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Welcome all to the Regional Round Up from Northland. Sue Brown is away at present swanning around some exotic countries. Thus, the reporting is down to me.

Whangarei was proud to host its 5A Teams early in April. We had a large contingent from Auckland attend and, as per usual, it was Auckland teams which took the prizes. The winning team, made up of Andi Boughey, Steve Boughey, Carol Richardson and Matt Brown, described themselves as a family team and as Matt’s T Shirt reads, “A day to remember". Did he perhaps have a premonition of trying to stay sober in front of the in-law?

.

Teams winners, Matt Brown, Steve and Andi Boughey and Carol Richardson

Congratulations also to the brave souls of Andrew Liu and John McIntosh who trialled for the Open Interprovincial team in Auckland May 14 and 15. Most people don't realise but it's a good 2+ hour trip each way from Whangarei to Auckland and we are pleased that the North had representation. Andrew and John came a very creditable 4th amongst a very prestigious line up.

May 7th saw the Northland players go to Kerikeri for an Open and Intermediate/Junior Pairs competition. This was incredibly well attended with 10 full tables in each section. Winning the Open section were Patsy and Lee Walters and the Intermediate/Junior section was won by Lee Orton and Mandy Kelly who incidentally are both Junior players. Not for long at this rate! It was definitely a “win win” day if your name was Lee.

Finally, we had the JD Jewellery tournament in Whangarei . While we had a large contingent make the drive from Auckland it was nice to see a Whangarei pair take the honours at the end of the day. They also took The Roy Routon Trophy which is awarded to the Top Whangarei Pair who have never won the trophy before. Photographed here with our tournament sponsor, you can see they are looking pretty pleased with the days’ efforts.  Congratulations, Andrew and John.

 Andrew Liu, Janice Johnson representing JD Jewellery and John McIntosh

On one board, Andrew took a gamble with John producing what all good partners should produce, a very good dummy. Andrew (West) held:

 

 K52

 –

 AT954

 AT432   and after the auction:

 

West                     East

1                           1

2                          3NT

?

he jumped to 6 and John converted to diamonds:

 

West                     East

 K52                      AQJ4

 -                           AJ64

 AT954                 8762

 AT432                 8

 

There would be no story if diamonds had not broken 2-2 but they did. The sun shone for Andrew and John that day.

Starting Mid-June is our infamous Wylie Salver Competition and this year we welcome Coopers Beach and Kaitaia to the table along with Kerikeri, Whangarei, Dargaville and Paihia.

Remember if you are ever at a loose end and would like a good game of Bridge, good company, and a great meal don't go further than Northland. The weather isn't bad either.

I will leave you with a wee tip I saw at the bottom of a recent article by Ron Klinger in his Australian Bridge column.

“Real Men Don’t Take Finesses. “

Good Bridging, everyone.

 

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