The newly elected TBA Committee met on April 8th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Trish Colles (Sec), Leigh Blizzard (T), Fran Healey, Leonie Atkins, Chris Girvan, Sue Falkingham, Paul Fredheim, Simon Edler and Malcolm Sherlock (photos of the 2025 committee members and office holders are here). The following matters were discussed:

TBA Congress - May 3^rd and 4^th

Entries are now open for our Annual Club Congress which can be entered via MyABF or with assistance from a Director. Saturday from 10.00am will be the Matchpoint Pairs. There are three categories, 0-100 Masterpoints, 100-300 Masterpoints and Open.

On Sunday the Swiss Pairs commences from 9.30am. You can enter either event or both. Please bring a plate of food to share on both days and cash prizes will be awarded.

If you want to get some practice in before the Congress, the April Sunday Swiss will be on Sunday 27^th and is restricted to players with fewer than 100 Masterpoints.

State Team Selections 2025

Congratulations to the following members who have been selected to play at the ANC in Brisbane in July:

OPEN : Hugh Grosvenor and Tania Lloyd, Andrew and Sandra Richman, John and Mardi Grosvenor

SENIORS : Hilton Francis and Wynne Webber, Pam Lidl and Roger Watts, Floyd Suban and Anne Fyfe

WOMEN : Fiona Hickey and Alaine MacMorran, Dallas Cooper and Barbara Holland, Julia Corr and Maruta Boyd

State Team Training

This will be conducted at the TBA on the weekend of May 10^th and 11^th. Included as part of this will be a discussion of the hands played at the Saturday afternoon session led by Hugh, and all members are invited to stay after bridge and participate in this discussion.

Experienced players are also invited to participate in other sessions throughout the weekend, subject to availability of places. If you feel that you would benefit from high level training and would like to participate, please register your interest with a Director, or with myself directly.

ABF Councillors

Sue Falkingham has been appointed by the TBA to continue as an ABF Councillor for another 2 year term, continuing with Hugh Grosvenor who is our other Councillor.

Wednesday Night Bridge

Due to popular demand, the starting time for Wednesday night bridge has been changed to 7.00pm (from 7.15pm). The new time will commence from Wednesday April 16^th.

Financial Hardship

The TBA has now developed a policy relating to Temporary Financial Assistance for Members. The TBA understands that sometimes members can encounter financial difficulties which may limit their ability to continue playing bridge. The TBA wants to support members when it can to keep on playing bridge and remain a part of our bridge family. If you need temporary financial assistance, contact the committee via the Suggestion Box or speak to a Director.

Bridge Etiquette - Tip of the Month

Remember to leave your bidding cards out until the opening lead has been played. This is a courtesy to the person on lead, to enable them to review the bidding whilst considering what card to lead.

Happy Bridging Everyone and hope to see you all at the TBA Congress!

Julie Rhodes

President

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Thanks to everyone - players, organisers, directors, caddies, volunteers and sponsors - who made the 2025 Tasmanian Festival of Bridge a successful and exciting event. The Festival was held from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 of March 2025. This was the third time that the event has been held at the MyState Bank Arena in Hobart on the banks of the Derwent river.

400 entrants, including some of Australia's top players competed across 6 events. This is an impressive 25% increase over last year. Half of the entrants were from interstate or overseas. About 75 Australian clubs were represented, with a growing contingent of New Zealand players joining us.

Thursday and Friday saw the TFoB Restricted Swiss Pairs, the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs and the Fixed Income Solutions 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 inaugural Jenny Penny Novice Swiss Pairs was also added to the schedule, running on Saturday.

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The TBIB Australian Swiss Pairs had a field of 114 pairs, an increase of 25% over last year. Start of play was preceeded by a few words from Ron Klinger and a minutes silence in memory of Avinash Kanetkar. The winners of the event were Warren Lazer and Pauline Gumby. Ashley Bach and Arlene Dalley came second. Maurits Van Der Vlugt and David Beauchamp came third. The Warren Walker Memorial trophy for the highest placed Tasmanian pair was won by Guray Sunamak and Darryl Smith. Full results are here.

The Fixed Income Solutions Australian Mixed Swiss Pairs also saw a signifcant increase over last year's field with 42 pairs playing. The event was won by Ashley Back and Arlene Dalley. Hugh McGann and Candice Smith came second. Andrew Peake and Giselle Mundell came third. Full results are here.

50 pairs played in the Roger Penny Senior Swiss Pairs which was won by Nigel Rosendorff and Peter Reynolds. Ian Robinson and Neil Ewart came second. Phillip Fent and Dee Harley came third. Full results are here.

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The TFoB Restricted Swiss Pairs saw 66 pairs with fewer than 300 masterpoints competing. It was won by Louise Cowan and Susan Bezette from the Tamar Bridge Club. They also won the inaugural Ron Spencer Memorial Prize for the highest placed Tasmanian pair. This prize is in memory of Ron Spencer, a member and generous beneficator of the TBA. Margaret Cusack and Rhonda Khong came second. Joann Theriault and Eamonn McCabe came third. Full results are here.

