Newsletter 29 January 2026
In our newsletter this week...
- President's Message
- Novice and Rookie Butler Championships
- Graded Butler Pairs Saturday
- New Members
- Online Lessons
- Online Lessons Discount Offer
- Grading across Sessions
- Tuesday night Competition Change of Time
- Late Entry Enquiries
- Upcoming Events
- Results from SFOB
- Nuremberg at the ANU Film Group
President's Message
Celebrating Julia Hoffman’s 80th Birthday!
This week we celebrate a very special milestone for one of the Canberra Bridge Club’s most cherished members. Julia Hoffman, who is celebrating her 80th birthday tomorrow - 30 January, joined the CBC in 1969 and has been an integral part of the club ever since.
Over many decades, Julia has served the club with distinction and generosity. Her roles have included Chair of the Affiliated Clubs Committee (which led to the formation of BFACT), President of CBC, convenor of one ANC organising committee, and secretary of another. Beyond the club, Julia gave outstanding service nationally through eight years on the ABF Ethics Committee and as a Recorder at national tournaments.
Julia is also a truly accomplished bridge player. She has represented Australia in a women’s team, captained others, won numerous national and state titles, and has long been a stalwart of the ACT Women’s team at the National Championships, contributing to several ACT victories.
Yet, despite her skill as a player and her strength in administrative roles, Julia is perhaps best known, and most loved for her sense of humour, her fair-mindedness at the table, her generosity in mentoring others, and her unfailing consideration for fellow members.
On behalf of the Canberra Bridge Club, we warmly wish Julia a very happy 80th birthday and thank her for everything she has contributed - and continues to contribute to our club, and to the game of bridge she loves so much.
Old Chairs Available to Members
Our new chairs will be arriving shortly, which means some of our current chairs will be ready for a new home. Before we arrange disposal, we would like to offer members the opportunity to take any chairs they might find useful. The chairs will be available once the new delivery arrives, and members are welcome to take as many as they can reasonably use. Collection details will be advised closer to the time.
If you are interested please let Elizabeth or myself know, it would be lovely to see them reused rather than discarded.
House Sub-Committee – Seeking Expressions of Interest
After around three years of dedicated service, our current House Sub-Committee is ready to take a well-earned break! We sincerely thank them for the quiet, behind-the-scenes work they have done for the Club.
We are now seeking expressions of interest from members who may like to be involved in the ongoing care of our clubrooms. The House Sub-Committee generally focuses on maintenance and improvements, gardening, keeping an eye on the premises, and occasionally helping organise working bees. The Sub-Committee works closely with the Manager and provides advice and recommendations to the Committee as needed.
If you would like to know more about what is involved, or if you would like to put your hand up to be considered for the House Sub-Committee please get in touch with me, I would love to hear from you.
-Mary
Canberra Bridge Club Novice and Rookie Butler Championships
This pairs event crowns the club Rookie and Novice champions. To be eligible for the championship, players must have less than 100 masterpoints each and to win either title you need to be a CBC member. Red masterpoints will be awarded. The Rookie category cutoff will be determined based on the number of entries.
- Saturday 7th February 9:45am - 5:15pm
- Cost to be charged on the day: $24 members, $20 concession, and $30 non members.
- Entries close 5-00pm on Tuesday 3rd February
- Click here to Register
Players who have more than 100 masterpoints will be entered into a graded pairs side event, with the categories based on the number of entries.
Graded Butler Pairs Saturday
On Saturday the 7th February CBC will hold alongside the Novices and Rookie Championship, a mini congress style Pairs Day where players of all abilities will get to play in graded pairs competitions.
This event starts at 9-45am. It will finish around 5-15pm. It will be run over two sessions and scored using imps converted to VPs.
There will be a lunch break of about 1 hour. Please bring your own lunch as many of the cafes at Deakin shops are shut at Saturday lunchtime. At the end of play there will be drinks and nibbles with the winner presentations.
- Enter now through myABF
New Members
Canberra Bridge Club welcomes the following new and returning players to our club:
- Maureen Wild
Online Lessons
Will is running regular Online Lessons that are suitable for Club players of all levels.
There is a LIVE ZOOM on Thursday Mornings at 9:30am, or you can sign up for the lessons and receive the Recording, Hands, Notes, and a way to Replay the hands later. The full list of lessons and topics can be found on our website.
The first lesson for 2026 is on Fundamental Bidding Tips on 19th February. Purchase through the link below.
