The TBA Committee met on March 10th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Trish Colles (S), Leigh Blizzard (T), Leonie Atkins, Sue Falkingham, Pam Murphy, Paul Fredheim, Hugh Grosvenor, Simon Edler and Laura Bauermeister. The following matters were discussed:

Annual General Meeting – Saturday March 14th

Don’t forget our AGM on Saturday!

We try to make it a fun day. For those new to the club, on the day of the AGM, we all bring a plate of food to share for lunch after the meeting. The meeting starts at 12.00 noon and is usually completed by 12.30. After that, we have a shared feast, and then there is free bridge for all those who attend the AGM (red masterpoints).

Bridge Club Closure

A reminder that the TBA will be closed from Thursday March 19th until Wednesday March 25th (inclusive). This is due to the staging of the Tasmanian Festival of Bridge, and to the continuation of Australian Playoffs for the Mixed and Seniors Teams.

Thank you to those who have offered to prepare and serve food and clean up during the playoffs to ensure that we put our best foot forward for our interstate guests.

New Traffic Management in Carpark

Following a suggestion from a TBA member, and subsequent representations to HCC, I am pleased to advise that a one way traffic management system will become operational in the external carpark in the next week or so. Please look out for new signage and follow the directional arrows when entering or leaving the carpark.

TBA Congress – April 11th and 12th

Following right behind the Tasmanian Festival of Bridge, we have our annual TBA Congress on April 11th and 12th. Saturday will be a Matchpointed Pairs event and Sunday will be a Swiss Pairs event. Prize money will be awarded according to the number and Masterpoint level of entries. You can enter via MyABF with a discounted entry fee for those people who enter on both days.

As a thank you for the hard work of all our TFoB volunteers, and to all our members who entered this event to ensure its financial success, the TBA will be providing a complimentary light lunch on both days.

Liam Milne Training for Everyone

The TBA has organised for Liam Milne (a former and current Australian player) to conduct the State team training this year in May. In addition, he will be running a session which will be open to everyone. It will run from 2.00pm to 4.00pm on Friday afternoon May 29th at a cost of $25 for TBA members and $30 for non members. The topic is :

“Slam Bidding Workshop - Bid better slams and stay out of poor ones!”

A very useful topic for all of us – who doesn’t need help improving their slam bidding? - I will certainly be attending! You will be able to enter shortly for this workshop on MyABF or just turn up on the afternoon with your $25.

Entry Damage

Simon and Paul are working toward a solution for this problem – we have someone who is coming out to take a look so hopefully they will be able to fix the problem.

First Energy Bonus

As previously advised, First Energy is paying the TBA a $150 sign up bonus for anyone who changes to them as their preferred retailer. At the moment they are advising that eight of us have done that – if you have changed over as part of this campaign, could you let a Director know, so we can invoice them for the correct amount?

New Members

The TBA is pleased to welcome the following new members to our club : Elizabeth Dobson, Susan Clennett, Rosemary Donald, Christine Hurburgh, Clive Claver, Roslyn Lamprill, Elisabeth Foster, Keitha Banks-Smith, Zelma Wright, Penelope Archer and Tamara McMichael.

Promotions

Congratulations to the following members who have received rank promotions last month:

• Bill Oakley to Graduate Master (>2 MPs)
• Denise Bowden, Robyn Gregory, Jenny McCormick and Kate Richards from Graduate to Club Master (>5 MPs)
• Catherine Catt and Geoff Peatling to Local Silver Master (>15 MPs)
• Bronwyn Peatling to Regional Master
• Maggie Crawford to Silver Life Master (>500 MPs)

Bridge Etiquette – Tip of the Month

Remember to leave your bidding cards on the table until the opening lead has been faced. This allows the defence the opportunity to review the bidding before they make their killing lead!

Julie Rhodes
President

The two week Thursday morning Red point event concluded this week and ended in a very close result.

