Team Championship 28 Jun 2017

The final round was played last night, amid a fanfare of trumpets, a flyover by a Tiger Moth on loan from the War Museum and then the battle started.

The leading team The Big Squeeze, were up against the number two ranked Northern Lights, who would have needed a 20/0 result to overtake them.

This didn’t happen, with The Big Squeeze coming up trumps by a margin of 17/3.

There was a huge turnaround between The Titans and The Crazy Dark Fillies, with the aforementioned having a tremendous comeback surge and thereby beating the Crazy Dark Fillies by a massive margin of 19/1.

Finally, The Four Broke Girls had a great win of 11/9 against the League of Nations.

So, the final standings are now complete and the complete printout is attached.

Another fanfare of trumpets!

The winners of Teams 2017 are:

1. The Big Squeeze
2. The Titans
3. The Crazy Dark Fillies
4. The Northern Lights
5. The Four Broke Girls
6. The League of Nations

Handicap results

1. The Titans
2. The Crazy Dark Fillies
3. The Big Squeeze
4. Four Broke Girls
5. Northern Lights
6. League of Nations

Congratulations to all who participated.

Well done to the winners, the runners-up, the handicap winners, the runners-up and thanks to everyone who took part and everyone who brought eats.

Did I miss anything?

Sorry Bernie, for not seeing the King of Hearts under the Queen! It’s a combination of the first two digits of my ID and my new multi-focals.

Bye for now.

Garrulous Roy

Team Standings

Hand records

Bridge Ladder 22 Jun 2017

For you information, here is the latest ladder information, based on having played at least 10 events

Roy

Ladder

Today in history – 22nd June 2017

Did you know that today, the 22nd June, 1633, the Church forced Galileo Galilei to renounce his heliocentric world view about the Sun, not the Earth, being the centre of the universe. They concluded that he was “vehemently suspect of heresy”. Galileo spent the rest of his life under house arrest. And you thought that Isis was tough! They finally pronounced he was correct in 1990.

What has this to do with bridge?

Well, as far as Trevor England is concerned, today was really important, because he, and he alone, ended up victorious with 64,93%. Di was just a bystander.Yes, she even stole a slam in Spades from him, by bidding no-trump and making it!

And the runners up were that pair of over-achievers, Bridie and Paul.

Well done to these pairs and a welcome to another potential new member who visited us today. Eventually we’ll have to book Willowmore Park, if it goes on at this rate.

That’s all folks. Supper’s waiting. Then it’s some of last night’s recorded programs.

Love you all

Roy (and Troy)

Results

Ian Roberts Memorial

Following my comments and condolences expressed on Thursday, concerning the passing of Ian Roberts, I wish to advise that a memorial service will be held at 14h30 tomorrow afternoon, May 2nd, at the Baptist Church, Wordsworth Avenue, Farrarmere.

Our thoughts are constantly with Helen at this time.

Roy

Bridge Team Results 25 Apr 2017

OK, it was a little of a shambles at first, with your hard working Chairman breaking out into a sweat on what was a coldish night, because of a little thing like a lack of cards to play!
No matter, we found Thursday’s boards in the cupboard, which were still to be made for Thursday, and we went back in time to a place where we still used to actually shuffle and deal. It was fun! And then the game was on!

We, The Titans, had a very good session against The Four Broke Girls in the first half, leading by a massive margin. Then they regrouped in the second half, but still ended up on the wrong side by 5 against 15 Victory points. So well done and all that to us.

The clash between The Big Squeeze and The Crazy Dark Fillies(What a name!) was very close in the first half, with nothing in it. Then the Big Squeeze came back and reclaimed some ground and finished winners by a modest margin, but behind on handicap.

The Northern Lights clashed with The League of Nations and I am not privy to all the salacious details of what went on, but suffice it to say that the Northern Lights came out winners by a margin of 15 to 5 Victory Points. After handicap, they were still ahead by 11 to 9.

So where does this leave us at this stage of our 5 month long competition?

Go to the attached Excel spreadsheet and look for yourself.

Exciting stuff!

See most of you tomorrow.

By the way, someone who will remain unnamed asked whether we’ll be playing tomorrow, because it’s a holiday. My reply was ” Look around the room and tell me how many of us are not on permanent holiday”

Enough said, that’s it for now, as always.

Your somewhat friendly and cheerful chairman,

Roy

“Come Troy, let’s go for a walkies”

Results

2017-04-25-teams-results-2017

Bridge Ladder Averages 30 Mar 2017

BNBC Beginners Bridge Club

Benoni Northerns Beginners Bridge

Monday Afternoons 13h15 for 13h30

R25 per person

Refreshments, good company and quite a few laughs!

All welcome, whether you have a partner or not.

Start-up Lessons:  Contact Lisa Adamson

Bridge claiming tricks

The topic of this missive has been a topic of discussion in quite a few T.D. queries lately,and I’ve heard of similar queries at the Links and Sid’s club.  I hope that these snippets will be helpful.

The biggest problem continues to be the revoke.   Try to watch carefully as you play a card from your hand.

