[FrancesHinden]

Vampyr, on 2014-January-11, 21:17, said:

You are lucky. I can't get to the nearest club in under 35 minutes on the Tube, and I and others do not consider an hour an unreasonable journey time.

Others spend even longer to get to bridge clubs; I know several people whose journey involves a train.

Most clubs do not hold daytime games.

My nearest club is about 10 minutes walk from my house, but I never play there because the standard is very low. And anyway I am starting my journey from work, which is over an hour from home. That's normal for people working in London.

When you say 'Most clubs do not hold daytime games' I am not sure what you mean by 'most', it depends enormously where you are.
The only clubs I know that do not hold daytime games are those without their own premises that meet once a week in a local hall (e.g. most of the clubs in Cambridge).
But in London and Surrey all the big clubs with their own premises (and the YC) have daytime games.


p.s. A train! How dreadful! Some people have to get the train every day

[FrancesHinden]

doktrin, on 2014-January-05, 03:58, said:

Almost all of us are attendees of club events as bridge players. It's both a social and competitive. Many of you are playing in a local bridge club either as a member or guest. Besides your "popular" club how many different bridge clubs have you visited in your country and around the world. And what was different than yours as you remember. Share your experiences and good memories if you'd like to.

Because I have lived in various places in my country, I've played bridge in many clubs in England.
I've played in various foreign tournaments (not just EBL/WBF ones). The notable thing about playing in Norway and in Sweden is not just how people were very happy to talk in English to us, but in both countries people apologised when they had a conversation in their own language, or when their partner didn't speak English and they had to translate.

There was an article in Bridge World a few years ago about the world championships in China. The author complained that the local restaurants didn't have English menus. We are spoiled.

[Elianna]

Antrax, on 2014-January-12, 00:28, said:

What? Which club was that? Because when I play in Avivim I'm still the youngest one around.

I think that it was Avivim. This was about 4 years ago, in summer.

[blackshoe]

It's a thought. I don't know how it would be received here.

[Vampyr]

FrancesHinden, on 2014-January-12, 04:19, said:

When you say 'Most clubs do not hold daytime games' I am not sure what you mean by 'most', it depends enormously where you are.
The only clubs I know that do not hold daytime games are those without their own premises that meet once a week in a local hall (e.g. most of the clubs in Cambridge).
But in London and Surrey all the big clubs with their own premises (and the YC) have daytime games.

Yes... I said "most" because most clubs do not have their own premises, but that paints an inaccurate picture since these clubs offer a minority of the duplicate sessions available. I guess it would have been better to say that there are far more evening than daytime sessions (not counting large non-affiliated clubs that are not intended for serious bridge players).

Quote

p.s. A train! How dreadful! Some people have to get the train every day

LOL I know; I didn't mean to suggest that taking a train is dreadful! It is just that getting a train to the bridge club implies a different level of commitment to getting in your car for half an hour. And a different approach to journeys in general.

[blackshoe]

Vampyr, on 2014-January-13, 08:26, said:

Yes... I said "most" because most clubs do not have their own premises, but that paints an inaccurate picture since these clubs offer a minority of the duplicate sessions available. I guess it would have been better to say that there are far more evening than daytime sessions (not counting large non-affiliated clubs that are not intended for serious bridge players).



LOL I know; I didn't mean to suggest that taking a train is dreadful! It is just that getting a train to the bridge club implies a different level of commitment to getting in your car for half an hour. And a different approach to journeys in general.

I like trains, and I enjoyed riding the train while I was in England. In the 3 years I was there I rented a car once - as I recall the train was inconvenient for the trip I had to take. That was fun too - trying to remember to stay on the "wrong" side of the road, and so on. Almost got lost in the New Forest, but I managed to figure out where I'd gone wrong. :-)

That said, I am an American, and I spent much of my adult life out west, where distances are large and public or mass transportation is well, not so hot. So I got used to "must have - and use - a car". I did not, however, get as bad as some Texans I knew, who would walk out of the bar, get in their car pickup truck and move it across the street and then go in the bar on that side.

[mouthpiece]

doktrin, on 2014-January-05, 03:58, said:

Almost all of us are attendees of club events as bridge players. It's both a social and competitive. Many of you are playing in a local bridge club either as a member or guest. Besides your "popular" club how many different bridge clubs have you visited in your country and around the world. And what was different than yours as you remember. Share your experiences and good memories if you'd like to.

I'm new to this but am in a Ft Myers, Fl duplicate group where, at this time, we've limited ourselves to 4 tables until we get our feet on the ground. I was told that I should be able to download a program to help us with scoring from BBO. Does anyone know if there is such a program and , if so, how I go about downloading this.

If anyone replies, I would appreciate a direct email to me ,,namely, johnjswartzsr@gmail.com. I'm computer challenged and probably would not ever find this page again if your reply is on this sheet.

Thanx

John J Swartz

[mikl_plkcc]

Vampyr, on 2014-January-11, 21:17, said:

You are lucky. I can't get to the nearest club in under 35 minutes on the Tube, and I and others do not consider an hour an unreasonable journey time.

Others spend even longer to get to bridge clubs; I know several people whose journey involves a train.

Most clubs do not hold daytime games.

FrancesHinden, on 2014-January-12, 04:19, said:

My nearest club is about 10 minutes walk from my house, but I never play there because the standard is very low. And anyway I am starting my journey from work, which is over an hour from home. That's normal for people working in London.

When you say 'Most clubs do not hold daytime games' I am not sure what you mean by 'most', it depends enormously where you are.
The only clubs I know that do not hold daytime games are those without their own premises that meet once a week in a local hall (e.g. most of the clubs in Cambridge).
But in London and Surrey all the big clubs with their own premises (and the YC) have daytime games.


p.s. A train! How dreadful! Some people have to get the train every day

A lot of clubs in London hold daytime games, but I'm a professional so I play weekday evenings games. My nearest club is just 2 stops on the tube from home (Willesden Green) at West Hampstead and I visited there once, but unfortunately it is not an EBU affiliated club and its IMP pairs sessions are on an inconvenient day of week for me so I no longer go there.

I now play at a club a bit further away near Hammersmith (about 10 minutes on the tube and another 15 minutes on the bus) which is a proper, EBU-affiliated bridge club with regular IMP pairs sessions.

Back to the topic, I'm from Hong Kong but I only played at school and uni at that time. After I moved to the UK I initially lived in Bournemouth so I played in a club there and another club in Dorset, and now I am in London as described above.