GEELONG BRIDGE CLUB NEWSLETTER VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 M a y 2 0 2 1 From the President 148-152 Portarlington Road, Newcomb VIC WELCOME BACK! PO Box 1546 Geelong VIC 3220 We are well and truly back to normal, currently running six sessions (03) 5248 2978 per week, including two popular supervised play sessions, Tues morning and Thursday evening. Recently, with Pizza Sunday included, we ran seven sessions in one week. Dot Read, with assistance from Geoff, has recently completed two training courses, following which 25 new members joined the club. This is a great result. The Thursday night supervised play is catering for new members who still work and will continue until July. After that they will be ready to play Wednesday evenings, albeit with initial help from mentors. Disappointingly, a relatively new member recently resigned. I phoned to find out why, and was informed she club.org - was treated harshly when she played on a Thursday. It is totally against the club’s ethos to treat anyone, and especially new players, harshly or with disrespect, regardless of them perhaps playing poorly. A huge effort has gone into getting and fostering new members. We don’t want this undone by one or two discourteous members. For many years we have used the bridge scoring software ASE 9, and it has served us very well. However it is no longer supported with software updates, and is now problematic. Consequently the Match Committee has recommended, and the Committee has agreed, that we switch to the widely used and well supported program, Compscore 2. Early this year we sent members a copy of the club’s Strategic Plan. In it we listed near and long term priorities. Now that we have more www.geelong.bridge clarity regarding the cost of the car park, consistent with the strategic plan, we are considering proceeding with a number of projects. Continued next page P a g e 2 Continued from previous page Replacement of carpets. Lead by Jennifer Blyton, the committee will consider quotes for the replacement of the well-worn clubroom carpet, with either carpet, carpet squares or wooden flooring. External painting of club rooms. Some repairs will first need to take place. Quotes are being sought for painting the club rooms. Landscaping. On completion of the carpark there will no longer be parking on the grassed area on our eastern boundary. This area will be planted with trees, albeit small trees that will not damage the drive way. We will also consider improvements to general landscaping. We have two large water tanks which I understand have not been used for six or more years. Consequently we will consider connecting these tanks to water the gardens at the front of the club rooms, and also, reconnecting them to flush toilets. Currently GBC spends around $270 pa on water attributable to toilet flushing. Garden water without tanks would cost up to a further $200 pa. Best Wishes Alan Blackburn President Grand National Open Teams (GNOT) The Grand National Open Teams (GNOT) competition is one of the ABF’s broad-based events with sixty teams selected from clubs/regions nationwide to play-off in the National Final. Two teams from Western Victoria Region are selected for the GNOT. BARWON team is selected from ten teams - six from Geelong Bridge Club (GBC), three from Ocean Grove and one from Torquay; the teams will play in the final to be held at the GBC on 26 September 2021. Three teams each from the Open Teams and Helen Drinnan competitions make up the six GBC teams. The WESTERN VICTORIA team is selected after a pairs’ event in Ballarat. The event is limited to players with less than 500 masterpoints every alternate year. Since the 2020 event was cancelled, entry in 2021 is restricted to players with less than 500 masterpoints. GBC members, with less than 500 masterpoints, should contact Ballarat Bridge Club to enter in the event scheduled on 11 July 2021. This year the GNOT final will be held in Brisbane and not the Gold Coast (as in previous years). Piyush Jain P a g e 3 Club Results Restricted Pairs NS Restricted Pairs EW Thursday 22 April Thursday 22 April !st P Carland, G Barfoot 1st J Prowse, D Casey 2nd J Flitton, P Smigowski 2nd L Johnston, J Munro 3rd J McGonigal, M McMahon 3rd K Fraser, M Sinclair Restricted Pairs Restricted Pairs Thursday 29 April Thursday 29 April (cont.) 1st J Prowse, D Casey 4th P Carland, G Barfoot 2nd A Blackburn, K Thomas 5th P Horan, J Horan club.org/ 6th L Bennetto, P Donoghue - 3rd K Fraser, M Sinclair Restricted Pairs Restricted Pairs