Monday is the start of the Interstate Teams Championship. Tasmania is competing in the Open, Womens and Seniors.

The Open Team played three matches aagainst Victoria, ACT and NT. 1 win and 2 losses. Running 6th out of 8. Full results here.

The Womens Team had a bye in the first match, then had a 4 IMP loss to Queensland and a draw with ACT. Running 4th out of 7. Full results here.

The Seniors Team played three matches aagainst NSW, WA and ACT. 3 losses. Running 7th out of 7. Full results here.

Our first match was against Victoria. Tania and I played EW in the open room while Erica McCoull and Jeremy Reid made their debut for Tasmania in the closed room.

Board 1 saw some action at our table.

I further clarified that the first X had shown 4 spades and that 1S would have shown 5+ spades. I should have made the contract or even an overtrick. In retrospect I think I allowed my confusion as to the opponent's bidding to distract me and went down in a cold contract.
At the end of the hand it became clear that South thought that X showed 4+ spades and that 1S would have been artificial. The opponents were able to provide documentation that the explanation given by north was the systemic agreement.
Fairly strange that a pair playing at this level would not be clear about such a basic sequence. North's choice to pass 2HX seems brave given that a club fit must have seemed likely if partner only had 4 spades. Still a missed opportunity.

On Board 3 South passed and Tania opened a fairly normal 3S. North chose to pass and 3S was the contract. They took the obvious 6 tricks to beat the contract 2 tricks for 200. Looking at the results it seems that all other norths chose to double. South has an interesting decision if north doubles. Reasonable choices seem to be Pass, 3NT or 4C. With a deep trump trick and the AQ of hearts, Pass seems best. My second choice would be 3NT. 4C is probably a distant third. With a flat hand and 4 bad clubs this seems likely to go minus and if partner's hand is good enough to make 4C they will probably bid on.

Board 16 saw a gadget work poorly for our opponents. North opened 2NT strong. South bid 3S which asked partner to bid 3NT. Apparently a direct bid of 3NT would have shown some other ongoing type hand. Tania had KJTxx spade and the CA so doubled 3S for the lead. North could have tried 4H in his good 5 card suit but chose 3NT. The S lead through the Q meant that the contract was doomed. North tried the DA in case the K was singleton. When it wasn't this resulted in 2 down. A valuable 11 IMPs to us on the last board.

A 9 IMP loss. Not a great start but we were competitive.

Match 2 was against a strong team from the ACT. Tania and I played NS in the Open room with Julie Rhodes and Hilton Francis in the closed room.

Both of our pairs had a poor set and the result was not pretty!

Board 23 was our best result for the match. George played in 2H which he could have made, but went one down. Hilton and Julie passed the hand in. 3 IMPs.

Tania and I were pretty good on the part-score hands but had 3 terrible results on vulnerable game hands. Enough said.

Match 3 was against the NT. They are an improving team from a small bridge playing population. They can be dangerous but are a good opportunity for us to get back on the rails. I made my best captaincy decision of the event so far in sitting Tania and I out and letting the other four do the business.

There was a fair amount of action with 88 IMPs traded. +26 IMPs was a good way to finish the day. See the results here.

Board 13 was 'unlucky' for us. It's not clear to me why the 6-6 hand chose to defend 3SX. Also not clear how it made. Since 4H was making, one down doubled would not have been a great result. -730 was a bad result.

Tuesday will be the other 4 matches of the first round-robin. The open team will play WA, Queensland, NSW and SA.

The TBA Committee met on June 9th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Leigh Blizzard (T), Trish Colles (S), Sue Falkingham, Pam Murphy, Paul Fredheim, Hugh Grosvenor and Laura Bauermeister. The following matters were discussed:

Coming Up – Eastcoaster Weekend in Orford

On August 29th and 30th we’ll be running our fourth Eastcoaster Swiss Pairs event. As the name suggests, it is held at the Eastcoaster Resort near Orford. It is a great opportunity for a different weekend of bridge set on the beautiful East Coast of Tasmania. The entry fee includes morning tea and lunch on the first day as well as three sessions of bridge. We also hold a three course dinner on the Saturday night which can be entered as a separate event on MyABF. Play kicks off at 10.00am on the Saturday and is all over by around 1.00pm on Sunday. There are prizes awarded in all categories subject to the number of entries. There is generally also a lucky door prize donated by the Eastcoaster Resort.

A range of accommodation options are available at the resort from single rooms to 3 bedroom cabins so you can stay with your friends, family or partner if you like. Mention bridge when you are booking with the resort and they will give you a good rate.

Building Extension

As many of you know, we have been working on a plan for many years to improve our club facilities by adding an extension at the rear which will include an office/utility room, a member’s recreation area and a better kitchen. In addition, the Vera Houdek room and existing kitchen will be combined and extended to provide an additional teaching/playing room to provide greater flexibility with scheduling of Beginners Classes or additional playing sessions.

This was costed at approximately $ 800,000 a couple of years ago, and the TBA has (unsuccessfully) applied for several types of government assistance to enable us to progress the work. We have approximately $ 500,000 set aside for the extensions including a bequest of the late Ron Spencer for $ 200,000.

We have recently discovered than an alternative building approach by Tasbuilt involving off site manufacturing may provide an affordable solution for us and are currently investigating this.

If the quote and design from Tasbuilt offers us a viable solution, we will call a special meeting of Club Members to approve the project, as there will be inconvenience from pile driving, and we will need to close the club whilst the new extension is joined to our existing club. We will post the amended design and quote as soon as it is available.

ABF Online Club Knockout event

This event is scheduled to commence in July and the TBA has been quite successful in it in the past. Teams are categorised according to the Masterpoint level of their most experienced member and can participate in the Open, Under 750, Under 300, Under 150 and Under 50 category.

Events are run monthly at night via Real Bridge, and the TBA pays for the team entry fees. Consequently, any winnings are retained by the TBA to go towards the entry fees for next year.

If you would like to participate in this event, please register you interest with Sue Falkingham.

Suggestion Box

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

• We won’t be welcoming puppies/dogs to the TBA unless they are designated companion animals.
• We now have 5 of the specially requested black chairs.
• We will purchase two chairs with arms for people that need assistance in this way
• The TBA has a sophisticated air conditioning system. We should all recognise that it is impossible to provide a temperature which suits everyone You will all realise that some people are wearing a T Shirt at the table whilst others are rugged up! Rather than nag the Director, or complain about the temperature, please ensure your own personal comfort by wearing layers of clothes which you can add or remove as appropriate. This is the Tassie way.

Free Coffee for Dealers

As a thank you for our dealing team, we have decided that if they wish, they can request a coffee machine token from the Director on duty which will be provided free of charge.

A reminder that you can purchase coffee machine tokens if you don’t have a $ 2 coin in your pocket!

Youth Bridge

We are going to establish a Youth Bridge program over the next 12 months, leading up to the ANC in July 2027 which will be held in Hobart. If you have a young person in your life who you think would like to learn bridge, please contact myself, or Sue Falkingham, and we will endeavour to include them in this program.

New Members

We welcome the following new and reactivated members to our club and wish them all the best on their bridge journey : Mel Croft, Liam Croft (Youth), William Keyte and Jan Sheen.

Bridge Etiquette – Kindness (Again!)

Just a brief reminder to be kind and respectful to everyone at the table. We want people to enjoy their visits to the club and to tell their friends how fantastic bridge is as both as a brain stimulating hobby and as a family.

Julie Rhodes
President