Keep Playing with Championship Attitude

A busy month in May! Thank you to the selfless captains, as the always popular Teams of Three attracted a full hall of 43 tables. You may have noticed that there were a few expert players missing in Teams of Three, as they are battling in the Asia Pacific Bridge Federation Championship in Seoul, Korea from 31st May to 5th June. Follow their results HERE.

The State Novice and Restricted Championship was held on 29th – 30th April in Southern Highland Bridge Club. Congratulations to Hans Van Weeran - Peter Clarke, who came first in the State Restricted Pairs and Ken Cahill - Paul Roach who won the State Novice Pairs. Full results can be found HERE.

The State Mixed Pairs (incorporating Country Mixed Pairs) held on 27th – 28th May was a great success. Congratulations to the 2017 State Mixed Pairs Champions Sophie Ashton - David Wiltshire and Country Mixed Pairs Champions Sally & Garry Clarke! Full results can be found HERE.

State Mixed Pairs Championship
– an inside story by Rakesh Kumar
Winners of the State Novice & Restricted Pairs (Left) With convener Craig Curry, Parveen & Jamal Rayani (3rd place) Peter Clarke & Hans Van Weeren (1st place) Jill Blenkey & Jeff Conroy (2nd place) in the Restricted Division. (Right) Martin Brown & Gail McKenzie (2nd place) Ken Cahill & Paul Roach (1st place) Louise & Michael Brassil (3rd place) in the Novice Division.
(Left) State Mixed Pairs winners David Wiltshire and Sophie Ashton. (Middle) Country Mixed Pairs champions Sally and Garry Clarke. (Right) Autumn Swiss Pairs winners Julie and Mark Guthrie.
Ratified by the NSW Council, the 4 teams representing the state will go to Canberra for the Australian National Championships from 15th to 27th July. Miss Kitty (a platypus) is chosen to be our mascot. Meet our ANC Teams and be a fan of their Facebook Group HERE!
  • Open: Maurits van der Vlugt, Andre Korenhof, David Hudson, Warren Lazer, Pauline Gumby, Paul Lavings and Bob Sebesfi (non-playing captain)
  • Women's: Sophie Ashton, Kim Neale, Linda King, Anita Curtis, Helene Pitt, Ruth Tobin and Marcia Scudder (non-playing captain)
  • Seniors': Mike Hughes, David Beauchamp, Peter Buchen, Terry Brown, Rena Kaplan, Lorna Ichilcik and John McIlrath (non-playing captain)
  • Youth: Charles McMahon, John McMahon, Ramanan Rajkumar, Hong Pui Edmond Lee, Nico Ranson, Matt Smith and Stephen Williams (non-playing captain)

The competition between City and Country also starts to stage in June. The best regional teams will be selected in 6 regions from 4th to 25th June to compete with each other in the Zonal Finals. This year we have Wagga Wagga, Coffs Harbour and Central Coast Bridge Clubs to be the hosts of the Zonal Finals from 1st to 2nd July. One winning team from each of these three zones, three teams from the NSWBA and two from the Sydney Metropolitan region will make up the 8 teams to play in the John Arkinstall State Teams Finals this December.

The Grand National Open Teams (GNOT) Finals will be held in each year, and NSWBA will send a certain number of teams to the Grand National Open Teams (GNOT) Final. This year the Final will be held in Tweed Heads. This year NSWBA will send 20 teams to the National Final — 7 of these will come from the Sydney Metropolitan region (2 directly from the NSWBA qualifying event, 1 directly from the NSBC qualifying event and 4 from the Sydney Metropolitan final), the remaining teams will be from elsewhere in NSW. A lot of clubs have been running their local qualifying event and NSWBA is going to host the direct qualifying event over five Monday nights from 19th June to 31st of July. Form a team and enter now to gain your direct progress to the GNOT Finals in Tweed Heads!

Local congresses also provide different varieties for your choice of game:

Tamworth Bridge Club Teams Congress
– It's encouraging to see two visiting teams with members who have just started the congress trail

Bathurst & District Bridge Club Pairs & Teams
– A highly successful weekend of bridge

Yamba Bridge Club 9th Swiss Pairs Congress
– Apart from the local Club, players from 16 clubs made up the 20 table event