Overall Result (cont.) Overall Result 1st J Prowse, D Casey 4th K Fraser, M Sinclair 2nd P Carland, 5th J Flitton, G Barfoot P Smigowski www.geelong.bridge 3rd A Blackburn, 6th L Johnston, J Munro K Thomas GEELONG BRIDGE CLUB INC. P a g e 4 CAR PARK UPDATE No date has been decided for the commencement of construction, nevertheless progress is being made in preparation for a start. • We have advised the selected contractors of their selection. • Following a Council of Greater Geelong (CoGG) request, we have written to CoGG advising suitable dates for the official launch of the project, suggesting a Thursday at 1200 pm. We have provided the Mayor with a suggested program, and details about the project. • We have made contact with the project officer with CoGG with whom we will liaise. We have provided her with the information required to populate the contract documents that GBC and CoGG will sign. CoGG has advised that their solicitors are updating the pro forma contract forms that Grant recipients need to sign. Documents cannot be signed until this is completed. CoGG has requested that we make further contact on 24 May. We are hopeful that contracts will be signed shortly after that. • We have requested confirmation and clarification re how CoGG will pay GST, and clarification on what process to follow if we seek to access Grant funds for contingency items. • GBC has to get the project approved by CoGG’s Planning Department. We have been assisted with this by an excellent Planning Consultant. CoGG has required GBC to reinstate kerbing where the informal crossover exists. A quote of $1600 exc GST has been provided from our contactor. This cost will be added to ‘contingencies’. • Advertise the project. A sign was placed in the front of our allotment and remained there for two weeks to 16 May. • The Maintenance Committee has recommended that trees on the west side of the existing car park be removed prior to construction, as their roots will likely affect the new car park. Quotes are being sought for this work. GBC will seek to have the cost included under ‘contingencies’. Alan Blackburn NEW MEMBERS The Geelong Bridge Club welcomes the following new and re-joining members: Christine Anketell Sue Dunn Andrea McVean Sheridan Ayton Brian Baldwinson David Frederick Jacqui Mitchell Julie Heath Chris Baum Sheila Hedderick James Powell Aileen Ingles Sue Bennett Pam Jackman Judy Ramage Richard Giles (affiliate) Lisa Cheshire Peter Jackman Julie Reid Heather Comisel Bryan Johnston Heather Ryan Michael Currie Pat Longland Sherryn Van Den Bosch Megan Dean Sue McDermott P a g e 5 Bidding the Unbiddable Many thanks to Doug Newlands for this article. Sometimes we find ourselves with an unbiddable hand because the opponents have rudely intruded in the auction. Consider Hand 1. Hand 1 When partner opened 1C, you intended bidding 1H, but your right hand S: 87 opponent bid 1S. Now what? There is no real problem here. You can bid H: KQ1065 2H since you have the required 5+ cards and the 11+ HCP. Thus you bid D: AK8 2H and the auction carries on normally after 1C-(1S)-2H. (Bids in brackets C: 765 are the opponents’ bids). Now consider Hand 2 after the same start of 1C-(1S)-. Hand 2 You cannot bid No Trump without a stopper, you cannot raise Clubs S: 876 because partner may only have three of them and, most importantly, you H: KQ105 cannot bid 2H because you don’t have five of them nor do you have 11+ D: KQ8 HCP. It is always a problem, mainly with a four card Heart suit, when the C: 765 opponents bid Spades. Is there an answer? A similar problem arises with Hand 3 after 1C-(1S)-. Hand 3 Now you have the necessary 5+ cards in Hearts to bid them, but you are S: 87 well short of the 11 HCP which you would be promising if you did so. H: KQ10652 Again there is no obvious answer. You would like to bid 2H but without D: K8 promising 11+ HCP. You don’t want to pass in case the hand is passed C: 765 out. Is there an answer? Surprisingly, there are three answers to these problems. The first basic answer is the Negative Double (NEGX) which says three things: • I have the unbid major (usually Hearts) • I have 8-11 HCP but occasionally I will be stronger. But don’t worry about that, I will tell you later • You are not allowed to pass this double out. Why is it 8-11 and not 5-11? The answer is simple. If it goes 1C-(1S)--P-(P), partner will always find a bid with 18+ HCP and often with 16-17. If we have game values, 25 HCP and partner is borderline for a bid 16-17, we need to help him. That is why 8 is the minimum.