Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

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

Last Friday a simultaneous pairs event was held around the country and 363 pairs took part. At the Matamata club 8 tables competed raising $310 towards the Youth trip to Turkey.

The overall winner was Jeff Miller and David Green from Otago who made 74% and the top Matamata pairing were Ann Ring and Sonia Crawford who finished 23 with 61%.

Sonia and Ann: File photo: Sonia Crawford and Ann Ring hamming it up for the camera

On a lighter note, an amusing tale of how bidding can go horribly wrong (with some help from other substances) which features our very own teacher Jane Stearns taking part in the Youth Fundraiser in Cambridge on the same night...the story can be accessed by clicking on the link: http://www.cambridge.bridge-club.org/node/512

Well the results have yet to be ratified ... but it does appear that unofficially Elaine Saywell and Coral Daisley have triumphed in the Mokena Pairs and will take the silverware back to Matamata ahead of Greg Saxon and George Sherrell. Congratulations to Elaine and Coral.

For anybody looking for the results ... for some reason my home computer which I'm in the process of restoring after a bit of a meltdown last week is sending the results to the Matamata site ... hopefully will get it fixed after a strong coffee and some sleep - but for the time being check out the latest results under Matamata:)

Also on the subject of competition winners ... a huge congratulations to George Sherrell for winning the Jim Shine Individual which finished last week. It is the first time it has been played for several years so it is nice to see the trophies back in circulation.

Have you tried out this website? It is invaluable to students learning the game. All of the hands played at lessons are available to bid and play online at this site. For more experienced players, you are able to play hands of bridge to hone your skills. Step by step instructions on how to access the lesson deals are attached below. The website for SkyBridge is: http://www.skybridgeclub.com/

Congratulations to the competition winners from Matamata.
Nola Barron was successful in winning the Norm Beecham trophy on Thursday night.

Nola Barron

A handicap competition played over 6 nights with the top 5 scores counting and Nola gained an impressive average of over 60%. In second place was Joanne Swanwick and in third place Helen Reid

Also a few weeks ago saw the conclusion of the Edie Schwartz competition which was won by Hermanna Hemmes followed closely by Anne Beetham and Rita Van Den Einden

Hermanna

Congratulations Ladies!!!

Matamata hosted a Junior Tournament in the weekend with 13 full tables with representatives from as far afield as Auckland down to Taupo taking part.

Melanie Trevethick and Malcolm Hill from Cambridge were the eventual winners with two great sessions to finish with an average of slightly over 60%. Just behind were the top Matamata pairing of Barbara Keys and Raewyn Richards with consistently strong performances through the day. Geoff Wane and Anne Clark from Mt Maunganui were third.

Full results can be accessed here
.

Thanks to the sponsors Property Broker and Sonia Crawford for donating wine as prizes.

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)