The numbers attending the pairs event on Sunday 19th September showed that many Wiltshire players are still cautious about playing face-to-face, therefore the committe have decided that the remaining events for 2021 will be played online - Mixed Pairs on 24th October, 9-high pairs on 14th November and the Blue point Teams on 5th December. The situation will reviewed on a regular basis and the committee hope to see you all soon.

Entries are now open for the Mixed Pairs on 24th October, to enter click here

There was a mixed start to the Western League for Wiltshire, with the first mach played on Realbridge on Saturday 2nd October.

Wiltshire A (Chris Jones, James Dunlop, Susie Gall and Stuart Bridge) lost 7-13 to Somerset A

Wiltshire B (Ron King, Graham Hodges, Tina Cottee and Steve Elliott) lost 2 -18 to Somerset B

Wiltshire C (Paul Cooper, John Maggs, Alastair Spence and Phil Meats) won 18 - 2 to Somerset C.

Thank you to all the players representing Wiltshire and congratulations to the C Team who are joint top of the their division after that great start. There are still 6 more matches to play, with the next one against Herefordshire on 27th November 2021. If anyone is interested in representing Wiltshire and playing in any of the remaining matches, please email Stuart Bridge, stuartbridgeuk@yahoo.co.uk as it is possible we may be able to expand our teams in any of the divisions to 8 for a particular match.

For full results of the Western League, click here

There were some great results for Wiltshire players in the West of England Congress played at Weston-super-Mare last weekend, played face-to-face this year. Stuart Bridge and Roger Karn led the charge, coming second in the Swiss Pairs on Saturday and improving their placing by winning the Swiss Teams on Sunday, with their partners Warner Solomon and Trevor Ward.

On the Friday, Gayle and Colin Webb came 5th in the Championship Pairs, while Helen Holden and Jo Seddon came second in the Ladies Pairs. For the full results of the Congress, please click here.

Many congratulations to the above players.

Many Wiltshire players are keen to come back to face-to-face bridge and clubs in Wiltshire are now considering re-opening, depending on venue and club members. Please check with your local club website for up to date information on proposed re-opening for face-to-face bridge. All clubs will follow government and EBU advice on safe re-opening. A full list of Wiltshire clubs, with a link to their website is available here.

Bath Bridge Club will be open from Tuesday 20th July and Corsham Bridge Club (new venue - Box Pavillion, and new evening, Tuesdays) will be open from Tuesday 27th July. Malmesbury Bridge Club will also open face-to-face at the new venue of Townsend Court (the same site as the previous venue) on Monday 26th July.

Wiltshire Friendly Sunday Pairs

Sunday 19th September

The first face-to-face event of the new season of Wiltshire events took place at Devizes Bowls Club on Sunday 19th. Although the turnout was small and therefore was not a blue-pointed event, it was played in a friendly yet competitive atmosphere. The result was a tie for first place between Stuart Bridge and Roger Karn, and Richard and Sydney Gwyer - well done to both pairs. 

After a number of comments from players about the scores achieved by robots playing in Wiltshire events, it has been decided to remove these scores before posting the results. If you had a bad score against a robot, this will be removed, regretably if you had good score this will also be removed. The director has made, and will continue to make, an annoucement at the start of the Wiltshire Tuesday and Saturday online games to this effect.

Have you considered becoming a bridge teacher in Wiltshire? EBED, the education arm of the EBU, are re-starting face-to-face training in September and there are courses on offer In Aylesbury, Yeovil and Solihull. Each EBU affiliated cub may apply for one free place every two years, and anyone applying via an affiliated EBU club (who will be paying the invoice), will be entitled to a 20% discount. This discount is funded by the EBU.

For more information about the course and details on how to book, please click here.

Wiltshire Clubs Online

The country is now in the third period of lockdown and although there is hope with the current vaccination programme, it seems unlikely that face-to-face bridge will resume until early summer 2021.

In the meantime, many of you are already playing online at your local club or at Wiltshire events, or taking part in the online Teams League. Clubs are offering support and help to any of their members who wish to play online, and many Wiltshire clubs are happy to include members from other clubs in their online sessions. For details, click here for the list of Wiltshire clubs and click on the web link for the club to see what they are offering.