Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre
Welcome Message

Welcome to Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre.

We are at:

Bramhall Village Club
2 Melbourne Road
Bramhall SK7 1LR

We look forward to seing you in the club or in our online events. 

More contact information HERE

Alec Smalley - Chair & Steve Mattinson - Vice Chair
 

Release 2.19o
0 0 0 0 0 0
Pages viewed in 2023
Old pages
Improvers' seminar

 

Our next Wednesday evening special event is another improvers' seminar on Wednesday March 8th. Paul Beckwith will focus on "Responding to 1NT with a long minor", followed by prepared hands to play and discuss. Members and visitors all welcome. 7.30pm start

CIN

 

We had two successful evenings for Children in Need, raising so far almost £500. It is not too late to send your donations  to

ECATS

or

via B&CHBC

Account: 'Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bri', Sort Code: 01-01-14, Account no: 15236943

 

Children In Need

After tonights game - if you want to have an expert comment on the boards - click this LINK and follow the instructions


 


 

We are running 2 duplicates to raise money for Children in Need. Monday evening November 7th on RealBridge and Tuesday evening 8th November at Bramhall.

Table money will be the usual £2.50 which will be donated to Children in Need.

 


Additional donations to C.I.N can be made directly to ECATS via THIS LINK

or

BACS: Account: 'Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bri', Sort Code: 01-01-14, Account no: 15236943

or

At the table on Tuesday  evening 8th November

 

Monday 19th September

The Centre will be holding it's normal bridge activities on Bank Holiday Monday 19th September. There will be F2F duplicate bridge in the Rhodes Room starting at 1.30pm. The online session on RealBridge will start as usual at 7.30pm.

End of Season

End of Season

We are now turning over the leaf for the new season. Our “Competitions” will be reset and we have new stakes and new prizes!

Individual (Average Score)

1  

John Holland

58.71%

2

Joyce Hishmurgh

57.70%

3

Gillian Butterworth   

57.64%

4

Raymond Semp

56.70%

5

Alec Smalley

56.69%

Pairs (Average Score)

1   

Alec Smalley & Victor Ridding

63.22%

2

Alec Smalley & Tom Slater

59.69%

3

Gillian Butterworth & Joyce Hishmurgh   

57.52%

4

Eve Lighthill & Raymond Semp

56.54%

5

Alec Smalley & Barbara Lewis

54.92%

Master Points (Total)

1   

Steve Mattinson

965

2

Mary Green

948

3

Howard Stubbings   

937

4

Alec Smalley

915

5

Ann Thornton

876

Monday Pairs (Average Score)

1   

Gillian Butterworth & Joyce Hishmurgh   

57.52%

2

Eve Lighthill & Raymond Semp

56.54%

3

Ann Thornton & Rod Franks

55.36%

4

Mary Green & Victor Ridding

55.14%

5

David Hammonds & Paul Beckwith

55.13%

Tuesday Pairs (Average Score)

1   

Alec Smalley & Victor Ridding

63.22%

2

Michael Wymer & Peter Green

55.60%

3

Pamela Stone & Stephen Harris

54.47%

4

Chris Barnard & Ian Pendlebury   

54.19%

5

Alec Smalley & Barbara Lewis

53.77%

Average Master Points

1   

John Holland

20.00

2

Joyce Hishmurgh

19.71

3

Gillian Butterworth   

18.91

4

Stephen Ward

16.93

5

Chris Hine

16.12

Congratulation to all the winners and good luck to all players in the coming season!

 

Heat Waves

Why Face to Face Bridge is unbeatable - or not?

 

 

 

Friday Night Bridge

There will not be any bridge at the Centre on Friday 24th June.

We will be back again next week, Friday July 1st and throughout the summer, and look forward to seeing our regular players and welcoming new Friday players.

Swiss Pairs Place

GREEN POINTED SWISS PAIRS PLACE

Due to cancelations there is one place (pair) available for the Swiss Pairs on Saturday 5th March - 11am - 6.30pm (approx) - please phone 07768318661 for more details or to reserve it.

My item

What you want to have on the site 

 

Michael Byrne's Seminar

Seminar

 

Michaels Byrne's seminar on Tuesday October 5th at 10.30am at Bramhall will be on 'Breaking the Rules on Opening Leads'...with Michael's home made refreshments. For details contact Michael on abbot_hugo@hotmail.com

Videos on how to play online

Click Video for tips about playing online

Mixed Teams

♠  Center's Mixed Teams ♣

 

The centre's Mixed Teams event was contested by 10 teams with exciting final rounds involving Steve Mattinson's, Mary Green's & Joy Blakeys teams.  The eventual winners were team Blakey - Joy and Irving Blakey, Irene Davies and Bob Cooke:  congratulations to them. 

 

Thanks to all those who played, to Ken Johnston the TD and Victor Ridding the Scorer.

Results can be found by clicking the Diamond below.

  

Happy Christmas

Christmas and New Year Bridge  

We will not be running duplicates on December 25th and January 1st but will have our usual games on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th.

On January 2nd and 3rd MCBA is running the annual, very successful, Manchester Congress on RealBridge: pairs on Saturday, teams on Sunday and Non-Expert events on both days. We hope that many of our members will be playing, if you have not been before, then we’re sure you will enjoy this weekend Congress. Details are on: Manchester Events

 

Point-a-Board Teams' Competition

Wednesday May 3rd   Point-a-Board Teams' Competition

Our Wednesday Specials are going to kick off again on Wednesday 3rd May with a Point – a- Board Teams competition (Point a Match if you are American). This is the most basic form of bridge scoring:you just have to beat your opponents score for 1 point, draw for half a point and nothing for a loss. Simple you may think, but judgement of the trick target can be tricky.If you are a pair looking for team-mates, then please let us know.


Start time 7.30pm

Members and visitors all welcome!

The Law and TNT - how to use it at MP

No, this is not a political proposition!!! - but....

A discussion led by Alec on TNT – the Law of Total Tricks.

Seminar - Wednesday April 5th

You will have heard about the “LAW” or the mantra “bid to the level of the fit”, but how does this work in a practical sense when playing match point pairs? If you want to find out, and learn some of the techniques (mainly bidding) to use to maximise your knowledge, then come along.

This is aimed at experienced pairs players who we are sure will learn some new strategies, although everyone is welcome and will learn something.

There will be a number of prepared hands to bid/play and discuss.

Come with a partner or on your own. Members and visitors welcome, tea and coffee from 7pm for a 7.30 start.


Some issues to be discussed:

Protective Doubles, and follow up sequences  X – P -  ? a.) single suit b.) 2 suits c.) 3 suits – 2nt as Lebensohl or scramble?
Pre protective X vs transfers 1NT – P – 2H – P – 2S – X
Punishing protects – XX/X of X/2NT/3Bids – forcing passes?
High level protect – X vs 4NT
Good raises/jump fits in competition
Good/bad (bad/good) 2NT in competition
Hope to see you!!

Friday Night Bridge

 

Please note that there will not be a bridge game on Friday February 17th: the club will be closed. We will be back as usual from February 24th. We are continuing with a host player on Fridays so that you can come on your own or with a partner - for a social but competitive evening. 

Christmas opening hours

 

 

The centre will be open for bridge as follows:

Wednesday December 14th - Individual competition

Thursday December 15th -Improvers' duplicate

Friday Decmber 16th - open

Monday December 19th  F2F and RB -open

Tuesday December 20th -open

Thursday December 22nd - CLOSED

Friday December 23rd- open

Monday December 26th  F2F - CLOSED

Monday  December 26th  RB - open

Tuesday December 27th - open

Thursday December 29th- CLOSED

Friday December 30th -open

Monday January 2nd  F2F and RB - open..back to normal

Xmas Individual

Xmas Individual

Wednesday 14th Dec

(7.00pm for 7.30 start at BVC)

We need to know the numbers so please register

 

 

FORM
Ben Franks Trophy

Ben Franks Trophy

Sunday December 4th@11am At

"The Manchester Bridge Club"

Al details  HERE

 

Dave Hammonds funeral

 Friday July 29th  12.15 Rowan Chapel Stockport Crematorium and afterwards at 42 Woodfield Road  Cheadle Hulme SK8 7JS  Please no flowers and do not wear black.

