Sydney Bridge Centre

♣♦ Holiday Hours ♥♠

♣♦ Celebrating Xmas at Sydney Bridge Centre ♥♠

Thank you for joining us to celebrate Christmas on Wednesday 8th December and 10th December this year! As usual, a lot of prizes were given out to sessional winners (both directions), pairs close to 60% / 50% / 40%, and spot prizes, the Club was filled with hearty laughter. We hope you had a great time.

Some of you have noticed that some of our mentors joined us in the Christmas parties, well observed! Yes Warren Lazer & Pauline Gumby played on Wednesday afternoon, Julian Foster & Jenna Gibbons on Friday afternoon. Julian has been writing “Weekly Wisdom“ for our players since first Covid outbreak. An extra commentary on an interesting hand from Friday Xmas Party is now posted on Julian’s Weekly Wisdom column!

SBC has a tradition to support charity in Christmas. Because of Covid, we didn’t host any Toys Appeal this year. We donated two hampers to raise fund for The Smith Family instead. Thank you for your generous support, we have raised $750 this Christmas!

The Club is still open for F2F sessions the next two weeks before the Xmas break (24th December – 2nd January). There will be F2F sessions every morning from Monday – Thursday, an extra Supervised session on Wednesday morning, night game on Tuesday (Open 7.15pm) and Wednesday (Supervised 6.30pm). BBO will continue to run through the holiday seasons on Monday morning (10.15am), Thursday and Saturday ARVO (1.45pm).

Don’t miss out the opportunity to grab more RED masterpoints from our RED Points Frenzy event! Almost ALL F2F Open sessions from 20th December will be RED masterpoints until the holiday break.

Then BBO session will continue to give out RED masterpoints through the holiday break on Sat 25th December (1.45pm), Mon 27th December (10.15am), Thur 30th December (1.45pm) and Sat 1st January (1.45pm).

♣♦ NEW alternative venue at Canada Bay ♥♠

♣♦ Results of the SBC State Open Pairs Club Qualifying Round ♥♠

Thank you for supporting the club qualifying events for the State Open Pairs the last two weeks. Please find the full results here. Congratulations to:

• Ron Dight and Carol Randall (Monday morning winners)
• Mick McAuliffe and Wing Roberts (Thursday morning winners)

♣♦ SBC Players in Mudgee ♥♠

It was wet and cold in Mudgee last weekend, luckily the friendship is warm! The first F2F regional congress attracted a huge number of entries – There were 68 pairs (20 pairs in Open, 24 in Restricted and 24 in Novice) and 31 teams (14 teams in Open and 17 in Restricted) in the Mudgee Congress on 13-14 November.

Playing in congresses is fun! Quite a lot of us enjoy the weekend away and get to know other players in the bridge world. The SBC players have done really well in the Mudgee congress, congratulations to:

RESTRICTED DIVISION

• 1st Mary Poynten – Tony White
• 2nd Gwen Rafferty – Debbie Rose
• 3rd John Russell – Judith Parson
• 8th Gail McKenzie – Martin Brown

Mary Poynten, Tony White, Gail McKenzie and Martin Brown also won in the Restricted Teams.

There was a separate division for Novice players, but no SBC players competed in the section this time.

OPEN DIVISION

Mick McAuliffe and Wing Roberts came 6th in the Open Pairs and came 3rd in the Open Team with their Bathurst teammates.

Congresses are listed on the Event Calendar on the NSWBA website. You can also find the Full results there.

♣♦ State Open Pairs Qualifying Events ♥♠

Win a spot to represent Sydney Bridge Centre to compete in the State Open Pairs Championships! Two Pairs will be selected from the Club Qualifying Events and they will be sponsored by the club (entry fee value $120 per pair) to the Finals on 20th – 21st November online on RealBridge.

• F2F over 2 Monday mornings on 8th & 15th November, 10am start
• F2F over 2 Thursday mornings on 11th & 18th November, 10am start

All are welcome. $2 extra table money fee. RED masterpoints.

♣♦ A Great Time on Melbourne Cup Day ♥♠

We almost thought it would be too rush to run our annual Melbourne Cup party when we have only reopened two weeks ago. We were surprised by players’ immediate request for Melbourne Cup Day on our reopening… so okay, we are in if you are!

It was pleased to see so many long time no see faces in the clubroom. Just worth to open a few champagnes to celebrate!

