Your committee met last week to review our current situation and how we should proceed for the coming months and came to some firm decisions about our direction of travel. There are a number of aspects upon which decisions have been made and this article will cover them all:

Firstly, we have now returned to face to face sessions at the Cricket Club over the last 11 weeks. Whilst we have so far only met our "break even" attendances sporadically, we are close enough to that point to continue to offer the opportunity for members to meet face to face. Therefore, until further notice, we intend to continue to meet on Tuesday evenings as we did pre-pandemic. We hope to see more of you joining us in the future.

Secondly, the Monday morning online relaxed sessions will also continue as before. Those members still understandably reluctant to venture back in person will maintain the opportunity to socialise online with other members. Additionally, a number of members have taken advantage of the opportunity to play online with our fellow BOA members at Leighton Buzzard amd Milton Keynes on a Monday and Wednesday evening and they will continue to be made welcome by both clubs.

Thirdly, we have taken advantage of the offer by the EBU to affiliate for free on a trial basis from now until September 2022. We will review this decision at the AGM of the Club which will take place on 19th April 2022. Depending on the views expressed at that meeting, we reserve the right to call an extraordinary members meeting at the end of July 2022 at which time we will either vote to fully affiliate to the EBU or disaffilliate if that is the wish of the membership. We already have around half of our Club who are members of the EBU by virtue of attending other Clubs or directly affiliating as personal members, but this decision means that a number of members will receive a welcome pack from the EBU explaining the benefits that accrue to members. I will be passing appropriate contact details to the EBU as part of the trial.

Fourthly, one of the strengths of our Club has been our social aspects such as celebrating Xmas and our annual dinner. At this time, we are seeing a percentage of our membership face to face. As I write this, 42 members have returned on at least one occasion in the last 11 weeks so we have no plans to go overboard with those celebrations. However, if numbers continue to climb, we reserve the right to review the situation. We will have a Xmas celebration on 21st December but scaled back from previous years.

Finally, I can confirm we intend to hold our annual Regis in Bournemouth event starting Friday April 29th 2022 finishing Monday 2nd May 2022. Because prices for accommodation have changed, we will be asking for a supplement from those members who have already paid to attend the postponed 2020 event and who chose for us to hold their monies. We will be writing to them in due course nearer to the time.

I hope that has clarified our future intentions for members and look forward to seeing as many of you as feel able to attend either face to face or online in the coming months.

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.