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Having a “whale” of a time in Kaikoura.

The following article has been submitted by Pam Whitehead. Now, Pam may be just a little biased being the Kaikoura Bridge Club President, but the Kaikoura Club has run excellent tournaments for years. This is Pam’s view of the most recent one, last Saturday.

“Kaikoura Bridge Club has just 70 members but had more than double that number when 81 pairs turned up last Saturday at the local Memorial Hall for the club’s annual Bridge Tournament, with 162 players participating, the largest event of this kind in New Zealand, not bad for our small growing club.

 What makes our tournament the most successful in the country firstly is the destination. Kaikoura is a stunningly beautiful place to stay for a weekend. We even had a “raiding party of six”, including Bridget Hannaway from Wellington attend for a girls’ weekend!

 Our event is renowned for the amazing food we serve, the  seafood chowder and Thai Pumpkin Soup for lunch, and the copious quantities of home- made food our members prepare. Miriam Williams, our chef extraordinaire, also served a veritable feast of food that everyone raved about. Crayfish Blinis post play plus lots in the chowder!

"Suitably" attired kitchen help

 
 That's Toni Batey and  Michelle Ormsby ..and the "suit" is certainly "hearts"!
 Unfortunately a technical problem meant, this year, the scores could not be entered electronically and we had to revert to very slow manual scoring, meaning a result could not be given at the end of play. Those attending were understanding of our problem and stayed and socialised after play, enjoying Kaikoura hospitality.

 The success of our tournament relies on a huge team effort. Players not only donate generously towards the best raffle table in any tournament we have ever attended, but give their time so generously, defining the community spirit for which Kaikoura is famous.”

Lovely Raffles for all

For such a tournament, the general atmosphere, bonhomie is much more important than the actual results, as the total acceptance of the scoring issues demonstrates.

For those who have taken up the game in more recent years, manual scoring used to be the norm and meant that there were often lengthy  delays at the end of tournaments when players could indeed socialise. The “hasty exits” are one of the disappointing aspects of computer scoring these days  as many players leave very quickly, even before the results are announced. That seems strange as generally the wait is so much shorter nowadays.

Final results are, of course, important, too. So, those who scored well are shown below:

Overall Winners,

 Ray & Ellen Curnow, (father and daughter)

2nd  Pam Dravitzki and John Patterson, 

3rd Maurice Carter and Kate Davies

 

Hearts

Diane Horton and Shirley Culley

Michelle Gan and June Jung

David Cook and Heather Whineray

 

Diamonds

Robyn Dawson and Lin Clark

Jo Going and Wendy Wilson 

Diane Smith and Sally Lang 

 

Clubs

Izzy Green and Diana Watson

Cathy and Neil McPherson

Rosemary Smart and Robin Denley

The Kaikoura Junior Pairs is on Saturday 14th June. So far, there are 17 pairs entered. Meanwhile, next year's All Grades Event is scheduled for Saturday 23rd May 2026. A date for your diary. 

Richard Solomon

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