| ROYSTON BRIDGE CLUB - Competitive yet Friendly |
 Our ♣ sparkles like a ♦, has a big ♥ and ♠♠♠ of bonhomie, boosted by beverage, biscuits, and banter before bridge begins.
Sessions held every Thursday at 7.30pm at the Coombes Community Centre, Burns Road, Royston.
The club has electronic scoring and computer-dealt hands so results and deals are available straight away.
Visitors are always welcome but need to come with a partner. If you are new to the area, use Find a Partner (Public) and the club will make every effort to provide a suitable partner for you.
◄ For further details, see Information and Calendar.
◄ Do you want to learn to play bridge, or improve your play? See Learning Bridge.
◄ We also feature a few interesting hands played at the club recently, see Hand of the Month.
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| Bridge in May |
Thanks to those members who used the club's new system since February to make a reservation for the club games — see the news item below for more details.
The attendance this year has been encouraging under the circumstances, but the reservation system will continue to apply in May and until further notice, so please don't forget to place reservations for future weeks in good time if you intend to play.
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| Important -- Use Reservations from now on (February 2022) |
As the recent email (26th January) from the chairman made clear, it is important that one member of each pair intending to play on a Thursday lets the rest of the club know by making a reservation in the club calendar. That way all members can see that it's worth turning up on a particular week, and be confident that there'll be a reasonable number of tables to make the trip worthwhile.
Be aware that if there are insufficient reservations for four tables by the Tuesday before the event (ie less than 7 reservations), it will be cancelled. Let's all hope this only happens very occasionally, by turning out to play if possible, and — just as importantly — entering a reservation to confirm your intention, whenever you do intend to play.
If anyone needs a reminder how to make a reservation, just tick the box under PL (for PLaying) in the Member Area on the club website. You can check if your pair has made a reservation for an event by clicking the link marked (Reservations) in the calendar entry for that event.
Note that you may occasionally see (Partner?) as the link instead of (Reservations). This is because "Find a Partner" takes precedence over "Reservations" but the same information is displayed in either case.
If you are unclear how to do any of this, or simply have a comment or query about the reservation system in general, just ask. Someone on the committee will be happy to help. Full documentation on the Bridgewebs reservation mechanism (including a screenprint) can be found by clicking < here > or by going to the Documents menu on the left and clicking Using Reservations to book an event.
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| Club Bridge Has Resumed September 2021 |
As Royston members will have heard from the chairman's recent email, the club has now resumed face-to-face club bridge at Coombes Community Centre, every Thursday starting on 16th September.
Full details of the anti-Covid measures that you will find in place at the club were specified in this email. This list can also be found under the Menu item "The Club is Re-opening" towards the top left of the homepage. You should feel able to make a reasonably informed decision on whether resuming face-to-face bridge is right for you, based on this information.
Hope to see many of you there in the coming weeks and months.
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| Online Bridge #4 — 6th April 2020 |
For those who are interested in playing online bridge on BBO during the lockdown, here's a summary of the various options that are available.
- Play Solitaire bridge (with robots at the other seats, playing BBO's preferred system, 2/1 game-forcing).
- Watch others play bridge on BBO (Casual, Competitive, etc).
- Play bridge at a table reserved for four friends (requires one of you to start the table as "host")... just play bridge.
- Play bridge at a table reserved for you and your partner, against anyone out there on the internet.
- Play bridge at a table, with and against anyone out there on the internet.
- Play a Team of Four match at two tables reserved for eight friends (requires one of you to act as "director").
- Play a Team of Four match at two tables with your partner, against anyone out there on the internet.
- Play a Team of Four match, with and against anyone out there on the internet.
- Play a club tournament (duplicate bridge, just like a club duplicate... this requires a "registered director").
- Play a standard EBU tournament of 12 boards (7 minutes per board). There are currently four matches a day.
- Play a "fast" EBU tournament of 12 boards (5 minutes per board). There is currently one match a day.
- Create and/or play a Challenge (you play with and against robots, so you can play at your own pace).
- Watch Vugraph — live face-to-face bridge, including many of the world's top players (as available).
- Set up your own practice table for bidding or coaching.
Notes
- For technical reasons, option 9 is only currently available at some larger bridge clubs, such as Cambridge and the Andrew Robson Bridge Club.
- BBO is completely free, although the EBU tournaments (options 10 and 11) do have an entry fee, currently set at $2.
Those new to BBO should use options 1 and 2 initially, to familiarise yourselves with the basics. The options highlighted in green are the ones that you may find of greatest interest longer-term as you gain in familiarity and confidence, but of course tastes differ.
If there are any members out there who want to play online bridge on BBO and don't know how (or simply need a helping hand) just ask. There are also several other platforms that support online bridge, for example BridgeClubLive, FunBridge, RealBridge and StepBridge.
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For those who are interested in playing online bridge on BBO during the lockdown, here's a summary of the various options that are available. ..........
