We've been working together with SBBC to establish a platform via Bridgebase Online [BBO] for running our events on-line. Such events will be limited to SBBC members who've joined BBO and registered their BBO details with either Burnham or SBBC [or both]. We have added a field for you to supply your BBO username: click on Members Only, go to Account, scroll down until you see Online, select BBO, and enter your username in the BBO box.

The first Burnham event to be hosted on the new platform will be on Monday 30th; participation is open to all SBBC members.

A few notes about playing at BBO:

• participation in EBU events is charged at $1 per session [of 12 boards]. This 'table money' is deducted automatically from your BBO 'wallet', so you must have charged up your wallet with at least $10. You don't need money in your BBO wallet unless you intend to play in events such as the EBU's for which a BBO charge is levied.
• participation in events on our new platform will be charged at £3 per 18-board session: SBBC will monitor the sessions in which you participate and contact you approximately monthly to request you settle your account by bank transfer.
• BBO events are listed in order of start time, the more imminent at the top. Only events due to start with the next two hours are shown.
• once you're sitting at a table and play has commenced, you'll see a largish green window corresponding to your on-line bridge table, including your on-line bidding box.
• irrespective of whether you're N, S, E, or W, you will be at the bottom of the table.
• underneath the 'bridge table' you'll see a smaller window for 'chatting', bridge-related chatting that is.
• you'll see a button that allows you to control with whom you're having a 'conversation': it may be the other three players at the table, it may be just your opponents, or it may be a 'private' chat with one opponent. You can't have a private chat with your partner. It's permitted to compliment an opponent on their play for example, but slagging off opponents or even partner is frowned on. Opponents may use a private chat to ask you to clarify your partner's bidding for example.
• alerting/announcing is different in the on-line world. If you're about to make a bid that your partner would alert or announce in the face-to-face world, you will alert/announce before making your bid. Your partner will not see this, so it's advisable to alert/announce more often than usual, as a courtesy to your opponents.
• At the end of an event, the highest level result you see is a ranking table with pair percentages. Pairs are identified by their BBO usernames, hence our request that you give yourself a recognisable name. If you click on a percentage, you'll see that pair's scorecard.You can drill down to get progressively more detailed information, probably including what players are wearing and what they had for breakfast. Our website Calendar items link to the BBO results. 
• although not necessary for playing casual bridge, playing in an event requires that you and your partner have a convention card. BBO provides a handful of what they regard as standard cards, and you can start with one of those and edit it appropriately, before saving it under a name of your own. You can tie a particular card to a particular partner.
• we're all on a steep learning curve here. We'll be providing more information as we assimilate it.

Can we ask all members to keep abreast of Coronavirus insomuch as it affects playing at the Centre by regularly checking with the relevant news item on the SBBC website.

Many thanks.

Many of our members will already be aware that Anders passed away in hospital on 5th March, following a severely debilitating stroke the previous week. In his time as a Burnham member, Anders had captained one of our league-of-8 teams, and of course he had served as both Treasurer and Chairman of Berks & Bucks CBA.

We would like to extend our deepest sympathy to Eva and her family.

Starting in January we're switching our pre-bridge seminars from the first Monday of the month to the third. This is teams evening: whilst some of our seminar topics are equally applicable to both pairs and teams events, it's teams-oriented topics that will take priority for the next few months.

The first seminar of the New Year is on 20 January, entitled Hidden Signals - revealed by Charles Chisnall. We'll be publishing further details in due course. Make a note in your diary now - this is one seminar you can't afford to miss.

We've added a league-of-8 item to appear within the Results section of the website menu, principally to make it easier for members to  find out how our teams are doing.

At the end of this l-of-8 item are links to each of the three league tables in which our respective teams play.

Our seminars this year are being held on the third Monday of the month, preceding our teams-of-4 event. That being the case there's some emphasis on the different tactics we employ in teams events, both in bidding and in play.

Last month we looked at things from declarer's point of view, specifically using safety plays to help guarantee a contract. This month it's the other side of the coin, and presenter Nigel Lancaster will be focusing on defence, the most difficult part of the game.

