North Shore Bridge Club

BRIDGE BULLETIN

NORTH SHORE BRIDGE CLUB

AUGUST 2011

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

A rather different PRESIDENT'S REPORT this month from Judy Patton.

Having been away for 6 weeks I thought I would have nothing to write in this Bridge Bulletin but Beth decided it would be nice if I wrote something about our trip, so here's hoping I don't bore everyone. I travelled with Tricia Moore and it was lovely to have a bridge partner whenever we were able to play. This was mainly on days “at sea” - we even managed to win a few top vouchers.

We left Auckland on 20 May to join the Queen Victoria leaving Southampton on 22 May. Part of our cruise deal was to travel business class using Lufthansa Airlines and to this end we flew Singapore Airlines to Singapore, Lufthansa to Munich and on to Heathrow, then driving down to Southampton where we arrived 34 hours after leaving Auckland. It seemed a very long journey. After a one-night stopover in Southampton we boarded the Queen Victoria, a lovely ship carrying 2,000 passengers. We were on a 7-day cruise to Dublin, Cobh (the port of Cork), Bilbao (Spain) and Brest (France).

An enjoyable trip despite the bitterly cold weather and strong winds. High up in the Wicklow Mountains out of Dublin I had to be held down by Tricia while our driver took a photo as she feared I was in danger of being blown away!

There were a lot of English passengers and I was surprised at how many had visited New Zealand “loved it” and knew all about the Christchurch earthquake. They were able to buy great cruise deals at the last minute, just drive down to Southampton, park the car, and unload multiple cases full of evening clothes. We spoke to one passenger who loved cruising and dressing up. She'd been on an “Around the World” Cruise for 105 days. There were 37 “formal” nights so she had 37 different evening outfits. As I can't lift a heavy suitcase I had to restrict my clothing for “formal” nights and I survived with a long black skirt and 4 tops.

We then spent two days in the “New Forest” staying in a gracious old manor house 'Rhinefield' built in 1880 on the site of the “keepers lodge” from the creation of the New Forest as a Royal Hunting Reserve. We were supplied with a Hertz rental and Tricia did a wonderful job driving us in spite of poor road signs.

Next we joined the Queen Elizabeth, a ship similar to Queen Victoria, for a 14 day cruise in the Baltic to Oslo, Copenhagen, Travemunde, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallin and Bruges doing a tour in each port of call and seeing some great sights. We had two weeks of lovely summer weather – 26° for the two days in St Petersburg (they only have 30 such days a year) when the sun shone on all the wonderful golden domes and spires.

On our return to Southampton we spent a night in Poole en route, by a 3 hour ferry trip to Jersey in the Channel Islands where we spent a relaxing 8 days in a super penthouse apartment in the centre of St Helier. The only disappointing thing was the weather.

We catered for ourselves (a relief from shipboard food) shopping at the old market place – lovely fish – and went sightseeing as much as possible. However, because of the cold, windy weather we spent a good deal of time watching the US Open Golf (very exciting) and the early days of Wimbledon – great to be able to watch in daytime and early evening. We even found a local Bridge Club and played there one night. Everyone was very friendly.

Our final cruise of 7 days was on the Queen Mary 2 to New York across the Atlantic. This ship is huge with 3,200 passengers plus crew. It was sometimes hard to find the way to get to the right lift for where we were headed – e.g. the bridge room each afternoon.

One of the highlights of the trip was sailing into New York at dawn. The Statue of Liberty was just across from our cabin balcony and looked wonderful as we slowly cruised up the Hudson past Manhattan to our berth. The early sun shone on all the tall buildings – a fantastic sight. We saw as much of New York as possible in three days and managed to get ourselves to the right airport to fly to Los Angeles, transverse the airport to the Air New Zealand Terminal and oh! those lovely cocoon beds, and home to Auckland. After 6½ weeks there is certainly no place like home and your own bed. Returning to friends at our Bridge Club is even more special.

Now Tricia Moore takes over...

