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Sad times at present with Covid shutting down many clubs, including some in the Central Districts Region and not all players having the desire to play on-line.

The sadness continues as we remember two players who have passed away in recent months. The first was Hawke’s Bay’s Matthew Bristow. The following tribute to Matthew comes from Taradale’s Ash Fitchett and was published in a recent club newsletter:

Remembering Matthew

Matthew Bristow

“Whilst Matthew was not a member of our bridge club, he and Mairi did play on Tuesday afternoons on occasions. Matthew was a gentleman bridge player and a silver grandmaster.

My memories of Matthew will always be how obliging he was in describing his partner’s hand after they had completed their transferable bidding system. The bidding sheet would be a whirl of circles (up to the 4 level) and he would state the exact suit length of all of his partner’s hand as well as the point range. I would have to say however that mostly due to his excellent play, such knowledge didn’t allow us to stop him making his contract! Matthew and Mairi have been longstanding members of the Hawke’s Bay Congress Committee and it was most unfortunate that his acute illness precluded him playing this year. His contribution to Hawke’s Bay Bridge was immeasurable and we were devastated to learn of him passing away due to illness on 2 August.

The winners of our recent Open Pairs Tournament, George Masters and Blair Fisher, dedicated their day in memory of Matthew.”

Matthew was a fine player and a gentleman at the table in its nicest sense. Our condolences to Mairi and to all their family and friends.

We also note the passing of Palmerston North’s Rod Doherty on September 21^st at the age of 86.

In Memory of Rod Doherty

Rod, at the recent Palmerston North
Bridge Club celebrations

Rod joined the Palmerston North Club in the early 1980’s and soon became fully involved in all the activities of a busy club. He took the Club’s Beginners’ Lessons for many years and also became the club handyman.

In the early 1980’s, the club hosted the New Zealand Pairs with Rod building a manual barometer score-board along the eastern wall of the then Linton Street clubrooms.  

In 1996, the club moved to its current premises with Rod providing all the notice and honours boards which now grace the walls.  He also installed the leadlight window in the entrance way.

Rod served on the club committee for many years, served a term as President and in 1996 was made a Life Member of the club.

These memories came from Rod’s great bridge and personal friend, Bryan Northcott. In 1986, Rod transported Bryan to the first National Bridge Congress in Rotorua. Bryan was one of the directors. Rod was a huge help behind the scenes and as such was employed for several years as the Congress handyman and thoroughly enjoyed liaising and working with the hotel and Congress staff. One particular role was in cleaning and setting up the Ghandi Hall, the hall across a frequently muddy paddock where pairs dreaded being sent!

Club President, Denise Servante, remembers Rod as “a charming man who gave so much to our game and our club.” 

On a happier note, The John Fullarton Memorial Teams (10A) was held at the Hastings club on August 14th. 20 teams took part. 

           2021 Runners Up                                            and Winners
                             
         Anthony Ker, Alan Grant, Jenny                  John Luoni, John Patterson,
         Millington & Barry Jones                              Kate Davies & Johnny Davidson
          (also in the pictures is Maureen Sullivan, representing the sponsor, Ryman Retirement Village)

 

and here is a short piece about the player whose name remains with the event. 

 

John Fullarton was born in England. He signed on for war service during WWII and after basic training was told that he would be serving in the Middle East. Being a resourceful person, he took lessons in speaking Arabic but ended up in Lebanon where the spoken language was English! 

After the war he migrated to New Zealand and joined the teaching profession.  He ended his working life as the Editor of the Taranaki Herald. He and his wife were members of the New Plymouth Bridge Club. John had a great understanding of the mathematics of scoring and could calculate percentages with great accuracy before the introduction of match-point scoring. He died in New Plymouth at the young age of 70 in 1978.

His daughter, Patricia Scaife is a current member of the Hawera club.

 

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