Release 2.19n
Message from Michael 9th June 2020

We are in the middle of an unprecedented situation, with the Club premises under lockdown and all normal Club activities suspended.     The purpose of this update is to sustain the Club’s links with its members, with such news and information as there is.

The AGM scheduled for May 21st has been postponed to a future date, as yet undetermined.   For the time being Officers and Committee Members will remain in post until a fair and proper election process can be mounted.     The Accounts for the financial year have been seen by the Committee and are ready for adoption and publication, with many thanks to Adrienne and Garry.    A summary of these accounts is posted here, for information.

In a normal year, we would have been collecting the Annual Subscriptions for the new membership year, from April 1st.    We are still many months away from re-opening, and members have already forfeited unusable time from the previous membership year.    It will be a considerable hassle to collect Annual Subs from when we re-open, whenever that is, and our bank balance is healthy.    The Committee has therefore agreed to waive Annual Subs for the new membership year.   Existing membership will simply carry over.  New members will pay Annual Subs in the normal way.

On the bridge front, your Officers took the decision, having explored the possibilities and consulted with others, to select Bridge Club Live (BCL) as the right option for developing a coordinated Club presence in online bridge.     To date, over 40 Club members are registered with BCL.   Club Captain Terry – with much help from Carol – has set up a weekly Teams of Four SBC League online within BCL, involving 36 Club members plus reserves, while several members are also taking part in open sessions either in social bridge or in competitive pairs sessions.    Ann Sleightholme also has established a Friday evening social event.

The Committee is conscious that normal channels of communication and social interaction via our Club have ceased to operate.    For some, this may result in serious isolation as well as in “bridge deprivation” syndrome!   Members are urged to maintain social links wherever possible, and to let Club officers know of any important news concerning Club members which they might come across.

Michael Metcalf
Club Chairman

 
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Welcome to Stafford Bridge Club: EBU Affiliated
Gina Foster
Gina Foster

We are very sorry to inform members that Gina Foster passed away early on Sunday 21stJune.    She was a good friend and companion to many of us, and she loved her bridge.  She will be greatly missed.
Message Board during Club Closure

Message from your webmaster:  (updated most days with the latest news sent by members etc) For the Bridge Club Live basic information.for new converts to on line bridge click here. 

Robin's Quiz 15/6/20

Opening lead? Following the auction shown what would you lead from the hands 1 to 5 below?

      The bidding (for all 5 hands)
Hand            
1. ♠   K 7 4 2 You Oppo Partner Oppo
  ♥   5 4 3 P P P 1NT
  ♦   K 6 5 2 P 2D P 2H
  ♣   8 P 2NT P 4H
      P P P  
2. ♠   K 7 4        
  ♥   10 9 6        
  ♦   Q 8 6 4 2        
  ♣    A 6        
             
3. ♠   K 7 4 2        
  ♥   Q J 10        
  ♦   J 10 9 7        
  ♣    A 6        
             
4.. ♠   K 7        
  ♥   J 10 9 8        
  ♦   Q J 10        
  ♣   K J 7 4        
             
5. ♠   K 7        
  ♥   6 2        
  ♦   K 7 6        
  ♣   A 9 8 5 3 2        

Submit your answer to Robin

SBC Teams League:

Matches started week of 18th May - 23rd May (Wk1).  The results so far:

 
     Team Played  Wk1  Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6                             Total VP
1 PAM 5 5.40 12.03 11.69* 16.26   7.5*                             52.88
2 BILL 5 10.31 10.91   3.74 15.92 2.83                             43.71
3 LIZ 5 17.59 5.82 13.75   16.58 5.61                             59.35
4 JOHN 5 14.60 1.67 4.81 9.78* 3.42                               34.28
5 CAROL 6 2.41 18.33 7.20 17.03 4.08 12.50*                             61.55
6 ELEANOR 5   9.09 8.31* 2.97 8.80 13.52                             42.69
7 TERRY 5 9.69 7.97 12.80 ** 11.20 14.39                             56.05
8 ANN 5 7.97 14.18 15.19 ** 11.20 17.17                             65.71
9 BRIAN 5 12.03   6.25 10.22* 8.80 6.48                             43.78

WK5* 15 boards match so handicap and VP scale adjusted accordingly. Handicap difference for 16 boards is 19, which equates to 1.1875 per board Therefore handicap difference for 15 boards is 17.8125 After handicap Carols team won by 17.8125 - 9 = 8.8125    VP Scale win by 9 is 12.55VP & by 8 is VP12.29    Difference .26 & .8125 of this is .21125, so 12.29 is increased to 12.50    

Wk4* 15 boards match so handicap and VP scale adjusted accordingly. Handicap difference for 16 boards is 37, which equates to 2.3 per board. Therefore handicap difference for 15 boards is 34.7 VP Scale win by 1 is 10.31VP & by 0 is 10.0VP  Difference .31 & .7 of this is .22, so 10.31 is reduced to 10.22

Wk3* 15 boards match so handicap and VP scale adjusted accordingly. Handicap difference for 16 boards is 12, which equates to .75 per board. Therefore handicap difference for 15 boards is 11.25. VP Scale win by 6 is 11.76VP & by 5 is 11.48VP Difference .28 & .25 of this is .07, so 11.76 is reduced to 11.69

** Match abandonned

The timetable spreadsheet as sent  by Terry 10/05/20 (with team member change and available times as amended 14/05/20) has been copied to this site, any more recent info direct from Terry is the information to take as gospel.

