20-Apr-24 Bridge Coaching Weekend 1 - Hobart (2 days)
28-Apr-24 Sunday Swiss
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It was wonderful to see so many people at our Congress. Thanks to you all it was a great event. Other events coming up include Hobart City Congress on May 5 and our first Sunday Swiss for the year on April 28. Bring a Child to Bridge Day is on again on Friday, April 26 from 10am until 3pm – lunch will be provided.
The dates for next year’s Tasmanian Festival of Bridge are 20-23 March 2025. Put these dates in your diary now – we are hoping for great support from our members next year to make the event even bigger and better.
This year’s State team has been selected and the following players will travel to Orange in July. On behalf of the TBA, we wish them well in their endeavours:
| Open team | Hugh Grosvenor & Tania Lloyd |
| Andrew Richman & Sandra Richman | |
| Ann Paton & Lakshmi Sunderasan | |
| Seniors team | Margaret Gibbs & Margaret Robertson |
| Julie Rhodes & Leigh Blizzard | |
| Felicity Wivell & Roger Swain | |
| Women’s team | Fiona Hickey & Alaine MacMorran |
| Julia Corr & Pam Murphy | |
| Sue Falkingham & Maggie Crawford |
Congratulations to the following members who gained a promotion in March:
| Graduate | Jag Maharaj, Anne Travers |
| Club | Shelley Pope, Steve Thollar, Victoria Vyvyan |
| Bronze Local | Laura Bauermeister |
| Regional | Jo Castillo, Judy Hooley, Roger Hooley |
| Bronze Regional | Michael Bratt |
| State | Janet Bradley, Paul Fredheim, Erica McCoull, Rose Rowell |
| Bronze State | Regina Share |
| National | Geraldine Carey, Maggie Kable |
| Silver Life | Pam Murphy |
| Gold Life | Fiona Hickey |
Welcome to our new members, we hope you enjoy a long and fruitful association with us:
| Peter Scullard, Randy Rose |
And finally, we are looking to grow Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night sessions - please consider giving one a try. Monday is usually run in two sections and caters for advanced and intermediate players. Tuesday night is for beginners and Wednesday night is suitable for beginning and intermediate players.
Regards,
Pam
The TBA's largest club event of the year, the TBA Congress, was held on the weekend of 6-7 April 2024. Swiss IMP Pairs were played on Saturday with categories for Open, Restricted and Novice. Sunday was a Swiss Teams event, with Open and Restricted categories.
The Open Swiss Pairs was played over 6x9 board matches and was won by Sandra and Andrew Richman. Second place was taken out by Mardi and John Grosvenor. Erica McCoull and Jeremy Reid came third. Full results are available here.
The Restricted Category of the Swiss Pairs was won by Erica McCoull and Jeremy Reid with Catherine Catt and Sharlene Campbell second.
The Rookie Category of the Swiss Pairs was won by Nola and Rex Calvert.
The Swiss Teams on Sunday was played across 6 rounds of 9 board matches. All entrants played in a single field, but prizes were awarded for Open and Restricted categories. Full results are available here. The Open competition was won by Ann Paton, Wynne Webber, Guray Sunamak and Gulum Kocak-Sunamak. Hugh Grosvenor, Tania Lloyd, Sandra and Andrew Richman came second.
The Restricted category of the Swiss Teams was won by Judy and Roger Hooley playing with Rosemary and Brian Giles.
Thanks to everybody who played particularly those who brought food to share! Thanks to Simon Edler for directing, Claire Moult for her excellent caddying, Sarah Howard, Annie Bartlett, Janette Targett and Joy Stoddart for their tireless work in the kitchen and to Pam Murphy for her organisation and energy.
The TBA Annual General Meeting was held on Saturday 23 March 2024 at the clubrooms. The AGM was followed by lunch, and a Red Masterpoint session. Congratulations to Ann & Edward Gee, Bob Patterson & David Robinson, and Bal Krishnan & Phil Timmins for placing first in their directions. Full results are available here
Part of the AGM is the election of office holders and Committee members. This year there are seven nominees for the five Committee positions so a ballot was held. The following committee members were elected (in alphabetical order):
There were single nominations for the remaining offices so the nominees were declared elected at the AGM. They are President: Pam Murphy, Vice President: Julie Rhodes, Secretary: Katherine Marsden and Treasurer: Leigh Blizzard.
See the Members page for photos of the new committee.
