Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

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.

Barry Jones (Gold Grandmaster) returned to his original club of Matamata today to impart some of his cumulative knowledge to intermediate/juniors from the greater Waikato/Bay of Plenty (and ably supported by Karen Martelletti).

It was a day of BIG hands and No Trumps ... The first session looked at slam hands and it quickly became obvious that this was the theme of the day.

Nick Whitten from Morrinsville jokingly suggested making a 'psyche' bid to throw his opponents from getting to game (if not slam). Taking his cue, Barry had a word in Nick's next opponents ear ..."Rochelle - bid 3D regardless of your hand". Rochelle did just that ... Nick sitting on a hand with 20+ points and 6 diamonds in his hand was flummoxed ... what to do next??? Barry came to his rescue - perhaps too quickly but it was worth it to see Nick's reaction!

A "psyche" bid where the opposition bids with minimal points against an opposition who potentially will easily bid and make a game/slam contract was debated by those there... is it fair? is it legal? Legal definitely (although the rules say it can't be done with regularity and the partner of the person who makes the psyche must be equally unaware of their intentions) ... although the fairness was debated ... as with many sacrifice bids there is potential downside as well as upside.

Attached are the main points covered today which include Gameforce responses, Lebensohl and Roman Cue Card Blackwood in further detail ... and remember never ever open 4C!!!

Morrinsville hosted a well attended Open tournament with 19 tables turning out on a beautiful crisp winter's day.

Congratulations to Ian and Cynthia Clayton who had two 60+ rounds today to come top beating Richard Fletcher and Linda Lin to take out the Hamilton Quinella.

In third place was a great performance by Olive Davis and Mary Ronke from Waikato Club. Top Piako Pairs were Rodney Harris & Phillipa Kirkpatrick from Morrinsville in 5th place. Ian Bond and Lynette Morgan were best Matamata team and Jacob Kalma and Anna Kalma were best Junior Pair winning a bottle of wine each. Unfortunately Jacob has to cellar his for another few years before he can drink his!

Results are available under the Te Aroha result tab on the www.piako.bridge-club.org website

July is a busy month for the Matamata & Te Aroha Bridge Clubs with two open tournaments happening:

Matamata 5A Open
Saturday July 5th (10am start)
Matamata Clubrooms
$25 - byo lunch however meal at end of play

Te Aroha Spa Town Teams (5A open and 5B intermediate)
Saturday 12th July (9.30am start)
St Joe's Hall, 224 Whitaker Street, Te Aroha
$120 / team which includes lunch

Register on the tournaments tab or direct your enquiry to Anna Kalma Tournament Secretary anna_kalma@hotmail.com or 07 8873686.

Matamata Golden Girls

It was tense last night at the conclusion of the Quilty Tray Teams event.

Going into the final night, team Quilty (Lesley Quilty, Heather Kneebone, Sonia Crawford & Ann Ring) had a small lead over their nemesis; team Bond (Ian Bond, Lynette Morgan, Rita van den Einden & Desma Dickinson) who just happened to be their opposition first up.

With Desma and Rita bidding 6 on board 8 and scoring a good match win, the Bond team overtook Quilty to take a healthy lead with two matches left to play.

In round 8, The Te Aroha minnows (Anna Kalma, Hermanna Hemmes, Tim Rigter & Greg Saxon) surprised everybody (not least themselves!) by scoring an upset win over the more fancied Bond team. Quilty team in the meantime were up against Waikato and when Malcolm and Alison Smith failed to make 6 against a 3NT making opposite they gave away 13 MPs in board 13, the Quilty team was back into contention trailing by just 1MP going into the final stanza.

The final match up saw Bond vs Hamilton (Malcolm and Alison, Richard Fletcher & Linda Lin) and the board 17 was the decider which saw 6 made by Alison & Malcolm giving them a buffer that Bond team wasn't able to make up. In the other match Quilty vs Waikato (Lesley Chubb, Alan Dawkins, Judy Butler & Carolyn Black) the sides had a relatively flat match with only one positive and negative score each finishing with a +1 MP for the match.

Thus sealing a win for the Quilty Team who reclaim the trophy for Matamata. Bond was second and Hamilton third. Waikato while placed 4th had the most wins in the tournament only dropping two matches throughout the three nights.

A full wrap of the WAP Round 4 is now up on the WAP tab. A good turn out at Te Aroha with 15 tables.

I can report it was a good day for Gary Foidl and Yuzhong Chen however the Clayton's still retain top spot overall