The TBA Committee met on June 9th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), John Grosvenor (VP), Leigh Blizzard (T), Trish Colles (S), Sue Falkingham, Pam Murphy, Paul Fredheim, Hugh Grosvenor and Laura Bauermeister. The following matters were discussed:

Coming Up – Eastcoaster Weekend in Orford

On August 29th and 30th we’ll be running our fourth Eastcoaster Swiss Pairs event. As the name suggests, it is held at the (Eastcoaster Resort)[https://eastcoastertasmania.com.au/] near Orford. It is a great opportunity for a different weekend of bridge set on the beautiful East Coast of Tasmania. The entry fee includes morning tea and lunch on the first day as well as three sessions of bridge. We also hold a three course dinner on the Saturday night which can be entered as a separate event on MyABF. Play kicks off at 10.00am on the Saturday and is all over by around 1.00pm on Sunday. There are prizes awarded in all categories subject to the number of entries. There is generally also a lucky door prize donated by the Eastcoaster Resort.

A range of accommodation options are available at the resort from single rooms to 3 bedroom cabins so you can stay with your friends, family or partner if you like. Mention bridge when you are booking with the resort and they will give you a good rate.

Building Extension

As many of you know, we have been working on a plan for many years to improve our club facilities by adding an extension at the rear which will include an office/utility room, a member’s recreation area and a better kitchen. In addition, the Vera Houdek room and existing kitchen will be combined and extended to provide an additional teaching/playing room to provide greater flexibility with scheduling of Beginners Classes or additional playing sessions.

This was costed at approximately $ 800,000 a couple of years ago, and the TBA has (unsuccessfully) applied for several types of government assistance to enable us to progress the work. We have approximately $ 500,000 set aside for the extensions including a bequest of the late Ron Spencer for $ 200,000.

We have recently discovered than an alternative building approach by Tasbuilt involving off site manufacturing may provide an affordable solution for us and are currently investigating this.

If the quote and design from Tasbuilt offers us a viable solution, we will call a special meeting of Club Members to approve the project, as there will be inconvenience from pile driving, and we will need to close the club whilst the new extension is joined to our existing club. We will post the amended design and quote as soon as it is available.

ABF Online Club Knockout event

This event is scheduled to commence in July and the TBA has been quite successful in it in the past. Teams are categorised according to the Masterpoint level of their most experienced member and can participate in the Open, Under 750, Under 300, Under 150 and Under 50 category.

Events are run monthly at night via Real Bridge, and the TBA pays for the team entry fees. Consequently, any winnings are retained by the TBA to go towards the entry fees for next year.

If you would like to participate in this event, please register you interest with Sue Falkingham.

Suggestion Box

There were several suggestions from Members this month and we are responding to each of the :

• We won’t be welcoming puppies/dogs to the TBA unless they are designated companion animals.
• We now have 5 of the specially requested black chairs.
• We will purchase two chairs with arms for people that need assistance in this way
• The TBA has a sophisticated air conditioning system. We should all recognise that it is impossible to provide a temperature which suits everyone You will all realise that some people are wearing a T Shirt at the table whilst others are rugged up! Rather than nag the Director, or complain about the temperature, please ensure your own personal comfort by wearing layers of clothes which you can add or remove as appropriate. This is the Tassie way.

Free Coffee for Dealers

As a thank you for our dealing team, we have decided that if they wish, they can request a coffee machine token from the Director on duty which will be provided free of charge.

A reminder that you can purchase coffee machine tokens if you don’t have a $ 2 coin in your pocket!

Youth Bridge

We are going to establish a Youth Bridge program over the next 12 months, leading up to the ANC in July 2027 which will be held in Hobart. If you have a young person in your life who you think would like to learn bridge, please contact myself, or Sue Falkingham, and we will endeavour to include them in this program.

New Members

We welcome the following new and reactivated members to our club and wish them all the best on their bridge journey : Mel Croft, Liam Croft (Youth), William Keyte and Jan Sheen.

Bridge Etiquette – Kindness (Again!)

Just a brief reminder to be kind and respectful to everyone at the table. We want people to enjoy their visits to the club and to tell their friends how fantastic bridge is as both as a brain stimulating hobby and as a family.

Julie Rhodes
President

Taswater have advised that Queens Walk will now be closed from Monday 15 Jun to Monday 22 Jun.
See the Taswater site for more details.

The Tassie Swiss Teams were held at the TBA on 16-17 May 2026. Due to the small number of teams entered this event was held as a double round robin rather than a Swiss draw. The seven teams played two 8 board matches against each of the other teams over two days.

The event also includes a handicap component where each team is given an IMP handicap based on the aggregate masterpoints of each team. This event also determines the winners of the inter-club Challenge Cup which is awarded to the club with the highest placed team with all members from one club.

The open event was won by the team of Julie Rhodes, Hilton Francis, Mardi Grosvenor and John Grosvenor. They also won the Challenge Cup for the TBA. Full results are available here.

Handicap honours went to the team of Judy Hooley, Gill Robinson, Marg Enright, Kevin Wheelahan and David Shaw. The handicap results are available here.

The Honour Boards for this event are here: Open Teams, Handicap Teams, Challenge Cup.

Thanks to Simon Edler for organising and directing the event. Thanks also to those who brought food to share for morning and afternoon tea, and to everyone who played for making it a competitive but friendly and pleasant weekend of bridge.

