Sunday, 10 March 2019

Bridge Triumph

Some of my readers will have already received an email message covering much of what I say here, but using this blog will extend readership.


Today I finished playing 100 boards of bridge over 2 lengthy days and guess what! My partner, Ed Hahn, and I came in first in the New England Open Swiss Pairs and we won $400 between us in prize-money. That was some achievement since 36 pairs over 18 tables contested the event and many of the competitors came to Armidale from over much of northern NSW. One pair even traveled 700 km for the event.

The results are provided at: http://www.armidale.bridgeaustralia.org/teamresults.asp?id=8422 . There you will see that we earned 6.81 Red Points. Winning ordinary club events only earns one about 0.25 inferior green points, so we 27 times better in the points tally over the last two days.

This is the sixth time I’ve won the shield and it is also the 25th anniversary of my winning it for the first time. Watch for a blog posting about the event  coming in the next few days. I took these photos if activity inside our well-appointed club-house which members own rather than rent. I started a sinking fund maybe 20 years ago, when President, that led to the purchase of our own accommodation and this has led to a great increase in membership and income to sustain our activities.










The club-house can handle as many as 20 tables - or 80 players. It has an office and a kitchen where meals can be served. Air-conditioning keeps playing conditions comfortable, and power bills are greatly reduced by extensive solar panels on our roof. Access is provided for handicapped players by a ramp.



The following pictures shows me and Ed. receiving our award for winning the event. Ed is on the left, me in the middle and our President, Ian Price, a UNE psychologist, is on the right.







The award ceremony went on for a long time as the first three place-getting pairs collected their money and a special award was given to the best performing 'novice' pair - who had below a certain threshold of master points. On top of this a range of other awards were provided in the form of  bottles of wine.










As you can see from the players' expressions many of us were having a great time. It's also good that our competitions at this level are well organised. The professional director of the event was excellent. The catering was brilliant - endless nibbles and drinks, lovely lunches. The entire event had a vibrant hum about it.

We have several big club events in the course of a year. Today's was for individual pairs. In November we run a team of 4 game. There's a competition for novice pairs and, in June, the frost-bight pairs in the depth of winter. I run myself two other events. One is my wicked deals session at the Christmas Party. The other is an individual congress at the start of the year. In this players have many different partners through session, all playing a standard prescribed bidding system.

I think we've a great club. And winning today's competition was a great outcome!

AS
















No comments: