This is my first newsletter since being elected chair, in June this year and I will start by thanking Fiona for everything she did for us during her term in office.

Thursday duplicate continues to be popular with some increase in numbers thanks to greater participation from our regulars and new players coming through the intermediate lessons run by the universally popular Anne Catchpole. This is sadly tempered by losing John Craggs, a dear friend and missed by us all but we are fortunate to have his son Alexander, a new member and now a regular to our circle.

The bridge committee has been bolstered by the addition of Lissa Gillott and John Kemball. Between them they will be revitalising Bridgewebs.com with regular updates and results of matches played. In the next month or so, a list of forthcoming matches in 2027 will appear and you will all be invited to put your names down for matches you would like to play in. Every member who regularly contributes to our Thursday duplicate evenings will be chosen to represent the Club, no matter what your ability is but clearly there will be some matches where we will be selecting our strongest players.

Bridge Webs has a wealth of information that is updated every week. Many of us check through the hands we played at the Thursday Duplicate and see what we should have done or gloat when we have come out on top but have a look on the menu on the left –

Here are some useful tips on how to help you get more out of Bridge Webs:

-  Click on ‘Personal Analysis’ and then on your name where you will see how you fared at every match during the year; whom you partnered; your position; score; percentage and master points

-  Click on ‘Club Competitions’ –

Here you will find the rules for the Devonshire Cup and Cotton Cup plus results so far.

Beneath these you can click on ‘Shashi Somany’ and you will see your top 10 results averaged out.

Beneath this you can click on Debbie Goldstein and see your total number of points gained over the year. This is calculated as one point for turning up plus points for winning, coming second and third

Beneath this is ‘Pairs’ showing the positions of regular pairs who have played at least 10 matches together during the year and lastly ‘Master points’ showing points gained during the year

All these statistics are from matches played at our Club. If you want to know how you are performing at a national level then you will need to look at the English Bridge Union website

Don’t forget to book your place at the Bridge Christmas Dinner on 10th December. This year promises to be the best ever with a fabulous menu, great wines, live music but regrettably -no bridge!!

Forty pairs participated in the 16th year of this fun event, hosted by the In and Out Club.  Fauzia Crockford from the In and Out Club and her partner Ewa Francis won, finishing on 63%.  The top RAC representatives were Michael Bailey in 4th place partnered by Emma McCormack from the Hurlingham Club and the top RAC pair were Piers Elder and Mark Alcock coming in 5th.  It was a most enjoyable afternoon, capably directed by Victor Lesk and hosted by Elsa Nelson.  After 30 hands of Bridge, we were treated to a delicious meal accompanied by a fine glass or three of wine.   Some commented that the dealing machine chose to provide too many flat boards, perhaps a consideration for next year when the RAC will be hosting this event.

The annual Bob Bowman Championship Swiss Pairs event, named after Bob Bowman who championed and led bridge activity at Pall Mall for decades, took place in the Mountbatten Room on 27 September 2026. Two sessions of 24 boards each are played with no pair playing the same opponents twice. Champagne is awarded to the winners of each session and the overall winners. I am delighted to report that Marina Chaning Pearce and her partner Gary Diamond won session 1 with 64 victory points with Paul Weston and Brigid Battiscombe in second place with 61 VPs and Lester Pereira and his partner Norman Agran won session 2 with 58 VPs with equal second Anne Parker/Karen Neale and Paul de Rooij/Oliver Buckley both with 54 VPs. The overall winners were Lester and Norman on 117 VPs and in second place Paul and Brigid on 111 VPs. Our thanks to Victor Lesk and Rob Sassoon for giving up their Sunday to spend the day organising, directing and scoring our competition.