All News

Otago/Southland News with Brad Johnston

This report picks up at the start of March, with the Invercargill 8B Pairs on March 6th . 18 pairs contested this, with locals taking out the trifecta in the main competition.

 

 

%

1st

Kevin Skoropada and Moss Wylie

137.71

2nd

Anne Somerville and Greg Buzzard

123.85

3rd

Anne Cosgrove and Marilyn Jackson

116.31

 

Anne and Greg might have been sad to not win with their ~62 average, but at least the winners were well ahead of their pace with a 68% in the morning and a better afternoon.

   FIRST Overall                and     Top Intermediates

 Kevin Skoropada Moss Wylie 2 2021.jpg        Kate Ramsey and Sue Scott 2021.jpg   
Kevin Skoropada and Moss Wylie    Kate Ramsay and Sue Scott
The next event was the Oamaru 5A Pairs on the 7th March. 18 tables fought it out for prizes and pride; and this time Grade 2 took pride of place.

 

 

%

 

1st

Sam Gurney and Tony Quinlivan

121.38

1st Intermediate

2nd=

Ernie Sutton and Jean-Olivier Begouin

117.42

1st Open

2nd=

Murray Barron and David Larsen

117.42

2nd Intermediate

4th

Pamela Nisbet and Arleen Schwartz

114.60

2nd Open

The next tournament on offer was the Taieri 8B Pairs on March 13th. 18 pairs showed up to play, although there was some confusion after a pair had entered and subsequently withdrawn from one of the online entry lists. It ended up being a much more modestly scoring affair, although the winners had to pull their head in after being over 3 boards clear of the field in the morning with their 67.31% set.

 

 

%

1st

Lorraine Peacock and Wyn Jones

115.38

2nd

Mike Atkinson and Matt Blakeley

113.22

3rd

Bob Gillanders and Dianne Carruthers

110.34

 

Next came the Queenstown 8B Pairs, which was contested by 36 pairs. Continuing their winning ways from Invercargill were Moss and Kevin:

 

 

%

1st

Kevin Skoropada and Moss Wylie

137.66

2nd

Hamish Ryan and Phillip Hensman

122.62

3rd

Jean-Olivier Begouin and Ernie Sutton

119.58

 

The final tournament for me to report on is the Winton Intermediate Teams on the 27th of March. 10 teams stumped up to play, and after the round-robin event the results were:

 

 

vps

1st

Lynette Clark, Christine Samson,Daphne Devery and Rae Dorricott

129.76

2nd

Jeff and Sherry Elton, Jan Brown and Yvonne Hughes

117.41

3rd

Alan McRae, Christine Beauchamp, Henry Wadworth and Russell Preston

107.56

 

 

 Other News

In terms of other fun things happening in the region, pride of place goes to Sonya Adams’ efforts at the Wanaka A&P show. Not only is securing a plot for this show impressive, she doubled down by winning the award for the best small trades site.

Sonya Adams 2021.jpg
  Sonya Adams. Read about her Bridge Awareness Campaign in a separate article
 on this website dated 7th April.

Rubber Bridge...and Directors' Seminar

16 pairs have signed up to play the Rubber Bridge event. Because of the wide area in the O/S region, this event is run as a knockout bracket with matches being played in peoples’ homes. Good luck to all the competitors, apart from when they’re playing against me!

The Regional Committee is also excited to be able to put on a Directors' training workshop on the 17th of April in Dunedin being run by one of the country’s top directors, Allan Joseph.

and some bridge

It’s been a while since I’ve included a bridge hand in a report. This one isn’t anyone doing anything too cool, but it’s such a rare type of action hand that they virtually demand the attention of whoever has a pen and paper handy.

This board showed up at the Otago Bridge Club during the first round of the Teams Swiss Qualifying event. Auctions at tables varied, mostly due to if South could (or chose to) open a weak both minors style bid.

Sitting West in my match, I heard the following auction:

South Deals
N-S Vul
J 8 5 2
A K Q 8 7 2
Q J 4
K Q J 10 9 5 2
A 6 4
J 6
5
 
N
W   E
S
 
A 7 6 3
K Q 10 9 3
7 6 3 2
 
8 4
7
10 9 5 4 3
A K 10 9 8
West North East South
      2 NT
3  5  5  Pass
Pass 6  Dbl All pass

 

This was good for a 5 imp loss, as after the following auction had North take a "very good sac", but sadly not be doubled there:

 

  West  North  East     South

                                        Pass

   1Spade-small      2Diamond-small      3Diamond-small          5Diamond-small

    Pass  Pass    5Spade-small           Pass  

    Pass  6Diamond-small       All Pass

There were swings in excess of 20 imps available for teams who managed to buy the slam both directions.

 

Go Back View All News Items

Our Sponsors
  • Tauranga City Council
  • TECT.jpg