Newsletter 19 July 2024
In our newsletter this week..
- Vale Robert Arnott
- Message from the Committee
- Message from the President
- Southern Cross Club Community Rewards
- Tip of the Week
- Wednesday Night Pizzas
- Youth Day
- Advanced Bridge Series
- Results
- Upcoming Events
- Ian Morison
- Lighter Moments
Vale Robert (Bob) Arnott
The Club is saddened to learn that one of its members, Robert (Bob) Arnott passed away on 4 July 2024 after a battle with lymphoma.
Bob played mainly on Wednesday evenings with Murray Thomas until September 2023 when his lymphoma condition worsened, and he couldn’t play any longer. Murray and Bob were both highly respected trade negotiators with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
I met Bob peripherally when I joined a lunch group of mainly retired DFAT officers, nicknamed the Endangered Species (ES). Bob was a great storyteller and a joy to have lunch with.
When news of Bob’s passing was communicated to the ES Group. Tributes flooded in from many past luminaries of DFAT. These were collated and sent through to Bob’s wife Pam. Here are a few snippets:
“Bob was an officer with a fine intellect always on top of his subject matter.”
“A fine colleague who will be greatly missed at ES lunches for his insightful contributions to discussions and his particular brand of subtle humour. A man of gentle persuasion and demeanour. A true gentleman.”
“One of the real good guys. Bob was an absolute and true gentleman.”
“Bob was always good company and good fun. He will be missed.”
“Bob was a good friend to all of us. I credit Bob for getting me started playing bridge (at work at lunchtimes for an hour) - it was Bob’s idea that we move from playing 500 to teaching ourselves bridge. We will all miss him.”
And finally from Murray Thomas (one of Bob’s regular bridge partners at CBC):
“I had forgotten that it was Bob who introduced his colleagues to bridge. He and I were bridge partners at Deakin Bridge Club for quite a few years.”
Our thoughts and condolences go to wife Pam, and the rest of the family.
Roy Nixon
Message from the Committee
The Committee has formally approved the Code of Conduct for the Club. Members can find the document here and on our website.
Message from the President
CBC House Committee:
I would like to thank our House Committee (again) who are always working hard behind the scenes to make our Club more comfortable for all of our members!
In recent times they have sorted out the lights in the foyer, had a replacement zip hot water unit installed in the kitchen, 60 new side tables in the Barry Turner room, new bridgemate keypads are ordered (so no more RSI when scoring), new mirror in the female toilets.
They are also working hard getting quotes from plumbers to repair the sewerage pipes which are breached by tree roots. Thanks so much Nick, Steve and David! And thanks to everyone who assisted in putting the side tables around all tables in the Barry Turner room this morning!
Novice Co-Ordinator:
We have a new Novice Co-Ordinator - Josh Schwartz! Josh will be taking over from Morag Lokan who has been in the role since 2022. Morag will be doing a handover with Josh until she leaves for a well-deserved break in August. The Committee would like to thank Morag for her dedication to all of our beginners, and supervised players. She has done an amazing job, and the Committee really appreciates her efforts. We know you will be around the Club for at least another month, but thank you Morag for everything!
Congratulations - Under 26 Women’s Team:
I would like to congratulate our two young ladies (Zara and Diya) who are in Wroclaw, Poland representing Australia in the 8th World Youth Transnational Championships at the moment. What an outstanding effort to qualify in second place for the 4-Team Round Robin Final. Unfortunately they didn’t get the result they were after, but they did amazingly well! Big congratulations to the Team, and especially to Zara and Diya, we are very proud of you.
Celebrating Success – June:
Continuing on with our “celebrating success” of our beginner/supervised graduates who receive a score of 55%+ in a standard duplicate in the previous month we would like to congratulate the following:
1. Julie North – Wednesday evening, 19 June - 56.94%
ANC Teams/Pairs Events and Central West Festival of Bridge - Orange:
Congratulations to everyone who has been in Orange over the last few weeks at the ANC Teams and Pairs events, and also the Central West Festival of Bridge! The ACT Teams were unsuccessful in the Event which was disappointing for them, but they had a lot of fun and there’s always “next time”.😊
We definitely had some good results in the Central West Festival of Bridge though. Please see the Results Section below for further details.
