Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

The recently held Joanne Prevett Teams event was held in Matamata and the winners were team Bond; Ian Bond, Lynette Morgan, Zelda Clements and Sonia Crawford.

Joanne Prevette Teams: The Bond team hold their cup aloft

While the Bond team were the number one seed, they had to overcome a hefty handicap to eventually snatch the win in their last match over the second place team consisting of George Sherrel; Laurie Belfield, Peter Daffurn and Malcolm Kirkby.

The Matamata Club hosts a double whammy on the weekend of April 30th and May 1st.

The Matamata Junior Tournament occurs on Saturday 30th April and is part of the Waikato Bays Junior League.

On the Sunday, we are privileged to have Gold Grandmaster, Barry Jones, come along to facilitate one of his very popular Jones Day Out. This is a day of interactive learning and an opportune time to brush up on your bridge skills. The day costs just $5 and this years' topic is Hand Evaluation: When to upgrade or downgrade your hand.

Please support these local events. Register for the Junior Tournament on this page (under Tournaments) and the Jones Day Out via the Waikato bays website: www.waikatobays.bridge-club.org.

After winning the first event of the year, Sonia and Lesley will be mixing it up on Sunday wanting to put some clear space between them and the rest of the contenders.

Lesley and Sonia: Lesley and Sonia

There should be a good showing of Matamata and Te Aroha pairs at the second WAP at the Waikato Clubrooms on Sunday. Remember that it is just $10 to enter and you don't need to pre-enter. Just turn up on the day (with your partner and lunchbox)by at least 9.45am in order to confirm a table.

Lesley Quilty and Sonia Crawford teamed up with partners Tom Winiata and Tom Henwood to feature on the leaderboard at last weekend's 10A Teams event in Tauranga.

After 6 rounds, they were 3rd out of 32 teams which featured all the best playing combinations in the North Island (if not the country). Unfortunately an appeal at close of play on Sunday saw their team penalized 3 IMPS which saw them finish pool play in 5th place. Meaning they competed for the plate prize on the Monday. Another superb few sets saw their team take 2nd place in the plate (or 6th overall).

A great result in difficult company. It was also refreshing to see that although Sonia had played something approaching 150 boards of bridge over Sunday and Monday, she still managed to turn up to Monday night bridge in Matamata!

Apologies to Lesley - she also made it to bridge on Monday night!

Our Patron Sadie Swap celebrated her 102nd birthday last Friday the 29th January. Sadie received many visitors during the day and Jan was among the many well -wishers wishing her a very happy birthday behalf of the members of the bridge club. A family dinner on Friday evening rounded off the special day.

Sadie hits 102: Sadie celebrates her 102nd birthday

Fifteen pairs ventured to Matamata from as far afield as Whakatane in the East, Taupo from the South, Te Aroha from the North and Hamilton from the West. Congratulations to Tim Torr and Suzanne Lugton from Tauranga that took the overall title.

Novice tournament: Winners Suzanne and Tim

The first session saw some exceptional scores with top North South pair Charlotte Jager and Mark Kooter putting in a convincing performance to lead at the lunch break with an outstanding 72% over the top East West duo Tim Torr and Suzanne Lugton from Tauranga who scored a solid 59%.

Novice 2nd place: Charlotte and Mark

The second the roles were reversed with Tim and Suzanne achieving a 71% score and taking the overall title with Mark and Charlotte from Te Aroha second and Karen Harper and Carissa Oliver third..

Some very good bidding by two pairs in session 1- saw them receive a chocolate egg in the first session - Karen Harper and Carissa Oliver and Robyn Gee and Linda Fawcett who both had a strong morning to finish with 62% and 60% respectively. Both of these pairs managed to bid 6 spades on the following board.

Board 11 from the morning session DLR S VUL none:

	98 J96 A985 T876
654 T732 T43 AQ5		T2 Q854 2 KJ9432
	AKQJ73 AK KQJ76

Novice Tournament in Matamata: novice at Matamata

Novice Tournament: novice at Matamata

Jacob and Greg

Jacob started the year off well with a good win at the Thames Festival in the multigrade 8B pairs. Jacob played with Thames local Greg Davenport and despite them never playing together won after having a stellar first session score of 64%. Not so good in the afternoon but they scored enough to hold onto first place.

Charlotte Jager and her partner Anne Leighton also had a strong morning to score 62% in the first session to claim a session prize.

Congratulations to the Te Aroha and Matamata players who feature in the Baden Wilson end of year list. The cumulative Masterpoints of each player registered with NZB is calculated quarterly with the final postings for the year published today.

Anna Kalma finished the 4th ranked female Local Master. This is the hardest list to feature on, as more players in NZ are Local Master than any other rank.

Austin Brown is the joint 2nd ranked male Novice in NZ.

Congratulations to them both.

Hermanna is organising her annual New Years Eve Bridge Party at the Matamata Bridge Club starting at 7.30pm on Thursday 31 December.

Entry is open to anybody ... you don't need a partner but please contact her on 07 8873 781 to confirm your entry. We need to know who is coming to ensure the right amount of tables...

The agenda is friendly bridge, some celebratory drinks and supper to hopefully see in the New Years.

Otherwise Holiday Bridge kicks off on Wednesday 6th January at 10.30am

10 beginners'lessons are now available on YouTube. Holidays are an ideal time to revisit your studies and repeat the theory from lessons on a laptop or mobile phone at the beach. Those newer to the game or wanting a refresher on basic ACOL click here for more details.