Recent Competition Winners and what's happening in December
Two major competitions concluded this week at the Matamata Bridge Club.
The Dora Hammond Tray which is a handicap competition held over 7 weeks and played with all different partners concluded on Wednesday. Beth Vosper outplayed a big field of enthusiasts with an average score of 57.29. Elaine Saywell was the runner up. The Thursday night Handicap Championships has been keenly contested and our Secretary Joan Darby-Smith and Stella Macilquham managed to stave off all the challenges to win by a small margin from Judith Howard and Ross McIntrye. Joan & Stella recorded 407.47 points over the seven sessions with an average of 58.21%. Ross and Judith pulled out all stops on the final night to win that round with 64.77 % but could not catch the leaders and finally recorded 57.07%. Michele Smith and Jill Ireland were third.
End of year Program
Monday Night Nov. 28th Final night of Championships. Committee Shout.
Wednesday Nov. 30th. Round 1 of Christmas two day match. BYO Lunch as usual.
Thursday Dec 1st Final Night-Christmas Celebration.
A small plate for shared supper. 1 Plate per pair. No table money . $50 Raffle.
Wear an outrageous tie or gaudy beads & ear rings. This applies to men or women.
Christmas spirit to be available. Prizes both handicap and gross.
Wednesday Dec 7th. Picnic Bridge Christmas Party. Red Letter Day. Wear something red. Christmas spirit to be available.
No table money, but optional 5.00 gift. Prize Giving for Wednesday competitions. A plate for shared lunch. Prizes both handicap and gross.
Thursday 8th December at 7.30pm.
Your Bridge Club’s A.G.M. and Prize Giving.
Be there to support your club.
New Friday session at Te Aroha now next year
Friday bridge sessions will resume next year ... too many people unavailable in the run up to Christmas/New Year.
Will advise in the New Year when Tuesday evening holiday bridge and Friday day bridge resumes.
Congratulations Jacob
Well done Jacob Kalma; named as non travelling reserve in the NZ Youth Team to play Australia in January 2017 along with his Auckland playing partner Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin.
Jacob
Recent tournament success
Well done to our our newest Matamata members; Kathy and Ken Yule who combined with Michael Ware and David Skipper to take out the 10A teams event at the Hamilton congress in the weekend against a strong field.
Kathy and Ken's Team
In other events at Congress, Sonia and Lesley finished up in the top third of the field of the Swiss Pairs on the Monday coming in 9th out of 30. However, other Piako members failed to fire!
Gilligan-Barclay Trophy decided
Last night was the final night of the four week competition between the Te Aroha and Thames clubs vying for the Gillgan Barclay Trophy.
Jena and Joe: Jena Robinson and Joe Silcock receive the Gilligan Barclay Trophy from Carol Crowfoot - Thames President
This year it was won by Jena Robinson and Joe Silcock who averaged 62% over the four nights with Tim Rigter and Anna Kalma from Te Aroha coming second.
It is a great event with each club vying to out compete each other with food and wine (think it was a tie this year!). Great to see full rooms at both venues and if the rumour of Waihi joining us next year is correct - we hope that the event will get bigger and better in 2017.
Full room at Te Aroha
October Newsletter
Click on the link below for the latest Matamata Bridge Club newsletter. Includes information on the latest tournament, new members to the club, stayman and transfer lessons as well as the programme for the much anticipated Melbourne Cup Day ...
Matamata Intermediate Tournament
And .... they're off.
Looks like Bathurst didn't put off bridge players coming to Matamata to play in the Intermediate Tournament in the weekend.
A full room of 18 tables turned up. Up for grabs is not only kudos of winning the 5B tournament but also the Intermediate League is still anybody's with just one tournament to go in the event ... and for everybody else there is the lunch and atmosphere to look forward to.
Winners Matamata Intermediate
Well done Pamela Pederson and Bren Birrs from Mt Maunganui after two strong sessions.
Mark and Jeffrey
Second place Jeffrey Chang and Mark Thomson from Hamilton retained top spot on the Intermediate League ladder with one round left to play.
Catherine and Joyce
Catherine Ward and Joyce Reid of Rotorua were in third place.
Graham and John
Graham Saunders and John Little from Waikato 4th.
Cathy Nolen and Karen Thomson
Cathy Nolen and Karen Thomson from Hamilton 5th.
Susan and Ross
Top Juniors Ross and Susan Provan from Putaruru.
Joanne and Judith
Best of the Matamata mob; Joanne Swanwick and Judith Howard who ended up 7th.
Topping the field after session one were Joyce Reid and Catherine Ward from Rotorua with an impressive 68% who were just ahead of Graham Saunders and John Little from Waikato club who were sitting in the same North South direction. Topping East West were Mt Maunganui's Bren Birrs and Pamela Pederson with 64% with Hamilton pair Mark Thompson and Jeffrey Chang coming into second place.
