Page 7 - ABF Newsletter February 2026

Following a special General Meeting the ABF Council recently voted in favour of changes to the ABF Con- stitution, which reduced the number of Councillors from two to one per state and territory. NSW con- tinues to hold an extra vote on council by virtue of their number of registered players. This resolution was also approved by the majority of States and Ter- ritories. I thank the previous councillors for all their work, Rob Ward, Bridge NSW, Caprice Davey, South Australia, Eileen Boocock Northern Territory, Ste- phen Fischer BFACT, and Hugh Grosvenor, Tasmania.
From 14-25 January, Canberra again hosted the Summer Festival of Bridge, which this year saw ap- proximately 900 bridge players compete in one or more of the events.
The major Open event, the South West Pacific Teams, was contested by 100 teams over four days in the second week. At the end of twelve qualifying match- es, the top eight teams went into battle to deter- mine which two teams would make it into the final. Congratulations to the winning team: Dalley (Kieran Dyke, Ashley Bach, Tony Nunn and Paul Dalley) de- feated Meier (Leon Meier, Geo Tislevoll, Michael Smart, Peter Gill and David Hudson).
Congratulations to the winners of all the events with special mention to Jessica Brake and Shane Harrison who won both the TBIB Open Swiss Pairs and the Mixed Matchpoint Pairs. A full list of winners can be found in this newsletter
An event as large as the Summer Festival does not just happen, it takes months of preparation. Hats off to the Tournament Organiser, Laura Ginnan for her tireless work before, during and after the event.
Also to the directors, scorers, floor manager, caddies and volunteers who worked long hours behind the scenes and to Lauren Travis, the Bulletin Editor.
Thank you to all the players who took the time to thank me for my term as President of the Australian Bridge Federation following the lovely recognition I received from the Board.
My term is due to complete at the end of April, until then I remain available to all of you if you have feed- back or issues you would like to raise.
president@abf.com.au
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