We have now reached the point where the changes to NGS to allow team games to be graded have settled down. Users of the scoring software, Scorebridge, can now submit multiple teams events using the latest version, and it will be graded by NGS. However, it remains the case that if a club desires to grade Swiss Teams, it will be necessary to use SwissTeamScorer, currently available from here.
We are receiving a large number of queries regarding perceived anomalies with a particular day's result. In almost every case these questions are resolved by referring people to my previous blog 63. However, another thing that people miss is that if sessions are graded out of date sequence, which happens reasonably often, the grade people end up with sometimes looks wrong, but it actually isn't! It is always right.
If you want to check the sequence of sessions as graded, go to your "Sessions" list and click on the "*" character at the top right of that frame, and your sessions will then be shown in order of grading date, rather than playing date.
We will be improving the enquiry facilities for NGS during the next 6 months or so, which should improve member's abilities to solve their own problems.
Some of this work will be included in some important changes we need to make in our core computer systems over the next year or so, forced upon us by the need to keep up with constant changes in information technology. We are in the process of deciding what system we will use going forward and hope to have it live within a year from making that decision. We are also introducing changes to the "Member's Area" of the EBU website, to provide more and better information.
In other news, our associated charity, English Bridge Education and Development, has its own website, www.ebedcio.org.uk and it should be your first stop for anything about bridge education.
Finally, we have begun running a Really Easy Pairs event alongside some of our regular tournaments, and participation is growing nicely. At a recent event we had two clubs running the event alongside the one at the main tournament and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We will be running a Really Easy event at the "Year End" event in London. Why not try it?
