June newsletter highlights: Face to Face at Bridge Centre / Congress, Oyster Festival pairs and more / Craig Gower and Sven Bjerregard Lectures / Beginners' courses / Bidding Competition

There's a host of bridge related activities coming up that will not only be of interest to bridge players and beginners in the Western and Southern Cape but also to players in the rest of the country so read on. More information can be found by clicking on the links in the text below; or by visiting the WCBU website or our new Facebook page which we encourage players to use, inter alia, for finding partners.

The big and good news, of course, is that Covid restrictions have almost all been lifted, making it even easier to play Face to Face bridge at our bridge clubs and we hope this will encourage even more players to return to their clubs. At the same time, we urge players to continue exercising caution. The numbers of players attending last Sunday's monthly Personal Trust sponsored pairs and lunch session at the Cape Town Bridge Centre, for instance - where Harold Bernstein and Janette Schewitz were again the winners, with the Gersowskys hot on their heels - showed an increase in numbers playing (and eating) and we hope this trend is extended to other clubs. The July Personal Trust Sunday Bridge and lunch session will take place on Sunday 31st July 2022; again the cost is just R 65 and includes a glass of wine with your lunch. While on the subject of food and bridge, those playing on Saturday afternoon's games at the Bridge Centre can now buy toasted sandwiches and coffee while socialising ahead of the game.

The big masterpoint bridge events in July are the 2022 All African National Bridge Congress, taking place on Realbridge from 14th to 17th July, and the Oyster Festival Tournament 2022, organised on BBO on 23rd and 24th July 2022 by the Garden Route Bridge Club. You can click here to enter both these events on the SABF website. You should also diarise the Western Cape Western Cape Pairs taking place on 20th and 21st August. Also attached is a flyer which gives details of the July Personal Trust Teams competition which takes place each Thursday evening including teams from around South Africa and beyond on RealBridge with a R 1,000 prize on offer. Contact Mark Kenyon [email protected] if you would like to enter the July competition.

There are also two less formal bridge events coming up which we urge players to support. The Helderberg Bridge Club is organising a BBO pairs tournament in aid of the local hospice on Friday 5th August at 10h00; contact (Beverley Hargrove [email protected]) if you would like to enter. Further up the coast, the Plettenberg Bay Bridge Club is organising a face to face Tee to Trump Ladies' Golf and Bridge event on 15th and 16th August; the brochure is attached.

Our next Personal Trust sponsored Zoom lecture on Sunday 10th at 15h00 features Craig Gower, who represented South Africa at the Bermuda Bowl, discussing how experts think as they bid and play (see attached flyer for Zoom link) while on 24th July at 15h00 acclaimed Swedish international Sven Bjerregard discuss slam bidding (click here for flyer with ZOom link). The brochures with the zoom links for both are attached. We will send reminders nearer the time.

Congratulations to Andrew Cruise and Steve Bunker on being the winner and runner up of the WCBU's May Warwick Wealth sponsored bidding competition. Andrew's answers can be found on the WCBU website. Attached you will find details of the devilishly difficult July competitions, again with a prize of R 250. Please wait till the 1st of July before entering the July competition.

Our next beginner's 102 course commences on June 29th and the next 101 course on August 10th. The brochure for the 101 course is attached and we encourage you to forward it to friends and family members interested in learning to play our favourite game. Carol Stanton, who runs these courses, was the featured guest on a June edition of Sorry, Partner; you can download the podcast from the Sorry Partner website.

Finally, some statistics. In the past two months the results from nearly 603 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 giving them an opportunity to compare their results in the two formats. Since the beginning of January 2022, the WCBU website has been used by 3,652 visitors who read 27,003 pages of information during 11,300 visits. Of the visitors, who live in 47 different countries, 86% reside in South Africa, 4.5% in the United Kingdom, 3.3% in America and 0.9% in Australia; 48% live in Cape Town, 18.5% in Gauteng and 3% in Hermanus. As you would expect, the home page was the most popular page in June, followed by the results, Bridge Clubs, Learn Bridge and Calendar 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!