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Not going to call it the winterless North anymore as boy does it rain. Probably not nearly as much as the rest of the country, but as I sit here and write this it is pouring down outside.

July 17 and 18 saw one of the biggest weekends ever hosted by the Whangarei Bridge Club with the Northland/Auckland Regional Pairs and Teams. One of the Brown family had an awesome weekend, of Bridge and it wasn’t me! I did enjoy the company though and having a house full was a nice change. Matt Brown with father in law Steve Boughey took away the 10A Pairs on the Saturday and on the Sunday also took out the Teams competition, (must have been the home cooking). Steve played with daughter Andi and Matt with Malcolm Mayer. Both Matt and Steve were definitely on a roll. It was wonderful to see so many travel to Whangarei for the event and with 32 teams the club was bursting at the seams. Now that I think about it, it must have been the cooking as all those who stayed at the Brown home on that weekend received a prize envelope at some stage, except me

Steve, Malcolm, Andi and Matthew.

August 7 saw the Northland Centre teams and it was a really nice to see a good spread of winners this year. Whangarei won the Open, Dargaville the Intermediate and Kerikeri the Junior section.

                                                 The Winners

  Junior - Kerikeri                             Intermediate- Dargaville          Open - Whangarei

     
Allan Carvell, Gina Sangster           Neil Hearn, Pam Rope,             Tania Brown, Richard Bland
Tracey Castelan & Jenny Blackler   Peter Ball & Margaret Hearn    Lee Walters & Neil Ruddell

Directors' Seminar

On 31^st July, Richard Bland, the only National Director in Northland,  ran a seminar for club directors, aspiring directors and any other players interested.  The seminar was held at the Whangarei Bridge Club and 22 players from several different Northland clubs attended. 

 
   Richard Bland gives the seminar

Richard made the day really interesting.  Every attendee received a handbook of the most common infringements found at the table which included a description of the infringement and with the law relating to it reproduced.  He ran an interactive session with players being encouraged to contribute.  There was plenty of time for anecdotes to be shared and questions to be asked.  At the end of the day, all attendees completed a quiz highlighting the laws covered during the day. 

As well as infringements and how to rule on them, Richard also covered movements, match pointing and scoring, the duties of a director and how to manage a club bridge session.  The preparation Richard had put into running the day and his presentation style (he was a maths teacher in a past life!) definitely contributed to the enjoyment and value players received from the day. 

He is now planning to run the session again in Kerikeri to allow others interested who couldn’t attend that particular Saturday the opportunity.  Two unaffiliated Clubs in the Far North will also be invited to this session.   

The number of Kerikeri and Paihia players who learned how to play bridge on BBO in lockdown last year have quickly reconvened their formats and matches again this year, bringing in other players who have not played online before.  Also, thanks once again to Patrick Carter from Auckland and Waikato for running BBO tournaments to while away the time for everyone missing their regular club sessions.  Fingers and toes crossed that this lockdown will downgrade quickly.

 

“Have you been drinking, Sir?”  “No I have been playing Bridge.”

A certain carload of bridge players were stopped at a breathalysing station on the way home on a Thursday night. The passenger eager to keep things light commented that they didn't have time to drink as they had been playing bridge.

“Did you go well” asked the officer. “My partner and I came second” the passenger replied. 

 Some 10 minutes later the passenger was dispatched leaving the driver to head home. A glance in his rear vision mirror saw a car travelling at high speed with flashing lights. Suddenly the realisation that they were in actual fact after him dawned. He pulled over and wound down the window. “Oh, you again” exclaimed the officer. By the way what is Bridge?” !

 

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