Happy New Year to All!

The start of term signals that the regular Sunday sessions for Oxford Junior Bridge Club resume.  See details here.

We welcomed Oxford Junior Bridge Club to our premises when they held their Winter Competition on Sunday 3rd February. A report and the results are available on the Bridge4Schools website.

Many congratulations to Diana Thorne, who won the Individual Competition held on Sunday afternoon, and who is now the club's Individual Champion for 2018-2019. 

Very well done also to Makiko Rogers who came second and Claire Macdonagh third. 

Please take care while the weather remains cold, as pavements and the forecourt of the club may be slippery. 

You can review the weather forecast for Oxford at https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2640729. You can look at the current weather in central Oxford via the webcam in St Giles. See https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/webcams/.  Click the arrow in the centre of the picture to get a constantly updated video.

The Saturday Seminar on 2nd February will take place as planned.

The Oxford Junior Bridge Club Competition on Sunday 3rd February will also take place as planned. 

Welcome to groups who will be in the club over the next few weeks.

Welcome to the group of 20 beginners who are attending out Fast Start Bridge weekend course on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 11th-13th January. Click for further details. If you missed out this time, the event is being rerun at the end of March.

Welcome to Oxford Junior Bridge Club who are holding their Winter Competition at the club on Sunday 3rd February. Click for further details.

Congratulations to Liza Furnival & Nigel Birks who won this year's Mixed Pairs Competition, for the Winnie Ling trophy. Kathy & Denis Talbot came second, and Mary-Ann & Tim Sheehy third, so well done to them too. 

Congratulations to club members Gustave Rieunier & Tom Brus who won the Oxford heat of this year's Masters Pairs Competition. And also to Bridget Watson & Holly Kilpatrick who came third.

The results for the Oxford heat are here.  The overall national results are on the EBU website here. 

Congratulations to Peter Randall, Liza Furnival, Alastair Gidman & Lorna Swadling who won the club's teams-of-four competition for the Rose Bowl. Second were Denis Talbot, Kathy Talbot, Nigel Birks & Diana Nettleton, and third were Martin Illingworth, Marion Sheppard, Claire Macdonagh & Julie Anderson. Well done to them too. 

Congratulations to Kathy & Denis Talbot who won the County Pairs final held at OBC on Sunday (17th March).  Well done also to Sandra Nicholson & Krys Kazmierczak who came fourth. The top four pairs in this event qualify to represent Oxfordshire in the Corwen Trophy, due to be held in June, where they will play against top players from other counties. 

The full results are available here. 

Three weeks ago Michael Byrne was at OBC running a training weekend for the International Junior squad. Two weeks ago he gave two great seminars as part of our education programme.  One for club players and one for experts. 52 players enjoyed a challenging time.

This weekend he was the the overall winner of the Portland pairs event.  See the national results at https://app.pianola.net/Results/Session268491. 

You can find the local results for our local heat of the event here.  Congratulations to Emily Middleton and Matthew Covill who were the highest placed OBC pair in the heat.

The final preparations are under way for our weekend Fast Start Bridge Course. 

One place remains. Click here to book.

Many congratulations to Christopher & Jane Whelan who won the club pairs competition held on Sunday 31 March. They are the club's pairs champions for 2018-2019, and will be awarded the Beck Salver at the AGM in July. 

Andy King & Amr El-Kashef came second, and Kathy & Denis Talbot third, so well done to them too. The full results are available 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: Mary-Ann Sheehy (Tim Sheehy; Robert Gasser)

Tuesday morning pairs (a pairs ladder): Margie Charnock & Marion Stevenson (Roger Smith & Sue Smith; David del Nevo & Mary Hamilton)

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

Wednesday evening pairs: Peter Briggs (Aleks Lishkov; Kathy Talbot)

Wednesday evening teams: Peter Briggs (Cliff Pavelin; Moira Pavelin; Steve Nyman - all joint second)

Thursday Gentle Duplicate: Jane Matheson (Erika Syba; Christine Bishop) (Irina Woods has kindly offered to step down from this ladder)

Friday morning pairs: Diane Coe (Mary-Ann Sheehy; Howard Arnes)

Friday evening pairs: Liza Furnival (Jonny Richards; Martin Illingworth)

Friday evening teams: Martin Illingworth (Diana Thorne; Peter Randall - joint second)

Trophies for the ladder winners will be awarded at the AGM in July.

Please note that only club members are eligible to win the ladders. 

With effect from the start of our new financial year we will introduce new suit symbols in some competitions.

The first pair to bid 7 Acorns wins a prize.

