Newsletter - 19 November 2021

 

From the President

As most of you would be aware, the kitchen reopened on Tuesday. Please follow the COVID instructions and only have one person at a time in the kitchen. Please also remember that helpers are needed to clean the kitchen at the end of play.

With Christmas fast approaching, this year with Christmas on a Saturday, the Club will be closed on Friday, December 24 and Saturday, 25 December. However, the Club will be open on both New Year’s eve (Friday, 31 December) and New Year’s day (1 January).

Enjoy your bridge and stay safe.

 

Margaret

 

 

Deakin opens its doors, limit of one in the kitchen!

CBC welcomes the return to face to face bridge. 

The kitchen has now reopened for members to use, on the same basis as applied before the recent lockdown so only one person in the kitchen at any time.  The kitchen access document has been reissued and is available on the website.  The kitchen reopening also means the kitchen will require cleaning following each session.

Can any member who is willing to nominate themselves as a regular cleaner for this duty, please email Tim Mather at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Duties include :-

• preparing kitchen for opening prior to play
• wiping down benches in kitchen
• check playing rooms for all glasses and cups and placing all used items in dishwasher
• start dishwasher when full
• prepare kitchen for overnight storage of perishable items

Many thanks for your help!

 

A month and a week to Christmas!

Upon entry, after reading COVID plans and scanning, you should notice our wonderful Christmas raffle for the Club, tickets are 3 for $5.  Please support as a portion of sales go to our worthy charity BeyondBlue.

The committee has decided to put up our Christmas tree and decorations next Monday afternoon 22 November, beginning at 1.45pm. Committee members will be there but we would like some extra members to volunteer to help with this work and a few other tasks at the club (moving chairs etc.).

 

Face to Face Sessions at the Club

The week beginning 22 November 2021, we will increase our F2F sessions at the Club premises to:

• Monday morning 10am
• Tuesday afternoon 1.00pm
• Wednesday morning 10.00am
• Wednesday  evening 7.15pm (NB No  parallel RealBridge session)
• Thursday morning 10.00am (Duplicate but not Butler) and 
• Friday morning 9.30am NB early start
• Friday morning Supervised 9.30 lesson at the Club and 10am play

CBC COVID Plan Updated

CBC’s new COVID Plan andChecklist  have been revised to reflect the arrangements for the return to face-to-face bridge and are available on the website and in the Club entry hall. If you are coming to the club please refresh your memory of requirements.  

Online RealBridge Session Times 

Member Table money will be deducted from players CBCPay accounts. Visitors fees will be paid for by their member-partner, or via prior arrangement by emailing the office.

Cost: $8 members/visitors, $7 concession members (including event).

Starting times for some online sessions have moved 15 minutes later to accommodate the return of the parallel session at the Club.  

• Monday Morning 10.15am
• Monday Afternoon 2:00pm
• Monday Evening 7:00pm
• Monday Evening 7:15pm - EVENT, final week of the State OpenTeams Event with the final two top teams to play on Wednesday evening
• Tuesday Afternoon 1:15pm
• Wednesday Morning 10am
• Thursday Morning 10:10am - Butler
• Thursday Afternoon 2.00pm
• Friday Afternoon 1:15pm
• Saturday Afternoon 1:15pm

Links to sessions are on our RealBridge page.

 

Upcoming Online Events

 

Inaugural Grand National Novice Pairs (GNNP) 2021

Good luck to CBC members competing on Saturday in the inaugural novice pairs! The start time is 1pm on Realbridge.  

 

CBC Swiss Pairs (Imps) 

• Monday Evenings at 7:15pm (29 November, 6 & 13 December), via the link on the RealBridge page. You MUST have pre-registered your pair.
• Butler(imps) Pairs event using a Swiss format with three or four matches per night depending on entries 
• Red Masterpoints
• Pre-entry is essential - via the online entry form. Entries must be received by 5pm Friday 26 November.
  
• Cost: $8 visitors/members, or $7 concession members per night. All table money is paid by your CBCPay account. Visitors fees will be charged to their member-partner.

Beginners Lessons in 2022

The Club is planning and scheduling face to face bridge beginner lessons commencing in the first week of February 2022, on Wednesday evenings (2 Feb - 9 Mar)  and Friday mornings (4 Feb - 11 Mar).  Please note and share with friends and family. 

 

Master the Basics

Master the Basics, is on each week at 9:00am on Thursday mornings before the duplicate sessions, for approximately half an hour. 
The lessons are available throughout the lockdown on Zoom. To receive the Zoom link, please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

MTB caters for a range of abilities and each week covers a fundamental concept to an increased level of mastery. Students who have done a Beginners Course and/or some Supervised play and have limited experience are welcome to attend. With more experience you will still benefit from a deeper understanding of the concept being discussed. 

No registration is needed.
Cost is $6 for CBC Members (paid via CBCPay) and $8 for Non-Members.

Download the MTB Lesson Schedule

 

Supervised Play

Thanks to all the supervised players that have managed to respond to Barbara's survey this week. Please feel free to respond  if you haven't already.  The Club has take the decision to return to Face to Face on Friday mornings commencing 26 November.  

 

 Results

The ACT Seniors Team finished second in the Australian National Championships.  Congratulations to Bruce Crossman, Niek Van Vucht, Ross Crichton, Pam Crichton, Tony Marker and Bill Tutty!

George Kozakas playing the Australian National Butler Pairs Championship finished second with his Adelaide partner.  Congratulations George!

