The second last day of this year's ANC. Day 1 of Stage 3 of the Open Butler Pairs. Five 12 board matches today.

Match 1: Carmel Martin and Abby Wanigaratne. Apair from Queensland who are experienced but not well known at this level. Clearly they have played well and consistently to survive to this point.

Win by 15 IMPs. A fairly flat set of boards.

Match 2: Sophie Ashton and Liam Milne. One of the favourites to win the event. Undefeated in Stage 2.

You are in a slam missing an Ace and your trump suit is AKT5 opposite Q876. What is your plan? Obviously if the suit breaks 3-2 there is no problem. If they are 4-1 your best chance is to play the Ace then cross to the Q to pick up Jxxx in the hand under the AKT5. When you cash the A it goes 4 from the next hand and 9 from the fourth hand. Now it is probably right to cash the K catering for Jxxx under the Q.

Have a look at Board 17.

Slam looked pretty good. If clubs are 3-2 you can draw trumps and the third spade goes on the extra heart winner. I cashed the Ace and both hands played low. Now I could only pick up Jxxx in Sophie's hand so I played a trump to the Q and was disappointed when Liam showed out. I could pick up the trumps now but would need a lucky spade layout because of the blockage in diamonds. I drew all the trumps, cashed the top diamonds then led a spade towards the dummy. When the T forced te ace I had 12 tricks.

Sophie immediately apologised to Liam for failing to play the C9 on the first round of trumps. This is one of the so-called obligatory false cards. A low club leaves declarer with no choice. The 9 creates a losing option. You need to do this in good tempo if it is going to work!

Board 13 displayed a system agreement from Liam and Sophie. I opened 1S and Tania responded 2S. Liam bid 4C which showed a good hand with 5-5 in the red suits. Sophie's 5D ended the auction. We scored 2 diamond tricks for -600 and 10 IMPs away. Admittedly they could have got a similarly large score if Liam had doubled for takeout but this level of system agreement is what seperates the great pairs from the good.

Have a look at Board 24! This may be the best balanced hand that I have ever held in 45+ years of bridge. 30 HCP! I opened 2C, Tania responded 2H an artificial bid denying an A or K or 2 Queens. Not a real suprsie since I held all the aces and kings and one of the queens. Although my hand is great I have 4 losers to cover. Slam is not close to certain if partner really has nothing. I bid 4NT invitational. Tania bid 6H and I raised to 7. 5 hearts to the Q and 3 diamonds would make this a very good contract. With 6 small hearts Tania played the HA dreading seeing one of the opponents show out. Fortunately they both followed and we had 13 tricks. A curiosity on this hand was that two pairs played 7NT, we played 7H and the other two pairs played 6H. 7NT scores 1520, 7H scores 1510. The datum was 1350 so we scored 4 IMPs while the pairs in 7NT scored 5 IMPs. It's fairly rare for 10 difference to make an IMP difference. Still 7NT was the better contract.

Loss by 19 IMPs. Sophie and Liam played well. A couple of missed opportunities by both pairs.

Match 3: Kate MacCallum and Axel Johansson. A good pair and a chance for revenge for the loss in Stage 2.

Win by 14 IMPs. A good result for us.

Match 4: Phil Gue and Nigel Rosendorff. A good pair. Phil is an old partner of mine, they are teammates for George and I in an upcoming adventure in Darwin.

Loss by 5 IMPs. This felt a little unlucky.

Match 5: Adam Robinson and Jacques Cherbuin. Adam was replaced in this match by Lyn Carter due to ill health.

Win by 8 IMPs. A fairly flat set, opponents hampered a little by lack of partnership experience.

The scores at the end of day 1 are extremely close! We are running sixth but less than 4 VPs from first place. A tough day awaits us tomorrow, four matches against strong opponents who are running 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th. Our destiny will very likely be in our own hands.

A short report tonight. We have played about 500 hands in the last 12 days. Fatigue is becoming a factor!

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