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Status Reports
Status: Bridge (2026 - June)
(Text as at 13/07/2026 19:20:38)
Rationale for this Project
- I showed some natural talent for bridge in my youth1, and I’ve wanted to see how far I can get with a bit of application (but – given the breadth my other interests – without fanaticism).
- However, this project has always needed to be kept rigorously in hand, something that has rarely been the case since I returned to the game.
- Basically, Bridge is fun and I do reasonably well, but not well enough2 to justify making it a major focus of my efforts.
- I’ve been back playing again since December 2007, with numerous intermissions3.
- I’ve now decided I’m much more suited to Bridge than Chess, so – while I would like to take Chess more seriously than hitherto and try to learn something about the game – this means that this project is fairly safe from predations from my Chess project4.
- As of September 2021, following the Covid lockdowns, two local Clubs which I used to attend regularly – Billericay Mayflower Bridge Club and Mountnessing Bridge Club (Defunct) – re-opened. Unfortunately, while the former is – while not exactly thriving – still comfortably holding its head above water, the latter has sadly died.
- In default of other enthusiastic volunteers I have taken on various roles on the Committee for Mayflower: I’m Chairman, Secretary, Team Captain, Webmaster and an accounts signatory; I can also run the scoring system, though prefer only as a backup.
- From 25Q4 onwards, I’ve decided to play F2F once a week with David P at Mayflower, and – very occasionally – with Colin or Albert when David’s not around.
- I now also play on-line once or twice a week using RealBridge at a few strong clubs: Leighton Buzzard, Milton Keynes and Cumbria. Usually with Dave T but occasionally with David P.
- Otherwise, I’ll play in the occasional social event and in suitable EBU or ECBA events, with either David P or Dave T.
- See my Bridge Page5 for further information on my Bridge activities.
General Status
- Statistics: by partner and club-category can be obtained by following these links – for the last quarter and to date.
- Results: Follow this link. Further information can be found from my Bridge Page6.
- Master Points:
- 46,2947, bagged to date, including 1,563 Blue Points and 130.85 Green Points.
- That makes me a Premier National Master. My next milestone8 will be to achieve Life Master status (60,000 LPs, including 150 GPs) – so quite a long way to go! Achievable as far as GPs are concerned, but I’m not sure where all those LPs will come from.
- EBU Grading:
- 26Q2 was a bit of a disappointment, mainly on account of two disastrous tournaments with Dave Turner, which resulted in us both dropping down to mid-Q. Hopefully, we’ll return to former hights in due course. I’ve returned to a K in early July.
- See EBU: NGS for full details of the scheme, and previous Status Reports and my Summary of Progress to Date9 for my detailed meanderings over time.
- Summary of Progress to Date: I’ve hived off the history to the above-mentioned Summary of Progress to Date10 document, which I now intend to update annually unless there’s an exciting development.
- Further Details: of time expenditure against task are given below, extracted from the relevant version of my Summary Task List11 (which is regularly updated between Quarterly Status Reports) and YTD here12.
Summary of Progress during April - June 2026
- I spent 272.25 hours in 26Q2 on this Project, or related work (922.75 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2025). That's 94.9% of the planned effort (104.1% YTD). Overall, 34.9% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 39.3% YTD) - as against 33.8% planned (35.4% YTD).
- I had – at last - reduced my time allocation to 22 hours / week, and – thankfully – underspent it by around 5%, though I’m still 4% overspent YTD.
- I’ve been playing F2F mostly with David P – once a week at Mayflower. Also once with David Tennet, which went OK.
- I’ve also continued my renewed partnership with Dave Turner, with whom I’d played at Cambridge in the early 1970s and on and off in 2011-13. He lives in Darlington up North, so RealBridge is a blessing. We play weekly on Wednesdays online at Milton Keynes and occasionally on other days.
- I now prefer RealBridge to F2F as you get to meet more people it and – for tournaments – it saves excessive travelling and accommodation costs.
- There were two bridge lunches and one bridge party in the Quarter.
- There were two Mayflower Committee meetings in the Quarter which – given I’m Secretary and Chairman – involved a fair amount of work. I also attended a meeting of the Mountnessing Village Hall Committee – where the Bridge Club meets – and volunteered to become a Trustee, though nothing seems to be confirmed yet.
- I continue to play "Bridge - Handle" daily. Very enjoyable – and educational.
- Highlights – or rather lowlights – of the Quarter were:-
- EBU National Pairs Finals (Saturday - Sunday 11-12th April 2026; RealBridge): With Dave T. While it was good to have qualified, and an interesting experience, this was a complete disaster. 42 / 50 nationally; Way below par (approx.. -5 NGS)..
- EBU One Day GP Swiss Pairs (Saturday 25th April 2026; RealBridge): With Dave T. Another disaster. 52 / 60. Only 1 / 7 matches won; so, 0.25 GP gained. Way below par (-5 NGS).
