December newsletter highlights: BBO games to start at 09h30 / Wednesday Bridge Club grand opening  / Other clubs reopen / Charity bridge events / Trials, SAWBA and Congress in Cape Town / Personal Trust bridge lecture / Warwick Wealth Bidding Competition / Beginners' course / SABF subs are due / Achievements and thanks

There's a host of bridge events scheduled for the first half of 2023 that will be of interest to bridge players and beginners, not just in the Western Cape, but around the country, so get out your shiny new 2023 diaries and plan your bridge lives for next few months. 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.

The Green Point Bridge Centre is going to be busy in January. The Grand Reopening of the Wednesday Morning Bridge Club takes place at 09h30 on 11th January where there will also be cash prizes, a scrumptious tea with cakes, and spot prizes. For assistance in finding a partner or for more information please contact: Michele Alexander on 071 165 50134 or [email protected] or view the attached flyer. Prior to that date, Trumps (contact Nita Abel 082 324-3855) starts again at 14h00 on Saturday 7th January and Grand Slam (Harold Bernstein 083 360-0984) at 13h30 on Tuesdays is already open for play. There will again be our monthly Personal Trust Bridge and Lunch on the last Sunday in January.

Also in the week of 9th January, at the Bowls clubhouse of the Western Province Cricket Club (WPCC), play will resume at the Keurboom Club (Kitty Cruise 082 326-0572) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 09h30 and at the Impala Bridge Club (Phil King - [email protected]) on Tuesdays at 19h15. The Hermanus (Ian Holdsworth - [email protected]), Pinelands (Barry Gunton [email protected]), Bidding Box (Anneke du Toit - [email protected]), Table View (Elaine Edwards - 082 562-6346) and  Helderberg (Beverley Hargrove - Whatsapp 076 762-2340) Bridge Clubs also resume operations that week. You can find more details on the Clubs page on the WCBU website. A bridge drive in aid of StreetSmart takes place at the WPCC on 26th January 2023 at 14h00.

From the beginning of January 2023, WCBU BBO sessions on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings will commence at 09h30; players should please take NOTE of the new starting time. The times for the WCBU Saturday and Hermanus Tuesday BBO games are unchanged.  Our monthly charity BBO tournament, this one in aid of Helderberg and other hospices, will take place on Friday 6th January 2023 at 09h30 - just logon to BBO, select Virtual Clubs - South Africa and you will see our sessions listed. The J&M Bridge Club (John Bryant 082 565-8908) continues to run free informal Monday and Tuesday afternoon teams events on BBO which draw players from around the country.

The South African Bridge Federation Open Trials 2023 and Women's Trials 2023 will be held online under strict supervision at the Green Point Bridge Centre and other bridge centres aound the country between the 5th and 10th February 2023, while the Seniors' Trials 2023 will take place at the same venues between the 19th and 24th February 2023. The format and duration of the trials are dependent on the number of entries and the entry fee will depend on the number of sessions played. The closing date for entries, which should be made via the SABF Online website, is the 8th January 2023 for the Open and Women's Trials and 12th February 2023 for the Seniors' Trials.

The South African Women's Bridge Association (SAWBA) 2023 interprovincials will take place online on 18th and 19th March while SAWBA 2023 itself will take place face to face at the Cape Town Bridge Centre starting on 20th March at 13h30 and finishing at 14h00 on 24th March. Entries will be possible through the SABF Online website shortly.

South Africa's Premier Annual Bridge Tournaments, the South African National Congress Teams and Pairs tournaments will take place from 23rd to 27th April 2023 and from 27th to 30th April 2023 respectively. For both tournaments the venue is Cape Town's Newlands Cricket Ground and the head Tournament Director is Waleed el Menyawi. Entries can be made via the SABF Online website with entry fees of R 4,000 per team and R 1,200 per pair. The closing date for entries is 2nd April 2023.