Congratulations to:

• Overall Winners (with the highest percentage) – Mary Atkinson and Paul Larby
• Nearest to 60% – Frances Cufar and Ron Dight
• Nearest to 50% – Michael Eyers and Richard Thode
• Nearest to 40% – Dolores Brooker and Sheila Philippou

SBC continues its culture of being a “people’s club”. We let our players vote for the best dressed gent and lady. It proved that SBC players are humorous in heart:

• The Best Dressed Lady – Frances Cufar
• The Best Dressed Gent – Rob Ward (We wondered what he would have won if his shorts are shorter!)

Thank you for all your support, we hope you had a fantastic time and we hope we don’t need to wait until Christmas to see you again in the clubroom!

♣♦ Welcome Back to Face-to-Face Bridge ♥♠

We have received a lot of phone calls requesting reopening our clubroom since the vaccination rate continue to hit its target and the government announced further relaxation of restrictions. We are going to REOPEN on Monday 18th October 2021!

Please note that there will still be a few restrictions in place. The most important one is: you MUST be fully vaccinated and are required to show your vaccination certificate to our ground staff upon entry. Alternatively, you can email us your vaccination proof in advance. You will only need to do it once.

Please follow the government instruction to get your vaccination certificate here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/vaccination/proof

Plesae find our session timetable on our website. Booking in advance required for F2F sessions.

WIN A FREE GAME IN THE BAD HAIR WEEK

Haven’t managed to have your hair cut?  No worries, a lot of the other players are in the same boat.  Let’s show up for the F2F session with our most free-form hair style.  Together we can add some humour to the new normal – a bad hair pair will be picked from each F2F session and win a Free game voucher in the first week of reopening from 18^th – 21^st October.  Each player is limited to one win only.

OUR ONLINE SESSIONS REMAIN THE SAME

We will continue to run our online sessions on BBO on Monday morning, Tuesday night, Thursday ARVO, Friday morning and Saturday ARVO. Please find details on our session timetable.

♣♦ Great Results in the Online Teams of Three ♥♠

The SBC players took most of the top positions in the event, well done! Our first initiative of Online Teams of Three on RealBridge attracted 28 teams – 10 Open and 18 Novice / Restricted. We hope you had a great time. A huge thanks to all the Captains, who volunteered their time for greater good. There were a lot of Captains who really really want to say yes to us, but were bounded by work commitment. We feel your support so thank you for the thought!

Congratulations to:

OPEN

• 1st Team PEAKE – Andrew Peake (Captain) – Jane Biscoe – Ellen Borda – Madeleine Gray (SBC and Trumps)
• 2nd Team NEILL – Bruce Neill (Captain) – Mary Atkinson – Thomas Fischer – Barbara Temple (NSBC)
• 3rd Team McCARTNEY – Patsy McCartney (Captain) – Alexander Cook, Catherine Chaffey, Heath Henn (SBC and Trumps)

RESTRICTED

• 1st Team URBACH – Elli Urbach (Captain) – Peta Drake – Jay Novak – Joanne Morgan (SBC)
• 2nd Team SCUDDER – John Scudder (Captain) – Felix Shteyman, Sharon Thompson, Fiona Russell (NSBC@Lindfield, NSBC & ARV)

NOVICE (ALSO OVERALL 3RD IN RESTRICTED)

• Team JOHNSON – Martin Johnson (Captain) – Robyn Grace, Jeny Economy, Niki Georgalis (SBC)

Full results can be viewed on the NSWBA website: http://www.nswba.com.au/tourn/res.asp?yr=2021&dir=congress/to3

♣♦ Special Online Events on RealBridge ♥♠

Special platform for special events. RealBridge is an online platform with built-in audio and video support. There are some special online events to be held on RealBridge the next few weeks, including the Sydney Spring Nationals and Teams of Three:

♣♦ Hi-5 Labour Day – 4 RED points sessions in October ♥♠

♣♦ The Encore! Mid-Week Swiss Pairs – Results ♥♠

Thank you for all your support that we successfully ran a Congress with 3 separate fields. There were 23 tables in the Open field, 12 Restricted and 11 Novice today. We hope you all had a great game.

