The next date in Michael Byrne’s popular seminar series will be at The Manchester Bridge Club on Friday 22nd November  between 1:30pm and 4pm.

^{The topic will be: "Which Plan To Go For"  - to help with your Declarer Play}

Please help us to print the correct number of handouts by completing  the form below if you intend to come to this seminar.

Nicholas has now completed his very successful series of seminars over the summer - we had 20 plus people attending each seminar. Nicholas is now doing 3 further monthly seminars for us on Friday mornings in the Autumn.  The first seminar took place on 18th October with 25 poeple attending.  The second of these seminars is on Friday 15th November starting at 10.30am. Please note the change of date for the November seminar (moved from Friday 8th November).. The final seminars is on Friday 13th December also starting at 10.30am. The topics will be:

Friday 15th November - Signalling - a topic for defenders (Do we want partner to continue the suit they led or try another one? Can we make declarer's life difficult by taking ruffs or holding up?)

Friday 13th December - Placing the Cards (What can we work out about the unseen hands? How can we use that to improve our chances? Might my partner have the cards we need to beat the contract?)

We will also try to arrange some seminars on a Thursday evening or a Sunday afternoon to enable more of our members to benefit from Nicholas' expertise.

Please sign up for the seminar on Friday 15th November by using the online form below

You might be interested to read this article from the Guernsey Press featuring Paul Hackett at the recent Guernsey Bridge Congress 

As we approach the 50^th Anniversary of the formation of Manchester Bridge Club as we know it today Jeff Morris will be writing a short series of articles covering the history of the Club over its long and illustrious history leading to an Anniversary Event to be scheduled for early 2025

Jeff Writes   

I find it incredible to think that it was 50 years ago I found myself in Manchester taking over the management of the Central Bridge Club at 81 Central Road West Didsbury.

What was I doing giving up a secure job as an information scientist in the research labs of Laporte Industries Ltd on the Humber Bank to come to a new city to start a new career working for myself with an uncertain future?

I suppose that it was a rash thing to do but I was young and  fancy free and I loved playing bridge and what the hell!.......spend the rest of my life in the confines of a  research lab as some of my contemporaries seem to do?

The Central Bridge Club was a unique club in the North of England I t was the only club outside London that played rubber bridge - in fact rubber bridge was the main activity with only one duplicate session per week on a Wednesday night. That duplicate session was incredibly strong with many  top  players participating along with many of the talented university students. After the duplicate, players would retire to the bar to analyse the hands. Frank Wood was  the main guru- he sat on the radiator at the back of the bar dispensing words of wisdom to the assembled  acolytes .Frank Wood? Bet none of you have heard of him? Well think 'Steptoe 'and that will give you an idea of what he looked like. A painter and decorator by profession he was actually a talented pianist, owner of a Grand Piano -and a very good rubber bridge player. Most days he would come into the club at about 1.00pm, have breakfast(egg and chips) before playing in the £5 game .On one of the rare occasions he was persuaded to play in an international duplicate tournament he finished 2nd playing with Paul Hackett  in one of Europe's top pairs event held in Juan les Pain. 

Playing rubber bridge is a game that gives the participants a level playing field. Everyone plays basic Acol so nobody has any system advantages and at the end of each rubber you change partners.  Over an extended period you would expect your high card holdings to average out.  Frank Wood said it was the players who could minimize their losses with bad cards that ultimately end up being winners. Different stake games were played ranging from 5p per hundred up to £5 per hundred. What was so interesting were the fascinating  characters that came to play. In the 5p game(and don't forget 5p a hundred was not inconsequential in those days) I particularly remember Charlie Woolfe and Lottie Oppenheim. If you have read Victor Mollo's classic book the Bridge Menagerie there are a number of notorious characters. One was the Hideous Hog who would try and play all the hands regardless-well that was Charlie Woolfe! Lottie was a remarkable lady who came to England as a refugee from Vienna in the 1930s and is mentioned by Terence Reese in one of his books as a regular player at his London club. She was a harridan at the bridge table forever chastising her partners for doing the wrong thing('NEVER lead trumps' she would always say).I remember her moving out of her Manchester Old Peoples Home at the age of 94 because the residents were 'dying like flies'!

Monday afternoons was partnership rubber bridge at 5p per hundred and would attract between 5 and 10 tables of ladies with the occasional husband . Eve Lighthill's mother in law Elaine used to be a regular and the standard was pretty good. Oh and by the way those 'acolytes' I mentioned earlier -what became of them?-Michelle Brunner (Multiple World and European Champion,),John Holland (Double World Champion),Rosie Hudson (European Champion),Gary Hyett(Gold Cup winner and international)Alan Mould (Gold Cup winner and international)Barry Myers(International player).......and many more!!

