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| PALL MALL SEPTEMBER 2025 BRIDGE NEWSLETTER |
Pall Mall Bridge Circle Newsletter
September 2025 |
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| Hello Everyone, |
| Well, greetings from the depths of Bavaria, we are at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth Germany. After spending a few days in beautiful Munich we drove through lovely green forests to the little town of Bayreuth which, for roughly five weeks every year, goes crazy with loads of people at the opera festival. It is a nice town but I fear was bombed rather badly during WWII. Henry and I have eaten an embarrassing amount of sausages and drunk lots of lovely German beer. So it’s gruel yet again for many weeks when we get home! |
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| Anyone that’s been to the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth might remember that instead of ringing a bell for the audience to take theirs seats, there is a very old tradition where part of the orchestra come onto the balcony and play a few bars of what we are about to hear. Since we were seeing the Meister Singers it was very tuneful! Visit our new Club website to see some of these videos. |
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| Below is photo from Bamberg, a World Heritage Town – lovely! |
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| NEWS |
| As usual, August in London has been quiet, but not Pall Mall Bridge! Since the first Thursday in August, when many are on holiday, we had an average of just over 40 players come along each week. So this is the busiest we have ever been in August. I am so delighted and I hope it made the Club Nights fun for both members and guests. Come the start of September we return to the usual operating schedule. We revert to the last Thursday of the month being our ‘open evening’ for St. James’s Club members. |
| If you look under our Students section below, you will see that we are starting Supervised Bridge Sessions twice a month. I have so far only advertised to our students, but if any players or Royal Automobile Club members would like to come along to brush up their skills, or are perhaps a little rusty and feel they need practice before embarking on the Thursday night duplicate, you would all be welcome – the more the merrier. I have had many supervised sessions with Mike Eden over the years and it’s a nice way to practice in a relaxed, fun environment. Do have a look at the details, all Royal Automobile Club members are most welcome. |
| The Ernest Lawson Cup Match will be played on Thursday 6 November, this is a lovely fun match where our students and their mentors play in the Duplicate and the top pair take the converted Ernest Lawson Cup. |
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| NGS RATINGS |
| As of Thursday 21 August there have been a few changes in the rankings: |
| Paul Weston has slithered down to a King and is now ruling the roost with Andrew Kisiel. |
| We have only two queens this month. I’m guessing when we are all back from holidays things will hot up again and there will be lots of jostling for prime position! |
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| INTER-CLUB MATCHES |
| Upcoming matches |
House of Lords
Tuesday 17 September |
Club team
Howard W and Oliver W, David W and Martin L, Paul dR and Yuki S, Pralab B and Brigitte K. |
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| CLUB MATCHES |
Upstairs/Downstairs
Monday 8 September |
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| BRIDGE SCHOOL |
| Our bridge classes will be starting again at the beginning of September. Our beginners have moved up to the intermediate class. |
| We will also have some enthusiastic new beginners starting along the road to becoming bridge players. |
| Our Bridge Starter Weekend has been advertised – if you would like to go along but haven’t seen the advert, please visit the Club website for further information. |
Supervised Bridge Dates
We now have dates up to the end of the year so please do make a note of them. Classes will be from 2.00-4.30pm, the price per session will be £15.00 including refreshments. |
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Monday 8 September, Stewart Room
Monday 22 September, Mall Room
Monday 6 October, Mall Room
Monday 20 October, Mall Room
Monday 10 November, TBA
Monday 24 November, Stewart Room
Monday 8 December, Terrace Room (Please note the later start time of 2.30pm)
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| As mentioned earlier, the Ernest Lawson Cup Match will be played on Saturday 6 November, this is a lovely fun match where our students and their mentors play in the Duplicate and the top pair take the converted Ernest Lawson Cup. |
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| GENERAL INFORMATION |
| Our WhatsApp group continues to expand and has 67 members. The numbers creep up every month. If you don't recognise someone looking for a partner, please don't discount them. We have some new additions as Club members continue to start playing bridge with us. |
| If you are looking for a partner to play bridge with at Pall Mall on Thursday evenings, this is the place to find someone. |
| Please can I stress it is only for Thursday evenings. I do advertise other St. James’s Club matches via the WhatsApp group so do keep an eye open for these. There are a number of lovely events going on around us at the Club and it is always very nice to visit other clubs. |
| If you could use another form of connection for private matches or any other information, all participants would be very grateful. |
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| ST JAMES’S CLUB MEMBERS |
| We warmly welcome our St James’s Club friends to join us on the last Thursday of every month for our regular Duplicate. We do encourage you to find a partner before coming along to the Club. |
| We hold a Teams Event four times a year on the last Thursday of the month which is open to both Royal Automobile Club and St James’s Club teams. It has been very popular this past year and I am pleased to give you all the dates for the rest of the year: |
| Thursday 27 November |
| Non-St James's Club guests are welcome to come and play at the Royal Automobile Club 12 times in any one year with a Club member. |
I advise all players to visit the Club’s BridgeWebs page often as any news will be posted there throughout the month.
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| IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR DIARY |
2025
Sunday 26 October: Bowman Pairs Tournament
Thursday 11 December: Christmas Party |
2026
Thursday 19 March: Ross Cope Swiss Team's Event
Monday 18 May: Centenary Cup
Tuesday 7 July: Pall Mall Bridge Summer Party
Sunday 25 October: Bowman Pairs Tournament
Thursday 10 December: Christmas Party |
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| If you have any questions about the Pall Mall Bridge Circle, please do get in touch with me. |
| Best Wishes |
| Fiona McWatters |
Chair, Pall Mall Bridge Committee
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| This email was sent by the Royal Automobile Club. |
| To change your mailing preferences please go to the My Account section of the Club website. |
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| If you require assistance please email communications@royalautomobileclub.co.uk. |
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