Dave Hammonds

 

We are very sorry to tell you that Dave Hammonds passed away on Monday July 11th after a courageous fight with his ill health.  He was a keen bridge player, participating in local clubs and in the league and other teams' events. We have seen him at Bramhall nearly every week during this last year, enjoying his company and sense of fun. We will miss him, and send our condolences to his wife and family.

 

Lance Bloohn

 

 

 

 

Lance passed away today, May 28th, after a long illness. Lance was a regular player at Manchester Bridge Club from the 1970s and was a long standing member at Cheadle Hulme. More recently, he has been a stalwart at Friday night bridge at Bramhall - playing nearly every week: he will be missed. 

 


Lance's funeral will take place at Manchester Crematorium, Barlow Moor Road M21 7GZ on Monday 13th June at 4.00pm


 

Sim Pairs

Junior Squad Sim Pairs 2022

 

Tuesday, Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre, 8th February 2022 @ 7:30pm

Fee: £5.00 per player 

For more info visit EBU

Gazette Cup

MCBA are holding the Gazette Cup, the inter-club teams of 8 competition, on Sunday February 6th. The winners will represent the county in the Garden Cities trophy.

The event will take place on-line on RealBridge: time will be approx 11.00am to 6.00pm. B&CHBC are planning to enter 3 teams. If you would like to be considered for one of our teams please e-mail Alec at chair@cheadlehulmebridgeclub.org

Christmas Bridge

A bridgetastic Christmas and a duplicitous New Year to everyone.

Bridge over the festive period will be just about as usual with only the Friday evening duplicates of 24th and 31st falling foul.

Friday 17th - 7.30pm - Light refreshments and drinks at the Centre

Monday 20th - 1.30pm - Mince Pies & Drinks with the duplicate in the Centre

                      - 7.30pm - RealBridge - BYO drinks

Tuesday 21st - 7.30pm - Mince Pies & Drinks with the duplicate in the Centre

Monday 27th - 1.30pm - Bring your leftover nibbles to the duplicate

                       - 7.30pm - RealBridge

Tuesday 28th - 7.30pm - Bring your leftover nibbles to the duplicate

Monday 3rd January - Schedule as per usual on the centre's website 

Regards Alec, Steve, David, Barbara, Mary, Victor, Paul, Espen and the team

 

AGM

The time has come for an overdue AGM for the merged club. It will take place at BVC on Tuesday 2nd November at 6.30pm prior to the evening's duplicate. Below are the Agenda - reports - and nominations form for the meeting.

Agenda

1 Chair’s Report - AGM Nov 2nd 2021 Chairs Report.pdf

2 Treasurer’s Report - Treasurers Report

3 Election of Officers:  Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, Membership Secretary and Tournament Director. Form for Nominations click HERE . Nominations should be proposed and seconded no later than Tuesday October 26th.

4 Election of other Committee Members

5 Moving forward - plans for the coming months

6 Any other business

Regards Alec

News Letter August 2021

It is now a year since the bridge clubs’ merger’: Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre was launched on August 4th 2020 with our first on-line duplicate.  During the last year, we have provided games on BBO and RealBridge and since July 19th face-to-face at Bramhall.

We have been running a 6 week trial schedule of BBO, RB and F2F since July 19th and plan to continue this.  On-line bridge is here to stay but we hope that players will return to F2F duplicates when they feel is it right for them. We are charging all players £10 ‘table money’ for all games in the next 9 week period to the end of October: Monday afternoon F2F, Monday evening RB, Tuesday evening F2F, Thursday evening BBO and Friday evening F2F.

Former members from Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme paid no membership subscription for the year September 2020 to August 2021 and new members paid a small on-line subscription to run to August 31st 2021.  It is now time to ask all players, on-line and face-to-face, for your membership subscription of £24, due September 1st for the year to August 31st 2022.

We will be pleased to receive £24 for membership. If you are planning to play in September and October you can pay £34 for the table fees for this period.

We also need to collect member details for Bramhall Village Club (and ourselves as the merged membership database is outdated), of which the bridge centre is a part, and please note that your membership may be Gift Aided. Please click HERE to fill in your details

Please pay £24 by BACs transfer – preferred, or by cheque - £34 if you wish to include unlimited play table money until October 31st

 

The BACs details are

 

Business Name: Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre (truncated to ‘Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bri’)

Sort code:    01-01-14

Account no:   15236943

Please reference with:   Your Name

 

If you wish to pay by cheque, please make it payable to Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre and send to David McNeillie, 3 Bowness Avenue, Cheadle Hume SK8 7HS.

We look forward to your continued support of B&CHBC 

Regards Alec and Steve

County AGM

The link to the AGM is AGM

Meeting ID: 827 8592 8447
Passcode: 783618

Diary Dates

Saturday April 24th at 1.15pm  MCBA Intermediate Swiss Pairs for players with NGS Jack or below and less than Regional Master. 

Details at

Wednesday April 28th 10.30 am  MCBA charity duplicate in memory of Lesley Johnson: raising money for Motor Neurone Disease Association.

 Details at
 

What Would You Bid

December Solutions

 
In what seemed to be an easy set for the experts, as many as 6 of them had a perfect 40, our competitors struggled, and for the first time not a single perfect score. Peter Foster did best with 37, followed by Barbara Lewis and Adam Wiseberg on 36. Over the 3 months to date, Peter Foster is in the lead with an impressive 115 out of 120 followed by Victor Ridding on 104 and Ian Pendlebury on 98.


Even though the experts did not find many options for each problem, the competitors seemed to have more imagination. There are many subtleties and a lot to learn from the panelists’ reasoning. I hope you will find this solutions’ page an interesting and entertaining read over the Christmas period, in between good food and with whatever company you have. 


I'd like to thank all the panelists and the competitors for their time and effort in 2020 and hope that 2021 will be a lot better for all of us than 2020 turned out to be for many of us. 


From the Competition Editor, a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

The full set of solutions are here: December 2020 - Solutions


Espen Gisvold

Competition Editor
 
Easter Opening

Good Friday April 7th: the club will be CLOSED

Easter Monday April 10th: the club will be OPEN as usual at Bramhall in the afternoon and for RealBridge on-line in the evening.

 

Workshop on Trick Targets

Workshop on Trick Targets

Wednesday November 30th @at 7.30pm

The Workshop will start at 7.30pm with a short introduction from Alec on the topic of Trick Targets. This will be followed by the play of 8 to 10 hands taken from recent duplicates.  After play, there will be an open discussion led by Alec about each hand.  The focus will be on how the trick targets may have changed during the course of the board with emphasis on declarer and defensive techniques to achieve the desired targets.  This will be suitable for all those who play in the centre's main duplicates and/or in local and national leagues.  Come with a partner or on your own (no bidding is involved).  Tea/coffee will be available from 7pm.

 

 

 

 

European Championship

 

Final standings

A tough championship for the home countries as none managed to get into the top eight and qualify for the World Chapionships. There will be other opertunities to come and new problems to solve! 

Congratulations to Poland with two titles and to Netherland and France with one title each.

 

Open
Woman
Senior
Mixed
1
  NETHERLANDS
410.90
  POLAND
273.01
  POLAND
267.15
  FRANCE
271.15
2
  SWITZERLAND
407.65
  SWEDEN
262.20
  DENMARK
247.32
  ROMANIA
248.85
3
  NORWAY
371.80
  ISRAEL
241.79
  SWEDEN
237.93
  ITALY
246.58
4
  ITALY
356.34
  GERMANY
235.83
  ITALY
233.32
  DENMARK
237.51
5
  POLAND
352.59
  FRANCE
230.87
  ISRAEL
233.10
  ISRAEL
235.14
6
  IRELAND
343.45
  DENMARK
224.41
  BELGIUM
219.75
  POLAND
230.87
7
  ISRAEL
331.38
  TURKIYE
213.60
  NORWAY
212.63
  GERMANY
226.23
8
  BELGIUM
328.25
  NORWAY
205.83
  NETHERLANDS
210.30
  BELGIUM
225.75
9
  LITHUANIA
326.95
  IRELAND
201.29
  FRANCE
200.22
  CROATIA
212.41
10
  PORTUGAL
317.97
  ESTONIA
200.15
  GERMANY
175.92
  ENGLAND
210.61
11
  DENMARK
317.62
  HUNGARY
190.02
  ENGLAND
174.83
  SWEDEN
198.68
12
  ENGLAND
305.02
  ENGLAND
179.84
  ICELAND
170.93
  SPAIN
196.48
13
  ESTONIA
302.36
  NETHERLANDS
161.99
  SCOTLAND
161.09
  PORTUGAL
186.46
14
  SWEDEN
294.19
  ITALY
161.48
  ROMANIA
156.68
  SERBIA
184.84
15
  FRANCE
293.03
  PORTUGAL
160.68
  TURKIYE
152.40
  SWITZERLAND
179.55
16
  HUNGARY
292.38
  ICELAND
148.23
  IRELAND
151.32
  NETHERLANDS
176.76
17
  BULGARIA
277.35
  SWITZERLAND
123.75
  ESTONIA
150.50
  SCOTLAND
175.96
18
  GREECE
274.75
  SPAIN
121.69
  PORTUGAL
146.48
  TURKIYE
167.23
19
  GERMANY
260.16
  SAN MARINO
80.47
  SWITZERLAND
140.93
  NORWAY
162.81
20
  WALES
259.76
  HUNGARY
159.39
21
  ROMANIA
253.62
  LATVIA
150.53
22
  CZECH REPUBLIC
251.93
  IRELAND
113.01
23
  CROATIA
251.29
24
  SERBIA
246.92
25
  SPAIN
235.52
26
  ICELAND
225.25
27
  LATVIA
222.47
28
  TURKIYE
218.07
29
  SCOTLAND
180.74
30
  SAN MARINO
175.09

Schedule for September and October

 

 

 

 

The board had a meeting this week and have decided to continue the current schedule for another 9 weeks. The board will write to all members in the coming days

 

Return of Face to Face Bridge

Face to Face Bridge

The first session of Face to Face bridge, not only in our new club in our new venue, but the first Face to Face bridge session organised by any club in the county was successfully arranged today by Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre. The winners of the session were Steve Mattinson & Howard Stubbings. The full results can be seen HERE

NICKO AND NICKO PLATE

NICKO & NICKO PLATE

Congratulations to the team of Royce Alexander, John Currie, Peter Foster and John Roberts on their 5th round win in the National Inter-Club Knock Out Competition to reach the last eight. A splendid result. We wish them all the best for the quarter finals.

Congratulations also to Ann Thornton, Pauline Lang, Gil Fletcher and Richard Acaster on their 4th round win in the National Inter-Club Knock Out Plate Competition to reach the last eight. They are in the quarter finals and we wish them well!

Jersey Senior Pairs

Congratulations to our member, Joyce White who, with Babs Matthews from Cumbria, won the Jersey Seniors’ Pairs on Saturday 30th April. Results can be seen HERE

February 2021 - Solutions
February Solutions
 
We are now at the half-way point in our What Would You Bid competition and it is tightening in the race for the coveted title of “Best Bidder North and South of Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre” as well as the first prize of one year’s membership.
 
This month, Mel Pelham was the only competitor who managed to get the perfect 40.  He had Dhun Daji on (37) and Adam Wiseberg (35) breathing down his neck.
At the half-way point, Peter Foster is still in pole position with 182, followed by Victor Ridding on 174 and Adam Wiseberg on 161. This is lining up to be a close race and if Mel keeps up his good efforts he might be the dark horse coming up from behind.
 
Of the Panelists, Michael Byrne and Raymond Semp managed to get the perfect 40. Once again, one of our panelists got the TD to the table.
As usual, I will give my more or less intelligent comments on the panelists’ explanations in italics.
 
Enjoy the experts’ answers and get ready for next month’s problems. If you have a hand that you think merits the experts’ judgment and thoughts, please drop me a line on Espen
 
The Full Results can be found in the Menue to the Left and by following this link HERE 
What Would You Bid
January Solutions
 
January’s problems seem to have been the most problematic yet, if the division amongst the experts is a measure of the set’s complexity.
 
Only one panelist got the perfect 40 this Month - Joy Blakey. None of the competitors managed that feast this time, but Valerie Morgan and Mel Pelham got close with 38 followed by Victor Ridding on 35.
 
In the overall competition, Peter Foster is still in the lead with an impressive 149 out of 160! Peter still has to look over his shoulder as he is being chased by Victor Ridding (139) and Ian Pendlebury on 129.
 
To see the solutions click HERE
 
Enjoy the experts’ answers and get ready for next month’s problems. If you have a hand that you think merits the experts’ judgment and thoughts, please drop me a line on Espen
 

Espen Gisvold


Competition Editor

 

 
 

 
What Would You Bid

What Would You Bid?

Solutions for Octobers problems are now available here: October 2020 Solutions

Don't forget to send your answers to Novembers set of problems: November 2020 Problems

Junior Camrose & Peggy Bayer Cup

Gazette Cup - Sunday February 5th

 

The county inter club Teams of 8 Competition, the Gazette Cup, is being held on Sunday February 5th, Face-to-Face at Bramhall. This is a 2 session qualifying event for the national Garden Cities Trophy. If you would like to be considered for a B&CHBC team then please contact Alec at  babsandalec@hotmail.com   All members are welcome to apply.

Friday night October 7th
 

We will not be having a bridge game this Friday evening October 7th: the club will be closed.

But, we will back as usual on Friday October 14th and hope to replicate the 4 and 5 tables we have seen recently.

This is a sociable evening with a good bridge game: regulars and newcomers all welcome.

28th European Youth Team Championships

28th European Youth Team Championships - Veldhoven, Netherlands • 19 - 26 July 2022

 

The future stars of our game is in action in the European Youth Team Championships. They play in 5 groups and can be watched on BBO. Results can be found HERE. Michael Byrne is captain for the U21 team! We wish them good luck! 

NICKO

Congratulations!

 

The pre covid CHBC team has reached the final of the NICKO winning last night. The team is: David Barton, Michael Byrne, John Holland and Gary Hyett.

 

Children In Need

 

Together, we can … that’s the message from Children in Need once again this year

Together we can … help raise funds to change young lives. 
 
And last year we all came together, playing online, and raised an incredible £59,045 which given the circumstances was way beyond anything we dared hope for.

And now – maybe some of us will be back playing face to face, others won’t. But we really hope that you will be playing in some fashion and will join us once again to raise funds for this wonderful Charity.

Monday 8th November on RealBridge @ 7:30pm and Tuesday 9th of November Face to Face at the Bridge Centre @ 7:30pm, we will play in support of Children in Need. 

 

To read up on what they do, follow this link: https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/about-us/what-we-do/

 

We ask for a minimum donation of £5 ALL of which will go to  Children in Need.

To make your donation follow the instructions HERE. Please use the reference: B&CHBC.

 

The events will be both MP'ed and NGS'ed and B&CHBC will pay RealBridge charges and the ECATS entry fees. 

 

We hope to see many of you at either or both events!

 

Bridge from July 19th

Please see new weekly schedule on the right and arrangements for face to face bridge in the menu to the left.

What Would You Bid

June Solutions

We have now completed the penultimate round of this ten-month competition, and it is heating up for the last round. In this month - a set that both panelists and competitors found difficult - Victor Ridding came out on top with 35 points, followed by Joyce Jones on 32 and Mary Green on 31.

For the overall title of “Bidder of The Club” it is now getting closer than ever. Peter Foster and Victor Ridding are head-to-head in first place, each with 243 points, and they can’t be overtaken by any other competitor. Peter has a 30 point set that he can improve on and Victor a 33 pointer. The final scores will be very close!

Michael Byrne was the only panelist to achieve a perfect 40, followed by David Barton, Espen Lindqvist and Tom Slater with 34.

I will as usual give my more or less intelligent comments in italics. Click HERE for the solutions.

Web Site
Web Site
Council meeting

 

MCBA are holding a Council meeting on Wednesday 26th April, at 1:30pm, at Manchester Bridge Club and online via zoom (hybrid meeting). All members are welcome.  Further details are on the MCBA website (http://www.manchesterbridge.org.uk/)

 

Novembers Promotions

The following members were promoted in November:

National Master:  Roger Hopton

Master:  Espen Gisvold

Area Master:  Carol Straffon

Congratulations!

 

News Update

We started our return to face-to-face bridge on July 19th with a 6 week ‘trial’ schedule.  We are now half-way through this period, and all is going well. We have had more than 50 members at the F2F sessions, including several who had not played bridge for 16 months! Players have been pleased to meet up and see friends. For the Friday session we have been running teams but will return to duplicates when a few more players venture out – this is always a very sociable evening with a glass of wine as well.

