Newsletter 25 September 2025
In our newsletter this week...
- AGM
- Friday 3rd October 1pm Bridge Session Cancellation
- Youth Day in School Holidays
- Online Lessons
- CIB
- New Members
- Sophie Ashton's Interview on ABC Radio Canberra
- Upcoming Events
- Results
- Name Badge Order
- He’s Not Just A Lovely Young Man
- Lighter Moments
CANBERRA BRIDGE CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2025
Would you like to be an active player in helping direct the Club’s future? Why not nominate to join the Committee in 2025-26 and be part of the enthusiastic members dedicated to assisting with the business and activities of the Canberra Bridge Club. Being part of the Committee brings many benefits including getting to know the Club’s members, participating in decisions about the Club and its directions, and bringing a varied expertise to the Committee. Nomination forms can be obtained from the Manager.
Canberra Bridge Club wil hold its Annual General Meeing on:
- 14th October 2025 at 5:30 PM in the Olive Lott Room
All the documents relating to the AGM can be found on our website.
Final date for Committee nominations is 7 October 2025
Nominations for election to the Club’s 2025-26 Committee close on Tuesday 7 October at 2pm. If you still intend to submit a nomination, please ensure that your fully completed and signed nomination form is in the nominations box in the Manager’s Office by this time. Please ensure you meet the 7 October deadline, not the later date shown on some nomination forms. The extra days allow for the nominations to be checked, as per the Club’s Constitution, and ballots organised (if required) before the AGM.
Friday 3rd October 1pm Bridge Session Cancellation
Due to Canberra in Bloom events being held at the Belconnen Labour Club on Friday the 3rd of October we have decided to cancel the 1pm Duplicate Session at the club.
We encourage our members to attend the Canberra in Bloom events but should you wish to play here instead the morning session which starts at 9:30am will be open to all players without restriction.
The Supervised Session will be held at the normal time and the RealBridge Session on Saturday the 4th October will also run as per usual.
If you are intending to play in Canberra in Bloom, sign up as soon as possible as events are filling up, link is provided below.
Also, Jenny Bell is the person to contact for all partnership and reserve enquiries. Her email address is :
Youth Day in School Holidays
Celebrated teacher Will Jenner-O'Shea has volunteered his time to host two School Holidays workshop days for youths aged between 8 to 25.
They will be run in the Olive Lott Room on:
- Wednesday October 1st 10am - 12:30pm
- Wednesday October 8th 10am - 12:30 pm
There will be snacks and no experience is necessary. This event is completely free of charge so if you have youngsters in your family who would like to attend please bring them along.
Online Lessons
Will Jenner-O'Shea is running online lessons most weeks.
They are suitable for all club players.
You can attend the Zoom live, or receive the recording, notes, and replayable hands afterwards.
- October 2nd Reopening Doubles and Trap Passes
- October 9th Can You Pass 1C?
- October 16th Which Suit to Play
- October 23rd No Lesson (Spring Nationals)
- October 30th Major Raises And Bergen Raises
Alternatively you can access the online lessons through our website
Canberra in Bloom - 1-2 volunteers needed next Wednesday 2pm
We are looking for 1-2 people to work with Bruce Crossman in checking all the bridgemates being used for Canberra in Bloom. This would be a good task for anyone who plays on Wednesday mornings. If you could help out for an hour, please get in contact with the Convenor, Roger Brake at
New Members
Canberra Bridge Club welcomes the following new and returning members to our club:
- Lesley Still
- Stephen Murphy
- Jim McMahon
- Marty McGuire
- Heike Elvers
- Zach Holmes
- Lauren Jameson
- Sonia Fiorenza
- Cheryl Le Mesurier
- Madeleine Male
- Robyn Quach
- Yvonne Goddard
- Alison England
- Maria Castles
- Gai Britt
- John Coote
- Terry Watson
- Lavinia Watson
Sophie Ashton's Interview on ABC Radio Canberra
Sophie Ashton, fresh from representing Australia at the World Bridge Championships in Denmark, joined ABC Radio Canberra’s Mornings to talk all things bridge on 1 September.
From competition at the top level and her pathway from club play to international teams, to why the game can be exciting and drama packed.
To listen to the segment click on the link below:
This audio has been taken from the ABC Canberra Mornings page.
