A belated congratulations to Michael Neels and Eunice Eccles for leading the way in the Open-Junior section of the Rotorua Open Restricted competition on Saturday. Coming 5th overall they really did themselves proud scoring 56% in the morning and 55% in the afternoon. Very consistent!

A well deserved win to Clare and Kevin for consistent play throughout this series.  Their average result of 67.59 was 7.82 ahead of the rest of the field and sets a real challenge to the rest of the club for next year.   It was a real close finish for second, third and fourth. Carol Wilson and Joyce Catchpole, Michael Neels and Jane Stearns, and Jan Spaans and Don Wilson (who had a whacking 72.69 on the last night) only had .68 separating them.

Eunice booked herself in for a double whammy of bridge tournaments this week-end.  First Hamilton yesterday playing with Sue McKenzie and today in Thames with Kay Dixon.  Today they had a cracking morning coming 4th N-S with 55% in an Open restricted field. As many pairs are Opens playing with a intermediate or junior this was indeed a great result! And it was the first tournament they had played together as well!

The afternoon did not fare as well but was enough to secure them top Intermediate/Junior pairing.

Congratulations to long-time member Gloria Gilmour who has come out on top of our monthly roundup of Grand Slam makers. Full listings can be seen under the Results tab above or by clicking here.

Our amazing Open team the Bridge Blacks are challenging for the bronze medal in the Bermuda Bowl in Lyon, France.  The matches will be live on BridgeBaseOnline on Thursday night 9pm, 12.30am and 3.20am and then Friday night 9pm and 12.30am.  Five 16 board matches.  Please let your club members know of this opportunity to tune in and watch their team in action.

.. and it was really gripping!! For a while. Check out the NZB report on the record-writing Bridge Blacks' fantastic performance at the Bermuda Bowl overnight 21-Aug NZT. Never before had a New Zealand team made it to the quarterfinals and then our lads advanced to the semis after defeating the Netherlands in Lyon, France. Plenty of excited chat on the NZB Facebook page too.

Cambridge can be very proud of our champion pair, Clare Coles and Kevin Whyte. Not only did they take the National Open Restricted Swiss Pairs title at last year's Congress but they have now followed up with topping the series of six events in the Waikato Area Pairs.

Not often do I enjoy being beaten but it was a delight being wiped out by Michael and his partner, Malcolm Smith, in the 8th round of the Swiss pairs tonight. Their win leap-frogged them from 10th position to first where they held their ground in the final 9th round to win the overall event.  What was also lovely was seeing the two of them relaxed and enjoying their game in the process.