OCT 2ND

Four ‘A’s this week!

And the winners are ........  In the JSBSC Stratified MasterPoints Competition between 1 July and 30 September, in Category C, the top two winners are Kay Corbin and Vera Thomas, with the top six Members with the best averages being Ed & Jane Morley, Alan & Anne Oliver, Sandra Bond and Barbara Sadler; all these winners of a bottle of cava are now promoted to Category B.  In Category B, the top two winners are Maggie Harris and Eric Atkins, with the top four Members with the best averages being Pam Burnett, Sue Wood, Manny Kleyman and Kay Thomas; all these winners of a bottle of cava are now promoted to Category A.  In Category A, Peter Hindley wins a bottle of cava as the top winner, with Anita Dixon with the best average; they both win a bottle of cava (and are not allowed to play again until next year!).

Also, the winners are .......... JBC.  The inaugural match between JSBSC and JBC took place on Saturday afternoon, 1 Oct, at JBC.  In a very closely fought match between the two teams of 10 pairs, they narrowly crept ahead of us with 150 IMPs by the end of the afternoon, giving them an average advantage of 6 IMPs per match played.  O.K, yes, we were well beaten, but it was an enjoyable afternoon, pleasant atmosphere, the TD was not called once, and ended with a drink and tapas to discuss the odd hand of bridge.  Next year we will host the event, so intense training and lessons begin soon – compulsory attendance for all!

Allocated seating is back for our daily tournaments, and the majority seem in favour.  Remember, we do not need the table reservation cards on the table to reserve seats now, so when starting up the scoring tablets, North will ask for your number, and then confirm the name is correct – simple.

And finally, our dear friend Audrey Bridger, who left us to move to California last year to live with her daughter, keeps in touch occasionally, and sent us this cartoon during the week:

OCT 9TH

This week started with the celebration of Mila Pond’s 90^th Birthday on Monday.  The President presented her a bouquet of flowers together with her certificate for becoming a Life Member of JSBSC.  Many congratulations to Mila.

The end of the week saw the Mixed Pairs Championship hotly contested by 14 pairs, with our annual visiting Members from Yorkshire, John Kitteridge and Maureen Denison, taking the winners trophy.  They also received a €20 voucher each towards a supper at Restaurant La Cocina in Jávea.

Your Club has collected a total of €650 from Members for the heroes during the devastating fires last month.  Together with the contribution from the Club, this means we will be presenting €550 to the Jávea Cruz Roja and €1100 to the Jávea Bomberos.

Chris Threlfall has kindly agreed to take all the food donations collected by Members for CARITAS, together with the plastic top collection, to The Original Charity Shop in town on a weekly basis.  Please continue to bring your donations to the Club – every little helps.

Bridge pair Colin & Eric were flying in a light aircraft last week from Alicante to Madrid for a few beers and a night out.  Midway, with a minor mechanical issue, they decided it wise to make a precautionary landing at an abandoned and isolated air strip way up in the inland hills.  After stopping at the end of the strip, they get out and make themselves comfortable, knowing it will be quite a while before help arrived.  Eric takes out a pack of cards from his overnight bag and said, “With the Men’s Pairs Championship coming up, why don’t we run through all our conventions – we need to get our names on that trophy.”  (Ah-ah; said that for you chaps reading this.)  Colin said, “Not so sure about revising, have you seen what is coming our way from the other end of the strip?”.  “Wow”, says Eric, “a big grizzly bear.  What are you doing Colin?” he says, noting him taking out a pair of running shoes from his overnight bag.  Now Eric, a whiz at quizzes, says, “Everyone knows you cannot outrun a Spanish bear!”  “I don’t need to”, came the reply, “I just need to outrun you!”  (Colin is now looking for a partner for the Championship on Monday 17^th October!)

OCT 16TH

True Champions are never a ‘flash in the pan’, so many congratulations to Barbara Williams and Pat Fisher for retaining their title of “Ladies’ Pairs Champions” for the second year.  (We are sorry for having to score the parallel tournament by hand, but our new technology combination of BridgeTab and ScoreBridge has got the better of us - grrrrrrr.)

You might have noticed (we hope) that all the Lenovo tablet screens were cleaned last week.  Using the capacitive pens certainly helps keep them clean, so anyone caught using their ‘sticky mitts’ will be volunteering to clean them all next time!  Whilst mentioning those pens, they do wear with time and some have become ineffective.  If you find a pen is not working as it should, please bring it to the attention of the Club Secretary who will take the appropriate action – formally dis-charge the warrior in question and ‘ditch the pen’!

Last year, after our ASPADIS Tournament, a male Member approached Maria-Teresa and said, “Please talk to me before you print the prize tickets for the tournament next year.”  Unfortunately, she cannot remember who that person was, so if it is you, please talk with Maria-Teresa urgently.

Our friend, Monique, from Canada, will visit us again next year from 8 Feb until 4 May, and if anyone wants to partner her on a regular basis during that time, let us know and we will make the connection.

And finally, following on from last week’s tale, Colin took his new partner for the Men’s Pairs Championship flying, and they went to the same airstrip where Eric met the Spanish bear the previous week.  Unfortunately for Ed, the bear was still there, licking its lips, and Colin still had his running shoes on!   Colin now promises that for any other fellow Club Member he takes flying, they will go nowhere near that airstrip.

4TH SEPT

So, we are now into September with the busy summer month of August behind us for yet another year; great, maybe the odd parking space now closer to the Club.  Also, the first 7 days of this month saw 6 birthdays for our members, congratulations to you all.  Remember to check out the website daily for full details, including Members’ birthdays.

However, despite welcoming September, next Friday Xàbia will host the pre-penultimate and decisive stage of the Vuelta España cycle race.  All very exciting, but it does mean that all roads to the Club will be closed between 11 am and 6 pm – no access, and no parking, great!  Therefore, your Committee has decided that it is pointless holding a tournament on Friday 9^th, but instead we will hold a ‘standard’ tournament on Tuesday 13^th September – see you all there; free drinks for the normal price at the bar!

For those Members interested, social bridge will recommence on Tuesday 20^th September, and bridge lessons will recommence during October – more details to follow after the next Committee meeting in two weeks.

Also for your diary, the Club will partake in a simultaneous pairs event on Wednesday 21^stSeptember, World Peace Day, organised by the Hitchin Bridge Club.  Other clubs taking part are Torrevieja Bridge Club; Monterey Bridge Club, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Pissouri Bridge Club, Cyprus; Kailua Bridge Club, Hawaii and Javea Bridge Club. All just for fun, table money at the usual rate and bottles of wine as prizes.

Welcome to Neill Freeman to the illustrious and elite group of JSBSC Scorers.  We are surprised that more players do not want to master the skill of scoring our daily tournaments; please just submit your CV and application fee to any members of the Committee and we will consider your request.

Finally, a very warm welcome back to Pat Fisher after her very sad loss, we will all remember Terry

11TH SEPT

What a week!  It started with the sad news that Fred had passed away.  Then the fires on Sunday into Monday which affected a number of members, who had to evacuate, but with Janet Hubbard, Sue Wood and Colin Bond suffering quite extensive exterior garden damage, although luckily no personal injuries nor significant property loss.

