2015 October newsletter
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October 9th 2015
Kia Ora Tatou,
With October, the weather starts to actually feel like spring. You may be tempted to spend a little more time in the garden, the croquet fields, the golf course, out on, or maybe even in the water. The weather can be unreliable, and it is always nice to spend time exercising your brain and keeping those neurons limber. Fortunately, you can do plenty of that here.
In this Month's edition:
Congress Report Upcoming Club Events- This Month Upcoming Club Events - Mark Your calendar Introducing- The Chair of New Zealand Bridge Foundation Achievements - Club Level Achievements - Regional Achievements - National Ethics, Laws and SportsmanshipRemuera Rise Teams October 22nd
Wes Dodd October 31st
Ron Klinger Workshops November 1st & 2nd
AGM November 8th
Our Wonderful Sponsors this month were:
Remuera Rise
Star Print
Upcoming Club Events - Mark Your Calendar
At months end, there are just two more months until year's end... Which means the Club Christmas Restricted tournament is imminent. This tournament is for club members only, and no two open grade players may enter as a partnership.
Congress ReportCongress is the premiere event of the NZ bridge calendar. Players come from all around the country, and across the ditch, to play in a variety of events that take place over the 8 days. The most prominent event for our club, was the opportunity to defend the John Wignall Cup which we won at last years congress. The cup is for the Club Championship, which is a teams competition to determine the Top Club in New Zealand. The full team consists of three, four person teams from each grade, Junior, Intermediate and Open. Each of these teams plays the other teams of the same grade, and the results of each round are tallied up. The club with the best overall score is awarded the cup. The competition was devised as a means to encourage more Intermediate and particularly Junior players to participate in congress. In years past the competition has been won by the performance of the Junior teams, as the Open in particular and often the Intermediate grades tend to be fairly even. This did not sit particularly well with our Intermediate and Open teams, however. After the first two rounds in the opening session on Friday evening, it was clear that everyone on the team had come to PLAY! Six wins in six games. We were off to a strong start. Play resumed on Saturday morning. Two more rounds for each grade, and six more wins. Then there was only the final round to go in the round robin event. As luck would have it, the final team we were to face was Palmerston North, whose Junior and Open teams were also unbeaten at this stage, placing them second overall in the competition. The final round had become a match up worthy of a final. We had a team meeting after each round, and leading up to this final round, Patrick Carter stated he'd be quite happy if we can just hold the Palmerston North team off sufficiently for us to retain the cup. Dave Garrett agreed an overall win would be nice, but a clean sweep would be even better. As it happened, Patrick and Dave both had their way. We were able to hold off the Palmerston North team, and achieve a clean sweep. Jubilation all round. The Team is pictured:at the back from left Babs-Merel de Visser, Dave Garrett, Peter Hensman. Middle Row from left: Tony Jiang, Mark Robertson, Sylvester Riddell, , Fiona Moon. Front from left: Julia Zhu, Denise Mayhew, Julie Atkinson Patrick Carter (Holding the John Wignall cup) Richard Parkinson. Photo credit: Dave Edson The team would also like to thank Anne Barrowclough, John Buckleton, Anna Powell, Celia Powers, Douglas Russell and Deborah Tangney who gave up a September Sunday afternoon to offer the team a little diversity during a pre-congress coaching session. Congress event results are listed below in Achievements - National Level |
Memorable Hand from Club Champs.
Patrick and Julie sitting N/S scored a whopping 2040 points on this hand.
Can you work out the contract and result to achieve this score?
