No access to the club, so no lesson, on Thursday 21st October (Trafalgar Day) - a big cheese show on at the Showground.  Whether you can come on the following week, the 28th October, or not, please send Robin a quick email to keep him up to speed on how many to expect.

American Supper on Saturday 30th October looks likely to have 5 tables so that is definitely on.  Please will all those willing and able to come on October 30th contact Michael if you have not already done so.

Staged Resumption of Duplicate Sessions at the club

Please click here to the full information on reopening.

• Tuesday evenings 7.00 for a 7.15 start began Tuesday August 10th 
• Wednesday afternoons 1.15 for a 1.30 start began Wednesday August 11th - Contact Club Captain on 01889 801996) if you would like any further information

From the Chair and Committee (03-09-21):  It is good news that our face-to-face sessions on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday afternoons are up and running regularly again.    We are eager to encourage members to return to playing at the Club and to build up the numbers at these sessions.  Don't be shy - we want to see you again!     Do note that it is not necessary now to book a place in advance for the Wednesday session - you can just turn up (in good time, of course).

Many members have enjoyed the Saturday evening "American Supper" sessions during the Autumn and Winter months in the past.   We want to explore whether there would be a healthy take-up for these in the months ahead.   The first could be on Saturday 23rd October.    Please let the Chair or Club Secretary know if you would be interested in this prospective event.    If no interest is shown, it won't happen!

Two BCL online Stafford Virtual Club Sessions are still running every week until club fully reopens

• Monday afternoons, 22 boards, door opens 1:20 p.m. for 1:30 p.m. start of play (room STAFRD 1-B-2)  (see Carol's notes)

• Friday Evenings, 18 boards, door opens 6:30 for 7 p.m. start of play (room STAFRD 5-B-3)

In addition BCL are looking to introduce a new virtual club for EBU members as clubs reopen.  One Stafford member gave this a very successful  trial run at the morning session on Tuesday 31st August, the Tuesday morning sessions are the only sessions apparently up and running so far..

Robin's popular lessons restarted on Thursday 5th August at 10 a.m. These lessons often take the form of playing hands from a recent club session such that a minimum of 12 pupils is needed for the lesson to be viable. Please contact Robin if you would like to attend so that he can organise an exact number of tables.  Hand shown here is board 3 from a recent lesson illustrating which 5 card suit to bid first with responder's hand.. 

Robin was not idle while the club has been closed, he 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 latest lessons can be seen here with links to the individual lessons.

EBU Autumn Sim Pairs played on Wednesday 13th October 2021

Four pairs from Stafford took part in the SSCBA club event, one of 12 clubs that entered the EBU Autumn sim pairs 2021 Wednesday session.  Elaine and Pam achieved the best result of the Stafford players.

Mildand Counties No Fear Swiss Teams 

• 6 High - 27th November 2021
• 9 High - 29th January 2022
• 6 High - 26th March 2022

In addition the Malvern Congress is holding 9 high pairs event on Friday 29th October 2021.

Teams that enter must have an average NGS rating no higher than indicated in the event title.

SSCBA League 2021/22

10 Teams of Four (two teams entirely made up of Stafford players and 3 others include one or more Stafford players) in just one division with 9 matches to be played between now and mid May.  Click here for the fixture list.

SSCBA virtual BBO county on line group at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays (EBU sim pairs 13th October 2021?)

If you would like to be a member of this “Club” please email the Membership Secretary –  John Withers on jwithersx@gmail.com, with your real name, your BBO user name (exactly as you print it), EBU number (if you have one), contact telephone number and email address.  (This has to be done also by those players already registered with BBO.)  Only those that have registered with John will be able to take part in the SSCBA Virtual Club Events, please give him a day or two to organise this prior to the event you wish to join and get some practice games on BBO.   Click for information on BBO See also how to indicate your basic system to your oppo through the chat manager, Using Chat Manager in BBO - Bing video. Please also take time to read Paul's comments on Announcing and Alerting on BBO.