You are definitely in the right place on our website if you’ve never played before.  You may still be in the right place if you haven’t played for a long time, so read on.

Good communication is the very essence of any sort of partnership.  If you only speak Welsh and your partner only speaks Chinese, communication between you is going to be tricky.  Bridge has its own languages, during both the auction and the play.

• During the Auction, the most widely used bridge “language” (or “bidding system”) in the UK is one called Acol.
• During the Play communication systems vary, but are generally rather simpler agreements between the two members of a partnership.

Ways to learn

There are various ways of learning bridge.  The best is with a qualified bridge teacher: someone who has been trained by the Education and Development division of the EBU (The English Bridge Union has overarching responsibility for the game in this country).
John Davies of Oswestry Bridge Club ( 07942 349114 / johnewdavies@btinternet.com) successfully completed his training in June 2019.  With him you’ll get:

• a tutor who has been pre-screened for his competency and had a course of training.
• an expert teaching the course in which you will learn the basics of the game, the essentials of Acol, and strategies for making and defeating contracts.
• a welcome pack and diary*                                                                      (*while stocks last)
• a copy of The Ruffian, a special publication for newcomers to the game
• the EBU magazine of news, tips and queries, sent to Members six times a year.
• a 12 month membership of the EBU.  If you then join Oswestry Bridge Club (£5 pa) when the12 months expires you will be enrolled back into the EBU for free, saving yourself over £25 per year.
• the chance to attend Really Easy® weekend bridge breaks for students to learn and practice
• a nationwide bridge event at your own club where - via computer links - you have the chance to play against other EBU beginners like yourself.

If this sounds too good to be true, it’s because EBED (the Education and Development division of the EBU) is subsidising the real cost to the tune of almost £300,000 every year to encourage people to take-up (or restart) the game.
So, what are the disadvantages of learning this way?  The obvious one is that you are not available at the right time, or on the right day, or the nearest course started months ago.  Don't worry: a number of possible alternatives are described in the next item.

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Of course, if you can't get to bridge lessons there are other ways to make a start. Indeed, even if you are having lessons you will still find it helpful to back up what you have learnt.
The following suggestions are intended to help you to build your own DIY course or supplement the lessons you are having: 

• Books and quick reference guides
  If you are about to start lessons with an EBED teacher, you will probably be advised to use Beginning Bridge Book 1  (Student Workbook).  You can get this from the EBU website but before you rush off to order one , be aware that if you are going to need it for a taught course your teacher will be able to get it for you at a large discount.
  
  Other popular books are:

Bridge for Complete Beginners, by Paul Mendelson
The Times Beginner's Guide to Bridge, by Andrew Robson

All the above teach the Acol bidding system.  Once you have reached that stage a "No Fear Bridge" crib sheet will be helpful.

You can download this from:
 https://www.nofearbridge.co.uk/crib_sheet.php
Click on the above link and you should be able to print it straight off but if it doesn't work Google "no fear bridge Acol crib sheet".

"Flipper charts" are handy alternatives to crib sheets which you might be able to use when you first start playing.  There are a number of good ones available and many beginners find them very useful.  Look for one written by Ron Klinger (Acol version), Andrew Robson, or the EBU.

• Internet Guides and Videos

There's lots of material on the net, but much of it assumes you already know something about the game and is from the US where Acol is something of a rarity. If you are starting from scratch and learning Acol the following video series is hard to beat (click on the title)
Sky Bridge Club: beginning ACOL

If searching on YouTube/videos you need to be fairly precise and type something like "Learn Acol Bridge" into Google.  Disregard any scathing reviews or criticisms of  "opening on four card majors" and "weak no trump" . They're probably from the US and are referring to differences between Standard American and Acol bidding systems.  The differences are a source of endless and sometimes heated debate.  Ignore it.  Stick with Acol if you're learning bridge from scratch in the UK. You can always rethink it at a later date.

The following video is recommended by someone currently learning bridge as being easy to understand and closely following the layout of Beginning Bridge, listed above, but with the warning that the bidding system described is a little dated (i.e. is not modern ACOL).  It is thought to be part of a BBC 2 series from the 1970s.  Just click on the title:
Join us for Bridge with Shaw Taylor 

• Practise, practise, practise
  
  You will learn faster and enjoy the game much more if you can practise regularly with friends a couple of times a week to reinforce anything you've learnt. A crib sheet or "flipper chart" - see above - will help to settle misunderstandings  (everyone gets it wrong sometimes so something to refer to is helpful).  And, of course, if your friends are established players you will certainly pick up valuable tips along the way.
  
  A particularly useful piece of kit is a set of Andrew Robson's Beginning Bridge and accompanying Arrow Packs (£15.00) available from his website  (click here). These will enable you to deal a large number of set hands, without seeing the front of the cards......
                                                                                                        
                                                                                             

............after playing a hand in the normal way you can then check back to the book and get the expert's view.  This is highly recommended for groups playing at home after they have learnt the basics of the game. It's like having a sympathetic expert on hand to put you back on track if things go awry!

• ....and even more practice..
  When friends or practice sessions aren't available you can also play bridge online.  The EBU website reviews the best ones (click here to find it or go to https://www.ebu.co.uk/online).
  You may find that sometimes both the bidding and the play are extraordinary. Don't assume it's always your fault: the software or something you missed in the settings may be to blame.
• ....and yet still more..
  You could also try playing a very social kind of bridge at Oswestry Cricket Club, where sessions are held on the first Saturday of each month from October to March, starting at 1.30pm, 

...and finally:     Good luck and enjoy the game: we hope to see you soon. 

A Cautionary Tale

Warren Buffet, the world's most successful investor and a real enthusiast for bridge likes to tell the following story at some of his workshops.

"A couple regularly enjoyed playing bridge together although the wife was a much better player than her husband.  One evening, they ended up in 7NT with the husband as declarer. The wife struggled to conceal her total disbelief at her husband's outrageous bidding and the resulting contract. When the final trick was played, he beamed across at her in triumph and declared, "I could see the look on your face, but I still  made it !"
"Yes", she replied with disdain," but if you'd played it properly you wouldn't have done".

Buffett's point to his audience of  aspiring investors was, of course, that if you have a good system stick with it.  Yes, obviously, every now and again an outrageous gamble will pay off,  it as did with this bridge hand , but in the long term sticking with good system will give you a better pay-out.

Bidding Systems

Since using the same system as your partner is a prelude to everything else, and since most club players use Acol, you can click here for a quick reference guide, so that you and your partner can quickly check whether you are speaking the same dialect. You will probably still need to discuss doubling, conventions, and what signalling system(s) you are going to use -  all of which are given pretty scant coverage in the basic guide..

At the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of detail is the full Acol Bidding system (EBU Edition) which you can access by clicking here. Be warned, though, this is not for the faint hearted nor something you can pick up five minutes before you start to play with someone for the first time.

Somewhere between the above in terms of complexity are a host of articles in the Bridge Magzine, the EBU English Bridge magazine, and on-line. The sections below this one ("Two Coups", etc) also deal with some of the more commonly recurring issues,  techniques and useful conventions. Just click on a heading and it will open up.  Please let me know if you spot and errors or ambiguities, or have suggestions for other articles and topics.

Mike

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