Change in WAP Venue

Promo for the 2021 Waikato Area Pairs

Level 2 Lock-down - February 2021

The Government tonight announced a 3 day Level 2 lock-down for New Zealand excluding Auckland which is now at Level 3.

NZ bridge has previously advised that Bridge clubs can play at Lock-down Level 2 if they choose with certain safety standards.

The Club has decided these rules that applied then during the last Level 2 Lock-down in September 2020 will again apply and will be in effect for the next three days - Monday 15th thru the end of Wednesday 17th

Obviously, it is an individual decision whether you wish to play in Level 2 and the Club understands that

Face masks - Many members have their own face masks and if you do please bring them should you decide to play. The club however does have a limited number of disposal ones available and will seek more tomorrow

At the current Level 2 our safety precautions are the following:
•    If you come to bridge you must be well and have no symptoms of any illness
•   The use of face masks is mandatory.
•   The kitchen will be closed
•   You bring your own pen that travels with you
•   Only South will handle the Bridge Mate. East will verbally agree to the score

If we find that insufficient numbers decide to play at the current Level 2, we will close again until Lock-down Level 1

There will be further communication from us on the club website after the next Government announcement that changes the current status

Nigel - on behalf of the Club

Kay Dixon

A photo of the late Kay DixonThe Hamilton Bridge Club sadly notes the passing of Kay Dixon yesterday, February 9. Kay was a long-standing regular player at both Hamilton and Cambridge along with tournaments in the region. Kay unfortunately passed away after the surprise discovery of an unfortunate condition and the resulting short final illness. Kay was a member of Clubs in the greater Hamilton area since 2007 with her second club currently Cambridge. Kay very much enjoyed her bridge believing the playing experience was far more important than the place that resulted from the day's play - a quick look at her on-line playing history will show this.

We extend our sympathy to Kay's family, friends and members of the Hamilton and Cambridge Clubs who played with and knew Kay.

WAP's for 2021

Promo for the 2021 Waikato Area Pairs

Monday night bridge dates in the programme book

Players at Hamilton Bridge's Pairs Tournament

Sorry folks - we got a few dates wrong !

To all you sharp eyed members out there you will have noticed the dates for Monday Night Bridge in February don't match those in the 2021 calendar !

So sorry for the confusion but to make it clear Monday Bridge is on Mondays for the month of February and not a different day in the week as the programme book would suggest

Monday Night Bridge for February - 1st, 8th, 15th & 22nd

2021 Grades

Checking grades

NZ Bridge has released the grading for all its members and as they have already announced there have been major changes in the step between Intermediate and Open grades. These changes are retrospective and have been applied to current grading which means the Club now has a smaller number of Open Players and an increased number of intermediates.

If you would like to know more on this change then read this from an Allan Morris update of 7 December:

Alister shared a bulletin with all clubs earlier this week reiterating our plans for the end of year roll over. A change to open grade will be implemented whereby all players ranked at provincial Master and above will be graded Open. Opening rating points will not be depreciated by the usual 20% as part of the recalculation for the 2021 playing year

See his update 8 (5 Nov) http://www.nzbridge.co.nz/user/inline/3591/From%20the%20Chair%202020%20%238.pdf

As a result of these changes these new grades apply to our members

Name Computer Current (new) Grade Old Grade
 Angela Lovell  25226  Intermediate  Junior
 Catherine Cameron  41259  Intermediate  Open
 Cathy Nolen  24570  Intermediate  Open
 Colleen De Luen  5208  Intermediate  Open
 Elaine Rayner  34178  Intermediate  Open
 Joan Egger  24651  Intermediate  Open
 June Rogers  14732  Intermediate  Open
 Karen Thomson  37470  Intermediate  Open
 Nigel Gresson  34162  Intermediate  Open
 Pam Burns  17000  Intermediate  Open
 Phil Thompson  16817  Intermediate  Open
 Phillipa Kilpatrick  9829  Intermediate  Open
 Thelma Bird  32380  Intermediate  Open
 Val West  18000  Intermediate  Open

All Time Greats

As well on New Years Day New Zealand Bridge released the top 100 players based on all time Master Points earned as at the end of 2020
7 Hamilton Club members make it on to the 2020 version of the list......

