On Monday 18^th January Club Secretary, Mark Dunkley, was given the opportunity to promote the game of bridge and York Bridge Club on Radio York. He was interviewed by Jonathan Cowap on his 10am to 2pm show. You can listen to the interview by using the following link to BBC Sounds. Click on Listen Now and scroll to around 1.25pm. The interview starts about 3 hours 26 minutes into the show and lasts for over 5 minutes.

BBC Radio York - Mid-morning on BBC Radio York, With Jonathan Cowap (18/01/2021)

Congratulations to David Beck and Keith Joules for their outstanding performance in a Green Pointed Swiss Pairs competition run on behalf of EBU by Sussex County. On 13th December they came joint 2nd out of 130 pairs in the competition which attracted top players from across the country. It's great to see York members excelling at national level.

The Teltscher Trophy Trials took place over the weekend 18-20 December. Played on RealBridge they were live streamed by EBU.  The Teltscher Trophy is used as a trial event to select the England senior team. Fifteen pairs competed with places for 6 players available. Amongst the competitors were our own Club members Frank Dixon partnering Paul Brereton. They didn’t secure an England place but are to be congratulated for competing at this very high level. Matches can still be viewed on a delayed feed accessed via the EBU website.

Huge congratulations to Vera Silberberg and John Brown on winning the annual mixed pairs tournament last Friday.

Nine pairs took part including at least one 'Ace' so very well done.

The trophy is a lovely Victorian chased beaker that celebrated the Queen's diamond jubilee in 1897!

Congratulations to Maggie Litt and Peter Westcott who won the hotly contested Autumn Equinox event.  With David Kerr and Kai Taylor coming a very creditable second.  Well done to all.

Congratulations to Pauline Cooper & Richard Hilton on winning the Mixed Pairs event in memory of Bill Hall; Maureen Tebb & Tony Swiers came 2nd - and a record number of 13 entries.

The York Bridge Club  

Festive Fun Freebie

41 pairs participated in the Festive Fun swiss pairs event. Each pair played 20 boards over 5 rounds.

The event was won by David Waxman and Keith Joules (76 MPs) . Ray Lyall and Elaine Hulley were second (70 MPs). Congratulations to the winners.

Bill Hall Mixed Pairs Event

Friday 16^th October start time 7.15pm

This competition runs alongside the normal Friday session for those pairs meeting the qualifying criterion. The winning pair are awarded the Bill Hall silver vase.

Did you know that York Bridge are moving from Holgate to Acomb? They are currently building new purpose-built premises in the grounds of Acomb Sports Club. The new clubhouse is due to open in late 2021.

When the new building opens the Club aims to attract a new generation of bridge players who are interested in taking up the game. If you are interested the bridge club would like to get you started straight away with your learning.

To encourage new players to get involved York Bridge Club has launched an initiative to offer free online bridge beginner classes. This is a great way to get rid of the those “lockdown blues” by taking up a new hobby.

Online presentations will be delivered by qualified teachers.  Ten weekly presentations each lasting around 45 minutes commence from 10am on Tuesday 23^rd February. They will follow up each presentation the following day by facilitating themed practice of set hands.

All learners need is access to either a desktop, laptop or I-Pad. Instructions and invitations will be provided to registered students on how to access the learning. The Club will issue zoom invitations each week. If necessary, assistance with managing the IT requirement can be provided.

This opportunity is “not too good to be true”. It really is completely free of charge. The Bridge Club just hope learners find bridge compulsive and have an appetite for more when the free 10 weeks programme has ended. Eventually the Club hope you come and join them when their new clubhouse opens.

For more information and to register your interest, please email Mark Dunkley at secretary@theyorkbridgeclub.com.

The Stepping Stone Initiative is aimed at less experienced bridge players who do not feel sufficiently confident to play in mainstream competitions. York members with a national grade (NGS) less than 6 are encouraged to take part.

Four York pairs entered an event on Sunday 10^th January. Lynda Wood and Terry Witts finished 7^th (59.8%) out of 48 pairs which is an excellent performance. Well done to them.

Please look out for more Stepping Stone events which are advertised on the YCBA website.

The EBU Summer (Eastbourne) conference was held online this year during the first week of August. The event attracts top players from around UK.

