Bridge Update_3 - January 2022
A happy & healthy 2022 to you all.
This email is intended to bring you up-to-date with all that is happening in 2022
1. Find a Game Form
Whilst we have 4 duplicate sessions per week accommodating all levels of player, we have not, in the past, had a mechanism for our members to "team up" for a game of friendly social bridge.
We have devised a new form on our ENBC page to assist you to acheive this:
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=eastnorfolk&pid=display_page13
2. Find a Partner Form
This existing form, combined with the 'Find a game' form, should give you all the ability of playing more social Bridge in 2022
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=eastnorfolk&pid=display_page8
3. Weekly Duplicate Sessions
We are fortunate that BCL provides the platform to cater for differing player's capabilities (e.g. F2f Duplicate, Social, DIDO, Tournaments, Coaching sessions etc. etc.) and we have taken advantage of this by providing 4 sessions per week of F2f Duplicate; three sessions for established players and one session for Beginners/Improvers (BCL's own EBU session on Tuesday mornings at 10 o/c).
The 'general' definition of the difference between the two sessions is that established players are expected NOT to use notes at the table and to comfortably play 8-9 boards per hour i.e. approximately 16 boards in a 2-hour session. If you do not qualify for the above, then please use the Tuesday morning F2f sessions (until you feel 'comfortable') or contact me and I'll provide "one-2-one" sessions to help improve your bidding/playing speed.
4. BCL's Swiss Pairs League 2022
This is an opportunity for established partnerships to play against similarly rated opponents in the Swiss Pairs League - if you want more details I have prepared some draft guidance notes about Swiss Pairs at:
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=eastnorfolk&pid=docs_Swiss%20Pairs%20-%20draft..pdf
BCL only arrange these sessions 3 or 4 times a year - and the next one starts in 10 days time (deadline for entries coming up soon), It's a really good opportunity to hone your game - why not give it a go? - you've got nothing to loose and it doesn't cost you a penny!
Further details (and signing-up method) on BCL's website:
https://www.bridgeclublive.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=2309
5. No Fear Bridge (NFB) - special offer - 3 months free membership and 30% discount thereafter
No Fear Bridge is one of the places to go to improve all aspects of your Bridge, including Tutorials/Quizzes/Bidding Practice and Hands to Play.
NFB normally offer a 2-week free trial, but this has been extended to 3 months for members of ENBC. Thus you can take advantage of the next 3 winter months to improve your Bridge (at your own pace) - at no cost!!!
After the free 3 months you will also be entitled to a 30% discount off the annual cost of membership by quoting "ENBC" as the discount code.
Further details at: https://www.nofearbridge.co.uk/index.php
(Note: do NOT sign-up for their 2-week trial)
If you have not already signed-up for their free trial and wish to do so, just fill-in the doodle poll below and I'll try to get you all signed-up within a week so that you can start improving your game as soon as possible
https://doodle.com/poll/z2r6g5h4erqqce9a?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link
6. Q & A Session and Supervised Practice (alternate Wednesdays)
We will continue to offer these free sessions for the foreseeable future.
They are an opportunity to turn up and ask any Bridge-related questions, followed by a Supervised Practice session. The format will change slightly in that we will be using MS Teams (rather than the BCL AV system) - this will save time as well as to enable screen-sharing such that previously played hands and results can be shared with the audience - see top RHS of our website for the MS Teams link.
7. Unicef Charity Matches
EcatsBridge will again be organising theses events between Monday 24th – Friday 28th January 2022 and it is hoped that BCL will support this charity.
Further details to follow, but please put these dates in your diary (usual F2f duplicate sessions)
Most of the above information is on our website, so please continue to check dates/details etc. before committing to play.
Bridge Update_2 - October 2021
Thanks to all 72 of you who have replied to our Doodle Poll which has helped to shape our strategy for the coming months.
This, combined with other comments received regarding playing times (7 minutes per board), start times and number of boards played, has resulted in the following changes to our F2f sessions:
Beginners/Improvers who cannot play within a time limit of 7 minutes/hand - Tuesday morning 11:00 (coincident with BCL's EBU sessions) **
Beginners/Improvers who can play within a time limit of 7 minutes/hand - Thursday morning 9:30
Club Players who can play within a time limit of 7 minutes/hand - Tuesday evening 18:45
Club Players who can play within a time limit of 7 minutes/hand - Friday afternoon 14:45 (this may be combined with BCL's EBU sessions in the future) **
Sit-down time will be 15 minutes, except for Thursday mornings which will stay at 20 minutes.
