Dear bridge students

As I am sure you are already aware, all bridge classes and supervised play has been suspended due

to the PHE and Government  advice regarding the COVID19 virus, until life returns to some

for of a new normal.

I will of course be in touch when that happens.

Matt is looking into ways we can do some online practice sessions More info to follow in due course

Also Mary and I are going to set up a teams session online and will notify you when that happens

and how to join in

Meanwhile you can maintain your bridge skills by playing online. Here are 3 useful sites.

No Fear Bridge     THREE MONTHS FREE ACCESS FOR STUDENTS

www.nofearbridge.co.uk They are extending the student free trial period from 6 weeks to

3 months for registrations from today until at least the end of April.

Students can subsequently get 25% discount on one year membership.

An access code required for this offer and if you are a NBS student please email me for the code.

Other bridge sites offering you the chance to learn and play are

Fun Bridge  https://www.funbridge.com/

Bridge Base online 

www.bridgebase.com

Thank you for all the support you have given to Matt, Mary and myself. We have all enjoyed running the

Norwich Bridge School enormously especially all the interaction with you our bridge students.

I hope you all keep well and safe and look forward to the time when we can resume playing the ‘wonderful game’.

ONLINE BRIDGE GAMES

In the current circumstances with bridge clubs closed and events cancelled, many of our members will be thinking of playing online bridge. Some will already be familiar with the options below (there may be more providers, which could be added to this list if we are informed of them) but here is some information to help those who do not play online, to point them in the right direction to investigate the various options. We will be adding to this as things progress.

Bridge Club Live is a UK based online bridge provider, which runs a variety of individual and partnership games for which EBU master Points are awarded to members as well as a social room for casual play. There is a free Guest room for players to try it out and a range of membership types to suit those playing more seriously. Most of its members are British so whilst Acol is prevalent, all systems are catered for and members from all over the world keep the bridge going 24/7. They have just issued a press release detailing enhancements made to help accommodate the increasing demand for online bridge from F2F Club players.

Funbridge hosts our regular daily online robot games, which give EBU master points. Information about them is available on our webpage.

Bridge Base Online (BBO) is the largest international online bridge provider. Signing up and playing in many of the games is free, though they do have some tournaments that are paid for. Since it is an American company payment is in dollars and the most common bidding systems are Standard American type (sayc or 2/1).

For students who would like to practice their bridge, please register for free with No Fear Bridge via this link, free for the first three months.

We are currently in the process of organising our own EBU games on BBO which will start on Tue 17th Mar with a 12-board game at 7.30pm and another at 9pm. Assuming there is enough demand, we intend to expand soon after by having afternoon games as well. Each game will cost $1 and you will need to buy some BBO$ in advance.

Our advice to players who are interested in playing in them is first to sign up for a free login to BBO and play in some free games to familiarise themselves with how the game works, so that they are ready to take part as soon as our games are running.