In the Championship Pairs, Frank Dixon & Paul Brereton finished 5^th (after winning the qualifying event). This is a huge achievement and it was almost even better. Well done Paul & Frank

In the same congress we had further success with Barney Nisbet & Keith Joules finishing first E/W in the consolation pairs final and also the York team of Jason Levesley, Iain Crockatt, Rachel O’Brien and Dani Ungar won the progressive congress teams event.

What a fantastic meeting – well done to you all.

Congratulations to Frank Dixon and Paul Brereton on coming first overall in the Great Northern Pairs event.

The competition for the City Cup is to be re-instated with a minimum of 8 games to qualify, commencing  on 2nd December  a new session will be introduced on Wednesday afternoons. Starting time 1-30pm but as with other afternoon sessions please register at 1-15pm.

Some Good News

  Planning Permission Granted

The Trustees are pleased to report that the plans submitted to the City of York Council for our new premises have now been formally approved. We will keep members’ informed on our next steps when the longer term effects of Covid-19 becomes clearer.

On 7^th August York Bridge Club held a trial online Club competition. We held the delayed Summer Solstice Handicapped Pairs event in memory of Pam Kennedy. It was our first online Club duplicate event and it was a great success. Twenty pairs competed in the event and feedback has been very positive.

It was a great night for Iris Wells and David Brown. It is not often the same pair win both the scratch and handicapped event. Well done to Iris and David who with a score of 60.7% achieved this on the night. Second in the handicapped event were Jenny Guest and Kilmenny Denny with a score of 49.7%.

The full scratch results are posted on the Club website in results. To view the handicapped results, Click Here.

The aim is to hold more Club online events. The closure of bridge clubs has increased the popularity of online bridge. There is clearly a demand for both table and online bridge amongst our members. The Club Trustees are pursuing a strategy where both forms of the game will be offered to members in the future.

Next online Duplicate Tournament:

Friday 28^th August start time: 7.15pm

Please ensure you have completed your registration by 7.00pm if you intend to play.

  Having obtained planning permission the Club’s Trustees have now instructed our architect to draw up detailed plans to enable us to go out to tender to builders in the coming weeks. So the momentum of the project is still being maintained during lockdown.

Do you know where the proposed new purpose-built premises will be built? The Club will be based in the grounds of Acomb Sports Club in a pleasant area of west York.

The first picture above was taken around 100 metres from the entrance gates to the sports club. It shows Acomb Green with St Stephen’s church in the background.

The second picture shows the sports ground itself from those same gates. The new bridge club will be built at the side of the existing sports club.

There is still a long way to go but these are exciting times for York Bridge Club.

Congratulations again to the overall winners in league 1: Frank Dixon & Paul Brereton. Ray Lyall and Elaine Hulley were a very close second.

The full list of winners and promoted pairs are shown in the below table.

The leagues will continue in the same format during August. Best of luck to all competing pairs.

At a Club session have you:-

• missed out on a slam when others have bid it?

• missed out on game and had to settle for a part-score?

• failed to win overtricks when others have?

In short, have you got a poor score on a board and you’re not quite sure what went wrong? Help is now at hand. ...........Read More

The Club committee has decided to take a new approach with a view to attracting more players on Thursday evenings. From 5^th March all Thursday evenings will be handicapped. Updated handicaps will be issued from 1^st March.

Normal results will be published and sent to the EBU for masterpoints but from 5^th March we will produce handicapped results for sessions on Thursday evenings. The current Thursday evening ladder will be replaced by a ladder for handicapped results, produced on the same basis as the afternoon ladders.

Eligibility for the overall competition will be cut to 12 sessions to be played by the end of December 2020. Members will be competing for the Katherine Gill trophy.

Thursday evenings will still be used for holding one-off EBU and YCBA, and internal one-off competitions. For the remaining sessions the Club will offer Cross-IMPS on the first Thursday of each month. Match Pointed Pairs will be offered on the other Thursdays not reserved for one-off competitions.  The ladder will take account of handicapped results from all the Cross-IMPS and pairs sessions played on Thursday evenings.

