Annual
subscriptions and table fees – It is that time of year again; prices are unchanged
and noted below. In order to meet the deadline the EBU have given us, we would
very much appreciate your early payment or confirmation that you will not
be rejoining us by March18th please.
·
Annual subscription - due 1st
February £10 (reduced to £5 if joining after 1st October).
·
Table fee - members £2.50
·
Table fee - guests of members
and visitors £3.50
·
Table fee - current
students
£1.50
When you pay this year’s subscription we need information
to update our records and to provide the information the EBU require implementing
the Pay2Pay scheme.
EBU’s
Pay2Play scheme – The radical changes that the EBU have been working towards for the past
three years will come into force on April 1st. From that date all
Brevion members will also become EBU members. Each year, provided that you have
played at an affiliated club twelve times, you will receive a diary and six
copies of the magazine English Bridge.
No longer will individuals be required to pay an
annual subscription to the EBU; neither will the club pay for Master Points.
However, the club’s affiliation fee will increase and the club is required to
pay part of each player’s weekly table fee (39p is the proposed figure) to the
EBU; thus the name Pay2Play. Until these financial changes have settled and
been assessed we will hold our table fee as above through to a September review.
In preparing for the changes, a lot of extra work is
being undertaken by all affiliating clubs officials. The information being
collected from you is in the format the EBU require to enable them to send you
their “goodies” , to record the Master Points you may win and if you are under
twenty-one years of age to identify you as eligible for the under 21 teams! It is
the EBU’s intention to give lapsed members their old number back, so if you can
provide your membership number it will be most helpful.
Monthly
Handicap - It
has been good to see fresh faces winning pens this year.
Club
Ladder –
Have you looked lately? I know we are only six weeks into the New Year’s ladder
but it is those students again! In fact there is only one pair of “old faces”
(sorry Marlene/Robin) in the top ten! Will we get change of name on the trophy
this year? www.brevion-bridge.co.uk/framedresults.htm?folderwanted=2010-02-18&pagewanted=ladder.htm
Charity contributions –Surely, you don’t want to carry coppers in your pocket
or purse so please add them to the table fee. Coppers go into our charity box;
we use them as club donations as appropriate occasions occur. Our copper
collection, Simultaneous events and the Christmas Party income we have enabled
us to donate to the following charities this year: -
·
Medical
Research
·
Children In
Need
·
Essex Air
Ambulance
·
British Heart
Foundation
·
Royal Air
Force Families Association
·
Cancer
Research
·
Haiti disaster
relief
·
Alzheimer
Research Trust
·
Macmillan
Nurses
Teach-in
– We have
invited Sandra Landy to come and host our Masterclass this year, probably sometime
in May/June. For those of you who are not familiar with Sandra, she is a former
British Ladies World Champion as well as the author of the Bridge for All
books. We have suggested the topic of defence but if you would like to
make other suggestions there is still time.
Teachers’
Corner – Don’t
forget to listen to partner’s bidding when choosing a lead: an opening bid suggests a lead but an overcall demands
a lead. All the more reason to make sure that your overcall shows a good
quality suit (minimum five cards and at least two honours). On average we are
defending fifty percent of the games and only playing as Declarer twenty-five
percent. Thus, work on develop your defensive techniques with partner, talk to
partner about your defence sometime, now there is a novel suggestion!
Directors'
Corner: Don’t forget:
·
“Having none
partner” - let us stop these unnecessary calls for revokes by making use of the
rule change.
·
It is a
requirement that both players have their convention card displayed prominently
for their opponents to consult.
·
Good practice
– welcome the new pair and a brief “we play ...........................” - so
easy to make new friends at bridge.
Scorer’s
Corner – There are only one or two Norths
yet to get the message - don’t mark +/- on the traveller; thanks for
“humouring” me.
Our
club’s aim – To enable students and newcomers
to progress and enjoy the game of Duplicate Bridge in the friendly
atmosphere that we promote at Brevion. By the very nature of the game it is
competitive. However, it must be tempered with tolerance, help and
understanding for, and by, all. We fully support the EBU’s BEST BEHAVIOUR AT
BRIDGE policy. p.s. this applies
to being kind to partner too!
Want a partner? Email Ann at annriddleston@btopenworld.com or telephone 01376-515400