Newsletter 9 April 2026
In our newsletter this week...
- Vale Pat Back
- April is Red MP Month!
- Beginners Lessons
- Working Bee - 11th April
- Upcoming Events
- Results
- Online Lesson with Will
- Red Point Graded Butler Pairs - Saturday 18 April
- Scongress - 17 May - Sweet or Savoury?
- Lighter Moments
Vale Pat Back (1928–2026) R.I.P.
Pat Back was a highly respected and much-valued member of the Australian bridge community whose lifelong connection and contribution to the game spanned many decades and regions.
Bridge was very much part of Pat’s heritage. Her mother represented New South Wales, and her brother, Dick Cummings, was a distinguished international player for Australia.
Together with her husband Ken, Pat played a key role in developing bridge in North Queensland. They were instrumental in establishing the Townsville Bridge Club in the early 1970s, contributing to the construction of its clubhouse, and Pat convened the inaugural Townsville Congress. Both served as club President before later moving to Canberra.
In the ACT, Pat was an active player and administrator. She represented the ACT in the Australian National Championships (ANC) in the Women’s Team (1988) and Seniors’ Teams (1993, 1994 and 2005), and served as non-playing captain of the Women’s Team in 1998 and the Seniors’ Team in 1996. She also convened the 1993 ANC in Canberra, held at the Lakeside, a landmark event that included the first Interstate Seniors Teams.
At club level, Pat enjoyed success as a player, including winning the Ted Crichton Mixed Pairs Championship in 1992.
In later years, Pat returned to Queensland and remained involved in bridge at Redland Bridge Club.
Although Pat has not been part of our club community for many years, she will be remembered by many long-standing members as a capable player, generous administrator, and for her achievements and service to bridge.
~Mary
Kaye Burke, a long time member of Grand Slam and more recently Canberra Bridge Club passed away on March 26th 2026 after a battle with Motor Neurone Disease.
April is Red MP Sponsored Pairs Month!
During the month of April we will be holding RED Masterpoint events for selected sessions named after our sponsors, to give all players the opportunity to earn red masterpoints.
To be promoted to State Master or beyond, you need at least 25 red masterpoints, as well as your green masterpoints.
- If you play with the same partner over the three weeks, your cumulative score will determine your final place,
- No pre-entry is required. The table money is the same.
- Master points awarded for 3/3 scores or 2/2 for RB
The selected April events are as follows:
- 8 April - 22 April Wednesday evening f2f : Pacific Pairs
- 10 April - 24 April Friday morning f2f: TBIB Pairs
- 10 April - 24 April Friday afternoon f2f: Colourful World Pairs
- 13 April - 20 April Monday afternoon RB and Monday evening RB
- 14 April - 28 April Tuesday afternoon f2f: Travel Associates Pairs
- 16 April - 23 April Thursday afternoon RB
Beginners Lessons
Question: Do you know the best form of advertising our bridge classes for beginners?
Answer: Via word of mouth. So share your love of the game with your kids, neighbours, friends, baristas, colleagues, person next to you on the light rail and let them know that the next round of Beginners Classes starts in April.
Outdoor Working Bee Saturday April 11th at 9 am
A reminder that this is happening on Saturday. if you can help please bring gloves, spades, pruning saws, mattocks etc. It will be heavy work:
- Removing woody weeds
- Installing more brown irrigation piping
- Installing some stepping stones through a garden bed
- Preparing the ground for some new plantings.
If you can help, please contact Jennifer Yeats on 0412031903 or
Upcoming Events
The next Tuesday night competition is the 2 weeks BFACT State Open Swiss Matchpoint Pairs (incl BFACT Mixed Pairs Champ). This event will run from 14th to 21st April 2026 and will start at 7pm.
Graded Butler Pairs Saturday inc ANC Country Team Selection - Details:
- Where: CBC
- When: Saturday 18 April from 9:45 to 5:15pm
- Director: Steve Geddes
- Cost: $24 for full members, $20 for concessional members and $30 for non-members
- Click here to register - you will be charged on the day of the event, registration is free
Results
The winners of the BFACT State Open Butler Pairs are:
- Jade WIlkinson and Stephen Fischer
- Vanessa Brown and Will Jenner O'Shea
- Niek Van Vucht and Bruce Crossman
Woohoo!
Online Lesson with Will
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.
