Wendover Afternoon
| Erika’s weekly messages |
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The Wendover Afternoon Bridge Club has closed for good!
It has been a great pleasure running the WABC for 15 years. The time has now come to move on mainly due to reduced attendance.
Sadly several members passed away over the years too and “Online” Bridge seemed to take over after Covid.
I am pleased to see most members also play in other clubs, so hopefully we all can continue enjoying the challenging game of Bridge.
Best wishes to everyone ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣
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Rutland & Oakham
| ROBC's Charitable Status |
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The club voted to convert to charitable status following an EGM in August 2024, and subsequently to adopt a new constitution in line with best practice guidelines. Our application to the Charity Commission was successful, and from the 30th September ROBC is a Charity.
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Poole
20th June 2024
♠ Poole Bridge Club is now closed. ♠
The Grove
! WE ARE CLOSING Our very last Monday evening is at 7.30pm on 12th February 2024 WE ARE CLOSING !!!
Blaby
| Blaby Bridge Club has moved |
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Blaby BC's venue is now the County BC premises at St Oswald, St Oswald Road (off Aikman Avenue) LE3 6RJ.
Many of you already play there but please note the following important information:
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Rutland and Oakham
We are currently in a period of change, moving to a new venue from 4th October 2024 and at the same time converting into a charity.
Southend and Leigh
June 2024
Club Etiquette
It is very irritating when players hold up the entire session due to their slow play. The committee would like to eliminate this problem and would respectfully ask you not to discuss the hands after you have played the board but wait until you have played all the boards and if there is time, you are then at liberty to quietly discuss.
Directors' Course
We are very lucky in this club that we have a number of excellent Directors who currently cover the eight sessions of bridge we offer each week. However, there are times when we struggle if any of the Directors are on holiday or ill and it is for this reason, that we have arranged a Directors Course to take place at our club. This is the first time for many, many years that we have been lucky enough to secure a teacher from the EBU to run the course at our club. The course, which will run over four Sundays will beginning in the latter part of this year.
7 No Trumps
3 Counties Bridge
| Rekindling Bridge in Schools |
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You can help us rekindle interest in Schools bridge. Prior to the pandemic we provided teachers and supervisors to support the establishment of bridge sessions in schools across the counties; the events of the past few years meant these sessions went into decline.
We would like to provide Taster Sessions in schools with the aim of starting a Bridge Club.
How you can help (1): if you have a contact in a school and/or a son or daughter, or grandson or granddaughter in a school, and would like to help identify which schools would like to have a Taster Session, then please RSVP as soon as possible to
douglaswright@3countiesbridge.com
We hope to identify 5 or more schools, so that we can run Tasters Sessions in September / October.
How you can help (2): We would also like to run a course for all interested bridge players on "How to Teach Bridge in Schools". That could be you! No previous experience required. Once again contact
douglaswright@3countiesbridge.com with your interest, no matter how tentative
We would also like to identify any school teacher, who would like to be involved.
We hope to identify more schools next term, and run the ‘How to teach Bridge in Schools" courses in August, so time is of the essence!
NEWS FLASH
The dates and locations of these courses are:
The dates for "How to Teach Bridge in Schools" courses are:
18 August 9.30am @ Eastbourne Bridge Club
17 September @ Rottingdean
21 September @ Chichester BC
Saturday date tbc @ Richmond BC
For further details and to Register please BOOK HERE
I do hope you will consider giving us some help here. If you have any questions, please do email me, or you can call me on 07801 989630
Many thanks!
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Brighouse Bridge Club
The trustees recently visited Clifton House , Brighouse (next to Tescos) to consider the premises as a potential future site for the bridge club.
The whole building is up for rental and there is an option to rent a quarter of the building.
Two potential rooms were viewed, the room to the bottom right of the picture and the one on the first floor ,left of the picture.
The upstairs room is accessed by some steep stairs , however there is a chair lift.
The downstairs room is accessed via steps or ramp from the pavement/carpark.
Both rooms have or will have toilets and some kitchen facilities, the upstairs room is slightly bigger.
It was felt both rooms would comfortably accommodate 16 tables and would also have some store rooms.
There is access to a private car park and we would have some designated spots, further public carparks are outside Artisan and opposite Boyes (both are accessed via pedestrian crossings) and are about a 2 minute walk. there is also some free on-street parking behind Artisan.
After an initial financial review of costs at the recent trustees meeting, further question were raised and approval was given to continue to investigate, with a view to producing proposals, to be reviewed by the next meeting, or sooner.
Both rooms are currently under consideration , however the slightly smaller downstairs room is cheaper and has easier access.
It was agreed that once we have solid proposals and if considered viable then we would look to arrange a potential viewing for all members.
There would then be an extraordinary meeting to consider and discuss the proposals before a vote on whether to proceed.
Please note there are a lot of things to be considered at this time and we don't currently have all the answers.
The purpose of the notice is to keep members informed , comments are open on this item. Also please feel free to discuss with any trustee, views are welcome.
Bedfordshire County Bridge Association
(From the August Newsletter)
The Social life of a Bridge Club by Colin O’Hara
Whilst RealBridge has undoubtedly had a positive effect on attendances at both the main Bedfordshire clubs which meet using this platform, clubs returning to play only face-to-face (F2F) have found attendance matters much harder. Regis Bridge Club returned to F2F play on Tuesday evenings in August 2022.
