We are continuing our collaboration with Dorchester Bridge Club, which is working very well and resulting in very satisfactory turnouts and getting to know new people.

We have a tradition of charity donations at Christmas, and both Dorchester and Summertown encourage you to make a donation to Crisis at Christmas, to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

Here is a link to their website https://www.crisis.org.uk/crisis-at-christmas/.  There is a donate tab a little way down the page.

Oxfordshire is repeating the format it used last year for its county pairs heats.  If you are an OBA member, play in our club pairs in the weeks commencing 17th November 2024, 1st December 2024 or 5th January 2025, and score 50% or more, this will entitle you to play in one of three County Pairs Semifinals.

If you qualify, this will entitle you to play in one of three County Pairs semifinals, all to be held on RealBridge on different dates in February 2025. 

The top 20 pairs from the semifinals will qualify to play in the final, which will be held in March 2025, also on RealBridge. 

Evening league

Thanks to everyone who played in our first match against Oxford D on 14th November, and well done for winning! The final score was 88 to 84 (10.71 to 9.29 in VPs). It was an unusual match to have had two grand slam hands. Congratulations to Trevor & John for bidding and making theirs. On a different hand Oxford also bid a grand slam, which failed, although arguably they should have made it.

The team was: Ann & Paul, John & Trevor, Holly & Zahir, Tunde & Kati, with Steph & Steven as reserves.

Thanks in particular to Ann for running things on the night.

Roger 15.11.24

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On 23rd January we played Wallingford D, and I'm pleased to say we won, by 82 IMPs to 65 (=12.76 VPs to 7.24). We are still 4th out of 6 in the table though. It was a close match with Summertown all square after the first quarter, and having a small lead at half time. We were back to all square after the third stanza, and ended up 17 ahead. Well done everyone!

Thanks to the team:
Sandra & Krys,
Bridget & John,
Steph & Steven,
Paul & myself,
and to our reserves, Tunde & Kati.

Roger 24.1.25

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We had our final match of the season on 12th March, which we won in a nail-biting finish. We are currently in Division 3 (out of 4), and with one match to be played elsewhere, we are 3rd out of 6 - just below the promotion positions. We won 4 of our 5 matches, so congratulations are due to those who played:-

Ann, Bridget, Erica, Holly, John, Kati, Krys, Paul, Sandra, Steph, Steven, Trevor, Tunde, Zahir - and myself.

Thanks are due in particular to Ann, who took over as captain for 3 of our matches while I was away.

Roger 14.3.25

Daytime league

Summertown A v Summertown B

Well - as I predicted Summertown won the match (!) - so it's very well done to Summertown B (Bridget, John, Moira and Cliff), who came out ahead by 54 IMPs to 25, or just about 16-4 in VPs. The A team (me, Robert, Steph and Steven) had a couple of good swings at the beginning of the second half, but not enough to make up for a couple of slams bid only by the B team, plus one other board where we took an unlucky view to bid on after a sacrifice, and several smaller losses.

As usual there were a few interesting hands.  Here's one where the analysis says North can make only 11 tricks in either spades, diamonds or NT, yet on both tables 12 tricks came in. It's easy to see how 6NT can go down with the defence holding two Aces, but less easy to see how to defeat 6S. 

The answer is that East must lead a club. Declarer has to ruff that in dummy, but if they try to draw trumps West has to hold up the trump Ace until the third round - by which time dummy has no more clubs - and then can cash the AC. Of course declarer could try to ruff all three clubs, but the bad trump break will defeat that line.

Thank you to Robert, Steph and Steven for playing for the A team - particularly to the Blisses, neither of whom was feeling at their best - and to Sara and Betty for standing by as reserves for both teams.

Onwards and upwards, A team!

Sandra 29.10.24

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Very well done and many thanks to Steph, Steven, Betty and Sara who played for Summertown A on 15th November against Abingdon C. Although they were down at half time, they didn't despair, and staged a terrific comeback in the second half to win the match by 58 to 37 IMPs (14.76 - 5.24 in VPs).

Particular thanks go to Steven for running the match (his first experience of this!), and to Erica for standing by as reserve.

Sandra 15.11.24

Just to let you know that the Summertown team had a most enjoyable time on 10th December  and won the match against Kings Sutton A by 92 IMPs to 27, which works out at just a whisker short of 20 - 0 in VPs.

Many thanks to the team, who on this occasion were Steph and Steven, playing with Robert and myself: and to Erica and Ann for standing by as reserves.

This board produced our best score of the day:

Against the Blisses, after a normal 1S opening from East, South jumped straight to 5D and duly went down two. However, when Robert and I played it, Robert chose to double first with the South hand. West passed and I jumped to 4H - well, wouldn't you, with an 8-card suit? East tried 4S and Robert bravely bid 6D, reasoning that either I had good values and some diamond support, or if not, I must have a very long heart suit and he could stand 6H. And that was what I bid, on the basis that my hand would be worthless in 6D, and if 6H went down it would be my fault! But as you can see, it was a very lucky make, with the hearts breaking 2-1 and the diamond void in the hand that had only a singleton trump: so I was able to ruff the club lead, draw just one round of trumps with the Ace, and then play three rounds of diamonds (with the Ace of spades as an entry), discarding my other two clubs.

For the moment, that leaves Summertown A lying second in Division 2, despite our initial loss to Summertown B.

Sandra  10.12.24

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The Wessex League Daytime B team played our last match of the season on 18th February against Kings Sutton and, sadly, lost 29 : 58 which equates to 3.92 : 16.08.

