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.

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.

Wellington Bridge Club - Breakfast Event

This is a fundraiser for Breast Cancer research and education.  All are welcome.

 

Laws for Bridge Players - Videos

A series of presentations created by experienced New Zealand Tournament Director Ed Roggeveen explaining some of the key laws of bridge can be found on YouTube here. These videos have been created for players--to help them understand the laws and their rights. For example, what are your choices if someone makes a lead out of turn? They are very clear and FREE for all to use.

The programs were paid for by the committee of the Top of the South (TOPS) region of NZ Bridge.

Waikanae/Paraparaumu Interclub

The annual Waikanae v Paraparaumu Interclub event took place yesterday (6th April).  Both clubs fielded 13 pair teams made up of players of all grades.

The day's individual winners were:

• 1st Ady Dale and Rae Lutman (Waikanae)
• 2nd Jeanne Wardill and Graham Cheater (Waikanae)
• 3rd Margaret Jamieson and Gillian Travers (Paraparaumu)

The shield was regained by Waikanae by a margin of 56.42 percentage points.

Many congratulations to Ady and Rae for the overall win, and thanks to all who took part in what was a very enjoyable afternoon. Special thanks to Maureen for both directing and scoring, and - as always - also to those who contributed behind the scenes.

Bob Jennings (President, Paraparaumu) hands over the shield

Update - thanks to Chris Farrow, the shield has already been brought up to date with the 2025 result added (click on the photo to enlarge):