The annual Dinner and Bridge Evening will be held this year on Friday, 31 October 2008. The venue will be Calcot Park Golf Club and further details including price and menu will be circulated later.

This event has proved to be a great success on the last two occasions and we are fortunate that Tony Parkinson has again agreed to host the bridge.

The result of the Pro-Am teams competition on Thursday 24th April 2008 was as follows:

1. John Greenhalgh, John Howard, Ken (Honarary John) Jones and John Coomber +87 IMPs
2. Chris Cook, Gill Smith, Maureen Carver and Pam Hanson +40 IMPs
3. Ray Knowland, Sonia Nash, Graham and Ann Lucy +31 IMPs

The winners of the "Lucky Dip" prize awarded for being the team with the score closest to -13 (a number secreted in a sealed envelope by Janet Barnes before going on holiday (honest) were: Phil Baker, Rod Plank, Robert Heap and Tony Parkinson with -15 IMPs. Full results can be found here.

The proposal "Strategy for the Future of the EBU and Duplicate Bridge in England" is now available is now available on the EBU website (http://www.ebu.co.uk/publications/Official_Documents/Strategy.pdf). The consultation period has now come to an end and a vote on the future will be taken at an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 4 June 2008. However, if you need clarification on any aspect of the proposal please do not hesitate to contact EBU on strategy@ebu.co.uk.

James Paul has been chosen to represent England in the Home Under 20 Internationals.

The results after the first two evenings can be found here..

The Club's Dinner for 2007 was held at Calcot Park Golf Club. After a convivial get-together in the bar those present enjoyed an excellent dinner which was followed by 16 hands of bridge played as an individual competition with partners changed each 4 hands. The lucky winners departed happily with their bottles of wine. Hopefully everyone present enjoyed their evening and met at least one member of the club they had not met before. The pictures show some of the members enjoying one or more of the evening's activities.

Recently we received a call from Peter Robson at the Register Office.  He had two concerns.  The first was that members who park in front of the building, outside the designated bays, interfere with their recently installed security lighting system.  The second was that there has been parking in the entrance to the Register Office, although this may not be by members.

 In view of the above   Please park ONLY in the designated bays, if possible, in those in the front of the building and ,if not possible, in those at the back of the building.  The importance of maintaining good relations with the Register Office can not be overemphasised.

John Greenhalgh, Club Secretary

Nigel Guthrie continues his Monday classes in 2008 as usual. He also invites new (as well as the existing) pupils to a 6 week course on Thursdays. Details can be found here.

Bridge Curiosity

Peter Hawkes has written up this strange hand