Friday night

Real world friendly group meeting on-line but all are welcome here including old friends who have moved away from the Stafford area. 16 boards, 4 boards against each of 4 other pairs, starting at 7 p.m. on a Friday night.  Please let Ann know if you are interested in coming by the Wednesday so that she has time to organise the numbers to be a multiple of 8 by Friday.

General Information

Warnings:

  • Did you join BCL with the 50 day trial membership early on in the lock down?  You might need to renew your membership soon. Check on the BCL home page, hover over the members tab and click on "Membership Summary".  Don't wait until your league match day to find out that your BCL membership has run out! 
  • Has your EBU membership been validated on BCL?  Are you getting a message Please phone the EBU and ask for your Membership to be validated on the BCL home page under your alias?  If you are please phone Karen who will sort it for you immediately to ensure your master points etc etc etc. are recorded.

BCL runs many competitions, watch their home page.  Some, like the individual tournament, run daily and are shown on the BCL home page right hand side, others have set dates.  Imps pairs league coming up, matches played every fortnight for about 5 months, starts 17th July, entries due 10th July.

If you lose your connection to BCL mid game for any reason (could be an internet connection your end, their end or somewhere between) click on “Enter” when the system lets you.  Please report any cases where you find play not in the same place as you left it to the club Captain.

Reminder about mis-clicked calls:  can be corrected provided that your partner has not yet called see rule 9 in league rules. BCL procedure states that to rectify immediately “Leave table” and straight away return to your seat and explain that you Mis-clicked your call.  The players need to click “Ready” again and the auction should re-start as per the original auction up to the point of the mis-clicked call.  If partner has already called not only can you not correct your call but also mustn’t give unauthorised information by revealing that you had made an error.

SSCBA is about to launch a virtual BBO county club on  7 p.m. Wednesday10th June

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 had a headache trying to achieve this change!).

Other sources of information are:  bridge base on line (BBO has a number of existing members from SBC) the County has up a virtual SSCBA group.  Watch over the shoulder of the experts, youtube videos, pick and possibly question, your expert in real time with Zoom.  EBU, EBU Webinar 16/5/2020, 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.
Virtual on-line County Club
Virtual on-line County Club

SSCBA launches a second virtual BBO county club playing at 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoons from July 8th.

Following the success of the Wednesday evening session a lWednesday afternoon session is planned to start on July 8th at 2 p.m.  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, mentioning that you wish to join the NO-FEARS CLUB.  

The first Wednesday evening session on June 10th was a great success, 5 pairs from SBC took part, best placed Terry and Carol coming third EW, congratualtions both.  There have been several pairs from SBC every week so far

If you would like to be a member of this “Club” please email the  Membership Secretary –  John Withers on jwithersx@gmail.com, with your name, EBU number, user name, 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 

John Withers will email everyone on the Club’s membership list with details of how to log on the Club’s game.  Check that you know your partner's BBO alias.

 
On Line Bridge Is the only game in Town!

Captain Terry with help from Secretary Carol and others has set up an on line league on Bridge Club Live (BCL) with 9 teams that started on 18th May.  Each team plays one "home"  and one "away" match against each of the other 8 teams over an 18 week  period.  If you would like to give Bridge Club Live a try click here for the basic instructions, some 42 SBC members have already joined.  The SSCBA is setting up a County wide BBO session on June 10th, see here for advice on how to get started with BBO.  Please don't see these as either/or options but rather as two different ways of enjoying online bridge which add variety to your game.
Bridge Club Live

Bridge Club Live is the online favourite Stafford Bridge Club Members are invited to use to enjoy the on line club activities, to get going click here to see the basics.
ABOUT THE CLUB
ABOUT THE CLUB

Contact Numbers: 

  • 01785 600260 (Chairman),
  • 01785 665020 (Secretary),
  • 01889 801996 (Captain),
  • 01785 246611 (Club, during bridge sessions).

Stafford Bridge Club is located at the back of the Grandstand on the County Showground, ST18 0BD (Ordnance Survey ref:  SJ 958 053).  This "Staffs & Shrops" EBU affiliated club meets regularly throughout the year except during the County Show etc on Tuesday, Thursday & Friday evenings (7:00 for 7:15 p.m.) and Monday & Wednesday afternoons (1:15 for 1:30 p.m.).  In addition the club also holds American Suppers on Saturday evenings usually on the 3rd or 4th Saturday of the winter months (6:45 for 7:00 p.m.), see 'Club Sessions and Times', 'SBC dates' and 'Calendar'.
MEMBERS’ WELFARE

If you know of any member of the club who is unwell please let either Pat Martin or a member of the committee know so that appropriate wishes can be sent on behalf of all members.
The quickest response will be to tell either Pat Martin or any member of the committee at the bridge session then a card can be signed & posted immediately. Alternatively, you can email the secretary.
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