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Saluting the winners.

The Babich Wines New Zealand Wide Pairs took place on the evening of Friday October 30^th at 57 clubs all around New Zealand. That was the same number of clubs as in 2019 though there were 26 fewer tables this year. That was still a decent number, 444 tables.

As in 2019, the largest number of tables were at the Wellington Club (18) followed by Nelson (16.5), Napier (12), Otago (11.5), Auckland, Christchurch, Franklin, Mt Albert and Upper Hutt(11), Rangiora (10.5) and Waikanae and Warkworth (10).

A special thanks to all who turned out and to all those clubs who put on a heat, no matter how small, with net proceeds of in the region of $13,000 going to support the excellent work of the New Zealand Bridge Foundation.

Also, thanks to all those who assisted in the organisation of the heats and to the scoring team of Bob Fearn, Michael Neels, Anna Kalma and Jan Spaans. 53 of the 57 heats were scored before midnight on Friday evening, the remaining four on Saturday morning.

Here then are the top scorers:

Place		Heat	%	Direction
1.	Vivienne Sexton and Maureen Ruus	Kerikeri	72.16	E/W
2.	Jody and Barry Whale	Royle Epsom	69.48	Howell
3.	Pryor Rowland and Peter Farley	Waikanae	69.46	E/W
4.	Alan Grant and Nigel Kearney	Wellington	68.80	N/S
5.	Sharon and John Mosley	Hawera	67.19	N/S
6.	Ian Bond and Lynette Morgan	Matamata	66.72	N/S
7.	Teri Sonal and Charmaine Hanbury-Webber	Kaikoura	66.21	E/W
8.	Carolyn Wood and Robin Young	Marlborough	66.06	N/S
9.	Paddy Ward and Neil Catherall	Masterton	66.04	N/S
10.	Clare Martin and Diane Werder	Hawera	65.59	N/S

 

Rumour has it that North-South had the better of the hands though the top North-South pair were only 4^th overall. However, only 3 of the top 10 pairs and only 6 out of the top 20 pairs sat East-West throughout.

Last years winners scored a most impressive 75.67% and the top scores were generally a little lower this year, with 10^th last year being 67.14%. Nevertheless, 72.14 is a pretty tidy result!

These are the prize-winners (wine prizes):

 

1st	Vivienne Sexton and Maureen Ruus	Kerikeri
2.	Jody and Barry Whale	Royle Epsom
3.	Pryor Rowland and Peter Farley	Waikanae
4.	Alan Grant and Nigel Kearney	Wellington
5.	Sharon and John Mosley	Hawera

 

Top Restricted Open Pairs

1.	Joy Hughes and Jan Ireland	Alexandra	64.15
2.	Jill McLean and Barry E Smith	Timaru	63.28

 

Top Pairs Below Open

1.	Teri Sonal and Charmaine Hanbury-Webber	Kaikoura	66.21
2.	Clare Martin and Diane Werder	Hawera	65.59

 

Top Pairs Below Intermediate

1.	Lauren Lehndorf and Pamela Frank	Taupo	62.44
2.	Oriel Heseltine and Dianne Knight	Warkworth	60.26

     

  Nearest to 50%

1st=	Rachel Baskerville and Ambrose Fok	Wellington	50.01
1st=	Pauline Mulligan and Sharon Stretton	Auckland	49.99

 

Top Youth Scores (non-wine prizes)

1st	Jack James and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskins	Napier	63.56
2nd	Zachary Yan and Kevin Hu	Howick	52.82

 

All who won a heat based on the across-the-field results, North-South and East-West receive one A Point. These are the regional winners, 3A’s for 1^st, 2 for 2^nd and 1 for 3^rd.

Auckland-Northland

		Heat	%	Overall place
1.	Vivienne Sexton and Maureen Ruus	Kerikeri	72.16	1
2.	Jody and Barry Whale	Royle Epsom	69.48	2
3.	Grant Jarvis and Lynne Geursen	Franklin	64.96	13

 

Waikato Bays

		Heat	%	Overall place
1.	Ian Bond and Lynette Morgan	Matamata	66.72	6
2.	Kathy and Ken Yule	Matamata	65.40	11
3.	Rona and John Driscoll	Taupo	65.20	12

 

Central Districts

		Heat	%	Overall place
1.	Sharon and John Mosley	Hawera	67.19	5
2.	Clare Martin and Diane Werder	Hawera	65.59	10
3.	Jack James and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskins	Napier	63.56	20

 

Wellington

		Heat	%	Overall place
1.	Pryor Rowland and Peter Farley	Waikanae	69.46	3
2.	Nigel Kearney and Alan Grant	Wellington	68.80	4
3.	Paddy Ward and Neil Catherall	Masterton	66.04	9

 

Top of the South

		Heat	%	Overall place
1.	Teri Sonal and Charmaine Hanley-Webber	Kaikoura	66.21	7
2.	Carolyn Wood and Robin Young	Marlborough	66.06	8
3.	Pamela Dravitzki and Kathryn Brookes	Motueka	64.08	19

 

Canterbury

		Heat	%	Overall place
1.	Jill McLean and Barry E Smith	Timaru	63.28	22
2.	Trish and Peter Downward	Ashburton	61.77	45
3.	Greg Buzzard and Harry Shepherd	Timaru	59.27	93

 

Otago – Southland

		Heat	%	Overall place
1.	Brian Papps and Dennis Norman	Oamaru	64.17	17
2.	Joy Hughes and Jan Ireland	Alexandra	64.15	18
3.	Lynne Fegan and Geogie Roberts	Wanaka	62.75	29

 

Just one story for now from the event. Hopefully, there will be one or two others when we show you the prize-winners. Have you ever been disgusted when your partner did not lead your suit? That fate was apparently bestowed on one North when they tried a diamond even though their partner had bid hearts before a rather quickly bid slam:

 

South was not at all happy when the opening lead was a diamond before dummy appeared though they felt a little happier when the K won the first trick with the A always going to score. Had North dutifully led a heart, the defence would have been soon writing down -1370 as the diamond loser would disappear on the Q before South could gain the lead.

There is a moral there, certainly about waiting to see dummy and the end result before any note of disapproval be made. A great lead from North… and I am sure that South would have agreed.

If you have a good story from the event, a good play, an amusing incident, please either email me on richardharoldsolomon@gmail.com or call me on 09 232 8494 and tell me about it.

Richard Solomon

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