A review of the hand records showed that there wasn't a lot to get excited about in session 1 ... unless you enjoy playing and defending part contracts ... although for East West pairs there was however a bit of excitement which came in the form of a biddable grand slam on board 9; Well done to the three pairs who bid and made 7 diamonds.
Board 9 from the morning session DLR N VUL E-W:
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T86
J4
98
KQJ632
Full room at the Matamata Intermediate
Lynette Morgan Directs
In the afternoon session there seemed to be a lot more games on offer in both directions - although there was one board that was proving to be problematic for some;
Board 4 from the afternoon session DLR W VUL both:
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South sitting there with 19 points and both majors covered must've been pretty confident in finding game somewhere when they picked up their hand ... whilst East with 15 points but only 5 losers would also be bidding competitively. It turned out to be a lucrative board for many E/W pairs who were doubled in a part score clubs or diamonds.
Saxon Teams
Tonight was the final of the Saxon Teams at Te Aroha - it is now a highlight in the Te Aroha Bridge Programme and it is especially poignant as we pay tribute to Greg Saxon who died close on a year ago.
Again we enjoyed a full room of 10 tables over the three week competition - not bad for a club with only 34 home members - although we have all our supporting clubs to thanks for boosting the numbers (the Christmas Party invitation will be forthcoming!!)
The competition was running in parallel to the Bridge World Championships in Poland so we were all given a participating country to adopt and national emotions were running hot on the final night...
Italy
In the end the successful team was Italy - well done Victor Kooter, Charlotte Jager, Stephen Lovelock and Shirley Townsend!
Japan
Runners up were Japan...
Netherlands
Best dressed was the Netherlands
Laurie the Pole,in the spirit of things
Special mentions went to Laurie for getting into the spirit of things (at least two bottles of Polish Vodka was distributed over the evening!) Ari Rigter impressed with his full Chinese garb and Dutch team looked the part (not so unusual since they are all Dutch!)
Pope (aka Adri Rigter) blesses the cards
Switzerland: Early favourites Switzerland failed to fire but had a lot of fun.
France: Top qualifiers France couldn't live up to the pre tournament hype
China: The Chinese finished bottom of their qualifying group and Ari Rigter was given special mention for his get up:)
Russians: The Russians spent most of the tournament competing directly with the Poles... same food, same vodka ... but much better furry hats
Australia: Australia didn't disappoint - they lived up to their billing ... great food. nice legs and some bonza bridge
Spain: They looked harmless enough - but gee the Spainish team was stacked with experience who had travelled from across the great divide (ie other side of Waharoa) to deal a whupping to many of us unsuspecting Te Aroha members. As they bought wine - we will welcome them back...
Our Polish president Tim versaus the Italian Charlotte
France: This is a much better picture of France but still missing Mme Rochelle
Richard's one night stand ... in Te Aroha
The night Richard Solomon came to town turned out to be very popular ... so popular that even after squeezing in the maximum number of bodies into the Te Aroha bridge club main room (turns out that 50 is pretty close to maximum) we still had to turn away dozens of keen juniors.
While we had a good number of locals, we also welcomed juniors from Taupo, Tokoroa, Thames, Cambridge, Hamilton, Matamata, Morrinsville and Waihi.
Richard definitely challenged those there - Doubles - specifically penalty, take out and reopening doubles was the first topic. When to double, what to bid after a double, and when to leave the double in for penalties also on the agenda.
Richard at night's end: The author neglected to get a photo of Richard in full flight in front of a packed and rapt audience ... instead here he is at the end of the night probably looking forward to getting home!
This followed by opening leads where Richard also had some people questioning their long held beliefs - I thought you always led your partners suit said some! Exceptions for everything ... and sometimes it is fine to lead your Ace which is a whole lot better than underleading it in a suit contract. And don't lead trumps ... just because you don't know what else to do.
After supper we had a discussion on planning the hand ... don't rush into the play and take your time to look at losers when the dummy goes down. Richard also talked a bit about signalling and discards to your partner - an important aspect of the game as juniors get more experience. Then we put into practice some of what he had been preaching by ending the night playing some boards.
"Stimulating but exhausting" was how one participant described her night. Definitely challenging and informative for those there who are already looking forward to a repeat performance next year.
CONGRATULATIONS TO LYNN AND DIANN
Winners Mini Moos 2
Two of Matamata's newest players took top spot in the second of the Mini Moos series today in Cambridge. Blitzing the field and scoring 91 IMPs they finished winners with 3 IMPs to spare. Well played also to Hanna Frischknecht and Margrit Fullemann from Te Aroha who on 81 IMPs were very close to a podium finish. Ross McIntyre put in a creditable performance with scratch partner from Morrinsville Russell.