All News

2 of these are missing! Where are they? 6 Hearts again! For the second day running, our contract is 6H with one hand holding H AQT to 6 hearts and once again, the opponents have done their hardest to disrupt the bidding by pre-empting to 5D. It... read more here

Mary Wood, fund-raiser extraordinaire. Hospice day at Howick Bridge Club. This is the story of an incredible fund-raising effort from one of our bridge clubs. Howick Bridge Club commenced having an annual charity event for the Totara Hospice... read more here

For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players…and others. It’s Fri Day. It’s Friday not Doomsday! It is though a day when the opposition attack your weakest suit. Why do they always seem to find the right lead when you are... read more here

or as close as we can! The Percentage Line. Today’s story involves percentages, well at least if you want to understand why it is correct to take a rather unusual action in declarer play. Even if you are not into percentages, it’s... read more here

Michael on his wedding day.    It is very sad to have to report the sudden passing of Michael Sykes earlier this week. For many years in the 1980’s and 1990’s, he was one of this country’s most prominent players and... read more here

A Lesson for both sides. Today’s deal might seem rather mundane and uninteresting and indeed would have been had most who held it followed our Panel’s advice. However, the statistics indicate that most of the 94 East players who held... read more here

Achieving Par. That’s what we aim to do with every deal: correct? I will answer that question. “Maybe.” Yesterday, we alluded to the fact that (very occasionally) the “master-suit” is the lowly club suit. Normally,... read more here

not today! The “Master- Suit”. Four of the nine New Zealand teams recorded victories in Round 5 of the Trans- Tasman Challenge, played last Friday night. However, at the top, Australian teams have started to gain a small lead at the... read more here

  NATIONAL CONGRESS 2023: CALLING INTERMEDIATE, JUNIOR AND NOVICE PLAYERS.   This a great opportunity for players of all ranks – including Novice. Freddy Wilkie was a nationally ranked Junior player in 2022 when he attended... read more here

It’s Fri day…for Junior, Intermediate, Novice players…and others! Bidding high and Playing safe. Today, we have a bidding and a play problem. Let’s begin at the beginning. What would you open with the hand below?... read more here

  Defending on your own: not always pleasant! Yes, you do have a partner across the table but in today’s hand you are very much on your own because your partner has to follow suit while you have to find four discards. Your partner is... read more here

A Problem 21-count. 21 high card points in your hand is usually something we look forward to having, a slam possibly, surely a game or maybe taking a penalty off your opponents who are making life as awkward for you as they can. Here, though,... read more here

  a view you might have seen were this tournament not on-line.  Aussies to the fore in the South Island Teams. The Picton Bridge Club hosted the on-line South Island Teams over 2 days this past weekend. It consisted of 8 rounds of 14... read more here

In playing in the New Zealand Zone 7 Open Team win over Australia in Hong Kong last Friday, Michael Cornell has become the first Kiwi, indeed the first player from Zone 7, to achieve the rank of World Grand Master. He gathered the last 0.5 points... read more here

Second is No Disgrace. Failing to win the APBF Open Championships may feel very disappointing for our Open Team, understandably, especially as victory was in their own hands. To have led the event for all but the last two rounds, early in the... read more here

Matches lost but not the lead. A run of 18 matches without defeat by our Open Team came to an end with a 2 imp loss to Indonesia yesterday morning, a match in which the Kiwis could not quite peg back enough 1 imp swings to catch up their... read more here

Four More Wins. Big, small, lead from the front, come from behind. It does not matter how they come but at the end of the day, the New Zealand Open Team finished each match with more imps and vps than their opponents. Still unbeaten, they drew... read more here

Day 4 in Hong Kong. In past years, New Zealand teams have done well in international events against the stronger teams but have struggled against teams that were near the bottom of the table. Not so the current Open Team who finished up Round... read more here

Still Unbeaten. That is the situation of the New Zealand Open Team after Day 3 in Singapore. It is a slightly strange statistic, but true, after what proved an extremely tough day for the Kiwis. Just look at their results: 1 New... read more here

A Second Day Unbeaten. That’s the story of the New Zealand Open Team at the APBF Championships in Hong Kong. They made steady progress, retained pole position and each match scored more vps than their opponents. These are their results on... read more here

Day 1 in Hong Kong: a fabulous start in the Open. Here is the first daily report from the Asia Pacific Bridge Championships in Hong Kong. New Zealand has an Open, Women and Mixed Team taking part. All events are double round-robins of 14 board... read more here

It’s Fri Day ..for Juniors, Intermediates, Novices and others! A Two- Sided Threat. You can sometimes exert great pressure on a declarer by simply playing your cards in the prescribed manner, nothing flash but doing what the textbook says.... read more here

Second encounter. It’s the second board of the day, the second board of three days with lots of bridge to be played. You have been fired up by making a part-score on the first board and sort your hand for the second encounter.... read more here

What makes the Kaikoura Bridge Tournament so popular?The beautiful coastal town of Kaikoura held their annual 8B Tournament on 20th May. 124 players entered. Each year the tournament gets bigger and is now held in the Memorial Hall on the... read more here

An interesting inference. I wonder if at trick 2 below, you thought to ask one rather relevant question. It might just help your defence. Making the wrong decision below will not prove fatal but it would save both you and your partner a lot of... read more here

for Junior, Intermediate and Novice players...and others, too. It's Fri day.  Doubletons can be good leads too! Many players are taught that doubleton leads are to be avoided, that they help out the declarer with the playing of difficult... read more here

or so I think! The Right Occasion for….. a bid that is rarely used, certainly rarely used at the right time. On this particular occasion, I rather wished it had not been used. More of that later. Let’s begin with a question. What... read more here

Everybody’s guessing! Pre-emption is a delicate art. You want to make it as hard as possible for your opponents, to make them guess. The problem is knowing when they have guessed right! With that in mind, what is your bid with the following... read more here

No exception to this saying. Don’t you love defending? I am sure you do, sometimes. It can, though, be pretty challenging. So, today, the defence seems to start quite well. Partner leads your suit and has a decent holding in your suit, too.... read more here

Trans-Tasman Challenge – Round 4 Friday 26th May saw Round 4 of this on-going challenge between Australian and New Zealand teams, 8 rounds in all. Thus, at the half-way point, these are the current leaders. Round 4  ... read more here

For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players …and others. It's Fri Day Few points should be no deterrent. We are told we need at least 25 hcp to bid and make a game. That may be true in no-trumps (and even then game has been made on less... read more here