Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Bridge (2025 - March)
(Text as at 07/04/2025 00:15:50)
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.
- While I’ve now decided I’m much more suited to Bridge than Chess, I will also take Chess more seriously than hitherto and try to learn something about the game. This means that I can’t spend much time on Bridge even if I wanted to.
- 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 Secretary, Team Captain and Webmaster and an accounts signatory; I can also run the scoring system, though prefer only as a backup. I’ve volunteered to be Chairman when the present incumbent emigrates to France later in the year.
- For 2025, I’ve decided to play once a week with David P at Mayflower, once a month at Chelmsford with Albert and – very occasionally – with Colin at Mid Essex.
- Otherwise, I’ll play in the occasional social event and in suitable EBU or ECBA events, with either Albert or David P.
- See my Bridge Page4 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 Page5.
- Master Points:
- 40,9066, bagged to date, including 1,298 Blue Points and 117.44 Green Points.
- That makes me a Premier National Master. My next milestone7 will be to achieve Life Master status (60,000 LPs, including 150 GPs) – so quite a long way to go!
- EBU Grading:
- The quarter was –unusually – mostly an upward climb, and I ended up a mid-AC rating having been a whisker away from AD (and third in Essex) at one point.
- See EBU: NGS for full details of the scheme, and previous Status Reports and my Summary of Progress to Date8 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 Date9 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 List10 (which is regularly updated between Quarterly Status Reports) and YTD here11..
Summary of Progress during January - March 2025
- I spent 214.75 hours in 25Q1 on this Project, or related work (336.75 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2024). That's 183% of the planned effort (136% YTD). Overall, 26.9% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 21.8% YTD) - as against 14.5% planned (15.3% YTD).
- I’d maintained my time allocation at 10 hours / week, and spent nearly double that amount of time, for reasons to be explained.
- In early January I had a bust-up with Grumpy at Mayflower, walked out and ‘gave up bridge’. In the cold light of day I realised this was a ludicrous over-reaction and would leave lots of people in the lurch, so un-resigned. In the short term this led to David P playing with Albert and me without a game, other than at Chelmsford, monthly, and a few ad hoc events. Since then, things have settled down and I’m playing regularly with David P and less so with Albert (and very occasionally with Colin).
- A turning point with Quarter was that I at last agreed to play on-line (RealBridge) which has enabled entry to National GP competitions. I still prefer F2F, but RealBridge is fine and saves excessive travelling and accommodation costs. .
- Highlights of the Quarter were:-
- EBU National Pairs (Sunday 23rd March 2025, RealBridge): A real disappointment. Came 138 / 258 nationally. A disastrous morning (235th) but a much better afternoon (39th), for which we got 0.66GP. An NGS set-back, though.
- ECBA Championship Pairs (Sunday 16th March 2025, Barleylands): With DP. OK but somewhat disappointing, though better than our NGS. 8 / 23. 0.71GP.
- EBU Ranked Masters Pairs: National/Regional Masters Section (Sun/Mon 22-23rd February 2025, RealBridge): With DP. Did well enough, but not as well as we might have hoped, though better than our NGS. 4 / 14. 4.68GP.
- ECBA Cornell Trophy (Sunday 9th February 2025, Barleylands): Teams, Mayflower A, with DP and Sandy+Jack. A triumph. We won the competition and David and I easily topped the X-IMPs. 567 LPs.
- NICKO Plate Round 1 (Wednesday 5th February 2025, Loughton): With DP (and CS+PO). Beat Westbury A comfortably (81-22). 1GP.
- Otherwise, I played most weeks at Mayflower, three times at Chelmsford (twice on RealBridge) and twice at Mid Essex. Mostly OK.
- There were three social events: Two lunches with David P and John McC and DP’s bridge day. All very enjoyable. I missed out on Robert’s on account of the ‘bust up’ with Grumpy.
- Looking back, I probably still spend too much time enjoying myself reviewing the sessions after the event, important though this is.
- Further details follow:-
Bridge (Total Hours = 214.75)
- Bridge - Reading / Writing
- Bridge - Admin (Total Hours = 58)
- 24Q4 Status Reports: Bridge (1.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (1.5 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - Lunch with DP & JMcC (5.5 hours)
- Admin - Mayflower DBC - NICKO Organisation (7.5 hours)
- "Admin - Mayflower DBC - Secretarial & Signatory Duties" (15.5 hours)
- Bridge - Discussion with Chris C (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - ECATS SIMS LPs Recalculation (2 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to Albert (0.75 hours)
- Bridge - Emails / Calls to David P (11.75 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to Colin (2 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to Grumpy (3 hours)
- Bridge - Emails to Robert (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - Entries to ECBA & EBU Competitions (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - Planning EBU Sessions with David P (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - Planning Tournament Entries (4.5 hours)
- Bridge - Ranked Masters - Admin (0.5 hours)
- Bridge - Set up Chelmsford BC as Payee (0.25 hours)
- Conversation with Dave T (0.5 hours)
- DP Bridge Party - Meal & Socialising (1 hour)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (41 hours)
- Bridge - Play (Total Hours = 83)
- Bridge - Chelmsford - RealBridge (Albert) (3 hours)
- Bridge - Chelmsford - RealBridge (David P) (3.5 hours)
- Bridge - Chelmsford (Albert) (7 hours)
- Bridge - Cornell Trophy (David P) (6.75 hours)
- Bridge - DP Bridge Party (7.5 hours)
- Bridge - Jubilee (Colin) (3.25 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (Albert) (14 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (Colin) (3.5 hours)
- Bridge - Mayflower (David P) (3.25 hours)
- Bridge - Mid-Essex (Albert) (3.25 hours)
- Bridge - NICKO - TW (David P) (3 hours)
- Bridge - ECBA Championship Pairs (David P) (6.25 hours)
- Bridge - National Pairs - RealBridge (David P) (6.75 hours)
- Bridge - Ranked Masters - RealBridge (David P) (12 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Playing" (83 hours)
- Bridge - Study (Total Hours = 70)
- Bridge - RealBridge Investigations & Training (2.5 hours)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - Albert (8 hours)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - Colin (2 hours)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - David P (4 hours)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - David P (8.25 hours)
- Bridge - Session Reviews - DP Bridge Party (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - Albert (10.25 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - Colin (0.25 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - Colin (1.75 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - David P (30.5 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - David P (0.75 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Review - Robert (0.75 hours)
- Bridge - Systems Reviews - DP Bridge Party (0.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Bridge - Study" (70 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 6:
- 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 7:
- I no longer aim to climb the greasy pole, but simply to enjoy the game.
- As I’m currently not playing regularly in GP events, there’s no point worrying about advancing my ranking, which is fairly meaningless in any case.
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Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025