It was a very pleasant afternoon of bridge with perfect numbers after both sides declaring 14 pairs available to play. After an initial hiccough with the room setup, Cambridge found its stride moving around the room in castle fashion. We finished late enough to find an excuse to crack open the wine to go with the Steiner scrummy savouries or enjoy a cup of tea with the sweeter offerings. One Te Awamutu person was heard to say , "We only came for the afternoon tea!" and I don't think Cambridge let them down on that score with all the delicious offerings on display.

Time to sign up on the clipboard in club or online on the Waikato Bays Site.

The Waikato Interclub Teams is a fun event. There are 7 Friday nights played on 4th Friday of each month.  The winning team in each section gets to take Oscar, Indie or Junior home.  We stop for wine and cheese half way through and finish by 10pm.  The goal is a relaxed fun evening playing new faces.

So far we have 16 teams entered and we would like MORE! More is more fun!!

If you would like help compiling a team, please let me know.

Clare

We look forward to hosting Fairlands on Sunday 25 March starting play around 1.30pm in Cambridge.

There is a clipboard to sign up - an equal number of Cambridge and Te Awamutu players will compete for the trophy, currently hanging in the Cambridge Club rooms.

We like a mixture in ability in the event so please do sign up regardless of how new or experienced a bridge player you are.

David's Emporium Monday teams start on Monday and we will be welcoming three teams from Matamata.

There will be a total of 16 teams, which is too many to play a round robin format over 4 weeks.

There is also a difference in ability if the total rating points of each team is added up.

We have therefore decided to run the competition in two halves, RED Group and HOT Group. RED Group mostly have a total of more than 100 rating points and HOT Group fewer than 60 rating points.

RED Group

Simply Red

At the start of the week we congratulated Diane and Jane, who qualified for the top grouping in the Intermediate pairs.  They had a solid start in the E-W field scoring 58% and 56% respectively in the first two sessions finishing 5th E-W in the qualifying rounds.  They got off to a great start in the final but hit a few obstacles en route finishing 12th overall.

Meanwhile Mike played Swiss pairs, a different competition and finished in the top third, which was a pleasing result for him too.

ARE YOU SIGNED UP FOR THE INTERMEDIATE CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE 2018?

It was wonderful to see the room full of enthusiastic bridge players in Cambridge today. Thank goodness for the bad weather as it made a day at the bridge table in the relative cool so much more appealing at this time of year! Thank you to all our generous members bringing plenty of delicious food for our guests to enjoy. 

Look what just came through - the top twenty A point earners for 2017. Cambridge's Herman Yuan is ranked 17th with over 190 A points for the year. It is all the more meritorious that Herman makes this list with a total of only just 633 A points when eighteen others have thousands.

Yes, that's right! The first of the Waikato Area Pairs 2018 is this Sunday in our own club rooms.  We are looking forward to seeing as many of our members as possible. It is not just for open players.  There is always a prize for the best non-Open pair on the day as well as best junior and intermediate pairings with Open players for the series.  The WAPs is a marvelous way to develop your bridge and make a bridge partnership stronger. If you are learning the Nesting Pairs system, playing in the WAPs is an ideal practice ground.

We try and find a theme that is topical.

So topical and tropical, Monday night team theme will reflect this hot summer we are enjoying  - see if you can come as something RED HOT!

Wednesday night teams will reflect the fact that it is a Commonwealth Games year. So see if you can drum up something interesting from or about the COMMONWEALTH.