Before COVID-19 struck, average attendance was running at around 52 people per evening. In addition to our Tuesday sessions, we held an annual dinner and prizegiving, a holiday weekend in Bournemouth, an annual club night barbeque in July and a Xmas get together in December. Since our return, attendances range between 22 and 28 players per night. However 30% of our current attendees never played online for a number of reasons. Thus we are providing an opportunity for them to return to this fascinating game.
The club has tried to return to those social events, holding bridge weekends in Bournemouth in both 2023 and 2024 and, for the first time since 2022, we held a dinner and prize-giving at the Dunstable Downs Golf Club. We believe that social events of these types bring our bridge community closer together and provide an opportunity to get away from our homes and engage in social intercourse with like-minded people. The dinner played host to 34 people, was subsidised by the Club and was well received by all. Following the dinner, the players then took part in an individual competition with prizes of bottles of wine for the four winners, North, South, East and West. The Bournemouth weekend took place in early April 2024. Twenty eight bridge players and five spouses joined together for five sessions of bridge over the weekend, together with three nights of dinner, bed and breakfast in the Marsham Court Hotel. There was friendly competition and post match discussions took place in the bar afterwards until past midnight. The weather held fair until we departed back to Bedfordshire when the rains returned to haunt us!
Both of these events bring home to me the importance of the game in bringing us all together. When players suffer tragic loss in their lives such as the death or incapacity of a partner, having a group of sympathetic people to help them through these life events and reminding them they are not alone demonstrates that we are more than just players of the game, we are also a community with a shared interest and empathy with others. As far as the Regis Club is concerned, we will continue to be more than just a Tuesday evening F2F club or a Monday morning online group. We will hold these social events next year and for as long as there is a need for them within our community.
The Grove
!!! WE ARE CLOSING Our very last Monday evening is at 7.30pm on 12th February 2024 WE ARE CLOSING !!!
Canterbury Duplicate
The constitution was identified as requiring a update to incorporate the changes in location and update to modern norms of communication and also minor modification to disclipary procedures due to the current membership numbers. The new constitution was discussed at the 2024 Annual General Meeting and decision was to allow the membership more time to study the new constitution online and if any disagreements to notify the secretary.
The document has been e-mailed to all members and will be draft until 1st June 2024 for 2024 members to review and make any proposals. If no objections received formally, by e-mail, from the 2024 membership list, by 1st June the document will have been ratified as agreed.
Durham Bridge Club
Please welcome our new Chairman: Jonathan Lillycrop
Jonathan Lillycrop is taking over as chairman from Adrian Darnell. Here is Jonathan's profile in his own words:
"I was taught bridge by my parents when I was 13 and have loved the game ever since. After university I got a job in London and became a regular at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club. Gordon Rainsford who at the time was the manager of the Young Chelsea inspired me to get in to directing; I have risen up the ranks and am now one of two EBU Deputy Chief Tournament Directors. My first 12 years after leaving university were spent working for a bank in IT Infrastructure, firstly in London and later in Wroclaw, Poland. On my return to England I decided to follow my passion for bridge and started working for the EBU as their Club Liaison Officer. As of last September Rachel (my wife) and I moved up to Durham so she could start a PhD in Theology at the university. We are very much enjoying playing at Durham Bridge Club and having the opportunity to play together more than we did in London."
We thank our outgoing chairman Adrian Darnell for all the work over the years, keeping the club going during the tricky Covid years, securing grants for the club and taking the club to its 50th anniversary celebration in 2022.
Published 17/05/2024
Kingston Bridge Club
| Bridge Suspended While We Find a New Director |
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We had a great Christmas Party Duplicate on Thursday December 14th 2023. Thank you all for coming and contributing to the occasion. However there was sadness too, as we said goodbye to Ned Paul, our regular tournament director. Ned was one of our founding TDs over 11 years ago. Ned puts on a lot of bridge in many places and is needing to cut down to spend more time at home. We wish him well!
So far we have not been able to find a replacement for Ned but we are still looking. We will let players know when we are able to restart.
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Eastbourne Bridge Club
The club is now open for bridge in the new premises, but the lift installation is not finished.
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The new address is Lion Works, Sidley Rd, Eastbourne BN22 7HB. See Google maps.
Nettleham Bridge Club (Non EBU Affiliated)
♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ BRIDGE - It's a big deal
This club is contributing to this Festival by
holding a Charity Day on
Monday 2nd September 2024.
Please see main event opposite for full details and when to buy tickets.
Tickets numbers will be limited so book early!
on sale from 2 July 2024. Contact Secretary Cathy Platt
Stannington Bridge Club
Stannington Bridge Club was launched on 1st August 2023 and is a merger of two bridge clubs - Newcastle, formed 1935 and Cramlington, formed 1992.
Cullompton & Willand Bridge Club
| Dealing Machine Fund |
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A Dealing machine is going to be purchased. It is hoped that the machine will be used:
Weekly by Cullompton & Willand, Tiverton, & Silverton Bridge Clubs
By other bridge club or bridge teachers in the Devon/Somerset area as requested
By any other organisations as requested
For the dealing of hands for charity & simultaneous pairs events
The total initial cost of the dealing machine and other equipment needed is expected to be around £4,400.
This will be partially funded by voluntary donations.
The balance of the cost will come from surplus income from on-line RealBridge sessions and the remaining from a loan from a member against the expected surplus income from the on-line Bridge.
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠
Total Donations to date are £1790
Thankyou to the following (and those who wished to remain anonymous) for their donations:
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