Cross-IMPS scoring is teams scoring for pairs. The strategy is exactly the same as for teams. Bid your games aggressively, beat the opponent’s contracts, overtricks are not that important.

Some members will not be familiar with Cross-IMPS scoring. Your scores are converted to IMPS which are compared with every other result achieved on the deal. We then take an average of those IMPS scores. Your overall score for the session will be either positive or negative; a zero score is equivalent to 50% in pairs.

For your information more detailed notes on Cross-IMPS scoring and the differing tactics between teams and pairs bridge can be found on the Club website  in “Competitions 2020” on the left-hand side of the homepage.Click here  to see how handicaps are calculated

We do hope the new format for Thursday evenings will encourage more people of varying abilities to attend these sessions.

The detailed specification and plans of the new building are now completed. Our architect has issued an Invitation to Tender (ITT) to 7 builders who we think have a track record in delivering this scale and type of building.

The response will provide a breakdown of a fixed price for the new building along with details about how the builder proposes to respond to our specification. A Tender Panel has already been set up from within the existing project team. The architect will review and evaluate all responses received using pre-set criteria and will engage in discussion and negotiation with builders if any aspects of bids need to be clarified or better understood. The Architect and the Tender Panel will complete the review and financial assessment of the shortlisted builders and the panel will interview one or more of the prospective builders. The end outcome will be a recommendation of a preferred supplier by the Panel to the Trustees.

The Trustees hope and expect all the key decisions to be taken about the new build project over the summer and autumn of 2020.

  Having obtained planning permission the Club’s Trustees have now instructed our architect to draw up detailed plans to enable us to go out to tender to builders in the coming weeks. So the momentum of the project is still being maintained during lockdown.

Do you know where the proposed new purpose-built premises will be built? The Club will be based in the grounds of Acomb Sports Club in a pleasant area of west York.

The first picture above was taken around 100 metres from the entrance gates to the sports club. It shows Acomb Green with St Stephen’s church in the background.

The second picture shows the sports ground itself from those same gates. The new bridge club will be built at the side of the existing sports club.

There is still a long way to go but these are exciting times for York Bridge Club.

Monday Afternoon Start time 1.30 pm (Normal Session)

Monday Evening            Start time 7.00 pm (Transitional)

Tuesday Evening           Start time 7.15 pm

Friday Evening               Start time 7.15 pm (Normal Session)

For further information and guidance click here

A fast track course to teach Bridge to absolute beginners will commence on Tuesday the 23rd of April with teacher Chris Irvin at York Bridge Club. The aim of the course will be to enable participants to play a session of Bridge at the club after only 12 weeks of two hourly lessons. After this, further lessons will be available to further advance the learning of the participants. Lessons will run from 14:00 to 16:00, and will cost £5 per lesson per student. For further information please contact Chris direct on 01759 388498, or by email at irvintiger@yahoo.co.uk.

The inaugural winter handicapped pairs competition took place on Thursday 9th January. The spring, summer and autumn Equinox have proved to be popular events where all members can compete equally due to handicaps being applied to the results. A new trophy has been kindly  donated by Piers Percival.

The winners of the trophy were Sally and Morris Gregory with 53.3%. They also picked up 6 master points. Very well done to them. There were 8 tables and the event was enjoyed by all. 

We now have four quarterly handicapped competitions in the Club calendar. The spring equinox will take place on  the evening of Thursday 26th March.

Sally & Azizah at the Stamford Bridge Club (18/12/19) + Liz Dale (SYBA), Giles (EBED) and other buddies including Chris Jagger, the England bridge player. We were buddies at the Malcolm Sargent Primary School for 3 Taster Starter Sessions (89 kids). Great fun and looking forward to doing the same at Deramore Primary School in January 2020 - our first for the YBC Schools Initiative.

Although we get many opportunities to compete against other Yorkshire Bridge Club's, we don't often play against club's in other parts of the country except in national competitions. We were therefore delighted to accept a challenge from St Albans Bridge Club to play an online teams match. It took place on the evening of 28th April.

24 players comprised 6 teams of 4 for each Club. York fielded a mixed ability team drawn from our online leagues. Each Club won 3 and lost 3 matches. Overall York won by just 11 IMPS and 2 victory points over the 6 matches. A very close match which could have gone either way.

