HOME WIN FOR TE AROHA! (SORT OF)

Clearly all the Te Aroha competitors were just so tired with all the organising ... they had to leave it to their adopted team to save the day at Spa Town Teams 2013. 60 years ago Jack and Connie Jacob helped found the Te Aroha Bridge Club. It was perhaps fitting then that 60 years on, it was their grandson, Tom Jacob with his wife Stephanie, TEAM JACOB, together with Barry and Glenis Palmer, who did their family name and heritage proud by bringing off an outstanding victory at Te Aroha today. Team Jarvis had led all the way, but in the final round it was the sturdy Te Aroha roots of Tom Jacob and his team that saw them bring off an amazing win. Team Moore, with Ian and Pam Moore and Sue Sterrenberg and Ian Southen having a great day at the office finishing on 111 VPs as did Team Jarvis, Grant Jarvis, Alan Turner, with their gallant team mates of Michael Curry and Jonathan Westoby who led for so long, but just didn't quite make it over the last hurdle. Winners in the Intermediate section were Team Bach with the experienced Peer Bach leading his intermediates of Setsuko Lichtnecker, Pru Robertson and Sharon Marryatt to well-earned victory. In the open section two further prizes were awarded courtesy of Te Aroha SuperLiquor. Best open team in the under 200A points average category were Te Aroha's great supporters in this event, from Thames, Team Robinson with Jena Robinson, Josie McKenzie, Allan Barclay and Judith Bishop. In the open under 500A point section winners were Team Smith seeing Malcolm and Allison Smith with Richard Fletcher and Linda Lin take out the prize. Thanks go to the club members of Te Aroha for organising a superb tournament. Special mention to Hermanna Kalma for doing so very much in every capacity imaginable, and to Henk, Anna, Tim, to Anne for sterling work in the kitchen and to all of her helpers who prepared or served food for the day, and the Rigter family and wider Kalma family who gave so much of their time to the event. Thanks too go to our director Dallas Dagg and our Super Scorer Mr Bridgemate himself, Jan Spaans. To the Matamata Bridge Club, long time supporters of Te Aroha, our heartfelt thanks for lending us everything bar the kitchen sink to enable us to put the event on. Te Aroha - Well done!

STOP PRESS!!! TE AROHA INTERMEDIATES QUALIFY FOR REGIONAL INTERMEDIATE TEAMS TROPHY!!!

Te Aroha are through!!! Our hybrid Te Aroha/Waihi Intermediates who had such success at the interclub competition have now been confirmed as qualifying through to the final of the Regional Intermediate Teams Trophy contest!!! Our plucky intermediate team starring Tim Rigter, George Sherrell and Arthur and Beth Mann are to represent Te Aroha Bridge Club on 25 August at the Hamilton Bridge Club. Iron those T-shirts team ... the club members will be wearing theirs on the day to support you 110%. GO TE AROHA GO!!!

INTERMEDIATES SHINE ON DEBUT

Tim Rigter - Outstanding performance on debutTim Rigter - Outstanding performance on debutTeam Te Aroha did the club proud at the Top Team event in Hamilton today. The outstanding performance came from the Te Aroha/Waihi combination of Tim Rigter/George Sherrell and Beth and Arthur Mann who finished THIRD OVERALL in the Intermediate section. The Junior team featuring our Youth player Jacob Kalma battled well. With another year of experience behind them our juniors hold great promise for Top Teams 2014. Our Open team were always facing an uphill struggle in the shark pool that was the open section full of grandmasters. To achieve one win in that company was a triumph of its own. A tremendous performance by the club on debut ... roll on 2014!

TE AROHA PLAYERS BLITZ THE PUTARURU PICNIC EVENT!!

Te Aroha members blitzed the field at Putaruru today. Every Te Aroha member participating won a major prize. Congratulations to Henk and Hermanna who finished top E/W beating Jane Stearns and Jan Spaans into 3rd. In the N/S field Ross Stewart and Laurie Belfield came 2nd. Te Aroha cleaned up large in the raffle too, with Jan winning a delightful pot plant and beauty facial treatment (Mrs Spaans may be offered these - Jan thought 1 beauty session might not be sufficient for his needs!) and Ross left sporting a new smoke alarm and Hermanna a flowering plant too. Winners all round. Having never visited the Putaruru Bridge Club before, what a pleasant surprise was in store. Lovely clubrooms, cosy and warm, matched by the walm welcome of their members. They have kept a steady membership there of 30 people over the last decade and had obviously put a lot of work into nurturing sponsors to support their club. A most enjoyable day and a warm up for the Interclub Competition later in the month. The club is on a winning streak - GO TE AROHA!

