The EBUTA newsletter

October 2014 .    E B U T A 1

October 2014

Contents

Editorial 3 The End of ebuta99 4 An important new initiative 4 is Dead, long live Acol! 5 -7 Teachers Jamboree – an update 7

Three important principles 8-9 From the wilds of Aylesbury 10 A word about copyright 11 Have you got an App? 11 Cardiff Bridge Tutors 12-13 Calling All Cruise Tutors 13 Developments with VuBridge 14 Events Congresses and Tournaments 15 -16

Full and Professional Corner 17-18

Your EBUTA Membership 18

Offers and Promotions 19-22

From the Wilds of Aylesbury (cont’d) 22-23

2 Editorial – Simon Barb

A lot has been happening since the last issue of Accolade and it is my pleasure to be able to share this information with you.

With effect from April 1 2014 the EBU devolved many of the functions that were previously under its Education Department to a new independent charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) called English Bridge Education & Development (EBED). EBUTA remains part of the .

There were two major reasons for this change. First, it was felt that the scale and importance of the challenges faced in promoting bridge to the widest possible community required a separate organisation, which could devote itself single-mindedly to this task. Secondly, the government in the 2011 Charities Act created a range of financial incentives for not-for-profit organisations with public benefit objectives to establish themselves as CIO’s. Among these are the ability to reclaim tax on Gift Aid donations and various VAT advantages.

EBED’s two objectives are:

(1) the advancement of amateur sport by promoting the game of for the public benefit. (2) the advancement of the education of young persons in full time education in the playing of duplicate bridge

You will be hearing a lot more about EBED in the coming months, but you may have already noticed certain changes. The day-to-day management and organisation of Bridge for All has moved to EBED and you are now invoiced by EBED for any Bridge for All material, which you may order. Lisa Miller, whom many of you will know, remains the Bridge for All Co-ordinator and her contact details are the same as before. EBED is located in the same offices as the EBU and uses the same systems as the EBU, so we hope that there will be minimal inconvenience or dislocation from your point of view.

Secondly, we have been making some significant changes in our web presence. We now have a website www.ebedcio.org.uk , which will become the primary home for all bridge education matters (except EBUTA). This new website has all the information that was previously on the EBU webpages, but even more accessible and with refreshed content. Do please check it for yourself and let us have your views. Readers of the existing EBU website pages for education (but not for EBUTA) will gradually find themselves being redirected to the EBED website for the latest and most up-to-date information. You may find some switching between the two websites a little disconcerting at first, but we hope that this will soon disappear.

3 The End of ebuta99

While on the subject of webpages, we have also changed the way in which EBUTA members access the Teacher’s Zone webpages.

This means that the webpage where you used to input "ebuta99" has now gone. Instead, Teachers should log onto their EBU Members Page, and looking down on the right hand side of the page towards the bottom, they will see a link for the EBUTA Teachers Zone.

As part of this change, any bookmarks that people have used to bypass the logon page will no longer work and, additionally, the pages will not appear in a Google search.

I realise that this may cause some inconvenience to those teachers who access these pages, but the old system provided no security for our valuable intellectual property - probably our single most valuable asset after our people. It is our intention over the coming months to increase the amount of information that is available and downloadable without charge from our website, a step, which, we believe, will further enhance the value of EBUTA membership. EBUTA remains a members’ organisation and we survive on the subscription, which you pay for us to continue our work. It therefore seems right that we should take reasonable steps to restrict our know-how and information to those who are bona fide members of EBUTA.

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An Important new Initiative

Whether talking to teachers or clubs, we continually hear about the challenge of how to get more people out of the classroom and into the club.

But we also know that there are many people who we are not even getting into the classroom! One of the prime reasons for their reluctance is that the time investment in learning before one can play a “proper” game is perceived as being too great.

It is of course totally understandable that learners get “stage fright” when moving from the nurturing environment of supervised play to the more “rough and tumble” of the club playground.

What can we do about this?

The Trustees of EBED are keen to address this issue head on by encouraging the development of an accelerated teaching program which will offer students a route to be playing in a matter of weeks, or perhaps a few months, rather than the more normal year, which is our target under our existing Bridge for All

Of course, not all students will be ready for the kind of intensive approach which will be necessary to get them to the competitive game that quickly.

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Nonetheless, we are sure that this will appeal to younger audiences who are “in a hurry” as well as those who have the resilience and determination to master the key elements of play and bidding.

We are at an early stage of our thinking about how best to develop this approach into a standardised tool which can have widespread application and which EBUTA members will want to adopt as part of their teaching armoury.

Do please feel free to write to us and share your thoughts on what such a program might look like and whether you would be interested in being part of an accelerated teaching program. We’d be delighted to hear from you! .... Acol is dead – long live Acol!

In line with current Laws & Ethics practices, EBED and Bridge for All will be phasing out use the term “Standard English Acol”. Why are we doing this and what are we replacing it with?

What is Acol today?

