Paraparaumu Bridge Club - Fundraiser

As many of you will know, the Paraparaumu Bridge Club has an urgent need to raise funds for the repair and renovation of their clubrooms. 

The Club’s latest fundraising event is the launch of its very own bespoke club gin, "BRIDGIN THE GAP".

 A local distillery "Imagination" is making and selling the gin and the club is promoting it to anyone who is interested. The cost is $85.00 for a 750ml bottle.

The launch event is on Friday 6th June 2025 at 7:15pm at the Paraparaumu Bridge Club. Waikanae members are warmly invited to attend.

Chris Charteris from Imagination will speak about the company and the making of the gin. There will be a (small) tasting opportunity with tonic, soda, lemonade and water on hand to add. A cheese board with cheese and crackers will be included. Chris will also have EFTPOS etc and supplies to take away. 

Every bottle sold will raise the club around $24.00.

 

If you would like to attend and support our friends at Paraparaumu please let the president, Bob Jennings know by email or text [rjennings@xtra.co.nz, ph. 0211150008].

As the 6th June launch clashes with our scheduled Friday Pairs event that evening, I have also invited Bob to attend one of our playing sessions next month to promote this initiative and to take orders.  I will let you know in advance when this is happening.

Interesting Articles

 Podcast

Kate Terry, an NZ Bridge Board member, recently participated in a radio discussion with Matt Heath and Tyler Adams on Newstalk ZB on the benefits of playing bridge.  

You can listen to the podcast here.

Articles

Follow these links for two recent bridge-related articles in the NZ media:

83 year old and 21 year old to represent New Zealand at Bridge Championships

Sweet deal: is popular card game Bridge the new Tinder?

Judith and Blair Event

A good time was had by all on Saturday to remember Judith and Blair with fun bridge, great food and good company.

Thanks to everyone who made the day possible:

• Our main sponsor - Hobson Mills
• Our raffle sponsors (Waikanae Butchery, Griffin and Pops, and Relish Cafe), and also Margaret Gordon for providing the designer bags
• Helen Walker for her brilliant organisation of the whole day
• Kevin Walker not only for directing in his inimitable style, but also for setting up the hands and managing the play
• Maureen Pratchett for scoring
• Fiona McDonald-Bates for organising the raffle
• Margaret Gordon for managing the food and everyone else who contributed in the kitchen
• All those other contributors (room set-up, bar team, furniture movers, cleaner-uppers and so on), with a special mention to Sue Osborne (chief washer up)

Thank you also to those who spoke to share their memories of both Judith and Blair, not always an easy task for those less accustomed to public speaking.

For the record, the overall winners on the day were Anthea Black and Paul Brinkman - many congratulations to them.

Handicapping

At its meeting on 12 May, the Committee agreed to a proposal (endorsed by the Bridge Advisory Group [BAG]) to trial the use of a new handicapping system on Mondays from 1 July and at other designated handicapped events including the "Judith and Blair" event this coming Saturday. 

The new system calculates handicaps on a dynamic basis, using our existing Compass scoring system to calculate what's known as an "XG Rating" for every player.  This rating in turn enables a handicap to be applied to any sessions that use the XG method.

New XG Ratings are re-calculated automatically by the system for each player after every session.  For “average” players the XG Rating will be around 50%, while for more experienced players the XG rating will be higher.  

The use of XG handicaps will be reviewed by BAG in early October to determine whether or not the new system should be adopted for Mondays on a permanent basis.

Winter Draws On

IMPORTANT

As we move steadily and inexorably into Winter it's important that we all understand that as a group we are all to one extent or another vulnerable to the full range of seasonal illnesses.  With the clubroom doors and windows mostly closed to keep us warm, our germs can spread quickly and easily, and lead to potentially serious consequences for all of us, particularly the older and more susceptible among our number - and our extended families.

I'm not talking here about those chronic non-infectious conditions which affect some of us; these deserve to be - and should be - treated with tolerance and sympathetic understanding.

IF YOU ARE UNWELL PLEASE DO NOT COME TO BRIDGE UNTIL YOU ARE SURE YOU ARE NOT INFECTIOUS.

If you do come when you are unwell, you are not letting your partner down (he or she can always find a replacement for you) - you are letting the whole club down: it's not fair on you and it's not fair on your friends at the club.  They will not thank you for playing when you are ill - but they will thank you for staying away and protecting their health as well as your own.

New Zealand Bridge Congress 2025

 Advance Notice:

For more information, go to https://www.nzbridge.co.nz/national-congress-feb-2022.html

Annual Plan 2025

The Annual Plan for the current year is available here.

The purpose of this plan is to provide a framework to guide the Committee, and to inform the Club's members.  In essence all it does is formalise what has been done by successive Committees over many years: it does not set anything in stone, nor does it constrain the Committee from making whatever decisions it needs to take in the best interests of the club.

Progress against the Plan will be monitored by the Committee on a quarterly basis.