Upcoming Events
The next Sponsored RED Masterpoint event will be:
- RealBridge Pairs - RealBridge 2:00pm Thursday 2nd and 9th October
The next Tuesday night competition is on 7th and 14th October:
Results
The winners of the Friday afternoon Red MP The Grange Event are:
- Anne Powell and Lyn Carter
Congratulations to Anita, Craig, Jacques and Adam on their success at the Albury Bridge Club Congress 2025 last weekend. Their team came 2nd in the teams event.
Anita and Craig also came 2nd in the Pairs Competition.
Belated congratulations to Will & Vanessa who won pairs at Phillip Island Bridge Club Congress (held 13 & 14 September) with Seb & Christy 2nd. Then as a team they came 3rd.
Name Badge Order
As the first batch order through myABF worked quite well, the office will be taking all future name badge orders through myABF.
There's a permanent link on our website under "Essentials" or you can look for the "Name Badge Order" event under Calendar in myABF.
The link below will take you to our current order in process:
Each magnetic name tags costs $20. Don't forget that the notes section can be used to specify how you want your name to be printed in the name badge.
He’s Not Just A Lovely Young Man
We are very lucky to have Will Jenner-O’Shea residing in Canberra. He does a lot of work with the ACT youth bridge players. He is a regular teacher at the club in our Eight Week Fundamentals Course and through his weekend workshops. He is also very generous with his time when those of us who haven’t yet memorised bridge have questions, always ready to stop and chat about a hand, a bidding methodology or an egregious overbid.
He is also a very fine card player and on Tuesday night this week his skills were on display with the following hand. Will was sitting East and after a few rounds of bidding found himself declaring Three No Trumps with the following hand, on the lead of the King of Diamonds. He played low from Dummy and North played the Ten. How would you play the hand?
Will knew that since the Ten of Diamonds had gone, his Nine and Eight would add up to a second stopper. So he knew he could safely win the first trick with the Ace and the worst the opponents could do off the top is to take their two aces plus the Queen-Jack of Diamonds. What would you do next?
What distinguishes an expert from us mere mortals is their ability to consider ALL of the possibilities. It can seem automatic to play the Queen of Clubs at trick two, planning on then playing the King, the Jack and so on until the opponents take their Ace. After that you’ll have a one or two Diamonds, a Spade, four Hearts and loads and loads of Club tricks.
Will however spotted a potential risk to this line of play. What if the Ace of Clubs was a singleton? That would mean that the Queen would lose to the Ace but that the other player would be left with Ten-third and that his Clubs wouldn’t run. He therefore found the expert play of the Three of Clubs at trick two. If this wins in Dummy, he will then return to the Club in his hand and if this wins he has two Heart entries to both go back to establish his clubs and then enjoy them.
Sure enough, this was a winning play as the full hand is shown below:
If he had played the Queen of Clubs at trick Two, South would be able to win the Ace and play a spade (North would duck this and Will would win his King). He will not be able to make his contract now. He has Four Heart Tricks, One Diamond Trick, One Spade trick and Two Club tricks…..one short. As soon as the opponents get in (likely with a Club) they will cash their three Spade tricks and he will be down.
There is a trap here for South also! Suppose Will had played the line of us lesser mortals and played the Queen of Clubs at trick two. South may think they should cash their two Diamond tricks before playing a Spade (since they’ll never get them otherwise). Doing this establishes Will’s little Eight of Diamonds and he will then be able to score up One Spade, Two Diamonds, Four Hearts and just the King-Jack of Clubs for nine tricks.
Nicely played Will and well done to anyone reading this if you didn’t blindly play the Queen of Clubs at trick two (I did!)
Watching the experts of Canberra play hands is one of the joys of Tuesday Night bridge. Many of Canberra’s top players are there each week and although they are ruthless at the bridge table, they are generally lovely! If you’ve never experienced a Tuesday night event, why not consider nominating for the upcoming Matchpoint Swiss Pairs on the 7th and 14th October? The best way to improve your game is to play against a strong field and being Swiss, you will be paired up against other pairs who are doing as well as you are.
Entries can be made via MyABF:
If you have any interesting hands that come up (or hands you wish you’d known how to play) we would love to hear about them at:
- Steve Geddes
Lighter Moments
- The Bridge Player's Prayer : "Lord, grant me a partner who won't trump my Aces. Deliver me from short suits and cards without faces. Grant me finesses that work as I've planned, and just once today, please, a nice Grand Slam hand."
Amen to all that.
Have a great week everyone!
Elizabeth
