New Web Site
If you have found your way here then it means that your browser/favourites have www.sknox.co.uk/scawbybc as part of its address. There are good reasons for this, which we won't go into here. The website address is, and always has been, www.scawbybc.co.uk. Click on this and it will take you to our new website.

Bridge Drive at Scawby Village Hall
On Friday 1st October the Inner Wheel Club of Brigg is running a Day of Bridge. The event is in aid of Inner Wheel (Rotary) Charities. Starting at 10:30 with coffee the Bridge (Chicago) starts at 11:00. A substantial lunch (with wine) is included. The tickets cost just £15 per person. For more details click here or ask Stuart Knox or Margaret Borrill next time you're at the club.

AGM Outcome
The AGM was held on 13th April. The Chairman made a brief statement of thanks to all. The Treasurer said that we had made a profit and proposed that we reduce the annual subscriptions to £1 a year. No objections. All (three) of the Committee were re-elected en bloc, and there being no further business we started to play bridge at about 7:15pm.

AGM Set for 13th April 2010
Some of you might remember that at the last AGM on 30th December 2008 we decided to extend our 2008-2009 financial year until 31st March 2010. This was a far more convenient date for our Treasurer, and also fits in well with the Bridge world in general. The effect of this was that our members would get an extra 4 month's membership for their fivers, so obviously no-one objected! Well the date has arrived and we're planning on holding our AGM on Tuesday 13th April. As usual we feel that this is likely to be a very short meeting and so it won't interfere too much with play on the night. If anyone has anything they would like to raise please either bring it up at the meeting, or let the secretary know, and he'll bring it up on their behalf.

Save The Children Fund
The Annual Bridge Drive in aid of the Save The Children Fund will be held at Wootton Village Hall on Friday, 5th March 2010. Meet for coffee at 10:30. Play starts at 11:00. There will be a hot lunch with wine, prizes and a raffle. Tickets, which are £11.50 each, are available from: Margaret Humphreys 01724 762508; Jean (Tilly) Long 01724 859529 or Jill Robson 01673 838436

New Handicap Competiton
The annual Christmas Competition is now taking on a new format. Rather than running the Competition at the end of the year it has been decided to run it every month instead, but to present the prizes at the end of the year. We think that this is fairer since it gives most people a better chance to put in the requisite number of qualifying sessions. Scores from the FIRST Tuesday of each month will be accumulated, and the winners will be those players with the best FOUR scores out of a possible TWELVE. The Handicaps used will be those applicable on each competition date. So as to spread out the load, the normal monthly handicap competition will now be held on the SECOND Tuesday of each month. Because of the bad weather, the first qualifying competition of 2010 for both events was Tuesday 12th January.

Christmas Competition 2009
For the last 5 weeks from 17th November to 15th December we have been holding our annual Christmas Competitions. All scores have been handicapped and accumulated, with the best 3 scores out of 5 counting towards rankings. Extra prizes are given for the best Average Scores. Hampers will be awarded to the winners of the individual events and these are as follows:-

Many congratulations to all our prize winners and for everyone's support for this competition which, this year, totalled 49 tables over the five weeks.

Founder Member Dies
Eilean Day, who, along with her late husband, Owen, was a founder member of our club, has passed away. Ill health meant that we didn't see enough of Eilean in recent years, but we were always charmed by her occasional visits. Our commiserations go to her family and many friends.

Celebrity Grand Slam Bridge
Sky Arts 2 recently output a series of programmes showing 8 celebrities playing a Bridge match. Whilst it isn't the best bridge ever seen, it is nonetheless interesting to watch. The series of eight programmes have been recorded on to DVDs which are available at the club. The hands and expert commentaries are also included. A small charge for club funds will be made to anyone who wishes to keep the DVDs.

