Ten years ago, from the Summer Meeting in Brighton, I posted on A-level results day.
I am just as pleased to report that my younger daughter H has got into Cambridge, to read Classics.
She too has worked very hard ... we are very proud ... blah, blah, blah, ...
I had a half day: meaning I was only at the venue in the morning and evening. I spent the morning rearranging computer stations, copying files and generally setting up for scoring the midweek events. In the evening, the scoring went smoothly until it came to the master points: the combination of green points, blue points and stratification was too much for me and for the scoring programme; we went to bed and calculated the masterpoints in a spreadsheet in the morning.
During my afternoon off, I went to Shoreham by bus. We had a great aunt/uncle who lived in Shoreham and generations of my family have visited Shoreham (and the beach) since forever. My plan was to walk from the centre of town over the footbridge over the rive Adur and on to the beach beyond. The (old) footbridge was to me an iconic feature of Shoreham — so I was dismayed to see it has been replaced by a concrete and steel structure. Furthermore, the new bridge is still under construction, so my plans to recreate childhood memories were thwarted. (Hence the 'not bridge' label to this post.)
Back in Brighton, I was able to listen to some of the cricket but I missed all the action when England won the match and the Ashes.
Author Iain Banks (sometimes Iain M Banks) died today, it was not unexpected, but still sad.
My first Iain Banks book was The Bridge, which I bought in Edinburgh while working on the Festival Fringe. Although it was nearly midnight the bookshops were still open, which stuck me as very civilized. Only later did I realize that the bridge in the book is based on the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh.
After that I read the lot, from the The Wasp Factory onwards, including the science fiction — The Player of Games was a big favourite. I also really enjoyed the radio adaptation of Espadair Street and the whole family enjoyed The Crow Road on TV.
It is very sad to think there will never be another Iain Banks book.
Tramping up and down the playing area has aggravated the blister on my foot and I am back wearing the aircast boot that I had to wear in 2010.
The day was busy with rulings, so no chance to watch the 5000m final. One hand attracted many rulings: these were the East/West hands.
| 8 7 5 | K | |||
| J 10 | W | E | 6 5 3 | |
| J 10 9 4 2 | A K Q 7 3 | |||
| A J 2 | K 9 7 4 |
North/South bid spades and East/West bid diamonds; some times West passed slowly at some point in the auction and East rebid 5♦; some times East passed slowly and West bid 4♦. Usually Pass was ruled to be a logical alternative to bidding again, and clearly partner's slow Pass suggested bidding again (over passing). So in most cases the score was adjusted to North/South playing in the spade contract they had got to.
Lots of players threatened to appeal several of today's ruling (though perhaps not the rulings on this hand) but at the end of the day, and after speaking to cuddly appeal consultants, there were no real appeals.
The actor, Philip Madoc died last week. He lived near St Albans and knew my father. We always looked out for him in television in 1970s — “Don't tell him Pike” was the most memorable. Given his role in The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, I am reminded of the nonsense song lyric: Lloyd George Knew My Father.
Just heard that daughter E (see Junior Teach-in reminiscences) has got into UCL, to study Psychology.
She has worked very hard ... we are very proud ... blah, blah, blah, ...
Midweek at Brighton can be less intense, and today started with a heartly breakfast with little talk of dodgy claims. My dietry foibles are well catered for by the hotel: soya milk (for the lactose intolerant) and veggie sausages (for the vegetarians).
I had the afternoon off and considered the beach. A fortnight ago we had been on holiday in North New South Wales, and spent a day on the beach at Lennox Head, south of Byron Bay. Although it had been winter in Australia, Brighton beach could not really compare: temperatures were similar, but Australia had more sun, sea and sand.
Pounding the streets of Sydney had done for my dodgy foot (see Best foot forward), and, instead of the beach, I pounded the streets of Brighton and Hove in search of a pharmacist who could provide extra dressings. My search of pharmacists was unsuccessful and the street-pounding had been counter-productive.
I was amused by a sign in a shop: “genuine Panama hats, from Ecuador”; and it reminded my of a sign in a shop in Coffs Harbour (NSW): “50% off bikinis” – which half?