Congratulations to the winners, Geoff Green & Robin Barnes who scored 62.11% and won 2.97 red points.
Close behind in 2nd place were John & Mardi Grosvenor with 62.07% (2.73 red points).
3rd place went to Ron Berry & Julie Hunt with 57.77% (1.65 red points).

All the results can be found here: Session 1, Session 2, Overall

The ABF Board has recently approved a change to the Masterpoint scheme which gives a higher weighting to some events and sessions where the field is stronger than usual.

We have implemented this from Monday 2 March and so far it has applied to 3 sessions at the TBA (Monday Evening, Wednesday Morning and Friday Morning). The change results in at least 25% more masterpoints, scaling up a little depending on the actual strength of the field.

Most of you should stop reading now! For those interested in the details ...

• Applies to all green point events, club red point events and congress events (i.e. Grades F to B4)
• Applies if the ranking of the median player in the event is Bronze National or above
• Green point events get an extra weighting of 1.25 for Bronze National or 1.5 for Life Master and above
• Red point events get an extra weighting of 1.125 for Bronze National, 1.25 for Life Master or 1.5 for Grand Master

This change has produced a flurry of questions, comments, criticisms and suggestions from those involved in the minutiae of the scheme. If you would like to know more (!) feel free to talk to me or our Masterpoint Secretary Malcolm Sherlock.

In late 2025 the TBA Committee started looking at options for upgrading our website. The old website has been a trusty workhorse for the TBA for years, but we were starting to butt up against some limitations. For example the site could only support a limited number of pages so we could not dedicate pages to significant topics.

The new website is custom designed and built for the TBA. This gives us a great deal of flexibility in how it works and what features it provides. This post will explain some of the features that are already available and where we may be going in the future.

What's happening with domain names?

The new website is now accessed through the normal tasbridge.com.au domain name. The TBA email address remains tba@tasbridge.com.au.

What members use the website for?

The main things that most members use the TBA website for are around events - looking for information like what's coming up, how do I enter, what were the results. Many members also are looking for this information from a mobile device with a small screen.

The design of the new site is intended to make event information easier to find and access and provide better support for users on small screens.

The "Today at the TBA" section lists events and activities scheduled for today, including regular sessions. You can get information about these events, including results when available, by clicking/touching on the event in this section. This section is at the top of the home page when viewed on a small screen.

The calendar now includes all regular events as well as events, meetings, public holidays etc. Again you can drill down into an event easily from this page. When using a small screen touching a day in the calendar brings up a mobile friendly list of the day's events.

What are News and Topics?

Across a year there is lots of information that gets shared through our website, for example the President's monthly newsletter, reports from completed events, significant events in our members' lives. These will now be shared as posts (like on a blog). The home page will show 'pinned' and recent posts. All posts can be accessed through the news page, where you can search and filter to find what you want.

The topics menu provides pages dedicated to important topics. For example, the Tasmanian Festival of Bridge or the 2027 Australian National Championships which we will be hosting.

What is happening with results?

For the time being session and event results are being stored on the old website. We are planning to move results into the new system but this is not ready yet.

And More?

The 'More' menu provides a wealth of mainly reference information, such as who's who in the TBA zoo, what the regular sessions are and TBA contact details. It also includes access to a repository of publicly available documents.

Do I need a userid?

Most people will just use the website to view publicly available data and will not need a userid. Directors and people managing the website will have userids and will need to log in to access administrative functions.

In the future we may introduce userids for all members so that they can access member-only functions. For example, we are looking at moving our library management functions onto the website, allowing members to browse the library catalog and record which books they have borrowed and returned.

Is there more?

The website includes features that help us run the TBA effectively. These are generally not visible to members. For example scheduling the Directors to cover all of the activites of the TBA can be a challenge. The new website has features intended to make this process easier.

What's next?

The site is under active development and you may see changes from day to day. As mentioned above we are looking at getting results into the website as a priority. We are also considering the library function and some more administrative tools.

If you have any suggestions on future features, or feedback on the site (including bugs that you notice), please email the TBA or talk to Hugh or John.

Congratulations to the February 2026 Multi winners: