| New Thursday Evening Duplicate gets off to a flying start |
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On Thursday 4th April at 7.15 we began our brand new “ Relaxed Duplicate “ event for ” intermediate” players – an idea proposed by Jenny Allwright and Pam Hunt from the Monday afternoon group. The turnout was excellent (8 tables) and the feedback very positive.
It is currently scheduled to be a monthly event but if there is sufficient interest we could look at extending this to twice monthly or even weekly. The first session was free to all as we were testing whether the format would work but as it worked out so well, we have decided to apply table money at £4 pp charge (£6 for non members) for future sessions.
Those who came last Thursday, played 16 Boards and as the evening wore on the speed of play picked up. This was no mean achievement given that we had some quite novice players in the mix. Although our TD for the night, Fiona Goode, was called to help a number of times this was almost always with issues over use of Bridgemates – the play itself was friendly and supportive.
It was perhaps poetic that Pam and Jenny finished top in N/S (well done both) with Cobb and Martha finishing 1st in E/W. One of the highlights of the evening for me was the person ( you know who you are ) who told me that they had been nervous about coming to an unsupported play event and feared finishing bottom – well that didn’t happen and in a big way.
If you are thinking whether this event is for you, please go to the results section on our web site and look at the names of all the people who came on Thursday and see if you would feel comfortable playing in their company – you might surprise yourself if you do.
The next event is on Thursday May 2nd – please arrive no later than 7.10 pm so we can make a prompt start at 7.15 pm.
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| Michael Byrne Seminars - next Seminar Friday 19th April at 1:30 |
 The Manchester Bridge Club and Michael Byrne are holding a series of seminars.
Each seminar will consist of a talk, with notes, and then the playing of 8 hands to illustrate the topic
The hands are then discussed, with hand records, at the end of the session.
The cost of the seminar will be £10 for Manchester Bridge Club members and £12 for non-members
Tea, coffee, biscuits and Michael’s famous home-made brownies will be available
Seminar Topics
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Friday April 19th
"The Final Cash out"
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A look at defending against suit contracts and when you need to take tricks, what card you should switch to and why!
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Friday 24th May
" Escaping when doubled in the Bidding and Play"
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Join us as we look at those situations where the opponents are out for our blood. We must try to reduce the loss to as little as possible, either by running to a different contract or by making as many tricks as possible. |
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Friday 21st June
"Double or Nothing"
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A look at the various types of different doubles open to competitive duplicate players, from responsive and competitive doubles to trying for a penalty after your opponents intervene. |
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| Thank You - Easter Farmyard Animals |
A huge thank you to everyone who bought the Easter animals
The wonderful sum of £700 was raised for Pancreatic Cancer
Truly Amazing
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| Fifteen Minutes of Fame |
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Tammy and Chris enjoy a brief moment of having a perfect score......
Sadly it was not to last, but second place is still very respectable
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| Update from Fuengirola |
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Jeff Morris is in Spain, pictured here with Dave Debbage and James Smith at the Fuengirola International Bridge Tournament being held in nearby Benelmadena
Jeff and James successfully qualified for the consolation event, finishing in the top half of the field. Dave and his partner John Sansom finished second in the Consolation, winning 400 euros!
Stuart Shalom and Barbara Easterbrook were also at the event and did very well to qualify for the 14 pair final.
Jeff originally met James when he used to play bridge at the club during his spare time whilst performing at the Royal Exchange. He has since become best known for his starring role as special advisor Glenn Cullen in The Thick of It and as Lord Gadolfin in Yorgen Lanthimos's Oscar winning The Favourite.He is also Chairman of the London Metropolitan Bridge Association and Chairman of The Monday Club - a bridge club in South London
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| Annual General Meeting |
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The Club AGM on Wednesday 13th March was a special night in many ways. 51 people turned up and all bar one stayed for the free duplicate that followed.
Our Club Chairman, Paul Murray gave a comprehensive review of the Club’s progress over the past 12 months showcasing in particular the success of our teaching programme. He gave a thorough analysis of the Club’s financial position – the full accounts are available to view on our web site in the Members Only section along with all the slides from Paul’s presentation.
Mike Wood, David Fernley and Paul were unanimously re-elected as Officers of the Club leaving a number of positions as yet unfilled. The Committee though can continue to rely on the support and expertise of Susan Triggs, Frank Eade, Anne Naylor and Jeff Morris.
