ABF Strategic Plan Update

MC reviewed the initial Council inputs to the Strategic plan with Ben Thompson. A major review of progress will be held at the Council mid-term meeting in November.

Cheating

The ABF firmly believes that the vast majority of top Australian players are very ethical. However, the ABF will do all we can to ensure that proper procedures are in place to detect cheating, deal with allegations, and protect the vast majority of players who respect and follow the rules.

The ABF Ethics Committee has been asked to investigate and propose a framework to deter and detect cheat at all levels of bridge, and report to the next MC meeting. The Committee may call for input from bridge players, especially those with experience and expertise in investigating recent international allegations. You are encouraged to respond with your views.

This subject will also be discussed at the mid-term meeting in November.

International Achievements

Congratulations to:

1. the Australian Seniors team of Ron Klinger, Bill Haughie, Peter Buchen, Henry Christie, Terry Brown and Avi Kanetkar who came second in the Round Robin of the d’Orsi Trophy in Chennai and lost in the quarter finals to Sweden.

2. the team of Gabi Lorentz, Stephen Burgess, Paul Marston, Matthew Thomson who came 3rd in the 2015 Sarundajang Cup behind Bulgaria (1st) and the Sarundajung team (2nd).

3. the Australian Open team members Nye Griffiths, Liam Milne, Michael Wilkinson, Griff Ware, Dave Thompson (captain), who reached the round of 16 in the Transnationals in Chennai, losing to Germany.

2015 Pacific Asia Women’s On Line Bridge Festival

The Festival was held from August 31st to September 4th. Players from thirty countries participated, with Australia and the United States having the largest representation. One hundred and sixty players in all registered for the tournament, with one hundred and thirty actually playing.

Congratulations to all the winners. The overall winner was Meredith Woods from Australia.

We really appreciate the support of the WBF, the ABF, the NZ BA and the CBL of Thailand for the support they have given the Festival, and hope they feel it is worthwhile continuing with their sponsorship of the event. The MC particularly thanked Dallas Cooper and Jane Rasmussen for their efforts in organising this tournament so well. We are happy with how the tournament went this year, and are confident that it will continue to grow in the future, providing a satisfying experience for women bridge players from all around the world.

World Bridge Games – Poland 2016

The World Bridge Federation has announced some changes of format for the 2016 World Bridge Games. These Games are held every four years. The next Games will be in Wroclaw, Poland in September 2016.

The first change is that the number of team categories will increase from three (Open, Women’s and Seniors), with the addition of a fourth (Mixed Teams) category. Unlike usual Australian practice, every partnership in a mixed team must be mixed. Every WBF member country is able to send one representative team per category.

The second change is that there will no longer be a Transnational Teams event after the qualifying rounds of the four series of Teams. Instead there will be National Pairs Events in each of the above four categories. Unlimited numbers of pairs from each country can enter each pairs category.

The ABF does not have an established selection procedure for mixed teams. For 2016, we will invite mixed pairs to express interest in forming an Australian representative team. The closing date will be 31 March 2016. Players qualified for the 2016 Open, Women’s or Senior teams will be ineligible.

The pairs expressing interest will be ranked based on a formula to be determined, but expected to be wholly or largely based on 2015 PQPs. The highest-ranked three pairs will be invited to form a team. The ABF will offer a subsidy of AU$1,000 per player plus payment of entry fees.

2016 ABF Playoffs: location, format, seeding

The location of the Open Playoffs in February 2016, and the Women’s and Seniors’ Playoffs in March 2016 has been confirmed as Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1 Binara Street, Canberra.

Feedback on format of the Playoffs has been strongly in favour of adopting the proposed new knockout format as soon as possible.

We will contact all players with 2015 PQPs to give them a chance to comment before finalising the format of the next series of Playoffs. We will also seek player input on the exact method of ranking teams for deciding knockout brackets.

National Event Coordinators – change of name

We are changing the titles of Laurie Kelso and Matt McManus to National Event Coordinators, to avoid ambiguity in the abbreviation “NTC”. I’m sure they will continue to do the same great job!

Feedback & Future Meetings

The Management Committee welcomes feedback and suggestions on the above matters or other subjects.

A mid-term ABF Council meeting will take place on 7th November. This will be followed by an MC meeting on 8th November 2015. The draft agendas will be circulated in due course.

ABF Management Committee:
Bruce Neill (President), Allison Stralow (Secretary), Roy Nixon (Treasurer),
Dallas Cooper (MC Member) ,  Simon Hinge (MC Member), Russel Harms (General Counsel), Keith McDonald (President Emeritus), Jane Rasmussen (Executive Secretary).

12 October 2015