We have also continued on-line games with RealBridge on Monday evenings and BBO on Thursday evenings.  RB remains very popular, but we are disappointed with drop off in attendance at BBO – no doubt affected by holidays, golf, visiting family and other activities: if you play on-line on Thursday evening then please support the centre.

Seminars. Michael Byrne has run 3 very successful Intermediate Seminars F2F, in the centre, and he will return in the autumn: Michael is now in Eastbourne for the EBU Summer Congress and will then play in the European Championships.  The centre plans to be running seminars and special events later in the year – to follow up on activities that we started in the run up to the merger - before Covid.

MCBA ran a successful F2F Teams competition at Bramhall on August 1st: the majority of the players were B&CHBC members and they dominated in the prizes. A most enjoyable, competitive and social event.

On-line success in the NICKO:  Ann Thornton’s team (Pauline Lang, Gil Fletcher and Richard Acaster) have reached the last 8 of the NICKO Plate; joining Pete Foster (John Roberts, John Currie and Royce Alexander) who are in the last 8 of the main NICKO.  Our best wishes are with them for the next round.

What Would you Bid Competition. Huge, huge thanks to Espen for running this every month for 10 months; to the expert panel for their analyses; to all the competitors; and to the winners – Pete Foster followed by Victor Ridding.  This has been very successful and will start again in October – 5 or 6 sets of problems over a year…if you didn’t join in this year then please do so…it’s fun and ‘educational’ for those wishing to improve their bidding.

EBU Summer Meeting – Eastbourne. A few of our members are in Eastbourne for the summer congress and others plan to play in the events on-line, including in some hybrid sessions. All the details may be found on https://www.ebu.co.uk/summer-meeting-hub-2021 

Friday August 20th: please note there is no F2F bridge in the evening as the BBC are filming a drama at BVC - using all the rooms and facilities.

Regards

Alec and Steve

MCBA Green Pointed Swiss Teams

 

Congratulations to our club members Rhona Goldenfield, Raymond Semp, Irving & Joy Blakey - Winners of the counties Green Pointed Swiss Teams - the first Face to Face competition arranged by the County since the start of the pandemic 16 months ago! All the results can be found HERE

The competition was held at Bramhall Village Club on August 1st

News Update

1) Congratulations

Well done to Steve Mattinson and Pauline Lang who were in the winning (Swiss) team at the on-line Yorkshire Congress on June 13th

2)   News Update

Unfortunately, we have had the news that we can not re-open the Bridge Centre on Monday 21st June. It is not quite clear when we will be allowed to open but 19th July seems most likely now. This is a big disappointment to us as we are all missing social F2F bridge.
We will therefore be continuing to run on-line bridge as per the usual schedule

Mondays – 7.30pm – RealBridge

Tuesdays – 7.30pm – BBO

Fridays – 7.30pm – RealBridge

As there is no Manchester League after June 24th  we will announce a 'Thursday Special'  for early July, probably Teams/Imped based.

Regards Alec and Steve

Important Information
Important Information
MCBA AGM

MCBA AGM

The annual general meeting of the MCBA will be held on Thursday 26th May at 19.00 online on zoom.

 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89662701674?pwd=VUg5Sm1VZkR3eXFGaWFSK0pCMkFldz09

 

All welcome. 

 

<------- Documents for the AGM can be found on the Documents Tab at the left.

 

There are several vacancies most notably tournament secretary, but also schools liaison and vice chair.  There will also be elections for match secretary and selection committee.

Green Pointed Swiss Pairs

MCBA are holding a Green Point Swiss pairs, at Bramhall Village Club on Saturday March 5th. This is a great opportunity to play face-to-face in a county competition.  The event is limited to 12 tables which are filling up rapidly.  Details and entry form may be found at Enter Here

 

 

Over To You

 

OVER TO YOU!

Thanks for all the subscriptions. We have now managed to update our membership database. If you want to check the information or at any point need to change it or your preferences, this can be done under the “Membership” tab on the menu to the left on our website.

It is your data and we hope we have managed to get all your preferences right. And as we live in different times, we excpect woman to do their duty too! If you need a helping hand regarding how to get access to the Membership Area this Video might be of help: HERE

Espen Gisvold

Diary Dates

The next couple of weeks promises to be busy:

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣  Monday July 19th at 1.30pm: launch of face-to-face bridge at B&CHBC at Bramhall Village Club - our long awaited opening following the merger of Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Clubs. Details will be sent this week in an extended e-mail newsletter. ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

Sunday August 1st: MCBA's Swiss Teams is being held face-to-face at Bramhall Village Club.  Details and entry form may be found at GREEN TEAMS  This is limited to 16 tables and is filling up: so please consider supporting this event - if you are a pair looking for team-mates then please let me know.

Thursday July 15th at 7pm on ZOOM: AGM of MCBA.The Zoom link is AGM Please come along to see what your county bridge association does for you and how you might contribute. If you wish to read the reports before the meeting ask me and I will forward them.

Regards

Alec

June Newsletter

We hope that everyone is keeping well and that you are now getting out and about and enjoying time with family and friends.

The B&CHBC Committee met again last week to discuss our plans for return to face-to-face bridge.  We believe that real bridge is face-to-face bridge and, also taking on board feedback from members, we plan to run 3 or 4 duplicates each week at Bramhall Village Club together with one on-line duplicate each week.

Start date? We are still hoping for June 21st but of course will delay if there is change to the road map for complete unlocking. We will write with further details after June 14th

Regards

Alec and Steve

IAN PENDLEBURY

IAN PENDLEBURY

We are shocked and saddened to hear that Ian Pendlebury has died at the age of 72. Ian was a very active bridge player when he was younger, reaching the rank of Grand Master and winning a couple of national competitions. He played for Staffordshire in county events and in the Manchester league.

Ian was a stalwart at Bramhall Village Bridge Club for many years and was a very supportive co-founder, host and tournament director of the Monday afternoon duplicate initiative. During Covid lockdowns, he declined to play bridge on-line and was pleased to return to F2F at Bramhall last July: he played every Tuesday evening, often winning.  Ian was always very interested to discuss the activities of B&CHBC and its plans for the future: we will miss him.

What Would You Bid ?

Decembers’ Solution

 

This month we received only 11 sets of bids from our members.  After a long and deep think we have decided it is time to wind up this competition and say:

THANK YOU!

To all the participants who have taken part and sent in their bids, and to all the panelists -who we thank for their time spent and willingness to share their expertise.

When we, some 18 months ago, started What Would You Bid, we had four objectives:-

We wanted to create an activity in the midst of a pandemic that could help us mould two established bridge clubs together into the new club with a common community.

We wanted to provide our members with an activity that could help ease some of the burden and boredom inflicted upon us by the pandemic

We wanted to offer our members ‘food for thought’ that could help in improving their bidding.

We wanted to have some light hearted fun!

I can only hope that What Would You Bid has managed to achieve some of these objectives!

The winner of the last set of our competition is Barbara Lewis with a score of 53 followed by Gavin Callow on 51 and Joyce Jones on 49. None of the panelists managed a perfect 60, but Victor Ridding came close with a score of 59!

The full solutions can be found HERE

Membership

Thank you everyone who has paid their membership subscription (161 of you). We appreciate your support of B&CHBC and look forward to seeing you at Bramhall and on-line throughout the year. You can still register HERE

What Would You Bid

July Solutions

We have now completed our 10 Month “What Would You Bid” competition. I hope that you as competitors have enjoyed taking part, and as a reader have enjoyed the panelists’ reasoning, and that everyone might have picked up a trick or two!

 

I would like to give a huge thank you to all the panelists for taking time to answer and share their expertise with us.

 

Also, special thanks to Alec Smalley and Michael Byrne - without them this would have been a horribly bad effort - they have kept me on the straight and narrow - a feat not achieved by many!

 

Also, a special thanks to Barbara Lewis - without her sub editing, it would have been hard work for you to get anything sensible out of what I put to paper.

 

The biggest thanks go to you, the competitors. Most of you have not only sent in answers, but also your reasoning. In the course of the competition, more than 70 members of the club have sent in answers.

 

This month’s problems, at least for the panelists, offered up few options, and all but one of the problems had a great majority bid in the panel. The competitors had much more imagination and on problem 4 managed to come up with no fewer than 10 different bids.

 

This month’s competition was won by Victor Ridding with a perfect 40, with a 3-way tie for 2nd place between Dhun Daji, Peter Foster and Mary Green on 39.

 

The winner of our overall competition is Peter Foster with 252 points from his 7 best results, followed in second place by Victor Ridding on 250. In third place we have Dhun Daji (241) and in fourth Mary Green (238). A small comfort for Victor might be that over the 10 results he managed to gather 348 points against Peter Foster’s 338. Congratulations to all of them.

 

Amongst the Panelists in July, we had a four-way tie on 40 - Rodney Lighton, Alan Jones, Raymond Semp and Alec Smalley.

 

The solutions can be found in the menu to the left or by clicking HERE. Enjoy a good summer!

Espen Gisvold

 

 

Newsletter

As you will know, we are planning for the return of face-to-face bridge at B&CHBC, as soon as it is legal and safe to do so – hopefully on June 21st.   We have quite a lot of members who have not played on-line, some keeping in touch to say how much they have missed bridge, and we look forward to seeing all our members again soon. Our committee is meeting next weekend: if you have any comments for them, please let me have them.

Our on-line members have participated and enjoyed success in many local and national competitions from the MCBA and EBU leagues and competitions, Garden Cities, NICKO, events organised by other counties – no travelling involved: both on BBO and RealBridge.

Several of you participated in the MCBA charity duplicates including April 28th, raising £900 for Motor Neurone Disease Association in memory of Lesley Johnson.

What Would You Bid Competition. This 10-month bidding challenge is nearing completion. Thanks are due to our expert panel for their bids and discussion – we are fortunate to have them as members, our competitors and especially to Espen for his tireless running of the competition.

Not wishing to be EBU members, Tuesday morning Easy Bridge at Bramhall Village Club is no longer part of B&CHBC.  This very successful session for non-experts and improvers is now being run independently by Julia and Steve (J.U.S.T. Bridge), who also have an exciting bridge holiday planned for October in Llangollen. All the details may be found on www.bridgewebs.com/justbridge/

Our activities are made possible thanks to the contributions of our committee, all our TDs – especially Victor who organises all the on-line developments, and webmaster.  But more help will be appreciated when we return to F2F:  for example, for dealing boards, scoring, teaching and supervised play, and other ‘jobs’ in the club.  Please let me know if you would like to be involved in the running of the centre.

Regards

Alec and Steve

Bridge Lessons

 

B&CHBC is starting a course of beginners' classes on Tuesday January 17th. Details are available from Ann at  a.thornton143@live.com  or 07855-069417  The centre looks forward to welcoming newcomers

World Bridge Championships

Congratulations!

The World Team Championships have now concluded and Europe won all competitions! Congratulations to our local Bronze Medalist Catherine Draper as a member of the English Woman team!

The English team in the Open played well, but suffered a defeat in the Quarter finals. 

The winners of the different classes were:

Bermuda Bowl (Open): Switzerland
Venice Cup (Woman): Sweden
d'Orsi Trophy (Senior): Poland
Wuhan Cup (Mixed Teams): France

 

See  (WBF ) for all the results and Bulletins 

 

News Update

I hope you have all enjoyed the holiday season and have kept safe and well.

You will have been receiving e-mails about the MCBA Congress next weekend, January 8th and 9th : 2 session pairs and teams - also one session non-expert events on Saturday and Sunday, being run by Victor and myself. If you have not entered already then please do so.

Bridge at Bramhall. We are continuing with our current schedule:  RealBridge on Monday evening and face to face on Monday afternoon, and Tuesday and Friday evenings. Please note that we will have a host player ONLY on Fridays - feel free to come on your own. Otherwise if you need a partner, for F2F or on-line, then please use Partner Finder -via the website. 

The committee have decided that all sessions now will be 'pay as you play'. ie.£2.50 'table money.  For RealBridge we ask you to pay £2.50 for each duplictae that you play in: appropriate records wil be kept and we will be asking you to pay every 2-3 months - in arrears.

We  look forward to seeing you F2F and on-line

Regards

Alec

News

B&CHBC has now been running on-line bridge since August 2020 for the benefit of our members to include some new on-line members who we have been pleased to welcome to the centre.

We have not been charging players but have been paying UMS to the EBU each time we play and since November fees to RealBridge. Now, following recent experience on BBO, we are changing to a vEBU BBO arrangement for Tuesdays whereby the centre – not the players - will be paying $BBO each time we play: this is managed via the EBU.

So, the time has come after 5 months of free bridge that we will begin charging players.  We will be contacting all of you who play in our on-line duplicates to ask you for £10 which will cover all your games throughout February, March and April (39 duplicates).

Visitors are always welcome .and after one visit they will be invited to join the centre for on-line membership - £10 to end of August 2021 plus £10 for all games Feb-April. 

NICKO

Our teams in the NICKO continue to do well.  The teams of Neil Thomas and Pete Foster are through to the 4th round of the main competition and the teams of  Ken Hall, Ann Thornton and Espen Gisvold are progressing well in the Plate. Well done to all of them, as we follow their progress

August Promotions

Congratulations to our members who had a promotion in August

Premier National Master:  Peter Grauer

National Master: Stephen Ward

7 Star Regional Master: Sylvia Massey

Supervised Duplicate for Improving Players

 

We are pleased to announce our new Thursday afternoon bridge sessions: Supervised Duplicate for Improving Players.

 

The afternoon will include a short duplicate (about 2 hours), with duplimated boards, with advice available for bidding and play, from experienced players, followed by a review and discussion of some of the hands.

 

We have team of experienced players who are contributing to the sessions and they look forward to running the afternoons, and providing advice and discussion.

 

We are starting on Thursday June 9th: 2.00-4.30pm. Table money £2.50 to include tea/coffee.

 

We hope that a number of our members will take advantage of these afternoons: please come with a partner or on your own. The sessions will be open to both members and visitors – if you have friends who might be interested.

 

Host: Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre

Venue: Bramhall Village Club – 2 Melbourne Road (Lumb Lane) – SK7 1LR

When: Every Thursday at 2.00pm from June 9th 2022

 

Contact: Barbara Lewis – babsandalec@hotmail.com – 07711926462

Manchester Congress

 

The MCBA Congress was held January 8th and 9th, on-line. The Pairs and Teams competitions attracted local, national and international players with a number of B&CHBC members doing well in the Pairs, notably Royce Alexander and Raymond Semp who were third, and Janet Tolan - who with Ros Hunt won the Ladies' Pairs. Graham Fletcher and Heather Saunders were leading the non-experts until the last board and finished a creditable 2nd.  An enjoyable weekend for all our members who participated.

 

What Would You Bid
 
The new set of problems in our 10 month What Would You Bid competition is now ready. You can either find them in the menu at the left or by following this link: HERE
 
The deadline for solutions is 15th May. Good luck and enjoy
 
Espen Gisvold
Competition Editor
BBO Registration Form

To be able to play in our BBO on-line club events you have to register once here. 

There is no need to register here for our Monday Evening RealBridge Events

Visitors are welcome both nights, but after 2 visits will be expected to pay a £20 on-line membership fee.

FORM
Gazette Cup

MCBA are holding the Gazette Cup, the inter-club teams of 8 competition, on Sunday February 6th. The winners will represent the county in the Garden Cities trophy.

The event will take place on-line on RealBridge: time will be approx 11.00am to 6.00pm. B&CHBC are planning to enter 3 teams. If you would like to be considered for one of our teams please e-mail Alec at chair@cheadlehulmebridgeclub.org

ADVERT

 

Julia Bannister and Steve Mattinson will be co-hosting this holiday


A BRIDGE BREAK IN THE BEAUTIFUL 
WELSH TOWN OF LLANGOLLEN

 

 

AFTER THE RESOUNDING SUCCESS OF OUR PREVIOUS BRIDGE BREAK IN GRANGE-OVER-SANDS, WE ARE DELIGHTED TO OFFER OUR GREAT VALUE, THREE NIGHTS BRIDGE HOLIDAY IN THE PICTURESQUE WELSH TOWN OF LLANGOLLEN

The venue is The Wild Pheasant Hotel – set in spectacularly beautiful countryside near to the River Dee, this traditional hotel has recently undergone a major refurbishment. 


