Newsletter 6 November 2025
In our newsletter this week...
- President's Message
- Beware of Scammers
- Workshop with Will Jenner-O'Shea
- International Youth Bridge Survey
- Rank Promotions
- SFOB 2026 Partnership Desk Coordinator
- Online Lessons
- Upcoming Events
- Results
- Lighter Moments
🐎 President’s Message – Melbourne Cup Day 🥂
On Tuesday, we celebrated another wonderful Melbourne Cup Day at the club with an afternoon of bridge, bubbles, prizes, and of course, “The Race That Stops the Nation!” It was a fantastic day enjoyed by all who attended - even if not everyone’s horse came through in the sweeps!
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to making the day such a success. Nicole Finn did a fantastic job organising the event and providing the delicious treats we all enjoyed. Suz Wilkinson, your invaluable “extra hands” were very much appreciated. Special appreciation also goes to Vanessa Brown and Will Jenner-O’Shea for helping with all the “bits and pieces” throughout the day, and to Elizabeth for ensuring Nicole had everything she needed behind the scenes. Finally, our thanks to Steve for keeping the bridge session running smoothly and timing everything perfectly so all could enjoy the big race.
Your enthusiasm, teamwork, and good spirits made the day truly special!
🎩 Prizes Awarded:
• Best Dressed (Lady) – Rowan Bergin
• Best Hat (Lady) – Susie Thearle
• Best Dressed (Male) – Roger Busch
• Best Hat (Male) – Jon Pike
Many thanks to all involved for another successful and thoroughly enjoyable Melbourne Cup celebration at the club. 🏇💐
To view more photos of the day please click on this link: Gallery - Melbourne Cup 2025
- Mary
Beware of Scammers
As you know we are currently in the process of gathering consent for renewing our memberships for 2026. The club sent out an email on 1st November asking that members to reply to the email consenting and authorising renewal through myABF.
Please note that the club will NOT send you an invoice and we have NOT asked for payments other than to have it ready to be charged via your myABF account.
If you receive any emails proclaiming to be from our club, asking you for payments by clicking on a button or saying that you can view an attached invoice, disregard it completely.
If you are unsure please contact the office.
Workshop with Will Jenner-O'Shea
The ever popular workshop with Will is back at the Canberra Bridge Club. His next lesson concentrates on Things to Discuss to Improve your Partnership: Some useful Conventions for partnerships to play, 2NT Enquiry After Weak Two Openings and Rating you partner as an aggressive or conservative bidder (and yourself!).
- Sunday November 16th, 10am to 3pm
- Cost including morning tea and light lunch $60
- Click here to register
International Youth Bridge Survey
BAMSA (Bridge, A Mind Sport for ALL) is running a survey to find out what young people think about bridge, and we need their input!
Whether you play all the time, or you just tried bridge once – your opinion matters. What do you enjoy? What puts you off? What would make bridge better for people your age?
Take part today to influence what happens next with youth bridge and enter our prize draw for 2 x 50$ Amazon vouchers!
Why take part?
We're gathering perspectives from young players of all ages (up to 31 years), countries and skill levels, and the findings will go directly to the people planning youth bridge programmes.
Your answers will help shape how bridge is taught and played in schools, clubs, and online.
The survey takes only 10-15 minutes to complete and it's anonymous.
We want to hear what young people think about bridge!
Please encourage any young players you know to complete this survey, including those who tried bridge but dropped out - many thanks
October Rank Promotions
Graduate
- Kirk, Ron
Club
- Bruce, Catriona
- French, Michael
- Simonetti, Oliver
Local
- Callan, Margaret
- Crawford, Rita
- Lockwood, Pamela
- Tomati, Lynne
Bronze Local
- Gregson, Geraldine
- North, Julie
Silver Local
- Shah, Rajiv
Bronze Regional
- Anderson, June
- Ballantyne, Chris
State
- Meares, Nicola
Bronze State
- Birkby, Debra
- Holmes, Martin
National
- Becconsall, Craig
Bronze Life
- Lane, Pauline
SFOB 2026 Partnership Desk Coordinator
Perelle Scales is the Partnership Desk Coordinator for the Summer Festival of Bridge 2026. Please contact Perelle on:
Next year SFOB will start on the 14th January 2026 and will be held at two venues: The Canberra Rex Hotel and The Canberra Common which is just over the road from the Canberra Rex Hotel.
New Members
Canberra Bridge Club welcomes the following new and returning members to our club:
- Ross Cunningham
Online Lessons
Will Jenner-O'Shea is running online lessons suitable for all club players most Thursdays starting at 9:30am.
You can attend the Zoom live, or receive the recording, notes, and replayable hands afterwards.
- November 13th - Counting the Opponent's Points
- November 20th - Signalling on Our Leads
- November 27th - Signalling on Discards. What to Throw, What to Keep
- December 4th - The Stopper Asking Cue Bid
- December 11th - Fourth-Suit Game Forcing
- December 18th - The Gambling 3NT Opening
Upcoming Events
The next Tuesday night competition is the State Open Butler Pairs running for 3 weeks starting on 18th November.
Results
The winners of the Battery World RB Pairs are:
- Karen Renfrey and Gary Renfrey
Lighter Moments
- After a rather busy morning I finally sat down to play bridge and someone at the table dobbed my partner in: "He says that you are still a novice". Puzzled, I looked at my partner and he said "I said, Elizabeth is still in the office!"
- Also this week (as overheard from our table) the following director announcement: "Next workshop with Will Jenner-O'Shea is on 16th November and the topic is on: Disgusting things with your partner"...
- Still a director having a bad day: "Everyone skip to the next table, no no skip two tables"
- And the most exciting news I've had in a while when on Thursday morning I was told by the Wednesday night director: "Last night Ron Klinger came to our club". I jumped up and looked around: "Ron Klinger came to our club!! Is he coming back??" to which I was told: "Calm down Elizabeth, I said the wrong cleaner came to our club".
And do you know what else is coming to our club ?
Christmas is coming everyone!
Elizabeth
