Traditionally in the spring the club has run a Swiss Pairs event which qualifies for  EBU Blue master points.   This year it will be held on Sunday 15th February, face to face at the Community Support Service Centre.  Please be there by 1.45pm for a prompt 2pm start.    Details and the entry form are on the OBA web page which you can find here.  Scroll down the page until you find the Abingdon Swiss Pairs entry and flyer box.

In a Swiss Pairs event you play in the first round a six board match against a pair chosen at random.  The match is scored over the whole field by Match Points converted to Victory Points.   In subsequent rounds you play pairs that have about the same number of VPs as you.  You are thus always playing against pairs who are doing as well (or badly) as you

Tea and refreshments are included and there will be prizes for the winners, ascenders and non-experts.

Please contact Tony Hughes ( hughes001@sky.com )  if you have questions or problems.

Our normal on-line pairs sessions continue on Tuesday evenings at 7pm on Real Bridge.   To play you must book and pay using the Bookwhen system.  Go to https://bookwhen.com/abingdonbridgeclub   Detailed instructions can be found here

Please alert as in face-to-face bridge..   It is a requirement that each pair posts a brief description of their system and carding arrangements at the start of each round.
 

The county pairs is Oxfordshire's top annual pairs event open to anybody in the county.  It has a qualifying round, semifinals and finals.  To qualify all you have to do is play in our sessions in the weeks commencing

1st December

4th January

If you score 50% or more you will be invited to take part in the semi-finals which will take place in February.

There is also a parallel event for pairs with a maximum of 9 in the NGS who play in the same events, with a separate final in March.

Our relaxed F2F pairs will run as normal on Wednesday mornings.   

Should you not have a partner for any session we  have a Wednesday morning partner finder WhatsApp group.   If you wish to join this please email Kay Hunneyball on kayhunneyball@btopenworld.com with your mobile number.   If you don't use WhatsApp just e-mail Kay who will try to find you someone but this may take longer.

Our joint RealBridge sessions with Central Yarnton Bridge Club are on Thursday mornings at 9.45am.  All club members are welcome,  please contact John Rowe ( john53rowe@gmail.com ) if you would like to play..

The OPEN and HANDICAP PAIRS will be played on the first Tuesday of the month.   Your score for the Open Pairs will be the average of your six best results between the 1st January and the 31st December   There is no need to enter, your score will be calculated auttomatically.

Your score for the Handical pairs will be your Open pairs score adjusted by your handicap which will be the average of your pair's NGS scores at the first session.   Your NGS score must be available on that date to take part.

The second Tuesday will be a normal pairs session

The club cup competitions will be played on the third Tuesday of the month.    The Spring cup will be on the third Tuesday in March.   The two session Simpson cup will be held in August and September.  The Autumn cup will be on the third Tuesday in November.  Otherwise the session will be a normal pairs session.

On the fourth Tuesday we will play our teams competition.  You must register your team with Peter Litchfield who will also assist  you to make up a team if you need help.  Unfortunately you need to be in a registered team to play.

On the fifth Tuesdays we will play pairs with  Imp scoring

In our increasingly complicated game it is only fair that your opponents should know the meaning of any of your unusual system bids.  To this end the EBU imposes a system of alerts and announcements that must be followed by players in our sessions.  This system was recently revised   A table giving a complete summary of the system can be found at  https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/laws-and-ethics/convention-cards/announcements-table.pdf 
          Please follow this system.   I suggest printing it and keeping it by your side for a few weeks.

          If you are playing on-line it is important to provide a brief summary of your system and carding in the chat box at the beginning of each round, particularly covering the basic system and the opening round of bids.  Thus something like

"Acol, 4 card majors, 3 weak 2's, 12-14 NT, standard leads, HELD"

or

"SAYC, 5 card majors, 1C may be 2 cards, 15-17 NT, 3 weak 2's, standard leads, reverse attitude, McKenney discards"

will be sufficient.  I suggest typing these once then copy and paste for each session.

Thank you

Peter

Please read the instructions for using Bookwhen, our only method of paying for and obtaining the links to our on-line Real Bridge sessions here To make a booking go to Bookwhen  The Real Bridge link will be sent to you by e-mail.   Please book and access the link at least 20 minutes before the start of the session.

There has been an occasional problem when people have cut and pasted the link from the Bookwhen e-mail, probably a feature of their browser.  Please just click on the link in the e-mail.

If you find you cannot play in a session you have booked please do not cancel your booking as we cannot refund your booking fee.   Instead please transfer your booking to another session as described in the instructions.

If you have played in a session but not paid you may make a late payment here

Peter

As a Club we have a well-deserved reputation for being welcoming and friendly. However, the normally high standards of behaviour at the club can be undermined by occasional lapses. Can we remind members of the ways in which we can all help to make sure that bridge is an enjoyable game for everyone who comes to Abingdon:

• greeting others in a friendly manner prior to the start of play on each round
• being polite to opponents and partners
• giving credit when opponents make a good bid or play
• making your convention card readily available to your opponents and filling it out completely.

Please click here if you would like to see the EBU's guide to best behaviour at the bridge table.