Wednesday 9th April was a big day for Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club. One of their long term members was finally able to return to playing face-to-face following a life changing injury in September 2023. This story shows how Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club (Wotton BC) is a fine example of inclusivity:
In October 2023, one of our members, Tim Payne, had a fall which, unfortunately, resulted in him being confined to a wheelchair and with very limited use of his hands. After many months in hospital and recovering.... He is now able to play online and with Wotton BC's help play at the club Face-to-Face (F2F) too.
While in hospital in Southmead, he was helped by a charity called SpecialEffect, who developed a system that enabled Tim to operate a tablet using a joystick.
This allowed him to play bridge again, on a computer, online bridge having become prevalent thanks to Covid. He has been playing bridge regularly on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursday online on RealBridge ever since.
He managed to attend the club’s Bridge - It's a Big Deal! event on 15th September 2024 and play F2F (with club member Angela’s help in holding his cards, see photos)
Club member Mark Woolfrey, came up with the idea of incorporating RealBridge into club sessions. Club Chair, Ian Cooke and Mark, in talks with RealBridge, clarified how the system would work in practice. Mark then set up a new system of F2F bridge at the club such that Tim is now able to can come to the club to play the same hands as the rest of the club but using his computer at the table with E/W using computers too.
Mark said: "He’s been with us years and was a big part of the club. So I thought it’d be good to have him still play with us."
Thanks to an arrangement where his table plays the same hands online as others do with actual cards, Tim was able to return to the club on Wednesday, April 9.
Read more on the Wotton-under-Edge Bridge Club website.