Moving to ways of improving your bridge, the Personal Trust January 2023 Zoom bridge lecture, to be given by Sven-Ake Bjerregaard on the 22nd of January 2023 at 15h00, will address the topic of “Raising Partner's Major – what do to when you open a minor and partner responds with a major." The Zoom link is:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86732071046?pwd=NjlJQTVueU02dkVXSHpWb2k2b1J4QT09

The Zoom link will also be found on the attached flyer which we encourage you to send to bridge friends. If you missed Craig Gower's Personal Trust Zoom lecture on Covering, then the recording can now be accessed from the Lectures page on the WCBU website.

Our next beginners' bridge 103 course starts on 11th January 2023 using Zoom and RealBridge; the course brochure is attached and aspirant players from around the country are encouraged to register for this highly praised course. The next of leading bridge teacher Jeff Sapire's brief bridge tips: Before drawing trumps, ask yourself, ‘Are there any losers in my hand which I would like to try to trump in dummy?’ If yes, then don’t draw yet.

The January 2023 edition of our Warwick Wealth bidding competition is attached. Congratulations to Erica Zimet on winning the October 2022 competition and to Steve Bunker on winning the November competition. You can view Steve's solution in the News section on the WCBU website.

Players should note that SABF subs of R 200 per player are due and should be paid to your club treasurer or into the WCBU bank account (Bank FNB Branch 200409 Account 62926125263) with your SABF number, name and subs2023 as reference.

As you can see, there's a lot going on bridge wise in the year ahead. Of course, being the year end this is also the appropriate time to look back at our achievements in 2022. But first, congratulations to the Apteker Team (Ragnarsson / Lofgren, Apteker / Apteker) on winning the 2022 Seeff Festival of Bridge Teams event followed by the Parry Team (Parry, Ackerman, Pichler, Harrison). Congratulations too to Noah and Alon Apteker on winning the 2022 Seeff Festival of Bridge pairs competition, followed by Diniar Minwalla and Leif-Erik Stabell and Martin Lofgren and Carl Ragnarsson (looks like the Scandinavians have enjoyed the bridge as well as the Cape Town summer weather). You can view the scores on the Results page of the WCBU website. Our thanks to Jocelyn Ashberg, Shirley Phillips, Andre Truter (the TD) and everyone else involved in planning and running the tournament. Congratulations, too, to the Stern team (Zela Stern, Carol Stanton, Jill Rabie, Laureen Harris) on winning the WCBU SAWBA teams trials. Those results can also be found on the WCBU website.

2022 will be remembered as the year when bridge players gradually emerged from their Covid hidey-holes to once again play face to face with old friends and new. During the course of the year the numbers playing offline bridge rose gradually while our BBO games remained popular. Of course, the table fees paid by players in both forms of the game help to fund many of the activities listed in this newsletter, most of which were started for the first time during 2022, so we encourage you all to play more and so help pay our way as we launch even more bridge initiatives.

Bridge as we know it would not be possible without the efforts of a large and largely unpaid team of unheralded volunteers: the organising committees who pull it all together at the regional and club levels are true heroes; the tournament directors running our events are indispensable; bridge teachers and lecturers are growing our numbers and our skills; Thabo, Bridget and others at the Bridge Centre keep it running smoothly; our bookkeeper Cary Roberts keeping track; and our sponsors, particularly Personal Trust, Seeff Atlantic Seaboard / City Bowl and Warwick Wealth. Finally, of course, you and your fellow bridge players. We thank you all for your contributions and hope we can count on even more assistance in the new year.

Finally, some more statistics. In the past two months the results from more than 580 tables 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 while also 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 6,607 visitors who read 50,293 pages of information during 21,854 visits. Of the visitors, who live in 66 different countries, 83% reside in South Africa, 5% in the United Kingdom, 3.6% in America, and 1% in each of Sweden and Australia; 44% live in Cape Town, 22% in Gauteng and 2% in Hermanus. As you would expect, the home page was the most popular page over the past month, followed by the results, Festival results, Bridge Clubs, and Upcoming pages. Nearly 53% of visitors use a computer; 36% use a cell-phone; and 11% a tablet. And that's enough statistics for this month!

As always, we look forward both to your comments / feedback and to encountering you at the WCBU virtual and real bridge tables in the days ahead. In the meantime, stay safe and enjoy your bridge.