It has a modern wing with a state-of-the-art spa.

Let’s blow away the lockdown blues and have some fun together!

The full program and prises can be found HERE 


 

March Solutions

 

This month’s problems were honestly stolen from the book “Bid Against The Masters - The Best of Bidding Forum” by Terence Reese and Keith McNeil.

They seemed to create huge problems for many of the competitors, and it is clear that bidding theory has moved on in the 25-45 years since the problems were first set.

None of our competitors managed a perfect 40. Three managed to score 36 points - Geoff Ashcroft, Mary Green and Steven Mattinson.

Peter Foster is still in pole position with 212, followed by Victor Ridding on 207 and Dhun Daji on 191.

Of the Panelists, only Espen Lindqvist achieved the perfect 40, followed by Rodney Lighton and Alec Smalley with 39. 

As usual, I will give my more or less intelligent comments on the panelists’ explanations in italics.

In addition to my comments, some of the comments from the original editor and commentator might be added in to provide some historic spice.

If you have a hand that you think merits the experts’ judgment and thoughts, please drop me a line on Espen.

To see the solutions follow this link: March 2021

 

Espen Gisvold

Competition Editor

 

Novembers Promotions

Congratulations to our memberes who received promotion in November

 

Howard Rosemarine  Premier Master
Gillian Butterworth  1 Star Master
Espen Gisvold  Advanced Master
Ric Swindell  Area Master
Fly Leung  Club Master
Gilbert Lee  Club Master

Frank Wetton

Frank Wetton passed away on March 9th. He was a regular player at Cheadle Hulme BC, played only a couple of times on-line during Covid and was looking forward to returning to F2F bridge. Condolences to Brenda, and Frank's family

Merry Christmas

On behalf of the committee at the B&CHBC I would like to thank all our members for your support during the year. We were excited about opening up our new venue at Bramhall Village Club in the summer and have held 3 weekly face-to-face duplicates since July 19th and have welcomed more than half of our 180 members to these sessions. We have kept on-line bridge each week: RealBridge continues to attract a steady 8-10 tables on Mondays, but we discontinued BBO when the numbers dwindled.

We plan to keep our present schedule, including F2F on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th December - into the New Year, if the government permits it. Face to Face will continue to run within the allowed practices and guidelines.  However, if the club venue at Bramhall is shut down in the New Year by government regulation then we will plan to put on at least one further on-line duplicate each week or a series of specials.

With best wishes for a Happy Christmas and good health into the New Year and throughout 2022.

Regards Alec ♠   ♣ 

U21

28th European Youth Team Championships - Veldhoven, Netherlands • 19 - 26 July 2022

 

Englands U21 team with Michael Byrne as non playing captain qualified for the Worls Championship - We wish the the best of luck!

What Would You Bid ?

October’s Solution - Decembers Problems

Mama Mia, here we go again. As ABBA has re-emerged, I thought this could be a good way to kick off this season of What Would You Bid. You must know about the music scene in Scandinavia to realise how difficult it is for me to put ABBA’s name to paper! As a Hoola Bandoola Band fan, this is as hard as it is for a Man U fan to pour praise on Man C or vice versa!

This season, we post 6 problems every second month and we have a prize for the competitor achieving the highest score for each set.

We have lost two panelists, and Peter Foster who won last season’s competition and was invited to sit on the panel but declined, whilst Victor Ridding - the runner up - has taken his just seat on the Panel.

We have had solutions from all but two of our panelists. I’m sure we will all learn from their wisdom.

I define a good bidding problem as one that divides the panel into at least 3 groups of reasoning. That will provide us with a lot of food for thought. Only one problem came short this time around, as expected: opening bids will not often split more than two ways, but it was still a problem from which we can learn from the panelists’ reasoning.

No competitor, and only one panelist (Alan Mould), managed the perfect score of 60. This month’s winner, and the first winner of the equivalent of £10 worth of bridge, is Neil Thomas with 56 points, followed by Mel Pelham on 53 and Dhun Daji on 50. As the use of the scale from 10 to 0 is harsher than previously these are great scores.

The full answers can be seen HERE


What Would You Bid?
December 2021
 
Problem1                                   
Dealer: West
Love All
Teams
Problem 2
Dealer: West
Game All
Teams 
Problem 3                                  
Dealer: East
Game All
Teams
♠ J32
 Q8
 J6
♣ K96432
♠ A103
 943
 653
♣ J652
♠ 108
 KJ2
 K863
♣ K1076
South   
West     
North.  
East    
 
1♣ (1)
dbl rdbl(2)
Pass(3) Pass 1 
dbl
?
(1) Best Minor
(2) 9+
(3) Not sub minimum
South   
West   
North   
East
2 (1)
4 (2)
Pass
?      
(1) Weak 2 in Major OR strong 2 in Minor
(2) Two suiter -  & Major
South   
West   
North   
East   
 
  1♠ 
Pass
3♠(1) 
dbl
Pass
?      

(1) Limit raise

 

 

 
 
 
Problem 4
Dealer: West
Love All
MP Pairs
 
 
 
Problem 5
Dealer: West
Love All
MP Pairs
 
 
 
Problem 6
Dealer: West
N/S Vulnerable
MP Pairs
♠ -
 AQ8542
 Q743
♣ Q84
♠ AJ92
 J43
 K95
♣ A53
♠ -
 J87
 10985
♣ AKQ742
South   
West   
North   
East
 
1 NT (1)
dbl
2♠ (2)
?      
(1) 12 - 14
(2) Natural & non forcing

 

 

 

South     
West.  
North     
East
1NT Pass 2(1)
Pass 3 (2) dbl 3 
Pass
Pass
dbl
Pass
?      
(1) Hearts
(2) 4 Hearts - Game invitational
 
 
South   
West   
North   
East
Pass
1♠ 
3 
Pass
Pass
3♠ 
Pass
?      

 

 

 

To send your answers go HERE

 

Good Advice

European Mixed Championships

Congratulations to Michael Byrne who, with Sarah Bell, has qualified   - after 3 weekends and 144 boards - to play for England in the European Mixed Team Championships.

NICKO



The NICKO (national inter-club knock out) season kicked off to a good start with a win by Neil Thomas (Gillian McMullan, Irene Davies and Roger Hopton) over a strong team from Deva bridge club

RealBridge & Apple/Ipad

Apple users only on RealBridge - There have been some recent audio problems with Apple products due to changes made by Apple in iOS 15. Below are the patches to fix the problem and a help line to RealBridge if you have problems. 

Players who have iPads, and who may have upgraded to iOS 15,  please follow the instructions here:

     https://realbridge.online/media-support-ios-15.html

Note: If they are still on iOS 14 or earlier, they do not need to do anything. We suggest that they should not upgrade to iOS 15 now – it is sensible to wait for a few weeks to see if there are any other issues.

Players who have Macs, and who may have upgraded to macOS Monterey,  to follow the instructions here:

     https://realbridge.online/media-support-macos-monterey.html
Note: If they are not on macOS Monterey, they do not need to do anything. We suggest that they should not upgrade to Monterey now – it is sensible to wait for a few weeks to see if there are any other issues.

For these issues, if you have any difficulties or are unsure about the procedure, please contact support@realbridge.onlinefor assistance. We are here to help, so please do get in touch.

Contacting RealBridge

If you have a problem during a session, please call us on the number below. We are happy to take your call, and we want people to contact us for help. Normal hours are 7am to 11pm UK, but for emergencies you can call outside these times.

For less urgent questions, please email us.

Our email address is: support@realbridge.online

Main number for contacting RealBridge (including immediate support issues):
+44 (0) 794 232 2209

Alternative number: +44 (0) 747 555 7651

Regards Alec

Garden Cities


The B&CHBC team that won the county's Gazette Trophy in February, won the Northern heat of the EBU's inter-club teams of eight competition on 8th May. Congratulations to all the team: they now play in the Garden Cities National final in June. Detailed results are on the EBU website: HERE

AGM 2022

 

 

B&CHBC's AGM was held 15th November and all reports can be found under the 'Documents' tab in the menu to the left. 