Paul reached out to the room to approach any Committee member if they thought they could help in any way with the smooth running of the Club, particularly in the area of IT.
Further, with respect to the weekly bridge schedule, Paul announced the introduction from April 4th of a new monthly Thursday evening duplicate, targeted at Improving players. This will be open to all but has been set up at the particular request of the Monday afternoon supervised play participants. If the session proves successful it is hoped that this may become a fortnightly or even weekly event.
After the AGM formalities, there was an evening of highly competitive bridge featuring some first-time partnerships and an encouragingly high number of comparatively less experienced players - many of whom performed exceptionally well. This is very encouraging for the Club as we look to transition the success of our teaching and supervised play sessions to well attended Club duplicate sessions. Last but not least, throughout there was an exceptional cheese and crackers buffet to round off a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
We hope to see more of you returning to regular bridge at The Manchester Bridge Club and we thank you for your support.
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| Beginner's Course |
Beginners Bridge Courses.
Our next 12 week Beginner's Bridge Course will start in late September.
If you are interested in joining one of our future courses, please fill in the form below and we will keep you updated about our plans for our next course.
Please be careful when you enter your email address. There have been a couple of incorrect email addresses entered so if you have not had a reply please try again. You will always receive a personal response in 24 hours.
Each course will last 12 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.
The course will cost £72 payable in advance
Interested? Find out more by emailing Susan on grasan30@gmail.com
Our latest Tuesday evening group of beginners , all 28 of them, are seen here enjoying lesson 4 in their 12 week course. There are other groups on Wednesday and Thursday mornings .
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| Would you like to learn to play bridge? |
Would you like to learn to play bridge?
We are currently setting up our new courses for beginners.
If you are interested in joining the above course or would like to learn at a different time or day, please fill in the form below and we'll get in touch to make arrangements for you to start lessons to learn to play this fascinating game.
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| Manchester Retain Tollemache Trophy |
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The Tollemache is the English Bridge Union's premier county event. After a qualifier in November, involving all English counties, the top eight teams play all play each other over a weekend in February.
Manchester (County) won this event for the first time last year after almost 40 years of trying.
In this year's event Manchester have retained the trophy with John Holland and Alan Mould outstanding but well supported by Alec Smalley, Tom Slater ,Jeff Morris ,John Hassett, Nicholas Greer and Phil Taylor. Great credit goes to Nicholas and Philip who sustained great pressure in their first ever Tollemache. Rhona Goldenfield, as reserve, also played an important role in encouraging the team against formidable opposition to finish the event beating six of the other seven teams and having a winning draw against the seventh team
Six of the team are current Manchester Bridge Club members and Phil was a member until recently. Alec and Tom are members of Bramhall & Cheadle BC
Well done to all!
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| Membership Promotions |
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We are delighted to announce that the following Members of the Club achieved an EBU Master Point ranking promotion in March
Jeff Morris 4 Star Grand Master
Frances Nagle Area Master
Chris Lam District Master
Tammy Lam District Master
Congratulations to all of you
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| Swiss Pairs on IntoBridge |
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Click here to sign on to IntoBridge
Thursday evening online Swiss Pairs on Intobridge at 7:15pm
9 tables for popular online MBC game on Dec 8th with 15 players playing on IntoBridge for the first time!
Come and join us every week!
Click on the links below to register your account on IntoBridge and come and join us to play on this new innovative online platform that offers much more than than BBO.
If you haven't already, Click here to Register on the IntoBridge platform
The following youtube videos explain:
The IntoBridge platform, how to register and available controls
How to register for an IntoBridge game, how to join a game, and how to use the partnership desk
Registration is straightforward, but does involve receiving an email with a confirmation link to activate your account.
If you have any problems please contact Dave Fernley on 07388 398 919
Once you have registered you can invite your partner using his/her user name or join the Partnership Desk to signify you are looking for a partner.
An IntoBridge host will play with you cannot find one via the Partnership Desk
For the time being, there are no robots on IntoBridge.
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| Supervised Sessions |
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We now have supervised sessions for beginners, learners & improvers at the club:
Monday afternoon at 1pm for Improvers with Paul Murray.
** NEW** Tuesday evening at 7pm all levels.
Wednesday afternoon at 1pm for beginners with Paul Murray.
**NEW** Thursday morning at 10:30 for beginners with Susan Triggs.
Members £6 & Visitors £8
Everyone is welcome
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| Online Account for Online Games |
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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.
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| Weekly Schedule |
 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
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