Walk round a duplicate club in England today and 90% or more of the players will have the word ACOL emblazoned in masthead position on their convention cards But delve a little closer and you will find huge variations among these players. Not just weak two’s versus strong two’s but:

1. Weak No Trumps and Strong No Trumps 2. Multi 2 Diamond openings 3. 1C openings showing 3,2, or even 1 card as the minimum length guaranteed by a 1C opening 4. Five card majors or just five card spades 5. 2 over 1 forcing to 2NT or to game 6. Jacoby 2NT responses to one of a major opening bids 7. Transfer responses to 1C opening bid etc. etc.

Bewildering – but perfectly legal!

So under these circumstances, the EBU stopped deciding what was or was not Acol. It simply gave broad rules regarding what types of treatment were allowed. These rules have recently been further simplified in the Blue Book – the handbook of permitted understandings.

How others do it?

In France, almost all players use a system of 5-card majors and strong no called “Le Système d’Enseignement français” – which means literally “the French method of teaching”. This system is supported and “administered” by the “Fédération française de Bridge”. This works well for the FFB in a number of ways: as the ultimate arbiter of what is

5 and is not part of SEF, they can sell all manner of guides and textbooks, which teach this system without too much competition. On the positive side, it also creates a very homogeneous, and therefore safe, environment for new players to acclimatise themselves to duplicate play.

Unfortunately, we Anglo-Saxons love competition and the EBU has gone a different route - and while there are those who might perhaps love the EBU to lay down the law and make everyone comply meekly with our (excellent) Really Easy Books, there would be a hue and cry at just about every level of the game if they did so. As an example, you can just imagine the furore if the EBU decided that weak two’s were now standard!

In America, the idea of a standard system was driven by the great marketers, and – again, these pioneers were making their living by selling a bridge system and went to great lengths to show the supposed superiority of one system versus another.

Standard American Yellow Card is similarly promulgated by the American League – but in its “pure” form it is rarely found in tournament play today.

Why Acol?

The name Acol is derived from the name of a bridge club in North West London located originally at 15, Acol Road. Among the key players who developed the system in the mid-1930’s were Maurice Harrison-Grey, S J (Skid) Simon and . Acol was a byword for a natural style of bidding.

I would venture to suggest that, were these great men still alive, they would be amazed to find that splinters and transfers – to give but two examples - are very much part of Standard Acol - almost universally used in the duplicate games, even at local level.

Even the Acol Bridge club is no longer at Acol Road, but round the corner at 86, West End Lane, under the leadership of Andrew MacIntosh – one of England’s best players and also a great bridge teacher. (Acol Road in the 1930’s was not in the Borough of Camden – which was only created in 1965)

So why change?

Well, for one thing, the EBU Laws & Ethics committee does not sanction any system as being “standard Acol”. This terminology died a death over ten years ago and we risk making ourselves appear either like dinosaurs, or just poor at internal communication if we persist with this outdated terminology.

6 But more importantly, we do not need to hide behind a slightly dubious premise to justify our confidence in our teaching methods. Bridge for All is a highly respected method of teaching bridge which has been used to bring over ten thousand players into the game over the fifteen years since it was first introduced. No other bridge teaching system in the UK can come anywhere close to matching our scale, our depth of materials, or our organisation.

Nor are our methods static or invariable. We continue to have lively debates about the best teaching methods and the best way for bringing students into the game. Our dynamism, versatility and variety are three of our greatest strengths. We also have no agenda to impose our system as being the best for playing bridge, so the need to claim “authority” by declaring our method as standard can only hurt our credibility and universality as we plan for the future.

What are we doing?

We remain proud of our heritage and our commitment to bridge teaching excellence. We have some exciting ideas in store for how we will make our teaching relevant and attractive to an even wider group of learners. EBUTA members will the first to learn of these developments as we move forward. Over a period of time, as we reprint our materials and more immediately within our publicity, we will cease using the expression “Standard English Acol”. We will replace this, as appropriate, with the expression “Bridge for All Acol” or “BfA Acol” for short.

Teachers will have their own methods for explaining what Acol is – and what it isn’t. We do however recommend that teachers also phase out use of the term “Standard English Acol” in line with the changes described. ....

The teachers weekend get-together (AKA The Teachers Jamboree)

John may have fired his Parthian shot and be riding towards the horizon, but I am pleased to report that I am very firmly in favour of holding an event of this kind – possibly in connection with the Oxfordshire Bridge Association who enterprisingly held a one-day Teaching Conference earlier this year and have similar plans for the first weekend in July 2015. Further information to come shortly!

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7 On the clarity of teaching. Three important principles - by Paul Bowyer

I have been teaching bridge now for more years than I care to remember. In attempting to pass some hints tips and wheezes on to a new generation of teachers I find that they are full of ideas about how to lecture rather than how to teach. This alarms me as talking too much from the front of a classroom is, I believe, the least effective way of teaching a . I offer you three important principles of good practice – in no particular order.

