A club enabling boys to learn one of the most demanding, yet popular, card games has started at QE. Six Year 9 boys from each house have joined the Bridge Club, organised by Mathematics teacher and contract bridge enthusiast Jillian Simms.
“We have a specialist bridge teacher, Harold Schogger, coming in on Monday lunchtimes to pass on his expertise to our boys,” said Mrs Simms. “At the moment they are still receiving instructions about the complex rules and strategies but will soon be playing competitive hands. After that we hope to compete in inter-school competitions – particularly as the final of the 2013 national schools bridge competition was between two schools which are both easily accessible to QE – the independent Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ and Merchant Taylors’.
Contract bridge is a trick-taking game using a standard 52-card deck. It is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. It demands the application of a wide set of skills including evaluation, memory, risk assessment, strategy and probability.
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The cards are dealt and each player has to assess the value of the hand he holds before engaging in the auction – or bidding – phase of the game. In this process, players indicate how many tricks they think they can take, with the highest bidder winning the right to play out the contract. The game consists of several hands; players can win points for successfully completed contracts and for hands where they prevent the bidder from achieving his target.