The TBA Committee met on September 8th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Leigh Blizzard (T), Trish Colles, Sue Falkingham, Pam Murphy, Fran Healy, Robin Barnes, Simon Edler and Hugh Grosvenor. The following matters were discussed:

Special General Meeting - Building Extension

If you can, please come to the Special General Meeting which will be held at the club on Saturday September 12th from 12.30 pm. Anyone attending that meeting will be offered free bridge in the afternoon session.

The motion to be put at the Special General Meeting will be :

"That the TBA proceed to contract with Tasbuilt for the construction of a building as specified by them in their proposal to the TBA."

Building Extension FAQs

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had the pleasure of chatting with many members about the extension, answering their questions and listening to their suggestions. As a result we have refined our design to make it even better.

John and I have worked together to document most of the questions asked by members along with the relevant answers. Our “FAQs“ are available on the website or as a PDF (the PDF may take a moment to load). A copy is also on a noticeboard at the club. We hope this will provide answers to any questions you are still have about the proposed development.

Coming Events – Southern Open and Handicap Teams

Get your entry in as soon as possible for this event commencing at 9.30am on Sunday September 27th. As previously noted, the TBA will be providing a free lunch and we need to know the numbers for the caterer. Entry is only $80 for a team of four. If you would like help putting together a team, see Sue Falkingham who will be directing the event. Come along and have a fun day of teams play.

Save the Date – BAM Teams & Spring Pairs

The Spring Pairs will be held on Sunday October 25th commencing at 9.30 am.

Our last club championship event for 2026 will be held on Saturday September 5th starting at 9.30 and is a 1 day BAM teams event (if you are not familiar with Board-A-Match scoring this document provides a quick introduction). It will replace normal Saturday bridge, so start putting your team together – feel free to ask for help if you want to put a team together.

Suggestion Box

There were several suggestions from Members this month and we are responding to each of them :

1. The Club will trial starting the Monday evening session a little earlier. From Monday October 5th, the Monday evening session will start at 7.00pm.
2. Wednesday morning session will remain with a 10.00am commencement time, not 9.30am as requested. We already have two morning sessions starting at 9.30am and it is the objective at the TBA to have a variety of sessions and start times.
3. Constitutional changes to allow for proxy voting. We will investigate this – it is not a trivial matter to change the constitution.
4. This suggestion is from last month but needed extra consideration as it is logistically complex. From next Monday (September 14th) for players who play more than three sessions in a given week, there will be a discounted rate ($5) for each subsequent session after the first three. This arrangement will apply to regular walk in sessions only and once you have completed your three sessions, you will have to “claim” your discount from the presiding Director. This arrangement will replace the current Thursday afternoon discount, and we hope it will encourage you to come to more sessions – the more you play, the better your bridge will become!

Women’s Bridge

The ABF has written to us to seek a volunteer who would like to liaise with them about issues relating to Women’s Bridge. If you would like to do this, please see me.

New Members

We welcome the following new and reactivated members to our club and wish them all the best on their bridge journey : Matthew Bretherton and Ian Stewart

Bridge Tip – Play Improvement

When defending, you often have to come up with discards from your hand. As a general rule, try to protect your four card suits. You will be surprised at how many times your “fourth” card wins a trick.

Julie Rhodes
President

Over the last several weeks many local players have particiapated in the Grand National Open Teams (GNOT) qualification events online and at Tasmanian clubs, and the regional finals.

The next phase of the GNOT is a three day "Online Finals" where the teams representing each region compete in an online event to qualify for the face-to-face finals to be held in late November in Brisbane. The online final qualifies 8 teams for the National Final and 12 teams for the National Non-Metropolitan Final.

