Many thanks to all those who took part in our heats of the Children in Need simultaneous pairs played on Wednesday 9th and Friday 11th November. We have raised a grand total of £396 towards the BBC's Children in Need appeal.  

Wednesday evening: Congratulations to Graham Orsmond & Jackie Fairclough who won the club heat. Well done also to Amr El-Kashef & Martin Illingworth who were second, and Peter Schroeder and Ron Gould who came third. 

Click on the link to view the combined results for Wednesday on the ECatsBridge website. The commentary on the hands is available here.

Friday morning: Congratulations to Paul King & Vincent Shaw who won the club heat. Amr El-Kashef & Andy King were second, and Peter Leighton & Nick Wedd were third, so congratulations to them too. 

Click on the link to view the combined results for Friday on the ECatsBridge website. The commentary on the hands is here. 

Table money for Learn & Play sessions (online and face-to-face) will increase by 50p to £5 per session from 1st November. As £5 per session was the price prior to the start of the pandemic we hope that members will still consider the sessions to be very good value for money.

Many congratulations to Liza Furnival who won the Individual Competition played on Sunday 16th October. She will receive the Thompson trophy at the AGM. Margaret Keane was second, and Ron Gould was third - very well done to them too. 

Liza and Margaret

The online section on Tuesday mornings will be discontinued at the end of October, with the final session taking place on 25th October. The face-to-face Tuesday morning session will continue as a stand-alone session, and will be relabelled as Gentle Duplicate. For further information please click here. 

There will be a new online Tuesday afternoon session on Tuesday afternoons, at 2pm, starting on 1st November. This is a full session, playing 20 boards and is open to players at all levels of experience. 

This is the first stage of the club's plan to stop playing hybrid sessions. The Friday morning online section will be discontinued at a time yet to be determined. The Friday morning face-to-face section will continue. At the same time we plan to introduce a new online session on Friday afternoons. 

Table money - for both online and face-to-face sessions - is due to increase to £4 per session from 1st November from the current £3.50 due to the inflationary pressures that we all know about. However, £4 per session was the price prior to the start of the pandemic so there is no increased price compared with early 2020.

We had a fantastic turnout at Thursday's Motor Neurone Disease Association Charity Bridge Day – 66 players (16.5 tables) played 24 boards, enjoyed a delicious lunch and raised £1,550. Alison Withers Green and Holly Kilpatrick came top followed by Howard Arnes and Bridget Watson. Congratulations to them and many thanks to everyone who came along and supported the event. Huge thanks too go to the organisers who made it all happen.

Susan Fletcher, who inspired the day following her diagnosis last year, is photographed with the winners/runners-up below along with husband Brian Mills and Susan's 'bridge hands' for the day, Jacquie Cooke. 

Alison Withers Green & Holly Kilpatrick behind Jacquie, Susan & Brian	Susan with Howard Arnes & Bridget Watson

If you'd like to make a donation to Susan's MNDA Just Giving page you can do so at the following link – https://justgiving.com/fundraising/susan-fletcher-watts.

Join us at the club from 10:00 AM on Thursday 6 October for a Charity Bridge Day.

Raising funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, an organisation which, as many of you know, is close to the heart of our member, Susan Fletcher, who was diagnosed with MND last year.  This will be a fun day out for everyone, and for those of you who have not yet returned to face to face bridge, a chance to see old friends and remember how it feels to hold a hand of cards!

Tickets cost £25 per player, and visitors are welcome. For further details and to book your place, please click here. UPDATE: following a late cancellation we have one spare place!! 

Update - due to unforeseen technical problems this tutorial has been CANCELLED. Please accept our apologies. Annabel will contact everyone who booked and all money will be refunded. We hope to run this tutorial again in the future so keep an eye on the website. 

On Tuesday 11th October at 7.00pm Annabel Barnett is running a tutorial on squeezes - this is suitable for anyone who is interested in this fun part of bridge, starting with hands where you don’t even have to count! Annabel will then move to look at slightly more complicated squeezes. The tutorial will be suitable for anyone who is playing Bridge regularly, beginner or expert.  

The session will take place on BBO, using the ‘voice application’. Further details on how to join will be given when you register. Please book a ticket in advance via the usual booking system by clicking here. 

Evening Learn & Play which was being held on Tuesday evenings over the summer has now returned to Thursday evenings at 7.15pm. Please book your tickets by 5.30pm on the Wednesday before as we will only run the sessions with at least two full tables. You can book tickets here. 

The Junior Bridge Autumn terms starts on 18th September. Click the Junior Bridge option in the main menu for more details.

The Trustees believe that it is vital for members to return to playing face-to-face at 147 Banbury Road.  Otherwise, there is a real danger that the club's ownership of its premises will become unviable.  We are therefore encouraging players to return to playing face-to-face bridge. To that end, John Deech has kindly offered to finance a new pairs tournament for both experienced and less experienced players.  This will be played on fourth Wednesday evenings, from September until May (excluding December), with the first session being on Wednesday 28th September. 

There will be cash prizes, a new trophy (the John Deech Challenge Trophy), and free refreshments (wine, beer, soft drinks and nibbles) will be provided throughout the session.   

Click here for further details.

The trustees aim is to achieve a minimum number of 10 tables for each session.  We therefore encourage all of you to support this exciting new tournament which will combine bridge and a chance to meet your fellow members face-to-face  as we used to before the pandemic. 

Congratulations to Gay Hawley & Tessa Goddard who won the OBC heat of the EBED (English Bridge Education and Development) Simultaneous Pairs competition held on Wednesday 7th September. Sally Ruse & Paul Dhesi and Roger & Nina Marshall were joint second, so well done to them too. 

Nationally, the results may be different - click here to see the combined results on the EBU website. Click here to view the commentary on the hands. 

