All News

Lesson Time

Clubs around the Waikato Bays are gearing up for lessons and some clubs are trying out the radio medium for the first time in a bid to attract punters along to lessons taking their lead from the Hamilton Club's successful promotion in previous years.   It is also encouraging to note that the larger and better resourced clubs are beginning to offer improver lessons which have been opened up to members of smaller clubs in the area to attend.   Great to see clubs collaborating for the overall betterment of bridge.

 Thames and Tauranga

Waikato Bays hosts several major tournaments to kick off the New Year. The first event which sees holiday makers dragging themselves off the beaches and brushing off the excesses of New Year’s celebrations is the Thames Summer Congress on the first weekend of 2017.  The big victor of the tournament was undoubtedly Pukekohe legend Grant Jarvis … not only did he carry away victory in the 5A John Eldridge teams competition (ably supported by Matamata team mates Kathy Yule, Noel Grigg and Ken Yule) but he also was the lucky winner of the raffle so large that it required assistance from the Tournament Director (Tony Morcom on the left below) to get it into Grant’s vehicle.

Another pair to find success in Thames was Tauranga duo of Kate Terry and Judy Pawson who secured the win in the Allan Barclay Pairs.  It appears that Thames is their happy home having picked up the victory Christmas hams at the Thames Christmas Party a month or so earlier.

A fortnight down the track there was a strong and large field lining up at Tauranga – 54 pairs in the 10A Provincial Pairs on Saturday which was won in relative ease by the indomitable pair of GeO Tislevoll and Michael Ware for the ^2nd year in a row with an average 5% buffer over Southland visitors Anne Somerville and Moss Wylie. 

                                                     

Tony Morcom overreaching his director duties                               Happy hunters in Thames

for Grant Jarvis                                                                              Kate Terry and Judy Pawson

The other major event of the weekend was the 10A teams competition which was contested by 34 teams.  It turned out to be a lot closer than the Pairs with the finals coming down to a swing in the final set for the Jarvis Team (Grant Jarvis, Kate Davies, Murray Wood and Rachelle Pelkman) to win from Team Ware (Michael Ware, Geo Tislevoll, Tom and Steph Jacob).    Apologies for the lack of pics– the photographer was asleep during the prizegiving,

 Ware  had a seemingly comfortable lead of 13 VPs going into the last set and it appears that one board was the turning point which began the swing back for Jarvis . On  Board 34  Rachelle and Murray were the only pair making the 6 slam. What’s your plan of attack to make the contract (6 by North with a small club lead)? 

 ( win in hand and concede a trick to the A. Win the heart return and  play two more rounds of hearts, ruffing in dummy,Q, and return to hand with a spade, and draw trump. As East throws a diamond on the third round of hearts, declarer must return to hand with a second round of spades.)

Sunshine and Spades at Rotorua

Another long sunny weekend and another teams event – this one being the 10A Kelly Peirse Teams in Rotorua held over the Waitangi Weekend where 28 teams gathered to enjoy the atmosphere and also perhaps the cheapest petrol in the wider region (another little-known fact about Rotorua).

 Carter  (Patrick Carter, Barry Jones, Jenny  Millington and Julie Atkinson)  led the way most of the day to go into the final set with a 5-0-0 record and a19VP lead… Mathematically, they could have lost the lead …. but very unlikely (although they did go on and suffer their first defeat of the day in match number 6 … albeit it by just 1MP). So,  they went on to win with relative ease and style from second placed Sun (William Liu, George Sun, Andrew Liu and John Wang).

One hand from this event tested a number of West players how far they were prepared to go in the bidding. They held 10 spades headed by the QJT, a couple of small diamonds and the Q. No-one was vulnerable. Most would have started with 4 only to hear a double from North and 5 from South. (Their partner was sitting quietly reading the newspaper while all this was happening!) Many bid once more (5) with some buying the contract while others had to make a decision over 6. As you will see, it paid to keep bidding and bidding:

 7 can be made as West's bidding  indicates that the club finesse should work. Only Pat Carter and Julie Atkinson bid to 7. They ended up doubling 7 for 800, a small loss as East at the other table, Barry Jones, thought he had 2 defensive tricks against 6 after his partner's 5 opening. Alas, he is still waiting to take one! That was just a small loss on the way to a fine victory for all four members of the Carter team.

 

 

 

Go Back View All News Items