Post 4 - 12th July 2009

Details for the Inter-provincial and Interclub are emerging and the dates and provisional times are as follows:
Interprov: starts Tuesday 27th at 14.00 and ends Thurs 29th at approx 12.30
Interclub: starts Thursday at 14.00 and ends Sunday 1st Nov at approx 13.00

The venue is the Orangia Bowling Club - it has all the facilities we need; and our hosts will be the Bloemfontein Bridge Club ladies headed by Ria Louw. There are 3 hotels in the vicinity including the new casino hotel. As previously mentioned there is a list of B & B’s on the SABF website and those prices range from R180 per night upwards.

The hotel rates are as follows:

• Windmill Casino R890 per double room and R600 in you have a MVG card. Tel no. 051 410 2000
• City Lodge R840 per double room. Tel no. 051 444 2974
• Protea Hotel R1246 per double room. Tel. 051 412 5400 (busy negotiating, so hopefully will improve)

I believe that Roger Wilson’s negotiations are almost concluded and that we can look forward to Congress being held at Greyville in 2010. The dates still to be confirmed are the week of 7th till 14th May 2010.

For the past 2 years we have held the Interprovincials together with the Interclub and I would like your thoughts on whether we should once again hold the interprovincial with Congress. The format was changed to shorten congress, but now we need a week for the interprov and interclub so I’m not sure we have gained anything timewise. I must admit that I think that the interprovincial has lost some of it’s prestige with this move and I personally would like to see it back where it belongs.

Comments welcome.

Warm regards

Helen

Post 3 - 30th June

Greetings,

We held our first executive meeting last weekend and the following might be of interest to you:

The Interprovincial and Interclub will be held in Bloemfontein from the 27th October till 1st November. The Free State was chosen so that it could be accessible to all the provinces. There is presently a list of B & B’s posted on the website under the Free State Tournament. The interprov will begin on Tuesday afternoon and run until the Thursday morning. That afternoon the interclub will begin with the final matches being played on the Sunday morning. The schedule of play will depend on the number of teams entered but I will keep you posted.

The Entry Fees are as follows:

• Interprovincial: R750 per team
• Interclub: R1200 per team.

One of my plans of action for this year is to meet with as many players as possible so that we can exchange ideas and generally work together. I was thrilled to be invited by Knysna to play in the Oyster Festival and the Lagoon tournament. So please let me know when I can visit and meet your members.

Pat Truter is our masterpoint secretary and my thanks go to her for an excellent job of work. She has to masterpoint in the region of 5,000 different events annually and that’s no mean feat. In order to assist her, it was decided to relieve her of all the queries and that Ann Sturrock will be the Communication Liaison Officer regarding masterpoints, so in future please address such to her at annian@iafrica.com. Masterpoints have always been around but I think we need to exploit it further. It was decided that now that we have monthly promotions (thanks to Pat), we would be able to issue certificates to our members achieving the next rung of the ladder.

The different grades are as follows: SABF MASTERPOINT RANKINGS

Masterpoint ranking boundaries as defined and approved at the AGM during the 2002 SABF National Congress.

• Member: Below 200 local points (2 Blue points)
• Club Master: 200–1000 local points (2-10 blue points)
• Local Master: 1000-2500 local points (10-25 blue points)
• Master: 2500-5000 local points Provincial Master: 5000-15000 local points (50-150 blue)
• National Master: Above 150 total points (Red + Blue) (75 of which HAVE to be RED) and below 300 total points
• Life Master: Above 300 total points (150 of which HAVE to be RED) and below 600 total points
• National Life Master: 600-1200 total points (300 of which HAVE to be RED)
• Premier Life Master: 1200-2000 total points (600 of which HAVE to be RED)
• Grand Master: 2000 total points (1200 of which HAVE to be RED)

Keep warm and enjoy your bridge,

Helen

Post 2 - 13th June

Trials in Egypt

Our teams are all safely back from the African Zonals held in Egypt.

Our Seniors team did us proud finishing second in the zonals and will be representing South Africa in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the end of August.

If you wish to see our players in action, photos have been posted on the SABF website.

Post 1 - 21st May 2009

Greetings to you all,


2009 CONGRESS

The A.G.M of the SABF was held at the Protea Hotel, The Wilderness, during congress last week.

I accepted the position of President with much trepidation but also a great deal of excitement, at the opportunity of trying give something back to bridge, the game that really changed my life!

We had 315 pairs playing in various tournaments, which was a terrific entry so thanks to all who were there. There is nothing to beat the sense of excitement and comeraderie amongst all and the renewing of old friendships. Perhaps next year we will be able to attract an even bigger entry.

Craig Gower and Alon Apteker ran away with the awards, being the overall winners in the Pairs Championship and winning the Teams event together with Tim Cope and Glen Holman.


We are now looking for a venue for the 2010 Congress so if you have any ideas please let me know!


AFRICA TRIALS

Our 3 teams: Open, Women’s and the Seniors' teams leave for Egypt to compete in the African Zonals starting on 31st May. 2 Teams in each category (from Africa) will qualify to play in the Bermuda Bowl (Open), Venice Cup (Women) and Seniors Champonships in Brazil later on in the year and we wish our teams every success!



COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010

The SABF have been invited to send a team to the Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships to be held in New Delhi, India from 25th to 31st October 2010.


PLEASE TALK TO ME I look forward to hearing from you, our fellow bridge players, either as comments to posts here on this blog, or via email and my committee and I will endeavour to answer any questions/suggestions from you.


Regards,

Helen