- Mary
Southern Cross Club Community Rewards Program
By nominating Canberra Bridge Club 7.5% of your spend on food and beverages at the Southern Cross Club will be donated to us.
Last financial year CBC received approx. $3100 from this program and we have been accepted as a member again for 2024 to 2025. It is a wonderful source of funds to help us cover our costs.
If you are a member of CSCC and haven’t nominated CBC as your preferred community group, you can do it online here.
Alternatively let the reception team know that you are nominating CBC next time you are at the Southern Cross Club.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Decisions, decisions
You become declarer, your right-hand opponent leads out of turn, and the director gives you five options.
Options 1 and 2 involve accepting the lead out of turn:
(1) Accept the lead. Then you play next from your own hand after dummy’s hand has been tabled.
(2) Accept the lead and choose to become dummy, allowing partner to play the hand.
Options 3, 4 and 5 involve not accepting the lead out of turn and restoring the lead to the offender’s partner:
(3) Do not accept the lead and require the offender’s partner to lead any suit that is different from the suit led out of turn by the offender. The card that was led out of turn is returned to the offender’s hand without further penalty. The prohibition on offender’s partner leading the offender’s suit remains until the offender’s partner has lost the lead.
(4) Do not accept the lead and require the offender’s partner to lead the suit led out of turn by the offender. Once again, the card led out of turn is returned to the offender’s hand without further penalty, but this time the requirement to lead offender’s suit is confined to the opening lead.
(5) Do not accept the lead and allow the offender’s partner to lead whatever he/she chooses. But this time the card led out of turn becomes a major penalty card and remains face up on the table. A major penalty card must be played as soon as legally possible ─ whether by following suit, discarding, or leading having won the previous trick.
The same basic principles apply when a card is led out of turn later in the play, except that the option to become dummy is, of course, no longer available.
It is interesting to note that the punitive actions of a lead out of turn apply to the offender’s partner, not to the offender. This is because the offender has provided partner with unauthorised information. (“I own this card that you shouldn’t know about at this stage”). So, the redress is directed against the offender’s partner.
If all this sounds complicated, it is because it is complicated. I’m sorry. How do you decide which option to accept? It’s tough. Many players base their decision on protection of a “danger” suit. Eg. Kx of a suit. Tactically, Option 5 is usually reserved for later in the play of the hand.
* Goldwater’s Law says that one should always accept an opening lead out of turn because, if the offender doesn’t know whose lead it is, he probably doesn’t know the best lead. Although Harry Goldwater framed his law in jest, there is a grain of good sense about it.
- John Brockwell
Wednesday Night Pizzas
The next Wednesday night pizza will be on 31st July 2024. For those unfamiliar with the activity, 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. The pizzas will be available from 6:30, which provides ample time to enjoy your pizzas before supervised and walk-in play begins.
The cost of the pizzas is a nominal $5 payable on the day. This entitles you to half a pizza. A variety of toppings will be available and participants can pick and choose. Vegan pizzas can be made available for those who want them. No drinks are provided, so if you want liquid refreshment you will need to bring your own.
Attendance is voluntary and those wishing to partake should place their name on a list on the noticeboard or contact Jon Pike directly. His email is
Youth Day
The next Youth day with Will Jenner-O’Shea is coming up soon, in fact it is on this Sunday, 21 July from 11:00am - 1:00pm at the Canberra Bridge Club. These sessions are available to anyone under 30 for free. And, if there are “Youth” who are not too far on the other side of 30, please let them know as they will also be very welcome, it’s always a fun time!
