Welcome to the website of Bridge on the Edge, based in St. John's, NL, Canada.  In 2016 we became a player owned bridge club.  We support a respectful culture, both at the bridge table and in all BOTE communications, for the enjoyment and growth of all members.  

Please check with any Board member if you need additional information.

Members who want to use the member's functions (ie bookings etc), please ensure you've accessed the site using the bridgeweb link bridgewebs.com/onedge/.

England’s bridge expert Sandra Landy, once wrote “In club play, women always outnumber men in afternoon and evening play but men always predominate in serious competitive play.”
Well, this well-known English bridge expert got it dead wrong on BOTE’s hugely successful Soup & Sandwich Celebratory Game on Monday, as four woman did indeed ‘predominate’ in all aspects of the game, winning both sections handily. To make this performance even more remarkable, they accomplished their feat in the largest Open Pairs event we have run in more than three years. 

As any experienced player will tell you, there are more than a few reasons why a large field is hard to negotiate. More pairs result in more variable scores, especially on the marginal hands, so no great bid or expert play is guaranteed to be justly rewarded. Also, very good results (tops) are as scarce as feathers on a fish, as some of your better scores are sure to be matched or erased by both the lucky and the unlucky collateral damage. Just imagine?  You finally sort a nice hand, bid to perfection, and get a favourable lead; you go on to guess every finesse right and execute a Clash Squeeze to make two overtricks in 3 NT! Later you find three pairs took the sacrifice, in five of a minor doubled, going down for an international phone number.  Bye-bye those gilt-edge match points. It can get worse as some irascible gamblers, who feel their game is sub-par late in the session may throw caution to the wind and ‘start shooting’ trying to steal a few tops, as they feel they have nothing to lose, really! These long shots will certainly not duplicate the ‘normal curve’. - those difficult distributional hands played earlier, when caution & care were the guiding cerebral factors.

WELL IF THAT JUST DON’T TAKE THE CAKE
 

And back to those dominant women...
Leading the pack, North-South, with an impressive 63.07%, was no real surprise, as Mary Lou Martin and Deirdre Davis, collectively and individually, have as many wins over the years as any other pairs or players. Their consistency at the table is to be admired, and perhaps often envied. But the great scoop of Monday afternoon was what happened over on the East-West side.

“CHAMPIONS KEEP PLAYING UNTIL THEY GET IT RIGHT!” - Billie Jean King

The best news of the day, (other than the fabulous hospitality served up by Susan, Judith and the catering Elves) was some huge changes in latitude.  To win big in a large field you need to bid accurately, defend miserly, and declare astutely. With eight or nine ‘A’ pairs prowling the room, there won’t be many gifts up for grabs, so you will have to earn every one of your averages and somehow manage to mine a few tops.

All the World Loves M&M's.
Well, that is just what Mary and Michelle managed to materialize through a gruelling 24 board match, ending up with a Section Top score of 60.61%.  What makes this accomplishment all the more remarkable is that M & M are fairly new to duplicate at BOTE and they flat out won C, B, & A, completely. We are so proud of your dogged determination and it will be lots of fun to watch you grow your game.

Congratulations to all who played and or placed on Monday, it was a wonderful social gathering, a compelling set of boards and great to see so many old friends having fun together again.

“Our Club Championships for May will be held on 15th for Open Pairs and a Team game on the18th. Will Rick Comerford continue his winning steak or can he be toppled from his top spot?” So reads a main article on this web page all last week!
Let’s start with Monday’s event.

OPEN PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIP
Bruce Watson & Maureen Volk won the East-West Section Top, enough to place them first overall in A and B.
Judith McIntyre & Marilyn Bennett were just behind them, to capture first place in the North-South Section to come second in A overall.
Sandra Tobin & James Brown took third overall
Elizabeth Woodrow & Claudia Shortall continued their winning ways taking first place overall in C, while Michelle Walsh & Mary Moore grabbed first place NS to come in second in C.
No Rick yet, but read on!!!

TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Three days later, 8 teams squared off in what would be a very tight match through 24 boards during the entire afternoon. Indeed, four teams would go on to win 3 matches each, so the hunt for every single IMP was crucial. When the last card was played, our lead-in question was answered as YES - Comerfords continued their winning steak, as Rick & Margie, playing with Rahul & Marguerite eked out a 2 Victory Point margin to come in first. A fraction behind them, was our ever popular Web Artisans, June and Regina playing with Raye and Roy to capture second place. Next, for third place, came Michelle and Mary, teamed with Shakti and Jim. And just 1 VP behind them to squeeze into fourth, was Pramila & Mike with the Shortalls, Brian & Claudia. One of our more popular events was enjoyed by all.

Congratulations to all of our winners and everyone else who placed in these events.

Supervised Play

Our popular Supervised Play is taking a well deserved summer break from June through September.  Thanks to Deirdre, Tom & Brian (and all the great volunteers who filled in) for their enthusiasm, tutelage, and bridge expertise they shared over the cold winter months.  Based on informal participant feedback, this educational experience was very rewarding. Everyone seemed to have a ton of fun, learned lots of bridge lore and are keenly looking forward to progressing further in the Fall Sessions. So as a farewell fling we will be serving refreshments to you for a relaxed get-together on the last game day, Monday 29th May.  See you all there.

Introduction to Duplicate

Now that you have had a great introduction to bridge and maybe are curious to explore further to expand your horizons or just because you think you’ll probably miss everyone too much over the summer, we are inviting all the Super players to come along and try duplicate on Thursday 25th May. This will occur at the same time as our regular game, 1:00pm.  There will be loads of people available to help with any problems and give all kinds of bidding assistance.  This is also the perfect opportunity for regular players with friends who play social bridge to bring them along as well. We think you will really enjoy this laid back introduction to the weekly games and have a enjoyable afternoon meeting new friends. Needless to say, this will be a special game, that will certainly will be slower paced than our usual games and our congenial Director will just be there help out as he will relax the rules for this amicable afternoon. Sign up, with a partner, on our website, or contact us if you need help.

50/50 Draws for The Longest Day Fundraiser

The Longest Day, an annual fundraising event held to support the fight against Alzheimer’s will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our ACBL partnership with the organization, and our community has raised almost $9 million! (Funds raised in Canada are donated to the Alzheimer Society of Canada.)  The event spans the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice, and recognizes the challenging journey of those living with Alzheimer’s, and their caregivers.
Bridge is uniquely suited for The Longest Day because studies have shown that playing strategic games, like bridge, help keep your brain healthy!
BOTE has always been a loyal supporter of the ACBL Longest Day event.  Our official event this year will be on June 22nd, more information on that later, but during the month of June we will be running a 50/50 draw at every game.  Tickets will be $2 so bring along some spare change when you are playing for a good cause, who knows you might win big!!

Our Library

We have a library of bridge books donated by club members. A new addition to our collection is Bruce Watson's recent publication “Strong Club, Unbalanced Diamond”.  (Thanks Bruce!).  Anyone interested in borrowing this or any other library book, stored at the club, should contact any Board Member.  The list of books available is on our webpage in the Information tab on the LHS. If anyone would like to be our librarian please contact us.

As ever direct any questions, comments or suggestions to info@bridgeontheedge.ca and (finally) don’t forget to sign up for our Celebration Lunch Monday 22nd. Phew!