#4 - 1st May 2011

We are only 2 weeks away from our National Congress and I can report the following:

• We have 94 pairs competing as well as 40 teams.



• The playing times are on the web as well as the names of all that have entered.



• Sid has done an amazing job on the SABF website for which we thank him!



• The hotel is Gung ho and ready for us and I believe that we will have a great time.



• The only blot on this copybook is that the teams players will be unable to vote, but the pairs that wish to, can obtain a special voting priviledge to vote on the 16th or 17th May.
  Competed forms must be handed into the IEC on or before the 3rd May 2011. Please print this form, complete, then fax or scan & email to Timothy Truluck, as he has offered to deliver the applications in person. His fax number is 086 535 1568 and his e mail address is ttruluck@gmail.com .
  
  
  
  The Interprovincial Teams event will comprise of 5 teams competing in the Medwin and 4 Berkowitz teams. Play will begin at 2.00p.m. on Thursday the 12th May and a second session on Thursday night.
  There will be 3 sessions on Friday starting at 9.30 in the morning.
  

Look forward to seeing you in Hazyview !

Helen

#3 - 8th April 2011

Hello All,

I can’t believe that we are only 6 weeks away from Congress.

Unfortunately we cannot publish final details regarding times for the interprovincial, teams or pairs until the last entry is received on the 25th April, 2011.

The Hotel Numbi is fully booked, but there is still place at the Hippo Hollow down the road, which will offer a shuttle to and from the venue. This promises to be a congress as we used to know it with all the players having the opportunity to enter into discussions with the ‘greats’ in the cozy pub every evening.

We will be playing on the Saturday Afternoon and prizegiving will take place that evening with a dinner dance. There will be game drives, spas etc on offer for partners that are not actually playing in the event. If there are any pairs that are looking for another pair to enter the teams, please let me know and I will certainly do my best to play matchmaker.

We are privileged to have Jeanne Meiraker from the Netherlands to be our Chief tournament director and I am sure we will all benefit from her vast expertise and experience.

The one dampener of this congress is that when we booked the venue some 10 months ago, we were unaware of the election dates and although I have written to the Independent Electoral Commission we are at this point unable to cast any sort of special votes prior to leaving for Hazyview.

The Zonals are still on track to be held in Tunisia and after much debate all the teams have agreed to go unless there is a deterioration in that country. Unfortunately Jackie Dorfan and Nelonia Vorster are unable to compete due to family matters and therefore the Seniors team will comprise of four members for the zonals and if they qualify, Peter Terblanche and Vernon Rice will join them in Holland.

I think that you will agree that the Bridge Forum is a great success and I must thank Sid for the outstanding job that he has done in keeping all the panelist on track and managing all the questions that we have received from you, the players. "Thank you!" to all the panelists for the amazing depth that you have given to all your answers, we really have all learnt so much. We will endeavour to rotate the panelists so that the job does not become too onerous and we presently welcome Leif Stabell on to the panel as he has replaced Neville Eber.

That’s all for now.

Helen

#2 - 11th March

So sorry I haven’t been online for some time, but the trials and the subsequent correspondence with every man and his dog kept me either answering e-mails or actually avoiding the computer.

The Senior Trials have produced a really stunning result with Gordon and Kathy Driver, Nelonia Vorster and Jack Dorfan and Val Bloom and Tas Nestoridis, representing South Africa at the Zonals. We wish them well and know that they will be successful.

When I took the chair nearly 2 years ago, I thought that the best way to handle trials, was to ask the players to form a sub committee and submit their recommendations to the SABF. The trials format was published on the web in May 2010 for all to see and give comment.

It is indeed a pity that no-one bothered to read the final document and when the trialists were advised of the format the proverbial hit the fan. From December onward I have been inundated with e-mails that have made my SABF life unbearable and made me aware that there is a life other than the trials, because quite frankly, I thought that my job entailed other issues which have now been seriously neglected not to mention my family life.

I realize that it is time to look at a very serious succession plan which must be put into place at the next Annual General Meeting to be held in May at congress. We need you the members, to come forward if you are willing to give something back to bridge and get yourselves onto local committees and then the greatest challenge of all, the SABF. I have requested that all the unions let us have their nominations for all the positions that are available.

