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Saturday 25^th March saw 16 teams competing at the Marlborough Bridge club. There had been a late withdrawal so that the kitchen helpers were pulled into play on the day. There was a ring around to find extra people to fill the gaps.  Kate Davies and Johnnie Patterson appeared from across the ditch to play with Maurice Carter and Barbara Fechney and easily took out first position.  Second place was closely fought with the Minchin team, Carol and Roger, with Sita Monaghan and Ruth Allison coming out ahead of the Guy Team. In the Hearts section, the ring-in team of Sandra McPhee, Ann Baker, Phyl Balfour and Glenda Seamons came first with Barbara Kaulback, Jane Jordan, Viv Murray and Bev Gay second.

The next day saw 18 pairs playing an 11 table Mitchell and a 7 table Howell. First position in the Pairs was keenly fought out by Kate and Johnnie and Lindsey Guy and Steve Gray with Kate and Johnnie winning the battle with a 64% average from second place average of  63.68%. The battle of the top two pairs was keenly fought on Board 18.

 

My 2 showed both majors, Michaels style. When my partner showed some value, I decided to check for key cards and got some very welcome news (the two missing aces). I signed off in 6 (two aces and the K in partner’s hand was too much to hope for) but Johnny Patterson saved in 7. Despite my partner’s double,  I cursed inwardly as few others in the room would do a “Johnnie” and taking him light would not cut the mustard. So I decided I might as well get a bad board on my terms rather than his. Fortune favoured the brave as 7 made on the spade finesse.

The defence can take 7x for 1700 if they score their tricks in the right order and indeed can score all their three trumps by ruffing. Had the spade finesse failed, then the best the defence could score would be 1100. Assuming the whole room was in slam, then Lindsey and Steve had nothing to lose by trying the grand. Normally, for such a slam as this one, there would have been a number of pairs only in game, making bidding the grand less attractive.

 Once again, there was a sell-out crowd for the Nelson Club when they hosted their 5A Open Teams on 11 March. Jo Price directed 24 teams from across the Top ofthe South and beyond over 6 X 10 board matches.  Steve Gray, Lindsey Guy
and their team mates Robyn Freeman-Greene & Dale Lacey from Wellington held on to their lead from Round 4 winning the day, with Rebecca Osborne's team of Rebecca, Pam Dravitzki, Jana Bott and Ray Cannell coming in second while Adrian
Abraham, Tony Oberdries and Roger and Carol Minchin took third place.  

 Nelson winners, Steve Gray, Lindsey Guy, Robyn Freeman-Greene and Dale Lacey

Very happy with their 3rd place at Nelson were Adrian Abraham, Tony Oberdries and Carol and Roger Minchin

Those ranked in the lower half of the field did exceptionally well with Sally Astridge, Kath Walter, Rosemary Kenning and Elena Hufflet taking 4th position and John and Margaret Challies, Phil Donaldson and Barry Simpson coming in 5th.  The food as always was a treat and a very generous raffle to boot. Safe to say that all 96 players had a happy day.  Thanks to Nelson and their team of helpers, dealers, scorers, organisers etc for putting on such a great event. It is lovely to see so much support from all our players across the Top of the South Clubs for all our tournaments.

 3rd in the Hearts grade at Nelson: Wayne McCoy, Kevin Hill, Barbara Gordon and Raewyn Taylor.

The very popular 8B Nelson Women’s Tournament was held on 8^th April with 25 tables mainly from TOTS while one Wellington pair came over for the weekend. We play for the Barbara Brown Cup.  Unfortunately, Barbara passed away just after last year’s event but her husband put a mini Easter egg for each player on the tables in remembrance of her, a very nice gesture.  Adrian Abraham, the Director, ran a 13 table Mitchell and a 12 table Hesitation Mitchell which worked very well.  After session 1, Sita Monaghan and Susan Hinkley were leading the charge with a creditable 65.14% with three couples, in the 60’s champing at their heels.  Session 2 saw the leaders score a 60% but Jana Bott and Rebecca Osborne who were sitting 4^th scored an amazing 68% to take out the title with a 65% average.

 Rebecca Osborne,Belinda Fletcher (the tournament sponsor)  and Jana Bott

 This is the third time that Jana has won this trophy. The Cup was first played for in 1987 and Barbara Brown did win it with Freda Young in 2005. The partnership of Carol Minchin and Sheila Beggs has won it five times and Carol has also had an additional win with another partner.  Sita Monaghan and Charmaine Satherly have also won it three times with different partners, unfortunately, Charmaine had to withdraw this year due to ill health.   So in the 30 years it has been played for it has been well spread around.

The tournament was sponsored for the second year running by Belinda Fletcher, Lawyer and Mediator, whose mother Jenny Fletcher was also playing.  She gave a very amusing introduction giving us a serious warning which turned out to be about the addiction of BBO.

Thanks to Lindsey for stepping in to produce this week's report while Jenny Pomeroy is overseas.

 

 

 

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