Oxford Bridge Club is opening for Oxford Open Doors 2022 on Saturday 10th September from 2.00-4.30 pm. Come along for tea, cake, a chat, and an introduction to bridge. 

Our address is 147 Banbury Road, OX2 7AN - see here for travel directions. 

Entries are now open for the club's annual rubber bridge knockout tournament. This competition is open to all members, at all levels of play. The winners receive the Meltzer Trophy, and there will be a Plate competition for those who lose their first match. Matches are played between October and May at times and venues (ie at home, at the club, or online) to suit. Entry fee is £5 per player. Closing date for entries is Friday 30th September.

Click here for further details and the entry form.

The English Bridge Union's announcing and alerting rules have recently been updated, with effect from 1 September 2022. Click here for a list of the current rules.

There are many opportunities to learn or improve your bridge game at OBC. Oxford Bridge School runs courses and seminars that can be found under the education tab and Bucknell Bridge also runs a variety of courses and seminars at OBC. These may be found on this link. Some of the Bucknell Bridge courses are geared to those would like to learn bridge as quickly as possible or learn alternatives to Acol bridge such as the forthcoming series of seminars on the 2/1 (game-forcing) 5-card major system from 8th Sept until 20th Oct 2022.

From 3rd October, term 1 of year 1 and year 2 'Bridge for All' courses will start at the club. These have been developed by the EBU and are based on the Acol bidding system. Details are here.

Please spread the word and let anyone who might be interested in learning to play Bridge know that they can find information on courses on this website - click on the ‘Learn to Play Bridge’ box in the top right hand corner of the home page. 

There are leaflets available with details of the lessons which you can download and print out - A5 Learn to Play Leaflet 2022.pdf   Please put these up in your local coffee shop, supermarket, golf club or leisure centre, or hand out to anyone who you think might be interested in learning Bridge. You can also pick up physical copies of the leaflets at the club from the kitchen area. 

A number of Oxford players took part in the EBU Summer Meeting held in Eastbourne from 10th to 14th August this year. It was a strong field that included many international players. 

Many congratulations to club member Charlie Bucknell, who with his team mates, won the Swiss Teams (and the Brighton Bowl). 

Although no Oxford players managed to finish in the top five in the Swiss Pairs Championship, which was played over two days, two pairs received prizes: Liza Furnival and Peter Randall won the Mercian Bridge Travel Trophy for Senior Pairs, and Lawrence Wang and Yining Yang won the non-expert prize. Congratulations to them too. Click here to view the results. 

Tuesday evening's Learn & Play sessions at the club must now be BOOKED IN ADVANCE. This is to ensure that we have at least two tables in order to make the session worthwhile to run. If you are keen to play please book here to confirm your place before Monday evening at 5.30pm when bookings will close. If we have fewer than two tables then the session will be cancelled and your booking will be transferred to the following week. You will be emailed to advise but you can also check the website calendar to see if the session is marked 'Cancelled'. Please don't come to the club without checking that the session is running. 

Wednesday morning's Learn & Play on RealBridge remains as it is and you can book here.

Tuesday evening's Learn & Play session on the 19th July is CANCELLED because of the dangerously hot weather forecast. Please do not come to the club that evening. The session will resume the following Tuesday on 26th July. 

Wednesday morning's Learn & Play on RealBridge remains as it is and you can book here.

Thursday evening on the 14th July will be the last Learn & Play session on a Thursday. From 19th July evening sessions will take place on Tuesday evenings until 20th September. From the 29th September evening Learn & Play will revert to Thursday evenings once again. This is to allow more Bridge for All students to attend a Learn & Play session. If you currently play on a Thursday evening please do come along on Tuesday. No booking is necessary – just turn up at the club.  Wednesday morning Learn & Play remains as it is. 

We've been given the opportunity to take part in a series of four free bridge classes provided by Andrew Robson in association with RealBridge. Andrew Robson is an international bridge player who regularly represents England, a highly regarded author and the Bridge correspondent for The Times.

Each class consists of four boards selected by Andrew to cover a specific topic, followed by a link to a video of Andrew giving his insight into one of the boards, and access to his detailed analysis of all four boards. The classes will be run over 4 weeks on Tuesday afternoons with each class being repeated on Thursday mornings, with the first one taking place on Tuesday 14th June.

Do you know anyone who wants to learn to play Bridge? If so, then please encourage your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to try one of our free Taster sessions which we’re running in August and September at Oxford Bridge Club. It's an opportunity see how our Bridge classes are taught, meet the teachers and get to play some Bridge! In October, term 1 of a brand new year of ‘Bridge for All’ courses will start at the club. These have been developed by the EBU and are based on the Acol bidding system. Details are here.

Most of our students come to us through the website or through personal recommendation so your spreading the word and encouragement means a lot. They can find more information on this website by clicking on the ‘Learn to Play Bridge’ box in the top right hand corner. 

You can also help by distributing our Taster leaflet in your local coffee shop, supermarket, golf club or leisure centre, or hand out to anyone who you think might be interested in learning Bridge. You can pick up the leaflets at the club. If you have a printer you might like to download a copy and print some off - TasterLeaflet2022.pdf

The Oxford Bridge Club AGM will be held at 6pm on 20th July 2022, at the club.

Click for more details

Following the AGM there will be a free duplicate pairs session, also at the club. There won't be an online session that evening. Click here for more details. 

We’ve introduced a new face-to-face session on 2nd Wednesday evenings. After playing 20/21 boards (finishing by 9.30-9.45), we’ll have a friendly and relaxed chat about some of the more interesting hands, led by two Oxford-based England internationals, Diana Nettleton & Charlie Bucknell. The bar will be open. Click here for more details. 

We know that some members would like to get back to playing face-to-face bridge in the evenings, so here’s your chance! Please find yourself a partner and come along and join us.  We’ll try to find a host, so that those without a partner can play (check the calendar).  There will be no online sessions on 2nd Wednesday evenings for the time being.