‘We need you!’ as Uncle Sam would say.

The zonals will be held In Tunisia as originally planned. Have had meetings with the African Federation President, Bernard Pascal, and the Tunisian Federation assures us that it is perfectly safe and they look forward to hosting this event.

Before we look around, Congress will be upon us. Please make sure that you enter timeously as the sooner we have entries, the sooner we can let you all know the schedule of events. If you wish to use the bus that will be provided, please book on your entry form so that we can make provision for all who wish to use the service.

When filling in the entry form please let us have your SABF number as looking up one is manageable but looking up 40 – 50 can lead to a lot of extra work for Roz who is taking in the entries.

Hopefully I am now back on track,

Warm wishes

Helen

#1 - 2011 - 31 January

The Open and Women’s trials are over but we still have the Seniors’ trials coming up on the weekend of the 11th February.


Congratulations to the winning teams:

• The Open team was won by Neville Eber, Chris Bosenberg, Craig Gower and Alon Apteker. They have chosen Bernard Donde and Rob Stephens to be their third pair.


• The Womens’ trials was a very closely contested event with barely a point or two between each pair. The Final results were:
  Top qualifier: Diana Balkin and Sharon Lang,
  Followed by Charmaine Lipschitz and Renee Kenny and
  The third Pair is Carol Grunder and Nicole Phillips.

We wish all every success at the zonals. Well done all!!

Regarding the Seniors event, the format will be exactly the same as the womens’ trials and entries have to be in by the 4th February, so that we can plan the trials for the following weekend. Those interested parties should read the trials format on the web.

That’s all for now,

Helen

#17 / 20th December 2010

This is my final blog for the year and...

I want to take this opportunity of wishing all our bridge-playing community and families

Compliments of the Season

And a Happy, Healthy and bridge-filled New Year.


For a bit of news: The closing date for the trials entries has come and gone and we have 3 teams for the Open and 10 pairs for the Womens’ event that have put their caps in the ring.
The trials will be held at the Links from Wednesday morning the 26th January till Sunday the 31st. All participants will be notified by the 7th January 2011.


I wish to pass on the message received from our President of the World Bridge Federation:

‘Approaching the end of the year it is my pleasure both as President of the World Bridge Federation and also personally to send you my best greetings for the forthcoming New Year.

It is an honour for me to take the chair as WBF President and I want once again to thank my colleagues of the Executive Council who have accorded me this privilege.

It is not an easy task for me as the new WBF President to take this chair after the “Giants” who preceded me, to carry forward the vital work that they have done. I had the opportunity to work with them and to learn so much by them. I hope to be able to be equal to this task.

Looking to the future, it seems essential to focus on the different problems which in general influence bridge activity and these we must analyze in detail in order to have the most realistic possible vision.

Above all we can not avoid considering the major economic crisis, the instability and insecurity which troubles the world and the changes that are affecting our society and lifestyles, directly influencing and interfering with our organization and the whole bridge playing world. Not to speak of the explosion in technology. Life style changes are in front of our eyes and we can touch them daily with our own hands.

How can we cope with this? Only by constantly offering our members a better quality of goods and services and overall being strongly convinced of the formative, educational and social values of the product that we are elected to develop … sport in general and bridge in particular. We can do so only if we are all convinced that the development of bridge is not merely an ‘instrument’ to satisfy our goals or our egoism, but it is an aim, an objective which can and must be reached, thanks to our certainty of the importance of its added value for a better quality of life.

When the motto ‘Bridge for Peace’ was forged it was done not simply to label us,
allowing a charming influence on mass imagination and bringing some increase in numbers and income. On the contrary it was created to demonstrate the inner values of our discipline.

We are living in a difficult period, but we have to go on working with passion, dedication and enthusiasm and being optimistic towards the future, towards our aims.

I will be proud, as will my colleagues on the Executive Council, to put all my efforts into developing and consolidating the image and organization of our marvelous discipline everywhere in the world. I will be proud to publicize how important bridge can be for the education of the youth, for the enjoyment of the elderly, for the integration of the disabled, for the avoidance of discrimination.

I am confident to have your support and your help and I want to thank all of you, being sure that all together we will be able to achieve our goals.