Then the Friday tournament had to be cancelled due to the Spanish ‘La Vuelta 2016’ cycle event closing many roads between Calpe, Moraira and Javea, and specifically outside the Club, between 1100 and 1800 hours.  However, for those who went to observe the time-trial, very exciting, especially seeing Chris Froome and Simon Yates speeding along when it was their turn.  The Club will open on Tuesday for a replacement tournament, normal timing.

Now to boring stuff.  Prior to the next Committee meeting in two weeks and decisions about allocated (or not) seating, the Club ran out of the bits of paper put on tables for members to append their name to reserve seats.  Now, with key members of the Committee away from town, your Secretary needed to produce these from scratch.  Whilst doing so, he thought, ‘why waste paper having just 4 from an A4 sheet, when you can produce them smaller, and get 12 from the sheet’.  So he did.  Now, there is room for your first name, and little more, but little more is required.  You do not need to add your Club player number, the player sitting North can ask you as he/she enters the details, and this way we might avoid errors when not being able to clearly read your writing!

Turning back to the fires, Sandra Benson pointed out that Javea only has 15 volunteer Bomberos, albeit that these were joined by many more firemen from all over Spain.  As you will be aware, such was the intensity of the fires, that although amazingly our 15 heroes only sustained minor personal injuries, they did lose a lot of equipment which needs to be replaced by donated funds.  As a result, your Committee very quickly decided that we would do our part in raising funds for the Bomberos, and maybe other emergency organizations involved this week, by donating €1000 from Club funds, and inviting all Members to contribute, only if they wish, any amount they feel appropriate.  We are delighted to report that after just 2 tournaments, over €350 has been raised.  The collection will continue for a number of weeks, so if you wish to contribute, next time you play bridge at the Club, there is a box on the bar for your anonymous donation, as little or as much as you wish, but remember if it rattles it is good, if it flutters it is great!

25TH SEPT

Following the Committee Meeting on Friday, the two main decisions were to re-introduce allocated seating (no changing with others after allocation please) and reduced bar prices on all except tap water, spirits and choc bars.  The other issues that affect Members are posted on the website and on the Club notice board. 

With just one week left to the end of the Quarterly Stratified MasterPoint Competition, the fight for prizes and promotion is on!  In Category B, Jackie Evans and Elaine Jones are close on the heels of the leader pack, while in Category C, Anne and Alan Oliver are in hot pursuit of the top six players – may the best woman (or man) win. 

Remember we played the World Simultaneous Pairs on the 4th June (Saturday) at JSBSC with the winners worldwide getting a trip to China.  Unfortunately, neither Peter H (nor Diana) got to go!  Well the 3 day final was this weekend in Bejing.  The winning pairs from the set of hands we played were from Madeira Bridge Club in Portugal.  Others winners from Europe were from Oamx and Piraeus Bridge Clubs in Greece and Portland Bridge Club in Italy. Top runners up from Europe were a pair from Stansfield in England (71.82%) and Bridge Latina Italy (72.01%) who have also been invited.  You can follow the finals on line, a few people may be interested.  See 2016 WWBC Winners - World Bridge Federation 

The battle of all battles is planned for next weekend, Saturday 1 October.  Your Club will send a team of 20 to the Javea Bridge Club, with play commencing at 14.45 pm.  There is a sign-up list of the results noticeboard in the Clubhouse.  Please put your name on the list if you are able to represent JSBSC. 

So, finally, during a normal JSBSC Thursday Tournament, a large turkey came strutting into the Club, paid €5 and sat down at a table.  “Do you mind if I play?”  The players initially humoured the bird but pretty soon they were awestruck as the turkey bid perfectly and pulled off amazing plays.  This caught the President’s attention "You’re terrific!!  Sign up for the team event against JBC, I’ll see to it that you get a huge bonus if we win.”  “Forget the bonus,” the turkey said, “All I want to know is this.  Does the match take place after Christmas Day?”

Aug 7th

So a week using ‘Single Winner Movements’ and although it has worked to help improve the Quarterly Stratified Masterpoints (SMPs) competition, it is not as effective as allocated (random) seating, but the committee are aware of this.  When a tournament is being run with a Mitchell movement and an ‘arrow switch’, when the TD calls “move for the arrow switch” the N/S players remain in place, the East players move to the West’s seat in the Clubhouse, and assumes the role of North (the West players moves to the East position and becomes the South player).  That might sound complicated, but it is quite simple, honest. 

There still seems to be a number of Members who do not know what the SMPs competition is all about – please, if you are one, just ask and all will be revealed. 

We have heard a warning from PC-Highway, our sponsor, about a scam, which is as follows: 

IF YOU RECEIVE A PHONECALL FROM MICROSOFT SERVICE CALL CENTRE, DO NOT GIVE ANY INFORMATION. BEST TO END CONVERSATION IMMEDIATELY AS IT IS A SCAM.
MICROSOFT WILL NEVER CONTACT THEIR ENDUSERS BY PHONE.
THEY WILL ASK YOU IF YOU ARE IN FRONT OF A PC OR LAPTOP BECAUSE YOU HAVE A VIRUS AND HACK INTO YOUR SYSTEM TO RETRIEVE PERSONAL DATA AND TRY AND GET CREDIT CARD DETAILS FROM YOU. IN THIS CASE IT IS NOT RUDE TO HANG UP. 

No bridge joke this week, but uniform humour.  A defence ministry was conducting an All Services briefing and the leader asked this question:  “What would you do if you found a scorpion in your tent?”

Navy response was, ‘Step on it’.

Army response was, ‘Squash it with a boot’.

Marine response was, ‘Catch it, break the stinger off, and eat it’.

Air Force said, ‘Phone hotel reception and ask why there is a tent in the bedroom’.

Aug 14th

Well spotted all those who noted the deliberate error in the update last week, and thank you to those who did not point it out!  It is definitely August, so not the 7th July!

From next Wednesday until the following Thursday, the Club will be light regarding Committee Member (CM) presence.  The daily Director obviously has total control over the tournament and any other matter that affects the Club on the day.  If there is anything that needs a Committee Member input, please just drop an email; we can take any necessary action from afar!

A big ‘Thank You’ to Pety Bos who accompanied John Howden (CM) to the annual Javea Sol Management AGM on Friday.

Also, a gold star to Liz Ayling for her idea to mark the Lenovo tablet covers so that Members can easily identify where to press bring them back to life, or to turn on or off.  All the tablets were cleaned this weekend, and appropriately marked for your convenience – hope you approve.  While on the subject of tablets, a kindly reminder to please turn off the tablets at the end of play, unless specifically asked not to do so.  When charging the pink covered tablets this week, 3 had been left on!

Finally, we had a partnership misunderstanding last week – my partner assumed I knew what I was doing!  We knew we were in trouble when the first thing the opponents decided to do was draw trumps, and I was the declarer!