The online finals will be held on RealBridge on 18-20 September. Up to 64 teams will be competing. The three tasmanian teams are:

• North: Catherine Elliott, Felicity Wivell, Anne Fyfe, Cvetko Suban
• South: Maria Gibbs, Bal Krishan, Merryl Darby, David Marshall, Julia Corr, Jo Beck
• Online: Tania Lloyd, Hugh Grosvenor, Mardi Grosvenor, John Grosvenor

The Australia-wide Open Pairs is an event where clubs around the country play the same boards. The event is organised by Australian Bridge magazine. The club sessions are scored locally (as green masterpoint sessions) and then again nationally (for red masterpoints). The TBA session for this event was held on Wednesday 26 August.

The national scoring is now complete, with over 800 tables playing. You can see the national results here. From that website you can view the club summary and drill down to personalised results booklets for each player. A summary of the TBA results is below (note that our local session was played as a two winner movement):

The 2026 Eastcoaster Swiss Pairs was held at Orford on 29-30 August 2026. There were 40 pairs playing including players from across the state with a wide range of experience levels. The weekend included a well attended dinner on the Saturday night, featuring live music from William Keyte and friend.

The winners in the open category were Sue Falkingham and William Keyte who led from match 4. Pamela Lidl and Joy Mahant came second. Maria Gibbs and Maggie Crawford came third.

The top placed restricted pair were Gill Robinson and Vicki Douglas. In the novice category, Judy Hooley and Roger Hooley were highest place. The best performing rookie pair were Gaye Dobson and Barb Edwards. Full results for the event are here.

Thanks to the Eastcoaster resort for their support and sponsorship. The winner of the door prize of accomodation at the Eastcoaster was Roger Hooley.

Thanks to Julie Rhodes for being the event coordinator, and for Simon Edler for directing. Thanks also to William and friend for their performance at the dinner, and to all TBA memebrs who helped transport side tables etc. A special thank you to all the Northern players who participated. The broad participation from across the state is one of the things that makes this event special.

Each year the ABF runs an inter-club team knockout competition on RealBrigde. The event is played one evening a month over several months with separate divisions for open, under 750 MP, under 300 MP, under 100 MP and under 50 MP. It is a great opportunity for players at all levels to compete against other players from around the country. As a national event, it is also one of the rare opportuntities to earn gold masterpoints locally.

August was the conclusion of the qualifying rounds in most divisions, with the top eight teams going into the quarter finals. Teams who did not qualify can play in a consolation Swiss event for the remaining rounds.

The TBA has two teams in the Open division playing in different pools in the qualifying - Green (Maggie Crawford, Julia Corr, Phil Beck and Jo Beck) and Maroon (Tania Lloyd, Hugh Grosvenor, Mardi Grosvenor and John Grosvenor). Maroon squeaked into fourth position in their pool and will be playing Arafura in the quarter finals. Green placed eigth in their pool.

Hobart City is the only other Tasmanian club represented in the competition. Their Open team (David Brooks, Darryl Smith, Maruta Boyd and Barbara Holland) qualified third in their pool and will play Newcastle in the quarter finals.

In the Under 750 MP division the TBA team (Nigel Brookes, Jeremy Reid, Erica McCoull, Jane Edler, Simon Edler and Pam Murphy) placed sixth. They will be playing Central Coast Leagues in the quarter finals. Simon pointed out this remarkable hand they played in the August round, a rare hand where either direction can make 12 tricks (6C or 6D North-South, 6H East-West).

The TBA team in the Under 300 MP division (Geraldine Carey, Anne O'Rourke, Laura Bauermeister, Leonie Atkins and Paul Fredheim) came 11th at end of. qualifying.

The TBA team in the Under 100 MP division (Anne Travers, Steve Thollar, Roger Hooley, Judy Hooley) came 6th and will be playing South Perth in the quarter finals.

Best of luck to all Tasmanian teams for the quarter finals and consolation Swiss in September.

Thanks to Paul and Laura for passing on this blast from the past when bridge results were published each week in The Mercury. This one is from March 2011. It is remarkable that 15 years on the majority of the players listed are still to be seen at the TBA or ESBC each week.