Series 5 of the Online Teams League is now open to entries. 

See the Online Teams League page for further details and the entry form.  

Just before the party started Macmillan their ambitious target of £52,000 and we are delighted to see that the donations are still coming in. It's not too late to see the film - Click for more information.

The AGM of the club will be held on Wednesday 2nd December 2020 starting at 6.00pm.  Full details including the agenda and papers can be found by clicking here or selecting General Meetings under the Club Management tab on the left hand menu.

Nominations remain open for Officer and Trustee positions until the start of the meeting - please review the current list of nominations and consider how you might help the club prosper.

Note in particular that there are vacancies for the Chair and for the Communications Officer (new post). Click here for details of these posts.

Congratulations to Juliette Riehl who has won the Roger Hughes trophy for the most improved player for 2019-2020. Her NGS ranking increased by an impressive 8.7% in the 12 months up to end of March 2020. An honorable mention goes to Anne Laming, whose NGS increased by 3.6% over the same period. 

Also, congratulations to the winners of the 4th series of OBC's Online Teams League. They are: 

Division 1: Prec á slammer (Federico Lombardi, Chun Ting Lau, Lawrence Wang, Yining Yang)

Division 2: Cocamos (Diana Cannon, Gaynor Cooper, John Cooper & Susan Moser)

And finally, congratulations to Kathy & Denis Talbot who have won the 2019-2020 Meltzer Trophy (the rubber bridge knock-out competition), and Bridget Watson & Howard Arnes who won the Meltzer Plate competition. The draw for these competitions can be seen on this page. 

The AGM is fast approaching (Wednesday 2nd December 2020 at 6.00pm).

For members who have been involved in the club for a long time you will know the format, a report from the chair, the annual accounts, the election of the eight ex-officio trustees, three directly elected trustees, three officers and the awarding of trophies.

Pat Lewis, the current Chair, has served over three years in post, the refurbishment is complete, finances are pretty good, and the new governance is in place.

We are looking for a new Chair who can take us forward and continue to provide bridge for everyone who is interested, whether new to the game or old hands. Click here for more information.

As a club we ran 5 heats of the CiN sims on BBO between Friday 6th and Thurs 12th November. Overall results and hand commentaries can be found here. 

Thank you to all those who have made donations to CiN. Click here to see how much has been raised so far, and then click on "details" to see how much has been donated per club.  At the time of writing, £489 has been raised in OBC's name. 

Donations are still being accepted via the ECats website;  please use "CIN Oxford BC" as your reference. 

Sadly Ameena died on 19^th October from heart problems. She had been a member of the club since 2012 having come to Oxford to live with her son and help with the care of her grandchildren. She loved playing bridge with us at the club, loved to chat and would shamelessly namedrop Zia who she knew when she lived in Pakistan. Her partners were lucky to enjoy the dishes that she cooked so well and brought along so generously. We will miss her, miss her charm and the ‘oh shoot’ when things didn’t go quite to plan.

Congratulations to Holly Kilpatrick and her junior bridge club players who received an honorable mention in Andrew Robson's bridge column in the Times on Monday 20th October. Click here to read the full article. 

Oxford Junior Bridge Club has recently resumed face to face bridge sessions on Sunday afternoons during term times. In addition, Oxfordshire Bridge Association is running online bridge sessions for juniors on the 4th Sunday of the month. Email Holly for further information - and see Holly's article here.

The Saturday Seminar series is back and taking place online using Bridge Base Online and Zoom videoconferencing. Seminars will run throughout autumn and winter and are aimed primarily at Next Step+/Intermediate players who are looking to develop their bidding and defence skills (with a couple of seminars aimed at more advanced players) but the seminars are open to anyone who wants to improve. Click here for more information, or to go straight to the booking page click here. 

Our Education Manager, after much sterling work, is retiring at the AGM so we are looking for someone to take her place. Click here for more information.

Members will be pleased to hear that we had a very successful virtual Extraordinary General Meeting on Tuesday 22nd September using Zoom with 54 participants and that all the resolutions put to the meeting were passed unanimously.  This means that following ratification by the Charity Commission we will be able to reduce the number of Trustees from 19 to 11/12 at the next AGM.  The date of the AGM is pending as we have to await agreement from the Charity Commission to the changes we have made to the Constitution.