1. One of the most important principles is that effective bridge teaching involves students getting their hands on the cards as often (and as early) as possible.

It is an under-appreciated point that there are skills involved in reading and interpreting hand diagrams in books and from the front of a class (for example, on flip charts or blackboards). Authors of textbooks blithely ignore this and assume that learners can readily understand hand diagrams such as:

sx K 10 9 7 N sx A Q J 8 hx Q J 8 3 W E hx A K 10 9 dx 10 5 4 dx J 7 6 cx 10 8 S cx A 3

In fact, many learners struggle to link such schematic diagrams with the thirteen pieces of pasteboard that are about to get placed in their hands. If possible, it is better to present learners with a hand of cards and ask them what they would do rather than give them a diagram and ask them to interpret it.

In passing, this already difficult situation can be made worse by those who produce their own hand diagrams (although it has to be admitted that some commercial software makes this unavoidable) and fail to put spaces between the cards, such as: sx K1097 hx QJ83 dx 1054 cx 108 where legibility is severely compromised, especially for the inexperienced learner.

Even worse is the abominable and inexcusable practice of writing “T” for 10 as in, for example, sx KT97 hx QJ83 dx T54 cx T8

There is no conceivable benefit for this and practitioners should hang their heads in shame. Teaching is essentially aimed at clarification, not obfuscation.

Best practice is to have ready prepared hands and ask players to look at those while you are talking rather than refer to diagrams on the . Some board-work may be unavoidable, but ideally should be kept to a minimum.

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2. Deals should be prepared in advance.

Without doubt, best practice is to prepare full sets of hands for each table. Thus, if you have four tables of learners with three demonstration deals and eight hands to play you will need to prepare (gulp!) forty-four deals… If players play the same hand at the same time then the post-mortems immediately after the hand is over will make a lot more sense to them. Waiting until the end of, say, four hands before discussion can prove fruitless as almost all of the class will have forgotten what they have just played.

Obviously, there are practical implications for this amount of duplication but there are ways round it. A duplimate machine is one obvious route, albeit expensive if there isn’t one handy. Also, when showing demonstration deals you don’t need to have four to a table, you could have six learners or even put two tables together and have eight players clustered around a double table..

Don’t forget…

You can ask learners to suit the deals for you at the end of play (this makes it a lot easier to make the hands up for next time)

Or… you can give players their hands on curtain cards (which may be produced by readily available software Hand Generator http://rothwells.weebly.com/handgenerator.html) and ask them to make up the deals themselves. This wastes some time but the learners never seem to be affected by the fact that they are playing the deal that they have just constructed. It doesn’t appear to affect their bidding or play.

3. Avoid the over-use of PowerPoint and the like.

Computer demonstrations using PowerPoint and its cousins are of extremely dubious value in teaching bridge. Such displays may look appealing but they achieve very little in terms of understanding. Ultimately they are simply soporific in virtually any area of use and many a company board meeting has rapidly become a bored meeting. If you want effective learning to take place you have to take heed of the famous Chinese proverb quoted below:

“Hear and forget, see and remember, do and understand”

In no way do these highly inflexible computer generated slide-shows involve learners in the process of doing. Such exhibitions, no matter how picturesque, are the ultimate triumph of style over substance.

[Editor’s Note: For a different perspective see the article on Pages 12/13 from Cardiff Bridge Tutors]

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9 From the wilds of Aylesbury

You will have read a bit about me in the last issue of Accolade but of course, relatively few have met me (yet), so I’d like to use this opportunity to give you some information about myself.

The first thing I am admitting to is that I am not a bridge teacher. I say that without a trace of regret because I feel that for all teaching related matters I have excellent resources to call upon both within EBUTA and the wider bridge teaching community. We also have a wealth of outstanding materials in Aylesbury which have been developed over more than a decade by Sandra , Andrew Kambites, and John Pain with many others contributing.

Something you may not know, is that we also have at Aylesbury a wonderful library of bridge books which have been put in much better order recently through the efforts of Gordon Bickley – an EBUTA teacher with a small business selling antiquarian and out of print books on bridge and other card games. Contact Gordon on 07934 553594 ([email protected]) for an up to date listing of what he has for sale. I shall be writing about this wonderful trove in a future issue of Accolade.

I am a bridge player, of course, and I make an effort to play with as many partners as possible and as many clubs as I can, given my schedule. You will therefore see me at bridge events nationally (and locally) and I would encourage you to seek me out (if you see my name on the list) to introduce yourself and help me put a face to a name. If not, why not give me a call to let me know what you are doing or perhaps to let me have some feedback on what you would like to see in Accolade.

And although I am not a teacher, I do love to help people improve at the game. After each session which I play, I like to go back through the hand records and if necessary, use deep http://www.deepfinesse.com/ to analyse the hands in more depth. The “lucky” partner can then look forward to an e-mail from me – making one or two suggestions about things they might have missed or might wish to look out for in future.

