2006-2007
19-Sep-2007
AGM Tomorrow
I've still not heard from a number of teams, some of whom have been playing in the league from the beginning of time. In the unlikely event they're looking here rather than replying to the mails I've sent them (though see below), please get in touch.
There an early draft layout for the 2007-8 League season. The Cup draw will be a surprise at the AGM.
18-Sep-2007
Email woes again - but now back to normal
Unfortunately, from 8-Sep until 17-Sep the LBHCBA mailbox was sending mail with an address of 'results@lbhcba.orh' - yes, .orh - I'd mistyped the address in the mail account details.
I had to re-establish my entire Outlook mail profile when it became corrupt (which included my personal account as well as the LBH) and, given there was no way of copying them I could find, had to retype the details. Well, it certainly seemed to work. I sent and received test messages and subsequently received replies to mails I sent out. But I believe certain receivers throw out malformed domain names - well, you would if you thought of it.
It's also quite possible that replying to mail that did get through would result in failure but I have to say, I would have thought you'd have got some error return. It's a bit of mystery; possibly those replies I did get were only due to the recipients retyping the address.
23-Aug-2007 16:55
Email is working again!
is up and working again - there's no need to adjust your sets. Thanks to Mark at Ecats, it's all been speedily resolved.
According to the man from Orange on the other end of their expensive support line, the account was deleted on Saturday. I've had just the one entry form to date (I wasn't expecting to be overwhelmed at this early stage) and I've replied to that captain specifically. Therefore, if you think you sent your entry by email even if you didn't get an undeliverable message you need to send it again. I will write to all captains explaining this.
23-Aug-2007 14:00
The email account is down
The address everyone uses - - is actually a redirection to a Freeserve account I set up ages ago (and those with long memories may recall we once used directly).
Freeserve were taken over by Wanadoo and in turn, they have been taken over by Orange. The model for the 'free' account was to use funding from the dial-up telephone numbers to pay for the account but I always used my own broadband access. This meant that the account was regularly suspended. No matter, you could always un-suspend it. Until Orange became the masters and enforced the use of the paying telephone line. I missed all the warnings - if indeed there were any - as I filter all mail sent directly to the Freeserve address because there was so much spam.
So.. The underlying account has gone. Permanently this time.
I'd like to say we've got our best people on it, but in fact I've been trying to sort it out. I've created another free account (with a different agency) and am in the process of getting the redirection changed. I hope it won't be too long. This comes at a bad time. I've been away; I left on Saturday and mail stopped the moment I got out of the door (timed on the last spam message). Normally, at this time of year, we wouldn't be getting much but I've just sent out all the entry forms for next year and people are getting delivery failures returning them. Oh, and I'm off tomorrow to play bridge in France...
15-Aug-2007
Notice of the 2007 AGM: The 32nd AGM of the LBHCBA will take place at 18.15 sharp on Thursday 20th September 2007 in the Belgravia room at the Civil Service Recreation Centre, Chadwick Street SW1. You can see the Agenda - all the usual fun, culminating in the awarding of the 2006-7 prizes, local points and most importantly, the captains' meeting to establish fixtures for the 2007-8 season.
The importance of the captains' - or representatives' - meeting was emphasised last year by the AGM motion that resulted in an increase in annual subscription for those clubs not sending someone to the meeting. The subscription is now 15 GBP to those not present but an unchanged 5 GBP to those that are. We all know that not every fixture made at the meeting takes place but the ability to properly space out matches means they are very much more likely to happen - and now there's a financial incentive too.
Two Microsoft Word documents were sent to captains; the AGM Agenda and the Entry Form.
Remaining 2006-7 business: I am still chasing results - for both knock-outs and the league. When these are finalised I'll do an honour roll, but if you're sitting on any, or you can see from the tables that a result is missing, please let me know. Only when the division standings for last year are complete can the draft constituents for this year be drawn up.
14-Aug-2007
Update of results for cup and league. Hooray for the Premier and One West - both complete.
2-Jun-2007
This isn't the normal place for personal announcements but just in case anyone attempts to contact me at UBS, I'd like to make it known that I retired from that fine institution in May. If you want to get in touch, is best (or of course).
Results for both Knockouts and League are up to date. The Leslie Dodds and the Plate completion looks rather forlorn and I shall be chasing people forthwith. I'm hoping that it's more a case of unsent results. But that may be optimistic..
3-Apr-2007
OK, that's it! Not a single result, postcard or email remains. That means that I'm now in a position to chase you all up on why you've not played those matches - particularly the cup. You have been warned!
2-Apr-2007
Update of results and posting of Selfridges' Cup results - congratulations to the winners, Graham Cunningham and Teymur Jamseen.
23-Mar-2007
Quick update of league results sent via the webform and cup.
13-Mar-2007
The recent updates have flushed out a few more result and these too, have been updated.
10-Mar-2007
Hurrah! I think that's it - we're up to date. Refresh your browsers and check your results - if they're not there then please resubmit. There are a couple of outstanding emails to do with various irregularities but these need some consideration.
7-Mar-2007
Still struggling a little to get back on top of the updates. I've done all the 'easy' ones - those from the web form and obvious cup results but emails with information buried within them, cards, contact updates and general correspondence will have to wait until the weekend.
19-Feb-2007
I've been fooling around trying to automate updates from the emails that come from the results page and I believe I have something now. Obviously this has taken me an inordinately long time and, to date, I'd have been a lot quicker typing results as I used to... Well, so far, I'm hoping it will pay dividends in the future.
7-Jan-2007
Hurrah! At last the cup draw. We've let off the Bank of England - normally defaulting teams don't even get to play in the plate to teach them a sharp lesson - because we were swayed by the beauty of having 32 teams in the competition. The links to the Leslie Dodds Cup and Gainsborough Plate are on the left, but you can still see the first round draw.
Additionally I've updated the documents link to include the minutes of committee meetings, so you may know what we're up to. The main subject of deliberation at the most recent match was the circumstances of a match started late and shortened between Civil Service and BT 'B'. The committee took a number of decisions in resolving this and the matter is fully explained as an addendum to the minutes. It has long been a principle that there are no forfeited matches in League matches and we would like to further establish:
- The League is competitive but friendly forum for bridge.
- The matter of adjustment of League matches is solely the responsibility for the committee.
- All matches should start by 19:00. A captain cannot be compelled to start a match half an hour later than the agreed start time or 19:00 (whichever is the earlier).
I would urge captains to read the text in full.
3-Jan-2007
Happy New Year!
There's been a League Update and I have the cup draw but I'm having a stciky time putting it in the usual format. If I don't manage to do it qucikly, I'll post a plain text version.
24-Nov-2006
Now I think that I've got everything up to date; league, knock-out and contacts. So, if you spot any missing results or incorrect information, I'd be delighted to hear about it. OK, I lie, but tell me anyway.
Your committee next meets on Monday 4th December. Severe sanctions will be levied on unplayed knock-out participants. Anything else worth discussing send to me.
22-Nov-2006
I've been rather busy - playing bridge mainly, but I'm doing my best to cut down participation in the Gold Cup, Crockfords etc. - and there has been a surge of results recently. I've still got a few to do and an update to contact details, but there are some up now including the first round of the knock-out
24-Sep-2006
The provisional layout for the divisions is now on the site, ahead of the AGM on Thursday 28th September. The captains' details are also available - please check and refer any changes to me. The draw for the first round of the knock-out will be made for the AGM to enhance dramatic tension.