On Tuesday 2nd April we held heats of the spring EBED Student Sim Pairs competitions. There were two events: a Sim Pairs event for our Bridge for All year 2 students which this year also doubled up as a heat of OBA's Oxford Times Cup; and a Minibridge Sim Pairs for our Bridge for All year 1 students.  Congratulations to winners Clive Gillam and Mena Remedios, and to Jeanette Ewen and Richard Ewen. Eight of the participants came to the club through our Fast Start Bridge weekend event in January 2019.  Nine tables took part across the two events.

Many congratulations to Sandra Nicholson & Krys Kazmierczak (pictured left) who won the County Mixed Pairs competition held at OBC on Sunday 7 April. 

Congratulations also go to Denis Talbot & Peter Briggs who won the County Men's Pairs competition held at Yarnton on Thursday 28 March. 

Results for both events are available on the Oxfordshire Bridge Association website. 

The Oxford Junior Bridge Club welcomes particpants to its summer term sessions on Sundays at Summertown Church Hall. Click to download details OJBC19summer term flyer 2019.pdf.  You may also want to read the report on activities during the spring term by clicking here OJBC19 spring report.pdf.

Richard Sills & Viv Stevenson beat Carol Benzie & Liza Furnival in the final of the club's rubber bridge knock-out competition, held on 30 April, in a very closely fought match. Very well done to Richard & Viv; they will receive the Meltzer trophy at the AGM in July. 

The full draw for the Meltzer Competition is here. 

The club’s competition for the Morrie Marsh Trophy took place on Monday 20th May.   Congratulations to the winners, Mena Remedios and Clive Gillam who came first with the impressive score of 68.97%.   The runners up were Paulette Eeley and Pam Parsons with Mary Chait and John Foord in third place.  

For a period on the evening of 21st May until the end of the morning of 22nd May we apologise that the website was inaccessible.  This was due to a problem affecting all bridge clubs whose websites are based on the Bridgewebs software.

Towards the end of May each year the EBU release statistics about the top clubs in the country. OBC maintained a place at number 10 on the list even though we spent nearly 9 months of the year in our temporary home at Oxford City Football Club whilst our premises were refurbished. This year our county neighbours Wallingford Bridge Club have moved up to join us in the top 20. Click on the image for the full list.

The club also regularly examines its records about how many people play at the club and how often.  In the graph below we show, for each 6 month period, how many individuals play at the club.  There has been a steady increase over the last three years - there are nine regular sessions each week. The colours show how many times each person played, divided in four bands. This method of analysis is similar to that reported for the whole country at each EBU AGM.

Click on the image for a larger graphic.

Note on the time periods: FY2018H1 is the period from 1st April until end September of 2018. FY2018H2 is the period from 1st Obober 2018 until the end of March 2019.

Oxfordshire Bridge Association is holding its popular annual green-pointed weekend congress over the weekend of 8th to 9th June this year. 

There will be green-pointed Swiss Pairs on the Saturday and green-pointed Swiss Teams and a Friendly Pairs event (for pairs rated at NGS 9 or lower) on the Sunday. 

The venue is the Marlborough School Enterprise Centre, Shipton Road, Woodstock, OX20 1LP. 

Booking is now open. Click here for the congress brochure. Online booking is available via the OBA website, 

Congratulations to Sandra Nicholson and her partner Krys Kazmierczak who came 11th in the final round of the Corwen Trophy – an EBU national event.   To reach the final round players need be one of the top four pairs in their County Pairs Competition.   Nationally, 95 pairs go through to the final so achieving 11th place in the final is a fantastic achievement for Sandra and Krys and they earn Gold points for this success.   Well done!

A large number of OBC members took part in the annual Oxfordshire Bridge Association Congress held over the weekend of 8th - 9th June.

Very many congratulations to Zane and Zahir Soonawalla (pictured) who won the Friendly Pairs competition held on the Sunday. 

Congratulations also go to Christopher Whitehouse, Mary-Ann Sheehy, Matthew Covill & Amr El-Kashef who came third in the Swiss Teams competition. 

Full results are available on the OBA website. 

While visiting Chicago in early June member Denis Talbot met up with Aleks Lishkov who moved to the city earlier this year. Aleks sends his best wishes to the members of the OBC and misses playing at the club. Denis and Aleks managed to fit in two enjoyable sessions of bridge (point a board teams and MP pairs) at the Chicago Bridge Centre. The members were all very welcoming and friendly. He is looking forward to his next trip there.

Aleks, we miss you too!   . . . and your contributions to the psyche book!

Oxfordshire fields three teams-of-eight in the Midland Counties League, and several OBC members represent the County in these teams.

