Wow what a party. Thank you everyone for coming along on Saturday and starting the festive season so well. At last, a slight stirring of that Christmas feeling when we all sang carols around the piano, with Paul Ambrus playing. The food was delicious, the drinks flowed and the atmosphere was terrific. Thank you so much to Ray, Andrea, NIkki Clark and their teams for the wonderful food and service and to Felicity, Belinda and Val for all their help in organising the event.
Bridge Report
We celebrated a really fantastic year for the Bridge Section handing out a lot of silverware. Many congratulations to all the winners of the various cups. Congratulations to Roger and Marie Perry for the highest scoring slam on the night, to Jenny and Ian Harvey for the second highest slam, to Sue Norgate and Kate Blake for the highest total score and to Gill and Tony Salem for having the lowest total score of the evening.
Our next Christmas party is on Thursday 19th December with the Gentle Duplicate Dinner of Roast Turkey and all the trimmings, coffee and mince pies for £17.50 followed by some Bridge, £3. If you are planning to come could you please sign up on the list on the notice board.
This is followed by our traditional Christmas Eve Party. All Members are welcome, whatever your standard, and we look forward to welcoming you to some Chicago Bridge and mince pies between 11am and 1pm on 24th December in the Bridge Room.
I know that many of you are concerned about the bridge fixtures not being in the diary. The bridge calendar is on the website and it can be downloaded into your own digital calendar, apparently with ease. For those who would like to do this but are not quite sure how then Ryan is very happy to help. For those who do not like a digital diary then the fixture list is up on both bridge notice boards. We have also created a paper copy that can be slotted into the green diary. These will be available on the front desk in Reception from Monday and there will also be some in the Bridge Room. Please help yourself to a copy.
The first of our Internal Competitions is on Sunday 5th January. This is an individual Cup. Please sign up on the list on the notice board as we need to know numbers beforehand to set the movement. Please note that you can withdraw your name from the sheet up to the Friday before i.e. 3rd January but please don’t drop out after that, if at all possible. It causes real problems with the movement if numbers change once it has been set.
Val Lanceley, who has been a key figure in setting up our new Beginners Course, has written:
‘Tim Chanter’s successful Beginners’ Course came to an end last Tuesday. Over the last two years he has guided his class through the mechanics of bidding and the intricacies of card play as well as introducing them to duplicate bridge. We look forward to seeing many of them in the bridge room in the future. Tim is starting a new course in January and there is plenty of time to sign up if you are interested in learning to play this marvellous game.
The Club is again hosting the Surrey Schools’ Bridge Championship in February 2020. I am pleased to say we have some promising young players. Woody Cohen and his partner Theo Sinclair recently won a Junior event organised by Surrey County Bridge Assocation Congratulations to both of them. Also a mention must go to Will and Ned Battersby who also played in this event. Will and Ned (11 and 14) play regularly in our Thursday evening duplicate. We wish our juniors success in February.’
The Snooker and Bridge Day took place on 26th November. Simon Lucas, who organised the day so well, sent this report:
‘The afternoon was enjoyable and successful, with many asking whether we could have two in a calendar year, rather than just the one. There were four teams of four, with the winning team being Nigel Aspinall and Pat Crowe (who was substituted by Sally Gesua for the snooker), and Linda Major and Richard Major. They were comfortable winners of both the bridge and snooker, with a special mention for the potting abilities of Richard Major. Many thanks to Danny Gesau for his help with the organisation of the day.’
Congratulations to Peter Hardyment and Malcolm Bricknell for winning the Richmond Bridge Club Mens Pairs event at the end of November. Malcolm wrote:
‘The competition took place over two sessions with the Roehampton Club pair finally winning by a clear six per cent margin. They were the only pair to bid and make two slams in the final session through some creative bidding.’
We have played one match against Coombe Hill Golf Club, which we sadly lost. However the evening was a very convivial one and we enjoyed a delicious supper.