Barry Jones & Jenny Millington

Partners in life, business, and bridge Barry Jones and Jenny Millington have made every post a winner. On NZ Bridge’s all-time top 100 Master point earners list, Jenny is ranked number 32 (and the 7^th woman) with 2661 A points and 1083 B points, while Barry is at number 20 with 3058 A points and 1604 B points. Barry is part of the elite group of Gold Grand Masters, a rank he attained in 2012. Jenny is currently a Silver Grand Master but, at time of writing, needs less than 250 points to join Barry as a Gold Grand Master, a feat she is likely to achieve in 2015.

 Barry learned to play at the Matamata Club in 1989, after seeing an ad in the paper. Like all learners he found it difficult at first, convinced that the tutor was speaking a foreign language. Luckily he persevered with it and he, along with current Waikato Bays Regional Committee Chairperson Karen Martelletti completed the course of lessons and began their bridge careers.

Jenny first learned to play at the Hastings Club in 1981. She moved to Auckland in 1982 and put bridge aside for ten years, starting back up again at the North Shore Club. Jenny, I was surprised to discover, is actually a bit of an adrenaline junkie! Her main hobby / passion in this period was jumping out of planes (with a parachute thankfully). Jenny is one of NZ’s most experienced skydivers with over 3000 jumps and she represented NZ at the world champs, where they finished sixth.  But perhaps jumping out of an airplane and playing bridge with Barry aren’t that different!

 Both very competitive and keen players in the 90s, Barry and Jenny knew each other in the bridge world but it wasn’t until 1994 that they met as such. They were both playing at Congress and were waiting outside the appeal room. Jenny and her partner were being looked at for a system infringement and Barry and his partner were having a bidding sequence questioned. Both won their appeals. The following year Michael Ware (NZ’s number one player in case you don’t know) set them up to play a tournament together at Barry’s request. In June that year they played together for the first time and the rest is history! Fifteen months later they were married.

Barry and Jenny have had the majority of their tournament success playing together. Barry estimates that, as a pair, they have earned over 2000 A points together, which surely must be close to a record. If I was to list all the tournaments which they have won we might out of memory space on the web site, so suffice to say that if there is a 5A or 10A tournament in the upper half of the North Island you can be sure Barry and Jenny have won it at least once. By their own admission they haven’t kept a lot of accurate records but some of their more notable successes are that in 2001 they won the North Island Pairs and have won 3 events at Congress: Swiss Pairs (early 2000s), Mixed Pairs in 2011, and Board-a-Match Teams in 2013. The have made the final stage of the NZ Pairs at least a dozen times and made the semi-finals of the NZ Teams, the one event Barry and Jenny both still really want to win. They regularly team up with Patrick Carter and Julie Atkinson and have won a number of other teams events with them. That they will win the NZ Pairs at some stage is probably not a bad bet.

They are regular members of Club and Regional Open teams and when Australia hosted the Asia Pacific Bridge Federation they were part of a New Zealand team that took part. They have also played overseas, going to Australia for their big events on a number of occasions and they also went to Hong Kong and won a major event there: The City of Hong Kong Mixed Pairs. Jenny has won the Baden Wilson Competition (ladies) for most A points collected in a year at least twice. Barry has had many top finishes but, as he says, it’s pretty hard to beat Michael Ware in that competition!

Both Barry and Jenny have been involved in the administration of bridge also. Barry was chair of the Waikato Bays Regional Committee for a time and Jenny was the secretary for a number of years. Both are currently on the Hamilton Club Committee and Barry was President in 2012 and 2013.

In addition to that they have run the club lessons and Barry regularly runs events for improving players in the Region. In 2012 Barry,along with club captain Natalie Muller, introduced a mentoring system whereby experienced players were encouraged to play with junior and intermediate players. Both Barry and Jenny were excellent mentors and indeed, they both still play at the club and at local tournaments with newer players to encourage and coach them. In 2014 Barry partnered current Club President Mark Thomson to win the Hamilton Restricted 8B tournament.

Like the Claytons, Barry and Jenny have managed to have a successful marriage as well as bridge partnership. Bridge is not a common topic at home as they try to keep their bridge life and their home life two separate entities. Of course they have disagreements but they work at it and manage to discuss things rationally. It is uncommon for married couples to be successful bridge partners, so that they have been so incredibly successful is a credit to them both.

Barry and Jenny play the game in good spirit and are more than willing to offer advice and guidance. Hamilton is fortunate to have them so if you get a chance to play with or against them, then take the opportunity to learn from the experience.

Ed Roggeveen