Team captains: Please contact David and Terry asap with your team line up to allow time for handicaps to be calculated.

Second round was played on Thursday 21^st November at Haling Dene, with 2 subs in the line up.

Two rounds now played,  October and November. Sadly still only 4 teams.  Again Terry had dealt 4 sets of boards so easy to play  without having to pass boards round.  One exciting hand - board 20 - everyone managed to bid 6NT and made 7!  No one dared to bid 7 and silence observed on the success while boards still in play at other tables.  At the other end of the scale on board 8 everyone was overconfident and went down.  Scoring successfully done on the tablets and Terry had all the handicaps calculated for the players taking part on the day.

The cumulative results over the 2 rounds, Including handicaps' first Janet's team raw +20, handicap --14, cumulative +59, second Carol's team, +6, +3,cumulative 0, third Ann's team -31, +32, cumulative -20 and fourth the Metcalf team +5, -21, cumulative -39, .

Thanks to David for directing, everything ran very smoothly, everyone enjoyed the evening.

The third round of the Shelley will be Thursday 19th December

Wishing all members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

NB There will be no SBC bridge sessions at Haling Dene and Holmcroft throughout the Christmas and New Year period from Sat 20th Dec. Friday 3rd Jan

Normal sessions resume at all venues from Monday Jan 6th.

Lessons are now at Tixall village Hall, ST18 0XT at 9:45 for 10 a.m.

Christmas party 19th December , note starting 9:30 a.m. (please contact Robin if you would like to attend not later than December 16th). There will be a full 'proper' competition Tournament, with Partners found on the day, or with you regular Partners. Please  provide a little something in the way of food or drink, for a break at about 12:00pm. Any food, drink (soft or wine) would be appreciated. Robin would like to seek help from anyone who is willing to help - please contact Robin!

Lessons:

• Robin's intermediate lessons: Thursday morning lessons.  On 1^st Thursday of the month this will will normally be played as a duplicate session.
• Terry's Improvers lessons: Friday morning lessons. On 3^rd Friday of the month this will will normally be played as a duplicate session.

Robin has produced plenty of material for the website, including one on Splinter bids, Gambling 3NT, CRO, Redoubles, Trial Bids, Jacoby and his all time most read page on McKenny signals and Discards. Summary of his lessons can be seen here with links to the individual lessons.

Robin's Thursday morning popular lessons for intermediates start at 10 a.m. (please contact Robin if you would like to attend) as do Terry's Friday morning lessons for improvers (please contact Terry if you would like to attend those). Please contact Ann if you would like to join beginner's lessons.

From Friday 8th November, Friday evening sessions will take place at Holmcroft Youth and Community centre, 22-38 Newland Avenue ST16 1NL

To find the Centre, turn eastwards into North Avenue at the traffic lights at the A34 (Stone Road) junction with North Avenue and Holmcroft Road. Take the first left into Newland Avenue. The entrance to the Centre is on the right. (Do NOT confuse this Centre with the Stafford North End Community Centre in Holmcroft Road!!) The reason for this change is to spare members from having to use unlit country lanes during the upcoming season of long dark evenings, mists and frost, and hopefully thereby to encourage and enable a bigger regular attendance on Friday evenings.

Michael Metcalf
Chair  

Players are welcome to come on a Friday Evening without a partner but it would be very helpful if you could let Ann know beforehand so she can attempt to have a partner for everyone when the session starts. 

A good turn out for the first session at Holmcroft on 8th November 2024, several old faces who have not managed to get to Friday sessions since May to be seen and finally the tablets performed well despite time pressures to get them up and running!  Please note everything must be cleared away by 10:30 pm so play must start promptly at 7 p.m. and finish by 10:10 pm,  beware the timer will be back in action and enforced! 

The EBU is introducing a new service for members, by which members will receive an email after each game submitted to the EBU within 3 days of play provided the EBU has a current email address for them. This email will include both their results and information on master points awarded, NGS impact, and other statistics such as how many times they have played and how their performance compares with others at the same club. It is a fun and friendly email and the EBU congratulate all players regardless of how well they score. Stafford Bridge Club has opted in to this new system; members can individually opt out via "Account" button on myEBU page.