Bridging Academia, Policy and Practice Online Conference: Monday 28 June – Thursday 1 July 2021 Free international conference for academics, bridge players, teachers & administrators Join Bridge: A MindSport for All (BAMSA) – a global network – and share best practice Case studies from: Australia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Madeira, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Pacific, UK, USA More than 60 presenters and panelists from 20 countries

• ·       Day 1:  Bridge as a Mindsport
• ·       Day 2:  Digital Bridge: Opportunities and Challenges
• ·       Day 3:  Healthy Ageing, Intergenerationality and Gender
• ·       Day 4:  Education, Development and Marketing

For more information or to register for any of the sessions go to: https://bridgemindsport.org/bridging-academia-policy-practice-conference/

Bridge: A MindSport for All (BAMSA) | Prof. Samantha Punch Faculty of Social Sciences, Colin Bell Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA  Email:​ bamsa@stir.ac.uk 

Two BCL Virtual Club Sessions are running every week 

• 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)

To define Splinter bids, they are any unnecessarily high jump bids, in support of last suit that Partner bid. This can be very valuable in showing a singleton or void. 

• It enables Partner to value an Ace in the Splinter suit (i.e A532)  which is a good holding to have, or KQ in the splinter suit, which is poor holding opposite a singleton, or  7542 (say), which a fabulous holding. With this Holding, since you don’t hold any points In the Splinter suit, it evaluates as a 30 point pack. (More later) 
• With KQ, opener bidder will generally sign off. With the good holdings, try to Cue bid, if practical (preferably an ace). Note on the hands below, we are NOT jumping to 4NT necessarily.  Better, very often, to Cue Bid. If you wish, play Splinter bids in the minors, as well.  

Click here for Robin's notes on splinter bids, here for recent gambling 3NT, here for Aces and Kings in defence and here for Doug's notes Pass, Double or Overcall.

All matches now played, congratulations to Bill and his team, Beryl, Michael and Clive, Full results are shown on the linked results page.  Bill's team, with the same players, won the first SBC handicapped on line league that was played in summer 2020, very well done.

Much thanks are due to Terry for the effort put into calculating the handicaps, the closeness of the results shows how well he has done that, and to Carol for her organisation of the teams.

Message from your webmaster:  (this page is 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.  

Loss of Connection: 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.

Beware During seating time for the virtual club sessions if anyone leaves the table, for whatever reason, after system has placed opposition pair at the table but prior to play starting that opposition pair may not get a game when the session eventually starts. If you have to leave suddenly during the seating time please keep your oppo informed to give them a chance to get reseated themselves (they could then leave the table and re-enter the tournament). The system will not do reseat the oppo pair automatically, system may assume original player coming back and leaves a towel on their chair!  Communication, communication, communication, table chat, telephone etc!

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.

BCL Membership: Keep an eye on when your BCL membership runs out, sad to miss a game because you have forgotten to renew. Hover over Members tab on BCL home page and click on "Membership summary" at the top of the drop down list of options.  You will also get an email reminder when the date is close.

Retrospective Charges

Charges are made for the league for the full number of matches over the season.  There is a 50p and the virtual club sessions, see 2020 and 2021 records.

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.