The Chairman has decided to close the club following the PM's announcement.

This is to advise you that the chairman has decided that in view of the Prime Minister's announcement today to immediately close Wallingford Bridge Club.  This is on the grounds that the PM has advised that all non-essential contact should cease and social venues should be avoided.

Wallingford Bridge Club are exceedingly lucky to have 'tech savvy' tutors able to run this years' classes commencing on September 8th 2020. Details are given under the 'Learn to Play Bridge ' tab. We have offered 10 small(ish) local clubs, many of whom are run or assisted by, our members, but not able to run lessons of their own, to include in our classes students who would not normally be in our area. These students can learn with us, and when their nearby clubs reopen, they would be welcomed in local improvers/supervised play sessions. This service would strengthen other clubs, enable the students to start learning almost immediately, and benefit the Oxfordshire bridge world. Everyone would win.

If you have any friends or family who would like to try this new method of learning, but are maybe tied to their houses by children, or work away from home during the week, then this could be for them. Contact Joan Bennett on 01491 579795 or 07548 782 538

A history of competition winners has been uploaded in the competitions section of our website. Please take a look. If you have any additional information, or spot any errors, please email Debbie Roberts. (3 June 2020).

Wallingford Bridge Club are now offering five online bridge sessions each week, and another session run by neighbouring bridge club Phyllis Court Bridge Club which is now also open to Wallingford Bridge Club members.

Monday at 2:00pm       -    Duplicate Pairs MPs (modified Level 2), playing 18 boards.

Tuesday at 2:00pm      -     Gentle Duplicate (for inexperienced players) playing 12 or 14 boards.

Wednesday at 7:00pm  -    Duplicate Pairs MPs (Level 4), playing 18 boards.

Thursday at 2.00pm     -    Duplicate Pairs MPs (modified Level 2), playing 18 boards.

Friday at 10:00am       -    Gentle Duplicate (for inexperienced players) playing 12 or 14 boards. This session is run by Phyllis Court Bridge Club, who are kindly opening it to Wallingford Bridge Club members as well. 

Friday at 7.00pm          -   Pairs,  X-IMPs (Teams scoring) (Level 4), playing 18 boards.

Other feedback has suggested that one thing putting off some members from playing online is not having a partner. BBO has a fantastic way of dealing with this, as each tournament has a Partnership Desk which is open for 2 hours before every event for people looking for a partner. Full step-by-step instructions for using this feature are available by clicking at the top of this News Item. Unfortunately we do not currently have enough volunteers to be able to provide a host for any of our sessions after the end of the current trial period on the 1st of July. There will still be a host on the 29th of June and the 1st of July.

If you are considering playing on Friday evenings, but are unfamiliar with X-IMPs (the same type of scoring as used for Teams), don't be nervous as the game is still almost exactly the same! There is a simple explanation of some of the tactics for doing well at this type of scoring here.

Each session lasts for around two to two and a half hours. The entry fee for all tournaments is BB$3.  Masterpoints will be awarded, and the sessions will count towards NGS. BBO's Robot players will be used to make up a half table when necessary.  Instructions for playing in one of the club's online duplicates can be found here.
If you haven't played on BBO before, click on BBO Buddy if you would like some help getting started.  Have a look at the useful 'how to' videos in the Online Bridge area of this website.

The Club's weekly Gentle Duplicate on BBO will be moving to Tuesday afternoons at 2pm from next week, July 7th.

In order to boost the numbers at these sessions, to give gentle duplicate players a chance to play more often and with more different people and to give more variety of timeslots for Gentle Duplicate available, Wallingford Bridge Club have joined forces with Phyllis Court Bridge Club, based in Henley, who will continue to run a similar session (theirs is called "Relaxed Duplicate") on a Frday morning at 10am. Members of both bridge clubs will be warmly welcomed at either or indeed both sessions, starting this Friday July 3rd. PCBC have been sent a list of all players who have previously played in or have shown interest in Gentle Duplicate sessions at Wallingford so that they can be allowed access - if anyone else is interested in playing in their sessions on a Friday morning, please e-mail David by clicking on the link below.

It will also be possible to play in our Gentle Duplicate session on a Monday evening, when the same boards will be played as the ones for the next afternoon. The results from Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon will be combined to make an overall set of results. Monday evening sessions will be limited to 3 Tables, and are designed for players who cannot play during the daytime and so can't make either of the main Gentle Duplicate sessions. If you would like to play in a Monday evening Gentle Duplicate, you must book a spot in advance by e-mailing David using the link below.

These events are primarily for inexperienced bridge players, but could also be a good way to try online bridge if you haven't had a go in any of our other sessions yet, as we play fewer boards and at a slower pace. Please contact David Emerson if you think this event might be suitable for you or if you have any questions. It will take around two hours to play 12 or 14 boards. The entry fee is BB$3.

Stuart Fox is running his bridge workshops for club players wishing to improve their bidding and tactics. The sessions are run at 12 noon every Thursday using the Zoom platform. Those wishing to join the workshop only need to contact Stuart on stuart.fox6@gmail.com or call on 07730304294.

David Emerson is running Online Supervised Play sessions, with different sessions for students at different points on their bridge journey. Improvers sessions would also be suitable for regular club members who would like some guidance on their bidding and play:

Tuesdays 10:30am - 12:30pm Beginners (1st year Students)

Tuesdays 4:00 - 6:00pm Improvers (2nd year Students)

Thursdays 9:30 - 11:30am Improvers (2nd year Students)

Thursdays 7:00 - 9:00pm Beginners (1st year Students)

More information and how to book in is available at  http://www.bookwhen.com/davidemerson.

Virtual revision lessons on Zoom have started on Wednesday mornings at 11:00 a.m. for students. If any current year students in either a Beginner or Improver class did not receive an invitation or may have overlooked it at the time, they are very welcome to send an email to Peter Dyer,pete.dyer@live.co.uk, if they wish to be added to the invitees each week.

Bernard Magee's first broadcast was a great success, with well over 4000 tuning in to watch it live and many more watching the recording. As there has been so much good feedback from this, Bernard has decided to do three live broadcasts a week while he has the time available to do this. The broadcasts will be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 11.00am, For details, please click this link. 

Nick Fahrer, an Australian who owns The Bridge Shop, a large purveyor of bridge supplies based in Australia, has secured FREE ACCESS to a stimulating variety of bridge lessons, tips, quizzes and other relevant information including complete copies of two famous bridge books. Access to this is via bridgewinners.com. Click here

There are three channels :

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Each day, for each channel, Andrew releases an online video, to subscribers, in which he talks about an interesting Bridge hand.

You can find out more here including sample bridgecasts.

These are available in the members' area of the website. Select and click Members Only Area from the left hand column menu, log in then select Members Only Notices again from the left hand column menu.

Please email me (Gillian Leaver) to update this page replacing the [dot] with a full stop and [at] with @

Gillian[dot]Leaver[at]gmail[dot]com 

For news archive click here.