Shanghai Approaching!

The World Championships in Shanghai are starting to loom large on my horizon, as the teams are registered and the systems come rolling in (not quite as fast as I would like unfortunately - come on guys, get weaving!)

Don't forget you can enter the transnational Open Teams - such a great event and wow ! you get to see Shanghai as well as play bridge in a fantastic tournament. AND you get to see some of the great players in action in the final stages of the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and Seniors Bowl. All very exciting ! Have a look at the ECatsBridge website for more information about this.

More local (and much sooner!) don't forget the English Bridge Union Brighton Congress - it starts on 10 August, but there is still time to book in. Click here for more information about that one.

Don't forget the next Green Pointed Sims will be the EBU Autumn Pairs on Monday 17 & Tuesday 18 September ... just get in touch if you haven't entered and would like to ... details are here

So what else - not much bridge really, it all seems to go slow in the summer months, which is really just as well with the World Championships coming up, but it did mean I could take a day or three away from the office to go wandering ...

... and as usual I headed North (despite the weather) and surprise, surprise, found myself in Scotland recently where I came across this furry little fellow - isn't he wonderful !

It was great to see red squirrels in the wild - round us they have been driven out by the greys, so I thought I would share this one with you.

We visited the Osprey Centre as well, and were rewarded with some great views of these wonderful birds - too far away for my camera unfortunately but I really (really) can't afford the sort of lens that would capture them!

So ... I hope you get good holidays, good weather and have fun ! And maybe I will see you in sunny Shanghai !

And they call this summer ?!

I don't know about you, but here in England it has been the wettest June since records began and it is merrily continuing into July. However, I am not really complaining because we spent the last two weeks in June on the Orkneys - right up there in the North of Scotland. And we were rather luckier - it was cloudy some of the time, chilly (well quite cold actually) some of the time, but also sunny some of the time and we really didn't get much rain at all. And we relaxed and it was great. Took some pictures which you can find those on Flickr if you are interested.

And I had a reminder about another wet summer yesterday when a very old friend, Tony Sowter emailed me telling me he has set up his own website. Tony is/was an international player of some repute, winning the European Championships back in Killarney in Ireland, playing with Roman Smolski .. all too many years ago but what a fun Championship that was! But I think it rained every day - soft Irish rain, but no less wet for all that!

But anyway, to bridge and more work related matters ... we are really starting to "ramp up" towards Shanghai and the World Championships, and the lists of teams, although incomplete as yet, is up on the site - click here to get to them.

The European Championships have come and gone and were, I gather, very successful - I wasn't their myself, but am meeting friends who were at the weekend so am looking forward to hearing all about them. You can find all the bulletins and results etc on the official event site of course. Congratulations to the teams and pairs who were "on the podium" - a full list of them can be found in the final bulletin.

And next week sees the start of the European Youth Championships in Jesolo, Italy, so for the youngsters and young at heart among you, take a look at the official event site for that as well and see how the Junior, Schools and Girls teams get on.

Simultaneous Pairs - well the BGB Summer Pairs is at the end of the month, and I will be putting up lists of competing clubs in a day or two so you can try and find one to play at if your own club isn't running it. Remember, it is green pointed, so well worth entering !

So - wherever you are have a great summer. And if you have been on holiday I hope it was as good as mine, and if you are going on holiday I hope it will be as good as mine !! But's let's hope for a bit of sunshine wherever and whatever you are doing.