In the words of Joel Mervis in “Stoep Talk”, (who still remembers this)

“May all your finesses go right”

Lisa

Claiming tricks

NEW Ascendancy ladder Mar 2017

Hello there all you bridge lovers, this is something new, which we hope you will find interesting and inspirational to you to improve your bridge.

We have had a request for a ladder to be published, showing performance of pairs over a specified period. For this to be representative, it was decided to extract averages from our Scorebridge program, covering six months as a rolling average, For pairs to be represented on this ladder, they have to have played at least 5 times during the previous six months.

The main reason we are going to produce this ladder every month in future, is to prepare ourselves for a situation where we might have to play two sections at some time this year.
If we have to play two sections because we end up with more than 12 tables, then we will simply apply the ladder status at that time in order to grade the two sections into, say, an A and B section.

Attached is the first of these ladders, covering the period from September 1st, 2016, to March 2nd, 2017.

Your ever industrious chairman and daily dog walker,

Roy

Ascendancy Ladder

Bridge Teams Championship

Attached is an Excel file (12.1kb) containing last night’s results. The teams have some exotic titles, and our particularly grandiose ‘moniker’ is thanks to Ian. Hopefully we’ll live up to it!
The Team names are as follows, for those of you who are not participating;

1. Paul, Bridie, Bill and Clyde   – Henceforth to be known as ‘ The Big Squeeze’
2. Di, Barbara, Cathy and Roz. – Name still to be announced
3. Roy, Ian, Jan and Mary – ‘The Titans’ (do you see what I mean!)
4. Diana, Ann, Vaun and Guylaine – ‘ League of Nations ‘
5. Deirdre, Hanneke, Helen and Margaret – Wait for it!  ‘Crazy Dark Fillies’ (Don’t ask!)
6. Lisa,Trish,Judy and Heather – Name also still to be announced.

OK, let the games begin!
After the first round, the Victory Points are as shown, but there are another 4 rounds to go. In addition, we will have the handicaps calculated before the March match, and you will then be able to see how your team is progressing and your handicap standing, cumulatively.

That’s it for now’

Roy

Results

New Treasurer – Annette Venter

With reference to my previous communication regarding the above, I have pleasure in advising you that we have taken the option available in our constitution, to co-opt someone onto the committee, in exceptional circumstances. Annette Venter has kindly accepted our request for her to take over the role of Treasurer for the balance of this year.

Lisa Adamson registration

It is with the utmost regret that I wish to inform all members of the resignation of Lisa Adamson as Treasurer and committee member of our club.

2017 Bridge AGM and Chairman’s report

Thanks to everyone who attended the AGM today and on behalf of the committee, also want to thank you for your vote of confidence in us. We will be working towards achievement of the goals expressed in my address today.

Chairman’s Report

Grow the game of Bridge

As you all know we have embarked on a drive to increase our membership. This includes an offer on our part to teach bridge to anyone who wants to learn to play our wonderful game.

I have had two responses thus far, one from a couple who are already playing bridge, socially, and another from a working couple who would like to be taught from scratch.

The couple who are starting from scratch are available at night and during weekends. They live in Morehill, in Benoni.
I now ask for volunteers to give of their time to assist us in our drive to grow the game of bridge in the East Rand. You could arrange for a few people to either come over to your home, or we could arrange to meet them at the club, but we want to get this off the ground without any delay.

So! For the first of many, please get back to me asap, so we can start the ball rolling.
Would someone who is perhaps reasonably close to Morehill get in touch and I will give him/her the contact details.
Let’s get going!

Roy

RIP Tony Dearden

We regret to inform you of the passing of Tony Dearden, on Thursday,12th January. Our sincere condolences go to the family and friends of Tony.

The funeral of Tony Dearden will take place on Friday, this week, at 1400, at All Souls Church. For those of you not that familiar with Benoni, it is the same church that Alan’s funeral took place in.

If there is any further information, I will send it out to you.

The committee,
Benoni Northerns Bridge Club

SABF Changes regulations

The attached document is of interest. It concerns probable changes to the laws from the South African Bridge Federation.

SABF Regulation changes

Season’s Greetings

To all of you bridge players out there, the committee would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and a prosperous new year, “prosperous” having more of a successful bridge results connotation than financial!

All the best and arrive safely next year ready to take the battle to new heights.

Here’s to Bridge and all the enjoyment it gives us, together with the friendship.

Roy, Lisa, Ian, Di and  Chic

Bridge Fees 2017

Hello fellow Bridgers,

I am being asked about fees for next year.   So that you can budget, I have worked out a table of fees, the main increase being the SABF fee.

There is no discount for paying this year, as the Bridge Club has already subsidised the Benoni Northerns fee to the tune of about 25 per cent.

Fees for 2017

1.   Full fees paid at Benoni Northerns Bridge Club.

This includes  a club discount on Benoni Northerns Fees

2.   SABF fees paid at another club

This includes  a club discount on Benoni Northerns Fees

EFT Payment

I have been asked if payment can be made by eft.   This can be done using the following details:

Bank                    ABSA
Account name     East Rand Bridge Club
Account number  038028180206
Account type       Savings

Please give your name as reference, and send me an sms at 083 226 4825, as I only check the bank balance every 2 months.

Hope you find this helpful.
Regards,
Lisa
Treasurer