"In Brief"

NZ Bridge Chairperson's Newsletter

A newsletter from the Chair of NZ Bridge is available here.

Waikanae/Paraparaumu Charity Tournament

A big thank you to all who supported Sunday afternoon's very enjoyable tournament in support of the Life Flight Trust.  The winners were Vicky Young and Ann Edwards.  Rezea Morgan and Angela Gattsche took 2nd place and Pryor Rowland and Nicky Bradley were 3rd.  

Special thanks to all at Paraparaumu for organising and running the event, which raised in excess of $1,000 for the Trust.

Weekend Results

Congratulations to Margaret Gordon and Ady Dale, who finished 5th overall in the Kairangi Intermediate Pairs with 55.90%.

Current National Rankings

The 30 June ranking reports are out and once again some of our players are mentioned.  This report identifies the top 20 players in each grade nationwide:

• In the Life Master grade John Donbavand is ranked 11th
• In the National Master grade Pryor Rowland is ranked 12th 
• In the Master grade Graham Cheater is ranked 9th
• In the Local Master grade Murray Lobb is ranked 20th
• In the Novice grade Jim Gordon is ranked 3rd

Congratulations everyone - not bad for a small club like ours!

Disability Access Project

I'm delighted to be able to report that the Waikanae Community Board has given the Club a grant of $10,000 (exclusive of GST) towards the cost of our disability access project, which will see the construction of a new ramp along the front of the building and the development of new carparks to make access easier for persons with disabilities.

I would like to thank Rae Lutman for her efforts in putting together the application, Derek Snelling for his ongoing leadership of the project, and Paul Brinkman.  Rae, Derek and Paul all attended the Board's meeting on Tuesday, with Derek as the lead presenter on our behalf.

I will keep you updated as the project proceeds.

Wellington Bridge Club lessons

The Wellington Bridge Club is running lessons every Saturday afternoon until August. Any member of a bridge club can go.  Last Saturday there were 12 full tables. The session is 1:00-4:30, and costs $6:00 which includes tea and scones (my thanks to Judi Vernau for this item). 

Wellington Regional Club Championships

As previously advised, the Wellington Regional Club Championships will take place on 12 July 2025.

I'm pleased to announce the Waikanae team selected by the Bridge Advisory Group (BAG) is as follows:

Open/Open: John Donbavand and Pryor Rowland

Open Restricted: Angela Gattsche and Helen Walker

Intermediate: Nicky Bradley and Vicky Young

Junior: Murray Lobb and Craig Jackson

Novice: Laura Kelly and Jim Gordon

Good luck everyone - play well!

Welcome to the Class of 2025

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It’s Graduation time! Our new learners will shortly be joining Monday sessions for some competitive play!

This year's series of learners lessons has come to an end, and three scheduled evenings of play with the Committee have also been completed.   

We are very much looking forward to welcoming the new group of novice players when they start playing competitive bridge on Monday 7th July.  Given the size of this year's class, there may be as many as 18 new players on that day and in the weeks ahead.

We are trying to achieve as painless a transition for our new members to competitive bridge as possible. Many of these players will be nervous, slow, and needing help with both bidding and card play. In recognition of this, there will be at least one non-playing Director, and some experienced players available to assist.  However, no other special arrangements are being made.

I would like once again to thank Ady Dale and all those established members (too numerous to mention here) who have helped with the lessons - you've done a great job!

Please come along to meet and play with our new members - we'd love to see you!

Applications for Membership

Members are requested to consider the following applications from the recently-completed learners' course for membership of the Club.

Online Training for Tournament Directors

If you're interested, please read on...

Life Flight Trust

The Charity tournament at Paraparaumu on Sunday 6th July is in aid of the Life Flight Trust.

Life Flight Trust is not just an abstract worthy cause - earlier this year they directly contributed to saving the life of one of our members by flying Craig Jackson to Auckland for emergency surgery.

Craig says: "I am obviously very keen for them to get as much benefit as possible from the tournament".  He has kindly provided this photograph, showing him being loaded onto the air ambulance.

If you would like to know more about the Trust you can visit their website here.

Regional Championships 2026 (and beyond)

If you aspire to selection for the Wellington team to compete in next year's Regional Championships you may be interested in this Bulletin from NZ Bridge: