Day 3: Coutts into the semi-finals

NZ National Congress – New Zealand Open Teams, quarter-final

Team Coutts beat Pelkman (Rachelle Pelkman, Marcus Dudley, Gary Foidl and Brett Glass) by 128.9 IMPs to 80 over 48 boards, and are through to the semi-finals.

The quarter-final, set by set

As top qualifiers we started with a carry-over of 6.9 IMPs.

After a close first set, a strong second set put us 26 IMPs ahead at the halfway point. George and I sat out the third set, and our teammates extended the lead to almost 50. The last set was flat.

All six of us played their part: Samuel Coutts and Brad Johnston, Jessica Brake and Jack James, George and me.

The other quarter-finals

Hand of the day: a slam for our teammates

Set 3, board 10. Dealer East, both sides vulnerable.

              ♠ A K Q 10 5 2
              ♥ 10 6
              ♦ K J
              ♣ A Q 9
♠ 8 7 6 4                 ♠ —
♥ 9 5                     ♥ A K Q J 8 7 4 3 2
♦ 10 9 4 2                 ♦ Q 6
♣ J 6 5                   ♣ 7 2
              ♠ J 9 3
              ♥ —
              ♦ A 8 7 5 3
              ♣ K 10 8 4 3

East has a nine-card heart suit, and North-South have a slam: 7♠ and 7♣ both make.

Jack James and Jessica Brake bid to 6♣ doubled and made all 13 tricks: +1740. At the other table North-South stopped in 5♠, also making 13 tricks, for +710. That was 14 IMPs to Coutts.

With a void in hearts opposite two small, North-South have no losers in the suit. Facing a long heart suit from East, it is easy to stop short; our teammates didn't, and the double made it even better.

Pam and Barbara in the Restricted Swiss Pairs

From team Edler, Pam Murphy and Barbara Giizel are playing the NZ Restricted Swiss Pairs. After 6 of 12 matches they have five wins and a loss, and are 23rd with 67.93 VPs. Keep it going!

Tomorrow

The semi-final: Coutts v Fraser-Hoskin, who beat Cormack in their quarter-final. We met them in the qualifying and won by 18 IMPs, but a knockout is a different game. Fraser Rew and Joe Haffer were our teammates in the Asia Cup in Goa and the Spring Nationals in Sydney. They are playing with Geo Tislevoll a Norwegian expat living in NZ and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin a young Kiwi expert. A lot of talent in this team, this should be interesting!

In the other semi-final, Joel play Ware, seeds 2 v 3.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Hugh

Day 2 of the The New Zealand Bridge Congress Restricted Teams saw the final 4 matches of the event. Starting the day in third place, team Edler suffered two substantial losses in the morning, before rallying to win our final two matches to finish in 14th place. Today was a tough draw, playing team 20 (the eventual winners), along with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd seeds!

Here is one hand amongst the gloom of the morning that stood out. Sometimes a bit of assistance from the opponents is all you need.

Our teammates bid to a quiet 2H NS, making for +110. Double dummy it can be defeated, but it requires EW to get a club ruff by W with their singleton heart.
I sat East at our table where the auction went:

Jane’s 2S bid can be fairly wide ranging, so I closed my eyes and bid 3NT. Things weren’t as good as I hoped when dummy came down, but at least the opponents had led a heart, giving me a fifth trick, still well short of nine. Winning HJ, I now led D10, which both opponents ducked (six tricks now). I next played D8, South now decided to rise DK, crashing his partner’s DA. North now just returned a heart (now I suddenly have 9 tricks, 3 Hearts, 4 Diamonds and 2 Clubs). Winning with HA, I now ran dummy’s diamonds, and both North and South pitched clubs, so the club 7 became my 10th trick. +630 to go with +110 from the other table for a 12 imp gain!

Pam and Barbara bid board 23 in our final match well to play in 7S when the opponents at our table stopped in 6S for a 13 imp gain.

NZ Restricted Teams Final Results are here.

Good luck to team Coutts in the NZ Open Teams Quarter finals on day 3. Pam and Barbara will be playing in the NZ Restricted swiss pairs over the next two days. Jane and Simon are having two days off. We’ll be back together for a one day teams event on Wednesday.

Tuesday 3 November 2026 saw the 166th running of the Melbourne Cup, and the continuation of the TBA's tradition of Melbourne Cup Day sessions. 23 pairs played in the daytime session. The session incuded sweeps, lunch, drinks, prizes for best headwear and outfit, and the race on the big screen after bridge.

Congratulations to Annette Keen for the best headwear, and Noela Foxcroft for best outfit.

Thanks to all who brought a plate to contribute to the impressive spread at lunch. Thanks to Julie Rhodes for being on kitchen duty throughout the day, and Hugh Grosvenor for directing and organising the informative Melbourne Cup slide show.