Will is also running another lesson on - “Mastering Negative, Responsive and Support Doubles” from 1:30-4:00pm on Sunday 21 July, and the more experienced Youth players who wish to stay on for that lesson may do so for no charge.
Please contact Mary
- Sunday: 21 July 2024
- Venue: Canberra Bridge Club, 5-7 Duff Place, Deakin.
- Time: 11:00am-1:00pm
~Youth Bridge is Bridge’s future~
Advanced Bridge Series with Will Jenner-O'Shea
Advanced Bridge Series is back with Will teaching the first week and Jodi hosting the mentored play in the second week. The first topic in this new series will focus on Mastering Negative, Responsive, and Support Doubles:
- Knowing Exactly What A Double Means
- Advanced And Expert Responses to Doubles
- When to Pass a Double For Penalties
- Bidding to the Best contract in a contested auction
- Lesson including a booklet of notes Sunday 21 July 1:30pm. Cost: $25 (Free for players under 30)
- Mentored Play 28 July 1:30pm (even if you've missed the lesson you can still benefit from the mentored play session, partnerships can be arranged on the day). Cost:$18
- Click here for more information
Results
- Congratulations to Andrew Struik and Nikki Riszko who successfully defended their title as winners of the 2024 Bundeberg Congress Teams held on 14/15 July.
Final results from Orange are listed below, to view all of the results in every event, click on the links below:
Saturday 6 July - Orange City Council Welcome Pairs - Restricted
4th - Belinda Moss and Jenny Bell (and 2nd in Novice Category)
Monday 8 July - Dubbo BC CWF StepBridge Swiss Pairs
1st - Chris and Morag Lokan
3rd - Helen Little and Geoff Hutchins
Tuesday 9 July - Bathurst BC CWF StepBridge Swiss Pairs
1st - Bruce Crossman and Niek Van Vucht
3rd - Helen Little and Geoff Hutchins
4th - Chris and Morag Lokan
Wednesday 10 July - Cowra BC CWF StepBridge Matchpoint Pairs
3rd - Chris and Morag Lokan
Thursday 11 July - Orange BC Congress Swiss Pairs – Novice
1st – Dev Shah and partner
Thursday 11 & Friday 12 July – ANC Matchpoint Interstate Pairs
4th – Julia Hoffman and Pam Crichton (and 1st in Women's Category)
Friday 12 July - Orange BC Congress Teams
4th – Dev Shah and others (and 1st in Novice Category)
2024 Australian Butler Pairs Championships
2nd - George Kozakos and partner
Alexander Hewat and George Stockham made it through to Stage 3
2024 Australian Butler Mixed Pairs Championships
Stephen Mendick and Elizabeth Havas made it through to Stage 2
Upcoming Events
Online President's Teams
- When: 23, 30 July, 6 August - 7:15pm
- Cost: $12 all comers
- Visitors from other clubs welcome - invite your interstate / coastal friends
- Format: RealBridge
- Teams of 4/5/6 players
- Click here to Enter
Teams of Three
Cast off the woes of winter and frolic at the Bridge table, and support CBC's charity Integra Service Dogs Australia.
YOU -- Gather 3 players of a similar standard, come and have fun, get tips on play.
CLUB -- Provides an experienced player as Captain to help and advise you
AND
Scrumptious food and drinks at the end of play.
- Sunday 4 August - 12:30-5:00pm
- Click here for more information
Ian Morison
Lighter Moments
- Q: Why did the table blush?
A: Because it saw the salad dressing! - Q: What do you call a nervous table?
A: Unstable! - Q: What did the table say to the chair?
A: You’ve got my support! - Q: How does a table answer the phone?
A: Table speaking! - Q: Why did the table break up with the coffee maker?
A: It couldn’t espresso its feelings anymore! - Q: What’s a table’s favourite type of literature?
A: Table of contents! - Q: What do you call a table that’s always ready for a party?
A: A turn-table!
Thanks for another great week everyone.
Elizabeth