Our first Speedball session, played on Friday 1st July was very successful and we plan to continue running it on first Friday evenings of the month. So do come and join us for the next session which will be on Friday 5th August, at 7.15pm, at the clubhouse. The bar will be open, and will have better stocks of wine this time!  Click here for more information on speedball. 

Oxford Bridge School is offering a 4-week course at the club for anyone who has played little or no bridge since the COVID pandemic and wants a reminder about the equipment, bridge movements and laws involved in a duplicate session, together with a review of ACOL basics. Each session lasts approximately two hours and is split equally between teaching and practice. The course will run twice – on Thursday mornings in June/July and again on Wednesday evenings in July/August. The cost is just £20 per person per four-session course, which must be pre-booked, or £6 per player for a single drop-in session (not pre-bookable). To go to the booking page please click here. 

ALL Thursday evening Learn & Play sessions will be back at the club from Thursday 2nd June (7.15pm start but arrive before 7pm to get seated). There is no option to book – just turn up at the club. Payment (£4.50) will be taken by credit/debit card. 

There is no change to online Wednesday morning Learn & Play – to book please click here. 

Many congratulations to Stephen and Diana Bromley who are the qualifying winners of this year's Morrie Marsh Novice Pairs Competition. They win the Morrie Marsh trophy which will be formally awarded at the club's AGM in July. Well done to everyone who took part in the competition.

Stephen Bromley	Diana Bromley

Many congratulations to Peter Randall, Diana Thorne, Peter Litchfield & Liza Furnival who won the club's Teams of Four competition held on Sunday 15th May. They receive the Rose Bowl trophy.  

Diana Thorne	Peter Randall	Peter Litchfield	Liza Furnival

Second were John Blakesley, Malcolm Orr-Ewing, Lawrence Wang & Tom Rainforth, so well done to them too. 

Many congratulations to Howard Arnes and Makiko Rogers who have won the EBED (English Bridge Education & Development) Spring Simultaneous Pairs competition at Oxford Bridge Club.

	Howard Arnes	Makiko Rogers

Thanks to all who played in the competition. Money raised goes to promote the development of Bridge nationally. To see how you've done compared to others across the country who played the same boards, visit the EBU website here.  Click here to download the commentary for the hands played.  

Many of you know Susan Fletcher who plays and directs at the club, and was Education Secretary until her diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease last July. Susan has completed walking the Pennine Way with 184 (!) of her friends, family and fellow OBC members – 268 miles and a combined ascent higher than Mount Everest – to raise awareness and funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Susan has now raised over £66,000 via her JustGiving page and over £76,000 in total! Thank you to everyone who has donated. You can read Susan's story and make a donation at the following link – https://justgiving.com/fundraising/susan-fletcher-watts.

If you would like to follow Susan's Pennine Way Challenge journey (and spot familiar faces from the club) then follow her on Instagram @walkingthepositivepath or on Facebook here. 

Setting off from Ponden Reservoir	About to walk from Gargrave	Teachers and directors at the ready!	A welcome after climbing Cross Fell	The week 3 OBC crew

Many of you know Susan Fletcher who plays and directs at the club, and was Education Secretary until her diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease last July. Susan has completed walking the Pennine Way with 184 (!) of her friends, family and fellow OBC members – 268 miles and a combined ascent higher than Mount Everest – to raise awareness and funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Susan has now raised over £66,000 via her JustGiving page and over £76,000 in total! Thank you to everyone who has donated. You can read Susan's story and make a donation at the following link – https://justgiving.com/fundraising/susan-fletcher-watts.

If you would like to follow Susan's Pennine Way Challenge journey (and spot familiar faces from the club) then follow her on Instagram @walkingthepositivepath or on Facebook here. 

Setting off from Ponden Reservoir	About to walk from Gargrave	Teachers and directors at the ready!	A welcome after climbing Cross Fell	The week 3 OBC crew

Many congratulations to Bridget Watson & Howard Arnes who have won the club's annual rubber bridge knock-out competition, and the Meltzer trophy, beating Diana Thorne & Peter Randall in a close-fought final match. 

Click here to view the final draw. 

We're running a heat of the EBED (English Bridge Education and Development) simultaneous pairs on Monday 9th May at 10am, on RealBridge.

The entry fee is £6.50 per player. For further information please click here, or to go directly to the booking page, click here. 

There are still places available on Charlie Bucknell's 6-week 5-Card Majors course at the club house which started 7th May (5 sessions still to be held). The course is aimed at intermediate players who want to switch to this internationally popular system in preference to Acol. For further details and to book please click here. 

As you know, the table money for club sessions has recently increased by 50p. From 1st June we will be also increasing the table money for Learn & Play by 50p to £4.50. We believe this still offers very good value for money. If you would like to book an online Learn & Play session please click here. For club sessions (first Thursday evening of month) just turn up at the club. 

This year's Morrie Marsh Novice Pairs Competition will be held on Thursday 19th May at 7.15pm on RealBridge in place of the usual Learn & Play session. If you are a member of Oxford Bridge Club and have fewer than 200 masterpoints (below Club Master) and haven't previously won a club trophy then you are eligible to win the Morrie Marsh Trophy. Masterpoints will be awarded and the qualifying winners will not only win the trophy but have their names added to the club's Honours' board. For full competition rules click here. To book tickets please click here. 

There is still time to book for the third term (10 weeks of lessons) of the Bridge for All year 1 and year 2 courses. The new term starts from Monday 25th April. Classes continue at the same time on the same day of the week and with the same teacher. Please click here to book.