Of course sometimes it’s easy to see straightaway what one has done wrong at the table, but often it’s harder. Take this hand from a recent Wessex League game:

You are in 3NT as East and South leads the diamond king, presumably from a seven-card suit. How would you teach this deal to a student? (For the full deal and my commentary, see the end of the magazine)

 A K 7 6  Q 3 Board 9 : Dealer North : EW vulnerable  A J 6 3  K 4 West North East South  10 4  A 8 5 Pass 1. 3 . 6 5 4 . Q J 8 7 3 2 Dbl Pass 3NT All Pass

Hand generation using Mike Rothwell’s Handgenerator – download a trial version for free at http://rothwells.weebly.com/handgenerator.html

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10 A word about Copyright and Trade Marks for Bridge for All

The Bridge for All logo is the property of the EBU and may not be reproduced without permission. The EBU has given blanket permission for the logo to be used by EBUTA teachers in good standing offering bona fide Bridge for All courses, using EBU copyrighted materials purchased from EBED and strictly as is necessary for their promotion of such teaching.

All Bridge for All materials are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the English Bridge Union.

However, EBUTA teachers in good standing who are using the Teacher’s Notes as part of the Bridge for All teaching scheme may reproduce such material as is necessary for their genuine teaching without the need to obtain further permission from the English Bridge Union.

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Have you got a favourite App?

In June 2011, John Pain put together an excellent booklet on Bridge Software for Home Computers – a publication which I have put online at http://www.ebedcio.org.uk/files/docs/software-for-pcs- june-2011.pdf

It is definitely time for an update, but there is no way that I can test or review all the packages that are available in the marketplace today, so I am calling upon all EBUTA teachers to help me.

I need information on:

Websites

PC Packages

Mac packages

Android Apps

Apps for iPad and iPhone

Do you have a favourite app or program which you would recommend to others – or for that matter which you would try your hardest to dissuade students from buying? Do you love FunBridge or swear by Bridge Baron? Is Omar Sharif Bridge still the best, or is Jack the way to go? Do please write to me giving your views (and as much information as possible on platform, version, price etc.).

And if you haven’t tried Bridge on your iPhone, might I recommend: iBridgePlus, and a special plug for BridgeQuiz (you need French to enjoy this one fully - but even without that, the concept is fun)!

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11 Cardiff Bridge Tutors

Keith and Carol Butler run Cardiff Bridge Tutors, a group which started when they found that the step from Beginners into Club play was just too big!

They wanted a gentle way of improving their play without the fierce competition that you might get in a club.

To their surprise they found that a lot of people felt the same way and so they started out with the belief that they should form a friendly, helpful group who value social contact as much as playing Bridge.

Keith was an IT professional and spent some years presenting to large audiences on behalf of the DTI. Carol was a Deputy Head Teacher with 30 years experience of teaching methods.

This blend of IT and teaching skills is the backbone of what they do.

Carol comments “Knowing how to teach is probably more important than being an expert Bridge player. You have to know your subject but it is more important that you have the ability to transfer knowledge to others.”

They did their initial training early in 2011 and following lesson assessment early in 2012, they became EBUTA Qualified teachers.

Initially they started with a small group which quickly grew. They currently run classes for Beginners (5 tables), Year 1 Improvers (6 tables), Year 2+ Improvers (7 tables) and Advancers (14 tables). And it is still growing!

They also run a “No Fear” Bridge night for a Cardiff club - Rhiwbina Bridge Club - to help students gain the confidence move on into Club play. This has given Rhiwbina Club a steady stream of new members.

Keith says “It is important to provide a way for people to progress at their own pace. We provide a path that leads to Club Bridge but people can stay at the level that they choose.”

For the last four years they have run a weekend away in the Cotswolds. It is well attended - they even had a waiting list this year. Their groups enjoy this mix of social get to together and Bridge. Carol said “The pleasure in seeing the friendships that have been formed is a bonus. We have had many comments from people who have been bereaved and now have an active social life - all through learning to play Bridge!”

A typical format for a teaching and play session is a 20 minute lesson followed by supported play using pre- dealt hands.

The lesson is delivered using PowerPoint and is supported by handouts. They email their handouts to students to reduce printing cost.

All lessons are stored on computer and can be recalled for a new class. They file the PowerPoint, hand file and bidding summary in a folder, indexed by subject.

“We thought that once we had our library that we wouldn’t have much work to do but we have found that we tend to improve the lesson every time that we repeat it” said Carol.

12 Keith uses Bridge Composer to generate the hands and then a HandyDup dealing machine to make up the boards. Among the boards he sets up 4 boards, one for each seat at the table, that reflect the topic being taught.

“Students stopped concentrating if we put too many hands into a session. Once they found the board they thought that they didn’t have to think about their bidding” said Carol.

In addition to the use of computers to prepare and present their lessons they use computerised scoring.

“Many clubs use automated scoring now and so we thought that we should teach how to use that too” said Keith.

