Bridge Club News

Peninsula Bridge Club will run the State Open Pairs qualifiers online on BBO for three weeks starting next week.

The dates are Thursdays 14th, 21st and 28th October at 1:15pm. One substitute is permitted.  See the NSWBA site for more information.

Percentages for the 3 sessions will be aggregated and the top 3 qualifying and willing pairs will be partially and conditionally sponsored by the club to attend the Metro Final (online possibly?) on Saturday and Sunday November 20 & 21.

Anyone who doesn't qualify may attend at their own expense ($120) and be entered through the club.

Please find a partner and turn up to the session next week.  Red points will be awarded to all participants whether they attend the final or not.

The last of our lockdown cumulative events came to an end on Tuesday.  As usual, there were some surprise finishes and the only division which did not see a change of leader was the Open and that was because only three pairs turned up so the event was cancelled. After three rounds the winners were Anne Small and Hans van Weeren with Cath Whiddon and David Farmer as runners-up.

The Competition was much hotter in the U300 division. Bill Davis and Mike Gibb had a very strong finishing round to pip Di Agostino and Leofric Kingsford-Smith with Christine Banham and Grahame Elith not far away in third.

It was a similar story in the U50s. Janelle Halliwell and Jan Grant had a brilliant last round to leap from fifth place to the top of the ladder. Peter Wilson and Jeremy Trahair snuck ahead of Leah and David Boyd for the minor placings.

Tuesdays online will now give way to a resumption of the Tuesday morning (10.00 a.m. start) session in the clubhouse.  Cumulative results can be found here.

[Ed: the committee would like to thank John for his work in organising and directing these competitions and for generously donating the prizes]

What a finish!!   After three weeks during which the leaders had not changed, the Tuesday Cumulative Red Point and Red Wine Tournament came to a dramatic climax with surprise winners in all three divisions.

In the Green (U50) Division, Rick Bloore and Peter Collings followed last week’s win with another stellar performance to snatch a win from Sachiko Cathcart and Debbie Sate with Jill Bridgman and Denise Tomkins coming in third.

In the Reds (U300), it was a similar story with Vickie Busteed and Sandie Rooke finishing strongly to overtake Savitri Newman and Sylvia Volkmer on the home straight. In a photo finish, Andrew Ikin and Lynne Talmont just pipped Bill Davis and Mike Gibb for third place.

In the Blue (Open) Division, Cath Whiddon and David Farmer saved the best for last and finished with the highest score of the entire tournament, both on the day and overall. Bad luck for Jocelyn Bertram and Lyn Smith who had looked unbeatable after the first couple of rounds. Anne Small and Hans van Weeren held on to third place ahead of fast-finishing Jenny Ardill and Alan Davies.

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The Peninsula Swiss Pairs Congress was run online by Masterbridge. Nick Fahrer and John McIlrath did a great job organising and promoting our event. We had a record breaking number of entries. At one stage they were coming in at 14 a day! Masterbridge sent very clear instructions were prior to the day but still a few entrants got lost in the morning and never found their way in.

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The U100MP Club Pairs Championship was completed on 25th June after 3 weeks in a very close finish despite some administrative difficulties.  13 pairs played in all 3 sessions.

Congratulations to Nick Armitage and Peter Cotton who finished with an average percentage score of 60.5% just ahead of Bronwyn Neal and Simon Hunter on 60.3%.

Thanks to Max Paterson and David Farmer for directing and Max for convening. 

You can see the final results here.

Sue Riley on behalf of Peninsula Bridge Club was proud recently to present a cheque for $3,500 to Ken Hughes in his capacity as a representative of our local rural fire brigade. The money raised was from book sales, plant sales and funds raised at our Charity Day held on Wednesday 19 May.

Ken thanked the Club and said that we had been one of their main supporters over many years.

The winner of the 2021 Stebbins competition is Alan Davies. Congratulations!! The runner up was David Farmer.

We would like to encourage participation in this event next year. In the Stebbins competition you play with a different partner each week over 4 weeks. I don’t think people realise how much fun this is.  All you have to do is line up 4 different partners.

This is your chance to ask someone for a one-off game and see how it goes. You might find a new long-term partner. Everyone knows that in bridge the hardest part of the game is finding good partners!

Five Peninsula teams travelled to North Ryde RSL on Sunday 23 May to compete in the 2021 Margaret Smale Metro North Interclub Teams, hosted this year by North Shore Bridge Club. This competition is in four categories: <100MP, 100-300MP, 300-750MP and 750+MP and ensures that teams with all levels of experience can compete and contribute equally to their club's chances of success.

Our two teams in the 100-300MP category blitzed their competition and took both first and second place. Winners were Sandy Carter, Nerida Gillies, Rob Scott and John Simmonds and runners-up in that category were Susan Jensen, Annegrete Kolding, and Jenny and Max Paterson. 

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