Members Corner Edition #1

Welcome to the Coffs Harbour Bridge Clubs inaugural Members Corner.

There have been many successes at the club these last couple of months with outstanding performances by Magda Kiraly, Ben Raaphorst, Libby Power and Betty Nevell who all did well in national events. Magda and Ben won the nationwide Bridge for Brains; and not content with that they then travelled to Port Macquarie for the final of the regional GNOT where they were placed 4th. On October 27th the club held its yearly Australia Wide Spring Pairs; Coffs Harbours Libby Power and Betty Nevell came 6th.These are great achievements for those members and the club is very proud of them. Libby also had a personal victory when she was awarded the ranking of Grand Master by the ABF having achieved the necessary master point's. Well done Libby

At the end of October the first round of the Presidents Plate took place. The event was held over 3 weeks and there was a winner for each 'flight' and then an overall winner. Congratulations to Eve Colley and Graham Stubbington who were the winners of the Presidents Plate for 2007. The last session was followed by the Presidents Cocktail Party where the winners were presented with their prizes. Member's partners were invited to come along and enjoy the festivities; the food was scrumptious and a good time was held by all.

November 23rd saw the resurrection of Swiss Pairs. This has always been a popular session; there were 9 tables that first afternoon and the club is hoping it will become a bi-monthly event.

The weekend of the 25th and 26th of November the Armidale Bridge club held it's Swiss Pairs & Teams Congress. Twelve members of the Coffs Harbour Bridge Club travelled for this event. It was a great weekend with a couple of successes; Barbara Herring and Elaine Hulbert won the restricted section of the Pairs and Bambi & Phil Houlton, Liz Quinn and Jenny Strickland won the second session of the Teams. Well done to you all.

The Christmas party on December 8th drew the members out of the woodwork and there were 28 tables. Members were allocated partners on the day which made the morning more fun. The party included many raffles throughout the morning. Most of the food was supplied by the members themselves and there was a good spread of Christmas goodies after play. Quite a few members went home not only feeling satisfied after such a good time but also sporting prizes for successes. It was a great day and thanks must be given to Robyn for organising the event.

On Monday, November 11th there was the AGM for 2006. A new committee was elected; we were sorry to see Phil Houlton stand down as President; he now is our Vice President and IT person. We welcome Cliff Mitchell who is our new President and Janene Sweet who is now the secretary. We look forward to their input into the club. Welcome to the committee you two. We were sorry to see Helen Blewitt stand down as vice president; we will miss you Helen. The usual trophies were awarded that morning and there was a slight mishap; poor Fay Chappell stood on her feet to say something, missed her footing and fell, hurting her hip. She was taken from the club (smiling) in an ambulance. I think Fay took the saying "any questions from the floor" quite literally!!

In October the club was saddened with the news that Cliff Booth had died. Cliff had been a member of the Bridge Club for many years and had only just retired from 'bridge life' a few months earlier. He became a life member in the year 2000 for his tireless work to the club. He became the Bridge Clubs first Publicity Officer and initiated the Novice Section. Our condolences go to his wife Dorothy and their three sons.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Blewitt family at this time. We all wish Christian a speedy recovery.

Christmas is upon us again and numerous members will be travelling many kilometres to spend the festive season with family and friends. If you are on the roads, please drive carefully. After 10 years in the new clubhouse the original Christmas tree was finally thrown out and replaced by a nice new one. The old one had become, tatty, smelly and 'mice pecked'. So on that note.....

The committee of the Coffs Harbour Bridge Club wishes its members a safe and happy Christmas

I hope you have enjoyed the first edition of the Members Corner; there will be an update in April. If you are going away to play in a congress please take your cameras and e mail any photos of members receiving prizes or just having fun; my address is barbaraherring@bigpond.com. Also please see me at the club so I can note any succeses that have happened outside the Coffs club; my biggest fear when I do something like this is that I leave someone or something out. It doesn't have to be all serious stuff, in fact the funnier the better. I did however feel it appropriate to omit the bit where myself and a member or two partied too hard in Armidale the Saturday night of their congress!. To keep this Members Corner alive and kicking it's important that I have a lot of input by you all. Until April; keep safe