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It has been a quiet two months for the Wellington Region's Open tournament players with regard to  local Open tournaments. Thank the bridge gods pictured below for Congress and Multigrade tournaments.

(or am I a little confused here? Perhaps the image is the evolution of the King of Hearts in the Rouennais pattern, as per Wikipedia. Maybe one set of thanks is really due to the folk who organise and run and support the Congress. And, while we're remembering that, I should also tag the persons fronting and behind the scenes for all the local tournaments and events mentioned in this newsletter. Without them, we'd have nothing much to celebrate - or occasionally rue.)

It has been busier for our Intermediate and Junior tournament players with several local tournaments to challenge and entertain them.

Congress news

First up, via Tony Sutich. Special congratulations to Anthony Ker and Russell Dive for winning the National Finals of the Rubber Bridge at Hamilton on Monday night after battling through three tough knock-out matches against other Regional winners.  This is the first time a pair from Wellington have won this event since 2002 when Rod Dravitzki and Charles Ker won.

Anthony receives the Rubber Bridge Trophy, and the top

money prize at Congress from NZ Bridge President, Arie Geursen.

Anthony and Russell won their final knock-out match against Charles Ker and Wayne Burrows by 590 points over 30 deals which indicates a tight tussle. No one can remember two brothers competing against each other in finals prior to this, but as Charles had won it previously, (wearing Wellington colours then), maybe it was ordained that it was Anthony’s turn this time!

An all- Wellington team played extremely well to reach the last 8 in the New Zealand Teams. Congratulations to Lynda Rigler- Peter Delahunty and Pat D’Arcy – Graeme Norman.

In other events, Mindy Wu came 12th in the New Zealand Pairs final with Lorraine Stachurski. Jenny Delany and Tereska Knap were 5th in the Open Restricted Pairs. Max Wigbout and Joan Waldvogel, with Effie Gallie and Sarah Green, were 3rd in the Senior Teams. Heather Jared and Warren Johnson were 4th in the Open Swiss Pairs, and John Davidson and Simon Hinge were 2nd in the Same Sex  Pairs.

Just three more Congress results featuring Wellington locals. Apologies for any incompleteness beyond these. Chris Collins and Sam Ward were 4th in the Intermediate Pairs. Kathy and Anthony Ker were 5th, and Sandra and Rod Dravitzki 9th, in the Mixed Sex Pairs. The last was also named  four paragraphs above re 2002 rubber bridge.

Junior League

More information from Tony Sutich on the local Junior Championship Bridge League, as at the 19 September 2016 and after 11 Junior Tournaments. It looks like this League has been flourishing this year with approximately 60 players entered. The last Junior tournament is in November. Top placings to date are: 1st Denise Barnett (56 pts); 2nd Tegan Bennik (51 pts).

Not surprisingly, Denise and Tegan feature in the paragraph below on the Wellington Junior tournament. They also happened to be the second-to-top Junior pair in the Congress Intermediate Pairs.

Tegan with her mother and partner, Denise

Further Results

With a trip to a not unfamiliar destination, Kate Davies and John Patterson came second in the National 15As held at the Marlborough club in early September.

Speaking of Open Players having to travel for tournaments, Mindy Wu and John Wilkinson went for a short trip “over the hill” to play in the South Wairarapa Multigrade on 9th October, and had a good day, averaging just under seventy one and a half percent over the two sessions. I think we can put that down for a first placing. Arumugam Kumarasamy and Jeffry Craanen were the top Open/Intermediate pair.

Two Multigrades in September, at Hutt on the 11th, and at Paraparaumu on the 25th. Marjorie McDonald and Judith Jackson featured at the Hutt, ahead of Agnes Richards and Angela Gattsche. Hayley Fenwick and Clinton Scott won at Paraparaumu from Derek Snelling and Isobel Ross.

Given the dearth of Open tournaments, would you believe there were three Intermediate tournaments since the beginning of September, two of them having associated Junior tournaments?

First up were the Wellington Club's tournaments on the 4th September. In the Junior;

 1st Denise Barnett and Tegan Bennick;

 2nd Eirlys Hunter and Laurence Millar.

 Intermediate;

1st Brad Tattersfield and Malcolm Greig;

2nd Turei Haronga and Andrew Cushnie.

 Brad Tattersfield and Malcolm Greig

The Victoria Club held its equivalent events two weeks later. Julia Barnett and Christine Haronga won the Intermediate from John Black and Graham Potter. In the Junior, Carol O'Sullivan and Jan Bennett came in ahead of Robyn McKenzie and Ilona Musil in the 16 pair field.

Finally we had the Kapi Mana Intermediate on the 16th October. Malcom Grieg, of the above photo, won this one as well, this time playing with George Westermayer.

If you are wondering where the Kapi Mana Junior tournament went, my reconstruction might be flawed, but I think the club's Intermediate/Junior Multigrade held earlier in the year was a response some years ago to falling numbers in Junior only tournaments. If not, I'm sure I'll be corrected.

Interclub

Open players kept themselves going on Friday nights once a month with the well-received Interclub competition, now heading to its final round for all four grades. (The novice competition was won by  McCarthy  in mid-August.)

All four competitions are going down to the wire.  Henry  takes a 10VP lead into the Open final against Ker.  De Roo  take a commanding but not certain 14VP lead into their Junior final. There are Plate and Consolation events also being held for those teams missing out on the various cuts for the finals, so that all teams are still enjoying their monthly bridge.

Despite the complexity and scale of the competition and the associated record keeping and administration, all events are proceeding trouble free, without visible issues - due, no doubt, to much solid work from the now very experienced organisers, and the good co-operation of the hosting clubs.

Handicap Bridge

The Wellington Club are currently running their handicap events, with the management having gone through the challenging task of assigning handicap scores based on their scientific analysis of each person's performance over the year. No chickens lost their entrails during this process.

These events are where the field is levelled in theory, allowing stars to emerge in practice from some hitherto unplaced partnerships. Even so, I'm not sure the handicappers' considerable skills will ever give me a handicap that suits me. As a status indicator for pre-match chitchat, I need to impress my bridge playing mates with a punishingly tough rating. But in actual play, I need a rating that gives me a chance of a good placing. No pleasing some folk. (And I missed out on both fronts this year. Generous handicap and woeful result. But I still had some fun along the way.)

 

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