It was an enjoyable evening for all those involved. Congratulations to the York team

EBU offered and York Bridge Club participated in a nationwide stratified pairs competition on Monday 9th March. There are 4 stratifications which enables members to compete against players nationally in their own stratification. 

York Bridge Club congratulate members Keith Joules and David Waxman who scored 72.16% and came top in the entire country in the highest 'A' stratification (where one or both players are at, or above, Tournament Master).

This is an outstanding performance and we congratulate Keith and David on their achievement.

On Sunday 17th November the chairman and secretary of York Bridge Club attended a Development day at the Leeds Hilton Hotel organised by YCBA. 

Sessions included a presentation of the Mentoring Scheme run at Leeds Bridge Club. Another session covered how Pianola can be used to best effect to both manage Club data and as a performance monitoring and reporting system for bridge players.

After lunch there was a presentation from the chairman of The Bridge Company (pictured), a Danish company dedicated to developing bridge solutions. Delegates heard about the advantages of dealing hands at the table during play by using a dealing machine and  a tablet at each table. This avoids the need to pre-deal boards in advance of sessions, and can also be used as an invaluable teaching aide. 

Finally we enjoyed a presentation on building a digital community by using either Facebook or Twitter to promote bridge club's. It is reassuring to know that our Club is already adopting much of the considered best practice, particularly in its use of Pianola and Facebook. It was a worthwhile day and we've brought back some ideas to consider within our bridge club.

The following Thursday Evening Assisted Play Sessions have had to be cancelled 

October 17,  November 14 and November 21

Bridge for Absolute Beginners

A new course to teach Bridge to absolute beginners will commence at 10am on Tuesday the 24th of September with teacher Ray Lyall at York Bridge Club. The cost will be £5 per session. Ray con be contacted on 01904 709447 or by email to  raysbridge@yahoo.co.uk.

Intermediate / Advanced Teaching Class

Whether your NGS is 2 or 10, there is only one way to improve your game. Want to find out how? Come along to the intermediate/advanced classes starting at 10am on Monday 16th September with Iain Crockatt.  The cost will be £5 per session. Contact: Iain on iaincrock@gmail.com for more information.

On-going Classes

Go to the Bridge Class section to see restart dates for those sessions that have paused over the summer.  

It is with much regret the Club committee has decided that with immediate effect monthly Saturday evening Social Bridge will no longer take place at York Bridge Club.

Although initial trials were encouraging the attendance in recent months has been disappointing. Unfortunately we no longer have anybody who is willing to TD these Social Bridge sessions. Without an organiser the sessions cannot continue.

We realise this news will be disappointing to the small number of people who have enjoyed and continued to support Social Bridge. We can only apologise and hope you understand the reason for this committee decision.

This does not exclude the possibility of the Club offering Social Bridge in the future if a suitable person (not necessarily a qualified TD) is willing to run the sessions. Ideally we need more than one volunteer so we can set up a rota to ensure the sessions can be sustained.

Members enjoyed the Club's annual Macmillan Coffee Morning on Monday 23rd September. Thanks to member's generosity we can confirm that over £800 was raised for Macmillan. Overall a brilliant outcome. There are still quite a few unclaimed raffle prizes so please check your tickets and claim your allocated prize if you are a lucky winner. The picture shows all the unclaimed prizes at 1pm before the afternoon bridge session. Thanks again to the generosity of members who contributed raffle prizes, and provided food that was sold on the day. It is much appreciated.

A coffee morning will be held at the York Bridge Club on Monday 23rd September, in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support. It will commence at 10.30 a.m. and a hosted bridge session will follow at 1 p.m.  Donations of cakes, savouries and raffle prizes will be very welcome.  We hope to see many members attending as this is a very enjoyable event for a worthy cause.  Raffle tickets are available from Sally Roberts.

Bryan Boulter, a Club member, has had the following letter published in the October EBU magazine.

'I read Neil Rosen's article on the Helvic wriggle with interest (June 2019/p19), but noted it did not address what happens if the double comes from the 4th position:-

1NT  Pass   Pass   Double

Pass Pass   ?

Here, a 'Forcing Pass' by responder ends the auction.