Online Lessons Discount Offer
The following pre-recorded series of 4x2 hour lessons on Opening Leads have been bundled and priced at 4 lessons for the price of 3! They can also be purchased individually, please refer to our website to view all the available topics.
Late Entries - What to do if you miss the myABF deadline for registration
To allow movements and scoring to be organised all events requiring pre booking have a cut off time after which entries are no longer accepted through myABF.
The Tuesday night Competition is set on myABF to automatically close entries at 10am on Monday.
Late entries can still be added in after the closing time at the discretion of the organiser.
If you are interested in playing in an event which is showing as entries closed in myABF please email the office and we will try our best (subject to numbers and the ability to avoid a sit out) to accomodate your request.
Tuesday Night Competition Change of Time
In an effort to avoid finishing very late onTuesday nights we have decided to bring forward the Tuesday Night Competition start time by 15 minutes. The new start time of 7pm will apply from mid April, following the end of daylight saving period.
The first Tuesday night event that will have the 7pm start is the BFACT State Open Swiss Matchpoint Pairs ( Incorporating BFACT Mixed Pairs Championship ) which is scheduled for 14th April.
Please note that all events scheduled prior to 14th of April will continue to start at the current time of 7:15pm.
Grading across Sessions
Last year, in our larger sections, we implemented a Grading system for our face-to-face session. Currently we have three grades Open, B-Grade and C-Grade (catering to players just out of supervised play).
The way the grading works is via a pairs' total masterpoints. If you and your partner have 200 or more masterpoints between you (whether that be distributed 100 each or 199 for her and 2 for you) you must play in the Open section. The B-Grade is restricted to partnerships with less than 200 masterpoints between them. C-Grade is limited to pairs with less than 20 masterpoints between them (again the distribution of those points is irrelevant - all that matters is the total number of masterpoints between the two players).
Currently our grading across our face-to-face sessions is as follows:
- Monday - Open
- Tuesday daytime - Open and B-Grade
- Tuesday evening - Open
- Wednesday daytime - Open and B-Grade
- Wednesday evening - Open and Supervised play
- Thursday morning - Butler, Open and B-Grade
- Friday morning - B-Grade and C-Grade
- Friday afternoon - Open
The online sessions are all open.
As ever, the Director has sole responsibility for managing the session and this includes seating of players. Sometimes directors will move players up and down as is appropriate to run the session efficiently. In the meantime, when you come to play especially in an unfamiliar session, please make sure you sit in the right section. If you know you should be in the Open section, please don't wait and force the director to move you.
We would also ask players to leave this sensitive topic to the directors. Sometimes there are reasons for moving a pair up or down that are not publicly known. The director is solely responsible for running their session and decisions on seating are best left to them.
If you have any concerns you wish to raise in general, consider speaking to your director at an appropriate time (once the session has finished or during a sitout - not at the start of play!). When considering this, please remember that managing a bridge session is a matter of compromise. When it comes to running a session there are 100 people to be considered and not everyone can get their way on every issue, every time.
Upcoming Events
The next Tuesday night competition is Summer MP Pairs starting on 17th Feb and running for two weeks.
Results from SFOB
SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP
3 - MAURITS VAN DER VLUGT - FRASER REW - TERRY BROWN - ANDREW SPOONER - MATT MULLAMPHY - IAN THOMSON
6- GRIFF WARE - TIM PAN - LYSANDRA ZHENG - MIKE DOECKE - DAVID WILTSHIRE
7- ELLA JACOB - JOACHIM HAFFER - BEN THOMPSON - GEORGE KOZAKOS
8- LEON MEIER - GEO TISLEVOLL - MICHAEL SMART - PETER GILL - DAVID HUDSON
9- MICHAEL CARTMELL - JUDITH TOBIN - LINDA KING - RUTH TOBIN - ANITA CURTIS - NICK FAHRER
10 - CHRISTY GEROMBOUX - SEBASTIAN YUEN - BOB SEBESFI - RICHARD DOUGLAS
3 - CHRISTY GEROMBOUX - SEBASTIAN YUEN
Runners Up - LEON MEIER - GEO TISLEVOLL - MICHAEL SMART - PETER GILL - DAVID HUDSON
Nuremberg at the ANU Film Group
The Embassy of the USA is presenting Nuremberg at the ANU Film Group this Friday night – 30 January –as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Members of the CBC are invited to attend for free. All details such as the venue and the starting time and a trailer can be found here: https://events.humanitix.com/anu-film-group-screening-nuremberg
If you are interested, please register. Bring a friend.
Have a great week everyone!
Elizabeth
