March 2023 newsletter highlights: Monthly Sunday Pairs and Lunch / Hermanus Pairs / Congress in Cape Town / Beginners' Bridge / Bridge Tips / Safeguarding / Using Pianola

As always, there's a lot of bridge activities planned, so please take note. More information can be found by clicking on the links in the text below.

Several important face to face bridge events take place in the Western Cape in the next few weeks: The Hermanus Open, a red masterpoint pairs event sponsored by Creation Wines, takes place on 14th and 15th April in Hermanus. South African National Congress Teams takes place from 23rd to 27th April 2023 and South African Congress Pairs from 27th to 30th April 2023, both at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town. Entries can be made via SABFOnline for all three events.

The Western Cape Bridge Union and Personal Trust invite players in the Cape Town area, including visitors, to participate in our March final Sunday of the month Pairs and Lunch event to be held at the Bridge Centre in Green Point on Sunday 26th March 2023 starting at 10h00. The cost (inclusive of lunch and a glass of wine) is now still a bargain at R100.00 per person. Contact Shirley Phillips ([email protected]) to enter or to assist you in finding a partner. Please note that there will NOT be an April version of the WCBU's first Friday of the month charity BBO tournament because of the religious holidays. We look forward to seeing you at all these events.

Congratulations to Saul Burman and Andrew Cruise on winning Impala Bridge Club's last face to face tournament, the 2023 Modlinne Verster pairs. The club's annual pairs championship over four rounds, played on RealBridge, drew top players from around the country with Bernard Donde and Rob Stephens emerging as worthy winners - well done to them. Players from around the nation - and even beyond - who would also like to match their skills against the Impala cohort each Tuesday evening should contact Andrew Cruise <[email protected]>.

Moving to ways of learning or improving your bridge, our next beginners' bridge 101 course starts on 12th April using Zoom and RealBridge; the course brochure is attached and we encourage aspirant players from around the country to register for this highly praised course. Please also forward it to friends and family interested in playing our great game. Under the Aegis of the WCBU, Rod Pienaar and Carol Stanton are going to be organising free RealBridge learning sessions where bridge teachers can mentor their own more advanced beginner pupils playing prepared hands in an unthreatening simulated tournament environment. Bridge teachers, in the Western Cape and even further afield, interested in having their pupils participate should contact Rod ([email protected]).

The next of leading bridge teacher Jeff Sapire's brief bridge tips: As a defender, don’t ruff with the master trump, unless there’s an urgency to take a trick (or more). Click here to view a write up on a hand recently played by Chris Bosenberg, one of South Africa's leading players, which shows the importance of hand visualisation; we can all learn from his insights.

At a recent meeting of the WCBU committee, Michele Alexander, who in the past served two terms as President of the Scottish Bridge Union, was nominated as the WCBU delegate to the SABF in accordance with clauses 1.11, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 and 10.2 of the SABF constitution. We wish Michele well in her new role and hope she can strengthen the relationship that currently exists between the SABF and the WCBU.

In line with best international bridge practice and the requirements of the Western Cape Sports Council, the WCBU is pleased to announce that Lara Woznica has assumed the role of Safeguarding Officer for the Western Cape Bridge Union (Lara has since changed her mind and will no longer take up this role - we are looking for a volunteer toreplace her as Safeguarding  Officer). Any Western Cape bridge players experiencing suspected bullying, non-accidental harm, discrimination, harassment, abuse, violence or neglect should report the matter to Lara in confidence. More details of the Safeguarding function and the WCBU Ethics Bye-laws (disciplinary code) can be found in the Administration section of each page on the WCBU website.

By now bridge players who play in the WCBU's regular BBO tournaments or at one of the Western Cape clubs whose results are stored in the Pianola database on the WCBU website will have grown accustomed to receiving an E-mail after each session they play showing their results. But how many of you have taken that extra step of logging in to Pianola to study an analysis of your past performance? For any period of time, you can check whether your strength - or weakness - is declaring, defending - or just being the dummy, which shows you are good at choosing partners! Speaking of which, Pianola also allows you to compare your performance playing with different partners. So try it and, if you have trouble logging in, just contact me.

Finally, some more of the statistics that some of you just love. In the past two months the results from more than 682 (up from 529) tables of face to face and online bridge have been recorded in the Pianola database on the WCBU website. Since the beginning of January 2023, the WCBU website has been used by 1,607 visitors who read 10,586 pages of information during 4,951 visits. Of the visitors, who live in 39 different countries, 86% reside in South Africa, 4% in the United Kingdom, 2.5% in America, and 1% in Australia; 38% live in Cape Town, 27% in Gauteng and 2% in Hermanus. As you would expect, the home page was the most popular page so far this year, followed by the Results, Bridge Clubs, Lectures and Lessons pages. Some 44% of visitors use a computer; 44% use a cell-phone; and 11% a tablet. And that's enough statistics for this month!