Rip Roaring Success
It was a great day for our club on Saturday with two events being held at the same time.
The Open Swiss Pairs attracted a huge field of 46 pairs while in the other room 32 pairs battled it out in one of the biggest fields of junior pairs I've ever seen in Hamilton.
By my calculation that makes 156 bridge players taking part, many of them our own club members, I counted 56. I never heard from anyone who didn't thoroughly enjoy the day. Even the weather was ideal for playing bridge.
Melinda Wang and Bruce Cresswell were leading the juniors after the first session so would have enjoyed their lunch but Megan Jolly and Graeme Hope who didn't go so well in the morning scored a massive 67.73% in the afternoon to grab 3rd prize and be the highest Hamilton pair on the day with Bruce and Melinda ending up a creditable 5th.
Congratulations to the Putaruru Pair of Ross and Susan Provan who won by nearly 4%.
The Open Swiss Pairs was looking like a formality for last year's winners Grant Jarvis and Ian Berrington from Auckland who were leading by more than 12 Victory Points going into the last round but as Grant told me they saved their worst bridge for the last round suffering a big defeat at the hands of Russell Wilson and Patrick Carter scoring just 2.89 out of 20.
In the end it came down to only the decimal points but Grant and Ian hung on by a nail biting 0.87 of a point to win from Wayne Burrows and Clair Miao. Local pairs were the next two - Jenny Millington and Barry Jones 3rd , Richard Hooper and Gary Foidl 4th. Russell and Patrick's big win in the last round got them into 5th place.
Much kudos for the smooth running of the day goes to the tournament convenor Ella Gray and the wonderful team in the kitchen. Please take a bow.
Barry
Congratulations to Hamilton's Malcolm Smith and Michael Neels who were the winners in the Clubs 2017 5A Swiss Pairs