Bridge Club News
Bathurst & District Bridge Club will hold the 3rd edition of the Central West Novice Tournament over the weekend of 28 and 29 October 2017 and invite members of our club to come along for a weekend of bridge, good food, great company and friendly competition.
This is a wonderfully run and very friendly congress for those with zero to 50 masterpoints. It is an excellent first congress for less experienced players.
We are pleased to announce that Robin commenced her new role on 1 August 2017.
Robin will report to the Treasurer, Bob Whiddon, in relation to financial tasks and to the President, Sarah Young, in relation to other aspects of the role. Initially, the emphasis will be financial, to be fully prepared for the 1 September transition to GST status.
Robin Ho has been working in the accounting field since she graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Economics degree, majoring in Accounting.
For the first time we had sufficient entries to have two fields at Peninsula Swiss Pairs congress on Sunday. There were 22 pairs in the Restricted section and 38 in the Open.Peninsula Players made up seven of the top ten places in the Restricted. Noelene Stewart and Kelly Barber were the winners. Peter Clarke and Hans van Weeren were second and Sarah Young and Gayle King were third.
Lesley Treasure and Yvonne Perkins were the best Peninsula Pair in the Open in 7th place. Lyn Smith and Jocelyn Bertram were 9th and Cassandra Mitchell and Clare Filmer-Ramsay 11th.
Thanks to the director Ronnie Ng and to Di Agostino who organised the excellent sandwiches and all those who contributed or helped in any way. Thanks also to Lois and Terry Rothwell who tidied up and prepared the room on Saturday and those who stayed at the end – Di Agostino, Sarah Young, Rob Scott, Bruce Kleem, Alan Davies, Greg Hay, Nerida Gillies and many others. Click here for results
Hans Van Weeren and I went to Canberra to represent NSW in the Australian Restricted Championships, along with us were Cassandra Mitchell and Clare Filmer-Ramsay ready to do battle for the glory of being Australia’s No 1 Restricted Pair. The Tournament format was Swiss Pairs, Imps, with 15 tables. The competition was fierce with pairs representing most Australian States and Territories being in attendance.
The venue was at the Canberra racetrack, but they didn’t have the air-conditioning up and running on the first morning and it was bitterly cold, perhaps giving the Canberrans a home advantage? Fortunately this was the only occasion, however we nearly succumbed to exposure. For our first match, a pair from NZ must have wondered what was happening as the woman to my right spent the entire session huddled inside her Parka, literally shivering.
Terry and Lois Rothwell won the Swiss Pairs on Tuesday 18 July, holding off challenges from several other pairs.
The guest expert on this Challenge night was Richard Douglas who spoke on the topic of gaining and keeping a good partner. It was noticeable that there was far less bickering between partners for the rest of the night - may it last!
In July two novices earned masterpoint certificates demonstrating their continued learning and success. Amanda Trent, pictured playing in the relaxed red row received her 5MP certificate, while Barbara Ellis received her very first certificate for reaching 2MP.
Both Amanda and Barbara regularly attend the monthly improver lessons designed to help them continue their learning at Peninsula. These lessons take place in a supervised session time slot and are advertised on the website and thus also in the newsletter. They are open to all developers who are interested in improving their game. There are also sessions that have novice sections such as on Wednesday afternoon.
It is always a pleasure to celebrate our members' special days.
On Thursday 20 July, we will have an afternoon tea to celebrate Joyce Low's 90th birthday.
On Saturday 22 July, we will be celebrating Gino Morello's birthday and also congratulating him on the marvellous achievement of being a member for 50 years, 1967-2017, and a wonderful member across all those years.
Contributions to the afternoon teas would be appreciated.
Hope to see you there on both occasions!
The July 2017 ABF Newsletter contains a wealth of information and articles for the interested and competitive bridge player. My personal favourites were:
- Declarer play problems on page 20 - I managed one out of three...
- Counting challenge on page 27 - I did a little better here
- The Smile Sweetly After Disaster convention on page 29 - very useful for my partners...
And Cath Whiddon noticed some local news in the Newsletter - in the results of the Victor Muntz Restricted Swiss Pairs in Melbourne in June was "3rd Kelly Barber - David Owen (Peninsula/Waverley)". Congratulations Kelly!
