Monthly Summary: March 2023
The New Members Party was held early in March. It was an opportunity for our newer and mostly inexperienced players to meet and play with some of the clubs more experienced players. It was a most enjoyable afternoon with a glass of champagne to start the afternoon and settle any nerves, followed by a draw for partners and then a short session of bridge. There were several players venturing out from supervised for the first time and everyone coped well and seemed to be having a great time despite one or two penalty doubles. There was more champagne and a wonderful selection of nibbles after play.
The winners on the day were N/S: Jacqui Ecclestone & Eve Broadley and E/W: Kate North & Jenny Crouch.
In mid March 40 pairs competed in the Restricted Swiss Pairs. Hamish McCracken and Mark Cleaver took the lead after round 3 and held their position in the afternoon to come first overall. In second place were Katrina Will and Jane Adams, third Wendy Wade and Lia Overman, fourth Jeff Veling and Frank van Bockxmeer and in fifth place, father and daughter combination, Richard and Jodie Basham.
The best Novice pair with <150MPs was Andrea McCallum and Nicki McGrath. The best Novice pair with <50MOs was Angelique Morin and Erik Moller.
Winners celebrated and losers commiserated over a drink and nibbles, kindly supplied by volunteers. Kate North did a great job overseeing a very smoothly run event with David Byrne directing.
This has become a very popular annual event so watch out for it next year!
Andy competed in New Orleans in the 2023 ABCL (American Contract Bridge League). His team (the BRAMLEY team) performed very well in a strong experienced field finishing second in the Jacoby Open Swiss Teams. The BRAMLEY team were Bart Bramley, Kit Woolsey, Liam Milne(Andy’s partner), Andy Hung, Brian Platnick, and Kevin Rosenberg. The TULIN team, Captain Stan Tulin, Dror Padon, Alon Birman, David Bakhshi, Cornelis Van Prooijen, and Louk Verhees Jr, were the winners.
While Andy was away competing Alex Smirnov ran some of the regular lessons and a couple of very well attended advanced workshops on the play of bridge hands. He was a very popular substitute and the workshops were excellent.
The WABC Women’s Pairs Championship was run over two weeks in late March. It was well supported with 32 entries. The Championship was won by Gwyneira Brahma & Deana Wilson from Kate Pinniger & Carla Sullivan in second place, and Patricia McNamara & Belinda Taranto in third place.
On the last Thursday of the this month David Byrne ran a Swiss Pairs session alongside the regular Duplicate session. This format was introduced in February and has been very well supported. It is a great opportunity to experience the Swiss Pairs format in a non-competetive setting. Look out for this on the last Thursday in April.
