♠ ♥  Bridge & Chips - 1st February ♦ ♣ 

The next Bridge & Chips event will be held on 1st February at Sherfield Oaks Golf Club.  Cost will be as last time - £9, limited to 10 tables.

Please pay by clicking link here.

Registration for the event will be from 9am on Wednesday 18th January when a booking form for the event will be made available on the left hand blue menu bar and in the member’s area. 

FULL but still register and you will be put on waiting list

♠ ♥ Competitions 2023 ♦ ♣      

Want to know what Competitions the club is running this year?    

Please click here for information.

♠ ♥   How well are we doing with bidding and making Slams?  ♦ ♣

In December we bid 68 Slams and made 68%.  Overall average for the year was 64%.

This month's top scorers with 3 points are:

Ethna Hammond, John Fairhurst, Sula Turpin, Malcolm Green, Andrew Gristwood, Evelyn Jones, Ken Jones, Paula Wibrew and David Bates.

Well done everyone!

♠ ♥  EBU Spring Bank Holiday Congress 2023 ♦ ♣ 

The Congress this year will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Reading from 27th May to 29th May 2023.

Please click here for further details.

♠ ♥   NGS Scores  ♦ ♣

Who has increased their NGS score the most in December?  The top 4 people this month are:

Morven Jordan

Judi Coady

Julie Tyler

Sarah Steadman

Well done everyone!

♠ ♥   Social Lounge Sessions now open Monday to Sunday  ♦ ♣ 

As of 21st November - the Social Lounge on RealBridge will be started on a Monday and will remain open until the Sunday.  When you go into the shop to buy a ticket click anywhere on the 'bar' for that week to purchase a ticket.  One person buys a ticket for a whole table. You can then enter the Social Lounge any day during the week.  When you go into the lounge ensure that you sit at a table where no-one has been playing at before.  The hands will be from previous events so that when you look at Scores it will give you a good comparison of how well you have done against others.

♠ ♥  '9 High' Session  ♦ ♣ 

Following the success of the first 9 HIGH TEAM EVENT this will continue every month.  See Calendar for further details.

The 9-high session is aimed at less experienced players and shortly we will be using this session to introduce those currently in the beginner classes to duplicate bridge.  Consequently, the session will be run with Simple Systems only - that is basic ACOL bidding. This permits all the standard ACOL strong and weak 2 openings.  You can make any conventional bids after the first round of bidding has completed.  It specifically excludes the use of Multi-2D openings and the Multi-Landy defence to 1NT as these are first round bids that can have multiple meanings and do not define at least 1 specific suit.  

We are going to retain the 'mature' 9-high criteria for taking part as this is being set as a standard across many counties for this type of session.  Whilst not making it a formal constraint on attendance we suggest that this session is best suited for those who are up to and including 'Master' in the Master Point rankings, to emphasise the focus on the expected level of experience.

♠ ♥   Face to Face Sessions  ♦ ♣ 

We have decided that we will set the following guidance for playing at the club:

• Do not attend the club if you feel unwell with any symptom including, but not limited to, upper respiratory, headache, fatigue and muscle weakness.
• If you are a person who has regular social interactions (for example with school aged children, other groups, wider family members etc) then before attending please take a lateral flow test on the same day as the session" (we gather these will no longer be free after end of Feb 2022)
  

  We will continue to employ reasonable safety measures during the sessions. 

As we start going back to playing Face to Face, we have created some reminders for us all of what we need to do.

Click here to access the document.

Go to appropriate date in calendar to book a session. 

 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Club Shop  ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

You can use the shop to do any of the following:

• Pay table money for sessions on RealBridge or special charity events on RealBridge or BBO. 
• Apply for new Membership of the club or renew your membership.
• Book training sessions.

More information on how the shop operates can be seen from the 'Shop' tab on the left of this page.  When using the shop, the first point of entry should be the Home Page - where you register or log in to your account.  Click here to access the shop.

We would like to encourage members using the site to purchase an Account Top-Up providing funds that can be used to buy sessions or other products from the shop.

Supervised play sessions are aimed at helping players to develop their confidence with bidding and playing.  These sessions are not a replacement for lessons and it is not intended that new conventions are taught.  The supervisors will help participants get the best out of the systems that each participant plays.  Each session offers the opportunity to play up to 12 pre-dealt hands with a supervisor giving advice on each of the hands.  

Currently we are not offering Supervised Play 

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Having problems with RealBridge? ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

If you have difficulties with RealBridge you can phone their support line which is 0794 232 2209.  Support is available from 7am to 11pm.

If you use an IPad please ensure that you read and follow the advice issued by RealBridge even if you are currently not experiencing any difficulties with your Ipad.  Please click here to see the document.

A further update in June 2022 has been received from RealBridge in connection with Microsoft Edge and IPads.  Click here to see the document.