[jjbrr]

helene_t, on 2014-October-29, 17:25, said:

This is a bit silly. Of course there will always be players
for whom it is too expensive but that's no reason not to make it more affordable.

The question I have and the reason I'm mocking the quote is why would more juniors at the event make it better? Because it's so nice to see young people playing bridge? Great. Just great.

I just think it's completely ridiculous to make accessibility to juniors specifically a priority in deciding the venue for a world bridge championship. Accessibility/affordability for the greatest number of people? Fine. But even if you held the tournament every year in the busiest college cities in the world, you'd still get like 1% of participants as juniors? Oh the injustice of making a world bridge championship inconvenient for college kids.

[the hog]

Trinidad, on 2014-October-28, 14:36, said:

Come on guys...

Patroclo has made several interesting post here. Unfortunately, his English isn't very good. Can't we just read past that?

If we did, we could conclude that it seems that Alfredo Versace has been complaining on an Italian website about the tournament in Sanya:
- Too far away from civilization
- Everything is way too expensive
- Poor format
- No wonder so few contestants showed up

And Versace goes on to complain that the next European Championship will be in Tromsø, Norway, which again will be: Too far away from civilization and too expensive.

He calls for officials to stop this nonsense and make bridge again accessable for young players.

I think it is interesting to hear Versace's opinion.

Thanks Patroclo,

Rik

I agree with Rik. putting in the boots because someone's English is not great is bordering on the racist. I criticise some posters for posting idiocies and get a warning. At least I am not racist. I wonder if a certain moderator will pick up on this. I would bet not.

[helene_t]

It's not like sanya is cheap and accessible for seniors either. I wonder who it is that prefers places like this. People with stakes in luxury hotels? Officials who sniff a chance to visit a place they would otherwise never afford to go to? I shouldn't shout corruption on a public forum when I have no way of knowing but I just lack the imagination to think of other explanations.

[MrAce]

the hog, on 2014-October-30, 02:16, said:

I agree with Rik. putting in the boots because someone's English is not great is bordering on the racist. I criticise some posters for posting idiocies and get a warning. At least I am not racist. I wonder if a certain moderator will pick up on this. I would bet not.

Oh cmon ffs Ron! You did (almost) the same thing in BW when you got into it with someone and you told him "It's not *abced* it is *abcde* If you are going to use this word at least learn how to spell it". You tried to belittle someone for his English language skills rather than arguing the subject in hand. Please don't tell me all your intention was to help the poor guy to improve his spelling in English language!


I agree with Rik too. But calling these 2 posters "racist" is going way too far imo. And I strongly doubt Rik thinks them as racists. I have been told to write my posts in Turkish and then use google translate and then post here so someone can understand. You know very well that when someone starts his sentence or finishes his sentence with spell checking-grammar checking that he/she is hurt with your argument, can not find a better way than taking a cheap shot on you. It does not even have to be about bridge, or in a bridge forum, in any forum who attempts to go down that way is taking the lowest path possible. Unless the forum is " Proper English language forums" But these two posters here obviously could not see the OP was copied and pasted from a google translation. In fact, to me spell checking is much worse than these two replies here. Sorry. I wish I could speak or write English as well as Rainer, Fred, Gnasher, Frances etc and express my thoughts in shorter sentences/words and I wish I do not make grammar mistakes as much as I do, and believe me I am trying for it but hey...this is what I have and I am used to people taking a jab on me for it when they have nothing better to say. But I still never saw them as racist people. And I know you are not a racists either.


[Sorry all for off topic rant]

[Fluffy]

Here is a better translation with also Norberto Bocchi's thoughts:

http://newinbridge.c...re-critical-wbf

[barmar]

helene_t, on 2014-October-30, 02:28, said:

It's not like sanya is cheap and accessible for seniors either.

For billionaires like JEC, cost is almost irrelevant.

[jallerton]

barmar, on 2014-October-30, 08:54, said:

For billionaires like JEC, cost is almost irrelevant.

It's not quite that simple. The more expensive the event becomes, the fewer the number of opponents who can afford to play becomes. Then the event is less special for the billionaires. Not many billionaires will be willing to pay for lots of opposing teams as well as their own!

[barmar]

jjbrr, on 2014-October-29, 21:02, said:

The question I have and the reason I'm mocking the quote is why would more juniors at the event make it better? Because it's so nice to see young people playing bridge? Great. Just great.

Without young people, we're just seeing the same old pros every time. We lose old people due to attrition, so the game will wither away if we don't have new blood coming in. Young players also make the competitions more interesting, as they tend to shake things up.

