Sunday in Canberra is cold and clear. Two sessions of 3 eight board matches to complete the Welcome Pairs.

At the end of the day these were the results.

Annie Bartlett & Mardi Grosvenor were the top performing Tasmanian pair finishing in 6th place.

Catherine Elliott & Felicity Wivell came 21st, Tania Lloyd & Hugh Grosvenor finished 29th, David Marshall & Merryl Darby were 37th, Pamela Lidl & Fiona Hickey were 39th, Hilton Francis & Julie Rhodes were 40th and Maggie Crawford & Julia Corr were 49th.

Our first match was against Simon Brayshaw and Karol Miller from WA. They play a strong club based system. We got off to a poor start when I had something of a brain snap on Board 1.

We like to pllay an active style when the opponents open a strong artificial club. My 1S overcall showed either a club overcall or a hand with both red suits. Karol knew that they had a minimum of 24 HCP so bid a practical 3NT.

My diamond lead went to Tania's Q who returned a diamond. For some reason I didn't cover the J with the K even though I knew the diamond layout. This allowed the declarer to establish the clubs and get to them with the DA. Covering the D would have doomed the contract. I had some vague plan but it was fundamentally flawed. My worst hand for some time! 7 IMPs away.

Board 3 was another close 3NT contract, this time played by Simon after Tania had shown both majors. Tania did well to lead a low spade rather than a heart. This kept us in the game however I erred by returning a spade. To beat the contract I needed to switch to a heart when I won the SA. Another 4 IMPs away.

Nothing good for us in this set and arguably lucky to only lose by 15.

As often seems to happen after this loss we drew another strong pair in Julia Hoffman and Pam Crichton. This was a fairly flat set. We lost 8 IMPs on Board 15 when we didn't bid slam with two balanced hands and a combined 32 HCP. Looking at the two hands you wouldn't really want to be in slam but on the lie of the cards 3 finesses and a squeeze resulted in 13 tricks.

Another loss by 2 IMPs.

Next we drew Pele Rankin and Paul Hooykaas, another strong pair from Queensland.

Board 17 Pele and Paul did well to play in their 5-2 spade fit which was cold for 11 tricks while 3NT was hopeless. 8 IMPs away.

Board 19 This time they played 4S in the 4-3 fit for 10 tricks when 3NT was again hopeless. 7 IMPs away.

Board 20 They bid 3NT with 9 top tricks and a tenth on a finesse. 6 IMPs away.

It feels like we are sitting in the wrong direction!

Board 21 This was somewhat self-inflicted. Tania overcalled 4C over Paul's 3S opening. This does not seem unreasonable but just after bidding it she remembered that we play this as non-leaping Michaels showing a good hand at least 5-5 in clubs and hearts. When Pele bid 4S, I bid 5C thinking this would be a good chance opposite an imagined S shortage in partner's hand. This was doubled and was 'lucky' to get out for 2 down and -500 against their failing game. 10 IMPs away.

The only ray of hope in this match was Board 18. We bid to an optomistic 3NT. This made 9 tricks with a little help from the defence.

An interesting set of boards but another loss - this time by 18 IMPs. Maybe lunch will change things!

Another non-optimal draw. Paul Gosney is a very fine player who played in Sydney for many years. Now living in Brisbane he is the captain of the Queensland youth team and playing with one of his team, Remco Spencer.

Tania had an interesting bidding decision on Board 2.

Tania chose 2S which we play as non-forcing in this situation. Paul bid 3D and Remco tried 3NT. This was a claim for 10 tricks, 630 and 11 IMPs. If Tania had chosen 4S it seems likely that Paul would bid 5D and this had 3 inescapable losers.

On Board 4 Remco did well to lead a diamond from 95 doubleton. A spade lead from Axxx would have resulted in a fairly easy 9 tricks. The diamond lead and continuation gave me no chance.

The whole match was pretty much one-way traffic. Loss by 23 IMPs. Does not seem that lunch helped!

We won the last two matches to salve some pride. At least we did not use up a lot of our supply of luck today. Maybe the teams will be better.

Tomorrow the Interstate teams starts with our Open Team playing Victoria, ACT and NT. Good luck to all of our teams.

