As ever, I started thinking about this newsletter some time ago and was concerned that I would not receive enough material to make a worthwhile newsletter.   I should not have worried.  A number of members have contributed and I think you will enjoy the result.

MEMBERS’ NEWS

We extend a warm welcome to a number of new members:- Geoff Wright, Derek Thomas, Ron Hext, Christine Greenaway, Jenny Ferguson, Rona Varney, Annie Ashurst, Paul Plumptre and Jane and John Ramsbottom. We now have a record number, 167 members who are enjoying bridge with us.

We also welcome back a long term member, Bill Carr.  Bill started playing bridge at the Percival Guildhouse at the same time as Marjorie Davies and can recall playing at Dunchurch, at a club in King Edward Road, the Ukraine Club in Oliver Street, Thornfield Bowling Club and at St Andrews Rugby Club.  He was involved with Marjorie in starting the Development Fund and made a generous contribution at the beginning of the fund raising. He moved to Milford on Sea where he lived for a few years before globetrotting off to New Zealand. He returned to England after a few years and finally has settled in Brandon.

The Friday afternoon bridge session reached new heights on 15th November when 9 tables played. It was interesting fitting 9 tables in the Memorial Hall and was a tight squeeze as we moved between the tables! Suggestions made for more tables have included using the kitchen or moving upstairs.

And finally I conclude with a reminder about hosting at our bridge sessions.  We have a large number of members and by my calculations if everyone hosted a session at least once a year when they play on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday there would be a few days left uncovered and surely it is not too much to ask that we all commit to taking on the role of being a host at the sessions mentioned.  We are after all a bridge club, run by its members for the benefit of the members and wherever possible we should all contribute in some way, however small.

Keep bridging.

WP

 MARJORIE DAVIES – AN APPRECIATION

‘Nearly 30 years ago Marjorie joined the club and quickly established herself not only as a player but also as a committee member.  Although she worked diligently in that capacity her main efforts were probably directed towards the growth of the development fund and those of us who have been members for a long time will remember the work which she did in organising car boot sales and persuading us to donate items for them. Together with fellow bridge club member Bill Carr she initiated Thursday evening bridge meetings for members and non-members at St Andrews Rugby Club in Ashlawn Road with the object of using the proceeds to swell the development fund.  When, due to her declining health she could no longer carry out herself imposed duties others picked up the baton and Thursday evening meetings successfully continue to this day.

She also organised Bridge sessions at her house and subsequently became a bridge lecturer for U3A thus introducing other people to the pleasures of bridge.  Once again she devoted the proceeds of both to the development fund.

Over the years the development fund has grown because of the work of many members and our weekly contributions but we must never forget the significant input to it that she made.  The committee certainly recognised that input and her other work by appointing her an honorary life member of the club.

Malcolm Taylor’

A large number of members of Rugby Bridge Club attended Marjorie's funeral at St Peter’s Church.  For those who knew her she will be missed for her humour, knowledge and just being Marjorie. It was typical of her that she said before she died that she did not want a ‘pot’ in her memory, but I am sure in time we will find something to suitable to remember her by. She really was a very special lady.

TROUGHERS

What do you do on a Saturday night? Do you socialise with friends and acquaintances? Do you eat good homemade food in a warm friendly environment?  About 40 of us do this regularly at our “Troughers” event, which is held on the 3^rd Saturday of each month at Clifton Memorial Hall, usually upstairs commencing about 5.50pm. We all bring a dish, whether it is salad, homemade quiche, a lovely pudding or perhaps wine all co-ordinated by Janet Chappell. The buffet opens at 6pm when we sit at one of the large tables (3 tables pushed together) and chat to our bridge friends.  Seconds are usually available, especially the homemade desserts – if you dare with all the calories!  By 7pm we are ready, seated to play bridge. All the washing up has been done and put away – lots of helpers. We alternate between pairs and teams depending on which month.

All in all, it is a lovely way to spend time on a Saturday night.

Anne Carrington

Festival of Christmas Trees 2013 - Rugby Bridge Club 

For the past nine years St Andrews Church in the centre of Rugby has held the Festival of Christmas Trees where local charities, schools and organisations enter trees to promote themselves and, more importantly, to raise money for local charities.  This year the proceeds are being donated to Hope4, Rugby Foodbank and St Andrew’s Church.

