#8 17-September-2009

I would like to wish all our Jewish players Shana Tova a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year and Well over the fast.

To our Muslim players after a month of fasting in Ramadaan we wish you Eid Mubarrak .



I thought this snippet I received from Sid Ismail would be of interest.

From a post in Newsgroups on 15-Sept:

In last month's Spingold quarter-finals, Matt Granovetter and Ron Rubin were hauled before a disciplinary committee and given a 30-day probation for excessively slow play. Their opponents were not disciplined.
(Ref: NABC Daily Bridge Bulletin, Aug 2, 2009
http://www.acbl.org/nabc/2009/02/bulletins/db10.pdf ).


Teams in other national events were twice penalized 3 IMPs for having a cell phone in their possession during play.

Sounds like the ACBL has decided to be some muscle behind the regulations.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0

#7 - 4 September

News from Brazil (Senior Team)

- might be outdated as it comes from Peter Terblanche (NPC), but great to get the insights from him.

1st Letter
Despite the fact that the team results are not what we would have wished for at this stage, the team is working really well together and we are all enjoying the cut and thrust of World Championship bridge. We had our best result earlier today against hosts Brazil with Chris Bosenberg, Neville Eber, Brian Marcus and Nick Buratovich scoring a 24/6 win. We are lying near the bottom of the table but are looking forward to the climb up the ladder. We play one of the favourites Australia tomorrow (their team includes the famous bridge author Ron Klinger) and are hoping to emulate the performance of the Boks in
Perth last Saturday. Then on Wednesday we play both the USA1 and USA2 teams so we have a couple of interesting days ahead. The Round Robin stage ends on Saturday and we will need a lot of good wins to qualify for the Quarter Finals.

Besides my role with the SA team I have also taken the opportunity to watch some of the best players in the world at close quarters. This afternoon I sat watched a Bermuda Bowl match between the USA and Morocco. I sat behind the great Eric Rodwell and can only hope that some of his genius rubbed off onto me.

The three sessions of 16 boards each are over and scored by 8pm so we have had time to sample the fare at the local restaurants and discuss the interesting hands of the day. We have found the beef quite outstanding and of course the coffee is some of the best in the world.

Hope that all is well back home, and we will all be keenly awaiting the rugby result on Saturday - as we expected the local TV stations give no coverage to any form of football where the ball is not round.

2nd Letter
The fortunes of the South African Seniors team have turned around since I last emailed you. You have no doubt seen the results on the internet. Yesterday promised to be one of the toughest of the tournament with us playing both of the USA teams. In the first match Neville, Chris, Brian and Nick had a very good draw against USA2 - we actually beat them by 2 IMPS for a 15/15 result. I watched the next match sitting behind Neville and the 8 times world champion Bobby Wolff. The highlight for me was when Wolff was playing in a 3NT contract and Chris falsecarded causing declarer to abandon the obvious winning line of a H finesse through Neville. He tried to execute an endplay that caused him to go down in a contract that was easily made in the other room by Maureen and Val. We won the match 19/11 and I played the same combination in the final match against Argentina which worked well - we won 20/10. We have moved up the leaderboard but are still a long way off 8th spot and a place in the quarter finals.

The match against Japan is on at the moment and after 11 boards Neville, Chris, Brian and Nick are 16/14 up. Hold thumbs for us for the rest of the qualifying matches. Team spirit is high and we are all enjoying the tournament and Sao Paulo. Will go back to the Vugraph Theatre now to watch the end of our match.

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#6 - 1st September

I discovered Port Elizabeth’s best kept secret!

The P.E. Mini congress hosted 30 teams and 62 pairs and what a successful event! It was their 37th Congress and my congratulations to the organizers of a fabulous weekend.

The most exciting part of this for me was that there are so many bridge players and tournaments in places that I have never ever heard of: Mcgregor, Bedford and Cradock to name a few. I am certainly going to try to make it my business to discover all the bridge that we have in our country and get to know our players that put so much time and effort into offering bridge to all.

Interclub 2009

We are beginning to receive entries for the Interclub and it promises to be a great bridge weekend. All affiliated clubs can send a team and if the club hosts more than 30 tables 2 teams can enter.

For clubs that don’t have as much exposure to bridge as in the bigger centers, it is a wonderful opportunity to play against varied opposition. So get your entries in as soon as possible as we will probably have to limit the event to 30 teams. Remember that there is a list of B & B’s in the area on the SABF website under ‘Free State tournament’.

School Bridge

Carol Grunder in Gauteng has started teaching Mini-Bridge to Grade 6 and Grade 7's, (ages between 11 and 12 years old) at Gordon and Ikage Schools in Alexandra once a week.
Within a couple of lessons the children have learnt to do the following :-

1. Shuffle, sort and identify the ranking of the suits.
2. Count the points between the two hands. The pair with the most points declares the hand and dummy is put down before the lead.
3. Decide on a trump suit and estimate the number of tricks the partnership expect to make.
4. We reinforce the following:
   - lead low from an length/honour or top of a sequence
   - 2nd hand plays low, 3rd hand plays high
   - lead back partner's suit
   

So, in effect the children are able to play bridge, without the bidding. Teaching these children is a very rewarding experience and the classroom often resembles a market with laughter, shouting and 'high-fives' !

The response to her plea for teachers has been very encouraging but needless to say there is always a need for more help. If anyone wishes to assist her in this worthwhile project she can be contacted at grunder.carol@gmail.com

Warm wishes,
Helen

#5 - 19th August

Greeting all,

A summary of what’s been happening in the bridge world:

Firstly Rob Stephens, one of our junior players, is competing in the World Junior Championships in Turkey with a Bulgarian partner. He played in a 13 round 10-board Swiss and acquitted himself admirably. His team was called T42 and they came 12th out of 40 teams!! He is receiving great support from the players at the Links and we feel sure he will go from strength to strength.

Our Seniors team, namely: Chris Bosenberg, Val Bloom, Nick Buratovich, Neville Eber, Maureen Holroyd and Brian Marcus and non-playing captain Peter Terblanche are leaving for Sao Paulo next week to compete in the Seniors Bowl. We wish them every success and a safe return.


A ‘trials’ meeting was held 2 weeks ago and after much discussion the following proposals were tabled:

• All trials would be held at least 8 months before the event to allow for coaching and practice as a team.
• Requirements for entry into trials:
  South African Passport
  Attendance at national events
  Regular partnerships or committed pairs
  Entrants to be regular club players
  Four year results in major events.
• Open Trials format:
  Bermunda Bowl – Teams Trials
  World Mindsport games – Pairs trials with 10 or less pairs then pairs trials with teams format.
• Womens and SeniorTrials and Commonwealth Games:
  With 10 or more pairs – Butler format of 16 board matches with a teams playoff for the 1st 5 pairs. If less then pairs trials with teams format.
• A trials sub committee is to be formed to take this project further.

All these proposals are in their infancy, but at least we have a starting point to work from.

Next year the Commonwealth Games and the World pairs is to be held in Philadelphia; both take place in October 2010.

Wishing you all good bridge

Helen

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.