 

October’s Promotions

 

Congratulations to our members who gained a promotion in October

4 Star Master: Keith Boulton

Local Master: David Cash & David Grimshaw

 

Autumn 2022 : Special Events and Competitions Schedule

Sept 28th           Improvers’ Seminar – Paul Beckwith - "Bidding Big Hands"

Oct 12th           Pro-Am: for Improvers/Intermediates to play with Experienced/Expert players

Oct 26th          Play with an Expert

Nov 9th           Improvers’ Seminar – Victor Ridding

Nov 23rd         Teams of 4 Competition

Dec 7th              Intermediate /Advanced Seminar – Alec Smalley

Dec 14th         Individual Competition – Xmas Party

 

 

Full details of each event nearer the time

Tollemache

Congratulations to the Manchester team who played on Nov 12th and 13th and qualified for the final of the Tollemache inter-county teams event.

 

The team was (B&CHBC members in bold):

 

Alec Smalley  - Michael Byrne

Alan Mould - Rodney Lighton

John Holland - John Hasset

Catherine Draper - Andrew Woodcock 

 

Results can be viewed HERE 

 

The final will be held 18th & 19th February Face to Face.

AGM

AGM

Minutes of the AGM can be found HERE

CIN

Following our SIM Pairs on Nov 7th and 8th, members and the Club have donated £530.50p to the ECATS Children in Need Appeal

News From The Committee

News From The Committee

 

The B&CHBC committee met this week to discuss our plans for moving forward. We are continuing with our 3 face-to-face duplicates and RealBridge on Mondays, but have discontinued BBO due to lack of participation.  After the AGM, we will also be focusing on special events and teaching/supervised play.  New blood on the committee and for help in running the centre is always welcome - please contact Alec or Steve if you would like to be involved

We are moving to 'pay as you go'.  With effect from Monday November 1st, table money of £2.50 will be collected from players in the club - please try to have the exact money.

We plan to set up a micro-payment system for RealBridge to be operational in the New Year.

If you presently play on Realbridge we are charging  £10 for all your games during November and December. If you want to play once in this period and are a member it will be overlooked.

Please pay £10 for Realbridge  by BACs transfer – preferred, or by cheque.

The BACs details are

Business Name. Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre (truncated to ‘Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bri’)

Sort code    01-01-14  Account no   15236943

Please reference with   Your Name

If you wish to pay by cheque, please make it payable to Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre and send to David McNeillie, 3 Bowness Avenue, Cheadle Hume SK8 7HS.

Regards

Alec

AGM

 

Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre 

The Annual General Meeting

will be held on Tuesday November 15th 2022 at 6.30pm  in the Rhodes Room at Bramhall Village Club

Agenda

1      Chair’s Report (Click to read report)

2      Treasurer’s Report

3      Election of Officers: Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Membership Secretary and Tournament Director. Nominations should be proposed and seconded and sent to the secretary (at chair@cheadlehulmebridgeclub.org) no later than Tuesday November 8th

4      Election of other Committee Members

5      Moving forward - plans for the coming months

6      Change of dates for financial year and AGM

7      Any other business

 

News Letter

The centre has been busy in recent months with both F2F bridge and on-line, and members playing in county, national and international events.  

Members are doing well in the MCBA leagues and the NICKO and were well represented in the recent Green Pointed Pairs. There are still places available in the Ben Franks that is being held at Bramhall on April 10th and promises to be an excellent day’s bridge.

We are presently watching with great interest and excitement the World Bridge Championships in Italy with club and Manchester based players in the England teams.  Congratulations to Michael Byrne on reaching the quarter finals  - but commiserations on narrowly losing the 96 board match against one of the pre-tournament favourites.  We are now supporting the English Ladies and Norway Open teams in the semi-finals.

Easter Opening

There will be no bridge on Good Friday April 15th but we will be running duplicates as usual on Easter Monday April 18th – F2F at Bramhall in the afternoon and RealBridge on Monday evening, and F2F at Bramhall on Tuesday April 19th.

Moving Forward

The centre’s committee met on March 29th to review recent months and to plan for the future.

We are continuing with 3 F2F duplicates in the club and Monday evening RealBridge. Table money for all sessions is £2.50 for members: for RealBridge we will collect in June for the weeks in April, May and June.

We are planning some new activities to take place at Bramhall, primarily on Thursdays - afternoon and evening. 

Before Covid, we ran some special events on Thursday evening such as teams and club competitions and plan to re-start these events after the league season has ended. We will also start a regular F2F session of supervised play that will include an introductory talk and/or review of hands after play, this is aimed at improvers and will be on Thursday afternoon.

Further, we are looking to introduce some teaching for beginners as soon as it can be arranged.

We are pleased to see so many of you who have returned to F2F bridge and hope that more of you will venture into the centre during the spring and summer.

Thanks as always to our hard-working committee and members who contribute to the successful running of the Centre.

Regards

Alec and Steve

What Would You Bid
What Would You Bid?

Following last year's success, we will continue our 'What Would You Bid?' bidding competition for our members. Each challenge, starting October 1st, will present you with 6 bidding problems. You will have 1 month to consider and return your solutions. The problems will be posted on this website and an e-mail will be sent showing the problems and a link to the page where you can send in your answers! After two months, the answers will be published together with the next set of problems.
 
Our Expert Panel - we are fortunate to have a large pool of expert talent in the club - will make their bids and the scores will be set in accordance with their answers. We will publish the reasoning for their bids and the scores, together with the next set of problems. 
 
The System used is Standard English Modern Acol - Look under 'Documents' to see the full system description. If any other systems are used, they will be explained in the problems. 
 
Most problems will not be of a Systemic nature, more a question of evaluation and judgment. It will be great to see the agreements and disagreements amongst the Experts together with their thoughts and comments.
 
For every set of problems the best competitor will win one period of free bridge in the club’s events. At present worth £10.  
 
You have to send in answers to 4 sets of problems to compete for an overall prize of a ‘voucher’ capped at  £25 for bridge books of the winner’s choice.
 
If you send in 5 answers, the 4 best months will count. The Terms of Competition are on the club website.
 
Good Luck
Espen Gisvold
Newsletter September 2021

F2F and On-Line    Those members who have returned to face-to-face bridge have enjoyed seeing friends for bridge, chat and coffee.…we look forward to welcoming others when you feel comfortable to do so.  Our numbers for RealBridge on Monday are continuing to be good, but not so many for BBO - if you haven’t played on Thursday BBO then please consider doing so. 

Membership   Nearly 150 of you have paid membership subscriptions, due September 1st for the year to August 2022 and filled in their membership form. A few more are still to do so. We have lost a few long- time members and will miss them, but already have attracted some new players to the centre.

Manchester League  This will be starting soon, running as ‘normal’ with one set of matches during October to April- with the default platform being on-line BBO. Matches may be played F2F if both teams agree. Quite a number of our members are entered - not too late yet to enter – if you are a pair or a team then contact Adam Wseberg at  league@manchester.org.uk

NICKO   The National Inter-Club Knock Out Competition is due to start again soon for 2021-2022. The first 2 rounds may be played on-line, but it is planned for later rounds to be face-to-face. If you wish to enter a team then please contact Steve at smattinson@btinternet.com

Diary Dates

Bramhall Village Club AGM will be held in the Rhodes Room on Thursday September 30th pm: all welcome.   

MCBA Intermediate Pairs is scheduled to be held in the Rhodes Room on Sunday 7th November; further details to follow.

Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs. Again, we will be holding 2 sessions: Monday 8th November on RealBridge and Tuesday 9th November F2F. Last year we raised nearly £2,000 – can we match this? The centre will pay the entry fees so 100% of your donations will go to C.I.N.

B&CHBC Annual General Meeting    Our first AGM will be held on Tuesday November 2nd in the Rhodes Room at 6.30pm – prior to the duplicate. An agenda will be sent in due course: discussion topics welcome – please let us know.

What Would You Bid Competition 2021-2022   We are planning to start this in October with 5 bidding challenges over 10 months- with a prize for each challenge.

Marie and Ron Appleby   The Applebys joined us for RealBridge during the last year: they welcomed the opportunity and enjoyed meeting members of the centre and send their best wishes to all. 

Regards 

Alec and Steve

Teams of 4 Competition

Teams of 4 Competition evening

 

We had a good evening yesterday with 10 teams! 

