We have received 203 responses to our member survey at the time of writing this article, an impressive 33% response rate from our 608 members. It is not too late. If you have not completed the survey or wish to update your response click on http://bit.ly/PBCSurvey2018. We want to gather as many of our members' views as possible to give us a good foundation for making decisions on your behalf.
A few of our members did not want to include their year of birth and remarkably were born in 2018. That is of course their choice but for some purposes these responses will need to be excluded. For instance it may not be possible to use their survey responses as demographic evidence to demonstrate to Council and other similar bodies our provision of strong community value to senior citizens, and could diminish our claim to stronger community support.
The survey will close at noon on Saturday 30 June. Printed responses will be entered online. The responses will then be augmented by postcode and other relevant membership data held and the results summarized and anonymized in a form useful to the committee and for inclusion into a club demographic and transport needs profile - and interesting summary results published on the website.
The club continues to support visitors and other players who find themselves unexpectedly without a partner at a number of its sessions: Monday afternoons (Green section only), Wednesday afternoons, Wednesday evenings, Friday afternoons and Friday evenings. We also welcome unpartnered players at all of our supervised sessions.
We have started keeping records of the unpartnered players at these sessions and there are many. While we encourage these players to proactively arrange for their own partners, we are glad when we can help those who unexpectedly find themselves partnerless.
Club members will have heard of the grant money we received as part of the federal Stronger Communities Program. We received $7,500 plus GST to be used to fund 50% of $15,000 in eligible spending on bridge equipment to improve the club. We are pleased to note (as we are required to do) that “This project received grant funding from the Australian Government.”
We would also like to note the huge voluntary time commitments that planning and implementing these purchases involved from the Committee and others, and particularly from Bill Fitzsimons, Ken Watson and David Farmer.
We have used this grant money as follows:
Many Peninsula pairs played in the State Mixed Pairs Championship on the weekend of 26-27 May, with Margaret and Michael Draper the most successful. Margaret and Michael, who were representing Manly Leagues Bridge Club, were 6th in the North-South field at the end of the Qualifying round and so earned a place in the 7 table finals. In the Finals they were placed a creditable 12th, with two pairs tying for first place: Kevin ROSENBERG - Susan HUMPHRIES and Warren LAZER - Pauline GUMBY. Some of us will remember Susan Humphries tag teaming with Liam Milne as our Swiss Pairs experts on Tue 22 May.
Other Peninsula members who made the top 20 in each direction in the qualifying event included:
76 Peninsula members played in the 2018 Australia-Wide Novice Pairs on Friday 25 May. Novice players (<50MP) in clubs all over Australia played the same boards and results were scored across the country. A booklet with expert analysis of the hands was provided.
Locally calculated results were published on our website. You can check the national results on the event coordinator's website. These are still provisional at time of writing.
Nationally Sue Evershed and John Simmonds are our best pair, coming 29th across the country with 64.5% according to the results processed at time of writing, ahead of Christine Egan and Dianne Agostino who are 35th with 63.9% and Karl Puse and Yumiko Tsuji who are 41st with 63.3%. Congratulations to these pairs who, once the results are final, need to claim prizes for being in the top 50.
Eight teams, each with at least 2 novice players (less than 100MP), played in the enjoyable Members and Novices Teams Day on Monday 4 July. The goal was to introduce and entice less experienced players into the team format of the game - and the social, fun aspects were enhanced by frequent nibbles (often healthy) and the relaxed 10am-3.30pm, five 8 board match format.
The winners were the Evershed team (Sue Evershed, John Simmonds, Heidi Colenbrander and Ray Hurst) well ahead of the Small team (Anne Small, Nerida Gillies, Lynn Baker and Keith Trevallion).
Check the full results and some great photos from the day.
This month, the Committee has been explaining to members - through talks at the club and information on the website - the key challenge facing our club, namely our future Clubhouse.
The Committee’s decision to prioritise adding additional money to our annual surplus, for the purpose of being well prepared for the future, has received broad support.
The Committee is reviewing the Club’s finances to identify ways to raise money or save money, without taking away from the enjoyment of the game or the friendly experience of playing bridge at our Club. The initial measure of withdrawing winner’s tickets was supported by the majority as an effective first step to adding to our reserves - saving $24,000 a year.
Fourteen teams fought it out over three weeks in this qualifying event for the State Open Teams championship. Congratulations to the Farmer team (Alan Davies, Vivien Eldridge, David Farmer and Catherine Whiddon) for winning, ahead of the runners-up Draper team.
Difficulties of a technical nature prevented the final round results from the State Open Teams qualifier on Thursday 24 May appearing on our normal website display or via Pianola. Consequently we have taken a scan image of the printed results for you to see.
The event was directed by Brian Soutter.
