The committee wishes all club members and their families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Joyful New Year, and to thank everybody for your support during the past year.

Please note that there will be no online or face-to-face bridge sessions on 24th, 25th and 26th December, or on 31st December and 1st January 2025.

Online bridge will resume on Thursday 2nd January 2025, and the first face-to-face session of the New Year will be on Tuesday 7th January.

Please note that the Annual General Meeting of the club will be held at Hallcroft Community Centre on Sunday, 26th January 2025 at 2pm. The meeting will be followed by a session of face-to-face bridge. Members that cannot attend the meeting in person will be able to follow the events on Zoom.

Visitors & members are welcome to our face-to-face sessions at Hallcroft on Tuesday evenings (start 6.55pm), and our three online RealBridge Sessions. These are:

Tuesday evening - Duplicate Pairs; please be seated by 6.55pm (scores are combined with those from the parallel Hallcroft F2F session - see below)

Wednesday afternoons for less experienced players - Duplicate Pairs run together with North Cray and Wilmington Bridge Clubs; please be seated by 1.55pm

Thursday evenings - Duplicate Pairs run together with Allendale Bridge Club; please be seated by 7:10pm

For members who wish to play bridge in the more immediate social experience of the face-to-face environment, sessions will be arranged at our traditional venue in Hallcroft on Tuesday evenings, provided that at least 12 people are willing to play. These sessions will play the same hands as the Tuesday RealBridge session, and the results posted on the website are a combination of both sessions. Please contact David Garside (01777838791) to say that you will play.

To login to a session, please click on the RealBridge Login icon under the date in the Calendar section at the top of the right column of this Home Page, enter you name and ID (EBU number - not necessary but helpful for scorer) and join your partner at a table.

(To ensure that you see the right or third column of the website when playing on an iPad or tablet, please turn the device to Landscape display mode)

Realbridge have advised for those of us who play on an iPad to use SAFARI as their browser. Google chrome may produce some strange results.

When you log in, enter first name and surname, ID is your EBU number (leave blank if you do not have an EBU number), ignore PW as it is embedded in link, and login. You are then in the “lobby”. Click on a free seat, your partner can then join you. Can only get to the lobby once Tournament Director has opened the session about 30 minutes before start.

See below for change in operation.

At the beginning of October, Retford Bridge Club invites club members to renew their membership, and payment of the annual membership fee for 2024-2025 is now overdue. Members who have not yet renewed their subscription as asked to do so ASAP. The annual membership fee is £5 and can be gift-aided, which allows the club additional funds to support its ongoing costs, in particular with regard to F2FB.

Table money for F2FB and the session fee for Realbridge are both £1.20. It has been agreed to offer a 50% reduction on all fees for students U26.

We request that, where possible, membership fees are paid through bank transfer, referencing the payment with your surname plus 'Mem', for example: 'ABEL Mem'. Bank payment details are available on the website. Please contact Roger Stock by email (roger.retfordbc@outlook.com) if you wish to make a joint payment of table money and membership fee.

New members should contact Keith Abel (secrbridgec@gmail.com) to request a membership form, which may be returned electronically or in the post.

Keith would be grateful if any member who does not wish to renew their membership could inform him as soon as possible.

The committee has decided to charge £1.20 per session which covers the cost of UMS (EBU fee), Realbridge and also other fees which the club has to pay for. This fee is in line with that charged by other clubs.

Ideally we would like members to pay in advance by bank transfer to the club's BUSINESS account, “The Retford Bridge Club”,code number 60-17-28, account number 06803946, and we suggest you pay in multiples of £1.20. NB note that the account has a The at the beginning.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU REFERENCE YOUR PAYMENT WITH YOUR NAME, eg RB Sandy Fulton. 

By paying in advance you reduce the work for our treasurer who would otherwise have to invoice you at the end of each month. This is important so that Roger can trace who has paid. Alternatively, contact Roger Stock at roger.retfordbc@outlook.com for others ways to pay or any other committee member. Also email him on that address to let him know you have paid by bank transfer.