I've looked at many options on the market and they nearly all assume the double comes from the left hand opponent to the 1NT opener. However, I did come across the Elvington Wriggle: regardless of which side the double comes from, responder bids a five card suit, if he had one, as an old-fashioned weakness take-out. This has the disadvantage that the hand is played by responder, but no option is perfect. If responder does not have a five card suit, he re-doubles. This is alertable and asks opener to bid his lowest four-card suit. With tolerance (three or more cards) he passes. If not, he bids his lowest four card suit looking for at least a 4:3 fit. If responder has a decent hand and is confident that 1NT will make, he can pass.

Bryan would be interested to hear from Club members on the issue raised in his letter. Any written feedback can be provided by email to secretary@theyorkbridgeclub.com.

As part of the York 50+ Festival, York Bridge Club will be holding an open day on Tuesday afternoon 1st October (1pm to 4pm). The aim is to attract new members to our club and increase interest in our bridge teaching courses. A broader objective is to raise awareness about the game of bridge and what goes on in our building.

The plan is for members to play bridge in the normal way so that visitors can watch and ask questions. We will encourage people with lapsed bridge skills and other inexperienced players to have a go at playing. Members will be on hand to explain what is happening at the tables.

If Club members are available and would like to volunteer to play bridge, please can you let us know by email at secretary@theyorkbridgeclub.com

We hope as many members as possible are willing to help at the Club open day and that visitors are encouraged to attend and find out more about our Bridge Club. All visitors are welcome; beginners, improvers, experienced players or players with lapsed skills. We will seek to explain how you can get involved with our Club.  

The York 50+ Festival is advertising a variety of events between Friday 20^th September and Sunday 6^th October. The festival programme can be viewed at www.yorkassembly.org.uk/y1/festival/ .The entry for the Bridge Club open day can be found on page 76.

Supporting the Maths Curriculum at Lord Deramore’s Primary School. In our second week with Year 5, the children were introduced to High Card Points (HCPs) and made to count their own HCPs in readiness for 13 card No Trump play next week, when we will also give them the Target Trick Table. One child said “This is better than our normal class”. Long may it last. Read More.............

We had our last session today at Lord Deramore’s after 6 weeks with Year 5 of teaching Starter Bridge. Click Here for more pictures The children are now able to play both NT and Suit Contracts and are discovering the power of “ruffing” to make extra tricks. It has been very gratifying to teach these enthusiastic young kids. One child stood up and said “This is the best card game in the world”. They love the help of the wonderful buddies, without whom the project would not have happened. We will be seeing  a few of them when we go back to help set up an after-school elective club on 27th February, to take them into Minibridge. Thank you all including Mr Mark Richards of Lord Deramore’s, who has been most accommodating. Our next stop is the Minster School on 25th February, introducing Starter Bridge to Years 8, 6 and 5.

August Teams League:

After a close fought competition, the final result cam down to the last match. Jason Levesley’s team pulled off a good win to topple reigning champions Frank Dixon’s team winning the competition 110 to 107 VPs.

The team were: Jason Levesley, James Carpenter, Rachel O’Brien, Dani Ungar and Tony Swiers.

Well done to them and thank you to all taking part. The full results are available on the club website.

The EBU Summer (Eastbourne) conference was held online this year during the first week of August. The event attracts top players from around UK.

In the Championship Pairs, Frank Dixon & Paul Brereton finished 5^th (after winning the qualifying event). This is a huge achievement and it was almost even better. Well done Paul & Frank

In the same congress we had further success with Barney Nisbet & Keith Joules finishing first E/W in the consolation pairs final and also the York team of Jason Levesley, Iain Crockatt, Rachel O’Brien and Dani Ungar won the progressive congress teams event.

What a fantastic meeting – well done to you all.

WEDNESDAY EVENING NO FEAR SESSION

These sessions are now being run each week. They are very relaxed evenings with reduced boards being played. They are played under EBU rules but with full awareness that most of the players are inexperienced and needed appropriate help! We would encourage our learners and early intermediates to try it out. All are very welcome to attend this session with or without a partner "

The Waddington Cup is a YCBA competition for the top bridge players throughout Yorkshire. It's a competition for teams of four with qualifying heats.