This year Oxfordshire's B team won their Division. The team then went on to play in the National Finals of the Inter-County Leagues on Sunday 16th June against all the other counties that had won in their various regional leagues. Oxfordshire retained the trophy that they also won last year.

Very well done to Matthew Covill, Emily Middleton, Mary-Ann Sheehy and Christopher Whitehouse who were part of the winning team. Further details and photos are available here. 

Summertown Bridge Club and Oxford Bridge Club are jointly running a

Blue-pointed Swiss Pairs event in aid of Pancreatic Cancer UK and Safeline

on Sunday 23 June 2019 at 2.00pm

To download the entry form click here and to enter online click here. 

Oxford Bridge Club, jointly with Summertown Bridge Club, ran a very successful blue-pointed Swiss Pairs event on Sunday afternoon, with 17 tables playing. Very many congratulations to Isabel Pack & Judy Wesselbaum (pictured) who were the winners, with Alastair Gidman & Lorna Swadling coming second.

Holly Kilpatrick, playing with Freddie Beneat (a junior) won the second half ascender's prize, so well done to them too.

Full results are here. 

A total of £640 was raised towards our two charities: Pancreatic Cancer UK and Safeline. 

Update: corrections have been made to two scores on hands 35 and 36. The corrected results have been uploaded to the websites for both clubs and to the EBU. This hasn't affected the positions of the top 6 pairs, but has caused some changes to those lower down. 

The missing Bridgemate has now been found. 

Congratulations to Sandra Nicholson & Krys Kazmierczak who, playing with another pair, won the Swiss Teams event at the Gloucestershire & Herefordshire green-pointed weekend on Sunday 21 July. 

Full results are here. 

On Monday July 22nd Summertown Bridge club is holding a Summer Sim Pairs in aid of charity. The chosen charity is FLEXICARE (more information available at http://www.flexicare.org/.  Further details can be found on the SBC website.

Many may not know this, but a bridge club plotline is coming up in Coronation Street. Watch out for episodes starting on Friday 16th August.

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1162671/Coronation-Street-spoilers-Geoff-Metcalfe-Yasmeen-Nazir-coercive-control-Corrie-ITV
https://www.ebu.co.uk/node/3509

Remember to tell your friends that they can learn bridge at OBC - taster sessions coming up soon.

Congratulations to Zane Soonawalla, who, playing with James Cater, won the B final of the Under 16 Pairs event in the World Youth Championships held in Croatia from 20th to 29th August. 

Congratulations also to Laura Covill, who, playing in a transnational team, also at the World Youth Championships, won the bronze medal in the Under 26 Women's Teams event. 

And last but not least, congratulations to Diana Nettleton, whose team won the Plate competition of the Crockfords Cup.  

The AGM of the club will be held at 6.00pm on Wednesday evening 4th September.  Full details including the agenda and papers can be found by clicking here or selecting General Meetings under the Club Management tab on the left hand menu.

Nominations remain open for Officer and Trustee positions until the start of the meeting - please review the current list of nominations and consider how you might help the club prosper.

Acol Bridge Club has once again asked members of Oxford Bridge Club to join them in their next bridge holiday weekend in the lovely Hever Hotel in Kent, on 6th-8th September. 

Click here to visit the hotel's website. 

Those of you who have attended previous Acol holidays will know that they are extremely sociable and friendly occasions, suitable for players (no partner necessary) of all levels from people who have just done a beginners course through to experienced duplicate participants. 

We welcome non-playing partners and please rest assured that you can participate in as little or as much bridge as you like!

The cost of the weekend is £310 per person, based on two people sharing (or £350 per person based on single occupancy). This includes a welcome drinks reception, bed & breakfast, dinner on Friday and Saturday, lunch on Saturday and Sunday, four sessions of bridge (fun duplicate/supervised), seminars and tea/coffee at all sessions.

Please email Pat Lewis if you are interested in taking part. 

Congratulations to Matthew Covill & Diana Nettleton who won the club's pairs championship, which was held on Sunday 29 September. They receive the Beck Salver. Peter Litchfield & Annabel Wade were second, and Charles Gill & Irina Woods third, so very well done to them too. 

Full results are available here. 

The start of term signals that the regular Sunday sessions for Oxford Junior Bridge Club resume.  For details click here..

First event is on Sunday 22nd September.  This term the events will take place at Oxford Bridge Club

Many congratulations to the Oxford B team, who beat Petersfield D recently to reach the final of the 2018-2019 NICKO Plate. The team's members are Matthew Covill, Emily Middleton, Diana Nettleton and Mary-Ann Sheehy. 

