| RAC PALL MALL DECEMBER NEWSLETTER |
| Pall Mall Bridge Circle Newsletter – December 2024 |
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| Hello Everyone, |
| Christmas is upon us once again. |
| Henry my husband insists on having a stocking every year, which must include chocolate money – I used to love chocolate coins sadly, they always taste like cardboard now – how my tastes have changed! |
| My mother once put a harmonica in my stocking – I woke up at 4.30am and started 'playing' it – I got told off and was very surprised to get into trouble on Christmas day. She also used to wrap everything in tissue paper so she could hear rustling in the night if I looked too early – yes, I’d get told off again. I’m starting to think my Christmas mornings were fraught with possible trouble! |
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| NEWS |
| Do have a look at the following carefully as there is quite a lot of news and dates Bridge players will want to note. |
| Last Club Night of 2024 |
Our last club night date for Bridge will be Thursday 19 December – by way of thanks to all Club members who have supported us throughout a very successful year it will be free, plus we will have something extra special to drink and mince pies! I hope lots of our regular Club players will be there to help us celebrate a great year at Pall Mall Bridge.
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| 2025 Start Date |
We will recommence our Thursday night club evening on 2 January 2025. Yes, I know some of you may still be recovering from too much celebrating on New Years Eve and overindulgence at Christmas, this hopefully might help ease the pain of completely overdoing it!
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| Pall Mall Bridge AGM |
| I have been asked by quite a few Bridge players to make some changes to the format of our AGM. We are now in the very lucky position of having many younger players at our Duplicate who are still working and they have said that to take an active role within our Bridge Group they would like to attend the AGM. However, 5.00pm is just too early. |
| With this in mind and after discussion and agreement with the Pall Mall Bridge Committee we will now start the meeting at 6.00pm and end at 6.40pm in time to start play at 6.45pm. Clearly this means there is not time to provide refreshments etc, but as the meeting starts later, I trust attendees will have the option to feed themselves beforehand. |
I know some of you will not be happy about this, but in all honesty I need to make our group accessible for as many players as possible and these 'working' members are the future of Pall Mall Bridge and I feel it only correct they have the ability to get involved.
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| A Celebration for Colin Freeman – Pairs match |
| Please don’t forget to put a note in your diaries for Thursday 30 January. We are holding a small event to celebrate Colin Freeman's life. There has been much written after Colin’s passing, and many attended his lovely memorial service. Our event is really for us at the Royal Automobile Club and our St James’s Club friends to remember our friend. |
The evening will take the following format: we will hold a teams event and at half time we will have a glass of wine and a snack and raise a toast to our dear friend. There will be Champagne for the winning team players. There will be no extra charges just the usual amount for playing on the night.
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| 2025 Dates for Afternoon Bridge |
| Afternoon Bridge has been popular, although I must admit we had the largest number on our first outing. I am prepared to continue, but as I always say if numbers drop, we will discontinue. Here are the dates for early 2025: |
Monday 20 January
Monday 17 February
Monday 17 March
Monday 14 April
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| Hand of the Week |
| Here's a question for you all: Do you read Hand of the Week on BridgeWebs? I say to you, you should be reading it! It is an excellent way to learn something and improve – it’s also entertaining. |
It’s written by one of our most senior Bridge players Tony Scouller who is an expert in our field and takes much time to write these columns – he would love to hear any comments players may have on his weekly missive. May I please commend this weekly article to you all!
