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Two Weddings, a Funeral and ...

Greetings once again from the winterless north. Lots has been happening here with 2 weddings, a funeral and of course lots of bridge.

Firstly, we were sad to hear about the passing of Peter Simpkin from the Dargaville club on Boxing day 2018. Peter was an amazing man who gave a lot to Bridge over the years and was the supplier of the Kauri trees to winners of the Dargaville Kauri Tournament each year. God Bless and Rest in Peace Peter.

Peter Simpkin

Love is definitely in the air with Bruce Thom and Isabel Corbett marrying on December 28th while Gayle McKissock and Rod Christensen tied the knot on Valentines Day.  (Thus, all single bridge players could always try your luck in the North).

 .....Plenty of Bridge

January  5th and 6th was the start of the Bridge Year here  with the 2 x Craigs Investment 8B Holiday Pairs tournaments in Kerikeri.

Winners of the Craigs Investment tournament Day 1 were Hamish Brown and Johanna Perfect up from Auckland, and in second place were Margaret Hooson and Neil Ruddell while third was Len Dent and Glynis Bilton.  The winners of Day 2 were Neil and Margaret again, followed by Bill Humphrey and Paul Carson - Wenmoth  and third, Lynne Geursen and Patsy Walters. The winners below are seen here with Ian Derrick from Craigs Investments who came in especially to present the prizes both days.

     
Neil Ruddell and Margaret Hooson            Johanna Perfect and Hamish Brown         "director" Olive Dent

 

February 9^th saw the Pak and Save tournament in Whangarei.   Lovely to have totally different people’s names appearing on the prize winners list with Roger and Cynthia Johnson taking out 1^st and Yvonne McKinnon and Val McGunnigle 2^nd. 3rd were Margaret Hooson (a name that pops up a lot) and Richard Bland.

February 23^rd was the Swiss Pairs in Dargaville. A very disappointing turnout with only 9 tables. However the Bridge was spirited as Swiss Pairs can be and the eventual winners Neil Ruddell and myself emerged. Second were Vanassa McGoldrick and Ian Johnson and third Cala Rentoul and Roger Johnson. Vanassa is still an Intermediate player and Ian has only just been elevated to Open. So well done to both of them. The same goes for Cala who has also recently had a rank change to Open. Carla and Roger are not a regular partnership. It was nice to again see some new names feature.
       
Roger Johnson and Vanassa McGoldrick     Cala Rentoul and Roger Johnson             Tania Brown and Neil Ruddell
 (hey boys, don't swamp Vanassa!)
The other "boy" in these photos is Peter Ball, representing the host club,Dargaville

 

March 9th was the Kerikeri Dolphin Pairs. Winners were Bill Humphrey playing with his wife, Suloshna, while 2^nd were Jolene Zink and Heather Cernis, more new names.

    
Bill and Suloshna Humphrey       Heather Cernis and Jolene Zink

An intersting board came up in the afternoon and it just goes to show how you can “miss out” without an agreement over the multi 2. Even with an agreement it was a tough for North to find the correct bid on this one.

 

East opened 2 (6 card weak major or 20-22 not balanced) and after South's passs (x would have shown 15+ hcp) and

2 relay by West, there was a bit of a think and 3  from North. This was passed to West who tried 3 (pass or correct to spades) which East duly did with West raising to game. I was gutted to go 2 down vulnerable until we saw the board analysis:

                                           

N	7	-	7	-
S	7	-	7	-
E	-	1	-	2
W	-	1	-	2

 

 While South's pass first time round is understandable, their failure to make any further bid is, shall we say, extremely conservative. 3NT by South would not be a winning action on the board but would be more understandable. It is certainly much harder for the opposition when the Weak 2 opener's suit is unknown. If nothing else, they should bid the club game. 

The North hand is not that strong but is probably worth coming in over 2. Rather like when we might open 1 with 5 hearts and a 6 card minor, 3 instead of 3 would have been inspired move by North here. North-South should certainly have reached game: going higher with any degree of certainty would be tough.

Whangarei Club has been busy Thursday and Saturday mornings with a table set up at the library and hands being played. This is attracting quite a lot of interest and we are hopeful of having lots of new faces at our lessons starting Monday 18^th March (Evenings) and Tuesday March 19 (Day).

Paihia Club have also been busy with the appointment of new and enthusiastic Heather Cernis as Club captain. Heather has been busy organising lessons and there are many new potential members. The club have new Bridge Mates for scoring and have organised for Geo Tislevoll to come up and take a seminar on April 5th before their next tournament on the 6^th. Interest has been so great they already have over 40 people registered to attend and have had to restrict it to Paihia and Kerikeri members only. Bridge may be losing its appeal in some places but here in the North it’s staging a comeback.

Then there is the story of Roger who, when the opposition led the Q, realised he also had a Q. Further investigation revealed it was the hand he had played previously and had not returned correctly to the board. No wonder it looked vaguely familiar.

Our next tournament is a 5A teams event on March 23 and we would love to see many teams take part in Whangarei to experience Northern hospitality. Maybe even a slice more match-making too!

 

 

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