Answer in the November edition
Introducing NZ Bridge Federation Chairman
23 September 2015
Appointment- Chairman New Zealand Bridge Foundation
Allan Morris is a member of the Auckland and Akarana Bridge Clubs. He has served on the Auckland Committee for the past 10 years including a term as President. Allan was brought up in a bridge family. His mother was Zelda Morris, NZ Women's Bridge Representative (for those that can remember that far back). A combination of a busy professional career, family commitments and the thought of having to compete with his mother meant that Allan, did not start playing competitively until 2003. Since then he and his wife Bev play at virtually every event going in the Auckland / Northland Region. They have two daughters, Jessica who is also a keen bridge player but as so often happens in bridge families Philippa has shown no interest in playing the game. Allan has had a distinguished professional career of over 30 years in the insurance industry. Before retiring in 2005 he was Chief Executive of Willis NZ Limited. He has also been, and still is, a Director of a number of New Zealand companies, including JLT New Zealand, a sponsor of New Zealand Bridge. Away from Bridge he plays a mean game of golf (trust me, I have seen it) and tennis and is still keenly interested in business and politics. Allan is a very friendly and approachable guy who describes himself as "a competitive personality who likes to achieve and succeed". He is passionate about the future of Bridge. The NZ Bridge Board and the Trustees of the NZ Bridge Foundation are delighted Allan has agreed to be a trustee and the new Chairperson of the Foundation.
The Board thanks Jo Clark, the inaugural Chair of the Foundation, for her service and dedication to that task for the past 6 years and wish her all the best for the future.
Arie Geursen Chairman
Achievements - Regional LevelCongratulations to those of our club members who competed in tournaments around the Northland Auckland Bridge region over the September period. Playing in tournaments around the region provide opportunities to play against different players, support other clubs while improving your play, and on a good day you can earn rewards that exceed those of club sessions. Auckland Club hosted the Billie Tohill 3A Open Pairs and the Tudor Biggs Rosebowl 5B Intermediate pairs. Congratulations to our club members Trudy Leitl Cup for top (non placing) Junior pair: Fiona Moon/Babs-Merel de Visser Tudor Biggs Rosebowl: Julie Hawkes/Patty Spencer for winning (and being the actual top placed Junior Pair) and Jill Benton/ Heather Salmons placing 2nd John Wang and partner for placing 4th, and Allan Morris/Beverley Morris placing 5th in a competitive field for the Billie Tohill Cup. Royle Epsom Hosted their Single Session 3B Junior Pairs. Congratulations to our club members Lee McGovern and Lanell Monreal who finished with the top North South score which placed them 3rd overall. Howick Hosted their Open and Intermediate pairs, with a prize for the best placed junior pair. Congratulation to Rachel Goffin and Partner for placing third in the Open tournament |
Achievements - National Level
September kicked off with the National Swiss Pairs in Otago, where several members traveled in favour over our Billie Tohill held the same weekend.
Hamilton Club hosted the Waikato Bays Main Centre Swiss Pairs, Congratulations to Julie Atkinson / Patrick Carter for placing 4th overall.
National congress provided a further glut of opportunity for national competition at all levels. Here's the summary of our club members that did well in their events.
New Zealand Pairs: Patrick Carter/Julie Atkinson 5th
Congress Pairs: Peer Bach/Michael Curry 2nd
Novice Pairs: Lee McGovern/Heather Robertson 1st=
New Zealand Open Restricted Pairs: Michael Stuckey & partner 2nd, Peter Hensman/Richard Parkinson 3rd. Alice Young/John Wang 4th
New Zealand Teams: Kathrin Boardman & team mates 2nd
Point-a-Board Teams: Michael Curry and team mates 2nd=, Alice Young/John Wang and team mates 4th=
New Zealand Intermediate Teams: Peter Thomson/Bruce Wright & Fiona Moon/Babs-Merel de Visser Top Junior Team and 4th Overall, Chris Fleming and team mates 5th
New Zealand Senior Teams: Graham Wakefield & team mates 5th
Club Championship Teams: (in case you missed the story on the front page of the website, or at the top of this newsletter) AUCKLAND Bridge club
New Zealand Mixed Pairs: Patrick Carter/Julie Atkinson 2nd
New Zealand Same Sex Pairs: Tracey Lewis & partner 4th
New Zealand Senior Pairs: Sue Spencer/Bev Guilford
Restricted Swiss Pairs: John Wang/Alice Young 2nd, Pru Robertson/Mike Cooper 4th
Ethics, Laws, and Sportsmanship
In Septembers newsletter, we brought your attention to the story that was just breaking in the International bridge scene of Boye Brogeland and former team mates returning their winnings and titles on the world Bridge stage, due to alleged cheating of yet other team mates, the Israeli pair of Lotan Fischer and Ron Schwartz.