Clubs have differing qualifying criteria. We use the Club's Internal League as the qualifying event with the winners of the scratch competition representing York Bridge Club. 

The Waddington Cup was competed for on Sunday 7th July. Keith Joules, Barney Nisbet, Frank Dixon and Paul Brereton represented York. In a tough field of 13 teams from Club's around the county, they put in a strong second set to finish well in third place. Only Leeds and Sheffield finished above them. Very well done to the York team.

We are introducing a new No Fear session to take place on Wednesday evenings. The first session will take place on Wednesday 7^th August starting at 7pm.

The session is aimed at inexperienced players and we hope that players attending beginner’s classes and the assisted play sessions will be encouraged to take the next step in their bridge journey and try this session.

Players already attending other bridge sessions are welcome to attend but be aware the session is not intended for the more experienced partnerships. We would like to encourage stronger players to mentor less experienced players. Therefore more experienced players are welcome to play at this new session if they are partnering a weaker player.

Only simple systems will be allowed and the number of boards played will be limited to between 15 and 18. Don’t worry if you are unfamiliar with bridgemates or bridge movements. The person leading the session will provide any assistance that you require.

Please give these new sessions your support.

York Bridge Club hosted Play without the Experts on Sunday 21st July. It is a YCBA Swiss Pairs competition for all players with a EBU grade of Jack (less than 57%) or below.

The event was won by Alan Barnett and Alan Hart seen being presented with their prize with Stuart Davies of YCBA. Tony Swiers and Maureen Tebb of York Bridge Club came second, so congratulations to them. 

There were 14 tables in play but only 2 York Pairs entered the competition. It would be good to see more York players participating in YCBA competitions in future. They are always enjoyable occasions. 

Everyone was complimentary about the excellent tea prepared by our Chairman, Gill Rickard. Thanks to Gill helped by Azizah Clayton for giving up much of their Sunday to ensure the non-playing side of the day ran smoothly.

The Summer Solstice competition on Thursday 27th June was played in memory of Pam Kennedy, an honorary member of York Bridge Club who passed away in March 2019. Her family kindly donated a trophy in Pam's memory, and her son David attended on the night to present the trophy to the winning pair.

The event was well attended with 12 tables in play. Even more pleasing was that the handicapped event attracted a wide range of members of different ability and experience. It was a convivial atmosphere and everyone clearly enjoyed the event.It was won by Sally and Morris Gregory who are seen being presented with the trophy. David Kennedy is not a bridge player himself but emphasised how important bridge was to his mother Pam and grandmother Dorothy Fishwick, who were both members of our Club. 

Very well done to Sally and Morris and thank you to all 48 players who made the event such a memorable occasion

Trophies were presented for 20 different competitions at the Club’s AGM on 30^th May.

The prestigious Victor Ludorum Jubilee Salver was presented to Keith Sowerbutts. Keith was the player with the highest average percentage of his best 12 scores with 6 different partners over the 2018 calendar year. Keith also won the 2 Championship Pair events competed for on Tuesday evenings, and with different partners for each. He was also Slammer of the year for evening sessions. Taking all this into account Keith can rightly claim to be the Club’s best player throughout 2018. He is pictured below with 1 of his trophies.

Well done also to Beverley Blyth-Bristow and Jane Matthews who each picked up 3 trophies, which included playing together and winning the Cantillon Cup for achieving the best results on Monday afternoons. Beverley also achieved the best results on Thursday afternoons partnering Richard Ingram (therefore being presented with the Munster Beakers). Her excellent play throughout 2018 ensured she was the Best Improver starting with an EBU grade of between 49 and 53%.

Jane with her husband Chris won the Gerry Anderson Cup which is a Friday evening Pairs competition. She also won the Winter Cup for the Individual X Imps ladder.

Very well done to them and all our other competition winners.

                       Sunday, 23rd June 2019 at York Bridge Club

               Please click here for more information and entry form

The Club’s Internal Team League ran between October 2018 and April 2019. Players of all abilities are encouraged to participate. There were 2 winning teams. The scratch competition was won by Mark Bratley’s team which included Keith Joules, Barney Nisbet, Frank Dixon, David Waxman and Paul Brereton. Mark’s team won the Silver Jubilee Trophy. Taking handicaps into account the winning team were presented with the Tony Richardson Shield. Captained by Sally Gregory and pictured below with husband Morris and Catherine Abel, the team also included Lynne Mason, Terry Fisher, John Cleather and Steve Daly. Well done to both teams.

