Autumn Bridge Holiday

November 16th -21st 2008             

An opportunity to play plenty of Bridge, with a mixture of duplicate competitions, tutorials with illustrative hands, and 'post mortems', plus a tutor to buttonhole at any time. The holiday will start at 3.00 p.m. on Sunday and end with coffee at 11.00 a.m. on Friday.

Duplicate Bridge - For the first four days there will be a duplicate competition of at least 21 boards played late afternoon & early evening. On Thursday there will be a shorter (about 16 boards) competition finishing before dinner.

Full Mornings - There will be two full mornings sessions with tuition aimed at a particular subject, together with quizzes to get you thinking and discussion of the previous day’s tricky hands. After the coffee break, prepared hands will be played that will illustrate the tutorial subject.

Short Mornings - These two mornings will begin like the full mornings, but will finish at the 10.45 coffee break, leaving more free time to explore the Lake District.

Week’s themes - The major themes of the week will be ‘To Compete or not to Compete ’ and ‘Declarer play in Trumps’.

Anything else? - The programme is flexible, and can be modified within reason if there is a clear majority wish to do so. If you are not familiar with the mechanics of duplicate bridge, please try to play a few sessions of duplicate before the holiday.

TUTOR

Ivor Francis has been playing bridge for over 40 years. Children, jobs and other commitments restricted his playing time for a number of years, but now that he has retired, he has reverted to the habits of his student days, playing bridge whenever and wherever he can.

Ivor has completed the various English Bridge Union (EBU) directors courses, but prefers playing and teaching to directing. He is a member of the EBU Teaching Association and has taught beginners and improvers at three FE colleges in Gloucestershire, and also more advanced players at summer schools. He thinks that whilst some 'bells and whistles' are necessary to do well against good opposition, more important by far are the basics of a sound system of bidding, declarer play and defence. Every holiday he runs seeks to combine some of these elements.

The 5-night holiday runs from Sunday afternoon through to Friday morning, and the prices are per person and include full English breakfast, morning coffee, 4-course dinner and V.A.T. for the 5 night stay.

Non-playing partners are welcome, and for them there is a reduction of £30 on the above prices.

Deposit of £150 per person for the holidays, which can be made by cheque or credit card. This is non-refundable unless the room is subsequently relet - cancellation insurance is available.