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Waikato Bays News with Anna Kalma
Waikato Bays News and Rubber "Cat" ch up
Teams events seemed to be back on the radar over the past few months. Starting with Spa Town Teams in Te Aroha … this is the only stand-alone tournament Te Aroha host and it is comprised of a 5A Open alongside an 8B Multigrade where teams are limited to a maximum of 200 A points across all four players in order to qualify. Nice to see 19 clubs represented in the Spa Town Teams across both divisions.
The Multigrade section has been gaining in popularity and not often available outside of Open formats. So, it was pleasing to see 12 teams entered this year to contest the title. Well, actually 13 teams entered the Multigrade but we had to remove one entry due to having ticked over too many A points … 16,794 too many A points actually! This team however still proved able to foot it with the field in the Open coming away with (yet another) win in the Open.
Barry and Jenny Multigrade winners: Mel Rex, Joy Bates,
Shirley Bain and Graham Young
Well done the Jones Team of; Barry Jones, Jenny Millington, Patrick Carter and Julie Atkinson. Julie and Patrick had fled Te Aroha quickly following their win so weren’t available for the accolades and photos (don’t think it was anything to do with the hospitality … rather a sick pet).
Young stormed into first place in the Multigrade with a 20 VP win on the last set from locals Tim Rigter, Foster Kalma, Victor Kooter and Henk Hemmes.
cake-cutters, Mereana and Barry
(though Barry seemed to have his eyes more on
the camera than the actual task!)
Barry Jones featured in speech-making at both ends of the day as at the start, he and Mereana Cullen were presented by Karen Martelletti on behalf of New Zealand Bridge a cake to celebrate the first birthday of "The Bridge Zone" weekly radio program.
Hamilton Teams
Off to Hamilton the next week where the clubrooms were packed to the gunnels with 25 teams competing in the 5A Teams in one room whilst 17 tables competed in the Intermediate pairs in the other room.
Tom and Steph Jacob, Michael Ware and Hugh McGann Andi Boughey, Matt Brown,Carol Richardson
and Steve Boughey
The McGann Team stacked with internationals took away the honours with a perfect 6/6 score (Tom and Steph Jacob, Michael Ware, and Hugh McGann,). It also gave extra support to the theory doing the rounds on the airwaves that a team named Ware never prospers … however one with a Ware in the team invariably does.
Despite an internal struggle for household supremacy, the Boughey-Brown team combined well to secure 2nd place at Hamilton. A good month especially for Carol and Andi who won the South Island Pairs, Matt who was part of the silver placed NZ Open Team in Singapore, Matt and Andi who also were 2nd in the Spa Town Teams (along with Blair and Liz Fisher). Actually Steve… you could be accused of dragging the chain!
In the Intermediate section at Hamilton, Taupo’s Frances and Derek Rankin continued their successful ways picking up top prize following their win at Katikati Intermediate in May and are joint leaders of the Waikato Bays Intermediate league along with Carol Crowfoot from Thames.
Last weekend Open players either took the weekend off or travelled to Auckland to contest the Auckland Regional Pairs and Teams. Waikato players performed well with Waikato’s Yuzhong Chen pairing with James Wang to take out the 10A Pairs on the Saturday and Hamilton’s Barry Jones and Jenny Millington partnering up with Patrick Carter and Russell Wilson for the 10A Teams. Yuzhong also won the Mt Albert 3A a few weeks earlier and the Waikato Area Pairs heat the day after and frankly I’m getting a bit tired of all his success… (can you tell from my bitter tone that I have been runner-up on more than one occasion to him recently!).
Mt Maunganui Winners
Athol and Ronnie Ryan Beth and Arthur Mann
Athol and Ronnie Ryan from Tauranga took out the Mt Maunganui Junior whilst Beth and Arthur Mann from Waihi reigned supreme in the Intermediate.
Meanwhile in Mt Maunganui, another packed room saw three events taking place; 30 pairs in the Intermediate, 18 in the Junior and another 7 pairs who turned up for the one session novice. Athol and Ronnie Ryan from Tauranga had a 60% average to win the Junior event and are top of the Junior championship. Beth and Arthur Mann from Waihi took out the Intermediate with 62% average (and nice to see the Waikato Bays Intermediate IP reps lying 2nd and 3rd respectively). The Novice section was played in the afternoon and was won by Janet Milbank and Christine Wood from Whakatane who scored a superb 68.06%.
By the time the next regional round up hits the shelves, we will know the winners of the Waikato Area Pairs, Bay Pairs, TWITs, Waikato Bays Interclub, Rubber Bridge competition and look forward to seeing what the Cambridge 6s throws out … will it beat the 66 tables entered in 2018?
Rubber Bridge in the Waikato (aka “The kibitzing cat”)
The final of the rubber pairs will be contested by Brian Gallaher and Brian Sullivan from the Waikato club who are up against experienced foes Jo and Sam Simpson from Tauranga. Here is a match report about the semi final courtesy of Brian Gallaher where my mother and I were up against the ‘Brians’ follows:
"I (the head of the Kalma Household) was reclining for a "purrfect" afternoon of leisure in my favourite sunning spot when my servant Anna and her mother decided to invite 2 interlopers for an afternoon of bridge. Not that I objected, being somewhat of an expert in the game like my cousin in Auckland of similar blue colouring. Taking sympathy on those in my care, I purred words of advice into their ears and slipped an extra honour card or two their way during the dealing. Satisfied with the 3000 point lead I’d procured them, I relaxed with a gentle clawing of the opposition’s ankles.
At that point, my servant made a great error in judgement.
Did she stroke me and thank me for my significant assistance? No.
Was there an extra cat treat delivered for the 2
opener she had just received? No.
I was banished to the kitchen to spend the next two hours worrying my fur off that all my hard work would come to nought. And my fears were well grounded. The visitors hit the lead on board 28 of 30 and were not to be denied. What a “human-astrophe”!"
spot the difference: Biritch and the king of the Kalma household, both deadly at or on the bridge table!
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