Keith is now researching the use of inexpensive tablet computers to score electronically.

“It is a very exciting development” he said. “Even small groups will be able to use electronic scoring for a very small outlay”.

The prepared hands can be made available for review on each tablet after they have been played at the table and that enhances learning.

They wanted to find ways for students to be responsible for enhancing their own learning and that “homework” was often avoided. It needed something that had a “fun” element and allowed people to make mistakes without feeling that they were being scutinised.

They have developed a web site offering a series of interactive multiple choice quizzes, with notes and helpful guidance if mistakes are made.

“They are very popular” said Keith. “We have people using the quizzes from all over the World and UK.”

“People can use them from their phone, tablet, IPad or computer” added Carol.

Carol and Keith are happy to share their experiences with you. Why not contact them by email at:-

Carol – [email protected], Keith – [email protected]

The FREE quiz site is at www.bridgequiz.co.uk . They would welcome any suggestions for improving or extending the range of quizzes. Their website is www.bridgewebs.com/lisvaneimprovers

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Calling all Cruise Bridge Tutors

There must be a fair number of EBU tutors involved in teaching and directing on cruise ships at the moment and it might be beneficial if we were able to communicate with each other. If you would like to exchange ideas, news or any other issues regarding hosting bridge on the cruise ships please email [email protected] for further information.

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13 Paul Bowyer talks about new developments with VuBridge

If you look at the structure of many teaching courses and at almost all beginners’ books – the primary focus is on teaching bidding and it is assumed that the avid learner will pick up card-play skills by some sort of osmosis. When I have challenged authors and teachers on this very point they argue (some vociferously) that card-play techniques can be taught in the six weeks of taught in the run-up to learning bridge proper. What rot!

Let’s (as the Americans say) do the math. If you play six weeks of minibridge you are going to play four to six hands per session, making a total of 24 to 36 hands and you will be declarer on 6 to 9 of them. How can you possibly pick up the ideas of entries, suit establishments, suit breaks, and so on and so forth in that short a time? Remember, you are not going to learn unless you actually play the hand; when you are dummy or a defender the point of the hand is likely to pass you by.

So, in my view, it is essential to have a logically structured scheme of card-play to run alongside any teaching scheme (including, naturally enough, BfA). That scheme, which will be fully developed in late 2014, will have 980 deals (yes, you read that right!) that starts with the very basics of card-play and leads the student through to more complex ideas. At the time of writing (August 2014) there are already 800 hands in place, ready and waiting. Although I will attempt to describe VuBridge here it might be easiest to see for yourselves – it is on the internet (isn’t everything these days?) and a sample of deals can be found at http://vubridge.com/Teachers

So how does it work? Well, it is a very modern version of the old Autobridge for those of you old enough to remember that. You are presented with a hand and asked how you would bid (there is a schematic on ). Once the bidding is over there is an and a displayed dummy. Incidentally, although most of the time you are declarer it is possible that you will defend some hands – and defence is sadly neglected in many teaching schemes. When you wish to play a card you simply click on it – except the card will not be played if it is the wrong thing to do (you get a rude noise instead). Cards are played when they are correct and comments, hints and questions may appear during the course of the play. At the end of the hand there is then an explanation of what the deal is all about and why you had to play as you did.

This system is selling well (yes, there is a cost – more of that later) in America but has yet to catch on over on this side of the pond, largely because there has been little or no publicity. If you are alarmed by the fact that the Americans (five-card majors, strong No-trump) are enthusiasts then do not worry. Each series comes in two versions – a version (with American spellings – honor, realize, defense and the like) and an ACOL (or Standard English) version written in the Queen’s English (honour, realise, defence and the like). Just make sure you select the correct series and you will be well away.

Cost? Well, V-Blue will set you back $4 a month (yes, American dollars – everything is international these days), and that’s for two editions of 20-22 hands per edition. Not exactly bank-account busting, is it? If you want to get a greater taste of Vubridge then go to www.vubridge.com and look at the site. You will find that there are minibridge hands there as well, plus a pdf download of the deals. That’s 88 hands of minibridge you can play through for free.

How can you lose? This, remember is both for learners and for teachers who want a source of hands. You could, for example, as a teacher, set up VuBridge hands as a lesson (there are even .dlm files for you if you have a duplimate machine!) and use the deals for one of your sessions. Then you could ask your class to play the hands during the following week. This way they’d all be declarer on all the hands. How clever is that? ....

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Events, Congresses and Tournaments

Students Simultaneous Pairs

The Education Simultaneous Pairs will run throughout March 2015 and will again be free of charge to enter.

Both bridge and Minibridge are available so it should prove attractive to our main bridge groups and also to schools who are working with Minibridge. It can also be used by teachers who are running supervised play groups. Any number of tables can take part – even a single table.

Full details may be found at: http://www.ebu.co.uk/competitions/sims/national- students

You will have to register your interest with Lisa either by phone or by sending an email to [email protected] , saying how many booklets of hands you will need. Other materials will be provided.