Difficult, but as we'll see, by no means impossible. Based on three simple rules and good communication between the defenders, we'll see how many contracts that are allowed to make could in fact have been beaten. Invest half-an-hour of your time on Monday, and North will be using the Bridgemate's minus key rather more often when you're defending.

One of the hands we'll be analysing is shown in the quiz above this article.

We look forward to seeing you at 6:45pm on Monday; our seminars are free of charge and open to all.

You are East and West leads ♣Q against South's 4♥ contract.

You take your Ace. It's time to analyse the situation. Can the contract be beaten, and how do you set about it?

Our A team played away against Thame on Wednesday, and was pleased to secure a 17-3 win.

But surprise of the week was Friday evening's 14-6 defeat of bookies' favourite New Amersham A by Bourne End A, elevating Burnham to the top spot in the division for the first time in many years.

Have you ever wondered why some players seem to get the defence right - was it a guess which suit to play or which cards to keep?

There are signals used by a few players that are unkown to most. Very rarely are they written about. But Charles is going to share these signals with you at the seminar.

Note that this methodology is additional to your existing system, be it HELD, McKenney, reverse, Italian, revolving, etc.

Your defence should never be the same after this seminar!

Here are a couple of situations for you to ponder in advance:

Bon chance!

The next Burnham seminar will be on Monday, December 2nd in the Garden Room at the LCBC. It will start at 18:45 and finish in time for bridge.

When partner leads and you win the first trick, you will often want to return partner's suit.   But there will be hands where the winning move is to switch to a different suit.  Under what circumstances might you decide to switch?  And what might encourage you to switch to a particular suit?  We will be looking at hands where it pays to switch, hands where returning the suit led by partner is the right action and looking for underlying themes to help you to decide between the 2 options.

The seminar is free; it is open to members and non-members alike. We hope that you will want to stay on and play bridge afterwards, in which case there is no need to come with a partner - as with all our duplicate pairs sessions, there will be a host available.

All three Burnham teams have opened their 2019-20 campaigns.

The A-team have played against both Ascot teams [B&B Divn 1], winning both matches. The B-team have also played two matches  [B&B Divn 2], losing their first to Loddon Vale but striking winning form against Maidenhead B. The C team has played one match [Chiltern League], beating Caversham Park.

All matches show in the website Calendar, and completed matches are included in the website presentation of results once results are uploaded.

Just a reminder: the Club plays in league-of-8 tournaments for the benefit of members. For any members who haven't already registered an interest in being involved, it's not too late: contact Club captain Nigel Lancaster.

Berks & Bucks run a simultaneous pairs week once a year, whereby clubs around the county can elect to operate their normal pairs event within the sim pairs structure. So, in addition to our regular duplicate event being scored as a normal Club event, our results have also been merged with other clubs running the sim pairs event. Results are on the EBU website (use the Sims tab).  There is a booklet available for download from the Berks and Bucks web site, in which one of the county's strongest players provides a commentary on how the hands could (should?) have been bid and played.

Charles Chisnall discussed "responding to partner's overcall".

So, you have overcalled and partner bids a new suit - is it forcing, invitational or to be passed?
What about if partner jumps in a new suit - forcing, invitational or to be passed?
What about if partner bids the opponents' suit - UCB  or something else?
What if the opener's partner bids - does that change any of the above for your bid now?
Then we have the question of Vulnerability to consider ...........

Something for you to think about between now and Monday evening: with which of these hands would you overcall 1♥ over a 1♣ opening bid?

1. ♠ xx  ♥ AQxxx  ♦ xxx  ♣ xxx
2. ♠ xx  ♥ AQxxx  ♦ Kxx  ♣ xxx
3. ♠ xx  ♥ AQxxx  ♦ KQx  ♣ xxx
4. ♠ xx  ♥ AQxxx  ♦ KQx  ♣ Axx
5. ♠ xx  ♥ AQxxx  ♦ KQx  ♣ AKx

We'll be fielding three teams again in the upcoming season, the 'A' and 'B' teams playing in Berks and Bucks divisions 1 and 2 respectively, and the 'C' team playing in the Chiltern League.

Our aim is to provide the opportunity for all interested members to play in one or other team. The team captains are Nigel Marlow [A], Graham Dickens [B], and Nigel Lancaster [C].

