[mgoetze]

Just booked my flights... I'll be arriving at Gatwick on the afternoon of Monday, August 17th and leaving on Monday, August 24th. Hope to meet plenty of you there. I'm bringing my partner, but I may be able to play one or two side events with someone from the forums... let me know if you're interested!

[FrancesHinden]

You aren't playing the main pairs event?

[mgoetze]

FrancesHinden, on 2015-May-14, 14:03, said:

You aren't playing the main pairs event?

Unfortunately no, mainly to keep our expenses down.

[broze]

See you there Michael. Am hoping to play a few more days than I usually do this time. Happy to give you a game if you don't get a better offer!

[mgoetze]

So... I don't suppose there are any ladies out there who might be interested in playing the mixed pivot teams and/or mixed pairs with us?

[mgoetze]

Three more questions have popped into my mind:

1. My plane is scheduled to land at Gatwick at 5 PM on Monday. If I have only hand luggage, how realistic is it for me to play the evening session at 7:45 PM?

2. How long do the late-night speedballs go? Need to know whether it would be very irresponsible to play the Friday evening speedball if planning to do well in the main teams.

3. Are there really no speedballs on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday?

[FrancesHinden]

I would say about 75%-85% likely assuming you aren't made of money. Slightly higher if you arrrive at South terminal rather than North. We usually reckon on 30 mins to get through the airport (don't forget you have immigration as we aren't in Schengen) but while that is probably expectation, longer is more frequent than shorter.

Trains are reasonably frequent, they will be very busy at that time of day and there are lots of them, they take about 30 mins. Sometimes there are problems with the trains (one year there was a horse on the line(!)) particularly if it is very hot.

Depending on how fast you walk, it's about 20-30 minutes walk from Brighton station (or rather quicker in a taxi)

So if the flight is on time, you should get there easily.

2. Depends on how much sleep you want. The KO teams can be very fast depending on how soon you are KO. The pairs I think is about 90 minutes. They are also not very serious and tend to have a fair amount of alchohol involved.

[lamford]

mgoetze, on 2015-May-23, 15:55, said:

So... I don't suppose there are any ladies out there who might be interested in playing the mixed pivot teams and/or mixed pairs with us?

Vampyr has arranged that we are playing in the mixed pivot teams on the Wednesday, with a female friend of mine; we look forward to it. Your interest in the Speedballs seems to conflict with your main hobbies of eating and sleeping ...

I don't know of any potential partners for the mixed pairs, but there will be open pairs.

[mgoetze]

Ah, I am pleased to report that we have resolved the mixed pairs issue (I found a lady kind enough to play with me and my partner will take the opportunity to make a visit to London). As for eating and sleeping, if the speedballs are indeed only 90 minutes and the next day's first session doesn't start until 2 PM, there would seem to be enough time for that, plus there are always the boards my partner is declaring in the non-speedball events...

[mgoetze]

Before I put in too much work... can someone (Gordon?) confirm or deny that WBF Convention Cards are disallowed at Brighton?

[FrancesHinden]

WBF convention cards are not allowed.

[gnasher]

mgoetze, on 2015-August-09, 15:01, said:

Before I put in too much work... can someone (Gordon?) confirm or deny that WBF Convention Cards are disallowed at Brighton?

They're disallowed.

Brighton web page:
"All events are Level 4 except for the Really Easy Congress, which is Level 2."

Blue Book:
"The WBF system card is permitted only in EBU events held at Level 5."

This rule probably seems rather parochial to you. It does to me too.

[mgoetze]

gnasher, on 2015-August-09, 16:40, said:

Blue Book:
"The WBF system card is permitted only in EBU events held at Level 5."

This rule probably seems rather parochial to you. It does to me too.

Well, it does go on to say "Other tournament organisers such as County Associations may choose to permit it in lower level events." I suppose that means that the EBU is explicitly the only tournament organiser that may not permit the use of WBF cards, which does indeed seem very strange.

