Haiti Disaster Appeal

We are running a Simultaneous Pairs for the Haiti Disaster Appeal. It will be played on Monday 25th, Tuesday 26th, Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th, Friday 29th and Saturday 30th January - please please join us if you can, or donate if you can't play. There will be different hands each night and we will score them across the field if you upload the results to the servers. There are no master points or prizes, just the chance to play some bridge, see how you got on against the other people in the world playing that night and the opportunity to donate some money to help where help is obviously desperately needed.

All we need is for you to email us and tell us: your name, which club you are, which country you are in and which day you want to play. We will then send you a file with all you need - a set of hand records, a set of travellers with the hands on, a README file with instructions, and the dealing files to use if you have a dealing machine. Gary Fan from the USA has done a partial commentary on a couple of the sets and that will be uploaded after the event, but if someone feels like doing a quick commentary on one of the other sets, please get in touch and we will send you the hands!

Just as an example of how people feel, we had this email today:

Currently my son is with a group of about 15 church people on a mission in Haiti; part of the group near Jacmel and the other at Fond Perisien. They were blocked off from getting to Port au Prince by rock or land slides covering roads, but are now trying to make their way to the Dominican Republic. While Jacmel suffered considerable damage, none of the group were hurt and are safe. The group emanated from Frankfort, Kentucky the Capital City Christian Church on a journey to bring clothing, school supplies, etc. They arrived in P.A.P Haiti on/about 8th or 9th January and went forward on their mission into the mountains and then got swept up in the quake. Have been in touch with Ben who assures me they are safe, but it is still a long journey home, but on the whole it is not the journey they expected from beginning to end. I probably won't hear from him personally again until they are on American soil. Thanks for your considering the Haiti Diaster Relief for your charity

Please - play, enjoy and donate whatever you can

anna & Mark
The ECatsBridge Team

Nearly Christmas !

I LOVE Christmas - all the family round, seeing friends, the decorations, the Christmas music (yeah yeah, I know a lot is hackneyed, but it is still fun). And - joy of joys - we have SNOW !! Real, proper, snow - the sort that comes over your shoes ! Yes, it is **** cold (-7.5 last night) but it is also beautiful and very Christmassy. And here is a picture of Mark clearing the path between the house and the office, across where the railway lines used to run.

So this isn't going to be a long and involved blog, as it is really just to wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and a truly excellent, properous and Happy New Year for 2010.

And I will be back in the New Year with bridge news !

all the best from Anna & Mark xxx

I cannot BELIEVE ...

... that we - no, not we - YOU have raised more money than last year for Children in Need - you bridge players never cease to amaze me ! The number of clubs that held raffles, had parties and set out to enjoy the event is just wonderful, and between you you have raised over £57,000 - an enormous amount and Mark and I can't tell you how thrilled we are. Thank you. Thank you all so so so much.

We went to the Children in Need night at the BBC which was amazing - we had invitations to the reception where to my joy I met Nick from the Apprentice (he is just wonderful!), got to meet THREE Dragons from Dragons Den and then met Prince Arthur from the series Merlin ... it was very exciting! Then we went to the show (after the news) and presented YOUR cheque to Terry Wogan. All very enjoyable - not so good was driving the 2-hour journey home at 02.00 in thick fog, but Mark is wonderful and did it in good time. Mind you we were a bit tired the next day! But thank you all for making that possible as well ... we had a wonderful time.

Now, to some news and information. I am really pleased to be able to give you the good news that the WBF Women's OnLine Bridge Tournaments are starting again on 1st December ... click here to find out more about them and do join us if you can and provided you are female of course :-). It is an enjoyable and social event for women players and we would love to have your company.

I have set up the start of a mailing list for Philadelphia, so do email me if you would like to be on it, then I can keep you up to date with news. There is also a list for Press, one for TDs and one for people interested in Women's bridge, so if you want those as well, do let me know - just give me your name (first and last names please), your country, and which lists you want to join and I will do the rest!

The EBU has posted information about what will happen next year regarding Simultaneous Pairs and P2P, so please click here where you can read about it.

Finally, our American friends will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow (Thursday) so Mark and I wish them all a very enjoyable day, whatever they happen to be doing !