 

 Cue Bidding by Joan Butts

 

• Cue bidding is an effective way to check for controls when deciding whether to bid slam or not
• Cue bidding shows which controls the partnership holds, not simply how many (Blackwood)
• Cue bidding occurs when a fit has been clearly agreed and you’re in at least a game force
• First round controls are aces and/or voids
• Second round controls are kings and/or singletons
• Show first and/or second round controls together (easier)
• Cue bidding starts with the lowest-ranked control, and continues upwards
• Any step missed means no control of that suit
• Don’t show controls in trumps; bidding the trump suit is the way to stop the cue-bidding process
• Use Blackwood to find out about controls in the trump suit
• Cue bidding and Blackwood work very well together

Which way to finesse? with Ian Morison

You are in 6H on this deal:

Declarer 

AK

QJ1087

 765

 K104

 

Dummy

56

AK962

 AK10

 AJ6

The H4 is led by W, and after 2 rounds trumps are cleared.

You take stock. It looks like you will lose a Diamond and then, apparently, it depends whether you get the Club finesse right. 50:50 chance to make 6H?

You look a little deeper. If the DQ and DJ are doubleton, they will fall under DA, DK, promoting your D10. Or if East has both DQ and DJ, if you lead diamonds from North twice, then the 10 must make.

Then you think some more. Neither E nor W have bid, they play smoothly, and they are sitting stony faced. Not much help there in finding CQ.

What if you play 2 more rounds of trumps (Hearts) and Diamonds are discarded by E and W? Then maybe playing DA and DK clears DQ and DJ, setting up the D10?

All these are slim chances, but that’s what bridge is about – taking the long shots to make the game/slam, or just extra tricks for a higher percentage score over other players sitting your way.

But in the end, it looks like you will need to take the Club finesse one way or the other. Toss of a coin which way is correct.

The finesse can be made greater than 50:50 by say leading C10 from table. Maybe East will cover with CQ thinking this might promote West’s CJ (if West has this)? If East does not cover with CQ, and you put up the CK, there is a small chance W has the CQ single. [This could be done the other way just as easily.]

But then you have a eureka moment. No need to finesse. Let the opponents do the finessing for you!

You play two more rounds of Hearts (just Spades are thrown by E and W), then SA, SK, DA, DK (watching if DQ and DJ fall, but no luck there).

Then you simply play D10. Either E or W win this, and presto they are endplayed – either they give you a ruff and a Club discard (by leading a Spade or a Diamond), or they lead a Club, giving you your ‘finesse’ risk free.

Endplays are hard to spot, and usually far more complex than the above, but always worth looking for.

Ian Morison

Bridge lover (and not a great endplay spotter)

 

The Odd Game

  If you're interested in playing casually as a fill in please email us and we'll keep your details handy.  It is wonderful having flexible reserves who don't mind filling in when partners are sick, forget or for people who don't have partners.  Thanks to Meurine Thomas for filling in recently more than once.

 

Moonraker Hand

It's timely with the latest James Bond offering screening at movies now to reflect on some earlier 007 magic.  Thanks to the Raunds Bridge Club and Ian VIckers for provision of the Bridge Hand below

This is from the James Bond book, Moonraker although it was changed to a Canasta game for the film. The deal is shown below.

James Bond is partnering M against arch villain Drax and his partner Meyer. Being Bond he was able to magically swap the real pack of cards for a pack he had secreted away earlier as one does:-) There is a lot of money at stake on this hand and Drax, sitting East opens the bidding at 6 No Trumps. Bond, sitting South overcalls with 7 clubs! When the bidding gets to Drax he obviously doubles. Bond, as you might expect, redoubles.

Bond ruffs the diamond lead in dummy and then finesses the clubs. Following that, he ruffs another diamond in dummy and finesses clubs again. Every card in Bond's hand is now a winner and Drax has to pay up.

On any other lead, (hearts or spades), Bond would ruff in his own hand and then cross to Dummy with a diamond ruff where he would finesse the clubs as before.

 

 2021 Word of the Year

strollout: the slow implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination program in Australia.

Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout, which made headlines both at home and abroad in 2021, has inspired the Australian National Dictionary Centre’s word of the year.

Strollout was chosen from a long list of words and phrases widely used by Australians in a year once again dominated by COVID-19.

Each year the Centre, based at The Australian National University (ANU), selects a word or expression that has gained prominence in the Australian landscape.

The Centre’s Director, Dr Amanda Laugesen, says that this year there were inevitably words related to the COVID-19 vaccination program.

"These became part of the everyday language of ordinary Australians," she said.

“As the Delta strain of COVID-19 spread around Australia the urgency of vaccinating the population became clear, with words like vaccination hubs, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine passports, vaccine rollout, and double vaxxed gaining prominence.

“Large-scale programs to vaccinate millions were implemented worldwide. In Australia the rollout was initially described by political leaders as ‘not a race’. For many Australians, the pace of the rollout was considered too slow.

"The Australian term strollout captured this mood. The slowness of the rollout didn’t change momentum until vaccination was seen as the ‘pathway to freedom’, particularly as case numbers rose in NSW,” Dr Laugesen said.

The term even made its way into high-profile international publications like The Washington Post.

“It’s yet another example of how a truly Australian expression can make waves globally,” Dr Laugesen said.

“It’s also captured a very particular moment in our nation’s history. The pandemic has had a profound impact on our society and lives.”

Some of the words on the Centre’s shortlist reflect the impact of the continuing pandemic, but also include terms related to the ongoing climate emergency and to regional security.

The full 2021 shortlist includes:

• double-vaxxed: having received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Clayton’s lockdown: a lockdown considered to be inadequate to slow the rate of COVID-19 community transmission.
• Fortress Australia: Australia regarded as a country protected and isolated from other countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• AUKUS: a security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States centred on the Indo-Pacific region.
• net zero: a target of offsetting the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity through reduction measures.

 In case you missed it, the 2020 word of the year was iso!