alert! #8 may 2019 - bendigo bridgecontact paul re making up teams on the sunday. prizes include...

Alert! Issue8-May2019

NewsletteroftheBendigoBridgeClubInc.A0005397ZIssuedPeriodicallyThisIssue20May2019

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Here is the ‘Good Oil’ for May 2019 …

Looking Forward … Coming up over the horizon: Australia-Wide Novice Pairs p.2

Club Congress p.2 ‘Improver’ Lessons pp, 3, 11 Practice Play for Beginners extended p.2 Winter Solstice Pizza Night p.4 Summary by venue: What’s on Where p.9

Summary by date: “For Your Diary” p.10

Looking Around… What’s going on? Autumn Pairs Competition p.4 Club Premises p.8

Congress Masterpoints p,3

Doping! In our (mind) Sport ..? p.5

Improving Your Bidding (pbn files) p.7 Making Player feel Safe p.6

Monthly Medals p.4 Our People p.4 Promotions p.3 Situation Vacant p.7

Looking Back .. Highlights since the last edition have been:

Beginner Group Progress pp.2, 3 Visitors p.3

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STOP PRESS - Club Congress

Our Congress for Our Members! Where: All Seasons Hotel Conservatory, 171-183 McIvor Rd Pairs: Saturday 25th May: register 9.30am, play starts 10am Teams: Sunday 26th May: register 9am, play starts 9.30am Enter at www.bridgeunlimited.com, or contact Paul O’Hare, 0419 345 240 or [email protected] Regular fee $50pp per day. Morning tea and lunch provided. Each player must have a system card. Contact Paul re making up teams on the Sunday. Prizes include best pair under 50MP, best pair under 300MP, best Bendigo pair, best Bendigo team.

We encourage you to come and play!

But if you don’t want to play, tell Paul if you’re willing to help out in some way, and/or come along to just have a look and see – it’s really not THAT daunting!

Australia-wide Novice Pairs (Under 100MPs total for the pair) Date/Time: Tuesday 28 May 2019 at 7:00 pm Venue: Uniting Church Hall, 68 Chum St (cnr Maple Street), Golden Square

Practice Play for Beginners extended Practice Play for our current Beginners will continue for an extra week to avoid disrupting the Novice Pairs event.

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‘Improver’ Lessons 4 June The “next step” lessons will now start on the first Tuesday in June at the Keck St venue. All members may avail themselves of this opportunity to advance or refine their game. We never stop learning. It’s amazing what we pick up when we see it in a new light! (I know – I have just sat through Peter Marley’s Beginner Lessons. It’s not necessarily the “what” - It’s a fresh look at the “why” that inspires some of us who have been playing for a while. Ed)

See the Improver Lessons program at Page 11 of this issue.

Monthly Medals Monday Peter Evans & Elaine Bennett Wednesday Peter Goddard & Jennifer Goddard Friday Denis Upsall & Faye Symons Promotions Kaye Parker – Regional Master (with 50+ MP) Congress Masterpoints Graham Forbes, Ron Westcott – Gardenvale Easter Congress - 0.54 Red points Visitors since the last Alert! Alex Robins from Waverley Club Yvonne and Chris McLaughlin from Wangaratta Club Tony Martin from Castlemaine

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Our People Sad news that ex-member Phyl McOnie died on 16 April. The Club sent a card to her widower Ron. Gina Pocock is undergoing a trial treatment for leukaemia. There will be tests soon to see if the treatment is making a difference – we’re full of hope, Gina! And John Sullivan found in the course of routine tests that he had an aneurism on his aorta. After a spell in the Epworth he’s now out of hospital, awaiting procedures. Autumn Pairs Two sessions down … one to go. It will be all over by close of business on Friday 24 May. Wim and I are having fun. We hope you are, too. (Ed) Druid Bridge : Winter Solstice Pizza Night BRIDGE and PIZZA, Lake Weeroona Pavilion, 4.00-8.00pm Sunday 23 June. Dress for the occasion! A fairly informal competition. BYO drinks. (Tea/Coffee provided) Future dates: 6 October; 3 November; 1 December.

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Doping … in our (mind) Sport? (thanks to Patty Smith for spotting this fascinating news):

“Top bridge player banned for doping with testosterone and fertility drugs

The World Bridge Federation says (February 2019) the world's number one bridge player has been suspended after failing a drug test. Key points: • Geir Helgemo is Norwegian but plays for Monaco in bridge competitions • The champion bridge player had synthetic testosterone and a female fertility drug in his system • He is banned until November 20 The federation said on its website that Geir Helgemo, who is Norwegian but represents Monaco in bridge events, tested positive for synthetic testosterone and female fertility drug clomifene at a World Bridge Series event in Orlando, Florida, last September. After accepting he had breached anti-doping rules, Helgemo was suspended by the WBF until November 20. He also had all titles, medals and points from the 2018 World Bridge Series revoked. Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, said the drugs were "not performance enhancing". In a statement on the federation's website, she said: "Geir Helgemo … has previously played for the Norwegian national team and is our biggest star. Many within the bridge community know Geir and respect him. "It is his responsibility not to take substances that are on the doping list, even though in this instance they are not performance enhancing in bridge," she said.” FairDinkum!Ithoughtitwasajoke.Icheckedthedate.No...not1April(Ed)

More information: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/02/sports/bridge-player-suspended-doping.html

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Making Players Feel Safe Extracts from “Running a Successful Bridge Club”, a VBA Affiliated Clubs Day presentation by Bruce Minchinton in April 2019 (plus a couple of thoughts of our own) – selected and re-produced here because we are preparing to welcome a large intake of new members. New Players Be welcoming to new players

• Make a point of remembering their name and using it in greeting them

It is a Social Occasion Be mindful that people predominantly play a game for the social interaction.

