Regretably, the club remains closed for face to face bridge for the foreseeable future but don't despair. Bracknell Forest Bridge Club’s Monday evening sessions are now running every week on the RealBridge platform. This exciting new service simulates real live bridge, allowing you to see and chat with your partner and opponents. There’s no need to put your name down. Just turn up (figuratively) on the night. For full details of how to join in, please click on RealBridge club sessions on the left menu and choose Play.

EBU Master Points and NGS gradings will be awarded for RealBridge sessions in the same way as for live club sessions. There is a small, 'table money' charge for each session. See click RealBridge club sessions, and choose Play for more details.

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.