1. Playing Bridge online

There are two main sites that players are using. Which you might prefer is mostly down to personal preference about how the screen is laid out and about how cards are displayed. 

Bridge Club Live

Bridge Club Live -  https://www.bridgeclublive.com/ is an EBU affiliated online club. You play with real people and it is UK based so plenty of Acol/weak No Trump (though all are welcome). To register, please use this link for 50 days free membership: https://www.bridgeclublive.com/members/ebu_trialmembership.asp

About 90 Sheffield BC members are now playing as members in Bridge Club Live. We are quite a community!

Two regular Sheffield Bridge Club duplicate Pairs sessions are now available each week on Bridge Club Live. 

The sessions start at

• Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm
• Friday afternoons at 2.15pm

The room opens 15 minutes before the start of play.

Each session will be of 20 boards. Howell movements will be used with rounds of mostly 2 or 3 boards each.

Results from our new regular sessions will also appear on this site (scroll down this page for direct links to recent results) and will be submitted to the EBU for P2P and NGS.

Sheffield Bridge Club will charge members £1 per session table fee. Members will be invoiced from time to time but can also pay in advance for sessions. A member will be able to partner a guest by prior arrangement and will be charged £2 for their guest as their table fee. Around 50 pence of the session fee goes for P2P, the rest to SBC.

Instructions for registering for BCL are on the home page of the SBC web site. To play in a session, you need to be a trial member or a full member of BCL. There are currently at least 88 SBC members who are also members of BCL.

To play in a session, go to the home page of the site (you can press link above), and click Members > Clubs. Then click a blue arrow or where it says “Sheffield Bridge Club” in the top left.

On the next page you need to have added your name to the list of aliases of SBC members if you haven’t done so already. From here you click where it says to enter the club and again on the next screen and you are in.

When you go in you will see at least two rooms. You arrive in the Lobby. There will also be one or more playing rooms, one of which will be prefixed “SHEFFD”.

Our room will open exactly 15 minutes before the start time of the session, so 7.15pm on a Wednesday and 2.00pm on a Friday. It is recommended that you enter the club just before the room opens, ready for when the room does open. You will see a server message that says when the room is open. You click on the room to enter. You might have to click “Refresh” first.

Either you or your partner needs to click “Start a table” in the top left of the screen, and the other of you needs to sit opposite. The latter of you might need to click “Refresh” first. The player who starts the table will need to complete the details for a SSD (like a system card) though many of us have previously set up a SSD so we just need to click “submit” and partner needs to click “accept”. Please do not try to join a table as an opponent - it won't let you!

That’s it. The rest is all automated. Once the SSD is accepted, you will be joined up with another pair and when it gets to the starting time, the server will send a message to say we can press “Ready” and start. When it gets to the end of a round, the server will send a message telling you about the move and the server will move you. You may have to wait for the table to which you are moving to be ready and you may have to wait for opponents, just like a Howell movement at the club. Do not panic! It may appear that you have been booted out the room. You haven’t. If you see on your screens the different rooms, just click “Tables” and you will see that you are still in the room!

The movements are of 20 boards. There are no time limits per round but there is an overall time limit which well in excess of three hours, but we should finish in about two hours and fifteen minutes as online bridge tends to be faster than F2F bridge.

Please note: We do not use robots and we do not have half tables. It means that there are no sit-outs but it also means that there is a 50-50 chance that the last pair to be ready before the start time won’t get to play. If you do miss out, there is still the option to play bridge in the main club.

The other important thing is the need for commitment because once we start, we need to finish. If someone gets disconnected, then either we need to get them back reasonably quickly or else we need a substitute to come in. We would be able to try phoning a friend and get them to come and fill in. If you have any problems or need a TD ruling, please phone Barrie. His number is in the book and it’s 01629 584567.

One more thing. Please don’t play too slowly. If you are slow, you hold up your whole section of the Tourney and others will be waiting. Unlike F2F, there is no bell between rounds. The next round can be started as soon as two pairs and their table are ready! If you are new to Bridge Club Live, it is recommended that you play at least a couple of sessions first in the main club to become familiar with playing online and in BCL.

No robots, no sit-outs, normal alerting but without announcements. 

Bridge Base Online

Bridge Base Online -  https://www.bridgebase.com/ - is the largest online bridge platform for real-time bridge.

It's a fully international site but if you're worried about playing against foreign systems then

• The EBU run 12-board pairs events, four times every day.
• The EBU also is running a teams competition which renews every four weeks. https://www.ebu.co.uk/node/3756 We have a number of players playing in various teams
• The site has an Acol Players' Club

There is a very useful set of instructions from the EBU at http://www.ebu.co.uk/ebuscore-wiki/bboinstructions and there's also some great introductory videos from Australian international Pete Holland on YouTube: 

• How to use BBO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MldFbBdea90
• Knowing your way around a BBO table: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyFULWYsVXc

 to get you started.

2. Online forum for SBC members

In these difficult times, we all need a way of keeping in touch with each other.

Just need a bit of a chat?

Need a helping hand with errands or deliveries and don't know who to ask?

Looking for some hlelp and guidance on how to play bridge online?

Looking for a partner for a game (or a bunch of people for a match) online?

That interesting hand from two weeks ago still bugging you and you want to talk about it?

Fear not, help is at hand, the new SBC online forum is here -go to sbc-online.freeforums.net/ to see it.

You'll need to create an account to post messages or create any new threads, but then you'll be good to go.

Create new threads & topics. Go really off-topic if you want.

Write something pithy or be verbose.

Write something deep or something inconsequential.

Or just write and tell us how you're doing. 

But stay in touch because your (bridge) family loves you and misses you!

We regret that due to the outbreak of Coronavirus the Committee, in accordance with Public Health England guidance, have reluctantly taken the decision to close the Club with effect from Monday, 16th March 2020.

The situation will be kept under review and we look forward to resuming Bridge as soon as it is safe to do so.

Thank you for your understanding.

Simon Woolham, Chairman

The EBU has recently issued several statements. See the EBU website for details.

New to bridge and want to know what it's all about?

• Here is a brief introduction

Never played before but want to learn?

• Here is some general information about our classes for beginners & improvers.

Want to come and play?

• Here's our visitors' guide and here's a map

Click the links tabs to see details of special events. 

 Please note that all events are postponed until further notice

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