[FrancesHinden]

Vampyr, on 2014-January-11, 21:17, said:

You are lucky. I can't get to the nearest club in under 35 minutes on the Tube, and I and others do not consider an hour an unreasonable journey time.

Others spend even longer to get to bridge clubs; I know several people whose journey involves a train.

Most clubs do not hold daytime games.

My nearest club is about 10 minutes walk from my house, but I never play there because the standard is very low. And anyway I am starting my journey from work, which is over an hour from home. That's normal for people working in London.

When you say 'Most clubs do not hold daytime games' I am not sure what you mean by 'most', it depends enormously where you are.
The only clubs I know that do not hold daytime games are those without their own premises that meet once a week in a local hall (e.g. most of the clubs in Cambridge).
But in London and Surrey all the big clubs with their own premises (and the YC) have daytime games.


p.s. A train! How dreadful! Some people have to get the train every day

[FrancesHinden]

doktrin, on 2014-January-05, 03:58, said:

Almost all of us are attendees of club events as bridge players. It's both a social and competitive. Many of you are playing in a local bridge club either as a member or guest. Besides your "popular" club how many different bridge clubs have you visited in your country and around the world. And what was different than yours as you remember. Share your experiences and good memories if you'd like to.

Because I have lived in various places in my country, I've played bridge in many clubs in England.
I've played in various foreign tournaments (not just EBL/WBF ones). The notable thing about playing in Norway and in Sweden is not just how people were very happy to talk in English to us, but in both countries people apologised when they had a conversation in their own language, or when their partner didn't speak English and they had to translate.

There was an article in Bridge World a few years ago about the world championships in China. The author complained that the local restaurants didn't have English menus. We are spoiled.

[Elianna]

Antrax, on 2014-January-12, 00:28, said:

What? Which club was that? Because when I play in Avivim I'm still the youngest one around.

I think that it was Avivim. This was about 4 years ago, in summer.

[blackshoe]

It's a thought. I don't know how it would be received here.

[Vampyr]

FrancesHinden, on 2014-January-12, 04:19, said:

When you say 'Most clubs do not hold daytime games' I am not sure what you mean by 'most', it depends enormously where you are.
The only clubs I know that do not hold daytime games are those without their own premises that meet once a week in a local hall (e.g. most of the clubs in Cambridge).
But in London and Surrey all the big clubs with their own premises (and the YC) have daytime games.

Yes... I said "most" because most clubs do not have their own premises, but that paints an inaccurate picture since these clubs offer a minority of the duplicate sessions available. I guess it would have been better to say that there are far more evening than daytime sessions (not counting large non-affiliated clubs that are not intended for serious bridge players).

Quote

p.s. A train! How dreadful! Some people have to get the train every day

LOL I know; I didn't mean to suggest that taking a train is dreadful! It is just that getting a train to the bridge club implies a different level of commitment to getting in your car for half an hour. And a different approach to journeys in general.

[blackshoe]

Vampyr, on 2014-January-13, 08:26, said:

Yes... I said "most" because most clubs do not have their own premises, but that paints an inaccurate picture since these clubs offer a minority of the duplicate sessions available. I guess it would have been better to say that there are far more evening than daytime sessions (not counting large non-affiliated clubs that are not intended for serious bridge players).



LOL I know; I didn't mean to suggest that taking a train is dreadful! It is just that getting a train to the bridge club implies a different level of commitment to getting in your car for half an hour. And a different approach to journeys in general.

I like trains, and I enjoyed riding the train while I was in England. In the 3 years I was there I rented a car once - as I recall the train was inconvenient for the trip I had to take. That was fun too - trying to remember to stay on the "wrong" side of the road, and so on. Almost got lost in the New Forest, but I managed to figure out where I'd gone wrong. :-)

That said, I am an American, and I spent much of my adult life out west, where distances are large and public or mass transportation is well, not so hot. So I got used to "must have - and use - a car". I did not, however, get as bad as some Texans I knew, who would walk out of the bar, get in their car pickup truck and move it across the street and then go in the bar on that side.

[mouthpiece]

doktrin, on 2014-January-05, 03:58, said:

Almost all of us are attendees of club events as bridge players. It's both a social and competitive. Many of you are playing in a local bridge club either as a member or guest. Besides your "popular" club how many different bridge clubs have you visited in your country and around the world. And what was different than yours as you remember. Share your experiences and good memories if you'd like to.

I'm new to this but am in a Ft Myers, Fl duplicate group where, at this time, we've limited ourselves to 4 tables until we get our feet on the ground. I was told that I should be able to download a program to help us with scoring from BBO. Does anyone know if there is such a program and , if so, how I go about downloading this.

If anyone replies, I would appreciate a direct email to me ,,namely, johnjswartzsr@gmail.com. I'm computer challenged and probably would not ever find this page again if your reply is on this sheet.