Look after yourselves, and I will be in touch again soon ...

blowing a gale ...

As I started to write this, it was blowing a HOWLING gale, the windows are rattling and the draughts are amazing !! But I am cosy with the fire on, so all is well :-). Now it is just wet, wet, wet but never mind.


Now what news - well, lots of news, mainly about Philadelphia and the World Bridge Series next October - it is being held from 1st - 16th October and every bridge player should try and join us there - this is the BIG one and is going to be an amazing event, with many different Championship events and the ACBL regional alongside. Don't leave it too long before booking your hotel rooms, because they are going to fill up very quickly as the WBF has managed to get excellent rates (and fabulous playing conditions !)

Philadelphia looks amazing too - I saw the promotional DVD and just can't wait to go there and experience it all. So just go to my website and you will find all the details there - click here!

Of course, we are only just beyond the wonderful World Teams Championship in Brazil - I can't tell you want a wonderful job Ernesto d'Orsi did there, it was a truly truly memorable event. There are a number of documents and bulletins available from this event - you can click here to find them.

Our own ECatsBridge for Children in Need Sim Pairs is coming up soon - the usual 5 days of it (I must be off my trolley!). Do join us if you can. I will put the club lists up as soon as I can, probably next week, so you can find a club to play at. All the details will be in the Sims section on the website.

More in due course ....
anna

Home Safe .. normal service will be resumed shortly!

We are home safe ! The Championships rounded off with one of the best Victory Banquets ever, and we danced the night away with a great band playing many of the old favourites! Enormous fun...

Sunday was a loooooooong day, as we had to wait until 11.45 pm for our flight, which was on time thank goodness, and returned us safely to London where we landed at 3.15 and finally got back to our Railway Station around 6 pm. Time to unpack, have a glass of wine and a nice risotto and head for bed. Mark has woken with the "Championship Sore Throat" this morning. Every Championship produces some bug or other and this one is not nice ... even Mark Horton lost his voice for three days ! So I am expecting "my" Mark to be languishing for the rest of the week, and just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get it. Anyway, I woke about 10.30 and am now going to try and catch up with my email etc.

And, of course, keep an eye on the EBU Simultaneous Pairs which is running today and tomorrow!

Watch this space for future blogs, won't you - not quite daily but I will try and update regularly!

all over bar the shouting

As I type this, USA 2 are 45 IMPs ahead with one board to play, so ... they have beaten Italy and won the Bermuda Bowl !

And that's it ... all over until next time !

It's been a great Championship - lots of exciting bridge or so they tell me .. I only watched the nail biting ending of the Seniors yesterday, and a few boards at the end of the Bermuda Bowl but I know a lot of people have had a great deal of enjoyment and excitement and that's brilliant!

Thank you to the many of you who have followed my blog ... don't forget me, as I will update it in future, not just at the Championships, so keep an eye out for future information.

Look after yourselves - we start the long journey back to England tomorrow and I will be in the office when I re-surface :-)

Goodbye, and, as they say ... thanks for all the fish

anna

oh fantastic

What a marvellous few moments :-)

The English Seniors team has just won the World Seniors Championship AND the Chinese Women's team has just won the Venice Cup ! How exciting is that ? Here are the Senior Team - from the left, David Price, Paul Hackett, Coli Simpson, Peter Baxter (NPC) Gunner Hallberg, John Holland and Ross Harper. What a great bunch of guys (and they were all very huggable tonight !)
The EBU Press Release about the team can be found by clicking here

I have just been drinking Champagne in the Press Room courtesy of Ross Harper (thank you so much Ross) .... it was great to see the English Seniors Win - David Price said that now he knows what it feels like he would like to do it again :-)

As for the Chinese Women's team - that is very special - they have been "up there" so many times and, indeed, lost to the English women by just 1 (yes ONE ) IMP last year in Beijing, but have never one a World Championship, so tonight's win creates four Grand Masters at a stroke and I am so very happy for them.

So ... just excellent. And we still have the Bermuda Bowl Final to be resolved ... all so exciting ... and Mark is better too, so life is good :-)