Yesterday the EBU hosted a meeting with clubs and counties to discuss options for online bridge with the aim of helping clubs who are not yet playing online to start to do so. You can watch a recording of the meeting. If you have questions relating to anything discussed in the meeting please contact Club Liaison Officer Jonathan Lillycrop jonathan@ebu.co.uk or 01296 317206.
Text chat and questions appear below: 00:24:26 Douglas Wright(3 Counties Bridge): Good morning All 00:25:08 John Oakland: Good morning to everyone 00:25:41 Jacks Morcombe: A very good morning to all... 00:26:35 Mick Salt: Good Morning all from Alsager Bridge Club (chehire) 00:28:18 Keith Spencer: Good morning. Keith Spencer Woodborough BC, Notts 00:31:23 John Oakland (Swanley Bridge Club): Hi I am using a mobile phone and have managed to rename from participants list. 00:33:01 Oundle Mike Wykes: Good morning Mike Wykes from Oundle, Northants 00:38:11 Barrie: is there a "site" where clubs can register that they wish to join other clubs to play online. Barrie Nanntwich 00:39:06 Phil Shorey Rugby Bridge Club: Rugby BC have invited local clubs to join us if they would like to. We have one player from Devon join us in the early days 00:45:39 Phil Shorey Rugby Bridge Club: Rugby have the same ethos as Anne Edwards clubs. 00:47:06 Chris Dobson: Tewkesbury Bridge Club have been running informal social bridge on Wednesday and Friday evenings, including members from other local clubs. About 12 regular players. 00:48:12 Lesley Millet Yorkshire: Yorkshire Clubs are beginning to group together but some members still have difficulty with BBO dollars - they don't want to use them. Some Yorkshire Clubs are paying the BBO dollars and people are entering by paying the club normal table monies 00:49:41 Chris Dobson: Tewkesbury Bridge club send out an email on Monday mornings to check who wants to play on Wednesday and Friday evenings, and issue a playing schedule on Wednesday mornings advising who will play whom. We play in casual area of BBO. No costs involved. Works well, but we could do with a larger cohort of players. 00:50:24 Diccen Sargent (Isle of Man & Douglas BC): Just a comment - the Isle of Man is now back playing Face-To-Face Bridge sessions. However, our members have asked us to maintain the Virtual Bridge Club going forward as they like to play both formats. Virtual Bridge is here to stay. 00:53:17 Fred Davis - Lincs/Northants: Agree, online is here to stay and a lot of it will be social bridge. We need to keep competitive bridge attractive and enjoyable. 00:54:50 Gayle Webb Wiltshire : Wiltshire started online bridge in April and run a regular pairs competition twice a week on BBO. We use a paid Director for the pairs comps. We also have a teams league with over 20 teams participating. I also started a Virtual Club for Warminster and all bar 4 of our members are now playing regularly online - I direct this club myself. If any club or county wants any advice, do get in touch. 00:55:44 Keith Sheppard: Does BCL support playing director? 00:57:02 Barrie Partridge: Yes :) 00:57:30 Julia Staniforth YCBA, Retford BC Doncaster BC: I feel the greatest barrier is the different platforms and with more coming on stream eg Realbridge it is a dilemma as to which platform to choose as everyone thinks theirs is the best. 00:58:39 Smit Shah: will be good to have a pros and cons of the various platforms, including fees and ease of use 01:01:02 Fred Davis - Lincs/Northants: Unstable internet is a common problem, but people are getting used to it and usually take it in their stride. 01:01:17 Allan Simpson: I agree Julia. Plymouth Bridge Club play 4 sessions a week on BBO. WE have also tried BBO with Zoom break-out rooms but wasn't favoured by most who played. Realbridge is certainly a welcome development and we are also very interested in the BCL development using your devices video and audio. 01:02:59 Fred Davis - Lincs/Northants: RealBridge trials have been well received. 01:03:07 Richard Smith: we have been scared off by the apparent level of computer skills needed to set up and direct on-line tournaments. any advice? 01:03:29 Dominic: Not suitable for Douglas with his poor internet connection 01:04:03 Trevor Hobson Surrey: Which platforms provided genuine Swiss, Howell and Mitchell movements? 