Simultaneous Pairs Events 2015

We are pleased to announce that for 2015 there will be no increase in the cost of entry for any of the simultaneous pairs events organised by the EBU.

We hope this encourages more clubs to take part in what we believe is already an excellent value competition. Please also remember that the proceeds from the competition go towards supporting the EBU and its members, so by taking part you are enabling your members to both play in a nationwide competition, and also to help their Union.

Some of the features of the Sims Events we'd like to point out are:

Cash prizes

The new prize structure which was introduced in 2014 will be used in 2015. Each club which hosts a heat will have the chance to win up to £1000. The winning pair of each heat will also have the chance to win up to £1000, and there are cash prizes for the overall winners of each event too*.

The results:

The results service which is provided is, we believe, excellent, with a breakdown of all the scores and percentages along with hand records and an expert commentary which is both interesting and educational. Here is an example

The hands:

We sometimes receive comments that some people are concerned that hands in a Sims event are manipulated so that they are weird or that we pick hands which make for a more interesting commentary. This is not true. The hands you receive are exactly as dealt, and the interesting commentary is down to the skill of the author, not due to manipulation of the hands.

Master Points:

Whilst not the motivation of some club players, others love the opportunity to boost their Master Point total whilst playing in their home club. The top pairs will receive hundreds of Master Points as well as being awarded Blue Points. You can see more information on Blue Points at http://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/laws-and-ethics/licensing/blue-points.pdf

Promotional material:

To help you promote your event we will provide a personalised poster, including your club name and the date on which you will be holding an event, so that you can advertise it to your members.

The dates of the 2015 events are:

British Winter Simultaneous Pairs
Monday 5th to Thursday 8th January 2015
(if ordering booklets please do so as soon as possible to avoid the Christmas post)

Bridge England Simultaneous Pairs The event is held to raise funds to aid performance in our international teams. This supports all teams (Open, Women, Seniors and Juniors).
Tuesday 3rd to Wednesday 4th February 2015

British Spring Simultaneous Pairs
Tuesday 7th to Thursday 9th April 2015 and Monday 13th April 2015

EBU Spring Simultaneous Pairs
Tuesday 5th to Thursday 7th May

British Summer Simultaneous Pairs
Monday 27th to Thursday 30th July 2015

EBED Autumn Simultaneous Pairs
Proceeds from this event will go to the new charity, English Bridge Education and Development.
Monday 7th to Friday 11th September 2015

British Autumn Simultaneous Pairs
Monday 5th to Thursday 8th October 2015

We have done quite a bit of research among clubs in the last year and had a clear response that we have been running too many sim pairs events. Since the Friday ones were very poorly supported, we have decided to stop all but one of them each year, as well as discontinuing the Monday of the EBU Spring Sim which was always on a different week than the others. We apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment this causes, however we hope that most clubs who would have played on these days will be able to find an alternative day on which to host a heat.

* This excludes the Bridge England Sims or the Club Stratified Sims