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 League 2021-22

Entries are now open for the Wiltshire teams league 2021-2022. Unlike the "lockdown" teams that was played on BBO, this season will be played mainly on Realbridge, with the final two matches hopefully played face-to-face. Playing on Realbridge means that the same boards will be played by all teams. Many bridge players enjoy the teams format and we welcome from all Wiltshire players. The closing date for entries is 16th August. To enter, click here.

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.

It is with deep regret that there are two more Wiltshire players who will not be returning to the bridge table

Brian Johnson died suddenly while on holiday in the lake district. He represented Wiltshire in many county events. He will be sorely missed by all at Salisbury and throughout Wiltshire. Brian was an accomplished walker and climber, who wrote a number of books about his walks in Europe and America. To find out more about Brian, click here.

May Brand, who played for many years at Trowbridge Bridge Club, died recently after a short illness, surrounded by her family.

The thoughts and sympathies of the Wiltshire committee and bridge players across the county go out to the family and friends of Brian and May.

The Midlands Counties (which includes Wiltshire) ran a Six-high Swiss teams on Saturday 19th June. 15 teams took part, including one team from Corsham/Malmsebury, one team from Warminster and a pair from Salisbury who joined a pair from Warwickshire. The teams finished 10th, 11th and 13th. The full results are available here.

The event was played on Realbridge, and was played in a very friendly but competitive atmospehere - a good introduction to inter-county matches. If you feel you would like to take part in something like this in future, please contact Gayle Webb, gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk,

Further to the EBU AGM on 25th November where the issue of online cheating was discussed, the EBU has increased the sentences for online cheating. The full details are available by clicking on this link. Wiltshire Contract Bridge Association supports the efforts made by the EBU to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy their bridge.

It is hard to believe that many of us have now been playing online for over a year. The good news is that there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel and we are hearing some Wiltshire clubs are starting to plan for re-opening in the coming months.

The Wiltshire committee are busy planning a calendar of events starting in September 2021 and are hopeful that many of our Sunday events will be played face-to-face at Devizes Bowls Club as in previous years. We will however maintain a few online County competitions. Once the calendar has been finalised, it will be publicised on the WCBA web site. 

The regular Tuesday and Saturday pairs competitions on BBO will continue during the summer until the new programme commences, depending on the demand from players. There has been a drop in numbers in recent weeks and if the numbers drop to a point where it is no longer viable to run a duplicate movement, we may have to drop one or both sessions.

If you are a regular player on a Tuesday or Saturday afternoon, it would be helpful if you could let us know if you intend to continue playing during the summer or if you think you will play less often. There has been a suggestion that we reduce the number of boards - is this something you would like to see happen? Please email: Gayle Webb.

If you have not played on a Tuesday or Saturday and would like to, please get in touch with Gayle.

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.

Congratulations to Kathy Hodgson and Roy France who came second in the hotly contested Oxfordshire Green Point Swiss Pairs on 12th June, out of a field of 98 pairs. Well done.

Wiltshire Chairman's Cup 2021

Congratulations to Anita Williams and Linda Locke who won this year's Chairman's Cup on Saturday 10th April at 1pm on BBO. They were also the winners after the handicapping had been applied, such was their overall lead. A very well done to Sheila Pearson and Helen Cleland, a scratch pair, who came second in the handicapped result.

Congratulations to the winners of the Championship Pairs, who will go forward to represent Wiltshire:

1st Tina Cottee and Sriram Chari

2nd Brian Johnson and Sue Hands

3rd Stuart Bridge and Roger Karn

Congratulations also to the winners of the Plate competition:

Susie Gall and Trevor Purches

For full results, 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.

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@gmail.com