The TBA Committee met on June 9th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Leigh Blizzard (T), Trish Colles (S), Sue Falkingham, Pam Murphy, Paul Fredheim, Hugh Grosvenor and Laura Bauermeister. The following matters were discussed:

Coming Up – Eastcoaster Weekend in Orford

On August 29th and 30th we’ll be running our fourth Eastcoaster Swiss Pairs event. As the name suggests, it is held at the Eastcoaster Resort near Orford. It is a great opportunity for a different weekend of bridge set on the beautiful East Coast of Tasmania. The entry fee includes morning tea and lunch on the first day as well as three sessions of bridge. We also hold a three course dinner on the Saturday night which can be entered as a separate event on MyABF. Play kicks off at 10.00am on the Saturday and is all over by around 1.00pm on Sunday. There are prizes awarded in all categories subject to the number of entries. There is generally also a lucky door prize donated by the Eastcoaster Resort.

A range of accommodation options are available at the resort from single rooms to 3 bedroom cabins so you can stay with your friends, family or partner if you like. Mention bridge when you are booking with the resort and they will give you a good rate.

Building Extension

As many of you know, we have been working on a plan for many years to improve our club facilities by adding an extension at the rear which will include an office/utility room, a member’s recreation area and a better kitchen. In addition, the Vera Houdek room and existing kitchen will be combined and extended to provide an additional teaching/playing room to provide greater flexibility with scheduling of Beginners Classes or additional playing sessions.

This was costed at approximately $ 800,000 a couple of years ago, and the TBA has (unsuccessfully) applied for several types of government assistance to enable us to progress the work. We have approximately $ 500,000 set aside for the extensions including a bequest of the late Ron Spencer for $ 200,000.

We have recently discovered than an alternative building approach by Tasbuilt involving off site manufacturing may provide an affordable solution for us and are currently investigating this.

If the quote and design from Tasbuilt offers us a viable solution, we will call a special meeting of Club Members to approve the project, as there will be inconvenience from pile driving, and we will need to close the club whilst the new extension is joined to our existing club. We will post the amended design and quote as soon as it is available.

ABF Online Club Knockout event

This event is scheduled to commence in July and the TBA has been quite successful in it in the past. Teams are categorised according to the Masterpoint level of their most experienced member and can participate in the Open, Under 750, Under 300, Under 150 and Under 50 category.

Events are run monthly at night via Real Bridge, and the TBA pays for the team entry fees. Consequently, any winnings are retained by the TBA to go towards the entry fees for next year.

If you would like to participate in this event, please register you interest with Sue Falkingham.

Suggestion Box

There were several suggestions from Members this month and we are responding to each of them :

• We won’t be welcoming puppies/dogs to the TBA unless they are designated companion animals.
• We now have 5 of the specially requested black chairs.
• We will purchase two chairs with arms for people that need assistance in this way
• The TBA has a sophisticated air conditioning system. We should all recognise that it is impossible to provide a temperature which suits everyone You will all realise that some people are wearing a T Shirt at the table whilst others are rugged up! Rather than nag the Director, or complain about the temperature, please ensure your own personal comfort by wearing layers of clothes which you can add or remove as appropriate. This is the Tassie way.

Free Coffee for Dealers

As a thank you for our dealing team, we have decided that if they wish, they can request a coffee machine token from the Director on duty which will be provided free of charge.

A reminder that you can purchase coffee machine tokens if you don’t have a $ 2 coin in your pocket!

Youth Bridge

We are going to establish a Youth Bridge program over the next 12 months, leading up to the ANC in July 2027 which will be held in Hobart. If you have a young person in your life who you think would like to learn bridge, please contact myself, or Sue Falkingham, and we will endeavour to include them in this program.

New Members

We welcome the following new and reactivated members to our club and wish them all the best on their bridge journey : Mel Croft, Liam Croft (Youth), William Keyte and Jan Sheen.

Bridge Etiquette – Kindness (Again!)

Just a brief reminder to be kind and respectful to everyone at the table. We want people to enjoy their visits to the club and to tell their friends how fantastic bridge is as both as a brain stimulating hobby and as a family.

Julie Rhodes
President