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Crockfords Bridge Club Mixed Teams’ Nights: A Great Concept.

 

Thanks to the energies of one of Crockfords' popular directors, this bridge club in Christchurch has been running very successful teams’ events on the second Friday of each month. The idea was the brainchild of Crockfords’ director, Luisa McNabb. Luisa comments:

 

“I originally thought of the idea of a mixed club Teams’ event at the beginning of this year, knowing how little Teams bridge is used as a non-competitive event and how much fun it can be.

 

Most clubs in Christchurch are non-affiliated with NZ Bridge and their players would not ordinarily meet people from the other clubs. I thought this was a pity as there are some rather good players out there, a good variety of abilities, and also some very nice people!

 

So, I put the idea to the Crockfords' committee. and they liked it, and agreed we could trial it for a few months to see if it could get the idea off the ground.

 

On our first evening in February, we had 12 teams. There were 15 teams in March, 18 in April, 20 in May and this month, June, we had 18 teams again. A great turn- out as there were 2 other tournaments that weekend.

 

We have 2 sections. The first involving more senior players play Swiss, 4 matches of 6 boards,  while the second could play Swiss, Round-Robin or even Multiple Teams depending on numbers. Thus, there are 2 sets of winners, a lovely shared supper and the bar is open all evening – service at your table by our club president.

 

I am very happy the idea has been so well supported. We have players from 8 different clubs in Christchurch attending. We have also had visitors from Westport, Napier, Amberley, and even a couple from Devon in the UK.

Over the 5 evenings so far, an average 14% have come solely from non-affiliated clubs while the figure increases to 22% if one includes those who belong to both affiliated and non-affiliated clubs.

 

   "1991"

 
Now, we know this team title refers to the two players on the right. 
The other two are aged somewhere inbetween! The senior grade winners 
in June were John Hay, Jan Barrow, Freda Herring and Freddy Wilkie. 
They came from 4 different clubs, Christchurch, Crockfords, Cashmere 
and Sumner, a perfect example of the success of this event. 

 

The June event saw another successful night with various combination of clubs in some teams. There was a team with 3 generations of players from one family, one Italian team, and another team named “1991”, – the youngest player being 19 and the most experienced player 91! The latter two teams won in their respective sections. 

The Italians

 
Winners of the more Junior section. We have Domenico Mayone, 
Marie McHugh, Marco Reale and Donatella Menzella. 
A touch of Celtic in there too, perhaps? 

 

Players coming to Christchurch for the weekend are very welcome. Please contact Luisa McNabb who will sort you out with a team.

 Ph/Text: 021 126 0922    Email: lucy.mini@hotmail.com "

 The dates of this event for the rest of this year (all Friday evenings) are:

 

July 14^th     August 11^th     September 8^th    October 13th

November 10th                December 8th

 

The November 10th event will be held alongside the NZ Wide Pairs that evening.

 

This seems a great way of bringing bridge players together in a relaxed environment.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

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