Congratulations to the winners:

OPEN

• 1st Lynleigh Evans – Rakesh Kumar (NSBC & Southern Highlands Bridge Club)
• 2nd Elli Urbach – Kevin Davies (NSBC)
• 3rd Malcolm Carter – Tony Hutton (Queensland Contract Bridge Club)

RESTRICTED

• 1st Lorenzo Orsini – Mitch Dowling (Hunters Hill Bridge Club)
• 2nd Jacky Gruszka – Joanne Morgan (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 3rd Delores Graves – Suzanne Cole (Trumps Bridge Centre & NSBC)

NOVICE

• 1st Juliet McGuire – Jane Lee (Sydney Bridge Centre & Tomaree Bridge Club)
• 2nd John Waudby – June Waudby (Newcastle Bridge Club)
• 3rd Bob Berg – Diane Graham (Sydney Bridge Centre)

The full results can be found on the NSWBA website: https://www.nswba.com.au/tourn/res.asp?yr=2021&dir=congress/sbcemc

The SBC initiated Mentoring Programme has received a lot of positive feedback.  We will continue to do our best to guide you through your bridge journey. The winners of each category will receive a meaningful and valuable prize – a FREE ENTRY to the Online Teams of Three event to be held on Wednesday 27th October on RealBridge. A separate email will be sent to winners for arrangement.

♣♦ RED BBO sessions to celebrate the 300th milestone ♥♠

We have run 300 online sessions on BBO by end of August! We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this milestone without your support, so thank you and we hope you will continue to take part in our online community. Let us celebrate this landmark with RED masterpoints:

♣♦ RED The State Individual Championship on BBO ♥♠

The first State Individual Championship to be held online! This is a one-day congress to be held on BBO on Saturday 4th September. You only need to register for yourself, and the competition will provide you a standard system card and line you up with different partners each round – a fun way to “meet” other bridge players.

The State Individual has always attracted players from all levels, including some expert players like Julian Foster (who has been mentoring our players with his Weekly Wisdom column). So it’s a great opportunity to have a game with them and learn from them, especially when they are playing a standard system that you will understand!

ALL are welcome. RED masterpoints at state level. BB$15 per player. Enter in advance required on the NSWBA website.

Attractive prizes! 1st and 2nd will receive a detailed analysis of any of their online sessions by a NSWBA representative.

If you have never played on BBO, you still have enough time to learn it. Please book an Introductory BBO session, Wing will guide you through step by step.

*** Please note that the SBC regular Saturday ARVO session (1.45pm start) on BBO will still be ON. ***

♣♦ The SBC Mid-Week Online Swiss Pairs results ♥♠

So… we don’t mind a congress in the middle of the week! The congress has attracted players from all over the country – we had players far from Darwin to Tasmania. The most pleasing part was, the SBC friendly vibe has encouraged some first time congress players to join us. Thank you for all of you who have helped creating this SBC culture. There were 3 separated sections today – 22 tables in Open, 9 in Restricted and 6 in Novice.

Congratulations to:

OPEN

• 1st Shirley BETTMAN – Christine ALGIE (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 2nd Patrick STARCK – Vivien ELDRIDGE (Peninsula Bridge Club)
• 3rd Andrew RICHMAN – Sandra RICHMAN (Tamar Bridge Club)

RESTRICTED

• 1st Roger CONWAY – Dennis WATKINS (NSBC)
• 2nd Jennifer MATHESON – Sue BECKMAN (Waverley / Mornington Bridge Club)
• 3rd Mary COLLING – Steve COLLING (Frankston Bridge Club)

NOVICE

• 1st Steve English – Gayle Calvert (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 2nd Robert Berg – Diane Graham (SBC / Mollymook Bridge Club)
• 3rd Dianne Hiles – Niki Georgalis (Tamborine Mountain Bridge Club / SBC)

The Open winners will receive a FREE entry to the State Individual Championship on BBO on Saturday 4th September. Join them for a great game! The Restricted and Novice winners will receive an Over the Shoulder Mentoring experience by Richard McAuliffe and Leigh Matheson. A separate notification will be emailed to the winners soon.

Full results can be found on the NSWBA website: https://www.nswba.com.au/tourn/res.asp?yr=2021&dir=congress/sbcmw

♣♦ NEW Online Sessions on BBO ♥♠

♣♦ Extra FUN and Extra masterpoints on The C.O.U.CH ♥♠

We had some great fun with our players on the COUCH last week! The experimental Club Online Unmasked Championship was held on BBO over Monday 19th July (10.15am), Thursday 22nd July (1.45pm) and Saturday 24th July (1.45pm). The 24-board sessions attracted a total of 73 tables, in which 33 pairs played at least 2 sessions to compete for the extra outright green masterpoints.

