As previously announced the EBU’s annual Year End Congress, which is usually in London on 27-30 Dec, will this year be online on RealBridge as it was last year. However, we would also like to allow people to play in part of it live in clubs or county premises if they wish.
On Wednesday 29 Dec we will hold the Mixed Pairs and Open Pairs events of the congress and these lend themselves to having further sections playing the same boards live in various venues around the country. This would also provide an opportunity for clubs to run this as a special Green-Pointed event to encourage their players to move back to face-to-face bridge.
The way it would work is that clubs (or counties) would play the same boards at the same time as those playing online and their results would all be combined into one ranking list for each of the two events for the purpose of Green Points, but there would be separate prizes for those playing online and those playing live.
We would like the sections not to be too small (7+ tables) so we initially only directly contacted a selection of larger clubs around the country, and we do not want to have two clubs playing which are too close to each other as that would dilute the entries. However we would now welcome further offers from clubs to run these events. If a club does not have enough players for sections of this size for the two events, they would be welcome to just run the Open Pairs and not the Mixed Pairs, to ensure a larger field.
Clubs would deal with all the organisational matters themselves, such as taking entries, deciding on the table money and arranging a TD. They would be free add on extra features such as a lunch if they wish, to make it all into a more special, festive day. The charge to the club would be £10 per person (£5 per session) and there would be no additional UMS. This compares very favourably with what players would pay to play in it online, and includes Green Points for the top half of the field and prizes for the top pairs.
Clubs currently playing are:
Oliver Cowan Bridge Club (at Leeds Bridge Club)
If your club is interested or has further questions, please email gordon@ebu.co.uk
October 29, 2021