Quick guide - new to the club

• Thinking about joining or just joined?

Welcome to the Wallingford Duplicate Bridge Club! We hope you will join the more than 400 people who are already members. Here you’ll find information on how to join and what activities are best suited to your level of playing skill. We welcome all standards from beginners to skilled players and have sessions every week to suit different levels. You can also enrol on one of our training courses that run throughout the year.

The Club is affiliated to the English Bridge Union (EBU); members are automatically registered with the EBU. We use a computerised scoring system (EBUscore) and results of all our playing sessions are uploaded to the EBU national database as well as published on this website. We rely on our members to act as volunteers to run the Club, which helps keep costs and playing fees to a minimum. If, once you’ve settled in, you’d like to help out, please let us know.

Once you’ve decided you’d like to join the Club, details on how to apply for membership can be found here.

• How to get started

We run regular bridge classes for new and existing members who are beginners or who wish to improve their game.

If you’ve never played before and want to learn how, you can enrol on the ‘Beginners Bridge’ training programme. Alternatively, if you have played some bridge but want to improve your skills, or perhaps refresh them after a long absence from the game, you can enrol on the ‘Improvers Bridge’ training programme. Full details can be found here.

• When can you play

The Club hosts nine or more playing sessions each week, both online (RealBridge) and face-to-face. Details are shown by clicking here. Each session is colour-coded to show the relevant levels of skill:

• Blue for sessions designed for new players or players looking for guidance

• Green for sessions appropriate for new players but which everyone is welcome to attend

• Orange for sessions played at a slightly faster pace

• Red for the highest standard sessions including club competitions

There is more information on playing in our online Realbridge events here as well as finding a partner. For online supervised play, click here.

All of the above sessions are based on playing Duplicate Bridge, where the scores of you and your partner are compared (electronically) with all the others playing in pairs. The results are uploaded to the website at the end of each session as are the hands played so that you can go back and examine where you went wrong or, better, did really well.

• When you start playing

It’s important to the Club and its members that we play bridge in a professional and polite manner, with respect for all opponents, whatever their skill level. For these reasons, we’ve adopted a number of ‘ground rules’ and a ‘Club Ethos’ which ensures a welcoming and friendly atmosphere. This includes looking out for and introducing new members and students to the regular players when they first play at the Club. We promote the EBU’s code of Best Behaviour at Bridge (available to view here).

If any member has a complaint, we encourage them to advise us immediately via the website contact form.

• Later - how to find a partner

Bridge is a game where playing with a regular partner enables you to develop a growing understanding of both the bidding and play of the cards. There are a number of ways that you will be able to find a partner;

– join the Club’s Whatsapp group where players looking for partners for a session text messages.

– Use the Members Only area to post a message

– Contact session organisers who may be able to help you find a partner.

Click here for more details.

• How much does it cost?

From 1^st April 2023, the cost of annual membership is £4. Once a member, it costs £2.50 to play per session. Players are required to pay a membership fee before joining face-to face or online sessions. However, a new player who is not a yet a member will still be permitted to play, but we will be seeking payment as soon as possible. Free coffee and tea available at face-to-face sessions!

• General information

There’s lots more information on the website that you can browse through. If you still have questions or would like to speak with someone, please use the contact information on the website, eg for training programmes, or via the Contact Us form.

We hope very much that you will think seriously about joining us and look forward to welcoming you!