We are saddened to learn that Louise passed away last week. The photo shows Louise winning the Tuesday night non-expert competition at Palatine Road with Farokh Engineer

She kept a remarkable photo record of her opponents and teammates which Jeff has collated for members to view in the club. Her team players include Shirley Leak and Philippe Noel who still play regularly in the club.

Louise was an accomplished artist and donated two of her still life painting to the club when we were at Palatine Road. She also produced another painting entitled 'The Bridge Masters' which was a wonderful collage of all the bridge club management and bridge teachers including Michael Byrne, Michael Newman, Dave Debbage, Jeff Morris and others.

The funeral will take place at 1:15pm on Wednesday 26th February at Southern Cemetery, North Chapel with a reception following the burial at The Spread Eagle function room in Chorlton

The Gazette Cup is the Manchester County qualifier for the national Teams of Eight competition - the Garden Cities Trophy. 

The winners will represent Manchester County in the final in the summer.

Traditionally, Manchester Bridge Club has entered more teams in the Gazette Cup than any other club in the county - and we'd like that tradition to continue in 2025.

Please mark the day in your calendar.

If you are interested in playing then let me know by email or register via the entry form below. 

Please don't worry about forming your team as the Committee can help once we can assess interest.

Please enter the format is a lot of fun and played in a friendly but competitive spirit.

If you have any questions, please email me or call me.

Thank you very much

Paul Murray

Chairman

The Manchester Bridge Club

Michael's next seminar is Leading Trumps - a look at auctions where you should and shouldn't lead a trump, which card you should lead if you are going to lead a trump and the reasons behind it.  Improve your defence by understanding more about the opening lead, one of the most fascinating parts of the game.

This subject will be suitable for both improvers and more experienced players.  Michael is a great teacher and his seminars are always enjoyable.  You have the opportunity to ask the Number One rated player in England advice about opening leads and any aspects of your play or defence.  Make the most of this opportunity - we are so lucky to have such an expert player available to help us all improve.

The seminar costs £10 for members and £12 for non members.  You don't need a partner to come to the seminar.  Everyone is welcome - and please complete the online form below if you will be attending.  Notes for the seminar and copies of the example hands will be available. 

Please put Friday 21st February, seminar start time of 1.30pm in your diary.

We are pleased to be holding the Cantor Cup on behalf of the Manchester County Bridge Association.  The Cantor Cup is for players who have recently learned to play bridge and play mainly in supervised play sessions.  The Cantor Cup is being held at Manchester Bridge Club on Sunday 23rd February and will start at 2pm.  We will play 18 boards and expect to finish by 6pm.  Only simple bidding systems are allowed and no Master Points will be awarded.  This is a social, fun competition for new bridge players.  Non - EBU members are welcome to enter. The prizes are very generous with a prize of £100 for the winning pair and further cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd placed pairs.  The entry fee is £10 per player.

If you want to enter for online entries please go to the Manchester Events website at https://www.bridgewebs.com/manchesterevents/ or email Susan Triggs - grasan30@gmail.com with your name and your partner's name.

Please pay via BACs: MCBA  sort code 01-07-20 account number 41526708 ref:Cantor 2025

As the January Seminar was cancelled because of the weather we are now running the seminar on Suit Preference Signals next month on Friday 14th February 2025 and moving the rest of the seminars forward by one month. 

The start time for each seminar is 10.30am and will finish at approximately 12.30pm.  As usual there will be notes of the seminar and copies of the 8 example hands.  This topic is suitable for both improvers and intermediates and for more experienced players who want some revision on the main suit preference signals.  You do not need a partner to attend this seminar.  The cost if £8 for members and £10 for non-members.

If you will be attending this seminar please either add your name to the list below or email me via grasan30@gmail.com.

Below is a list of all the seminars we have arranged with Nicholas for the winter/spring 2025 period.  We have tried to provide topics which reflect the feedback we have received so these next seminars are mainly on defence and declarer play.  

Any further ideas for topics please email me.  Finally - thanks to Anne Jerrold for all her work on helping to arrange these seminars.