Congratulations to:

• 1st Arthur Chung – Peter Campbell
• 2nd Jake Andrew – Craig Taberner
• 3rd Tony Ruello – Henry Tan

The full Overall Results can be found on our website, under Results / Special Events Results.

♣♦ Thank You for Supporting The Online Charity Pairs ♥♠

It is heart-warming to see so many players from all over the country supporting The SBC Online Charity Pairs on BBO on Saturday 17th July.

There were 55 pairs competing in the Open field, 20 in the Restricted and 11 in the Novice. With all your support together with the contribution from the SBC management, we have raised $750 for the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal. Thank you!

Congratulations to the winners:

OPEN

• 1st Mathew Vadas – George Fleischer (Double Bay Bridge Club & NSBC)
• 2nd Eric Lippey – Kerry Boytell (Trumps Bridge Club)
• 3rd Nick Hughes – Nicoleta Giura (Sydney Bridge Centre)

RESTRICTED

• 1st Marie Pickering – Carolyn Githens (Illawarra Bridge Association)
• 2nd Tony White – Mary Poynten (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 3rd Teresa Wilson – Vicky Cahill (Sydney Bridge Centre)

NOVICE

• 1st Terri Hopkins – Marvin Pierce (Moonee Valley Bridge Club)
• 2nd Michael Braham – John Bellingham (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 3rd Trish Berry – Bruce Kleem (Peninsula Bridge Club)

All players entered a lucky draw for a complimentary SBC game with Warren Lazer (an Emerald Grand Master!) as partner. The sessional winners doubled their chances in the draw. The lucky winner is:

• Paul Stebbing

The full results can be viewed on the NSWBA website: https://www.nswba.com.au/tourn/res.asp?yr=2021&dir=congress/sbcoc

⚡ UPDATE: We’re Temporarily Closed until 30th July ⚡

In response to the NSW government and the Heath Authorities Stay at Home Order updated on 14th July, our clubroom on Goulburn Street will be temporarily closed until 30th July.

No, we are blessed that so far no cases are associated to the bridge club or bridge players. This is a cautious measure to keep everybody safe. Please join us on our Virtual Clubroom vABF2006 on BBO. We have regular online sessions on Monday 10.15am start, Thursday ARVO 1.45pm start and Saturday ARVO 1.45pm start. All are welcome, please follow this step by step guideline to join our online sessions. You will be surprised how many regular buddies you will meet just like you are playing face-to-face in the clubroom.

The upcoming Beginners Courses starting from 6th July and the Workshop on 9th July will now be affected. We will inform you immediately once we have rescheduled these activities. We will also keep an eye on the situation and make a decision on the upcoming congress SBC Xmas in July congress on 17th-18th July. Please follow us on Facebook or keep an eye on our announcement on the SBC website.

♣♦ Celebrate Christmas… IF We Can ♥♠

Why not? Celebrate Christmas…. IF we can! There will be TWO one-day events for the SBC Christmas in July Congress –

• Saturday 17^th July – Swiss Pairs
• Sunday 18^th July – Swiss Teams

It’s not compulsory to play in both days, you can choose to enter the event / format you prefer to. We are trying to present you a traditional congress structure with one day in Pairs scoring and one day in Teams. The Pairs event on the Saturday will be exactly like what you play in the club sessions, the Teams event on the Sunday will be similar to the Teams of Three (without mentor) event. Quite a lot congress players enjoy taking the Pairs event on the first day as a warm up, then aim to having a great game in the Teams on the second day.

The short and sweet 48 boards seems to be welcomed by our players. Play commences at 10.00am sharp on both days for two sessions: three 8-board matches; a break for a Christmas themed lunch; then another three 8-board matches.

We can only accommodate a maximum of 112 players at any one time. We intend to have two separate fields – Open and Novice & Restricted*, depending on the table numbers. Please nominate the field you would like to compete in on the NSWBA website, or you will be placed in the category based on the masterpoints ranking of the pair as at 28^th February 2021.

*Novice & Restricted player will have fewer than 300 masterpoints as at 28^th February 2021.

$50 per player (a Christmas theme lunch included). RED masterpoints awarded.

Entry in advance on NSWBA website required.

