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:

Wellington Regional Club Championships

The Wellington Regional Club Championships will take place on 12 July 2025.

The Waikanae team will be chosen by the Bridge Advisory Group (BAG). 

The team will consist of 10 players in the following categories:

• Open
• Open Restricted 
• Intermediate
• Junior 
• Novice (Note: a player with less than 5 A & B Points is classified as “Novice”)

If you would like to be considered for the team, please let Rae Lutman know as soon as possible - but in any event no later than Monday 30 June.

Digital Seniors

This may be of interest.

If you would like to know more, please contact Sally Weatherley.

NZ Bridge AGM

Chris Farrow and I represented the club at the NZ Bridge AGM held at the Wellington Bridge Club on Saturday 13th June.

Points of interest included the following:

• NZ Bridge is still running at a (small) loss, despite passing on increased costs to clubs: cost-cutting measures are being examined "line by line" on a monthly basis in an effort to ensure that the organisation can break even by the end of the current financial year
• a proposal to prepare a 5-year financial plan was agreed: this should be available to clubs by the end of this year
• of NZ Bridge's over 12,000 members:
• 1,047 (8.2%) are Open players
• 4,230 (33.1%) are Intermediate
• 7,505 (58.7%) are Juniors
• NZ Bridge is now required to provide a Statement of Service Performance as part of its audited financial statements
• the "Toolkit" is available - approximately 75% complete - on the NZ Bridge website portal
• Also available through the portal are a range of teaching materials.  Teachers are being kept up to date via a dedicated Teaching and Learning WhatsApp group
• this year's Congress will be held in Palmerston North (please refer to previous separate post here)
• the new NZ Bridge website is not yet ready
• a report on the Tournament Review is expected shortly: this is expected to remove all restrictions on clubs relating to the scheduling and delivery of tournaments.

The papers for the meeting can be found here in the unlikely event that anyone wants to read them in detail.

If anyone would like further information please do not hesitate to contact either me or Chris Farrow.

Recent Results

KHAP Round 4

Nicky Bradley and Pryor Rowland were 2nd N/S with 55.37%, and Naciye Bagci and Anthea Black were 4th E/W with 52.22%.

Selected results from Sunday 15th June:

John Donbavand and his partner won the Upper Hutt Multigrade Pairs with a score of 64.94%.  Murray Lobb and Craig Jackson were the top Junior pair.

Lorraine Gaffaney and Ann Verboeket placed 4th overall in the Levin Intermediate Pairs.

Gillian van Raalte and Hugh Wolfensohn won the morning session of the Levin Junior Pairs.

Paraparaumu Bridge Club Fundraiser

Following Bob Jennings' visit to the club on Monday afternoon I have attached both a "flyer" for the Paraparaumu Bridge Club's gin fundraising initiative and also an order form. If you or anyone you  know would like to purchase a bottle from Imagination you can complete the form and make an online payment as per the details on the form. 

The key points are to specify the delivery address as "Waikanae Bridge Club", and to email a copy of the completed form to Imagination. They have an email address on the form but it is a very small font. It is "orders@imaginationgin.nz ".

The Role of the Recorder

Our Recorder is Graeme Norman,  Contact him to discuss in confidence any problems at the Club that are hard to resolve. 

The Recorder's role and duties are explained below.

Click here to email Graeme.

Alerting

I was asked recently by a member if I could publish some guidance on the subject of alerting bids. Clearly not being qualified to do so myself, I asked Graham Cheater for his advice - this is what he very kindly provided:

All opening bids of 1C and 1NT must be explained by responder as to their shape and strength e.g.

1NT = 12-14 balanced
1C = 12+ points at least 3 cards

All bids that are NOT natural but have a specific meaning and deviate from the standard part of the system played must be alerted.

e.g. 2C bid over opposition 1NT may indicate a 6 card suit and 2D may indicate the majors (Hamilton)

Exceptions:

• 2C response to 1NT if it is Stayman
• 2C if it is an opening bid and game forcing
• All doubles and redoubles
• All cue bids
• All bids at the 4 level and above

If a bid is to be alerted it must be done promptly and before the next player has bid.

If that player has bid or passed before the alert has been made they have the right to change their bid - Call the Director.

A player should not volunteer any uninvited explanations of a call or play by partner.

A player can only ask the meaning of an alerted bid if it is their turn to call.

Hawke's Bay Congress 2025

 
Our big contingent to this weekend's Hawke's Bay Congress saw some notable successes:

Pairs Events (Saturday)

John Donbavand and his partner placed 4th in the Welcome Pairs.

Karen Eriksen and Jude Lucas were 2nd in the Intermediate Pairs with a score of 59.32%.

Graeme Norman and his partner were 4th in the Open Pairs.

Team Events (Sunday)

Graeme Norman's team won the Open Teams Qualifying event with a 6-0-1 record.

Karen Hutchins and Miriam Lewin's team placed 3rd in the Intermediate Teams competition.

Pairs and Teams Events (Monday)

Swiss Pairs

Nicky Bradley and Pryor Rowland were 4th E/W with a 4-0-2 record.

Karen Hutchins and Miriam Lewin won the best Intermediate Pair.

Open Teams (Final)

Graeme Norman's team were the overall winners with a 5-0-0 record.

Many congratulations to all concerned on what has clearly been a very successful King's Birthday Weekend.

Matariki

To celebrate Matariki (Māori New Year), we will be repeating last year's successful "Soup Night" event.

The list is now available, so please add your name for what I'm sure will be an enjoyable evening.

Please come along if you can.