Unfortunately we have cancelled term 3 of 'Bridge for All' year 1 and 2 online courses held on Mondays as there were insufficient numbers of people booked. However, there are some spaces left for the Face-to-Face classes at the club. The new term (10 weeks of lessons) starts from Tuesday 26th April. Classes continue at the same time with the same teacher. Please click here to book.

The next face-to-face Learn & Play session is Thursday 5th May at 7.15pm. The option to book face-to-face sessions online in advance is no longer available so please just turn up at the club! We'll take payment using your debit/credit card. To book online Learn & Play sessions, please click here. 

The next face-to-face Learn & Play session is Thursday 14th April at 7.15pm. You can currently book this online but there is no need to – just come along to the club and we'll take payment using your credit/debit card. The option to book future face-to-face sessions online in advance will not be available, so for club sessions from Thursday 5th May onwards just turn up! To book online Learn & Play sessions, please click here. 

Expert bridge player and club member, Kathy Talbot is offering members a chance to discuss tricky hands and how they should have been played, either as declarer or defenders. Sessions will be normally held on the second Wednesday morning of the month (except May) through to September, and will take place on RealBridge. If you’ve come across a challenging hand, either as declarer or in defence, that you would like Kathy to explore then please keep a note of the hand and let her know. The first Kathy’s Korner session will be held on Wednesday 13th April at 9.30am. Please book tickets here (and find details of how to contact Kathy).

Last call for Steven Bliss' seminar on the ‘Losing Trick Count’ at the club house on 9th April. This is a way of deciding how high to bid in a suit contract when just counting your points isn’t enough. The session will appeal to those who are playing at gentle duplicate level (and beyond) and want another tool to work out whether game (or even slam) is on. It's very easy to learn and fun! For further details and to book tickets please book here.

The end of March marks the end of year for the ladders for all of our bridge sessions. Most sessions were run online, although hybrid sessions with a face-to-face section started at the end of August. Many congratulations go to those who have done well in this year's ladders (names of those in second and third places are in brackets): 

Monday morning pairs: joint winners Amr El-Kashef and Andy King (Annabel Barnett)

Tuesday morning pairs (a pairs ladder): Linda Allen & Marion Gillie (Diana Cannon & Richard Sills; Ian & Lucy Edwardes)

Wednesday Gentle Duplicate: Stevie Rudd (Dave Rudd; Roger Marshall)

Wednesday evening pairs: Peter Litchfield (Amr El-Kashef; joint third Holly Kilpatrick & Zahir Soonawalla)

Wednesday evening teams: Martin Illingworth (joint second Alison Withers-Green and Robert Gasser)

Thursday Gentle Duplicate: Sheila Parry (Erika Syba; Pam Parsons) 

Friday morning pairs: Amr El-Kashef (Liza Furnival; joint third Mary-Ann & Tim Sheehy)

Many congratulations to Mary-Ann Sheehy and Annabel Wade who have won this year's Ladies' Pairs Competition and the Doreen Simpson Trophy. Close behind them were Julie Anderson and Makiko Rogers - well done to them too.  

Mary-Ann and Annabel

We have joint winners of the Men's Pairs competition and the John Simpson Trophy - Martin Illingworth & Amr El-Kashef, and John Blakesley & Malcolm Orr-Ewing. Tom Brus & Richard Sills were in second place. Congratulations to all.  

		Martin & Amr
		John & Malcolm

Thank you to everyone who supported the Ukraine fundraiser last Friday (25th March). It was lovely to see so many people clearly enjoying being back in the club house and thanks to your collective generosity including the on-line players we raised £355 for the DEC! Looking forward to seeing more of you back at the Club for our Friday morning F2F session.

OBC has two categories of membership: Full and Concessionary. Concessionary Membership is for Students, those under 26 years and those receiving means tested benefits.

Please contact the membership secretary for details.

Booking is now open for the third term (10 weeks of lessons) of the Bridge for All year 1 and year 2 courses. The new term starts from Monday 25th April. Classes continue at the same time on the same day of the week as currently and with the same tutor. Please click here to book. 

All students – please think about joining a Learn & Play session, you are more than ready! We play 12 boards in a very relaxed manner and you can ask the teacher/director for help at any time. There are two sessions per week – Wednesday mornings (online) and Thursday evenings (a mix of online and club – please see calendar). Learn & Play is a great way to practice your Bridge and also get a feel for playing 'proper' duplicate Bridge. Click here for more information and the booking link. 

We are changing the following online sessions for Thursday evening Learn & Play to face-to-face sessions – Thursday 14th April will now be held at the club house. Thursday 7th April is also at the club house as previously scheduled (first Thursday of the month). Online sessions will resume on 21st April and 28th April. The 5th May session will be at the club as scheduled. We will further review the Thursday evening Learn & Play schedule in May to ensure that we’re offering sessions that members want to play at. If you’d like to book any Learn & Play session, please click here. 

We are changing the following online sessions for Thursday evening Learn & Play to face-to-face sessions – Thursday 31st March and Thursday 14th April will now be held at the club house. Thursday 7th April is also at the club house as previously scheduled (first Thursday of the month). We apologise if you were hoping to play online on the 31st March or 14th April. However, we've had a lot interest from new players to play at the club so have decided to make this temporary change. 

Online sessions will resume on 21st April and 28th April. The 5th May session will be at the club as scheduled. We will further review the Thursday evening Learn & Play schedule in May to ensure that we’re offering sessions that members want to play at. 

Wednesday morning Learn & Play sessions will continue to be online until further notice. This week’s Thursday evening session (24th March) is online.

If you’d like to book any Learn & Play session, please click here. 

Ask your partner if they'd like to join you at Oxford Bridge Club!

We are running a session to help raise funds for the Ukraine Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal on the morning of Friday 25th March at 10am.

Table money will be £6 per player, and tea and cake will be served to those at the club. It will be run as a hybrid session as usual, with face-to-face and online sections. 

For further details please click here. 

