Finding our way about

The Presidents at the Opening - from the left: Bobby Wolff, José Damiani, the Magician /Compere, Jaime Ortiz-Patino, Gianarrigo Rona (the current WBF President) and Ernesto d'Orsi

We went to the Opening Ceremony (of course) which was enormous fun. ... the Compere, or Master of Ceremonies, was a magician and was most entertaining as well as doing a great job of introducing the "speech makers" and the teams and then we had an amazing performance from magicians and illusionists MagicUnlimited ... they were excellent. At the end the Master of Ceremonies noted that no less than FIVE WBF Presidents were present and asked them to come to the stage for the raising of the WBF Flag and the playing of the WBF Anthem. You can see them all above ... a great occasion indeed.

Mark, Bud Schoder, John & Adele Wignall

After the ceremony the Dutch put on a truly splendid buffet, really yummy, with the wine very free flowing ! We had a lovely evening talking to friends ... I took some pictures on my phone, but the light wasn't brilliant so they aren't very good, but hey - they show the spirit of the evening and that's the main thing! They are the ones "decorating" this blog! Just to introduce a few of the people shown : Mark is "my Mark", Mark Newton of ECatsBridge. Bill Schoder, WBF Chief Tournament Director Emeritus and a member of the Laws Committee who is here with his wife. John Wignall is 1st Vice President of the WBF and is here with Adele, his wife. Al Levy is Executive Vice President of the WBF and his wife is Beverley. Richard Grenside is one of the Chief Tournament Directors here and is with his wife, Susie.

It always takes a day or three to find ones way about in this sort of event, and this one is no exception - the convention centre is HUGE and we seem to walk miles to get anywhere, but it is all good exercise and means that you meet up with different people all the time which is great fun. Play is well under way and everything seems to be going smoothly.

Adele Wignall, Beverley and Al Levy

Now it is all under way, with play starting yesterday morning. The Executive Council Meetings are keeping all the members very occupied of course, though tomorow is a day when the smaller committees are meeting - I start the day with the Women's Committee Meeting, followed by the Systems Committee then the Technical Committee, just in case I don't have enough to do. Mark gets the fun of the Technical Committee then a Master Points Committee Meeting and later in the week I will have an Anti-Doping Committee Meeting! Then all the Chairmen will report back to the Executive for decisions to be ratified and so forth. Actually a very efficient way of dealing with it all and getting the work done!

Anyway - hope you like the pictures ! And more before too long ... xxx

Richard & Susie Grenside, Carol von Linstow, Mark and Adele Wignall

Bud Schoder, US Captain, Bill Schoder (WBF Chief TD Emeritus)