On Wednesday 11th March 57 people attended the Manchester Bridge Club 2026 AGM. There were 2 apologies for absence and 3 people arrived to join the pairs event which followed after the meeting was concluded. .In the absence of Paul Murray who has stepped back from the Chairman's role for personal reasons Mike Wood chaired the meeting along with contributions from David Fernley and Susan Triggs. All the slides used in the presentation are available to view on the web site.

All of the following were unanimously elected onto the Committee 

David Sarabowski Chairman 

Mike Wood Secretary 

Dave  Fernley Treasurer 

Anne Naylor League Secretary 

Susan Triggs Education and Training Officer 

Sarah O'Neill Membership Secretary 

Vera Lowson Operations and Logistics 

Other expressions of interest in the unfilled Committee roles will be followed up 

Dave and Vera produced another outstanding cheese and biscuit selection, courtesy of the Cheese Hamlet 

After the meeting there were 2 parallel duplicate events one for less experienced players. This was the first time that we have attempted an event in this format and it was very successful

The Committee were very grateful that so many members stayed behind to help with putting everything back in its place and to FLTBC for allowing us to use the whole building to host the AGM 

Congratulations to Michael and his team for winning the European Transnational Championship in Prague which has just taken place.  It was a great win for Michael and his team Knottenbelt.  Come to Michael's seminar next week on Friday (27th Feb)  and hear all about it and maybe even see his Gold Medal.  We are so lucky to have a World Class player as a member of our club and presenting regular seminars to our members where you learn not only about the topic but also pick up many other tips from Michael on all aspects of bridge.

Tuesday 3rd February saw the club running a fundraising simultaneous pairs event, raising money for the England Bridge junior squad.

This is a cause close to our hearts, as club members David Sargent and Issi Edelsten are both members of the squad, and Michael Byrne is the non-playing captain. 

So it's good to announce that we raised £200 towards the team, in a very enjoyable afternoon

Enid Noronha and John Holland came top N/S with a score of 70.24%, which propelled them to the top of the leaderboard in this national event. Well done!

Full national results here, and hand commentaries available here

The Manchester Bridge Club Newcomers Cup

Sunday 22nd March 2026 at 2pm

Manchester Bridge Club 81 Wellington Road, Fallowfield M14 6BN

A special duplicate for recent beginners, novices and inexperienced duplicate players

All welcome

Entry Fee £10 

Generous prizes £100 for winning pair, £50 for 2nd placed pair and £30 for 3rd placed pair

18 boards in One Session - finish by 6pm

Buffet served during Interval

This is a social, fun competition for less experienced bridge players - for those who have recently learned or mainly play in supervised sessions.  Inexperienced bridge players from all clubs can enter

Book now via the online form below.

Please pay in advance to The Manchester Bridge Club Nat West Bank 01-02-02 21867577

Beginners Bridge Taster Courses.

We are running our next beginner's course which will start on Wednesday afternoon at 1.30pm on 18th March 2026.   If you are interested in joining this course or another of our future courses -  please complete the form below.

Please be careful when you enter your email address. You will always receive a personal response in 24 hours. 

Each course will last 10 weeks and covers the basics of play and bidding. We teach the 5 card major, strong No Trump and short club system.  We will also cover basic defensive tactics.

Most importantly, the classes will be friendly and sociable. Bridge can be a complicated game and will stretch your mind, but we aim to make bridge fun to learn and hope you will quickly come to love the game as much as we do.  Once your course is finished we have a wide range of supported, follow on sessions for you to join to continue to learn this wonderful game.

The course will cost £80 payable in advance.

Interested?  Find out more by emailing Susan on grasan30@gmail.com or completing the online form below

Michael's next seminar is on Friday 20th March starting at 1.30pm.  The topic is Slam Bidding - Choice of Strain.

The slam zone is an exciting place to play and so often the discussion of slam bidding is all concerned with "should we bid a slam" and not "which slam should we bid?"  Often bidding a slam in the wrong suit can be more expensive than missing slam altogether, as going off in 6 Diamonds when you can make 6 Hearts, or playing in 7Clubs when you can make 7NT is far more costly than you realise.  In this seminar, Michael will be looking at different auctions where you can decide not only the level but more importantly the strain as well.

All are welcome.  No partner needed.  The cost is £12 for members and £14 for non-members.

Please add your name to the online form so we print sufficient copies of the notes and hand records.

We are delighted to announce that the following Members of the Club achieved an EBU Master Point ranking in January

Yash Bansal  Local Master

 Congratulations Yash

We currently have two IntoBridge sessions each week.  These are on a Monday and Friday afternoon at 2pm.  All these sessions are well supported and will continue. We are no longer running the online Swiss Pairs on a Thursday evening.

We now have supervised sessions for beginners, learners & improvers at the club:

Monday afternoon at 1pm for Improvers with Paul Murray.

 Monday evening at 7:15pm for beginners with Frank/Chris

Tuesday evening at 7pm all levels 

Wednesday morning at 10:30 for improvers with Susan Triggs

Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 for beginners with Susan Triggs.

Members £6 & Visitors £8

Everyone is welcome

Please be aware that the BridgeWebs attendance Module is not a real time system. It reflects entry fees spent on online and face-to-face games but does not reflect money paid into your online account until it is manually updated from the Club's bank statement. Our 'WebMaster', Dave Fernley performs these updates periodically- usually weekly. If you need to know your balance between updates, call Paul or Dave.

The new Bridgewebs Attendance Module for tracking payment money for online games is now live.

It provides you with a real-time view of the games you have played, the current balance of your account and payments made and received by your account. 

To see this information you will need to log on to the Members Only area of the website and then select thePayments Account tab.
Detailed instructions logging onto this area are available here

A detailed description of the Online Account, how it works, etc, is also available here within the Members Only Area (log-on needed).

Account statements will also be sent out periodically by email. This ensures that people who choose not to actively monitor their account balance are still aware of it. The statement provides a regular update to non-members who play in our online games who do not have access the member's area and therefore the real time benefits of this system.

See Calendar on the right of this home page for our Weekly Schedule

Face to Face table fees for Duplicates at the Club are £4 for fully paid-up MBC members & £6 for Guests

Supervised Face to Face table fees at the Club are £6 for fully paid-up MBC members & £8 for Guests

(includes free tea/coffee & biscuits and occasional treats! However, sandwiches/supper will not be served)

Online bridge entry is £3.75 for members & £4.50 for non-members

For Online games a pre-arranged partner is preferable. However, if possible, partners can be found after you log on to our tournaments. Just wait on Partnership Desk on IntoBridge. 

Please transfer entry fee (or more for convenience / multiple games) into the MBC bank account (see below).

MBC will reduce your balance after each session played and email you with a regular statement to help you stay in credit.

The Manchester Bridge Club Bank details are –

Natwest Sort Code 01-02-02   Account Number  21867577

Please put your First Name and Surname as the payment reference

Thank you for supporting The Manchester Bridge Club