Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

Morrinsville is hosting a Cream of the Country Bridge Tournment open to all grade (including novice)this Sunday 27th July.

It is only an afternoon and the $6 entry fee includes afternoon tea. Grab a partner and head along for an afternoon of fun bridge.

Venue Morrinsville Bowling Clubrooms (corner Thames (SH26) and Waverley)

Entry $6 per player

Start time 1pm (30 boards played so finish about 4:30 to 5)

Afternoon tea provided at the end

Entries to Nick Whitten at 07 889 7831 or morrbridge@xtra.co.nz

Michele and Austin

The first Mini Moos tournament took place on Sunday. Hosted by the Cambridge Bridge Club 19 beginners from around the Waikato took part in a relaxed afternoon of bridge. The full story is in the Moos Noosletter attached to this article. The big news was Michele and Austin, with Austin never having played a game of bridge yet at the club .... came third. Well done also to Maeleen who bravely took part but had me as her partner diving off to do admin and losing concentration. Maeleen however played very well and made one particularly hard 3NT contract. Well done to all of the Matamata beginners taking part!

Tutor Jane Stearns

I will be bringing along 19 students from lessons (16 new students and 3 returnees) to the Matamata Bridge Club for their first taste of club bridge on Thursday 24 July. I hope that as many members of the club as possible, whether they be regular Thursday players or not, will turn out to greet them.

The evening will start with wine and nibbles and a short graduation ceremony for the 16 new members of the club. Please come along to support them on their special night.

The major Wednesday handicap competition has been won by Mavis Buchanan and Sherryn Wright.

Mavis and Sherryn

They played all 7 rounds and their best six rounds averaged 59.51.Congratulations Mavis & Sherryn.

The Runner up pair were Jim Anelay and Anne Beetham averaging 56.29

Congratulations to Team Carter (Patrick Carter, Julie Atkinson, Jenny Millington & Barry Jones) who triumphed today in the Spa Town Teams over last years winners Team Jacob (Tom & Steph Jacob and Barry & Glennis Palmer) in second and team Glass (Brett Glass, Gary Foidle, Ian and Cynthia Clayton) in third .

Okay the link to Te Aroha is tenuous at best (Barry Jones was Te Aroha president some years ago).

The winners in the inaugural Intermediate Section were the Tauranga Team YOUNG (Malcolm Christie, Graham Young, Ruth Pepper & Mary Toner).

Unfortunately I failed to take any photos today in the rush to get everybody home in this inclement weather ...

Thanks everybody for taking part. Great work from the Director and Scoring Duo - Dallas Dagg & Jan Spaans. Thanks Matamata for letting us steal a lot of paraphernalia from your bridge club as well as the Te Aroha team for pulling it together.

Hope to see you all next year.

Anna once again features on the quarterly Baden Wilson list. THIRD highest female Club Master in the whole of New Zealand - congratulations Anna!

Some last minute shuffling of teams means we are expecting 30 full teams in Saturday's Spa Town teams (22 in the Open Section and 8 in the intermediate). Rest assured the roof is still on St Joseph's Hall and the wind has abated in Te Aroha.

Remember: the latest entries can be viewed on the Programme Tab on this website only (the WBBC website does not have the latest entries).

Team Jacob (Tom & Steph Jacob and Barry & Glennis Palmer) are back to defend their title along with all of the other top finishers from 2013 including Team Moore (Ian and Pam Moore, Sue Sterrenberg & Ian Southen)and Team Jarvis .. albeit sporting a somewhat different team in 2014.

There was an early prize draw for a night for two at the Te Aroha Landing Motel for all those teams who registered early. Congratulations to team Roggeveen from Te Awamutu who won this (Ed & Heather Roggeveen, Linda Sloan & Terry Morrison). Here's hoping a good night sleep for at least half their team will mean they arrive refreshed for a day of 60 boards.

Play starts at 9.30am on Saturday 12th July.

The new venue is at St Joe's Hall (next to the Catholic Church) on Te Aroha's main street.

Click here for the link to google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/eCV4X

Please contact Anna Kalma for further information or entry information. Contacts details are 0275 183 133 or anna_kalma@hotmail.com.

Lynette and Ian
Congratulations to Matamata's very own IAN and LYNETTE who turned in two very good sessions at the fifth round of the WAP series today in Morrinsville. They won the heat today and are now running 2nd overall with just one heat to play. The final round is in Hamilton on 3 August. Hopefully a large contingent from both Matamata and Te Aroha will attend to play that day and try to cheer their champions home.
Click on the WAP 2014 to the left of the home page for the full details, full results and running places.

Congratulations to the Te Aroha Junior team who came a very creditable third in their Interclub Teams competition on Saturday.
Anna and Jacob, combined with Guy and Victor took out some of the big name clubs in the region to finish 3rd out of 8 junior teams participating. Well played!

A (belated) congratulations to winning the Joanne Prevett Handicap Teams event to the "newbies" team of Jill Ireland,Sue Bruce, Michelle Smith & Bronwyn Milne. They are pictured below with the Team sponsor Joanne Prevett of the eponymously named travel shop in Matamata.

Newbies Team- winner of the 2014 Joanne Prevette Teams

The newbies team employed a number of tactics to surprise everybody to take away the title on the final night ... Perhaps a key to their result was having an average +10 handicap and getting Grandmaster Lesley Quilty as their super sub on the first night (although this dampened down their handicap for the first three rounds). However they did win 3 out of their 9 matches on scratch and had narrow losses with another three matches. Therefore they played far better than their expected handicap against some much more experienced opposition.

On pure scratch results, the clear winners were "Girls and A Guy" - Lynette Morgan, Ian Bond, Zelda Clements & Sonia Crawford who had 8 wins from 9.