Newsletter 9 October 2025
In our newsletter this week...
- President's Message
- AGM Nominations
- Message from the Returning Officer
- Online Lessons
- New Members
- Upcoming Events
- Results
- Squeezing in a Beer Card
- How did he do that?
President's Message
A Very Special 80th Birthday Tribute to David Hoffman!
Over the weekend, one of the stalwarts of the Canberra Bridge Club celebrated his 80th birthday, and what better way to mark the occasion than by playing in the Canberra in Bloom Congress!
David Hoffman has made extraordinary contributions to the game for more than five decades. He has represented Australia, won numerous national titles, nearly 40 state titles, and represented the ACT at ANCs more times than we can count. His name appears on the CBC honour boards around 120 times, a truly remarkable achievement!
Although he has always preferred to avoid the spotlight, David has served the CBC and the broader bridge community with quiet dedication as President, Tournament Secretary, club archivist, librarian and creator of the CBC rating system. His deep knowledge and tireless behind-the-scenes work have helped shape the club we know and love today.
In these days of football awards, David Hoffman would be a certainty for the CBC’s “Most Valuable Player”, and a strong candidate for membership of the “Team of the Century”.
On behalf of the Canberra Bridge Club, we wish David a warm and heartfelt Happy 80, and offer our sincere thanks for everything he has done for the club, and for bridge in Australia.
- Mary
CANBERRA BRIDGE CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2025
Canberra Bridge Club wil hold its Annual General Meeting on:
- 14th October 2025 at 5:30 PM in the Olive Lott Room
In accordance with the Constitution 62(3) an audited statement of the Association accounts was placed on the Committee notice board in the club rooms on September 30, 2025.
The audited statement is also available on the Club’s website.
Election of 2025-2026 Committee - Message from the Returning Officer
The following information about the Committee election is provided for the attention of CBC members, particularly those:
- who will be attending the AGM on 14 October; or
- who have appointed a proxy and wish to give voting instructions to their proxy.
The nomination period for the election of the CBC Committee for 2025-2026 has now closed.
As a result of nominations received, there will be ballots at the AGM for three office bearer positions:
- Treasurer - The nominees are Jenny Bergin and Stephen Fischer.
- Secretary - The nominees are Caitlyn McKenzie and Lucy Stevenson.
- Tournament Secretary - The nominees are John Brockwell and Rob Hurst.
In addition, there will be a ballot at the AGM for the five ordinary Committee member positions.
The nominees are:
- Jenny Bergin (if not elected Treasurer)
- Vanessa Brown
- Stephen Fischer (if not elected Treasurer)
- Lesley Gunson
- Kate Latimer
- Liam Minogue
- Lucy Stevenson (if not elected Secretary)
- Suz Wilkinson
The full election results will be declared at the AGM and published in next week’s newsletter.
Deb Milner - Returning Officer
Proxy appointments for the AGM - Members please note
All proxy appointment forms for the AGM need to be lodged in the box in the Managers’ Office by 2pm on Monday 13 October.
If a member has appointed you as their proxy and given their form to you, please lodge the form in the box in the Manager’s Office ASAP and certainly before the above deadline.
It is important that all proxy forms are lodged in the Managers’ Office as outlined above, as they need to be checked and collated before the AGM, in particular:
- a member must not be a proxy for more than five other members;
- proxies need to be managed for the ballots for the Committee election, and the ballots need to be planned before the AGM.
Thank you members for your co-operation with these pre-AGM processes.
Deb Milner - Returning Officer
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.
- 9:30am October 16th Which Suit to Play
- October 23rd No Lesson (Spring Nationals)
- 9:30 October 30th Major Raises And Bergen Raises
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:
- Christine Sheen
- Loretta Petroff
RANK PROMOTIONS
Graduate
- Jansz, Christine
- Mason-Cox, Matthew
- Meadows, Ruth
- Simonetti, Oliver
Club
- Ficarra, Irma
- Holdich, Joy
- Phillips, Rosie
Local
- Carrick, Marcia
- Kennedy, Lyndall
- Latimer, Kate
- Nash, Heather
- Wood, Mark
Bronze Local
- Hamilton, Beverly
- Murphy, Marcia
- Myers, Marion
Silver Local
- Johnston, Susan
- Palavestra, George
Regional
- Lee, David
Bronze State
- Birkby, Paul
- Cherbuin, Jacques
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
Congratulations to all our members who have played at Canberra in Bloom, especially to those who played in a congress for the very first time.
Below are the listi of our members who have finished in the top 10 of every event (with their partner/team). A full list of results can be viewed by clicking on the title of each individual event.
*Please let me know if I've missed somebody so that I can congratulate them in next week's newsletter.