The TBA Committee met on May 12th from 2.45pm. Present were Julie Rhodes (P), Leigh Blizzard (T), Sue Falkingham, Paul Fredheim, Fran Healy, Hugh Grosvenor and Laura Bauermeister. The following matters were discussed:

TFoB Merchandise

We have decided to make available some TFoB themed merchandise at next year’s event. At the moment we are looking for a suitable logo to put on the merchandise. If you have any graphic design experience, or any ideas for this, please let us know – we would love some more creative input!

Tasmanian Online Championship - June

Not looking forward to those chilly Winter afternoons? How about three fabulous sessions of bridge played in the warmth and comfort of your own home? Make sure you enter in our very first ever Tasmanian Online Championship to run at 2.30 pm on Sundays June 14th, 21st and 28th.

You can play with a partner from anywhere – the more entries we have the more fun it will be. Entry fees are only $10 per session and you will be able to enter via MyABF.

Suggestion Box

This month we were asked if we would consider a concession on our annual membership fee for pensioners. The current annual membership fee is $75. Of this $27 is paid to the Australian Bridge Federation as a “capitation fee”. A further $20 is the state affiliation fee which goes into the State Bridge coffers which provides travel assistance to National and State Representative players as well as funding State events and State Team training. These fees are common to all affiliated bridge clubs in Australia.

This leaves $28 which actually goes to our club. This money pays for things like the glass of wine which you have after an event, special events like the Melbourne Cup, expert training sessions, library books etc.

This doesn’t really leave much room for a Membership Fee discount, and at $1.50 per week, TBA membership is quite good value. However, we appreciate that money can be tight for pensioners which is why we have a 20% discount for pensioners on our Table Money. In additional we do have a financial hardship policy for those who need extra assistance. If you want to discuss this, Sue Falkingham is the relevant person.

Building Extension

We are going to investigate an alternative strategy for our extension and need to finalise our thoughts before approaching the building manufacturer. We have established a building subcommittee which will report to the Committee, then to our membership as a whole. If you would like to participate, or have any input please get in touch.

Liam Milne Training for Everyone

The TBA has organised for Liam Milne (a former and current Australian player) to conduct the State team training this year in May. In addition, he will be running a session which will be open to everyone. It will run from 2.00pm to 4.00pm on Friday afternoon May 29th at a cost of $25 for TBA members and $30 for non members. The topic is :

“Slam Bidding Workshop - Bid better slams and stay out of poor ones!”

A very useful topic for all of us – who doesn’t need help improving their slam bidding? - I will certainly be attending! You can enrol for this workshop on MyABF or just turn up on the afternoon with your $25.

Coming Up – Change of Event Dates

The Club Novice Championship has been moved to July 19th and the TBA Board-a-Match Teams has been moved from July to make a fabulous teams weekend along with the Southern and Open Handicap Teams on September 26th and 27th. The TBA will be providing lunch on both days so “save the date” for that weekend.

New Members

We welcome the following new and reactivated members to our club and wish them all the best on their bridge journey : Michael Brown, Denise Brown, Jennifer Lowns, Charlotte Sainsbury, Clare Darling, Fiona Mansfield, Mary Co-Pavier, Rosalie Kinstler, Paul Carter, Terry Mitchell and Pauline Stanton.

Promotions

Congratulations to the following members who have received rank promotions last month:

• Louise Gilfedder & John Green were promoted to Graduate Masters (>2 MPs)
• Elizabeth Gordon, Lyn Sinclair & Victoria Vyvyan were promoted to Local Masters (>15 MPs)
• Nola Calvert & Rex Calvert were promoted to Bronze Local Masters (>25 MPs)

Bridge Etiquette – System Cards

Try to remember to bring your system card with you to the table. It is a courtesy to the opponents and saves them having to ask you about your bidding or other aspects of your system.

Julie Rhodes
President

The Tassie Individual Championship was held at the TBA on Sunday 26 April 2026. Congratulations to Ann Burnett who won in a field of 24. Julie Rhodes came second and Geoff Green came third. Full results are available here.

In an Individual event players enter as individuals and play with as many of the other competitors as possible. Each combination of players may only play together for one or two boards across the event. All players use the same simple standard system as there is no time to agree conventions with each new partner.

Individual events have not been played frequently at the TBA in recent years. The Individual Championship was brought back in 2021 as a way to celebrate the life of Bert Forage who was particularly fond of this format. In 2025 we ran the Individual Championship again, this time as a fund raiser to help Hugh Grosvenor with his travel expenses to represent Australia in the Seniors Team playing in China. Previous winners are listed here.

Individual events are complex to organise and score. Thanks to Simon Edler for organising and directing the day.

The 2026 TBA Congress was held on 11th and 12th April 2026. Saturday was Matchpoint Pairs with Open and Novice sections (20 and 8 pairs respectively). Sunday had 38 pairs playing IMP scored Swiss Pairs. The TBA provided a light lunch each day, which was partially catered by students at Rosny College.

The Open Matchpoint Pairs was won by David Robinson and Phil Beck. Dallas Cooper and Barbara Holland came second. Hilton Francis and Julie Rhodes came third. In the Novice section Yolande Boost and Sharlene Campbell came first. Lee McCaghern and Anne McEntee came second. Full results are available here: Open, Novice.

In the Swiss Pairs the Open winners were Gulum Kocak-Sunamak and Guray Sunamak. Hilton Francis and Julie Rhodes came second. Pam Murphy and Barbara Giizel came third. Prizes were also awarded for the Novice and Restricted catagories. The highest placed Novice pair were Ross Addison and Jack Pashev. The top placed Restricted pair were Anne Fancis and Jegs Nuttal. Full results are available here.

Thanks to Simon Edler and Sue Falkingham for directing. Thanks also to Pam Murphy for being the event Convener. Thank you to all members who brought plates to share for morning and afternoon tea.