As they say in making movies, "that's a wrap". With 690 individual players from 95 clubs in 19 competitions across 13 days, the Australian National Championships and Central West Festival have been an enormous achievement. I extend thanks on behalf of the entire bridge community to the organisers, Rob Ward, Murray Paterson, Anne Tonna and the clubs who hosted the events.
Rob and the team have provided a masterclass on undertaking such a massive task and set the foundation for a future major event. The Central West Festival returns next year as a National Gold Points event in April. The Central West Festival has engaged a lot of clubs and players of all levels around Orange and across NSW. This will contribute to building our event player community and local clubs.
The Central West Festival will be a unique event on the annual Australian bridge calendar for its inclusivity and because it offers players and their partners quality side activities. The event brought new approaches to increasing enjoyment and participation and provided interesting options for other major events. We hope further promotion will deliver growth and attract even more interstate players.
Bridge NSW is enormously grateful to the many volunteers who have helped make this a success. We hope this event and other coming changes will help revitalise the game we love.
I also want to congratulate the victorious NSW teams in the Open, Seniors and Women's categories of the interstate teams.
Catherine Chaffey
Chair
Bridge NSW
Congratulations to the NSW Open, Women's and Seniors teams who all won their respective finals at the ANC in Orange.
The Youth team finished 4th in the qualifying.
Follow all of the action at the 84th Australian National Championships in the Big Slam Magazine.
» Big Slam Magazine Direct link better for iPads
Bridge NSW is now the state peak body for NSW and responsible for advancing the playing and enjoyment of Bridge in NSW. We look forward to working with clubs to reinvigorate Bridge in this State. The Board has established structures aimed at developing an inclusive and whole of community way of working with all our members.
We are most fortunate to have attracted a team of skilled and energetic people who are passionate about the future of Bridge to positions on the Bridge NSW Board, its standing Committees and the Bridge NSW Council. It is a great pleasure to introduce this outstanding team to you.
The Council represents the breadth of bridge clubs, and its primary responsibilities are the appointment of the Board (or dismissing them) and making By-Laws on the recommendation of the Board. It is one of the ways the Board connects with the member clubs. Board members, general counsel, ABF delegates, and special councillors (if any appointed by council) also attend Council meetings.
The Board is responsible for the operation of Bridge NSW in terms of developing Bridge in the state, the selection of state representatives and is the constituent entity with the ABF. The Board has established five standing Committees to assistit in advancing Bridge in NSW.
The members of the Council and Board, the membership of the committees and their purpose are included in the document below.
» Bridge NSW Introduction to Clubs
The website (bridgensw.com.au) will be launched in two phases. The first phase is expected to be completed by the end of August and will include the full details of the governance arrangements. Other existing functionality will be maintained on the old site (nswba.com.au) till later in the year.
The newly appointed Executive Officer, David Havyatt, should be your first point of contact with any enquiries or requested support. He can be reached by phone on 0477 52 52 52 (operational from 21 June) or by email at .
Bridge NSW, in collaboration with MyABF, will be providing an online demonstration of the benefits My ABF provides to clubs and how one club is using it on Wednesday 21 August from 6-7pm.
More details and how to register are in the document below.
» Bridge NSW / My ABF Webinar Inviation
Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Seniors Interstate Teams Selection.
2024 Seniors ITS Winners
Peter Buchen, Bruce Neill, Joan Butts, Pauline Gumby, Michael Courtney and Warren Lazer
Subject to ratification the team to represent NSW at the ANC Seniors Teams in Orange in July will be:
Joan Butts - Michael Courtney
Peter Buchen - Bruce Neill
Pauline Gumby - Warren Lazer
» results
Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Youth Interstate Teams Selection.
2024 Youth ITS Team
Sherry Wang,
Shannon Ooi,
Yiwei Qi,
Adrian Le,
Duncan Lai and
Aadhi Hariharan
Subject to ratification the team to represent NSW at the ANC Youth Teams in Orange in July will be:
Yiwei Qi - Adrian Le
Sherry Wang - Shannon Ooi
Duncan Lai - Aadhi Hariharan
» results
Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Women's Interstate Teams Selection.
2024 Women's ITS Winners
Marcia Scudder, Judy Mott, Sybil Hurwitz, Monica Ginsberg, Ella Jacob and Louise Leibowitz
Subject to ratification the team to represent NSW at the ANC Women's Teams in Orange in July will be:
Sybil Hurwitz, Monica Ginsberg
Marcia Scudder - Judy Mott
Louise Leibowitz - Ella Jacob
» results
Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Open Interstate Teams Selection.
