| CAFE BRIDGE for "IT'S A BIG DEAL" 2024 |
We are pleased to announce our latest "CAFE BRIDGE" event, as part of a huge nationwide week of activities in the "Bridge - It's a Big Deal" festival (in aid of Cancer Research UK)
WBC's Café event will be on Wednesday 11th September, and tickets will go on general release from 31st July, with a short priority booking window for our members - so book early!
This year's event will be slightly different in some ways, reflecting the overall aim of the festival, to give bridge a high profile in the community, and, we hope, attract new blood to our great game.
So whilst there may be some small sacrifices on the culinary side, we will NOT be playing in dark cellar bars this time, and there will be THREE new venues as well as our traditional Elgar's base.
Flyers can be found here, but DO PLEASE study the information here on MOBILITY, and CAFE/VENUE CHOICES, before completing your entry. It's fine to make no preference on Cafes, and it does help if some people opt to say "ANY" to the cafe choice.
For MOBILITY and other reasons, some people will STAY in the same venue all day (4 out of 16 pairs); some (4 more pairs) will have a short walk (est 2mins) between venues after lunch, all others will have a longer walk (8-10 mins) between The Shambles and Sidbury. Ample time will be allowed for this.
Please help us by giving an indication of your mobility levels – do you (or partner) need a STATIC venue, would you prefer a short walk, or are you OK to do the longer walk?
CHOICE OF VENUE (for first half of the day, and food)
WBC Café Bridge events have always sought to provide a range of food tastes, and to offer some chance to express a preference for a particular venue, though numbers generally do have to fit neatly into table numbers for the purposes of movements. We cannot expect all cafés to have the same prices, so your ticket will include a £10 voucher for lunch – if you have chosen to eat at the most expensive venue (or chosen the most expensive dish), you may spend more than £10, and you will settle the extra with the café. At other venues, you may have to stretch to spend the full value, or add a side!
To help you with choice, here is a guide to what to expect at each venue. Some venues may ask for a pre-order before the day, or at the start of play, but there’s no need to choose your main at the point of entering. The menus below/on the website are for your guidance.
- The King’s Head (click for menu) is likely to be the most expensive for mains, though some lighter options are available; there is also perhaps a wider range available here.
- The Commandery Café has recently changed hands, and is now run by Little Al, who also runs other City venues including the cafés at the Museum/Art Gallery balcony and at the Droitwich Lido. Most items are comfortably under £10, including paninis, brioche buns and other light bites, so you may need to add a cake or drink to spend your voucher. But Al has agreed to lay on £10 Specials for us on the day.
- The Dice Box (click to access their menu page) is mainly burgers and pizzas in the £12-14 bracket, or lighter bites (paninis, nachos etc) in the £6-9 range.
- Elgar’s (click for menu) is the only venue we have used before – our regulars will be familiar with the menu – this too has recently changed hands, but the menu is unchanged, with salads, baked potatoes, paninis and even all-day breakfasts all in the £8-£12 price bracket.
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| Thur 12th September 2019 |
For our latest event, we are returning to the original format of "multi-café" in Worcester centre, on Thursday 12th September. Please book using the form here.
Above are some photos of previous events.
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More about Worcester's Café Bridge events - (in aid of ACORN'S CHILDREN'S HOSPICE, and recently, Worcester Dementia Foundation Cafe - we have raised over £1500 in our events so far)
Café Bridge was a new thing in approx 2015, taking off all around the country (and abroad), but especially in the London area; Cafe Bridge events have been held in Nottingham, Wimbledon, Barnes, Henley, Richmond, Newark and other places; most notably, Bromsgrove held the first Worcestershire-based event in October 2016. A Richmond event set a new record of 77 tables!
Most Café Bridge events are focused on making money for charities, and whilst we do intend to give all surplus funds to charity, our main priority is to promote the game of Bridge in Worcester, hopefully drawing attention to the growth of Daytime Bridge in the County, as well as making sure everyone has a great time and a good lunch! (plus coffee, cakes etc!)
We have now run seven events: Sept 2017 (three cafes); Christmas Party 2017, 2018 and 2019 (at Elgar's), April 2018 (at Bolero's Caffe) Sept 2018 "Bridge@TheHive" - it has proved possible to do either multi-cafe events OR single café - each have logistical issues to be resolved, but we like a challenge!
Our most recent event, Oct 2022 proved to be the best-attended, selling out at 9 tables, and the most successful in charity terms, raising £560+ for the Foundation Dementia Cafe. It represented a landmark in WBC's return to F2F "normality" after the pandemic.
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| CAFE BRIDGE |
WBC CAFE BRIDGE took place on Thursday 13th October 2022, and was much enjoyed by all. We were truly sorry to have to turn some people away - a measure of the popularity of these events.
This year, we were supporting The Foundation Dementia Café, an excellent initiative from the Worcester Warriors Foundation. Early calculations suggested that we managed to raise a stunning £560++, with a few final details to be checked
The Bridge was keenly contested, and various re-calculations kept coming up with different winners...
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Details and bookings can be viewed in this menu.
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| Bridge@TheHive@TheBBC |
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20th September 2018: Rufus, Trish, Ele, Sheila, Dennis and Andy O'H, putting Bridge and Worcester on the map via the BBC!
Listen (asap!) on this iPlayer radio link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06jt6vc
16m25 for the Rowdies (Rufus, Ele, Sheila, Trish and Dennis) (approx 5 mins); 25m15, where Kate actually describes us as "Bridge-Playing Dudes/The Rabble!"...
38m30 for the Chairman... (another 5 mins) (ignoring the debate about whether Bridge is related to Cribbage); Andy O'Hare with the top quotes of the day at 53m55... (another 4 mins)
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| CAFE BRIDGE, no 3 |
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A good day was had by all at Caffe Bolero; five tables played a full all-play-all movement, and had a very nice lunch + a few coffees and cakes! Prizes went to Martin Gill, Andy + Lollie, and to the "wooden-spooners", Batman and Superman!
Players were generous in their donations to Acorns Children's Hospice, and, with a little extra from the event surplus, we raised £125 for our charity.
We hope to have another "multi-café" event in September!
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| Christmas Party (Part Two) |
Rather grainy pics - I think some food must have got on the lens!
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| Worcester Café Bridge! 21st September 2017 |
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Well, that was fun! Well done to Lorna and Rufus (Winners), Pam and Sheila (2nd) and Andy and Richard (3rd); indeed to all, for making it such an enjoyable day, played in the best spirit.
Still a few sums to do, but we raised approximately £150 for Acorns too.
Lots of good publicity for the event and the game of Bridge, as Mike was grilled by his former pupil Elliott Webb on BBC H&W;
1) An early morning call, before the event, listen here at approx 1hr 55m20: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ds9m5
2) A neat bit of video editing on FaceBook: (1400 views and counting - will we go viral??) https://www.facebook.com/..
3) More on Friday morning's show, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05dsb4k - scroll to 51 mins; including a nice interview with Sharon at the table.
MANY thanks from Mike to all the helpers, Tim, Andy, George, Peter, Dick, Mike W, and to Sue and Denn for coming along as back-up pair.
More pics to follow...
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