The TBA Committee met on September 9th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Leigh Blizzard (T) Hugh Grosvenor, Pam Murphy, Chris Girvan, Leonie Atkins, Fran Healey, Simon Edler, Katherine Marsden and Laura Bauermeister. The following matters were discussed:

Bridge Day Out

On Tuesday September 23rd the ABF is running a fund raising day of bridge for the ABF Foundation. On that day $5 per participant will be going to the ABF to support the Bridge in Schools program. There will be an optional Zoom session afterwards for hand analysis, and prizes will be awarded in various categories. Whether you are a regular Tuesday player or not, try to make it to the club for this special day.

Special Chairs

We have been asked via the Suggestion Box to provide special chairs for people with back problems. Some years ago, the TBA purchased a variety of chairs in consultation with its members – these are now in various locations in the playing room. If you need a special chair, try out the different varieties available to find the one which best suits your needs. Feel free to move them around as required.

Online Bridge Education

The TBA has signed up to Will Jenner O’Shea’s online bridge lessons. Will has previously conducted lessons at the club which were well received by members. If you would like to explore these lessons, use this link.

Lesson are $20 each and include the following:

• 2 hour recorded session, usually Theory, Practical and Student Play
• Practice hands
• Course notes

Centenary of Contract Bridge

100 years ago, Harold Vanderbilt perfected the game, transforming it from auction bridge into the contract bridge played today, whilst on a Caribbean Cruise. To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the game we all love, the TBA will run a special event in the week of October 27th – November 2nd 2025. This event will be known as the Statewide Centenary Pairs and we will encourage all of our affiliated clubs to play a pre-determined set of boards at one of their regular sessions during that week. The TBA session will be the Friday morning session on 31st October. Once all participating clubs have completed their session, overall scoring will occur to determine the overall winners as well as category winners. Prizes in the form of bridge credits will be awarded as follows:

• Overall Winners - 150 each
• Overall Runner’s Up -100 each
• Overall 3rd place - 50 each
• Winner Restricted category - 50 each
• Winner Novice category - 50 each

Can you help with Storage? Have you got any empty garage space?

As part of the Tasmanian Festival of Bridge next March, the ABF are running playoff events for the Australian Mixed Pairs and Seniors Teams. Due to the serious nature of these events, they are played with screens and special tables. If there is a member out there with some spare garage space who could help us store this equipment for 3 – 6 months, please let us know. You won’t have to do any of the transportation – that will be arranged by the ABF.

TBA Signs with 1st Energy for Electricity

As previously mentioned, the TBA has changed our electricity provider from Aurora Energy to 1st Energy. As a bonus for our club, 1st Energy has agreed to give the TBA $150 for every member that switches to 1st Energy.

Members who are interested in trimming their electricity spend and taking advantage of this offer should contact Roger Sparrow on 0438 538 985 or roger.sparrow@1stenergy.com.au.

New customers who are RACT members also get $150 credit in first 12 months and non-RACT customers will get $100 credit in first 12 months.

In order to ensure that the TBA gains full benefit from your switch, please mention that you are a bridge player when you contact Roger.

Promotions

Congratulations to the following TBA members who have been promoted this month:

New Members

Please welcome Deb Ford and Ros Hamilton as new and returning members to our club.

Bridge Etiquette – Tip of the Month

Call the Director if there is an anomaly at the table. This is standard and correct practice. Sometimes beginners think they are in trouble if the Director is called, but it is always the right thing to do, and happens very regularly.

Julie Rhodes

President

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The 47th World Bridge Teams Championships has started in Herning, Denmark. Hugh Grosvenor is playing in Australian Senior team (in the d'Orsi Trophy). Australia also has teams playing in the Bermuda Bowl (Open), Venice Cup (Womens) and Whuhan Cup (Mixed). Results for all events are here. Below are links to Hugh's updates on the event:

• Day 1

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The regular Roger’s Teams session on Friday night in July was transformed into a celebration of Christmas in July. The event attracted a good field but got off to a rocky start when the original date saw many entrants felled by sickness. Fortunately nearly everyone was able to manage a postponement of one week so the event went ahead on 25 July with 8 tables participating.

Players got into the spirit of things by dressing up and the Christmas themed decorations set the tone – see the photos below.

A sumptuous feast was brought to share including roast duck, hot baked ham, salmon, roast potato, salads and some delicious desserts.