Oh well, I hope this time noone will be calling the TD on me for having a less-than-perfectly completed card...

[PhilKing]

mgoetze, on 2015-August-09, 17:08, said:

Well, it does go on to say "Other tournament organisers such as County Associations may choose to permit it in lower level events." I suppose that means that the EBU is explicitly the only tournament organiser that may not permit the use of WBF cards, which does indeed seem very strange.

Oh well, I hope this time noone will be calling the TD on me for having a less-than-perfectly completed card...

You will be OK as long as you don't run in to many forum regs. Also,the lower down in any field you get, the greater the chance they will call the director for no reason whatsoever.

[gnasher]

mgoetze, on 2015-August-09, 17:08, said:

Oh well, I hope this time noone will be calling the TD on me for having a less-than-perfectly completed card...

Why not eliminate that risk by filling it in properly?

[mgoetze]

gnasher, on 2015-August-10, 01:07, said:

Why not eliminate that risk by filling it in properly?

Well, frankly, because it's a lot of work. The EBU 20B card is twice the size of basic German convention card (same format with no "inside"), it has very little room for some mandatory bits (for instance I get less than half a line to write my responses to a weak 2 in spades, which are "2NT shortness ask, 3♣ hearts, 3♦ diamonds, 3♥ clubs"), and on the other hand has vast swathes of territory which are quite free-form and require a lot of thought if you want to make them as helpful as possible ("Other Aspects ... Opponents Should Note", "Other Conventions", "Supplementary Details").

I have invested a lot of effort into being able to conveniently (for me) create WBF cards (with LaTeX) and thinking about which details are the most important for the opponents to know in the "General Approach" and "Special Bids that may require Defense" sections. I almost certainly won't be willing to revise and refine an EBU card to that extent.

[Vampyr]

mgoetze, on 2015-August-10, 16:51, said:

(fror instance I get less than half a line to write my responses to a weak 2 in spades, which are "2NT shortness ask, 3♣ hearts, 3♦ diamonds, 3♥ clubs"),

You could just include the details in a footnote. That is one of the main uses for the vast swathes.

[NickRW]

Vampyr, on 2015-August-10, 19:38, said:

You could just include the details in a footnote. That is one of the main uses for the vast swathes.

Well that is true of course. And it is also true that no card design will be perfect for everyone. However, mgoetze is not the only one to note that there seems to be bits of EBU20B that are too small and other bits that seem overblown.

[mgoetze]

Vampyr, on 2015-August-10, 19:38, said:

You could just include the details in a footnote. That is one of the main uses for the vast swathes.

Which is exactly the sort of thing I mean - I'm quite sure I could include more useful information than that if I thought about it.

[FrancesHinden]

Very few people fill out their convention card in as much detail as perhaps might be desirable in a perfect world: they are still filled in by hand in real writing in many cases, and you can't fit that much on. It's not uncommon for a pair to spend 10 minutes together at the start of the event filling the card out, particuarly for the midweek events where you will get a lot of non-regular partnerships.

The 'general approach' and 'special bids that require defence' on a WBF card are the bits that go on the front of the EBU card.

If you play a really unusual/artificial system it's worth spending some time on it, but if you don't then don't.

In your responses to a weak 2S I would just write "2NT ENQ, new suit artificial"

The main thing to get on the front of the card is the basic bits of the system that anyone wants to know before they start play:
- strength of NT
- 4 or 5 card majors
- if you play 2/1 FG or not
- 2-level openings

in the 'free form' part put in
- higher artificial pre-empts if you play them
- if you play a short club, when it can be short
- artificial overcalls (other than some form of 2-suiter) e.g. Raptor 1NT
- if you play transfer responses to 1C or anything else weird by responder
- if you commonly respond or overcall very light

Detailed notes on the card in small font are in practice more useful in cases where the TD is called to demonstrate what your system is, or for system revision (Jallerton has a well-filled out card with one partner which comprises their entire systemic agreements). 99% of opponents will not look at them.