Congratulations to the winners:

 

Rob Harris & Steve Mattinson and Julia Bannister & Ross Worthington

 

 

Our next Wednesday special is November 9th : Improvers' Seminar, Victor Ridding on transfers

 

 

 

 

NICKO

Congrats to the teams of Michael Byrne & Neil Thomas which are through to the 4th round of the 2021-2022 NICKO competition

September's Promotions

 

National Master: Karen Jones

Club Master: Jon & Sally Middleton

Local Master:  Gavin Callow

 

Congratulaions! 

Great Northern Swiss Pairs

 

Congratulations to our chairman, Alec Smalley, and to member, Michael Byrne, on their triumph in the Great Northern Swiss Pairs competition held in Yorkshire over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of October. They amassed 155 Victory Points losing only 4 matches out of 12, to win by 2VPs in a strong field of 36 pairs.

Victories in The Northern Bridge League

The Manchester A  team came first in their Division and the B team won their division in the Northern Bridge League today (8.10.2022)

Manchester A included B & CH BC members, Tom Dessain & Rodney Lighton with Joy & Irving Blakey. 

All the Manchester B team were B & CH BC members Janet Tolan & Peter Grauer, Steve Mattinson & Joyce White, Roger Hopton & Irene Davies with Peter Foster & John Roberts. The team finished 1st on the day.

Results are here: https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwoq/bw.cgi?club=adamwiseberg&pid=display_home

Final standings are here: http://www.manchesterbridge.org.uk/NBL/r2022.html

 



 

Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme

Bridge Centre

Wednesday October 12th: 7.30pm

PRO-AM

This is an opportunity for improvers/ intermediate players to play with experienced/expert players.

Come on your own and spend a fun evening with a new partner.

Tea/coffee or a glass of wine will be available from 7pm, to be followed by a duplicate.

(nb results will be uploaded to the centre and EBU, with master points but no NGS)

Successful Improvers’ Seminar!

Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme

Bridge Centre

 Wednesday September 28th: 7.30pm

 

Improvers’ Seminar:

Strong Opening bids

 

Paul Beckwith will be giving a short talk on how to bid big hands.

This will be followed by play of 10-12 prepared hands that focus on the topic.

Supervision will be available during the play

Members and visitors all welcome.

£2.50 table money: tea and coffee provided

We look forward to seeing you on the 28th.

News letter

Our New Autumn Schedule.  We are starting in a couple of weeks’ time with special events and competitions on Wednesday evenings – see schedule for the rest of 2022. These will cater for all our members to include Thursday afternoon improvers, intermediates and experts. Starting with a seminar from Paul Beckwith on "Strong Opening Hands" for intermediates/improvers.

Thursday Afternoon is proving popular with improving players: a short duplicate followed by discussion and review.  This is open to members and visitors – all welcome.

Teams The league/cup and other match season is upon us. The club facilities are available most evenings – please contact us for more information if you would like to play your F2F matches at Bramhall. £2.50 for each home team member, £5 per home team visitor - away team are guests (free).

Friday Pairs is growing in popularity (5 tables last Friday) and we are running it as match pointed pairs – rather than teams’ scoring - as numbers increase. We have a host each week, so you may come on your own and be assured of a game, and we look forward to welcoming new players – especially improvers.  It’s always an enjoyable and sociable evening.

New EBU Announcing/Alerting Directives – sad - link is ALERT

Membership.  Almost all our members have now renewed, and we look forward to seeing you at Bramhall/on RealBridge during the year.

Thank You - Once again, thanks are due to our committee, volunteers and Thursday afternoon team all of whom contribute their time for the benefit of players and in making the centre a success.

Regards

Alec and Steve

NICKO Win!

Congatulations!

Congratulations to the Cheadle Hulme A team who won the much delayed final of the 2020 NICKO at Coventry against a Young Chelsea team on 1st August.

The team was Michael Byrne, David Barton, Gary Hyett and John Holland with Raymond Semp and the late Michael Newman in earlier rounds.  They won five of the six sets to win by over 40 IMPs and were never behind in the match.  They had previously beaten teams from Chester, Basingstoke and Cheltenham and a strong Cambridge team in the semi-finals.  This was the first win in this competition for David, a second for Michael and Gary and a third for John.

Oliver Cowan Summer Congress

Tom Slater and Alec Smalley played in the Oliver Cowan Summer Congress - July 9th and 10th - in Leeds - their first ever pairs competition! (pre-Covid they only played together in teams' events). They came 5th in the MP Pairs and won the Swiss Pairs  - the field included a number of expert players from out of town. Congratulations! 

Higson Cup

Steve Tearle, Ross Worthington, Steve Mattinson, Julia Bannister (C), Rob Harris, Joyce White, Mike Parr

Congratulations to The Sandbaggers, a team of Bramhall & Cheadle Hulme Bridge Centre members, who recently won the Higson Cup. The final was held at Altrincham Bridge Club on Sunday 19th June. In the early rounds, the Sandbaggers defeated The Four Dummies and Agamemnon to reach the seven teams' final and triumphed by a mere 3.08 Victory Points. The team is captained by Julia Bannister who partnered Ross Worthington with Steve Mattinson & Rob Harris. Steve Tearle, Mike Parr and Joyce White were in the team for earlier rounds but were unable to play in the final.

 

Thursday afternoon - Supervised Duplicate

 

Our first session on June 9th was attended by 25 players, both members and visitors, and included a short session of hand review after play.  We have had positive feedback and plan to run this every week with organisation and supervision provided by a group of the centre's experienced players

Supervised Duplicate

Supervised Duplicate for Improving Players

 

 

We are pleased to announce our new Thursday afternoon bridge sessions: Supervised Duplicate for Improving Players.


The afternoon will include a short duplicate (about 2 hours), with duplimated boards, with advice available for bidding and play, from experienced players, followed by a review and discussion of some of the hands.


We have a team of experienced players who are contributing to the sessions and they look forward to running the afternoons, and providing advice and discussion.


We are starting on Thursday June 9th: 2.00-4.30pm. Table money £2.50 to include tea/coffee.


We hope that a number of our members will take advantage of these afternoons: please come with a partner or on your own. The sessions will be open to both members and visitors – if you have friends who might be interested.


Regards

Alec & Steve

Michael "Houdini"  Byrne

Michael "Houdini"  Byrne

England was knocked out in the quarter finals of Bermuda Bowls. Even so, they produced a lot of great bridge, and the first set of 16 boards is a list they, as David Bird said, should frame. The most spectacular hand was this one:

Dealer: East
Game all
 
                    North
                   ♠ 109
                    86
                    QJ1065
                   ♣ J1053
West                                        East
♠ AQ765                                 ♠ J4
 Q9                                       A10743
 K82                                      943
♣ A87                                     ♣ Q42
                     South
                    ♠ K832
                     KJ52
                     A7
                    ♣ K96
 
West       North               East       South
Dyke       Zimmermann   Byrne      Piedra
                                     pass        1♣ 
1♠          pass               1N            pass
3N(!)       all pass
 
The fist two bids are text book. Michael’s 1N is within the realm of reality, but Dyke’s 3N is taking us into Alec in Wonderland. When you bid as if you have stolen the pack, you need to play really well.  The commentators said that perhaps Kieran knew how good a declarer his partner was which was why he stretched to this contract.  But many would not have found a bid with Michael’s hand.  They really were bidding the spots off the cards. 
 
South led the 2 and dummy’s Queen won, North discarding the 8, and Houdini followed with the 4 from hand. There’s not an avalanche of top tricks for Michael, but both the Spade and the Heart suit can provide some tricks. At trick two Michael led a small Spade from dummy to his Jack, and South won with the King. South now continued with the Heart King and Houdini dropped the 10. Later when I praised Michael he said “It was fun. I knew he was going to fall for it”.
 
South now had been painted the picture of Michael having  A104 and Zimmerman having  8763, so he continued with the Heart Jack - all Houdini needed! Michael won in hand, cashed his remaining Hearts and led a Diamond towards dummy’s King. South ducked and the King won. Ace, Queen and another Spade endplayed South to play away from K9. Houdini ending up with 9 tricks and 600. No other pair had been close to bidding game!
 
I won’t advocate their bidding, but Michaels play was stunning! Thanks for all you gave us! 
 
In the replay the Swiss played in 1♠  for 6 tricks!
 
Espen Gisvold
 
Club Champions

EBU has just released their report of Club Champions (based on Master Points won) and our club champion was Howard Stubbings with 1344 Master Points in 2021. Congratulations! Full report HERE