I wish you again a very Happy and Prosperous 2011, and hope that you and your family will have a peaceful and enjoyable year.

Ad majora.

(signed)

Gianarrigo Rona
President, World Bridge Federation
December 2010 '

#16 - 1st December

I am so excited! I was looking in the Bridge Forum site and was blown away by what I saw.

Sid has done an amazing job of planning and creating this website and handling all the queries, sending them on to the panel and collating the answers and posting them. It is just fabulous.

As for the depth of information that has been received by Bernard and Tim, it is truly unbelievable. Thank you all for this wonderful effort.

I sincerely hope that all the bridge players make use of the expertise that is being offered. I must stress that we are not looking for expert questions, but we want this to be an interactive site that can offer solutions to all and sundry. We can all learn from the answers.

My day improved when I phoned Hotel Numbi to book my accommodation for next years’ congress and was told that nearly the whole hotel had already been booked! There are 4 rooms left in the main hotel but, there still are a lot of the garden suites available. The hotel’s details are on the web, and remember that you only have to pay your deposit in March next year, so I suggest that you book early to avoid disappointment.

The Interprovincial will take place there from the Thursday the 12th, May 2011.


That’s all for now,

Helen

#15 - 15 November

We have just spent a wonderful weekend in Cape Town playing in the interclub.

26 teams took part in this event of which 12 were from Cape Town itself.

The results will be published on the web, but I am pleased to announce that Gauteng did us proud. The winners were the team from JBC, second the Hillbrow team, third was Alliance from Cape Town and fourth was the Waft team from Johannesburg.

The actual tournament ran very, very smoothly thanks to Hilary Nick who took over all the duties associated with running a tournament. Both Tim Cope and Alan Simmonds assisted with the tournament directing as Jan Van Dyjken was unable to t.d. the whole time due to family commitments. My heartfelt thanks to all of them.

The weather was very mild and as a result the venue, being the Italian Club in Milnerton , was very pleasant except for the lighting which wasn’t really adequate for night bridge. The staff were superb and nothing was too much trouble for them.

Next year the interclub will be held in Knysna, date and venue to be advised.

The AGM was well supported by the players and all the provinces will receive copies of the meeting to be available to all the players. One of the issues that was raised was the awarding of Provincial Colours which was unanimously received by all will be awarded from 2011. There are however, issues that have to be resolved and Peter Terblanche, who was the driving force, will serve on a committee to do just that.


I am also thrilled to announce the advent of our bridge forum which will be available on our website. Tim Cope, Bernard Donde, Neville Eber and Craig Gower who have offered to serve on a panel , which I foresee will play an important part in assisting players of all levels.

Of course the panel will change as we have many players that are willing to give of their time but we felt that four was the maximum that could serve on the panel at one time.

It will work as follows: if any player has a problem hand that they have encountered, they can send it to webmaster [at] sabf.co.za and Sid Ismail (who was the originator of the idea) will send it on to the whole panel and their responses will be returned to the applicant. Please note, that this will not be a forum to mediate on any argument between a pair, nor, to discuss any TD ruling that you may not like and we will be very vigilant in making sure this does not happen. So guys and girls this is a great opportunity to pick the brains of our exclusive group. This feature is one more way we are trying to give back to our players.


I can forward my President's Report if you wish to peruse what has and will occur in the near future.



The team that represented us at the Commonwealth Games has returned and I am including a letter received from Desiree Pieters:

On behalf of the 6 of us that went to India, I want to thank you and SABF for giving us the opportunity to go . The bridge was really phenomenal and it was a great experience to be able to play against some of the world’s best. Nelonia and myself thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The whole event was extremely well organized and our trip to the Taj Mahal was a high light, although it took us 12 hours in the bus there and back! We were also treated to various dinners with entertainment and lunch was offered every day. Coffee, tea and bottled water also available all through the day.

We met Peter Gill from Oz and Paul Hackett from England and they both send their regards to our bridge players that they have met already. Nel and myself did a little tour after the bridge through parts of Rajasthan. India is a debatable country; you either like it or you don’t, me falling into the latter category, Nel into the first. But we still had a good time and the temples and palaces of the older times are stunning and well worth seeing. Lots of marble and inlaid semi precious stones.

Thanks all for now, bridge is calling,

Helen