Beginners Bridge Taster Courses.

Our latest Beginner's Bridge Courses started at the end of September.

We are currently running both a Monday evening and a Wednesday morning course.

If you are interested in joining one of our future courses, (likely to start early 2025) please fill in the form below and we will keep you updated about our plans for our next courses.

Please be careful when you enter your email address. There have been a couple of incorrect email addresses entered so if you have not had a reply please try again.  You will always receive a personal response in 24 hours. 

Each course will last 10 weeks and covers the basics of play and bidding. We teach the 5 card major, strong No Trump and short club system.  We will also cover basic defensive tactics.

Most importantly, the classes will be friendly and sociable. Bridge can be a complicated game and will stretch your mind, but we aim to make bridge fun to learn and hope you will quickly come to love the game as much as we do.  Once your course is finished we have a wide range of supported, follow on sessions for you to join to continue to learn this wonderful game.

The course will cost £80 payable in advance 

Interested?  Find out more by emailing Susan on grasan30@gmail.com or completing the online form below

We now have three IntoBridge sessions each week.  These are on a Monday and Friday afternoon at 2pm and on Thursday evening (Swiss Pairs) starting at 7.15pm.  All these sessions are well supported and will continue.  The Manchester Bridge Club Committee decided that we would have to cancel the Sunday afternoon session because there have been so few people playing on a Sunday in recent weeks.

We are delighted to announce that the following Member of the Club achieved an EBU Master Point ranking promotion in August 

Cob Culverwell Local Master 


Congratulations to Cob     

Click here to sign on to IntoBridge

Thursday evening online Swiss Pairs on Intobridge at 7:15pm

Come and join us every week!

Click on the links below to register your account on IntoBridge and come and join us to play on this new innovative online platform that offers much more than than BBO. 

If you haven't already, Click here to Register on the IntoBridge platform

The following youtube videos explain:

     The IntoBridge platform, how to register and available controls

     How to register for an IntoBridge game, how to join a game, and how to use the partnership desk

Registration is straightforward, but does involve receiving an email with a confirmation link to activate your account.

If you have any problems please contact Dave Fernley on 07388 398 919

Once you have registered you can invite your partner using his/her user name or join the Partnership Desk to signify you are looking for a partner.

An IntoBridge host will play with you cannot find one via the Partnership Desk

We now have supervised sessions for beginners, learners & improvers at the club:

Monday afternoon at 1pm for Improvers with Paul Murray.

** NEW** Monday evening at 7:15pm for beginners with Frank/Chris

Tuesday evening at 7pm all levels with Nicholas

Thursday morning at 10:30 for beginners with Susan Triggs.

Members £6 & Visitors £8

Everyone is welcome

Please be aware that the BridgeWebs attendance Module is not a real time system. It reflects entry fees spent on online and face-to-face games but does not reflect money paid into your online account until it is manually updated from the Club's bank statement. Our 'WebMaster', Dave Fernley performs these updates periodically- usually weekly. If you need to know your balance between updates, call Paul or Dave.

The new Bridgewebs Attendance Module for tracking payment money for online games is now live.

It provides you with a real-time view of the games you have played, the current balance of your account and payments made and received by your account. 

To see this information you will need to log on to the Members Only area of the website and then select thePayments Account tab.
Detailed instructions logging onto this area are available here

A detailed description of the Online Account, how it works, etc, is also available here within the Members Only Area (log-on needed).

Account statements will also be sent out periodically by email. This ensures that people who choose not to actively monitor their account balance are still aware of it. The statement provides a regular update to non-members who play in our online games who do not have access the member's area and therefore the real time benefits of this system.

See Calendar on the right of this home page for our Weekly Schedule

Face to Face table fees for Duplicates at the Club are £4 for fully paid-up MBC members & £6 for Guests

Supervised Face to Face table fees at the Club are £6 for fully paid-up MBC members & £8 for Guests

(includes free tea/coffee & biscuits and occasional treats! However, sandwiches/supper will not be served)

Online bridge entry is £3.75 for members & £4.50 for non-members

For Online games a pre-arranged partner is preferable. However, if possible, partners can be found after you log on to our tournaments. Just wait on Partnership Desk on IntoBridge. 

Please transfer entry fee (or more for convenience / multiple games) into the MBC bank account (see below).

MBC will reduce your balance after each session played and email you with a regular statement to help you stay in credit.

The Manchester Bridge Club Bank details are –

Natwest Sort Code 01-02-02   Account Number  21867577

Please put your First Name and Surname as the payment reference

Thank you for supporting The Manchester Bridge Club