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Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club
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Contact details

If you need general information please email:

wottonbridgeclub@gmail.com

 

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Director's Corner - tip of the week

Did you know that

Duplicate bridge tournaments should be played in strict accordance with the Laws. The chief object is to obtain a higher score than other contestants whilst complying with the lawful procedures and ethical standards set out in these laws.

Click Director's Corner for more on the laws of the game.

News Page

This page has information and news of interest to the members. For a full list of forthcoming events, see "Calendar" on the menu and for a list of results see "Results".

Dates for your Diary

 

Monday 1st January

 

There will be a RealBridge session on New Year's Day at 7pm.

 

 

 

Last updated : 3rd Jan 2024 13:51 GMT
NATALIE PLATE
NATALIE PLATE

 

Congratulations to Sue Wickenden, this year's winner of the Natalie Plate.

Honourable mention goes to Ken Haines and Maureen Gale in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

All proceeds from the event go to the Lullaby Trust - a charity which does research into cot-death syndrome.

£86.50 was collected in cash on the evening, with a further £42 committed via the Club billing process. After adding table fees and rounding up, the Club donated £210 to the Lullaby Trust.

Many thanks to those who donated.

 

Last updated : 15th Dec 2023 16:37 GMT
TEAMS EVENTS

There will be NO Teams Event in February as we hold the Welch Cup event on the last Wednesday in February.

 

Last updated : 16th Mar 2024 17:56 GMT
TEAMS EVENT ON 31st January 2024 Result

We are pleased to hear that everyone enjoyed the new format to the monthly TEAMS event. This event was compiled from the feedback received from members in a recent survey.

Congratulations to the winning team of Barry Shephard, Andy Birkinshaw, Elaine Turner and Paul Summers.

Also, well bid and played goes to the only pair to bid and make a grand slam on board 19 - James Barnes and David Kendall

Last updated : 12th Mar 2024 10:21 GMT
Date for your diary

Monday 17th April and Wednesday 19th April

ECats Simultaneous Pairs

On behalf of the Disasters Emergency Fund for the Turkey/Syria earthquake appeal

If you wish to make a donation to the charity:

    Here is a link to the ECats website

Alternatively, you can make a donation via the Club, simply make a payment to the Club putting "DEC0423" as the reference

 

Last updated : 12th Oct 2023 09:59 BST
Welch Cup 2023
Welch Cup 2023

Welch Cup 2023

Congratulations to this year's winners Bob and Gavin, seen here being presented with the trophy by last year's winners Hilary and Daphne

Last updated : 12th Oct 2023 10:00 BST
Gentle Duplicate
Gentle Duplicate

The Class of '23 playing their first session of Duplicate Bridge. Total concentration.

Welcome to the Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club.

Last updated : 12th Oct 2023 10:02 BST
FUN QUIZ FOR AUGUST RESULT

We got 5 entries out of over 90 members. Well done To Teresa Walton for getting 5 out of 5 correct answers.

Last updated : 31st Aug 2023 08:31 BST
Winter Quarterly Competition Winners

Prizes for Wednesday are as follows:

  • 1st Barry Shephard (choice of mug)
  • 2nd Gilly Weaver (choice of Andrew Robson book)
  • 3rd Hilary McDermott (bridge pen)

Monday/Tuesday/Thursday online winners are as follows:

  • 1st Hywel Lambert/Don Cribb/Linda Cribb (3 free games of online bridge)
  • 2nd Gareth Lambert (2 free games of online bridge)
  • 3rd Barry Shephard/Gilly Weaver/Bridget Lumb (1 free game of online bridge)
Last updated : 8th Feb 2023 10:24 GMT
Natalie Plate 2022
Natalie Plate 2022

Wednesday 16th November - our annual Individual event.

Very well done Hilary McDermott, this year's winner of the Natalie Plate, by a country mile, scoring a massive 72+%!

Honourable mentions to Tim Payne and Helene Gammack in silver and bronze medal positions respectively.

 

This event is held on behalf of the Lullaby Trust, a charity that does research into infant cot death.

We collected £279 in total. Many thanks to all those who donated.

 

Last updated : 12th Oct 2023 10:00 BST
Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs
Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs

Monday 7th November - Simultaneous pairs for Children in Need.

Wednesday 9th November - Simultaneous pairs for Children in Need.

Here is a link to the ECats website where you can make a donation.

Please make sure you fill in the Club name when making a donation - it's fine to use the abbreviated form of just Wotton Bridge Club.

Note that you can read a commentary on the hands by going to the Results page on the ECats website.

Congratulations to Ian and Tim for coming 5th overall out of over a thousand pairs.

Last updated : 22nd Nov 2022 10:31 GMT
SWISS TEAMS EVENT
SWISS TEAMS EVENT

CONGRATULATIONS to our inaugural Swiss Teams Event winners Karen Monaghan, Lesley Donnithorne / Paul Gunning (Captain), Christine May our guests from the Tudor Bridge Club flanking our director for the evening.