Aug 21st

We, well most of us, are now fairly familiar with the Lenovo tablets scoring system, so much so that we have reverted to our old bad habits!  Yes, most of us, Committee members, directors, good players and poorer players, now look at the tablets after each hand and announce quite loudly the bid, the number of trick taken or going off, what others did, and all numerous other comments load enough for fellow competitors on adjacent tablets to clearly hear. 

Not always a problem, but quite annoying and a very bad habit.  It really is a problem when, say, sitting on table 3, hearing all about the hands on table 5, and then moving to table 4 to play those hands!  Not saying it is necessarily going to help, but it is an influence that we must try to stop at our Club.  Not pointing any specific fingers, but if you think you might have done this occasionally, please try hard to stop the chit-chat when looking at the results – just look, digest, and pass around the table.  Also, North players, please, when you input the bid details, do it silently – East players will check you have got it right.

There was an incident this week when 2 tables decided to swap table numbers!  Please don’t do that, it causes all sorts of confusion which is not helpful.  Certainly ask the TD if you can possibly move your table for your convenience, but not switching set table positions please.

Joke.  Wayne was talking to a doctor about his bridge partner "Doctor, I think my bridge partner is deaf because she never hears my bid and I always have to repeat things."

"Well," the doctor replied, "The next time you play bridge, bid normally. If she doesn't reply, say it louder and louder. Keep doing this so that we'll get an idea about the severity of her deafness."

Sure enough, the next time they played Rubbber Bridge, he does exactly as instructed. He starts off saying “One Spade”.  He hears no response. He says it louder “ONE SPADE”. Still no reply. And again “ONE SPADE”! He gets fed up and screams at the top of his voice “SHERYL! I’M BIDDING ONE SPADE”! 

Sheryl picks up a pen and writes down "For the fourth time, One No Trump".

Aug 28th

There was one little incident recently when some tablets were not charged during the afternoon, and ran low on battery power.  Please be aware that should this happen again, and you have a tablet warning you of a very low battery, there are seven mains charger cables with plugs in the office (left hand drawers, fourth down).  Just plug it in at your table.  However, take care, you have now just introduced a trip hazard, please take special care when the director calls ‘move please’.

We have our friends from Garforth Bridge Club joining us again from 6 to 20 October, but there are only 7 players this year.  A list will be put up in the Club looking for a partner for one of them each tournament during their stay with us – volunteers please.

Now, only for thought and open discussion, the English Bridge Union in its April newsletter has noted the cost of replacing hundreds of ‘sticky’ playing cards which are otherwise fine.  The cards absorb the sweat and moisture from people’s hands which cause the problem.  Some clubs have solved the problem by asking their members to wear disposable nitrile gloves and have found that playing cards now last for years.  The money saved in playing cards more than covered the cost of gloves which were bought in bulk, then recycled.  That isn’t the only benefit – playing cards can cause cross infection as germs and viruses are passed on during handling.  The gloves eliminate this and the number of bridge players with coughs and colds was much reduced over the winter months.  Please don’t air your views in replying by email, share your thoughts verbally at the Club.

And finally, don’t let your worries get you down, play bridge instead!

JULY 3RD

After the first quarterly Stratified Masterpoints Competition, which ran from 1 April to 30 June, the results are as follows: 

Ø Cat A highest average winner is Peter Hindley, with Derrick Holdback then with highest SMPs.  (Peter graciously gave his prize to Janet Hubbard in recognition of all her work for the Club.) 

Ø Cat B highest average winners are Peter & Lyn Shrimpton, Marcel Dewart and Colin Bond (who now compete in Cat A), with Maggie Harris and Sue Wood then with the highest SMPs. 

Ø Cat C highest average winners are Liz Ayling, Colin & Angela Benson, Pam & Donald Cheshire, Pety Bos and Bridget Eber (who now compete in Cat B), with Ann Mould and Mark Urwin then with the highest SMPs. 

Due to an initial error in grading Members, Liz Ayling is to be further promoted to Cat A, congratulations to her.  The second quarterly competition started on Friday 1 July, good luck to all. 

Please remember to actually turn off the Lenovo tablet at the end of play, unless specifically told not to do so by the Director.  (Press and hold the On/Off button on the side, select ‘Off’ and then confirm ‘OK’.) 

First day with seat orientation allocation on Friday seemed to work well.  Besides the advantage of now getting to meet all other players in your Club who you may not have played against in the past, there is an explanation pinned up on the notice board explaining the main reason for introducing allocated seating to enhance the Quarterly SMP Competition. 

Your Committee have agreed that the daily volunteer cashier will now also be responsible for handing out the prize tokens when announced after play by the Director.  The tokens are held behind the bar and can be collected from Mike.  There is no need to record who takes what, just stand by the prize table and give tokens to those who ask for them.  If the cashier needs to rush off for an important appointment immediately after play, please let one of the Committee know who can then arrange for token dispersal.  If any winner forgets to collect their tokens at the appropriate time, see Mike and kindly ask him for your 2 tokens (it costs to be late!).  Only joking, and finally, on that note: 

A bridge duffer was polishing a lamp and… poof! Out popped a genie who said, “I will grant you onewish.”   

The duffer unfolded a map of the world and said, “Let all of these countries live in peace and harmony.” 

“You’ve got to be kidding! I’m only a genie.”   

The duffer thought for a while and then suggested, “OK, then make me a winning bridge player.”

“Hmm… ” the genie pondered. “Let me see that map again.”

JULY 10TH

It seems that the first week of allocated seating has passed smoothly, and without any problems.  Also, looking at the results, it appears to have distributed Category A, B and C players more evenly between N/S and E/W, which improves the allocation of Stratified Masterpoints, thus improving the quarterly competition.

If, when you turn on the Lenovo tablet at the start of play, you do not get the ‘Start’ key in the bottom right of the screen, but get a ‘Resume’, don’t panic.  Press and hold, for one potato, two potatoes, the ‘?’ button in the top right of the screen.  Enter the ‘PIN’ of “0000”, then select ‘New Game’, confirm ‘Yes’, and now you have a ‘Start’ button on the screen – simple.

It is good to see Mike Faulkner getting more and more mobile as the days go by although he does suffer from some discomfort and we hope that his mobility will continue to improve.

Remember that PC-Highway offer a 10% discount to all JSCSC Members on production of your Membership Card.  They have many weekly offers which you can find out about from our website, and during July and August you get an extra 3% discount if you shop between 3pm and 4pm.  Every penny counts!

As we have managed to find willing volunteers to direct play (thank you Derrick & Ed), our Thursday tournaments during August are back on, so bridge continues throughout the summer months on four days of the week.

In closing, after considering feedback from a couple of our regular and willing cashier volunteers, the Committee have decided not to ask daily cashiers to hand out the prize tokens.  No joke this week.

JULY 17TH

Richard M was cashier on Wednesday, and he gave out the capacitive pens to players as they checked in and were allocated a N/S orientation – what a good idea.  If any other cashiers would like to do the same, please collect the pens from the office before you start.

Whilst on the subject of capacitive pens, I am sad to report the brain death of one of ours.  After tirelessly having its head bashed on BridgeTabs, on Wednesday it said ‘enough is enough’ and failed in its duty – Janet C is my witness.  It was quietly reprimanded after play, and dismissed from duty.  On a happy note though, it was retired to the man in the basura, who was delighted to re-home our ex-warrior; it is on its way to Morocco!