2024 Open ITS Winners
Liam Milne, Dagmar Neumann, Maurits van der Vlugt, Tony Nunn, James Coutts and Paul Dalley
Subject to ratification the team to represent NSW at the ANC Open Teams in Orange in July will be:
Dagmar Neumann - Maurits van der Vlugt
Tony Nunn - Paul Dalley
Liam Milne - James Coutts
» results
Orange, 6-18 July 2024
Entries are now open for the Congress events and Butlers.
Enter via MyABF
Everything you need to know about the 2024 Australian National Championships is in the flipbook below.
The Teams of Three congress was held at the Sydney Bridge Centre on Sunday June 2. Hosted by Bridge NSW 34 teams competed in two sections.
1st in the Open was the Van Der Vlugt team - Maurits van der Vlugt, Mary Poynten, Tony White and Jake Andrew. !st in the Restricted was the Rosendorff team - Ian Jackson - Vicky Cahill - Steve English - Nigel Rosendorff. THe Best Novice team was the Beauchamp team - David Beauchamp, Maria Douglas, Pamela Bedwell, Midori Miyamoto.
The State Mixed Pairs Championships were held at the Sydney Bridge Centre on 18-19 May.
State Mixed Pairs
Winners
Sherlock Shao and Catherine Zhang
State Mixed Pairs
Best Country Pair
Alan Bustany and Di Coats
The Central Coast Leagues Club Bridge Club invites all players born before 1 Jan, 1961 to participate in the the 2024 State Seniors Championships on 28-31 May.
The championships promises to be a great open event for all bridge players of all skill levels. Both the Pairs and Teams events offer you a day and a half of bridge, lunch on the full days and drinks and nibbles at the end of each day's play. It will be held in the spacious Parkview Room at The Central Coast Leagues Club Gosford.
Details and entry are on My ABF
Bridge NSW is recruiting two part-time roles - an Executive Officer and a Marketing and Communications Officer.
It is desirable, but not required, that the successful candidates are bridge players and we encourage applicants from the NSW bridge community.
Please read or forward the role descriptions below to suitable candidates.
» Marketing and Communications Officer
Applications should be sent to by 5pm on Monday, 20 May 2024.
The ABF is sponsoring a series of online free lessons to be given by Paul Marston and Nevena Djurovic for 14 to 24 year olds commencing May 1.
Consultation on proposed Governance Arrangements,
Constitution and By-Laws of Bridge NSW now Finalised
Thank you to all Clubs and individuals who participated in the consultation process on the draft Constitution and By-Laws for Bridge NSW.
» Full details on the results of the consultation
Next steps
The next phase in the separation process is the approval by the ABF of Bridge NSW Limited as the constituent association of the ABF for New South Wales. This approval is expected to take place at the ABF AGM on 24 May. We expect that separation will occur soon thereafter, pending the completion of several administrative processes.
 
On behalf of the NSWBA Council and the BNSW Proxy Board, we are delighted to advise that at its Annual General Meeting held on 28 February, the members of the NSWBA voted to approve the Separation Proposal to separate the peak body functions of the NSWBA from its bridge club operations.
Continue reading to review the Draft Constitution and to provide feedback.
LAST CHANCE
To enter the Autumn Season of our Online Pairs League - suitable for everyone from Novices to Internationals!
Registrations close Friday April 5 (with later entries at Director's discretion) for the eight-week season starting next Tuesday evening, April 9 at 7:30pm.
Entries are now open for the NSWBA ANC Restricted Butler Pairs Qualifier, Tuesdays March 19 & 26 at 7.15pm on RealBridge.
All pairs who had fewer than 300 masterpoints at 31 December, 2023 and who are members of a club affiliated with the NSWBA are invited to play.
Prizes include a grant offered to the winning pair to attend the ANC Restricted Butler Pairs in Orange on 13-14 July. Other prizes (dependent on entries) include free entry to the ANC Restricted Butler Pairs and a restricted event in the Spring Nationals.
The grant, which will cover the ANC Restricted Butler Pairs entry fee, travel and accommodation is generously donated by the Australian Bridge Federation.
The ABF Foundation is auctioning Professionals and Leading Players to play in a Red-Point Session at 7pm (AEDT) on RealBridge on Tuesday 5 March 2024.
All proceeds go towards the ABF Foundation.
The Annual General Meeting of the Bridge NSW will be held at the NSWBA premises on Wednesday, 28 February, 2024 at 6pm.
Congratulations to Liam Milne, the winner of the McCutcheon Trophy for the most masterpoints earned in 2023 with 438.37 masterpoints.
For all McCutcheon lists go to National Masterpoint Reports
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