Trials / Conventions Control

Blog 13 posted on 22nd November

After my last entry I was thrilled to hear from so many interested parties regarding our trials format. Remember you have until the 30th November to share your views and after that all comments will be collated and a further meeting with the original team to draft the final document and then this will be discussed in committee and we will have our new trials format!!!!! Sounds easy doesn’t it. Huh!

In the meantime we will be holding trials for the Commonwealth Games on the first weekend in February. Probably from Thursday the 4th until Sunday the 7th. The Commonwealth Games will be held in New Delhi from the 3rd to the 14th October 2010 and at the same time the World Pairs will be held in Philadelphia USA from the 1st – 16th October 2010.

We have been invited to send one team to New Delhi and the SABF have offered to pay the entry fee, but the rest of the cost will have to be borne by the team. Needless to say the format will only be decided once we have received all the entries. It will be held in Johannesburg unless a particular province has the majority of entries. Entries will close on the 15th December 2009 to facilitate us making the necessary arrangements timeously.


Regarding our convention controls, I have been in touch with the newly appointed chief tournament director of the African Bridge Federation and I’m attaching his reply, so please be patient whilst we await changes in our Convention controls.

"Thank you for your e-mail and for your congratulations as CD for the "African Zone BF". I shall come back to you with my opinion in relation to the South African regulations and Conventions and will do my best to help you. As for ABF, we shall be working together in our NBO's on having a well defined regulations and conventions in agreement with the WBF regulations and the international laws of bridge 2007,and to be consistent with the rest of the world.
With best regards.

Magdy”

Dr. Magdy Shohdy Mesdary
Cairo,Egypt.

Have a good week and a happy Eid to our Muslim friends for the 27th November,

Regards Helen

TRIALS. 10th November

Hi all,

After a fairly unsuccessful year at the zonals held in Egypt, it was felt that we needed to look at our trials format. As a result a 'trials committee' was formed under the chairmanship of Carol Grunder. They were tasked with finding a format that would produce the best possible teams to represent S.A at the Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup as well as the Mind Sport Games(Previously known as the Olymics) and the Commonwealth Games. In fact a four year plan is what we had in mind.

The proposal in this PDF file is for eveyone's consideration. I look forward to all your thoughts and comments but the closing date for such interaction is the 30th November 2009 as trials for the Commonwealth games would have to be run at the beginning of February so time is of the essence.

Please take this opportunity of voicing your concerns or suggestions.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Helen
helenk@telkomsa.net

3rd November

Blog 12

The interclub has come and gone, but what a wonderful tournament.
Seeing everyone from all over the country was great. Hopefully we’ll see more teams entering next year.
Bloemfontein was one of the best venues we’ve had in a long time and very central for all who drove down.
I hope you all enjoyed watching the Inter-Provincial on BBO and my grateful thanks to Carol Grunder for undertaking this project.

AT the Bi annual A.G.M I began my report with the following:
‘I have thought long and hard about what the SABF means to all our members and I’m not sure I have any of the answers.’
Well, after being with everyone and listening to all everyone had to say, I believe I do have the answer!!!

We are here to serve our members! It is not only about masterpoints and international competition, but the running of our clubs successfully.
In order to encourage clubs to affiliate, we can offer so much, such as: teaching programmes, arbitration in times of need, and general administration. We have a wealth of experience amongst our bridge players who have offered to assist.
We want our players to all be part of one big family!
After the meeting, I felt that for once in many a long year we are all working together towards a common goal.

After such a successful interclub, we propose starting a BBO interclub league from Thursday the 14th January 2010. It will be a weekly competition, comprising 24 board matches starting at 19.30 in the evening.

The format will be that any affiliated club will enter a team, (If the club has more than 30 tables - 2 teams may enter) the composition will not matter as long as the club undertakes to field the team on a weekly basis. We will be inviting Zimbabwe and Botswana to join us and in fact I have a Skype conference scheduled for Monday and will ask the other African states if they would like to join. We’ll be truly international!

Please indicate your willingness to be part of this tourney and get encourage your clubs to enter with Carol Grunder at grunder.carol@gmail.com.

Warm wishes
Helen