Friday 14th February - Suit Preference Signals

Friday 14th March - Tactics for Declarer when playing a NT Contract

Friday 11th April - Surround Play

Friday 9th May - Improve your defence in a NT contract

There will be a further seminar on Friday 13th June - please email grasan30@gmail.com with any suggestions for topics

We are delighted to announce that the following Member of the Club achieved an EBU Master Point ranking promotion in November 

Stuart Shalom  Premier Regional Master
Tessa Connolly  Master
Ron Butler  County Master
Carole Gavin  Club Master


Congratulations to all 4     

Beginners Bridge Taster Courses.

If you are interested in joining one of our future courses, (likely to start March 2025) please fill in the form below and we will keep you updated about our plans for our next courses.

Please be careful when you enter your email address. There have been a couple of incorrect email addresses entered so if you have not had a reply please try again.  You will always receive a personal response in 24 hours. 

Each course will last 10 weeks and covers the basics of play and bidding. We teach the 5 card major, strong No Trump and short club system.  We will also cover basic defensive tactics.

Most importantly, the classes will be friendly and sociable. Bridge can be a complicated game and will stretch your mind, but we aim to make bridge fun to learn and hope you will quickly come to love the game as much as we do.  Once your course is finished we have a wide range of supported, follow on sessions for you to join to continue to learn this wonderful game.

The course will cost £80 payable in advance 

Interested?  Find out more by emailing Susan on grasan30@gmail.com or completing the online form below

We now have three IntoBridge sessions each week.  These are on a Monday and Friday afternoon at 2pm and on Thursday evening (Swiss Pairs) starting at 7.15pm.  All these sessions are well supported and will continue.  The Manchester Bridge Club Committee decided that we would have to cancel the Sunday afternoon session because there have been so few people playing on a Sunday in recent weeks.

We now have supervised sessions for beginners, learners & improvers at the club:

Monday afternoon at 1pm for Improvers with Paul Murray.

** NEW** Monday evening at 7:15pm for beginners with Frank/Chris

Tuesday evening at 7pm all levels with Nicholas

Thursday morning at 10:30 for beginners with Susan Triggs.

Members £6 & Visitors £8

Everyone is welcome

Please be aware that the BridgeWebs attendance Module is not a real time system. It reflects entry fees spent on online and face-to-face games but does not reflect money paid into your online account until it is manually updated from the Club's bank statement. Our 'WebMaster', Dave Fernley performs these updates periodically- usually weekly. If you need to know your balance between updates, call Paul or Dave.

The new Bridgewebs Attendance Module for tracking payment money for online games is now live.

It provides you with a real-time view of the games you have played, the current balance of your account and payments made and received by your account. 

To see this information you will need to log on to the Members Only area of the website and then select thePayments Account tab.
Detailed instructions logging onto this area are available here

A detailed description of the Online Account, how it works, etc, is also available here within the Members Only Area (log-on needed).

Account statements will also be sent out periodically by email. This ensures that people who choose not to actively monitor their account balance are still aware of it. The statement provides a regular update to non-members who play in our online games who do not have access the member's area and therefore the real time benefits of this system.

See Calendar on the right of this home page for our Weekly Schedule

Face to Face table fees for Duplicates at the Club are £4 for fully paid-up MBC members & £6 for Guests

Supervised Face to Face table fees at the Club are £6 for fully paid-up MBC members & £8 for Guests

(includes free tea/coffee & biscuits and occasional treats! However, sandwiches/supper will not be served)

Online bridge entry is £3.75 for members & £4.50 for non-members

For Online games a pre-arranged partner is preferable. However, if possible, partners can be found after you log on to our tournaments. Just wait on Partnership Desk on IntoBridge. 

Please transfer entry fee (or more for convenience / multiple games) into the MBC bank account (see below).

MBC will reduce your balance after each session played and email you with a regular statement to help you stay in credit.

The Manchester Bridge Club Bank details are –

Natwest Sort Code 01-02-02   Account Number  21867577

Please put your First Name and Surname as the payment reference

Thank you for supporting The Manchester Bridge Club