ROYAL BLUEBELL OPEN MP SWISS PAIRS
2 LYN CARTER / MALCOLM CARTER
3 CHRIS STEAD / JANEEN SOLOMON
4 NICK JACOB / DAVID HUDSON
9 IAN ROBINSON / NEIL EWART
SPIDER ORCHID RESTRICTED MP SWISS PAIRS
1 NICOLA MEARES / SHARON MICHAEL
6 PAUL BIRKBY / DEBRA BIRKBY
7 DAVID KENNY / KATHLEEN KENNY
9 JACQUES CHERBUIN / JENNIFER CARTER
SPIDER ORCHID NOVICE MP SWISS PAIRS
5 SHARON HITCH / CLAYTON HITCH
7 JUDY PEJOVIC / PAMELA MATHIE
8 JESSICA HE / BYRON FRENCH
9 KATE WARD / KERRY FLANAGAN
10 LYNDALL KENNEDY / KATE LATIMER
3 LYN CARTER - MALCOLM CARTER - GEORGE BILSKI - MARTIN BLOOM
4 DIANA SMART - JENNY THOMPSON - CHRISTOPHER QUAIL - JULIA HOFFMAN
5 DAVID WAWN - DAVID HOFFMAN - DAVID HUDSON - NICK FAHRER
6 IAN ROBINSON - NEIL EWART - MATT MULLAMPHY - IAN THOMSON
7 ADRIENNE STEPHENS - DI HAWKE - KEITH MITCHELL - LESLEY GUNSON - LARISSA COWLISHAW
8 ELVITTA LASUT - PAUL NELSON - JOHN DONOVAN - DENIS KRISTANDA
9 DAVID APPLETON - JULIA LEUNG - JANE REYNOLDS - PETER REYNOLDS
GREVILLEA GEM RESTRICTED TEAMS
1 MARTIN HOLMES - JAMIE LUXTON - YULIA KOH - GRAHAM STUCLEY
2 CRAIG BECCONSALL - PAUL BIRKBY - DEBRA BIRKBY - BRICET KLOREN
3 NICOLA MEARES - SHARON MICHAEL - ANDREW KETTLE - DEBORAH MILNER
4 SAU-YEM LO - SHARON CARVER - GEORGE MCLEAN - TIM MATHER
1 LYNDALL KENNEDY - KATE LATIMER - LEANNE SELLICK - PHILIP SELLICK
3 JESSICA HE - BYRON FRENCH - OLIVER SIMONETTI - MICHAEL FRENCH - MAXWELL ASHURST
CANBERRA BELLS IMP SWISS PAIRS
1 ELLA JACOB / ANDREW SPOONER
6 ROB HURST / DESMOND MANDERSON
8 VANESSA BROWN / WILL JENNER-O'SHEA
FEDERATION ROSE RESTRICTED IMP SWISS PAIRS
1 RAJIV SHAH / JENNIFER CARTER
3 NICOLA MEARES / SHARON MICHAEL
4 PAUL BIRKBY / DEBRA BIRKBY
6 DAVID KENNY / KATHLEEN KENNY
7 MARTHA GRIFFITHS / BRENDA WATTS
FEDERATION ROSE RESTRICTED IMP SWISS PAIRS
4 JOSH SCHWARTZ / MAXWELL ASHURST
7 LYNDALL KENNEDY / KATE LATIMER
8 OLIVER SIMONETTI / MICHAEL FRENCH
FEDERATION ROSE NOVICE IMP SWISS PAIRS
4 JOSH SCHWARTZ / MAXWELL ASHURST
7 LYNDALL KENNEDY / KATE LATIMER
8 OLIVER SIMONETTI / MICHAEL FRENCH
10 JUDY PEJOVIC / PAMELA MATHIE
VAL AND JOHN BROCKWELL MIXED TEAMS FINALS
1 MARIANNE BOOKALLIL - PELE RANKIN - STEPHEN FISCHER - GEORGE KOZAKOS
Squeezing In A Beer Card
One of the most satisfying plays to find at the table is a squeeze – this is not (as many believe) playing off a long suit and hoping the opponents throw away the wrong card. It is a play where the opponents must find a discard but where literally any card they throw will give you the contract.
During the Canberra In Bloom event last weekend, I found myself needing to use this tool on the following hand. As ever with my bridge stories, it begins with bidding the wrong contract…
I was sittng East and opened One No Trump. William and I play that a One No Trump opening shows 14-16 HCPs although in face I would open this hand One No Trump even playing 15-17 : I have great spot cards with all those nines and tens. I have a decent suit and I have some lovely “pointy cards” which always play well. (Nobody has more ways to upgrade a hand than me!)
South passed and Will bid Three Diamonds, this asks me if I have a five card major. I bid Three Hearts (to say yes and that it’s Hearts) and he raised this to four. South led the Three of Clubs and I counted one club loser, one heart loser and two spade losers for a likely one off. Annoyingly, there’s a decent chance we’ll make exactly the same tricks in No Trumps, so this rates to be a pretty bad score for us.
What can be done? Well first of all, I need to draw trumps. So I won the Ace of Clubs and played the Queen of Hearts. North won this with the Ace and returned another Club which I took with the King. I drew the last trump and then played a club from each hand. There were two reasons for this – if I’m going to play a squeeze I need to be sure I’ve lost all three of my tricks first. Another reason is that if someone now carelessly plays a fourth Club it will give me a ruff-and-sluff. I will trump in dummy and throw a losing Spade from my hand.