With the introduction of allocated seating, there is no longer any need to have the player names on the A6 sheets that used to be put on each table before you arrived at the Club (except on Thursdays).  It is easy for the North player to ask for your player number as they input those details at the start of play, and hopefully this will prevent input errors which continue to plague scorers having to make name changes before scoring.

Please remember that 100% Plumbing also sponsor our Club; they finance all our score cards, and we get through hundreds of them every month!  So, if you need help with your central heating, air conditioning, solar panels, swimming pool, water treatment, or even construction or any gas issues, contact them – and please remember to mention JSBSC.

And finally, although weekly updates are sent out by me, they are updates from your Committee.  However, I must apologise personally for the words used two weeks ago regarding ‘prize tokens’ and ‘daily cashiers’.  After 35 years in the Royal Air Force, one has an ingrown military way of writing, so I am sorry for words effectively telling cashiers what to do.  That was not the Committee’s intention, it was my mistake – sorry.

JULY 24TH

A quiet and pleasant week at the Club, with numbers down as usual during the summer.  One area still of concern though is the reluctance by a few to accept your Committee’s introduction of allocated orientation for seating.  The introduction of the Quarterly Stratified MasterPoint Competition was squarely aimed at awarding prizes to those players who do not normally win prizes at the daily tournaments, and we assess that is working.  However, in order to improve the competition, E/W and N/S players need to be distributed with equal ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ players, and therefore your Committee introduced the current method of allocation on 1 July.  Please, do not swap because you and your partner don’t like the orientation given by the cashier on your arrival at the Club – it is not fair on all those others who have accepted theirs!  It is being done for a good reason, and honestly, at the end of the day does it really matter – as long as you have an enjoyable afternoon playing bridge?  If there is a good reason for a particular orientation, please ask and a sympathetic view will be taken.

The monthly rota has just been updated and there are a lot of gaps for directors, scorers and cashiers during August.  Please, if you can, do.

The last of our three sponsors is Webster Asesores who paid for our telephone list this year.  They provide services on taxation, inheritance, fiscal and legal matters, by a team of highly qualified professionals with wide experience.  So, my plan for today is to take my computer to PC-Highway for a software clean to get rid of all unnecessary processes and Trojans, a defragmentation of its hard drive and reconfiguration of windows services for just €20.  Then I will contact 100% Plumbing to get the drains checked out before the family arrive next week.  Then, finally, I must contact Webster Asesores to find out my legal rights when after just one day, the ‘family of seven’ invade and have driven me mad!

And finally, during a history lesson, the teacher briefly went through the Kings and Queens who rule countries. “But” the teacher continued, “there is a higher category of power. Can anybody tell me what it is?”.  One child blurted out, ‘Aces’!

JULY 31ST

Message From The President:

In June, the club's committee agreed to introduce allocated seating as a means of enhancing our quarterly Stratified Master Points (SMP) competition.

Despite a clear explanation of the rationale behind the introduction of allocated seating (given on the website, noticeboard, and prior to every bridge session) there are, sadly, a minority of our members who think that the decision made by the club's committee does not apply to them. They have ignored the table orientation they have been allocated and have sat where they wished. This negates the whole purpose of table allocation and does a disservice to their fellow members who have accepted table allocation.

To maintain harmony at our club, the committee have decided to temporarily suspend allocated seating until the matter can be discussed fully at their next meeting in September. In the meantime, we shall continue with our SMP competition and will be introducing a single-winner movement, as recommended by the EBU, when it is not possible to have an even distribution of players of differing playing abilities.

It is hoped that all our members will support the club's committee in their endeavours to provide friendly, but competitive, bridge played in an harmonious atmosphere.

JUNE 5

Last weekend, after getting the weekly update draft cleared, I couldn’t believe it when after hitting ‘send’ to all Members as Bcc addressees, two minutes later there were nearly 150 returned emails because Gmail.com thought I was sending out spam!  How dare they suggest my few chosen words to bring you up to date with our life at JSBSC at the end of the week should be spam.  However, to protect the innocent, I set up the Google Group JSBSC (took a little while as I had to enter every single email address separately) and sent the belated weekly mid-week.  This weekend, hopefully it will be more timely, even though I landed in UK a couple of hours ago as I type the initial draft.

We have been using the Lenovo tablets for 5 weeks now, and most ‘users’ seem to have got the hang of them.  I still see one or two ‘stabbing’ the screen – please, a gentle, firm touch of the screen is all that is required. 

I also have to report that the capacitive pen ‘missing in action’ at the end of week one has not returned to the Club, so we must presume the worst I am afraid – mistakenly nicked.  We know it has not deserted JSBSC to join one of the other local bridge clubs because they only use old technology, and podgy fingers to input to old fashioned BridgePads!

Now, to keep you informed, if the score from a particular hand is amended on the tablet via the TD screen, when the names of the next expected pair are shown, it will show the names of the last pair at the table.  Do not worry, the subsequent scores will be attributed to the correct pair.  This error has been reported to Jannerstan Forlag AB of Sweden, the developer, and hopefully will be sorted soon.

And finally, and seriously this week, a very big thank you to Finita for polishing our tarnished trophies – we now have a cabinet full of gleaming silverware.

JUNE 12

If you weren’t there, you missed a very pleasant evening at ‘The Inn on the Green’ for the annual JSBSC Bowls event yesterday, albeit very warm on the lanes in the evening sun.  A few members showed off their skills, whilst a couple of others proved that they should stick to playing bridge!  A nice supper was enjoyed by all afterwards, and thanks go to Ed and Jane for arranging the event.  (Photographs will be on the website soon.) 

This week, also a very big ‘Thank You’ goes to Sid Carter (Janet’s husband) for coming to the Club on Wednesday morning to repair the edges of the two white boards that are used for student lectures. 

At a recent JSBSC Tournament Directors’ meeting, it was agreed that the partner of anyone who opens with ‘One Club’ must, and can only say, “May be 2 (or 1 or 0 as appropriate)”.  If you play ‘better minor’ or one club being natural, you are not to say anything.  Conversely, the opposition are not permitted to ask any questions about a ‘One Club’ opening.  The reason for not being allowed to ask is it is normally an indication of a long holding of club cards, and therefore unauthorised information! 

Please, a request to all members to return all their empty glasses, biscuit wrappers and crisp dishes to the bar and to rearrange their chairs and seat cushions at the tables before they leave the club.  Key individuals always spend time after bridge helping tidy up the club … at times it resembles the aftermath of an unruly kids’ party. 

And finally, you can usually tell when Fred Bloggs has had a good result because his normal smiling face beams even larger.  The other day when I arrived at his table he was grinning from ear to ear. “We got a complete top – nobody else was even in a small slam let alone the grand”.  After congratulating him, he went on “of course, we had to have a couple of bidding misunderstandings to get there”!

JUNE 19

What a great JSBSC Summer Party.  If you weren’t there, you missed a very pleasant evening with friends at Le Gourmand.  The food was excellent, the jazz band was perfect, the weather was for dining outside spot on, so all together a superb event.  Thank you to Janet and Katrina for all their work arranging our annual Summer Party. 

