[hallway]

Immediately after the Event I was shattered, devastated amongst all the accolades, congratulations & praise it seemed to me that it had in fact degenerated into nothing more than just - another Tournament. It was never meant to be a Tournament - Richard's idea was that the Members could benefit by rounding out all the learning they do attending mentoring sessions/lectures in the Lounge with an actual playing experience where they would have one on one help from 'their own Expert'.

I could not figure out how I could arrange it within the Private Club's facilities so I opted to use the Tournament Section (software) to make it happen. Unfortunately that meant I had to keep using the word Tournament All the feedback I received in the first 24 hours afterwards , while complimentary, was all focused on the 'tournament' aspect. In my report to my members I described it as a "Spectacular(thx for the accolades) Failure (it was NOT a tournament) " !!

I am EXTREMELY gratified to have now received reports back from a number of Members for whom the Event turned out to be ALL I had wished it to be.

Their 'Pro' took time out to talk to them , practice with them, and help them during the playing of the hands and some have even offered to play a few boards with them from time to time in the future.

NOW I can call it a Spectacular Success

It is for us the Members of the Beginner Intermediate Lounge to

THANK ALL THE 'PROS' who gave of their time and shared their knowledge.

For the record

71 'Pros' which included some 9 World Ranked * Players took part.


The Winners - every member who had the courage to grasp the opportunity offered to them. - (not all did, some of the 'Pros' were disappointed that their partner 'chickened out' )

The BIL is laying claim to what must be the record for the least disconnects during a Tournament. I did not do a single Substitution !! I haven't checked with Viki yet but she only had a couple of Director calls which may or may not have been due to disconnects..



AGAIN MY THANKS TO ALL THE 'PROS' WHO TOOK PART


- should any of you have any 'bright ideas' on how you may be able to be of assistance to the "BILlies" in the future I will be happy to ADD you to the BIL's Honorary Member List and re-enable 'the key to the door'.

I could not have done it without the ASSISTANCE of a number of people who rallied to my call to help 'round up' sufficient 'Pros' . I could not have chosen a worse date it seems !!!

My sincere THANKS to ALL of you.