When we do return, I agree it should be only for those who can show they have been vaccinated.' <Ⓜ#3> Short minor suitopenings will need to be announced as " may be" followed by the minimum number of cards in the suit. So five-card major partnerships will need to announce 1♣as " may be two" if opener could have just two clubs in their hand. Furthermore if the 1♣opener could also have a five-card diamond suit, that also needs announcing: " May be two and may have five diamonds". If you are interested, talk it over with one of our current directors: Julie, Rowena, Gavin or Nigel. One-day course — Gentle introduction April 10th is Teams Night at the Club. This is the format in which you choose not just your partner, but the other pair that will make up your team. Bidding boxes – players could have their own but as they will be touching cards, and chairs etc, it doesn’t seem too useful. Gloves? <Ⓜ#11>

That is as simple as it gets! If you are wanting to play in a partnership for a long period as many people fairly often end up doing you can change your system or/and flesh it out a lot more by adding extra gadgets to it such as: Bidding boxes: players could have their own but as they will be touching cards, and chairs etc, it doesn’t seem too useful. Gloves?' <Ⓜ#11> I am in the cautious camp and still have some concerns about where we shall be in September vis-a-vis Covid. The coming few weeks are probably the safest time but I would prefer to wait a little longer to see how things pan out.' <Ⓜ#19> Kay W Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Claygate Bridge Club, 13th March 2017 President (in attendance) I am now 91 but I have recently had a new lease of life and I for one would return to play at Claygate once it is safe to do so.' <Ⓜ#5>GW said that he thought it important that the Club state what complexity of bidding conventions it would accept. He said he believed that the Level 4 designation (which the Club currently uses) could lead to the membership facing too many complicated systems, and that the Club should adopt Level 3. He said that Level 3 is basically the same as the "novice" Level 2, but with the 2 ♦ Multi also permitted. See https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/laws-and-ethics/blue-book/blue-book-2019.pdf for a full description of the various levels. The commmittee voted unanimously to adopt Level 3 for the Club for the time being. I am now 91 but I have recently had a new lease of life and I for one would return to play at Claygate once it is safe to do so. <Ⓜ#5> VB suggested creating a book, to be kept at the club, for members to advertise for a partner on particular evenings. 22-2Ⓐ2 VB to create this 'Looking for a Partner' book. 8. Date of Next Meeting Is a cashless-only system possible? Yes, there are cheap portable credit card readers available which buskers use. And some clubs have introduced monthly and annual table money subscriptions.' <Ⓜ#7> Each player should be given the option of either proving they been vaccinated or taking a test on arrival.' <Ⓜ#7>

Ensure alcohol-based hand sanitiser is available. All members should use it before sitting at a table. <Ⓜ#7> Personal data for our members comes from them when they join the Club.Scoring data comes directly from the results of the Club games in which you play. PLEASE NOTE: There will be no sessions of Gentle Duplicate during December as the hall is required for other uses - we will resume these sessions in January. Given the main use of the centre, if the local government authority is prepared to have it open all day, every day for the more vulnerable, I don't see why we should worry.' <Ⓜ#2>The way things are going at the moment I think the possibilities of opening up Claygate Bridge Club again in at least the foreseeable future are good and, as long as there are no further disasters, I don’t see why we shouldn’t have a go after the end of June.' <Ⓜ#16> North can enter either your Claygate ID — to the right of the ⓒ— or your (longer) EBU number, to the right of the Ⓔ. It’s a very difficult decision for the committee but hopefully you’ll be able to find a way so we can meet up again. <Ⓜ#9> Wendy Stainer reported that, in the absence of nominations to take over from the retiring committee, she and David had investigated the possibility of handing over control of the Club to a commercial operator of duplicate bridge clubs. Five members then came came forward to stand for committee positions, so the investigation and negotiations were halted. Other Attendees not on the outgoing Committee The committee agreed that next year's AGM would be on 14th March 2022. 5. Pricing from 6th December onwards

I have to admit that I am enjoying playing online as I can play with my granddaughter in Capetown!' <Ⓜ#18> Minutes of the Meeting of the Claygate Bridge Club Committee held at 19.30 on the 23rd of November 2021 at Elm Road The duplimater duplimates 33 boards and produces around 20 copies of the 'answer sheet' each week at home (using the club's machine and printer), and brings them to the club. For performing that task, he or she pays no table money on the evening. Many apologies for last night's failure to get the BridgePal handsets communicating successfully with the club's computer. The problem was that I upgraded the software on all 17 handsets that morning, and upgraded one of the server components on the PC. But there is a second server component that I forgot to upgrade, and it seems that up-to-date handset software doesn't always communicate with six-month-old server software. We will handle future software upgrades more carefully. This morning I reloaded the latest updates for all server components, and the system is working well. I reiterate the President's thanks to Rowena for coping so well in difficult circumstances yesterday, and commiserate with Rowena that the results now all must be manually entered.

A Brief History of Bridge

The club has many copies of theold 'F56' System Card. If you don't already have a system card, you could use this to document your partnership agreements. Over the new few weeks, we will produce a new A6-sized System Card to complement the new score card. That will give you another option for your system card. Claygate bridge club in Surrey is a fantastic place where you can bump into similar like minded people who want to get together and push a few playing cards around the green felt. Law 68D: the old law rightly said that following a claim, play ceases. Now if all four players agree to the board being played out, it can be — but then no player can subsequently ask for the director to rule on the hand. The Extended Rule of 25, used to define 'strong' openings, has been ditched. It was a bit too complicated. Instead we have the concept of controls, in which an Ace is worth twocontrols, and a King one. The definition of 'strong' has now been simplified to any hand containing 16+ HCP, or 12+ HCP and 5+controls.