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Firstly, congratulations to our newest Gold Grandmaster, Jenny Millington, who joins just a handful of females who hold this rank.  Jenny is a great ambassador for bridge in the region and puts a lot of energy back into the game especially with her mentoring and tuition of new and improving players.

Jenny Millington

We’ve had a swag of tournaments in the region since the last report in February.  At the Mount Maunganui All Grade Tournament it was good to see the club recognise the performances of all grade combinations within the tournament and doing away with session prizes. I always thought that was a slightly odd concept of rewarding pairs for missing out on the overall prizes.

It was well contested with 24 tables and I thought it was nice to see a new face on the podium. This was met with a chuckle as it turns out that the “new face”, Ron Scott from Tauranga, is hardly a “brookie “(bridge rookie) but indeed a Grand Master who has represented New Zealand a few decades ago.

Ron Scott and Tony Hacking

Nowadays, Ron is content to rest on his laurels and mainly limit his play to club sessions but obviously the promise of a lovely lunch and persuasion of his partner on the day Tony Hacking enticed him out of tournament hibernation. 

Tony and Ron put in two plus 60% sessions to out-do second place duo; Alan Turner and Ian Clayton.  Ian Clayton is definitely on form following the previous weekend success at the New Plymouth Congress with the rest of his team. 

April began with 22 tables turning out for the 8B Restricted Event in Hamilton.  This event seems to be as fiercely contested as a 10A.  Not only a competition for the overall title but mini-battles between who gets the highest finish between regular partners/spouses and their non-open partners.  In the end it was a victory to the Rotorua pair Pam Moore and Margaret Robbie snatching the win from Pam’s husband Ian Moore and Roger Dempster.  I can imagine it would have been a pretty jovial trip back over the Mamaku’s considering the calibre of the competition.

 

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           Margaret Robbie and Pam Moore  

In other tournaments around the region, The Taupo Intermediate was won by Hamilton pair Mark Thomson and Jeffrey Chang.  The Te Puke Restricted was won by Margaret Howarth and Bev Walker from Tauranga and Tim Torr and Suzanne Lugton from Tauranga took out the Waikato Bays Novice event.  The first Junior tournament in the region in 2016 kicked off in Cambridge with Mount duo Joe Brown and Brenda Bleakley whilst over the hill, Yuzhong Chen and He Yuan from Hamilton/Cambridge took out the hotly contested 5A All Grades in Tauranga.

        

 

   Rubber Ducky Day at Putaruru, a full house enjoying Rubber Bridge.

The highlight of the month for me was learning about another aspect of the game of bridge through attending Waikato Bays “Rubber Ducky Day Out” in Putaruru.  The day started with seminar and some strategy tips on Rubber Bridge from Jenna Gibbons before the competition kicked off with a record 15 entries for the region.    The knock-out competition will continue over the next few months culminating with the regional winner representing Waikato Bays to compete for the Dan Gifford Trophy at the New Zealand Congress (and a share of the $2,000 prize money, especially the $1000 first prize). 

Anna Kalma

 

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