To duck or not to duck – that is the question! Join Annabel Barnett for 90 minutes exploring this vital part of declarer play. This seminar is of interest to anyone unfamiliar with this technique and who wants to maximise their trick taking potential. The session will take place on BBO and Zoom. Please click here to book.

Oxford Bridge School is delighted to present two seminars run by Michael Byrne on Saturday 12th March 2022 at the Bridge club. Many of you will already have been to Michael’s OBS seminars so will know how entertaining and highly enjoyable these sessions are. Michael is a professional player and teacher based in Manchester where he runs his own teaching school, Michael's School of Bridge. He is squad leader of the England Under 20 team that he has captained to two Silver Medals at the World Championships and two Bronzes at the European Championships. He regularly gives coaching to County and National teams and you may also have seen his articles in ‘English Bridge’. We are particularly pleased that Michael is able to join us shortly before he represents England in the Bermuda Bowl, the World Bridge Team Championships being held in Italy a few weeks later.

The morning session is of interest to intermediate players and will focus on declarer play. The afternoon session will look at opening leads in a new way and is aimed at more advanced players (though of course both sessions are open to all). Please click here to book. 

Congratulations to Kathy & Denis Talbot, who have won our local heat of the EBU Club Stratified Simultaneous Pairs with a score of 68.06%. Viv Stevenson & Makiko Rogers came second, and Carol Smith & Jaak Kand were third. Well done to them too. 

Nationally, after the results have been combined with those from other participating clubs, the final order has changed, with Viv & Makiko in overall 2nd place, Carol & Jaak 3rd, and Kathy & Denis 6th. These three pairs are all in the A stratum. Paul Watson & Paul Smith are OBC's highest placed pair in the B stratum, and Erika Syba & Pam Parsons in the C stratum. Click here to view the national results. 

Click here for the commentary

Congratulations to OBC member Diana Nettleton, playing with partner Ollie Burgess, who came first nationwide in the Grand Masters Pairs over the weekend 26/27th February 2022.

Many congratulations to Annabel Barnett & Jaak Känd (pictured below) who won the club's annual Mixed Pairs competition with an outstanding score of 72.03%. They will be awarded with the Winnie Ling Trophy at the next AGM.

Second were Liza Furnival & Martin Illingworth with 67.32%, and third were Steven & Steph Bliss with 64.7% -  well done to them too. 

Full results are available here.   

In view of the very high winds forecast for Friday 18th February, we've decided to take the precaution of cancelling the face-to-face bridge session. The online section will, of course, still go ahead. 

If you've already booked and paid for your ticket, please transfer it to another session, or to the online session instead. Contact us on online@oxfordbridgeclub.com if you have any problems with this. 

Please double check that your partner knows that the session is cancelled, so that they don't travel to the club unnecessarily. 

Congratulations to Steph Bliss & Elizabeth Nutten who won the OBC heat of the Junior Squad Simultaneous Pairs held on Tuesday 8th February. Ron Gould & Cyril Berkeley were second, and Naomi Brady and Mary Hamilton were third, so well done to them too. 

Those were the results of our local heat. Steph & Elizabeth are currently top of the national results too, though this may change as at the time of writing some clubs haven't yet uploaded their results. 

Click here for the hand commentary,  and here to see the national results.    

Diana Nettleton, Captain of the OBC A team and OBA County Captain, has been selected to represent England in the forthcoming European mixed pairs championships. To be selected Diana and partner Tom Paske had to play 144 boards in December and come in the top half of entrants. The top half of entrants then played a further 144 boards this last weekend and the top three pairs were selected to play for their country. Diana and Tom will be joined by Frances Hinden and Graham Osborne, and Sarah Bell and Michael Byrne (Michael is also known to many Oxford players as a visiting expert, who is due to give two seminars at OBC on 12 March).

Also doing well in the same trials were OU Bridge Club and former Oxford Bridge Club members Charlie Bucknell and Ewa Wieczorek. They came fourth and therefore missed out on selection by only one place. This is again a phenomenal achievement for the County's younger players - the final qualifying round was full of players with international experience, although Charlie and Ewa can also lay claim to this accomplishment. Commiserations therefore go to Charlie and Ewa - perhaps until the next qualifier.

Peter Litchfield will be running a two-seminar online course (RealBridge and Zoom) on slam bidding on 29th January and 5th February. Finding slams when others don’t will give your Bridge scores a huge boost so don’t miss out on this course to show you how to bid them. Peter will be covering such topics as Jacoby 2NT, splinter bids, cue bidding, Roman Key Card Blackwood and reaching minor suit slams after a 1NT opener – all excellent tools designed to enhance your slam bidding. Click here to join the waiting list.

Many congratulations to Robert Gasser & Martin Illingworth who have won the club's annual duplicate pairs competition, held on Sunday 23rd January. They will be awarded with the Beck Salver at the AGM. 

Well done also to Peter Litchfield & John Briggs who came second, and Mary-Ann & Tim Sheehy who were third. 

Click here for the full results. 

The F2F sessions will continue to be run at the clubhouse. The Club does not plan to impose new rules for members attending sessions at the clubhouse. However, in keeping with new guidance issued by HMG on 8 December, the wearing of face masks in the clubhouse (though not legally required) is strongly encouraged. The trustees also strongly encourage players to take a lateral flow test before visiting the clubhouse.

We are holding a special "Festive" Bridge session at the club on Friday 17th December 2021 at 10 am. Click here for more details

Please note that there will be no Learn & Play sessions on Wednesday 22nd December and Thursday 23rd December. Sessions will resume on Wednesday 29th December and Thursday 30th December (both online) but only if we have two tables booked for either. If you would like to play on the 29th or 30th it would help us if you could book tickets sooner rather than later. You can book tickets here. 

