It’s the time of year again when your annual membership subscription to The Manchester Bridge Club becomes due. The committee have decided to keep subscriptions at the same price as last year, which means that we haven't increased our rates since we became a member owned club in 2022.  We are  offering the same £10 discount - so only £40 if paid before 31st December & £50 per person if you pay after 1st January 2026 . You can pay by cash or card at any F2F session or by online banking with the reference of your name followed by the word subs.

The Manchester Bridge Club bank details are –

Nat West

Sort Code 01-02-02   

Account Number  21867577

The first Thursday in January is the 1st, when the club is closed

So for January 2026, the Relaxed Duplicate evenings will be on the 8th and 22nd of the month

The Gazette Cup is the county qualifier for the national Garden Cities club competition. It is a Team of Eight contest that The Manchester Bridge Club has won many times in its history - most latterly in 2022 and 2023. 

Our club often enters up to 4 teams of eight in this competition, making us the best represented club in the County

This year's competition takes place on Sunday March 15th at Altrincham Bridge Club in Hale. Start time is 11am

If you want to take part then please register your interest using the form below. If you already have some team members then include their details. Don't worry if you don't have any team members, add your details as we will be organising teams from people that register

NB To play in this event for MBC you must be a member of the club

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.

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

Our Tuesday afternoon duplicate on Tuesday 3rd February will be run as part of the EBU Simultaneous Pairs national event supporting the EBU Junior Team.  As a club, we are very keen to support this event which helps to fund the costs for young players to play in national and international bridge tournaments.  Michael Byrne is one of the main coaches for the Junior Team.  We host weekend training sessions at the club and both David and Issy (members of the junior team) play at our Club.

The duplicate will be run as a standard duplicate but as well as seeing your scores against other players at the club, you will also see how you scored against players at other clubs who have played the same boards.  Please note though - if you play at our club next Tuesday, you can't also play in a Sims supporting the Junior Team at another club on Monday or Tuesday.  The boards played on a Wednesday/Thursday are different.  There will be a handout explaining the expert bidding and play for each hand - which we can email to you on the Wednesday after the Sims.

The fee for the Sims will be £5 and all the money will go to help support the Junior Team.

We hope you will support the Junior Team and play in our duplicate next Tuesday.  To help with the organisation, please enter your name and your partner's name (if you have one) below.

Thank You

Michael Byrne’s next seminar is on Friday 27^th February at 1.30pm and the topic is ‘All about Splinters’.  This is a topic that several of our members have asked for.  Splinter bids apply in lots of situations.  Michael will cover Splinter Bids from start to finish and look at how they will improve our judgement and skill.  The seminar will be relevant for players who don’t currently use Splinter Bids and experienced players who want to extend their use of Splinter Bids to other situations.

The seminar costs £12 for members and £14 for non-members.  All are welcome - you do not need a partner to attend.

Please confirm via our website form below if you will be attending the seminar so we print sufficient copies of the notes and example hands.

These seminars have been very popular – Michael is a brilliant teacher and explains everything very clearly.  His chocolate brownies are excellent too.

Wednesday evening, 28th January, saw 16 pairs compete in a simultaneous pairs event organised by ECATS in aid of UNICEF

Donations from our members raised £238 for this charity, the wider event has so far raised £2,186.

Gideon Harvey & Daniel Kelsall were in first place N/S with a score of 65%. But with a simultaneous pairs event your results are compared across the entire field of 216 pairs, and here Gideon & Daniel came a very creditable 7th place.

Top E/W were Ann Thornton and Jeff Morris, giving them 32nd place in the whole event

If you want to see how you fared in the overall event then locate yourself using the find a player box on this page

Commentary on the hands played is available here

Michael's next seminar is on Friday 23rd January starting at 1.30pm and the topic is 'Looking for Clues In Defence'.  This seminar will be suitable for both improvers and more experienced players.  Defence is an often neglected subject and is something most of us can improve on.

Michael will provide his usual brownies.  All are welcome.  We have increased the cost of the seminar to £12 for members and £14 for non-members - which is the first increase since 2022.

Please complete the online form below to confirm you will be coming to this seminar.  There will be notes available at the seminar on the topic and the hands.

Advance notice about Michael's future seminars - on Friday 27th February - Michael will tell us everything we need to know about Splinter Bids and on Friday 20th March - we will be look at Slam Bidding.  Please put these dates in your diary.

Any queries, please email me on grasan30@gmail.com

Thanks Susan

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

Our Annual General Meeting will take place at 18.30 on Wednesday March 11th at the Club followed by a duplicate pairs event - free for members 

Coffee, tea, biscuits, cheese and crackers will be available.

This year we intend to run two sessions in parallel, one of which will involve fewer boards, at a slower rate of play, aimed at less experienced players 

The AGM is a members only meeting but non-members are welcome to join us for the Bridge session afterwards which we hope will start at around 7.30.

If you are intending to come to the AGM please complete the box below to say whether you want to play in the relaxed or main Duplicate. There is a limit of 16 tables, and priority will be given to those who have registered. 

The main purpose of the AGM will be to

1. Deliver the 2026 report including a financial summary
2. Outline the way forward for the Club and
3. Elect / Re-elect the Officers of the Managing Committee  

A Nomination form, Proxy voting form, and the 2025 Club Accounts are all available within the Members Only section of the website 

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