Sim Pairs news (mainly!)

Well, we are on track for the World Wide Bridge Contest, happening next week (5th & 6th June) so do try and find a club to play in - the list of UK clubs is on our site - just click here to go directly the page, and the ACBL has a list of US & Canadian clubs on their site - click here for that. It promises to be an excellent event with the usual great commentary from Eric Kokish ... mind you he doesn't always get it right so ... let's see what happens !

We are being asked what will happen next year with regard to Simultaneous Pairs when the new P2P regulations are introduced by the EBU.

The four EBU events (2 in May and 2 in September) will only be open to EBU affiliated clubs, but the others that we score – the BGB events and all the Charity events, the World, European and any other non-EBU events will be unaffected, and everyone will be welcome to participate whether or not they are affiliated to the Union.

We will be working with the EBU regarding the automatic registration of Master Points for all events and our new file format fully supports this.

I am working to "get ahead" this year, because the World Championships in Brazil are earlier than normal - I will be going at the end of August, so I have to be super-organised in order to be ready for all the Autumn events. I can't believe that I have already done most of the work to prepare for all the events including our own Children in Need Pairs in November!

Information about the World Championships is on the website of course, and will be added to quite frequently now it is starting t get closer - why don't you join us out there and play in the Transnational Open Teams - it's a great event and what a chance to meet all those top players !

Mark whisked me away to Wales for a weekend, now that I am just about over the pneumonia - he thought it would do me good and it did !! Have a look at the pictures - click here to see them. It was such fun and we had a great time. It is really funny though, when we go to new places (I haven't been to North Wales for about 20 years and only went to Prestatyn then ...) I tend to spot all the places on the map where I know there are Bridge Clubs from the Sim Pairs ! It was great fun seeing where Ynys Mon play, or passing Dollgellau (another club I "know") - and finally learning how to pronounce one or two of the place names! North Wales is beautiful, and I can highly recommend it !

Now I had better get back to the final frequency checks from the recent EBU Event so that I can close it and send out the results and Master points. Then I can stop work and go and sow some more carrots ...

look after yourselves, and I am sure we will be in touch again soon
anna

What a start to spring !

I must apologise to many of you who have had to wait for answers to emails / telephone calls and so forth ... I got a shocking cold the week before Easter but as we had planned to go away for the Easter Weekend, I did my best to ignore it, and at 04.00 on Good Friday morning Mark and I headed North for the weekend. I did the first 5 hours driving, but soon after I handed over the steering wheel I started to feel really ill! By the time we reached our destination I was running a high temperature, and went to the doctor, who diagnosed pneumonia and prescribed some VERY strong "horse pills". I was incapacitated for a week - I couldn't even face having Mark drive me home, and I am still a bit weak and feeble even now and having to rest in the afternoons. So many apologies if you haven't had replies etc - please feel free to nag and I will do my best to help ! And I am sure that normal service will be resumed soon !

The BGB Simultaneous Pairs took place last week, and the TD will be checking the frequencies later this week so that we can send out the queries on those. The EBU Simultaneous Pairs is at the beginning of May and I have just put the clubs lists up, so have a look and see if there is a club near you where you can play. Fast on the heels of that one comes the World Wide Bridge Contest - as usual the commentary is a long one by Eric Kokish and excellent value, so do join us for that if you can.

We are all working towards the Bermuda Bowl which is being held in Sao Paulo and should be enormous fun - and of course there are the Junior Championships in Turkey, so any of you under-25s should have a look at the details for those.

That's about it for now - you can probably tell that I am tired by the short message ! Iwill put a new blog up when I feel a bit better

anna

Time marches on ... no pun intended !

What on earth happened to February - it just vanished, and it is normally quite a "slow" month because I am so keen on spring starting ! But this year it flew by and now the days are getting longer and the temperature is rising. Mark gave me a weather station for Christmas, which is great fun - you can see what it is like here by going to our "weather page" - nothing to do with bridge of course and that makes it even better!

I have spent quite a bit of time honing my bread-making skills in the dark winter days - such a lovely homely, warming thing to do and the results are great as well (most of the time anyway!). And now the weather is improving I can get into the garden and grow some nice vegetables to go with the bread ... I hope ! little green things are coming up in the greenhouse anyway, so I am very hopeful that they will be yummy in due course.

As for bridge - well it hasn't been exactly quiet on that front ! I have been trying to get ahead with the Simultaneous Pairs, though not with enormous success I must admit, as I have had things like the WBF Anti Doping regulations to deal with - only to typeset I hasten to add, I don't have any part in writing those I can assure you ! 

The BGB January pairs is, of course, done and dusted, and the WBU St David's Day ones are in full swing. The Charity Challenge happens next week, and my hall is full of the booklets for the BGB one in April. The EBU one for May is all ready to go to the printer and the booklets for the World Wide will go off soon as well; the Summer BGB is waiting to be typeset and the ones for the rest of the year are all with the commentators for them to try and second guess what everyone will do on the hands ! I don't envy them that job I can tell you !

