Bridge Club News

Great food, great bridge, great cause! Twenty seven pairs turned up on Friday evening to support Peninsula Bridge Club’s 2017 Charity Night.

Thanks to Noleen Cregan, Cassandra Mitchell, Margaret Rogers and Vickie Busteed who laid on wonderful warming soups to take the chill off the night, and to Di Agostino and Christine Egan who spoiled us with delicious desserts. Thanks also to director Sue Falkingham. 

The raffle hamper was won by Anne Thomson and the bottle of whisky by Pam Kempster. 

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Sue Evershed and John Simmonds did very well in the 2017 Australia-Wide Novice Pairs, coming 11th Australia-wide with a score of 67.0. Interestingly when scored over just the Peninsula entrants they were pipped by Grahame Elith and Keith Trevallion, but scoring nationally turned the tables strongly in Sue and John's favour. Nationally Maggie Gibbs and Susan Jensen came 32nd, ahead of  Judith Croxall and Robert Gaven who came 55th.

Read the full letter below from the event's national organiser. Brad Coles, and prize winners should note what they need to do to claim their prizes.

"Thank you again for taking part in our Australia-Wide Novice Pairs! The final results are now on the Australian Bridge web site.

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Directors from Peninsula, Manly Leagues, North Shore, Narrabeen & Newport gave up their Saturday morning to learn about changes to the Laws of Duplicate Bridge.

The training session was conducted by John McIlrath with the support of the ABF and hosted by PBC. The 15 directors who attended were very grateful for the help.

Some may be interested in this "riotous new play about two fiercely competitive bridge-playing grandmothers stars Virginia Gay, Nancye Hayes and Sue Jones in a charming odd-ball story that will leave you grinning."

According to the Melbourne Theatre Company website "The Autumn Road Retirement Village in Caulfield has a fiercely competitive bridge club, but with old age doing its inevitable work, no bridge partnership lasts for long. When Minnie loses her playing partner in an unfortunate swimming accident, Liraz is desperate for them to team up. You see, Minnie has a granddaughter and Liraz has a grandson. Both are hopelessly single. Laying all her cards on the table, Minnie is bidding hearts."

This new play Minnie & Liraz by Lally Katz runs from 13-24 June 2017 at the Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. Fancy a trip down south?

Congratulations to Vickie Busteed who has recently become an ABF accredited teacher.

This also means Peninsula Bridge Club is probably the first club across Australia to have three accredited teachers (with Cath Whiddon and Sue Falkingham), attesting to our recent teacher training program.

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The Members and Novices' Teams was another great teams day. The goal was to help novice pairs enjoy competitive teams play and nine of the ten teams included a novice pair. The only downside was that the novice pairs played east-west and the other direction had more than its share of the strong hands - so the novice pairs had to focus on defence!

The winning team overall was the Farmer team - David Farmer, Cath Whiddon, Sarah Young & Susan Jensen and the prize for the best remaining team with novices was the runners-up Van Weeren team - Hans Van Weeren, Lynn Baker, Noelene McNair and Joan Perkins. Apparently this was Joan's first experience of teams play!

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Five Peninsula pairs competed in a field of 66 pairs in the NSW State Mixed Pairs Championships, played on 27-28 May at the NSW Bridge Association.

Congratulations go to Margaret and Michael Draper, who came second in the East-West qualifying field of 33 pairs, and thus managed to make it to the finals field of 14 playing on the Sunday where they came 12th overall.

In the Sunday consolation event, the Autumn Swiss Pairs with 48 entries, our remaining pairs came 9th Catherine Whiddon/David Farmer, 24th Lyn Baker/Hans van Weeren, 30th Vivien Eldridge/Alan Davies, and 45th Anne Small/Ron Smith. Despite mixed success it was a great weekend of bridge - and an excellent competitive field.

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The Club reaching the size requiring GST registration has prompted a consideration of the Club's financial situation. 

The Club Committee has considered the implications and our appropriate response - and has provided a useful report explaining the situation and the response to members.

Interested members are also invited to an information session to be held at 11am on Saturday 3 June at the Club.