We hope to hold an annual Swiss Teams event in the Autumn and everyone seemed to be enjoying this event as shown HERE.

 

 

Last updated : 22nd Sep 2022 08:55 BST
NEW HANDICAP COMPETITIONS

Three NEW Handicap Competitions will be starting in July 2022.

Monday Online Handicap - for those that play on Monday evening.

Tuesday/Thursday Online Handicap - for those that play on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Wednesday Face-to-face Handicap - for those that play Wednesday evening.

Just turn up as usual on your respective day and play a normal round of duplicate pairs. However, each time you play your scores after handicap are included in the competition which will run for 13 weeks. The top 3 players in each competition will win a prize, but you must play at least 8 times to qualify.

We plan to hold these every quarter.

To view the new competitions go to the left hand side menu and select Competitions. This will open up a submenu of all current competitions. The three new competitions are named and listed.

Last updated : 11th Aug 2022 15:13 BST
Face-to-Face Bridge at the CC
Face-to-Face Bridge at the CC

Welch Cup 2022

Many congratulations to Daphne Hogarth and Hilary Hinman - this year's winners.

 

Last updated : 6th Jun 2022 22:22 BST
Match vs Stroud
Match vs Stroud

Stroud Bridge Club v Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club

Thursday 17th October 2019

Played at the Imperial Hotel, Stroud

Thursday 17th October saw Stroud Bridge Club host Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club in their biennial teams of 12 match, which was played at the Imperial hotel in Stroud. Wotton were represented by Keith Radmall, Barry Shephard, Jennifer Rogers, Desley Radmall, John Acton, Hilary McDermott, Sue Wickenden, Trefor Jones, Keith Hill, Maureen Gale, Bob Hitchcock and Gavin Bailey. As always, the hosts were extremely welcoming, and the match was played in a very friendly and enjoyable environment.

The first half was an extremely tight affair with both sides winning 6 of the 12 boards played. Bob & Gavin were harshly punished for a weak 2D opening which was doubled for take-out and astutely left in for penalties. A harsh split of the cards meant that the vulnerable contract went 3 down for a deficit of 800 points! However, on board 6 all 3 Wotton E/W pairs (Keith & Maureen, Keith & Barry, Sue & Trefor) managed to bring home 9 tricks in a marginal 3NT contract, whilst 2 of the 3 Stroud pairs only managed 8 tricks, whilst the 3rd pair managed 9 but had stopped in 2NT. The result was an 18 IMP swing to Wotton which gave them an 11 IMP lead at the break.

With all to play for in the second half, the match continued to be very tight. On board 19 Keith & Maureen did exceptionally well to bid and make 6C, the only slam of the evening, enabling Wotton to come away with a flat board. Board 16 was the turning point of the match. Once again, all 3 Wotton E/W pairs (this time Bob & Gavin, Jennifer & Desley, John & Hilary) bid and made a game in hearts. However, one Stroud pair pushed on to 6H, going 1 off and another pair ended in 3NT with a similar result and a 17 IMP swing to Wotton. This turned out to be exactly the winning margin as Wotton held on to win by 86 IMPS to 69 equating to a Victory Point win of 14-6.

Thanks go to Michele Lazarus, who organised the match and to everyone involved in providing the hospitality and delicious cakes at half time.

 

Last updated : 18th Oct 2019 16:21 GMT
Bridge Etiquette

 

Reminders to all members:

In order to keep the play running smoothly and in a timely fashion, please give priority to bidding and play, and completing travellers.  Hence, for those of you who keep personal scorecards, please complete these AFTER you have looked at your hand and, where applicable, made your opening lead or completed the traveller.  Also, please keep discussion of the hand(s) until after you have completed the set of boards.  Many thanks.

It is one of North's duties to complete the traveller and show it to East and/or West.  Please ensure that the pair numbers are correct, not just the score.  If you notice an inconsistency or error in one of the previous entries please bring it to the attention of the Director; do not just place a query on the traveller.  It is much easier to resolve queries on the night, whilst all parties are present.

 

Last updated : 18th Oct 2019 16:18 GMT
Reports for the Gazette

Wednesbury 4th February

Interesting times at the Wotton Bridge Club, with two innovations this year.

Firstly, the Club has decided to take on trial a card dealing machine.  This has primarily three advantages.  It removes the tedium of hand-dealing 24 or more hands of cards at every club meeting.  It facilitates the publishing on the club web-site of all the deals themselves so that those club members who wish to improve can analyse what they could/should have done.  Finally it will produce much more interesting challenges in both bidding and play.

Secondly, on Monday 18th January at the Wotton Civic Centre Wotton Bridge Club took on the Tudor Bridge Club from Chipping Sodbury in an inaugural 24 board Teams of 8 (4 pairs) match. The cards were dealt by the newly acquired dealing machine and a number of interesting hands resulted.  Tudor started the evening strongly and at the halfway point had built up a considerable lead. However, Wotton fought back strongly in the second half and were able to reduce the deficit. In the end Tudor ran out worthy winners by 13 Victory Points to 7.  It is hoped that further similar events will take place over the next few months and that a Southern Gloucestershire League might be formed in the autumn.

