Tenerife Bulletin Front Page Master

New Blood in EBL Executive

From the left, José Oliveira of Portugal, Radoslaw Kielbasinski of Poland, Marijke Blanken Burgers of The Netherlands and Micke Melander of Sweden

At the second session of the EBL General Assembly held yesterday elections took place for filling out four vacancies on the EBL Executive Committee.

	Table of Contents	Page
	New EBL Executive	1
	Direct Line with Eric Kokish	2
	Ladies Round 1 - Israel v Norway	3
	Hand Stories	4
	Ladies Round 3- Greece v Russia	5

In the Open Series Russia and Norway have changed places and they are hotly pursued by Italy and Poland. Greece continues to stay among the leaders and is followed by Austria and France. There is still no sign of a gap developing, and the tremendous struggle we have been expecting appears to be materialising.
In the Womens Series the surprise leaders are Hungary, ahead of four of the favourites, Italy, England, Germany and the Netherlands.
The Senior Teams is headed by the notional second teams of three countries, Germany 2, Italy 2 and France 2. Then come France 1 and England 1.
In the Transnational Ladies Teams Cup Italy 4 have a commanding lead from Italy 1 and Israel/Scotland.

Radoslaw Kielbasinski of Poland, Marijke Blanken Burgers of The Netherlands, José Oliveira of Portugal and Micke Melander of Sweden were elected.
At a meeting of the Executive Committee held immediately afterwards José Oliveira was unanimously elected Second Vice-President filling the position held by Laurens Hoedemaker.

Before the election, WBF President José Damiani showed the delegates the presentation he and president Rona had made to the European Olympic Committee (EOC) General Assembly last November in Warsaw, Poland. The presentation aimed at explaining to the European Olympic family why Bridge is a true sport rather than a lucky game. The presentation was well received here as it was in Warsaw.

José Oliveira served as President of the Portuguese Bridge Federation for many years and he was the organiser of the successful European Championships in Villamoura in 1995 where he was elected member of the EBL Executive Committee. He was re-elected in 1997 for a four year term. While on the Committee Oliveira negotiated successfully the dissolution of the European Union Bridge League and its integration into the EBL. Two years ago he became Chairman of the NBO Liaison Committee that takes care of NBO relations and their contact with the EBL. Last year he organised together with the President the NBO administrator's seminar in Viserbella, Italy which was highly successful and appreciated by all.

Page 1