Summertown raised £870 for Children in Need. Thanks go to our generous members and also to Maison Francaise for waiving the rent for this event. We held a raffle and also a raffle for a Christmas cake which is pictured below. 

The winners of the Sim Pairs were Tom Brus & Christina Hardyment, with 64.7%, over 5% ahead of the nearest pair, so very well done to them! Second were Cliff & Moira Pavelin with 59.84%, closely followed in third place by Rob Dixon & Irina Woods with 59.5%. 

National Sims results are available on the ECats website at: 

http://www.simpairs.com/localranking.asp?session=004891&ClubId=004891SummertownBridgeClub01869600111

and the commentary is at: 

http://www.simpairs.com/files/004891%20Monday%20commentary.pdf

Details of donations and pledges made to Children in Need via ECats can be seen here.

Holly won the cake this year. 

This year’s final seminar, led by Steven Bliss, will be on Saturday November 28th. The subject is Planning the defence – deciding how best to defend when you have assessed the bidding, dummy, partner’s lead and declarer’s early play. It will cover both no-trump and suit contracts. As usual the session will be at Oxford Bridge Club, starting at 9.30 and finishing about 12.30, with coffee and cakes in the middle and some practice hands to play after coffee. The cost is £5 payable on the day. Contact Steph Bliss to book your place. 

Our Blue-Pointed Swiss Pairs event ran well today Sunday 17 May with 17 tables.

We were successful in raising over £300 for the Oxfordshire-based charity Footsteps, which supports children and young adults with cerebral palsy and similar conditions. The exact figure will be published as soon as we have been able to finalise it.

The overall event winners were Mike Wenble & Hugh Thomson with 89 VPs.
In joint second were Jo Murray & Colin Jones and Ron Quainton & Clive Keep.

Winners of the non-expert prize were Christina Hardyment & Tom Brus.

The Ascenders' Prize was won by Abbey Smith & Jennifer Melliss.

Well done to them all.

Many thanks to Rob Dixon for his expert directing and scoring.

Huge thanks to Sandra Nicholson for a long and sustained period of organisation, and our gratitude also goes to all the other club members who helped in various ways.

Full results can be found by clicking on the Results button in the menu on the left.

Overall winners Hugh Thomson & Mike Wenble with Club Chairman Erica Sheppard.

Winners of the non-expert prize Christina Hardyment & Tom Brus with Club Chairman Erica Sheppard.

Winners of the ascenders' prize Abbey Smith & Jennifer Melliss with Club Chairman Erica Sheppard.

We are running another series of Saturday morning bridge seminars starting at the end of April. Here are the details:

Each seminar costs £5, payable in advance to Steph Bliss (cash or cheque to Summertown Bridge Club). We may run further seminars in the autumn if there is the demand for them.

25 April: Declarer play – Making more tricks in suit contracts. This seminar explores some ways to make more tricks, or play more safely, when you have a lot of trumps

30 May: Defence - Opening leads  against NT contracts and suit contracts. This seminar is not just about the ‘standard’ leads but about listening to the bidding and leading accordingly; also when to make a passive lead and when a more risky lead.

27 June: Declarer play – Playing with the odds. This seminar is about how to give yourself the best chance by understanding the probabilities of different lines of play. You don’t need to be a mathematician!

The last Wessex League match has now been played and thanks to Steven Bliss, Holly Kilpatrick and Roger Heath-Brown who have run the A, B and C Teams this year. After 3 years at the helm, Roger has handed over the reins of the C Team to Ann Lee.   Next season the A Team will be in Division 2, the B Team in Division 3 and the C Team will remain in Division 5, although they came a very respectable third this season so, watch this space. The A Team did surprisingly well in some of their matches but were just squeezed down a division in the final table; Likewise the B Team came 5^th by a fraction, just pipped out of 4^th place by Blewbury.

Details of the results and match reports can be seen on the Wessex League page - see the left-hand menu.  

We are sorry to hear the sad news that Krishan Jalie passed away this week, following a long illness.  He had become a regular attender at Summertown and was always willing to help us with directing when necessary. We will miss his calm and friendly nature, and our sincere condolences go to Deirdre at this sad time.

The funeral will take place on Thursday 26th March: 1 pm at St Peters Church, Wolvercote.  Refreshments afterwards in the new St Peters Church Hall.