They are due to play Leeds C in the final. 

The NICKO is one of the EBU's most popular knock-out competitions, with teams of four (or more) players representing their club. Oxford Bridge Club is fielding three teams in the 2019-2020 competition. 

On Sunday August 4th, a very successful Charity Bridge Drive was held in our beautiful new premises. The weather was warm and bright, and fifty people enjoyed playing bridge together, while the Social Committee worked hard in the new sparklingly clean kitchen area to produce a delicious lunch. A raffle was held, and in all £1028 was raised for Autism Family Support Oxfordshire, AFSO.

This local charity supports over 3000 families with an autistic child living in Oxfordshire. In the first week of October AFSO moved into larger and more conveniently situated new premises in Abingdon. These monies will help provide more activities for young people or support to their parents.

Many thanks to Sue Smith who chairs the Social Committee and her willing team of volunteers who worked so hard to make the day a success in every way.

Following the resignation of John Cooper as Club Secretary last month the Trustees agreed at their meeting on 30th September to accept the offer by Ursula Bowler to take on the role of Secretary and co-opted her as a Trustee.  They are very pleased to have her support and thank John for his service.

Oxfordshire County Council is conducting a consultation exercise about traffic management in the city of Oxford, with potential implications for travel to and from Oxford Bridge Club.  Briefly, the aims are to (a) improve air quality in the city and (b) speed up the flow of traffic and shorten journey times for public transport.   The proposals, if implemented, would involve the introduction of restrictions on access for private motor vehicles (similar to those in force in the High Street) in Oxpens Road, Worcester Street, South Parks Road, Marston Ferry Road and Hollow Way.  This would affect motorists travelling to and from OBC from the west, south and east of the city, requiring them to travel via the ring road and northern bypass, at as yet unspecified times of day.

They are seeking comments from the general public on the outline proposals with a deadline of 20 October; and will seek further consultation on a detailed proposal in May-June 2020.  The initial proposals are to be found online at http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/connectingoxford.

Starting in October 2019, there will be a new format for the Gentle Duplicate events on each second Thursday evening of the month. This will offer the opportunity for players to get to know more about Teams play and Teams scoring.

The event will be hosted as normal. Of course to play teams we need to arrange that there are the right number of players to fill whole tables. So the plan is as follows:

• If there are a whole number of tables then we will play a teams event over approximately the same number of boards as the regular Gentle Duplicate sessions. You will play all the boards with your partner but the event will be scored according to the results of your Team (and this will be the basis for the award of any masterpoints). However in such an event your NGS change will only depend on the results of your Pair using your "Cross-Imp" score for the event. (there is a special tab on the results to see the Cross-Imp scores for each pair participating)
• If there ends up being a half table then we will play a duplicate session but score the results using the "Cross-Imp method" where teams tactics are appropriate.  In this case masterpoints and NGS change will depend only on the results of your Pair using your "Cross-Imp" score for the event.

The limitations on two more experienced players playing together still apply - one of each pair must have less that 5000 masterpoints.

For the first event on 10th October we have arranged for there to be 3 hosts so the first event will definitely be a Teams event. Come alomg and try it out!

This is the fourth in an occasional series where I will look at certain Laws based on incidents at the OBC, sometimes observed by me or otherwise reported to me.   The series is intended to help players improve their understanding of the Laws.

I am quite often told that “I was not hesitating, I was just thinking about what to bid” which makes it easy for me to rule that the speaker had, indeed, hesitated. If you think for any length of time about what to bid then you are hesitating. There is absolutely nothing wrong or illegal with thinking about what to bid – bridge is a cerebral game after all.  However, if you hesitate it places significant restrictions on what actions your partner can subsequently take.   

Your hesitation has given your partner unauthorised information (commonly referred to as UI) even if your partner does not actually know what you are thinking about. Law 16B(1) then comes into play: your partner may not choose a call that is demonstrably suggested over another by UI if the other call is a logical alternative. A logical alternative is an action that a significant proportion (say, more than 1 in 5) of equivalent players would seriously consider and some (more than the odd one) might select.  Partner therefore has to be very sure that their hand clearly justifies any bid that they subsequently choose to make after a hesitation by you.

Martin Illingworth, Chief TD
September 2019

Click for previous articles in this series

Many congratulations to Henry Rose, Aleks Lishkov and Kathy and Denis Talbot who won the Swiss Teams event at the Malvern Bridge Congress on Sunday 27th October. 

Results and a photo are available on the Worcestershire Contract Bridge Association website.   

