Blogs

Jane has filmed her Rejuvenating a Bridge Club seminar that has been presented at Regional Conferences throughout NZ at the request of NZ Bridge. The last 3 mins of Bloopers are worth a view for a laugh. Click here to view the video.

Jane is currently filming the Beginners' Lessons so that teachers and students will have an aid in 2016. Those students who miss a lesson or those who want to repeat a lesson or go through some of the topics covered again in their own time will be able to catch up via YouTube. Some beginners from Te Aroha this year have been helping in this project by viewing clips and giving feedback to help with editing and production.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Greg Saxon, President of the Te Aroha Bridge Club.

Greg's funeral will be held on Tuesday 22nd September at 1.30pm at St David's church in Te Aroha (32 Church Street) followed by internment at the Te Aroha cemetary.

Greg Saxon
Greg loved his bridge and loved the Te Aroha Bridge Club. He played both club and tournament bridge, many times with his mother, a former stalwart at the club, as well as his friends there. There was always much hilarity at the table in tournaments when Greg pitched up with his partners in crime Tim Rigter, George Sherrell and Ross Stewart. He was proud to be involved in the Waikato Bays Interclub event and he was very much involved in the rejuvenation of the club through 2013, voicing many times his happiness at seeing the club he loved return to life. His name appears repeatedly on the clubroom honour boards and he will long be remembered there. Greg suffered a stroke just over a week ago. He passed away in the early hours of Wednesday 16 September, aged just 60. Funeral arrangements to be advised.
Greg and the Rainbow Warriors 2014
Greg and the Men In Black 2015

The Waikato Bays region has a new website and it is well worth a browse and bookmarking on your computer so you can regularly access information about what is happening in your region.

http://www.waikatobays.bridge-club.org/

Michael Neels from Cambridge has been busy developing the site which has replaced the old website.

While the site is an evolving project, it currently hosts all local tournament information, regional results, commentary and club contacts for the region.

We look forward to feedback and ideas from all those in our bridge community.

Club members have had some success at tournaments played over the past week.

Lynette Morgan and Lesley Quilty combined at the Tauranga Ladies tournament on Wednesday to put in two great performances to take home second overall with an average of 61% across two sessions.

And at the 5A Open Tournament in Hamilton on Saturday against a field of crack shot bridge players, local players featured in each of the three sessions. Session prizes were won by Lesley Quilty and Heather Kneebone in the first session, followed by Hermanna Hemmes and Anna Kalma in the second session and Lynette Morgan and Ian Bond in the final session meaning all the Matamata players went home with an envelope:)

Richard Solomon and Christine Richardson from Auckland were overall winners of the Open, while Graeme Saunders and John Little from Waikato won the Intermediate section.

AND then to top the weekend off Michelle Liddle & Beth Vosper competed at the junior restricted tournament in Cambridge on Sunday afternoon and came first North/South with a very impressive score of 66%. This tournament was well attended with 15 tables of afternoon bridge.

News and commentary on the day with photos of the winners can be found on the WAP 2015 Results and Commentary tab above.

The Citizens Advice Bureau will receive a nice donation thanks to the generosity of the visitors and locals who supported the raffle and “White Elephant” auction on Benefit Night.

Unfortunately the set up for scoring didn't quite go to plan so competitive bridge became social bridge and winning a prize depended entirely on luck. Many thanks must go to the visitors from Morrinsville, Putaruru and TeAroha who took the situation in good humour and enjoyed the delicious supper and willingly supported the auction.

The Waihou Shield is the coveted trophy for the interclub teams competition between Matamata and Putaruru. Putaruru have dominated the competition in the past but this year Matamata were convincing winners. Four junior/intermediate teams from each club competes in this afternoon of bridge which has become an annual event.

The Putaruru pairing of Eileen Barker and Ann Berben were the top pair on the day but the more consistent scoring by the Matamata teams gave them enough points to take the trophy.

The highest scoring team for Matamata were June Thomson, Jim Anelay, Tony Pearson and Stella Macilquham.

Waihou Trophy victors: Stella proudly displays the Waihou Shield in front of some of the Matamata contingent.

Congratulations to June Zhu and Malcolm Kirkby who came out joint winners at the first in the Mini Moos series hosted in Morrinsville today. June kindly donated her prize to a beginner from lessons this year. Both Malcolm and June scored 100 IMPS in the 12 board relaxed social session. Many congratulations to them both. 43 beginners or players new to the game without a Certificate of Proficiency took part. They came from all around the Waikato region.

Congratulations to the Chinese destroyers (oh and Richard Solomon) who came and conquered at the Te Aroha Spa Town Teams. Team Solomon (Richard, Gary Chen, William Liu & George Sun) were up against their nemesis and eventual runners-up Team Jones (Barry Jones, Jenny Millington, Patrick Carter and Kenneth Yule) and managed a sizeable win over in their last set giving them an eventual 5VP win.

The day ended with a bit of confusion due to adjustments required due to two misdealt boards which caused a delay in the final placings and unfortunately the announced placings were deemed incorrect after some further analysis.

Third place eventually went to team Harris (Mike Barton, Karen Harris, John and Rona Driscoll).

The intermediate section was won by our emergency team from Putaruru: Eileen Barker, Anne Berben, Maria Leach & Ross Provan.

Intermediate winners: Intermediate Section winners from Putaruru

Thanks to everybody from the club who had a hand in helping out with the raffles and organisation on the day. Also thanks to all the people who played on the day. We are in awe of the calibre of bridge players who come down to Te Aroha to support our Spa Town Tournament.

Results are available on the Xclub site available here..

Spa Town teams: play

After a few last minute dropouts due to frosty conditions, an eventual turnout of 12 tables competed at the Matamata 5A Open in the weekend. The field was a mix of veteran locals and enthusiastic intermediates who mixed it with some of the best in the region which included NZ representatives and NZ's newest Grandmaster in Yuzhong Chen.

The director was Rona Driscoll and she wisely decided against going for three sessions opting for a 28 board Mitchell in the morning and splitting the field into two Howell sections playing 33 boards in the afternoon.

Top of the billing at the lunch break was Yuzhong Chen and Herman Yuan who sat East West and Kate McFadyen and Gwynn Lobb who took NS honours.

The afternoon's play had Karen Harris and Ian Clayton top of Section A howell and locals Lesley Quilty and Heather Kneebone taking honours at the other side of the room.

Once weightings had been added to take into account the differing number of boards played in each session; the overall victors were Karen Harris and Ian Clayton from Hamilton, Christine and Jenna Gibbons came in second and the best locals Heather Kneebone and Lesley Quilty finished in third place.

Apologies for the lack of photo's of the day and those who finished on the podium ... The lure of the roast dinner and a glass of wine at the RSA following play took precedence over the need to record events for prosperity!

Results available via the results tab: http://www.piako.bridge-club.org/resultmam