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 is very kindly continuing to finance his pairs tournament for both experienced and less experienced players. 

• the tournament will be played over nine months on the fourth Wednesday evening of each month commencing 27 September (excluding the last Wednesday of December). That makes a total of eight sessions 
• free refreshments (wine, beer, soft drinks and nibbles) will be provided throughout each session both at the beginning, during the interval, and at the end
• there will be £50 cash prizes each month - £20 to the winners, £10 to the runners-up and £20 to the highest ranking pair with an NGS of under 10
• there will be a ladder encompassing the results from all eight sessions, with only the best five results counting towards the final total
• the winner of the ladder will received the John Deech Challenge Trophy
• further cash prizes will be awarded to ladder winners, runners-up and the highest placed player with an NGS of under 10 (as measured on 1 October 2023)

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

Table money: £4.00 per player, payable on arrival, card payments only.

Host: all sessions are hosted so that you may attend even if you don't have a partner. 

Note that you don't need to attend every session to take part in this competition - you may attend as many or as few of the sessions as you wish/can manage. If you'd like to compete for the trophy and the end-of-year prizes, then you'll need to attend at least 5 out of the 8 sessions, but the individual session prizes are open to anyone who comes along to play. 

Non-members are very welcome to play in these sessions, and are eligible to win the cash prizes awarded on the night. However non-members are not eligible to win the trophy or cash prizes awarded at the end of the tournament.