Shortly after the allegations were made public, the alleged signalling code was identified and cracked by a Dutch astronomer, and while viewing the final vs an Italian pair, she noted irregularities in the Italian's play too. As a result of these allegations, the Isreali team withdrew from the Bermuda Bowl - the Bridge equivalent of the Web Ellis Cup currently contested by Rugbys best teams- the Italians also withdrew. Hot on their heels, the Germans withdrew when one of the their pairs admitted to cheating and shortly thereafter yet another pair has been disqualified by the WBF.
There are a number of things that are permissible within Bridge Law to signal partner, a great deal more that are not. One of the areas that many players are not aware of, is their rights and responsibilities while they are dummy. It is timely then that this helpful article from Matthew McManus of Australia be shared.
Dummy’s Rights and Wrongs by Matthew McManus,
International Bridge Director
Occasionally, perhaps unwisely, you have to let partner play a hand. As you watch from your position as dummy, you may experience a degree of apprehension. In this article, I would like to describe what the laws say you can and cannot do while you are dummy.
After the opening lead is faced, dummy places their cards face up on the table, sorted into suits with the lowest cards closest to declarer, and with trumps, if any, on dummy’s right.
Apart from this, there are no other requirements in the laws as to the arrangement of the suits.
There is nothing which demands that the suits must be placed black/red/black/red or spades/hearts/diamonds/clubs, as some players seem to believe.
One thing that dummy should ensure is that all 13 cards are visible. If the defenders mis-defend because one of dummy’s cards is hidden, then the director is likely to rule in their favour.
During the play, dummy is significantly limited in what they are able to do.
One right that dummy does have is to attempt to prevent an irregularity from occurring. So, if you see partner about to play a card from their own hand when the lead is in dummy, or if declarer is about to call for a card from dummy when the lead is in their own hand, you can pipe up and try to stop declarer. However, once the irregularity has occurred, you can no longer say anything - it is up to the defenders to point out the infraction. So if declarer calls for the "ace of spades", you don't say, "You're in hand". You should just play the AS and let the other players say something if they notice.
Secondly, as dummy, you may check that partner hasn't revoked when they fail to follow suit. This is usually accomplished by dummy saying something like, "No clubs, partner?" and declarer confirming that they haven't revoked by replying, "Having none." (Note that this right to check is lost if dummy has done something foolish like looking at declarer's or a defender's hand.)
Otherwise, dummy is just there to play the cards on Declarer’s instruction.
Dummy may perhaps ask declarer to repeat the card they called for if they (honestly) didn't hear. Apart from that, dummy is seriously restricted in what they can say or do during the hand.
Some of the things that you might want to do, but CANNOT include:
· Tell partner they have a trick pointed the wrong way after a lead has been made to the next trick
· Play a card before it is called for by declarer (even if it is a singleton)
· Express surprise at partner's choice of card from dummy
· Encourage partner to play dummy's little card which you know is good, but thye don't seem to
· Call the director before anyone else has drawn attention to an infraction
· Ask a defender if they have revoked
At the end of the hand, dummy now has the right to point out any infractions that they noticed during play. For example, this is the time when you can point out that revoke you saw that no one else did. But don't do it beforehand as you may jeopardise your right to redress from the director.
Desperately Seeking Susanponsors
Are you, or someone you know a bit of a priMA DONNA?
Okay, that was a pretty lame joke, but it got your attention, and we'd love some more sponsors so we can pay them some attention. Our club needs more sponsors so we can provide prizes for our events... this will lead to more participation, and people from other clubs coming to play, which leads to more exposure for our sponsors. Please see Club Manager Deborah Tangney with your fabulous sponsorship offers.
Your Newsletter
This is your club Newsletter. Your contributions are not only welcome, they promote our club and members within our membership. If you would like to see the newsletter expand, and help towards that, here are some ideas in ways that you could help:
Have an amusing Bridge anecdote?
Did you play a particularly challenging hand you'd like to share?
Did you experience an example of good sportsmanship?
Want to make a semi-regular contribution to the newsletter?
It has been suggested that a regular feature introducing one of our longstanding and/or active members, would be an excellent means of introducing these people to those new to our club - would you be interested in writing one or two per year?
Please contact babsmerel@gmail.com
Deadline for the November edition is October 31st