All News

Just In Case Are you one of those players who last took a successful finesse back in 1986…and you have played a lot of bridge since?! If so, read on. If finessing always works for you, then have a coffee instead of reading this..but take a... read more here

    our successful Women's team Let The Fun Begin Once you have qualified for the final stages of any event, you have achieved. In whatever event you are competing, no matter how good you are, qualifying is hard. For our Open and... read more here

‘‘Ducking and Diving” If you play a hand as well as you can, you are sometimes rewarded by an opponent’s slip. That was certainly the case for John O’Connor who is quite a new player to Akarana. He reached 3NT from... read more here

BEWARE THE “DANGER” HAND   Often there is one of the opponents you would like to keep off lead. This can be especially true in no-trumps where one opponent has led their long suit…and you have two holds in the suit... read more here

“The High Road or The Low Road?” There are times when the standard approach to bidding makes it difficult to explore for the best contract especially when you are in the “maybe slam zone”. “One step too many”... read more here

Look up the results of the 4 Kiwi Teams competing.  Also a radio interview, some photos and a video. Click here to listen to Richard Solomon being interviewed by RNZ (13th Sept, 2016) Click here to view a video clip from Wroclaw... read more here

The “Free” Finesse that “Cost”. Call it a free finesse, one where you will not lose the trick even if it fails. Call it a “Greek Gift”. Whatever you call it, it was one down in a contract that never should... read more here

ARE YOU PLAYING IN THE NATIONAL BRIDGE CONGRESS? Saturday September 23rd until Saturday October 2nd 2016 Do you remember the wise old owl? He is a wealthy creature. Why? He paid for the National Bridge Congress BY 31st August. We will give you a... read more here

A “Helping” hand Your partner is there to help your side. Believe it! It’s true. Just because they do not always lead the suit you bid (they had their reasons, maybe valid ones!) or return your suit to give you a ruff (check out... read more here

Counting ... Down That’s the idea if you are defending. “That”? Why, to beat the contract! Playing Pairs, there are times when you want to restrict overtricks but generally, your score will look much better if you have beaten... read more here

The local Wellington weather has again provided excellent conditions for bridge. The big event of this period was the 10A Regional Teams event, hosted by the Hutt Bridge Club and attracting 18 teams.  Newell (Peter Newell, Martin Reid, GeO... read more here

All in the name of Youth Bridge. "Mafia" takes over from Bridge. The Christchurch Bridge Club was taken over from Friday 12th until Sunday 14th August by a group of 44 keen young bridge players coming from all over the country to indulge in a... read more here

Winners of the Wanganui Open held in mid-July were Bob Hurley and Pam Livingston though the highest score of the day (67.11%) came from the familiar faces of Ken Bateman and Noel Woodhall (pictured above). Meanwhile, Patrick D'Arcy and Graeme... read more here

EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS EASY, IT’S HARD. Or” It Isn’t over until the fat lady sings.” “What’s that” you may ask? “Why, defence, of course!” Another way of looking at this is that a contract is not... read more here

"The Union Jacks" from Cambridge...just there to have a good time.   It was all happening at the Don Rowlands Centre at Karapiro near Cambridge on Saturday 13th August  where Cambridge  Bridge Club hosted the largest one day event... read more here

Over the last 12 months, NZB has been working on major changes to our site. It has been a work in progress and still is.  We know it is not perfect and there are still things we want to improve, but recently we addressed some issues.... read more here

Hello from a very wet and chilly Auckland. Many of our bridge players have taken refuge from the incessant rain by playing in the warmth and comfort of our very welcoming clubs over this period. Down in Papatoetoe in June, Gary Chen and Blair... read more here

BEATING OR NOT BEATING THE PART-SCORE Sorry, no great end-play to make an impossible slam this week. This is routine every day what went right or in this case wrong defending a part-score. The first question is after an illuminating sequence of:... read more here

Andrew and Trevor The North Island Pairs Trevor Robb and Andrew Janisz, members of this year’s New Zealand Seniors team which is soon to leave for the Olympiad events in Poland, were victorious in last weekend’s North Island Pairs at... read more here

“Twice in one night” Can lightning strike twice in one night? With our weather at present, the answer must certainly be “yes”. Yet, we are talking about more pleasant matters like “opening leads”. You can get... read more here

AN ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS Now, I am not calling you an elephant, at least not in public! I do, though, want you to justify my faith in you by getting two problems right. One is a little easier than the other. Both are on the same theme. In each... read more here

  Calling all readers but especially those on Stewart Island. Welcome to Rhondda and Jeff Bergman. It's OK. We know our geography and that our southern island is not really that close to Nelson or Picton! Read on: Tournament News Maurice... read more here

The last morning of July saw the annual Auckland-Northland Teams Bridge competition take place at the Howick Bridge Club. Four schools were represented by 11 teams in what was a four round Swiss competition. After winning the trophy for the first... read more here

Well done, Whakatane. I am going to cheat a little this month and give my typing finger a rest(it’s the most well- worn finger in New Zealand!)and give the floor to one of our smaller bridge clubs which has something important to say. For... read more here

Janice Jones, Orewa This feature started in June with the award to Rona Driscoll, who is known nationally as well for the huge amount of time given to her own club. As we stated, a volunteer can help a club in many ways and to be our... read more here

“Good Prediction, Owen” When the opposition have done well against you and say words like “obvious defence” or “everyone will do that”, you have a little hope that your world has not caved in. Last night, it... read more here