The 2024 Tasmanian Festival of Bridge was held from Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 of March 2024. This was the second time that the event has been held at the MyState Bank Arena in Hobart on the banks of the Derwent river.
320 entrants, including some of Australia's top players competed across five events. Approximately Half of the entrants were from interstate or overseas. About 50 Australian clubs were represented, with a small contingent of New Zealand players also joining us.
Thursday and Friday saw the TFoB Restricted Swiss Pairs, the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs and the Australian Mixed Swiss Pairs. The TBIB Australian Swiss Pairs was run on Saturday and Sunday. The TFoB Rookie Swiss Pairs was held on Sunday.
The TBIB Australian Swiss Pairs had a field of 90 pairs. The winners were Pele Rankin and George Kozakos. Warren Lazer and Pauline Gumby came second (no photo available). Avinash Kanetkar and Ron Klinger came third. The Warren Walker Memorial trophy for the highest placed Tasmanian pair was won by Andrew and Sandra Richman. Full results are here.
The Australian Mixed Swiss Pairs was won by Pele Rankin and George Kozakos in a field of 24 pairs. Jeanette Reitzer and Matt Smith came second. Ella Jacob and Joshua Tomlin came third. Full results are here.
38 pairs played in the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs which was won by Vicky and Ian Lisle. Meg Sharp and Helen Clayton came second. George Bilski and Martin Bloom came third. Full results are here.
The TFoB Restricted Swiss Pairs saw 60 pairs with fewer than 300 masterpoints competing. It was won by Jeremy Reid & Seb Wright. Anka and Peter Saundry came second. Geraldine Carey and Engelina Poulton came third. Full results are here.
This was the second running of the TFoB Rookie Swiss Pairs with 24 pairs with fewer than 25 masterpoints competing. It was won by Starlette Beaumont and Margaret Cusack. Laura Best and Catherine Catt came second. Nola and Rex Calvert came third. Full results are here.
Thanks to TBIB for their continuing sponsorship. Thanks to all the officials, organisers and volunteers who were involved in making this a successful event, including the convenor (Katherine Marsden), the directors (Simon Edler, Hugh Grosvenor and Ronnie Ng), the scorer (Chris Carolan), the caddies, and all of the TBA volunteers. Thanks also to all of the players of all levels who made this an exciting event.
The Tasmanian Festival of Bridge is supported by the Tasmanian Government through Events Tasmania
The 2025 Tasmanian Festival of Bridge will be from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 March 2025. It will be held at the MyState Bank Arena again, and there is plenty of room for more tables. It is a lovely time of year to visit Tasmania. Save the date, and we hope to see you in 2025!
TFoB 2019 | TGSP 2021 | TFoB 2022 | TFoB 2023 | Top
The first state-wide event of the year was held on the weekend of 2-3 March. The 2024 Tassie Butler Pairs saw 16 pairs playing 15 matches across the two days. 'Butler' refers to the scoring system which is IMPs calculated against a datum. This was a round-robin event with each pair playing a match against every other pair in the field. This event included both open and women's championships.
The open winners were Tania Lloyd and Hugh Grosvenor. Andrew and Sandra Richman came second. Third were David Robinson and Phil Beck. The winners in the women's were Alaine Macmorran and Fiona Hickey.
Full results are available here. Thanks to Simon Edler for organising and directing the event.
The Jackpot finals (Pink and Blue sections) will be held at 7.15pm on Monday 9 December 2024.
The final will NOT require pre-entry, just walk-in. Non qualifiers are welcome to play but will not be eligible to win prizemoney. If your partner is unable to play, you may play with anyone else on the list of qualifiers.
The prize pool, to be split between the top three places in each section, will be announced after the final qualifying session on Monday 2nd December.
| Jenny Adey | Judy Bills |
| Dallas Cooper | Fiona Hickey |
| Jan Lonergan | Alaine MacMorran |
| Ann Paton | Sue Wilkinson |
| Vicki Douglas | Pamela Halton |
| Warren Papworth | Gill Robinson |
The first TBA event of the year was held on Sunday 28 January. The 2024 Vera Houdek Summer Pairs had 22 pairs playing in a matchpointed Swiss Pairs competition over 6 matches.
The overall winners were Leigh Blizzard and Julie Rhodes. Duncan Abercromby and Phil Timmins came second (with Phil doing his normal quick escape before the photos). Third were Phil Beck and David Robinson. The top placed pair in the restricted category were Engelina Poulton and Geraldine Carey.
