Regrettably, the club will be closed until further notice. We will advise members when normal club nights can resume but do not expect this to be any time soon.

In the mean time, we are trying to set up online club sessions, using Bridge Base Online (BBO). These will allow members to continue to play with and against each other from the safety of their own homes. These sessions will be organised for Monday evenings at the same time as normal club nights.

To participate, you first need to register with BBO. To do this, click the following link: EBU Bridgebase Online. You will be invited to specify a short name, or handle, by which you will be known within the BBO system. For example, my handle is Writerman. Once you have your BBO handle, you need to let the committee know using the form below. The club needs to maintain a list of the BBO handles of those members wishing to participate in online club sessions. Registering with BBO is free but you will also need to pay "table money" for those club sessions in which you participate. BBO table money is expressed in US dollars but you pay by purchasing BBO dollars in advance, paying in English money. Note that most of your table money (70%) comes back to the club so we need as many members to play as possible in order to generate some income during lockdown. The charge per sesion has yet to be determined but is likely to be between 3 and 5 US dollars,

EBU Master Points will be awarded for BBO club sessions and they will contribute to your NGS grading in the same way as normal club sessions.

For those interested, here is a link to the EBU rules governing online bridge: EBU Rules for Online Bridge.

The club has also registered with Bridge Club Live (BCL). To play under the club's umbrella, go to Bridge Club Live and register. But we won't be organising club sessions in BCL.

A limited session was held on the 16th March, with just 5 pairs competing. As there were no pre-dealt boards and some issues with the bridgemates, the usual results file is not available. However, rankings and travellers have been created and uploaded in a separate pdf file which can be accessed in the usual way via the results section. With so few tables, scoring using cross-imps is more appropriate than match points. However, all travellers have been scored by both methods to give a comparison. Steve Hollister and Chris Williams were the winners using both methods (with + 55imps or 62.75%) in what is likely to be the last session at the club for some time.    

The County has announced that the finals of both the Committee Cup and Waller Bowl have been cancelled. These were scheduled for April 5th and 26th respectively.

BFBC held a heat of the Berks and Bucks Committee Cup on Mon 20^th Jan.  The Cup is a County teams-of-four event, with qualifying teams competing in the final at Windsor on Sunday April 5^th. A total of 7 teams competed, with the top three teams entitled to play in the final.   Marceli Smialkowski's team was in top spot, with Bob Findlow's and John Harman's team second and third respectively.

The Waller Bowl (pairs) heat was held on Mon 2^nd March. Nine pairs competed, with the top three pairs entitled to play in the final to be held at Windsor on Sunday 26^th April. Top pair were Marceli Smialkowski & Andrzej Kwiatkowski, followed by Andy Kirk & Martin Woodbridge and Keith and Jenny Sheppard.

BFBC took part in the ECATS Children in Need Sim Pairs held on Monday 11th November. A total of 15 pairs from the club were amongst the 2534 pairs competing on that night from a total of 150 clubs. Best placed BFBC pair were Simon Kearon and Dave Lee, who were in 99th postion overall with 62.87%. The next best placed pair from the club were Ann and Peter Francis, who scored 61.03% and finished 184th out of the 2534 pairs competing. Overall results for the session held on the 11th can be found at https://www.simpairs.com/default.asp?session=004136. This year's donation to the charity will be £139.82 - thank you all very much for your generosity.

This year's annual competition for the Francis Cup was held on Monday 21st October. Fittingly, the competition was won by Anne Francis and her team, so congratulations to Anne and Peter Francis, Philip Jackson and Elaine Longstaff, scoring an impressive + 47 IMPS over the evening. Many thanks to the 6 teams who competed and to Keith Sheppard for directing and running a very enjoyable evening. 

Please note that, as Brownlow Hall is not available on Monday 28^th October, we will be playing in St Martin's Church Hall, Church Road, Chavey Down (Ascot Bridge Club's normal venue) instead.  Please aim to arrive by 7:20 pm as usual for a 7:30 pm start.  We will be back at Brownlow as normal on Monday 4^th November. 

In 2017, the World Bridge Federation completed its ten yearly review of the Laws of Duplicate Bridge and the EBU has issued an updated book of Laws applicable to the game in England. The trend with the new laws is to try and reduce the number of occasions where boards are cancelled and artificial adjusted scores are awarded.  Whilst most of the laws relating to the common situations we are likely to encounter in the Club remain principally the same as in the 2007 Laws, there are some subtle changes of wording and members are asked to be patient with Directors if they are called to give a ruling whilst they find their way around the new laws. The EBU has produced a poster (link here) that summarises two key changes that all players should know about:  the procedure governing a claim; and the use of comparable calls to replace insufficient bids and calls out of rotation. 

• The procedure governing a claim has effectively been changed to follow practice at the table where, after a claim has been made, the non-claiming side has said ‘play on’.  The old laws actually required play to stop and the TD to be called in the event of a disputed claim – generally honoured more in the breach than the observance.  The new laws allow play to continue, provided all agree.  However, if the TD is called and declarer’s stated line does not adequately account for all the tricks he is claiming (perhaps because he hasn’t drawn all the opponents' trumps and has not stated that he is drawing trumps when he claims), the TD can rule that the declarer takes a line of play that is less advantageous to him.  If the defence insist on ‘playing on’ and declarer wakes up to the fact that there is an outstanding trump and draws it, the defence cannot then claim that they might have made a trump trick and then call the TD.  The advice remains to call the Director if you are not happy with a Claim that has been made.
• Comparable Calls will allow the bidding to continue in circumstances where, after an insufficient bid or a call out of rotation, offender’s partner would have been silenced for the rest of the auction. The poster at the above link covers this in more detail.