Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

Kathy and Ken Yule travelled across to Australia this week to compete at the Coffs Harbour Congress in NSW.

Kathy and Ken]

They won the Swiss Pairs competition in front of 126 other pairs in style - taking first place after the first match and winning their remaining 7 matches to take the top prize and $2000 prize money. Their last opponents were their team mates for the next competition GeO Tislevoll and Joan Butts (Geo is in the New Zealand Open team and Joan is a prominent Australian player and teacher). The team had a good start but faded to 7th after 8 rounds of matches ... still a good result in a strong field.

You can read about their repeat victory (they also won it back in 2013) and a few of their tricky hands in the bulletin the day after their Swiss victory:
http://www.abfevents.com.au/events/results/2019/ccg/bulletins/03_August_...

In the meantime, Judith and Joanne continue their winning ways in the intermediate division showing the reason they have been selected for the Waikato Bays IP team. This time winning the Te Awamutu Intermediate in the weekend topping both sessions with 60% and also claiming top spot on the Intermediate League after 6 events.

Looking forward to seeing what the home ground advantage offers them in the Matamata Intermediate coming up in September!

Joanne and Judith

Well done those who competed at the Cambridge 6s event held last weekend. Big day out and lots of fun.

punks

The punk team did well to get a placing in the dress up (no mean feat when it is taken so seriously by some teams!). And also a big congratulations to Peter Daffurn and Judith Howard who were second in the intermediate section.

Matamata hoi polloi

The other Matamata team looked the part also!

Morrinsville

While Morrinsville was set for a tumble (being domino's and all!)

BENEFIT NIGHT-Fund raising and Bridge.

Matamata held a very successful benefit night last Thursday raising $900 to go to the Matamata Citizen's Advice Bureau.

A good amount of tables turned up to play - 12 in total including visitors from Te Aroha and Morrinsville.

The Matamata 5A was well supported by both players (40 pairs packed the clubrooms) and club members who helped in a myriad of ways. Great catering, sponsorship from J Swap as well as Sonia Crawford donating wines for the session winners.

Winners following two session wins were Te Puke's Christine Gibbons with Waikato's Jenna Gibbons.

Winners of 5A: Christine and Jenna Gibbons

Russell Wilson from New Plymouth and Patrick Carter of Auckland repeated their effort from last year coming second.

2nd place: Russell Wilson and Patrick

Our very own Noel Grigg combined with Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin the young gun from Auckland to take out third place with a session win in the morning and 61% in the afternoon.

3rd place: Noel Grigg and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin

The best Matamata pair was Lesley Quilty and Anna Kalma while the top non-open were Joanne Swanwick and Judith Howard also from Matamata.

Packed room

The club received the sad news that George Sherrell died yesterday in Tauranga where he had been for the past six months and Desma Dickinson from Matamata also passed away after a prolonged battle with Parkinsons last Tuesday.

George: George winning the 2018 Auckland Cup at Te Aroha

George belonged to the Matamata, Cambridge, Te Aroha and Hamilton Clubs and played at all of them each week.

He will be remembered as a gentleman of bridge and kept the order (especially at Te Aroha!) using his directing experience of many years. He always got into the spirit of events and dressing up and taking part and was still winning events at age 90.

Gamblers: George, Malcolm, Peter and Laurie

Desma Dickinson was a longtime member of the Matamata Bridge Club and friend to many. Desma has battled parkinsons for many years but it was great to see her returning to the club after a few years away. Sadly the disease got the better of her over the past year and she passed away at 75 years.

Desma Dickinson

Both Desma and George will be missed at the table.

The Matamata Open 5A Tournament takes place in Matamata on the 27th July. Morning tea from 9:30am and 10:00am start.

The entry fee of $38 includes a beautiful catered lunch. morning tea with refreshments following.

Online pre-payment welcome to 03-0363-0323853-00.

Entry online at the NZ Bridge website or to contact us matamatabridge@gmail.com.

Also Benefit Night will be on Thursday 8th August. We welcome visitors from other clubs and will provide details shortly.

The 2019 Matamata Champs came to a conclusion following 7 nights of competition.

Lesley and Sonia

The honours board has a familiar feel with Lesley Quilty and Sonia Crawford taking the outright champs for another year. Not sure how many times their names are on the board with each other and other partners but it must be about 20!

And congratulations to Helen Reid and Coral Daisley who took out the handicap event running concurrently.

Jones Team winners of the Open

Six wins from six secured the win for the Jones Team consisting of Barry Jones, Jenny Millington, Julie Atkinson and Patrick Carter. Patrick and Julie departed before the prizegiving and left it to ex Te Aroha president Barry and Jenny to collect the spoils.

Team Rex
Tauranga's Melanie Rex, Joy Bates, Shirley ain and Graham Young. We had the largest multigrade field to date (which was teams with a combined total of less than 200 A points) of 14 teams. The last two matches gave the winners maximum points handing them the title for the first time.

Fisher Team

Team Fisher form Hamilton and Auckland were second in the Open, from left - right Mathew Brown, Andi Boughey,Liz an dBlair Fisher

Te Aroha wins second in the multigrade

Te Aroha got on the podium with second place in the multigrade, Well done to Victor Kooter,foster kalma, Tim Rigter and Henk Hemmes.

It was a great day supported by the Te Aroha club - great work with catering, donating raffles and helping out on the day. Thank you to everybody that pitched in.

The club received the sad news that Mavis Buchanan had suddenly passed away. Mavis was a long time and still very active member of the bridge club so it came as a shock to us to hear the news. She was a canny bridge player but also an awesome bowls player having won the NZ championship on several occasions.

Our deepest sympathies to Mavis's family.

Mavis Buchanan

We will provide further details of her funeral as it becomes available.

Winning the Joanne Prevett Teams last night in Matamata despite a sizeable handicap was enough to finally put a smile on the faces of the Grumpy Old Geezers.

grumpys

From left - Lesley Quilty, Noel Grigg, Laurie Belfield and HEather Kneebone.

The team who won best dressed weren't surprised to have won (apparently they foretold their own victory!)

Gypsy Card readers

Well done to the Gypsy Card readers … Lynn Ryan, Elsie Jonasson, Patricia James and Diann Voyce!

Great to see everybody get into the spirit of the final night of the teams with costumes relating to the letter 'G'.

Goody goody gumdrops

Second overall were the goody goody gumdrop team from left Margaret Reed, Joanne Swanwick, Judith Howard and Anne Beetham.

gardeners

Third were the Gardeners: Zelda Clements, Anna Kalma, Ian Bond and Lynette Morgan.

Gaolbirds

They tried to look grumpy gaolbirds but didn't quite pull it off! From left Beth Voster, Michelle Liddle, Kathy Yule and Barbara Hodgkinson who were in fourth place.

gingernuts

The marginally unPC team of the Ginger Nuts being Henk Hemmes, Dale Swap, Guy Kalma and Hermanna Hemmes

Geeks

The Geek team of Austin Brown, Rachel Aylett, Julian Mason and Peter Tait-Jamieson were the braintrust.

Gang

The Gang of Joan Darby-Smith, Maeleen Borkin, Suzanne Cullen and Malcolm Kirkby looked the business.

Glitterbugs

Finally the glitterbugs provided the sparkle which included Elaine Saywell, Jill Ireland, June Barbour and Trish Bruce,