It is with much sadness that we have learned that our long serving Member, Fred Crowson, has been quite poorly recently, and has now moved to Forum Mare Nostrum in Alfaz del Pi.  His mobile phone number is 666 673 527 and we understand he is quite happy to hear from friends, or for them to visit him.

Last week, Members were informed via the weekly update, of the TD’s decision on alerting 1C openers or not, and subsequent questions by opponents.  As a result of Member feedback, further guidance is as follows:

· A player may ask for a meaning of a call at any time when it is his(her) turn to bid (Laws 20 + 41).

· However, a player who asks concerning a call which is not alerted, and then passes, has shown an interest which may well restrict his partner's subsequent course of action.

· Every player should recognise that, where the answer to a question will not affect his immediate action, he is advised to defer his enquiry until the auction has concluded. 

The reason for the TD's decision was to stop the frivolous enquiries, regrettably quite prevalent at our Club, after opener has bid 1C, when the enquirer has no intention of bidding. 

Furthermore, from the CTD, players are also reminded that, if they are playing inverted minors, the opener must 'alert' a bid from their partner that raises the opening minor suit bid, to the two or three level.

As we approach the summer months, with numbers playing bridge decreasing for various reasons, with a limited number of Members volunteering to either direct or score, your daily Tournaments are under threat.  It is not unreasonable to foresee a day when someone will need to ‘adjudicate’ with no TD available, and paper scoring on travellers will be the only option!  This is particularly likely on Thursday ‘No Fear Bridge’, when it is likely that with only 2 TDs and 2 scorers routinely playing, one day none of them will be available.  Come on please, it is not difficult to score – if you are computer literate, just follow the simple guidance notes and then you can be a JSBSC scorer – simple.

I am pleased to note that, so far, 19 Members have completed the EBED Survey circulated on Friday morning – thank you.

Due to the falling numbers on a Tuesday, Social Bridge on that day has now ceased and will re-commence in September. 

And finally, I am delighted to inform you that the capacitive pen, that went MIA nearly two months ago, after just one week of activity pounding results’ inputs on the Lenovo tablets, has returned from the wilderness.  I am pleased to say that it suffered no abuse whilst being held captive (in Moraira, I understand – clue!) and was gently, safely and discretely returned to our flock of pens where it now continues to serve us, anonymously, in our daily tournaments.  It does not want to be recognised as a hero, so there will be no medal presentation, just continued duty to serve our Club to the best of its ability.  If you wish to buy the pen a glass of white wine, I’ll take it from you on Monday, and give it to the pen quietly in the Club office!

June 25

Your Committee met on Friday and a Bulletin of the main points is available on the website and posted in the Club house.  A few of major points that warrant expansion here are:

· Our Stratified Masterpoints Quarterly competition that has been running from 1 April ends next Thursday (30 June) and winners will be announced thereafter.   The top 4 players in Categary B with the highest Masterpoints average, over more than 10 tournaments, will be promoted to Category A.  Similarly, the top 6 players in Category C will be promoted to Category B.  These promotions will be effective from 1 July.

· In order to enhance the effectiveness of our Stratified Masterpoints Quarterly competition, seating orientation will be allocated by the cashier on your arrival at the Club for the daily tournaments on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

· Due to the significant decrease in player numbers during August, there will be no daily tournaments on Thursday during the month. ( * Please Note - this decision has been re-considered and there will NOW be daily tournaments on Thursdays in August *)

· The Club will hold a Car Treasure Hunt on Sunday 9 October – mark your diaries please.

Last week, the wrong word was used when addressing 1 Club openings when it said, quote, “TD’s decision on alerting 1C openers ...” unquote.   It should have read “TD’s decision on announcing 1C openers ...”

You will notice three pictures hanging in the Club house, produced by Audrey Quinton, and specific to the JSBSC.  A few more will be added in due course, but it is not our intention to cover every wall with a picture!

A number of our regular Directors and Scorers will be away during July and August. We ask our remaining Directors and Scorers to add their names to the Duty Rota as soon as possible for these months.  Can we also ask a number of our 'lapsed' Directors to assist during these two Summer months.  And as you will appreciate, if none of our volunteer scorers are available, paper travellers will need to be used!

And finally, if any Member has a bad word to say about our Club, we may adopt the Javea Computer Club (JCC) method of retribution.  Last Monday, an urgent message was received from a JCC member saying, “Help please, I have been locked in the club house, and cannot get out”.  It seems the individual was in the loo when the club was locked!  Luckily, Mike, a member of the JCC, and the police (he had called them as well) all arrived at the same time to let him out.

7 MAY

What an end to the week at JSBSC!  First, the great news – seeing both Vera and Finita back at the Club on Friday.  Next, the bad news – the gremlins played a blinder on Friday when the number of rounds played in the tournament had to be reduced before the end of play at 6 pm, and numerous results went missing.  It has been agreed to void the result, (the procedure for reducing the number of boards played has been altered to prevent this happening again).  So, the last good news, all those who won prizes on Friday keep them, and everyone else who played will get one free day in the coming weeks – a list will be held by the cashier of those individuals.

And then there is the one ‘missing in action’ (MIA)!  Our first week using the capacitive pens Sue kindly hand-carried for the Club from UK to Spain, and what a success they are.  The odd person is still using their sticky mitts – if you see this, please politely remind them to use the pen; the tablets will last longer and the person who has to clean the tablets would also greatly appreciate it.  Oh yes, the one MIA; we started with 80 pens and now only have 79 left – no doubt it will be back on duty next week.

There is great debate (well there always is in a room of bridge players) about whether or not the tablets should show the running results.  The Committee will be discussing the issue when they next meet, and until then we will have the results on one week, then off one week – the great British compromise.

As you may know, the Quiz night planned for Saturday 7 May had to be cancelled due to a lack of participants.  Again, the Committee will look at re-arranging a quiz night. 

Finally, don’t forget to put your name up on the lists in the Club for any, or all, of the three Saturday events being held later this month.

14 MAY

Many said it would take a couple of weeks for our Chief Scorer to sort out the new BridgeTab scoring system on the computer, using Lenovo tablets – they were right, and the gremlins now seem to have been eradicated.  He has now got it all sorted and this week everything ran smoothly (and he has now stopped having sleepless nights!).  The new covers for the tablets arrived on Friday, so the individual boxes have been stored away and the smart new ‘blue’ box, made by Mike Smith, houses the Lenovo tablets when not in use.  The Club has also purchased a number of USB extension cables, so should a tablet run low on power, you can plug it in to a mains socket next to your table.

The new sign outside the Club house attracted its first victims on Tuesday when a couple living part of the year in La Sella called in to play social bridge.  Hopefully we will see a few more visitors over the summer season, and with the general increase in ex-pats again resettling in Spain, hopefully we will see more new members.  Furthermore, in an attempt to attract more ‘Google’ internet interest, we have a new ‘link-site’ at www.arenalbridge.club – check it out, and try the link and email hyperlinks.

