Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

Congratulations to our very own ANNA KALMA. In the quarterly Baden Wilson list just published Anna features as the joint 4th highest female Club Master in the entire country.

Anna
Well done Anna!

Matamata Club will be hosting a fundraiser for the New Zealand Youth Team on Friday 9th May at 7.30pm. It should be a fun night and the opportunity to score across the rest of New Zealand with a rare chance to win A points at club level.

The event will be a simultaneous scoring event (bit like NZ wide Babich Pairs) with the hands being duplicated across the country and scored across the nationwide field at which point

Masterpoints will be awarded as follows:

 Winners at Club Level 1 A Point

 Winners at Regional Level A Points for the top 5 pairs (5,4,3,2,1)

An entry fee of $10.00 per player is payable to NZ Bridge.

Further details about the event is attached. Grab a partner and sign up on the sheet at the clubrooms or register via anna_kalma@hotmail.com (ph 07 8873 686)

Thames hosted Te Aroha in the second session of the interclub. Another great night of bridge across 9 full tables. Again the honours were split across Te Aroha and Thames with Hermanna Hemmes and Joan Darby Smith taking the North by storm with 61.57% marginally more than Jena Robinson & John Peppiatt who won East with 61.37%.

After two nights, the leaders are Jena and John, followed by Leonie Sentch and Pam Buchanan (Thames) and in third place Tim Rigter & Anna Kalma (Te Aroha).

The night will be remembered for good fare, friendly atmosphere and board 21...A rare opportunity to bid and play a 7NT hand. Congrats to Denise and Allan Barclay and Joan Flynn & Sabrina Peters who did just that!

Looking forward to the series decider later in the year.

Lessons begin on Tuesday 29 April. Jane Stearns is tutoring them and needs students to teach! The Matamata Bridge Club needs an injection of new members and Jane is appealing to every member of the Matamata Club to bring one new member to her lessons. A list is now present in the clubrooms for everyone to sign up their student that they are bringing to lessons, together with their phone number so Jane can contact them in advance of lessons. Please sign up a new member today. If you have been remiss in not teaching your children to play bridge ... now is the time for emotional blackmail to correct this! Lessons will be on Tuesdays 7pm to 9pm. Jane will need some helpers at lessons. If you would be willing to assist by giving an hour of your time please let Jane know by emailing her: janelawrence50@hotmail.com

A workshop for directors, a new NZCBA board and some great new initiatives from the Waikato Bays team ...

Read all about it in the latest edition of the New Zealand e-Newsletter which is available by clicking here

You can subscribe to the the monthly newsletter by registering your details at the New Zealand Contract Bridge website

Round 3 of the Waikato Area Pairs was hosted by Waikato on Sunday 13 April.

Read Ed's summary of the day's session here

A highlight for Te Aroha was Anna Kalma and Jacob Kalma bidding and making two Grand Slams, one of only three pairs out of 36 to do so, and showed good courage by a junior/junior pairing.

Click on the WAP 2014 item in our Results menu for the day's full detail.

CONGRATULATIONS also to Te Aroha's Tim Rigter (Int) and Ross Stewart finishing 6th overall at the Waihi Open tournament on Saturday. Showing consistency they scored 56% in each session to reach their position out of 38 pairs. Last year's winners, Matamata's Ian Bond and Lynette Morgan finished 4th, continuing to fly the flag for their club with outstanding and consistent results around the region.

Bridge lessons are drawing closer. The 10 week set of lessons start on Wednesday 19th March at 7pm.

Lessons

Venue is the Te Aroha Bridge Club on Whitaker Street (next to Countdown and opposite the Information Office).

To register your interest please contact Anna Kalma on 8873 686 or 0275 183 133 or tearohabridge@gmail.com.

