Harlow Knights Bridge Club meets to play duplicate bridge online every Friday evening at 7.30 pm. We play pairs on BBO in joint sessions with Watford Bridge Club, and we play teams on Realbridge on 2nd Fridays. Please register (BBO) or log in (Realbridge) by 7.20 pm.

Founded in the 1970s, the club was originally known as ‘Harlow Non-Smokers’ but we changed our name to Harlow Knights when smoking became less of an issue and to honour Ray Knight, one of the founders of the club. We welcome all players hoping to improve their game and wishing to join a club where they will be encouraged in a friendly atmosphere. We would like to inspire all our members to improve their standard, and we support them to go on and play in County and National events.  

We are affiliated to both the EBU and the Hertfordshire Bridge Association.

Ian Kemp, Chairman

We have merged our BBO sessions on 1st/3rd/4th/5th Fridays with Watford and Bushey Bridge Club since October 2023 to get larger numbers of tables, after consultation with members.  On BBO, look for "Watford and Harlow Knights" as the session name to join. 

For the joint sessions you will need to pay through BBO by their standard online payment method, and the price is BBO$3 per evening. The Harlow club account will still be used to pay for our Realbridge teams sessions which will continue on 2nd Fridays. Please note that for the teams sessions, you need to be part of a prearranged team, and any new teams need to contact the club in advance.

Thanks to Watford who are organising the sessions and providing Richard Banbury as director. In case of any problems he can be messaged on BBO at vEBU201600 on the night. Gary Conrad will continue to direct our Realbridge teams on 2nd Fridays. Harlow players who prefer not to play teams or on Realbridge can also join the Watford BBO sessions on those nights. Please note also that, in line with Watford, robot scores will no longer be removed from the BBO club scores; the effect of scores against robots will be much less in a larger field. We have been pleased to see 8-12 tables regularly, and received positive feedback to continue the joint sessions.

The "Results" tab shows the results for the combined field, but only Harlow members are eligible for our various competitions such as the Winter/Summer Pairs, Parkinson/Seaman Trophy and Club Championship. Members' scores for these may be found under the Competitions tab.

There are important changes at the club starting in April 2023, including -

• The proportion of sessions we play on BBO and RealBridge (RB) respectively
• The programme for the year, and the competitions
• The way we pay for bridge sessions
• Free "taster" sessions for visitors

We will be increasing the number of RB sessions, whilst retaining BBO pairs for those who can’t play on RB.  We are re-introducing regular monthly teams sessions, played on the 2^nd Friday of the month as before. All teams sessions will be played on RB. We are also increasing the number of pairs sessions played on RB; there will be RB pairs on the 4^th Friday of the month. So it will be BBO on the 1^st & 3^rd Fridays, and RB on the 2^nd & 4^th. There is occasionally a 5^th Friday in the month and we will aim to use these for one-off trophies and special events, which may be on BBO or RB.

We will increase the number of league competitions to match the changes in the platforms we play on, and have handicap leagues for all of them. More detail of the programme and the competitions is available on the menu tabs on the left. 

We are changing the way you will pay for your Realbridge sessions, so you will not have to pay for RB through the website before you play. Instead we are asking members to pay money direct into the club’s bank account, and we will take the table money out of your balance and send you a statement at the end of the month. You will be able to play even if you have no credit, but we will ask you to top it up afterwards. Details of how to pay and how to login to play can be found on the How to pay and play online tab on the left menu.

Visitors are welcome to our friendly online club. From July 2023, so that you can try us out, we now do not charge for your first 3 sessions on Realbridge, although you do need to email us in advance so that you can be registered and access the game. The joint BBO games with Watford are charged at the normal rate of $3. As before, we expect visitors to join the club after three games as a visitor. 

Our AGM was held on 30th June on Zoom, prior to our Friday evening game. Full details and the Zoom link were sent to members by email and are also available on the AGM tab, see menu on left. The minutes are now also posted on the AGM tab.

New Hertford Bridge Club are meeting face to face on Tuesday evenings at Waterford Village Hall, and welcome visitors. Visitors play free for two sessions. Full details are available at https://www.bridgewebs.com/newhertford/

Congratulations to all our winners and runners-up in 2022-3:

Summer pairs - winners Adrienne Tinn & Michael Shine; runners up Alan Deeley & Eddie Cirket

Seaman Trophy - Pat Flavell & Shirley Bull

Parkinson Trophy - Mike Hulbert & Stephen Page

Trophy Pairs - winners Adrienne Tinn & Michael Shine; runners up Alan Deeley & Eddie Cirket

Trophy handicap pairs - winners Ian Greig & Tim Potter, runners up Dave & Fiona Langridge

Club Championship Pairs Open - Julia Lewis and Ray Lenger

Club Championship Pairs Restricted - Marion Beckley & Rosina Conen

Club Individual Championship - Ian Kemp

Teams Open League - Jill Mumford, John Eyre, Arni Anidjar-Romain, Tim Nash and friends

Teams Handicap League - Chris & Terry Edwards, George Lock, Luigi Wiechula and friends

Ascendancy Pairs - Dave & Fiona Langridge

Congratulations to Julia Lewis & Martin Smith who won the final of the Hertsbridge Marjorie Lukyn Charity Cup on 12th March 2023, having qualified at Harlow Knights in December. Well done, a great result!

We do not offer a hosting service but if you need a partner for a particular evening we will try to find one for you. Please contact us on harlowknightsbridgeclub@gmail.com - preferably by Weds - and we will email around to other members to ask if anyone is available. You must be willing to give your contact details (either a phone number or an email) so that people may contact you direct.

The results section of our web site has lots of additional information on your own individual performance. To help you get the most from this results service please click Accessing personal performance information.pdf to open the instructions on how to access this extra information.