We encourage more teams to participate in the 2019/20 Internal League starting in October. This is excellent practice for playing Team Bridge in the Yorkshire League for which we are looking to expand the pool of players. Look out for more details on the Club’s notice board in July.

Wendy Horsley was a much liked and respected honorary member of York Bridge Club. She had taught bridge at evening classes and many members were indebted to her for their introduction to bridge at the Club. She kindly donated a Rose Bowl and requested it be competed as a one-off ladies pairs competition. The 2019 event took place on Sunday 19th May and was won by Effie Thorns and Lis Jackson with 62.5%. A good time was had by all the competing ladies. Congratulations to Effie and Lis on their success.

We are deeply saddened to report that Jenny Price passed away on Thursday 16th May after a short stay in St Leonard's Hospice.

Jenny's funeral will take place on Monday 10th June in York Cemetery, the one just outside the city walls. The celebration of Jenny's life will start at 1.30pm with some reminisces and music until about 2.15pm, then a walk to the burial site for the internment. No flowers, any donations to St Leonard's Hospice.

The company and Club AGM will take place on Thursday 30th May from 6.30pm. An agenda for the meeting is attached. click here
We encourage ALL members to attend the AGM. It is your opportunity to find out how the Club is being run, and  to ask questions of the Trustees and/ or Club Chairman. There will also be the presentation of trophies for all the 2018/19 Club competitions.

We are looking for volunteers to join the new Club committee. Some of the existing committee will be retiring at the AGM so we would welcome new volunteers to join the Club committee and also to register interest in the advertised job roles - click here. This is your opportunity to influence the future direction of the Club.

Bridge will be played after the AGM business has been completed.

There were 42 pairs competing for the Leeds Bridge Club Shield in a Swiss Pairs competition on Sunday 12th May. The event was won by Phil Godfrey and Jack Stocken who are pictured below. Phil (on the right) is a Trustee and Director of York Bridge Club . He is also Vice-Chairman of YCBA. Congratulations to Phil and Jack on their success.

We have now completed a trial of offering social bridge on Saturday evenings. The three social bridge sessions have attracted 18, 15 and 15 people respectively. Ideally we will attract more people in the future but the Club has decided numbers are sufficient to justify including social bridge in the ongoing session calendar. Social bridge will be offered on the second Saturday of each month, starting at 6.45pm. The next two social bridge evenings are on  11th May and 8th June. Please give Saturday night bridge your support.

We always welcome visitors at York Bridge Club. On Monday evening 12th August we were delighted to welcome Teresa and Craig Caplin who live in Las Vegas USA. 

Both now retired Craig was a bond trader on Wall Street and Teresa was a publicist. Their daughter has recently settled in London and they are currently travelling within the UK. 

Clearly residents of Las Vegas play more than just poker and roulette (Craig is a poker player). Craig and Teresa are also accomplished bridge players, coming top East West with 63%. They take away 30 English master points for their excellent play. It was a pleasure to meet them.

The modern approach to teaching Bridge aims to get people playing hands as soon as possible, within the first hour! Bridge In A Day will show you

• What tricks are
• How to evaluate hands (counting points)
• The basic rules of play

Then you will play some hands using a simplified system called “minibridge”.  Read More....

EBU offered and York Bridge Club participated in a nationwide stratified pairs competition on Monday 9th March. There are 4 stratifications which enables members to compete against players nationally in their own stratification. 

York Bridge Club congratulate members Keith Joules and David Waxman who scored 72.16% and came top in the entire country in the highest 'A' stratification (where one or both players are at, or above, Tournament Master).

This is an outstanding performance and we congratulate Keith and David on their achievement.

