1999 ANC, Perth

A warm welcome to all bridge players and welcome to Perth. We are delighted to have you here and hope your stay is enjoyable, friendly, happy, and the bridge even better than you had hoped for.

All ANC Committee and helpers are wearing name tags. If you need help please just ask one of us, or visit the hospitality booth near the Ballroom.

The venue for all Championship and Congress events is the Main Ballroom. Check the notice board in the foyer outside the Ballroom for the location of the event you will be playing in.

Wine tastings with nibbles are available at the end of Stage 1, 2 and 3 of the Butler Pairs in the Tasman Room on the Mezzanine floor.

The Welcome cocktail party is on Saturday evening July 17th. Tickets are available from the hospitality booth.

The Victory Dinner Dance, a night to be remembered, will be in the Harbour Suite on Friday 23rd. Enjoy great food and wine and dance to the band until midnight for just $50.00. Numbers are limited so get your tickets from the hospitality booth as soon as possible.

The magnificent Hotel Rendezvous has everything available you could want. The rooms are beautiful for those of you staying here with great services including a shuttle facility to the City, Fremantle and local shopping centres. There is a tropical heated swimming pool, fully supervised gym and sauna, and a tennis court. The hotel also contains four restaurants and three bars. Restaurants in the near vicinity are listed along with menus at the hospitality booth. Information on tours and places of interest are also available here. If you are a first time visitor to W.A. be sure to ask for this information.

The Australian Bridge Directors Association
Presents

Basic club level Director's course. Conducted by Matthew McManus.

Two sessions:
Tuesday 20th July (Laws)
3.00pm - 5.30pm

Wednesday 21st July
(Movements & Scoring).
3.00pm - 5.30pm

A take - home exam will be available at the end of the course.

Fee $30 - Exam $10

Numbers will be limited, so book early.
Enquiries & Bookings can be made with Wendy Jacobs

CONVENOR
Sue Surman

TREASURER
Graham Freind

ENTRIES SECRETARY
Allison Stralow

OFFICE
Jenny Elphick

PROMOTIONS
Sue Broad
Pam Perry

HOSPITALITY
Derek Pocock
Carol Pocock

BULLETIN EDITOR
Peter Jamieson

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Hilary Yovich

PUBLISHER
Ann Ohlsen

TYPISTS
Doris Keeble
Dorothy Oates
Joan Valentine
Paula Sanders

ABF TOURNAMENT UNIT

CHAIRMAN
Eric Ramshaw

APPEALS CHAIRWOMAN
Ivy Dahler

TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR
Richard Grenside

FLOOR DIRECTOR
Chris Diment

CHIEF SCORER
Martin Willcox

WELCOME COCKTAIL PARTY

Saturday 17th July 6.30pm
Tasman Room

ANC Official Opening
$20 per person

HOTEL PARKING SPECIAL

$5.00 PER VOUCHER
Available at the Concierge's Desk
You may park all day for $5.00 or pay $5.00 for each entry per day

There will be free wine tasting after each section of the Butler Pairs on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, thanks to Killerby Wines, Plantaganet Wines and Voyager Estate Wines.

These sessions will be held in the Tasman Room. There will also be a final tasting, when orders can be placed, on Sunday 18th July. At this time there will be a beer tasting thanks to the Rare Amber Brewing Company

In 1965 the first grape vines were planted in the Margaret River area of WA. Approximately 1% of Australia's wine is produced here, representing 27% by value of the nation's premium wines.
The Voyager Estate is in this region, 300km from Perth. Vines were first planted on the Estate in 1978. The original 11 hectares has now been expanded to 60.5 hectares. Due to the increasing popularity of red wines, 50% of future plantings will be a combination of Cabernet Savignon, Shiraz and blending varieties such as Petit Verdot and Merlot. Since 1996, the Voyager Estate wines have been consistent medal winners throughout the country.

Here is a 'bridge movie' to help you dust off the cobwebs on your bridge game and thus assist you to produce your 'A' game during the 1999 Butler trials here in Perth.

West leads 6H, 2, 10, your Jack ( they generally lead 4th highest from length/strength) . What is your plan?
( Continued on page 3)

The Bridge Association of Western Australia (BAWA) welcomes all of our visitors to Perth for the Australian National Championships.

Whilst the middle of July is not the ideal time to be visiting the sunshine capital of Australia I am confident that the hospitality of our local players and the service at the excellent Rendezvous Hotel will more than compensate for the winter weather.

