All News

Unlike the last recap I wrote, it feels like no time has passed since I’ve penned one of these. Then I think back to all the new happenings since then and find that it has actually been a while. Time is a weird thing.

We’ve had a few tournaments since then, which I’ll cover presently. But first I want to call out that a (mostly) new Otago/Southland Regional Committee has been formed, including Judith Lawton (Invercargill) the new committee Chair, Yvonne Hughes (Invercargill), Lynne Fegan (Wanaka), Ernie Sutton (Queenstown), and Brad Johnston (Dunedin). The handover process has been slow from the old committee, but I’m hopeful that in the coming regional reports, I’ll be able to highlight some cool initiatives.

The “new” tournament results from the region are as follows:

Invercargill Swiss Pairs, 14^th November

I always try and find something to say about tournaments, but this one is too far in the past for me to recall much. Geoff Eyles does all of the scoring for events run at the Invercargill Club (he’s their chief Scorer scorer), so maybe a win here was restoring some of the karmic balance for giving so selflessly. Geoff, love your work.

1st	Geoff Eyles & Harry Shepherd	105.29 vp
2nd	Jean-Olivier Begouin & Ernie Sutton	96.17  vp
3rd	Sandy Buzzard & Paul Tomlinson	87.04 vp

     1st overall                                           2nd overall                          Top Intermediates

   
Harry Shepherd, Invercargill Club President   Jean- Olivier Begouin       Trish Clearwater and Lee Davies
Sue Scott and Geoff Eyles                              and Ernie Sutton

 

Nina Hewitt Christmas Pairs, 6^th December

The capstone event for the O/S tournament year. 30 pairs decided to travel from between Invercargill and Waimate to contest this 3A.

		%
1st	Matt Blakeley & Brad Johnston	127.20
2nd	Arleen Schwartz & Jeff Miller	120.32
3rd	Kevin Skoropada & Moss Wylie	116.34

 

A few weeks prior, Matt was the recipient of the C-point trophy for the Open division at the Otago Club. While receiving it, he made sure to thank all of his partners for the year with whom he earned C-points. There was also a special call-out for yours truly, as I was the only person he played with whom he didn’t win a single C-point. I’d like to think that this was something of an apology for that Matt, seeing as you won the trophy anyway.

Alexandra Holiday Pairs, 8^th/9^th January

46 pairs contested this booked out event in Central Otago. Nothing interesting must have happened, because no-one reported anything salacious back to the correspondent, who was too slow in organising anything to enter before it was booked out. It is good to see people coming from so far to play it though, so I hope they enjoyed the venue and the bridge.

		%
1st	Arleen Schwartz & Peter Hall	127.84
2nd	John Patterson & Anne-Marie Russell	125.70
3rd	Phil and Marilyn Noye	121.52

 

Commiserations to Greg Buzzard and Marilyn Jackson, who finished 6^th this year, a few boards off from completing the 2019-2021 hat-trick.

Otago/Southland Swiss Pairs, 16^th January

Back down to Invercargill for the first “big” event of the year. 46 pairs took part, some coming from as far as Akarana to compete. The weather down south was lovely, but sadly I didn’t find the cards the same.

		vps
1st	Anne Cosgrove & Marilyn Jackson	104.55
2nd	Mindy Wu & Pamela Nisbet	102.67
3rd	Trish & Peter Downward	101.26

                           1st, 2nd and 3rd at the Otago Southland Swiss Pairs

               
Marilyn Jackson and          Pamela Nisbet and Mindy Wu receiving   Trish and Peter Downward
 Anne Cosgrove               their prize from Regional Committee
                                        Chairperson, Judith Lawton (right)

It’s always nice when a local pair win a big event like this. I’d also like to point out that three Intermediate pairs took part in the event, and finished 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th respectively. That’s pretty good going, especially looking at the rankings of some of the pairs who finished below that. So well done to each of:

		vps
16th	Sherry & Jeff Elton	86.49
17th	Jan Brown & Yvonne Hughes	82.50
18th	Barbara Hutton & Lydia Turley	81.83

Otago Festival Pairs, 31^st January

And back to the other ‘main centre’ of the South. 34 pairs celebrated the last glorious day in January  by sitting inside playing bridge. Although most seemed to be complaining all light-hearted about the weather, few seemed to be as surly as local player Kristen Collins. So, I was surprised to see the scores as follows:

		%
1st	Donna Ruwhiu &Kristen Collins	126.92
2nd	Paul Freeland& Margaret Perley	124.40
3rd	Brad Johnston& Lydia Turley	117.78

  1st overall                                              Top Intermediates                                 Top Junior Pair

    

Donna Ruwhiu and Kristen Collins           Murray Barron and Dave Larsen (see below)   Archie Crawford and Joan Saunders

I’ll also call out 4^th place here (Murray Barron & Dave Larsen (117.42%)), as they were the top Intermediate pair in the event. Kristen and Donna “struggled” in the morning with a mere 55% set, but followed it up with a 71.88% score to blow past the more consistent 60% & 64% sets posted by Paul and Margaret. I hope winning both their sessions will make up for not winning with that performance.

 And locally, I’d like to report that the Otago Club Teams starting on the 15^th of February, matches every fortnight until the end of November. Currently 25 teams entered. This is always a popular event on the programme and one of our most hotly contested trophies.

 

 

 

Go Back View All News Items