The inaugural Jenny Penny Novice Swiss Pairs was played on Saturday with 22 pairs with fewer than 100 masterpoints competing. The event is named in memory of Jenny Penny, a much loved bridge teacher and director who introduced many Tasmanians to the game over a very long career. The winners were Jan Van Riel and Margaret Grant. Second placed were Nat Wright and Jo Wright. Robyn Russell and Anne Donnelly came third. Full results are here.

This was the third running of the TFoB Rookie Swiss Pairs with 22 pairs with fewer than 25 masterpoints competing. It was won by Nat Wright and Jo Wright. Ann Burnett and Anne McEntee came second. Helen Hebblethwaite and Chris Arnott came third. Full results are here.

Thanks to TBIB for their continuing sponsorship.

Thanks to Fixed Income Solutions for becoming a major sponsorship.

Thanks to Fella Hamilton for their sponsorship. Two $100 Fella Hamilton gift vouchers were awarded to the top place women's pair in the Restricted, Senior and Open events.

The Tasmanian Festival of Bridge is supported by the Tasmanian Government through Events Tasmania

The 2026 Tasmanian Festival of Bridge will be from Thursday 19 to Sunday 22 March 2026 at the MyState Bank Arena. There is plenty of room for more tables and it is a lovely time of year to visit Tasmania. Save the date, and we hope to see you in 2026!

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Congratulations to the TBA Under 750 team for winning their final!

This was the third year of this event and once again the TBA entered teams in each of the handicap divisions. The club paid the $200 entry fee for each team to participate. The first match was in August and then once each month until the final night in December.

The TBA teams were:

• Open - Tania Lloyd, Hugh Grosvenor, Mardi Grosvenor, John Grosvenor. They were defeated in the Quarter Finals by the Beaumont team from South Australia. Who then annoyingly went on to beat them in the last match of the Consolation Swiss. Congratulations though to our Open team for finishing second with such a strong performance. After having won the Open last year I am sure they may have been disappointed. But as I am the Organiser of the event it may have started conspiracy theories if we won 2 years in a row!
• Under 750 MP - David Brooks, Darryl Smith, Maruta Boyd, Barbara Holland and David Marshall. Glory goes to our team who triumphed winning their Final and being the Champion Team. A stellar performance winning every match. A nerve-racking final against Moonee Valley saw me kibitzing and chewing my fingernails. However, a superb last couple of boards and they were convincing winners by 19 imps.
• Under 300 MP - Erica McCoull, Jeremy Reid, Gek Low and Katherine Marsden. At the end of 3 months of play, totalling 19 matches, they were sitting in 3rd position and into the semi finals. Erica and Jeremy were also sitting in first position in the pair datums out of 52 pairs. Katherine and Gek were a creditable 22 out of 52. Unfortunately losing their semi put our team into the consolation swisswhere they finished 15th out of 29.
• Under 100 MP - Keong Chen, Leonie Atkins, Paul Fredheim and Wayne Seabrook. They were the top ranked U100 team at the end of the Qualifying rounds. Unfortunately they lost their Semi Final to Ballina who were the eventual winners for this division. They went on to finish a fantastic fifth in the consolation Swiss!
• Under 50 MP - Christina Buell, Laura Best, Laura Bauermeister, Sharlene Campbell and Catherine Catt. Finally our brave U50 players. They felt rather bashed around but in the qualifying rounds even though they had to play all the teams from the U300 and U100 divisions as well. They beat all but one of the other U50 teams playing. They did not make the finals but went to the consolation swiss. I would like to note that their second last match saw them beat the Kenmore U750 team by 12 imps.

We could have as many players as wanted to play in the matches but perhaps because it is an online event we were not inundated with queues of people wishing to play. The Club is most grateful to all of the players that played in any of the matches. Do think about being part of the event next year. Why not familiarise yourself with the RealBridge platform and play in our weekly online Wednesday night session? Red masterpoints on offer!

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.

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The 2024 TBA club Christmas Party was held at the TBA on Saturday afternoon 14th December. A packed house enjoyed the sumptuous spread that we all brought and shared. The President, Pam Murphy, thanked some of our indefatigable volunteers with wine, flowers and free game vouchers. 24.5 tables of bridge just topped last year's record of 24 tables.

The winners NS were Sarah Howard and Maria Gibbs and EW were Jane and Simon Edler.

Full results are available here.

Many thanks to all who contributed to the success of the event. Thanks to Sue Falkingham for directing.

Thanks to Erica McCoull for the photos

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The 2024 Tasmanian Swiss Pairs was held at the TBA on the weekend of 16-17 November. This was the last of the island-wide events for the year. A field of 18 pairs played eight matches over the two days.

The winners were Hugh Grosvenor and Tania Lloyd, second were Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard and Julia Corr and Barbara Giizel came third. The full results are here.

Thanks to Simon Edler for directing and to the Tamar Bridge Club for hosting the event.

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The TBA club rooms were packed on Sunday 29 September for the 2024 Spring Pairs, renamed this year to the Ron Spencer Spring Pairs in honour of long time TBA member and benefactor. Forty pairs played in the two session Swiss Pairs event. They were then joined by other TBA members for drinks, nibbles and classical music in celebration of Ron's life. As part of this celebration Julie Rhodes announced Ron's generous bequest to the TBA. In acknowledgement a perpetual trophy will be established in his name, to be awarded to the top placed Tasmanian pair in the Restricted Swiss Pairs at the Tasmanian Festival of Bridge each year.

