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Status Reports
Status: Bridge (2025 - December)
(Text as at 13/01/2026 13:14:53)
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:
- 44,4997, bagged to date, including 1,530 Blue Points and 122.82 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:
- 25Q4 was a bit up and down – I bobbled around the mid-Q mark to which I’d sunk at the end of last Quarter. However, my renewed partnership with Dave T is promising and we are rated K.
- 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 October - December 2025
- I spent 338 hours in 25Q4 on this Project, or related work (338 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2025). That's 123.5% of the planned effort (123.5% YTD). Overall, 41.9% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 41.9% YTD) - as against 33.9% planned (33.9% YTD).
- I’d increased my time allocation again to 21 hours / week, and spent 25% more than that amount of time, for reasons that will become apparent.
- I’ve been playing F2F mostly with David P – once a week at Mayflower. Also, occasionally, with Albert and Colin – and, this month, with Linda and Tim. Decent results with Colin, but poor with Albert and mixed with David P – with whom I played on-line about half the time.
- I’ve also continued my renewed partnership with Dave T, 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 still prefer F2F, but RealBridge is fine and saves excessive travelling and accommodation costs.
- There were two lunches, a bridge party and a funeral / wake in the Quarter.
- I continue to play "Bridge - Handle" daily. Very enjoyable – and educational.
- Highlights of the Quarter were:-
- EBU One Day GP Swiss Pairs (Sunday 23rd November 2025): With Dave T. 26 / 68. 4 / 7 matches won, so 1 GP gained. About par.
- NICKO - Round 1 vs Deva BC E (Friday 21st November 2025): With David P (+ PO & CS). Won 61-49 after a dodgy 2nd half. 1 GP gained.
- CiN SIMS (2 events at Milton Keynes; Weds / Fri 12th / 14th November 2025): 1 / 28 and 4 / 15 but good nationally, so 857 useful LPs gained.
- CiN SIMS (Tuesday 11th November 2025; Mayflower): With Tim. Better nationally than locally. 466 useful LPs gained.
- EBU 100 Deals for 100 years event (Sunday 2nd November 2025; Cumbria): With David P. A triumph – 4 / 39. 177 BPs gained.
- 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 = 338)
- Bridge - Reading / Writing
- Bridge - Admin (Total Hours = 93.25)
- 25Q3 Status Reports (7.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (7.75 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - EBUScore Training (1.25 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - ECATS SIMS Preparation (0.75 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - Lunch with DP & AK (3.25 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - Lunch with DP & JMcC (3 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - NICKO Organisation (8.5 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - Planning Zoom Meetings (0.5 hours)
- "Admin - Mayflower DBC - Secretarial & Signatory Duties" (50 hours)
- Admin - Mid Essex - Fletcher Organisation (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Discussions with Chris (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to Colin (0.75 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to David P (2.5 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to Tim C (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to / Discussions with Albert (0.75 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to / Discussions with Dave T (2.5 hours)
- Bridge - MK Payments (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Planning EBU & ECBA Sessions for 2026 (2 hours)
- Bridge - Planning EBU Sessions with Dave T (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Planning EBU Sessions with David P (2.25 hours)
- DP Bridge Party - Meal & Socialising (2 hours)
- Tony French's Funeral + Wake (4.25 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (35.5 hours)
- Bridge - Play (Total Hours = 136)
- Bridge - Chelmsford (Albert) (3 hours)
- Bridge - Cumbria - RealBridge (Dave T) (5.25 hours)
- Bridge - Cumbria - RealBridge (David P) (2.5 hours)
- Bridge - DP Bridge Party (7 hours)
- Bridge - EBU OODGP Swiss Pairs - RealBridge (Dave T) (6.5 hours)
- Bridge - Leighton Buzzard - RealBridge (Colin) (2.5 hours)
- Bridge - Leighton Buzzard - RealBridge (David P) (6.25 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (Colin) (9.25 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (David P) (22.75 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (Linda) (3.5 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (Tim C) (3.25 hours)
- Bridge - Mid-Essex - Friday (Albert) (6.25 hours)
- Bridge - Milton Keynes - RealBridge (Dave T) (44.25 hours)
- Bridge - Milton Keynes - RealBridge (David P) (10.75 hours)
- Bridge - NICKO Round 1 (Mayflower vs Deva BC E) (3 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Playing" (136 hours)
- Bridge - Study (Total Hours = 105.25)
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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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026