PALL MALL BRIDGE COMMITTEE CHAIR

Hello Everyone,

Well, we have reached the most romantic month of the year. I hope Henry is reading this. I am joking he never forgets Valentine's Day, although I must say our celebrations have become more relaxed as the years go by. 

In the past, I remember sitting in crowded restaurants eating a perhaps rather disappointing ‘Valentine’s Menu’, the waiters dashing around as they were so busy and the whole thing being rather frenetic – hmmm not very romantic!

So, to all our Kings and Queens of Hearts, I wish you all a lovely day!

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Thank you to everyone who came along to the AGM, I appreciate all your input. I have changed our Committee Calendar for 2026 so that our first Committee Meeting is after the AGM. This means we can discuss all the points made at the AGM and we will indeed be doing so!

Just to reiterate quickly, there were not really many points of contention. After a show of hands, it was decided that the Summer Party would continue at Pall Mall. We also had discussions regarding various matches which I don’t want to go into here but will discuss at the next Committee Meeting.

The new AGM format seemed to work in as much as all players were able to read my statement along with the Match Secretaries' statement beforehand and thus shortening the length of the meeting and enabling us to start playing on time!

INTER-CLUB MATCHES

January to June

Many thanks to all bridge players who applied to play in matches during the first half of the year. We have now organised the teams and you should all have received an email with details.

There is also now a list on BridgeWebs of all teams playing. If you applied to play and haven’t seen an email, do have a look on the front page of our BridgeWebs site. Please don’t forget to let the captain of the team know as soon as you can if you are unable to play.

COUGHS AND SNEEZES SPREAD DISEASES

I remember this ditty from school. I am afraid I have to ask you all to remember it now also. 

The nature of bridge means we all handle the same cards and sit in close quarters at small tables, a great atmosphere for germs to percolate I’d say! I know I catch anything that’s going around, and we do also have (and I say this most delicately) some senior players, who I want to keep in tip-top form and ‘showroom condition’! 

So, if you are unwell can I ask you, with the utmost politeness, to stay at home when we are playing bridge. I have had a number of unhappy comments recently about the health status of a few players, if you come along with a cold/cough or flu symptoms, you will not be very popular! 

UPCOMING EVENTS

At this time of year, I always remember the late great Colin Freeman who was such a great supporter of the Lederer Cup. I have agreed to act as the Royal Automobile Club sponsor for the event this year and Andrew Robson's bridge partner, Alexander Allfrey, is this year’s financial sponsor. The Lederer Cup is taking place Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 February in the Pall Mall clubhouse. All are most welcome to come along and watch the world’s top players! 

The Devonshire Cup commences this month. We welcome 15 teams to the Club and, of course, by process of elimination, I can present the Cup and Plate to the two winning teams at month end.

I hope you all received the invitation to take part in the Ross Cope Swiss Team Event on Thursday 19 March. We commence with a ‘high tea’ which is always very popular and then onto the bridge tables. This is a lovely event and great fun. It’s open to all Club members and indeed all our St James’s Club non-member friends.

NGS RATING

UPCOMING MATCHES

We are starting to get busy now with our inter-club matches and this month we are playing the following matches:

MATCH REPORTS

WEDNESDAY 21 JANUARY

SATURDAY 24 JANUARY 

BEGINNERS AND INTERMEDIATES

Lessons are ticking over nicely with our beginner and intermediate students. Our new mentees had their first outing in January with their mentors and all seemed to go well. I hope they were all relieved to see that we are actually very nice and kind, surprisingly we don’t bite!

SUPERVISED BRIDGE DATES

WHATSAPP GROUP

Do You Need a Bridge Partner?

If you need a partner, just ask the group! If you don’t recognise someone looking for a partner, please don’t discount them. We have some new additions as Club members continue to start playing bridge with us. 

If you are looking for a partner to play bridge with at Pall Mall on Thursday evenings, this is the place to find someone! 

Please can I stress it is only for Thursday evenings. I do advertise other St. James’s Club matches via the WhatsApp group so do keep an eye open for those. There are a number of lovely events going on around us at other clubs and it is always very nice to have the opportunity to visit them.

If you could use another form of connection for private matches or any other information, all participants would be very grateful.

ST JAMES'S CLUB MEMBERS

Teams Event

We warmly welcome our St James’s Club friends to join us on the last Thursday of every month for our regular Duplicate. We do encourage you to find a partner either from your club or the Royal Automobile Club before coming along.

We hold a Teams Event four times a year on the last Thursday of the month which is open to both Royal Automobile Club and St James’s Club teams. It has been very popular this past year and I am pleased to give you all the dates for these matches for this year:

Thursday 26 February
Thursday 28 May
Thursday 27 August
Thursday 26 November

Non-St James’s Club guests are very welcome to come and play at the Club 12 times in any one year with a Royal Automobile Club member.

I advise all players to visit the Club’s BridgeWebs page often, as any news will be posted there throughout the month.

If you have any questions about the Pall Mall Bridge Group, please do get in touch with me.

Best Wishes
Fiona McWatters
Chair, Pall Mall Bridge Committee