Attractive prizes to be announced – Guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

♣♦ RED Queen’s Birthday – Which session attracts more tables? ♥♠

♣♦ Teams of Three – a FUN way to learn ♥♠

It was a full hall of 32 teams in the Teams of Three fun day. If you have joined us on the day, we wish you have enjoy a fantastic learning experience. Our host John McIlrath has run a great show. Thanks to all the sponsors, there were almost spot prizes every 2-3 hands! These spot prizes were not just another bottle of wine, they include complimentary entries to different Congresses / Events by local clubs around the state.

A delicious morning tea and a light lunch were served at the table. An interesting trivia was run by John McIlrath during lunch. Would you like to have a guess?

• The total years of experience playing bridge of all the Captains of the day (Answer: 1141 years)
• The total masterpoints of all the Captains of the day (Answer: 99,236 masterpoints!)

Congratulations to (all team names are named under the Captains):

OPEN

• 1st Team Van Der Vlugt: Craig Mietzke, Phillip Edwards, Ian MacLaren with Captain Maurits van der Vlugt
• 2nd Team Libman L: Alex Kemeny, Alexander Cook, Heath Henn with Captain Lavy Libman
• 3rd Team Rew: Neil Williams, Rob Holgate, Peter Fitzmaurice with Captain Fraser Rew

RESTRICTED & NOVICE

• 1st Team Humphries: Michael Eyers, Richard Thode, Chris Hamam with Captain Susan Humphries
• 2nd Team Lyons: Tony White, Jake Andrew, Mary Poynten with Captain Frances Lyons
• 3rd Team Fryda: Victor Clarke, Paul Molloy, Joanne Morgan with Captain David Fryda

The full results can be found on the NSWBA website.

Our next Congress will be the SBC Christmas in July – Pairs and Teams on 17-18 July.

♣♦ Australia Wide NOVICE Pairs Highlights ♥♠

The Australia Wide Novice Pairs event at SBC attracted 19.5 tables! Together with the Open duplicate and the Supervised practice play, there were 26 tables that morning. It was the biggest encouragement when players told us that they had a good time. Congratulations to:

• 1st North-South: Jake Andrew and Ruth Cowan
• 1st East-West: Gayle Calvert and Steve English

We are impressed that our Novice players finished 27 boards. For those who are still fresh graduates from Beginners Course, whatever your ranking is in today’s local club heats, we are proud of you that you have made such a big step forward in your bridge journey! For those who have a little bit more experience, we hope you got a taste of fun event and continue your adventure in bridge congresses.

Australia Bridge, the national event organiser, has collected most of the club results and scored up provisional results. The progressive scores are now displayed on the official website. If you score above 56% (after national matchpointing), you will earn RED masterpoints. The final results will be announced around 10-16 June. Our SBC players have done well, there are 6 pairs ranked top 100 for the moment. We are excited to see Gayle Calvert and Steve English ranked 2nd nation wide at the moment!

♣♦ RED Masterpoints for the 200th BBO session ♥♠

♣♦ Easter Monday Congress Highlights ♥♠

A very egg-citing turnout for the SBC Easter Monday Matchpointed Swiss Pairs Congress – we reached our full capacity with 27 tables. There were 28 pairs competing in the Open and 26 pairs competing in the Novice & Restricted field.

The atmosphere was amazing, our staff members’ family & friends, players in the field all volunteered to give us a helping hand to make SBC great and assure our guests had an enjoyable time.

Congratulations to:

OPEN PAIRS

• 1st Julian Foster – Fraser Rew (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 2nd Axel Johansson – Kate McCallum (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 3rd Mary Atkinson – Janis Grauds (North Shore Bridge Club)

NOVICE & RESTRICTED PAIRS

• 1st Sarah Edelman – Ron Szancer (Randwick Bridge Club)
• 2nd (also the Best Novice) Agnes Levine – DeeJay East (Sydney Bridge Centre)
• 3rd John Dobie – Julie Mansfield (Trumps Bridge Centre)

A traditional prize for our Open winners and the winners in the Novice & Restricted field will win an Over the Shoulder Mentoring experience by Derrick Browne, Helena Dawson or Jamie Thompson.

The full results can be found on the NSWBA website. Follow the side stories from our Facebook Group.

Office will email individual winners for the details of arrangement of their prizes. Our next Congress will be the WITS Swiss Pairs held on ANZAC Day 25th April by your State Body at the SBC Clubroom, please enter directly on the NSWBA website.

♣♦ Representing SBC in the State Mixed Pairs Finals ♥♠

We ran a qualifying event for the State Mixed Pairs over 3 Thursdays on 11th, 18th and 25th March. The event was well supported by our members and regular players that there was 22 tables in session 3! We are pleased to see that all participants have put efforts to enter the event with a partner of opposite gender.

