Welcome to the

Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club

The club meets on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Civic Centre in Wotton-under-Edge to play Duplicate Bridge.  Play starts at 7.15pm.  Please try and arrive by 7:05pm to assist the Director in determining the movement to be played.

Guests are always very welcome, and if you don't have a partner we will do our best to try and find one for you.

If you are looking for a partner, call Hilary on 01453 842640

BridgeClubLive

The Club now "meets" twice a week on Monday and Wednesday evenings on BridgeClubLive (BCL). Depending on numbers available, there will be one or two Teams Events on each evening. Remaining players who can't be accommodated in a Teams Event can opt to play socially at their own arrangement or in one of the BCL Tourneys.

Here are some short videos on how to register with BCL and some aspects of using the site. They are slightly dated as they were produced at the start of Lockdown.

•     Introduction to BCL
•     Registering with WUE BC and looking at results
•     Inviting a partner to play

I have compiled some instructions on how best to use the principal features offered by BCL - these are available via the menu on the left. Just click on "Bridge Club Live".

BridgeBaseOnline

Some members are also registered with BridgeBaseOnline (BBO), an American equivalent. There is, however, no formal Club presence on BBO.

Watch the videos and read the User Guides on How to use BBO - see the menu item on the left.

Following the success of our first Teams session, the second Wednesday in every odd month will be a teams event. You will need to organise yourselves into teams of four. Please let Ian know as and when you have formed a team, he is happy to act as co-ordinator.

See Report of Friday's Stanley Swiss Teams event in Cheltenham. We had a team of 4 representingWotton.

One comment was made by quite a few members in response to Katie's survey - expressing interest in playing daytime bridge.

You are very welcome to come along to the Monday afternoon "Gentle" bridge club. Venue is the Rushmire Room, starting at 2:30pm.

The standard isn't as challenging, but it is very enjoyable, and played at a more relaxed pace.

It's a hosted event, so you don't need to come with a partner - you can come by yourself.

Don't forget that there is a facility on the web-site for finding a partner.  Go to the Membership page and logon.  If you have forgotten your logon password contact Ian and he can reset it.

Etiquette and Behaviour - please refer to the appropriate pages on the web-site.

North's Duties

It is primarily North's responsibility to make sure that they are playing the correct boards and have the correct opponents. The Bridgemates will tell you what and who you should be playing. Please check before touching a board. Do NOT assume that the boards on the table are the correct ones, nor that they've been left in the correct order or the correct polarity. Assume nothing - check and verify!

At the end of a round, please make sure that the boards are in the correct order when passed on to the next table or relay. Help to prevent an error at the next table.

East and West are, however, equally culpable if the wrong boards are played - check that North has done his job. Don't assume. Check!

Use of the Alert and Stop Cards

Please acquaint yourself with the correct use of the Alert and Stop cards.  Please read the attached documents - Alert and Stop on their correct use.

Slow Play

Using the software timer has made a big difference and since we started using it things have improved.  We cannot be complacent and the recent members survey highlighted that slow play continues to be a frustration for some.  Our target will continue to be to play 24 boards in 3 hours. This equates to 22.5 minutes per round for a three-board movement or 15 minutes per round for a two-board movement. These timings include ALL movements between rounds, making a cup of tea/coffee, visits to the kitchen/loo, etc.

Directors will continue to keep an eye on this to make sure we keep things moving.  

If you want more information this article in Mr Bridge, written by Jeremy Dhondy (the EBU Chairman) might be helpful. Also read the page on the Club’s website regarding “Bridge Etiquette”, where some aspects of this topic are discussed. Remember that if you play slowly it affects three other people at your table and four people at every other table.

The Gazette

You can read an article in this week's Gazette and previous articles, on the NewsPage.