“Hi everybody and I hope you are all keeping well.

We all look forward to the day when we can play face to face Bridge again and some people have enquired when this might happen.

Current government policy doesn’t give me too much hope of an imminent return. The Byron Road club believes that October is a possible earliest month for their return to some kind of normality.

The first step has to be a Risk Assessment but we must also consider whether the church will allow us to return and whether enough members will want to play to make it viable.

I see the key risk here as the fact that other people use the hall between our sessions – given the virus can live on hard surfaces for 3 days, this would place a duty on us to thoroughly clean all club equipment that may be touched by other hall users before (in case of contamination by other users) and after(to protect other users) our sessions. 

I am happy to investigate our options for return but feel we must be patient for a few more weeks at least before we can realistically proceed. At that point, the committee should consider our way forward.

In the meantime, some members have used the on-line facility, BBO, to play regularly. This site can be used, by arrangement, to host a proper Duplicate tournament. If you feel you’d like to look into this option, please let me know. Byron Road intends to offer on-line Duplicate sessions soon.

On other matters, the committee recently voted that the club should make its annual donation to St Barnabas (£600) this month rather than waiting for our charity event, postponed from June, to be rescheduled. This is because the hospice is probably struggling for funds during the COVID19 crisis.

The Members’ Day scheduled for mid-September will be postponed until activities can resume. Perhaps we can make the reopening day an occasion to celebrate with some wine and food?

A little bit of news about our fellow member, NIck Moxom. Nick had a stroke earlier this month but, I’m pleased to say, appears to be recovering steadily. We all wish him well  and look forward to seeing him at the table soon.

The committee will monitor the situation regarding reopening and let all members know when we have a solid way forward.

Keep well, everybody!

Peter”