The highlights of the 'Three Queens Cruises' for me were the art and architecture of the 'Old World' – every place having something original to remember it by and, in particular, there were many sculptures that impressed me, representing the history of those places.

In Cobh Harbour there is a poignant family group depicting the hundreds of thousands of Irish who left there to immigrate to the New World. In St Helier a group of citizens flying an enormous Union Jack to celebrate the end of a cruel Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands. The Bronze Horseman in St Petersburg, the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, the gigantic Statue of Liberty in New York.

And especially memorable a wonderful park full of sculpture in Oslo with hundreds of human figures – life size, smaller and larger than life, all naked, none named – representing every attitude, every emotion, every condition – adults, young and old, children, babies – timeless because they are not dressed they could be from thousands of years ago or from years in the future.

Also in Oslo I could only marvel with weak knees at the recently completed World Championship Ski jump, which soars into the sky like a great winged creature and is a wonderful architectural sculpture. Then there was the ancient Viking Ship Museum which showed all the beautiful carved craft work of their ships, artefacts, utensils, furniture, sleds, carts and remnants of clothing.

What an architectural work of art is Frank Geary's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao – a great city that is reinventing itself as a tourist destination, no longer the great seaport it used to be.

The memorable visit to Stockholm was to the Vasa Museum which houses a warship built for the King of Sweden to pursue his war with Russia in the 1600's. He ordered his shipbuilder to build 2 cannon decks with 34 cannon instead of the usual one deck with 17 cannon. Being top heavy the ship sank in the harbour on its maiden voyage in brackish fresh water and was thus preserved. Refloated 60 odd years ago it was still 90% intact. A beautiful galleon completely covered in brightly coloured carved figures and gargoyles.

St Petersburg is a cultural overload. A “rush” around the Hermitage doesn't do justice to the wonderful works of art housed there. Much like the “rush” around the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York – we could only look around a few of the galleries. I always want to see the Impressionists who are well represented in both these museums but there was not enough time to really study and appreciate them.

While in New York a special treat for us was to stay in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel a wonderful Art Deco luxurious extravaganza of the 1920's beautifully maintained.

On our six week trip we saw castles and forts and old city walls, palaces, medieval towns, fishing villages, cathedrals and churches, parks and fountains. I appreciated the beauty of nature in Ireland and the fjords with the archipelagos of hundreds of small islands in the Baltic, which rival our beautiful land. A day or two in each port is not enough but I learned many interesting things and have many beautiful memories.

WELCOME DAY

Our first Welcome Day for the year was held on Sunday afternoon 26 June to introduce new members and to give less experienced players the opportunity to be partnered by those who have been playing for some years.
It's a great concept and we received some very positive feedback from those who came. There were 13 tables in all. Winners on the day were:

North/South: Nick Klaassen and Charlotte Shiels with 66.01%.

East/West: Gillian Howard and Anne Ward with 66.23%.

NEW MEMBERS

Those who have joined the Club since our last newsletter are:

Judith Bern John Cooper Marie Goodyear-Smith (rejoined)

Daphne Gordon Carolyn Gower Ian Halliday

Louise Howarth Marilyn Janmaat Thelma Lawrence

Liz Milne Jenny Parsonson Bruce Roberts

Virginia Waters

May you spend many happy hours at the North Shore Bridge Club.

PARTY BRIDGE

We had 19 tables for Party Bridge on Sunday afternoon at the beginning of July. The North/South winners were Dorothy Bollard and Pat Chessum with 60.89%. East/West winners were Beth Campbell and Zeta Hayde with 63.11%

RESTRICTED 8B TOURNAMENT

This was run by the Club and held on Saturday 30 July. There were 17 tables but it would have been good to see more club members taking part as in this tournament there is a category to suit all levels of play. Our most successful members were:

Fred Kinley and Beth Campbell who won a session prize in the morning and came 4th overall.