Full results are available here. Thanks to Simon Edler for organising and directing the day. Thanks also to all members who brought a plate.
The McCutcheon's are rankings maintained by the ABF based on the number of masterpoints players earn in the calendar year. The McCutcheon rankings are updated at the end of each month, and have now been finalsied for the end of 2023.
There is an overall ranking that covers all players. There are also rankings by level which track the players who start the year at each rank. For example, if you are a Club master at the end of 2022, you will be part of the Club master McCutcheons for the year, even if you are promoted during the year.
Rankings are available for the entire country and filtered for each state and club. All this information and more is available on the ABF Masterpoint Centre website.
The overall 2023 McCutcheon winner was Liam Milne with 438.37 Masterpoints. Many TBA members will remember Liam from when he ran the State Coaching Weekend at the TBA in June 2023.
The following table lists the Tasmanian players who made it into the top 20 lists for the 2024 National McCutcheons:
| All Ranks | 11th | Mardi Grosvenor (TBA) |
| Bronze Life | 1st | Mardi Grosvenor (TBA) |
| Life | 14th | Felicity Wivell (Tamar) |
| Silver National | 1st | John Grosvenor (TBA) |
| 7th | Barbara Giizel (TBA) | |
| Silver Local | 4th | Jeremy Reid (TBA) |
| Bronze Local | 5th | Gek Low (TBA) |
| 11th | Paul Fredheim (TBA) | |
| Club | 16th | Erica McCoull (TBA) |
Six Tasmanians came in the top 200 All Ranks nationally - Mardi Grosvenor (11th), Sandra Richman (63rd), Andrew Richman (71st), Hugh Grosvenor (91st), Tania Lloyd (120th) and John Grosvenor (136th). The McCutcheon Rank for any player can be found on their Masterpoint Awards page, just look-up the player by name or ABF Number.
The following table lists the top three players in each of the Tasmanian McCutcheon rankings:
| All Ranks | Mardi Grosvenor, Sandra Richman, Andrew Richman |
| Silver Grand & Above | Sandra Richman, Andrew Richman, Hugh Grosvenor |
| Grand | Tania Lloyd, Margaret Gibbs, David Robinson |
| Gold Life | Pam Lidl, Maria Gibbs, Richard Cooke |
| Silver Life | Phil Timmins, Roger Swain, Jane Routley |
| Bronze Life | Mardi Grosvenor, Pam Murphy, Shirley McCulloch |
| Life | Felicity Wivell, Frank Milford, Sue Falkingham |
| Silver National | John Grosvenor, Barbara Giizel, Sarah Howard |
| Bronze National | Bob Ranson, Mardi Hogarth, David Marshall |
| National | Annie Bartlett, Jane Edler, Louise Cowan |
| Bronze State | Geoff Green, Marg Enright, Susan Bezette |
| State | Graeme Denmead, Janette Targett, Engelina Poulton |
| Bronze Regional | Kitty Ranson, Suzanne Clark, Herman Rockefeller |
| Regional | Jegs Nuttall, Ian Fraser, Sandra Miedecke |
| Silver Local | Jeremy Reid, Ian Bailey, Robin Barnes |
| Bronze Local | Gek Low, Paul Fredheim, Judy Hooley |
| Local | Trish Colles, Jane Hall, Gwen Lawrence |
| Club | Erica McCoull, Anne O'Rourke, Laura Best |
| Graduate | Rita Mawson, Billie Watson, Hellen Smart |
| Nil | Debbie Maree Martyn, Jed Dolwin, Barbara Meyer |
The TBA Club McCutcheons are available on the ABF Masterpoint Centre website. There is also a wealth of other information, such as promotions, most improved players and top masterpoint winners of all time.
Congratulations to the TBA Open team for winning the finals!
The ABF's Australia-Wide Club Knockout Teams competition has just finished for the year. This is the second year that the event has been held. Teams representing clubs from around the country competed in four divisions with sessions held on RealBridge once a month. The first three sessions were a round robin qualification stage with the top eight teams in each category going into the knockout stage (consisting of quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals).
The TBA had 25 members representing the club across four teams. This is the second year that the TBA has been represented in all categories. All teams acquitted themselves well, with every TBA player earning Gold masterpoints and the TBA receiving prize money for the win in the Open division. The under 750 MP team had a strong result in the Consolation Swiss Teams event, coming fouth.
