Anna Kalma's blog

Congratulations to the competition winners from Matamata.
Nola Barron was successful in winning the Norm Beecham trophy on Thursday night.

Nola Barron

A handicap competition played over 6 nights with the top 5 scores counting and Nola gained an impressive average of over 60%. In second place was Joanne Swanwick and in third place Helen Reid

Also a few weeks ago saw the conclusion of the Edie Schwartz competition which was won by Hermanna Hemmes followed closely by Anne Beetham and Rita Van Den Einden

Hermanna

Congratulations Ladies!!!

Matamata hosted a Junior Tournament in the weekend with 13 full tables with representatives from as far afield as Auckland down to Taupo taking part.

Melanie Trevethick and Malcolm Hill from Cambridge were the eventual winners with two great sessions to finish with an average of slightly over 60%. Just behind were the top Matamata pairing of Barbara Keys and Raewyn Richards with consistently strong performances through the day. Geoff Wane and Anne Clark from Mt Maunganui were third.

Full results can be accessed here
.

Thanks to the sponsors Property Broker and Sonia Crawford for donating wine as prizes.

Matamata Club will be hosting a fundraiser for the New Zealand Youth Team on Friday 9th May at 7.30pm. It should be a fun night and the opportunity to score across the rest of New Zealand with a rare chance to win A points at club level.

The event will be a simultaneous scoring event (bit like NZ wide Babich Pairs) with the hands being duplicated across the country and scored across the nationwide field at which point

Masterpoints will be awarded as follows:

 Winners at Club Level 1 A Point

 Winners at Regional Level A Points for the top 5 pairs (5,4,3,2,1)

An entry fee of $10.00 per player is payable to NZ Bridge.

Further details about the event is attached. Grab a partner and sign up on the sheet at the clubrooms or register via anna_kalma@hotmail.com (ph 07 8873 686)

Thames hosted Te Aroha in the second session of the interclub. Another great night of bridge across 9 full tables. Again the honours were split across Te Aroha and Thames with Hermanna Hemmes and Joan Darby Smith taking the North by storm with 61.57% marginally more than Jena Robinson & John Peppiatt who won East with 61.37%.

After two nights, the leaders are Jena and John, followed by Leonie Sentch and Pam Buchanan (Thames) and in third place Tim Rigter & Anna Kalma (Te Aroha).

The night will be remembered for good fare, friendly atmosphere and board 21...A rare opportunity to bid and play a 7NT hand. Congrats to Denise and Allan Barclay and Joan Flynn & Sabrina Peters who did just that!

Looking forward to the series decider later in the year.

A workshop for directors, a new NZCBA board and some great new initiatives from the Waikato Bays team ...

Read all about it in the latest edition of the New Zealand e-Newsletter which is available by clicking here

You can subscribe to the the monthly newsletter by registering your details at the New Zealand Contract Bridge website

Bridge lessons are drawing closer. The 10 week set of lessons start on Wednesday 19th March at 7pm.

Lessons

Venue is the Te Aroha Bridge Club on Whitaker Street (next to Countdown and opposite the Information Office).

To register your interest please contact Anna Kalma on 8873 686 or 0275 183 133 or tearohabridge@gmail.com.

bridge lessons: Te Aroha kicks off their expensive promotional campaign

As you can see by the image, there are no expenses spared with the bid to attract new players to the Te Aroha lessons kicking off on Wednesday 19th March.

We count on existing members to be the cheerleaders for Bridge and challenge every club member to sign up at least one person each for lessons!

Same is true for Matamata club members ... The Matamata lessons start on Tuesday 29th April (7-9pm) and will also run for 10 weeks. Matamata have the services of Bridge Babe, Jane Stearns, as their tutor this year!

Contact:

tearohabridge@gmail.com for information about lessons at Te Aroha

matamatabridge@gmail.com for information about lessons at Matamata

The first major tournament of the year occurred in Thames from 10 - 12 January.

Congratulations to Hermanna & Henk Hemmes and Lynette Morgan and Ian Bond. Their team came 9th out of 28 teams in the Open Teams event with Lynette and Ian finishing 4th in the butler results.

The the other multigrade Teams competition, Team Te Aroha (Anna Kalma, Tim Rigter, George Sherrell and Greg Saxon) had some good wins to finish the day in 3rd place. Tim & Anna also had a good day to finish top of the butler results.

Other noteworthy performances include Ross Stewart and Jacob Kalma who finished 10th in the multigrade pairs event on the Sunday and Tim Rigter and Greg Saxon who paired up on the Friday night for a credible 18th with 50% against some top opposition.

Are any of you having Bridge withdrawals? Is one of your New Years Resolutions to play more bridge? Fear not, there are some summer options available to satisfy your urges...

1) Play at the annual NYE bridge tournament in Matamata. This is organised by Hermanna Hemmes and is a social event which you don't need a partner to enter . . . but you do need to let Hermanna know if you want to play so there are the right amount of players (phone 07 8873 781). Great way to see in 2014! Kick off at 7.30pm (be seated earlier)

2) Grab a partner and find out which clubs in the area play summer bridge during the day (Matamata starts weekly day bridge on Wednesday 7th January and Hamilton weekly on Friday 9th January.) Visitors are always welcomed to the summer events - but check times and details on the relevant website first.

3) Grab a partner and enter a tournament. All the big guns turn out at the Thames Festival which happens during 10 - 12 January. This year there will also be the inaugural Junior Tournament which starts at 1.30pm on Sunday 12th January and will be limited to 22 boards ... a new concept in New Zealand Bridge Tournaments and would be suitable for many of our new junior ranked players.

4) Start some house bridge ... ring Hermanna if you would like to play bridge around the coffee table ... she and Henk are always keen to set up a game and no doubt there will be a grandchild hanging around to make a foursome if required!

Another great night out at Te Aroha Bridge. Thanks to all the visitors and members that attended and enjoyed the good old Te Aroha hospitality. Some unedited photos are attached ... as usual I failed to capture images of those who were busy behind the scenes (thanks Anne Cummins for organising all the food and George Sherrell for directing!!)

Look forward to 2014 - have a merry Xmas everybody:)

xmas party
Xmas party
Xmas party