Welcome to the National Bridge Organisation for Scotland

The Charity Pairs played on Tuesday May 4th was again won by Dan O'Farrell & Huaiyu Fan.  Congratulations to them.  The money raised this time (about £130 - £140) is being donated on their behalf to the Samaritans.  The next charity event will be played on Tuesday June 1st at 7 pm on BBO.

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Well done Mark Menzies and Tam Penman who won the National Pairs final on Sunday 9 May. 

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The Scottish Swiss pairs, playing for the T N Culbertson Salver, is open for pre-registration or you may register on the day on BBO. Starts at 11am; 8x6 boards with 90 minute break after round 4; matchpointed and ranked in percent.  Entry fee $15.

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The EBL has today posted it's plans for running the zonal qualifier for Open, Senior, Women and Mixed teams.  They are due to be run online on Realbridge from August 23rd to 28th 2021 but with restrictions on how they will be set up - see attached document which contains a copy of what is on the EBL website.  The WBF is planning to run the Bermuda Bowl etc. late February/early March 2022.    images/EuropeanQualifiersforWorldevents.pdf International Committee

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Donald Shamash, who stood down as President of South District at last year’s AGM, died last week. One of Donald’s great loves was Bridge and he was a major inspiration for the game in South West Scotland. Not only was he a formidable player but was exceptional at teaching others, whatever their age or standard, and at communicating his enthusiasm to them. A fine example of this occurred when, some twenty years ago, his nephews at Kirkcudbright Academy told him that there was no Bridge activity there at all, let alone any participation in schools’ competitions. He personally inaugurated a teaching programme for the pupils with such success that, within two...

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Congratulations to the winners:  Fairlie Trophy won by Cornelius Meehan;  Shenkin Trophy won by Yuen Man Rowbottom; Harrison Trophy won by Andy Wilson.

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Please see the attached letter which contains a brief announcement of the WBFs intention for the Championships that were due to take place this year.  Further information is expected later this month.  images/LetterfromWBF.pdf International Committee

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Notice is hereby given that the 87th Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Bridge Union will be held via a Zoom Conference meeting on Tuesday 25th May 2021 at 7.15pm.Attached is a copy of the Agenda, minutes of the 86th AGM and the EGM held on 7th March, Statement of Accounts and the proxy voting form. All members of the Union are entitled to attend and vote in person or in Proxy. If you wish to attend please can you inform the secretary in order that the Zoom invite can be sent to you. (contact link - Carolyn Dempsie ) Here are the documents for the AGM on 25th May 2021. SBU 87th AGM - 25th May 2021 - Documents Proxy form (pdf) Proxy form (MS Word download)...

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Please find below a copy of the poster advertising a Congress over 2 weekends in online South Africa.  This was received from Michele Alexander who now mainly lives there.  The Pairs event is in mid-June and the Teams in mid-July.  Since the pandemic began, the SBU has had quite a bit of contact with bridge players in South Africa both at Club and International level and 2 or 3 teams are currently entered in the latest Lockdown Swiss event on a Thursday evening.  They will be delighted to have you play in their Congress - the entry fee translates to roughly £15/person/event.  ...

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Congratulations to the winners of five ranked pairs events: Arthur: Charles Outred & Nigel Guthrie; Bowman: David Ripley & David Wiseman;  Fairlie: Eilidh Rennie & David Hamilton; Jesner: Marina Evans & Sarah Gunn Johnston: Barbara Reay & Stuart Morrison The Kennedy was combined with the Johnston but unfortunately there were not enough entrants to score separately.

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The 4th iteration of the Scottish Online League is starting on Monday 10th May.  The league will run for approximately 9 weeks with a further two week period to play any postponed matches.  New teams are most welcome to register. There will be a break after SOL4.  SOL5 will start in September and rankings from earlier iterations will be used to inform placing teams rejoining. Entries from those registered in SOL3 have been tenmporarily rolled over but must confirmed by 1st May.

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Charges have been made against Mr Stewart Pinkerton (SBU Member No 12868) that while playing online on BBO in the period between 2 and 14 July 2020 he had illicit knowledge of the layout of some hands obtained by ‘self-kibitzing’ and that he took advantage of that knowledge to improve his scores. The defendant admitted the charges. The Disciplinary Tribunal found that the defendant’s conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 2.2 of the SBU Disciplinary Code. The Disciplinary Tribunal, at a hearing on 13 April, imposed a sanction of suspension of SBU membership for a period of 15 months from 14 April 2021 to 14 July 2022. The period of suspension has been...

