Burnham C(hiltern) finished the season with a comfortable 18-2 win against Newbury C last Thursday [18 March], a pleasing end to proceedings. Newbury B have won the league, with Newbury A in second place and Burnham third. Unless Goring & Streatley manages to pull the cat out of the bag in the final match against Newbury A next month, in which case Burnham could sneak into second place.

The Chiltern League Spring Cup for teams-of-4 is run as a 2-stage tournament.

In stage 1 teams play two or three round-robin matches in small leagues of 3-5 teams, with one or two teams from each league advancing to the semi-finals.

Round-robin matches must be played by the end of May, with the semi-finals and final to be completed by 13 July 2021.

Matches comprise 24 boards and will be played via BBO.

Entries need to be made by 31 March 2021.

For more information, entry forms, or assistance in putting together a team, please contact Nigel Lancaster.

The four pairs who qualified for the final on Wednesday 28th April were

• Adrian King & Graham Lynch
• Eva Wallen & Evelyn Crossley
• Joan Murphy & Phil Thornton
• Nigels Lancaster & Marlow

Commiserations to the pairs who didn't make the 50% cut.

The County Pairs Final & Plate events took place last Sunday [7 Feb].

Three Burnham pairs qualified for the 8-table Final: Eva Wallen and Evelyn Crossley finished a very creditable 9th, Nigel Marlow and David Beever an even more creditable 4th, but we take our hats off to David Owen and Bob Holder who won the event and carried off the Rex Avery Trophy.

Burnham players also performed very well in the 6-table Plate: Phil Thornton won the event, for the Chris Burley Trophy [playing with Steve Moss], John Coleman and Marilyn Murtagh finished in 2nd place, with Graham Lynch and Adrian King 4th.

Well done all.

Stephen's funeral took place today, Tuesday 22nd, and can be followed via the link on the Berks & Bucks website.

It's with great sadness that we have to report that Steve passed away at around 10:00am at Wexham Park Hospital yesterday [Monday]. It's come as a great shock, as I don't think many of us realised that he'd been ill for a while - so much for the Covid-enforced social distancing we're all enduring in these times.

We've been in touch with Steve's sister Valerie, who tells us that she's found the outpouring of fond sympathy from Steve's countless friends in the bridge community to be very comforting.

Steve graduated in History at Leeds University in 1962, and it may be during his under-graduate years that he took up bridge. But bridge aside, Steve came from an avid card-playing family, Solo and Partnership Whist being games that were taken very seriously. In latter years, Steve enjoyed inculcating family grandchildren into the fold via Knockout Whist.

Another great interest of Steve's were quizzes of various forms, whether in newspapers, on radio, or on television. His general knowledge was legendary, and he won the BBC Brain of Britain competition in 1986. It was the norm at various congresses that we mere mortals among the regular attendees would get as far as we could with cryptic and general knowledge crosswords before seeking out Steve to apply the finishing touches [which he almost always did!].

I'm sure I'm speaking for the many Burnham players who were fortunate enough to count Steve as a partner and friend when I say he will be very sorely missed.

Burnham has two teams playing in online teams-of-8 leagues.

Charles Chisnall is captaining a team playing in Division 1 of the Berks & Bucks league. Nigel Lancaster is captaining a team playing in the Chiltern League, and this team plays its first match against Goring & Streatley this coming Thursday [22nd October].

Fixtures and results will be published in the Club's Calendar of events.

Please click here for a copy of Charles' slides.

In our forthcoming seminar on Monday 6th December, Charles Chisnall will be focusing on auctions which begin with opening strong 2♣ /2♦ bids. Topics he will be addressing:

• as responder, do you always relay?
• if not. what does a suit response show?
• if your right-hand opener intervenes, what are you showing if you:
  • pass?
  • double?
  • bid a suit?

The seminar is conducted via Zoom, and begins promptly at 6:45pm. If you haven't attended one of our online seminars previously, please contact Graham Dickens for a Zoom invitation. Seminars are free of charge and are open to all.

Seminar notes will be published online.

Regular Monday-evening players will be aware that our directors have experienced some difficulty in launching our events in recent weeks. As far as we know, this is at least partially due to Monday evenings being one of the busiest times on BBO; many of you will be aware that we had to switch to Monday mornings a few months ago after BBO blocked the staging of free [from BBO's point of view] tournaments at busy times.

As from tonight [30th November] we're changing things in an attempt to overcome the problems. Burnham acquired the status of an EBU 'virtual' club some months ago, but we haven't availed ourselves of this capability thus far, tonight will be the first time. Events staged by virtual clubs are not free, and the Club will pay BBO $1 per player via the EBU. This will not affect players, who will continue to be charged £3 retrospectively for each event in which they compete. Players will not need to acquire their own $BBO before they can play.

What will affect players is that, having clicked Competitive, they will now click All Tournaments instead of Free Tournaments. From there things are the same, and the Burnham Bridge Club event can be located by clicking the Search button and typing either Burn or SBBC as before.

Please feel free to contact Nigel Lancaster with any queries.

Click the title for the Powerpoint presentation to Monday's pre-bridge seminar [21 September. 6:45 pm], when Charles Chisnall focused on defence, looking at what what the opponents' bidding has told us, what defensive strategy is indicated, and what opening lead we should make to get this ball rolling. As the play develops, our communication with partner is vital, and our signals are an essential component. Distribution signals, in conjunction with the bidding we've heard, help us work out declarer's exact shape. Attitude signals are an indication of where we hold, or indeed where we don't hold, useful values. Armed with a strategy and information on distribution and location of values allows us to make sensible decisions on the cards we can afford to throw away.

So, a problem to think about in advance of the seminar:

As West you hold

♠   x
♥   AKx
♦   xxxxx
♣   QJ10x

What is your thinking, and what would you lead?

There will be a Powerpoint presentation published on this website within a couple of minutes of the end of Charles' seminar. 

The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. You will receive an invitation from Graham Dickens automatically on Monday afternoon if you've attended a previous on-line seminar. If this will be your first, email Graham to be added to the distribution list.

Our seminars are free and open to all.

To see the notes from Charles' seminar, Seminar 1NTx Summary.ppt.

Here are three scenarios for you to consider ahead of the seminar. Assuming an opening 1NT is 12-14,

Charles will be presenting the seminar via Zoom. If you've attended one of our previous Zoom seminars, you'll receive an automatic invitation from Graham Dickens. If you haven't, email Graham to ask him to add you to the list. We look forward to 'seeing' you on Monday.

Click May 25th seminar slides for slide copies with recommended bids appended as final two slides.

Afternoon All,

Following up yesterday's news item, the Committee has decided to switch our weekly event from 7:30pm to 11:00am, at least for the time being [10:30am from 8 June].

We'll take a further view once the dust has settled, but we don't want to risk repeating last Monday's experience.

This virus has a lot to answer for!

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.

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 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.

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.

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].

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.

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.