For the fifth year Rugby Bridge Club will be entering their tree ‘7 No Trumps’, so hope you are able to come along to see it and all the beautiful Christmas Trees that have been entered.

This event has been growing in popularity and the display of trees is wonderful to see.  All the visitors to the church have the opportunity to vote for their favourite tree.

The festival is open:

Friday 20th December 12.00pm – 4.00pm

Saturday 21^st December 12.00pm to 2.00pm

THE CLUB’S AWARDS AND TROPHIES

The Management Committee has been taking a long, hard look at the pattern of awards and trophies we offer as a Club.  Most of these were introduced individually at different times, some a long time ago, and taken together they do not necessarily reflect the current pattern of the Club’s activities.

There are now nine trophies in all.  Some have prize money attached; others do not.  Some are given for performance at a specific session, but others cover sessions spread throughout the year.  There are several trophies for Tuesday evening performance, but none for Thursdays or Fridays.  Most trophies are based on highest percentage scores, but two have an element of handicapping to give less experienced or accomplished players a fighting chance.  Finally, most trophies are given to pairs, but our new master point competition relates to individual players.

This diversity is healthy, but we think a few changes could be made to provide a better balance overall.  In particular, we want to give recognition to players on Thursdays and Fridays as well as Tuesdays.  We have also considered whether prize money is strictly necessary, or whether the honour of winning an award is enough.  The alternative might be to give an equivalent sum to charity each year.

All these ideas need to be considered in depth by members before any changes are made.  We will be putting forward a set of specific proposals in time for the 2014 AGM and will only make changes on which a majority are in agreement.  In the meantime, awards and trophies will be awarded in the usual way for their existing purposes at the AGM.

Anyone wishing to suggest changes should contact Peter Langley, 024-7654-0211, pelangley@btinternet.com

Peter L

OUR NEVER ENDING SEARCH FOR A PERMANENT HOME

After the resounding vote in favour at our EGM in February and given our apparently very good working relations with the parish council, we expected the proposal to share the new Cawston Community Centre to be brought to a successful conclusion.  Sadly it was not to be.  A power struggle within the parish council resulted in a dramatic change of policy at their end.  They now want to devote the new centre entirely for local (Cawston) activities.  This is understandable to a degree, but we find it hard to believe that there are enough of those activities to fill the Centre’s three rooms.  They do not seem to recognise the service we provide to some Cawston residents already, and the way that could be extended if we were based at the Centre.

The collapse of this proposal is bitterly disappointing for everyone on the Management Committee, but particularly for Phil Shorey who, along with Sue Osborne, put a tremendous amount of work into fostering good relations with the parish council and ironing out details of how the arrangement would work.  I would like to thank both of them for their efforts on our behalf.

However the Management Committee has not let grass grow under its feet.  We investigated one possibility – using a room at Rugby Lions RFC – which did not work for a number of reasons.  We are now considering two further options – a self-contained office suite on Somers Road and the Royal British Legion Club in Hillmorton.  Whilst neither is perfect (if we look for perfection we will look for ever) but both are well worth considering and at our committee meeting on the 9^th December it was decided that we should express an interest to purchase either of the properties and  bids have been tabled.  Our decision to do so was influenced by the fact that it was known that other parties were interested in both properties and was designed to keep our options open but does not commit us to anything.

We are investigating financial and other issues concerning both properties.  We hope to be in a position to make a recommendation to members early in the New Year, at which point we will issue a detailed paper in support of our recommendation and will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting at which members can have their say.  We will not commit the Club to any particular course of action until it is clear which way members would like us to go.’

In the title of this article I described our search for premises as ‘never-ending’.  It has indeed been arduous and has consumed an enormous amount of the Management Committee’s time and energy.  I believe it would be a terrible mistake to give up when things go wrong and simply settle for what we currently have.  We must remind ourselves that  it was the vision of Marjorie Davies, about whom Malcolm wrote so eloquently earlier in the newsletter, for the club to have its own premises, which led to her devoting a great deal of energy and time to see this dream fulfilled by the creation of a development fund for this purpose.  We must not let her dream fade away.

Peter Langley

RUGBY PAIRS LEAGUE

There have now been four rounds of the Rugby Pairs League played, one more to go and the competition has really taken shape and is coming to a climax. There are currently six pairs in each of three divisions and after the last round in January new divisions will be created, going forward from February 2014.

