English Bridge Union

Things are moving apace. Yesterday's Board meeting was cancelled, instead, the Officers met, the Board having formally devolved dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, and having decided some pressing ongoing issues via e-mail.

The Officers have decided to cancel the following finals:

• The Corwen
• The Pachabo
• The Garden Cities

All of which follow fairly rapidly on each other's heels.

We are not necessarily only doing this because we fear extending our period of blanket cancellations: we are also aware that many counties have yet to play their heats, and will find it impossible to do so.

It's a shame that these events and others will not be taking place this year, but if alongside the date 2020 in the future honour roles "Did not take place" is written, well, that just means we have something in common with the Eurovision Song Contest, which is finally facing its Waterloo.

A further decision made yesterday was that we will not be taking the annual club subs by Direct Debit in April. It's only a modest sum for clubs but we don't want to be taking payments out when clubs are closed and finances might be at a low ebb. We can sort all that out later.

Finally, the County Chairman's Meeting in May is cancelled. There are too many people coming from too far away.

Further decisions will be made as and when they come up. You will, of course, be informed.

Play EBU tournaments and earn Master Points on Funbridge!

As a partner of the English Bridge Union, the online bridge app Funbridge is licensed to run official Master Points tournaments allowing you to move up your national rankings as if you were playing in a club.

Find out more here

The World Bridge Games Open Trials have been won by the Phoenix Team (James Thrower, Croz Croswell, Marusa Gold & Todor Tiholov).

They were the leaders in the round robin stage of the trials, before beating the Black team (Andrew Black & David Gold, Tom Townsend & Ben Handley-Pritchard, Phil King and Andrew McIntosh)by 1 IMP in the final.

The World Bridge Games are scheduled to be played in Salsomaggiore in August, though it has not yet been confirmed whether they will be going ahead.

Results

In the light of increasing concerns about the increasing spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) the Board of the EBU has decided to postpone its own events, and revise its guideline/advice for counties, clubs and members.

Postponed Events

The Portland Pairs; The Really Easy Spring Break; The Mixed Olympiad Trials; The Northern Easter Festival; The Easter Festival.

Further postponements may be announced in time. Where possible, we will reschedule events.

Knockout matches will have deadlines extended on request or teams may choose to play matches online, using the existing arrangements.

Advice to Counties/Clubs and Members

Counties. County events, because of their nature, we strongly recommend cancellation.

Clubs we advise to follow government/PHE instructions. If you are unable to comply for whatever reason (inability to observe social distancing, inadequate sanitation then we strongly advise closure pro tem). Clubs with cramped premises and no scope for even the most rudimentary social distancing must also beware of the dangers they face. Ironically, larger clubs must also be willing to make tough decisions because of the sheer number of people they have through the door.

Members. Follow government/PHE advice, do not attend if showing any symptoms.

We all know two things. Cards and bidding boxes are major likely sources of infection, and our demographic includes many people at high risk. It is in view of this, that the Board has made this decision about its own events and made the advice to counties, clubs and members more robust.

Ian Payn
EBU Chairman