Have you noticed that when the bridge boards arrive on your table, the two outside tabs are engaged to keep the lid down, but the centre tab is not?  That centre tab is not required to keep the cards in place, so please do not be tempted to ‘push it down’.  The reason is simple, it is a real pain for the person having to re-deal all the boards after play to have to unclip all 3 clips!  So please, the player who religiously clipped down the centre tab on all 26 boards played on Friday – don’t do it for the sake of the dealer – thank you.

It was great to see Ted Coleman in the Club on Friday.  He popped in to pass over a couple of photos from the old days, and also to drop off half a dozen EBU magazines.  These magazines are available on the table in the library; please borrow them individually, but please return them when finished so that others can enjoy the read.  Ted hopes to be in the Club to play next Tuesday and Thursday.

And finally, the Pairs Champions 2016 are Anita Dixon and Peter Hindley, well done to you both.  Many thanks to Richard for directing and helping Marianne with the results, Ed for helping sort problems on the tablets, Jane for giving up her Saturday to run the bar all day, and to Julie from Sandra’s Tea Bar for producing an excellent spread for lunch.

22 MAY

Our merry band of 20 JSBSC Members ventured out of Javea on Saturday 21 May, to El Cid for the match against The Valleys, and returned with the JaVa Cup – full story and pictures on our website.  Well done Team.

After a week of announcing before play how to correct an ‘wrong bid’ entered in BridgeTab on the tablets, one of our Members told me that she had discovered a far quicker way – brilliant.  All that I had been telling you about making up inputs until you get to the confirmation page can be ignored, it is unnecessary.  When you note that the wrong contract is showing on the top line on the tablet, just touch that contract with the pen, and you go back to the page to input the correct contract – simple.  Thanks Anita; the company has been informed and we can share the Royalties when they arrive!

Due to a lack of interest in the Pairs Event using IMP scoring planned for Saturday 28 May, the Committee has decided to cancel the event.  Instead, we are going to open our doors on Saturday 4 June and partake in the World Wide Bridge Simultaneous Pairs event, starting at 2.30 pm.  Our results will be scored against other clubs from around the World, and 13 successful pairs from the whole tournament will win an all-expenses paid trip to China for the finals.  For more information please visit http://www.ecatsbridge.com/sims/wwbc/default.asp.

Our website now has another ‘tab’ in the left hand column entitled ‘Find A Partner’.  Therefore, there are now three ways, if needed, to get a partner to play bridge.  To find a long term partner, there is the list on the results board in the Club where you can put your details.  If you need a partner, with short notice, you can telephone Diana on 966 454 350, who holds a list of those ‘caught short’.  Now, you can also look for a partner on line – I mean a Club Member to play bridge with!  You need to have registered to enter the ‘Members Only’ portal on our web site, so if you haven’t, or are having difficulties, contact our Web Master, John H, and he will help you.

And finally, as yesterday, Saturday, was “Flying Day”, how do you tell if there is a fighter pilot in the bar?  There is no need to, he will tell you (or, to be politically correct, she will tell you)!

29 MAY

Great to see Mike back at the Club this week, albeit still a bit wobbly on his pins.  His smart wicker drinks trolley is helpful for him, but please, able-bodied members, collect your drinks from the bar, and return all empties to the bar.  When Mike starts tap dancing on the bar, then you can let him collect your abandoned glasses!  So, in the same paragraph, a huge big thank you to both Ed and Jane.  Well, maybe not so much to Ed for being there at the Club every tournament day for the past 15 weeks as he is the Vice President so he should be working his socks off.  However, his lovely wife Jane has been a complete star.  In her own words, working behind the bar has periods of complete hectic activity, and also long periods of complete boredom, watching us lot play bridge.  Through all that time, though, she has served us with a smile, kind words, topped up glasses, and never moaned once.  We all thank you tremendously Jane. 

Now for something completely different - would you believe it!  A Committee member sitting North last week input the wrong declarer – outrageous.  Another Committee member sitting East, accepted the wrong input and presses ‘YES’ – horrendous.  Embarrassingly, I was one of them, and how many times have I banged on about “it is always player input errors, not the tablet getting it wrong!”

We all make mistakes, but please can we all try to minimise the number of input  errors.  On this day in question, in addition to me accepting an input error, on 33% of the boards, an opening lead was also input incorrectly.  For those of you saying, ‘that doesn’t matter much’, please, it does.  There was also a East/West hand switch on this day, and it was only confirmed by an analysis of lead cards.  We go to the effort of recording the lead card, so please make sure it is correct.  The way we would like this to happen is by North asking East (or West), as he/she taps the screen to select the lead card, to confirm it is correct – simple.  However, if E/W miss it, and asks to see the lead card that you input, just press the ‘back arrow’ in the bottom left of the screen, and the lead card is shown – just as simple. 

Now, whilst on the subject of tablet inputting, please would Norths’ ask East/West to confirm their names are correct after entering all player numbers.   Thank you

And finally, light travels faster than sound. This is why some bridge players appear bright until you hear them speak in the post-mortem.

3 APR :  The new Quarterly Competition, running parallel to the Daily Tournaments, started yesterday, 1^st April.  The Committee meet next Friday and will then decide the final format and prize allocation, which will then be announced.  Thank you for your patience  over the last 2 weeks while we have been experimenting with Master Points and Stratification, but this was necessary to iron out all the ‘wrinkles’.  Also, apologies for any inconvenience caused last week with the ‘single winner movement’ events and the confusing arrow switches – you will be pleased to hear that these will not be the normal routine for any future tournaments, but only used when absolutely necessary.

You may have noticed that our BridgePads are playing up a little!  Some of them are saying ‘Replace Low Batteries’, but they are only kidding!  No, seriously, if the screen is bright and clear, the batteries are fine.  If the screen looks weak, then Ed (Mike on his return) or the TD can assist.

Finally for this weekly update, if any of you incur any authorized expense on behalf of the Club, please note that Janet Hubbard has now resumed responsibility for all claims.  Please see Janet at the Club, and she will sort out the details.

10 APR :  What do you mean, “What sign?” – many Members on Friday did not see it when they arrived at the Club!  We now have a new sign outside, aimed at attracting visiting bridge players, as seen here in the picture, taken after the rain yesterday following a Committee meeting.  The main decisions from that meeting will be available on Monday, both posted in the Club and on the web site.

However, the most important decision, you will hopefully be pleased to hear, is that JSBSC is going to move to a table scoring system that is also known as BridgeTab (see www.bridgetab.co.uk for more information).  We hope to implement this within the month, so the frustration of using our aging BridgePads will soon be over – only a few more weeks to follow our “BridgePad Etiquette”!

The new Quarterly Competition based on Jávea Stratified Master Points, which started on 1 Apr, has been running for its first week and has hopefully added another level of interest to playing bridge at your favourite Club.  You will find on the web site, in the column on the left, a ‘tab’ to click entitled “Jávea Master Points” where you will find the various tables of results.  The Committee has agreed that the first quarter will run from 1 Apr until 30 Jun and that 16 prizes (a bottle of Cava) will be awarded – full details to be posted soon.