For more details click here.

We are pleased to announce that the winners of this year's Morrie Marsh Trophy Competition for Novice Pairs, which was held online on Wednesday 16th September, are Nigel King and Andrew Wigmore. Many congratulations to them both! The trophy will be presented to them 'virtually' at the AGM later on in the year. Many thanks to all those who took part in the competition. 

The Trustees are calling an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on Tuesday 22nd September 2020 at 6.00pm.

We will be discussing a proposal put forward by the Trustees to improve the Governance of the Club.

For more details click here.

Many congratulations to the winners of series 3 of the League, who are:

Division 1: Kerbots (Beryl & Chris Kerr and Denis & Kathy Talbot)

Division 2: C-side (Tom Brus, Irene Holland, Andy King, Shirley Rawlings & Richard Sills)

Division 3: Strong Clubs (Mary Bennett, Sandra Devaney, Joanna Donkin, Peter Sherry & Paul Watson). 

Messages from the EBU 
https://www.ebu.co.uk/node/3696
https://www.ebu.co.uk/node/3742

This meeting has been postponed.

An Extraordinary General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 4th August 2020 at 6.00 pm. The meeting will be held via a Zoom conference.

We will be discussing amendments proposed by the Trustees to improve the Governance of the Club.  The aim is to reduce the number of Trustees from potentially 19 to eleven or twelve.  This requires the membership to support amendments to the Constitution and the Articles of Association.

The documents relating to this meeting can be referenced or downloaded from the links below:

1. Agenda
2. Explanation of the proposal
3. Proxy nomination form in PDF format or in Word format
4. Zoom instructions
5. Previous Constitution
6. Proposed Constitution
7. Previous Articles of Association
8. Proposed Articles of Association

The Extraordinary General Meeting that was planned to be held on Tuesday 4th August 2020 has been postponed.

We are playing Video Bridge in our virtual club on BBO on Wednesday afternoons and Thursday evenings.

What is Video Bridge?

Before the session starts everyone gathers in a single area on a Zoom conference call. When the first round begins, each table is placed in a separate breakout room where the two pairs play the round and can chat to each other. At the end of each round, pairs are re-assigned to a new breakout room to match the movement. At the end of the session the main area is kept open for post bridge chat. Quite like a real bridge club!

Want to try it?

Pre-booking is required. Find out more by clicking here.
 

Starting with the Video Bridge session on Thursday evening 21st May, we are making some changes to the way we set up Video Bridge sessions. Some additional directors are now available to run sessions through our EBU Virtual Club running on BBO. Additionally we do want to help to ensure the longterm viability of the club by generating some income from the sessions that we run. Thus the video sessions will now become chargeable.  The character of the sessions will remain the same but the new method will reduce the administrative load carried by those organising the sessions.

There may well be some teething problems while we settle into this new method. As always if you have any feedback or need some help with playing bridge online please let us know at online@oxfordbridgeclub.com. 

Video Bridge combines playing bridge on BBO with a Zoom video conference. At the start of the session all the players gather in the video call as a social occasion. During the play of each round the four players at each table are moved into a "breakout" room as if round a real table. These sessions cost BB $4 which will help to ensure the longterm viability of the club by generating some income from the sessions that we run. We are now running sessions on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening playing approximately 16 boards at a leisurley pace of 9 minutes per board. The session awards masterpoints and counts for NGS.

This is an ideal way to try out playing on BBO in a gentle duplicate setting. If you are planning on playing for the first time, help is available to get started. Click for more details.

We are all looking forward to getting back to playing at the Club again, eventually.  In the meantime would you like to meet your Bridge friends on-line through video-conferencing and play some on-line bridge in a casual, relaxed style?  A group of us from the Thursday Gentle Duplicate group have got together to play a few tables.  Unfortunately we cannot – yet – replicate actual duplicate, but we can play a number of boards at different tables.  

