Page 5 - ABF Newsletter February 2025

Happy New Year to all Australian bridge players and anyone else reading our newsletter.
For those of you who came to the Summer Festival of Bridge in Canberra in January, I trust that you had a good time. I thought the vibe of this year’s event was excellent and that Laura Ginnan did a great job as Tournament Organiser on her first foray!
This was my first year qualifying for the Seniors and I played for 13 days straight. That was definitely easier when I was a youth player as I was flagging by the end (please do not study my results too closely).
I am about to head off to the Gold Coast and do it all again. Regarding the Gold Coast and the sad news that it will be the last one, I can assure you that we are working hard to try to turn that situation around and ensure that we have a premier event like the GCC on the calendar, if not in 2026 then in 2027. We have a meeting lined up with the General Manager of the Convention Centre so, you never know, they may be able to offer us something after all (one can only hope).
Since our last newsletter the playoffs for the Mixed, Seniors and Women’s teams to represent Australia in 2025 have taken place. The SYLVESTER team of Liz Sylvester, Peter Gill, Arlene Dalley and Michael Courtney won the Mixed Playoff. They have since augmented Jessica Brake and Shane Harrison and will be captained by Martin Doran. Winning the Se- niors Playoff was the BEAUCHAMP team of David Beauchamp, Maurits van der Vlugt, Avi Kanetkar, George Kozakos, Terry Brown and Ian Thomson. They have asked Laura Ginnan to be their non-play- ing captain. The TUTTY team won the Women’s Play- off with Jodi Tutty, Dagmar Neumann, Ella Jacob and Renee Cooper. At the time of writing their third pair and captain are yet to be ratified. On behalf of you all I congratulate all the teams and wish them well as they represent us at the highest level.
At Youth Week this year the event to decide our Youth representative team for 2025 took place. The format is different to our other Playoffs with pairs qualifying separately. Congratulations to Matthew Sieredzinski and Heath Watkins who were the first pair to qualify, followed by George Bartley and Jack
Luke-Paredi and finally Kate Macdonald and Zac Ross. We wish them well representing us at the 19th World Youth Championships in July.
In closing, I would like to remind you all that I am always keen to hear from you with any ideas or thoughts you have on how we can improve and grow bridge in Australia. My email address is at the top of the page and I look forward to hearing from you either via email or in person at a bridge event.
A Happy New Year to you all from the ABF Board. 2025 will be my final tour as President and I look forward to connecting with my many friends and ac- quaintances, as well as forming new friendships.
2025 will see our Australian Open, Women’s and Seniors’ and Mixed teams competing at the World National Teams Championships MCH Herning Kon- grescenter, Herning, Denmark from 20 – 31 August 2025. The Under 26 Youth Team will compete at the 20h World Youth Championships from the 12 – 17 July with the venue still to be decided. I wish all teams every success as they compete as our Aus- tralian Teams at International Bridge Tournaments in 2025.
Congratulations to Laura Ginnan and her team for another successful Summer Festival of Bridge. There was a wonderful friendly, relaxed atmosphere at the event, even though the play at the table was very competitive.
I am currently playing at the 63rd Gold Coast Con- gress which may be the last as we know it. Kim and Ray Ellaway again stepped up when they knew they were needed for the last hoorah and Richard Ward as QBA President has been tireless is his efforts to make 2025 a wonderful event.
If you have any issues you would like to raise with the ABF Board please email
president@abf.com.au
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: February 2025
Page: 5