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a double celebration for Barry Smith (pictured here with his wife, Judith). See below what he was celebrating.

It was back to bridge, as if we had never left it.

Unfortunately, as I was about to send this update to NZBridge, we found our first recent community transfer cases. The immediate future is thus uncertain. This update covers our recent playing experiences, and sets out where we were heading under the assumption of Alert Level 1 conditions.

There have been a few lost events. We set aside our regional club championship, and we’re having IP team selection instead of trials. The Kapi Mana Bridge Club decided to hold their 50 year celebration next year. Otherwise, rubber bridge and the interclub competition were under way. The big Pairs and  Teams competitions of the Wellington club started moving ahead, with nearly the same number of rounds planned, but in a shorter time.

We decided not to run our Super Sundays and similar regional initiatives for new and novice players. We planned to still keep score, and offer a prize for the top Junior player in the local tournaments, with an additional prize for the leading novice player across those events.

The recent announcement that the Gold Coast Congress won’t happen next year has left a gap in the lives of many Wellingtonians. All going well back home, we might have to drag out the tent and head off for some far off part of New Zealand where it doesn’t rain in late February. From past experience, that’s not as easy as you might think. Paul, there are many many such places in New Zealand..inside any bridge club, for example!

Local results

We started our return to tournament bridge with the Wellington Regional Centre Teams held in late June by the Wellington Bridge Club. 28 teams took part, slightly down on previous numbers. First were the Tislevoll team of Peter Newell, Martin Reid, Nick Jacob, Geo Tislevoll, followed by the team of Nigel Kearney, Jack James, and Annette and Stephen Henry. No need to wonder why Geo keeps returning to Wellington tournaments. He usually wins.

   Wellington Winners                                 followed by:

    
Peter Newell, Martin Reid, Nick Jacob        Nigel Kearney, Jack James, Annette and Stephen Henry
and GeO Tislevoll

The Kairangi Bridge Club held their Multigrade teams tournament on 5th July. Under the handicapping scoring system, the winning team was the Upchurch team:

 
Kellie McKinstry (Trustees Executors), event sponsor, Oliver McCready, Caroline Hull, Denise Barnett
and Donna Upchurch

While looking for the results on the website, I noticed that the Club Supporters page has about 39 supporters, mainly local businesses. The club must have been working very hard in the local community to get that level of sign-up.

Things got busy from mid-July onwards. The Karori Bridge Club had 20 pairs in their Intermediate tournament on the 19th. Klaus Dorbecker and Alys Freeman won this event very narrowly from Kim and Kahu Livingstone. Andrew Cushnie and Martyn Rew were third.

The Wellington Club added in an Open Restricted tournament when it held its annual Open tournament on the 26th. This proved very popular. There were 30 pairs in the Open and 20 pairs in the Restricted. The Restricted event definitely attracted some players who might otherwise have been reluctant to chance their hand in the Open.

To show that good team players can also do well in duplicate, Annette and Stephen Henry won the Open, and Nigel Kearney, this time playing with Mariusz Tumilowicz, gained second place. Photos of three of these can be found above, and Mariusz has appeared previously.

Dianne Tredger and Dennis McKinlay won the Open Restricted. Margot Davenport and Val Cooper were second. Sadly, for both pairs, the results at the prizegiving were the other way round, but were subsequently fixed. Never fun when this happens, for whatever reason.

Kapi Mana held a combined Intermediate and Junior Multigrade Pairs on the 27th. There were 30 pairs in this tournament, with some Juniors doing well. Even so, the first five placings were taken out by Intermediate pairs. Doug O’Halloran and Candice Ng came first, averaging a high 63.49%, from Gillian Travers and Lyn Dash. The first all Junior pairing of Yvonne and Graeme Fisher came sixth overall with 54.83%. They were followed by two other Junior pairs.

The Waikanae Bridge Club’s Multigrade was held on the 2nd August in its renovated club rooms - now an even better playing environment. There was another good turnout with 38 pairs, evenly distributed over the various grade combinations. The exceptions being there were no Junior-Junior players and only one Open-Junior pair, perhaps offering some support to the theory that there is little enjoyment for the less experienced Junior players going up against much stronger players.

The 13 Open-Open pairs did not have it all their own way, as the Intermediate-Intermediate pair of Karen Ericksen and Jude Lucas took first place, followed by Jo Rollo and Simon Louisson, an Open-Intermediate pair. Paul Maxwell and Gail Tippett were next, starting off for the Open-Open pairs.

Karen Eriksen and Jude Lucas                Jo Rollo and Simon Louisson          Gillian Van Raalte and Adrienne Gilbert

Gillian Van Raalte and Adrienne Gilbert were the top Junior-Intermediate pair, and Phil and Hannah Revell were the sole Open-Junior pair.

Happy 80th, Barry

           Barry and Judith Smith

This month, we’re featuring Barry Smith, a stalwart of the Masterton bridge Club. (This note, via our Regional Bridge Mate, Katherine Gough.) Recently Barry had his 80th birthday, and he and his wife Judith  celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Barry joined the Masterton Club in 1973 and has been President three times and Treasurer twice, as well as being a member of the Wellington Regional Bridge Committee for some years. His name appears on all the honour boards at the club, and he and Judith are still regular players in Wellington Interclub. Barry has kept himself up to date with all the changes over the last 47 years, including changing rules of bridge in his role as chief director of the club.  He is the “go to” person at the club when someone has a problem, and if he does not know the solution at the time, he will find it out.

 

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