- Otherwise, see Results last quarter by Partner & Club.
- Looking back, I probably still spend too much time enjoying myself reviewing the sessions after the event, important though this is. I no longer engage in protracted – and usually fruitless – email exchanges, however.
- Further details follow:-
Bridge (Total Hours = 272.25)
- Bridge - Reading / Writing
- Bridge - Admin (Total Hours = 85.75)
- 26Q1 Status Reports: Bridge (2.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (2.75 hours)
- Admin - Bridge - Mountnessing Village Hall (MVH) Trusteeship (5.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Mountnessing Village Hall Trusteeship" (5.75 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - Lunch with DP, AK & TC (3.5 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - Lunch with DP, AK, JMcC & TC (5 hours)
- "Admin - Mayflower DBC - Secretarial & Signatory Duties" (64 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to Colin (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to David P (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to David Tennet (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to / Discussions with Albert (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to / Discussions with Dave T (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - MK Payments (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Planning EBU & ECBA Sessions for 2026 (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Planning EBU Sessions with Dave T (0.25 hours)
- DP Bridge Party - Meal & Socialising (2 hours)
- Wallingford EBED Results upload mess-up (0.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (13.25 hours)
- Bridge - Play (Total Hours = 103)
- Bridge - DP Bridge Party (6.75 hours)
- Bridge - EBU National Pairs Final - RealBridge (Dave T) (12 hours)
- Bridge - EBU OODGP Swiss Pairs - RealBridge (Dave T) (6.25 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (David P) (32 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (David Tennet) (3.25 hours)
- Bridge - Milton Keynes - RealBridge (Dave T) (42.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Playing" (103 hours)
- Bridge - Study (Total Hours = 80.75)
- "Bridge - Handle" (26.25 hours)
- Bridge - PlayMyBoard (1 hour)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - Dave T (25 hours)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - David P (9 hours)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - David Tennet (1 hour)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - DP Bridge Party (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - Colin (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - Dave T (6.75 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - David P (8.75 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - David Tennet (1.75 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Reviews - DP Bridge Party (0.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Study" (54.5 hours)
Plans for the Near Future:
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 2:
- My view is that anyone sufficiently smart to play bridge at the expert level is probably sufficiently smart to do something more useful with their time, so ought not to be playing, except in retirement.
- That said, anyone would like to play like an expert should this be possible while still keeping bridge as a relaxation. I doubt this is possible, certainly in my own case.
Footnote 3:
- I withdrew from the game for most of 2015 but returned in the final quarter. This absence allowed me to get things in perspective for a while thereafter – playing twice or three times a week, with the occasional tournament.
- When not playing, I didn’t miss the game at all, but maybe this was mainly because acting as the Essex County Bridge Association (ECBA) Webmaster provided a psychological substitute.
- I again retired from the game for 18 months, commencing in July 2017. I didn’t miss the game during this period either and I no longer did any Webmastering.
- I then played 2 games in 18Q4 and 6 games in 19Q1.Thereafter, things returned pretty much to normal until the Covid-19 pandemic, when all bridge in clubs and tournaments was shut down from the outbreak and lock-down of mid-March 2020, until full re-opening started in September 2021.
- While there were lots of opportunities for on-line bridge, and several local clubs ran their own sessions, I decided not to take part as it’s too much like a busman’s holiday (given I spend all day in front of a computer). The systems on offer were BBO - Bridge Base On-Line and RealBridge, which has the advantage of having video and audio links, with links to the EBU’s NGS and MP systems. While the development of RealBridge undercuts some of my objections to on-line bridge, in that there is inter-personal contact, it still has the drawback of being stuck in front of a computer screen. As in other “intermissions”, I don’t miss the game in the least – this time because I was happily focusing on my philosophical researches.
- I intermitted for two months in 22Q2, partly to focus on my philosophical researches.
- I intermitted again from end-July 2023 until the end of the year, again to focus on my research.
Footnote 7:
- There’s a slight discrepancy between my records and the EBU stats.
- When the EBU had 33,776, my calculations had 33,915, made up of 22,962 LPs, 1,175 BPs and 100.06 GPs.
- I’ve not been bothered to determine the reason for the discrepancy, nor repeated the comparison as now I’m playing regularly timing issues also play a part. However, I have written a reconciliation program but haven’t sorted out the discrepancies yet.
- I think I had about 5,000 LPs from my student days, but never registered any, more’s the pity.
- My Gold Points have now “aged off”.
Footnote 8:
- I no longer aim to climb the greasy pole, but simply to enjoy the game.
- As I’m now playing regularly – if infrequently – in GP events, I can consider advancing my ranking, though this is fairly meaningless and not worth worrying about.
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Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026