Playing their cards right
The Islandsbc North Cyprus Online Bridge Club, set up during the Covid-19 outbreak, is celebrating its first anniversary. COLIN PEARSON looks back at how participants have coped with moving from “live” bridge club activities to online tournaments, and pla
ONLINE bridge has been one of the few success stories of the Covid pandemic, with numbers rising on all the main platforms worldwide. Islandsbc is able to use Bridge Base Online (BBO) thanks to the generosity of Ellen from Oregon, who allows us to use her tournament director status (fortunately while she is asleep). Organising three tournaments a week plus a partnershipfinding service for often up to nine tables of four players is turning into a growth industry, especially when it comes to email traffic. As well as the TRNC we have players from the UK, Spain, Norway and India. We also now have 11 trained directors to help run the tournaments and this helps spread the load.
What of the future and the return of “live” bridge?
Following Suzi Moir’s departure, Lalitha Scott has taken over the reins of running the Friday bridge at Karşıyaka. Along with Janice Harper, the chairman of the Monday Club, they report that they may be unlikely to restart until the “swallows” return – possibly June but more likely in September.
Tony Armstrong, chair of the Wednesday Club, strikes a more optimistic note as he reports that there are so many variables to take into account that will enable Wednesday bridge to restart. A large percentage of our members are permanent TRNC residents and so it should, in theory, be easier to restart quickly. If the other clubs are not going to restart until later in the year, we might well see bumper participants for “live” bridge. Our playing day of the week does not clash with any online bridge so the major factors are Covid and a venue. As long as we are compliant with whatever rules are in place AND that Sammy’s Hotel is allowed to open, Tony states that
he would be prepared to begin bridge as soon as he can get back to Cyprus, mid-May being his hoped-for arrival. So watch this space!
For the moment we carry on and anyone local who is interested in joining the online club should email me on cgpbridge@gmail.com.