01:04:18 Ralph Power Bristol Bridge Club: I was at the Real Bridge trial, it was excellent. Do we know how soon it might be available for clubs? 01:05:13 Gayle Webb Wiltshire : Wiltshire ran a 66 team Swiss Teams on Sunday using BBO and it worked very smoothly. 01:05:48 Adam Wiseberg Manchester CBA: I have produced a series of around 35 YouTube videos instructing on how to use the various facilities on BBO starting with how to register. 01:06:41 Adam Wiseberg Manchester CBA: These are available for any club or county to point to on their website. Please email me awiseberg@gmail.com if you want to do this. 01:07:49 Keith Spencer. Woodborough BC, Notts: Concerned that you think face to face bridge will not take place as soon as hoped! We were advised in April that F2F was highly unlikely to take place before May 2021. So when do you think we may play F2F bridge? 01:07:58 Chris Dobson: Tewkesbury Bridge Club. Has any club carried out a survey of members to check their views on bridge going forward. Would you share this with us so we can survey our members? 01:08:32 David Guild: They are brilliant Adam for demystifying BBO and easily found by searching on YouTube for Adam Wiseberg 01:09:14 Gordon Rainsford EBU: EBU Forums are at https://www.ebu.co.uk/forum/ 01:13:29 Keith Sheppard (Bracknell Forest BC): I second Smit Shah's comment. I would like comparisons of the costs a) for clubs and b) the players. For small clubs, the ability to have a playing director (not possible on BBO) is also a significant consideration. 01:14:18 Jonathan Lillycrop EBU: Hi Keith, we can certainly create a comparison. We have one although it needs some updating so I will do that and then share it via the website. 01:14:45 Jonathan Lillycrop EBU: BBO can have playing directors although it requires the director to be logged on twice on two separate devices. 01:15:05 Phil Shorey Rugby Bridge Club: Rugby BC would be happy to have anyone from anywhere in the country, or wider, join us. We have two members from the Czech Republic. :) 01:15:47 Martin Aherne: It may be an opportunity to bring onboard any non-EBU affiliated clubs by merging/playing with an affiliated club 01:16:04 Trevor - Stamford Bridge Club: It doesn't have to be two different devices. I do it by being on both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome on one machine 01:18:09 Douglas Wright(3 Counties Bridge): I am sorry my internet connection is poor today of all days!! If you would like any help on Learning & Playing Online please get in touch douglaswright@3countiesbridge.com 01:18:39 Julia Staniforth YCBA, Retford BC Doncaster BC: There are already situations where members from unaffiliated clubs are playing with affiliated clubs however we don't know whether that will result in increased numbers when face to face return 01:19:07 Martin Aherne: At the moment, I use Chrome for both playing and for directing, though I use the older Flash version for directing and the newer version for playing... that can only last until the end of the year. 01:19:57 Martin Aherne: The biggest problem with online directing is not the directing itself (that is super easy). The big issue is when other people have technical issues and how to resolve those 01:22:44 Adam Wiseberg Manchester CBA: Thanks to Lesley for mentioning my videos. They are available for any club or county to use. Contact me at awiseberg@gmail.com for details of how to do that. 01:25:02 Keith Sheppard (Bracknell Forest BC): I know BBO supports P2P. What about the other platforms? Do they support gathering of "table money" from players to cover EBU fees? 01:25:40 Jonathan Lillycrop EBU: I don’t believe so, with other platforms money would need to be collected offline. 01:26:36 Fred Davis - Lincs/Northants: can you mute everyone except the speaker 01:26:45 Allan Simpson: Not that I'm aware. If we move to a different playing platform we will have to collect monies from players directly. Anyone any experience on the best way of doing this? 01:27:28 John Oakland (Swanley Bridge Club): Thank you. 01:28:25 Julia Staniforth YCBA, Retford BC Doncaster BC: We believe the percentage is at least 50% 01:28:41 Michael Green Berks & Bucks: robots in BBO are putting people and clubs off playing 01:29:20 Jonathan Lillycrop EBU: One solution for collecting money is being provided by Victor Lesk (Brian Bridge
October 21, 2020