We normally have 5 or 6 tables, with each pair playing 4 boards at 4 different tables, so 16 boards in total.  We do score but using a simple Imps-based system.  No Masterpoints are awarded and your NGS score is not affected.

In parallel to playing bridge we have a video-conference running so we can all see and talk to each other. It’s fun!

We plan to run this every week on Thursday evenings.  We ask people to log in at 7.00pm so we can start playing by 7.15pm.

We can probably manage up to 8 tables, that is 16 pairs, and if you would like to have a go, then please contact Susan Fletcher, ideally by the Monday beforehand, on email by clicking here or by phone by clicking here. There is a host system, so individuals are also welcome to join in. There is no cost associated with either the on-line bridge or the video-conferencing.  We are currently using Bridge Base online (BBO) with Zoom video-conferencing. All new participants will be asked to join a practice session to show you the ropes. Please review the Casual Bridge Guidelines to familiarise yourself with the details of how the session is run

Whilst the group is primarily targeted at players of Gentle Duplicate approximate standard, all OBC members are welcome to give it a try.

Following the success of the Thursday evening Video Bridge we are now running similar sessions on Wednesday afternoons.  Play starts at 2.00 pm and last for about 2 hours.  Whilst this session has primarily been set up for those previously playing in the Wednesday Gentle Duplicate sessions, others are also welcome.   

If you would like to join one of these sessions, please contact Viccy Fleming by clicking on this link to send her an email.

Please review the Wednesday Casual Bridge Guidelines to familarise yourself with the way that the session is run.

Following the success of the Thursday Evening Video Bridge we are now running similar sessions on Saturday afternoons.  Play starts at 2.00 pm and lasts for about 2 hours.  Whilst this session has primarily been set up for those previously playing in the Saturday Social Bridge sessions, others are also welcome.   

If you would like to join one of these sessions, please contact Viccy Fleming by clicking on this link to send her an email.

OBC's online teams league is a fun event for players of all abilities, where the emphasis is on social contact, rather than on the bridge, although the bridge is important too!  It is a teams-of-4 competition using Bridge Base Online’s Teams Matches option, playing two 8-board rounds, with a short break between rounds. 

Series 1 of the league was run in April and the final matches have been completed. Congratulations to "Granny and the Young", the "Dog Squad" and "Weak Twos" who won their respective leagues.

The second series of the league starts on Thursday 7th May, with a deadline for completion of all matches of Thursday 25th June. 

For further details please click here

Our Thursday evening Gentle duplicate community have adopted an innovative approach. Led by Susan Fletcher and Ian Bishop the playing of online bridge is complemented by a simultaneous video conference call so that all the players can see each other on screen. See the screen shot taken during the second of the sessions when 6 tables were in play. Want to join in?  For more information click here.

Similar events have now been started for Gentle Duplicate players on Wednesday afternoon and Social Bridge on Saturday afternoons. Further details here.

Oxford Bridge Club's first online duplicate pairs session will take place on Bridge Base Online on Tuesday 5th May at 3pm. Players of all abilities are very welcome to take part. 

We will play 18 boards, and play is expected to finish by 5pm. More information here. 

Entry fee is 4 BB$ (approx £3.20). Masterpoints will be awarded, and the session will count towards NGS. Results will be uploaded to the EBU and the club website.

You can only play in this event if you pre-registered before 5pm on Monday 4th May. We are now unable to take any more entries. 

We plan to schedule additional online pairs events very soon. 

Oxford Bridge Club's first online duplicate pairs session on BBO took place on Bridge Base Online on Tuesday 5th May at 3pm. Our Chief Tournament Director directed the 20 tables in play - Thank you to Martin. The results are available as if it was a regular session at 147 Banbury Road. Movements in such BBO sessions are two-winner Mitchell movements. So congratulations go to the NS winning pair John Deech and Rob Procter and to the EW winning pair Peter Litchfield and Sandra Nicholson.

To help support the NHS Surrey County Bridge Association is running a series of online Simultaneous Pairs events from 27th April to 1st May.

Each session starts at 10 am and will consist of 21 boards. 

