After our AGM in May, we announced that we would close down sessions that were not regularly having at least 4 tables. Whilst Thursday afternoons have not attracted much support, your Committee is conscious that once abandoned, it will be very difficult to restart such sessions in the future. We have therefore decided that until at least the end of October our face-to-face afternoons sessions will only be held on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month with the hope that those members who only play a couple of times a month will support these days and hopefully boost the number of tables. These sessions will be FREE until further notice.

Tuesday evenings have generally been attracting increased support and these sessions will be maintained as will our most popular sessions on Thursday evenings. We now have over 120 paid up members of whom less than half are attending at least once a month so we hope to see an increasing number over the coming months.

Meet our July competition winners! On Tuesday evening, winners were awarded prizes for best performances in open and handicapped categories based on the best three sessions played during July. Please join us in congratulating:

Robert Hirst - 1st place, Open
Richard Markwick - 1st place, Handicapped     

Silver in the Open category went to Peter Berry and David Young, with bronze going to Norman Hardy. Robert Hirst and Peter Berry with David Young were also runners-up in the Handicapped category.

Congratulations also to Steve and Sue Smith, the winners of our Thursday evening competition. This competition awards prizes for the best performance by a Class C player or players over the best three sessions during the month.

After the success of this year’s Break, we are pleased that the event will be held again from 5th to 8th February 2023 with Graham Hedley as Director. Already 36 bridge players (+3 non-playing partners) have booked to go on our very popular bridge break at the lovely Miramar Hotel in Bournemouth. There are now only 15 rooms left for us to occupy the whole hotel and prices are a very reasonable £270 for single occupancy in a double room and £430 for dual occupancy. This is for 3 nights DBB, 5 sessions of bridge and 2 seminars. If you would like more details or would like to make a booking with a deposit, which is fully refundable should you cancel for any reason by mid-December, please contact Chris Jago via secretary@westsussexbc.co.uk.

WSBC needs your support to ensure we meet our goal of four tables per session by the end of July in order to keep that session going.

As an incentive, we are offering monthly competitions beginning in June:

• Tuesday evening sessions will have adjusted handicapped results based on NGS rankings in tandem with the regular results, and a monthly prize of a bottle of wine given for the best performances over any three weeks in each section. 

• There will be a monthly prize of a bottle of wine to the Class C member or members with the aggregate best three results on Thursday evenings in the month based on master points after stratification.

On both Tuesday and Thursday evenings, you can play with the same or different partners. To check Tuesday's handicapped results, go to the Results page and click on the Information tab that is shown there.

Members – your bridge club needs YOU!

Following our AGM held on 3rd May at which there were many ideas put forward for trying to encourage a greater attendance at our playing sessions, your Committee met on 11^th May to consider all of them. In summary, this is what we propose to do:

• We hope to broaden the appeal of Tuesday evening sessions by producing handicapped results (if possible, based on NGS rankings) in tandem with the regular results, and award annual prizes for the best performances in each section. 
• We do not think table money or a membership fee is putting off players but visitors will now only be charged £3, the same as members who do not use vouchers (which will continue to be sold only to members).
• Renewal of membership will stay at £12.50 until the end of June.
• We will try to promote the club more by advertising in local publications, village notice boards and libraries.
• We will offer a mentoring service for new players on the first Thursday evening of the month with a booking arrangement for those who wish to participate being provided on the website.
• We have investigated the possibility of providing different chairs for those who find the existing ones too uncomfortable but unfortunately there is nowhere to store them.
• Starting in June there will be a monthly prize of a bottle of wine to the Class C member or members with the aggregate best 3 results on Thursday evenings in the month based on master points after stratification. You can play with the same or different partners.
• We are looking at a catering roster for Thursday evenings.
• Whilst we are open to amalgamating with another club, options for doing so are limited.
• On Tuesday 7th June we will have a special event with a short break for refreshments to mark the Queen’s Jubilee and we hope as many members as possible will come along - there will be free entry and enhanced master point awards. More special Tuesdays to follow if attendance picks up!

Other competitions are being considered but they only work if there is sufficient support so members are encouraged to come along to as many sessions as possible each month. We have set a target of an absolute minimum of 4 tables at each session and if this is not being achieved by the end of July we will have to consider cancelling the session on those days.