The new divisions will reflect the order of merit from the results achieved in the first five rounds of the current competition.  If there is sufficient interest we are looking to extend the league from 18 to 24 pairs so please give thought to entering this competition. 

Going into the last round, in Division A, Roger and Patti have leapt into first place and only one point is separating the next two. Division B is even more competitive with the lead now having changed three times with Val and Peter regaining first place.  In Division C, Craig and John are still very comfortably in the lead and do not look like being overtaken, but who knows.

The full tables are shown below:

Division A 

DIVISION B

DIVISION C

Graham Lightfoot and David Hicks

SECOND BEST?

Some years ago Freddie and I spent Christmas playing in a congress at Bristol.  Whilst helping ourselves to a magnificent buffet, a gentleman approached us and asked if we would join him and his wife in a Swiss team event. We had not met him previously, which was not surprising as there were 40 tables in play at the congress. We accepted but wondered why he had chosen us. So on Christmas Eve we joined the gentleman and his wife, who barely acknowledged us. We sat at a table and discussed tactics, the wife not entering into the conversation at all, which we considered rather odd. We won the first round and moved swiftly up the room to table 6.  We drew the next round and stayed at the same table, then won the next and subsequent rounds. We arrived at table 2 and met up with a friend from the Rugby Bridge Club.  We had been advised by our captain to take things slowly as everything depended on the last round as another team were now vying with us for top position.  We came through with flying colours and won a magnum of champagne each. We lined up to have our photograph taken. When it was all over our captain congratulated us, then took us aside and said “Please excuse my wife, but she had meant me to invite another couple!!”

Helen Foster

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT!

When Wendy asked me last week if I was going to write anything for the latest issue of the RBC Newsletter I thought I might just give you some historical information/facts about something which I take a great interest in which is old buildings, particularly churches and cathedrals.  Did you know that St Mary’s in Clifton dates back to the 13th Century and when viewed from the Community Hall the part to the right was added in the 14th Century?  Then I thought people may not be very interested in this so what about another of my passions the origins of place names.  During my working life I visited many parts of England and was always fascinated why some places had what I considered to be strange names then I thought nobody would be interested in this either.  However this train of thought lead me decide to find out about the origins of quote “The greatest card game on Earth” Bridge.

Well from my limited research (mainly Google/Wikipedia) what I can tell you for certain is that no-one knows for sure except that it evolved from ‘Whist’ which was very popular until the late 19th C / early 20th C when auction bridge came into being.  A book by "John Doe" (F. Roe), published in India, in 1889, puts forward auction bridge as an invention of three members of the Indian Civil Service stationed at an isolated community who designed a three-handed form of bridge to compensate for the lack of a fourth player.  Their key contribution was the concept of competitive bidding for the declaration.

After a trip to the local Library (I used to do a lot of that as a student) I found out that according to the Oxford English Dictionary ‘Bridge’ is the English pronunciation of a game called Biritch, which was also known as Russian Whist.

The oldest known Biritch Rule Book dated 1886 is by John Collinson.  It and his subsequent letter to ‘The Saturday Review’ dated May 28, 1906, document the origin of Biritch as from the Russian community in Constantinople and had some features in common with Solo Whist.  The game had many significant bridge-like developments: dealer chose trumps or nominated his partner to do so; there was a call of no-trumps (Biritch); dealer's partner's hand became dummy; points were scored above and below the line.

In 1904 ‘Auction Bridge’ was developed, in which the players bid in a competitive auction to decide the contract and declarer.  The object became to make at least as many tricks as were contracted for and penalties were introduced for failing to do so.

Contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of auction bridge made by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others.  The most significant change was that only the tricks contracted for were scored below the line toward game or a slam bonus, a change that resulted in bidding becoming much more challenging and interesting. Also new was the concept of vulnerability.  Vanderbilt set out his rules in 1925 and within a few years contract bridge had so supplanted other forms of the game that "bridge" became synonymous with "contract bridge."

That’s all for now folks because as we all know most of the games played today at clubs, in tournaments and online is Duplicate Bridge but as a leisure pastime Rubber Bridge is still played at home and the game is enjoyed by millions throughout the world.