Next lesson is on "Showing Stoppers after Minors". Purchase through the link below.
Click here to purchase - live lesson on April 16th at 9:30am
Youth Shoutout
A strong Youth Bridge program can only occur with dedicated people supporting us, nurturing beginner players and mentoring. This week I'd like to say a particular thank you to Andrew Spooner, a top class Youthish player who is always willing to answer bridge questions at any level.
Youthish Nights
The next Youthish Nights are being held at the Club on Friday April 24 and May 15.
Entry is FREE and there will be a Pizza dinner!
All experience levels are welcome, no partner required.
Come to either session or both!
- Session 1: 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
- Dinner: 6:30 PM - 7:00 PM
- Session 2: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Contact CBC Youth Coordinator Suz Wilkinson
Youthish Teams
Online teams practice is available for Youthish players and mentors who are able to play a 24 board session. It’s being held at 7pm on Friday April 10.
Please enter in advance. Details and sign up can be found HERE.
Scongress - Sweet or Savoury?
Playing bridge while eating freshly baked scones is a match made in heaven. You can do this once a year at CBC at the SCONGRESS. Put Sunday 17 May in your diary and Enter HERE
This is a fundraising event for ACT's International players to help pay for their flights and accommodation.
There will also be a raffle with some excellent prizes. Your support will assist the next generation of bridge players!
Red Point Graded Butler Pairs - Saturday 18th April
On Saturday the 18th April 2026, the Canberra Bridge Club will be running its second all day, red-point event of the year. The last one in February attracted Thirty Three tables and was a great day of bridge. If you missed out (or if you had a fantastic time in February) please get your skates on and enter in our next event.
The purpose of this event is two-fold. First is to select the ACT Regional Team (under 300 Masterpoints) for the upcoming Australian National Championships in July. Each year the ANC travels from one capital to another and this is Canberra’s turn in this eight year cycle. If both members of your pair have less than 300 Masterpoints and if you are interested in representing the ACT during the ANC during the week from Monday 6th July through to Friday the 10th July, please consider nominating.
Even if you are not interested in nominating to represent the State, we will be running a side event alongside the Team selection. This will be a graded pairs, very similar to the event we ran in February. Pairs will play seven rounds in what is known as a Swiss Movement. The beauty of a Swiss movement is that all the pairs are ranked based on their performance during the day. The current top two pairs then play each other, third and fourth play each other, etcetera….all the way down to last versus second to last.
The field will also be graded – likely into A, B and C grades with a possible additional category for current supervised players, subject to numbers. The exact subdivisions will be decided closer to the time, based on entries.
Each round the draw is redone based on current rankings, so as the day progresses you will progressively play against pairs who are doing about as well as you are. If you are doing well, you will be playing your rivals. If you are doing poorly, you can commiserate with others who are also taking all the wrong finesses.
This event will be a great chance to try a new way of playing bridge. Scoring at the club is usually done via what is known as Matchpoint scoring (where all the results on a board are ranked from top to bottom. The best pair scoring 100% an the worst performing pair scoring 0%). The Saturday special events are scored using IMPs – in IMPs scoring your ranking is not as important as the magnitude by which you beat the other pairs sitting your direction. So Games and Slams are far more valuable and overtricks are far less.
Many consider it a more pure form of bridge and it offers a novel excuse when you do score badly. Rather than blaming yourself or your partner, you get to mutter the well known bridge refrain “We were screwed by the datums!”
The day will run from 9-45 and should finish around 5-15. There will be a one hour break for lunch which participants will need to organise themselves. Drinks and nibbles will be provided at the end of play for the announcement of winners.
The cost for the day is two regular sessions (so $24 for full members, $20 for concessional members and $30 for non-members).
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to Elizabeth, Steve or Jodi or any of the directors. Although there is no guarantee, if you want to play but don’t have a partner we will do our best to find someone you will enjoy the day with.
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
A big thank you to the Social Committee for giving Easter eggs to all players on Good Friday. The extra chocolate put a pep into everyone’s step, and in particular the Easter raffle recipient, Roger Busch!
Good luck to all the bridge players now playing by relying only their wits and memories of Steve’s excellent teaching and mentoring over the last few months. Last Friday was the first session graduates pondered their own hands, interpreted their partner’s bids, bid and played without Steve’s guidance and notes. We hope your future is filled with many enjoyable games of bridge.
Best wishes
Tamara
