Great response to the Rubber Bridge Challenge

Waikato Bays Rubber Bridge Competition has eventuated into a good competition with 15 pairs putting themselves up to battle it out for Regional Supremacy and the right to take on the rest of NZ at the Dan Gifford Rubber Bridge competition being played at National Congress.

Rubber Ducky Day Out: Participants get down to business at the Rubber Ducky Day OutThe Waikato-Bays has had a few very good partnerships in the past who have given the other regional pairs a good run for their money. Ian and Cynthia Clayton and Christine and Jenna Gibbons are such partnerships, and Christine and Jenna won the national title in 2012.

The Rubber Ducky Day Out hosted by Putaruru Club, saw pairs from clubs around the region with experience ranging from Junior to Grand Masters and included many who had never played Rubber Bridge prior to Sunday.

The day started with seminar and some strategy tips on Rubber Bridge from Jenna Gibbons (or the Ins and Outs - That's me making a Rubber Bridge pun there). On the day it was a lot of fun learning a new system - while basically the same game as Contract Bridge as we know it, scoring and tactics were quite different to duplicate bridge. Overtricks didn't usually count, Getting to game wasn't always the best option and in the end the God of Cards seemed to determine the result (well in our case anyway). That's perhaps was part of the appeal, that anybody has a chance - as well as the "house bridge" type of atmosphere of just competing against one pair on the day.

The knock-out competition will continue over the next few months culminating with the regional winner representing Waikato Bays to compete for the Dan Gifford