David Owen

A REMINDER……

I recently attended the AGM of Rugby Ramblers, held at Bilton Bowling Club. In a moment of boredom I was perusing the Bowling Club’s honours board listing the notable achievements of their most successful players. At the bottom of the list was a well known quotation, attributed to Henry Newbolt of “play up and play the game” fame.

“For when the one great scorer comes to write against your name, he writes ~ not that you won or lost ~ but how you played the game”

Following the lead of the Americans, the importance of good behaviour at the table and in general, is being taken seriously. In 2006 the EBU instituted “Best Behaviour at Bridge” and I urge all members to take another look at it. It can be found on the Club Website under EBU Information/Best Behaviour. It made me think that when I reach the Pearly Gates, it is unlikely that I will be asked how many Master Points I have, but how I complied with “Best Behaviour at Bridge”

Most of us play for a pleasant night’s enjoyment amongst friends, making everyone welcome. The Club should be very proud of the dedicated teachers in our midst and it must be very galling for teachers when we lose players because of the inappropriate behaviour of others. It is very easy to lose players and so difficult to recruit and train people to replace those who have left.

Peter Augustus

RUGBY BRIDGE CLUB’S  CZECH HOLIDAY

For 6 glorious days in September of this year, some 30 members and their partners  ( a stray Aussie also joined us), went to Moravsky Zizkov, a small village in the south east of the Czech Republic, the new home of Cassie and Petr for a bridge holiday.

Most flew, but two intrepid couples drove the thousand miles there - and the thousand miles back, but on this leg they very kindly carried back to the UK a large number of bottles of local wine that we had purchased.

We took over the whole of Penzion Maderic (a most comfortable and friendly village hotel), but this was not big enough for all of us, and so some others stayed with Cassie and Petr, and some with local families or nearby hotels. It was a real treat to have good local food and wine. of which there was plenty.

The event was in memory of Rod Larter who was a member until his untimely death last year, and to raise money for Cancer Research: many hundreds of pounds were raised. His memory therefore lives on not only in the hearts and minds of Rugby bridge players but also in the ongoing efforts for Cancer Research.

Many and varied bridge sessions were played – everyone was a winner, even those poor souls who did not play bridge, since we all received a bottle of wine for contributions to the weekend.in one way or another.

The non-bridge players derived great amusement from their outside activities mainly perched on bicycles. Photo graphs are available!

 An ‘international’ bridge match was played against a team from local clubs. Very challenging – we lost incidentally.

But it was not bridge all the time. There were visits to local places of interest including Vienna in neighbouring Austria, most of which we had never even heard of – gems previously hidden from our eyes.

A highlight for many was the wine (and Schnapps) tasting at a local wine producer; the very amiable host also served us local bread and sausage. It has to be admitted that many members were definitely ‘merry’ to say the least - many pictures do exist but to spare people blushes not included here!

The whole event was rounded off in October by a surprise dinner in Rugby for Cassie and Petr. This included a specially composed musical tribute by Marion Dixon’s husband Peter.

Both Cassie and Petr put much time as well as their hearts and souls into organising and hosting the event. Our very warm and well-earned thanks go to both of them. As a thank-you they have a photo-album with many pictures of the events.

A similar event for next year is already ‘on the cards’ – keep your eyes open for details, the places are bound to go quickly!

Jim Shoesmith

PS Who is behind the wine glass?

Warwickshire County Bridge Championship

It is great to be able to report that in a County Bridge Championship, members of our club have progressed to the semi-final final of a prestigious competition.  In the Quarter Final of the Goodman Cup (teams of 4), Graham Lightfoot and Lo Tolbutt with a pair from Arden moved into the semi-final of this competition where they will play West Midlands ‘B’.   In their quarter final round Graham and Lo with their partners beat Moseley ‘A’ whose team included an English International and a Grand Master by 48 imps (98-50).  Well done to all Graham and Lo and best wishes for the next round.

A Final Word

My thanks as ever to all who have contributed to make this a most enjoyable and informative Newsletter.  May I ask gently, that, if you send in articles that you write in Times New Roman 10pt. I know it is not the most exotic font, but it is the one I chose for the first newsletter and I want to be consistent. It would save me considerable time in formatting.

The Committee has worked very hard this year and have given an enormous amount of their own time to running he club. It is been a privilege for me to work with such a committed group.

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND BEST WISHES FOR 2014

Wendy Pattinson