Note that the 'C' team, being outside of the Berks & Bucks system, can accommodate members also playing in Burnham or other clubs' B&B teams.

Those members whose vacation or other commitments limit their availability are nonetheless welcome to play an appropriately restricted part.

Our standard organisation for Monday evening is that we start play promptly at 7:30, play 26/27 boards, and finish at 10:45. In order for the Director to be able to start play at 7:30, the movement must have been entered into the computer, and boards[/movement cards] distributed, so he/she needs to know the number of participating pairs/teams by 7:25. If you know you won't arrive by 7:25, please notify either the Centre or your partner that you're on your way and your expected arrival time.

Club policy as validated by the recent members' vote is that 3-board sit-outs for pairs events are to be avoided and so, with a half-table, our standard movement will be based on 2-board rounds. Our Directors have been instructed that, once the movement for the evening has been selected, it should not be significantly changed to accommodate unnotified late arrivals, particularly where this might prejudice the prompt commencement of play.

The 29th annual team-of-24 match took place last evening [Thursday 15th August] between Ascot and Burnham.

Home advantage didn't prevail as our team of stalwarts regained the trophy. This is primarily a social event, very much enjoyed by all who take part. Still, coming home with the trophy adds a layer of icing to the cake.

The match details may be seen in the Results area on the right of this page.

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This year's AGM  and annual prize giving was held on June 10th.

The team completed its inaugural year in the Chiltern League with a 13-7 win away to Newbury A, leaving Burnham at the top of the division. Loddon Vale weren't able to manage the 20-0 victory needed in their final match to upset things [they lost 5-15].

Things have worked out pretty much as we'd hoped, providing opportunities for members who wouldn't otherwise have had the chance to represent the Club to take part. Some 15 members played for the team, with Colin Dale taking the role of administrative captain.

Thanks to all who've supported the Club in this venture: we hope that as many of you as possible will take part in the Chiltern Elimination Pairs heat at the Club on April 1st [see below].

Burnham members have already featured in the initial  Berks & Bucks CBA competitions of the 2018-2019 season:

• Heather & Matthew Tan won the Swiss Pairs for the Denys Jenkins trophy on 17th October 2018, with  David Owen & Bob Holder in joint 2nd place, Dick Davey & Paula Hopkinson in 4th place, and Liz Hayton & Angela Flintoft in 5th place
• David Owen & Bob Holder were placed second in the Mixed Swiss Teams for the Carole Mueller Trophy held at Windsor on Sunday 11th November, after finishing 1st equal with a Butler score of 74 - leading the field by a clear margin of 25, the final result being determined from the head-to-head boards. Evelyn Crossley & Eva Wallen finished in 4th place. 
• David Perkins & Phil Thornton playing with Carole & Herb Mueller were placed second in the Butler scored pairs for the Jarrett Cup held at Windsor on Sunday 2nd December.  As there was a 3-way tie for the 3rd place, this was awarded on the basis of the head-to-head tie-break results to Evelyn Crossley, David Owen, Bill  Godenzie & Charles Chisnall.
• Charles Chisnall, David Owen, Bill Godenzie & Evelyn Crossley won the Perkins Cup in the teams event played at Windsor on 17th February, with Nigel Wolfendale, Bob Holder, Dick Davey & Paula Hopkinson taking second place.

Forthcoming competitions are:

• The Senior Pairs for the Directors' Cup to be held at SBBC on 17th April 2019

We have twice weekly sessions of good standard Duplicate Bridge at the very attractive South Bucks Bridge Centre - a purpose-converted 16th Century barn in its own grounds, between Beaconsfield, Maidenhead and Slough 

Our main session is at 7.30 every Monday evening, when we play Pairs, except Teams of Four on the third Monday each month except when this is a bank holiday.  A host is available to play with anyone without a partner on Pairs evenings.

We use Bridgemates, for instant scoring, with current scores displayed on a large screen.  Hand records and results print-outs are available within a few minutes of the end of every session. 

Several teams from the Club compete in the Berks and Bucks League of 8, with the A team in the first division.  We also encourage less experienced players and hold monthly free seminars before the start of an evening session.