Elisa Money died a week ago last Saturday. 

The funeral will be held at Randalls Park Crematorium, at 1530 on Thursday, 19th September. If any further details emerge, we will keep you posted.  (Most members of Oxshott have been emailed a contact number to notify if you intend going. I cannot publish it here because I haven't been sent the email, and I do not know whether the contact would be happy for their number to appear on this website. So please get in touch with Daphne Pugh — dmapugh@gmail.com  01932 342 366 — if you intend going.)

Gavin

REMOVE: 20-SEP-19

/cbc/passings

I gather there were problems with the handsets last night, for which I apologise.  Some of the boards need to be scored manually.  If you notice any results that are incorrect, please send details of the correct score to me, gavin@claygate.club

I cannot update the scores until Sunday, but I will do my best as soon as I have my hands on the club's PC.

Sorry

Gavin

At the most recent committee meeting, we discussed formally declaring Claygate a Level Two club.  There are just two levels defined for clubs by the EBU's Blue Book, and Level Four allows many more complex, artificial conventions.  (The Blue Book can be read online at https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/laws-and-ethics/blue-book/blue-book-2017.pdf .)

My own experience is that everyone currently playing at the club uses only Level Two systems and conventions, and I feel this fits in well with our not insisting on pairs having system cards at the table.  The committee could be persuaded to allow the Two Diamond Multi, if any member would like to use that gadget.

Please get in touch, either face-to-face or by emailing gavin@claygate.club, if you have an opinion on this matter.

Many thanks

Gavin

The committee agreed by a unanimous email vote on 13th August 2019 to co-opt Julie Minards and Vicky Bevan onto the committee. Roles have yet to be agreed. That makes seven in total.  (Males are still eligible to join the committee.)

Gavin 

REMOVE: 14-SEP-19

/cbc/committee/

June Rose died on Saturday.  Our thoughts are with Tony and her family.  The funeral arrangements, sent by Tony, are as follows:

June's funeral will be at Putney Vale Crematorium (West chapel) at 16:00 on Wednesday 3rd July, arrival by 15:45 being recommended.  Any tributes will be received by Lodge Brothers in Thames Ditton.

The family will be hosting a celebratory gathering at the house in Thames Ditton afterwards and will be pleased to welcome everyone.

If you want to check your BridgePal number, it should now be listed at https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwom/bw.cgi?club=claygate&pid=display_page66

Let me know if you want me to change anything on the list.

Gavin

REMOVE: 4-MAY-19

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This year's AGM is scheduled for 7pm on Monday 11th March.

Please come along. The AGM is only as exciting as you make it.  If you would like to add an item to the Agenda, please send an email to kay@claygater.uk.  If you would like to stand for a committee position, please let Kay know.

At this distance from the meeting, there looks to be nothing too dramatic to report.  A provisional draft of the 2018 accounts is already on this website.  There are no plans to increase subscriptions or table money. All the existing committee members are happy to stand for re-election.  Our biggest structural problem comes from having just two regular directors. And with at least one committee member saying "Just one more year", the club needs an inflow of replacements to keep the committee thriving.

Here is the latest EBU list of courses for apprentice Directors:

Book Rulings Day 1 (£58 for EBU Members)

• Aylesbury (EBU HQ) — Wednesday 23rd October

Book and Judgement Rulings Day 2 (£58 for EBU Members)

• Oxford — Sunday 15th September
• Aylesbury (EBU HQ) — Wednesday 6th November

Assessment (£58 for EBU Members)

• Oxford — Sunday 13th October 2019
• Aylesbury (EBU HQ) — Wednesday 4th December 2019

Claygate will refund the course fees of any member wishing to take these courses if they commit to directing at the Club. Talk to a current Director or a committee member, if you're interested.

For further details on the EBU's courses, go to http://www.ebedcio.org.uk/node/32

This year's charity teams event, organised by Claygate's own Ian Cave, costs £80 per team, and will be held at Cobham Rugby Football Club on Fairmile Lane.

Refreshments are included.

The competition starts at 1pm and is expected to end at 7pm.

Steve Foster will be the director.

We have a few entry forms at the club, which will be available on Monday evenings. If you need one in the mean time, no doubt you can ask Ian or the registrar, Bill Stevenson, by email at either ianadamcave@gmail.com or billof23@gmail.com.

We had four incidents on Monday evening of handsets needing to be replaced because they had lost contact with the WiFi signal.  The scoring team is trying hard to identify what is causing the problem. It could be a WiFi hardware error, a WiFi setting problem, a scorer error, a user error, or a number of other root causes.

Just in case one of the factors is user error, I will list a few recommendations here, day by day:

1. Please don't switch the tablet on and off when you encounter a problem.  This is almost never the solution.  On the other hand, stopping and restarting the BridgePal app is often successful. I'll show you how to do this later this week.
2. Don't put your coat and handbag on top of the WiFi router when you arrive.  It's hard to see how this could help.
3. Please don't start other apps or switch to Elmbridge Free WiFi. You may feel confident you know Android, perhaps through your phone, but making the scoring handset different to all the others can only make things more difficult for the Scorer if there is a problem. 