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Bridge: A MindSport for All (BAMSA) is bringing together bridge teachers, players, NBO administrators and academics from twenty countries. The aim is to exchange ideas, review case studies and share good practice in order to promote bridge more widely in society. For example, the final session will lead to the creation of a marketing campaign to increase participation in the game.   The sessions will explore what drives individuals at different lifecourse stages to learn and continue playing. The conference will develop an understanding of the barriers to learning and benefits gained from the leisure activity. Insights will be shared in relation to inclusivity,...

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Please find attached the minutes from our meeting on April 4th.   images/InternationalCommitteeMinutes040421.pdf I'm pleased to say that Council has ratified our proposal for the Open Trial for the 2022 Camrose Series so the minutes can now be published.  For this year only, the Open Trial will be a pairs trial held over three weekends.  The first of these will be open to any SBU members in good standing and eligible to represent Scotland in the Camrose. It will be a pre-trial with a number of established international pairs exempt from this weekend - probably around 8 - 10 pairs.  The second weekend will have a total of 16 pairs playing with the bottom 4 pairs...

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Congratulations to the Lockdown 4 winners:  Angus Macdonald and John P Hamilton.  The Lockdown Swiss is open to all and Series 5 will commence on Saturday 17 April.  Please see full details under 'Upcoming Events'.  New entrants are always welcome.

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Letter from EBL attached here: images/EBLMadeiraLettertoNBOs-020421.pdf The EBL have today announced that the European Championships postponed from June 2020 and due to be held in June 2021 (both in Madeira) have been cancelled due to the ongoing worldwide situation with Covid 19 and the consequent health concerns, travel restrictions etc.  It is hoped that the next European Championships will take place in Madeira in 2022 and this will put the cycle of major championships back to their correct rota. At the moment it is not known what the WBF view will be on the holding of the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup etc.  It is understood that it might be May before a decision is...

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The SBU and GEBOS confirm this year's overseas congress will take place in October, 14th to 21st, on the beautiful island of Crete.  The new brochure is here. Booking arrangements through https://www.guaranteedevents.com/sbu-congress The Mallorca Overseas Congress, originally booked for 2020, is to be held from 4 - 11 May 2022 at no additional cost.  Here is the newly updated brochure, again with booking arrangements through https://www.guaranteedevents.com/sbu-congress.  Please read the President's Congresses Update for full...

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This summer we are running two online congresses.  The Bronze Congress is on Sat June 26th (Swiss Pairs) and Sun 27th (Swiss Teams).  Register for the Swiss Pairs here and the Swiss Teams here. The Main Congress is on Fri 2nd July to Sun 4th. Friday evening and Saturday morning are the qualifying sessions run as Swiss Pairs. The Pairs Finals and Consolation Finals are on Saturday afternoon.   Register for the Congress Pairs here. Sunday morning is the Swiss Teams Qualifier with the finals on Sunday afternoon.  Register for the Congress Teams here. All of these events...

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Matthew Tan and Heather Tan have been suspended for a period of 3 years by the English Bridge Union for taking advantage of illicit communication on BBO.  Their SBU membership is therefore suspended for the same period. Suspension of membership means they are barred from playing in events sponsored by the SBU and all of its Districts and Clubs. (The conviction and suspension are subject to appeal.)

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At the weekend as well as the Camrose there was the British Schools' Championship. For the first time a Scottish team competed, representing the High School of Glasgow. They qualified from the Swiss into the semi-finals, and finished 3rd overall. 1st - Eton College 2nd - Haberdashers 1 3rd - The High School of Glasgow (Kevin Ren, Michael Kennedy, Harry Stuart, Alexander Duncan) 4th - St Paul's School 1 I've written about it on my blog here: https://bridgedanny.blogspot.com/2021/03/british-schools-championship.html Danny Hamilton

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March 5-7 saw the second weekend of the Camrose, run on Realbridge by the Welsh Bridge Union.  Our team was Brian Short & Alan Goodman, Sam Punch & Stephen Peterkin and Liz McGowan & Fiona McQuaker with NPC Anne Symons.  They came 4th over the weekend. The event site is at https://camrose-bridge-wales.org.uk/ includes everything you might want to know. First weekend results are here and the second weekend is here.   England won the trophy....

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