The TBA teams were:
Full results and details are available here. Congratulations to everybody who played. Thanks to Sue Falkinhgam for coordinating the TBA teams. Sue also had a role in organising this event nationally.
This event is a great opportunity to represent the club and play against players of your level from around Australia. The RealBridge platform is easy to use and makes exciting events like this possible. Please consider putting your name forward for a team in next year's competition.
The 2023 Jackpot finals were held on Monday 11 December 2023. Contratulations to the winners: David Marshall and Darryl Smith in the Pink Section, and Bronwyn Fuller and Ann Halliday in the Blue Section. In the Pink section David Brooks and Gulum Kocak-Sunamak came second, with Julia Corr and Merryl Darby third. In the Blue section Vicki Douglas and Gill Robinson came second, with Betty Pilgram and Panchita Salmon third. The prize pool, to be split between the top three places is $210 for Pink Section and $172 for Blue section.
Full results are available here. Note that non-contending pairs were welcome to play, and are denoted by the N category in the results. A full list of players who qualified through the year for the Jackpot finals is available on the members page.
The 2024 Jackpot Pairs starts in January, with the first qualifying session on Monday 8 January.
The 2023 Tasmanian Swiss Pairs was held at Tamar Bridge Club on the weekend of 19-20 November. This was the last of the island-wide events for the year. An impressive field of 30 pairs played eight matches over the two days.
The winners, undefeated in all eight matches, were Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard. Second were Christine and Bob Harkness. Anne Fyfe and Jill Archer came third. The full results are here.
Thanks to Simon Edler for directing. Thanks also to the Tamar Bridge Club for hosting the event, and organising players to fill a half table and act as subs.
Every year Australian Bridge magazine runs three 'Australia-Wide' pairs events (novice, restricted and open). In each event clubs around Australia run a club session playing the same boards. The results are scored locally as normal, then all of the results are combined and re-scored at the national level. Comprehensive results, including hand analysis and a customised booklet are then available.
The 2023 Australia-Wide Restricted Pairs has just finished and the TBA had some stand-out results. Erica McCoull and Jeremy Reid came 1st locally and 6th overall (out of 890 pairs in the national field). They were also the top placed Victorian or Tasmanian pair, and the top placed pair in the under 100 masterpoint category.
Elizableth Legge and Leonie Atkins came 2nd locally and 36th nationally. Bronywn Fuller and Ann Halliday came 3rd locally and 226th nationally.
Full results are available on the 2023 Australia-Wide Restricted Pairs results page. Select 'Tasmania' in the club list to see how our players did both locally and nationally. Click on a player's name in the club summary to see the personalised booklet for that player.
Noted that the relative ordering of players can change between the local and national results. Some results that score well at the local level may not be so successul when compared with the national results, and vice versa. For example, a sacrifice may score very poorly at the local level if few people bid the game in the local field, but may be a good result in the national scoring.
The TBA Spring Pairs was held on Sunday 1 October 2023. This was a Swiss Pairs event with 22 pairs playing 9 board matches over 6 rounds. The winners were Leigh Blizzard and Julie Rhodes. Margaret Robertson and Margaret Gibbs were place second. Hilton Frances and John Bailey came third.
Thanks to Sue Falkingham for directing.
On Sunday 24 September the regional final of the Grand National Open Teams was held. The winner of this event represents Southern Tasmania in the Australian Final in Brisbane.
This year we will be represented by Pam Murphy, Julia Corr, Phil Timmins, and Bal Krishan.
Runners up in the event were John Grosvenor, Mardi Grosvenor, Richard Cooke and Margaret Gibbs. Full results are here.
The Northern Regional Final was won by Andrew Richman, Sandra Richman, Roger Swain and Felicity Wivell. Full results are on the Devonport Bridge Club website.
We wish them well.
Margaret Gibbs
Tasmanian GNOT co-ordinator
The 2023 Tasmanian Board-A-Match Teams Championship was played on the weekend of 16-17 September at the Tamar Bridge Club. In Board-A-Match scoring each board is worth 0, 1 or 2 points depending on whether a team's score is beaten by, equals or beats the opposition's score. This is equivalent to Matchpoint scoring where a board is played only twice.
