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Greetings again from the Winterless North. We have been very busy up here with tournaments, prize givings, a wedding and a leaving party (not the same party, thank goodness).

First off was the Kauri Tournament over in Dargaville back in October. Deserved winners of this were Patrick Carter and Grant Jarvis all the way up from Auckland. Here they are with their trophy as well as the Kauri trees grown from seeds by Peter Simpkin from Dargaville. These trees are approximately 3 years old and Peter donates these each year to the top 3 pairs in this tournament.

 Kauri tree propagator, Peter Simpkin, Patrick Carter, Grant Jarvis and the kauri trees

 

Just two weeks later was the JD Jewellery Tournament in Whangarei where JD’s did not only generously sponsor the tournament but they also gave a way a $500 door prize voucher on the day. The lucky recepient of this was Sandy Joe from Kaitaia. The overall winners of the day were from Warkworth, Carolyn Goodall and Jenny Robinson pictured here with Lee Walters our Tournament Organiser and general “get things done” lady.

   
Sandy Thom and a very nice      Carolyn Goodall and Jenny Robinson, Whangarei winners
door prize                                  either side one of the club's hard workers, Lee Walters.

It's nice that we are able to make the trip North worth while for our visitors as the past two tournaments show.

 Congress Calamities from Northland

I think the National Congress wore a lot of us out and October was a rest and "recup" time for us "Northland Hardies" who braved the onslaught. I do need to add in here about a poor unfortunate pair of Northland players and a board they came across in Congress. We are still laughing about it now. Well they are not so much but the rest of us are. This was in the Swiss Pairs on the last day and played by two of our more experienced Open players.

South held KJ  AKQJ64  AJ2  A9 

and opened 2. Partner replied with a "tell me more" 2 after which South decided to launch into Gerber(4 ). 4 was the none or three response. Undeterred, South then asked for kings with 5 but North was getting the feeling that those club bids were natural.... and passed!

While slam was not making, this was not the best of the game contracts!

 On the plus side South did manage to keep it together and only go -6. Not only that the partnership remains (hopefully with an agreement NOT to use Gerber directly after a strong 2 opening!).

Then, there was this.....

"Well" remembered!

“A very funny and most unusual occurrence was reported by a pair of Northland players  playing E/W  in the Open Teams event at National Congress this year.

A hand was picked up and bid with West ending as declarer.  North led and East put down dummy.  About four tricks in declarer played K at which point North looked puzzled and said “I also have the K!”  The director was called and after some scratching of the head, it was discovered that North was playing the hand with the same cards as he had held for the previous hand!  The cards were the same colour and pattern but no-one at the table noticed that North’s  cards were still in the board.   North had not realised that his hand was the same even though he had just played with those cards and did not notice that he had some of the same cards as dummy when dummy went down!”

 

Our final tournament for the year was the Northland Centre Pairs. At this event we give out the prizes for the Northland Top Junior, Intermediate and Open player over the year. This year we were pleased to congratulate Isabel Corbett in winning Top Junior Player, Ian Johnson for Top Intermediate and Bill Humphrey for Top Open player 2018 (all seen here with Northland Committee Representative Vivian Nisbet).

                                      TOP NORTHLAND AWARDS for 2018

                
Top Junior (Isabel Corbett)                            Top Intermediate (Ian Johnson)                          Top Open (Bill Humphrey) 
 and the common link in all three photos is Northland Committee representative, Vivianne Nisbet. Vivian may be
left reflecting how much bigger than her these successful male Northland bridge players are!

Whangarei won the Wylie Salver Trophy which is fiercely contested between Dargaville, Kerikeri, Whangarei, Paihia, Doubtless Bay and Kaitaia each year.

Pictured here with it are Richard Bland,Tania Brown and Neil Ruddell (missing is John McIntosh) from
the winning Wylie Salver team, Whangarei.

One Wedding and some Departures

I did state at the beginning we have a wedding, Congratulations to John McIntosh and his partner, Watsakan Lonklang, who tie the knot on December 1st.  A sad farewell to Elizabeth and John Parker who are heading back to the UK. We will miss them as they are incredibly busy in the Whangarei Bridge Club behind the scenes and their contribution has been invaluable and sincerely appreciated.We also say farewell to Paul Carson – Wenmoth (now that I have finally learnt to spell his name correctly!) who is moving from Kerikeri to Auckland to further his career and no doubt his Bridge opportunities.

Matthew can be beaten
 (a proud mother may not say it but we can congratulate Matthew Brown on once more making the New Zealand Open team in 2019. He is, though, not infallable...well, away from the bridge table!)

Matt and Tania Brown do battle "al fresco" at chess....

Finally a wee brag with this photo in that I have finally beaten Matt Brown at a mind game. A convincing win as well and not our usual chase each other around for an hour or so with just kings left.This is a yearly tradition and in 2018 his mother triumphed. My work is done.

Wishing all a safe, happy Christmas and New Year and look forward to seeing you all in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

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