Christmas competitions at local clubs
December is usually a quiet month for local bridge players.
The running competition at the Malta Union Club, which is played on the first Monday of the month for 6 months, is half way through. The top pairs have changed and will probably change again before the end.
Both clubs held their Christmas parties and competitions and as usual these were very popular occasions.
The winners of the Malta Union Club party were Dorothy Rizzo and Jane Henderson, and at the Malta Bridge Club the winners were Christine Gravina and Anna Vella who tied with Marie Farrugia and Albert Sacco.
Gilles Queran, a French bridge tour operator, brought out 180 players to Malta. He very kindly held a competition last Friday in memory of Mario Dix who was a personal friend of Gilles.
He invited Maltese players to take part in this commemoration competition. The 12 pairs of players enjoyed the experience of playing the French in a friendly atmosphere.
The Maltese winners of this event were Nathalie Marlin and Graham Penney. In second place were Marie Farrugia and Albert Sacco.
2017 is going to be an interesting year for bridge.
I am talking about Bridge technology.
Jeremy Hdondy, who is the chairman of the EBU, was quite excited about the new technology being introduced to the Bridge world in 2017.
He spoke about a simple (free) app made by Bridgemate. You download this on to any iphone where you can see your results for the sessions, your current ranking, hands, a wealth of information.
This requires a Bridgemate set up. We are lucky to use bridgewebs in Malta and this info is available on our iphones and ipads. We do not have an app but go straight to Malta Bridge Association where the info is available.
The most exciting new technology is a machine called Bridge+More. Mario and I actually used this machine in Tromso last year. We had found it amazing!
This machine sits in the middle of the table, connected to the internet, and invisibly deals the next hands while you play. When you are ready for the next deal – the cards emerge, four new hands are ready for play.
Insert the cards you have just played without messing up the order and the dealer records the exact way the hands were played.
As always these new machines are very expensive. But they do away with card wallets, boards, and dealing machines and you need far fewer cards!
Malta is quite quick to use new technology and who knows, maybe, we may see them in use sooner rather than later!
On another note there is some good news for youths bridge. Some people have the notion that Bridge is played by the elderly.
Whilst it is true that a lot of players are seniors, there is an encouraging amount of interest in the younger generation, sadly not in Malta, so much so that bridge is going to be included in the 2018 Asian Games to be held in Vietnam.
The Chinese are preparing their youths and have held a camp for 800 aspiring young people to be ready to participate in Vietnam!
Online Bridge held the first World Cup in which Bill Gates participated.
Online bridge is exciting and you can even watch, on line, the players on vu-graph. The high standard of play is wonderful to watch and can really improve your own bridge!
Enjoy.