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Jane Lennon has plenty to smile about. She has achieved something quite remarkable this month…….. read on to find out more.

Covid-19 smashed a huge hole in our tournament program, and of course all tournaments for March, April, May and June were cancelled. Some of the smaller clubs are still rather nervous about opening their doors to visits from the bigger cities. So, it may be that some of the events on the New Zealand Bridge calendar may not eventuate in the coming months.

This would be a shame because, as New Zealanders are not able to travel overseas this year, there are now more players participating in tournaments at all levels.

Rangiora All Grades   8B     28^th June

You had to be quick to enter this tournament as the roster quickly filled up and reached the room limit of 26 tables.

In the morning the session winners, were

Blue:-     Max Morrison/Jane Lennon and Kathryn Tennant/Hayden Seal

Green:-  Mary Buckland/David Sewell and Normand Ann MacLaurin

In the afternoon the pairs that took out the sessions were

Blue:-  Max Morrison/Jane Lennon and Neil Hawkins and Richard Lapthorne

Green:-  Phillipa Gibson/Jane Walders and Alison Price/Derek Wilson

 

For the last four this is rather impressive results for players rather new to the tournament scene.

Overall Results                                                     Total

1^st        Max Morrison/ Jane Lennon                       127

2^nd       Neil Hawkins/Richard Lapthorne                123

3^rd       Normand MacLaurin/ Ann MacLaurin         120

4^th       Catherine Fitchett/Julia Thomas                 115

5^th       Andrew Hudson/Shawn Adriel-Ai                113

6^th       Beverley Parlane/Megan Bruynel               110

 

The full results for the graded events are not available on the web, but by searching Masterpoints I was able to glean that Beverley Parlane and Megan Bruynel topped the pool for the Intermediate Section.

Playing in their very first tournament I believe, Andrew Hudson and Shawn Adriel-Ai can be well pleased to feature in the list of place-getters above and win the Junior Section by quite a margin.

Canterbury Regional Swiss Pairs 10A      Rangiora     12^th July

The Swiss format is always an attraction in itself, and 42 pairs entered for the eight round Regional tournament, held at Rangiora.

 

Final Results                                                                        %

1^st        Jane Lennon/David Taylor                                       123

2^nd       Jenny Wilkinson/Shirley Newton                              110

3^rd       Richard Lapthorne/Neil Hawkins                              105

4^th       Max Morrison/Tony Fitzgerald                                  103

5^th       Pam Tibble/Brian Goulter                                          98

6^th       Sarah Garland/Neil Phillips                                       96

7^th       Judith Driver/Jan Roose                                           94

8^th       Normand MacLaurin/Ann MacLaurin                        94

     
winners of every match:            2nd placed Shirley Newton        Best Intermediate Pair:                        
Jane Lennon and David Taylor  and Jenny Wilkinson               Gillian O'Hara and Jane Whitcombe

 

Another six pairs of very experienced players filled 9^th to 14^th and then:

Catherine Fitchett and Peter Fitchett, seeded 27^th, filled the 15^th spot with a total of 87, having won four matches and finishing with a draw against two grand masters!

 But the day belonged to the leading pair – Jane Lennon and a new partner, David Taylor. They had a very good understanding to win every match.  

Going into the last round with a lead of 8 victory points over the field, they scored the highest win of the last round to go further away from the field. It was Jane’s second win in as many weeks at Rangiora.

Crockfords Open                8B         Sunday 19^th July

If you told a bridge friend that your partnership had averaged 64.00 for a tournament, he could reasonably think that you might have won it. But at the Crockfords Club this month such an average was not enough to clinch first spot for the day. It was rather unusual that both sections were run as Howell movements. The winner of the four Howells for the day all scored over 60 -

Morning

12 Table Howell:     Jo Hampton/Caroline Caseley 65% to lead the room by 2%.

  7 Table Howell:     Sharon Jackson/Eamon Jackson with 61%

Afternoon

12 table Howell:     Pam Tibble/Margaret Burgess 65%, saw off Sue Southen/Richard Lapthorne by less than 1%. Jo Hampton/Caroline Caseley, still with a very respectable score, featured again, only one percentage point adrift.

