When a certain Grand Master's birthday comes around it would be lovely to gift him with a pen. More than once on Thursday evening he had to return a pen to a previous table.

The NZ Bridge Federation is deliberating whether or not to lay charges against a certain senior director, who, using her considerable Tai-Chi skills, prevented a certain committee member (who should know better) from bidding before her explanation was complete.

Whangarei was well represented at the recent Open/Intermediate tournament hosted by the Dargaville Bridge Club. In the Intermediate division, the winners were Pam Brown and her sister Jolene Zink from Dargaville. Lee Orton and Roger Johnson came in second and Kim Thomas and Laura Maton were third. Vanassa McGoldrick and Ian Johnson took the prize for the most consistent pair - their 2 sessions differed by only 0.6%.

The top Junior pair was Debbie Schicker and Mandy Bax. This was Mandy's first tournament, and a good one at that. Congratulations!

This year, the Paihia Open was hosted by Whangarei. Coming in at first were Margaret Hooson and Richard Bland, followed by Marilyn Kennedy and Anna Chappell. In third place were John MacIntosh and Roger Bell, while Laura Maton and Yvonne MacKinnon took the prize for best intermediate pair.

At the Yovich Open on May 13th, a 5A open tournament, the intermediate pair of Kim Thomas and Laura Maton won their opening session and held on against stiff competition to win the overall prize. Well done!

Peter Hirzel and his guest from France, Quentin Grebille, were the runners-up and Tania Brown and Neil Ruddell were third. The prize for the best intermediate pair not amongst the major prize-winners was won by Pam Rope and Peter Ball.

Is it a deodorant problem?  Staring at three empty seats on the last round of the evening, Wendy calls out "Any chance of a partner and some opposition?" Dashing back to his seat her partner pleads "I was doing the dishes"  to laughter from t

From the "hard to get good partners" office: a certain pony tailed player's navigational skills were commented on by his partner as the pony tailed one wandered around the room looking for the "next" table.

In other news:

Broome Family Tournament went off, Brmmm Brmmm. A full room - and man were they noisy! - people having a good time have trouble keeping quiet - sorry Olive.

We would like to introduce a new column of club talk from Peter Pan and Wendy, the well known burglars at Junior tournaments.
 

The first local tournaments for the year were recently held in Kerikeri. On Saturday, January 14th, the Bay of Islands Craigs Open Swiss Pairs was held and Whangarei players held down 3 of the top four places. Placing 1st were Jane Stearns and Ant Hopkins (who has recently joined our club as an associate member) while Neil Ruddell and Margaret Hooson were 3rd and Patsy Walters and Lee Walters came in 4th.