Wellington Region Junior League 2025

Many congratulations to Murray Lobb on winning the Wellington Region Junior League 2025 with 69 points.

Craig Jackson was in second place with 49 points.

Importantly, this is the third consecutive year in which a Waikanae player has won this title, and the second consecutive year in which a Waikanae player has also placed second.

Very well done gentlemen!

Maureen Creasy

I regret to announce that Maureen Creasy passed away on 25th November.

Maureen was a valued and respected member of our Club.  We send our sincere condolences to her family and friends.

XG Handicapping

The following email was sent to all members on Sunday 23rd November:

"At the 18 November Committee meeting, after careful consideration and robust discussion, the Committee accepted the recommendation of the Bridge Advisory Group (BAG) to adopt the XG system for handicapping.

This will be implemented on 1 January 2026.

Information on the new system will be available in the next newsletter, on the website and on the noticeboard.

Additionally, Hugh Wolfensohn will be joined by Pryor Rowland (the author of the BAG report) and Maureen Pratchett at the Monday sessions on 1st and 8th December to discuss the system and to answer members' questions."

Resources:

A summary version of the BAG report is available here.

A previous post regarding XG handicapping may be found here.

This is the slide I used at the presentation on Monday 1st December to outline the Committee's views on the advantages of the XG system:

Christmas Function

 Christmas is coming!

Photographs and Privacy

At its meeting on 18th November the Committee formally endorsed a new Annex to the Privacy Bylaw which deals with the issue of photography.

The updated Bylaw - including the Annex - can be found here. If you have any questions please contact the Club's Privacy Officer, Nicky Bradley, in the first instance: she will be happy to assist.

CPR Workshop

Please come along if you can - what you will learn might save a life!

 

National Congress 2025

Results

All Congress results are available here.

Congress Matchpoint Swiss Pairs

Junior

Many congratulations to Murray Lobb and Viv Gray,
winners by a substantial margin.

NZ Pairs

Intermediate

Many congratulations to Chris Farrow and James Winskill, 2nd in a field of 89.

Junior

Well done (again) to Murray Lobb and Craig Jackson (the latter on his birthday) - 4th in a field of 20.

Congress Teams

Well done to our Juniors (Murray Lobb, Craig Jackson, Viv Gray and Jo Anson), winners of the Congress Junior Teams event.

Congratulations also to Pryor Rowland and Anthea Black on their team's 2nd place in the Congress Open Restricted Teams event.

Pryor's team also finished in 10th place in the NZ Restricted Teams event.

NZ Swiss Pairs

Congratulations to Murray Lobb and Craig Jackson, who won the NZ Junior Swiss Pairs with a 7-0-2 record.

Pryor Rowland and his partner finished in 12th place (in a field of 78) in the NZ Restricted Swiss Pairs.

Chris Farrow and James Winskill were 18th (in a field of 76) in the NZ Intermediate Swiss Pairs.

Novice Event                                           Guest Speakers

Bulletins

Bulletin No.1 (featuring Kevin Walker)

Bulletin No.2

Bulletin No.3

Bulletin No.4

Bulletin No.5

Bulletin No.6

Bulletin No.7

Bulletin No.8

Bulletin No.9

Melbourne Cup Day

Lots of great outfits for our Melbourne Cup event.  Well done and thank you to all who took part.

The "Dressing Up Day" winners were:

• Best Dressed Lady - Pat Stuart
• Best Dressed Gentleman - James Jones
• Best Hat - Bev Jackson

(photos courtesy of Chris Farrow)

Waikanae Junior Pairs

Our annual half day Junior tournament took place on Sunday 2nd November.

The event was very well supported with 15 full tables and players from a wide range of clubs from as far afield as Palmerston North and Wellington.  24 Waikanae members entered the event, including a significant number of  our novice players - well done to them.

I would like to thank everybody who contributed to a great day, but in particular:

• Chris Farrow for his excellent organisation of the event and for also handling the scoring (which was not without incident!)
• Anne Ricketts for directing in her usual calm and relaxed manner
• Vicky Young and Roz King for the catering
• Rae Lutman, Ady Dale and Fiona McDonald-Bates for their general assistance and running the bar

The event was won by the novice pairing of Miriam Tankersley and Victoria Liddicoat from Palmerston North - a great effort from such a young pairing.  In second place were Julie Affleck and Steve Parsons from Otaki, and 3rd were our own Di Andrews and Phil Gavey.  

Outside the top three, the top Novice/Novice pair were David Chalmers (Waikanae) and Corinda Taylor (Paraparaumu) and the top Junior/Novice pair were Ellie Molloy and Angus Kirtlan (Hutt).

(photos courtesy of Chris Farrow)

Many congratulations to all the winners.

Thank you to everyone for your support - I hope you enjoyed your afternoon.

(photo courtesy of Rae Lutman)

Looking for a Home

Anita Humphrey is trying to find a new home for a dog, Millie, whose owner recently passed away.

Anita writes:

Millie is nine years old and has been used to life with an older gentleman who gave her lots of love and attention — though not as much in recent times. None of his family are able to take her, so we’re hoping to find her a new home.

Millie would suit a quiet household, ideally with no cats (she likes to chase them!) and someone who can offer her the companionship she’s used to. She enjoyed regular walks and is a gentle, affectionate wee dog who will likely feel a bit disoriented for a while.

If you, or perhaps someone you know, perhaps has recently lost a dog and isn’t looking for a puppy, please get in touch with me. I’d love to see her go to a caring home rather than to HUHA or the SPCA.

Can anyone help?