Thanx

John J Swartz

[mikl_plkcc]

Vampyr, on 2014-January-11, 21:17, said:

You are lucky. I can't get to the nearest club in under 35 minutes on the Tube, and I and others do not consider an hour an unreasonable journey time.

Others spend even longer to get to bridge clubs; I know several people whose journey involves a train.

Most clubs do not hold daytime games.

FrancesHinden, on 2014-January-12, 04:19, said:

My nearest club is about 10 minutes walk from my house, but I never play there because the standard is very low. And anyway I am starting my journey from work, which is over an hour from home. That's normal for people working in London.

When you say 'Most clubs do not hold daytime games' I am not sure what you mean by 'most', it depends enormously where you are.
The only clubs I know that do not hold daytime games are those without their own premises that meet once a week in a local hall (e.g. most of the clubs in Cambridge).
But in London and Surrey all the big clubs with their own premises (and the YC) have daytime games.


p.s. A train! How dreadful! Some people have to get the train every day

A lot of clubs in London hold daytime games, but I'm a professional so I play weekday evenings games. My nearest club is just 2 stops on the tube from home (Willesden Green) at West Hampstead and I visited there once, but unfortunately it is not an EBU affiliated club and its IMP pairs sessions are on an inconvenient day of week for me so I no longer go there.

I now play at a club a bit further away near Hammersmith (about 10 minutes on the tube and another 15 minutes on the bus) which is a proper, EBU-affiliated bridge club with regular IMP pairs sessions.

Back to the topic, I'm from Hong Kong but I only played at school and uni at that time. After I moved to the UK I initially lived in Bournemouth so I played in a club there and another club in Dorset, and now I am in London as described above.

[helene_t]

Updates: Since 2014 I have played in a few more clubs, including at least five in New Zealand. New Zealand has many young players, our youngest player was 11 and the youngest accredited TD was 16. They used bidding pads instead of boxes but other than that the culture is quite similar to England.

In the Netherlands, I play with David in one club in Leiden where there are many young players. This shows in the rules for their annual pub crawl, where crazy systems are encouraged. Some pairs role a dice before each round to determine the NT range. One pair played 5-card minors so 1♠ could be 2.

Countries differ a lot with respect to flexibility:
- In Denmark, some clubs don't allow new member mid-season as you are supposed to play the full competition. And you have to warn the TD the day before if you are not comming and they try to find substitutes to make it an even number of pairs.
- In some English and NZ clubs, and a few Dutch clubs, it is common that people come without a partner and just find one a few minutes before the session.

[jillybean]

helene_t, on 2025-February-23, 08:45, said:

In the Netherlands, I play with David in one club in Leiden where there are many young players. This shows in the rules for their annual pub crawl, where crazy systems are encouraged. Some pairs role a dice before each round to determine the NT range. One pair played 5-card minors so 1♠ could be 2.

. That would never be allowed here.

[mycroft]

Open Chart, I think it's fine, as long as you follow the rules for "ostensibly natural, but by definition Artificial" opening bids and promise 10 or Ro19(*). Helene, could you get me a copy of their (basic) system notes to see what I can do with it here?

Probably get you banned from most clubs after two sessions with it, though :-).

But pub crawls are high-powered midnights, really; where the regulations are "It's an Open Chart (was GCC) event. If I don't hear about it, it's not a problem. If the opps are good with the crazy (and almost all are - they know what they entered), there's no issues. But this is a fun event, and if *these* opponents ain't having fun, the rules are <-- over there." (my favourite response to this was two just-ex-junior pros (playing on different teams IRL that week) saying "but if we play normal, we'll do *better*!" "Yes, I know, but they're here to have fun, not necessarily to win. And they'll have more fun if they understand what you're doing."

The "roll a die to determine system" was something I threatened to do for the midnights, but never did. Would have worked best with a Fudge Die (two sides each of +, 0, -) or one hand-gaffed with two each of "K, E, P", for the 3 options...

(*) [ETA: while looking that the Blue Book, I notice that it would not be legal at Level 4 in the EBU: "A partnership may not agree to open a natural 1♥ or 1♠ on 3 or fewer cards"]

[DavidKok]

The particular pub crawl Helene mentioned specifically encourages playing systems that are normally illegal. I've played Regres, a particular strong pass system with 3-4cM openings, in it a few years ago. Most people do not want to come up with a completely new system, so they instead add one fun deviation to their normal system and hope to survives when it comes up. These tend to not be fully thought out systems, and most partnerships don't have a convention card for this event.

[pescetom]

My club is tame in comparison, although the Friday evening tournament is the static equivalent of a pub crawl and we invent strange rules during the Christmas tournament. Officially the only tournaments open to guests are the national sims where systems are limited (not excessively) by FIGB, but you would still be welcome other days and free to play almost anything.

