BEHIND THE SCENES

Contrary to appearances, an event like The Lederer Memorial doesn't throw itself together. Months of preparation are needed, and the co-operation of the Young Chelsea bridge club and a small army of volunteers is vital.

Starting at the top, Christine Duckworth organizes it. She sets volunteers together, and is present throughout attending to the smallest detail. Assisting this year has been Simon Cocheme. Chris has stated her intention to retire, and hand over the reins to Simon. We'll see.

Su Burn - whoops, Su King as she is now, arranges the teams. That's not easy, and quite frequently teams drop out at the last moment, which hardly helps matters. Her husband Phil King has in the past commentated on vu-graph, with Richard Fleet (also tournament referee). This year he doesn't appear to have left the vu-graph room, but isn't sitting at the commentators table. This hasn't shut him up, though. Why he has been swigging Lucozade from the bottle all weekend is a mystery, and hopefully will remain so. Also in the vu-graph room, David Muller has spent the entire weekend keying in bids, plays and results as they happen, adding greatly to appreciation of the vu-graph facility. Ah, the old days of the epidiascope and the felt tip pen. All gone now, thank heavens.

David Martin and Chris Barrable have been directing the event. This tends to be easy in terms of rulings - there aren't any- but in a high profile event like this, everything has to run smoothly from first board to last. That's the hard part.

Hidden away in the bowels of the club are Peter Burrows, Steve Eginton and Mike Graham. These three are responsible for gathering together data, writing up hands for dissemination to the press and allocating awards for best bid, best played and best defended hands. Theirs is a thankless and unglamourous task, and one can only marvel at the effort with which they pursue it, year after year.

There are two dozen names listed in the programme under the heading of monitors, scorers, and helpers. I can't name them all here - I wish I could,  but the organizers have asked me to extend their thanks to each and every one of them.

Finally, one can't ignore the support of Warwick Pitch, nor would one want to. Every year he provides his premises and personal support. Where would The Lederer be without him? On the street, somewhere, that's where.