A good 9 card trump fit requires 25 HCP's when both hands are balanced.

If one hand has a void opposite a poor 4 card suit, then 20 HCP's will do.

If opposite hands each have a void, well Christmas has come early.

Board 25 is a great example.

N-S have a good fit in hearts, and North has a poor diamond suit opposite a void.

Souths points in spades are mostly wasted opposite a Norths void.

Essentially a 12 HCP game in hearts.  Who would bid such a game?

The killing lead when voids and singletons abound is of course a trump.

Board 6 is a great hand where there are only low-level contracts.

With 3 hands having 11 points each, who opens the bidding?

As opener, is East too balanced to open 1C?

It does matter, if they Pass, E-W will not find their spade fit.

If South opens 1D, West will Pass and N-S will find 1NT.

If North is left to open 1C, again they will find 1NT

There are systems over 1NT for East to use to get to 2S.

Brozel, Capelletti, Don't, Landy, Ripstra, Roche, Scum, Suction.

Well done to 3 Easts who opened 1C. VULNERABLE !!  Brave people.

Last Friday our club celebrated a very special birthday, our club Patron Jan Jarrett turned 99 years old. Members joined in with our usual Friday Bridge plus a shared lunch with Jan. In recent months Jan has been unable to attend her usual Bridge sessions at the club so it was lovely to have her back at the club playing again and as the photo  shows she was in fine form .

Congratulations to Tom Henwood and Joyce Reid who won the Te Puke BOP Pairs tournament on Sunday with the impressive score of 66.57%.  Joyce substituted Jen Elgar for this round of the Bay Pairs, Tom and Jen are leading the competition with the final round to be played in Whakatane in October.  Fantastic!

One of the highlights of our Club competition year is the annual Teams tournament with teams competing for the Janet Milbank Memorial Trophy.  This year Swiss Pairs format was chosen and we had 8 teams enter.

Looking at the results for 2026, as with last year it was tough at the top with a very close competition and especially so for 2nd and 3rd place.

Winners : 84.30 VP Joyce Reid, Rex Tulloch, Karen Warren, Bronwyn Kamphorst

2nd:  80.6 VP Derek Moores, Bobbi Drysdale, Don Moore, Ali Barr

Thank you Trust Horizon for again supporting small clubs like ours with a generous Grant towards power costs. This year we have been successful with a $2500 Grant secured from the latest funding round. This amount of money will go a long way towards helping meet what is one of our most significant annual costs. We would like to acknowledge Trust Horizon for this donation.

The second heat of the 2026 Bay Pairs competition which was to have been held at Whakatāne on Sunday 12 April has been postponed due to the forecast weather and official advice for only essential travel on the day.

We will notify clubs of an alternative date as soon as possible.

Lessons for those wanting to learn how to play Bridge start on Thursday March 5th. They run from 7 - 9 pm  at the clubrooms -167 Commerce St, Whakatāne. 

For more information / register your interest please phone or text Sue 021 246 7268 or Marg 027 451 7130

Monday

Champion Pairs – Richmond Trophy

Jenny Elgar & Diane Green

Champion Singles – Hawken Trophy

Joyce Reid

Ladder – Morpeth Trophy

Sue Gordon

Osborne Trophy

Lee Willetts

Congratulations to……

24th Feb                 Joyce Reid & Caroline Sarfati                     70.49%

3rd March               Joyce Reid & Caroline Sarfati                     73.91%