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Kia Ora from the North.

Looks like the rain has finally stopped and we are able to get out fishing again. Well I am hoping so anyway as it will mean less competition at our tournaments and a wee bit more luck for me.

Northland has been enjoying increased participation at its tournaments this year with table numbers up at all tournaments.  Many Doubtless Bay and Kaitaia players enjoy coming South for tournaments in Kerikeri and Paihia.  As these two clubs are unaffiliated to NZ Bridge, the players who wish to play at tournaments are all members of Kerikeri as well Kerikeri was delighted with 20 tables in May and 19 tables in August at their tournaments.

Again Kerikeri was very lucky to gain the sponsorship of New World for their August tournament and this has now become one of the North’s favourite tournaments. New World are incredibly generous and because of this, it is also one of the most well attended tournaments attracting players from Auckland and even further south.

This year’s winners were all from North of the Brynderwyns with Evelyn Bradley and Leona Campbell winning the Junior section, Carla Rentoul and Ian Johnson the Intermediates and Jill Cottle and Bill Humphrey the Open. They are all shown here with their envelopes along with Jacques Harsveld who represented New World.

                 

 

On a sad note we have had to farewell Jacques, seen above, and his wife as they have left Kerikeri and gone to live in Wanganui. They will be sorely missed, not only at the bridge table, as both did an incredible amount of work for the club.

My partner and I also travelled to Auckland not long ago and I was presented with this hand.

 

A

AKQJ875

AQ10

A10

Needless to say I was not the opener and surprise, surprise after North opened 1 and partner passed, South made a weak jump in spades. All I could see was hearts and I jumped to 4 and was very lucky there was no further bidding.  

 

 

I was lucky North did not call 4. After 2, I should have bid 3NT and if North bids 4 then 4NT. Hopefully, they would not go 5! It certainly taught me to perhaps look outside the square. Incidently there were a few tables that went to 5 going one light.

Our Wylie Salver inter-club competition is in full swing with perhaps an upset on the cards this year. Whangarei lost a match to Kerikeri. However Kerikeri have lost to Kaitaia so it is all tied up with one match left for each to play.   Currently, the table reads Whangarei 6, Kerikeri 6, Dargaville 4, Kaitaia 4, Pahia 4 and Doubtless Bay 2.

Whangarei held The Craig  Investments Partners  tournament recently. It was lovely to see a couple of  Warkworth pairs and  an Auckland pair in attendance. Winners on the day with a whooping  69.41% in the morning and a more respectable 55.77 in the afternoon were Andrew Liu and John McIntosh. Congratulations, guys.

We look forward to seeing you in the Winterless North sometime soon.

The other big piece of news in the North, which Tania felt unable to mention, is the recent international achievement of Matthew Brown who lived and learnt his bridge in Whangarei until he moved down to Auckland University a couple of years ago. Matthew is just 20 and has just been representing New Zealand in Poland in our Open team which has done so well. He has played previously for our Youth team but this is his full international debut. He and his partner, Michael Whibley, played more boards than their more experienced teammates too. All those involved in his bridge development, like his mother and Patsy Walters, and all Northland bridge players should be very proud of his achievement.Richard Solomon.

 

 

 

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