August newsletter highlights: Bridge and Lunch next Sunday / Seeff Western Cape Teams / Jeff Sapire and Glen Holman lectures / Beginners' Course / Bidding Competition / Website Changes

Once again there's a host of bridge related activities coming up that will be of interest to bridge players and beginners, not just in the Western Cape, but around the rest of the country so read on. More information can be found in the attachments to this E-mail; by clicking on the links in the text below; or by visiting the WCBU website or our Facebook page which we encourage players to use, inter alia, for finding partners.

The Western Cape Bridge Union and Personal Trust invite players in the Cape Town area, including visitors, to participate in our August Sunday Pairs and Lunch Event to be held at the Bridge Centre in Green Point next Sunday, 28th August 2022, at 10h00. The cost (inclusive of lunch and a glass of wine) is just R75.00 per person - where else can you get a bargain like that? Contact Shirley Phillips ([email protected]) to enter. We look forward to seeing you there and again on 25th September. Other affiliated Western Cape clubs that are open for face to face bridge include clubs playing at the Bridge Centre, as well as Keurboom, Hermanus, Helderberg, Impala and, starting 2nd September at 19h00, the Pinelands Friday club. More details of all the affiliated clubs and in person sessions can be found on our Clubs page.

Entries are invited from players across South Africa and beyond for the Seeff 2022 Western Cape Teams Championships taking place on RealBridge on 10th and 11th September 2022. The entry fee is R 800 per team and generous cash prizes are on offer courtesy of Seeff Atlantic Seaboard & City Bowl. A brochure with more details is attached or you can click here before midnight on Tuesday 6th September 2022 to enter. Because this tournament is not taking place face to face, the SABF has downgraded it to a blue point event.

Following the success of our early August charity pairs tournament in aid of Hospices, where 56 pairs took part, we have decided to devote the proceeds of each first Friday morning of the month BBO tournament to a good cause. So, on 2nd September 2022, we will be raising funds for the Peninsula School Feeding Association. Let's see if we can raise an even bigger field - and more money - than the previous tournament! Players can contact me to nominate charities they would like us to support in future.

Congratulations to Chris Bosenberg and Martin Grunder on winning last weekend's Western Cape Pairs tournament - and a big thank you to those involved in organising and running the tournament which went off so smoothly! Congratulations, too, to the Western Cape Team (Andrew Cruise, Tim Cope, Anton Der Kinderen, Michael Alexander, Imtiaz Kaprey and Martin Grunder) on winning the 2022 Medwin Interprovincial teams competition, while, in the 2022 Berkowitz Interprovincial Teams Competition, the Western Cape Team (Duncan Keet, Carol Stanton, Stephen McBride and Paul Lawrence) were runners up. And, while we are congratulating winners, well done also to Roy Danilovitz on winning the WCBU's Warwick Wealth July bidding competition. Copies of the tricky August and September editions of the competition are attached to challenge you; again there's a R 250 for the winner each month. Please wait till the 1st of September before entering the September competition.

We urgently need your help in growing the number of people playing our bridge by persuading one or more of your family members and friends to learn to play. Carol Stanton's next bridge beginner 101 course starts on Wednesday 31st August 2022, running from 19h30 to 21h30. The course comprises 6 weekly Zoom theory lessons, each followed by one hour of practical, supervised play using RealBridge. Each participant will receive a copy of Paul Marstons’ instructive ‘Introduction to Bridge’. The cost of the course is just R 250 - or R 42 per session - a real bargain! Previous attendees on this course have given it a very high rating, with many also signing up for the succeeding beginner 102 and 103 courses. A flyer containing further details of the course is attached for you to forward to potential participants. For more information or to sign up, interested parties can contact Carol Stanton: [email protected].

Personal Trust is the sponsor of the WCBU's monthly free bridge lectures for intermediate to advanced players from around Souh Africa and not just in the Western Cape. Our next lecture on Sunday 28th August at 15h00 features Jeff Sapire, who will discuss responses to opening 2 Club bids; the Zoom link is:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87807981568?pwd=bGpBVmIzVVZ2MVpQTXFOcGJSbVh2UT09

Once you have clicked on this link and entered the lecture room, please IMMEDIATELY MUTE your microphone; the other attendees do not want to hear you answering your phone, talking to your spouse or, worst of all, chewing loudly. Nor do we want these distracting sounds to be recorded. Note that Zoom limits the number of attendees at any lecture to 100. In the following lecture on 18th September 2022 at 15h00, Glen Holman will discuss hand evaluation. We will distribute this Zoom link nearer the time.

There have been two significant changes to the WCBU website which you should note. There is a new Lectures page with the Zoom links for upcoming Personal Trust lectures and the slides, materials and recordings of past lectures - so, if you missed Sven Bjerregaard's fascinating lecture on slam bidding, you can click here to find the slides, notes and a recording of his lecture, as well as the video of Craig Gower's equally instructive lecture on leading. The other website change concerns the JM Bridge page which has been deleted; for the results of JM Bridge's Monday and Tuesday afternoon competitions, please go to the Results page.

Commencing 3rd September 2022, players playing face to face bridge on Saturdays at the Trumps (Bridge Centre) and Links (Joburg) clubs will play the same bridge hands as those playing online in the WCBU, Links and Orchards BBO sessions. The results from each of the five tournaments will be distributed and posted on websites as before. However, the scores will also be merged to create a Saturday National Player Index so you can match yourself against all the others playing the hands. The index will be posted each week on the Results Page on the WCBU website. We believe this will give players a greater incentive to play and do well against their national peers. We look forward to your feedback.

For those of you playing face to face bridge, Michael Alexander has provided a brief summary of the rules related to revokes: Revokes are complicated and should be left to the director as should the correction of a revoke. After the revoke has been established the penalties are as follows: 1. if the offending side wins no more tricks no penalty 2. if the offending side makes 1 more trick then 1 trick is transferred 3. if the offending side win 2 or more additional tricks did the revoke card win the trick; if yes then 2 trick transfer 4 if no did the offender and not his partner, win a trick with a card that could have been played to the revoke trick; if yes 2 trick penalty if no 1 trick penalty 5 if the above is insufficient penalty the director may restore equity

Finally, some more statistics. In the past two months the results from more than 620 tables (up from the 580 tables mentioned in our last newsletter) of face to face and online bridge have been recorded in the Pianola database on the WCBU website where players can compare and analyse their performance giving them the opportunity to compare their results in the two formats. Since the beginning of January 2022, the WCBU website has been used by 4,545 visitors who read 34,157 pages of information during 14,386 visits. Of the visitors, who live in 55 different countries, 84% reside in South Africa, 5% in the United Kingdom, 3.5% in America and 1% in Australia; 45% live in Cape Town, 20% in Gauteng and 3% in Hermanus. As you would expect, the home page was the most popular page over the past month, followed by the results, Bridge Clubs and Bridge Lessons pages. Nearly 50% of visitors use a computer; 40% use a cell-phone; and 10% a tablet. And that's enough statistics for this month!