This Award, in memory of Tony Priday, was instituted in 2015 and is usually given to individuals for an outstanding contribution to bridge and enhancing the game in all its aspects. For 2022 however, it was decided to give it to the EBU membership “for supporting the game, the EBU and each other during the COVID pandemic.

A full list of award winners can be seen by clicking here.

Six pairs from SSCBA took part in this enjoyable event organised by the Midland Counties Congress played on 26th November 2022.   Overall the winning county was Worcestershire with Staffs & Shropshire coming second just ahead of Gloucestershire (click for the results).  Frances Bradley & Peggy Grocott, Newcastle members, were the best placed SSCBA pair coming 4th overall.  Next of these events is planned for Saturday January 28th, don't miss out on playing in this fun event if your NGS permits, see the poster for the last event for general information.

A team from Staffs and Shrops competed in the Tollemache Qualifier, the EBU's inter-county teams-of-eight tournament, on 12-13th November. They were Paul Cutler and David Beavon, Paul Hackett and Dave Debbage, Toni Tognieri and Elisabeth Bingham, James Vickers and Keith Shuttleworth (Saturday only), Martin Aherne and Steven Smith (Sunday only). They finished 10th in their group of fourteen teams, winning five and drawing one of their thirteen matches. Thanks to all who took part in what is always a tough competition. 

AN INVITATION TO ALL MEMBERS of S&SCBA TO PLAY BRIDGE IN A FRIENDLY CLUB ATMOSPHERE ON LINE

Wednesday Evenings 7 p.m.

Regular SSCBA Virtual Bridge Club

SSCBA  set up a virtual “Club” with the help of the EBU and Bridge Base Online (BBO), holding sessions on Wednesday evenings (a traditional County night). The first SSCBA Club on line session was on  Wednesday, 10th June 2020, at 7 p.m. There are still regularly around 7 or 8 tables each week even though some clubs have opened up. Click here for information on how to join the group.

From Online Membership Secretary's Newsletter of 29th November 2021

Robots:  We believe that when we set up the online club on Wednesdays we stipulated that robots would only be used in an emergency:  loss of partner or to complete a full table (BBO can’t cope with half-tables).    No one likes to meet a robot at the table so we have asked our current TD to tweak the rules of our game to exclude starting to play with a robot.    The county has to pay the BBO fees and the P2P fees for stand-in players and robots. 
“Partnership Desk”:    If you are without a partner for the evening, I understand that this site is a place you could try to find one.   Such a partner has to be a member of our club though:  so that means other members have to use that system too.     Alternatively, if you are prepared to play with another person or a robot, the TD might invite you to be part of that standby pair.
Alerts & Explanations:   These are much improved, but don’t forget to add an explanation if you click on Alert.
System cards:   You can complete any number of convention cards, one for each partner, and your opponent can look at yours by clicking on one of the white lines in the blue box at top left.   A shorter version can be completed under Account to the right of the page, and opponents can look at that by clicking your user name.
Names:   How nice and friendly it would be if we had a name for each player rather than a blank.   Someone might greet you by name!   You can presumably delete it if you are playing elsewhere and you want to remain anonymous.

Following the recent  upgrade to BridgeWebs version 2.19q and, in order to comply with GDPR,  your webmaster is trying to update the list of members held on this website to agree with the EBU list for SSCBA.  No change is planned for those already registered as members but any members that are either:

• down as visitors or
• not on the list

will be set up such that they will have to log on and set the options themselves to indicate what information they are happy for other members to see.  By default - those added will show no information to others.  Normally basics for making contact, email and phone number are helpful. Other options include displaying ranking and personal analysis of results.  All of these can be set on/off as the member wishes.  Comments welcome to the webmaster (who also holds the same position for Stafford so uses the same address for all website mail).  Once the list is correct there are facilities for "find a partner" and Newletters such as John already sends to the online membership.