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Auckland News with Douglas Russell

This week's News comes from the city with the most bridge clubs and traffic jams in the country. Any connection between

the two? If only....

Well, it is nice to see that reports from the regions have come back to life, albeit in a slightly different form from the previous regular regional round-ups. That grumpy old curmudgeon, Biritch the Russian Blue, had been querulously wondering when we might see his name in e-print again. Anxious to protect the reputation of the good folk who rule NZ Bridge from the vitriol of his tongue, I told him that the future of the on-line magazine and its content was under review. He just gave me that very familiar contemptuous look of his, and crept back under the bed.

 

Biritch's "sidekick", Douglas.

 

So what has been happening in our neck of the bridge woods lately? Lots of tournaments, some significant promotions, and some other developments. On the tournament front, the popular 3-night Babich Wines pairs at the Auckland Club proved a happy hunting ground for the Tislevolls, GeO and Faith, while at the Franklin Club Christine Egelmeer dragged our Esteemed Editor Richard Solomon to a comfortable win. Another married couple, Liz and Blair Fisher, proved adequately compatible to win at Waitemata, and the Auckland Waitangi Day Pairs not married winners were Bev Henton and Carol De Luca. And finally, again at Auckland, the dual purpose Bell-Taylor Pairs were won by Alan Dormer and former Auckland Pres Anthony Hopkins (thereby taking the Bruce Bell Salver), while on the distaff side, the Eileen Taylor Salver went to Cheryl Winsor and Susan Rowe.

Of course, many of our more obsessive tournament players disappeared to other parts of the country and indeed overseas; pride of place here decidedly goes to Akarana member Nick Jacob, who teamed up with ex-Kiwi Ish del'Monte at the Canberra Summer Festival to win the Swiss Pairs and finish runner-up in the major teams, losing only narrowly to the world champion Italian Lavazza team.

Also, congratulations to Janet Barnard and Mark Robertson, the latest Auckland regional players to join the illustrious ranks of Grandmasters.

The Auckland Club has established a new post to design, coordinate and run its teaching programmes; the job was originally offered to Biritch, but he declined it with a dismissive wave of his tail and twirl of his whiskers, and so it has fallen to my good self. We shall be starting out with Beginners' lessons in late February, and following that up with a series of guided play sessions and a further series of seminar style presentations for developing/emerging players later in the year, as well as more regular play sessions for the less experienced player. I am keen to share experiences and liaise with other teachers in the area, with a view to establishing a mutually supportive teachers' group. So, please do not hesitate to contact me on douglas.russell@xtra.co.nz.

And please contact Douglas with any other Auckland news of interest for his next report in a couple of months.

 

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