Finally, a polite plea which we are sure you will all agree with – please, when playing bridge at the Club, and when “move for the next round” is called by the TD, could everyone please stop talking about, analysing, debriefing or criticising the previous hand!  Be polite, say hello, announce you system, and play bridge.  It is, after all, just good manners.

17 APR :  A week to go, and then Keith Butler from BridgeTab.co.uk arrives to install our new scoring system based on 7 inch Lenovo tablets. We think the current BridgePads know they are on notice to be retired; they have been giving us real problems recently.  If you want to be in at the beginning, and hear the instructions on the use of BridgeTab scoring from the “horse’s mouth”, make a date in your diary to play bridge at the Club next Friday, 22 April.

A big thank you to Committee Member Ann Lise who gave up her Friday morning, with her husband persuaded to help, to go through every bridge bidding box to make sure each bidding card was present and correct. Please, in the future, if you do find a box with a missing card, or one badly damaged, let one of the Committee members know between moves and they can pop in to the office and get a replacement.  It is a lot easier to do it at the time of noticing.

A big welcome to Ann Hambrook, our latest Member to join the happy band of JSBSC Scorers.  If you would like to become a scorer, it really isn’t too difficult (but don’t tell those who don’t score that).  Just let Colin, our Chief Scorer, know you are interested.

A day playing bridge at your favourite Club for free!  An offer too good to miss.  All you need to do is put your name on the Rota List on the notice board just inside the front door (also available to view on-line by clicking on ‘Rota Personnel’ in the home page left column) to be a cashier on a particular day.  Then turn up at the Club on that day by 13.20, take the table money, give the takings to Jane (Mike when he is back with us), and then play bridge – simple.  If every able Club Member did it once a year, there would be a queue to be the daily cashier!

A weekly update starting with a number of ‘A’s, and finishing with:

Another one next week!

23 APR

How many bridge players does it take to change a light bulb?

Our days of using BridgePads for scoring are over – hooray.  Keith Butler, fromwww.bridgetab.co.uk, based in Cardiff, was with us yesterday (Friday 22 Apr) for our tournament when we had 17 full tables (not quite a record, but our best attendance figure so far this year).  There were the inevitable minor problems as Members used the new Lenovo tablets, but Keith was able to sort them all out, whilst playing bridge himself, and coming a respectful fourth to boot.  The biggest issue was players touching the screen for too long, resulting in a ‘jump to the next page’.  The screen just needs a single, firm, precise touch (not stab) – we intend to purchase a number of capacitive pens which will help North players input the required details.

One ‘big’ issue with the tablets is that they must be turned off properly at the end of play, or the internal battery will continue to power the wifi antennae until the following tournament, and if that is over the weekend, we will have problems on the Monday!  Not insurmountable as we can get another tablet out to use, and charge the flat unit – but not desirable.  Therefore, please, before putting our tablet away, press and hold the one/off button on the right hand side of the unit until a box appears asking, “Off”, “Flight Mode” or “Standby”, select “Off” and then select “OK”.  We will try to remind all players for a while, until we are all happy with the routine.

For those of you who played on Friday, please note that the power failure was not as a result of us using the new tablets!  Our profound thanks go to Ed, though, who stayed at the Club until 8pm.  During this time he was assisting the electrician in locating and rectifying the cause of the failure (two cables had fused together at the meter, upstairs in the main apartment block, not in our Club house) and mopping up both toilets which flooded when the pumps failed with no electricity for the couple of hours.

On our web site, did you realise that the significance of the ♥ and ♠ symbol against the labels in the left hand box?  The ♥ means there are further sub-pages after ‘clicking’, whereas the ♠ means it is a single page.  If you didn’t know, it is something you learnt today.

We have received the following message from Audrey Bridger, Honorary Member, who celebrated her birthday last week, and was recognised on our web site on that day

I was soooo pleased to see I had not been forgotten on my birthday, many thanks!  I have settled well in my new home; after 22 years of living alone it is wonderful to be part of a family again.

I miss the Club and so many friendly faces, but am keeping an eye on you all!

Love and best wishes to everybody.

Audrey.

Ah, yes, the answer is 4.  One to change the light bulb, and 3 to say how it should have been done!

30 APR

One week using the Lenovo tablets with BridgeTab for scoring, what do you think?  General feedback seems to be that they are a significant improvement on the BridgePads.  However, huge apologies from the Chief Scorer for the inevitable (hopefully you will accept) teething problems getting used to the software programme.  Working hard on resolving these issues and hopefully by the end of next week it will be running smoothly – you can’t see my fingers crossed as I typed that!

More good news.  The Justice Department in Alicante has eventually approved our Statutes.  They were amended early last year and submitted on 20 April 2015.   Long delays occurred due to reorganisation within that Department, and then further delays due to a change in Spanish gambling laws requiring further amendments.  We received them back on 18 April – just short of a year.

We received the following note from Monique, who is now on her way back to Canada:

To all members of the Javea Bridge and Social Club.  I want to thank each and everyone for your great hospitality, the friendliness shown to Gail and me.  I've enjoyed every game, win or not, it was fun, thank you to every partner I played bridge with.  God of Bridge willing, see you in 2017.  May all your slams be Grand...

Now a note for your diaries; there will be a bridge match against the Javea Bridge Club on Saturday 1 October.  More details to follow later.

Finally, one player asked the opponent after partners discard, “What discard system do you use please?”  The replay was, bluntly, “A.B.C.”.  To which the questioner said, “Sorry, I am not familiar with that system, can you explain further?”  Answer, “Yes, Any Blooming Card.”

6 MAR :  We have had to make some changes to the JSBSC Social / Tournament calendar.  First, the Bridge Match against Valleys at The Valleys has been changed to Saturday 21 May.  Then the Bowls & Dinner event has been changed to Saturday 11 June.  Finally, we have had to cancel the CARITAS Tournament planned for Saturday 23 April as Dick, unfortunately, is unable to arrange it this year.

Although this does not affect many of you, the Club has changed the process for reclaiming any cash expenses.  Instead of submitting a claim to the Daily Cashier for money to be taken from table money, a petty cash box is now held for such expenses, and is administered by Colin, or Ed in his absence.

You may be interested to know that on Tuesday 8 March there is to be a Javea-wide ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ meeting in the Social Centre in Javea town at 11am.  The two police chiefs will be there as well as the Town Hall Counsellor for Security.  There is a new 5-man team being set up to concentrate on security across the urbanizations, and this will be your chance to ask questions, make suggestions and gather information on broad aspects of personal and property security.

Finally, the defibrillator is now at the Club and John will do a series of teaching sessions in the near future on "How to use the defibrillator in an emergency”

13 MAR :  wanted to know what others had been playing in?  But great, someone pressed ‘NEXT’ to soon!  Therefore, we are having a purge on “BridgePad Etiquette”.  Until we all get the routine correct, every day the following notice will be on bridge tables:

North inputs the bidding up to the total number of tricks made, then presses NEXT to show the score before passing to East. 

East checks the correct score is shown, then presses NEXT for the North/South percentage, which is announced to the table.  East presses NEXT once more to see all the other bids, but does not announce them, nor (very important) presses NEXT again.  East then passes the BridgePad to South. 

