If you did not receive or return your consent form for the club email "clubtalk" and you do want to join this group email, if only to get notification of the club reopening, then please email the club secretary and  give her your permission to be added to the group email. You can then withdraw this permission when the club reopens if you wish.

Carol, Secretary, SBC

ps 26.3.20 Check out your spam mail boxes for messages from Carol Kane if you do not find any from her in your inbox.

We have today registered Stafford Bridge Club with BRIDGE CLUB LIVE for those members who want to play online bridge, especially with other club members during our closure.

Please go the following link to have a look at Bridge Club Live. If you like it, then It is easy to register & have a look at how it operates, especially the “clubs” link under “Members”. Once registered you can immediately join a table or spectate at tables being played.

https://www.bridgeclublive.com/

Also, they offer a club dimension which they are currently developing which we think would suit our members. See link below.

https://www.bridgeclublive.com/BCL_PressRelease_01.asp

Terry Maltby has written some information on using the BCL site, click here  Look up the free 50 day membership here.

Message from your webmaster:  (updated most days with the latest news sent by members etc)

Carol joined the club as Stafford Bridge Club UK to the on-line Bridge group, bridgeclublive (BCL highly recommended by Rod). 

Robin's Quiz: Robin has put a lot of effort into producing a quiz to keep our brains active at this time, please email him with your answers and reward the hard work he has given to this., Webmaster hopes to have transcribed it correctly for the website, has some doubts how it will print!

BCL Waiting list - it appears that BCL is now, 5 p.m. Thursday 2nd April, "open" for new members to join a waiting list. The site was closed for new members to join immediately on Saturday 28th March having been inundated with applications to join.  The webmaster would be pleased to hear news from members if they have tried to join and been put on the waiting list in order to keep this news item updated.

BCL can be tried for free but to join the BCL Stafford club group you will need to be a member of BCL which involves paying of course although there is a 50 day free offer for EBU members (offer hopefully still open)! So far, 8:30 p.m, Tuesday 7th April, 23 SBC members have joined the Stafford BCL on line group, some more incognito than others, several more SBC members giving the free option a go. Some have joined but not indicated they are Stafford members (to indicate Stafford roll over members tab-> select clubs from the drop down list -> find Stafford Bridge Club UK and click on it: on the right hand side you will see the members and near the bottom on the left an invitation to join the club that you can click). Once joined to the club group "sticky notes", "friends" and pictures look useful features for getting in touch to say "I'm at the table now" type of thing or seeing if "club members" or "friends" are already at a table/or in the lobby.

New BCL members, please note these requests from BCL 29.03.20

• Please start in the Social Room and Spectate or Kibitz while you get familiar with the software. 
• Do not enter a competition room yet, until you feel confident.

First have a go in the social room under no great pressure, get plenty of practice playing with a real world partner or a total stranger. Playing is relatively simple if you follow the messages and prompts on the screen. Investigate the drop down menus to learn more.  Fun abbriviations, glp (good luck partner), wpp (well played partner), wpo (well played opponents), blp (bad luck partner) etc. turn up on the right as do advertisements for players to come to a table  Very important, when you leave the table click the "leave table" button otherwise you leave the three others at the table in limbo.  People tend to drop in and drop out in the social room, you can play the number of boards that you feel you have the time for, to score you will need to play at least 12 boards.

To enter competition rooms, including Daily Imps,you will need to agree a system card (Simple System Disclosure to be filled in by North or East and checked by South or West) with your partner. The card comes with drop down options: 

• Basic Bidding System
• Opening 1NT  (the point range)
• Opening Major Suit Bid  (5 card majors for example)
• Discard System

Message for Friday SBC players:  Ann will be in the BCL"lobby" on Friday evenings at 7 p.m. and hoping others will be too, we can pair up on spec or by previous arrangement. Your usual Friday night director, Ann, is experimenting with a What's App group, BCLFridaySBC, with the idea of arranging which BCL room and best times to start play to suit as many as possible etc. Regular Friday time of 7 for 7:15 may not be suitable for BCL etc.  If this Whats App group proves popular it could be rolled out by other session directors(?) or, if unpopular, then binned.  (As at 10:30 p.m. 29.03.20 5 of the then 18 BCL club members have joined with some lovely pictures!)

Message from a new BCL member:  Both Andrew Robson and Bernard Magee are starting online Bridge lessons. The first BM took place on 30.03.20.

For members who log in to the SBC site there should be an extra column on the membership tab for BCLalias where you can add your BCL alias for all members to see.  To add it to your details you have to scroll quite far down the list but to see the alias for others it appears to the left of their EBU number (webmaster has had a headache trying to achieve this change!).

Webmaster tried an experiment with BCL events appearing on the club calendar, so far no success.  Has the possibility of "find a partner" and results being shown on this site for BCL competition events.

Other sources of information are:  bridge base on line (BBO has a number of existing members from SBC.  Watch over the shoulder of the experts, youtube videos, pick and possibly question, your expert in real time.  EBU, Andrew Robson BridgeCast and Bernard Magee.   All ideas/messages for members etc to webmaster@staffordbridgeclub.co.uk. In the real world please look out for one another, check your regular partners on the phone for example.

Older Messages

Message from a Stafford member 26.3.20, Bridge Base on Line coping better with the deluge of on-line players just now than BCL.  With luck things will sort themselves out over the next few days.

Monday 30th, a member has reported that he was unable to register as a BCL new player on Sunday 29th and has been put in a waiting list.  Keep trying this is only temporary according to report in March 28th Newsletter.

Message from Michael, "I got stuck in a queue waiting to get out of the Lobby into a Room, and made the mistake of repeatedly exiting and re-trying, instead of patiently waiting, like the queues in one of those dire automatic answering programmes".  (Webmaster knows that the BCL site crashed because of sheer numbers around the time Michael was trying to play, it was sorted sometime after 9:30 p.m. 26.3.20).

Message from Ann. Things much better 27.03.20 than 26.03.20 see BCL comments, no crashes.   Guest room is closed, see message from BCL dated 26.3.20. Experience may find 7 p.m. an overloaded time.  My experience 27.03.20 playing with Liz in the social room was great. Saw evidence of 4 other regular Friday players around.  More experimentation needed in how to contact other Stafford players in the club.  Playing with a known partner made such a difference although Robin might have been shocked at my bidding!