Many thanks to Betty, Sara and John Cecil (playing with me) for playing. Congratulations to Betty and Sara for bidding and making a slam which the opponents didn't bid. Unfortunately, John and I bid a different slam but it didn't make (and the opponents didn't bid it). Other than that, it boiled down to some ambitious contracts not made, etc.

Many thanks too to Moira and Cliff who were standing by as reserves today.

So, overall, the Daytime League won 2 matches, lost 3 matches and 1 was a tie. Many thanks to everyone who played in this season's matches.

Bridget   18.2.25

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I'm very pleased to report that our Summertown A daytime team has just won its match against Oxford Isis by 20-0. It was a very pleasant afternoon against a friendly team, but I must admit that they weren't making the most of their cards ... and once or twice, they let us make more than the most of ours! Very well done to Robert playing with me, and Steph and Steven; and many thanks to Moira and Cliff for standing by as reserves on this occasion.

Sandra 25.3.25

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I've just heard from Steven that we won our daytime A team match against Wallingford A this afternoon (9th April) by almost the narrowest possible margin - 47 IMPs to 45. Well done to the Blisses and Kati and Tunde, who were playing, and thanks also to Betty, who was standing by as reserve.

All the matches in our division have now been played and this leaves the daytime A team in second place - therefore almost certainly qualifying for promotion into Division 1 next season - so once again, well done and a big thank you to everyone who's played for the team, or been one of our reserves, over the course of the current season. 

The B team has come 5th out of 7, and so will almost certainly still be in Division 2: the slight uncertainty in both cases is because, if we have a few teams drop out and some new teams come in, it might be necessary to readjust the divisions to some extent ... especially if we get enough teams to run 4 divisions next time, which is not impossible. 

Sandra 9.4.25

Exciting news!

We've been having discussions with another EBU-affiliated club (Dorchester in Dorset) about combining resources.  They, like us, have had to cancel sessions for lack of numbers.  Here is a link to their website.

We've agreed a trial co-operative arrangement for August of them running the first and third Mondays (with their own director), and us running the second (teams) and fourth Mondays.  We hope you'll enjoy meeting some new opponents, and that both clubs will find that having more tables in play provides us with a better experience.

For the length of the trial we will not be charging table money or requiring players to register.  The RealBridge link will be emailed on the SumBC circulation list on the relevant Monday and at the same time will also put it on our website.

Come and join us and make this work!

After a long battle with ill health, Irina Woods died peacefully in her sleep at Sobell House on 2nd March. 

She was a longstanding and regular player at Summertown and a delightful character. She first came to the club with Paul Stevenson, in the days when we played at St Peter’s Church Hall at Wolvercote. She loved to speak her native German with those of us who speak German. She had many endearing qualities, was hugely interested in people, saw the good side in everybody and took newcomers under her wing.  She had a difficult but interesting life, was a linguist and had been a keen tennis player. 

She came to our final face-to-face session at Maison Francaise in December and found the strength to get up and thank the club for all the happy times it had given her.

She will be hugely missed by all her friends and fellow bridge players.   Our condolences go to her beloved son, daughter and grandchildren.  Her son asks that anybody wishing to make donations in her memory should do so to https://sobellhouse.org/donations/.  She will be laid to rest in Corsica with her twin sister.

Your committee met recently and discussed table money and collection methods.  After considering the cost of running online sessions, and looking at the bank balance, we decided to reduce the table money to £2.50 from the start of March.  We hope you will appreciate this and that it will encourage others to come and play.  The collection method (advance booking via BookWhen) will continue, as this is the most practical for us.

We have another plan to encourage more people to attend.  If you arrange to play with somebody who has never played at Summertown or at least not played since before 1st January 2023, we will offer you and your partner a free game.  Please email ericasheppard5@gmail.com if you wish to take advantage of this opportunity, giving the date when you wish to play and your partner's name and email address.

If you can think of anything else that might encourage new people to play in our online games, do let us know.

Erica 21.2.24

We have donated the remaining Summertown BC equipment - tables, sets of boards, dealing machine, bridgemates etc - to junior bridge.  Joan Bennett, who is both Oxfordshire Youth Officer and National Youth Officer met a few of us at Maison Francaise and took it all away.  She has already found grateful recipients for many of the items, and we are pleased that it is all going to a good home.

SBC Committee

11.1.24

Here is what Sue Johnson, of New Tricks Bridge says: I just wanted to say a very big thank you from all of the children that we teach at New Tricks for your generous donation of the dealing machine and other equipment.

Oxfordshire is changing the format for 2024 to generate more entries and interest. Any club pairs duplicate in the weeks commencing 19th November, 3rd December or 7th January entitle pairs with 50% or more to play in one of three County Pairs Semifinals.

For players whose clubs do not have a regular pairs duplicate or for pairs unable to play in their own club heats (players should only play in their own club heats) there is a County Heat on Thursday 30th November (RealBridge, cost £3 per player) open to all. PLEASE ENTER IN ADVANCE

The  semifinal dates are Thursday 1st February 7pm, Sunday 11th February 2pm, Monday 19th February 7pm (24-26 boards, MPs at National Scale, £4 per player, all on RealBridge). In proportion to players in each semifinal there will be a 10 table final on Sunday 17th March 2pm (38 boards, Green points awarded, £9 per player, again on RealBridge).

Thanks to the generosity of everyone playing on 11th December we raised £373 for Homeless Oxfordshire!