Our Saturday Seminars continue in 2022 with a two-seminar short course run by Peter Litchfield on Slam Bidding. The seminars will run on Saturday 29th January and Saturday 5th February on RealBridge and Zoom. Click here to book. 

We hope that you have thoroughly enjoyed your first term of year 1 or year 2 of the new 'Bridge for All' course. Booking is now open for the second term (10 weeks of lessons). The new term starts from Monday 10th January 2022. Classes continue at the same time on the same day of the week as currently. Please click here to book. 

Year 2 students (especially those who joined in January and are completing their final term) – please do have a think about joining a Learn & Play session, you are more than ready! We play 12 boards in a very relaxed manner and you can ask the teacher/director for help at any time. There are two sessions per week - Wednesday mornings and Thursday evenings. They are all online except for the first Thursday evening of each month which is held face-to-face at the club. It's a great way to practice your Bridge and also get a feel for playing 'proper' duplicate Bridge. Click here for more information and the booking link. 

Thursday evening Learn & Play sessions are back at the club on the FIRST Thursday evening of each month. 

Face-to-face sessions of Thursday evening Learn & Play are continuing on the first Thursday of each month at the club. The next session will be at 7.15pm on Thursday 6th January. To book your place click here.

36 pairs took part in the Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs competition played on Friday 5th November at Oxford Bridge Club and online. We are pleased to announce that Linda Edwards and Diane Coe came top. The runners up were Paul Watson and Paul Smith, and in third place were Linda Allen and Elizabeth Nutten. Well done to all! Thank you to everyone who supported Children in Need by playing or donating.

Results from all the clubs who were playing the hands on Friday are available at this link. You can download a copy of the hand commentary here.

Congratulations also to Zahir Soonawalla and Holly Kilpatrick (sorry, no picture!) who won the Wednesday evening heat of the CiN sims. Kathy & Denis Talbot came second, and Peter Schroeder & Ron Gould were third. Combined results from all the clubs playing on Wednesday are here, and a commentary on the hands can be found here. 

UPDATE: the club has donated a total of £324 to the ECats Children in Need Pairs this year. If you would like to make an individual donation to Children in Need, please click here to donate via the ECatsBridge website. 

Congratulations to Holly Kilpatrick, member of Oxford and Summertown bridge clubs.  Holly is to receive the Tom Bradley award which is awarded to a player who has made a significant contribution to junior bridge.  Holly established the Oxford Junior Bridge Club in 2014 and has been the driving force behind establishing junior bridge in the Oxford area, with some of her pupils even progressing to international representation in their age groups.

Congratulations also to Rob Procter, former Chairman of the Oxfordshire Bridge Association.  The EBU is presenting him with a Silver Award in recognition of his years of service to the development of the game of bridge in the county.  Rob is a member of both Menagerie and Oxford bridge clubs.

We are running two heats of the Children in Need Simultaneous Pairs this year, on Friday 5th November at 10am (on RealBridge and at the clubhouse), and Wednesday 10th November at 7.15pm (on RealBridge only). There will be a fresh set of boards for each heat, so you can play on both days if you wish. 

The entry fee is £6.00 per player. Money raised goes to the BBC's Children in Need charity fund. 

For futher details, and to book your place, please click here. 

If you would like to make an individual donation to Children in Need, please click here to donate via the ECatsBridge website. 

We are introducing a new monthly online teams session on the 3rd Friday of the month, with the first session taking place on Friday 15th October. This will be played on RealBridge. 

This session is open to players of all abilities. If you would like some help finding team mates, please email us and we'll do our best to help. 

Here's a link to the bookings page for the first session. 

Do you know anyone who wants to learn to play Bridge? If so, then please encourage them to join our classes for beginners which start at the end of September. These 'Bridge for All' courses have been developed by the EBU and are based on the Acol bidding system. There will be two online and two face-to-face options (one of each for year 1 and year 2 courses). 

Most of our students come to us through the website or through personal recommendation so your spreading the word and encouragement means a lot. Please do mention the classes to your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. They can find more information on this website by clicking on the ‘Learn to Play Bridge’ box in the top right hand corner. 

The Summer series is now concluded; many congratulations to the following:

Division 1 winners are C-side: Tom Brus, Irene Holland, Andy King and Richard Sills, and runners up are Cocamos: Diana Cannon, Gaynor Cooper, John Cooper and Chris Dawe.

Division 2 winners are Jimbo's team: Philip James, Tracey James, Jim Rogers and Karen Rogers. The runners up are JMEP: Mary Chait, John Foord, Patricia Lilly, Pam Parsons and Erika Syba.

We hope that all those who have played in the online teams league over the last 18 months have enjoyed it. This series will be the last one, as we've decided not to run it again. It's been fun while it lasted, and filled a gap in our lives, particularly in the early series, when opportunities for playing online were limited, but we feel that now is the time to bring it to a close. Instead, we're introducing the new monthly teams session on the third Friday evenings. 

Many congratulations to Susan Fletcher and Carol Hall who have won the EBED (English Bridge Education & Development) Autumn Simultaneous Pairs competition at Oxford Bridge Club.

Susan Fletcher	Carol Hall

Thanks to all who played in the competition. Money raised goes to promote the development of Bridge nationally. To see how you've done compared to others across the country who played the same boards, visit the EBU website here. 

Click here to download the commentary for the hands played.  

We are playing a heat of the EBED Autumn Simultaneous Pairs during the Gentle Duplicate session on Wednesday 8th September at 2pm. This is to raise money for English Bridge Education and Development (EBED), the national charity for the promotion and development of bridge.

Entry fee = £6.00 per player. For more information please click here.  

We have now reopened the clubhouse with face-to-face (F2F) bridge sessions taking place on Fridays at 10am. These are hybrid sessions with two sections playing the same set of hands - one section playing at the club, and the other online, on RealBridge.