Attendance at Club meetings has been excellent so far this year, with 8 tables or more every Wednesday.

Wednesday 7th January

Hands which are suitable for a pre-emptive bid don't crop up that often, perhaps once per evening, but when one does it often causes chaos.  Opening at the 3-level is a relatively straightforward action, showing 7 or more cards and relatively few values.  Opinions vary as to whether or not you should do it if your values are in the side suits, though expert advice is that they should reside in your long suit.
 
It is not, however, so easy to decide whether or not to compete.  The pre-emptive opening makes life very difficult for the other pair, especially if they are 'vulnerable'.  It is essential to compete if you can, even if it produces the occasional disaster.
 
It also often makes life difficult for the Opener's partner, especially with a middling strength hand - do you raise or not?  A useful guideline is to assume that your partner will make 7 tricks if you are vulnerable, or just 6 tricks if you are not-vulnerable.  Add on your (near-certain) winners to help decide whether to bid or not.  You also need to determine how many (near-certain) losers there are, assuming the Opener has nothing in the side suits.  Don't raise just because you have a couple of Aces and some trump support - you might find that there are indeed enough winning tricks, but sadly the defence take their winners first.

The top pair with 69% was Desley Radmall and Barry Shephard, with Kate Jotcham and Carlton Jones in second place on 66%.  Bob Hitchcock and Gavin Bailey came in third with 60%.

 

Wednesday 17th September

Doubling.  For penalties.  The vast majority of club players do not double anywhere near enough.  So says one of this country's top bridge teachers - Bernard Magee.  He believes that you should double the opposition's contract, for penalties, at least 4/5 times an evening.  A brief inspection of the results for each board on a Wednesday evening supports this statement.  There are always lots of contracts which do not make, often by many tricks, but which are rarely doubled.

One of the basic premises of competitive bidding is to try and push the opposition too far, into a failing contract.  Having done so, a top score will often result from then doubling them, especially if they are 'Vulnerable'.  Even only just one off scores 200 points - better than any part-score you might have made yourself, but if you don't double you only score 100 points - worse than most part-scores.

The challenge, however, is then to defend the hand well, having doubled.  You must make Declarer work very hard for his contract, giving nothing away.  If you do get into the habit of doubling more, you might then convince your opponents to be less competitive, thereby giving you an easier ride on other hands.

There were two sets of winners last night, with the top North/South pair being Maureen Kee and Keith Boden, whilst Geoff Nattrass and Andy Birkinshaw were the top East/West pair.

 Wednesday 9th July

Your Left Hand Opponent (LHO) opens the bidding with one of a suit, your partner passes and so does your other opponent.  So, if you also pass, the contract is set at one of that suit.  You are sat in what's called the 'protective seat'.  Unless you have a decent holding in Opener's suit, you should seriously consider overcalling with poorer values than you would normally, especially if you are not vulnerable.  There is a common maxim - 'transfer a King from your partner', and consider what you would do with such a stronger hand.

Hence, you could happily 'double' with as few as 8 High Card Points (HCPs), or bid 1 no trump with only 12 HCPs.  Even overcall in a suit with only 6 HCPs, as long as the suit is a good one.  Your presumption is that your partner is very likely to have a good hand, but which failed in some important criteria for an overcall.  You hope to find a good contract yourself, though sometimes your intervention results in the opposition continuing to bid and ending up at too high a level - still a good result.

The top pair last night was  - Kate Jotcham and Carlton Jones.  Second pair was Geoff Nattrass and Andy Birkinshaw, whilst the third pair was Hilary McDermott and John Acton.

If you are interested in joining the club, or learning to play bridge, please refer to Wotton Bridge Club's web-site - www.bridgewebs.com/wotton.

 

Wednesday 30th July

The cards sat very unkindly yesterday evening, with many Declarers failing to make quite reasonable contracts.  In particular on one board, where East opened a standard 1 No Trump at every table, but nobody at any of the 6 tables made more than 3 tricks.  One unfortunate East being doubled thus giving away 1100 Match Points!

Board 21 set the North/South pairs an interesting challenge, holding a double fit - in both Spades and Diamonds.  This tempted 4 pairs to try for a small slam, two in Spades the other two in Diamonds.  All failed, demonstrating that adventurous bidding can sometimes be painful.  This was the only board that gave a hint of a slam, though one over-optimistic pair did have a go at a slam in Spades on Board 13 - perhaps they should have looked at the Board number as the contract went off by 4 tricks.  Doubled!  Vulnerable.  Ouch!

There were two sets of winners last night, with the top North/South pair being Mike Morris and Jim Edwards, whilst Jenny Booker and Brian Oke were the top East/West pair.

If you are interested in joining the club, or learning to play bridge, please refer to Wotton Bridge Club's web-site - www.bridgewebs.com/wotton.

Ian Cooke

 

Last updated : 18th Oct 2019 16:18 GMT