The scoring will be done in house (as it was last year), but we will be offering you various ways of sending us the results in electronic format rather than us handling paper travellers. Don’t worry – full instructions will be provided and we won’t be asking you to do anything difficult. We plan to use the EBU Sim Pairs scoring system this year – nothing like setting ourselves a challenge!

The results will be displayed prominently on the EBED and Really Easy Websites

Really Easy Spring Break – Wroxton House Hotel, Wroxton, Nr Banbury, Oxon March 6 to 8 2015 A small weekend for a maximum of 36 players in this charming Best Western Hotel set in the Oxfordshire countryside. This weekend is more suitable for those who have been playing for a couple of years. It is not suitable for 1st years who are just starting.

The main emphasis is on play with sessions on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening, with a longer session starting on Sunday morning, a break for a light lunch and more play after lunch – finishing about 2:30pm. There will be a bridge lesson on Saturday morning.

The hotel package of two nights dinner, bed and breakfast and Sunday sandwich lunch is £159 per person sharing a twin/double room or £185 per person for single occupancy. Hotel bookings should be made direct to the Wroxton House Hotel on 01295 730777 quoting Group reference 47543. In addition the bridge fee of £50 per person (which covers the four bridge sessions, teaching session, tea & coffee breaks) is payable to the EBU directly in the usual way. [Prices correct at time of going to press – but please check prior to booking]

We regret we cannot take non-residential guests for this weekend (These weekends usually fill quite early) For entries to all EBU events, please contact Peter Jordan at [email protected]

15 REALLY EASY AFTERNOONS IN LONDON AT YEAR END & EASTER

Building upon the popularity of this format, we will be holding more of these relaxed duplicate pairs events for those with less experience. As part of the Year End Congress and the Easter Festival of Bridge, both to be held at the Royal National Hotel, London , just off Russell Square means the British Museum, Covent Garden, the West End, Trafalgar Square and ‘Theatreland’ .there will be Really Easy Afternoons on:.

Saturday 27th December 2014, starting at 3:30pm

Friday 3rd April 2015, starting at 4pm

This event is aimed at those with no experience of green-point events, and such players are probably below the rank of Master. It is intended as an introduction to 'congress bridge'.

The results will be stratified based on NGS grading with prizes for the overall winners, and Blue Points awarded based on the stratified results.

The event is open to EBU members and non-members alike. A 50% discount is available for those EBU members who have not previously played in an EBU Congress. We can accommodate single players, so please contact us and we will help to arrange a partner.

The event at each venue is open to all - EBU members and non-members alike. We may be able to accommodate individual players at the Peterborough venue, so please contact us and we will try to arrange a partner.

For entries to all EBU events, please contact Peter Jordan at [email protected]

IMPROVERS PAIRS EVENT IN YORKSHIRE

AS PART OF THE NORTHERN EASTER FESTIVAL TO BE HELD AT CRAIGLANDS HOTEL, COWPASTURE RD, ILKLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE LS29 8RQ

Friday 3rd April 2015 starting at 1.30 pm

Join us to play 24 boards of Bridge in a separate, relaxed setting alongside the main congress event. Prizes awarded to the leading pairs.

The entry fee is £8.00 per person.

To enter, please contact Stuart Davies at [email protected] or tel: 01274 598408

You may enter as a pair but if you don't have a partner we will arrange one for you.

The event is sponsored by Learnbridge Yorkshire www.learnbridgeyorkshire.co.uk

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16 FULL AND PROFESSIONAL CORNER

CHECK YOUR

No, we’re not talking about your credit card PIN, we’re talkiing about the positioning of your pin on the EBU Teachers map www.ebu.co.uk/map.

Full and Professional members of EBUTA are designated on the EBU map by a blue pin. Click on that pin and it provides key contact information for the teacher – Professional members of EBUTA are further designated by a “scroll” icon - which looks like this

We direct enquiries from students looking for teachers to the map – and so, if I’ve placed your pin in Stratford–upon-Avon when you actually live near the Olympic Park in London, they won’t find you !

How can this be? Well, the map works by “looking at” longitude and latitude co-ordinates, which we input into your member record manually. It is not driven automatically by your address. In other words, we have endeavoured to place the pin in the rough area where we believe you are located – but we do make mistakes, sometimes spectacularly!

So, do please check that the pin is where you want it on the map. If it isn’t, please send me an e-mail – ideally with the co-ordinates you want me to use. You can use a tool such as http://www.latlong.net/convert- address-to-lat-long.html to do the “look-up” for you.

A final word of advice: I’ll place the pin wherever you ask me to – but we caution against teachers using their exact home address for obvious privacy reasons. Our recommendation is that you choose a location nearby instead! (I reserve the ultimate power of arbiter here; if more than one teacher chooses to place their pin on the top of the Shard, I’ll make the decision who gets the best view of London)

Are you using your BIO?