AGM
The AGM was held on 30th December, followed by mouthwatering refreshments provided by the ladies, under the generalship of Jan Albone. Warm thanks to all concerned.
The only significant points to come out of the appropriately short meeting were that this next year will run until the end of March 2010, with the next AGM in April 2010, and it was decided that the Monthly Handicap Competition should continue but that additional prizes should be given for the pair with the highest actual scores. The first time this happened was on 6th January, and as luck would have it the winners of both Best Handicapped Score and Highest Score was the same pair. With all the recent publicity concerning the 99p pint of beer and the detrimental effect it might have on society, your secretary has decided that if a pair wins both prizes then only one will be awarded. I'm sure George and Trevor won't mind!
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Christmas Competition 2008
The 2008 Christmas Competition has now ended. For the 5 weeks from 18th November to 16th December all scores were handicapped and accumulated, with the best 3 scores out of 5 counting towards rankings. As usual hampers will be awarded to the winners of the handicaps and to the highest actual (ie pre-handicapped) scorers. The Handicap Winners this year are George Gladwin & Trevor Robinson, closely followed by Debbie Thomas, Louise Stone and Barbara Davey. The winners of the best overall scorers were Stuart Knox, Steve Lumley-Holmes, Alan Davies and Kim Courtenay.

Click here for the Handicap Scores result. (Needs Adobe Acrobat Reader).
Click here for the "Best Average Score" result

The handicaps are based on your average score, and that of your partner for the night, calculated over the past 2 years. This year's handicaps may be viewed by clicking here. If your handicap is, say, 51% and your partner's is 47% then your combined handicap will be half of the sum of your handicaps, or 49%.Since this is 1% below average then for that week your score will have 1% added to it. Your best three such scores will be used to work out your overall position.

Charitable Contributions
Since there was no proposal to alter the current system (though there was one proposal to maintain the status quo) the meeting of 7th October was abandonned.

Charitable Contributions
It was suggested at last year's AGM that, rather than using club funds to provide prizes for the Christmas Handicap Competition or subsidising the Annual Dinner, we instead give money to a charity. Our Chairman promised that he would re-visit this issue in October and has arranged a short meeting for Tuesday 7th October. Anyone who has a proposal for this initiative please forward it to Stuart Knox, along with the names of five supporting members by 30th September. Details of the motion will then be made available. Voting will be by secret ballot and facilities for "postal" or proxy voting will be made.

Annual Dinner Photos
A few photos were taken of the Annual Dinner. The results may be seen by following this link. All of the website prints are of lowish resolution. If anyone wants best quality images, then if they let Stuart know (click here) he'll put them on a CD for you.

Christmas Competition Winners 2007
The 2007 Christmas Hamper Handicap Competition has now been completed. 57 members competed over the 5 weeks of competition, with 47 members producing qualifying scores (at least 3 out of 5 weeks). This year it was all a bit one-sided, with the winners with both the best actual scores and the best handicapped scores being Margaret Leitch and Rita Cundall. Many congratulations go to them both on an excellent and consistent set of results. The hampers (and wine for minor placings), which will be presented next week (18th December) at the AGM, will go to the following:-

Alerting
On August 1st 2006 a new set of rules came into force. These are designed to make bidding easier, and to reduce the amount of alerting which takes place. One main feature is that bids above 3NT are no longer alerted (Unless it is a conventional opening bid). Some bids (like Stayman and Transfers) are dealt with by "Announcements, and Strong hands are redefined. A summary is available for download by clicking here

Alerting - When and when not to alert
There is regular confusion at the club about whether a bid should be alerted or not. The rules are reasonably straight-forward and we really should be following them - after all if you use conventional bids then correct alerting is the price you pay 

To review the rules in depth Click Here  

To summarize, if the bid which your partner makes has any other meaning than what is considered "normal" then it must be alerted. 
Some examples which have been spotted recently:-

A prepared/fishing/phony 1C which does not necessarily show a 4 card club suit.
An artificial 1D response to the above
Doubles of 1NT which are not penalty doubles
Doubles of low-level suit bids when partner has not bid or passed which are for penalties

Some other points. 

You must not remind partner that he should have alerted
If you become declarer and you feel that your partner should have alerted one of your bids you must mention this before the opening lead
If your partner does not alert one of your bids, and you feel that he should have done, then you must continue to bid as if he understood your bid to have the meaning that you intended. The ethics of the situation are far more important than the occasional bad board!

And while we're talking about ethics, it is most unethical if you hesitate when declarer is leading through you to the Ace-Queen on table if you don't have the King - or indeed only have a singleton! We're not playing Poker!

Website Address
You can now reach the Scawby Bridge Club  Home Page by using the following url:-
http://www.scawbybc.co.uk

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