From a Cruise Ship Holiday we looked after
I joined your classes as a beginner on our first cruise, on the Bolette to the Faroes, Shetland and Orkneys in August, and loved learning the basics. Thank you!
Feedback to First for Bridge after Our Last Holiday July 2023.
Hello Arena Staff, after 10 wonderful days at the Chateau - Wimbledon watching took over - belated want to thank the Bridge Hosts, John and Sarah Barker - they took endless trouble to look after all of us, the slightest problem was resolved, having to fill in requests for daily meals - a task - on outings they had maps printed of the place to visit a day before, clear instructions given before, or in the coach when and where to meet - not only bridge hosts but also excellent tour leaders- totally unexpected and unique - please, convey them again my best wishes and many thanks for all their help which made the holiday even more memorable - Anon July 2023 From a Holiday Questionaire.
I want to celebrate the work of John and Sarah Barker as host of this holiday and Mark as the Director of Bridge on the trip to Challis les Eaux. They were attentive and supportive of all the participants and worked as well coordinated team. I believe the Hosts went out of their way to make the holiday work well for all. It is for this reason that I am giving them 10 out of 10, a mark I have rarely used in the last fifteen years of holidays with First for Bridge and other companies offering similar holidays - Richard C July 23
From Bridge Lessons
How have you been spending the Great Covid Lockdown?
I joined this amazing bridge school, run by the wonderful John Barker and it has been a source of hope, sanity, learning and salvation for me since the start of “lockdown”. Given that those of a certain age that goes with a certain intelligence, know that lockdown isn’t going away anytime soon, however the Government care to phrase it, you could do a lot worse than wrap yourself up for the long Autumn and Winter months with John and his inspirational teaching.
You see I feel part of a large happy family who have taken me into their midst and hugged me, where there were no hugs to be had.I met John and his amazing mum, Joan, on a bridge holiday run by First for Bridge. John has taken it upon himself to involve all of us who’ve been denied our overseas holidays in fantastic bridge tutorials that can only make us better players once this wretched virus runs out of steam or some convincing vaccine is found. Most bridge tutorials don’t give you time to recap or endlessly allow you to go over something you haven’t understood.
Not so with John. His patience is remarkable. He will, if asked, go over and explain in many different ways, things that must be absolutely basic to him and yet never a critical word is said. Of course, one may occasionally be called a “noodle” but it is always said in a kindly, light-hearted manner that no-one could take offence from.
Life being what it is, we shouldn’t hold our breath, so to while away the hours that we night have spent at the tables around the world, we can learn all thethings we were uncertain of about our wonderful game from John’s mesmerising teaching.I don’t know what you will be doing but I will be booking up all his tutorials until this calamity ends!
Dr Sue
"Thank you very much for a fantastic 12 week Fast Track Bridge course for beginners. That certainly got the 5 of us playing bridge by the end of the course. I would like to thank you in particular for your patience and understanding of your student's different needs and adjusting the lessons to suit each individual's way of learning.
Thank you so much for making our last lesson with you so very special by organizing such a wonderful surprise for us by inviting 6 lovely people from your club to join us for the evening so enabling us to have a taste of real Duplicate Bridge. The evening was truly enjoyed by all 5 of us and gave us more of a relaxed insight as to what it would be like to play in one of your clubs. Many, many thanks to those, friendly and very helpful members who made the evening such a success and from a personal aspect cleared up a few queries I had been mulling over.
You are doing a wonderful job John in keeping Bridge going in such a fun way and I am sure it will inspire more people to learn to play this great card game. I look forward to continuing learning with you so as to build up my confidence to play at club level. A big thank you again".
Jeanne
"Another Lovely Bridge Weekend at the Links Hotel with John Barker. He is an excellent Host who makes everyone feel welcome. The Bridge is very well run and most enjoyable."
Bridget
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