The TBA Committee met on October 13th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Leigh Blizzard (T), Trish Colles (Sec), Sue Falkingham, Pam Murphy, Fran Healy, Paul Fredheim, Robin Barnes, Malcolm Sherlock, Laura Bauermeister, Simon Edler, Hugh Grosvenor and Katherine Marsden. The following matters were discussed:

Fantastic GNOT and Club Team Knockout results !

Tasmania has TWO teams in the GNOT finals this year! Tasmania (Hugh Grosvenor, Tania Lloyd, John Grosvenor and Mardi Grosvenor) in the National Finals and Tasmania South (Merryl Darby, David Marshall, Maria Gibbs, Bal Krishan, Julia Corr and Jo Beck) in the Non-metropolitan Finals. They will be travelling to Brisbane to compete at the end of November and we wish them all the best.

The TBA Under 750MP team has made it to the finals of national online ABF Club Team Knockout competition. The team (Nigel Brookes, Jeremy Reid, Erica McCoull, Jane Edler, Simon Edler and Pam Murphy) will be playing Parramatta in the finals on RealBridge in 17th November. We wish them all the best.

Coming Events

There are some great upcoming events in the run up to Christmas:

Tassie Swiss Pairs

Our premier pairs event will be held on the weekend of November 21st and 22nd. This is an important event for anyone thinking about nominating for a Tasmanian team in next year’s ANC, but as a Swiss Pairs event it is also suitable for players of all levels. Enter on My ABF

Spring Swiss Pairs

The Spring Swiss Pairs will be held on Sunday October 25th commencing at 9.30 am. A great warm up in preparation for the Tassie Swiss Pairs. Enter on My ABF.

Board-A-Match Teams.

The Board-A-Match (BAM) Teams will be held on Saturday December 5th starting at 9.30 with lunch provided by the TBA. It will replace normal Saturday bridge, so come along and try this new and exciting format (this document provides a quick introduction to the BAM format). Feel free to ask for help if you want to put a team together. Enter on My ABF.

Teams of Three – Change of Date

This is an event in which experienced players (Team Captains) play with a “team of 3” novices. The captain partners with each of the three team members for a match and there is an opportunity to discuss the hand afterwards. It is an ideal introduction to the teams format for players who have not played in a teams event before. This event is limited to players with fewer than 50 Masterpoints (as at 30 June 2026) and is now scheduled for Sunday afternoon November 29th. Enter on My ABF as an individual, pair or team of three and we will organise captains and teams.

Melbourne Cup

Our annual Melbourne Cup Day event will be held on Tuesday November 3rd from 10.30am. There will be $5 and $2 sweeps available – please bring correct change where possible if you intend to buy a ticket in the sweep. Also, please bring a plate of food to share for lunch – if possible sandwiches or cake to keep in the spirit of things. Prizes will be awarded for our own “Fashions at the Bridge table” and there will be a glass of wine available. Price is $10 for TBA members; $15 for non-members.

Suggestion Box

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

1. Outside table and chairs - We have asked the Council to look into installing a picnic table(s) under the trees on the rivulet side of the fence. Once we have completed our building extension, we will be in a position to consider installing an outside table and chairs in the car park area.
2. Mentoring of beginners - We will consider starting up our mentoring sessions again. In the meantime, if you are a beginner, come along and play in our “Teams of Three” event on 1.00pm on Sunday November 29th.
3. Video Sue’s lessons - Sue is thinking about this suggestion.

Merchandise for TFoB

We have decided to produce some merchandise for sale at the TFoB. UTAS Creative Design School is helping us come up with an original “creative” design to apply to our products.

New Members

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

Heather McLoughlin (transfer in), Frances Murray, Sarah Bunce and Julieanne Cody

Bridge Tip – Bridge Credits Management - MyABF

Anyone can transfer Bridge Credits from their own account to someone else’s account. So if you want to enter you partner or team members into an event, you can use you own bridge credits and ask them to transfer the appropriate amount of their credits to you at a later date.

Julie Rhodes
President

The finals of the 2026 Tassie Matchpoint Pairs was held at the Tamar Bridge Club on Sunday 13 September. Players qualified for the finals of this State event through qualifying sessions held at each club. Members of the 2026 Tasmanian Representative teams were given automatic qualification.

The finals were held over two sessions with 18 pairs competing. There was good representation from Launceston and Devonport, but disappointingly little representation from the south.

The winners were Margaret Roberton and Vere Van Ingen. Anne Fyfe and Floyd Suban came second. Ian Farmer and Haj Skilton came third. Full results are here.

Thanks to Hugh Grosvenor for directing the finals.