The club run Beginners courses which last 5 terms 10 lessons a term £120.00 a term. If you are interested Email the club

1.  Players are requested not to psyche at these sessions.

2.  Basic systems permitted –

               a)  Acol

                b) Benji-Acol

                c) 5 Card Majors / Strong No trump

3. One of a suit opening bids –

               a) rule of 19 or 11 HCP

                b) players using 5 card majors must alert their 1C or 1D openings

                c) responses must be natural apart from splinter bids (e.g. inverted minors or Jacoby

                     2NT are not permitted)

4. No weak two-suited/multi-suited opening bids (e.g. multi, Lucas) are permitted.  

5. 1NT opening bids

               a) can be strong or weak within a 3 point range

                b) there will be no variation for position or vulnerability

                c) hands must be balanced and must not contain a singleton     

                d) responses allowed:

                       i.   natural

                        ii.  Stayman

                        iii  transfers (inc 2NT or 2S  transfer to 3C)

                        iv 2S level asking bid

6. Two of a suit opening bid -

               a)  Acol 2C and strong twos

                b)  Acol 2C and weak twos

                c)  Benji Acol and weak twos in the majors

                d)  No two-suited opening bids allowed

                e)   OGUST responses allowed to weak twos

7.  2NT opening bid –

               a) hands must be strong and balanced

                b) Stayman, and transfer responses allowed

8. 3 of a suit opening -  must be pre-emptive and one-suited

9.  3NT opening bid – must be a solid minor without an outside ace

10.  4 of a suit opening bids – must be pre-emptive and one-suited

Defences

1. Doubles –

               a) a double of 1NT will always be for penalties unless in 4^th position

                b) all other doubles can be either take-out or penalty but must be alerted if they are

                  not for take-out

2. Over 1NT –

               a) natural bids

                b) only ASTRO, APSTRO or Landy will be allowed as two-suited defensive bids

3. Over other opening bids the only two suited conventions allowed will be:

               Michaels  - showing both majors or a major and minor

                Unusual NT – 2NT showing both minors (over major) or major and minor over minor

4. Any defence to 1NT doubled will be allowed

Slam Bidding

The following conventions will be permitted –

               a)  Blackwood

                b)  Roman key-card Blackwood

                c)  Gerber

The committee feels that these two evenings should allow beginners to duplicate and less experienced players the opportunity to ease their way into duplicate bridge without having to cope with the myriad of different systems that they might encounter on other occasions in the club.

Labelling these evenings as Level 2 or 3 has not proved satisfactory as they both allow more latitude to the experienced players who do join in these sessions to bewilder others with complex systems to which they have no defence. Since all afternoon sessions and Tuesday and Friday evenings allow the more experienced players such latitude, the committee has decided to label Monday and Wednesday evenings as ‘limited system’ sessions. The EBU Orange Book permits private clubs to administer their own rules and agreements on such sessions.

The committee has, therefore, produced a list of permitted agreements which can be used. Our aim is not to restrict members to Simple Acol but to specify what opening bids, responses, defences and conventions can be used and, by keeping these to a manageable number, allow the newcomer to duplicate to learn how to deal with them before having to face more complex systems. All players of all standards are welcome on Mondays and Wednesdays but the published list of permitted agreements must be adhered to.

The object of these restrictions is to minimise destructive (as opposed to competitive) bidding. Players areasked nottopsyche (so please don't!) and calls for the Director should be kept to a minimum.

These rules will not apply on SIMS nights.