Cheltenham Bridge Club

Are you new to Bridge, or a returner in need of improving your play?

At Cheltenham Bridge Club, we have courses for beginners and intermediate players. Students on our Year 1 and Year 2 programmes can access weekly mentored sessions, where they can continue practising the topic learned that week. In Year 2 they can also join our Learners’ Duplicate Sessions which prepare players for joining the club’s 5High and Gentle Sessions. With more experience, members can then attend any of the many courses which form part of our Bridge Development Programme. Please see below for more information, the booking link and contact details if you have any questions.

YEAR 1 lessons are run on Wednesday mornings 10.00-12.00, Wednesday evenings 19.00-21.00. Alternatively, you can learn Year 1 Bridge over 2 weekends. Weekly lessons start on the 30th September, and the first weekend is the 7/8th November. Each 12-week course costs £150, payable after the first lesson. The weekend course costs £150 and is payable in advance. Club membership is included in the price.

YEAR 2 lessons are run on Wednesday afternoons 14.00-16.00 and Wednesday evenings 19.00-21.00 and start on the 30th September. Each 12-week course costs £150 and includes club membership.

If you have not already attended Year 1 lessons at the club, we would advise that you speak to Jan before signing up for the Year 2 lessons. We need to make sure you are competent in the key topics taught in Year 1 before embarking on a Year 2 course.

To book, please use our BookWhen page. 

If you have any questions, please contact Jan at teachingcoordinator@cheltenhambridgeclub.com

The teaching team have announced the dates for the Bridge Development Programme  Tweak to Transform (T2T) Seminars and Play and Discuss (P&D) sessions.  These sessions are suitable for regular players at Gentle and Open Sessions. You can now book all your P&D and T2T courses at the same time without having to repeat your details. Just click here.

TOP FACT – DID YOU KNOW…. The current requirement at CBC is 1,500 to 1,700 boards each month; in excess of 20,000 per annum!

There are currently 17 volunteer members of the duplimating team, run by Steve Potter.  Their work is invaluable to the smooth running of the club.  Their task is to duplimate boards for all club sessions, GCBA events, the Bournemouth holiday, various competitions and many of the boards used in training.  They also maintain boards, renewing and replacing damaged labels, plus ongoing disposal of grubby packs of cards replacing them with new decks.

The volunteers, who need a good eye for detail, work to a rota with each session lasting 60-90 minutes during which 140-180 boards are created.  It takes about 90 seconds to complete the whole process for one hand with associated notes.

There is often chat about whether the boards are really random.  Steve has researched this and says  “Dealer 4 bridge card dealing machine uses The Big Deal, a cryptographic random generation program endorsed and utilized by the World Bridge Federation. It ensures completely unbiased, statistically expected random distributions without predetermined patterns”

I am sure we are all incredibly appreciative of the excellent work of all those, past and present involved in duplimating our boards. Everyone in the Duplimating Team wishes to thank and pass on best wishes to Teresa Thomas who led this team so ably from 2022 through to 2025 before taking a well-deserved rest.

If you are interested to know more, contact Nicola who will forward the whole, very interesting and illuminating report written by Steve, of which this is an extract.

In case you haven’t seen it,  the latest GCBA newsletter written by Garry Watson contains some very useful tips for aspiring players. Go to www.gcba.org.uk/sep26.pdf.

The Cheltenham Bridge Congress, on 29th and 30th August, was a great success. The hall at Dean Close School was at capacity on Saturday with 35 tables for the Swiss Pairs; there were 28 teams in the Sunday Swiss Teams event, and 40 pairs in the 9-High pairs.

Congratulations to the winners of the Swiss Pairs: Daniel McIntosh and Clare Robinson (left photo);9-High Pairs: Paul Price and Pat Barbour (middle photo), and the Swiss Teams: Val Constable, Paul Denning, Patrick Shields and Patrick Phair (right photo).

Next year's congress will be held on 28th and 29th August 2027. Make a note in your diary

On Sunday 6^th, Cheltenham Bridge Club hosted a heat of the countrywide EBU National Handicapped Pairs.
The national results, the whole country results and where CBC players came within the country.
Congratulations to Roger Eaton & Cathy Scott who came 9th nationally (of 354), Chris Haynes & Teresa Walton who came 15^th and Alan and Judy Richards who came 18^th.

If you’d like to play at the club but you don’t have a regular partner or they are not available, there are several ways to find someone to play with.

1.      Look for sessions with standbys. Some sessions (Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and Thursday mornings) have standby players available – sometimes this is the Director. Just turn up and you will be partnered with them.

2.      Use the “Partner required” button on the calendar.  Just click on the session you are interested in, and a “Partner required” button will come up. Click on that and follow the instructions.

3.      Try the new Partnership Desk. We are trialling a new Partnership Desk for members who would like help finding a partner. If you would like to find a partner for the following week, please email the Partnership Desk with details of which sessions you are interested in, your NGS, and the convention you play (e.g. Acol, Benji, 5CM, 2/1). We will then match you with a suitable partner where we can.

Check the calendar or email the Partnership Desk if you would like help finding a partner for next week (or any subsequent week during the trial period).

Do you ever play a hand, think you have done really well, and then when you see the results find you are in bottom place?  We know some of you like to study those hands at home, but still end up scratching your heads and wondering what you could have done differently. 

Help is now at hand with our "Ask the Experts" service.  Find it on the club's home page under the "Learn Bridge" menu item.  This will give you instructions on how to use the service.

Once you have sent in your query, an expert Bridge player will get back to you with some answers which will also be published in an Ask the Experts - Answers section (also on the club's home page under the "Learn Bridge" menu item)