A Little Trouble in the Big Smoke

The North Island Teams 20A tournament took place in Auckland over the weekend just gone. Congratulations to Hamilton pair Jenny Millington and Barry Jones who, with long-time team-mates Patrick Carter and Julie Atkinson came second in this marathon of bridge. Full results may be seen by clicking here.

One amusing tale from the weekend ..

Auckland being tight for accommodation on that Saturday night, Malcolm and Michael (surnames with-held for reasons of delicacy) were extremely pleased to get lodgings at a boutique hotel just three doors down from the ABC. In dropping off their bags at lunchtime they were pleasantly surprised to find they'd really fallen on their feet. The place was a beautifully restored Remuera mansion of considerable grace and charm. Their room was huge with a king bed for Malcolm and a single in a sort of sunporch off the bedroom for Michael. On returning after play and an Indian dinner Michael was not a little disconcerted to notice a notice on the single bed informing him it would be an extra charge of $10 to sleep in that bed. This immediately posed problems both ethical and philosophical. While seemingly the place had gone overboard in its desire to be beyond PC about gay rights, the immediate philosophical question became "how MUCH would one pay NOT to sleep with Malcolm?" Ten dollars seemed a bargain made even more attractive by the fact that, as they were splitting costs, Malcolm would be contributing $5 not to sleep with Michael. The debit has yet to appear on Visa.

The first of the Intermediate League tournaments is to take place at Taupo this coming Saturday. Entries close on Wednesday 8th of March. Let's get this season-long competition off to a great start by seeing a huge field come along to Taupo.

Hey hey - pretty swish new website for the Huntly club ... recommended check it out. Nice going Huntly!!

Jane Stearns of Cambridge has just returned from another of her Bridge-It Jane's missions of goodwill and enlightenment. Jane was invited to address the Wellington Regional Conference as she has done for almost every other region in the country You can read all about it by clicking here. Included is a great idea of definite potential to reduce and even eliminate handling of money in these days of ever-increasing cashlessness.

Great turn-out at the Te Puke Restricted on Sunday - there is coverage on The Mount site.