Golden Girls triumph in the Quilty Tray Teams

Matamata Golden Girls

It was tense last night at the conclusion of the Quilty Tray Teams event.

Going into the final night, team Quilty (Lesley Quilty, Heather Kneebone, Sonia Crawford & Ann Ring) had a small lead over their nemesis; team Bond (Ian Bond, Lynette Morgan, Rita van den Einden & Desma Dickinson) who just happened to be their opposition first up.

With Desma and Rita bidding 6 on board 8 and scoring a good match win, the Bond team overtook Quilty to take a healthy lead with two matches left to play.

In round 8, The Te Aroha minnows (Anna Kalma, Hermanna Hemmes, Tim Rigter & Greg Saxon) surprised everybody (not least themselves!) by scoring an upset win over the more fancied Bond team. Quilty team in the meantime were up against Waikato and when Malcolm and Alison Smith failed to make 6 against a 3NT making opposite they gave away 13 MPs in board 13, the Quilty team was back into contention trailing by just 1MP going into the final stanza.

The final match up saw Bond vs Hamilton (Malcolm and Alison, Richard Fletcher & Linda Lin) and the board 17 was the decider which saw 6 made by Alison & Malcolm giving them a buffer that Bond team wasn't able to make up. In the other match Quilty vs Waikato (Lesley Chubb, Alan Dawkins, Judy Butler & Carolyn Black) the sides had a relatively flat match with only one positive and negative score each finishing with a +1 MP for the match.

Thus sealing a win for the Quilty Team who reclaim the trophy for Matamata. Bond was second and Hamilton third. Waikato while placed 4th had the most wins in the tournament only dropping two matches throughout the three nights.