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Status Reports
Status: Bridge (2025 - September)
(Text as at 30/10/2025 18:31:41)
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 – 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.
- For 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 twice a week using RealBridge at a couple of strong clubs: Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes. Once with David P and once with Dave T.
- 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:
- 42,2587, bagged to date, including 1,336 Blue Points and 120.82 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:
- 25Q3 was a bit of a disaster in this regard as my rating collapsed from a mid AC down to a mid Q. This was largely down two sessions – a ‘-10’ on-line with Albert, and a catastrophic ‘-22.5’ at Mayflower with David P. I played virtually flawlessly on both occasions, I would argue, so feel hard done by. The latter was my worst result since the NGS took off.
- 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 July - September 2025
- I spent 283 hours in 25Q3 on this Project, or related work (887.75 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2024). That's 135.7% of the planned effort (133.5% YTD). Overall, 39% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 28.6% YTD) - as against 25.8% planned (20.6% YTD).
- I’d increased my time allocation to 16 hours / week, and spent 30% more than that amount of time, for reasons that will become apparent.
- I’ve been playing twice a week with David P – once on-line and once at Mayflower. Also, occasionally, with Albert. I’ve also played on-line (RealBridge) in National GP competitions. I still prefer F2F, but RealBridge is fine and saves excessive travelling and accommodation costs.
- I’ve also resurrected my University partnership with Dave T, with whom I’d played on an off in 2011-13. He lives up North, so RealBridge is a blessing. We play weekly online at Milton Keynes.
- I decided to sign up for "Bridge - Handle" and play daily. Very enjoyable – and educational.
- While walking Bertie I’ve been reading
→ "EBU - 2024 White Book: Technical Matters",
→ "EBU - Blue Book: EBU Player Handbook: Revised 2024", and
→ "World Bridge Federation - The Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2017".
- Highlights – or rather lowlights – of the Quarter were:-
- ECBA GP Swiss Pairs (Sunday 21st September 2025, Barleylands): With David P. Pretty disappointing. Came 15 / 22. Won 2, lost 5 matches; so gained only 0.5 GP.
- EBU On-line One Day GP Event (Saturday 2nd August 2025, RealBridge): With David P. Came 61 / 76. Disappointing, but not a complete disaster. Won 2, lost 5 matches, so gained only 0.5 GP. Bad for my NGS.
- EBU On-line One Day GP Event (Saturday 12th July 2025, RealBridge): With Albert. Came 58 / 67. A disaster. Won 2, lost 5 matches, so gained only 0.5 GP. Very bad for my NGS.
- Otherwise, I played most weeks at Mayflower (11 times with David P, though once with Colin; one session with David P was the one noted above – the worst ever as far as my NGS is concerned). Also, 15 times on RealBridge (Leighton Buzzard, Milton Keynes, or Cumbria). Mostly with David P, though 3 times with David T and twice with Albert; mostly OK, against strong fields, though with a couple of disasters noted above.
- There were four social events: Three lunches with David P, Albert and John McC and David P’s 80th Birthday bash. All very enjoyable.
- 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 = 283)
- Bridge - Reading / Writing
- Bridge - Admin (Total Hours = 64.25)
- 25Q2 Status Reports (2.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (2.75 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - Lunch with DP, AK & JMcC (10.5 hours)
- "Admin - Mayflower DBC - Secretarial & Signatory Duties" (34.75 hours)
- Bridge - Discussions with Chris (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - DP 80th Birthday Party (4.5 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to Albert (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to Bernard (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to Colin (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to David P (2 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to / Discussions with Dave T (2.75 hours)
- Bridge - Entries to ECBA & EBU Competitions (4.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (26 hours)
- BridgeWebs - ECBA vs EBU Membership Database (0.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Mayflower DBC - Secretarial & Signatory Duties" (0.75 hours)
- Bridge - Play (Total Hours = 106.75)
- Bridge - Cumbria - RealBridge (Albert) (5.5 hours)
- Bridge - EBU OODGP Swiss Pairs - RealBridge (Albert) (6.75 hours)
- Bridge - ECBA GP Swiss Pairs - RealBridge (David P) (6.25 hours)
- Bridge - EBU OODGP Swiss Pairs - RealBridge (David P) (6.25 hours)
- Bridge - Leighton Buzzard - RealBridge (David P) (11.5 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (Colin) (3.25 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (David P) (35.5 hours)
- Bridge - Milton Keynes - RealBridge (Dave T) (8.5 hours)
- Bridge - Milton Keynes - RealBridge (David P) (17.75 hours)
- Holiday - Estimation Whist (5.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Playing" (106.75 hours)
- Bridge - Study (Total Hours = 108.75)
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, 2025