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The winning team, minus Karen Harris, accepting their prizes.

The Cambridge 6’s started in 2013 and with the exception of a Covid enforced break in 2020 have run every year since. The 11^th such event took place last Saturday in its now regular beautiful home on the shores of Lake Karapiro. In 2018, there were a massive 66 tables. This year with 38 teams of 6, one Open, one Intermediate and one Junior pair per team, there were 57 tables in play. The event is thus still hugely popular…

…and rightly so. It brings together the three groups of players who perhaps would normally play in their own section at a club. Each three pairs play as a team to try to get the top score, 6 x 8 board matches. While most of the players came from the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland, players from as far north as Kaitaia and also from the South Island could be spotted. 

Yet, there is far more to this event than the bridge. There is the dress-up, this year the theme being “Countries” and there were some fabulous contributions.

The Egyptian Wonderers, the “best dressers”

 

normally seen treading the streets of Howick rather than Cairo were the dress-up winners, Leo Sim, Mark and Carina Sim-Smith, Niccolo Nustrini, Anne Sim and William Lockhart.

Each of the teams is introduced at the start of play with all the players voting for the best dressed.

There is the quiz, four sets of general knowledge questions between the rounds of bridge. Even the lunch, provided as part of the entry fee is provided for the teams, served to their home tables.

There were a huge number of nice raffle prizes, too. Naturally, all teams were photographed.

There seems just a wonderfully relaxed good humoured atmosphere around. Behind the scenes, of course, there has been a huge amount of work done by the Cambridge Club Committee and so many other players from that club. Adding to the friendly atmosphere were the directors, Murray and Caroline Wiggins, the scorer, Jan Spaans  and the caddies. This event runs so smoothly because of all the support it receives.

On then to the bridge winners:

Le frog Despair: France     Top Team

 
   Malcolm Smith, Karen Harris, Stewart Lawrence, Jenny Seavill, Bob Jones and Ian Ross.

Their Open pair, Malcolm and Karen, topped the rankings with 82.57 vps from the 6 matches. The Intermediates, Ian and Jenny were 7^th while the Junior pair, Stewart and Bob finished in mid-table. The mainly Hamilton Club team (Malcolm claims allegiance to Cambridge as well) won with 210.65 vps just ahead of “Ukraine” ( Matamata and Te Aroha) on 208.20 and the Papatoetoe Cookies (representing the Cook Islands) on 207.81. Only 5.56 vps separated the top 5 teams.

The top Intermediate Pair were Carol Bearsley and Kerri McCrae (from 10^th placed Team Brazillian) and top Juniors Sue Keating and Els Cochrane (from 4^th placed Waxing Lyrical from Brazil). Sue and Els are new players from the host club which also featured strongly in the Intermediate event, where Denise Whybrow and Nandy Costa were 2^nd and Josie Van Weerd and Don Wilson 3rd.

While not everyone could go home with a prize (though many did), everyone did go home with a pack donated by the event sponsors, AFT Pharmaceuticals.

Oh yes, one of the 48 boards had a lesson about not pushing your opponents too far:

 

You are playing Swiss Pairs. What to do? Basically 5 or Pass.

 East does know  one of their opponents has a void in spades. Strangely, it was the one who had “length” in spades who bid on to 6.

 

Holding club honours, North had a strange feeling that 5 might be close to making. That was not correct but the double fit in hearts and clubs meant 6 would have made for 980.

It was the flattish West hand which bid 6 at adverse vulnerability. They had no honour outside spades and feared the worst, that 6 would make. The sacrifice, +800 to North-South (down 3), proved to be a small gain for East-West though a much poorer result than had East passed 5.

Karen Harris – Malcolm Smith were allowed to play in 6 in the “top of the table” clash against Zachary Yan and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin (who finished in second place)  after this slower auction:

 

 The “5-Level” did thus "belong to the opposition" though not perhaps in the way that the saying was intended.

Perhaps the best compliment one could pay the event is that it has been copied by other regions. Indeed, the Cambridge Club itself runs an “in-house” 6’s event too on its club nights. Congratulations Cambridge.

Richard Solomon

 

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