First place went to Bal Krishan and Maria Gibbs. Wynne Webber and Hilton Francis came second. David Robinson and Phil Beck came third. The full results are here.

Thanks to Sue Falkingham for directing, and to Julie Rhodes for organising lunch and the celebration.

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The Grand National Open Teams (GNOT) Online 64 team knockout phase was played from Friday 20th September to Sunday 22nd September on the Realbridge platform. In fact there were only 63 teams so one team had a bye in the first round.

Tasmania was represented by three teams:

Our three GNOT teams did Tasmania proud, competing for three days on-line winning several matches each. They report positive experiences.

The top 4 teams and the next 8 regional teams proceed to the final phase of the event which will be held face-to-face over a weekend in Sydney (23rd and 24th November).

Full results are here.

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The Tassie Board A Match Teams was held on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September at the Launceston Bridge Club with 6 teams participating. The winners were the Richman team consisting of Andrew and Sandra Richman, Jane Routley and Pam Lidl. Second place went to the Grosvenor team - John and Mardi Grosvenor, Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard.

Full results are available here.

Thanks to the LBC for their hospitality and to Hugh Grosvenor for directing.

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The 2024 Eastcoaster Swiss Pairs was held at the Eastcoaster Resort in Orford on the weekend of 24-25 August. This year the event attracted 36 pairs from all over 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 50 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, Andrew and Sandra Richman were second with Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard finishing Third.

Winners of the restricted category (and 7th overall) were Rose Rowell and Marleen Lynch. Second in the restricted category were Julia Johnson and Sharn Davies. Winners in the novice category (and 9th overall) were Helen Hebblethwaite and Debbie Martyn. Second in the novice category were Dennis and Wendy Butler.

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 Trish Colles and provided the venue free of charge.

Thank you to Julie Rhodes for her work as event convenor. Thanks to Annette Keen 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 acting as caddy when sickness disrupted our plans. And, of course, thank you to everybody who played ...

Thanks to Maria Gibbs for the dinner photos

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The Australian National Championships is the oldest national event on the Australian bridge calendar. This year was the 80th ANC and was held in Orange NSW. This was the first time that the ANC has been played in a regional city. The organisation and hospitality of the NSWBA and the Orange bridge community was outstanding.

Tasmania was represented in the Open, Seniors and Womens competitions.

The Open Team was Hugh Grosvenor (Captain), Tania Lloyd, Andrew and Sandra Richman, Ann Paton and Lakshmi Sunderasan. They finished 5th out of 8 teams and were still in contention for the finals with two rounds to go.

The Seniors Team was Margaret Gibbs (Captain), Margaret Robertson, Julie Rhodes, Leigh Blizzard, Felicity Wivell and Roger Swain. They finished 7th out of 8 teams winning 4 matches.

The Womens Team was Sue Falkingham (Captain), Maggie Crawford, Pam Murphy, Julia Corr, Alaine MacMorran and Fiona Hickey. They finished 7th out of 8 teams winning 5 matches and drawing one. This included a good win against WA where Sue and Maggie bid and made 4 slams in a 16 board match!

The Interstate Pairs Championship saw Tania and Hugh win the overall competiion and the Open category and Julie and Leigh came third overall and were second in the Seniors category.

After 6 days of the Interstate championships the Butler Pairs Championship started! The Open Butler Pairs had a field of 74 pairs that played for 2 days to reduce to 20 pairs. These 20 pairs then played for another 2 days to reduce to 10 pairs. The last 10 pairs then played another two days to determine the final positions. Tania and Hugh managed to make the last 10 pairs and finished 6th.

Sandra and Andrew Richman played in the Mixed Butler and made it to the 10 pair final stage. They finished in an excellent 4th position in a strong field.

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The final of the 2024 Tassie Matchpoint Pairs was held on Sunday June 1st at Tamar Bridge Club. The field consisted of 20 pairs who had either qualified through their clubs or who are representing Tasmania in the upcoming Australian National Championships in Orange, NSW.

The winners were Andrew and Sandra Richman from Tamar Bridge Club, second overall and first Womens Pair were Felicity Wivell and Susan Bezette also from the TBC, third were Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard from the TBA.

Full results are available here.

Thanks to Simon Edler for directing and Tamar Bridge Club for the use of their venue and their hospitality.

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The Southern Open and Handicap Teams was held on Sunday May 26th with 9 teams participating. Clear winners were the Grosvenor team consisting of Mardi and John Grosvenor, Julie Rhodes and Leigh Blizzard. They won all their matches and also won the Handicap event. Second place went to the Murphy team - Pam Murphy, Julia Corr, Fiona Hickey and Alaine MacMorran. A special mention to the Bauermeister team - Laura Bauermeister, Christina Buell, Erica McCoull and Sharlene Campbell, who came second in the Handicap event.

Full results are available here.

Thanks to Sue Falkingham for directing.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.