Only 2 best out of 3 results counted and two pairs will be sponsored by SBC to compete in the State Mixed Pairs Finals on 29th – 30th May. Most of our players made well use of this rule to play in all 3 sessions and dropped their worst score. After 3 sessions of competitions, Cheryl Henke and Frank Broos came 1st. Paul Best – Ruth Collins and Jacky Gruszka – Jake Andrew are a very close second – so close that the program round them up as an equal second! As a community club, we engaged the involved players and had an open discussion with the two pairs and reached a happy ending – Paul Best and Ruth Collins are happy to share their sponsorship with Jacky Gruszka & Jake Andrew. We can’t be happier to have 3 pairs representing SBC in a State event! Go SBC, and play well!

There will be a side Congress NSWBA Autumn Swiss Pairs running parallel to the State Mixed Pairs Finals on Sunday 30th May. If you would like to join our SBC representatives to play in a state event, why not join them by entering to this side Congress? Details will be announced soon on the NSWBA website.

♣♦ March in the Club ♥♠

♣♦ Survey: Your Say for the NEW Rozelle venue ♥♠

♣♦ Valentine’s Day Congress Highlights ♥♠

A great way to celebrate Valentine’s Day! The SBC Valentine’s Day Swiss Pairs attracted 34 pairs – 18 pairs competed in the Open and 16 in a separated Novice & Restricted field.

It was heart-warming to see players running into “Covid no see” friends in the event, it was also fantastic to have a few mentors playing among us. Congratulations to Liam Milne and Susan Humphries who won the Congress! Well done to those who won an Over the Shoulder Mentoring experience with Liam Milne, Susan Humphries, Jessica Brake or Shane Harrison:

• Overall Novice & Restricted winner: Kathy Duke – Ahmad Geybi (Parramatta Bridge Club)
• 2nd Restricted Pair: Gail McKenzie – Martin Brown (SBC)
• The Best Novice Pair: Sarah Edelman – Ron Szancer (Randwick Bridge Club)
• 2nd Novice Pair: Victor Clarke – Paul Molloy (SBC)

The full results can be found on the NSWBA website. Follow the side stories from our Facebook Group.

Office will email individual winners for the details of arrangement of their prizes.We are planning for our next event, please keep an eye on the Sydney Bridge Centre website and we look forward to seeing you again in our clubroom!

♣♦ Australia Day Congress Highlights ♥♠

Our first face-to-face Congress went well on Australia Day. We appreciated that all participants have followed our instruction for a Covid Safe event. There were 46 pairs competing in the Congress, with 15 pairs in the Restricted session and 13 in the Novice. We are specially proud of the less experienced players who took up the challenge to play in a congress – there were 4 of them ranked the top ten among the Open players! Well done. We hope this will encourage you to try playing in more congresses.

Congratulations to the winners:

• Open: Mick McAuliffe – Terry Palmer
• Restricted: Jake Andrew – Mitch Dowling
• Novice: Mary Poynten – Tony White

All results can be found on the NSWBA website.

♣♦ January F2F sessions are now open for booking ♥♠

⚡Updated on 31st December: Clubroom Remains Shut for One More Week ⚡

The NSWBA Council and the SBC Management have decided to extend the holiday break for one more week and postpone the resumption of F2F sessions to Monday 11^th January.  That means, NO F2F bridge sessions next week.  Let’s hope we will be able to have our first F2F session on Monday 11^th January as scheduled.

We are blessed that none of the cases are associated with our clubroom on Goulburn Street nor to any bridge players.  However, this is a time for caution as new cases are spotted in differing suburbs.  Please visit the government website for the latest list of hotspots.

Our BBO duplicate sessions will continue as normal. We have sessions on Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoon and Saturday afternoon.

If you need any assistance to find a game with us on BBO, please feel free to contact the SBC team, we will try our best to help you.

⚡Updated on 20th December: All F2F Sessions Cancelled until 3rd January ⚡

The NSWBA Council and the SBC Management have been following the development of the Northern Beaches COVID Cluster since last Thursday.  In line with the government’s advice to avoid all non-essential activities, we have decided to move the holiday break forward and ALL F2F SESSIONS will be CANCELLED immediately until 3^rd January.  That means, NO F2F bridge sessions next week.

