.. that's what my poor blog is. Neglected and unloved. Somehow it slips my mind, which is NOT GOOD. I really will try and do better but judging from past experience, I hope you won't hold your breath !
So - what's been happing in ECatsBridge and the bridge world. Well, Mark has been beavering away and has created a new archive area where we have old bulletins (lots of them!), old system cards (lots of them too) and old programmes from events. If you know of any that are missing and can send us hard (or soft) copy that would be great ... if it is a pdf file, though, please can you make it a searchable one, as the whole point of this archive is that you can search it. Have a go - look for a player's name, or an event, or in the systems search for a convention. It will come up with whatever it can find for you. Not bad huh ? Anyway you can find it at: http://info.ecatsbridge.com/ .
Thesystems for the European Championships in Dublin aren't there yet, becauuse the players keep sending me revised versions, and anyway I am still waiting for one or two. Once it is a complete set I will put it there, but in the meantime you can find them, with all the information about Dublin, at: www.ecatsbridge.com - go to the bit about EBL news and the links are there.
We are, of course, moving rapidly towards the World Bridge Games being held in lovely Lille in France - as normal there is a Transnational Teams - in this case it is a World Transnational Mixed Teams for you to play in if you don't make it to your National Team ! It's such a lovely event, happening during the second week of the Championships, and giving you the chance to enjoy the marvellous atmosphere not only of the World Bridge Games but because this event is part of the World Mind Sport Games, there will also be Chess, Draughts, Go and Xianqi (Chinese Chess) to enhance it all. So do give some thought to making up a team and joining us in Lille. We would love to see you there. You can find more information at www.ecatsbridge.com of course (look in the WBF section).
The world wide bridge contest is happening next weekend, alongside our Queen's Diamond Jubilee - what are you all doing to celebrate I wonder ! for all the information about the WWBC go to www.ecatsbridge.com (there's a surprise) and the link is on the front page.
The next event on our calendar is the Bill Hughes Simultaneous Pairs held in the last week in June - click here for more information about that one. The organiser has been very busy this year inviting overseas clubs to join in, so hopefully it is becoming more of an international event.
Next comes the Simultaneous Pairs in aid of Kidney Research on 12th July. Clubs wanting to join this event should email me (anna@ecats.co.uk) as soon as possible. If you are a non-affiliated English club you can still play - we have set up a separate session for non-affiliated clubs, and there will be a combined overall ranking to show where you came across the whole field. The event has booklets and so forth just as it always has done, and we welcome all comers. It is such a worthy cause and I am sure many of us know people who have had, maybe still have, kidney problems.
Finally (finally) the sun has decided to shine, so I am rather hoping that my little vegetable patch will start to grow ... it's been pathetic so far ! I can just about rustle up enough lettuce leaves and herbs for a nice herb salad, but that's about it so far this year. I think the mice ate all the peas I sowed, and the kittencs haven't managed to eat the mice (yet!).
Anyway- time to get back to the Rules and Regulations for the World Championships, oh joy !
take care and I will try and be better about blogging more regularly, though I say that every time don't I !
anna
