Ashburton Bridge Club

Another weekend of tournament success for our members. This weekend is was Geraldine’s turn to host. A huge congratulations to President Leigh and Past President Mike in winning the overall title. Just awesome you two!

Results from the weekends Ashburton All Grades Tournament.

Well done to local members who were in the money.

Mary and Laura were first overall followed very closely by Alan and Bernadette.

A special mention to Colin and Ryan who finished 2nd in their grade over the two sessions. Great effort guys.

Well done to all who played.

Congratulations to Peter, David and their Chch team mates, Tony and Max on winning the Christchurch Mid Winter teams event held at the Christchurch club today.

Time to celebrate more success over the weekend. Congratulations to Trish and Mary who placed 5th at the Canterbury Regional Swiss Pairs held on Sunday in Rangiora. There were 50 pairs playing so achieving 5th place was an excellent result.

What an amazing day at the Mid South Canterbury Interclub teams event held at the Timaru club yesterday. Both our junior and open teams took the win in their respective grads and with the intermediate team coming in third, Ashburton took the overall honours. The trophy is returning to our club for the next 12 months. Well done to all involved. A real team effort.

Success this weekend for our club members playing around the country. In Rangiora at the Restricted Pairs event Rewa and Bernadette finished in 5th place out of 40. An excellent achievement.

Further North in Richmond, Mike, Rachel and Ian were playing at the Richmond Open Swiss Pairs. They all had a wonderful day and finished in the money. Mike and Rach won their section and finished 9th overall. Ian and his partner Heather also won their section and finished 14th overall. Both pairs banking some A points in the process.

Well done to you all.

Another weekend and more excellent results for some of our members. Trish and Mary and Carolyn and her sister Juliet, complete with matching cardies, won their respective grades at the Temuka All Grades Tournament held at the Timaru Club yesterday. Unfortunately Carolyn and Juliet were incorrectly recognised as getting third at the prize giving but looking at the results this was not the case. They were well and truly winners of the junior grade. Well done!

Success over the weekend for Trish and Mary. They finished 2nd at the Otago / Southland Interprovincial open pairs held in Oamaru yesterday. A top effort.
On Saturday they paired with Debbie and David in the teams event and finished a very credible 7th.

Such a fun day at the club today for our closed club teams event. For many this was their first time playing teams. Mary did a great job sorting out the teams and draw and dealing all of the boards for the day, thank you for all of your work on this. We had 8 teams and played 4 rounds of 8 boards. Congratulations to all of the winners on the day. 1st place was Alan Wright, Val Palmer, John and Margaret Rickard. 2nd place Leigh Wackrow, Amanda Evans, Pauline Scott and Sheryl Reid and 3rd place went to Sonia Gill, Cath King, Bronwyn Oakley and Jackie Chisnall.

Last night, we had the pleasure of celebrating a truly special milestone for one of our members. Bruce Leighton turns 100 later this week, and we felt that such an occasion deserved to be marked in style—with a surprise birthday party in his honour.

Bridge holds a special place in Bruce’s heart and, as he readily admits, is something that keeps him going. He is a humble and generous man, and a formidable opponent at the bridge table. With great pride, he shared news of receiving a letter from the King—an honour fitting for such a remarkable milestone.

Bruce is a deeply valued member of our club, and this was reflected in the wonderful turnout of members who came to celebrate with him. We enjoyed cake together, and many took the opportunity to write their congratulations and memories in a keepsake book which we are sure will be treasured.

We wish Bruce all the very best and congratulate him on reaching this extraordinary milestone.