Chairman’s August 2020 update
25th August 2020
Once again, I find myself putting fingers on the keyboard to hopefully give you an update of what we, the YCBA committee, are doing on your behalf.
I am sure that you will have seen our President’s letter outlining what is happening with our flagship event, the Yorkshire League. Plans are in place to start again in January and whilst this seems a long way away, even now there is a doubt that this will be the case. In the light of this, the idea of a new inter club tournament came about and further details will be forthcoming about this exciting interim on-line opportunity for clubs to participate in. The format will be slightly different to the traditional Yorkshire League but we hope that you can generate your Club team(s) to enjoy this new competition.
We are always looking at new ideas for competitions and the feedback I have received so far, for those that we have held, has been very good. However, this does not stop us from entertaining ideas for new events and we are looking at all types of formats for the future, whilst on-line bridge remains the only game in town. If you would like more variants on stratified events, mixed, men’s, ladies’, swiss, teams, pairs etc. please let us know. The on-line game can be as sociable as you want it to be and yes, you cannot see people faces but the possibility of say adding Zoom feedbacks is one way of connecting with friends and opponents alike after an event.
Early on in lockdown, we contacted clubs to check on their ‘health and well- being’ and to also to get a handle on how many members were playing on-line. This not only proved popular with the clubs but gave the YCBA a valuable insight to all our clubs in this current climate. It is with this in mind and, similarly to the way that the EBU consults at County level, that I would like to invite all Chairs our YCBA Clubs to a meet with me on-line. The date has yet to be sorted and I appreciate that you may not all be able to attend but if you can have a representative there that would be great. Unfortunately, I do not have all the current e-mail addresses of the Club Chairs, so in the first instance if you can each contact me, so that I can get an invitation list together with possible dates, that would be great. Failing that, if possible, could the Club Secretaries please let me have their Chair’s details and I will contact them.
As I mentioned earlier, the events we have held have proved very popular and I would like to personally thank everyone who has been involved in creating and making these events really from scratch as it is as new to us as it may be to you. Especially but not exclusively, Lesley and Ron Millet, David Guild, Pauline Stout, Oliver Cowan, James Carpenter and Stuart Davies.
Please keep your eye on the website for future competitions that we will be running.
I hope you and your families keep well and safe and whilst the day of face to face bridge still seems a long way off, I hope you are enjoying your on-line bridge because enjoyment is the reason we play the game.
Nick Woolven (YCBA Chair)