Best wishes

Gavin and the rest of the Scoring team

A few Norths have been entering hands as 'Not Played' when what actually happened was that the hand had been passed out.  Please use the 'Pass' button to enter this contract; otherwise, you'll get the wrong score for the hand.

There is just one more round left in this members-only tournament.  Remember that your pair needs to play at least four of the seven rounds to qualify. 

This league is compiled manually by the chairman, not automatically by computer.  So there is plenty of scope for error.  If you find a mistake, please let me know at gavin@claygater.uk before 1st February.

PAIRS WHO WILL QUALIFY IF THEY PLAY THE LAST ROUND

In recent weeks, the caretaker at the Day Centre has had to dip into his own pockets three times to cover the cost of boxes of eggs that have gone missing on Monday evenings. Last night the President reimbursed him to spare the club further embarrassment.

You are very welcome to buy these boxes of eggs, but please make sure you pay for them.

Gavin

REMOVE: 1-SEP-19

/cbc/missing/

Around 36 members haven't renewed their annual subscriptions yet. Put it down to forgetfulness in the chairman's case.  Others may simply not have been aware, as our communications officer (aka the chairman) has been busy doing other things. We will endeavour to provide an up-to-date list at the next few club sessions, so that you can rectify the situation where needed. 

REMOVE: 4-APR-19

/laundering/

Following a recommendation in Tuesday's Times, I spent 20 minutes watching the likes of Andrew Robson and Zia Mahmood playing through a couple of bridge hands in a free recording at  http://newtricksbridge.club/watch.html . Similar in style to the way that the BBC2's 'Master Game' tackled chess in the 1970s, it features understandable expert commentary while each bid and card is played, together with a narration supplied by each player afterwards to give you an idea of what was going on in their mind. (It was comforting to see one grandmaster make a hash of the bidding on the second hand because he had mixed a spade in with the clubs in his hand.) There are a number of episodes available.

Gavin

REMOVE: 3-DEC-19

/media/training/

The committee has received notification from Elmbridge that 'the council's policy is to prohibit the use of all e-cigarettes and vaping devices in ‘No smoking areas’ in all council buildings. This means that smoking inside a council building will not be permitted.'  

Our apologies to members affected by vaping or its banishment.  We hope members will understand that all we can do is to abide by the rules.

REMOVE: 17-MAR-19

/cbc/health/

Here is the list of members who have already said said they are likely to come to the Christmas Party. Please send an email to gavin@claygate.club if you also would like to come, or you've changed your mind. It would also be helpful for members without a partner to see who already has a partner for the evening, so please let me know once you have a partner, and I'll pair you up on the list below.

In alphabetical order of first name of one of the partners:

Not planning to come: 

Andrew T, Chris B, Fay G, Frances, Jack + Margaret M, Janet A, Jill L, Julie + Cynthia, Koon-Wah, Lay-Choo, Liz G, Mary Bush, Renate, Ros + Norman, Tony + Helen S, Val N. 

Someone may have left behind a scarf on the evening of 25th November.  I will bring it along next Monday.

Gavin

REMOVE: 3-DEC-19

/CBC/clothing/removed

Last night as scorer I accidentally deleted some of the early scores on Table 9.  (I had been trying to fix something in a hurry on Table 6's handset and had misread the table number. It's a long story ...)

Anyway, the essential consequence of the situation is that Mike and I tried to re-key Table 9's early scores too quickly.  I may have made a mistake, but I need you to tell me if any of your scores are incorrect.

Many thanks, and sorry

gavin@claygate.club

Kay and I are working our ways through Andrew Robson's 'The Next Level', which is based on his bridge articles for beyond-intermediates in 'The Times'. We're only at chapter 2a, but feel confident it will be very useful reading for us (and probably some other members). It's currently £14 at his store and £16 on Amazon, plus P&P.

Gavin (not on commission)

REMOVE: 1st November 2019

/books/review/

​​​​​​Subject to the approval of our Finance team, the AGM evening will be a freebie for all attendees.  Don't forget that the meeting starts at 7pm.

1. Apologies for Absence
2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
3. Matters Arising from Minutes of the Previous Meeting
4. Chairman’s Report
5. Treasurer’s Report
6. Presentation of the Trophies
7. Election of Officers and Committee
8. Any Other Business

Kay Wilson (Secretary)

REMOVE: 12-MAR-19

/cbc/agm/

Congratulations to our habitual winning pair, Phil and Nigel, for another convincing top position in the 18-19 Club Championship.  Many thanks also to all of you who slugged it out for up to seven sessions to try to prevent the inevitable from happening:

REMOVE: 4-APR-19

/cbc/annoying/