SCOTTISH BRIDGE UNION
SBU Peebles Congress for National and Bronze level players.
Please read this report about the Bronze section of the SBU Congress held recently at Peebles Hydro.
We went to the SBU Summer Congress last weekend! We were rather worried that we had overstepped the mark, but we had been told that the SBU were running a Bronze level player congress, in tandem with their main elite congress. The SBU has recognised that most club players want to play for pleasure and most of them are Bronze level players and so they have started to run an event that is exclusive to Bronze members and where they don't have to compete against the elite players.
We were warmly welcomed by the organisers, Hasan and Julie Choudhury, and we played three sessions of pairs matches over the weekend. The atmosphere was great, informal and friendly, playing bridge with nice people without being terrified. The first evening we had a master class in gin tasting! The next morning it was a master class on bidding, with examples taken from the previous nights hands. It was presented by Russell Frame, who gave us lots of helpful tips.
Our final evening we were given the chance to join the main congress for a Swiss pairs competition, by which time most of the Bronze players felt brave enough to try. We were not put into the top section, thankfully, but my husband and I found ourselves playing the first round against said Russell Frame and his partner, Joan Lees. They were delightful and certainly did their best to make us feel relaxed and I managed to put one of his tips that he had given us in his master class, into practice – and it worked!
The refurbished hotel was very good and we enjoyed ourselves so much that we promised Julie to pass the word around about their Bronze level Congress that is being held at Peebles 20th - 22nd October 2017. A three day event, though you can choose to opt out of a competition if you would rather have some free time. It will also run in tandem with a National event for the more elite players.
We hope that you might like to give it a go. The hotel cost about £200 per person for two nights, with all meals, we felt it was good value.
Darby and Joan