NO, we don’t have any cases associated with our clubroom on Goulburn Street nor do any of our players.  However, this is a time for caution and to be mindful of the greater interest of the public.  Please visit the government website for the latest list of hotspots.

♣♦ Wednesday Special ♥♠

As a Christmas Special, we have invited Julian Foster (many times NSW representative) to analyse an interesting hand from the F2F Wednesday Christmas Party (morning session). Julian has been writing the Wednesday Wisdom series (a hand commentary from the BBO Wednesday morning session) for our players since the club closure.

John Newman is also going to resume the F2F Supervised (1 hour Lesson plus 2 hours Game) session starting from this week 16^th December. Please book in advance.

♣♦ Christmas Parties Highlights ♥♠

It was great to see some long-time-no-see faces in our two Christmas Parties on Wednesday 9th and Friday 11th December! There were a total of 51 tables playing on both of the daytime parties.

The SBCers have definitely proved that Christmas is the time to give. We have donated two Christmas Hampers for raffle draws on each party, and we have collected more than $600 for the Smith Family by the end of Friday. Cheryl Henke won a hamper on Wednesday and Lee Davis the other one on Friday. You’re welcome to continue the charity donation before our holiday break on 24th December. One of our players Orsolina Aroney has been cooking for the homeless. So we have donated the opened leftover food to her to share our caring thoughts to those in need.

♣♦ Merry Christmas ♥♠

Our Wednesday Christmas Party on the 9^th December is fully booked!  Please choose Friday 11^th December if you would like to join us.

It’s the SBC tradition to support the local charities.  Last year we organised a Toys & Books Appeal to support the Smith Family for disadvantaged children.  Because of Covid, we have adjusted the method of collecting for the charity – please purchase raffle tickets for a Christmas Hamper ($2 a ticket or $5 for 3 tickets).  The proceeds from the raffle ticket sales will be donated to the Smith Family.  There will be one hamper raffled at each party, to be drawn during lunch time.

To facilitate organisation, please arrive by 9.45am if you would like to play in the morning session and by 1pm if you are joining us for lunch & the afternoon session.

If you are paying using your Pre-Pay account (PP), please make sure you have sufficient funds to cover the entry fee ($40 for member, $45 for visitors), you can top up online from our website.  You can also purchase the Christmas Hampers raffle draw tickets with your PP account, please let our director know.

*** There will be NO DAYTIME F2F session on Wednesday 9th, HOWEVER, the BBO WEDNESDAY MORNING by Ronnie Ng at 10.15am will still be on AND there will be a F2F EVENING SUPERVISED session by Emma Barnes at 7.15pm. ***

♣♦ Let the Bridge adventure begin ♥♠

Our beginners completed their 6-weeks Introductory to Bridge Course by Emma Barnes this week. Our SBC players have different level of skills and experience. Some focus on competition, some on recreation. The beginners graduates may not know a lot about bridge (yet), but they definitely share our love of the game.

You are part of our club culture, please welcome them when you see them in the club. They will soon join us in our Tuesday morning, Tuesday night and Wednesday Supervised session.

Our next Beginners Course will be in February, details will be announced soon.

♣♦ Thursday ARVO – Intermediate session (Updated) ♥♠

The 6-week Improvers Course also came to an end today on 3 December 2020. We had 16 players booked in the course when the course started and it grew to accommodate 24 players at the end!

All the players in the Improvers Course would like to continue to play in the same time slot 2.00pm – 5.00pm. So from next week onwards, there will be a NEW Thursday ARVO duplicate session for Intermediate players. This will be a duplicate session before Christmas and we will plan more lesson + game sessions in the new year.

Please book online for board dealing purposes.

♣♦ Tuesday Night game (Updated) ♥♠

There will be a NEW Tuesday evening game starting from 17 November 2020 at 7.15pm! Depending on the table numbers, we will try to run separate Open and Supervised sessions.

We heard that some of the non-Tuesday night players telling us that they like the idea of dining out together and were planning to try the Tuesday night next year. We have tried to make it a night out at Harry’s the last two weeks. However our players probably have too many commitments before Christmas, we will also be busy preparing the two Christmas Parties next Tuesday night, so we will drop the idea… for the moment.

Please book in for board dealing purpose.

♣♦ Celebrate Christmas with us ♥♠

There is still a lot to celebrate even in a year like this – our country has done well in fighting Covid-19, we are still sharing our beloved hobby, and before this year ends, we can meet our friends and family again!

