The Club sadly notes the passing of our member Mona Corlett, with the club extending its sympathy to Mona's family and friends. Mona, who was the club's oldest member, passed away last weekend.

A Tribute to Mona, a Floral Artist
For many, many years, Mona's beautiful, elegant fresh floral arrangements greeted us at our bridge club's front door.
At the beginning of the year I became aware of the bare front door table, but as I am not a floral artist I have been purchasing artificial flowers at a variety of charity shops to fill the void.
Mona's beautiful floral arrangements at my daughter, ex club-member Penelope's wedding were so elegant and admired.
Keitha Burton

A little more on Mona's life can be found here in this short item published in 2015 on our website as part of a series on some of our well known members

A tribute to Mona from Billie Phillips can be found here

Another tribute to Mona, this one from Malcolm Smith is found here

In my work as a volunteer with English Language Partners I have often thought how easy it should be to combine my skills and teach bridge to those who do not have English as their first language.
I am helping the Papatoetoe Bridge Club this year - and Ayako (from the Cambridge Club) and I were interviewed on Monday. The result is the article below which I hope you enjoy.

Teaching bridge to migrants and refugees

I have gone into the Cambridge and Papatoetoe English Language classes to teach students there minibridge and hope to go into the Nelson class next month. My goal is to set up a class for migrants and refugees at the Resettlement Centre out near Claudelands in Hamilton.

Most members know that the Club awards vouchers for Bridge Sessions. However did you know you can purchase table vouchers in advance ? Think how convenient it would be not having to find small change each time you play bridge, and it also makes life easier for the directors and our secretary

There are several ways of purchasing the vouchers:

•   Ask your director - they have a limited number of voucher packs - 5 vouchers for $15 available for purchase

•   Email the secretary with your details ( name & bridge number ) and then pay by internet banking with your Bridge Number & code ‘Vouchers’ in the Banking Application "free entry" fields

•   Via the director with an envelope containing your details and a cheque or cash at any bridge session ( as our secretary is part time allow for this in the delivery time )

•   See Yvonne in the office ( see programme book for office hours )

Congratulation to our open team who did battle on Sunday against Morrinsville, Rotorua and Tauranga and emerged victorious.
WBays Interclub Open winners 2016
Jenny Millington, Barry Jones, Ian Clayton and Karen Harris won all three of their matches to romp home with the title of top open team in the Waikato Bays Region.

The conclusion of the WAP series today in Hamilton saw outstanding performances by Hamilton players.
WAP CHAMPIONS 2016
Overall winners of the series and WAP CHAMPIONS 2016 were Blair and Liz Fisher. Runners up, also from Hamilton, were Yuzhong Chen and Gary Foidl.
Heat winners today were Ian and Cynthia Clayton, with runners up Richard Fletcher and Lucie Armstrong and third Liz and Blair.
The top Intermediate/Intermediate pair for the series were Nigel Gresson and Phil Thompson and runners up in that category were Sheila Smith and Judith Brooks.
A full round up of the day's events and the results and photos can be found on the Waikato Bays website under the WAP tab. http://www.waikatobays.bridge-club.org/