The Summer Festival 2018
As the Devonshire Park complex in Eastbourne is undergoing extensive refurbishment, they will not have space to accommodate us for the Summer Meeting in 2018. We will therefore instead be holding a one-off Summer Festival in 2018 between 3rd and 19th August at a mixture of venues. We intend returning to Eastbourne in 2019.
Host a heat of one of the midweek competitions
The midweek competitions which are usually held on the evenings during the Summer Meeting will continue as part of the Summer Festival, but with a change to the usual arrangements.
This year they will each be held as multi-venue competitions, with the same hands played at a few venues around the country, and then scored across the whole field.
We are inviting clubs to apply to hold a heat of one (or more) of these competitions. We hope that there will be heats in most regions of the country. The events are as follows, with current host clubs noted:
- Mon 6th August: Play with the Experts - pairs (historical hands, scored by Butler IMPs with notional expert team-mates). Must be played as a two-winner movement and is 26 boards, so ideally should have at least 13 tables in each heat.
Richmond Bridge Club
- Tue 7th August: GCH Fox Pairs Championship - One-winner pairs championship
Richmond Bridge Club
West Midlands Bridge Club
- Wed 15th August: Mixed Pivot Teams - Teams must have at least one man and one woman, and they rotate partnerships after each nine boards. 27 boards in total and a minimum of ten teams per venue.
Richmond Bridge Club
- Thu 16th August: Mixed Pairs Championship - One-winner pairs championship
Richmond Bridge Club
These dates are the two days following the Swiss Pairs, and the two days preceding the Four Stars Teams - thus making two long weekends of bridge.
The benefits for your club and members
- Host clubs can set the entry fee which is charged for their heat. They may charge more to non-members of the club if they wish. They would remit £3 per player to the EBU, and keep the remainder.
- No Universal Membership would be charged in addition to the £3 remitted to the EBU.
- Your club members get the fun of playing in a national competition without leaving their club.
- Blue Points will be awarded for the national results – so your club members could give a big boost to their Master Points just from playing in their usual club session.
- Cash prizes will be awarded for the national results, along with the prestige of winning. There have to be champions, so why couldn’t it be some of your club members?!
- The EBU would provide the hands and the hand records, as well as support for your TD if needed (especially for the technically challenging Mixed Pivot and PWTE events).
If you would be interested in hosting a heat of one (or more) of these events then please get in touch with nick@ebu.co.uk.
We hope that we will be able to make suitable arrangements so that it can be incorporated in to your usual club night, so is ideal for clubs with an already large session on one of those evenings.