St. Austell BC has now been joined by Helston BC as the second club in Cornwall to be playing online. St. Austell's weekly session starts at 1.30pm on a Tuesday afternoon. Helston BC's weekly session starts at 6.30pm, also on a Tuesday. At present, the club is only open to existing members, although a member can play with a guest. As the organisers get more confident running a session, they hope to make the club open to all players in Cornwall, a decision St. Austell BC took a few weeks ago. It is rumoured that a third club in the county, Falmouth, will be playing club bridge online in the near future. In Devon, Exeter, Plymouth and Torquay BCs all welcome players from Cornwall.

TEAMS OF FOUR LEAGUE

We are currently trying  to get off the ground an online teams of four league within Cornwall.  In order to make the idea appealing to a wide range of club players, we think a handicap league would give everyone a good chance of some success. A team's handicap will depend on each individual member's current NGS grading (more detail about exactly how it will work at a later stage). Matches to be 16 boards, playing 8 boards against each pair. Between 4-8 players to a team, but the same four players must start and complete each match. The matches will be played on BBO, and there are excellent short videos available online about how to set up a match. Richard Blyth will email the video(s) to team captains at the appropriate time.

So all we need now is some entries. We think a minimum 6 teams is needed, and we may split into two leagues if we get into double figures. Depending on the numbers we would play a match fortnightly or monthly at a time of day convenient to both teams.

So please let me know if you would like to enter a team. The names of all four (+) players are not needed initially, although we will need them before the matches start in order to calculate handicaps (which will remain the same throughtout season 1).

The emphasis is on having a friendly game, with familiarity (and confidence) in playing online the main aim. So please do your best to spread the word among your club members, encouraging them to give it a go.

Entries/intentions to Chris Bickerdike (bickerdikechris@gmail.com) asap. We will probably start from the beginning of September, so entries should be with me by 23 August.

Many thanks to St. Austell BC for inviting any pair within Cornwall to play online in this event on 21 July. It was disappointing that only nine pairs took advantage of this invitation to join a similar number of local pairs, making 18 in total. Winners with an impressive 63% were Steve Clifton & David Clarke from Bude BC, with two Truro pairs second and third - Richard Blyth & Geoff Jones (60%) and Ian Marriott & Paul Lindsay (59%). 

The weekly club afternoon session at St. Austell (Tuesday afternoon 1.30 pm start) is now open to any pair within the county - see the St. Austell website for details of the entry procedure. 

The 40 board final will be between :

Booth (Bishop, Mabley, Thomson, Biggs)     v    Bickerdike (Miller, Bell, Bryant)

Due to the pandemic, the match has been postponed, but may be played later in the year.

There are currently 13 bridge clubs in Cornwall that are affiliated to the English Bridge Union (EBU). They meet on a variety of weekday evenings. 

Most county events are held on Sundays between October and April at Ladock village hall, just east of Truro. Postcode is TR2 4PG.