You will all be aware that we have been unable to meet together at our venue since March 2020. In that time, those of us wishing to play duplicate Bridge have played online, first by using established software packages and, in the last 10 months by using the "Realbridge" system. In that time we have taken part with our friends from Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes in an online alliance.That has proved a success and demonstrated the benefits of acting together as a group. Following the removal of legal restrictions by the Government, we have been considering whether it is appropriate to return to face to face (F2F) Bridge at this time. Our club has wanted to return to F2F as soon as it is safe to do so and so the steering committee met recently and agreed that we should return to F2F on a Tuesday evening. Accordingly, I am pleased to inform you that we shall return to F2F Bridge on 31st Auguat 2021.

This means that we will cease our Tuesday evening RealBridge sessions from 31st August onwards. I must stress the our online Monday morning RealBridge sessions will continue indefinitely and are not affected by this decision. We have had feedback from some members who are reluctant to return to F2F and we acknowledge that this is entirely a matter of personal choice for them. For them, they will be welcome to join the Monday and Wednesday evening sessions run by our Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes alliance partners respectively..Equally however, we have a number of former regular members who have been either unwilling or unable to join us online for any number of valid reasons. We hope that the return to F2F will enable some or all of them to rejoin us at the Bridge table so we can more easily consider ourselves as an inclusive club for all members.

Our landlords have indicated there will be no COVID restrictions placed on attendees. The wearing of masks indoors will be entirely a matter of personal choice for those of you joining us. We will ensure that each table in play has access to hand sanitisers. We may also recommend that all players use a personal bidding box as they move around the room. We will also ensure the playing area is appropriately ventilated subject to the prevailing weather conditions.

Your committee recognises the potential financial impact on the Club should attendances fail to reach our break even point. Accordingly, we have agreed to review attendances at a meeting to be held at the end of October 2021 at which stage we will consider the best way forward given the circumstances in place at that time. As well as posting this article on our website, we will be issuing an all members email to those who have supplied us with contact details as well as all those who have played online with us on a Tuesday evening on at least one occasion. However, there will be members who have not supplied us with such details so can I ask you all if you know of somebody falling in that category to contact them and let them kknow of this development.

Colin O'Hara

Chairman

With the news that face to face Bridge sessions will return to Regis from 31st August, some people have asked whether we will continue with our Monday morning online sessions. I am happy to confirm that we will continue to offer this online alternative for those people not yet willing to return to face to face games as well as members who wish to play online during the daytime. These sessions will last no more than 2 hours, use simple systems and will play between 16 and 20 Boards, all for the bargain price of £1 per session. We hope that as many of our members as feel able will join us for these events.

To join these sessions click on the link on the right hand side of the page. 

Colin O’Hara

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 2022 to get in touch with them.

"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.