• It is their weekly (or other) catch up with like minded friends • They enjoy meeting new people • The social aspect is more important than the game, but they like

to win/do well Smiling Assassins Encourage an attitude of ‘smiling assassins’ amongst the better players in the club.

• Newer/less experienced players expect to lose to the more experienced players, but they do not want to be treated as cannon fodder.

• Encourage them to call the Director when an infringement occurs, but not aggressively. Ask them to say, “’Looks like an error here. Let’s call the Director to sort it out”.

• Don’t point out your opponents’ errors … wait until they ask, “How could I have made that?”

Scowling Terrorists If you do not get the more experienced players on side, they often display the following traits:

• They want to win at any cost. • Use rules and regulations to their advantage. • Vary timing to unsettle opponents. • Are volubly critical of their Partners’ play – to the discomfiture of

others at the table. • End up making players feel “unsafe”.

The Future of our Club is in the Hands of our Experienced Players.

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Improve your bidding and card play using PBN! Did you know that you can download onto your computer every deal that is played at our bridge club? You simply download the files into a bridge computer game such as Jack6 or Bridge Baron, and then you can bid and play each troublesome hand repeatedly, until you have learned how to get into the best contract, or how to make the maximum number of tricks. If you are using Jack6, you can even ask Jack to bid the hand, or to play the cards, so you can see how an expert would do it. Portable Bridge Notation (pbn) files make this possible. PBN files store the deals and make them accessible to bridge computer programs. You will need to have already installed such a bridge program on your computer. Jack6 is suitable only for Windows based computers. You can download a trial version of Jack6 by following the link http://www.jackbridge.com/edwndem.htm The link to the pbn files on the Bendigo Bridge Website can be found at the bottom of the Results page for each session. Simply click on the link Download and save PBN File. Then double click on the playing card on the download box. Jack6 will open, with the list of boards in front of you. Select which board you want to play, use the Edit Deal option to orient the deal so that you are playing on the computer in the same direction in which you played at the club session, and you’re ready to play …. again and again! I am not familiar with how Bridge Baron loads the pbn files, but it should be just as easy. The Bridge Shop in Sydney has offered Bendigo Bridge Club members a 15% discount on the purchase of Jack6. Go to www.bridgeshop.com.au and use the discount code BENJACK15 or call 02 9967 0644. I suspect that they would probably do the same for purchases of Bridge Baron. Sue N.

Editor Needed The Hon. Editor still waits to shout you a coffee! If you have imagination and a few hours to spare each month, give Rod a call (0419 378 709) Have a chat over coffee (or something else .. depending on the time of day) and see if the job of newsletter editor is for you. Remember - you don’t write the copy. You just push it into shape.

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Club Premises – Can You Help? As our club has grown over the years - we have constantly been seeking premises to accommodate our sessions of play. At the moment, we are spread out over three sites (not counting the Pavilion used for pizza nights!). This is tiring for the organisers and confusing for all. We would LOVE to have a single venue, where we could leave tables set up, and run sessions at the times that suit our members. The smallest building we could consider at this present stage in the life of the club would accommodate 18 tables in an area of not less than 105 square metres (say 7.2m wide x 15m long) … plus ancillary spaces for storage, kitchen and office, and parking for 60 or more cars. Our ideal would be a hall of 180 square metres (10x18m), which would hold 28 tables. We have considered the possibility of buying land and building premises, but there is nothing to bind our membership to such a financial burden! So our Premises Working Party is preparing a fresh case to take to the City Council for their assistance. As we see it, the options are: 1. Adding on to the Long Gully Community Centre 2. Adapting some existing under-used facility for our use 3. Building on City Council land We are pursuing discussions with the LGCC on option1. For Option 2 we’d like to be able to list as many potential venues as we can - along with notes on their current level of use. We seek your help! Do you know of an under-utilised building that may meet our needs? Maybe a church hall, warehouse, clubroom, factory? If so, please send a note to President Jennifer [email protected] identifying the building and giving what contact details you can, and the Premises Working Party will follow up. This seems better than you making the contact, in case twenty of our members have the same bright idea and we get the users or managers of the facility getting falsely either nervous or excited! To keep you informed, we’ll put a list of the venues we’ve investigated on our board in the LGCC, and will undoubtedly report back in Alert! Do you know of a hidden gem?

