Another quiet night for attendance! Four and a half tables is a little less than we’re expecting to get on Tuesdays nowadays, but anyway it was pleasant, as always, so there to all you guys and girls who weren’t there. You missed out!

Welcome back to Bridie and Paul, who weren’t with us over the past few weeks, but they made up for that by winning tonight, with a great score of 71.43%! They were followed by Lisa and Trish, then Helen and yours truly in third place.

There was an incident tonight, where two pairs played a different orientation from what they were supposed to, in other words they played E/W instead of N/S and vice versa. I was busy playing a hand, when I was approached by one of the players, who had just realised that they had done this, but discovered it after one board. As I was in the middle of playing a hand, as declarer, I advised them to just play the other two hands the same way, but it was the wrong decision, as it now turns out. I should have called the tournament director for a ruling, which would have been to play the next two hands in the proper orientation. My apologies for this, but I was somewhat distracted and therefore incorrect.
I don’t have the board numbers at my disposal right now, which is five to midnight, and I was advised by Lisa that we should therefore reverse the relevant scores as if the correct pairs had played them, so I will ascertain which boards they were and make the necessary correction tomorrow. The winners will not change, but there will be some small changes further down.

Watch this space.

The lesson to be learnt from this is that all such incidents should be directed to the TD, and a proper ruling will be given, in accordance with the rules of bridge. I will be rigid in enforcing this in future. The Tournament Director is there to do exactly this.

I’m tired and grumpy now, so I’ll just say goodnight, or rather good morning. I’ll see you on Thursday, or whenever.

Roy

Results

After my somewhat severe email last night, I thought I would lighten it up a bit and share the following with all of you.
Two really good friends, Russ and Ian, used to run into each other at the park every few days, where they would sit and feed the pigeons and squirrels and solve all the world’s problems.
One day, Russ didn’t show up and as it was still in a time where they didn’t have cellular gadgets, and Ian didn’t even know where Russ lived, he wasn’t all that concerned. However, when he didn’t show up that week at all, and for the next three weeks, Ian reported him missing at the local Police Station.
Surprise, surprise, after at least a month, Russ showed up and when Ian asked him where he had been, he said ” You know that cute little blonde waitress who serves at the coffee shop, the one who’s always friendly to me and says I’m good looking?”

“Yes, I know who you mean”

“Well, she must have thought I was very wealthy or something, so the little gold digger accused me of rape! I was so flattered, at my age of 89, that when they asked me to plead, I pleaded guilty!”

“Ok, what then?” said Ian.

“The judge gave me 30 days for perjury”

Disclaimer
The above story bears no reference to anyone who is a member of, or who plays at, Benoni Northerns Bridge Club. No animals were hurt during the composition of this sad story. Names are purely fictional and bear no reference to anyone living or dead.

Your ever patient but sometimes stressed Chairman,

Roy
PS. Thanks to Hans for the above sad tale. No, it wasn’t him either!