We will be launching a new BBO Competition starting at the end of June ... and it's FREE!

(We've nicked the idea from Grantham BC as they have enjoyed it so much they have repeated it twice)

This is a Swiss Pairs competition where each round you play a pair of a similar score. Do well and you get stronger opponents - lose and you get weaker opponents next time.

You will get one month to arrange to play 12 boards against your opponents on a casual table on BBO.

To enter, just complete the form below.

Starting on Monday 21st June, we will be running the Hercock Summer Trophy. This is the best 4 out of 10 scores over the Mondays leading up to the August Bank Holiday.

Visitors can play on these sessions, but they are ineligible for the competition.

When Face-to-Face bridge starts and we run both F2F and BBO sessions at the same time, then only the results from the F2F section will count towards this competition. The fewer boards you play then the more extreme the scores are - it much easier to get 60% over 20 boards than over 27 boards.

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 31st May 2021

In June, July and August we are running the Wednesday Summer Pairs, where the best four scores over the three months will count.

Visitors can play on these sessions, but they are ineligible for the competition.

When Face-to-Face bridge starts and we run both F2F and BBO sessions at the same time, then only the results from the F2F section will count towards this competition. The fewer boards you play then the more extreme the scores are - it much easier to get 60% over 20 boards than over 24 boards.

Steve Wright - Tournament Secretary - 31st May 2021

Initial results from our survey of members’ views indicate that a substantial number of players would like to get back to F2F bridge as soon as this is possible. There are still some members who have not replied, and we would welcome views from the whole of our membership, but the Committee now feels confident that we can make plans for reopening. 

The Rothley Centre will be undertaking a major refurbishment, which will close the Centre for July, August and September. We have explored temporary local alternatives, which are few, none of them very satisfactory.  However, County Bridge Club have kindly offered the use of their premises for a Monday evening and Wednesday afternoon; we are basing our plans on a temporary move to their premises at St Oswald in early July for our Monday evening session, with the hope that Wednesday afternoon sessions will follow at a later date. 

This move to St Oswald would only be a temporary measure – we are looking forward to returning to a refurbished Rothley Centre as soon as it reopens.

County BC have been working hard to make their premises as safe as possible, but their current view is that they will only consider reopening once Government restrictions of 2 metre social distancing and wearing indoor face masks are lifted.   We are hoping that this will be announced on 21st June as part of the final stage of easing the Government’s restrictions; if it is not, then F2F reopening will be delayed. For full details of County BC’s reopening plans, see the notice on their website.  

In the short term, whether we restart F2F or not, we will continue to offer online bridge on Monday evenings and Wednesday afternoons.  How long ‘short term’ will be, is anyone’s guess at the moment!

Bradgate Committee - 31st May 2021

The committee are starting to plan when and how we can return to face-to-face bridge.

To help us with this planning, we would like to canvas your opinion.

Bear in mind that the club will meet all Government and EBU guidelines that are in place at the time.

We would like to gather views from as large a percentage of members as we can so please do complete the survey below.

We are very sad to report that Chris Allen passed away this week, after several years' illness.

Chris was a long-standing member of Bradgate, and was a mainstay of the Bradgate A team, partnering Colin Barfield in Leicestershire League matches. He was a strong and steady player, and it was a rare year when he did not win one of the club’s trophies; notably, he and Colin won the Bradgate Plate four times. He continued to represent the club in more recent years, playing with Jim Wilkinson in club sessions and in League matches.

Amongst his other interests, Chris enjoyed cricket (Jim Wilkinson remembers his days as a batsman playing for Woodhouse Eaves) and rugby. He was also a founder member and treasurer of a share club where, as Colin says, his past experience as sales director of Bostik was put to good use.

Always affable and with a dry sense of humour, Chris will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his widow Sally and the family.

Val Rees - Social Secretary - 8th May 2021

Online Bridge - Your Checklist

Now that you want to join us by playing at our Virtual Bridge Club then how do you go about it?

Follow the four steps below. If you need any help then click the help button for more information

1	Register on BBO
2	Tell us your BBO Username	Complete the form on this page.
3	Buy your BBO dollars
4	Get familiar with BBO
5	Get a Partner

If you have any questions then please contact one of our Virtual Bridge Club Elves of Jim Wilkinson, Julie Jones, Gail Tillen and David Twells