Learning bridge at Richmond Bridge Academy is a great mixture of fun and study. Our lessons are based on Bridge For All, the recommended teaching programme produced by the English Bridge Union, the national governing body for the game of bridge in this country.

If you are interested in learning please click below to register your details.  

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Our course for absolute Beginners starts with teaching Minibridge to introduce the basics of the game and how to score. We rapidly then move on to

How to play the cards as "Declarer" and "Defender"

Bidding basics 1 - opening 1NT and all the responses including Stayman

Bidding Basics 2 - opening 1 of a suit and responding

Bidding Basics 3 - overcalling with a suit

Individual courses may vary in length - but will be approximately 20 weeks long (excluding breaks for Christmas etc). Each lesson is two hours - the first hour focusing on theory, and the second on practising what you have learned through actual play.  All materials are included. Our course structure is designed each week to provide opportunities to revise and recap the previous week - we recognise how important it is to allow for students who may have to miss a lesson due to other commitments. To this end, every lesson has been pre-recorded and these are made available as an additional aid during the course. 

From the outset we encourage you to start attending additional "Supervised Play" - our practice sessions, specially for beginners and improvers, where teachers are on hand to give help and advice. By the end of the course we hope all the students will be able to play in "Assisted Duplicate" sessions, ie playing the game against their peers in a competitive, but still friendly, format. The focus of all these sessions is to offer as much practice as possible to build confidence. Many students set up whatsapp groups within their classes to self-organise who will go to which practice session - reflecting the social ethos of the club - but the key thing is that everyone is welcome and you don't need to pre-book or even to have a partner. 

Bridge is a game where you will always be learning something new - and once our students have completed the beginners course and started play, we arrange regular additional weekly workshops as well as mini-courses (typically 3 or 4 weeks long) focused on a variety of "improver" and "intermediate" topics.  With the help of these extra skills (both in the play and the bidding), our students can progress on to our gently paced sessions, which are at the core of the club's activities  - and then finally to our main duplicates, which are enjoyed by players regardless of their experience.