About Our Bridge Courses

Play & Learn. Wednesday Afternoons, starting 2nd April 2008
Come and play duplicate with prepared hands, and help available. No need to book ahead, just £5 per session. Come with or without a partner, but please be there before the start time of 1.45. More

Next Step is the follow on to the beginners course that started in January. The course is also very suitable for anyone that knows the basics but wants to have some structured teaching in the areas of both bidding and play. More

Beginning Bridge. A new beginners course starts in October 2008. We will teach to the EBU Bridge For All syllabus. This is a proven and tested method and ensures that you learn a system that is both up to date and a sound foundation to build on. Generally it takes 9 months to a year of learning and playing to cover all the basic aspects of playing and bidding. All future learning will be built on this foundation. Beginning bridge is the first step and will get you to the point where you can play with friends or at our supervised playing sessions. More

Monthly Masterclasses for Club Players: Thursday Afternoon, once a month.
Most bridge clubs play duplicate bridge. Then the competition can be fierce, and established partnerships seek to extend their basic bidding and signaling system by adding various conventions. Robert Baker presents half day sessions on specialist topics. More

Bidding Systems

All our courses for beginning and intermediate players keep to Acol as described in the Really Easy books published by The English Bridge Union (EBU).

The Acol System
Acol, which is based on opening with 4 card majors, is the system of choice for most bridge players in the UK. If your bridge experience is outside the UK, or if your bridge education was long ago, you may be more familiar with a 5 card major system.

Understanding the Acol system is vital to anyone playing bridge in the UK. Most of the people that you would like to be your partner will be Acol players, and even if you and your partner are playing a different system, you need to understand what the opposition are saying to each other!

Modern English Acol
Acol was invented in the 1930's. It is the surviving system from that era, but inevitably it has been refined over the years. To provide a sound foundation for teaching the EBU (The English Bridge Union) recently defined Modern English. The books are authored by world bridge champion , and bridge teacher, Sandra Landy. Below masterclass level this is the system that we teach.