A magnificent new trophy has been bought and engraved with money most generously donated by Pauline Goggin's family.

Pauline in 1999 but where was Pauline on holiday in this picture?  The background holds a clue or two.  Many thanks to Amanda for the picture.

Postponement of Stafford Bridge Club AGM

Due to the closure of the Club during the coronavirus outbreak, the AGM scheduled for Thursday 21st May is postponed until a new date can be arranged for it to take place. This will not be for several months, at least. Some AGM papers may be available and put into the public domain before then. In the meantime, Club Officers and Executive Committee Members will remain in post pending the next Club elections, whenever these might be.

Michael Metcalf, Chair

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Paul officially retired from SBC  teaching on a regular basis on March 6th 2020 after 7 years. Paul qualified as an EBED teacher in 2013 when Doug retired from giving the SBC lessons. Paul's retirement was marked with a presentation from the class, almost all of whom were able to make the lesson that day.  Some wonderful cakes were produced by one of his pupils, all in all a very sociable occasion with weak two's, Stayman and Transfers thrown into the mix.  Terry is now promoted from Teaching Assistant to Teacher in Charge of the improver's class.  With Terry already booked in for an even longer cruise than his 2020 trip for early 2021 it is hoped that Paul keeps up his EBED teaching membership and may come out of retirement while Terry is cruising in 2021.  It would give Paul much pleasure to meet his pupils at the bridge table at any club session, Paul and Linda are regular players particularly on Monday & Wednesday afternoons and Friday evenings with the occasional Tuesday and Thursday evening too.  Paul and Linda have had two recent successes, the 2020 January SSCBA sim pairs  coming top out of 78 pairs and the February 2020 SBC Teams of four, the pupils have been very lucky to have such a talented player as their teacher.

Friday players have been thinking of Kate and Jerry who left for Australia a couple or so years ago.  Kate and Jerry were the backbone of the session before they left and their friendliness and enthusiasim is one of the key reasons the Friday session survived at all about 10 years ago.  News from them is:

All people on holiday in the area of Kiama have been advised to return home immediately. There was a grid lock on the motorway yesterday of 200 kilometres. You have to carry water and food in case you get stuck.

Today is Sat (4.1.2020) and all local events have been cancelled due to the expected temperature of 48 degrees!  This is a very strange country but we still love it.

We would be in the pool cooling off if the surface temperature was not so hot, you burn! You can’t even drink cold water from the tap as it is disgustingly warm. Thank goodness we invested in a fridge that dispenses cold water and ice.

We do hope all the bridge players are well and a Very Happy New Year to you all.

The festive season was marked with several events, Robin's lesson group started the ball rolling on December 12th, then the Friday night session on December 13th, the afternoon players on December 16th and finally the main club party on December 19th.

The main club party on Thursday 19th December was very successful and many thanks are due to those who prepared the food, largely a new team this year led by Carol, John for laying on the drinks and Ivor for organising a fun movement where everyone had 18 different partners. Missing was the club photographer, we wish him well and hope to see him back at the bridge table very soon. Sadly only one picture taken by stand in photographer to cover all the events! 

The Committee are pleased to announce that Ivor Clarke has been invited to become an Honorary Life Member of the Club, in recognition of his 25 years as a Director and many other services to the Club, and that Ivor has accepted the Club's invitation.

Robin offered sincere thanks to Terry for all his help with the Thursday Lessons in the last year. Also, many thanks for the super food and wine/drinks brought by the pupils.  When the results are viewed you will see an "information" tab at the top  right hand end (ranking, scorecards, matrix, travellers, hands, information), click to get Robin's commentary on the hands. Please take time to read the commentary to get the most from taking part in the event, Robin has gone to great lengths to produce the commentary.  This "information" feature for an event results listing is a first time tried by the webmaster - should it be used more often?

EBED sim pairs.

The AGM took place on Tuesday 14th May followed by EBED sim pairs (click for the local results).   30 clubs with 460 pairs took part in the event, the positions of the top two pairs at Stafford were reversed in the overall results such is sometimes the way of things in sim pairs events.  Indeed the pair who were ninth at Stafford were the third placed Stafford pair in the overall results.  Thanks are due to Terry for organising and directing the event.

Annual Dinner and Prize Giving - Sunday 12th May.

The dinner and prize giving took place at the Chase Golf Club as last year.  Janet presented the prizes and David acted as club photographer.  If anyone would like a full size copy of one of the pictures please contact David meanwhile the full set of pictures can be seen by clicking here.  If viewed on a tablet rather than a computer best to enlarge the screen view itself rather than "touching" the individual thumbnails.

Following the recent club TD training course at the club the results have finally come through, 11th February, (assessment done on January 12th) 2019 and it is good news we now have 5 new directors.  Please give them a warm welcome.

Stone Match - Friday 26th April 2019

2 teams of 8 together with a team of 4 from the lessons took part in this most enjoyable friendly match laid on by Stone bridge club. The scoring and movement along the lines of the County Dawes events, new to most of those taking part, thanks to Kath, John and Nigel everything went very smoothly (Stafford players had the easy option sitting still throughout).  Each pair in each team were to play 6 boards against each pair in the opposing team and score up against both opposite numbers.  Sadly the final 6 boards had to be abandonned as time ran out.  Honours about even, one Stafford team won and one lost with the group from the lessons being won by the Stone team. Perfectly timed to coincide with the motor bike event in Stafford.  Matches against Stone were a regular event until about three years ago when a mutually convenient date could not be found.  Stafford has a lot to live up to in 2020, a wonderful "light supper" was laid on by Stone.  Many thanks to Kath and Stone members for their hospitalilty and organisation.

Away Weekend 12th - 15th April 2019

A good time was had by all at Crabwall Manor Hotel near Chester.  Very comfortable hotel (with interesting layout), great organisation for the bridge sessions (what a lot of work David puts in), many thanks to Pat and John for the initial effort in finding the hotel, and so much to see in the surrounding area.  Click here for the pictures.