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.

Our Prize giving celebrations were held on December 10th this year. This year, we managed to find winners for all categories as Covid finally receded in the rearview mirror. The photos below (thanks Tel) were taken of our President, Lee Walters, handing out the hardware.

During one of the recent heavy wind and rain events, water penetrated the roof and caused significant damage to the catering area and storage room (see below for photos). Hopefully, insurance will cover the internal damage but the roof may be a different story. The Committee has the situation in hand but, unfortunately, the repairs are likely to take a considerable time. Consequently, we ask for your patience as we proceed.

On Saturday, November 26th, the club held a charity tournament for the benefit of the St John Society, in recognition of their generous donation of the portable electronic defibrillator that you can see installed in the front porch of the club rooms.  In addition to the tournament, the club ran a raffle and a trading table for weeks prior to the event.

A great time was had by all and over $1500 was raised for the cause! See below for photos of the winners.

Bits and Pieces of Reminders

This year 5(!) of our members represented the Auckland/Northland region in the Interprovincial Tournament. Jane Stearns won selection on the Women's team while Alan Pumfleet, Juliet Golightly, Kim Thomas and Kevin Grundy comprised two of the three pairs on the intermediate team. Over 3 exhausting days, the teams played 12, 12-board matches against extremely strong competition for the Dougal McLean trophy. The women's team crushed their opposition with a record of 11-0-1 while the intermediate team struggled but still managed a respectable 3-2-7 record.