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What award have the above pair of Bridge personalities won in 2018? Read on...

What quasquicentennial anniversary was recently celebrated at the Tauranga Bridge Club? Read on and find out!

2018 has wrapped up with the final tournament of the year with the Huntly Xmas party held last weekend.   The event was split into 3 'stratified' sections based on rating points and rewarding the tops of each sections equally … rather than just the overall prizes.   It has proved popular especially in these 8B events that have many levels of players .. from absolute beginners to gold grand masters playing in the same field … to give prizes to anybody punching above their weight in the overall competition.

   
Huntly winners, Grant Jarvis and Jenny Millington        and at Thames, Olive Davis and Mary Ronke

At Huntly - the top seeds Grant Jarvis and Jenny Millington emphatically won …  they had an average of over 67% for the day which was nearly 5% ahead of second place getters Yuzhong Chen and William Liu.   Third place and top of the 2nd tier stratum were Aucklanders Richard Stuart and John O'Connor.

Olive Davis and Mary Ronke from Waikato were pleased to win the top of their section at Thames (hearts) and were even more pleased when they discovered later that they actually were top of the tournament (something that isn’t quite clear when delivering prizes in sections!).

                                
"Santa" Heini, Yuzhong and Herman, Rotorua                      "Santa" Ric with Christine and Jenna Gibbons at Waikato
Christmas winners.                                                                 Is anyone listening to your joke, Christine?
 

Speaking of Yuzhong Chen … he has been in the prizes at nearly every Xmas event that he has attended… First overall at Te Awamutu (partnering with Jenna Gibbons) and Rotorua (partnering with Herman Yuan) and second in Huntly and third in Waikato (both with William Liu) although he was "only" 6th at the Thames Xmas Party back at the start of the Xmas season.  In fact his larder was so well stocked with Christmas prizes that he generously donated his winning ham from Rotorua to a lucky Lynne Boyack who had suggested the possibility if he was to win again!  

Winners at Waikato Jenna Gibbons receives her ham from Ric Broadhurst (Waikato president) while Christine delivers her joke. Christine along with daughter Jenna Gibbons won the Waikato Christmas party with some outstanding scores winning with an average of 69.5% just ahead of Herman Yuan and 'young gun' Ryan Song with 68.2% average.  Anecdotally Christine also must have had a full larder and gifted her duck after coming third at Te Puke. 

Outside the xmas tournaments a special mention should be made for Rona and John Driscoll – who managed the rare double of winning the club championships at both Taupo and Rotorua clubs recently.

Rona and John..double champions.

Also the Tauranga Bridge Club had a pretty eventful Xmas wrap up with the committee taking the letter Q dress up theme (apparently every year they get a letter to dress up to) to a slightly tenuous and very long bow … Q apparently stands for Quasquicentennial which means the 125 year  celebrations which also coincided with the Suffragette movement … pictured are new life member Derek Webb getting showing where his allegiance lies along with 99 year old Mavis Meyer leading the movement in the other photo.
 
Derek Webb being very    99 year old Mavis Meyer leads the protest movement. (She is speaking into the microphone.)
diplomatic!                         Hopefully, if she was arrested, she will be allowed out for Christmas..and for bridge sessions!

Well that’s just about it folks … Looking forward to a wonderful 2019 of bridge … Waikato Bays members make sure you are kept up to date with planned events for next year via our WBBC newsletter which features changes to the Junior/intermediate league (more prize money!), proposed directors seminars, regional conferences, changes to the youth policy, IP trials and more … available on the Waikato Bays website at http://www.waikatobays.bridge-club.org/node/847

Last word … the Waikato Bay Highlights for 2018 … I’ve delved into my files and photos to bring you the memorable from the year that doesn’t always include the best results at the table!

BEST TOURNAMENT

It is a toss up between Cambridge 6s and the Rotorua Xmas party as both do things so well on a big scale (66 pairs at Rotorua and 66 tables at Cambridge!).

BIGGEST PARTY

Enid Trower who turned 100 in April had an ongoing celebrations at the clubs she still regularly plays at (Morrinsville and Hamilton) and was also treated to a standing ovation at The National Congress.

WISE BEYOND HIS YEARS                                 BEST OVERALL AT DRESSING UP

That's William on the right (pictured with     The Mount Mermaid team
fellow young director, Gabriel Pan)

William Harlow is still at High School and takes no nonsense from the seasoned players and noisy cellphones, as when he took on the task of directing the Waikato Christmas party with aplomb.
Meanwhile, the "dressing up" award  has to go to the Mount Mermaid team who scooped the Cambridge 6s dress up title for the second year in a row.

BEST TRANS-TASMAN WIN
 
 

Te Aroha Nippers, winners of the Australiana Dress up competition at Gold Coast congress (of which NZ teams took all of the top three places!).   It was also interesting the amount of times they got asked why the beaches were closed during the bridge competition. 
BEST RESURGENT CLUB - Omokoroa

From a couple of tables, the club has grown threefold after their rejuvenation and lessons under the direction of Eunice Eccles Regional BridgeMate.   Apparently their Christmas Party was very spirited!
BEST DRESSED INTER-PROVINCIAL TEAM

 (The judges for this award all came from south of the Bombays and north of Ruapehu...no bias
whatsoever!)  or indeed for the last award....
Most Entertaining Bridge Pair
 
   
    Barry Jones and Meranna Cullen

(and guests) who have informed and entertained the masses (over 6000 hits this month) on their weekly BridgeZone radio show.

 We thought you would just love to see their picture for the second time this issue.
See you all in 2019 (hopefully at the Thames Festival!)

 

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