THERE WILL BE A  TRIAL TO SELECT THE WELSH 2021  TELTSCHER TEAM TO PLAY ONLINE OVER THE WEEKEND OF 16-18TH APRIL 2021.

THE TELTSCHER AND LADY MILNE EVENT WILL BE A COMBINED ONLINE EVENT ON 16-18th APRIL.

THIS MEANS THAT PLAYERS MAY NEED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN REPRESENTING WALES IN EITHER THE TELTSCHER OR THE LADY MILNE.

WE HAVE DECIDED TO TRY TO HOLD SEPARATE TRIALS FOR THE TELTSCHER AND LADY MILNE IF ENTRIES PERMIT.

WE WOULD LIKE EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST  (to simon@welshbridgeunion.org) FOR THE LADY MILNE TRIAL  AND THE TELTSCHER TRIAL.

PLATFORM: REAL BRIDGE, ENTRY FEE: £30 per player.

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: 15th January 2021 at 09:00hrs.

FULL ONLINE ENTRY FORM FOR THE TELTSCHER TRIAL WILL BE POSTED HERE SHORTLY.

(NOTE: THESE EVENTS CAN ONLY BE FORMALLY ENTERED BY USING THE ONLINE ENTRY FORM).

THERE WILL BE A COMBINED TRIAL TO SELECT THE 2021 WELSH LADY MILNE AND TELTSCHER TEAMS TO PLAY ON 16-18TH APRIL 2021.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PLAYING PLEASE EMAIL simon@welshbridgeunion.org

ENTRY FEE: £30 per player.

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: 15th January 2021 at 09:00hrs.

FULL ONLINE ENTRY FORM AND FURTHER DETAILS WILL BE POSTED HERE ON 18TH DECEMBER 2020.

(NOTE: THIS EVENT CAN ONLY BE FORMALLY ENTERED BY USING THE ONLINE ENTRY FORM).

By Paddy Murphy NPC

The team played in an exemplary manner and were excellent ambassadors for the WBU and Welsh bridge. It was a pleasure and an honour to be their captain.

We did not have the best of luck in most of the matches

We had what some external pundits might have considered a relatively easy first two matches however the opponents played exceptionally well (more later) and made few mistakes. The third match was similar against tougher opposition but our moment of glory was a very narrow defeat of the winners of the event, England, in match 4. Our final match found the Irish team in aggressive bidding mood and everything they tried seemed to work, whilst our attempts to recover ground didn’t

My theory on the performance of the, Irish, NI, and Scottish teams is that they may have been better prepared than we were. I think the levels of online bridge “of a high standard” in Ireland, NI and Scotland are very high and the experience gained by the players in these competitions may have been their edge.

Possibly we need to embrace the online game more, and need to offer top class events and attract top rated opponents to improve our chances. Fatigue is a huge factor in these games and we need to practice and develop techniques to overcome this and to adopt strategies to conserve energy whilst playing and rest whilst dummy/between matches. I feel the online game is here to stay and I know our players are working hard to get experience.

WALES ACHIEVE OUTSTANDING 2nd PLACE IN LADY MILNE

By Tony Disley NPC

The Lady Milne was held online on RealBridge in conjunction with the Telscher Trophy.

Sarah Amos and Ceri Pierce arranged a number of practice sessions of 4 tables for both teams and willing volunteers to get used to the nuances of RealBridge with screens.

During the event Ceri[aka my PA ic IT]enabled us to use the WBU Zoom facility to hold team meetings both before sessions and after stanzas and a WhatsApp group for general communication.

The team started with a bang on Friday evening winning the first stanza v N. Ireland by 77 Imps .Despite a 7 Imp deficit in the 2nd set , that translated into 19.11 to .89 VP. After losing the 1st stanza by 20 imps a spirited fightback saw us gain 30 imps and beat the very strong England team , or so we thought [see below] A subdued match against EBU , losing by 9 and 14 or 5.76 to 14.24. However we approached Sunday in good spirits .

Again a strong performance in the 2nd stanza to overturn an 18 imp deficit to win by 13 imps and 12.6 VP against Ireland left it all to play for in the last match v Scotland . Losing the first half by 6 Imps left us in 4th place behind England , Scotland and EBU . In the first 13 bds of the last set set we gained 32 Imps with some terrific play and despite losing 19 in the last 3 had done enough to secure 2nd place.