We will introduce additional F2F sessions as and when we can, depending on the level of support and availability of directors and scorers. 

For information on playing at the club, and the precautions that we are taking against Covid please click here. 

To play in a face-to-face bridge session you must book and pay for your place in advance, using Bookwhen. It's to your advantage to do this in good time, as the session will only run if at least 3 full tables have booked by 9pm the previous evening. If we don't get enough advance bookings the F2F session will be cancelled. The online session will be run regardless, so you can transfer your booking to that one (or another session of your choice) if the F2F one is cancelled. 

Bookings for F2F bridge are now open. Click here to book your place. 

We played our first face-to-face bridge session for nearly one and a half years on Friday 27th August. There were 5 full tables, with another 10½ tables playing online. 

Monday morning and Wednesday evening sessions will be moving from BBO to RealBridge in late September.  We are giving you plenty of notice of the switch so that you can avoid being left with an unused surplus of BB$. If you still have some left over, they can be spent on BBO sessions run by other clubs, or by the EBU, or they can be transferred to another player.  

Now that we have all got used to playing online we are going to increase the number of boards played to 20 (from 18) on Monday and Friday mornings and Wednesday evenings, with effect from the week beginning 30th August. 

These changes will help to facilitate the gradual introduction of face-to-face sessions over the next weeks and months. 

We have been offered an opportunity to run a free seminar given by Simon Cochemé in conjunction with RealBridge. Simon is the captain of the England Seniors team, and writes articles for bridge magazines around the world. 

We will be running this seminar twice - on Tuesday 10 August at 2pm and Thursday 19th August at 11am. Both sessions are identical. 

Do you know anyone who wants to learn to play Bridge? If so, then please encourage them to try one of our free Taster sessions which we’re running at the end of August (two online and one face-to-face at the club). Click here for details.

These will be followed at the end of September by a brand new year of ‘Bridge for All’ courses. These have been developed by the EBU and are based on the Acol bidding system. There will be two online and two face-to-face options (one of each for year 1 and year 2 courses). 

Most of our students come to us through the website or through personal recommendation so your spreading the word and encouragement means a lot. Please do mention the Taster sessions and classes to your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. They can find more information on this website by clicking on the ‘Learn to Play Bridge’ box in the top right hand corner. 

With the progressive easing of Covid-19 restrictions, members may be wondering when and how we may return to play bridge face-to-face at the clubhouse.

Please Click here for more information on the current plans, and details of a member survey.

Many congratulations to John Foord who has won the Roger Hughes trophy for the most improved player. John's NGS increased by an impressive 4.8% in the year ending March 2021. 

An honorable mention goes to Phil Chaundy, whose NGS increased by 3.9% over the same period. 

The Oxford Bridge Club AGM will be held at 6pm on 21st July 2021

Click for more details

Bridge session after the AGM:

The Wednesday evening duplicate pairs session after the AGM will start later than normal, at 7.30pm (or possibly later if the AGM takes longer than expected). This will be a free session, open to all, and will be run on RealBridge. There will be a host so that you can come along without a partner. To ensure that you receive the RealBridge link for the session please book your place in advance. Click here for the booking page. 

Congratulations to Jonathan Kay & Makiko Rogers (both pictured below) who won the Online Knockout Plate Competition. They beat Chris Bone & Juliette Riehl in a closely fought final match. 

Click here to see the full draw.

Many congratulations to Mary-Ann and Tim Sheehy who have won the 2020-2021 Online Knockout Competition, in a closely fought final that was decided on the last hand. They will receive the Meltzer Trophy. Very well done also to the runners-up, Andy King & Sandra Nicholson. 

Click here to view the full draw. 

Congratulations to Oxford Bridge Club members who enjoyed success in the OBA Congress held over the weekend of 12/13 June.

In the Swiss Pairs event, Ewa Wieczorek and Charlie Bucknell came 6=. In the Swiss Teams event, Kathy & Denis Talbot's team came 2nd; Diana Nettleton's team came 3rd; and Peter Litchfield's team came 4=.

Many congratulations to Thelma Spratt and Gillian Fox who have won the Morrie Marsh Trophy in this year's Morrie Marsh Novice Pairs Competition. The runners up were Derek Knowlden and Jacqueline Davies. Very well done to everyone who played in the competition.

Thelma Spratt	Gillian Fox

Congratulations to the Oxford A team, who won division 1 of the Wessex League. That victory qualified them to represent Oxfordshire in the Garden Cities competition. In the regional finals, held on 8 May, they came a splendid 3rd out of 14 teams, thereby qualifying for the finals - for the first time in the Club's history - when they will be up against top names in the bridge world, such as Michael Byrne, Sally Brock and Gunnar Halberg.

The club's Novice Pairs competition for the Morrie Marsh Trophy will take place on Thursday 13th May on RealBridge replacing the Learn & Play session for that evening. Table money is £3 and there will be 14-16 boards played (depending on the number of tables) at 9 minutes per board.

Masterpoints will be awarded and the winners will claim the Morrie Marsh Trophy. Full rules of the competition are here. To book a place click here.

Many congratulations to Kathy Garrard and Pam Parsons who have won the EBED (English Bridge Education & Development) Spring Simultaneous Pairs competition at Oxford Bridge Club.

Kathy Garrard	Pam Parsons

Thanks to all who played in the competition. Money raised goes to promote the development of Bridge nationally. To see how you have done compared to others across the country who played the same boards, visit the EBU website here. 

Click here for the hand commentary.

We are playing a heat of the EBED Simultaneous Pairs during the Gentle Duplicate session on Wednesday 12th May at 2pm. This is to raise money for English Bridge Education and Development (EBED), the national charity for the promotion and development of bridge.

Entry fee = £5.00 per player. For more information please click here.  

