June 2024 Highlights: Bridge Schedule / New BriAn user guide / Club Results / Bridge Tips

This is the third newsletter of Bridge for Africa (BfA) formed in April 2024 to assist bridge players in Africa to play more and better bridge. We welcome your suggestions on how we can better achieve this seemingly simple objective.

The good or bad news, depending on whether or not you have entered the August 3rd pairs tournament organised by the Darling Bridge Club, is that the tournament is fully subscribed with seventeen tables of players scheduled to take part. We look forward to meeting many members of BfA clubs at what looks likely to be a fun day out playing bridge in the Western Cape countryside. Hopefully, if it's the success we anticipate it will be, we will see more similar tournaments taking place, especially come summer when the swallows return. Next up is probably the Bedford Teams competition tentatively scheduled for late September; watch our next newsletter for details of what is my favourite annual tournament.

The number of players, from across the country and beyond, playing in BfA's online BBO tournaments on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 14h00, has shown steady growth but we would like to see more players taking part. These are 21 board sessions costing just BB$ 1.50 per player - and you don't need to belong to a club, union or federation in order to take part from the warm winter comfort of your home. Contact Judy Wulf ([email protected]) or just go to https://bridgebase.com/V3/login?cmd=tourneyList&style=hp:BFA or search on BBO for BfA.

The new Village Bridge Club, which plays at Cape Town's Constantia Bowls Club at 13h30 on Mondays and at 09h15 on Thursdays, is already drawing more than 22 pairs to some of its keenly contested sessions but would like even more; contact Graham Spolander ([email protected]) to play or to find you a partner. Constantina, the other popular bridge club playing at the Constantia Bowling Club - on Mondays and Fridays at 09h00 - is already fully subscribed but, with so many grandparents away visiting distant family, Doreen Dawson ([email protected]) might just be able to squeeze you in temporarily. If you live in the Overberg, the Hermanus Duplicate Bridge Club organises tournaments on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays at 13h00 and would be delighted to welcome you; contact Judy Wulf ([email protected]) for details.

After Covid there was a big drop off in evening bridge attendance and many clubs cancelled their night time sessions to the detriment of non-retiree players looking for some entertainment after a long day at the shop or office. One evening club that continues to function is the friendly Constantiaberg Bridge Club which meets at the Cle du Cap Retirement Village each Thursday at 19h00; contact Neil Armitage ([email protected]) for more details.

Incidentally, Constantiaberg pioneered the Western Cape's use of the BriAn cell-phone based scoring system which is now also being used by the Constantina, Village and Darling Bridge Clubs, with other clubs lined up to start using the system in the days ahead. Please contact me if you think your club could benefit from using BriAn. Our BriAn user guide, authored by Neil, has been updated and you can click here to download the latest version.

Congratulations to the following players for achieving the best average in 3+ sessions at their club in June: Louise Mackintosh (BfA BBO); Michelle and Tony Greenwood (Constantina Friday); Trish Curzon and Colleen Gower (Village Monday); Graham Spolander (Village Thursday); and Kevin Middleton (Hermanus Duplicate Bridge Club).

The following bridge tip comes from top bridge teacher Jeff Sapire: When an opponent has shown a 2 suited hand (Michaels, Ghestem, Hamilton), a trump lead can be very effective, from Axx or xx or xxx or even Kxx. Each week we also include two new tips in the Pianola results E-mail sent to players in all the above competitions and those sent out to date are shown on the Bridge Tips page on the BfA website. Those of you involved in running tournament sessions can click here to access the English Bridge Union's More Help with TD Rulings - Video Series.

During June our member clubs recorded the results of more than 278 tables of bridge on Pianola and this newsletter now goes to more than 750 players, mostly on the mailing lists of BfA member clubs, to assist them to play more and better bridge. If you wish to unsubscribe then click on the link below. Our map of African bridge clubs - so far we have found 63 - has been viewed nearly 5,000 times, hopefully by bridge players looking for somewhere convenient to play - maybe you have already met them at your club?

In the opening paragraph of this newsletter I made a plea for your ideas. Our biggest challenge, especially as our bridge population ages, is to attract new and younger players into the game. Today's electronically distracted teenagers and their over committed parents lead such busy lives they don't have spare hours to devote to learning and playing our wonderful game. We would welcome your suggestions on how, together, we can overcome this challenge. Better still would be to learn of working examples that can be applied elsewhere.

So we look forward to both your comments / feedback and to encountering you at BfA face to face clubs or at our online sessions in the days ahead.