For those players who are struggling with keeping to an average of 7 minutes/hand (8-9 hands per hour), I will be asking them to temporarily stop playing at that session and give them a one-to-one tutorial to assist them to play faster. This is on the basis of "self-assessment" (assisted by their opponents).
If you are capable of playing at a F2f session this implies that you do not use bidding/playing notes.
There is ample opportunity to practice without bidding/playing notes at BCL's weekly Monday morning & evening supervised practice sessions in the Coaching Corner and our own sessions on alternate Wednesday's in the Teaching Area.
The F2f sessions will continue to be "hosted" using the the MS Teams video conferencing system - if support for this wanes then the sessions will continue, as normal, but will be "unhosted".
I have received other suggestions regarding start times and number of boards played and I will be "doodling" directly with players for each session: as such it is most likely that these changes will not take effect until after 18th October.
Please check with the Calendar at:
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=eastnorfolk&pid=display_future
and on the Club Home Page at
https://www.bridgeclublive.com/members/club-members.asp?ClubId=109
before arranging to play.
In order to defray any further costs to players, could you all please cancel your standing order with immediate effect. The Charity Fun Challenges will continue on Tuesday EVENINGS and if you intend to support this please continue with your £1 standing Order.
The Monday "All things Bridge - Q & A " sessions have served their purpose and will be changed from Monday afternoon to alternate Wednesday's (in advance of the Supervised Practice Sessions at 14:30).
We hope to be again hosting the Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs matches on Friday 5th November and Tuesday 9th November and I will be emailing again nearer the date with further information as it uncertain if BCL will only be putting up the boards for their own EBU games (at start times of 14:00 and 19:00).
** There is a small charge for this -more details at https://www.bridgewebs.com/bridgeclubuk/
Bridge Update_1 - July 2021
Monthly Charity Fun Challenge
Just a quick reminder that we will be playing two sessions in our monthly charity fun challenge on Tuesday 29th July; the first at 9:30 and the second at 18:45.
Normal rules apply - £1 in the kitty and the winner determine the charity of their choice. Winners from previous 3 months are barred from the choice.
MS Teams before our F2f Sessions
Many of you have been unable to join us in our pre-F2f MS Teams session so I have set-up two extra tutorials to assist.
These will be on Tuesday 27th July at 15:00 hrs and Wednesday 28th July at 10:30 hours.
Full details on the top right-hand panel of our webpage at
https://www.bridgewebs.com/eastnorfolk/
Speeding-up our F2f Sessions
If you are playing in our F2f sessions then you should be able to complete a board in about 7 minutes. There are occasions when a player may have internet connection problems that prevent this from happening, but in general we should be able to finish an 18-board game in just over 2 hours. Could you all please try to stick to this guideline – one way to assist in this is to ‘claim’ if you know you can win the last 3 tricks or more.
Volunteers needed to try-out a new playing session for the Autumn
We have had a trial run of Teams of 4 (8 players) on one of our Wednesday afternoon sessions which has proven to be quite successful and we are hoping to introduce this as a permanent feature for the Autumn.
The specific advantage of Teams of Four is that it is a ‘half-way’ house between social bridge and F2f Bridge in that it introduces the concepts of automatic movements and SSDs.
If you would like to try it out, please contact George at
george.howard99@gmail.com
The session starts at 15:00 hrs and last for about 1 ¼ hrs – no partner needed
Further details about Teams of Four are available at:
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=eastnorfolk&pid=docs_Teams%20of%20Four.pdf
"Where & when to play"
I have updated the document, which is available at:
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=eastnorfolk&pid=docs_When%20%20where%20to%20Play.pdf
Find a Partner
Don't be put off from playing because you don't have a partner.
Tony will try his best to find you a partner for most of our regular playing events, all he asks is that you fill in the form on our webpage at:
https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwop/bw.cgi?club=eastnorfolk&pid=display_page8
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