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| INTER CLUB MATCHES (UPCOMING AND MATCH REPORTS) |
| We have now concluded play for all our matches for 2024 – look out for a message which I will send out to let you know when you can start applying for our 2025 matches. |
| Please note we are going to New York next year and I will give you all the dates for the October matches in NYC when we post the above. If you want to travel with us, you can apply early and perhaps build a holiday around the Bridge matches! |
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| MATCH REPORTS |
| The following report just missed our last newsletter, but I am delighted to be able to include it now: |
| The O&C hosted the Club on Monday 28 October afternoon to a Bridge match followed by supper. There were some challenging hands with unexpected distributions. The O&C found the boards less challenging than the Club, prevailing by 71 Imps. The two halves of our team in near perfect symmetry contributed in almost equal measure to our loss! |
| Having played the Bridge in a business-like fashion we moved to the elegant King Edward room for what was a delicious meal with fine wine. The camaraderie around the Bridge and dinner table made it hard to believe this was the first match in a revived series but bodes well for the future that it will come to be a constant in our annual Bridge calendar! We look forward to hosting our neighbours for the return match next year. The Club was represented by Robin K and Brigitte K, Andrew K and Paul W, David W and John C and Steven B and Lester P. |
| Match report submitted by Lester Pereira. |
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| CLUB MATCH REPORT |
| On Thursday 7 November we held the ever-popular Ernest Lawson Rose bowl event. This is a lovely event in which our Intermediate students play with a regular player from our Duplicate. It’s always great fun and a very nice way to meet our students and encourage them to come into the Duplicate to play on a weekly basis. |
| This year I am very pleased to announce that Brigitte Kisiel, and her student partner Deborah Buzan came top very very closely followed by Liz Tucker and a certain Fiona McWatters! Congratulations to all and I must say I had great fun, it was a delight to play with Liz! |
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| BRIDGE SCHOOL |
| We have 10 new students in our Beginner Class, and I’m delighted to hear that they are very enthusiastic and getting on very well. |
| Our Intermediate students will continue with Anne, and I know she is arranging mentors to start playing with students very soon in the Duplicate. We will welcome them all on the first Thursday of each month and give them lots of help and encouragement. |
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| GENERAL INFORMATION |
| Our WhatsApp group now has 61 members, a number which I am very pleased I need to revise each month as they increase. If you are looking for a partner on Thursday evening this is the place to find someone! |
| Please can I stress it is only for Thursday evening or other club matches which I advertise from time to time. If you could use another form of connection for private matches or any other information, all participants would be very grateful. |
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| ST JAMES’S CLUB MEMBERS |
| We warmly welcome our St James’s Club friends to join us on the last Thursday of every month for our regular Duplicate. We do encourage you to find a partner before coming along to the club. |
| We hold a Teams Event four times a year on the last Thursday of the month which is open to both Royal Automobile Club and St James’s Club teams, it has been very popular this past year, and I am pleased to give you all the dates for these matches for 2025. |
- Thursday 27 February
- Thursday 29 May
- Thursday 28 August
- Thursday 27 November
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| Please also note the details above regarding Thursday 30 January A Celebration of Colin Freeman’s life – all our St James’s Club friends are most welcome. |
| Non-St James's Club guests are welcome to come and play at the club 12 times in any one year with a Club member. |
| I advise all players to visit the Club’s BridgeWebs page often, as any news will be posted there throughout the month. |
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| IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR DIARY |
| 2024 |
| Thursday 12 December: Christmas Party |
| 2025 |
Thursday 23 January: AGM in the Mall Room commencing at 6pm
Thursday 30 January: A Celebration for Colin Freeman – Pairs match
Tuesday 4 February: Duke of Devonshire Cup, played every Tuesday evening – final on Tuesday 25 February
Thursday 27 March: Ross Cope Swiss Teams Event
Monday 19 May: Centenary Cup
Tuesday 8 July: Pall Mall Summer Party at Pall Mall – details to follow
Monday 29 September: St James’s Club Bridge Drive hosted by the Carlton Club |
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| If you have any questions about the Club Pall Mall Bridge Circle, please do get in touch with me. |
| Best Wishes |
| Fiona McWatters |
| Chair, Pall Mall Bridge Committee |
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| Last updated : 3rd Dec 2024 19:15 GMT |
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| FIXTURE LIST JANUARY - JULY 2025 |
BELOW ARE PROPOSED MATCH TEAM DETAILS SENT OUT BY JOHN CRAGGS TO ALL PLAYERS
THERE MAY BE A FEW SMALL CHANGES IF PLAYERS ARE NOW UNAVAILABLE
Captains shown in bold
AWAITING DETIALS
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| Last updated : 17th Nov 2024 12:59 GMT |
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| PIANOLA |
We now subscribe to "Pianola", a service that gives interesting analysis and stats of your results from each session, as well as showing how they have been progressing over time. To get started, please give your Email address to Victor (brianplaysbridge@gmail.com) and you will receive a signup link next time you play duplicate at the club. Some of you may be familiar with Pianola from other clubs, and Victor will be able to add the RAC to your profile.
Victor Lesk
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| Last updated : 28th Apr 2022 12:53 BST |
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