Yes, it’s that time of year where we gear up for one of our largest events—and if you missed the correction slip in our printed diaries, it’s only 4 weeks away in September (not October!). Entries (link) are open now. Please enter your pairs for Saturday and teams for Sunday soon. For more information, check out the brochure (link) — also available at the club.

Congratulations to Fran & Wayne Carroll (65%) on their 17th place out of over 460 competitors in this event! Special mention also goes to Ann Kynaston & Bronwyn Boehm (59%) at 62nd and Les Marks & Pamela Lawrence (58%) at 67th. Yet again our club punches above its weight! See link below for full results.

Congratulations to the winners of our 3-week club pairs event, Megan Grant and Barbara Williams (pictured) who racked up 133 total points with 7 wins, a draw and one loss. In 2nd place were Fran & Wayne Carroll (118 points, 7 wins and 2 draws) and 3rd were Judy Scott & Lance Coffey (112 points, 5 wins, a draw and 3 losses). Thanks again go to the organisers and directors of this popular and hard-fought event!

Congratulations to Gloria Devine (pictured) who won this year's Greg Simpson Memorial Trophy! This trophy is awarded to the best scoring player competing over two rounds with different partners—for members with less than 100 Masterpoints (MPs). Well done also to John McCracken who came second. This was the last year of this event in this form — from 2020, a separate section for players with less than 100 MPs will be incorporated into the Memorial Day Pairs Championship (also played over 2 days)....

Congratulations to our recently promoted members: Pam Wallingford to Regional; Pat Maunsell to **Local; and Phyll Daniel to Graduate! Also, congratulations to our club’s top 50 most improved players (as at 31 May 2019).

Many of our members venture beyond the comfort of our club to compete in congresses in NSW and interstate. And they do very well – often punching above our weight! The linked list shows six of our members — two in Intermediate & four in Restricted — on the NSW Bridge Association (NSWBA) list of leading NSW Congress Players in 2019 (as at the end of May).

Our club sent 6 teams to the regional 2019 Country Teams competition in Port Macquarie on Sunday 2 June and yet again, our members did our club proud! Congratulations to Henry Hudson, Bronwyn Boehm, Carmel Pike & Ann Kynaston (pictured) on their hard-fought win and also to 2nd place-getters Maretta Callow, Sue Eishauer, Alison McGregor & Gail Gorman who had the most wins of the field. (results) We wish them luck in the Zone Finals at the end of the month!

Congratulations go to Robina MacDiarmid and Michael Mae who graduated to *Local Master in April – well done! (Information on Australian Bridge Federation (ABF) Masterpoints ranks can be found here.)

We have a historical matching game this week — scroll down for the answers to our previous questions about the Ace of Spades.

Match the (alleged) ruler represented by each playing card king (we've given you an identifying hint in brackets):

1.  King of Spades    2.  King of Hearts    3.  King of Diamonds    4.  King of Clubs

Congratulations go to Bob Gribble (pictured) on his recent promotion to *National Master and Pauline Erby to Grand Master! Also, congratulations to our club’s top 50 most improved players (as at 30 April 2019). It is heartening — and testament to our members, teachers and committee — that this list reflects our progressing abilities and the opportunities for improvement granted to us, encompassing all but 3 ranks from Graduate to Grand Master.