Traditionally in the spring the club has run a Swiss Pairs event which qualifies for  EBU Blue master points.   This year it will be held on Sunday 30th March, face to face at the Community Support Service Centre.  Please be there by 1.45 for a prompt 2pm start.   It is dedicated to the memory of Keith Sadler who for many years organised this event, along with his many other contributions to the club.  Details are on the flyer that you can access here .   Please enter and pay at the OBA web page which you can find here.  Scroll down the page until you find the Abingdon Swiss Pairs entry and flyer box.

In a Swiss Pairs event you play in the first round a six board match against a pair chosen at random.  The match is scored over the whole field by Match Points converted to Victory Points.   In subsequent rounds you play pairs that have about the same number of VPs as you.  You are thus always playing against pairs who are doing as well (or badly) as you

Tea and refreshments are included and there will be prizes for the winners, ascenders and non-experts.

Please contact  peterlitch@gmail.com or 07930 630315 if you have questions or problems.

Peter

The next session of the 2025 teams competition will be played on Tuesday 25th March on Real Bridge.  Please be on-line by 6.50.

If any current team member cannot play, please find a substitute or inform your captain who will try to do likewise.   Failing that, if your captain notifies me I may be able to find substitutes.  We must have complete teams to play.

Players should book and pay as usual on Bookwhen which will send you the link.   The price is £3 as usual.

Go to https://bookwhen.com/abingdonbridgeclub   Detailed instructions can be found here

Alerting will be table f2f alerting.   Please load a system summary in the chat for each new pair.

Peter

The club AGM will be held before bridge on Wednesday 2nd April, face-to-face at the Community Centre.  It will start promptly at 9.45am.  There will be free bridge immediately after the meeting.  This will be a good opportunity for the f2f and on-line sides of the club to mingle.  The agenda will be posted here later. Tony Hughes is stepping down as Chairman and we need a new  Chairperson and Vice Chairperson to guide the club in the new world of on-line and face-to-face bridge, and we are always looking for workers on the committee.   If you would like to propose anybody, particularly yourself, please contact Tony.

Our relaxed F2F pairs will run as normal on Wednesday mornings.   

Should you not have a partner for any session we  have a Wednesday morning partner finder WhatsApp group.   If you wish to join this please email Kay Hunneyball on kayhunneyball@btopenworld.com with your mobile number.   If you don't use WhatsApp just e-mail Kay who will try to find you someone but this may take longer.

Our joint RealBridge sessions with Central Yarnton Bridge Club are on Thursday mornings at 9.45am.  All club members are welcome,  please contact John Rowe ( john53rowe@gmail.com ) if you would like to play..

The OPEN and HANDICAP PAIRS will be played on the first Tuesday of the month.   Your score for the Open Pairs will be the average of your six best results between the 1st January and the 31st December   There is no need to enter, your score will be calculated auttomatically.

Your score for the Handical pairs will be your Open pairs score adjusted by your handicap which will be the average of your pair's NGS scores at the first session.   Your NGS score must be available on that date to take part.

The second Tuesday will be a normal pairs session

The club cup competitions will be played on the third Tuesday of the month.    The Spring cup will be on the third Tuesday in March.   The two session Simpson cup will be hald in August and September.  The Autumn cup will be on the third Tuesday in November.  Otherwise the session will be a normal pairs session.

On the fourth Tuesday we will play our teams competition.  You must register your team with Peter Litchfield who will also assist  you to make up a team if you need help.  Unfortunately you need to be in a registered team to play.

On the fifth Tuesdays we will play pairs with  Imp scoring

In our increasing complicated game it is only fair that your opponents should know the meaning of any of your unusual system bids.  To this end the EBU imposes a system of alerts and announcements that must be followed by players in our sessions.  This system was revised in August this year.   A table giving a complete summary of the system can be found at  https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/laws-and-ethics/convention-cards/announcements-table.pdf 
          Please follow this system.   I suggest printing it and keeping it by your side for a few weeks.

          If you are playing on-line it is important to provide a brief summary of your system and carding in the chat box at the beginning of each round, particularly covering the basic system and the opening round of bids.  Thus something like

"Acol, 4 card majors, 3 weak 2's, 12-14 NT, standard leads, HELD"

or

"SAYC, 5 card majors, 1C may be 2 cards, 15-17 NT, 3 weak 2's, standard leads, reverse attitude, McKenney discards"

will be sufficient.  I suggest typing these once then copy and paste for each session.

Thank you

Peter

Please read the instructions for using Bookwhen, our only method of paying for and obtaining the links to our on-line Real Bridge sessions here  To make a booking go to Bookwhen  The Real Bridge link will be sent to you by e-mail.   Please book and access the link at least 20 minutes before the start of the session.

There has been an occasional problem when people have cut and pasted the link from the Bookwhen e-mail, probably a feature of their browser.  Please just click on the link in the e-mail.

If you find you cannot play in a session you have booked please do not cancel your booking as we cannot refund your booking fee.   Instead please transfer your booking to another session as described in the instructions.

If you have played in a session but not paid you may make a late payment  here

Peter

As a Club we have a well-deserved reputation for being welcoming and friendly. However, the normally high standards of behaviour at the club can be undermined by occasional lapses. Can we remind members of the ways in which we can all help to make sure that bridge is an enjoyable game for everyone who comes to Abingdon:

• greeting others in a friendly manner prior to the start of play on each round
• being polite to opponents and partners
• giving credit when opponents make a good bid or play
• making your convention card readily available to your opponents and filling it out completely.

Please click here if you would like to see the EBU's guide to best behaviour at the bridge table.