Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association

YCBA Spring Congress Winners and Results

16th February 2021

The well supported YCBA Online Spring Congress took place on February 13 and 14, with congratulations going to the following winners:

Free online Stepping Stones event on 28th February

15th February 2021

YCBA will be running a second ‘Stepping Stones’ event for players graded 5 or below on the NGS scale using Bridge Base Online (BBO).

Following the session, a hand commentary will be provided together with an online Zoom meeting where you can ask questions and discuss the hands.

See the Event Calendar for further details and an entry form.

Waddington Shield 2019-2020 Results

24th January 2021

The outstanding Waddington Shield Final has now been played, with congratulations going to team Gisborne (Tom Gisborne, Sandy Davies, David Banks and Arthur Hughes) who beat team Woolven (Nick Woolven, Tom Cohen, Alan Brosgill, Robin Jepson) by 17 imps.

Full Fixtures/Results can be found here

BBC Radio York Bridge Coverage

24th January 2021

Both Jack Stocken and York Bridge Club gave radio interviews on BBC Radio York recently about the growth of online bridge.
For more details see here

Yorkshire Spring Congress 13 & 14 February

22nd January 2021

Yorkshire Spring Congress 13 & 14 February

Two days of bridge fun including Swiss pairs, Swiss teams and 9 High events.
For full details see the Event Calendar or click here.

Please ensure that you use the full account name of Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association on any bank payment for entries. Payments may be rejected if YCBA is used as the account name.

Sunday Times 10 January 2021 – article on bridge growth

10th January 2021

The recent uplift in bridge playing online has been reported by the Sunday Times 10th January 2021, noting that many younger people are now getting into online bridge.

The article can be found here.  Please contact the YCBA to discuss how your bridge club can be involved. 

Congratulations to New Year Bonanza winners

5th January 2021

The first online YCBA ‘New Year Bonanza‘ event was well supported by more than 280 players over the three sessions on 1st and 2nd January 2021. Congratulations go to the winners as follows:

Full results for each session can be found via the Pianola events calendar using the Pianola Listed entry under the Results menu

Chairman’s blog updated

22nd December 2020

See our YCBA Chairman’s latest blog which includes a review of the year and a look forward to 2021.

The update can be found here , or via ‘About YCBA +‘ menu

Chairman’s December 2020 update

22nd December 2020

As we draw towards the end of 2020, I thought I would reflect on what has been an ‘interesting‘ year in our bridge world and offer some reminders of what we have to come.

For some of you, the world of on-line bridge would be familiar but for a lot of us it was not and at the start the YCBA was still trying to wrap its collective head around about how we were going to grasp this new nettle. There were different platforms to choose from with the promise of more to come, the idea of virtual clubs, the spectre of cheating to worry about and lastly and most importantly how could we encourage our clubs and members to get on-line.

To this end I feel that we have been relatively successful. Some recent figures have shown that whilst we have fewer players playing on-line, they are playing more often and that is certainly true for myself. The advent of the Yorkshire League on-line has meant that we could get over 500 players playing over a series of Sundays and this is the biggest league on the EBU results page, a testament to the organisers and yourselves for wanting to take part. The board has continued to try and come up with events that will appeal to a wide selection of our membership and of course we have still been able to run the Great North Pairs, Harrogate Spring Congress and (hopefully) the Northern Easter Festival for the EBU. Just as a plug if you have not already seen the HSC flyer it will be on the 13^th/14^th February with pairs (including a 9 high event) on the Saturday and Teams on the Sunday. Both events will be green pointed, so get those entries in now. It would be remiss of me to not remind you of another event we have over the New Year period. On Friday 1^st January we have pairs and the 2^nd will be teams. Both events will be Blue pointed and we have called it the New Year Bonanza (It was going to over the Xmas period but we had to change it!). All our events are advertised on the website, so this should always be your primary source of information as the reminders for events only go out to members whose e-mails we have and the club secretaries.

One of our prime concerns has been the fact that the teaching of both beginners and year 1 and 2 players has really fallen of a cliff (especially the former). Obviously, new players who go on to join clubs and then play in stepping- stones events, club events or even national events at the appropriate level are the life blood of keeping the organisation (both local and national) on a viable basis. To this end we held a teacher’s meeting to try and understand what has happened and look to offer some solutions for those teachers who are reluctant to take up the ‘on-line’ option. Of course, we would all like the chance to teach face to face again but my crystal ball is a bit clouded at the moment and can only really see to about Easter and even then I am not sure whether we will be back!

This is a serious point because as and when we do start again there will be a significant number of clubs who may struggle to get their members back (who may want to stay on-line).This may lead to a new paradigm for bridge as we know it with an amalgam of on-line and face to face but for me the social interaction with other members, whom you may never see on-line, outweighs the sterile on-line approach (even with video links!). To this end, the YCBA are here to support both clubs and members moving forward and we hope to have some sort of fund available (similar to the technology fund from last time) to assist clubs in this transitional period.

It only leaves me to thank all of you who have entered our competitions, long may it continue and of course to wish you all a Christmas and New Year that you can make as special as the government allows you!

Keep well and stay safe,

Best wishes,

Nick Woolven (YCBA Chair)

New Year Bonanza

16th December 2020

Get the 2021 New Year off to a great start, by entering one of the YCBA Bonanza events held over two days on 1st and 2nd of January.

Blue pointed Swiss Pairs and Swiss Teams, along with a 9-High Pairs session, will be held Online on BBO.

For full details and entry forms, please see our Events Calendar page, which can also be accessed directly here