Newsletter 23 October 2025
In our newsletter this week...
- Membership Renewal for 2026
- Online Lessons
- New Members
- Wednesday Night Pizzas
- Halloween Bridge
- Melbourne Cup Day at CBC
- Upcoming Events
- Results
- Unlucky!
- Name Badge Order
Membership Renewal for 2026
A reminder that everyone's membership will expire on 31st December 2025. To ensure the most efficient renewal process we ask that you follow the instructions below:
- From the 1 November we will be emailing you to find out if you wish to renew your membership for 2026.
- When you receive the email, we ask you reply to the SAME email specifying YES, I agree to renew my membership of the Canberra Bridge Club for 2026 and I authorise the Club to charge my MyABF account
- Although myABF allows the club to automatically bulk charge the members for the annual membership fee it is NOT Canberra Bridge Club policy and practice to do so without first seeking your agreement that you wish to renew your membership. This must be done in writing or via replying to the email sent out by the office. Phone calls or verbal consents will not be accepted.
- Please note that when you agree to renew your membership, we will not charge your MyABF account before 1 January 2026. In the meantime we ask that you ensure your account has sufficient funds to cover the renewal fee, this will not be a problem if you have "Auto Top Up" turned ON. Otherwise either transfer the extra funds manually or contact the office if you want to discuss other methods of payment.
- The annual membership fees for 2026 are $90 for full members and $44 for concession members. The joining fee of $15 (or $5 concession) is not applicable to renewing members.
Please contact the office if you have any queries regarding the renewal process or the fees for 2026.
Online Lessons
Will Jenner-O'Shea is running online lessons most weeks.
They are suitable for all club players.
You can attend the Zoom live, or receive the recording, notes, and replayable hands afterwards.
Alternatively you can access the online lessons through our website
New Members
Canberra Bridge Club welcomes the following new and returning members to our club:
- Margaret Manley
Wednesday Night Pizzas
The Wednesday night pizzas provide the opportunity for social interaction while enjoying a pizza sampling. It provides a great opportunity to talk to and socialise with your fellow players, which is not always the case when engaged in playing bridge.
- 30th October - 6:30pm
- $5 payable on the day for half a pizza
Those wishing to partake should place their name on a list on the noticeboard or contact Jon Pike directly. His email is
Halloween Bridge
- Wednesday 29th October 6:30pm (Same night as Pizza Night)
Bring a plate of Halloween themed food to share, dress up if you wish, bring your best Halloween jokes!
Normal Bridge session at 7:15pm with chief Warlock John directing. Incantations and wand waving permitted.
Small prizes will be handed out by the Chief Warlock.
If you have additional Halloween decorations that you would be happy for the club to use please drop them in to the office on Tuesday 28th October or before lunch on Wednesday 29th October.
** Volunteers wanted on Wednesday 29th October at 1:30 pm to help decorate the room.
🎩🐎Melbourne Cup Day at the Canberra Bridge Club! 🍓🥂
Tuesday 4th November 2025 is Melbourne Cup Day, and we’ll be celebrating in style at the 1:00pm bridge session!
Join us for champagne, strawberries, sweepstakes, and a whole lot of fun as we mark “The Race that Stops a Nation”.
Here's what to expect:
- $5 and $2 sweeps on arrival - bring some small change and try your luck!
- Bubbly, juice and light nibbles provided by the Club.
- Race viewing during the session - Director Steve will schedule a break so we can all raise a glass and enjoy the big moment together.
- Dress to impress (or just for fun) - there will be a prize for the best hat or fascinator announced at the end of play.
Mark your calendar: Tuesday 4th November, 1:00 pm.
Let’s make it a day to remember - full of laughter, luck, and lively bridge!
Upcoming Events
The next Sponsored RED Masterpoint event will be on RealBridge:
- Battery World Pairs - 27th October and 3rd November Monday RealBridge 2pm
The next Tuesday night competition is the Barry Turner Teams on 28th October to 11th November. Reminder that due to Spring Nationals we will not be running a Tuesday night session on the 21st of October.
Results
The Spring Nationals is currently running in Sydney but the TBIB Open Teams Championship event has concluded and our members have achieved great results in each of the three categories:
- David Hudson's team made the Semi Final of the Championship and narrowly lost to the all-star Hung Team.
- The Kozakos' team including George Kozakos, Ian Thomson and Andrew Spooner came second in the Plate
- The Wilkinson's team including David Appleton, Brad Coles and Stephen Fischer won the Shield.
Full results from the Spring Nationals will be published next week.
Unlucky!
Spare a thought for Malcolm Carter whose team headed into the final match of the recent Canberra In Bloom Open Teams event comfortably sitting first. Midway through the match, he picked up the following hand:
♠KJ93
♥A852
♦A63
♣53
He was vulnerable, the opponents not when his Right Hand Opponent opened One Club. Malcolm made a takeout double, showing an opening hand, shortage in clubs and tolerance for every other suit.
His Left Hand Opponent now redoubled, which shows “values” probably ten or more High Card Points. Partner having 2 points did not come in, the opener passed and Malcolm bid 1H which promptly got doubled. Again, both partner and opener remained silent so Malcolm then bid 1S. Doubled by North once more, partner was much happier to pass this time around, South also decided to pass and Malcolm found himself in the rarely played contract of One Spade Doubled.
1C : X : XX : /
/ : 1H : X : /
/ : 1S : X : All pass
Here was the layout:
The defence was brutally accurate. North led a low club to South’s Queen. South then switched to the Nine of Hearts. Malcolm played low and North won the Queen. They then continued another Club to South’s King who persisted with the Three of Hearts. Malcolm knew this was a doubleton, so playing low would give the defence a ruff. He therefore rose Ace and tried the Jack of Spades.
South took the Queen of Spades then cashed their King of Hearts and played their final Heart. Malcolm ruffed high in dummy but this was over-ruffed by South’s Eight of Spades. South now switched to the Two of Diamonds. Malcolm played low and North won their Queen, promptly firing back the Eight and skewering Dummy’s Jack (South winning one more Diamond trick).
He still had to lose both the Ace and Ten of trumps and ended up scoring just three tricks – his two aces and his fourth trump by way of length.
When the results came in, the entire room had bid to Three No Trumps scoring some number of tricks for a score of anywhere from 400 to 490. Malcolm had to write down -1100 and this single board cost his team the championship. All from playing in an eight card fit at the one level, after having made a pretty much textbook takeout double!
Bad luck Malcolm.
If you have any interesting hands that come up (or hands you wish you’d known how to play) we would love to hear about them at:
- Steve Geddes
Name Badge Order
The next batch of name badge order is open till the end of this month. Each magnetic name tag costs $20. Please order now through myABF.
Don't forget that the notes section can be used to specify how you want your name to be printed in the name badge.
Lighter Moments
Apologies if you thought that last week's newsletter ended rather abruptly.
I asked Steve to cut and paste the draft version that I had prewritten and email it out on Thursday; but as I never actually specified up to where the newsletter should be cut to, well he decided when it was enough, which understandably was much shorter than my usual ramblings.
I was a bit surprised though that in the past few days not one person in the club has commented on the apparent incompleteness of last week's edition. In fact I seem to have been the only grumbling reader who wrote back enquiring about the lack of conclusion to the weekly publication. (Don't you want to know what happened in the end?)
Anyway, you'd think that when someone who lives interstate offers to remain in Canberra to do your job for you, one wouldn't manage to say anything other than thank you.. but turns out some people are really capable of complaining under any circumstances.
Have a great week everyone.
Elizabeth