Dinner was followed by a form of Secret Santa where everyone had contributed a small gift which were then selected at random by others. The twist was that you were able to ‘steal’ a gift that someone else had already selected! This led to some hilarity including Graeme Cooper having his gift stolen 6 times!

Teams were drawn by lot. The winners were Barbara Giizel, Maria Gibbs, Panchita Salmon and Janette Targett. Full results can be found here.

Much fun was had by all. Many thanks to Erica McCoull and Jeremy Reid for their considerable organisational efforts and of course to Dallas the regular director who went above and beyond in elf mode!

The August Roger's Teams is on 8 August. Enter on My ABF. There are also plans for another special Roger's Teams later in the year to celebrate Halloween.

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The 2025 Tassie Board-a-Match Teams was held at the TBA on the weekend of 14-15 June. Board-a-Match scoring is simple. It is essentially matchpoint scoring with each board being played twice within a match. If you score better than your opponents at the other table you get 2 points for the board (they get none). If the scores are equal you each get 1 point. If the opponents get a better score you get no points (they get 2). No mucking around with IMPs or VP tables! Some people believe Board-a-Match teams is the purest form of the game.

Six teams (including a couple of fly-in celebrities) competed in a round robin of 24 board matches. The winners were the Lloyd team (Tania Lloyd, Hugh Grosvenor, Sandra & Andrew Richman). Second place went to the Gibbs team (Maria Gibbs, Pam Murphy, Phil Timmins, Duncan Abercromby). Full results are here.

Thanks to Simon for organising and directing the event.

If you are interested in giving Board-a-Match teams a go, the TBA Club Board-a-Match teams is coming up on Sunday 27 July. Entries are open on My ABF.

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The final of the Tassie Matchpoint Pairs was held at Tamar Bridge Club on Sunday 1st June. Seven tables of pairs that had qualified through heats at various clubs around the state competed over two sessions. The winners were Pam Murphy and Bal Krishan from the TBA averaging about 59.5% over the two sessions. Second were Sally Clarke and Catherine Elliott from the Tamar Club averaging just under 58%. They also won the title of best womens pair. Third just a few matchpoints back were Roger Swain and Felicity Wivell also from Tamar. Full results are here.

Many thanks to the Tamar Club for their hospitality.

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The 2025 TBA Club Open and Handicap Teams was held over two Monday evenings in May. Nine teams competed. The open winners were the Murphy Team (Pam Murphy, Barbara Giizel, Jo and Phil Beck). The handicap winners were the Giles team (Rosemary and Brian Giles, Betty Pilgrim and Paul Fredheim). Full results are available here.

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The TBA Congress is the most significant club event held by the TBA each year. This year the congress was held on the weekend of 3rd and 4th May.

Saturday was Matchpoint Pairs over two sessions. The competion was divided into three categories - Open, Restricted and Novice. The overall winners of the Open were Guray Sunamak & Darryl Smith, with Annie Bartlett & Julie Rhodes coming second, and Barbara Giizel & Pam Murphy third. Full results for the Open are at: Overall, Session 1, Session 2.

The Restricted and Novice categories played in a combined section for the Matchpoint Pairs. Overall winners in the Restricted category were Mary George & Mary Hawthorne. Overall winners in the Novice category were Keong Chen & Leonie Atkins. Full results for the combined section are at: Overall, Session 1, Session 2.

Sunday was Swiss Pairs with 40 pairs competing. The overall winners were Fiona Hickey & Alaine Macmorran. Wynne Webber & Hilton Francis came second, and David Robinson & Phil Beck came third. The highest placed restricted pair were Jeremy Reid & Erica McCoull. The highest placed novice pair were Pam Halton & Toby Meredith. Full results are availabe here.

Thanks to the many volunteers who helped make the weekend a success, and to all who brought food to share. Thanks to Chris Carolan for Directing.

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Thanks to everyone - players, organisers, directors, caddies, volunteers and sponsors - who made the 2025 Tasmanian Festival of Bridge a successful and exciting event. The Festival was held from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 of March 2025. This was the third time that the event has been held at the MyState Bank Arena in Hobart on the banks of the Derwent river.

400 entrants, including some of Australia's top players competed across 6 events. This is an impressive 25% increase over last year. Half of the entrants were from interstate or overseas. About 75 Australian clubs were represented, with a growing contingent of New Zealand players joining us.

