Blogs

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

Round 3 of the Waikato Area Pairs was hosted by Waikato on Sunday 13 April.

Read Ed's summary of the day's session here

A highlight for Te Aroha was Anna Kalma and Jacob Kalma bidding and making two Grand Slams, one of only three pairs out of 36 to do so, and showed good courage by a junior/junior pairing.

Click on the WAP 2014 item in our Results menu for the day's full detail.

CONGRATULATIONS also to Te Aroha's Tim Rigter (Int) and Ross Stewart finishing 6th overall at the Waihi Open tournament on Saturday. Showing consistency they scored 56% in each session to reach their position out of 38 pairs. Last year's winners, Matamata's Ian Bond and Lynette Morgan finished 4th, continuing to fly the flag for their club with outstanding and consistent results around the region.

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.

MindSports 2014

The New Zealand Festival of Mind Sports opened on Friday 28 February and ran through until Sunday 2 March. I was invited by none other than gold grandmaster of bridge, Richard Solomon. He issued one of those invitations that bowls one over … I have looked everywhere for a partner, can’t find one anywhere, are you by any chance free? I arrived in Thames to find any number of games available to try. I met a somewhat harassed Allan Barclay, promoter of the games, at the Thames Bridge Club. He explained he had just earned his first points in the MiniPentamind. These had come through being thrashed by an Olympian draughts player three times. Allan ventured, “I thought I was going quite well, then my entire middle section was wiped out.” He was clearly still recovering from the experience but delighted to have earned 3 pts from his first event. I nervously perused the programme hoping Richard would only want to play bridge. What 5 events would I be able to undertake without complete shame and embarrassment? “Can you play chess?” I enquired of Richard. To my relief he looked suitably horrified at the idea – “Barely. As a child.” I confessed I might also know how to move the pieces (although castling still remains a mystery). Scrabble - not keen to show my ignorance of Outer Mongolian goat breeds that provides the 200 point out with your Z on a Triple letter word. Suspect they don’t play Mucky Scrabble with an extra 10 points for each word with a sexual connotation. So had better look for something else. I looked down the list for anything I might reasonably make up my Pentamind with. (A sort of brain Pentathlon) So much on offer! Mahjong – now there’s a mystery. Often thought I might take that up when feeling particularly blue at my efforts at the bridge table. War Games, apparently historical or fantasy, but hadn’t come prepared with figurines. Dungeons & Dragons (never got into that and don’t the games last a week?) and Magic: The Gathering (no idea – must investigate further, can probably dress up as a witch if needs be). The Festival was hosting NZ’s first Sudoku Championship on Sunday. Wonder if they give you the Easy ones? Probably not. Backgammon – now you are talking. I’m lucky at throwing 6s, count me in! Blackjack – watch me go bust and lose all my chips in a record time. Snooker – too high risk, don’t want to ruin a good piece of baize. Pub Quiz Night – excellent – any amount of useless knowledge stored up there. Recall time may not quite match the time allowed to answer the question but I’m up for that. Then I saw them … Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. Excellent! If only Tiddlywinks was there too. I had found my level. Sadly I noticed it was only for children. Perhaps I should try a new game, there was one called Squabbles to do with crosswords. Might have to look into that. So instead I played to my strength, saw there was a prize for best hat, and immediately stole my husband’s newly acquired boater from the Art Deco weekend, adorned them and plonked one on Richard’s head. When I first knew Richard he was quite conservative about these things. Having now dressed him up in ridiculous costumes for the sake of bridge I find him much more docile and he adopts a, “It’s Jane, she’s brought a funny hat for me to wear, it’s pointless to argue, I’ll go with the flow” attitude. And he looked rather dapper I thought, as you can see from our photo. Hats off to Allan Barclay though, the Mastermind behind the whole event. Convincing the Council to invest and as ever his bonhomie setting the right mood for everyone involved. Allan’s hope is that the event will grow over the years and from the fun Richard and I had I’m certainly up for a weekend away next year to give it a try. Mark it in your diaries and hope to see you there!

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

Each year a series of 6 tournaments, called the Waikato Area Pairs takes place around the region.
The are some great things about these tournaments:
a) They are "walk-in" so no pre-registration is needed;
b) It is only $10 a person to enter;
c) It is competitive, but not too intense - so for those who have played some lower grade tournaments, this is a great way to introduce yourself to the next level;
d) You can earn A points - just by winning a session and/or a day. Many junior and intermediate grade players have earned their first A points playing in one of these;
e) You can play as few or as many of the events as you like;
f) There is a prize for best non-Open pair at each round and overall prizes for best Open-Intermediate, Open-Junior, and non-Open (You have to play in 5 of the 6 rounds to be eligible for overall prizes).

Play begins at 10am and usually 52 to 56 boards are played so it finishes around 4:45. The schedule for this year is:

Sunday 16 February at Matamata;
Sunday 16 March at Cambridge;
Sunday 13 April at Waikato;
Sunday 25 May at Te Aroha;
Sunday 6 July at Morrinsville;
Sunday 3 August at Hamilton.

This event has really grown over the last few years and it would be great to see some Te Aroha players take part and come along to support Matamata in the first round. It is an enjoyable day and you might come home with a prize!
The full rules of the competition can be found in the WAP tab at the top of the page.

sadies birthday

Matamata Bridge club Patron turned the grand age of 100 this month. What a magnificent achievement and we celebrated with her on a special day of bridge at the Clubrooms on her birthday of Wednesday 29th January.

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