Nine teams played in a round robin over two days. This was the equivalent playing 14 board matches against each of the eight opposing teams. The clear winners with 144 points were the team of Ann Paton, Lakshmi Sunderasan, Sandra Richman and Andrew Richman. Second placed with 122 points were the team of Mardi Grosvenor, John Grosvenor, Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard. Two teams had 121 points - the team of Simon Edler, Jane Edler, Phil Timmins and Duncan Abercomby (the winners of TBA Board-A-Match Teams in July), and the team of Roger Swain, Felicity Wivell, Anne Fyfe and Floyd Suban. One point separating 3 teams after 112 boards is quite a result. Full results are available here.
Thanks to Hugh Grosvenor for directing, and for the hospitality of the Tamar Bridge Club.
The 2023 Eastcoaster Swiss Pairs was held at the Eastcoaster Resort in Orford on the weekend of 19-20 August. This event was started last year, and it was great to see it grow by 8 tables this year with 48 pairs competing. The field included a strong contingent from the north of the state. Many people stayed overnight at the Eastcoaster and there was an event dinner on the Saturday night at the Eastcoaster's restaurant.
The field covered the full range of experience, with some people playing in their first Swiss Pairs competition. The field played nine matches of nine boards across three sessions, two on Saturday and one on Sunday morning. Prizes were awarded for the overall field and for novice and restricted categories (less than 25 and 150 masterpoints respectively). Pleasingly all players earned some red masterpoints for their weekend's efforts.
The winners overall were Tania Lloyd and Hugh Grosvenor. Jeremy Reid and Chris Girvan came second. Third were Mardi and John Grosvenor.
Winners of the restricted category (and 9th overall) were Julia Johnson and Sharn Davies. Second in the restricted category were Engelina and Graeme Poulton. Winners in the novice category were Penny Padgett and Sue Millar. Second in the novice category were David Blackburn and Ian Ritchard (no photo available).
Full results for the event are available here.
Many thanks to the Eastcoaster for their generous support of the event, and for all of their efforts in making the weekend a success. The Eastcoaster donated a free accommodation package as a lucky door prize, which was won by Engelina Poulton. Thanks also to the Tasmanian Wine Centre for providing prizes.
Thank you to Erica McCoull for a massive effort as event convenor. A special thanks to Jenny Adey and Jegs Nuttall for stepping in at the last minute to replace a pair who had to withdraw. Thanks also to Simon Edler for directing. And, of course, thank you to everybody who played ...
The 2023 TBA Board-A-Match Teams Championship was played on Sunday 30 July. In Board-A-Match scoring each board is worth 0, 1 or 2 points depending on whether a team's score is beaten by, equals or beats the opposition's score. This is equivalent to Matchpoint scoring where a board is played only twice.
Eight teams, with a broad range of experience, played in a round robin. The winners were the Edler team (Jane and Simon Edler, Phil Timmins and Duncan Abercromby). Second place went to the Sunderasan team (Jeremy Reid, Ann Paton, Wynne Webber and Maggie Crawford), sadly missing their team namesake (thanks to Maggie for filling in). Full results are available here.
Thanks to Hugh Grosvenor for directing.
The next Board-A-Match event is the Tasmanian Board-A-Match teams at the Tamar Bridge Club on the weekend of 16-17 September. Entries are on MyABF.
The Role of the TBA
The TBA is is the largest bridge club in the state with over 400 members and is the administrative body for the game of bridge in Tasmania. The TBA is responsible for running national and state events including the Australian Swiss Pairs championships and the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs competition. The TBA also administers the Masterpoints system for the ABF and endeavours to promote the growth and teaching of bridge throughout Tasmania via its affiliated clubs.
The TBA's purpose-designed Centre at 5 Marine Esplanade, New Town Bay serves as both our local Clubrooms and the headquarters for bridge in the state. The TBA premises are available for hire by community groups for suitable activities by arrangement with the TBA Committee. Please complete a booking request form (available here) and email it to the TBA at tba@tasbridge.com.au.
| North-West | North | South |
|---|---|---|
| Burnie Bridge Club | Launceston Bridge Club | Hobart City Bridge Club |
| Devonport Bridge Club | Tamar Bridge Club | Eastern Shore Bridge Club |
| Kingborough Bridge Club |
Contact us:
Phone: 0400 492 327
Email: tba@tasbridge.com.au
Post: 5 Marine Esplanade, New Town, 7008
Bank Account Details for direct debit: BSB: 067-102 A/C #: 2801 2004 A/C Name: Tasmanian Bridge Association
ABN: 66 028 130 967
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