The open days are aimed at people who have never played bridge before, have lapsed bridge skills, and also accomplished players who want to know more about York Bridge Club. We have a range of sessions and teaching courses to meet everybody's needs. We can provide more information and explain the best way for you to get involved with the Club. You can also watch our members play bridge at the tables. Members will be available to answer your questions. If you are confident enough you can even join in and have a game. We look forward to meeting you. Click Here to view Parking Arrangements

Pam Kennedy died peacefully on Tuesday 12th March at the age of 96. Pam was a member of the club for over 50 years during which she made a significant contribution to developing the club, she was an Honorary Life member.

The Funeral will be at All Saints, Pavement, on the 1st April at 1pm.

Congratulations to John Cleather & Catherine Abel who won the Handicapped Spring Equinox Pairs Event - click here for full details

The Stratified Pairs competition took place at our afternoon session on Monday 11th March. This is a national competition which gives players the opportunity to be ranked nationally. There were 511 pairs who entered. Congratulations to Jane Matthews and Beverley Blyth-Bristow who were ranked 3rd in the country with 68.08%. They weren't the only high achievers at the Club. Piers Percival and Pam Coggrave came 14th and Alan Hankinson and Ted Patten came 22nd nationally. Well done to all three pairs.

As part of our marketing initiative the Club has launched a Facebook account which will carry news items about the Club......Read More

 A social bridge night will take place on the second Saturday of each month, the next one will be on 9^th March. You should arrive at the Club for 6.45pm so we can finalise a movement for a 7pm start.......Read More

Congratulations to Barney Nisbet and Keith Joules on finishing an excellent 7th (out of 50 teams) in the Swiss Team competition on Sunday 10th February. Mark and Jenny Dunkley (see picture) also won the Improvers Team event on the same day, partnering Iwan and Maureen Williams from Olicana Bridge Club.Hopefully these successes will encourage more York members to compete in future EBU competitions.

On Sunday 27th January 2019 all of our 5 Yorkshire League teams won their matches. What a great achievement. May we congratulate all our Yorkshire League players..... Read More.

The next Social Bridge session will be on Saturday 11th January at 6.45pm. The December session has been cancelled. Please do consider attending Saturday evening social bridge which is enjoyable but not competitive. These sessions are ideal for beginners or Improvers, but more accomplished players are also welcome.

We had a good turnout of 21 pairs for the Autumn Equinox event.  Well done to Susan Bays & Susan Reaney who won with an overall total of 77.57% (after handicap adjustment) and also to Janice & Stuart Kay who came second (76.26%).

Full results are available by clicking here

Thank you all for taking part, the next internal competition is the Bill Halls mixed pairs event on 16^th October. We hope to see even more members playing then.

The delayed Summer Solstice Handicap Pairs (in memory of Pam Kennedy) event is back – Friday 7^th August 7pm

We are now in a position to offer, as a trial only at this stage, our first online club duplicate event via BBO.

This event will take place on Friday 7^th August starting at 7.15pm and will comprise 18 boards.

There will be scratch results and a handicap result in line with the current in club competition rules. The results will be published to the EBU as per normal. Masterpoints will be issued.

Please check that you know what you need to do to register for this tournament by clicking here

A list of the current club handicaps is available here

The Bridge Club held its Annual General meeting (AGM) on 9^th July 2020. The Limited Company (The York Bridge Club) has a legal obligation to hold an AGM each year. It was decided to hold an online AGM to keep members informed of developments at the Club whilst it remains closed. The scope of the AGM was limited to Company business. However there was an open forum so that members could ask questions about any aspect of the Bridge Club. The minutes of the AGM (including a record of the open forum) are attached for your information

The Club is now running 4 Pairs leagues with promotion and relegation each month. We want as many of our members as possible to participate. Matches can be played at any time at the convenience of each pair. You can join in at any time. Results are updated each week and can be seen by clicking the online competitions tab on the homepage.

Support:

We have put support in place for those members who are less technically confident and/or don’t have a partner. This includes:

• telephone support to help you through BBO registration, if required;
• A detailed guide on registering and setting up games (with screen shots to help you find the right place).
• trial games with our support assistants where aspects of the BBO system are explained as you proceed and
• a partner finding service if you would like to take part but don’t yet have a partner (note there may be a wait for this as we try to match others in a similar position).

Please email Sally Gregory at Sgregory@theyorkbridgeclub.com if you would like to receive further details or register your interest in playing.