THE OVER 70% CLUB

Six more pairs have qualified:

Sonja Compton and Lew Glover 76.42%
Terry Hubble and Ellie Posthouwer 72.57
Ming Huang and Rae Nicholson 71.13%
Sonja Compton and Rosaleen Koch 71.11
Pat Chessum and Fred Kinley 70.50%
Nick Klaassen and Gustav Taudien 70.18%

PLAYER NEWS

Dorothy Bollard is in hospital. She fell recently and has been diagnosed with crush fractures of the pelvis. She is in Ward 14 of NSH.

In Ward 11 is Claire Gallagher who was rushed to the hospital recently. The Club's best wishes go to Dorothy and Claire.

Also in our thoughts are Robin Agnew, Shirley Nemhauser, who has been missing from the bridge tables for a few weeks, and Michael Pierce.

Hugh Warner goes into Retirement. Hugh, who is well into his 90's, retired recently from Club play. The Wednesday Morning Social group gave him a great send-off by putting on a splendid luncheon and inviting his wife, Marjorie to attend also.
It's Happy Birthday to Nora Hamblin, another Wednesday Morning social player who has just celebrated her 97th birthday.

Philippa's Focus (below) is an excellent article which deals with Hesitations.

BETH CAMPBELL
Editor

PHILIPPA'S FOCUS - 5

Philippa’s Focus 5 Has my partner fallen asleep? Is there e-v-e-r going to be a bid by this player? Let’s look at Hesitations - Legal (authorised) and suspect (unauthorised).
Legal Hesitations. If the opposition does a jump bid, or opens at a level higher than one, you have a legal right to hesitate for about ten seconds. In many clubs and in tournaments a “STOP” card is used to legitimise the pause.
Suspect hesitations. Some hands are very difficult to bid and some hesitation may be justified, BUT what if the player h-e-s-i-t-a-t-e-s for soooooo long that most people at the table have lost their concentration or are growing old waiting!??? Worst case:- player hesitates, then passes, and partner bids.
What does the hesitation suggest? Does it mean that the hesitator has some points and is thinking of bidding? Has unauthorised information been given?
Partner of Hesitator: Can he/she bid? – Answer: possibly…… He/she decides to bid.
Opposition: At this point the opposition should get some agreement that there has been a hesitation. The opposition may either reserve their right to call the director at the end of the auction or play, or may call the Director immediately and say that there has been a hesitation and the hesitator’s partner has bid. The Director will have a look at the bidder’s cards.
The question then is: Was this player always going to bid because he/she has a clear bid which is not dependent of partner’s points? Fine, no problem. Or did the player bid because he/she has a few points and felt that the hesitating partner must have quite a few points too, so felt confident enough to bid on the combined points? This is a bid made on unauthorised information and is generally not allowed. The Director is likely to rule against the bidder.
North: 1♣, East: - long hesitation - Pass, South: Pass, West: bids 1♠
A. West has: ♠108643 ♥K43 ♦107 ♣QJ6. Total points = 6.
Director will rule that this bid is NOT legitimate.
B. West has: ♠AQ1065 ♥4 ♦AK642 ♣Q9. Total points = 15, and lots of shape.
Legal bid. West is always going to bid.
C. West has: ♠AJ1073 ♥QJ542 ♦98 ♣2. Total points = 8.
But, as South has not bid, West’s bid would be legitimate as a protective bid, especially with the two majors and lots of shape. West is unlikely to pass out North’s 1♣ bid.

The hesitation is extraneous information. Other unauthorised information includes a remark, a question (don’t ask about the bidding if you’re never going to bid until the auction is closed), unwonted speed, special emphasis, tone, gesture, movement or mannerism. If you feel that a player has acted on unauthorised information, you should call the Director. Law 16B Equity may need to be restored.

by PHILIPPA LOWE

Judith Bern	John Cooper	Marie Goodyear-Smith (rejoined)
Daphne Gordon	Carolyn Gower	Ian Halliday
Louise Howarth	Marilyn Janmaat	Thelma Lawrence
Liz Milne	Jenny Parsonson	Bruce Roberts
Virginia Waters