South looks at the other bids before passing to West. 

West looks, then passes it to North, who after seeing the other bids, presses NEXT ready for the following board.

When we do all get it right, maybe the next player in the Club who presses ‘NEXT’ too early could apologies to the other 3 players by saying: “Oh, I am sorry, I have pressed NEXT too soon, please may I buy you all a drink at the end of the tournament to apologize!”  We might not get our bidding and playing correct, but this would soon get us all using the BridgePads correctly.

Note:  Even on this last Friday, with this etiquette guidance on every table, two errors were made inputting results, and no one at the table spotted them – but I guess they did not press ‘NEXT’ too early!

The Winter Quarter results for the most improved pairs from Dec to Feb have been calculated (thanks to Sue) and have, or will, collect their bottle of bubbles.  The winners are all listed here on our website – just click on ‘Competitions’ on the left, and you can read for yourself.

20 MAR :  In place of the current Seasonal Pairs competition (the two pairs with the greatest improved average percentage for each daily session, over the previous 3 months) the Committee is introducing a ‘Masterpoints with Stratification’ competition that will run alongside the current daily tournaments. The daily tournaments will not change in any way. For those members who are familiar with the English Bridge Union (EBU), we shall be introducing the EBU Masterpoints system, but will not be submitting any results to them. 

In order to introduce this system, all Club Members and Guests will become ‘Masters’ (in order to score master points (MPs) and we shall be using three categories for Stratification).  Club Members will be placed in a category totally dependent on their final average percentage at the end of 2015, no subjective assessment has been used. The three categories are: DISTRICT MASTER (highlighted in red) for those players with an average of 53% and above; AREA  MASTER (highlighted in green) for those players with an average between 49% and 52.99%; and CLUB MASTER (highlighted in blue) for those players with an average below 49%. Please note that the red, green and blue colouring will be used on the ScoreBridge and BridgeWebs results.

A Guest will be made a temporary DISTRICT MASTER because we do not wish them to accrue MPs in preference to our other MASTERS. In addition, any new Club Member will initially be entered as a DISTRICT MASTER and then, after 6 tournaments, will be placed in the appropriate category according to their average percentage, in accordance with the 2015 categories used to set up this MPs system. For a detailed explanation of how the Stratified MPs system operates, please go to the EBU website: http://www.ebu.co.uk/ and click on the 'Masterpoints' option, then click on the 'Stratification for Clubs' option.

The purpose of introducing a MPs competition is to provide all of our members with an opportunity to win a prize. The system is currently being developed and we ask our members to show tolerance whilst this stage is being carried out.  It is anticipated that the final few problems will be resolved within the next week or so.

A decision regarding the proposed prize allocation for the new Masterpoints competition will be made by your Committee. This will be announced early next month.

27 MAR:  Firstly, news on the Summer Party. It has been brought forward by one week to Saturday 18 June and the full details will be announced early next month about the venue and costs.

Secondly, members may like to know about the 'Personal Analysis section located within 'Results'. This feature allows you to see all your personal records and performances since the start of 2014. 

Finally, we hope to see you all at Bridge on Monday for our special Easter Tournament.

14 FEB :  Following our successful AGM last weekend, your newly elected Committee had its first meeting on Friday.  A Bulletin detailing the main points they agreed is on the Club Notice Board, together with a list showing Committee Members Responsibilities, and both are available on line. 

We are pleased to learn that Mike is now out of intensive care and is now in a general ward whilst he recovers from his hip operation.

A plea from the Tournament Scorers:  Players sitting North/South are responisble for inputting members’ numbers into the BridgePads at the start of play, and East/West are responsible for checking the correct names have been entered – simple.  Therefore, why are there generally 2 or 3 errors per week that are an aggravation to Scorers having to make amendments after the results are produced?  Please, get it right first time.

Teaching will continue on Tuesdays under the direction of Jean and Chris Threlfall until 15 Mar.  Royston will then continue lessons from 12 Apr until 31 May.  If any Member could offer assistance to teach the basics and fundamentals’ of bridge, please let your Committee know- without new players being taught, our beloved game has numbered years to run!

Today, Monday is our Valentine Tournament; please wear something red or pink to join in the spirit of the occasion – free chocolates will be available to all those not on a diet!

Reasonable week for slams, with 26 small slams made – well done to those who bid them.

Finally, the Committee, and we are sure all our Members, would like to send a big vote of thanks to Sue who has tirelessly produced these updates in the past, together with a tremendous amount of work on the website in general – it will certainly be a hard act to follow.

21 FEB :  We have received the following note from Gwyneth Walton which we would like to share:

"It's great to see the club going from strength to strength, primarily due to the contribution of a hard working  committee.  Your efforts are so much appreciated by members and past members who, in their dotage, have been forced to leave the area for sheltered housing yet still want to be kept informed of the club's activities.  Many thanks to all.
As a past member, having served on the committee, taught the students and responsible for the web page, I have some idea of your contribution and hard work you have given the club.  In my latter role of helping in setting up the web page and scoring, I commend the good work done by Sue Wood.  She has made the club's web page very informative and interesting to see what everyone has been up to.  I know positions must change and I look forward to keeping in touch via the web site. Good luck to you all and to the success of the club. " 

Work continues to bring you a revised ‘Slam Ladder’.  Backdated to 1 Jan this year, 3 points will be awarded for Grand Slams, and 1 point for Small Slams , but remember, the Slam Ladder is only for fun!

Have you got a Twitter or Facebook account?  If so, watch out for JSBSC appearing soon.  If you don’t have one, watch this space and we will give you a link to connect to our social networks in the near future.

Finally, the Scorers had a moan last week about putting in player names, the Directors are moaning this week about putting in wrong declarers and lead cards.  Many of our players analyse the results on line, and errors are reported weekly.  Correcting these mistakes is a pain – please, it is not difficult to get it right, both by North inputting the correct details, and then East checking. 

28 FEB:  Your Committee met for the second time since the AGM, on Friday, and the main items agreed will be available in a Bulletin for you in the Club and on this website soon – watch this space, as they say!

The JSBSC Member’s Handbook 2015 – 2016 is now available and you can pick up your copy next time you play bridge.  Many thanks go to Janet Hubbard for her hard work, together with all those on the Committee last year, producing such an excellent product.  It is intended to produce a 16-17 edition, with minor enhancement where possible, so any constructive suggestions would be gratefully received.

You know when you board an aircraft, the captain greets you and says ‘They, and all the crew, take your safety as their top priority’, well, so does your President and Committee.  The first aid kit in the Club is to be significantly enhanced, the arrival of the defibrillator. is imminent, and did you know that your Club is a member of Ambulancia Asociacion Amigos Europeos De Javea, so that should the worst happen while you are in the Club, a fully equipped and modern ambulance with a trained crew will be on site in the shortest possible time.

Finally, all those fans of Peter H’s ‘interesting weekly hands’ will be please to know that he now has a fixed spot for his weekly hard copy in the Club (on the left side of the Daily Tournament Results Board next to the library) and it will also be published on our website.