MONDAY MORNING SUPERVISED BRIDGE FOR BEGINNERS

A new session of bridge is beginning at the Te Aroha club starting on Monday 10 June. The idea is for those beginners who would like some extra practice at playing the hands based upon the bidding they have learned so far in lessons to have an extra opportunity to reinforce their teachings. The club is very grateful to its newest member, Sherryn Wright, who has kindly stepped forward to give her time and talents to Te Aroha by running these sessions to help our beginners enhance their fledgling bridge skills. She begins what is hoped to be regular bid and play sessions with the beginners on Monday mornings from 10.30 am to 12.30. Jane has been calling in at our nearest neighbour the Morrinsville Bridge Club following lessons and has met their new students just emerged from lessons. They too are invited to this special session to help them in their bridge journey.

As our own members have kindly given up their own bridge playing night for the beginners for lessons, Hermanna had kindly offered to arrange some bridge for members on Mondays when the club will be open to help the beginners. Do contact Hermanna if you would like to play some bridge on a Monday.

The session will be reviewed, but in the longer term, the idea is to have a regular daytime session at our club on Mondays from 10.30am to 2.30pm with a short break for BYO lunch to enable all our farming members to take part too and be back in time for milking! These hours also help our younger beginners with small children at kindy in the morning. It is hoped by the beginning of October at the latest a regular Monday morning bridge session will commence for all our members for which Sherryn has volunteered to be partnership steward. It is hoped that this session may build in numbers and our near neighbours from Morrinsville as well as our faithful and regular supporters from Matamata will be most welcome once the daytime session gets underway. WATCH THIS SPACE!!

Contact for supervised beginners bridge: Sherryn on 884 8840
Contact for existing members wanting to play daytime bridge: Hermanna 887 3781

A WAP-PING RECORD AT TE AROHA!

It's official. It's a record. 18 tables at a heat of the WAP. When Te Aroha Bridge club formed 60 years ago they were one of the first clubs in the region and the hub of bridge playing. Sunday saw bridge club members from around the Waikato Region flock to Te Aroha to pack out the clubrooms and support our little club as it puts itself back on the bridge playing map. The winners were LYNETTE MORGAN and IAN BOND from Matamata. In second place from Cambridge MICHAEL NEELS and their secret weapon HERMAN. The event was organised superbly by Hermanna. Huge thanks to her for all her hard work in organising the day. To all of the Te Aroha crew who came onboard to help on the day THANK YOU! Many thanks to Michael Neels also for assisting the club with scoring when the two sets of Bridgemates would not communicate! The club really appreciated Michael stepping into the breach in a high pressure situation to help the club. To all of the players who came from neighbouring clubs in the region to support this event at Te Aroha - our heartfelt thanks for showing us you are standing with us and helping our club rebuild its future. We hope to see you all again at the SPA TOWN TEAMS event on 13 July. The full results from the WAP are on our results page. Cambridge Bridge Club also reported on the event from their viewpoint read about it here: http://www.cambridge.bridge-club.org/node/311

Bridge Babes Cruise

Some photos from the recent Bridge Babes Cruise to Vanuatu.
Fruits de la merFruits de la mer
Our themed night Fruits de la mer was a hit with our guests. Spot Henk and Hermanna up towards the top of the stairs on the left! Our guests also thanked Te Aroha Bridge Club for supporting the cruise by allowing the use of their dealing machine (well insured and handled with utmost care!) to deal the boards on the cruise. Fruits de la mer 2Fruits de la mer 2

Below is Hermanna deep in thought.
Hermanna on cruiseHermanna on cruise

Also below Henk looking well and enjoying his bridge on the cruise.
Henk and HermannaHenk and Hermanna

ARCH JELLEY LEGENDARY ATHLETICS COACH TALKS BRIDGE

An article in today's NZ Herald may of interest to our members. How to be 90 years young. Read all about it in the link below.
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10874405

Jacob's Birthday

Not only did Jacob Kalma cap off his 15th birthday with a session win on Tuesday Night with bridge partner Jos Sonne, but he celebrated later with an appropriately themed cake!

birthday cakebirthday cake

New window signage

The front window had it's turn for the makeover yesterday.

bridge club frontagebridge club frontage

gone are the trusty net curtains and hello a bit more light into the clubrooms (whilst retaining privacy with the frosting).

We wait to see how much additional window cleaning it will require!