BENEFITS of BRIDGE

Haverfordwest Bridge Club has moved to Uzmaston Village hall , SA62 4AB

The Club plays on a Monday afternoon in the Uzmaston community hall.

For most the easiest route will be from the Salutation Square roundabout in Haverfordwest. Take the Cambrian Place exit ( the small one between A40 and Freemen's Way.The road continues uphill as New Road after 100 yards or so. ). Continue straight  to Uzmaston (just over a mile ). The hall is on the right as you reach the village green.See " Find Us " under Useful Information for a map. There is on- road parking on right, Please leave room for farm vehicles to pass!

Start time is 1:30 p.m. but please help the director and scorer by arriving 15 minutes before play starts. If you can only get there at the last min,let your partner or someone else know. All visitors welcome.

URGENT: Bag your favourite partner now

Autumn means not just a new academic year but also the start of a new round of annual bridge competitions. As usual we will be kicking off with the club  pairs championship. This year we are reverting to our 'traditional' format with three sessions of play on successive Mondays viz 14th, 21st and 28th October with only the best two sessions for each pair making up their overall score. Assuming all sessions prove to be of equal length, all sessions will be weighted equally and scores against pairs not taking part in the championship ( most likely visitors or only able to get to one session ) will still contribute to competition scores. As always speak to Beryl or Lee if you need help to find a partner.

Final Result: click on the link to see the overall scores: Club Championship Pairs 2024

Congratulations to the winners Chris and Angela Overton who overtook Cindy and Gareth with a splendid final session on 28th 

Have you got your team together for the 2025 teams championship? This will be in January, so there is not much time. As always contact Beryl or Lee if you need help or advice.

Congratulations to Barry Thorne, Wendy Heaton, Clare Neale, Sarah Walters and Emma Ashford who had a storming performance in the second session of this year's club teams championship. They clinched the title by overtaking the first half leaders, Matt Greener & Nigel Astley, Steve Jarvis & Hilary Davis.

          To see the full results click on the link: 2024 Club Teams Championship Rankings

Congratulations to Barry Thorne & Wendy Heaton who ran out comfortable winners of this year's mixed pairs, topping the scoreboard in both sessions. Martin Sheppard and Nicky Hancock were second closely followed by Chris and Angela Overton. Thanks to all who took part, including the non- mixed pairs : the arithmetic is a lot simpler with equal numbers in both sessions!
      For the full results please click on the link: Club Mixed Pairs Championship Results

Changes To The EBU Blue Book – ( Simplified )Announcing1. After a 1NT opening bid, if partners response of 2♠ or 2NT is a transfer to Clubs/Diamonds showing that suit, you should nowannounce “Clubs” or “Diamonds” (previously alerted).If 2♠ or 2NT shows both minors, or could be either minor, then the bid is still alerted – only announce if the bid shows just one suit.2. For many pairs playing 5-card majors, a 1NT response to a suit opening bid can be wide-ranging (i.e. not necessarily a maximum of 10 points). In this case if the 1NT is wide ranging and non-forcing, it should be announced (“…up to 11 hcp” or “…up to a bad 12 hcp”. If wide-ranging and forcing it must be alerted.3. If playing a “2/1” system, a new natural suit at the 2-level is “game-forcing, and this must now be announced “…game forcing”4. If playing a transfer response to a 1♣ opening, the responder must now announce the suit shown by the response – e.g. 1♣ – p– 1♥ – this is now announced as “spades”. (Similar to theannouncement of a transfer response to 1NT)5. A natural strong 2NT opening bid is no longer announced.6. A natural 1NT overcall in second seat, that by partnership agreement may be made on significantly less than 15 HCP, or contain a small singleton or doubleton in opener’s naturally bidsuit.

Strong and non-strong opening bidsThe definition of a “strong” opening bid has been changed. For a strong 1♣ (or strong 1♦) the requirement is now 13 or more HCP (previously 16 HCP or 12+ with 5 Controls). For other strong bids (for example, opening 2♣ or 2♦) the requirement is 16 or more HCP, except if there are twosuits with 13HCP concentrated in the two suits. This also applies to strong artificial overcalls.The rules for non-strong bids at the two-level and three-level have also been simplified.The full announcing and alerting summary can be viewed athttps://welshbridgeunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/announcements-table.pdf

Please note that there is a new item on the website menu, EBU Announcing Rules

which gives a pretty full summary of the current rules 

about announcements and alerts.

Spoiler alert: it is not a hanging offence to mix them up!