All News

The Hawera Open Pairs tournament held on September 6th attracted a high quality field and indicated that players were keen to re-establish their links with competitive bridge play after such a disjointed programme in recent times. Players from New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North and Hawke’s Bay joined a good turnout of local pairs to make up 14 tables. 

We all know that the cream always rises to the top. This was a very evident fact at Hawera where the top 4 pairs are Grand Masters. 

 
   Hawera winners, Anita Thirtle and Steve Baron

Anita Thirtle/Steve Baron had a comfortable winning margin but Sandra Calvert/Colin Carryer (2nd), Sarah Green/Effie Gallic (3rd) and the evergreen pairing of Jan Whyte/Ken Bateman were in a close finish for the minor money. Congratulations to the leading group. A very good performance was the 9th placing of a local Intermediate pair. Well done, Irene Taunt and Helen Kelly.

 Swiss at Havelock North

Havelock North club held a Swiss Pairs event on September 26th. Again, the Grand Masters performed true to form.  Jan Whyte/Carolyn Yeomans had the very slim winning margin of 0.19% over John Pitts/George Masters with Greg Whitten/Arthur Bennett in 3rd place.

 In Lieu of National Congress

With no National Congress this year, the main action over the weekend of  26/27th September was at New Plymouth. Both rooms were in use on the Saturday, each with 12 tables in play. 

The Junior/Intermediate Pairs was won by the Stratford husband and wife pairing of Theresa and Brian Needham. They had a 2%  lead before lunch and increased it to 6% over New Plymouth’s Nalini Gopinathan and Maree Cave  in 2nd place and Annette Weaver/Audrey Young.

Sorry to say that there are no photos of these people. Anita and I didn’t attend on the Saturday and nobody else took photos. This has happened in previous years too when dual sessions are the go. We will make a point of fixing this flaw in future.

The New Plymouth Open Pairs attracted a high-quality field of 24 pairs, with some from Auckland, some from Wellington, and most from points in between. Locals were 1st and 3rd. Russell Wilson/Wayne Beasley’s 58 and 64% gave them a 7% win over Auckland visitors Setsuko Lichtnecker/Peer Bach with Lynette and David O’Shaughnessy a solid 3rd. 
                                   New Plymouth Winners

                           
Pairs' winners, Russell Wilson                            Swiss Pairs winners, John Patterson (left)
and Wayne Beasley                                           and Kate Davies (right)

Swiss Pairs are always popular. I’m a fan of them. It’s a good feeling to win a match, especially against better-performing opponents.  

36 pairs entered for this event which was held over 7 rounds. It was very close between 2nd, 3rd and 4th but the comfortable winners were the Wellington pair of Kate Davies/John Patterson. Pam Livingston/John Davidson held 2nd ahead of Jack James/Wayne Burrows with Sarah Green/Kevin Upson in 4th place.
                                       Highly placed in the Swiss Pairs

                   
  2nd were Pam Livingston and                 3rd were Jack James and Wayne Burrows 
John Davidson 
                               (also featured above is Anne Wilson, the events' sponsor. See below)

A special mention must be made of the sporting and generous sponsorship of Anne Wilson who is a Licensed Real Estate Agent for RE/MAX in New Plymouth. Herself a bridge player, Anne has been a sponsor for many years and her enthusiasm for the game is obvious to all. I like her Business credo which is:  “Up front and down to earth.”  Good one, Anne. Thank you and good luck. 

It is great to see our clubs opening up again, hopefully with the same or even better numbers than before the break. Many would have missed playing, with on-line bridge not being everyone's way of playing.

Anne appears in all the photos from the Saturday. She played in the Open Swiss on the Sunday.

Go Back View All News Items