Latest News
I suspect that most of us turn up to play bridge without giving thought to the fact that the boards which are delivered to you by the lovely director have been lovingly crafted by a group of volunteers.
It takes several hours every week to "deal" these boards and put them in their containers. Usually a team of two will take 3 to 4 hours to deal the boards for the coming week and when there are special events on that require extra boards it takes a bit longer. There is also a considerable amount of paper work which has to be done in conjunction with each board - photocopying hand records and documenting what has been done to ensure the smooth running of a bridge session.
Congratulations to Vickie Busteed who has recently become an ABF accredited teacher.
This also means Peninsula Bridge Club is probably the first club across Australia to have three accredited teachers (with Cath Whiddon and Sue Falkingham), attesting to our recent teacher training program.
The Members and Novices' Teams was another great teams day. The goal was to help novice pairs enjoy competitive teams play and nine of the ten teams included a novice pair. The only downside was that the novice pairs played east-west and the other direction had more than its share of the strong hands - so the novice pairs had to focus on defence!
The winning team overall was the Farmer team - David Farmer, Cath Whiddon, Sarah Young & Susan Jensen and the prize for the best remaining team with novices was the runners-up Van Weeren team - Hans Van Weeren, Lynn Baker, Noelene McNair and Joan Perkins. Apparently this was Joan's first experience of teams play!
Five Peninsula pairs competed in a field of 66 pairs in the NSW State Mixed Pairs Championships, played on 27-28 May at the NSW Bridge Association.
Congratulations go to Margaret and Michael Draper, who came second in the East-West qualifying field of 33 pairs, and thus managed to make it to the finals field of 14 playing on the Sunday where they came 12th overall.
In the Sunday consolation event, the Autumn Swiss Pairs with 48 entries, our remaining pairs came 9th Catherine Whiddon/David Farmer, 24th Lyn Baker/Hans van Weeren, 30th Vivien Eldridge/Alan Davies, and 45th Anne Small/Ron Smith. Despite mixed success it was a great weekend of bridge - and an excellent competitive field.
The Club reaching the size requiring GST registration has prompted a consideration of the Club's financial situation.
The Club Committee has considered the implications and our appropriate response - and has provided a useful report explaining the situation and the response to members.
Interested members are also invited to an information session to be held at 11am on Saturday 3 June at the Club.
Over the last few months, the Committee has been evaluating the implication of the Club becoming a GST entity from September 2017. It is now able to report back to all members and present the key information. The Committee has identified the actions we believe are required in order to maintain sound financial and operational management. I encourage you to attend the Information Session that will be held at 11am Saturday 3rd June. The Committee wishes members to be fully informed of the reasons for the proposed changes. All the details are available on the website and on the noticeboard at the Club.
There was a great turnout for the Australia Wide Novice Pairs event on Friday 26 May, with 48 members (24 pairs) from Peninsula Bridge Club taking part.
Congratulations to the winners in our part of the event: N/S Sue Evershed and John Simmonds, and E/W Keith Trevallion and Grahame Elith. Check the full results on the Peninsula website and the Australia wide results will be available in due course.
Thanks to director John Rogers.
PS - Also thanks to Ray Hurst for acting as convener – because naturally he didn’t thank himself! And to Heidi Colenbrander and Susan Jensen for the photos - several of which will appear on the club TV slideshow in the near future.
Ten teams battled for the State Open Teams qualifier event run over three Thursdays in May. Directed by Brian Soutter, each team played 10 boards against each other team in a nine match round robin.
Winning were Alan Davies, Vivien Eldridge, David Farmer and Catherine Whiddon, ahead of Jocelyn Bertram, Faye Carnovale, Moya Chappell and Chris Duggin, who just pipped Carmel Bourke, Vona Hadfield, Patricia Lacey and Hans van Weeren. You can see the full results and hand records on the Peninsula website.
The top teams earn free entry into the State Open Teams Sydney Metropolitan Final on Sunday 17 September at the NSWBA. Other teams can compete in this final at their own expense.