This evening was the first session of the Seniors Pairs and the Play With The Experts Pairs. There was much to keep the TDs busy, and as the scorer I found there much work to get the scoring software to deliver the results of Play With The Experts.
I feel a bit like Arthur Dent, on his return to his old life on Earth:
Slipping back into his old life had in fact been laughably easy. People had such extraordinarily short memories, including him. Eight years of crazed wanderings round the Galaxy now seemed to him not so much like a bad dream as like a film he had videotaped from the TV and now kept in the back of a cupboard without bothering to watch.
So long, and thanks for all the fish, Douglas Adams
Ten days at Brighton isn't eight years of crazed wanderings round the Galaxy, but it is more intense than life at home.
The rulings from Brighton are coming back to haunt us all over the internet. It is sad to see that bad behaviour is still a problem: I think the TDs are still finding it difficult to be both firm and fair when dealing with bad behaviour; but I am sure the bulk of the problems are not reported to us. There were also problems with WBF convention cards, foreign (including Scottish) players who were forced to fill in EBU convention cards then find the local players do not have appropriately completed convention cards; I wonder if the Scottish players offered to use SBU cards, they look close enough to EBU style.
Health-wise I survived Brighton remarkably well. Considering I could not do a couple of days work per week, six months ago: I managed 10 days of up to 12 hours work a day, with midnight to 3am drinking, posting results on the internet, or blogging. My foot survived but did need a lot of care, attention and rest.
Controlling my vegetarian/diabetic diet is difficult when eating out all the time, but there is a good range of vegetarian/ethnic resturants in Brighton. The hotel resturant provided soya milk for breakfast but on the last Sunday I accidently had milk on my cereal and suffered lactose intolerance symptoms for the week after. (You do not want to know!)
It's my birthday today: half the family went to work and I had an appointment at the orthotists to collect some new shoes! (See Best foot forward.)
This weekend was a significant step forward: it was the first bridge event I have done without a plastic boot/cast on left foot since the Tollemache Qualifier in November 2008. Last week, I was fitted with a new pair of orthopaedic orthotic shoes and was encouraged not to wear the boot/cast. I still have many medical issues to work through but this was definitely a step in the right direction.
The blog has dried up, despite having time on my hands. I would like to post on various topics: the application of Law 86D, alerting of undiscussed doubles, red fielded misbids; and I would still like to give club TDs some practical advice on law 27. But there never seem to be the right hands to illustrate the points I want to make.
OK, this was a Law 86D case from this weekend.
Board 18 was (spectacularly) fouled a one table, through no players' fault, and had already been played at the other table in the match. I asked the other table if there had been an exceptional result on the board and NS said they defeated 4S that may not be bid or may be bid and made. I tooked at other results on the board and 4S was being bid and was sometimes making. So NS had got a good (if not unusual) result on the fouled board and the conditions for Law 86D were met: one of the non-offending sides had scored a favour result. (But Law 86D talks about the non-offending side, does this imply there must be only one non-offending side for an assigned adjusted score?) So I gave NS an assigned adjusted score for NS+50 score against 50% NS+50 50% NS-420 (+5IMPs); and EW an artificial adjusted score of Ave+ (+3IMPs). Is this the way the law is supposed to operate?
A WBF minute on Law 86D from 2008 was subsequently withdrawn in 2009, and there is much in the EBU White Book (and at the EBL TD Course in Sanremo). These deal with the less obvious case of giving an offending side some benefit of its favourable result on a subsequently fouled board.
Blog got mentioned in English Bridge.
Today is the anniversary of the surgery on my foot, see no posting in October. I have still got health problems: most obviously a boot to imobilise my left foot, which I have been wearing for eight months.
Spent two weeks in hospital and the rest of the month at home. Newly diagnosed with diabetes and significant surgery on my foot. No TD or real bridge; but I have been watching BBO and I was consulted on one ruling from the English Premier League. Not clear when I will be back on my feet and back to work. (Bummer!)
