There is a long and happy tradition of bridge and other card games at the Club. Ladies have always been welcome, and members and associates are encouraged to bring guests, and we welcome players from our reciprocal clubs around the world.

A regular game is played on Tuesday afternoons from 2pm to 5pm but the staff are happy to set up a table, or tables, for bridge at any other time. If anyone wishes to organise some evening bridge at the Club, perhaps a regular monthly evening, we welcome an approach. We have our annual partnership bridge dinner, at which we compete for the Hunter Cup.

Next year it will be on Wednesday 3rd October 2012, and anyone interested should inform the Club Secretary. We will be holding a Bridge Society Christmas lunch in the Members' Dining Room on Tuesday 20th December followed, of course, by bridge. This will be a fixed menu lunch, with Club wines, for an all-inclusive cost of £35. We are also instituting a “nonpartnership” cut-in bridge evening on Wednesday 15th February 2012. This will start at 5:30pm, with dinner at 7:30pm and finish between 10 and 10:30pm. This will follow the Tuesday afternoon principle of changing after every five hands or a rubber, whichever is earlier. Details will be circulated in due course.

At the Tuesday game, the stake is 20p per hundred. This is designed to encourage players at any level, and newcomers should not feel hesitant to come, as our bridge is generally moderate and always welcoming. You never play two successive rubbers with the same partner. If you cut the same partner, the highest partners the third highest.

We have for many years reciprocated with the Athenaeum and the Savile for bridge. We intend to increase the number of clubs with which we reciprocate – so that enthusiasts can play on several weekdays. We are already invited to participate in bridge dinners at the Savile, the Athenaeum, the Reform, the Oxford & Cambridge, etc. And we like to offer hospitable reciprocity to other leading Clubs.

The following are some in-house rules for the Tuesday Bridge:

• A partner is not required.
• As soon as four players are present the Bridge begins. Players cut for partners.
• Players play five hands or a rubber which ever comes first.
• People who arrive after the Bridge has begun will make up tables as and when there are four players.
• When there is an odd number of players, i.e. too many for one table but not enough to make another table, cards will be cut at the end of each session (five games or a rubber). People who have already played draw cards to decide who will now sit out so that all the waiting players may now play. Any variation to this is at the discretion of the Secretary of the Bridge Society or the designated person.
• Tuesday Bridge is not primarily a competitive session and is designed for members to enjoy a congenial afternoon with like-minded players. In this context conventions are expected to be simple – artificial conventions beyond Stayman and Blackwood are discouraged. The odd 50 is counted up. As at all major London Clubs, post-mortems and argumentation are forbidden, and any player contravening this Club etiquette will be asked to sit out.

It has been many years since our Club has fielded a team for the inter-club Devonshire Cup, and it is our hope that we can stimulate enough interest to have an Oriental team competing next year.

Partnership Bridge evenings are arranged on a regular basis with other London Clubs.

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