Wiltshire Social Pairs Sunday 29th November, 2pm

Many congratulations to Heather Spalding and Alan Perkins who came top North/South and Janice and Steve Bailey who came top East/West out of 48 pairs in the second Wiltshire Social Pairs on Sunday. The event attracted many Wiltshire players who are NGS 9 or below, and the event was conducted in a friendly and social atmosphere, with thanks to the Director, Richard Banbury and organiser, Gayle Webb.

The full results are available here

In past years, Wiltshire has been part of the Western League made up of 8 local counties. This year, Wiltshire has agreed a format with 7 counties (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Herefordshire and East Wales) to be played online this spring. There are still some things to be agreed, but the idea is to play it over the following four Saturdays, starting at 2pm: 16th Jan, 20th Feb, 13th Mar, 17th April.

As in previous years, there will be 3 divisions, so Wiltshire will be fielding A, B and C teams as usual. It may be possible to play teams of 4, 8 or even 12 if we can agree this with our opponents for a particular date so I hope that we give as many pairs a game as possible. The matches will be over 24 boards, switching seats after 12 so that you play both pairs on the opposing team.

It is planned to play the matches on RealBridge with a director. This means there is going to be a charge to play of around £3 to £4 to cover costs, but hopefully you will get NGS updates and master points if you win the match.

So if you are interested in playing, please send your details (with your partner's name), the division (s) you would like to be considered for and the dates you are available to:

stuartbridgeuk@yahoo.co.uk

Congratulations to the following teams and their members for their success in the fourth season of the Wiltshire Online Teams competition. If you would like to get involved in season 5, please contact Richard Samter

Division 1     Katherine Hodgson, Keith Williamson, Pat Davies, Taf Anthias, Sam Sloan, Roy France

Division 2     Rina McGarel-Groves, David Marder, Wenda and John Wray

Division 3     Hugh Thompson, Dilys Shortridge, Jacquie Hide, Peter Willetts, David De-Saxe

Wiltshire Clubs Online

The country is now in the second period of lockdown and although there appears to be some hope about a possible vaccine against Covid-19, it seems unlikely that face-to-face bridge 

will resume until spring or early summer next year.

In the meantime, many of you are already playing online at your local club or at Wiltshire events.

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.

It is with great regret that we annouce the death of another Wiltshire bridge player, Alan Reid. Alan was very active in the county, at Bath Bridge Club and more recently at Trowbridge, and he represented Wiltshire in the Western league, playing with Stephen Stafford. He was formerly a member of the EBU National Tournament Directors panel and until ill health prevented him, he regularly directed at Trowbridge Bridge club, when clubs were still playing face-to-face. We send our thoughts and best wishes to his family and friends. The funeral will be held in the first week of December.

Many Wiltshire players have been enjoying playing in the online competitions which started at the end of April. For a roll call of the winners in the Wiltshire Pairs Competition, please click here.

The winner and runners-up in the Swiss Pairs are available here.

You can still take part in the pairs or Swiss pairs events, for more information, please click here.

Wiltshire Online Bridge

Whilst the doors of our various Wiltshire clubs remain closed, our members have been learning new skills and online bridge is growing at a rapid rate.  Many of the clubs are now running “Virtual club” duplicate sessions, and teams matches and leagues have been evolving.

Wiltshire is running two weekly online competitions which are open to all Wiltshire players and members of Wiltshire clubs. 

On Tuesday and Saturday afternoons we have an 18 board match-pointed pairs, Tuesdays starting at 2pm, and the Saturday session starting at 1pm. 

Both these events are suitable for players of all standards.  The cost is $3.00 BBO per session and they last approximately 2 hours. 

This is a great way of getting a competitive game of bridge and for meeting up with old friends from your own club or neighbouring clubs throughout Wiltshire.

Results of these events are shown in our results tab in the main menu.

If you would like more information or would like to enter to play on either day, please contact Gayle Webb gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk .  It is essential that you contact Gayle prior to entering on the day as these events are “closed” events so as to ensure only Wiltshire players are involved.

If you have not played online and would like some help with how to get started, please contact anyone of the three below, all of whom will be happy to help you

Gayle Webb         gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk

Stuart Bridge      stuartbridgeuk@yahoo.co.uk

Richard Samter  richardsamter@virginmedia.com