Thirty or more Peninsula members travelled to the Gold Coast in February for the premier bridge event in the country. Great bridge and a great location for a social bridge getaway.
For those who have not been to one of these major congresses, you need to understand that there is a wide range of events from the tough open competitions to those restricted to much lower masterpoint ranges - something for everyone and a number of our novice players will have great stories to share.
I have tried to list our club members' successes over the various events - if I have missed one please let me know so I can add it in for the record.
This long story is relevant to the concept of enjoying the foibles of oldies playing bridge, rather than being irritated by the unusual nature of the overlap between club bridge and aged care.
Fifteen years ago I directed at a bridge club where Norma played. Norma found 28 husbands and relatives who wanted to learn bridge. Norma asked the legendary Sydneysider John Roberts to teach them. For this unusual group where about 20 had played social bridge and only 8 were relatively new to the game, John's method of teaching was that all the 7 tables simply played bridge (duplicate style, to some extent) with John attending to the 2 tables of newbies, with the other 20 players instructed to put their hand up and ask questions whenever they liked, learning bridge from John's answers.
Readers will remember from an article last month that some members, especially some of our newer members, have expressed some concerns about difficulties progressing between sections.
A brainstorming meeting was held on 7 January which helped identify the pluses and minuses with the four general options that have been identified.
You are invited to read the post-meeting summary paper of these options and, of course, provide any feedback on any option's strengths or weaknesses - these can be provided to me at
We have come a fair way in helping our disabled or mobility challenged players play at the club, including providing more nearby parking (thanks to Meals on Wheels) at our large day-time sessions and ensuring stationary seating wherever possible during our sessions.
But we are not yet perfect. There are times when non-disabled drivers are using the disabled parking spaces directly outside the club-house. You might think this unimportant for a small session, such as a night or supervised session. But it is still against the law and if you were to cause a disabled person difficulties you would feel bad... So please respect the provisions made for the disabled among us!
This is a busy time of the year for Peninsula Bridge Club (PBC) Membership renewals.
Many of our PBC Members have already renewed however there are some who have not yet paid their 2019 Annual Membership Fees.
You are invited to promptly renew your membership or maybe you know someone who needs a "gentle nudge" to renew.
Once in a while you will go down
But it's all in the game.
Partner will give you a frown
And do exactly the same.
You both raise a big smile
When you win by a mile
And realise it's all in the game.
Anonymous - but adapted from the original lyrics by Carl Rigman
Peninsula hosted one of the locations where the NSWBA Under 100MP Championsip was played (on Fri 30 Nov). 18 pairs, including some from Central Coast and North Shore Bridge Clubs, competed at our club in this event scored across the state.
After some technical issues at the state-wide scoring portal, the scoring is largely complete - you can check the currently recorded state scores.
Congratulations to our most successful pair, Maggie Gibbs and Paddy Purves, who were placed 29th across the state. The placings by the four sub-categories are not yet tabulated.
Members, delegation holders and other volunteers may be interested in the insurance cover the Club holds.
TBIB (Tony Bembrose Insurance Brokers) provides a full brokering service to the Australian Bridge Federation, State Associations, affiliated Clubs and members. Currently the ABF has arranged three main forms of insurance through TBIB and NSWBA affiliated bridge clubs such as Peninsula are automatically covered under these policies. See the ABF website http://www.abf.com.au/about-abf/insurances/ for full details.
A quick summary of these polices follows (taken from NSWBA Insight Issue 4):