In other sporting events, the old champions are always in danger of being usurped by young whippersnappers, and it keeps things interesting. Would tennis be as interesting if we were still watching Martina Navratilova vs. Chris Everett for decades?

[PhantomSac]

We are talking about the tournament where the pairs who were first/second/third in the world open pairs had an avg age of 33, the winner of the rosenblum included an 18 (!) year old and the winner of the womens teams had a pair that was in their early-mid 30s

[the hog]

Justin and others. I agree with your points regarding youth players. We always complain about the lack of young players taking up the game and as Justin pointed out, look at the age of some of the leading players in the event. However we need to be aware that not all older, even in the Seniors, players can afford the high fees. Look at Helene's post. I suggest this be looked at as a problem for everyone, not just those under 30. The fact is that posters here, with one or two exeptions, cannot do much. However if others such as Bocchi etc and of course Justin as a poster on this site make representations regarding the excessive costs, then MAYBE something can be done. I get the impression too often that Bridge is run for administrators and their cohorts and not for the players. Justin I am not telling you what to do, but perhaps as a young player you coud also voice your concerns to the organisers. None of us wants Bridge to die.

[Jinksy]

To be honest, the idea that 'early-mid 30s' is considered a young age for competitors says a lot about the state of the game...

[Trinidad]

Jinksy, on 2014-October-31, 05:23, said:

To be honest, the idea that 'early-mid 30s' is considered a young age for competitors says a lot about the state of the game...

When my (then) girl friend (now wife) and I started to play bridge, we were 27. At every other table we heared something like: "How nice to see kids play bridge!". Sometimes they even used the word "children". It's really weird to hear that when you have been working as a project manager for 4 years, where some people would address you with "Sir".

Rik

[Jinksy]

Hah! I still get asked what I'm studying, more than a decade after that stopped having a sensible answer

Less flatteringly, I couldn't persuade a LOL that I wasn't a beginner after I described my P's 'weak 2' as '10-13 points with 5+Ss'. It didn't help my image that, holding 7♣s, I then neglected to respond 3♣s (showing long diamonds).

Suspect she might have been slightly more willing to believe I wasn't (mis)playing her system had I had an extra few wrinkles.

[jjbrr]

barmar, on 2014-October-30, 14:12, said:

Without young people, we're just seeing the same old pros every time. We lose old people due to attrition, so the game will wither away if we don't have new blood coming in. Young players also make the competitions more interesting, as they tend to shake things up.

In other sporting events, the old champions are always in danger of being usurped by young whippersnappers, and it keeps things interesting. Would tennis be as interesting if we were still watching Martina Navratilova vs. Chris Everett for decades?

This is so out of touch with reality though, and imo represents everything wrong with the collective impression in the bridge world that we NEED YOUNG PLAYERS THE GAME IS DYING ITS SO NICE TO SEE YOUNG PEOPLE PLAYING BRIDGE. No, Barmar, we don't need young players at a world championship to "shake things up." That's just terrible. And as Justin points out, we aren't seeing the same old pros every time, though the ones we do see every year are there because obviously they deserve it, and that's exactly how it should be.

If we're using your tennis analogy, would it be interesting to see the Aces play the Blue Team for decades? ***** yeah, it would. It would be awesome. Rivalries are great for sports. But bridge around the world has gotten really good (and is still getting better!) and so we see lots of new faces every year. That also is great albeit in a different way. It doesn't matter who is playing at the end of the tournament, we can be reasonably certain the show is going to be of the highest quality.

[ArtK78]

Trinidad, on 2014-October-31, 06:11, said:

When my (then) girl friend (now wife) and I started to play bridge, we were 27. At every other table we heared something like: "How nice to see kids play bridge!". Sometimes they even used the word "children". It's really weird to hear that when you have been working as a project manager for 4 years, where some people would address you with "Sir".

Rik

I sometimes get referred to as "young man" in my professional life. I am 58. It helps that my hair has not turned gray (well, only a little).

In bridge, I have been among the youngest players in my area ever since I started playing 42 years ago. That is true even now, although there are a number of younger players. What surprises me is when I find out how old some of my long-time opponents are. I only recently found out that one of my occasional partners is 70, and several other players who I regularly play against have competed in the Super Seniors event (70+) at the NABC.

I regularly play poker in a free poker league (World Tavern Poker - check it out online). Most of the players I play against are younger than I am, some much younger. Only a handful of the players are older than I am. I would say that the average age of the poker players in my league is around 35.

I used to play regularly with Dave Treadwell. Next to him, no one seemed old. I used to joke with Dave that he was too old for the Super Seniors events. Seriously, though, to the best of my knowledge, Dave NEVER played in a Senior event. He did not believe in restricting the competition by age (at least at the top end).