Roundup - Week 43

Rona presents Mark with Intermediate TrophyThe end of the week also coincided with the end of the Waikato-Bays Intermediate Champions League which was won this year by Mark Thomson of the Hamilton club. Pipping his year-long partner Jeffrey Chang by the two points he won (one for turning up, the other for over 50%) when Jeffrey couldn't make it to one of the nine events, Mark was gracious in his speech at the end of a hard day's bridge at the Cambridge rooms.

In third-equal place were Bruce Ballard and Hattie Curtiss of Katikati/Waihi. These four are also our Region's representatives at the Interprovincials to be held in Dunedin over the last weekend of this month. Good choice Waikato!

The big event of Week 44 is coming up on Friday night. The annual Babich NZ-Wide Simultaneous Pairs will be taking place at 60 clubs all around the country. Advertisements typical of the one on the Hamilton site are on noticeboards and in shop windows somewhere near you. Get a partner, sign up, and get along to the nearest one. We're aiming to top 1000 pairs taking part this year.

Interesting what snippets can be adduced from time to time. Silver GM's Ken and Kathy Yule would seem to have translocated to Matamata ... maybe. This will be some solace to the Matamata club after long-time members Joyce Catchpole and recently Carol Wilson moved to Cambridge.Kathy Yule's form of late

Your Regional Committee had its annual face-to-face meeting in Cambridge last Sunday prior to trotting off to the local clubrooms to tot up the scores so chairperson Rona Driscoll could present the prizes. Aside from the usual mundanities of all meetings, there was some discussion around the placing of major events in the 2018 tournament programme and tweaking of what we already do - the Leagues, Jones Day Out, IP's, Novice tournaments, etc. There was unanimous commendation for the stirling work done by Jane Stearns in revitalising the Huntly club. The club had a roll call of just 19 members and played on two days with three to four tables. Post-Jane there are now another 12 enthusiastic, active, regular playing new members and they are doing three sessions a week with four to five tables. If Jane can work out a way to bottle what she does it would surely be a medicine to benefit all bridge clubs.