Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

"If you’re Irish come into the parlour”

Wednesday 17 of March is St Patricks Day at Matamata and we hope you will help celebrate it.

st pats day

Wear Green and stay on after Bridge to enjoy some fun and fellowship.
Tea,coffee nibbles (Irish) provided and we will have a Cash Bar open with wine $3 a glass.

Share your best Irish joke and there will be an Irish Raffle.

Prizes for Best dress up and Best Joke.

Great day and full field for the inaugural 8B held in Matamata on Saturday 6th March.

Locals performed well albeit it winners were Gary Foidl and Yuzhong Chen of Waikato club.

Gary and Yuzhong: Gary and Yuzhong winners at Matamata

Lynette and Ian: Best of the Matamata pairs and second overall by a smidgin were Lynette Morgan and Ian Bond

Judith and Joy: Judith and Joy punched above their weight with 58% average and top intermediates. Joy as the photographer obviously tampered with the photo! Also sponsored the event via her business Williams Jewellers and Judith and Joy helped feed the masses with fish, bread (pizza) and wine. Was sort of a biblical finale!

Noel and Lesley: Lesley and Noel also finished in the money in 6th place

Other prize winners were Jenna and Christine Gibbons in 3rd place and Karen Marteletti and Kate Terry in 5th!

Well done MAtamata for your hospitality.

Monday 25 January is Robbie Burns Birthday and Beth would like to celebrate with you so come along wearing the Tartan and enjoy an afternoon of Bridge plus neeps and Tatties,Haggis and of course a wee Dram.

No partner required but be ready to be seated at 12.50pm.

Wednesday 27th January is the official opening day for 2021. Back to the normal start time of 10 30 .No partner required

2021 Programme Booklet
The 2021 programme booklet will be available from the clubrooms on Wednesday 25th. I will also be at the clubrooms between 6pm and 9pm on Wednesday if anyone wants to come and get a programme in the evening.

I will also email a copy to everyone on the same day.

Thursday Night 4th February is the official Opening Night 7.10 start No partner required. NOT THIS COMING WEEK. The 1st week in February

We hope to see everyone returning to the bridge table and enjoying playing and catching up.
Look forward to seeing you all

Directors We would like to encourage more people to participate in the running of the club by learning to direct.
There is unlimited help from the senior players while you are learning and it also helps with your own bridge so please put your hand up to help the club and further your skills. ( Just like everything in life it is not as scary as you think after the first couple of times ) There are flow charts available for the common rulings that are relatively easy to learn so please give it a go.

The WaiBays region is also hosting two director seminars this year (Rotorua 21st March and Matamata on the 27th June) aimed at those who want to do more club directing as well as those who may wish to go for the director qualifications.

Learner Lessons are just over a month away ( start on the 3rd March ) and we still need more pupils so please try and spread the word and pass any names on to me.

We have a new member at the club called Moya Young and she would like to play on Thursday nights ( her name is in the book ) so please give her a ring and give her a game if you can.

For the first time in a couple of years - NZBridge have produced the Rank reports that reviews the amount of rating points (A + B points) won in a calendar year and sorted by the different ranks.

We had several members who appeared on the list for 2020 ... a year which will be remembered for less opportunities to earn ranking points at the bridge table than uaual.

Congratulations to:

Joy Williams (6th Club Master with 25.72 A&B pts)
Peter Daffurn (17th Local Master - 34.22 pts)
Hermanna Hemmes (19th National Master - 34 pts)
Anna Kalma (5th Life Master - 109.77 pts)

The full report is on the NZBridge website:

http://www.nzbridge.co.nz/user/inline/3639/Ranks%20Report%20%202020.pdf

Holiday Bridge starts soon!

Te Aroha kicks off on Tuesday night at 7.15pm on the 5th January and Friday afternoon from 11.30am.

Matamata starts their holiday bridge on Monday 11th January at 1pm and continues on Wednesday the 13th January also at 1pm.

Look forward to seeing you all at the bridge table.

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.