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MAYFIELD
DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB NEWSLETTER
No.55 – JANUARY 2012 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – The 28th Annual General Meeting of
the Club will take place in St John’s Hall on the above date at a start time of
Any business you wish to raise at the Meeting
should be advised to the Secretary, Adrian Patrick by 10th April.
This will enable him to include the item on the Agenda. A copy of last year’s
minutes has been available at the Club for the past 11 months and will remain
on the board until after the Meeting. If
you require an individual copy please speak to Adrian Patrick. It is hoped that the accounts will be
available in advance of the Meeting. Nominations for the Committee should be made
no later than FORTHCOMING EVENTS Norman Cup – 7 Feb/6 Mar (final): The format will revert to what it
was before last year. The first 10 pairs
in the preliminary round on 7 February will be invited to contest the final on
6 March. There will also be a normal
session on 6 March for those not involved in the final. The winners of the Norman Cup will be invited
to represent Mayfield in Mayfield Teams Cup – 21 Feb/27 Mar. Teams may have up to 6 members but no player
may play in 2 different teams. The
results of the two sessions will be amalgamated to produce the winning team,
who will be invited to represent Mayfield in Mixed Pairs Cup - 8 May. Members should note that although unmixed
pairs may turn up to play, they will be expected to pair up with other unmixed
pairs where possible. Any pair left
unmixed will still be able to play but without standing. Dorothy Williamson Handicap Teams – 29 May. As in previous years we will introduce a handicap for this
event. Men’s & Ladies’ Pairs – 12 June. Committee and Liz Phillips Cups - 24
July. Pick-Up Teams – 31 July. MEMBERS’ SUCCESSES National
Results Gold Cup: 1st Peter Lee & partners National Counties League Final: 2nd Surrey Team of 8
including Peter Lee & Arun Suri Victor Ludorum: 1st Peter Lee Surrey Swiss teams A flight: 1st Bernard Pike,
Tony Scouller, Tim Cook, Alan Bailey Senior Pairs: 1st Liz Phillips & partner 3rd Pam Jardine & Ulla Adilz Men’s Pairs: 3rd
Arun Suri & partner Dorin Salver: 1st
Chris Pullan & partner Teams for Mayfield Club Competitions Liz Phillips Cup: 1st Liz Phillips & Tim Cook 2nd Arun Suri & Roger Morton Committee Cup: 1st Geoff Whitehead & Philip Brooks 2nd
Alan Rainbow & Chris Lemon Pick-up Teams September: 1st Liz Phillips, Ian Swanson, Gwen Easto, Ann Chapple 2nd Geoff Whitehead, Philip Brooks, Peter Cogliatti, Philip Tilbrook Pick-up Teams November: 1st Tim Cook, Arun Suri, Geoff Whitehead, Philip Brooks 2nd Philip Tilbrook, Peter Cogliatti, Julian Hemsted. Dean Morley Pro Am: 1st Geoff Whitehead, Peter Lee 2nd Philip Brooks, Sean O’Neill CHAIRMAN’S NOTES Members’
questionnaire We had 29 responses to the members’ questionnaire which was
fewer than we had hoped for, but perhaps the majority felt things are perfect
as they are! We are greatly indebted to
Peter Lee for analysing the responses and producing a multi-page report which
listed all the comments made but retained respondents’ anonymity. This report was circulated to all Committee
members. It is not appropriate or
practical to include it in this Newsletter, but my summary is given on the next page and includes
aspects mentioned by at least two respondents.
It also lists any actions the Committee intends to take. Please bear in mind we cannot please all
members all the time! Duplimated
hands Last September
the Committee decided to introduce pre-dealt hands (produced by a Duplimate
machine) on both Tuesdays and Fridays for an initial trial period of three
months. The aim was to have randomly
dealt hands – often not achieved with hand shuffling – with a sheet of the
hands available to take away at the end of the session. An important extra benefit was to eliminate
the need to input manually the hands on the website – not a popular task at
11.30 at night! The cost of
buying in these hands is just over £10 per session. Although the annual cost is therefore
slightly over £1,000, this is largely offset by not paying for someone to
produce tea/coffee for us (following George’s sad demise). Although none
of us like lots of flat hands, I know that
some of you have found the
Duplimated hands to be
slightly more distributional than you had
expected or been
accustomed to with such hands. However,
the computer program used to produce our hands is the same one that others
use. One program option we have very
recently had introduced is for the NS and EW hands to have almost the same
number of points in aggregate over the full set of hands. The reason for doing this is particularly
relevant for special events, as it is more difficult to do well if your side
has significantly fewer points overall. As a full set of boards is 32 and we
only play 27 at most, it will not be possible for someone clever to work out how many points his side should
have on the last board! The Committee
has decided to extend the trial period until the One winner
movements Where possible
we have been using a Howell movement to avoid having 3-board sit-outs when
there is a half table, and this gives just one winner. We have now also decided to use a one-winner
Mitchell movement, which involves arrow-switching for the last two or three boards. This avoids
issuing prize vouchers for less than £2.50 which a few of you have commented
on. The voucher format for Tuesdays and
Fridays is now:- Up to 4½ tables: no vouchers 5 to 9½ tables: £2.50 per person for winning pair 10 or more tables £2.50 per person for winning pair and runners-up. Hosting I hope members
will be sympathetic and agreeable to being asked to be host. It should only be once, or twice at most, a
year for a particular session. It can be
made less onerous by thinking ahead to when it would be most convenient for you
– perhaps when your regular partner is on holiday – and offering your services
to Ron Maclaren (Tuesday hosting) and Pam Jardine (Friday hosting) who are looking
for hosts up to June. Incidentally a person
turning up without a partner is expected to play with any other spare person. Choosing to play with the host instead is not
an option. BRIEF
SUMMARY OF QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS (covering issues mentioned by at least two respondents) The Committee’s response is given in [ ]. Sim Pairs Just under half the respondents were
interested in the EBU event, but nearly two thirds were interested in the [Replace EBU event with the Pick-Up Teams Vast majority favoured no change. Other events Several respondents were not interested in the Pro-Am. Several respondents were interested in a Swiss Teams event. [Feasibility of this or a Swiss Pairs event will be investigated.] Calendar Vast majority seemed content with its current format. Christmas Party Nearly half suggested some changes, mainly more bridge and less talk. [Subsequent omission of anecdotes at the recent party seemed beneficial and at this stage no major changes were planned, but this aspect will be considered again nearer the time.] Howell movements Vast majority were in favour to avoid 3-board sit-outs. Action for Directors Several respondents mentioned continuing or stronger action by Directors against slow players. [Problem of slow play was less than it used
to be, and only a few members were ‘guilty’.
The Chairman would speak to members who were slow and appeared to be
making no effort to speed up to the detriment of others’ enjoyment. Imposing sanctions at the table, particularly
if it affected the ‘non-guilty’ as well, would not be conducive to the friendly
atmosphere we were trying to create.] Members’ behaviour, dress code etc Several members thought the wearing of shorts should be discouraged. [No change to the present practice of requiring
shorts to be below knee length.] Newsletter Vast majority were
content with the frequency and content. Other
communications from Committee A couple of
respondents suggested that the host list should be put on the website. [The Future Events
page on the website already has an empty column titled Host/Note and the host
list will be put there.] Other comments A few respondents
mentioned membership issues - recruiting new members and maintaining the
standard. [Trying to find
new members who were of a suitable standard has been a perennial problem to
which there is no obvious solution. An
alternative approach is to try to encourage more of the 80 or so members to
come regularly. In particular, try to
identify why members are not coming – perhaps a lack of a regular partner or
someone to bring them – and see if a solution can be suggested.] An interesting hand – by Liz
Phillips
The following
story turned up whilst playing at a Pairs Event at I held as West,
non-vulnerable against vulnerable: H - D AKJ10xx C xxx The bidding
went as follows: West North East South Pass 1 S 2D 2H 3D 4NT 5D 5H Pass 6H 7D X King of Spades was
led and a switch to Hearts and as you will see from the N/S hands 6 Hearts is an
easy make – Dealer East -
N/S Vulnerable North S K H AJ10xxx D xxx C Kxx West East S Qxxx S xx H - H xxx D AKJ10xx D Qxxx C xxx C Qxxx South H KQxx D - C AJx I was four down
for 800 and said to my partner that it was a good save, but how many pairs
would have bid 6 Hearts? - As I feared only one! The operation succeeded but as so often the
patient died! I wonder how many of you
Mayfield players would have bid 6 Hearts?
I think quite a lot, possibly even 7 Diamonds. |