Reinstate Sally Brock & Nicola Smith

The English bridge ladies have posted a petition in Change.org, where they ask to the English Bridge Union:

Reinstate Sally Brock & Nicola Smith to the English Women’s Bridge Team

This is the full text of the Petition by English Ladies Bridge  London, United Kingdom

Please support the English Ladies Bridge team

Sally Brock’s daughter, Briony, had been unwell and was on the mend. After receiving the unanimous support of her teammates and captain, Sally requested that the English Bridge Union allow Briony to travel with the team to Croatia.  The team had been selected to represent England in the European Bridge Championships. This request was denied.

·        The English Bridge Union members deserve to be represented by the best possible team.

·        Sally is one of the best women’s players in the world. She has won multiple world bridge championships and brought glory, honour and medals to England over many years.  

·       She has dedicated her time voluntarily and worked hard for this success.

·       The selection committee, which is made up of eight men,  have  ignored all requests and concerns from  the original women’s team.

·        Sally’s partner Nicola Smith is a winner of multiple world championships. Nicola was also dropped from the team and the other four members thought they had no choice but to withdraw from the team, due to their voices being ignored and the selectors’ refusal to compromise and agree to a very reasonable request.

·        Sally is a committed member of the team, and Briony’s presence in Croatia would in no way detract from Sally’s focus or dedication to the game.  

·        The event begins on the 22nd of June and we need your support for Sally.

You can support them sending a letter to the EBU Click Here

Finally some people have left their comments, most interesting is Benedicte Cronier (France) comment:

I can’t believe that Sally Brock and Nicola Smith won’t be in the English team in Croatia. They have formed one of the very best women pair in the world. I personally have been a member of the French ladies team for more than 20 years and my daughter Marie accompanied us in Estoril in 2004.She was 19 years old at that time. She provided kind of fresh air in the team when the weight of the competition was too heavy and we won our first world title there. It was such a support to have her with us that we decided to choose our children as captains and coaches after Estoril. Julien Gaviard , Thomas Bessis and Romain Tembouret( the son in law of Daniele Gaviard) have been our captains since Estoril. We have never regretted our choices. With us we won 3 European tittles (2006,2008,2010) and finished second in 2012.We also won the Venice cup in Veldhoven in 2011.

Please,reinstate Sally Brock & Nicola Smith along with Briony to the English Women’s Bridge Team. You can be sure that Briony will be a help for the team and not an embarrassment.

Other comments are from: Phillipe Cronier, Christina Lund Madsen, Pamela Marks…