Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

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

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.

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.

We are lucky to have Gold Grandmaster and NZ Bridge Develoment Manager, Richard Solomon coming to Te Aroha club to take us through a Junior Mastercass.

Richard promises that it will be a mix of instruction and play designed to interest and stretch our junior level players.

Richard Solomon

Proposed topics will include:

How to use the double? both takeout and penalty.
Opening leads
Signalling to your partner
Planning the play of the hand

Please enter under the Te Aroha programme tab so we have an idea of numbers for catering and play purposes. NUMBERS LIMITED!!

Junior level bridge players welcome - cost for non Te Aroha members is $5 and Te Aroha will provide supper.

Date: Friday 16th September from 7-10pm

Judith Howard is the winner of one of Wednesday’s most coveted trophies. The Individual trophy is held over many weeks and requires seven different partners with the best six best scores to count.
Judith Howard

Judith’s average score was 60.33 which is most commendable as the competition is played without handicaps and four of her counting scores were played with Junior ranked players. Judith commented that being this year’s tutor for new players has helped her own bridge as the revision on her bidding has been most beneficial. Well done Judith.

The runner-up was last year’s winner Ann Ring who averaged 59.11

*stop press ... looks like I linked the hand record from session 1 to session 2 - so it doesn't make sense. Sorry about that - I knew I shouldn't have had that wine. I can't fix it from home but be assured you all played the right boards.

It was great to see many of the big guns from Auckland travel to Matamata for our 5A Tournament today. It turned out to be a great day to play bridge - pretty average weather and Matamata turned on a great lunch and hospitality to keep the 12 tables happy. Rona Driscoll our director kept the room humming with a 12 table mitchell in the morning followed by 2 x 6 table howells in the arvo playing the requisite 61 boards over the day.

Grant and Patrick

And indeed the big guns came to the fore after both sessions with Grant Jarvis and Patrick Carter winning with several percentage points to spare.

Second place at Matamata: Ken and Mike

Second place getters was our new newest Matamata member Ken Yule who teamed up with Mike Curry (I cropped out Mike's shorts as it was making feel far too cold).

Third Place: Ian and Karen

Third place were last year's winners Ian Clayton and Karen Harris who had a good afternoon:)

4th place

Liz and Blair came in 4th.

Best non open

Best non -open pair was Thea Waayenburg and Malcolm Kirkby from Matamata/Te Aroha - a great performance for a Junior pairing.

The best of the Matamata pairs were Anna Kalma and mum Hermanna Hemmes who also won the morning session prize.

Congratulations to Putaruru who successfully won the Waihou Challenge Shield on Sunday afternoon. Helen Doherty and Elaine Saywell were the top scorers for Matamata and also recorded the highest score overall but the rest of the Matamata team could not match their skill. The Putaruru team played consistently and totalled 421 points while Matamata ‘s total was just 378.

Ross Provan organised and directed a system of match –play where half the team played North/South and the other half played East West and every pair played all the pairs in the opposing team. The scheme worked well and was most enjoyable. The day concluded with a lovely afternoon tea.

The latest newsletter is available by clicking here.

It includes information regarding our upcoming Benefit night, Championships and Waihou Shield event against Putaruru as well as what has been happening in the club recently.

The Spa Teams were held on a very frosty day in Te Aroha.

18 open team and 10 intermediate teams turned up to contest the tournament.

The winning Open team (and only team with 5/5 wins) were Aucklanders Tom Jacob, Steph Jacob, Viv Cornell and Andi Boughey. It was particularly memorable for Andi who collected the A points required to gain Grand Master status - a phenomenal achievement for her at just 22 years old.

Spa Town Open Teams winners: Winning team from L-R Tom Jacob, Vivien Cornell, Steph Jacob and Andi Boughey

The intermediate section was won by the Bay team of Gilda Rowland, Tina Dudley, Muriel Cruickshank and Carol Cullen.

Intermediate Spa Town Teams winners: Intermediate winners from L-R Tina Dudley, Carol Cullen, Muriel Cruickshank and Gilda Rowland

The day went relatively smoothly thanks largely to the directing of Norm Silcock and scoring maestro Jan Spaans. Also thanks to the many helpers of the Te Aroha Bridge Club, Matamata club for lending so much stuff required to hold the tournament off site and clubs who came to the rescue to put a team in to assist with team numbers.

Whilst the past few years we have had torrential rain to deal with, this year the old St Joes Hall was struggling to warm up after -2 degree frost in Te Aroha but at least the sun was shining ... or so we thought until some of the South/East players were hit with a bout of sun strike in the afternoon. There was some novel ways to overcome this including the 'napkin tucked into the glasses' method from Barry Jones...

Barry

With only two heats remaining, Lesley and Sonia have recaptured the lead on the WAP ladder after a sensational win (thanks to a blinding afternoon session) on a rainy day in Te Aroha over the weekend.

Lesley and Sonia: Lesley and Sonia

Thirty-one pairs turned up and played a couple of 26-board Webb movements under the direction of Dallas Dagg.

Another notable performance saw Malcolm Kirkby and Peter Daffurn finish as our top non-Open pair after a third in the morning session . Many congratulations to them on an outstanding achievement.

Malcolm and Peter: Malcolm and Peter