| Charity Duplicate for the Trussell Trust - Sunday 11th June |
 The Manchester Bridge Club is supporting the charity duplicate jointly organised by Manchester County Bridge Association and Larkhill Bridge Club. The event is a social duplicate and any-one can enter. You don't have to be a member of the EBU. The duplicate will take place on Sunday 11th June and will start at 2pm. There will be a break for cake and refreshments at half time and a prize for the winning pair. The duplicate will take place at the Larkhill Centre, on Thorley Lane, Timperley WA15 7A. The entry fee is £10 and all profits will go to the Trussell Trust - the largest food bank provider in the UK. We hope to be able to donate £5 per player if sufficient people enter. There will also be a raffle for a prize which is being donated by Manchester County Bridge Association. There is a public car park close to the venue. If you would like to enter please go to https://www.bridgewebs.com/manchesterevents/ or email Susan Triggs via grasan30@gmail.com
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| Postcard from Fuengirola |
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The Manchester Bridge Club contingent with tournament organiser Dave Debbage.
This was the first Fuengirola International Bridge Tournament, taking part over three days with players from near and far: Spain, France, UK, Scandinavia, Canada, Morocco and Israel
Andy Brocklehurst and Jeff Morris got off to a great start winning the opening session with 68.5% and followed it with another good session to qualify in third place for the final.
Sadly the final was a great disappointment with Jeff and Andy, and Dave Debbage and his partner John Sansom, all performing below par. But a week of sunshine and trips out to Malaga and Marbella have helped make this a most enjoyable bridge holiday for all concerned
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| AGM 15 March 2023 |
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The Manchester Bridge Club AGM took place on Wednesday and 35 people attended – which was an excellent turnout. Paul Murray gave an extensive and informative report on the past 12 months events. This was followed by a comprehensive explanation of the Club’s Accounts for 2022. Paul used our TV monitors to support and provide visibility of the key points in his report and of the Accounts. Many members commented on the quality and range and depth of the information provided. The current Committee were elected unopposed and Frank Eade was also unopposed in being elected to the Committee to fill the role of Treasurer. A lavish cheese selection was provided and there was a seamless transition from the AGM to competitive Bridge. A great deal of work was done by the Committee to make the AGM a success and we are delighted that so many of you rewarded that effort by coming to the meeting – thank you.
The Chairman’s report can be found in the Members Only section where you will also find a copy of the 2022 Accounts.
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| RIP Dr Mark Bradbury |
It is with much sadness and shock that we learned of the death of popular MBC member, Dr Mark Bradbury.
Mark died peacefully in his sleep on Friday night, February 3rd.
Mark was an MBC member and regular player at Palatine Road many years ago and re-joined the Club about 2-3 years ago. He was a very keen player at the Monday and Wednesday supervised duplicate sessions as well as the Tuesday afternoon duplicate. Mark helped out at recent beginner's lessons and his calm, encouraging advice was invauable. Mark also supported the Committee a lot as a volunteer by helping prepare the room for bridge sessions, catering and more latterly taking table money at the start of bridge sessions. Consequently, he became friendly with all the Committee and many of our members. We will miss him hugely.
Rest in peace Mark – a lovely fella.
Donations totalling £300 were collected from our members and given to the Renal Unit at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital as per the wishes of Mark’s family.
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| The Manchester Bridge Club retains the Gazette Cup |
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On Sunday February 5th, the Club retained the Manchester County Gazette Cup for Teams of 8 by defeating a very strong Bramhall Cheadle Bridge Club team into second place. The scores could not have been closer with the teams tying on VPs but Manchester Bridge Club edging the IMP scoring against Bramhall & Cheadle by just 1 IMP!!
Many congratulations to the 4 pairs in the winning team -
John Hassett & Rhona Goldenfield and Andrew Woodcock & Catherine Draper;
Tom Dessain & David Sarabowski and Paul Murray & Paul Hackett.
Of the 36 pairs competing, the MBC team had 4 of the top 7 pairs on the cross IMPs (X-IMPs) with Andrew & Catherine (1st), Paul Murray & Paul Hackett (3rd), Rhona Goldenfield & John Hassett (6th) and Tom Dessain & David Sarabowski (7th). A fantastic achievement by the team!!
Our Club will now represent the Manchester Country Bridge Association at the regional qualifiers for the national Garden Cities competition at Bradford Bridge Club on Saturday May 13th. We reached the national final last year and finished 5th. Hopefully we can go one step better this year!
The Club had FOUR teams competing in the Gazette Cup (more than any other bridge club in the County), which is tremendous effort. The other 3 teams were -
John Moran & Farokh Engineer and Frank & Maria Eade; Susan Triggs & Graham Winn and Mike Wood & Lesley Richards
Irene Davies & Karen Reissmann and Jeff Morris & Andy Brocklehurst; Ann Wood & Dee Connolly and Simon Townsend & Trish Blum (substituted with Vera Lowson on the day due to a family illness)
Paul Jones & Pat Dunningham and Fiona Frankl & Lauren Millar; Fly Leung & Gilbert Lee and Enid Noronha & Maureen Seddon
It was quite an eventful day with the Bridgemate scoring software suffering a malfunction which meant that many of the boards had to be scored by manual methods - hence the delay in announcing the winners. Further, MBC member Frank Eade, took ill during play and an ambulance had to be called. Frank received good medical care at the venue from former doctors and MBC members, Pat Dunningham and Enid Noronha and he steadily recovered after a couple of days in hospital. Frank is back home now and is expected to make a full recovery.