The entry fee is £6.00 per person per session, and all proceeds (after costs are covered) will go to NHS Charities together. 

To take part as a pair or as an individual please register via the SCBA website where you will also find joining and payment instructions. 

The end of March marks the end of year for the ladders for all of our bridge sessions. Congratulations go to this year's ladder winners (second and third placed names in brackets): 

Monday morning pairs: Linda Edwards (Robert Gasser; Amr El-Kashef)

Tuesday morning pairs (a pairs ladder): Roger Smith & Sue Smith (Charles Gill & Irina Woods; Chris Bone & Juliette Riehl)

Wednesday Gentle Duplicate: David Goodall (Liz Mills; Phil Chaundy)

Wednesday evening pairs: Peter Briggs (Kathy Talbot; Denis Talbot)

Wednesday evening teams: Peter Randall (Liza Furnival; Peter Stevenson)

Thursday Gentle Duplicate: Ian Bishop (Anne Laming; Sheila Parry) 

Friday morning pairs: Diane Coe (Peter Litchfield & Suzanne Litchfield - joint second)

Friday evening pairs:  Martin Illingworth (Jonny Richards; Amr El-Kashef)

Friday evening teams: Peter Randall (Diana Thorne; Lorraine Jones & Peter Owen-Smith - joint third)

Thanks to the lockdown the season was cut short by a couple of weeks, but this won't have made much difference to the results. Trophies for the ladder winners will be awarded at the AGM (whenever that might be).

Trying to run a bridge club without somewhere to play is a new challenge for us all. If the inbox of your webmaster is at all typical, there are lots of members circulating ideas about how best to play bridge online.

You will find that there are now Oxford Bridge Club events and opportunities on BridgeClubLive and on Funbridge.  We are also planning on additional activities on Bridge Base Online - more news soon.

The EBU have set up a series of sessions using the Bridgebase online website.  You can find further information on the EBU website here.

We have created a new page on the website where you will find a list of all the possible way of playing online bridge that we are currently aware of.  If you know of another option that you think should be added, please let us know by sending details by email to the club here.

This article will be updated as soon as we reach further conclusions about our activity.  In the interim, enjoy your online bridge wherever you can find it.

The release of further advice from the government on 12th March has guided an update to our previous information. We are obviously aware that the increasing number of those affected is of significant concern to us all and that those of more advanced years and/or with underlying health conditions have extra cause for concern due to their increased personal risk.

The decision not to recommend limiting social gatherings at this stage was outlined on the basis that it would be premature and could lead to prolonged social isolation as it would mean waiting out the duration of the pandemic in the UK. It is clear that there will come a time when the numbers and rate of spread of the infection will mean that this decision will change and social gatherings will be halted. Once schools are closed, cinemas and theatres, restaurants and similar are shut, OBC is very likely to follow suit.

We do not plan to curtail any bridge activities at this moment but we understand that some volunteers may choose not to come to the club. In these circumstances players should understand that some sessions may not have a director or scorer or host. Thus it is possible that last minute changes may have to be made.

Obviously, every individual will make their own decision about whether they feel comfortable playing in the prevailing circumstances.

This being so we would ask that each and every player helps us all and reads and acts on the following advice.

PLEASE DO NOT come to the club

• if you are feeling unwell or suffering from a cough, any fever or respiratory symptoms, even a cold
• If you have been IN CONTACT WITH a confirmed case of COVID-19 (Corona virus) OR HAVE BEEN advised to “self-isolate” because of your travel history or contact with a suspected case.  
• If you have recently returned from a heavily infected area.

Your bridge partner will forgive you for not being there! It is important to consider the health of everyone during this time.

Whilst at the Club you can help yourself and others by ensuring that:

1. You WASH YOUR HANDS ON ARRIVAL and use antibacterial gel.        
2. You carry tissues to cover your mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing and discarding them in a closed bin immediately. If you are unable to cough or sneeze into a tissue, then cough or sneeze into the crook of your elbow. Wash your hands and use your hand sanitiser.
3. Avoid making contact between your hands, face or mouth when playing cards.

The club has purchased some hand sanitiser but at present supply is very difficult and you would be advised to bring your own.  Please leave those belonging to the club on the table for all to use.

