Bridge calendar 2026

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Bridge Blog – July 2026

Zia Mahmood Event

 We had our final bridge 125th anniversary special event on Friday 19th June with Zia Mahmood, the celebrity bridge player.

 Zia has been one of the most exciting and successful players in recent times and he rose to the occasion superbly. We heard some highly amusing and sometimes quite risque anecdotes from his different experiences.

He floored (most of) us with his quiz and provided some highly entertaining hands to learn from. All in all, it was a memorable day and a great way to round off our 125th anniversary events.

Bridge Summer Party

The Bridge Summer Party took place on 9th July, on one of the warmest days of the year. So, it was very appropriate then that we had a tropical Caribbean theme complete with our mini steel band performer.

It was very nice to be able to enjoy cocktails in the garden followed by dinner in the marquee and great to have a full attendance.

It has been very gratifying to receive so much positive feedback- many thinks to Belinda for organising such a fun event and to Ron for running the Bridge with his customary flair.

Leagues

Congratulations to our ladies teams for winning the Royal Wimbledon League just ahead of Burhill. Although we ranked equal on points with them, we led on matches won having secured four wins against their three.

Our two teams in the London Business Houses Contract Bridge Association (LBHCBA) have also done well, with both seemingly being set for promotion. The Hearts team led by Lorna did consistently well to secure second place, ready for promotion to Division two. The Diamonds team had a disastrous start and spent most of the season propping up the bottom of the division two table. This was a sad result for a team that finished a good second in Division One just a year or so ago. However, thanks to two very strong performances we managed to finish in second place. We did this by beating Canary Wharf 17-3 on the last match with every victory point being needed for promotion.

Matches and competitions

The match against RAC on 30th June was very close with our team narrowly losing by just 9 imps. There was apparently a big fightback by Roehampton Club after a very weak first half performance, but not quite enough on the day to get an overall win. We did however do better in our match against the House of Lords team on the 9th June, gaining a 59 imp victory. Our hosts were kind enough to provide an impromptu guided tour, which was much appreciated.

Club sessions

We are now moving into the period when the summer bridge calendar applies.

Beginners’ classes run by James Thrower have already finished. We are planning for James to run a new daytime beginners class starting on 14th September and are hoping that we may be able to give Roehampton Club Members the opportunity to join an evening class by cooperating with other clubs to offer this alternative. More details will be available very soon.

Niall will finish his Monday evening sessions at the end of July. However, he plans to continue with the Wednesday and Friday morning sessions over the summer. His other classes will then resume in September with dates to be posted in due course.

Loulou and Arnold held their last supervised play session of this season on Tuesday 14th July after which they also break until an expected restart on 8th September.

The Tuesday evening supervised play sessions for less experienced players run by John Maskell is also be suspended over the summer from Tuesday 14th July with the same expected restart date of 8th September.

Wishing everyone a great summer.

Malcolm Bricknell, Bridge Chair

Dear fellow Bridge players

Summer Sessions

We are now moving into the period when the Summer Bridge calendar applies.

Beginners classes run by James Thrower have already finished. We are planning for James to run a new daytime beginners class starting on September 14^th and are hoping that we may be able to give Roehampton members the opportunity to join an evening class by cooperating with other clubs to offer this alternative.

Niall will finish his Monday evening sessions at the end of July. However, he plans to continue with the Wednesday and Friday morning sessions over the summer. His other classes will then resume in September with dates to be posted in due course.

Loulou and Arnold will hold their last supervised play session of this season on Tuesday 14th July after which they will also break until an expected restart on September 8^th.

The Tuesday evening supervised play sessions for less experienced players run by John Maskell will also be suspended over the summer after Tuesday 14th July with an expected restart date of September 8th.

Thursday Evening Gentle Duplicates

As mentioned previously, we have decided to reinstate the Thursday Evening Duplicate as an explicitly Gentle Duplicate session. The number of boards played will be reduced to an expected 18, so as to give more time for players for each round. The sessions will be scored as usual and will feature on Pianola and will also count for EBU masterpoints. After further consideration of EBU policy, we now plan to use a code that does count towards players NGS rankings.

