We heard on 23rd October the sad news that Ameena Ahmad died earlier in the week.  She had endured ill health for some time but continued to play regularly at both Summertown and Oxford Bridge Clubs.  She was a spirited lady and it's sad to think we will no longer be able to play against her.

There have been many comments about Ameena, some of which relate to the delicious food she cooked for social occasions. She obviously made a favourable impression on a lot of members. 

James Bentley noticed that she played with Irene Holland at OBC as recently as 16th October and has kindly produced the attached commentary (click here) on two of the hands they played.

David Bygott has kindly provided the photo you see here.

Andrew Robson has recognised the success of Oxford's Junior Bridge Club, run by Holly Kilpatrick, in his Times column of 20th October.  Click here to view the article.

The Club is now running on-line bridge sessions on Monday evenings at 7 pm.

Before your first Summertown session you MUST include your name, email address EBU number and BBO name in the table below and click on Send Message.   You will not be able to play in a Summertown event without doing this and you must do so at least 24 hours before you want to play for the first time.  This gives us time to notify the director which players are authorised to play in our events.  However, please note that you only need to fill this form in once.

At the start of each round please greet your opponents and give a brief resumé of your system, e.g  benji, 12-14 NT, 4 card majors, standard leads, McKenney discards.

The club requires you to put your real name on your BBO profile and reserves the right to block you from playing if you persist in not having your real name visible.  If you aren't willing to do this (for example, because you prefer to be anonymous when playing elsewhere on BBO), then we ask you to announce your real name (first and last name) to your opponents at the start of every round via the Chat manager.

For further information click on this link.

Moira Pavelin has kindly offered to try match people up, so if you are looking for a partner in either the short term or more permanently, do let her know.

Alternatively members can send a message to sumbc@yahoogroups.com, advertising for a partner.

Or you can register on the BBO partnership desk after 5 on a Monday evening.  Click here for instructions.

Let’s keep in touch!

To try to keep in touch with one another, and perhaps keep our spirits up a little bit, the committee has decided that we’re going to take it in turns to send out a regular “Summertown Bulletin” to you all every Monday. The idea is that it will be related to bridge in some way.  The latest one is below.  To see older Bulletins click on the 'Bulletins' tab on the left.

Click here for Roger Heath-Brown's bulletin.  This is almost certainly the last in the current series. I think you'll agree they've been an amazing mixture! I do hope you've enjoyed reading them all, and will join me in thanking all the members who have so kindly told us about their bridge hands, their experiences learning to play bridge, their lockdown stories, their recipes, their gardens, their travels, their family histories, their early careers  .... and all the other fascinating glimpses into their lives and thoughts!

If anyone would like to contribute another one, either now or later in the year, please do feel free to send it to me. However, unless anything else turns up in the next few days, the plan is to ask a few people to take turns in sending out a short commentary on some interesting hands in the latest Monday evening game. For obvious reasons, this means the next "bulletin" won't be out until around the middle of next week, and so will no longer be a "Monday" bulletin. Does anyone have any good ideas for a new name for it?

All the best and more than ever, do keep safe -

Sandra

There are three promotions to report from the EBU's round of Master Point Promotions in September:

Tom Brus – 1 Star Master 

Freddie Beneat - District Master

Sandra Devaney – District Master

Well done all!

There were no promotions amongst Club members in August.