Newsletter 28 August 2025
In our newsletter this week...
- Message from the Committee
- BFACT AGM
- Workshop with Will Jenner-O'Shea
- Canberra in Bloom
- Events Noticeboard
- Refresher Course
- GALA Pairs
- Rookies/Novice Championship
- Name Badge Order
- Upcoming Events
- Resutls
- Lighter Moments
- Bridge Quiz Competition Solution
- Ian Morison
- Lighter Moments
Message from the Committee
Would you like to be an active player in helping direct the Club’s future? Why not nominate to join the Committee in 2025-26 and be part of the enthusiastic members dedicated to assisting with the business and activities of the Canberra Bridge Club. Being part of the Committee brings many benefits including getting to know the Club’s members, participating in decisions about the Club and its directions, and bringing a varied expertise to the Committee. Nomination forms can be obtained from the Manager.
SAVE THE DATE - CANBERRA BRIDGE CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2025
The Canberra Bridge Club will hold its 2025 AGM on 14th October 2025 at 5:30 PM in the Olive Lott Room.
A Notice of AGM will be circulated to members 21 days prior on 23rd September 2025.
Please save the date.
BFACT AGM
- BFACT AGM will be on Friday 26th September at the CBC clubrooms in Deakin, for a 4:30pm start (after the afternoon bridge session).
There will also be refreshments, which those connecting via zoom may have to have virtually….. Hope you can all make it and a big thanks to Canberra Bridge Club for enabling this.
Cathy Nichols - BFACT Secretary
Workshop with Will Jenner-O'Shea
Will's next workshop will be held at CBC on Sunday 28th September at 10am. This workshop focuses on Strong Hands and Slams:
© Showing Your Point Range Accurately
© The Splinter Convention, and Valuing Shortages
© Introducing and Expanding Roman Keycard 14/30
© Some Advanced Play Tips!
While this workshop does contain some more advanced topics, it is suitable for players of all levels.
- 28th September 2025 at 10am
- Cost: $60
- Morning Tea and Lunch are included.
- Click here to Register
Canberra in Bloom - Volunteers Needed!
To run Canberra in Bloom we need people who can volunteer just an hour of their time. This won't stop you playing in the tournament, as the work is done outside playing hours. We need people to:
- Be at the welcome desk at the Labor Club before the start of play each day, to ensure people know where they are playing and where the facilities are
- At the end of each day, set up for the following day (eg putting out scoring booklets etc)
- Help set up on Thursday afternoon 2nd October (eg setting up tables, tablecloths etc)
- Help pack up on Monday afternoon 6th October
- Help set up between events on Sunday lunchtime 5th October
We are looking for 30 people in total as that will enable all the work to be done easily. Your work will be much appreciated and well recognised. Most of the work involved is quite light, so anyone can help out. If you can help out with an hour of your time, please email the tournament convenor Roger Brake at
Events Noticeboard
As you would have noticed, we have reshuffled the noticeboards (again!).
There's now a dedicated noticeboard for our upcoming Congress to be hosted by Canberra Bridge Club.
- Southern Tablelands Pairs and Teams Congress
- FRIDAY evening to SUNDAY, 14-16 NOVEMBER 2025
- Location: Canberra Bridge Club
Further details to follow but save this date for now.
Posters for other congresses have been moved to the BFACT noticeboard near the trophy cabinet. Currently displayed on this noticeboard for 2025:
- Cootamundra Bridge Club Congress - August 30 to 31
- Cowra and District Annual Congress - September 13 to 14
- Commercial Club Albury Interstate Congress - 20 to 21 September
- Canberra in Bloom - 3 to 6 October
- Cooma Congress - 8 to 9 November
- New Zealand Bridge Congress - 8 to 15 November
Refresher Course
Barb's refresher course began last week but you can still join the lessons as there are 3 more coming up on commonly used conventions, covering:
- Stayman, Transfers, Shapely Overcalls and some Slam seeking conventions.
There will be example boards to play and time for lunch before the afternoon play session. This is a walk in event and no partner is required (but ideal if you come with a regular partner).
