We will gain an extra evening (Wednesday) and an extra afternoon (to be announced) in each week. It would be nice if members could come up with some ideas about how to use these two extra occasions per week. Please come and speak to me about them (or to any committee member).

We have a web site under construction and we should be able to open it up in the near future. As well as giving information about our Club, it has a section devoted to previous newsletters, duplicate results, a Club Calendar and links to other bridge organisations, etc.

If any of you have ideas about other material we could include, then please would you get in touch with Barry Askew on a Monday or a Thursday evening or e mail tbaskew@aol.com

A letter went out to all members in September advising them about the October AGM. Included in this post was a memo reminding members that annual subscriptions would be due on 1st November. In accordance with Club Rules, members who had still not paid their subscriptions in December were further reminded by post.

Some players have not renewed their membership and this means that they are no longer members of our Club and should they attend to play, they will have to sign in as visitors and pay visitors’ table money. We are loath to adopt such a position, but please bear in mind that subscriptions will be 3 months overdue by the end of January 2001.

1. North opens & bids 1NT & East then overcalls with a 1C bid. The director is called & eventually South does not accept the 1C bid. East now wishes to correct his bid to 2C & says that there is no penalty attached to doing this. Is East correct?

2. North opens with a strong 2NT & this ends the bidding. West leads out of turn with the ace of spades. The director is called & eventually the lead is not accepted. The lead goes back to East & declarer forbids a spade lead.

East leads the jack of diamonds which is won in dummy. Dummy then leads a club & this is won with the king of clubs by East.

East then leads a small spade. North calls the director & points out that West is known to have the ace of spades & therefore East is not allowed to lead a spade. Is North correct?

3. North opens with an Acol strong 2C bid (23+ points). It turns out that he has made a psyche & has only 5 points in his hand. East calls the director & North maintains that it is quite legal to psyche whenever he wishes. Is he correct?

4. A defender takes a card out of his hand and holds it in mid-air as he starts to play it. He changes his mind, puts the card back into his hand & starts to pull another card out. Declarer is quite upset over this & calls the director, saying that he could see the defender’s first card & knows what it is. He therefore wants this first card to be played & not the card which defender started to substitute. What is your decision?

This was held on 12 consecutive Tuesdays and the Course was full with 20 beginners. It finished just before Xmas & arrangements were made for a further six meetings with a club member present to act as tutor for supervised play. We look forward to seeing some of these beginners in the future as they take up membership of our Club.

This course commences on Tuesday 6th February for 6 consecutive Tuesdays. Course details have been available for some time & there are plenty of brochures in the carousel. The format of the course is the same as previous years inasmuch that you only pay for the lessons you actually attend.

The tutor is Barrie Kenyon and he may be contacted on 0161 973 9455 for further information.

Eric Rose started the second of his two years at the October AGM as Chairperson. Unfortunately, Eric was not able to carry on for very long and he retired from the post in early December 2000.

On your behalf, I would like to thank Eric for his Chairpersonship over the last 14 months.

The committee asked me to act as Chairperson for the remainder of the season & I agreed to take it on. At the AGM in October 2001, there will be an election for Club Chairperson.

This competition will be held on a Wednesday to test the waters for support. On a Wednesday in 1999, we had 8 full tables and on a Wednesday in 2000, we had 7 full tables. Your committee decided to hold one more Wednesday competition & then see if it seems viable for future years (simultaneous pairs events held on a Monday & a Thursday attract up to 15 full tables).

Unfortunately, I cannot comment any further because the newsletter will be published about one day before the event takes place.

Please remember that my answers are based on the assumption that we are playing at a local club & using level 3 systems.

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