Updates will be made to the website as we begin to operate online only for a while. Check back regularly for more news. Click on the new "Online Bridge Programme" tab in the left hand menu for some new pages.

Our Thursday evening Gentle duplicate community have adopted an innovative approach. Led by Susan Fletcher and Ian Bishop the playing of online bridge is complemented by a simultaneous video conference call so that all the players can see each other on screen. See the screen shot taken during the second of the sessions when 6 tables were in play. Want to join in?  For more information click here.

We have been asked to publicise a study into the psychological and social effects of Covid-19 in the UK which is being run by the University College of London.  UCL believes that the results from this are vital if we are to understand the effects of the virus and social distancing measures on individuals. A second study has been launched by Oxford University.

Both studies are looking for recruits to take part. Click here for further information.

We are pleased to announce that OBC is running a free online teams league for club members. We want this to be a fun event for players of all abilities, where the emphasis is on social contact, rather than on the bridge, although the bridge is important too!  

It will be a teams-of-4 competition using Bridge Base Online’s Teams Matches option, playing two 8-board rounds, with a short break between rounds. To make matches feel more social we’re encouraging you all to set up and run a video conferencing session during each match. That way you can see and talk to your team mates and the opposition, and will have a chance to discuss the hands during the break and at the end.

For further details please click here

The end of March marks the end of year for the ladders for all of our bridge sessions. Congratulations go to this year's ladder winners (second and third placed names in brackets): 

Monday morning pairs: Linda Edwards (Robert Gasser; Amr El-Kashef)

Tuesday morning pairs (a pairs ladder): Roger Smith & Sue Smith (Charles Gill & Irina Woods; Chris Bone & Juliette Riehl)

Wednesday Gentle Duplicate: David Goodall (Liz Mills; Phil Chaundy)

Wednesday evening pairs: Peter Briggs (Kathy Talbot; Denis Talbot)

Wednesday evening teams: Peter Randall (Liza Furnival; Peter Stevenson)

Thursday Gentle Duplicate: Ian Bishop (Anne Laming; Sheila Parry) 

Friday morning pairs: Diane Coe (Peter Litchfield & Suzanne Litchfield - joint second)

Friday evening pairs:  Martin Illingworth (Jonny Richards; Amr El-Kashef)

Friday evening teams: Peter Randall (Diana Thorne; Lorraine Jones & Peter Owen-Smith - joint third)

Thanks to the lockdown the season was cut short by a couple of weeks, but this won't have made much difference to the results. Trophies for the ladder winners will be awarded at the AGM (whenever that might be).

This is a busy and difficult time for us all.  Our priorities must reflect the need to look after the health and wellbeing of each other and do what we can to avoid spreading the virus.

We have set up a page in the “Members Only” section of the website to help those who are obliged to self-isolate and to enable those who are able and willing to help in some way to register their details and how they can help.  The members only section avoids individuals disclosing personal contact information on an open website. Here is the direct link.

If you have not visited the “Members Only” section before, here’s what you have to do.

Click on the  button in the top right corner of the home page and follow the instructions.

If you are not in one of the “at-risk” categories and your circumstances permit and you feel able, please sign up to help others. Offers of support will be much appreciated by everyone.

The Oxford Hub (a student run charitable group) is organising a series of city-wide champions to help people through the Coronavirus. People can then ask their local champion for help.

Link for those who can help to sign up:
(https://www.oxfordhub.org/oxford-together).

Link for those who need help:
https://oxfordtogether.org/postcode-lookup/

Trying to run a bridge club without somewhere to play is a new challenge for us all. If the inbox of your webmaster is at all typical, there are lots of members circulating ideas about how best to play bridge online.

You will find that there are now Oxford Bridge Club events and opportunities on BridgeClubLive and on Funbridge.  We are also planning on additional activities on Bridge Base Online - more news soon.

The EBU have set up a series of sessions using the Bridgebase online website.  You can find further information on the EBU website here.

We have created a new page on the website where you will find a list of all the possible way of playing online bridge that we are currently aware of.  If you know of another option that you think should be added, please let us know by sending details by email to the club here.

This article will be updated as soon as we reach further conclusions about our activity.  In the interim, enjoy your online bridge wherever you can find it.

We have a webpage that you may not have looked at before. It was originally conceived as an assistance for people who were travelling to the club.  In the current circumstances you might want to look at it to see how busy the centre of Oxford is!

There is a relay from two cameras: one from the Oxford Internet Institute looking out over St. Giles and showing the Ashmolean and the Randolph Hotel, the other from the James Martin School looking down Broad street to the west.  Click on the arrows to see the traffic moving. Click here or on the image to visit the page.

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