..... see more |
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| Online Bridge #3 — 30th Mar 2020 |
A quick reminder about BBO — anyone who wants to play bridge on BBO can do so for free, and it's the preferred platform for EBU tournaments, friendly casual bridge and a lot more. I know that online bridge is not everyone's cup of tea, but if you are thinking of giving it a try, there's plenty of help available.
The Berwick Bridge Club guide and accompanying YouTube videos come strongly recommended for those new to online bridge. Just click on the link (or right-click to open in a new window) to find out how to register on BBO. There's much more documentation available if that particular example is not to your taste (see last week's update below for a longer list).
This Thursday, 2nd April at 7.30pm (club night), there will be several club members online on BBO who are available to help. If you want to join a table to give online bridge a try, just ask.
Please email me beforehand if you're thinking of playing or simply watching (or kibitzing, as it's universally known in the online world). Let me know your BBO Name (mine's SunnyDave)... you can see a number of other member's BBO Names in the Member list.
Hope to see you soon in the real world, and maybe even sooner in the virtual world of online bridge.
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A quick reminder about BBO — anyone who wants to play bridge on BBO can do so for free, and it's the preferred platform for EBU tournaments, friendly casual bridge and a lot more. I know that online bridge is not everyone's cup of tea, but if you are thinking of giving it a try, there's plenty of help available.
The Berwick Bridge Club guide and accompanying YouTube videos come strongly recommended for those new to online bridge. ..........
..... see more |
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| Online Bridge #2 — 23rd March 2020 |
They say a week’s a long time in politics… well it certainly is in the world of coronavirus and online bridge! Here’s a brief summary for those new to the world of online bridge.
Three main providers of online bridge are BBO, Funbridge and Bridge Club Live. The EBU website has information about playing online with all three of these, in particular BBO which is now hosting four games of duplicate bridge a day for the EBU, seven days a week, at a dollar a time.
Of course, you don’t have to pay for online bridge, and BBO enables any four like-minded players to play at a virtual table, any time, for free (rather like rubber bridge). BBO also enables bridge addicts to play Solitaire bridge for as long as they like, as often as they like... again it's absolutely free!
The club can offer help in getting started to any members who find these applications a bit daunting. But one thing's for sure... you can certainly still play bridge in self-isolation, so long as you have an internet connection. It’s largely a matter of personal choice and what you want to get out of a game of bridge that determines which (if any) of the above options you take up.
Here’s some useful links to enable you to find out more (right-click to open in a new tab or window):
- BBO Guide (Berwick) https://berwickbridgeclub.co.uk/bbo
- BBO Instructions (EBU) http://www.ebu.co.uk/ebuscore-wiki/bboinstructions
- BBO Guide (EBU) http://www.ebu.co.uk/ebuscore-wiki/_media/bbo_guide.pdf
- EBU Games on BBO https://www.ebu.co.uk/node/3738
- BBO Guide (ARBC) http://www.andrewrobson.co.uk/at_the_club/online_duplicates
- BBO https://www.bridgebase.com/
- Funbridge https://www.funbridge.com/
- Bridge Club Live https://www.bridgeclublive.com/
- EBU https://www.ebu.co.uk/
- Royston BC https://www.bridgewebs.com/roystonherts/
Or just email me at dave.simmons4@gmail.com if you’re baffled by all this choice.
More on BBO etc another time.
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They say a week’s a long time in politics… well it certainly is in the world of coronavirus and online bridge! Here’s a brief summary for those new to the world of online bridge.
Three main providers of online bridge are BBO, Funbridge and Bridge Club Live. The EBU website has information about playing online with all three of these, in particular BBO which is now hosting four games of duplicate bridge a day for the EBU, seven days a week, at a dollar a time. ..........
..... see more |
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| Online Bridge #1 — 19th March 2020 |
Can it only be a few days since the club announced it was to be closed "for the duration"?
Inevitably, almost every other bridge club in Herts has also announced they will be closing. In the meantime, there has been plenty of activity on the online bridge front.
The EBU have already introduced two 12-board tournaments every evening on BBO, as a substitute for a typical club bridge evening. Other online bridge applications such as Funbridge and Bridge Club Live are also available.
While it is too early to say what precise route(s) the club will recommend for those who are keen to play online bridge while the club is closed, it is worth drawing your attention to the news item on the EBU website announcing their new online games on BBO and in particular the link in that article to the excellent introductory guide to BBO produced by Paul Gipson of Berwick Bridge Club. It sums up what you can do in BBO and how to do it, a lot better than I ever could.
Watch this space for more information on online bridge.
..... see less
Can it only be a few days since the club announced it was to be closed "for the duration"?
Inevitably, almost every other bridge club in Herts has also announced they will be closing. In the meantime, there has been plenty of activity on the online bridge front. ..........
..... see more |
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| Club Website |
This is Royston Bridge Club's official website, Dave Simmons is the current web administrator.
Please have a browse through the website. Some pages are only available to Members. To access these pages click on the link to Members Only on the top right of the Home page to login.
Any comments or suggestions for improving the website are welcome. Just email me at dave.simmons4@gmail.com or via Contact Us.
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