2026 MAY NEWSLETTER
CHARITY DAY
This Friday, 8 May. The raffle prizes will be drawn at 12:30 followed by a Red Point duplicate session at 1:15pm. There will be a Supervised section and a row for newer players with under 50 masterpoints.
After play there will be free nibbles to have with your drinks. There will also be a novelty prize for one lucky person still in the social area.
There is a Clothing Drive for winter clothes for the homeless. Please bring any items to the library this week.
PARKING
The City of Nedlands have been busy in the carpark with more arrows painted, two more end pays marked as No Parking to improve traffic movement; and No Standing signs installed along the entrance road.
Some bridge players seem quite oblivious to the parking signs. Beware! City Rangers have been seen fining cars nearby.
BAR
Where would we be without the bar? Those afternoon postmortems just wouldn’t be the same without having a drink or two while picking apart our mistakes.
Brian Embleton, our Bar Manager, has retired. Thank you Brian and thank you to Trevor Smith who filled in for part of last year. Welcome to Mary Burke-Heydon our new Bar Manager. The bar has had a spring clean. There are new glasses suitable for a standard drink size of 150 ml ($6) or a larger serve of 250 ml ($10), you may also purchase bottles of wine at the marked prices for consumption at the Club. Please drink responsibly and respect the bar staff who are volunteers. Talking of volunteers, the Bar is always looking for additional helpers, so if you are interested in participating in the bar roster, please let Mary know your availability. Note that an RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) is required.
Mary is keen to focus on West Australian wines so there will be some changes to the wine list.
PLANNING AHEAD
BAWA TEAMS OF FOUR
This competition is underway and the WABC Captains are:
Novice (<100MPs) Kate Gould,
Restricted (<300MPs) Karen McLean & Christine Sabier, and
Open Deana Wilson.
Players may only represent one club during the year and must be a member (Home or Alternate) of the club represented. There is one WABC team per category. If you wish to play then please contact the appropriate captain.
There are 15 teams in the Novice Section split into two divisions (North & South); 12 teams in the Restricted Section also split into two divisions (North and South); and 7 teams in the Open Section.
Results will be posted at the Club a Note that the results include a Participant Index that indicates how many different players represent the club. Also, in the Open Division, there is some tracking of players based on masterpoints.
CHARITY DAY
Friday 8 May. The raffle prizes will be drawn at 12:30 followed by a Red Point duplicate session at 1:15pm. There will be a Supervised section and a row for newer players with under 50 masterpoints. Free nibbles afterwards and a novelty prize for someone still in the Social Area afterwards.
RESTRICTED PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIP
WABC Members only. Two Friday mornings 15 & 22 May. Enter on the WABC website. There is a normal duplicate session as well.
AUSTRALIA WIDE NOVICE PAIRS
Monday morning 25 May. Just turn up. Normal table money. There is a normal duplicate session as well.
WABC WINTER CONGRESS
Our biggest annual congress. Friday 29 May through to Monday 1 June. A choice of one or two session events including a Novice and a Restricted session. More details and entries on myABF or use the paper entry forms at the Club. There are walk in duplicate sessions on Friday morning and Monday morning only.
WABC WINNERS & PAST EVENTS
Friends of the RFDS GAMES DAY
A very successful day in support of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
SOUTH PERTH EASTER CONGRESS
The Open Matchpoint Pairs was won by Trevor Fuller & Marnie Leybourne followed by Daniel Wallwork & Avon Wilsmore.
The Open Swiss Pairs was won by Martin Doran & Viv Wood from Valerie Isle & Tony Stevens with Geoff Holman& David Matthews third.
The Open Swiss Teams was won by Cooke (Beata Bieganski, Kaiping Chen, Tuya Cooke, Lilia Male) from Cooper (Ron Cooper, Geoff Holman, Chris Ingham, David Matthews).
BUNBURY CONGRESS
The Swiss Pairs was won by Tad Bieganski & Tuya Cooke from Daniel Wallwork & Avon Wilsmore.
WABC HANDICAP PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIP
The results of this competition are being reviewed as there may be issues with how the scoring program has applied the handicaps. The outright results are correct.
MAJOR MASTERPOINT (MP) MILESTONES
Trumps Plus recognises Club members who receive their first ranking certificate (Graduate Master, 2 MP) and those who have become Life Masters, which is the first certificate requiring gold points.
There are three other significant milestones: reaching 100 Masterpoints; reaching 300 Masterpoints; and becoming a Grand Master, which requires a minimum 1000 Masterpoints of which 200 must be Gold and 700 Gold or Red.
In 2026 the following Club members have achieved:
100 MPs: Robin Challenor; Richard Illingworth
Grand Master: John Aquino
MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
Farewell to Alison Rigg, a long-standing member of WABC, and Club President from 2008 to 2010. Alison was instrumental in the smooth transition of the Club’s relocation from Dalkeith to Swanbourne. Alison was also a key person in founding the WABC library and was awarded a Life Membership in 2018.
Welcome to the following new members: Rosalind Bell; Wendy Chidgey; Charles Herring; Jane Lobbkowitz; Colin Mellows; Peter O’Brien; Jamie Ogilvie; Sharon Purchase; Behram Surty.
LESSONS & WORKSHOPS
Beginners – Part 2 starts 4 May with a choice of Monday morning (9:15 – 11:15am run by Warwick Potter) or Tuesday evening (6:45 – 8:45 pm run by Christine Sabier) classes. This is an eight-week course suitable for those who have finished Part 1. Focuses on No Trumps, Overcalls and Card Play.
Card Play - 2 starts Thursday 7 May (9:30-11:30am run by Martin Doran). Four weeks. Stand-alone lessons looking at Suit contracts. If you want to take more tricks as either a declarer or a defender, then come along to as many lessons as you can.
HOLDING UP - THE RULE OF SEVEN
You reach 3NT and once again those annoying defenders lead your weakest suit. At least you do have a stopper with Axx in your hand. Do you just hold up as long as possible or what?
As a general guide, you may find the Rule of 7 useful. Subtract the total number of cards you, as declarer, and dummy hold in the suit from seven. This is the number of times you hold up.
Just don’t forget the Rule of Thinking. Count your tricks. Make a plan! Make sure that holding up is the right thing to do?
In the example, the King of Diamonds is led.
Both Declarer and Dummy have 3 cards in the suit led. So: 7 – (3 + 3) = 1. Declarer should hold up once. Now declarer takes the club finesse into the East hand by playing the Club King and then the Club Jack. If West plays low, then play low from dummy. If the finesse loses and West had led a five card suit, then East won’t have a diamond to return. Note that if declarer had won the first trick then they would go down.
PUBLICATIONS
BAWA FOCUS: The March issue is here.