English Bridge Union
Are you looking for ways to bring learners into competitive duplicate in a social atmosphere? Or simply for something different?
If so, this article might give you inspiration to try a bridge day/evening out event.
The concept of café bridge has been popular in and around London for a few years. Now events are starting to pop up in a wider radius as word spreads that it’s great fun.
The concept is simple and quite ingenious – it’s like a pub crawl with your smart phone! – And pleasingly, the execution is infinitely more simple than one might fear.
What do you need to organise duplicate bridge played in restaurants/cafes/pubs or bars?
Let me tell you our experience.
In January on a crisp clear, sunny day, Cath Fox and I organised a café bridge event in Chelmsford, Essex. It was a bit of a leap of faith for us both. We didn’t know each other at all. The thing we had in common was location, a love of bridge and a desire to bring players to our city and give them a nice day out.
Cath took care of who came, and I took care of the bridge side. Together we tested the restaurants we thought might work, and made plans while we dined. For our day in Chelmsford there were 64 players, playing in 4 restaurants for 6 hours. The registration fee included a 3 course lunch, 24 boards and a donation to charity.
We each played for an hour in each restaurant, stopped for an hour for lunch in the middle before moving to the next restaurant. And finished with drinks and prizes at one of the venues.
No director is needed. Beginners and county players alike have all their instructions and the boards stay put!
Registration in the morning consisted of a welcome coffee and collection of a personalised scorecard (part of the service from the App provider).
Which brings me to the App – players use their own smartphones (iPads/tablets) to score. All they need do is download the free App. The service that sits behind it is a chargeable cloud platform, but rest assured it is supported by real bridge playing people here in the UK, who give great advice, and supplied all the bridge paperwork we are used to – it really wasn’t necessary, but they understood our confidence came from seeing everything the way we are used to!
Aside from a few spare smartphones, the only equipment we needed were bidding boxes and cloths plus we had two sets of 24 boards. That’s it.
We put our flyers on the door to promote that bridge was being played at the venue to passers-by. And the Essex Chronicle published an article telling of our escapades thereby bringing bridge to the attention of city residents in a new way.
We were delighted with the feedback from our day. And plan to do it again. As well, we think we might hold a taster day along similar lines for people who have never tried bridge. And hopefully some will take up lessons with one of the many teachers we have in our county.
Cards, a nice meal, likeminded people - ingredients for a great recipe!
So if your bridge club is in a town where there are a few nice restaurants within walking distance of each other then perhaps you might try a café bridge day.
