We are a friendly medium sized (10-14 tables) bridge club that meets every Thursday evening at Mountnessing Village Hall to play duplicate bridge.  Play starts at 7.30pm and pairs should arrive at 07:15: if you arrive unannounced after 7.25 you may not get a game. The club uses wireless scoring and computer-dealt boards.   Visitors and players with limited experience are always welcome, but note that you do need to have arranged a partner in advance as we do not currently operate a 'host' system.

A reminder that the Christmas Party Session will be hosted this year - thanks to a very kind offer by Audrey Hartley, who will be directing the session.

Audrey Hartley says:

"As I am directing, I thought I would add to the festive spirits and offer myself as host for the evening.  Then people without a partner would be free to come along to the party and be sure of a game.  I would pair everyone off first and only play if there was someone left over at the end of the pairing."

Congratulations to the winners of the Windmill Trophy for 2019 - Paul Mollison & Simon Moorman.

Please note that there has been a re-score on Board 16; previously the score at table 7 was showing as 'not played'. An adjusted score has now been applied following the Director's ruling. Scores achieved at table 8 were also impacted.

Though the top overall rankings were / are very close, the relative positions remain unchanged.

It has always been the case that the Club has purchased stocks of single-use cups in bulk. The current stocks are running low, and that situation has led to a renewed discussion within the committee as to whether their use should be continued.

A decision has been reached not to purchase any more plastic cups, but instead to ask members to bring their own ceramic cups / mugs – a practice that is already followed by other clubs and some individual players.

The motives are three-fold:

Convenience: it takes a small amount of time at the start of the evening to set out the the cups and holders, but, worse, it takes much more time to clear away the cups that are often left ‘scattered’ all around the hall at the end of the evening. Additionally, quite often we fill the waste sack in the kitchen with used cups, and we are then expected to take it round to the disposal bin at the back of the hall.

Cost: even buying in bulk, the cost adds up, and those costs increase over time.

The ‘Green Agenda’: in fairness, this is something of a token effort, but ‘every little helps’ as one of the Supermarket chains proclaims

Current stocks of single-use cups have now virtually expired entirely, so please get into the habit of bringing your own with immediate effect. Some members already do so. Please remember to wash your cup and take it home afterwards.

Thanks for your co-operation.

If you are looking for a partner, you have three basic options:

• Log in to the Members' Area where you can view current contact details for all members, and you can optionally send email(s) to players of interest to you (see the panel below about 'Accessing the Members' Area if necessary); or
• Use the on-line partner matching service available through this website (see the panel below about 'Accessing the Members' Area if necessary); the advantage of this method is that your request is posted immediately though the disadvantage is that you may need to wait for other players to see the post; or
• Send an email to mountCM15@gmail.com. This action will result in an email being sent to potential partners, though there could be a delay as such action triggers a manual process.

If you have not already done so, please click on the 'Membership' menu item, then follow the instructions.  Enter your email address as your 'name' and then press 'Forgotten Password'.  You will then receive an email with a password that will enable you to log into the membership area.  NB You MUST use the email address by which the club recognises you, e.g., the one to which Secretary sends you club-related messages.  Once you have registered on the system in this way, you will be able to log into the membership area, where several services are open to you:

• You can view the current club membership list, on which you can find your 'Club ID', which serves as your personal 'short-code' for the wireless scoring system. 
• You can also register that you are seeking a partner.  Note that in the Calendar summary to the right of this pane, if you spot the message Partner? then it means that at least one potential partner is available;  if you spot the message Bookings then it means that at least one partnership has been arranged - but there could be another partner available.  Click on the Partner? or Bookings message to reveal details.
• You can also access documents that are restricted to club members, such as, the agenda and papers for the Club's AGM

If you want to learn to play Bridge, we have two suggestions:

• Some of our individual members do offer private learning and development opportunities.  If you are interested, send us a message via the 'Contact Us' link, which is accessible through the left hand menu
• On the 'Useful Links' page you will find a link to a commercial on-line Bridge Learning experience