The two week Thursday morning Red point event concluded this week and ended in a very close result.

Congratulations to the winners, Geoff Green & Robin Barnes who scored 62.11% and won 2.97 red points.
Close behind in 2nd place were John & Mardi Grosvenor with 62.07% (2.73 red points).
3rd place went to Ron Berry & Julie Hunt with 57.77% (1.65 red points).

All the results can be found here: Session 1, Session 2, Overall

The ABF Board has recently approved a change to the Masterpoint scheme which gives a higher weighting to some events and sessions where the field is stronger than usual.

We have implemented this from Monday 2 March and so far it has applied to 3 sessions at the TBA (Monday Evening, Wednesday Morning and Friday Morning). The change results in at least 25% more masterpoints, scaling up a little depending on the actual strength of the field.

Most of you should stop reading now! For those interested in the details ...

• Applies to all green point events, club red point events and congress events (i.e. Grades F to B4)
• Applies if the ranking of the median player in the event is Bronze National or above
• Green point events get an extra weighting of 1.25 for Bronze National or 1.5 for Life Master and above
• Red point events get an extra weighting of 1.125 for Bronze National, 1.25 for Life Master or 1.5 for Grand Master

This change has produced a flurry of questions, comments, criticisms and suggestions from those involved in the minutiae of the scheme. If you would like to know more (!) feel free to talk to me or our Masterpoint Secretary Malcolm Sherlock.

In late 2025 the TBA Committee started looking at options for upgrading our website. The old website has been a trusty workhorse for the TBA for years, but we were starting to butt up against some limitations. For example the site could only support a limited number of pages so we could not dedicate pages to significant topics.

The new website is custom designed and built for the TBA. This gives us a great deal of flexibility in how it works and what features it provides. This post will explain some of the features that are already available and where we may be going in the future.

What's happening with domain names?

The new website is now accessed through the normal tasbridge.com.au domain name. During the cutover process we also used the domain bridgetasmania.org which is still operating. The TBA email address remains tba@tasbridge.com.au.

Note: If you bookmarked the old site it may not work as it will be to "tasbridge.com.au/index.asp". The "index.asp" is the problem. Delete this from your bookmark or create a new bookmark to "tasbridge.com.au".

What members use the website for?

The main things that most members use the TBA website for are around events - looking for information like what's coming up, how do I enter, what were the results. Many members also are looking for this information from a mobile device with a small screen.

The design of the new site is intended to make event information easier to find and access and provide better support for users on small screens.

The "Today at the TBA" section lists events and activities scheduled for today, including regular sessions. You can get information about these events, including results when available, by clicking/touching on the event in this section. This section is at the top of the home page when viewed on a small screen.

The calendar now includes all regular events as well as events, meetings, public holidays etc. Again you can drill down into an event easily from this page. When using a small screen touching a day in the calendar brings up a mobile friendly list of the day's events.

What are News and Topics?

Across a year there is lots of information that gets shared through our website, for example the President's monthly newsletter, reports from completed events, significant events in our members' lives. These will now be shared as posts (like on a blog). The home page will show 'pinned' and recent posts. All posts can be accessed through the news page, where you can search and filter to find what you want.

The topics menu provides pages dedicated to important topics. For example, the Tasmanian Festival of Bridge or the 2027 Australian National Championships which we will be hosting.

What is happening with results?

For the time being session and event results are being stored on the old website. We are planning to move results into the new system but this is not ready yet.

And More?

The 'More' menu provides a wealth of mainly reference information, such as who's who in the TBA zoo, what the regular sessions are and TBA contact details. It also includes access to a repository of publicly available documents.

Do I need a userid?

Most people will just use the website to view publicly available data and will not need a userid. Directors and people managing the website will have userids and will need to log in to access administrative functions.

In the future we may introduce userids for all members so that they can access member-only functions. For example, we are looking at moving our library management functions onto the website, allowing members to browse the library catalog and record which books they have borrowed and returned.

Is there more?

The website includes features that help us run the TBA effectively. These are generally not visible to members. For example scheduling the Directors to cover all of the activites of the TBA can be a challenge. The new website has features intended to make this process easier.

What's next?

The site is under active development and you may see changes from day to day. As mentioned above we are looking at getting results into the website as a priority. We are also considering the library function and some more administrative tools.

If you have any suggestions on future features, or feedback on the site (including bugs that you notice), please email the TBA or talk to Hugh or John.

Congratulations to the February 2026 Multi winners: