A highlight of September was our Annual Charity Pairs fund raiser. There was an excellent turnout and a fun day was had by all. More than $2,800 was raised. Thank you to Sue Riley for the wonderful effort she put in on the organisational and catering front. Who could possible resist her profiteroles! We are grateful to Shirley Corbett for the exquisite hand- made quilt which she donated. It raised more than $200 - Sue Falkingham was the lucky winner.
We are hoping to reach $9,000 for the year’s fundraising, which includes money from the Charity evening plus money raised from plant and book sales. We appreciate Robin Hoey’s efforts in supplying the plants and thank those who help with the books. There will be some raffles at the Club -please buy some tickets to help us reach the $9,000 target.
October has been another month of competitions at the Club and at Congress events. Congratulations to Maggie Gibbs and Susan Jensen on winning the Under 100MP Competition. On the Congress front, congratulations to Peter Clarke and Hans van Weeren for winning the two-day Two Men and a Truck Restricted Teams at the 2017 Sydney Spring Nationals event.
This month, we sadly lost two of our members, Bob Woodcock and Vona Hadfield. They will be missed at the Club by their friends and partners and by the Club as a whole.
Having made it through most of a hectic year our President has gone abroad for a well-deserved break, leaving you with me to try to write this monthly letter to you.
The month has had its significant successes:
- Peninsula edging our Brisbane Waters in our first head to head competition
- An excellent Melbourne Cup function
- A successful transition to a new Committee at our AGM
- The welcoming at the AGM of three new Honorary Life members - Alan Davies, Anita Kite and Catherine Whiddon
- Peninsula doing well in the state's Most Improved list
- Peninsula doing well at the State Open Pairs
In a tight final round Cath Whiddon and David Farmer overtook leaders Col Dempster and Brian Ody to win the 2017 Padman Trophy. This was despite David putting Cath into an impossible slam - "Slam seemed to be possible, and there was no way I could think of to ask the questions I wanted to - and I am an optimist...".
Col Dempster and Brian Ody were the 2017 Padman Trophy runners-up.
No-one took a photo on the night and so this is a repurposed photo from earlier in the year.
We ate, drank, played bridge and were merry! Check (and add your own) photos from the event.
What a day! It was a sell out as sadly we couldn’t comfortably fit any more than 40 bridge tables in the main club room. Congratulations to the Lucky Door Prize, the section winners and the team who won the Christmas Trivia Quiz – how did they do it? We also had a wonderful array of Festive Fashionistas. Brilliant efforts from our volunteers and fabulous food contributions by the players on the day.
Our club has a strong history of social events and our volunteers and contributions from members make days like this possible. Let us know if you can help out at the next event – it’s great for the club and you get more than you
give. Hope to see you all next year.
Queries please contact
Anyone been wondering what’s behind the grey screen in the north west corner of the club room? All will be revealed this week in the lead up to the Christmas party this Sunday. There was a lucky pair on the waiting list who have got the last tickets but otherwise sadly, it is all sold out and no walk ins.
On Sunday the bar will open at 9.30. Bridge play starts at 10.30 until 4pm. Please bring a plate of your wonderful morning tea delights (savoury preferred) for everyone to enjoy on the day.
Queries please contact Gayle on
Peninsula players comprised 11 out of the 134 players competing in the NSW State Open Pairs Championships in November - after qualifying events at clubs around the state.
The first day saw the field cut back to 14 and we managed to hold 3 of these 14 finalist places with Robin Ho (our Administration Officer, playing with her frequent partner Alexander Cook) and our regular pairing of Vivien Eldridge and Alan Davies. The second day of finals saw Robin finish 8th in the state with Alex and Vivien and Alan finishing 12th.
In the consolation Swiss Pairs held in part for those pairs that did not make the finals, Greg Hay and Mervyn Baxter did well to place 13th equal. You can check all the results.
The final Swiss Pairs evening on Tuesday 21 November saw Alan and Vivien triumphant, including winning the last round against the fancied guest expert pair of Warren Lazer and Pauline Gumby.
Warren and Pauline had a bidding problem in the last round when they missed a slam after an intervening bid prevented their being certain they had slam range points. Warren opened 1C which in their system can be a 17-20HCP hand as well as a 12-14 ish 1C opening. When Alan or Vivien intervened with a 3C overcall, Pauline bid 3NT. Warren with 20HCP passed not sure if Pauline had stretched with a club stopper. A slam went begging.
Earlier just before the session, Warren had spoken on "What to count, How to count" starting with the basics and with efficient ways to store information about hand shapes that emerges during the play of a board, and ending up with using counting to determine how to play the last few tricks with confidence. That will be our last Swiss Pairs for 2017 with the 2018 season planned to start on Tuesday 23 January.