Another page which I am aiming to feature more prominently on our webpages is the page of Teachers Biographies http://www.ebu.co.uk/biographies/teacher

Currently this page looks rather forlorn with several teachers listed without photos and many with out of date biographies.

To be included on this page – which will be accessible not only through the EBU site but also the EBED site - you need to provide me with a photograph in electronic format (not full facial passport photos please – we don’t want to scare the children!) and a “crisp” biography which provides the following information as a minimum:

1. Your county of affiliation 2. What types of classes you run (beginners, intermediates, evening, afternoons) 3. Your teaching methods – please say if you use Bridge for All 4. Any special courses, holidays or cruises which you are involved with 5. Whether you work with any specific clubs 6. Whether you provide any lessons for young people, or would be willing to 7. Your webpage address

17 Depending on interest and feedback from you, I will also group teachers by county, rather than straight alphabetically. This won’t replace the old listing of teachers by county but it will go some way towards restoring this feature which used to exist on the site, and which I know was popular with some of you. Note that I am planning only to list active Full & Professional teachers who provide me with the information requested.

A funny thing happened on my way to the Forum….

Am I showing my age in referring to this wonderful Sondheim musical, for which they are currently holding auditions in New York – the revival is planned to open on Broadway in March of next year?

I was at the Shapiro Spring Foursomes event earlier this year when I met Ben Green, whom many of you will know (or at least have heard of) as the coach/captain for the England team. Ben (with others) has set up a new bridge website for bridge professionals of all kinds. It can be found at http://www.pro-bridge.co.uk – I note that several teachers have signed up for this service and I wish them every success: well-run websites which will stimulate interest in the game and which enhance the services on offer are to be encouraged. Check it out!

And while on this subject, the Spring Foursomes this year was a star-studded event with many top players from overseas participating. I had the pleasure of watching and meeting several members of the Italian team who had won the world championships in Bali only six months earlier, as well as the team of , Zia Mahmood (see photo), Andrew McIntosh, , Anita Sinclair & , who won the event. Several members of that team have just repeated their success (in the Mixed Teams this time) at the Sanya World Championships, which have just taken place in China. Do you encourage your students to watch and follow great players of the game? It is great way to Zia Mahmood learn and share in the excitement of tournament bridge! Many matches at big events are featured on Bridge Base Online http://www.bridgebase.com where you can watch for free on you PC or tablet!

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YOUR EBUTA Membership

EBUTA membership is a valuable tool in your armoury as a bridge teacher, and we have plans to enhance that value.

First, we're going to be adding new material to our more secure Teachers Zone (accessible through the EBU members area).

Second, we'll be working even harder to get students to buy their Bridge for All books and materials from you, rather than from us.

We'll also be putting extra effort into building our community through more interaction between EBUTA members, new ideas and fresh articles in Accolade, and sharing important initiatives in teaching undertaken by the bridge charity, English Bridge Education & Development

Finally, we'd like more of you to take the steps necessary to move up the ranks from Accredited to Full membership. Remember that the assessment service is provided free to members and brings with it both enhanced recognition and improved publicity. Full details are available through the EBUTA webpage - so please do make this important investment in your and our future!

18 Offers and Promotions

Items for Sale - For further details contact David Benjamin on 01628 825391

Retired EBUTA teacher has a lifetime collection of presentations and supporting materials available:

100 presentation folders, including OHP acetates, notes and quizzes including 38 PowerPoint presentations for PC/laptop (on USB stick)

100 supporting handouts (on USB stick), most also available in printed folder packs

All the above £125

500 (approx) prepared hands in plastic duplicate style wallets (wallets alone were £700 new) £300

Sanyo Proxtrax PLC-XU78 multimedia projector, instructions, connectors, was £800 new £220

Fold up portable screen, adjustable, was £140 new £25

Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo P5905 Tower PC, Windows XP Pro, MS Office Suite £40

Bridge Holidays -

Bridge Holidays are an important area of growth for the bridge “industry” and we are keen that both students and EBUTA teachers can profit from this growth.

I am therefore very pleased to be able to make the following offer to EBUTA Members in conjunction with First for Bridge Holidays.

First for Bridge Holidays are running three holiday courses in 2015 for IMPROVERS with EBUTA teacher, Robert Baker (http://www.bridgetuition.co.uk/) and his wife Jacky acting a course tutors:: Paphos in January 2015, Menorca in October 2015 and the Venetian Riviera in May 2015. The programmes for the latter two courses are displayed on the next two pages. I think you will agree that the holidays look both entertaining and instructive – indeed a great way for your learners to acclimatise themselves to the game.

First for Bridge are now offering a £25 discount on the holiday for your students and £50 for the EBUTA teacher whose student purchases one of these holidays.

If the teacher displays the holiday details in their classroom, students may call to book the holiday giving the tour reference (provided on the flyer) and their teacher’s name. First for Bridge will record this information and after the holiday commissions will be paid to the teachers after confirmation that they are bona fide EBUTA members and that the participants are their bona fide students.