Thursday and Friday saw the TFoB Restricted Swiss Pairs, the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs and the Fixed Income Solutions Australian Mixed Swiss Pairs. The TBIB Australian Swiss Pairs was run on Saturday and Sunday. The TFoB Rookie Swiss Pairs was held on Sunday. The inaugural Jenny Penny Novice Swiss Pairs was also added to the schedule, running on Saturday.

Click to enlarge images

The TBIB Australian Swiss Pairs had a field of 114 pairs, an increase of 25% over last year. Start of play was preceeded by a few words from Ron Klinger and a minutes silence in memory of Avinash Kanetkar. The winners of the event were Warren Lazer and Pauline Gumby. Ashley Bach and Arlene Dalley came second. Maurits Van Der Vlugt and David Beauchamp came third. The Warren Walker Memorial trophy for the highest placed Tasmanian pair was won by Guray Sunamak and Darryl Smith. Full results are here.

The Fixed Income Solutions Australian Mixed Swiss Pairs also saw a signifcant increase over last year's field with 42 pairs playing. The event was won by Ashley Back and Arlene Dalley. Hugh McGann and Candice Smith came second. Andrew Peake and Giselle Mundell came third. Full results are here.

50 pairs played in the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs which was won by Nigel Rosendorff and Peter Reynolds. Ian Robinson and Neil Ewart came second. Phillip Fent and Dee Harley came third. Full results are here.

Click to enlarge images

The TFoB Restricted Swiss Pairs saw 66 pairs with fewer than 300 masterpoints competing. It was won by Louise Cowan and Susan Bezette from the Tamar Bridge Club. They also won the inaugural Ron Spencer Memorial Prize for the highest placed Tasmanian pair. This prize is in memory of Ron Spencer, a member and generous beneficator of the TBA. Margaret Cusack and Rhonda Khong came second. Joann Theriault and Eamonn McCabe came third. Full results are here.

The inaugural Jenny Penny Novice Swiss Pairs was played on Saturday with 22 pairs with fewer than 100 masterpoints competing. The event is named in memory of Jenny Penny, a much loved bridge teacher and director who introduced many Tasmanians to the game over a very long career. The winners were Jan Van Riel and Margaret Grant. Second placed were Nat Wright and Jo Wright. Robyn Russell and Anne Donnelly came third. Full results are here.

This was the third running of the TFoB Rookie Swiss Pairs with 22 pairs with fewer than 25 masterpoints competing. It was won by Nat Wright and Jo Wright. Ann Burnett and Anne McEntee came second. Helen Hebblethwaite and Chris Arnott came third. Full results are here.

Thanks to TBIB for their continuing sponsorship.

Thanks to Fixed Income Solutions for becoming a major sponsorship.

Thanks to Fella Hamilton for their sponsorship. Two $100 Fella Hamilton gift vouchers were awarded to the top place women's pair in the Restricted, Senior and Open events.

The Tasmanian Festival of Bridge is supported by the Tasmanian Government through Events Tasmania

The 2026 Tasmanian Festival of Bridge will be from Thursday 19 to Sunday 22 March 2026 at the MyState Bank Arena. There is plenty of room for more tables and it is a lovely time of year to visit Tasmania. Save the date, and we hope to see you in 2026!

TFoB 2019 | TGSP 2021 | TFoB 2022 | TFoB 2023 | TFoB 2024 | Top

Congratulations to the TBA Under 750 team for winning their final!

This was the third year of this event and once again the TBA entered teams in each of the handicap divisions. The club paid the $200 entry fee for each team to participate. The first match was in August and then once each month until the final night in December.

The TBA teams were:

• Open - Tania Lloyd, Hugh Grosvenor, Mardi Grosvenor, John Grosvenor. They were defeated in the Quarter Finals by the Beaumont team from South Australia. Who then annoyingly went on to beat them in the last match of the Consolation Swiss. Congratulations though to our Open team for finishing second with such a strong performance. After having won the Open last year I am sure they may have been disappointed. But as I am the Organiser of the event it may have started conspiracy theories if we won 2 years in a row!
• Under 750 MP - David Brooks, Darryl Smith, Maruta Boyd, Barbara Holland and David Marshall. Glory goes to our team who triumphed winning their Final and being the Champion Team. A stellar performance winning every match. A nerve-racking final against Moonee Valley saw me kibitzing and chewing my fingernails. However, a superb last couple of boards and they were convincing winners by 19 imps.
• Under 300 MP - Erica McCoull, Jeremy Reid, Gek Low and Katherine Marsden. At the end of 3 months of play, totalling 19 matches, they were sitting in 3rd position and into the semi finals. Erica and Jeremy were also sitting in first position in the pair datums out of 52 pairs. Katherine and Gek were a creditable 22 out of 52. Unfortunately losing their semi put our team into the consolation swisswhere they finished 15th out of 29.
• Under 100 MP - Keong Chen, Leonie Atkins, Paul Fredheim and Wayne Seabrook. They were the top ranked U100 team at the end of the Qualifying rounds. Unfortunately they lost their Semi Final to Ballina who were the eventual winners for this division. They went on to finish a fantastic fifth in the consolation Swiss!
• Under 50 MP - Christina Buell, Laura Best, Laura Bauermeister, Sharlene Campbell and Catherine Catt. Finally our brave U50 players. They felt rather bashed around but in the qualifying rounds even though they had to play all the teams from the U300 and U100 divisions as well. They beat all but one of the other U50 teams playing. They did not make the finals but went to the consolation swiss. I would like to note that their second last match saw them beat the Kenmore U750 team by 12 imps.

We could have as many players as wanted to play in the matches but perhaps because it is an online event we were not inundated with queues of people wishing to play. The Club is most grateful to all of the players that played in any of the matches. Do think about being part of the event next year. Why not familiarise yourself with the RealBridge platform and play in our weekly online Wednesday night session? Red masterpoints on offer!

Full results and details are available here. Congratulations to everybody who played. Thanks to Sue Falkinhgam for coordinating the TBA teams. Sue also had a role in organising this event nationally.

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The 2024 Tasmanian Swiss Pairs was held at the TBA on the weekend of 16-17 November. This was the last of the island-wide events for the year. A field of 18 pairs played eight matches over the two days.

The winners were Hugh Grosvenor and Tania Lloyd, second were Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard and Julia Corr and Barbara Giizel came third. The full results are here.

Thanks to Simon Edler for directing and to the Tamar Bridge Club for hosting the event.

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The TBA club rooms were packed on Sunday 29 September for the 2024 Spring Pairs, renamed this year to the Ron Spencer Spring Pairs in honour of long time TBA member and benefactor. Forty pairs played in the two session Swiss Pairs event. They were then joined by other TBA members for drinks, nibbles and classical music in celebration of Ron's life. As part of this celebration Julie Rhodes announced Ron's generous bequest to the TBA. In acknowledgement a perpetual trophy will be established in his name, to be awarded to the top placed Tasmanian pair in the Restricted Swiss Pairs at the Tasmanian Festival of Bridge each year.

First place went to Bal Krishan and Maria Gibbs. Wynne Webber and Hilton Francis came second. David Robinson and Phil Beck came third. The full results are here.

Thanks to Sue Falkingham for directing, and to Julie Rhodes for organising lunch and the celebration.

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The Grand National Open Teams (GNOT) Online 64 team knockout phase was played from Friday 20th September to Sunday 22nd September on the Realbridge platform. In fact there were only 63 teams so one team had a bye in the first round.

Tasmania was represented by three teams:

Our three GNOT teams did Tasmania proud, competing for three days on-line winning several matches each. They report positive experiences.

The top 4 teams and the next 8 regional teams proceed to the final phase of the event which will be held face-to-face over a weekend in Sydney (23rd and 24th November).

Full results are here.

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The Tassie Board A Match Teams was held on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September at the Launceston Bridge Club with 6 teams participating. The winners were the Richman team consisting of Andrew and Sandra Richman, Jane Routley and Pam Lidl. Second place went to the Grosvenor team - John and Mardi Grosvenor, Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard.

Full results are available here.

Thanks to the LBC for their hospitality and to Hugh Grosvenor for directing.

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The TBA is is the largest bridge club in the state with over 400 members and is the administrative body for the game of bridge in Tasmania. The TBA is responsible for running national and state events including the Australian Swiss Pairs championships and the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs competition. The TBA also administers the Masterpoints system for the ABF and endeavours to promote the growth and teaching of bridge throughout Tasmania via its affiliated clubs.

The TBA's purpose-designed Centre at 5 Marine Esplanade, New Town Bay serves as both our local Clubrooms and the headquarters for bridge in the state. The TBA premises are available for hire by community groups for suitable activities by arrangement with the TBA Committee. Please complete a booking request form (available here) and email it to the TBA at tba@tasbridge.com.au.