These opponents were good but not expert. They knew not to cash a club, but didn’t realise that the best defence required a Spade switch. South instead opted for a Diamond and I contributed the Eight of Diamonds from dummy, winning the Ace in my hand. I’d only lost two tricks at this stage so the time had come to duck yet another trick. I led the Ten of Spades and South played the Jack. I considered for some time but decided to let this win (his Jack was actually an error – if he ducks I have no chance to make the contract). He then continued with another Spade which I won with dummy’s Ace.
This is the layout now (I am in the West hand and need the rest of the tricks):
It appears I have a spade loser, but luckily for me, North is in the unenviable position of having to guard both the Diamond suit and the Spade suit.
I cashed the King of Hearts (north threw the Five of Diamonds) and then played the Seven of Hearts to my Ten (North threw the King of Spades). I then cashed my final trump, throwing West’s Seven of Spades. North has to discard something but whichever choice they made gave me the contract. If they throw the Queen of Spades I will score the Nine of Spades and the King of Diamonds. They instead threw the Jack of Diamonds (hoping their partner had the Nine of Diamonds). So my final two tricks were the King and the Seven of Diamonds.
The defence erred in not a attacking Spades earlier (a generally sound principle of defence is that you should play on your suits to develop tricks. A deeper error is that when South jumped in with the Jack of Spades, he could have continued with another Diamond. This would have messed up my communication (known technically as “breaking up the squeeze”).
As ever with bridge stories – it’s not as perfect as the textbook hands. Nonetheless, there is nothing as satisfying as playing a squeeze. What makes it worth writing up of course is that the final trick was won with the Seven of Diamonds. This is known to Youth Bridge Players around the world as the beer card and making a contract by winning the thirteenth trick with the Seven of Diamonds means your partner owes you a beer.
How Did He Do That?
One of the best things about playing with a true, expert partner manifests in defence. Defence is notoriously the hardest part of the game for everyone, whether you’re just starting or whether you’ve been playing for years. I was playing with William Jenner-O’Shea in the recent Canberra In Bloom congress and during the first match, I picked up this hand:
♠ 5
♥ 86
♦ AQT9872
♣ 976
We were vulnerable, but sadly the opponents got to deal. My Left Hand Opponent opened One Club, William overcalled One Spade and my Right Hand Opponent bid Two Hearts. I had a feeling Diamonds would be our best contract, however Three Diamonds by me would be forcing and would show a significantly better hand than this one. So I reluctantly passed.
My LHO now rebid Two No Trumps, William passed and my RHO raised to Three No Trumps. This was passed out and William led the King of Clubs. This is what dummy put down:
♠ A42
♥ KQT92
♦ 654
♣ 83
Dummy played low and I played the Nine of Clubs (a signal to tell William that I have no Club honours and that from my perspective, I don’t think continuing the suit is a good idea). South ducked (which is usual from something like AJX or AJXX. William settled in for a bit of a think and I pondered the hand.
It didn’t seem likely that we would beat this contract. William bid spades, South has a stopper, North has the Ace and he didn’t lead one. I think they’ve got at least two and probably three spade tricks, the Ace of Clubs and four or five hearts. I know they’re balanced, so they have at least two diamonds, they may end up having to lead up to their King of Diamonds but I sadly know this is going to work.
Pretty much about the only way I can see of beating this contract is if William has the King of Diamonds bare and somehow decides to lead it now around to the No Trump bidder. This seems a pretty unlikely holding and why on Earth would he know to switch to the singleton King?
About now, Will began reaching for a card and played…..the King of Diamonds! I overtook this with the Ace, cashed the Queen (dropping declarer’s doubleton Jack) and then ran the rest of my seven card Diamond suit. I exited with a club (setting up Will’s Queen of Clubs and then he got in with the Ace of Hearts to take the contract five off!
Here is the whole hand:
Look at William’s hand (West). Having overcalled Spades and had no support from me, you can see that a Spade would be an unattractive lead. The King of Clubs looks like a decent choice and after seeing my discouraging Nine of Clubs at trick one, he was able to piece together the hand and come to the same conclusion that I did. The only way to beat this contract was if I had something useful in Diamonds.
Once more, it was important to cash one’s diamonds in the correct order. There is a special cachet a attached to winning the setting trick in defence with the beer card. William won his King of Clubs and I then carefully played the Ace, Queen, Ten, Nine of Diamonds, skipping the Eight to take the setting trick with the Seven, before getting on with the rest of the hand.
I once had an expert tell me that beer cards were “meaningless in the big picture” and that I should focus on what is important – but….what’s the importance of playing cards if not to have fun?
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
If you've read all of this week's newsletter you will probably be reaching for a beer right now and the most important thing to remember is that you don't have to win with the beer card if you are buying your own beer.
Have a great week everyone!
Elizabeth
