A number of people have been asking me what the current position is concerning Bournemouth 2021 in light of the continuing pandemic. We have been in contact with the hotel and they have reluctantly agreed that, whatever the situation is nationally concerning social distancing rules, because of the size and age profile of our group it is impractical for us to meet as planned in April and therefore Bournemouth 2021 is cancelled. Longer term, we have agreed to make a provisional booking with the Hotel for the period 29^th April to 2^nd May 2022. We are going to email those individuals affected by this decision and have set a date of 21st February 2021 to get in touch with them.

Since March, we have been unable to meet together on a Tuesday evening to enjoy three hours of competitive and enjoyable Bridge in pleasant company. It looks like that will remain the position until at least March next year if we are to believe the scientific advice.

With that in mind, the committee met last Sunday observing proper social distancing and agreed that, if we cannot meet face to face then we should at least try to meet online. We are therefore joining an alliance group of local Bridge clubs involving our friends from Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes which will enable us to resume online competition on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings using the RealBridge platform. For those unfamiliar with this, please visit their website using the following link: https://realbridge.online/

If you select the FAQ menu option, this will give you advice concerning the equipment requirements to enable you to play effectively on the system

The RealBridge platform is quite easy to master as it replicates most closely the normal bidding and play at a bridge table with the major advantage that you can see and hear your bridge friends as if you were with them.

Given the interchange of players and directors at the other two clubs, we plan to share our membership lists so that a member of any of these clubs can play at the others.

To summarise, there will therefore be bridge available on Monday (LBBC), Tuesday (Regis) and Wednesday (MK).

The ethos of all 3 events will be that they are inclusive of all abilities and will be friendly and tolerant. LBBC and MKBC are both affiliated clubs and there will be Masterpoints and NGS ranking points available for the Monday and Wednesday events. Regis events will not be eligible for either of these. Directors will be drawn from each of the three clubs and will not necessarily officiate on their particular club nights.

We plan an umbrella website for our cooperative venture and will announce more details in due course. In the meantime though, we stress that the three individual clubs will keep their own identities and our activities will be overseen by the three club’s chairpersons.

There will be no charge for the first couple of events but thereafter we will charge a nominal £1.50 per session probably by monthly invoice. Regis will be pleased to host its first event on Tuesday 3^rd November at 7 for 7-30 and Log in details will follow later on this email list and via our website along with a check on equipment which you might wish to use.

I look forward to seeing you again then.

"Regis Bridge Club" is the principal duplicate bridge club in Dunstable, So named from when it first opened in "Houghton Regis", a small town on the outskirts of Dunstable, Bedfordshire. The Club has invested in the ArcScorer wireless scoring system and can provide a result on the night immediately after completion of the last board played.

Although not currently affiliated to the EBU, duplicate evenings follow the rules laid down by the governing body. You can be assured of a competitive but friendly evening playing duplicate bridge.