Meantime, Jane Lennon/Max Morrison were blitzing the field in the smaller Howell to score the highest score of the day, 65.3%

Overall Results

1^st        Jane Lennon/Max Morrison                    62.97, 65.30                         64.13

2^nd       Jo Hampton/Caroline Caseley                65.12, 62.96                         64.04

3^rd       Pam Tibble/Margaret Burgess                                                             61.85

4^th       Sharon Jackson/Eamon Jackson                                                         59.48

5^th       Sue Southen/Richard Lapthorne                                                         59.43

6^th       Sarah Garland/David Taylor                                                                58.79

 

There was no prize-giving at the Crockfords club, no photos, and I was unable to ascertain the best Junior Pair

When the results were announced at the Christchurch Bridge Club, special mention was made of Jo Hampton and Caroline Caseley’s performance. They were the best Intermediate pair of the day, but very nearly had eclipsed the field, and ran in second overall amongst some experienced tournament players.

I now note that Jane Lennon had just scored her third win in a row in Canterbury tournaments, a remarkable success rate.

Christchurch Mid-Winter Teams          5A              25^th July

            24 teams braved the elements to compete in the winter – an impressive number for a local Canterbury tournament. The usual stalwarts were there, a good number of other Christchurch players making the effort to form teams. Visiting teams from Timaru and Ashburton bolstered the strength of the competition, and Adrian Abraham(Nelson) and Jan Cormack(Auckland) added punch for their teams.

            It was strange that two of the strongest teams did battle in the first round, and Pavla Fenwick’s team had a good win over the eventual winners. The Fenwick actually won all their matches to be the only undefeated team for the day – four of their wins were against opponents in the top 6.

            In the second last round the Lennon team had a modest win against Jenny Wilkinson’s team, but more significantly the Fenwick team had a sound win over Graeme Tufnell’s team to knock them out of the running.

            Going into the last round, Pavla’s team had a 6 point edge, and scored a narrow win over the Wilkinson team to remain unbeaten. However, the Lennon team showed their composure to score a solid win, and took out the title.
                  Tops on the day

 
John Skipper, Jane Lennon, Richard Lapthorne and Neil Hawkins

 

Final Ladder                        Team Members                                                              V P s

1^st        Jane Lennon/John Skipper/Richard Lapthorne/Neil Hawkins                            75

2^nd       Pavla Fenwick/David Skipper/Tony Fitzgerald/Tim Schumacher                       72

3^rd       Jenny Wilkinson/Shirley Newton/Jan Alabaster/Jan Cormack                            64

4^th       Mehboob Chiba/John Kruiniger/Paula Gregory/Michael Johnstone                  61

5^th       David McRae/Babs-Merel de Visser/Dave Tocker/Sue McIlroy                         60

6^th       GraemeTufnell/Bruce Anderson/Kris Wooles/John Wignall                              60

7^th       Neville Newburn/Bill Mecchia/Jim Burford/Dorothy Bain                                   59

8^th       Adrian Abraham/Neal Phillips/Sarah Garland/David Taylor                             58

9^th       Brian Glyn/Pamela Glyn/Max Robb/Chris Bras                                                57

10^th     Jenny Carr/Marty Holman/Kathryn Tennant/Bruce K Anderson                       55
      Under 600 winners                                Top Intermediate Team                              Top Junior Team

 
D Tocker, David McRae, S McIlroy           Denise Urguhart, Toni Jones,                   Janine Tyler, Tessa Holland,
Babs de Visser                                          Tracey Bunce, Janene Mussen            Shawn Ariel-Ai, Caroline Calderwood

 

A Remarkable Success

Now I don’t know if you have realised that, in being a member of the winning team, Jane Lennon has won the last four tournaments she has played in, and she is to be congratulated on this singular success. Furthermore, she did this with three different partners.

I would hazard a guess that this is the first time this has been achieved in Canterbury, but if anyone knows whether any other Cantabrian has done this in the past, then the writer would be pleased to know.

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