We were pleased to see that everybody had a good time at the Melbourne Cup Day event (Covid version).  That encouraged us to bring you a Christmas Party with good food and a fun time!

Because the Covid-19 regulations limit us to 80 players in the club at one time, this year we are going to throw the Christmas Party on two different days.  This is to make sure that there is something for everyone.  

Each party will have two sessions of duplicate, you can choose to play in both sessions or in either the morning or the afternoon session for the same entry fee.  That means you can choose to play the whole day with a lunch break or play one session with lunch either before or after your chosen session.  Morning tea, afternoon tea and snacks will be served during the sessions.

Date: Wednesday 9^th December 2020 or Friday 11^th December 2020

Time: 10.00am – 1.00pm and / or 2.15pm – 5.15pm with morning & afternoon tea and lunch

Venue: City, level 1, 162 Goulburn Street, Sydney 2010

Cost: Members $40 / Visitors $45 per person (fee includes a delicious Christmas themed morning tea, afternoon tea, snacks and a 3-courses lunch.  Vegetarian options available.  No concession, no vouchers).

There will be separate sections for Open and Supervised players.  

RED masterpoints.

We can only accept bookings for 80 people at each party.  You MUST book online for catering and board dealing purpose.

♣♦ Playing Face-to-Face AND Online ♥♠

We believe bridge is a healthy hobby, a game to connect people, and a sports for those who would like to take up challenges, whether you prefer to play F2F or online. We are now running F2F duplicate sessions in the our clubroom on Goulburn Street AND also online on BBO, please view our NEW timeables under Sessions & Lessons.

♣♦ Melbourne Cup Day ♥♠

The Melbourne Cup Day was a great success! There were 12.5 tables on the day (out of our limited seating of 15 tables) – 9 in Open and 3.5 in the B-field. Players were satisfied with being seated and served. Our catering staff walked around offering “Coffee or tea” and “sparkling apple juice or sparkling grape juice” made everybody feel like travelling on a plane!

The atmosphere were fantastic, we have received some beautiful comments that our players feel like this is the club that they feel belong to instead of just a club of convenience. We will keep the good work up!

Congratulations to the winners (sorry, we forgot photos again!):

OPEN	North-South	East-West
1st	Mary Poynten & Tony White	John Claude Farrugia & Michael Rosen
2nd	Orsoline Aroney & Nader Esber	Colleen Kelly & Chris Gaskell
3rd	Agnes Levine & Barbara Munro	Keith Hughes & Mick McAuliffe

The B-field was won by Gavin Andrews & Lorraine Terrantroy, followed by Sheena Cole & Gay Patten (2nd), and John Pellen & Karoline Hohlweg (3rd).

♣♦ November F2F Sessions are now Open for Booking ♥♠

This is a challenging year for us.  We are trying to reopen cautiously with our limited resources and to bring back our normal session timetable (if not better) gradually.

Starting in November, a separate SUPERVISED session will be run on Wednesday morning, along with the Open field.  Paul Roach will take care of the Supervised session while overseeing the Open field.  We hope this will be a short-term arrangement to kick start the Supervised session.  Whether you are an Open or a Supervised player, please show us some support if you like the idea of two separated fields, so we can bring back more sessions and more directors.

For other sessions, please continue to nominate Competitive or Leisurely when you book.  We will try to group players with similar levels together.

Starting in November:

• Normal Duplicate (please nominate Competitive or Leisurely): Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday*, Thursday and Friday Morning @ City, 10.00am – 1.00pm

*no Leisurely on Wednesday morning, please book Wednesday AM Supervised separately

• Supervised Duplicate: Wednesday Morning @ City, 10.00am – 1.00pm

• Evening Duplicate (Open and Supervised): We are considering an Evening session on Tuesday night in the near future, will that be the right time for you?  Please indicate your intention to play on the booking form!

Please book in advance (Thursday MUST book!).  We are providing one full set of board for each table for Covid safety, your booking will help us to prepare enough boards.  You don’t need a partner, walk ins are welcome for sessions that are not fully booked.  Our director will try his best to line you up with a partner, however we may not succeed every time.  If you would like to look for a partner prior the game, Pianola has a great function “Partner Finder”:

1. Login in to Pianola on www.pianola.net
2. Click on – Partner Finder – in Top Row.
3. Click on – Create a Partner Finder Advert.
4. Choose – Date you wish to play.
5. Choose – Session Require.