I can promise our early arrivals a feast of bridge over the next two weeks. Our ANC committee has organised a great programme for you. The Butler promises to be a marvellous event with record numbers participating and the Congress calendar will satisfy the most addicted enthusiasts. I hope to meet many of you at the table and enjoy the challenge of playing our great game against some new and interesting opponents.

I hesitate to mention any names for fear of missing somebody out - so for the moment, let me just mention and congratulate our ANC Convenor Sue Surman. Sue began planning this event nearly two years ago and I am in no doubt that the next two weeks will see all of her hard work come to successful fruition. As you know events like these work because of the efforts of volunteers - so if you see Sue around during the tournament and you are having a good time - please tell her, it makes all the difference.

A word about this publication. A large number of people will be working very hard to ensure a top class bulletin every day! They need your help - if something of note happens at your table, some great defence or declarer play or perhaps an example of good quality active ethics then make a note, jot down some details and pass it on to the editor or his staff.

Finally, let me wish for you an enjoyable and memorable stay in this great state. We are all keen to return the hospitality our players have enjoyed in your states over the last seven years - so enjoy yourself and enjoy your bridge.

This was Bermuda Bowl 1976 USA vs Panama. Leading USA professional, Paul Soloway, was South.

West leads 6H to 3NT (E/W passed throughout ) you win the Jack and it's your play.

At trick 2 Soloway exited a heart. He was happy for West to cash all his hearts now even if he had begun with five of them, for in cashing them, West's partner would likely be under some pressure with discards.

West took his KH and exited with 10D to the Queen 4, 6. Soloway exited with another heart upon which West took his ace and cashed the thirteenth heart (as East pitched 8D) and this time exited with JC, 3, 5, Queen

If you are planning a morning visit to the Casino, or have a lunch date there, why not leave time to take a free guided tour of Burswood Park? There is a tour every day 11:30am., starting from the Burswood Park Visitor Centre, off Great Eastern Highway, Burswood.

The Museum of Anthropology at the University of W.A. has a comprehensive Aboriginal exhibition permanently on display and is open on Monday and Wednesday from 2-OOpm - 4-3Opm and Friday from 10-OOam - 2-OOpm. Or you can visit the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery on Campus - open Tuesday to Friday 11 -OOam - 6-OOpm and Sunday 12-OO noon to 5-OOpm. As well as seeing the paintings on display there, you can get a pamphlet from the Gallery describing the sculptures and other art work around the University grounds. The Campus grounds are extensive and you can enjoy a peaceful walk there..

Cruising on the River Swan in the sunshine, even in winter, is just delightful. You can go upstream every day at 9-45am. to visit the wineries, or you can go down to Fremantle, past all the mansions of Dalkeith and Peppermint Grove, out into the inner harbour and then back again. There is a commentary on each trip that will tell you some of the interesting and amusing tales of the area.

Every day at lOam. and 2pm. there is a guided walk around Kings Park. The actual programme varies each day - sometimes you will be taken through the Botanic Garden sometimes along the bush paths or maybe it will be the time for the Heritage Walk along Fraser Avenue.

The Western Australian Museum in the Cultural Centre north of the Central Railway Station is open Sunday - Friday 1O-3Oam. - 5pm., and on Saturday afternoon. It always has many interesting things to see including a new Aboriginal Gallery and displays on W.A. history and marine life. Currently there is a special exhibition, "Captive Lives which presents the real story of nine Aboriginal people who, in 1883, were taken to Europe to be "exhibited" there.

When you have seen your fill of this Aboriginal horror story why not walk next door to the Art Gallery of W.A. to see the latest paintings on show there? As well as the permanent collections that you can wander through without charge, there is also a special exhibition, "The Warhol Look - Glamour, Style Fashion' The Art Gallery is open daily from l0.a.m. to 5pm.

For more tourist information - talk to the people at the ANC hospitality booth near the ballroom

They say that some men can tell at a glance whether a woman does or doesn't ...Well I am definitely in the category that doesn't...

" I'm sorry, I don't play bridge" Each time over the past thirty years I have said this in English, French or Italian, I have been confronted with the same expression; incredulous, then shocked, then pitying.

I have always belonged to minority groups of some kind - a Kiwi married in Italy to a Frenchman a non-yachty (in Auckland,Le Havre and Cowes) a non - enthusiastic 'fill them' not 'cordon bleu' them type cook (Paris, Rome and Milan); but the worst non-participating role of all is bridge playing.

