Beginners' Lessons
A new course will be starting in October on Wednesday after noons or Monday evening. Brochure
Fast Track Course - 2019
Fast Track Bridge is a course for complete beginners who want to learn to play and get started quickly. It will also suit people who have learnt before but need to refresh their knowledge and anyone who cannot commit to a longer course of weekly lessons. The pace is more intensive than my longer beginners courses so it may suit faster learners.
Fast Track is a new course which is part of the National Learning Programme of English Bridge Education and Development CIO*. (which the *charitable organisation for bridge education)
For more details see http://www.bridgeclassbristol.
Club History
In mid 1950's Graham Griffith, John Spielman, Stephen Thomas and W. Morley Burry used to play bridge in a house on 41 Oakfield Road, just off Whiteladies Road. It was run by a lady as a business. She was charging them too much for the use of the premises. So they moved, with many others, to Aces Bridge Club.
Graham Griffith was the driving force behind the BBC being formed. He, John Spielman, Stephen Thomas and others loaned or donated money to the new club and subsequently bought the lease for the new premises on The Promenade in Clifton (close to the Mayor's residence) and registered it as Bristol Bridge Club. Graham was the first chairman of the club 1958-1960.
In the early 80's, they were approached by the landlords to see if they would sell the lease as they had a buyer for the whole building. The lease still had 7 years to run so they were in a strong position to get a good deal. After finding new premises it was put to the members at an EGM. Only a few did not like the idea mainly because it was "Hotwells " and not Clifton. They raised extra money by way of loans/ gifts from members and a bank loan.
After many months searching for new premises and further negotiations, they bought the lease of the present building in March 1981. Many members gave their time to get the building in shape. It took around six month to get the place ready to be used as Bridge Club. So in November 1981 they moved from The Promenade to Grenville Hall, Oldfield Road, our present premises (this was done over one weekend).
This building was previously used as a printing works, and store for printing materials.
Welcome to Bristol Bridge Club
Bristol Bridge Club aims to provide facilities and opportunities for all its members to enjoy playing and learning bridge, no matter at what level. Beginner or international.
We are a large club and are able to offer playing sessions that suit all levels of ability. Non-members are always welcome.
The club has its own premises and we are situated near the centre of Bristol in Hotwells. The club consists of a large playing room with a smaller area for classes and a licensed bar that also offers light refreshments.
The club plays duplicate bridge on most days of the week, usually with a qualified director.
The club is affiliated to the English Bridge Union (EBU), via the Avon Contract Bridge Association (ACBA).
BRISTOL BRIDGE CLUB is a charity and it has been entered onto the Register of Charities with the Registered Charity Number 1167959.
There is car parking close by.
For directions and map, click here.
Latest News
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Bernard Shannon Trophy 2019
Congratulations to Richard Blacknell and Brian Nichols who the trophy after... read more...
Posted 05 Jul 2019 by Sue O'Hara -
Curtis Cup 2019
We have introduced a new format for the Curtis Cup event this year. One... read more...
Posted 16 Apr 2019 by Sue O'Hara -
Austwick
Congratulations to Keith McIndoe who has won this year's competition. See... read more...
Posted 15 Apr 2019 by Sue O'Hara
Hand of the Week
Week 69
Week 68
First we have a play problem courtesy of Andrew Robson which involves counting and inference. 3nt is the contract on the lead of the two of clubs
xxx
AQTx
Kxx
Axx
Txx
Kxx
AQx
Kxxx
You can count 8 top tricks and so we need a fourth heart trick for our contract. Based on the club lead we reason that playing the heart suit from the top offers the best chance since it is more likely that rho holds length in the suit since he only holds two clubs. Can you see a small extra chance?
It costs us nothing to cash two top diamonds and lo and behold lho discards on the second of these.The whole hand has now become an open book since lho led his fourth highest club and holds a singleton diamond so must be 4 4 1 4 shape since otherwise they would have led their five card suit so with this information to hand we cash two to hearts and finesse the heart ten for the contract.
Next a spade game contract which requires good timing to make.
Axx
Xxx
Xxxx
Axx
Kxxxx
AKxx
AK
Xx
The lead is CK. A count of winners and losers reveals a club loser one trump if the suit breaks 3 -2 and one heart with the danger of a second heart loser if the suit is not 3-3.
We should like to be able to ruff our fourth heart to cater for the suit being 4-2 but how to arrange that?
At the table declarer cashed two top trumps and nodded when they broke 3-2 and then played Ace, King and a third heart but the defence won cashed SQ and still had a long heart to defeat the contract with the suit not dividing evenly. Playing three rounds of hearts before drawing trumps would also fail as West can win and play a fourth heart promoting a second trick for partner.
It is good technique to duck the opening lead since we may then be able to keep the danger hand off lead. The key play here is not easy to see but try the effect of ducking the first round of hearts. The defence will doubtless cash their club and play another round we ruff and can now play two high trumps and then turn to hearts playing ace king and ruffing the fourth round in dummy with the master trump still at large as our only other loser. The difference with this line is the defence are unable to draw a third round of trumps or promote a trump trick.
Week 67
Many Bridge publications have bidding competitions where you are provided with a single hand and given a bidding sequence and you must then choose the best bid.
I confess at one time I loved these problems and think it provides one with a stronger judgment in the bidding and that crucial ability to visualise the whole hand.
Try your hand at the following problem
x
Txxx
Jxxx
AKJx
The bidding goes three passes to partner who opens 1d you respond 1h lets say and now partner bids 1s? As an aside you might decide to support diamonds immediately but you would maybe only do that on a dead minimum with a poor four card major.
Your next bid is of course a choice between bidding 2d and 3d, to bid no trumps rather than showing our support for partner would be a bad mistake .The hand is far from minimum so the latter is ok but say you bid 2d partner continues with 2nt now what?
This is the point where you must do some serious visualisation of the hand .First what shape is partner? In my usual style they will hold five diamonds and four spades together with a club guard and since Qxx in clubs is very likely here because of our own club holding that leaves a singleton heart or at most two cards in the suit.
Your hand on a scale of one to ten where one is dreadful and ten superb is worth eleven! So you must show some serious life and also immediately reject no trumps as a place to play .Our previous bid of two diamonds was an underbid and we know diamonds is the correct contract as partner is showing around sixteen to eighteen points here so a bid of Five diamonds is in order the only worry being we might miss slam.
Partner held
AKJx
X
AKxxx
Qxx
So six diamonds was reasonable and would you believe that many pairs played in three no trumps. If you can picture the shape opposite which is not difficult here then the final contract becomes clear.
Week 49 and 48
Week 47 46 and 45
Week 44 and 43
Week 42 and 41
Weeks 2 and 1
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/TinyFileManager/resources/files/48///week 38 & 37
/TinyFileManager/resources/files/48///week 49 and 48 (1)/TinyFileManager/resources/files/48///week 49 and 48 (1)
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