Bookings can be made online at www.firstforbridge.co.uk or by phone to 01473 660802 (Mon-Fri 9am to 5:30pm).

Further incentives may be available for tutors accompanying or organising a group of eight students or more. Please contact Val Cornock (01473 660 805) for further details Teachers can contact First for Bridge for a postal supply of flyers or request [email protected] for a set of pdf’s which can be printed off or circulated electronically.

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21 FREE 3 MONTH MEMBERSHIP FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS to NO FEAR BRIDGE

This autumn we are once again offering 3 months free membership to all EBU bridge students and teachers. No Fear Bridge (www.nofearbridge.co.uk) is a unique website that allows students to practice their bridge online. There is a wide variety of fun practice activities, which cover all aspects of the game including hands to play, bidding practice and leads training. The hands and other bridge content have been provided by an expert bridge consultant to ensure that all the content is of the highest standard.

If you haven’t yet seen No Fear Bridge, do take this opportunity to have a look. As well as student activities, you’ll also find some printable resources such as copies of the hands, partnership bidding practice and information sheets on various topics.

We would love to get more feedback from teachers to help us improve the site. If you have any suggestions or ideas that would help No Fear Bridge complement your teaching, please do get in touch with Leigh Harding at [email protected] No Fear Bridge -Three Months Free Membership

1. First register at www.nofearbridge.co.uk , you will receive a password by email.

2. Then log in and go to ‘My Account’ page.

3. Enter coupon code EBUFREE3 on the ‘Add/Renew Membership’ page to sign up for three months free membership.

The offer is available to all students include those who are already members; the extra three months will be added to the end of their membership.

The EBUFREE3 code is valid until 31st December 2014.

25% Student Discount on One Year Membership

Use coupon code STUDENT25 when signing up for a one year membership.

The STUDENT25 code is valid until 30th June 2015. ....

From the Wilds of Aylesbury (continued from page 10)

Well, this contract may not be as bad as it might appear at first sight. If West has lead from a seven card suit, she probably hasn’t got anything much outside for her bid, and it is not that unlikely that your right hand opponent has both club ace and club king. Indeed, if your left hand opponent has got either of these cards, you are probably going three or four down in your contract and there is nothing much you can do about it (except smile wanly at partner as you put the cards back in the board).

We’ve decided that your right hand opponent has to have .AK for you to have any chance of making the contract and South is the sort of player who is sure to have bid 3 on a seven card suit, so there’s no point in holding up, and let’s say you win the first trick with the ace. What do you play next?

You re-count your top tricks. Three spades, one diamond plus two hearts (three on a good day) need you to produce three club tricks – no more.

22 At trick four therefore, you lead…….…….the club queen from hand. Why?

If your right hand opponent has .AK, he either holds .AK or .AK10 or .AK9 or .AK109. In the first case, it doesn’t matter what you lead from hand. In the second or third case you can afford to lose the first club to your opponent’s .A or .K, win the return (of a spade or a heart) in dummy and lead another club towards your hand. You will only lose two clubs and end up making your contract with at least one overtrick.

Now if you had led say  Q at trick two and then crossed to  A – or even led small to  A at trick two, followed by a club from table, you’d probably end up also making your contract (unless you ran into a very bad spade break).

But if your right hand opponent has all four clubs, you absolutely must start off with club queen from hand at trick two. Any other play will destroy the entries to hand which you will need to establish your clubs.

Say you play a spade to the ace at trick two, and then lead a club from table. Your right hand opponent ducks the first club, you play the queen from hand and your left hand opponent shows out. You now have nowhere to go. You might play a club from hand, but right hand opponent wins and removes one of your entries for the future winning clubs by leading a second spade.

Winning perforce in hand, you try a third club, but your opponent wins again and leads a third spade. You try holding up, and he now leads a heart into the heart-ace tenace on the table, but that still doesn’t provide enough tricks, and all you will win is three spades, three hearts, one club and one diamond for one off.

The full deal

 J 8 4 Board 9 : Dealer North : EW vulnerable  Q 10 9 8 2  3 West North East South . A K 10 9 Pass 1. 3  A K 7 6  Q 3 Dbl (1) Pass 3NT (2) All Pass  A J 6 3  K 4  10 4  A 8 5 (1) A take-out double showing at least 4-4 in the unbid suits . 6 5 4 . Q J 8 7 3 2 (in this case the majors)  10 9 5 2 (2) A 4. bid could not be criticised, holding only a single  7 5 diamond stop and 2-2 in the majors. Still, then there  K Q J 9 7 6 2 would be no story . -

Please do send me your comments about this deal. Is it too hard? If so, why?

Produced by Simon Barb, EBUTA Manager, English Bridge Union,

Broadfields, Bicester Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8AZ.

Simon Barb  01296 317218 email [email protected] Lisa Miller  01296 317217 [email protected]

October 2014 © English Bridge Union Ltd. All rights reserved.

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