We don't score high on flexibility: members have to sign up before 4pm for an evening tournament, although we would stretch to fit in guests. Play starts at 9pm and late arrival penalties start 5 minutes later.

[mike777]

 pescetom, on 2025-February-23, 16:25, said:

My club is tame in comparison, although the Friday evening tournament is the static equivalent of a pub crawl and we invent strange rules during the Christmas tournament. Officially the only tournaments open to guests are the national sims where systems are limited (not excessively) by FIGB, but you would still be welcome other days and free to play almost anything.

We don't score high on flexibility: members have to sign up before 4pm for an evening tournament, although we would stretch to fit in guests. Play starts at 9pm and late arrival penalties start 5 minutes later.

Lost in translation..smile
It appears what you call tournaments we call local club games.

Tournaments are completely separate things, special events often held at some hotel, someplace..


Guests?
Here everyone is a guest, even if you played at same club for 59'years, everyone welcome, everyone.

No preregister..just show at last second, no problem..

,9pm start time? Is that local time?
We are asleep at 9 pm local time smile
Games here start at 11:30am in the morning

[pescetom]

 mike777, on 2025-February-23, 17:16, said:

Lost in translation..smile

Something certainly was lost, despite the common language

 mike777, on 2025-February-23, 17:16, said:

It appears what you call tournaments we call local club games.
Tournaments are completely separate things, special events often held at some hotel, someplace..

Oxford Dictionary said:

Tournament: (in a sport or game) a series of contests between a number of competitors, competing for an overall prize.

We call special events tournaments too, whether held in a hotel or other external venue or in the club that is organizing. But we also call tournament any competitive game organized under RA rules, including local instances of national simultaneous tournaments, or competitive games hosted in our club but open to people from other clubs.
We call it a local club game when it is not the above (basically for training purposes and open only to members).

 mike777, on 2025-February-23, 17:16, said:

Guests?
Here everyone is a guest, even if you played at same club for 59'years, everyone welcome, everyone.

Here everyone is welcome, both members and guests.

Cambridge Dictionary said:

Guest: someone who comes to visit you

 mike777, on 2025-February-23, 17:16, said:

No preregister..just show at last second, no problem..

Well that's what we used to do too, until I started directing
And the last second was sometimes 10 or even 20 minutes late, people being what they are...
And sitouts were more frequent...
As were delays while movements and boards were hastily reallocated...
As were the related screwups...
As was not having any idea what time it would finish, often just as well.
YMMV, but I think none of our players would go back to last minute now.

I can imagine that if yours is not the only game in town and the club is for profit then the manager might see things differently (although pre-registration is becoming the way of all things in life, even public transport around here).

 mike777, on 2025-February-23, 17:16, said:

We are asleep at 9 pm local time smile
Games here start at 11:30am in the morning

Wow, now that is a difference
Nobody has anything more important to do in the morning?
Most of our players are more or less retired, but all have some activity or pastime that would take priority over bridge in the morning and being Italians, they take lunch seriously.
Popular start times are 4pm or 9pm (sometimes 6pm in the South, with dinner to follow).

[jillybean]

pescetom, on 2025-February-24, 16:02, said:

Now, now that is a difference
Nobody has anything more important to do in the morning?
Most of our players are more or less retired, but all have some activity or pastime that would take priority over bridge in the morning and being Italians, they take lunch seriously.
Popular start times are 4pm or 9pm (sometimes 6pm in the South, with dinner to follow).

I'm up at 5am. I may be able to complete a 4pm session but I would be in bed before the 9pm session started.

[helene_t]

haha that's the Kiwi way, when our New Zealand bridge club announced a christmas party starting at 9, my thought was that 9 p.m. would be a late start even in the Netherlands. But (apparently?) needless to specify, the party started at 9 a.m.

[pescetom]

 helene_t, on 2025-February-25, 06:01, said:

haha that's the Kiwi way, when our New Zealand bridge club announced a christmas party starting at 9, my thought was that 9 p.m. would be a late start even in the Netherlands. But (apparently?) needless to specify, the party started at 9 a.m.

I would love to hear you explain that to people in Madrid.

[jillybean]

helene_t, on 2025-February-25, 06:01, said:

haha that's the Kiwi way, when our New Zealand bridge club announced a christmas party starting at 9, my thought was that 9 p.m. would be a late start even in the Netherlands. But (apparently?) needless to specify, the party started at 9 a.m.

At the Christmas party, I am sure you noticed that all the scones, slices, muffins etc are buttered.

[mycroft]

For numbers of clubs, no idea. At least 10 in Calgary alone, over the years.

As far as regular places, Calgary, Kitchener, Ajijic.

As far as great visits, three different games in the DC area (including one inside the "shut down if the President is meeting someone" loop), Chicago, Edmonton, Red Deer, Toronto, Montréal, Bengaluru, St. Thomas UT, Las Vegas, Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende...Almost certainly more, but those are what come to mind right now.