The full 2020 Top 100 list can be found here

Club elects new Life Member

Dealing board

At the 2020 AGM the members present elected Joan Egger as a Life Member of the Hamilton Bridge Club. Joan joins a very select group of 16 that have been so honoured since the Club started 68 years ago. Joan hasn't been a member of the Hamilton Bridge Club quite that long but has been a member 30 years since joining in 1990

Outside playing a lot of bridge in her time here ( she regularly appears near the top of the yearly list of most sessions played ) she has held a number of roles in the management of the club:
President - 2008 / 2009
Vice President - 2006 / 2007 and 2010 / 2011
Committee Member - 1998/ 2001 and again in 2005
Scorer / Scoring Steward - 2000 - 2005
Partner Steward - 2000 - 2001
Dealer and Dealing Steward - 2007 - 2015
Bar custodian - 2008 - 2016

Joan was always involved when the club introduced new technology - Compass scoring, the dealing machines and the Bridge mates. (Compass was introduced around 2005, the first dealing machine in 2007 and the Bridge mates around 2010)

In addition to the above Joan has also been constantly involved in many other aspects of the organisation of the Hamilton Bridge Club such as working in the kitchen at tournaments over many years, billeting players from out of town attending our tournaments and generally assisting at tournaments, helping where ever she is needed

Joan continues to willingly assist in any job asked of her e.g. cleaning the kitchen cups and organising the prize trophies, and always done in a pleasant and co-operative manner

Joan is a great addition to the Club's Life Members

Ella & David



P.S. If you consider there is a club member who deserves this recognition then information on "the how" can be found here

Boards

Dealing board Bridge Boards - where would we be without them ?  Boards - those slightly strange shaped pieces of plastic that contain the cards for each bridge hand - make up a large part of the behind the scene activities at our Bridge Club

Did you know your Club deals around 10,000 hands each year for our regular Club play ?  Hands dealt for our Tournaments come on top of this again

So how does all of this happen ?  Prior to the start of each year the folks who run X-Club produce a set of deal files - one for each day or evening for every day of the year. These they then make available to the Club for use in our Dealing Machine to produce the boards for playing the board and then for Compass / Bridgemates to score the boards after you have played them. The programme the Club decides on at the start of the year requests from X-Club the deal files for the appropriate weeks of the year and these arrive throughout the year at the Club in time for the boards to be dealt
For those who have not met a Dealing Machine up close it is a rather complicated box full of electronics and a camera capable in around 20 seconds of taking a pack of cards and sorting it as per the Hand Record. When its going well its close to being one of the wonders of the modern world but when its unhappy its as frustrating as hell !  The Club owns a "Dealer 4" which we wouldn't be without but with a price tag of over $5000 requires more than a little TLC.....

Tournament hands are handled differently because the regular X-Club hands are potentially available to a large number of people prior to the hands being played which could be unfair. Hands for our Tournaments are both created and dealt locally to make all as fair as possible

Dealing boardSo we now have the hands available and the programme for the year in place so what now happens - the Club has a number of "dealers" who use our Dealing Machine to produce the hands specified by X-Club for the required session. Currently we have 6 "dealers" who give up some of their time each week to deal the hands for a particular session - they don't deal the hands for a session they play !  If you would be interested in helping here the Club is at times looking for new dealers so have a talk to Cathy Nolen, our current Dealing Steward to see if you can help. It doesn't take long to deal a set of boards so it's not an onerous task.....

Alongside the actual dealing of the boards there is a little housekeeping required - labeling of the dealt boards, printing of the hand records etc.
Sometimes things in this process go awry - the wrong boards are dealt for the week, the boards are labelled incorrectly, cards get out of sequence etc etc. but considering the number of boards we deal each year the number of mistakes is very small !


Getting it wrong can be rather frustrating for all but on occasion it can have an unexpected outcome -

Recently club members Barbara Daly and Graeme Hope competed in the East Coast Restricted Pairs which they won with a score of 65% - congratulations to you both. This happened at an event where only 30 scoring boards were able to be played due to a labeling error when the boards were dealt meaning the first 18 boards played had to be discarded!

1st East Coast Bays Restricted Pairs Tournament


 

So next time you pick up your cards to play a hand do think of your dealers

Hamilton Wins Trifecta at Te Awamutu

Dealing boardToday the Te Awamutu Club held its annual Xmas Tournament. Very unfortunately for the members of that Club the event turned into a Hamilton benefit - commiserations to you

Club MP %
1st Tim Healy & Helen Healy Hami/Hami 1084.3 125.49
2nd Gary Foidl & Brett Glass Waik/Hunt 1053.7 121.95
3rd Dallas Dagg & Ella Gray Hami/Hami 1001.2 115.88
4th Lynette Morgan & Ian Bond Mata/Mata 993.3 114.94
5th Richard Solomon & Anna Kalma Fran/TeAr 988.2 114.37
6th Richard Fletcher & Gwyn Lobb Hami/Waik 978.7 113.27
7th Joan Egger & Lucie Armstrong Hami/Hami 976.8 113.06

Well done all

N.B. - Gary , Brett , Richard , Anna & Gwyn are all Second Club members at Hamilton

2020 AGM

The Club's AGM is to be held on Sunday 22 November at 2pm

The AGM starts the afternoon off - Club reports will be present the election of the Officers for the coming year and concluding with the presentation of trophies for the events that were run this year.
This is followed by a session of "fun" bridge. Christmas Dinner concludes the evening - all this for a really low price of $10 !

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