The only sour note of the weekend was that England appealed a board where they questioned the Welsh declarer’s claim to make 5D..we were ruled against and lost 11 imps meaning the match result was overturned to a 1 imp loss.Whilst perhaps technically correct ,the ruling imagined that the declarer might take a very unlikely line and left a very bad taste in our mouths that England should pursue the outcome.

My thanks to the team for their unfailing good humour and the spirit they played in and my congratulations for their performance.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FROM PARTNERSHIPS WANTING TO BE CONSIDERED FOR SELECTION TO REPRESENT WALES IN NEXT YEARS LADY MILNE AND TELTSCHER ONLINE EVENTS.  IT IS LIKELY THAT ONLINE TRIALS WILL BE HELD AT THE END OF JANUARY 2020.

MORE INFORMATION WILL BE POSTED ON THIS BLOG ON 27/11/2020

EMAILS TO simon@welshbridgeunion.org

FURTHER TO LAST WEEKENDS TRIAL THE FOLLOWING TEAMS HAVE BEEN SELECTED.

WALES TEAM

J Pottage & A Ratcliff

A Disley & A Thomas

D Jones & A Dunn

NPC: Simon Richards

WBU TEAM

G Davis & S Ingham

M Roderick & P Murphy

A Stephenson & P Kaufman

NPC: TBD

CAMROSE TRIAL – THE LAST POST

ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED IS ON THIS LINK

(WE SUGGEST YOU BOOKMARK THE LINK IN YOUR BROWSER)

THANK YOU TO THE 14 PAIRS THAT HAVE ENTERED OUR CAMROSE ONLINE TRIAL.

THE TRIAL WILL BE HELD ON THE REAL BRIDGE BRIDGE PLATFORM.

WE MAY HAVE ALL 14 PAIRS BUT THERE COULD BE 12 OR 13 DUE TO POTENTIAL DROP-OUTS.

THE NUMBER OF PAIRS WILL DETERMINE THE EXACT NUMBER OF BOARDS TO BE PLAYED.

THE MAXIMUM IMPS YOU CAN RECEIVE IN A MATCH WILL BE CAPPED AT 40 IMPS.

YOU CAN SEE YOUR OPPONENTS AND VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THEIR CONVENTION CARDS HERE.

THE SELECTORS WILL REVIEW THE RESULTS AFTER THE TRIAL AND THE TWO TEAMS FOR THE FIRST CAMROSE WEEKEND WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON FRIDAY 13TH NOVEMBER AFTER THE SELECTORS MORNING MEETING.

CAMROSE TRIAL UPDATE

THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO EXPRESSED INTEREST AND FOR BEING PATIENT AS WE HAVE FINALISED EVENT DETAILS.

THE EVENT IS NOW INTENDED TO BE HELD ON REAL BRIDGE. WE SUGGEST YOU ALL TRY TO HAVE A PRACTICE MATCH ON THIS PLATFORM.

YOU CAN NOW ENTER THIS EVENT USING OUR SPECIAL CAMROSE TRIAL ONLINE FORM.

YOU CAN SEE WHO HAS ENTERED ALREADY

BEFORE USING THIS ENTRY FORM (BY CLICKING ON LINK ABOVE):-

• MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COMPLETED AND DETAILED WBF SYSTEM CARD IN PDF FORMAT HANDY ON YOUR LOCAL DRIVE.
• YOU WILL ALSO NEED A CURRENT CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD TO PAY THE £60 ENTRY FEE FOR EACH PAIR.

ON 1st NOVEMBER WE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A LINK TO VIEW AND OPTIONALLY DOWNLOAD YOUR OPPONENTS SYSTEM CARDS.

ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE ONLINE ENTRY FORM EMAIL simon@welshbridgeunion.org

We have expressions of interest in playing from the following pairs and we are looking forward to a great contest played on an exciting new online bridge platform.

Paul Lamford & Gary Jones
Julian Pottage & Tony Ratcliff
Simon Richards & Jon Richards
Peter Kaufmann & Alan Stephenson
Kevin Maddox & Tony Haworth
Paddy Murphy & Mark Roderick
B Jones & B Pitts
Fil & Di Kurbalija
Adrian Thomas & Tony Disley
Jones & A Dunn
Sue Ingham & Gwynn Davis
M Jones & J Dunn
Gilly Clench & David Birt
Simon Gottschalk & Chris Rochelle

There is still time for more entries so please email simon@welshbridgeunion.org to register your interest.

The entry fee is £60 per pair and you will need to submit WBF system cards.

FULL ENTRY AND PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE ADVERTISED LATER THIS MONTH.