Chairman’s Corner

No.3, July, 2005

The subject on which I’ve received more correspondence than any other to date has been the structure of the Interstate Teams selection events.  A common theme has been the undesirable fragmentation of the field as a result of having three separate qualifying Women’s/Senior’s events.  Another, was the quirkiness of the rules whereby lowly placed pairs in the Stage I qualifier took precedence over more highly placed players in the other two qualifiers when it came to filling vacancies in the Women’s/Seniors Final. Both these complaints are now being addressed by the Tournament Committee.

Of wider interest however were the conflicting views expressed with regard to a couple of sensitive issues, namely: ·

• Women’s pairs having the opportunity to play in the Open selection event; and ·

• Staging events on Easter Monday

I raise the former with a certain amount of trepidation, but I feel it’s important to air the issue in a broader forum if only to test the contention of one correspondent that “the majority of women’s pairs would prefer to play in a segregated women’s event”. Is that really the case, and even if it is, should that matter? Might not it be argued that our responsibility is to devise a selection event that will yield the best possible women’s team NSW can muster rather than one that maximises the enjoyment of the participants. If it’s battle hardened warriors we are after, we may have to put them through boot camp.

The other issue that has raised the ire of some players has been the fact that one of the qualifying events was held on Easter Monday. Now, clearly, no one would think of scheduling an event on Good Friday or Easter Sunday but with the Bridge calendar as packed as it is it’s difficult to accommodate those players who can’t make it to the Association week after week. What hope has a Newcastle, Wollongong or country NSW player of negotiating Stages I and II of the Open ITS requiring as it does their presence in Sydney on eight consecutive Wednesday nights. We might as well rename the NSW Open team, the ‘Sydney’ Open Team, as that more accurately reflects the pool of players on which it draws. A weekend qualifying event is one way of ensuring that a large segment of our player community is not entirely disenfranchised.

The biggest event on this year’s calendar, the Australian National Championships and Butler Pairs, is being staged in Sydney later this month. You’ll find more information about it inside this Bulletin. I look forward to seeing you there.

Alex Yezerski