There seems to have been a problem with last night's hands in that they don't match the ECATs commentary.

This is being investigated, and there will be more information in due course.

Bob Holder and David Owen won the Berks & Bucks Swiss Pairs event in Windsor yesterday. The event comprised seven 7-board matches.

Well done Bob and David.

The Burnham weekly duplicate on November 11^th will be in support of the BBC's 2024 Children in Need appeal.  The event will be a simultaneous pairs duplicate, based on material provided by ECatsBridge;  the material includes:

• Distribution of the hands before the event
• A hand commentary written by a bridge expert that will be available from the ECATS website from 10pm on the day and via our website the next day
• The production of an international ranking based on all the results from the 100+ clubs that will be playing the same boards that we do

Table money will include an additional amount of £5, and the total less ECATS administration fee is paid to CIN.  The event Directors waive their fee, as do the EBU in respect of P2P. SBBC are contributing all of our usual £3 table charge in support of the appeal. 

Burnham runs only one charity event per year, and we are hoping for a “bumper” turnout in support of this well deserving charity.

The first match of the new season in Berks & Bucks Division 1 took place last night [4 September]. and it was between our two teams.

In the first set of [6-board] matches, it looked like the A team was on its way to an easy victory, but the B team had other ideas, and in the end the A team just prevailed [12-8] in a very closely-fought encounter.

So Burnham A tops the division, with Burnham B second. What a wonderful season it would be for the Club if things finished like that!

Having dropped out of Division 1 at the end of last season, our 'B' team has decided that Division 2 is not for them, and this week's matches have confirmed that the team finishes the season in the top position.The team won its final match against Yateley and H/C on Tuesday [19th], and it was then a matter of biting fingernails to see how the second and third teams in the division would fare in their final matches. Interestingly, both of these teams [Basingstoke A and Newbury] also had matches this week, both against Austenwood, and both lost to Austenwood, thus sealing Burnham's table-topping position.

Congratulations to the guys and gals of Burnham B.

The Club is keen to celebrate Christmas and, in view of the fact that Father Christmas doesn't have a BBO account, it's been decided that a face-to-face event is called for.

We hope as many members as possible will come along on the 14th. It will be a pairs event, starting at 1:30, with a 15-minute break at the half-way point for some seasonal refreshments [mince pies and mulled wine or soft drinks, no turkey I'm afraid].

There won't be a host, so you'll need to come along with a partner. If you need to find a partner, please use the website. Please let Eva know if you're intending to join us so we know how many we're catering for. If you'd like to come and you're looking for a partner, let Eva know - she may be able to match you up.

We and Father Christmas are looking forward to seeing you.

Thank you all for helping the Club to support Children-in-Need. The EBU have also contributed by waiving our pay-to-play fees for this event.

Click the heading to this news article to obtain the hand commentary.

Click here to get to the Ecats results area.

We were delighted to resume what had been the long-standing annual match between the two clubs following a 3-year Covid-enforced interruption, though possibly slightly less delighted to have to return the shield to Ascot's stewardship. Congratulations to Ascot following their 22-imp win.

But the real winners were the 48 players who took part, in many cases resuming friendships which had been in abeyance for too long. The results of the match include a pairs cross-imp analysis as well as the gory details board-by-board in the Information page.

The Club AGM is taking place via Zoom on Wednesday 19 July at 4:30pm, and typically lasts half an hour.

The Club constitution requires that a minimum number of members 'attend' so, if you're able to spare half an hour, please let Graham Dickens know so that he can let you have the relevant Zoom credentials.

Members may find the various AGM-related reports via the Membership heading on the menu.

As the 2022/23 programme has now drawn to a close it's been a disappointing season for the three Burnham teams.

Despite getting off to a strong start [with a 20-0 win against our B team], the A team narrowly failed to repeat last season's stellar performance, and had to be content with second place behind a strong Reading A team. Partly as a result of the A team's strong start, the B team will be waving goodbye to Division 1.

Our third team played in the Chiltern League, which means we could call on members who are tied to other clubs as far as Berks & Bucks is concerned, and also occasionally on A- and B-team players. The team had to be satisfied with the bronze medal, gold and silver going to the two Newbury teams.

The Club very much appreciates the efforts of all members who played in one or other of the teams, and we all owe a particular vote of thanks to the team captains who take on the organisational role as well as managing their teams. We're hoping the same members will be up for the challenge again next season, and we're always delighted to welcome fresh blood into our league-of-8 ranks.

Many of last night's players have reported that they'd noticed an error in the results on the Club website, an error which also affected the upload to the EBU.

The problem was that everything to do with hand 3, including its hand record, was duplicated as board 4. The error has now been rectified on the Club website, and the corrected results have been uploaded to the EBU; these will take effect during the EBU's overnight NGS update run.

Thanks to everyone who spotted this and reported it.

We have upgraded the website to Bridgewebs version 2.19q. This version introduces changes to the presentation of results but, if this isn't to your taste, there's the facility to switch back to the previous layout.

If you have any related comments that you'd like brought to Bridgewebs' attention, please let me know.

The Club switched its Monday-evening session to BBO at the outset of Covid, and continues to operate online.

All sessions are pairs events, with the third Monday of the month being scored via cross-imps.

The Club operates two teams in the Berks & Bucls League-of-8 divisional competition.