Coffs Harbour Bridge Club Swiss Teams
– Baby Ashton stole the attention with no effort
Winners of the NSWBA Teams of Three – (Left) Overall winners –
Ian Plummer, Fiona Ballard, Les Grewcock (C), Janet Rowlatt
(Middle) Restricted Teams winners – Alessandro Gado, Alex Kemeny, Helena Canaris, Paul Lavings (C) (Right) Novice Teams winners – Liz Fanos the host presented prize to Michael Hogan, who represented his teammates Helene Pitt (C), Hugh Makin and Joanne Morgan.
Winners of the Tamworth Swiss Teams – (Left) Winners Lakshmi Sunderasan, David Weston, Sharon & Greg Mayo. (Right) Runners-up Bas Bolt, Michael Johnson, President Frank Gooley, David Tucker and Sarah Strickland.
Winners of the Bathurst Congress – (Left) Pairs Winners – Chris Stead and John Brockwell with Chris Roseveer, the club president, and Karin La Roux, the congress convenor. (Middle) Teams winners – Karin La Roux and Chris Roseveer presented the prize to Catherine Chown, Chris Bayliss, Patricia Phillips and Eric Lindh. (Right) The Best Restricted Team – Diana Whiteley, Dorothy Woodside and Kathie Mills (Margaret Munson absent).
Winners of the Yamba Swiss Pairs – (Left) Alan Gibson and Alison Dawson. (Right) Plate winners Deb McLay and Ian Michelson.
Congratulations to the titlists of the Coffs Harbour Teams (Left) Winners of Open Section – Kim Morrison, Sharon Mayo, Greg Mayo and David Weston. (Middle) Winners of Intermediate Section – Helen Carr, Colleen Berry, Anthea Oates and Val Dawson (names may not be in right order) (Right) Winners of the Restricted Section – Leonie Brocker, Rudi Brocker, President, Eve Colley and Elaine Rae.
Upcoming Events
Events highlights from 4th June to 2nd July. Click HERE to view congresses in the full year.

Congresses In NSW Local Clubs
Jun 3 – 4 (Sat – Sun) Illawarra Bridge Association Chris Diment Memorial Congress
Pairs and Teams
Event Details > 

Jun 4 (Sun) Bathurst & District Bridge Club
The Bathurst Teams Day playing for the Harley Antill Trophy
This event has just been upgraded to be a congress!
Event Details > 

Jun 4 (Sun) Trumps Bridge Centre Winter Teams
Teams
Event Details >
Jun 4 (Sun) Trumps Bridge Centre Winter Teams Teams
Event Details >

Jun 10 – 11 (Sat – Sun) Nambucca Valley Bridge Club
Swiss Pairs and Teams
Event Details >

Jun 17 – 18 (Sat – Sun) Newcastle Bridge Club
Swiss Pairs and Teams
Event Details >

Jun 18 (Sun) Wollstonecraft Bridge Club
Teams
Event Details >

Jun 24 – 25 (Sat – Sun) Grafton Bridge Club Congress
Swiss Pairs
Event Details >

Jun 24 – 25 (Sat – Sun) NSBC @Lindfield Two Men & A Truck Restricted and Novice Congress
Pairs and Teams
Event Details >
Jun 25 (Sun) Kings and Queens Sydney Mid-Year CongressSwiss PairsEvent Details >

Jun 30 – Jul 2 (Fri – Sun) North Shore Bridge Club Super CongressSwiss Pairs and Teams
Event Details >

NSWBA Events
Jun 4 – 25 NSWBA Country Teams Regional Finals
 Event Details > 

Jun 19 – Jul 31 (over 5 Mondays ) NSWBA GNOT Direct Qualifier
Event Details > 

Jul 1 – 2 (Sat – Sun) NSWBA Country Teams Zonal Finals
Event Details >


National (ABF) Events
Jun 8 – 12 (Thu – Mon) VBA Victor Champion Cup
Event Details > 


World Events
Aug 12 – 26 (Sat – Sat) WBF World Bridge Teams
Event Details > 


Bridge Holidays
Jun 3 – 25 (Sat – Sun) Finesse The Best of Italy Italian Riviera Pairs
Event Details > 

Jun 18 – 23 (Sun – Fri) Trumps Bridge Centre Dormie House Holiday
Event Details > 


Featured Articles
Sports provide a sense of tension that nothing can compare to. So does bridge. The excitement of finding the grand slam nobody does and making it is just indescribable. Let Rakesh Kumar shares these moments with you in "Excited by slams".
 Read the full article >

Thank you for sending the topics you are interested in. We appreciate it and Matthew McManus will filter these queries and answer them in his column later on. In the meantime, please follow Matthew McManus's column HERE >
Congress Player of the Year
Your Association is pleased to acknowledge this 2017 Award. There will be four categories.

• Open
• Intermediate < 750 MPs
• Restricted < 300 MPs
• Novice < 100 MPs

Click HERE for our current "interim" list, as at 31st March 2017.

This award is based on masterpoints earned at NSW Congresses held under the auspices of NSWBA during the year.

So how are masterpoints updated? Why haven't they been processed yet? Julian Foster, the Chairman of NSWBA, answers players' common question "Why haven't I got my masterpoints yet?"
Read the full article >
Congress Psyche Register
The NSWBA has decided to establish a central psyche register for all congresses held in NSW.

The laws permit players to deviate from their systemic agreements so long as the partner of the player who does so has no greater reason to be aware of this deviation than the opponents. Once your partnership has a history of deviating from its agreements in a certain situation you are required to inform your opponents of this tendency.

If you feel that your opponents have psyched against you, please email details of the hand to the psyche register – no action will be taken against players who are reported to the psyche register but once a pair has multiple entries in the psyche register, congress directors will be informed so that they are aware of this history when making their rulings.

A form which can be used for submissions is available HERE.
About the eCongress
The eCongress is a monthly newsletter published by the NSW Bridge Association. It updates you with the latest congresses in the month, interesting hands and analysis from events, and tips regarding the bridge laws.
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NSW Bridge Association
+61 2 9264 8111
office@nswba.com.au
www.nswba.com.au
1/F, 162 Goulburn Street,
East Sydney 2010
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