September 2017

Teachers have good weekend at EBTA Convention

Over 60 bridge teachers, who had travelled from as far as South Africa and Majorca, gathered at the Chesford Grange hotel in the Warwickshire countryside this weekend for the EBTA Teachers' Convention.

The Convention included seminars, discussions, a heat of the EBED Sim Pairs, a speedball, and good food, all in the relaxing environment of the country house.

Seminar topics included working on a cruise ship, an introduction to Fast Track Bridge, and how to build bridge communities. Lou Hobhouse, editor of English Bridge, led a very interesting discussion on how the EBU's members magazine could best to serve new people to the game. Trustee Gary Ames, who was present throughout, explained the workings of our charity EBED and the important role that EBTA had within it.

The feedback from the teachers has been very positive with many asking when we were going to stage the next one. The answer to that is probably late summer 2019.

Young players enjoy bridge and more at the Junior Teach-In

The annual Junior Teach-In took place on 1st-3rd September, with young players again congregating in Loughborough.

All ages and abilities were represented, including participants who were playing for the first time right through to current junior internationals.

The weekend combined bridge tuition and competitions, plus other fun events including the traditional game of rounders.

Thank you to all the young players who took part, and to the volunteers who helped with the event.

The winners of the Arnott Davidson Trophy in the Championship Pairs were Nathan Galpin & Jack Lawrence (pictured). They are both pupils at Reading School - where current England internationals David Gold and Mike Bell learnt to play - and will hopefully follow in their schoolmates' footsteps.

They were just two of the weekend's winners, with prizes awarded not only for results but for improvement and aptitude. The full list of prize winners is available here.

Laurie Champniss: 1939 - 2017

EBED is sad to learn of the death of Laurie Champniss. Laurie was the founder of South Bucks Bridge Centre, one of the country's busiest bridge clubs. In 2015, he generously donated the club to EBED, and although the charity no longer runs the club we still coordinate a large teaching programme there, helping to continue Laurie's work of bringing bridge to as wide an audience as possible. Laurie is pictured (right) making the donation to then General Manager, Barry Capal.

EBED Autumn Sim Pairs supports bridge teaching

The EBED Autumn Simultaneous Pairs took place in early September and all the results and commentaries can be found on the EBU website via the links below.

We are targeting the proceeds on "improving and developing the infrastructure for bridge teaching in England". Thank you to all clubs and players who took part to support this important work which will help to ensure that new players can enter the game, and help it to thrive for decades to come.

One important project in this area which has recently been completed is the development of Fast Track Bridge - the new learning programme which gives the opportunity to learn to play bridge in just 24 hours of lessons. You can find out more about it here.

Monday 4th September Commentary Booklet
Tuesday 5th September Commentary Booklet
Wednesday 6th September Commentary Booklet
Thursday 7th September Commentary Booklet
Friday 8th September Commentary Booklet