As promised in our last Western Cape Bridge News, attached you can click here to find the results of our recent Bridge Player survey. But, before you download those fascinating graphs, let me make a few comments.

First of all, a big thank you to the exactly 150 bridge players who took two minutes each to complete the questionnaire. Now, that might look like a very small number of players, but it isn't. Let me explain why.

The SABF has approximately 4,400 members. About 1,000, or 22%, do not have E-mail addresses recorded on the SABF database. These 1,000 probably do not play bridge online and there is no easy way to contact them when we go back to face to face bridge. That's not good news.

During one (typical) week in April there were 2,572 participants in the 53 BBO pairs sessions organised countrywide. If you consider that most people play in two or more sessions a week, then the number of players, including visitors from outside the SABF, was approximately 1,000, or less than 25% of the SABF membership. So, more than 15% of our active players responded. Once you factor in that only 263 players, including 40 from outside the SABF, have participated in WCBU pairs tournaments in 2021 and that 106 of the responders were from the Western Cape then the numbers become even more significant, for this region at least.

As you go through the graphs I am sure some responses will jump out at you. I was particularly struck by two. Nearly 90% of the players want to continue playing online once Covid is behind us. This is not to say they will not also be playing face to face at clubs but it does sound ominous for traditional clubs.

Although just a small fraction of the players classified themselves as beginners, more than 20% expressed a need for bridge education. This is something the WCBU is addressing in cooperation with the other coastal bridge unions. I will keep you posted on upcoming developments in our monthly news bulletins.

While it wasn't part of the survey, one of my personal concerns is a perception that bridge administrators might spend too much time and too many resources pandering to the 100 or so top players striving for red masterpoints. I would much rather that red points were awarded to the unsung heroes of our bridge world: the teachers and those organising clubs, often in remote locations far from the bright city lights. And they should earn quadruple red points whenever they induct a player aged less than 40 or from a previously disadvantaged group. We should all be working together to turn the bridge ship around by increasing our numbers!

One of these heroes is Arie Ridderhof who is about to kick off teaching beginners using Zoom and RealBridge. Rod Pienaar and Carol Stanton are poised to follow suit. You will note that I have not mentioned where any of this trio lives; that's not important when you teach online. Bridge teachers and potential pupils around the country are invited to join in this endeavour which will be expanded to more teachers and to teaching more advanced players. Now, most beginners don't receive our E-mails so we are going to have to rely on all of you regulars to spread the word.

Enough said by me! You can now download the results. I welcome your comments. And, if you're feeling guilty because you didn't participate in the survey - maybe because you thought it was only for Western Cape players - then you can do so now by clicking here. We welcome your comments and will publish the results in our next monthly bulletin and on this website.

Thanks again to the 150! Continue to enjoy your bridge