Because of the international nature of the sport, it does not matter where you go, you will always be on the outer. Daughter, sister and wife of fanatic bridgers, I will carry guilt to my grave for all the ruined evenings where I would/could not be forced to be a FOURTH.

The term 'Dummy' (though in my book the only one in four not playing would hardly be called the dummy!) in French and Italian is translated as 'the corpse' and the looks I have received over the years were always extremely explicit that THAT was just what I deserved (but without the spades and hearts of a Christian burial - maybe only one of the inevitable end -of-game post mortems which last four times longer than the game itself!!)

My first go at international bridge was with my new French fiance, my NZ mother and a varied range of French bridgers from mildly 'murderous hissers' to 'foaming at the mouth' level. I had already learnt by then NEVER to play with blood relations (because of the blood letting?) so was only looking on to learn so to speak. When our genial host had kicked his daughter and wife under the table so often, without their making a sound, I thought BOTH must be dummies (shop window type) and when he hissed "On n'est pas la pour rigoler !" (we are not here to have fun) I began to wonder whether it was worth (a) trying to learn to play bridge IF (b) I was going to get married.

When you reach the level of every local bridge player's dream - and get to play OVERSEAS - just try to mime "Call spades - but don't start till I've touched up my drink, by the way has anyone got a smoke?" without showing your hand!!

On holiday near Portofino I was 'persuaded' to be an unwilling fourth after dinner on a terrace overlooking glorious harbour views and jet setters who (more intelligently) strolled elegantly along the piazza. WE had to sit and sweat it out over the bridge table. Naturally I was not so ingenuous as to play with my husband and the very seductive Italian player was as clever with his feet UNDER the table as he was with his hands ON TOP of it "Ah" I thought "THIS is why the Italians are so good at bridge, they take your mind off the game!"

Not that it needed much to take my mind off the game, as, on principle, I never think further than the last card the person before me has played as it gets very tiring if you have to keep remembering who played what etc. and even MORE so if you have to calculate what they MIGHT play later on as well. Unfortunately I did not know that my partner's wife (playing with my husband who, judging from his concentrated expression was more into winning than footsying under the table - he is a REAL bridger - leap for the jugular!) was someone who could be euphemistically called a 'poor loser'. In other words, at the end of the game she sat with an incredulous expression on her face, looking at her cards then grabbed mine then shrieked "I can't believe eet !!! There ees no LOGIC to eet !!! Why deed she play thees card???" I looked and said " Because I didn't know what else to play so I thought that one would do as well as any" They took her away in an ambulance.

After more than a half a century observing close friends and relatives playing bridge, I wonder why the animalists make such a fuss over fox hunting! Wars may have been won or lost on the playing fields of Eton, but divorce lawyers have made a fortune out of bridge players.

When I reach the pearly gates and have to render for past actions done, with a conscience as pure as the driven snow, I will be able to enter knowing I have done evil to no man - with a sign around my neck saying "No, I don't play bridge".

The full hand was

	AK1094 Q82 Q2 1063
85 AK76 K10953 J2		J732 1054 84 K985
	Q6 J93 AJ76 AQ74

From the defenders' card plays to date, Soloway had gained the impression that East had some spade length headed by the Jack. In the seven card ending shown earlier, Paul Soloway played 6S to the ten and East elected to take his Jack after which Soloway claimed.

If East had ducked the 10S, Soloway had planned to play a diamond to the Ace forcing East to throw a club (a stepping stone squeeze). Next the QS would be cashed and then Ace another club endplays East to play spades from J73 into AK10.

Bridge is the most diverting and intelligent card game that the wit of man has so far devised. I would have children taught it as a matter of course, just as they are taught dancing. In the end, it will be more useful to them, for you cannot, with seemliness, continue to dance when you are bald and pot-bellied and, for that matter, you cannot, with satisfaction to yourself or pleasure to your partner, continue to play tennis or golf when you are well past middle age.

But you can play bridge so long as you can up at a table and tell one card from another. In fact when all else fails - sport, love, ambition - bridge remains a solace and an entertainment.

Please check the notice board outside the Ballroom each day to see what is on where TODAY and TOMORROW

The next Bulletin will be published on Sunday 11th July. We would like plenty of hands from the first stages of the Butler and the Congress events: the Voyager Estate Wine Pairs, the Cape Lodge/Bingemann Pairs and the Killerby Wines Pairs

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks!