S has twelve tricks, a losing finessse in Hearts would be of no value. It appears that declarer has to take a finesse in Hearts or Clubs. But look at the possibilities.

E holds K and Q - you can't go wrong

W holds K and Q - you can't win (maybe)

If  each of your opponents holds one of the vital honours, you make the extra trick if you guess right.

But in fact if either opponent has both key cards, you can claim 13 tricks. At trick 2, lead dummy's small heart to the Ace.  Play  K, discarding a small club and run the Diamonds, discarding all your Hearts. A defender with K and Q  will have to throw a Club and the Queen will fall when you cash the Ace and King.

Why is this better play?  Because choosing a finesse early (as you would have to) seems a bit too obvious and is only a 50-50 chance. This line gives you the same odss plus you make all 13 tricks if   K is singleton or the Q is singleton or doubleton.

I was very pleased to find this line of play!  But the real hero of the hand is my partner for bidding 6NT which would have been a complete top anyway!