Mondays and Thursdays at 7:00pm

Monday Relaxed Pairs: online on BBO or face-to-face at Kesgrave Community Centre, Ipswich, both sessions start at 7:00pm. The same boards are played and all participants receive follow-up notes on the deals, distributed by email, usually within two days.

Thursday Club Pairs: also on BBO or face-to-face in the Ropes Hall, Kesgrave Community Centre, Ipswich. Both sessions start at 7:00pm and although the results are separate, all participants play the same deals.

Visitors: always welcome, for any session we run. Before your first session you must register with us; see the Visitor Information Form. Online players for Monday or Thursday can use the respective links from the Online Bridge Club box, right.

At Kesgrave we run a cashless system for collecting table money and players are billed for sessions played at the end of each month.

Any questions, about any format, please let us know, we're here to help.

The Club Library

Yes, who can remember we had one? The history is long and, it must be said, largely unfortunate. For some years we have accumulated, through generous donations, a lot of books. So many that we had no real way of managing them.

There is now a way out but before they go, we are offering any title to club members and students.

This is a time-limited offer: all remaining books will go to a specialist seller on Friday 2nd October so requests on or before Thursday 1st October please.

Browse the complete list and read more.

Competitions & AGM

The club year ends 30th September and all our cumulative competitions end too. Last Thursday 17th saw the final qualifier (of eight) for the Mens, Ladies and Mixed. Jaroslaw Grochowski & Simon Riley held their Mens title as did Julie Milewski & Peter Milewski the Mixed. Ann Kent & Jackie Bendall saw off their rivals to take the Ladies and the Helen Mack Salver.

There are two Mondays and one remaining Thursday to complete the annual and summer events: Relaxed Pairs and Chris Green Award (Mondays); Gordon Betts, Club Pairs, Barbara Barker and Summer Handicap - good luck!

Annual General Meeting

The club's AGM will be held on Thursday 5th November at 6:15pm, in person in Ropes Hall and on Zoom; procedural details to follow next month.

More below; scroll down or click on:

• Deal of the Week
• BBO Membership Repercussions
• Suffolk Pairs Congress at Kesgrave
• Spring Charity Week

Missed any? All past articles have their own page (also menu-item, left).

The 2026 Suffolk Pairs Congress

This year's pairs component is held at Kesgrave on Saturday 10th October, starting at 11:00am; entry is £12 per player.

Enter via the Suffolk website.

BBO Membership

Many of you who play online will have received notification from BBO or the EBU about the imminent introduction of the platform's new membership structure. This is mainly aimed at those playing social bridge, currently free and unlimited.

The new arrangement has no impact on paid-for club games such as we offer on Mondays and Thursdays.

BBO currently receive 30 cents of each BB$ paid as table-money and access remains unrestricted, requiring only a login. That is now known as 'Basic Membership' and you can read the letter of how BBO says it will work.

The most significant impact is in match play. The new scheme requires a Premium Members to create the match. It seems that the introductory offer granting free Premium status is quite liberal but is of a year at most and may become more of a problem in future. However, there is no need for players, invited to a created match, to be anything other than a Basic Member of BBO, simply by possessing a login as now.

It is possible to book a table for social bridge (or two for a team match) on RealBridge: see this from the EBU.

Table money from the four sessions in week beginning Monday 11th May plus donations came to £360 which were donated to,

The organisation was suggested by a member – which you all are able to do. Music in our Bones seek to help people through music and group singling and are a small charity based in Suffolk who in their own words, have,

… created 8 lively communities across Suffolk where you’ll be sure of a warm welcome. Come and join others who have discovered that singing together really can lift spirits and help us to manage the many challenges of life.

Groups run in the Lowestoft, Bury and Ipswich areas. We also run online groups for those unable to attend in-person. We are especially keen to reach family carers, anyone managing a long term condition, depression or anxiety, and anyone who thinks singing with others might lift their spirits.