Gentle Bridge is aimed at “helping Beginners and Improvers to develop in a supportive, learning environment”. The extra time is intended to allow for a more relaxed game and the opportunity to more easily” learn as you play” by being able to discuss points of interest between rounds. For that reason, we are welcoming stronger players to play, but only with weaker partners, so they can contribute to the learning process but without “intimidating” beginners and improvers by being part of a very strong pairing.

By way of clarification, we would like to set a guideline of Queen and above (based on NGS) as being considered to be a stronger player for this purpose and 10 and below as being considered “weaker” (in the sense of eligibility to play with a “strong” player).

We know that some people have arranged games before the new arrangements were announced. We have informed people that there is no issue for them to play as a strong pairing over the next few weeks, where this has been done. We would however like to see the new arrangements fully in place from August onwards.

Malcolm Bricknell

Bridge Chair

Thursday Evening Duplicate Sessions

After lengthy consideration, we have decided to reinstate the Thursday Evening Duplicate as an explicitly Gentle Duplicate session. So, in future the number of boards played on Thursday evenings will be reduced to an expected 18, so as to give more time for players for each round. The sessions will be scored as usual and will feature on Pianola and will count for EBU masterpoints, but will not count towards NGS rankings.

Gitte has kindly offered to spend 15 minutes or so after each session to answer questions players may have.

Strong players choosing to play in this gentle session are requested to play with a weaker partner in order to keep the right ambience for a gentle session.

Housekeeping

We want to keep the Bridge Room as tidy as possible. Could players kindly remember that after their sessions are finished, they should put used glasses on to the trolley provided, remove any waste paper and put boards and bidding boxes etc back to where they belong. Staff do a good job, but they can’t be forever tidying up behind us and in any case, they will not be involved in putting the Bridge materials back where they belong. Let’s all aim to set a high standard please. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

New Duplicate Sessions

As discussed at the AGM, we are planning to try out an introductory Duplicate session to be run by Niall in place of one of his regular practice sessions. This will on the first Friday morning of the month from 10 am starting in December. It should be a good opportunity for intermediate players to play in a Gentle session and for less experienced players to develop Duplicate Bridge skills. As this will count as a regular session (rather than a teaching session) there will be no charge to members (but the usual guest fee would apply). 

On Monday 13 April we will be running the club teams competition. It will be the
usual 1.30 pm start time.
We are planning a number of special  members only events as part of the contribution of the Bridge
Section to the club’s 125 th anniversary celebrations.
On Monday 20 April we plan to hold a new Internal Mixed Pairs Competition with a
Rose Bowl as prize. It will have the normal start time of 1.30 pm and be run like a
normal duplicate session. Players who wish to compete for this trophy will obviously
need to enter as a mixed pair.
On Wednesday 22 April we will be holding a special 125 th Anniversary Duplicate
Invitation Tournament. We will be inviting a small number of representatives from
other clubs we play matches against, and there will be some prizes to compete for. It
will have a start time of 1.30 pm.
On Friday 19 June we will be having an event with Zia Mahmood. There will be a
bridge session with some prepared hands, drinks and a lunch during which Zia will
give a short speech. There will also be a book signing, for anyone interested to buy
an autographed copy of his book. It should be a very special occasion. Timings and
other details to follow.
For the events on Wednesday 22 April and Friday 19 June there will be a sign up
posted in due course.
As mentioned in an earlier email, we are moving the introductory Duplicate Bridge
sessions to the second Fridays of the month. These take place between 10 am and
12am and are a good way for less experienced players to improve their capabilities
to play in duplicate sessions.
The Teams sessions will continue to be on the first and third Fridays of the month (
outside of Summer) with the usual start time of 1.30 pm.
Good luck and looking forward to seeing you in the Bridge Room.
Malcolm B