On Wednesday 16th December we held a virtual festive get together via Zoom.

Over 27 members joined up for a quick catch up ahead of our Xmas Bridge session.

We are sad to announce the recent passing of two bridge players at the club, Jeffrey Bissenden and Ross Bellamy.

Jeff was clinical director at the paediatric unit at City Hospital. He retired in 2012 to pursue his hobbies, which included golf, watching cricket, bridge and wine.

Ross was the national president of the Timber Trades' Benevolent Society. He was a keen conservationist, enjoyed photography and started playing bridge at the club in the 70's.

The Ken Frankling Trophy was held on Wednesday 3rd December.

Many congratulations to Peter Woods and Nicola Duke who won with a score of 65.31%.

The runners up were Effie Richards and Miriam Woodman with 64.06% - so it was a very close finish.

In 3rd place came Dennis Amiss & Sue Timberlake with 58.44%.

Well done to all the winners.

Congratuations to Effie and Dilys - winners of the Tuesday EPC bridge ladders.

Effie won the overall ladder for all players - with an average of score of 64.51 (12 best score over the year).

Dilys won the ladder for all players excluding County masters - with an average score of 58.99 (12 best scores over the year).

You can see both the full final tables by selecting the '♥ Bridge Ladder' menu option and then clicking on the the appropriate ladder.

New ladders have now started for 2020-21 (will run from 1st Dec 2020 - 30th November 2021). 

A message from Annabel

Unfortunately it is much longer than originally thought before we will be able to play Bridge at the club again, so for anyone who has not already played on Bridge Base Online (BBO), this is to let you know about EPC Bridge Base Online sessions. Although it may seem a bit daunting, once you have set things up which only takes a couple of minutes, it is very easy and a great way to keep up with people and, of course, practice your Bridge.

On-line bridge session days and times

We hold:

• Our regular EPC 1pm session on Tuesdays, which is open to anyone, and
• A 7.30pm session on Wednesday which is strictly for EPC members and their guests, meaning that non-members are allowed to play ONLY if they are playing with a Priory member.

To join either session

You will need to:

1. Have registered with Bridge Base Online (BBO) with a BBO user name (e.g. mine is Annabel 15) and then
2. Buy some BBO dollars with which to pay your ‘table money’ you can do this on the BBO website through a credit/debit card or through PayPal (which I find easier). The cost for a session is 3 BBO dollars which is about £2.50.

About an hour before the session is due to start you would then go to ‘All Tournaments’ and find the Priory game.

If you want to play in the:

• Tuesday session you can just log on (having already registered with BBO) with your BBO user name, but if you want to play in the more relaxed, and restricted to members with guests only.
• Wednesday evening session, you need to let me know, (especially if you are playing with a non-Priory member) so I can confirm you are a Priory member to the BBO director, then he can add you to our exclusive Wednesday members’ list.  I need yours, and your partners’ details, you only need to tell me the first time you want to play - after that you will automatically be on the list as a Wednesday Permitted Player so there should be no trouble signing on after that.

If you are having problems

If for some reason you can’t get on to either session:

• It is best to ring the BBO director, who is usually the EBU’s Jonathan Lillicrop (01296 317206), although you could
• Ring or WhatsApp either myself or Miriam (all we would have to do is ring him and as it will doubtless be time restricted for you to log on, better to just go straight to Jonathan.)

Any questions?

If you have any questions related to the above please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Miriam or myself.

Congratulations to the winners from the EPC - Terry, Sue, Patrick and Gill.

Click here for more photos from our Xmas Party

*** Please note ***

Bridge now starts on Wednesday evenings at 7.15pm

Click here to see more photos of the workshop

The Individual Winners at Our Charity Event

L-R: Carol Dainty, Ann Dawes (Winner) and Sue Bowan

For more photos of the evening click here

On Thursday 16th May we had 17 teams at our Annual Charity Event. We raised £2,220 for Beanstalk/The Oaks Primary School in Druids Heath to help provide literacy support for young children.

Big congratulations to the winner, Ann Dawes with 3,490 points... who wins her own trophy (The Ann Dawes Trophy).

Runner-up was visitor and ex-member Carol Dainty with 3,350 points and third was Sue Bowman with 2,980 points.

The Team Winners were 'The Jams' with 10,740 points. The four members of the winning team were Ann Dawes, Scilla Carney, Janice Wainwright and Sue Bowen.

Second came the 'The Forbidding Fourbidders' team with 8,700 points (Effie Richards, Amy Innes, Jan Rodrigo and Robert Nock) followed by 'The Dainty Taylors' with 8,520 points (Dylis and Andy Taylor with guest Carol and Dan Dainty).

We have many people to thank for making the evening a great success:

• Bridge players, other EPC members and local suppliers... who donated prizes for the raffle
• Roger Florey and his team... the auction for your gardening services will not be forgotten thanks to Di Fiveash making bids which frightened the auctioneer (husband Ray!)
• Ronnie Shoebotham who donated/spent a huge sum in our auction to secure Roger's services
• Barbara and others who helped sell a huge amount of raffle tickets
• The many player "cake bakers" who did us proud and
• Levy... who donated our teas and coffees.

On the evening we were joined for the second year running by the EPC Chairman (David) and Chair of Tennis (Ed) joining in and hope they will continue to join in again.

Annabel, Jan, Marijke, Ray & Sue

Your EPC Bridge Committee

Looks like bliss... sunshine, cocktails and bridge!

L-R: Rob, Charlie, Roger, Ray and Linda

For more holiday photos click here.

Edgbaston Golf Club (Host) vs. Edgbaston Priory Club on Friday 22 March 2019

L-R: Jeff Bissenden, Tom Burley, Miriam Woodman, Sue Bowman, Ken Franklin, Terry Blatter, Carmen Cuadrado, Tricia Sadiq, David Houston, Sue Froggatt, Jean Pratt, Tricia Jones (Organiser for the Golf Club), Jane Betts, Annabel Hampson, Jan Rodrigo, Ros Tullock Gerri Draysey, Ray Fiveash, Marijke Rodrigo (Organiser for the EPC), Robert Nock, Heather Bissenden, Mary Ann Betts, Jo Oakley, Patrick Bookey

PS: EPC Won by 6,520 points

We would love to hear more about why you started playing bridge and what keeps you playing.

To share your story please click here and answer these few questions:

How long have you been playing bridge? When did you first start playing?

Why did you start playing bridge? What was the catalyst behind you taking up bridge?

In the early days, who did you play with?

What keeps you playing? What do you like most about bridge?

(Optional) What would improve your bridge playing experience at the club?

Annabel will then contact you to write up your story to add to our growing collection.

The Bridge Committee have decided in future to run the Beginners Bridge Crash Courses "on demand".

If you, or you know someone, would like to attend please let the committee know we will add you to the list.

When we have sufficient numbers we will then organise another course at the club with Adam Fraise. 

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 

Take a look at some famous UK bridge players here - how many do you recognise?

Anne, Jan, Amy, Marijke, Roger, Jan, John, David, James, Val & Diane at Lykia World

See more photos here.

The Edgbaston Priory Bridge Club

Welcome to the EPC bridge club.

We are primarily a private member's racquets and fitness club, with a historic and proud connection to lawn tennis.

Bridge has been played at the club for over 40 years (see the 'timeline' menu section) and is a thriving and growing activity at the club.

We aim to support both learners and regular players, and host fun charity events and weekends away.