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WHAT’S ON WHERE – our venue-by-venue summary (See p.10 “Your diary” for a chronological listing)

Long Gully Community Centre Mondays 1:15pm for 1.30 Start: Duplicate

• 20 May .. last week of Monday Autumn Pairs – try to play with the same partner!

Wednesdays 1pm: Mini Lessons 1:30 pm: Practice Play • New cohort players may join in at any time, and can particularly be

expected on 03 July. Wednesdays 6:45pm for 7:00 Start: Duplicate

• 22 May: Wednesday Autumn Pairs, ditto Fridays 1:15pm for 1.30 Start: Duplicate

• 24 May: Friday Autumn Pairs, ditto (may see Congress participants visiting)

Holy Trinity Meeting Room, 14 Keck St Tuesdays 7:20pm for 7:30 Start

• 21, 28 May: The last 2 sessions of Practice Play for the new cohort of beginners.

• 4,11,18, 25 June: 4 sessions of Improver Lessons (see details p.11) 25 June will be the final session at this venue – the new cohort then moves to the Club’s regular sessions.

Uniting Church Hall, 68 Chum St Tuesdays: 7:00pm for 7.15 Start

• 21 May: Supervised Play • 28 May: Australia-Wide Novice Pairs (competition conditions, NOT

Supervised Play … less than 100 MP combined) • 4 June: Supervised Play on Tuesdays resumes • 3 July: New cohort expected to move to this time slot, so the character of

Supervised

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FOR YOUR DIARY • Mon20,Wed22andFri24May:- ThirdandfinalsessionsoftheClub’sAutumnPairsatLongGully.Trytoplaywiththesamepartnerasintheprevious2weeks.Seatingwillbeallocated.ExpectsomecongressattendeesattheFridaysession.

• Fri24Mayafterbridge:- setupatAllSeasonsforCongress

• Sat25andSun26May:- BendigoCongress(detailspage2)

• Sun26May:- ClearupafterCongress

• Tues28May:-Australia-wideNovicePairsatChumSt(detailspage2)-PracticePlaycontinuesatKeckSt

• Tues4June:-SupervisedPlayresumesatChumSt-ImproversLesson1atKeckSt(andlessons2,3&4on11,18and25June)

• Sun23June:- DruidBridge–WinterSolsticePizzaNight(detailspage4)

• Tues25June:- ImproversLesson4.Finalsession(forthisseason)atKeckSt.PlayersfromthisgroupwillfromnowbeassimilatedintogeneralClubactivities.

• Tues2July:- SupervisedPlayatChumStmaybeovercrowdedforsometimefromthisdate.Arriveby7:00pmforstartat7:15.Wewilltrytohaveafairsysteminplacebythenforhandlingnumbers.

• Wed3Julyafternoon:-PracticePlayexpectsaninflux,butshouldn’trunoutofspace.

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IMPROVER LESSONS – NEXT STEP TUESDAY JUNE 4th, 11th, 18th and 25TH 7.30pm – 10pm KECK STREET, FLORA HILL - HOLY TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH

$40 or $10 per lesson

If you plan to attend any session, please phone Kerry on 0438008354 or email Rod - [email protected]

Note: Syllabus designed by Peter Marley. Presenter: Lessons 1 and 2 – Kerry Delcourt Presenter: Lessons 3 and 4 – Peter Marley

BASIC BIDDING in a non-competitive auction JUNE 4TH

Improving players often know about opening at the one level and about partner’s response … but then what? ◊ Rebids ◊ Naturalraises◊Reverse◊StrongJump-shifts◊Forcing&GameForcingBids

NEXT STEP IN THE BIDDING CONVERSATION IN NON-COMPETITIVE AUCTIONS

WEAK/PREEMPTIVE OPENINGS JUNE 11th

Lesson 2 is about judging when & why to open preemptively and how responder should proceed.

◊PlayingTrickCount◊Vulnerability◊Furtheringthepreempt◊2NTOgustIMPROVEJUDGEMENTONWEAK/PREEMPTIVEOPENINGS&MAYBETHROWASPANNERINTHEWORKS!

STRONG OPENINGS JUNE 18th Very rarely, we are blessed with strong hands that are too strong for opening one of a suit. This Lesson looks at opening to describe very strong hands, responses & how the bidding should proceed

◊ 2CStrongOpening◊2NTOpening◊Responses(andmoreinLesson4)◊ GameForcingsequencesHANDLESTRONGOPENINGSANDRECOGNISEGAMEFORCING&NONFORCINGSEQUENCES

BLACKWOOD & STAYMAN JUNE 25th Two commonly-used conventions that you can put to immediate use. Few conventions will provide a magic bullet (& many will add to your woes) but these two are easy to use & have been proven over time. ◊ 2CStayman◊BlackwoodAceask◊Responsestopartner’senquiry◊ GerberforNT’s

TWOEASYTOUSE,WELLPROVENCONVENTIONSTHATSHOULDENHANCEYOURBRIDGECONVERSATION

LESSON1

LESSON2

LESSON3

LESSON4

alert! #8 may 2019 - bendigo bridgecontact paul re making up teams on the sunday. prizes include...

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