The World Championships will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil - as normal there will be a Transnational Open Teams, so if you fancy a trip to Brazil, now's your chance ! All the details are on the website of course ... and will be updated as more information is made available, so do check back won't you?

Now I must go back to work ... time to get the photographs together for a presentation that the President of the WBF is making in Denver!

Is it Spring yet ?

We've had some chilly times this winter haven't we ? I don't mind too much actually - would rather have frost and sun than rain! But there are little signs of spring ... my daffodils have poked their little green tips out of the soil, and the birds are starting to be noisy! 

The BGB Winter Simultaneous Pairs has happened, and we are starting down the road of the frequency checks; the material for the Charity Challenge Cup is due for delivery very shortly, so that will be on its way to the participating clubs (let me know if you haven't entered yet and want to do so, won't you ?) and I am getting the material prepared for the printers for the Spring ones - the WBU at the beginning of March, then the BGB AND the EBU have Spring Pairs, the BGB in April and the EBU in May.

The WBF Charity Pairs is next week, in aid of UNICEF - it isn't too late to enter as I send it all by email, and we welcome clubs from all over the world, so do get in touch if you would like to play in this one. And I need to get to work on the World Wide Bridge Contest stuff for June ... and start the planning for the BGB Summer and all the Autumn Sims ! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

You can find the full calendar of the events we run by clicking here so if there are any that your club would like to play in, well, just email me and we will sort it out !

There isn't a lot of other news - we haven't really started on the work for the 2009 World Championships in Sao Paulo yet, though it won't be long now. And no doubt there will be information going up about the EBL Open Teams in San Remo, Italy in June ... have a look at the website and you will see links to both those events on the left hand side, but there isn't much there at the moment - a case of "watch this space" I guess!

And keep watch out for my blogs - I will be putting information up here as the year progresses ! 

Look after yourselves ...

Thank you - and Happy Christmas

My first purpose with this blog is to thank the many of you (over 16,000 of you !) who contributed so generously to our Children In Need Simultaneous Pairs. We have sent in over £56,000 which is just incredible. Bridge players are, without doubt, wonderful ! Mark and I never cease to be amazed, but this year you really have surpassed yourselves. Thank you, thank you.

We had a wonderful time at the CiN night - it was enormous fun and great to be part of it. Shortly after that we went up to Orkney for what was meant to be just a few days, but turned out to be rather longer as the car broke down, and parts had to be shipped 200 miles before it could be repaired, so it meant I got a bit behind-hand, so apologies for delays on responses to emails etc.

I will be in touch again early in the New Year with news of forthcoming events and such like ! In the mean time, Mark and I  (and, of course, our ECats cats) wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year  - I hope that it is a healthy and peaceful year for you even if it isn't quite as prosperous as it might be !! 

With very best wishes

Anna & Mark - the ECatsBridge Team

Children in Need

Just a brief note here, to say thank you to all the clubs who have decided to join us for the ECatsBridge for Children in Need event and to all the marvellous bridge players who are coming along to play in the events and donating lots of lovely money !

Obviously we are hoping to equal (or exceed) last year's total, but whatever the outcome, your money will be going to help Children who need help ! All the money raised on the night goes directly to the Charity. 

We are going up to the BBC Studio on Friday and will be in the audience for the second part of the show (10.30 - 2 am !) waving a cheque with the ECats Cat on it, so do watch out for us.

I hope that you found the hands intersting and fun ... they are just ordinary computer deals I promise!

For those of you interested in the World Events if you go to the pages about Beijing (click here) you will find lots of data from the World Championships and the Mind Sport Games - all the results and bulletins etc. And if you read my older blogs you can find out more about it !

look after yourselves - I will be "blogging again" in due course!

anna

 

Happy and Sad

The English Ladies team won the Gold medal by just 1 IMP ... Just ONE ! It was a marvellous achievement and I am so so proud of them all ... but I confess to being just a bit sad for the Chinese Ladies ... to miss out by such a tiny margin must have been heartbreaking.

I was also furious because the medal ceremony was held in the BICC which is about a 10 minute bus ride away. My bus left late and I missed the awards for the Women's medals which really did not do much for my joy :-( But at least I was there to see the English Open Team get their Silver medals - another great achievement, losing to the mighty Italians but not heavily - they really acquitted themselves well.

Now I am just packing up - the internet will be "switched off" in a few minutes and then my computer and I will return to the hotel, ready to head for the airport tomorrow morning.

For those of you waiting patiently for Sim pairs results and things like that, accept my apologies and assurances that "normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!" ... but I do plan to sleep for a couple of days after this marathon!

For my family and friends back home ... I can't wait to see you. 

For my many friends here, old and new alike, it was great to be with you in Beijing - a memorable championship indeed for many reasons. I wish you all a safe journey home - keep in touch and I will see many of you next year in Sao Paulo!

Signing off from Beijing - goodbye and in the immortal words of Douglas Adams "thanks for all the fish"