Bridge Club News

The Sydney North Interclub Pairs Challenge is being held at Peninsula on Sunday 15 July. Last year we won this in a nail-biting finish with a lead of half a point over Trumps with North Shore just a little further behind. Can we hold on to the title?

You can see the event flier and Peninsula's call for expressions of interest (also on the noticeboard). Do note that pairs who have achieved success in competitive events in the past year are likely to be invited to represent the Club, and the expressions of interest recorded on the noticeboard will then be considered. This is a club entry process, but those pairs who miss out may be able to play for other Sydney North clubs including as an All-Stars team.

Peninsula on Sunday 15 July successfully defended its narrow win last year in the 2018 Sydney North Interclub Pairs Challenge. We entered a full contingent in this great day played at our club - brilliantly convened by Cassandra Mitchell and supported by the generous culinary offerings of our members.

You can see the photos of the day mainly taken by Heidi Colenbrander.

The event's 58 pairs were divided by average masterpoints into three playing fields of ten, nine and ten tables. And each of these fields was divided further into two categories for the purpose of awarding points towards the pair's club.

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President Sarah Young thanked Councillor Cory Amon during his recent visit to the club to see the portable PA system that his grant to the club procured for us. 

The PA system will be used when we need a microphone in operation but not through the speakers that operate throughout the clubhouse. This occurs when we use another room or if we have a session or lesson operating only at one end of the room with something different happening at the other end.

Nineteen and a half tables contested the Lawrence Shield on Saturday 2 June, commemorating the huge contributions made by Verl and John Lawrence. Most of us will know Verl, and know of her past role as Chief Director. Sue Riley was able to share her former life covering many of the key roles of the club including Secretary and Masterpoint Secretary. She also shared information about John, one of Sue's former bridge partners, and a long time House Manager for the club. It was a great opportunity to learn of the significant work that Verl and John had volunteered to undertake to help make the club as good as it is today. 

On this wild, wet and windy Saturday we played as one field, using an Arrow-Switched Web Mitchell movement to ensure that we all played the same 27 boards, a fair outcome not always achieved in large fields.

The winners were David Farmer and Catherine Whiddon, with runners-up Peter Clarke and Jim Rothwell who finished ahead of Chis Duggin and Lori Neville.

Many Peninsula pairs played in the State Mixed Pairs Championship on the weekend of 26-27 May, with Margaret and Michael Draper the most successful. Margaret and Michael, who were representing Manly Leagues Bridge Club, were 6th in the North-South field at the end of the Qualifying round and so earned a place in the 7 table finals. In the Finals they were placed a creditable 12th, with two pairs tying for first place: Kevin ROSENBERG - Susan HUMPHRIES and Warren LAZER - Pauline GUMBY. Some of us will remember Susan Humphries tag teaming with Liam Milne as our Swiss Pairs experts on Tue 22 May.

Other Peninsula members who made the top 20 in each direction in the qualifying event included:

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Fourteen teams fought it out over three weeks in this qualifying event for the State Open Teams championship. Congratulations to the Farmer team (Alan Davies, Vivien Eldridge, David Farmer and Catherine Whiddon) for winning, ahead of the runners-up Draper team.

Difficulties of a technical nature prevented the final round results from the State Open Teams qualifier on Thursday 24 May appearing on our normal website display or via Pianola. Consequently we have taken a scan image of the printed results for you to see. 

The event was directed by Brian Soutter.

International players Liam Milne and Susan Humphries were our guest experts fpr our May Swiss Pairs. They led the PBI at 5 workshop on "When to respond 'light'", and then followed with a pre-session talk on guidelines when low-level doubles would logically be for penalties. The workshop was well received with a number of players from North Shore making the journey to hear them speak. It will be interesting to see how many light responses appear at the club.

The Swiss Pairs showed some interesting - read difficult - boards. The first board at our table had the following bidding: 4H (5D) 5H (6D) P P 6H X All pass - down one when 6D makes. In fact 7D makes when played by the other hand but fails on an unlikely spade lead and ruff. Needless to say Cath Whiddon and I were on the wrong side of this board playing against Susan and Liam.

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Derrick Browne was our guest expert at the Swiss Pairs on 24 April. His pre-session talk on the "Power of the Closed Hand" was very well received, and a number of players were seen trying to practice the deception technique during the night. Join us for the next Swiss Pairs on 22 May when international players Liam Milne and Susan Humphries will be our guest experts. The pre-session talk will address how to distinguish the doubles partner intended as penalties from those intended as takeout.

The winners on the night were David Farmer and Catherine Whiddon, ahead of Peter Clarke and Hans van Weeren, and Marieta Borthwick and Annegrete Kolding.

Nine tables played on the night which was directed by in-house directors Alan Davies and David Farmer.