Wellington Region Junior League 2025

Many congratulations to Murray Lobb on winning the Wellington Region Junior League 2025 with 69 points.

Craig Jackson was in second place with 49 points.

Importantly, this is the third consecutive year in which a Waikanae player has won this title, and the second consecutive year in which a Waikanae player has also placed second.

Very well done gentlemen!

Waikanae Junior Pairs

Our annual half day Junior tournament took place on Sunday 2nd November.

The event was very well supported with 15 full tables and players from a wide range of clubs from as far afield as Palmerston North and Wellington.  24 Waikanae members entered the event, including a significant number of  our novice players - well done to them.

I would like to thank everybody who contributed to a great day, but in particular:

• Chris Farrow for his excellent organisation of the event and for also handling the scoring (which was not without incident!)
• Anne Ricketts for directing in her usual calm and relaxed manner
• Vicky Young and Roz King for the catering
• Rae Lutman, Ady Dale and Fiona McDonald-Bates for their general assistance and running the bar

The event was won by the novice pairing of Miriam Tankersley and Victoria Liddicoat from Palmerston North - a great effort from such a young pairing.  In second place were Julie Affleck and Steve Parsons from Otaki, and 3rd were our own Di Andrews and Phil Gavey.  

Outside the top three, the top Novice/Novice pair were David Chalmers (Waikanae) and Corinda Taylor (Paraparaumu) and the top Junior/Novice pair were Ellie Molloy and Angus Kirtlan (Hutt).

(photos courtesy of Chris Farrow)

Many congratulations to all the winners.

Thank you to everyone for your support - I hope you enjoyed your afternoon.

(photo courtesy of Rae Lutman)

Loveblock Pairs - Results

Novice Grade

Liz Campbell and Roz King - 7th⭐⭐⭐

Mixed Grade

Graeme Norman and Carol Hogan - 10th⭐⭐

Lorraine Gaffaney and Sue Osborne - 18th⭐⭐

Open Restricted

Anthea Black and Naciye Bagci - 43rd

Kevin Walker and Helen Walker - 76th

Overall Placings (in the top 100)

Graeme and Carol - 42nd

Anthea and Naciye - 62nd

Lorraine and Sue - 66th

These are nationwide results - many congratulations to everyone, with a special shout out to Liz and Roz for a fantastic result in the Novice Grade.

Waikanae Junior Pairs 2025

This year's half-day Junior Pairs tournament will take place on Sunday 2nd November. 

All Junior and Novice players are eligible and very welcome.

Please enter through the NZBridge website here.

Quadrangular Match

Kapiti/Horowhenua Quadrangular Tournament

This year's Quadrangular match between Otaki, Levin, Paraparaumu and Waikanae took place on Sunday 21st September at Otaki.  

I am pleased to report that Waikanae retained the shield.  

Our Open quartet (Derek Snelling and Isobel Ross, Helen Walker and Angela Gattsche) and our Junior team (Craig Jackson and Murray Lobb, Hugh Wolfensohn and Gillian van Raalte) both won their respective grades and our Intermediate team (Lorraine Gaffaney and Vicky Young, Rezea Morgan and Karen Hutchins) placed 2nd in their group, giving us the overall win by a substantial margin.

A big shout out to the Otaki Club for their generous hospitality.

Next year's event will be hosted by Waikanae on Saturday 19th September 2026.

Kapiti Horowhenua Area Pairs (KHAP)

Up-to date KHAP  results:

Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9

Detailed results may be found on the Levin Bridge Club website.

The current Ladder may be found here.

Multigrade Tournament Sunday 3rd August

Our annual Multigrade tournament was held on Sunday 3rd August with 23 tables making it a very full room.  Special thanks to Anne Ricketts for her splendid organisation of the event, Bryan Green from Levin for directing and Maureen Pratchett for scoring, as well as the large group of  behind-the-scenes helpers in the kitchen, behind the bar and doing the setup before and clean up afterwards.

The tournament winners were the visiting Grandmaster pairing of Charles Ker (who also won our Open Pairs in February) and Russell Dive with a total score of 130.34%.  Second were John Donbavand and Murray McMillan on 123.96%.  Maureen Pratchett and Murray Lobb were in 4th place overall (also winning the Open/Junior category).  Liesbet Gavey and Viv Gray won the Junior/Junior category, and Graham Cheater and Anthea Black were 1st E/W overall in the afternoon session. 

(Thanks to Steve Ricketts for the above photos)

Many congratulations to all involved in what was without doubt a very successful and enjoyable day.

Recent Results

KHAP Round 5

Lorraine Gaffaney and Vicky Young were 1st overall with 62.91%, and Naciye Bagci and Anthea Black were 3rd with 58.93%.

Selected results from Sunday 20th July:

Rae Lutman and Ady Dale were 1st N/S in the afternoon session of the Karori Intermediate Pairs.

Anthea Black and Naciye Bagci placed 5th overall in the Levin OpenPairs.

Jim Gordon and Laura Kelly placed 2nd overall in the Paraparaumu Junior Pairs. In the afternoon session, Murray Lobb and Craig Jackson were 2nd N/S and Gillian van Raalte and Hugh Wolfensohn were 2nd E/W.

Wellington Regional Club Championships

As previously advised, the Wellington Regional Club Championships took place on 12th July.

I'm delighted to report that the Waikanae team placed 2nd, equal on points with Otaki, and only 2 points behind the winners, Wellington.

In the Open grade John Donbavand and Pryor Rowland were 4th with 52.04%.  In the Restricted grade Angela Gattsche and Helen Walker came 2nd with 54.26%.  In the Intermediate grade Nicky Bradley and Vicky Young were 9th, while in the Junior grade Murray Lobb and Craig Jackson placed 3rd with 55.09%.

Pride of place goes to Laura Kelly and Jim Gordon, who won the Novice competition with a score of 61.48%.

Congratulations to all on an excellent result - and thanks also to Kevin Walker, who was both Director and Scorer for the event.

Waikanae/Paraparaumu Interclub

The annual Waikanae v Paraparaumu Interclub event took place yesterday (6th April).  Both clubs fielded 13 pair teams made up of players of all grades.

The day's individual winners were:

• 1st Ady Dale and Rae Lutman (Waikanae)
• 2nd Jeanne Wardill and Graham Cheater (Waikanae)
• 3rd Margaret Jamieson and Gillian Travers (Paraparaumu)

The shield was regained by Waikanae by a margin of 56.42 percentage points.

Many congratulations to Ady and Rae for the overall win, and thanks to all who took part in what was a very enjoyable afternoon. Special thanks to Maureen for both directing and scoring, and - as always - also to those who contributed behind the scenes.

Bob Jennings (President, Paraparaumu) hands over the shield

Update - thanks to Chris Farrow, the shield has already been brought up to date with the 2025 result added (click on the photo to enlarge):