Newsletter 08 January 2026
In our newsletter this week...
- Vale Stephen Burgess
- Novice and Rookie Butler Championships Plus Graded Pairs
- New Members
- Rank Promotions
- Fundraising Appeal
- Lighter Moments
Vale Stephen Burgess
Stephen Burgess passed away January 3, 2026. Stephen had an illustrious career in Australia winning the Australian Open Team Playoffs numerous times and he was also the winner of many national championships. ABF has published an article to celebrate Stephen's life, click on the link below to view it.
Canberra Bridge Club Novice and Rookie Butler Championships
Plus Graded Pairs on Sat February 7th
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.
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.
Format:
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.
Cost and Entries:
- 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
New Members
Canberra Bridge Club welcomes the following new and returning members to our club:
- Annabelle Louys
- Ghassan Abdel Khalek
- Judith Davis-Lee
Rank Promotions for December 2025
Graduate
- Daly, Betty Ann
- Dyason, Anna
- Ryburn, Christine
Club
- Gleeson, Terrie
Local
- Kidney, Margaret
Bronze Local
- Carrel, Michael
- Edwards, Robin
- Thearle, Susie
Silver Local
- McCredie, Andrew
- Pejovic, Judy
Fundraising Appeal
The Rottnest Island 19.7km swim is now only six weeks away, and I am in full training mode, swimming 5 times a week and doing at least two kilometres each session. I am hoping to work my way up to 15 kilometres a week. When I swam it solo, I was doing 30 kilometres a week, but I was much younger then!
Our fundraising is progressing slowly ($1600), and I would like to publicly thank the members who have supported me already. It is your support that will give me the strength to continue swimming on the day, when the wind, waves, and current are pushing against us. Any help you can give will help research into cardiomyopathy treatments. Who knows where it will strike next. It could be a member of your family.
The link to my fundraising page is https://rottnestchannelswim26.grassrootz.com/victor-chang-cardiac-research-institute/tim-mather
Any help you can provide to reach our goal of raising $3,500 would be greatly appreciated.
- Tim Mather
Lighter Moments
- What is a New Year’s resolution? Something that goes in one year and out the other.
Welcome back everyone, hope you've had a lovely break. My new year's resolution is to take up table tennis. Yes, I've been trying to learn this sport for the past 5 days now, not doing very well, I am spending all my time trying to get the ball back from under furniture.
Talking about taking up a new hobby, you would have noticed that we've started the year very well with lots of beginners joining our course. If you see new faces around, as always make them feel welcome.
Looking forward to another great year of fun bridge and best of luck to all our members who will be playing at the SFOB from next week.
Elizabeth
