Monthly Summary: February 2023
As we farewelled January and summer holidays, February was upon us with a host of events at the Club.
The WABC Anniversary Pairs was held on Saturday 4th February, celebrating the club's move to Swanbourne in 2008. Thank you to those visionary members who played a part in this successful undertaking. The anniversary was celebrated with a cake and bridge. The bridge was a single session pairs event scored across the room with seventy six pairs taking part. It was won by Pauline Collett & Martin Doran from Angeline Christie - Nick Cantatore.
Belinda Taranto and Mark Doust won the Nedlands Bridge Club 2023 Birthday Congress Swiss Pairs held early in February. They played consistently and well in a large field to take out the trophy.
The Open Red Point Swiss Pairs was held over two Wednesday night sessions with 18 pairs in the field. As usual on a Wednesday night, after the session, the players enjoyed a drink from the bar and shared cheese and biscuits while going over the hands. The winning pair was Mimi Packer and Linda Coli. Second by the closest of margins were Stella and James Steer, and third Sandy Veling and Eve Clarkson.
In mid February we held our first Fabulous Friday for the year. It was fabulous and fun for all who attended. There was a session of bridge with a quiz on the scoresheet with prizes during the afternoon, followed by fun in the social area with a multiple choice trivia quiz and lots of free nibbles, all sponsored by Aspire Wealth Advisors . Many thanks to Prue Hart and Jacqui Ecclestone for organising and preparing the nibbles and to John Nelson for the entertaining quiz.
A large contingent of West Australians, many of whom are members of WABC, travelled to Broadbeach in Queensland to compete in the 2023 Gold Coast Congress.
There were good days and bad days at the tables. Although many of our players had some stellar performances, none managed to bring home a podium finish. Ron Cooper and Jonathan Free playing with Zoly Nagy and Russel Harms finished 8th and only just missed out on the finals. Andy Hung made the finals but lost in the next round.
Martin Doran played with Jan Kamras, the new President of the World Bridge Federation (WBF) along with Barbara Travis and Peter Reynolds. They finished 28th.
Andy Hung and his team qualified 4th in the Gold Coast Congress Open Teams tournament, but lost in the Quarter Finals. His team included was Shane Harrison (Andy’s bridge partner), Alex Smirnov and Sibrand van Oosten (from Netherlands).
Alex Smirnov continued on to WA and gave some excellent lessons at WABC while Andy was competing in the USA.
WABC Novice and Super Novice Congress was held in late February.
In the Super Novice section everyone played everyone else over two sessions. It still wasn’t long enough to separate the top two pairs who tied with Jane Blacklock - Murray McKay coming equal first with Jan Freese-Val Sinclair Day. In third place was Dani Wright-Julie Lilburne.
In the Novice section there was a qualifying session won by Julie Crewe-Chris England.
This was followed by a Final and a Plate.
The final was won by Andrea McCallum-Nicki McGrath from Pat Allen-Alan Gregory and Divyesh Shah-Rina Shah. The Plate was won by Penni Fletcher Hughes - Will Nunn from Brian Embleton - Dierdre Doepel.
Thanks to Kate North (Convenor), David Burn (Director), and Kitty George and Sue Field for the lovely food afterwards.
