Forty-eight Peninsula players sailed forth (most literally on the ferry across Broken Bay) to visit Brisbane Waters Bridge Club in the first head to head interclub event. This event - the brainchild of their Christine Hadaway and on our side Vivien Eldridge, Anne Small, Catherine Whiddon and Sue Falkingham - was designed in particular to provide a fun teams day for each club's large numbers of novice players. We had four teams with members all under 10MP.
The heavy morning rain did not upset our spirits (fortunately Brisbane Waters Bridge Club picked us up from Ettalong wharf) and we quickly settled into the format. Experienced players helped teams newbies to cope with the different scoring, the number of boards played was reduced for the restricted and novice fields, and finger food was served in the longer breaks between rounds to encourage social interaction.
"Bridge enjoys immense popularity partly because of the high standards of ethics and etiquette which are observed by the players who are expected to conduct themselves in a highly civilised manner.
Violations of proper etiquette are quite common from inexperienced players, either through ignorance or inadvertence. A well-mannered opponent who is the victim of a violation by such a novice player will, if comment is considered necessary, be at pains to make it clear that the comment is intended to be helpful and will never make a newcomer feel ill-at-ease. Bridge is an extremely ethical game..."
Read the full article on the ABF website.
Peninsula players did well at the 2017 NSW State Restricted and Novice Championships in Wollongong on 4-5 November.
Peter Clarke and Hans van Weeren continued their recent triumphs by winning the Restricted State Championship (less than 300MP) with team mates Jeff Conroy and Jill Bentley. They won decisively with a VP tally of 125.72, more than 30 points ahead of second place. Check the Restricted Championships full results.
Marieta Borthwick, Heidi Colenbrander, Ray Hurst and Annegrete Kolding were runners-up in larger and closer field in the Novice State Championships (less than 100MP). They had no match losses and scored 108.06 less than five points short of the winners. Check the Novice Championships full results.
Trish Giles has won the 2017 Stebbins competition, ahead of runner-up Anne Small. It was a four week event that saw many players humbled but not Trish and Anne, nor Annegrete Kolding who won the <100MP category.
Board 16 in the final session was notable - with game contracts in both directions. In fact 12 tricks made in Hearts by North five times (including one doubled and one redoubled), while eleven tricks were made in Spades by West at all the other eight tables!
Check the full results.
This is one of Peninsula’s prestige events so find a team and sign up at the club. This held over three weeks starting on Thursday 9 November and will be directed by Ronnie Ng.
Check the event for full details and how to enter.
The strategy for Swiss teams is different to the normal matchpoint pairs we play at most of Peninsula's sessions. This is a good article about the different tactics.
Vona lost her life this October after an almost 18 month battle with cancer. Till the end one of her passions was bridge. She and Alan joined Peninsula Bridge Club in 2000 and Vona last played on 3 August this year.
Her funeral was low key, family focused and attended by a large contingent of her bridge family.
Vona loved to represent the club in congresses and interclub events. She was a very good player with 830+ masterpoints and relished the challenge of playing difficult to make contracts. She was also an enthusiastic doubler always saying to the opposition: “I think I’ll give you a kiss”.
Over the years as well as representing the club Vona was a dealer, and was involved in aspects of catering and mentoring younger players.
Farewell Vona you will be missed.
Great news! Peter Clarke and Hans van Weeren were successful winning the two-day Two Men and a Truck Restricted Teams at the 2017 Sydney Spring Nationals event. And Marieta Borthwick, Heidi Colenbrander, Ray Hirst and Annegrete Kolding won the Novice Teams, playing in the same field. Check the full results.
Peter and Hans' team won convincingly with a VP tally of 88.61, 14VPs ahead of the closely contested minor places. They earned more than 10MP, suggesting their time in the Restricted category may not continue forever... The only team to beat them was the Borthwick-Colenbrander-Hirst-Kolding team!
Maggie Gibbs and Susan Jensen won the three week Under 100MP Championship Pairs after an excellent third week result. They ended one point head of runners-up Sue Evershed and John Simmonds. The competition proceeded without issue with eighteen pairs and another set of players are now comfortable with arrow-switching (used to fairly calculate results over the combined north-south and east-west fields). Check the results (including cumulative results) on our website.
There was also an additional two prizes for the best remaining pairs with each player below 50MP and below 15MP. Provisionally these are Alan Jones and Peter Wilson for the under 50MP (and coming third overall) and Donette Taylor and Patsy Wilson for the under 15MP prize.