Updates: The Club will try to maintain its activities as far as possible but some sessions may have to run without a host present. Please check back here on the website for updates on sessions and classes and please be accepting if things are not quite as you expect them to be.  We will continue to keep the situation under review. Links to further sources of information are here.

We have a webpage that you may not have looked at before. It was originally conceived as an assistance for people who were travelling to the club.  In the current circumstances you might want to look at it to see how busy the centre of Oxford is!

There is a relay from two cameras: one from the Oxford Internet Institute looking out over St. Giles and showing the Ashmolean and the Randolph Hotel, the other from the James Martin School looking down Broad street to the west.  Click on the arrows to see the traffic moving. Click here or on the image to visit the page.

Holly Kilpatrick reports that three teams from the OJBC attended the Loughborough Schools Challenge on Saturday 7th March.

Huge success for Thomas and Jacob Potter, Zane Soonawalla and Freddie Beneat who came SECOND out of 19 teams. Here they all are after a day of bridge to remember! [Click the thumbnail on the right for the results]

Congratulations to Chris Franklin & Rupert Timpson who won Oxford Bridge Club's heat of the EBU Masters Pairs. Susan Ford & Neil Ford came second, and Paul Spencer & Ian Sidgwick third. Martin Illingworth & Amr El-Kashef were the highest placed OBC members, coming fifth. 

Full results are available on the EBU website:

https://www.ebu.co.uk/results/785

The EBU has released the statistics on Master Points for 2019. You can select the data in many different ways from this page on the EBU website. Select the particular report from the drop down lists at the head of this page.

In the list of aggregate Master Points of players in Oxfordshire for 2019, 12 out of the first 13 places are occupied by members of OBC.  Top of the list are Kathy Talbot, closely followed by Denis Talbot with Matthew Covill in third position. These three members, together with Diana Nettleton and Irene Holland are placed in the national top 100 for 2019.

If you look at the 2019 report for District Masters and below you will find some of our newer members doing really well too.

CONGRATULATIONS to ALL.

 Congratulations to our 15 year old member Henry Rose who with his partner won the Swiss Pairs event at the recent EBU Congress in Harrogate. Click here to see all the results.

Many congratulations to Jonny Richards & Emily Middleton who won the club's annual mixed pairs competition. They will be awarded the Winnie Ling trophy at the AGM. 

Well done also to Kathy Talbot & Peter Briggs, and Liza Furnival & Nigel Birks, who came second and third respectively (note that non-mixed pairs are ineligible to win this competition). 

Many congratulations to Sandra Nicholson who has won this year's Individual Competition, and is the club's Individual Champion for 2019-2020.  

Sandy Millikin came second and Dorothy Myers was third, so very well done to them too. 

Following requests from some members, we’re starting a new regular cross-IMP pairs session on the fourth Friday of the month, starting on Friday 24th January at 7.15pm. 

Cross-IMPing is a bit like teams.  If you’re not familiar with teams play, see this document on teams tactics.  Your score is IMPed using the scores of opponents at all other tables, and this total is then averaged (i.e. divided by the number of results).  The result is your IMP score for the board.  So it’s really like playing teams, with all other pairs playing the other direction as your team-mates.  Or you can think of it as teams without team-mates.  Your successes are yours and your mistakes cannot be put down to team-mates!

Many congratulations to Diana Nettleton, who, playing with Marusa Gold, came top in the first stage of the European Women's trials, held over the weekend of 3-5th January. The top five pairs play in the second stage, due to take place later in the month. 

And double congratulations to Sandra Nicholson & Krys Kazmierczak who came 3rd out of 32 players in the Swiss Pairs event at the Year End Congress in Blackpool, and also 4th out of 52 teams in the Swiss Teams event at the Midland Counties Congress on 5th January. 

All Bridgewebs sites encountered a problem that occurred during part of Thursday 9th January and part of Friday 10th January.  The problem is now resolved.

However depending on your activity while the failure was in progress, you may have to close your browser then re-open it or you may have to clear your browser history. We apologise for the issues.