Thank you to all 33 MBC members who participated. It is much appreciated and proves that our Club continues to demonstrate a love of the game and strength in depth in competition.
Paul Murray
Chairman,
The Manchester Bridge Club
February 13th 2023
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| Bernard Goldenfield Trophy at Manchester Congress Teams Championship |
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Manchester Bridge Club team wins the Bernard Goldenfield Trophy
at the Manchester Congress Green Point Teams event
TMBC members Andrew Woodcock, Catherine Draper, Paul Murray & David Debbage led throughout to win the Teams event by almost 7 VPs with a round to spare on Sunday.
Whilst David, Andrew and Catherine have won at the Congress many times, this was Paul’s first win in his home county – and he’s still buzzing! Congratulations!! TMBC members also in Teams competition who showed well were - Peter Grauer (2nd), John Hassett & Jeff Morris (9th), Irene Davies & Karen Reissmann (10th).
In the Championship Pairs on Saturday, 38 pairs competed. TMBC members Irene Davies & Alan Mould finished 2nd, Andrew Woodcock & David Debbage (4th), David Sarabowski & Tom Dessain (6th), Paul Hackett & Paul Murray (9th) and Justin Hackett & Martin Taylor (11th). David & Andrew were the top Men’s Pair.
It’s nice to see Manchester Bridge Club members performing well and winning in top County Bridge events. Well done to all!
Why not come along to Paul’s supervised sessions on Monday & Wednesday afternoon at 1pm. Each session includes a short lesson followed by a supervised duplicate of around 15 boards.
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| Membership Promotions |
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We are delighted to announce that the following Members of the Club achieved a promotion in February
Jennifer Dunn Local Master
Gilbert Lee District Master
Congratulations to both of you
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| Swiss Pairs on IntoBridge |
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Click here to sign on to IntoBridge
Thursday evening online Swiss Pairs on Intobridge at 7:15pm
9 tables for popular online MBC game on Dec 8th with 15 players playing on IntoBridge for the first time!
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
For the time being, there are no robots on IntoBridge.
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| TMBC Success at Bedfordshire & Great Northern Swiss Pairs |
Our Chairman, Paul Murray and fellow TMBC member, Andrew Woodcock enjoyed a convincing win in the Bedfordshire Green Point Swiss Pairs event recently.A huge field of 82 pairs entered the competition, which was played on the RealBridge platform and also coincided with Paul's birthday! Well done Paul and Andrew!
Why not come along to Paul’s supervised duplicate sessions for Beginners and Improvers on Monday at 1pm and Tuesday evening at 7pm and Wednesday morning at 10.30am? A short lesson and discussion on a key bridge topic is followed by supervised play at the table.
Meanwhile, TMBC members figured prominently at the recent Great Northern Swiss Pairs, which was held on 1st-2nd October at Leeds. All TMBC participants finished in the top half of the 37 pair field.
Congratulations to Michael Byrne and Alec Smalley who won in a very tight finish. Rodney Lighton and Tom Dessain were 3rd, Justin Hackett & Martin Taylor 5th, Rhona Goldenfield & Tracy Sherman 7th and Jackie Pye & John Holland 8th. Jeff Morris & David Sarabowski finished joint 16th.
Michael becomes the first person to have won the event with four different partners - Alex Morris, Andrew Woodcock and Kieran Dyke. John Holland has also won the event four times previously with three different partners.
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| Beginner's Course |
OUR NEXT BEGINNER'S BRIDGE COURSE WILL START ON WEDNESDAY 1ST MARCH 2023 at 10.30am
This course lasts for 12 weeks and covers the basics of play and bidding. We teach the 5 card major, strong No Trump and short club system. We will cover basic defensive tactics and also demonstrate how to play bridge online mainly using Bridgebase Online and No Fear Bridge.
The most important thing though is that 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.
The course will cost £72 payable in advance
Tutors are Susan Triggs and Anne Naylor
Interested? Find out more by emailing Susan on grasan30@gmail.com
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| Online Account for Online Games |
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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.
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| Afternoon Improvers |
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WE NOW HAVE SUPERVISED AFTERNOON SESSIONS FOR BEGINNERS, LEARNERS & IMPROVERS WITH PAUL MURRAY AT THE CLUB
MONDAY AFTERNOON AT 1PM FOR IMPROVERS
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AT 1:30PM FOR BEGINNERS
EVERYONE IS WELCOME.
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| WEEKLY SCHEDULE |
 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
(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 text/email/call you when your ‘pot’ reduces to approx £12 so you have time to top it up and stay in credit.
The Manchester Bridge Club Bank details are –
HSBC Sort Code 40-11-56 Account Number 90730807
Please put your Firstname and Surname as the payment reference
Thank you for supporting The Manchester Bridge Club
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| Thursday Swiss Pairs |
"HOP ALONG" TO OUR THURSDAY NIGHTS
It's a popular 18 board event, 6 x 3 boards on IntoBridge in the usual fun format. We start at 7.15pm so we should be finished by 9.30pm.
It's been organised so that those of you who are working during the day have an evening session to join in with so please, everyone, continue to support this.
See you on Thursday nights at 7.10pm for a 7.15pm start!!
Our IntoBridge Swiss pairs is a true Swiss movement and guaranteed to be a friendly and competitive evening!
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| Would you like to learn to play bridge? |
Would you like to learn to play bridge?
We are currently setting up our new courses for beginners. We will be running a course of 12 lessons starting Spring 2023 starting each week at 1.30pm
If you are interested in joining this course or would like to learn at different time or day, please fill in the form below and we'll get in touch to make arrangements for you to start lessons to learn to play this fascinating game.
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