MindSports 2014

The New Zealand Festival of Mind Sports opened on Friday 28 February and ran through until Sunday 2 March. I was invited by none other than gold grandmaster of bridge, Richard Solomon. He issued one of those invitations that bowls one over … I have looked everywhere for a partner, can’t find one anywhere, are you by any chance free? I arrived in Thames to find any number of games available to try. I met a somewhat harassed Allan Barclay, promoter of the games, at the Thames Bridge Club. He explained he had just earned his first points in the MiniPentamind. These had come through being thrashed by an Olympian draughts player three times. Allan ventured, “I thought I was going quite well, then my entire middle section was wiped out.” He was clearly still recovering from the experience but delighted to have earned 3 pts from his first event. I nervously perused the programme hoping Richard would only want to play bridge. What 5 events would I be able to undertake without complete shame and embarrassment? “Can you play chess?” I enquired of Richard. To my relief he looked suitably horrified at the idea – “Barely. As a child.” I confessed I might also know how to move the pieces (although castling still remains a mystery). Scrabble - not keen to show my ignorance of Outer Mongolian goat breeds that provides the 200 point out with your Z on a Triple letter word. Suspect they don’t play Mucky Scrabble with an extra 10 points for each word with a sexual connotation. So had better look for something else. I looked down the list for anything I might reasonably make up my Pentamind with. (A sort of brain Pentathlon) So much on offer! Mahjong – now there’s a mystery. Often thought I might take that up when feeling particularly blue at my efforts at the bridge table. War Games, apparently historical or fantasy, but hadn’t come prepared with figurines. Dungeons & Dragons (never got into that and don’t the games last a week?) and Magic: The Gathering (no idea – must investigate further, can probably dress up as a witch if needs be). The Festival was hosting NZ’s first Sudoku Championship on Sunday. Wonder if they give you the Easy ones? Probably not. Backgammon – now you are talking. I’m lucky at throwing 6s, count me in! Blackjack – watch me go bust and lose all my chips in a record time. Snooker – too high risk, don’t want to ruin a good piece of baize. Pub Quiz Night – excellent – any amount of useless knowledge stored up there. Recall time may not quite match the time allowed to answer the question but I’m up for that. Then I saw them … Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. Excellent! If only Tiddlywinks was there too. I had found my level. Sadly I noticed it was only for children. Perhaps I should try a new game, there was one called Squabbles to do with crosswords. Might have to look into that. So instead I played to my strength, saw there was a prize for best hat, and immediately stole my husband’s newly acquired boater from the Art Deco weekend, adorned them and plonked one on Richard’s head. When I first knew Richard he was quite conservative about these things. Having now dressed him up in ridiculous costumes for the sake of bridge I find him much more docile and he adopts a, “It’s Jane, she’s brought a funny hat for me to wear, it’s pointless to argue, I’ll go with the flow” attitude. And he looked rather dapper I thought, as you can see from our photo. Hats off to Allan Barclay though, the Mastermind behind the whole event. Convincing the Council to invest and as ever his bonhomie setting the right mood for everyone involved. Allan’s hope is that the event will grow over the years and from the fun Richard and I had I’m certainly up for a weekend away next year to give it a try. Mark it in your diaries and hope to see you there!

bridge lessons: Te Aroha kicks off their expensive promotional campaign

As you can see by the image, there are no expenses spared with the bid to attract new players to the Te Aroha lessons kicking off on Wednesday 19th March.

We count on existing members to be the cheerleaders for Bridge and challenge every club member to sign up at least one person each for lessons!

Same is true for Matamata club members ... The Matamata lessons start on Tuesday 29th April (7-9pm) and will also run for 10 weeks. Matamata have the services of Bridge Babe, Jane Stearns, as their tutor this year!

Contact:

tearohabridge@gmail.com for information about lessons at Te Aroha

matamatabridge@gmail.com for information about lessons at Matamata

Each year a series of 6 tournaments, called the Waikato Area Pairs takes place around the region.
The are some great things about these tournaments:
a) They are "walk-in" so no pre-registration is needed;
b) It is only $10 a person to enter;
c) It is competitive, but not too intense - so for those who have played some lower grade tournaments, this is a great way to introduce yourself to the next level;
d) You can earn A points - just by winning a session and/or a day. Many junior and intermediate grade players have earned their first A points playing in one of these;
e) You can play as few or as many of the events as you like;
f) There is a prize for best non-Open pair at each round and overall prizes for best Open-Intermediate, Open-Junior, and non-Open (You have to play in 5 of the 6 rounds to be eligible for overall prizes).

Play begins at 10am and usually 52 to 56 boards are played so it finishes around 4:45. The schedule for this year is:

Sunday 16 February at Matamata;
Sunday 16 March at Cambridge;
Sunday 13 April at Waikato;
Sunday 25 May at Te Aroha;
Sunday 6 July at Morrinsville;
Sunday 3 August at Hamilton.

This event has really grown over the last few years and it would be great to see some Te Aroha players take part and come along to support Matamata in the first round. It is an enjoyable day and you might come home with a prize!
The full rules of the competition can be found in the WAP tab at the top of the page.