Overview
The Hamilton Contract Bridge Club is a progressive, friendly club with around 280 members.
The club was established in 1952 - if you would like to know more about our early years then follow this link to read about our early history
In 1972 the club constructed its own purpose built rooms at 20 Richmond Street in Hamilton which is near Waikato Stadium from where it operates today
Bridge is played at the club several times a week -
- Four evening sessions on Monday through Thursday
- Three daytime sessions - Tuesday afternoon and two Friday morning ( different grades >
The club operates an open grading system which means members can play in any session
However in deference to newer players only basic or natural bidding systems are allowed on Tuesday evenings
Newer players tend to play on Tuesday evenings or a Newbies session Friday morning with the Club's best or "open" players competing on Wednesday evenings
Visitors are most welcome to play in club events but are not eligible for trophies or prizes but are limited to 3 sessions each year
The club runs a number of tournaments for both local and national players throughout the year with the tournament highlight being the 3 day Hamilton Congress which is held in October over Labour Weekend
Also, the Club runs a series of beginners' lessons each year which start in March.
The Hamilton Club was the first club in New Zealand to adopt the Bridge Mate scoring technology. This uses wireless devices at each table to capture the bidding and results electronically which saves considerable time with the results of the session being available almost instantly after the event is completed.
After bridge re-started following the the two lock-downs due to Covid in 2020 the Club has moved where possible to a cashless payment system - Compa$$ - for the payment of most services and functions. This was introduced to minimise the handling of cash by our Secretary and Directors as in the early days of Covid cash was considered to be a risk and contamination pathway. This also saves the Club considerable time as the need to process the cash from Table Money has been almost eliminated.
Compa$$ uses the Bridge Mates and Compass scoring system to keep track of what each member owes the Club for payment of table money and other Club related expenses - bar purchases etc. When a member plays a session the member's Compa$$ account is debited the table money for that session. Compa$$ also keeps track of those members who win competitions and the winnings value is credited to to the member's Compa$$ account. Members are expected to pay to the Club a sum of money, preferably in advance, sufficient to cover their table money and other expenses at the Club when the current balance is emailed to each member at the end of each month. This payment from the member is done electronically to the Clubs bank account with the amount decided by each member sufficient to keep the account in balance.
