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OzOne Bridge Project
A benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous has provided the ABF with a sum of money to be used in an attempt to improve the standard of contract bridge players representing Australia in international tournaments in Open, Women's, and Juniors categories. The document below details the agreement between the Australian Bridge Federation and the OzOne Bridge Project.
Press Release
The OzOne committee expresses its sadness at the recent passing of Alan Woods, whose generosity funded the OzOne program. He wanted nothing more from his donation than to serve bridge, the game that got him started in his very successful career. (There will be a full obituary in the February Australian Bridge Magazine.) OzOne is continuing to support the bridge rating scheme, a system that was of particular interest to Alan. Indeed, it was his hugely successful system for rating horses that inspired the original bridge rating system. If this ends up being a highly valued service amongst bridge players right around the country, most of the credit should go to him.
Following the suspension of the Open Team program, as announced in the Press Release dated 8 October 2007, OzOne is now turning its attention more to the youth front. We will announce our youth program by the end of March.
Meanwhile there have been two resignations from the committee: David Stern and Arian Lasocki have resigned. Both were highly valued members of the committee. Arian was a member from the very early days. David was only a member for about one year but he was very active during that time.
The two new committee members are Cathy Mill of Melbourne and Nick Rodwell of Sydney. Cathy has long been active in youth bridge administration, including the captaincy of the successful team at last year's PABF in Bandung. Nick who is in his mid twenties has been very involved in youth bridge. In 2006 he went to Slovakia for the youth pairs and camp. Away from bridge he is a business analyst for JP Morgan.
Paul Marston
OzOne Chairman
February 7, 2008Press Release
The OzOne Bridge Open Team Project has been suspended (8/10/07).
The OzOne committee has decided to suspend its open team project. The principle objective of the project was to produce a team that would be competitive at the highest levels of the game. While it was not expected that this goal would be achieved in the eighteen months that the project has been running, the results in general have been less than expected and the committee believes that there is insufficient stability amongst the players to get the program back on track in the short to medium term future. The program is currently being reviewed with input from all those who were involved. This is expected to be of considerable benefit, should the program be resurrected in future. Despite not achieving the principle objectives, the committee believes the project has still been of significant benefit to our leading players. It has helped them to understand what it takes to succeed at the highest level of the game and it has helped to create more of a winning culture. We believe that the benefits of this will be seen in the years ahead.
Meanwhile, the youth and ratings projects will continue. OzOne has a plan to offer scholarships to leading junior players enabling them to participate in a wider range of tournaments than might otherwise have been possible. The national bridge rating system is expected to increase the popularity of the game right around the country and it will provide a means of recognising players of talent.
OzOne Bridge Website