Bridge Club News

About a dozen Peninsula members played in the weekend events (20-21 Oct) at the Sydney Spring Nationals. The best success was achieved by Heidi Colenbrander and Ray Hurst who came third in the Restricted Pairs category (<300MP). Annegrete Kolding and Sandie Rooke came 5th in the Novice Pairs. Congratulations to both pairs.

Our Peninsula expeditionary group included a range of our players from an enthusiastic rookie (learned only a couple of months ago) to those with a fair bit more experience. Most of the pairs in the open competition experienced doses of humility while enjoying some challenging boards. The weekend events were Swiss matchpoint pairs - the rest of the Spring Nationals is teams-based and some of our members are playing there as well. Anne Small and Hans van Weeren did well coming 18th in the open teams. You can see all the Spring National results. Thanks to Annegrete Kolding for the photo.

Six members received ABF Rank promotions on one day when photographer Annegrete Kolding was able to capture them.

The early rank promotions can be very significant for newer players and there were a number of these in the six.

The recipients were Brigitte Grover, Patricia Whicker, Farzi Sayfi, Sandy Carter, Yvonne Edwards and Maria Witeski.

Tuesday night numbers have eased a little compared with the same time last year. While this can probably be attributed to the 2017 program of external expert teacher-directors, we are trying to consider what we can do to increase numbers. 

Interested members who play at the session have been contributing and brainstorming different ideas. We had a face-to-face discussion in mid August and have another planned for 6.15pm on Tuesday 9 September to identify a few of these ideas to trial at the Tuesday night session during the rest of 2018. If you can see yourself playing at this session you are very welcome to join us. 

If you have ideas about how to improve another session you play in, chat to your fellow players and send your thoughts into the Committee. 

Two Peninsula teams made the top five places in a good field of 23 teams at the Trumps Spring Teams on 23 September.

Runners-up on the day were Jocelyn Bertram, David Farmer, Lyn Smith and Catherine Whiddon, with only one loss to the winning Trumps team including Derrick Browne.

Coming fifth were Gerard Hardy, Anne Small, Derek Tyms and Hans van Weeren. Full results are available on the Trumps website.

Gerard De Jong is one of our unsung volunteers, who you can sometimes catch emptying the club's garbage bins.

When I caught him in the act last week and thanked him, he made just one request - could we ask members to take more care in putting the right materials in the right bin? He finds it very annoying, and disappointing, when he finds food scraps in one of the recycling bins.

So "please be careful".

The 2018 AGM saw some changes to our management committee:

• John Rogers and Terry Rothwell did not renominate after several years of very valuable contribution as Committee members - they are still continuing to provide huge contributions in other areas
• Ken Watson joins the Committee - Ken is a long term club member, has been a committee member before and is our current Technology Working Group coordinator ensuring, in particular, that our computers work as they should and our critical data is backed up
• Susan Eason joins the Committee - Susan is a keen newer player and we look forward to her perspective and contribution to the Committee and the club.

Whenever I attend one of Joan’s workshops, I come away thinking, ‘How does she do that? She makes something difficult seem so simple!’ Her next counting workshop at our Club will be no exception. Come along to learn a technique that will improve not only your game, but also the enjoyment of the game. See you there.

Check the workshop details and how to register. Presented by one of Australia’s best-known bridge teachers, Joan Butts, this workshop is multi-level and suitable for players of all abilities.

I would like to invite members to participate in this members-only, red-point trophy event which will be played on four successive Mondays commencing 8 October.

It is an "individual" event. To be eligible to win, a member must play with a different member each week - the best three scores will count.

No need to sign up. Just turn up on 8 October. Check the event details in the calendar. Trish Giles has won the 2017 Stebbins competition, ahead of runner-up Anne Small.

Alan Davies, convener