Lawrence Teaz passing

We are sad to report the passing of Lawrence Teaz - past president of the Matamata Bridge club in 2015/2016. He died on Saturday in Tauranga at the age of 77 years.

Lawrence

Lawrence was brought up in Ngarua on his parents farm where he followed them into farming - often earning the title of best producing Jersey cow in his heyday as a dairy farmer (there was some debate about whether Jersey or Ayreshire but Laurie is adamant it was Jersey!). Either way they were pedigree and top cows!

He later went on to work for Mike Moroney the horse trainer and bridge players remember Lawrence bringing a Melbourne Cup into the bridge club for everybody to admire (chances being it was the 2000 MElbourne Cup that was won by Brew that year). Most years he was unavailable to play bridge during the early part of November instead enjoying time in the spring racing carnival in Melbourne.

Another place he frequented was USA - he had a grandson there and he had developed an unlikely friendship with a KJ Choi - a worldclass Korean Golfer who was living in the US! Lawrence reckoned they hooked up after he arranged a case of NZ wine to be sent to KJ following a win and him mentioned he liked Sauvignon Blanc in the interview!

While he took up bowls in later life - I hope to think Bridge was his second preferred sport (to Racing). He was responsible for getting filtered water on tap into the bridge club during his tenure as well as being the king at sandwiches! Some say his first love however was gardening - he looked after the roses at Mike Moroneys as well as the bridge club gardens.

He was also great at bringing in sponsorship seemingly he knew
everybody in town!

Lawrence: Lawrence (left) in dress up mode with some of the other Matamata
committee

Best thing about Lawrence was his humour and easy going nature...

Bridge players - let me know if you have any other memories of Lawrence and we can add them to this page.

Go well Lawrence.