- Dates: Tuesday 2nd September, 9th September, and 16th September
- Time: 10.45 am – 12.00 noon for 4 weeks
- Cost: $10 through myABF
GALA ‘GOLD’ Pairs – Saturday 6 September 2025
The Bridge Federation of the ACT is holding a Gala ‘Gold’ Pairs Day on Saturday, 6 September 2025 at the CBC club rooms starting at 9:45 am (note early start time).
Objectives of the Gala day:
1. Provide a one-day butler pairs event where players of BFACT affiliated clubs of all levels will be welcomed and will be competitive. The event will have Open and Restricted categories.
2. Select “ACT 2” and “ACT Provincial” teams for the GNOT. A provincial player is one who is from a provincial club, or has their home club as a provincial club, or has less than 300 Masterpoints in the BFACT region. The GNOT will start with Realbridge matches, please see: “https://abfevents.com.au/events/gnot/2025/” for more details.
Date:
- Saturday 6 September 9:45am
Cost:
$15 for full time students and pension concession card holders
$45 for all others
Entries should be submitted before Friday, 5 September.
Winners of GNOT QUAL events which were played in CBC throughout this year will receive an email inviting to play in the above event for free. To help the organisers it would be appreciated if you've qualified for free entry please reply as soon as possible regarding your intention to participate.
Rookie/Novice Butler Pairs Championship
On the same day as the GALA Pairs, CBC is holding a Rookie/Novice Butler pairs championship for players under 80MP. The winners will be presented with the Beverley Carmichael Trophy.
The event to be conducted as a Swiss match in 2 sessions with a lunch break in between. Members of all affiliated clubs are welcome to attend. Before the first session, there will be short presentation given on how to play Swiss events.
Date:
- Saturday 6 September 9:30am
Cost:
$40 per person
$20 for Youth Players
$30 Concession
Name Badge Order
To facilitate the Magnetic Name Badge Order process, we are trialing the next batch order through registrations in myABF. If you would like to order a name tag, please click the link below:
- Cost: $20
- Orders will be sent when enough entries have accumulated, please note that this will vary in time
- If you have paid in advance but wish to cancel, just withdraw your entry for an automatic refund
- Make a note to your entry if you wish your name to be printed differently to what is recorded in your myABF account, the usual format is the Full Name followed by ABF number.
- Click here to enter
The above link has also been added as a permanent link to our website under "Essentials" . If you've ordered a name badge in recent weeks please check to make sure that your name is in the list.
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Sponsored RED MP events in our calendar are:
Colourful World Pairs:
- 3rd Sep - 17 Sep on Wednesdays 7:15pm
The Grange Pairs:
- 5th Sep - 19th Sep on Fridays 1pm
Doubleshot RealBridge Pairs:
- 20th Sep -27th Sep on Saturdays 1:15pm
Results
The Thursday Gold MP GNOT Qualifiers are:
- Butler
- Paul Nelson - Jacques Cherbuin
- John Donovan - Ian Dalziell
- Matchpoint:
- Robin Edwards - Denyse Freedman
- Marisa Bisa - Helen Little
Bridge Quiz Competition Solution
Congratulations to John Donovan, who was the first to reply with a correct answer to last week’s problem. He received the (rather token!) prize of a $20 MyABF credit.
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
Ian Morison
Lighter Moments
- My son asked me, “Dad, can I eat the last piece of cake in the fridge?” I smiled and said, “Sure..." "But the dining room would probably be more comfortable.”
- I bought my girlfriend a fridge for our anniversary... I know it wasn't a great gift, but I loved seeing her face light up when she opened it.
- Fridge: the original cold-hearted appliance.
- Why don’t fridges play cards? They’re afraid of getting too cold-decked.
- My fridge and I are on good terms we chill daily.
- What did the milk say after a week in the fridge? I’m over it.
The fridge upstairs will be emptied next week. Please let me know if you have stuff there that needs to be kept and I will put a label on it. Currently there are soft drink bottles, spreads, margarine, butter, jam, cheese, dips, ice creams, salad dressing, etc. So that I can keep track of what has expired and what needs to be consumed, in future can everyone who uses the fridge upstairs come and get a sticker from the office.
Have a great week everyone!
Elizabeth
