AN ONLINE bridge competition set up throughout lockdown has helped members of various Wee County clubs keep in touch with one another.

Fraser Evans, a member of the Alloa club, set up the online competition in order to keep people safe while still being able to enjoy playing bridge.

After setting up instructions on how to get set up, Fraser continues to collect the results and marks them on a chart.

Members include players from the Alloa, Dollar and Hillfoots clubs.

Linda Sommerville, secretary of the Dollar club, described Fraser's venture as "terrific".

She said: "We couldn't play bridge [because of] Covid and Fraser said he would set up an online game every week for anyone who wanted to play from any of the bridge clubs.

"Most of us that play are members of the Scottish Bridge Union but this is just an unofficial competition and he set it all up so we can play."

Upon completing a recent round of golf, Fraser was surprised with a bottle of whisky and an afternoon tea, to thank him for his efforts.

Linda continued: "A lot of people who play are, like me, a bit older and have had to be very careful with Covid so it's been terrific to have something to look forward to once a week."

Unfortunately for now, despite the relaxing of the Covid-19 rules, Linda doesn't think the clubs will be able to play in person anytime soon.

She continued: "I don't think we'll be able to for a while because you're sitting at close contact with other people."

Fraser was actually in South Africa when the lockdown was first announced last year and set up the club to continue playing while he was away.

He said: "We're from three different bridge clubs and it's a regular thing. When the lockdown came we thought it might be a good idea to try and set something up.

"We've got 40 players so that's 20 pairs so it's really quite good. It was really just to stand in for the face to face games because that's what we're missing."