Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER.

POT LUCK DINNER and PRIZEGIVING FOLLOWED BY BRIDGE.

5.45pm for Drinks then Dinner and Bridge.(Optional)

Partners/Families welcome .

Wear Christmas colours.

PLEASE INDICATE WHAT FOOD YOU WILL BRING AND NUMBERS ATTENDING ON LIST

It's been great to return to tournament bridge over the past month and there were several pop up tournaments arranged to replace the cancelled national Congress as well a return to tournaments on the calendar.

Well done to all who entered and competed and make sure you enter the Babich NZ Wide Pairs on Friday the 30th at Matamata ... played against the whole of New Zealand from the comfort of your home club! At this stage 53 clubs have entered and as a fundraiser and a pretty social ocassion please make sure you take part!

Back to tournaments past and as usual Matamata-Piako players have been punching above their weight and getting podium finishes and I've been a bit lax in acknowleding their performances so a well overdue summary of those who have been achieving over the past month include [drum roll please] ...

Joy and Michelle

Joy Williams and Michelle Liddle who won the Waikato Bays junior league by conquering the Te Awamutu and Mt MAunganui competitions were clear winners in the event which covered three events.

Lesley and Sonia

Lesley and Sonia had two consistent sessions to comfortably win the Te Aroha 8B held during Not the Congress week.

Peter and Victor

Peter Daffurn and Victor Kooter who cleaned up at the Matamata Intermediate 9which was the first cab off the rank after lockdown) and then showed it wasn't a fluke by ending up 3rd in the Te Aroha open 8B.

Neil and Pamela

Neil Dravitzki played with his daughter Pamela to take out the Waitomo 8B pairs.

Earlier in the week Neil and Sonia also had another poidum finish at the Matamata 5A event which wasn't bad for a pair with the average age of 87!

Waikato Bays team winners

Ken Yule partnered up with a few mates to win the 'glamour' event at the Waikato Bays Labour Weekend congress - the 10A teams which was held over 2 days. Anna Kalma also made the final with her teamates.

Matamata and Te Aroha have been given the opportunity to host a tournament apiece in the weekend of 3rd/4th October to go someway into filling the void left by the cancellation of the National Congress.

Your options are:

Matamata Bridge Club
Saturday 3rd October
3A Stratfied tournament (open to all but with the field ranked and prizes offered within different strata)
Start time: 10am
Cost: $25
Catering: morning tea but BYO lunch

Te Aroha Bridge Club
Sunday 4th October
8B open tournament (open to all)
Start time: 10am
Cost: $20
catering: morning tea but BYO lunch

Please enter on the NZbridge tournament website.

Reminder that the Matamata Intermediate Tournament takes place next Sunday 13th September.

Only $20 to enter which includes refreshments post play (BYO lunch) and prizes for best junior pair alongside with general winners. The event is also part of the Waikato Bays Intermediate league.

Morning tea from 9:30am.

Please enter early so we can ascertain demand. Entries a bit slow at present. Enter on the nzbridge website or send an email to matamatabridge@gmail.com

Matamata Intermediate flyer

We are sad to report the passing of Lawrence Teaz - past president of the Matamata Bridge club in 2015/2016. He died on Saturday in Tauranga at the age of 77 years.

Lawrence

Lawrence was brought up in Ngarua on his parents farm where he followed them into farming - often earning the title of best producing Jersey cow in his heyday as a dairy farmer (there was some debate about whether Jersey or Ayreshire but Laurie is adamant it was Jersey!). Either way they were pedigree and top cows!

He later went on to work for Mike Moroney the horse trainer and bridge players remember Lawrence bringing a Melbourne Cup into the bridge club for everybody to admire (chances being it was the 2000 MElbourne Cup that was won by Brew that year). Most years he was unavailable to play bridge during the early part of November instead enjoying time in the spring racing carnival in Melbourne.

Another place he frequented was USA - he had a grandson there and he had developed an unlikely friendship with a KJ Choi - a worldclass Korean Golfer who was living in the US! Lawrence reckoned they hooked up after he arranged a case of NZ wine to be sent to KJ following a win and him mentioned he liked Sauvignon Blanc in the interview!

While he took up bowls in later life - I hope to think Bridge was his second preferred sport (to Racing). He was responsible for getting filtered water on tap into the bridge club during his tenure as well as being the king at sandwiches! Some say his first love however was gardening - he looked after the roses at Mike Moroneys as well as the bridge club gardens.

He was also great at bringing in sponsorship seemingly he knew
everybody in town!

Lawrence: Lawrence (left) in dress up mode with some of the other Matamata
committee

Best thing about Lawrence was his humour and easy going nature...

Bridge players - let me know if you have any other memories of Lawrence and we can add them to this page.

Go well Lawrence.

Great tournament held in Matamata on Saturday with 19 full tables in the clubroom.

You required at least 60% to get into the top 6 for the prize money and at least 63% average to make the top three!

Grant Jarvis and Ian Berrington - top place

Barry Jones and Jenny Millington from Hamilton were the runners-up

Third place was Malcolm Mayer playing with Matamata's Ken Yule

Judith won the heat for the Judith Howard league (along with Malcolm Kirkby)

In 4th place overall was Gary Chen and John Wang

5th place was Anna Kalma and Richard Solomon

Best score of the day (71% in the second session) went to locals Neil Dravitzki and Sonia Crawford who ended up in 6th place

Te Aroha have voted to start back at bridge on Friday 12th June at 11.30 and Tuesday night session starting on the 16th June at 7pm.

Both events will be social and you don't need a partner - just turn up.

Matamata will restart the week beginning 22nd June - social play for the week also just turn up with or without a partner. All usual club sessions are back on.

Lessons will also start afresh on Thursday 18th at 7pm at the Te Aroha Bridge Club.

Make sure you tell your non-bridge playing family and friends about the wonderful game of bridge.

AND Spa Town Teams will take place … however new venue (for one year only) the Hamilton Bridge Club!

Cost is $120 per team, start time 9.30am. Maximum 25 teams at this stage. Multigrade and Open will be combined into the one field but prizes for teams with less than 200 A points etc depending on the number of entries. BYO lunch.

Waikato players now have special areas in BBO to maintain their skills while enjoying the company of others in the Region. We have been working towards the concept of each of the region's bigger clubs hosting a session or two every week so there's something on offer for everyone.

We're going to leave it up to the organising clubs to set up their own sessions. While we place emphasis on the need to encourage mainly newer players to take part, we also recognise that our more experienced players would appreciate the opportunity to compete against their friends at other clubs in the region. The schedule laid out below is a first cut that, hopefully, will offer something for everyone. As we settle into it we will be making alterations and, hopefully, additions so we can offer two sessions a day.

So - our first-cut weekly schedule:

• Monday 1pm Matamata hosts Matchpoint Individuals open to newer players throughout NZ.
• Monday 7pm Te Awamutu hosts Matchpoint Pairs open to Waikato-Bays Listed players only.
• Tuesday 7pm Te Aroha hosts Matchpoint Swiss Pairs open to Junior and Intermediate players throughout NZ.
• Wednesday 7pm Rotorua hosts Matchpoint Indivduals open to Waikato-Bays Listed players only.
• Thursday 1pm Tauranga hosts Junior/Intermediate players at Matchpoint Pairs open to anywhere in NZ.
• Friday 1pm Piako hosts Matchpoint Swiss pairs open to NZ players only.
• Friday 7pm Cambridge hosts IMP Swiss Pairs open to all NZ players.
• Saturday 7pm Hamilton hosts IMP Swiss Pairs for Open and stronger Intermediate NZ players.
• Sunday 7pm Rotorua hosts Matchpoint Indivduals for Beginner and Novice NZ players.

Please click the Read More button below to ... read more ...

What to do once you're registered with BBO (please have your NZB number showing in your profile)

• Entries open two hours ahead of scheduled start time. Be sure you are on BBO before start time - either playing or in the lobby.
• Just follow these instructions and you should arrive at the right place at the right time
1. Any time within two hours of start time log in to BBO and go to HOME at the top
2. Click on Competitive
3. Click on Free Tournaments
4. In the search box at top start type "WB" - the tournament should appear
5. Click on it
6. For Pairs you must enter your partner's BBO name to get registered. If it's an Individual just your BBO name is all that is required
7. Stay on BBO or come back before start time - either kibitzing or playing or just lurking in the lobby
8. At the appointed time you will be unceremoniously whisked away and plonked in a seat at the tournament
9. You know what to do then. Have an enjoyable game
10. When it's all over you'll be able to find your results on the History tab of your side menu.

To ensure the integrity of our fields, entry to our region-wide tournaments which are run by director chameli is restricted to just the BBO names that have registered with us at nzw247@gmail.com. Get your BBO name registered and join in the fun.

For - well - anyone, really, there's a totally excellent resource on how to use BBO on the NZBridge website c/- Karen Martelletti.

Also .. check out these YouTube videos

• Filling out your Bridge Base profile
• How to add Friends, Chat and join a table on Bridge Base Online
• How to Undo & Alert in Bridge Base Online
• BBO tournament registration incl the Partnership Desk

Good night with 14 tables (56 players) taking part online in an individual. A few people somehow didn't make it onto the table but hope those that did enjoyed the experience. We will repeat on Friday.

The scores are sort of irrelevant in an individual but we are competitive and like to know … so the final placings were as follows!

Name Score (%) Rank
shirltowns 75.26 1
samennz 69.37 2
Joysie1 67.29 3
Rainboat 65.32 4
drycow 63.32 5
phriday 62 6
AL 059 60.44 7
tchavagrou 60.38 8
flica3 59.56 9
Totarakid 59.33 10
notrumpluv 58.51 11
Zara54 57.79 12
Motleycat 57.01 13
BethVo 56.71 14
NZBEAR 56.35 15
radar51 55.63 16
kiwiliddle 54.95 17
happytiges 54.93 18
Brownie10 54.91 19
lesgarth 54.39 20
cruisechic 53.93 21
newby51 53.43 22
Umpah 52.34 23
clusker 52.1 24
aconahonda 51.66 25
louloucam 50.52 26
lann1 50.24 27
litenin 49.76 28
diann1 49.68 29
KevinB100 49.56 30
guyzer5 48.48 31
Top Cru 48.2 32
rock70 47.98 33
judithhow 47.84 34
pres 63 47.12 35
hhemmes 46.96 36
minnie16 46.33 37
chameli 45.95 38
hafrisch 45.11 39
Ricsym 44.73 40
Mierie 43.55 41
ShirleyBa 42.47 42
bloss06 42.19 43
Lozza18 40.79 44
moiralags 40.71 45
lynnycam 40.06 46
kski 39.94 47
Turtle Top 39.92 48
joshyteeee 38.56 49
8east 38.28 50
Teela14 37.46 51
Silverbeet 37.2 52
te puru 36.38 53
garthles 35.82 54
heinilux 35.42 55
peterpietj 25.9 56

There have been a number of opportunities for bridge players to continue playing in the comfort of their own house recently.

Thanks to Peter Daffurn and Judith Howard who have been organising club matches on BBO and arranging access and instruction for those wanting to get online.

Along with regular twice daily New Zealand online tournaments arranged by Auckland Bridge Club. The Waikato Bays are slowly setting themselves up with other options to play. Keep an eye on the Waikato bays website with other opportunities to play.

We will be holding Piako Bridge Matches this week on BBO … on Tuesday night at 7pm and 1pm on Friday.

These are for piako bridge club members or neighbouring clubs only.

These tournaments will be hosted by akalma and be named 'Piako NZ' or something similar.

Judith and Peter are also keeping a register of everyones bbo usernames to enable partnerships and registration for club specific competitions. If you want to play or learn how to get onto bbo contact Judith.

IF you are new to BBO there is a number of instructive information on how to bid/alert and undo your bids online... http://www.nzbridge.co.nz/latest-updates,listing,6038,new-to-bridge-base...