[sceptic]

Hi everyone,

We have just had our first structured Bridge meeting for BBO people to meet face to face, by the end of the week we will know how many people turned up over the weekend in its entirety and I will be setting up a dedicated web site, on this I will give you details of numbers, what happens going forward, suggestion boxes and alsorts of things.

The response we all received for the weekend was fantastic and made me smile a lot, I can assure you of that, I think we all feel very happy with the end result and the organisers, can do nothing else but to thank the attendees for coming, we all feel that it was very worthwhile doing it.

I would like to thank Michelle Brunner and John Holland for coming and playing with us and for the Saturday morning seminar which was attended by over 50 of us, the feed back was great and their input to the weekend was greatly appreciated by all

I would like to thank two unsung heros of the weekend that probably got nowhere near the appreciation they deserved and that is Joyspa (geofspas wife Joy) and Superior being (Shinataros better half)

Shintaro, Our TD who made the whole weekend a lot easier t organise than I ever could have imagined

and Geofspa, Janee and Lawrence for their tireless efforts in making this happen

a few snippets of info,

we had over 85 people trun up for the event
we never had less than 17 tables in play
we consumed 8,000,000 cups of coffee (or it seemed like that),
we met some lovely people from , Australia, Denmark, Germany, Holland and 5 from Ireland and a few Polish

We have a surplus of cash, this was never run for profit, but we will be reinvesting the money in future meeting.

at the end of January we will be sitting down and reflecting where we are and where we want to go with these mettings, we have some ideas about what we want to do and what we want to offer, but if any of you have suggestions please email me

wayne.mayer@btinternet.com

When we start setting up the web site, we will get some generic emails for everyone to use

and one small apology form myself, I could not get around to speak to everyone individually for a variety of reasons, maybe next time, I can put that right

THANKS to everyone for making this a great event

[helene_t]

It was a real great experience! Superb venue, wonderful people (although I'll have to learn more about English humor. When someone discussed whether Mark would succed in finding a "vaguely competent partner" I said I was afraid not because he signed himself as "Mark who wants more sex" in the newyear thread. But that comment seemed not to be appreciated).

And good cards most of the time, at least for me (Jack complained that he never got to declare a contract the whole sunday). What do you think about this one:

Scoring: MP

p-p-2♥-3♦
4♥-4♠-p-p-5♥
a.p.

---

Jack opened 2♥. IAfterwards I thought I might better have made a fit-showing 4♣ instead of 4♥ as it would then be easier to respect Jack's decision not to take out 4♠. Anyone for a 3♠ psyche?

[GeeGee]

Just to say, thanks to all involved in the organisation. A few weeks earlier I went on a professional bridge holiday. It was not as well organised as you acheived this weekend.

And it was great to meet such a friendly bunch of people.

Geoff

[dblqueen]

Just to add to all the sentiments expressed by Wayne and others, that it was a wonderful weekend, and I am still recovering.
What made this weekend different and special, is the fact that an online community called BBO came together, good friends met each other for the first time and established a firmer footing, and new friendships were started up. This was certainly true for me.

Someone commented the bridge was a tad slow at times, I suspect that was more from chatting than from thinking !
Many of us were addicted online players and unfamiliar with face to face bridge. The weekend took the fear out of that I hope.
I know I picked up some good bridge tips . My partner waved the alert card at one point, to wake me up, instead of the usual huffing and puffing, loud coughing and moving around ones chair noisily. What a gentleman . Can such a button be invented Uday?

One more statistic for the number gatherers, the gallons of alcohol consumed?

Janee (dblqueen)

[kernow]

ah yes i remember it well - never in bed before 3, never managed breakfast and never batted an eyelid when pard accidentally psyched - so i bid the slam and janee made it despite only holding Q9 in her suit

[sceptic]

sorry had to remove the list as apparently it falls foul of the data protection act

[berenicek]

On behalf of myself and the other Irish trippers a big thank you to all. We had a great weekend meeting old and new friends. To think that 3 of us were on the same flight over and didnt know one another
What a good venue it was and the food was delicious , not to mention the drink
Looking forward to the next one
Big Thanks and Hugs to all
Babog