Your County bridge organisation, Merseyside & Cheshire BA, is supporting an initiative on on-line bridge. The idea is to try to gradually build a bridge-playing community across the County, giving players the chance to practice their skills, and get to know new people at different clubs. It also might serve to rationalise some of the smaller and barely viable on-line sessions which some clubs run now, as sessions run far better with more tables.
How does it work?
Sessions are hosted by Warrington Bridge Club, and other clubs who join in. Anyone who's a member of a bridge club within Merseyside and Cheshire can play without any additional subscription, and just pay for the sessions they play. At Warrington Bridge Club, we charge every three months in arrears, so all we need for anyone who plays is an email address so we can bill them. To make it even more attractive, we offer the first three sessions for any player free of charge, so you can try it for free, and if you don't like it, it's costs you nothing.
The Warrington-hosted sessions use the RealBridge platform, which is deservedly becoming one of the most popular on-line bridge platform in UK, offering video and sound, so that playing is as near as it can be to face to face bridge. It doesn’t require any software to be downloaded: it runs directly on your browser, on eg an iPad, laptop, or desktop PC.
At present Warrington run two sessions per week:
- a "casual" or "relaxed" duplicate session on a Tuesday evening, without Master Points or NGS gradings, starting at 7pm. It is generally only about 21 boards, and we're finished by 915pm or even earlier. The charge is only £1 per person per session. You don't need a pre-arranged partner, though it works better if you have one. We can provide a partner for anyone on their own.
- a more formal duplicate session on a Friday evening, where the results are posted to the EBU, and Master Points and NGS gradings are awarded. It starts at 715pm, and usually will be 24 boards, finishing around 10pm. The charge is £3 per person per session. You do need a pre-arranged partner.
We operate a dedicated WhatsApp group for people to find a partner if they don't have one.
It's very easy to join a session: you just locate the panel headed County On-Line Bridge on this homepage, and click on the link for the date. We ask you log in at least 10 minutes before the session start time, so we know how many tables, and can organise the movement etc.
If you’d like to give it a try, and you’re not sure how, please contact Jim Steele on 04748 312456, who will be very happy to provide any further information or help that anyone might need.
You will be made very welcome.
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