Saturday 26th October marked the official opening day of the newly refurbished premises of the Oxford Bridge Club. More than 60 members joined with the Chairman, Pat Lewis, guests and Trustees for a reception and the unveiling of the donors' plaque by England's No. 1 bridge player, Andrew Robson. Many members stayed on to play bridge afterwards. 

In the front rooms of the premises, fifteen juniors, aged 8 to 16 years (see below for more pictures), arrived early in the day to play a friendly game of duplicate bridge (results here), whilst they awaited Andrew's arrival. The 'maestro' did not disappoint and spent a memorable half hour chatting with the players, whilst he advised and shared tips and jokes. 

Some of the young players had been learning since Holly Kilpatrick first started Oxford Junior Bridge Club, in Summertown Church Hall in September 2014. Now installed in Oxford Bridge Club, 3 or 4 tables of juniors, of mixed ability, learn and play every Sunday afternoon during term times. 

Andrew grew up in Oxfordshire, attended Abingdon School and played as a junior himself at local bridge clubs. 

Many congratulations to Julie Anderson & Makiko Rogers who won OBC's Ladies' Pairs Competition, held on Wednesday 30th October. They will receive the Doreen Simpson trophy at the AGM. Ameena Ahmad & Marion Sheppard came second, and Sandra Nicholson & Liza Furnival were third. 

And many congratulations also to the winners of the Men's Pairs, Peter Briggs & Denis Talbot. They will receive the John Simpson trophy. In second place were John Cecil & Peter Russell, and third Peter Randall & Christopher Whelan. 

Pictured (from left to right): Peter Briggs, Julie Anderson & Denis Talbot. 

We invite all members to celebrate this opening by Andrew Robson on 26th October at 12.00 noon, refreshments will be available.

The juniors are invited to a bridge session in the morning at 10.00am.

There will be a duplicate bridge session starting at approx 1.30-2.00pm - £4 table money. It would help greatly if members who are interested could sign up on the list displayed on the notice board.

The club ran several fund-raising events for Children in Need during the week of Monday 11th to Friday 15th November. The raffle and cake sale have raised approximately £950, which means that together with the table money from the two simultaneous pairs events we have raised £1,124.59 for Children in Need this year. 

We would like to thank all those who supported us, by making cakes, bringing raffle prizes, buying raffle tickets and donating money.

Congratulations to Lorna Swadling, Liza Furnival, Peter Randall & Diana Thorne who won the club's teams of four championship, which took place on Sunday 24 November. They receive the Rose Bowl. 

In second place were Phil Bacon, Mark Hancock, Christopher & Jane Whelan, and third were Denis & Kathy Talbot, Matthew Covill & Henry Rose, so well done to them too. 

Congratulations to Denis Talbot, Kathy Talbot, Charles Bucknell & Ewa Wieczorek who won the club's Swiss Teams competition, held over two Wednesday evenings, 6th November and 4th December. They win the Eve Stockwell bowl. 

The team of Frederico Lombardi, Chun Ting Lau, Robert Gasser & Alison Withers Green came second, and there were three teams tied in third place - the Nettleton team (Diana Nettleton, Jonny Richards, Matthew Covill, Emily Middleton and Nigel Birks), the Nicholson team (Sandra Nicholson, Krys Kazmierczak, Andy King, Chris Earl and John Deech) and the Kim team (Ruth Kim, Howard Arnes, Judy Wesselbaum & Isabel Pack), so well done to them too. 

Congratulations to Erica and Christopher Sheppard who won the County's first ever Jack High pairs event. This event was for players whose NGS was no higher than a Jack on the day of entry. 

Full results are on the Oxfordshire Bridge Association website. . 

14th December 2019 marks the 4th birthday of Oxford Bridge School.  In the period since Bridge for All classes started in 2016 to December 2019, 349 students have signed up for at least a term of lessons or a weekend on Fast Start Bridge.

Great to see so many learners at the Bridge School Christmas party.

Merry Christmas!

Seen at the club in the week before Christmas.
What style!
Every bridge player should aspire to such sartorial greatness.
Just brilliant!

There will be no bridge on Tues 24th December, Wednesday 25th December and Thursday 26th December. After that we will run our normal bridge schedule until the New Year.

On Wednesday 1st January there will be no Gentle Duplicate session in the afternoon, and in the evening, instead of the usual teams session, we'll be playing cross-Imp pairs. For those who haven't played cross-Imp pairs before, the tactics are the same as teams tactics. There will be a host for this session, so you can come without a partner. 

For further details of specific sessions please see the calendar.  Our normal bridge schedule resumes on Thursday 2nd January. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!