Important update for all members 4th May 2022

The newly formed merged Club has moved to the Sailing Club for our Friday sessions. We, Bill and Pat said that we would run the club for about 4-6 weeks to see if it was viable.  This has had to be extended because of circumstances beyond our control, Sailing Club refurbishments, Pat's holiday and subsequent Covid. 

The Club has played on 7 occasions with turnouts of between 4 and 7 tables and we have decided that the club may just about be viable but the proposed formation of a Committee and the AGM has been put back by 4 weeks because of the circumstances detailed above. 

The ABC website subscription was not renewed last November but the owner of Bridgewebs kindly agreed that we could use it temporarily for notifications despite the fee not having been paid. This site has now been closed. All future results and announcements will be made on this Ace Bridge Club website whose suscription was paid by Ace Bridge Teaching on 31st December at a cost of £42.00.

This website currently serves two purposes -

a. For Ace Bridge Club 

b. For Ace Bridge Teaching

A separate Bank account has been opened with Lloyds Bank in the name of Ace Bridge Club and all monies received for the new face to face Club since it opened on 4th March have been paid into this account which is totally separate from Ace Bridge Teaching

Pat and I feel it is important that you all understand the situation with the new Club's finances. 

When we started up the club after we moved from the Cricket Club there was no money in the kitty, more on that in a minute.  The Club had one set of plastic boards which were falling apart and were only usable because of all the valiant efforts of Liz with her roll of sellotape and tube of superglue. ABC also had about 60 packs of cards all of which were well past their sell by dates.  The tables, most of which were very old were split into two lots, those for the dump and those to go to local charity shops. 

Back in September when Bill and Jayne met to discuss reopening ABC at the Cricket Club, Jayne told Bill that she was trying hard to get Tony's family to release the £1400-£1800 of Bridge Club monies that Tony had in his Bank account. But his family said "Prove it" and refused point blank to release the money.   So this club starts from scratch with nothing in the Bank and no assets. 

Pat has agreed to loan Ace Bridge Club some of the Ace Teaching boards and playing cards and to provide Travellers for the time being whilst we see whether the Club can be viable. 

The finances

 There are a number of setting up costs and a separate set of running costs

Setting up costs first

EBU Annual Subscription    £27         which we have paid from table monies to date

EBU Club Insurance           £74         which we have paid  ditto

Bridgewebs annual costs   £42         which have been paid this year by Ace Teaching as we are now sharing this website

Boards and cards              £ 0           as these are on loan from Ace Teaching

Travellers                          £ 0           provided by Ace Teaching so far 

Weekly running costs

Rent to the Sailing Club     £48 per week   We are charged £12 an hour from 1pm till 5pm as this includes setting up and closing the club

EBU playing costs             £  8 per week average  The EBU charges £2 per table but this is offset by the benefits of membership. These have been paid from table monies to date

Refreshments                     £ 4  per week average  These have been paid from table monies

Total                                    £60

So, looking at the sums

Income   If we get 4 tables   16 players at £4 each                £64

Expenditure                                                                        £60

"Profit"                                                                               £ 4  Towards paying back the setting up costs including the rent to date before we consider buying a set of boards and cards

If we get 5 tables         20 players at £4 each                      £80

Expenditure                                                                      £62

"Profit"                                                                             £18

So you will see that the new Club is technically on a knife edge as to whether it is viable, or not. If Tony's son had handed over the ABC club monies to Jayne, and she had been able to pass it on to Bill, then the Club would have had reserves to protect it for any weeks where the attendance was only 3 tables where the income then is £48 and the expenses £58

The words of Mr Micawber come to mind

Bill and Pat

♠ ♥ These are just a few of the lovely comments and testimonials I have received from former and current students♦ ♣ 

My experience so far, of learning how to play Bridge online has been very positive. In Pat, we have a brilliant teacher, who has worked very hard to absorb the finer detail of how to use the Zoom platform for her purposes and it really is an amazing tool. A

Pat has been very pro-active during lock down to ensure that we are able to continue our Improvers Bridge Lessons.   Lessons have always been a lot of fun, and using Zoom and Bridge Base Online we have not only been able to continue learning and playing bridge, we have also learnt new ways of communicating with one another.  R

I was already impressed with her teaching skills in a normal “Classroom” situation, but to have extended these and transfer them to an online situation demonstrates the outstanding qualities that Pat has. She was already a confident, competent, highly respected bridge player and teacher. She has now transferred these essential skills to her Online classes.  M

Pat is a great teacher and completely unflappable, even in the face of IT meltdown. She is very clear and consistent in her approach and has apparently endless patience with us beginners. Highly recommended  A

Pat has taught myself and my husband from beginners to now happily playing in Tournaments, from face to face classes to online during the pandemic.  We have become confident in playing with new Players and will be happy to join new clubs when we can.   Learning with Pat and other classmates is fun, interactive, and educational as well as adding to our skills.  We have made new friends during our leaning with Pat that we can now play with socially. We can not recommend Pat enough as a first class teacher L & P

I began to learn bridge in January 2020 at Pat's beginner class held at the sailing club, I enjoyed these lessons and was happy to transfer to the online classes she started very quickly once covid restrictions struck. Her face to face classes were excellent but learning online has been so much better, I have learnt far more quickly. The summer of 2020 I transferred to her improvers group and we have now become the advancers group. Apart from her lessons I now play bridge in online tournaments and in social games online. A very positive result of covid has been the online classes and I am sure I would not have the playing capability I have if we had stayed with face to face lessons. I would like to thank Pat for my new found pastime and the new friends I have made as a result. M

♠  ♥ My lively and fun Online Bridge lessons are fully interactive and I teach using a combination of Zoom Web Conferencing using Powerpoint presentations, we can access No Fear Bridge (NFB) for bidding practice in class and students play online during the lesson using teaching tables in Bridge Base Online (BBO).  Homework assignments are provided on NFB♦ ♣  

The teaching lessons are 2 hours in duration and we also take a break midway for refreshments although as we are online - you do need to provide your own biscuits at present!!