New Season

Hi Everyone
As we are starting the new season I thought I would comment on a few things:
• Since the new season has now started please remember to pay your club membership fees either direct to Brenda or on line.
• Once again I would like to encourage you all to think about Thursday bridge – it seems like there are always a few willing to play, and a few is all you need! If there are any difficulties in terms of access to the club, transport for players, finding partners etc. I am sure we can find solutions. Just let me know and we will sort something out.
• General Play and Etiquette
o Every week we seem to have the same problem of trying to work out how many players there are because people are milling about chatting. Far be it from me to want to stop this sociable aspect of bridge from taking place but let’s do it earlier so that we can settle down in our seats, with our partners, by 6:50. We cannot set up the computer until we know how many players there are and where phantom is, if there is one. A lot of the time, we have been taking our best guess and if we get this wrong we end up having problems with the scoring system.
o Everybody plays at different speeds and some hands take more time than others but remember that in Tournament Play you are kept strictly to the clock so you should be practicing this at the club too. No post mortems unless you are finished all the boards in the round, don’t start telling a story you can’t finish before its time to move! Make sure you pass on the boards to the next table. Work out where you are going next before it is time to move. All of these help to keep things moving and avoid the quicker players becoming frustrated, which usually leads to the noise level increasing!
o Everyone should check up on the rules of good bridge etiquette – they are available from a variety of sources (just ask me), but when all is said and done they are just good manners – in particular, be careful what you say to our newer players; in all likelihood they will not remember anything you tell them in terms of ‘what they should have done’ but they will remember being criticised, abused, talked down to and maybe will not come back! In any case the majority of advice I have heard bandied around is at best incomplete and at worst complete nonsense! People learn bridge best when they are relaxed and comfortable and simply by playing, with occasional periods of structured learning. Give them information if they ask for it but beware of telling them that they must or must not do anything – there are no hard and fast rules in bridge, there are too many variables for that.

Thanks, see you on Monday

Ross