Congratulations to the winner's of the fifth series of OBC's Online Teams League, which has just finished. They are:

Division 1: Cocamos (Diana Cannon, Gaynor Cooper, John Cooper & Susie Moser)

Division 2: Jamgee (Joanna Donkin, Alasdair MacDonald, Marion Sheppard & Graham Walcroft)

The sixth series of the league, which will run over the summer, starts in May.

Further details can be found here. 

With effect from Tuesday 4th May. Tuesday mornings will be hosted, so you can come along without a partner. 

Click here for the RealBridge bookings page. 

Oxford Junior Bridge Club resumes face-to-face sessions at Oxford Bridge Club from Sunday 2nd May 2021. See here for more information.

Many congratulations to Amr El-Kashef & Annabel Barnett who have won the club pairs competition. They receive the Beck Salver.
	Winners: Amr E-Kashef & Annabel Barnett

Kathy & Denis Talbot were a very close second, with Peter Litchfield & John Briggs third.
	Runners Up: Kathy & Denis Talbot

Click here for the full results. 

Many congratulations to Linda Allen & Dave Dobson, who won the County Pairs final, held on Sunday 18th April. Second were Henry Rose & Aleks Lishkov, and third Mary-Ann Sheehy & Christopher Whitehouse, so well done to them too. The top three pairs in this event qualify to represent Oxfordshire in the Corwen Trophy, due to be held in June. Click here for the full results. 

April 19, 2021: The Portland Bowl Semifinals and Final took place on RealBridge this weekend.

In the semifinals, Oxford A beat Imperial and Cambridge B beat Southampton B. In the third place playoff, Imperial beat Southampton B by 75-43. In the final, after a very close match where there was not much between the two evenly matched teams, Oxford A beat Cambridge B by 128-115.

This is Oxford’s first win since 2011; Cambridge had won 6 out of the previous 7 tournaments before this year.

The victorious Oxford University team was Yining Yang (captain), Lawrence Wang, Sam Anoyrkatis & Ewa Wieczorek, and they were virtually presented with the trophy on Zoom by Christopher Kemp, Chairman of the Portland Club, whose continued support of the event is very much appreciated. All the Oxford University players except Sam are members of Oxford Bridge Club.

See full results here

April 19, 2021 : The Lady Milne Trophy - the annual women's home international series - took place this weekend, hosted by Northern Ireland, via RealBridge.

Due to the event being held online, delayed kibitzing was available with commentary for all matches.

The English team of Diana Nettleton, Nevena Senior, Helen Erichsen, Fiona Brown, Nathalie Shashou & Sally Brock with NPC David Burn and Coach Oliver Burgess, won the trophy. They finished the event with a score of 79.77 VPs. Scotland finished close behind in second place with a total of 73.58 VPs. In third place was Ireland with 49.29 VPs. Diana is a member of Oxford Bridge Club, and captains the OBC A team in the Wessex League.

Many congratulations to Pat Lewis & Ursula Bowler (with a very impressive score of 71.53%!), and Lorna Swadling & Liza Furnival, who are joint winners of this year's Ladies' Pairs competition*. They will receive the Doreen Simpson trophy. 

And many congratulations also to John Briggs & Peter Litchfield, and Amr El-Kashef & Martin Illingworth, who are joint winners of the Men's Pairs competition^. They will receive the John Simpson trophy. 

*The Ladies' pairs competition was scored as a two-winner event by mistake, which means that there's a pair of N/S winners, and a pair of E/W winners. It isn't possible to distinguish between them as there wasn't an arrow switch.

^The Men's event was scored as a one-winner event, the winners on the night were Jonathan Davis & David Barker, with an outstanding score of 71.67% - so an honorable mention goes to them too. As David is not a club member, the trophy is awarded to the pair who came second. As it happens two pairs were joint second on identical percentage scores. 

The end of March marks the end of year for the ladders for all of our bridge sessions, all of which were run online. Congratulations go to this year's ladder winners (second and third places in brackets): 

Monday morning pairs: Amr El-Kashef (Andy King; Steven Bliss)

Tuesday morning pairs (a pairs ladder): Chris Bone & Juliette Riehl (Diana Cannon & Richard Sills; Gaynor Cooper & John Cooper)

Wednesday Gentle Duplicate: joint winners Ann Lee and John Foord (Stevie Rudd)

Wednesday evening pairs: Denis Talbot (Kathy Talbot; Liza Furnival)

Thursday Gentle Duplicate: Sheila Parry (Rosemary Fraser; joint third Chris Bone & Juliette Riehl) 

Friday morning pairs: Bridget Watson (Howard Arnes; joint third Steph Bliss and Steven Bliss)

Friday evening pairs:  there were too few eligible sessions for this to be judged properly, so the trophy won't be awarded, but Zahir Soonawalla emerged with the highest percentage

The Wednesday and Friday evening teams ladders were not run this year. 

Note that only members are eligible to win - names of non-members and robots are omitted. 

Congratulations to Mary-Ann & Tim Sheehy who have won the club's Mixed Pairs Competition, held on Thursday 4th March. They receive the Winnie Ling Trophy.  Sarah & Alan Conway were second, and Annabel Barnett & Malcolm Orr-Ewing third, so very well done to them too. 

This event is held on a date that is as close as possible to the the date of Winnie's birthday, which was on 22 February.

We're pleased to announce that we're introducing a hosting system for Friday mornings, with the first hosted session being on Friday 5th February. This means that you can play even though you don't have a partner. If you would like to use the host system please book and pay for your place in advance as usual, and join the RealBridge session by at least 9.45am. When you reach the lobby, send a chat message to the director to say that you're looking for a partner.  

Thank you to those who have volunteered to host.

For those that were unable to attend the AGM on 2nd December, here are:

• Minutes of last year's AGM (September 2019)
• The Chair's report
• Draft minutes of this year's AGM