KARORI BRIDGE CLUB


Club News October 2017

Members

A very warm welcome to our new membersJohn Clark and John Weatherley.

From the President:

There’s been a bit of a gap since our last newsletter, but I’m really pleased to report that since the AGM, Klaus Cordes and Catherine O’Driscoll have joined the Club Executive.

We are still in need of a Secretary on the committee. If you are interested in supporting the club through this role please contact me. Joy Schofield who has served the club wonderfully in recent years has indicated that she will be able to mentor a new person to the role.

I would like to give a special thanks to Pam Blundell who has been our tea lady on Monday afternoons. Pam is retiring from the role and we will be holding a thank you afternoon tea for her on Monday 30th October. Pam is a founding member of the club and we are truly grateful for the wonderful service she has provided.

New Zealand Bridge is charging ahead with its plan to boost playing numbers of the game. There are a number of regional roles (regional bridge mates) whose job is to assist clubs to grow. We will certainly take advantage of this new resource. Our lessons next year will be delivered during school term two and our programme for Thursday night will be amended to reflect this. A radio advertising campaign will run across the regions from mid-March to mid-April in advance if the lessons.

I attended the annual club meeting with the regional committee this weekend, and after the woes of 2016, New Zealand bridge is now very focused on listening to clubs, being very transparent in its activities and growing bridge across the country.

On a less joyful note we have once again had to deal with matters of rude behaviour at the bridge table. Grade captains have tried to addressthis matterwith subtlety. My own view is that we need to be a bit less subtle and clear that rude behaviour is unacceptable and contrary to the philosophy of this club.

At the committee, we discussed whether we might implement the New Zealand bridge zero tolerance policy. We decided not to, as we want members to raise issues of bad behaviour with the committee so that we can address them ourselves. That said if we need to, we still have the option of instructing our directors to exercise the power to penalise rude play and poor behaviour at the table.

From the Committee

Our Christmas party is coming up on Saturday 2nd December. It will be supper, both sweet and savoury followed by and an evening’s bridge. Bring a plate or $10, it’s a fun night and we hope to see many of you there.

Tossing for sitting North/South: It has become a habit for some players to agree to with their opponents sit or move rather than toss a coin. This is not allowed under the rules of bridge. The reason for the coin toss is that it generates a random distribution of players through the room and makes play fairer for all. There is a process in place for players who through medical reasons need to sit or move and those players who have the rights approved by the committee are recorded on the wall by the Directors’ desk.

Directors and grade captains will be asked to monitor compliance with coin tossing and have the right to insist on a coin toss.

The committee have shared out the main areas of responsibilities are follows:

  • FinanceYvonne (Treasurer)
  • Health and SafetyJim Brough
  • PropertyPeter Wilcox
  • EducationPam Hancox
  • InterclubArvind Zodgekar
  • TournamentsLars Fagerstrom
  • WebsiteDebbie Gapes (ex-officio)

Our open tournament in August was a great success with a lot of positive feedback to the club. Well done to Arvind as tournament organiser and thank you to his cast of helpers.

New Zealand bridge has some very useful resources available online, including lessons and practise hands. Our own Karori lessons align with the NZ bridge lessons and players might want to have a look at the lesson section of the NZ bridge website

Go to and click on the learn bridge tab. There are excellent lessons for beginners, improvers and intermediate players.

Interclub

The last round of interclub is coming up on 10 November

Three of our teams are playing in the finals groups, so good luck to them.

We did have a hiccup with a couple of defaults in the last two months. If you have any issues with respect to interclub, then please make sure that you contact Arvind Zodgekar, who is the committee member responsible for interclub.

From the Manager:

Average table numbers for September:

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Average
2017 / 11.3 / 12.3 / 12 / 3.7 / 8.5 / 9.3
2016 / 9.1 / 10.5 / 4.6 / 6.9 / 2.8 / 6.6

Upcoming Events:

Please note the following in your diary:

  • 2nd December - Christmas Party

Recent Club Winners:

Congratulations to:

MondayJean Madgwick TrophyStephanie Smith

Barbara Crooks’ SalversJill Dodson & Janice van Rooyen

A GradeWinter TeamsJenny Coulter, Royce Johnston, Christina

Mander & Julia England

Swiss PairsVivienne Cannell & Jenny Coulter

Tuesday PairsChristina Mander & Royce Johnston

R GradePaul Dobbs CupSue & John Sutherland

Robson CupMarcus Smith & Ed May

B GradeSchofield CupGraeme Oswald & Brian Hoy

Binnie CupNoel Gilmore & Lesley Hill

Recent Tournament Successes:

Mindy Wu and partner were 7th in the Congress Pairs held in the first week of October

Debbie Gapes & Jane Windle were 5= Paraparaumu Multigrade held on October 1st

Mira Trifunovic & Graham Potter were 6th and Bronwen Collen & Susan Young were the in the Victoria Intermediate Tournament held on September 17th.

Chris Bolland & Luke Kelly were 7th in the Hutt Multigrade held on September 10.

Mira Trifunovic & Stephanie Smith were 2nd & John Black & Graham Potter were 5th in the Wellington Intermediate Tournament on the 3rd of September.