A deserved victory for Roehampton Blue in the Devonshire Cup overcoming a determined performance by Hurlingham Peacocks.
 

A deserved victory for Roehampton Red in the Plate winning a close match against the Queens Club.

With the approval of Marc Newey, I am very pleased to announce the following appointments for the Bridge Section:

Senior Bridge Professional – Niall Igoe

Director Tournaments – Steve Foster

Please also note that the Introductory Duplicate Sessions (Free) will now take place from 10am to 12pm on the Second Friday of each month so as not to clash with the Friday Teams held on the first and third Fridays. So, the next session will be on Friday 13th February and not on 6th February as previously scheduled.

Malcolm Bricknell
26th January 2026

Bridge calendar 2026

The 2026 calendar for is now out and available from the bridge noticeboards, on Bridgewebs or you can click here to download it. As previously mentioned, there are several new events to look forward to next year, in addition to the normal matches and competitions, which are mainly arising from the 125th anniversary celebrations.

The Bridge Calendar is regularly updated so you will find the most up to date information about matches and events by accessing the 'Calendar Month' page on the left.

Did you know there is a book / folder next to the computer in the Bridge Room for "signing up" to the English Bridge Union (EBU). All you have to do is fill in your details such as email and address and one of the bridge Directors will sign you up with the EBU.

ALL EBU Membership fees are paid for by the Roehampton Club - so this is free.

Membership of the English Bridge Union (EBU) offers many benefits, including: 

• Competitions: Participate in a variety of competitions, tournaments, and simultaneous events at all levels 
• Publications: Receive the EBU's magazine, English Bridge, four times a year 
• Diary: Get a free 18-month pocket diary with listings of tournaments and competitions 
• Advice: Get advice on all aspects of the game, including starting a new club, scoring, behavior, and ethics 
• Discounts: Get special offers on bridge books and equipment from The Bridge Warehouse, the EBU's shop 
• Online games: Play online games at home when your club isn't open 
• Funbridge: Get a free one-month subscription to Funbridge, which gives you access to all Premium and Premium+ subscription advantages 
• Bridge Club Live: Get a free 50-day trial of Bridge Club Live, an online club affiliated to the EBU 
• Healthcare: Get exclusive offers on private medical plans through HMCA 

You can also receive a Member's Pack when you affiliate your club with the EBU. The pack includes a membership card, a new members' booklet, and other information. 

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