Here is Pam Moore’s experience:
Recently Ian and I decided to sell a rental property we have owned for twenty years. Having enjoyed Scratchies, bidding pads and pens at our bridge club supplied by Stu Phillips, we decided to offer Stu our property to market and hopefully sell.
The house went under contract (at a premium price) a day after it went on the market and three weeks later became unconditional. There were a few minor bumps along the way, which Stu dealt with positively, knowledgeably and with good humour. All my overreactive phone calls were dealt with respectfully and patiently.
So if you’re looking to buy or sell your property- the Moore’s advice is -call Stu. 021 780 785
Extra bonus: we had $1000 worth of free advertising which also worked in our favour to sell the house.
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New club Grand Master
Congratulations to Pam Moore, who has recently been named a Grand Master and has joined a select group of Rotorua players, past and present to attain that status. Even rarer is to have a husband and wife who are both Grand Masters, as Ian and Pam now are.
They are two of four current club Grand Masters, the others being Neil Dravitzki and Tom Winiata. (Please let me know if I’ve missed any).
Previous Grand Master couples in the club include Ian and Cynthia Clayton, and Bruce and Merle Marr.

Pam and Ian Moore showing her recently awarded certificate.
Midwinter Christmas Potluck Dinner
This annual event will be on Wednesday 21 June this year.
The bar is open from 6pm (drinks are free!) Dinner is about 6.45/7pm, and will be followed by some fun bridge.
(This is a pot luck dinner and we sit down, so select from salads, vegetables, meat or dessert. Not finger food.)
This night is to welcome our new group of learners into the club, and it’s always lots of fun so we would like to see a big turnout of club members. It’s a great chance to mix and mingle and show our incoming members how friendly we are.
See Ruth, ph 348 2868, for any queries.
Hawkes Bay Congress 2017
The success for Rotorua players continued on Sunday with the team of Gill Nelson, Heini Lux, Marie Milsum and Alison Beer finishing fourth in the Congress Teams. This was in a very high quality field of 46 teams, so it’s a great result, and especially pleasing for Marie and Alison, re-uniting to play together after Alison’s recent move away from Rotorua.
A good contingent of Rotorua players have gone to Napier to take part in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Weekend congress. The intermediate players have started the weekend well, with the pairings of Joyce Reid and Rex Tulloch, and Kevin Jensen and Val Honeyfield coming 6th and 7th respectively in the Intermediate Pairs. Good luck to all the Rotorua players for the rest of the weekend.

Joyce, Rex, Val and Kevin toasting their success in Napier.
Hospice Charity Tournament Wed 31 May
We had a relaxed and enjoyable bridge tournament on Wednesday. Our winners were:
Handicap Results: 1st Susan Hardy and Robert Johnston from Rotorua, who were also top overall,
2nd Eileen Barker and Anne Patching from Putaruru.
Third on handicap were Marie Milsum and Alan Dick, who were second in the raw result.
Congratulations to all winners.
Kelly Peirse Teams
The Kelly Peirse Memorial Open Teams event was held on Saturday 4 February, attracting a large field of 28 teams from around the North Island.
The winning team of Patrick Carter, Julie Atkinson, Jenny Millington and Barry Jones, pictured here with their trophy.
Christmas Tournament 2016
Another very successful Christmas Tournament has been held, with 39 tables filling out the Rotorua clubrooms. As always Ruth Lewis and her helpers, notably her sister Rachel Steele and Marie Milsum did a marvellous job in the kitchen, and Heini did his usual great job of directing. Many other club members, including Ray and Kevin the ham carvers and Trevor the barman, helped out too to make the day enjoyable and memorable for all.
2016 Prizegiving
Here are some photos of happy winners and bridge players from the prizegiving held on 1 December.
A full list of prizewinners is here
Intermediate update
Four pairs from Rotorua played at the Matamata Intermediate Tournament on Sunday, in good bridge playing weather, and had some success, all ending up in the top half of the field.
Joyce Reid and Cathy Ward (pictured) took out third place after a great morning and not so good afternoon, and Wendy Blackman and Elspeth Goodrick finished in eighth place.
Rotorua players are also doing well in the individual Intermediate League, with one of the ten rounds still to play. Joyce is currently in 5th place, not far behind the 3rd equal pair and Wendy and Elspeth are 8th equal. It should make for an interesting final round in Cambridge later this month!
Congress success!
Congratulations John Kelly, who together with partner Michael Neels from Cambridge won the New Zealand Open Restricted Title 2016 at Congress last week. Here they are enjoying a well-earned drink!
Other players from Rotorua also did well in the teams and seniors events.
(Thanks to Cambridge BC for photo.)
BOP Interclub Teams
The Bay Teams Shield was contested on Sunday 31 July between Rotorua, Tauranga, Whakatane, Taupo, Te Puke and Mount Maunganui clubs with Open, Intermediate and Junior teams competing. Every team payed matches of 12 boards against each other team within their grade and the scores for each match are aggregated to determine the winning club. After an excellent start, unfortunately Rotorua flagged in the middle rounds and finished third overall and the shield has gone to Tauranga, who won with a massive total of 196 VP’s. Whakatane was second on 170 and Rotorua third on 163.
In addition the teams that were first and second in each grade are to play off for top club in the Waikato/Bay of Plenty on the 28th of August in Cambridge. The Rotorua Open Team of Neil Dravitzki and Paul Cosgrove, Ian Moore and Alan Dick made this event. An interesting fact about this team that was pointed out on the day – to considerable laughter – is that this team has three people who have had heart bypasses and the other team member is a doctor! In fact this team was the only team on the day that won every match – but it wasn’t enough to win the Open Team title as the winning margins were not great enough.
The Rotorua teams played their best, but it wasn’t good enough on the day – but well done everyone!
Midwinter Christmas Party
Rotorua Restricted
The Rotorua Restricted Tournament was held on Sunday and was a very enjoyable day, with 18 tables and entrants from clubs around the region. Congratulations to the Rotorua pairs who featured among the top placings. Sarah Easthope-Wilson and John Kelly were runners-up in the Open/Intermediate section, as were Bob Johnston and Lara Cordonni in the Open/Junior. Rex Tulloch and Joyce Reid came third in the Intermediate/Intermediate and Bruce Whiteman and Christine Kampfraath third in the Intermediate/Junior – see the results page for a full list of winners. Many thanks to the organisers and the helpers in the kitchen for the delicious lunchtime soups, and morning and afternoon tea.
Farewell to Henk and Miep
Sadly Henk and Miep Vanderpoel are leaving our club and moving to Palmerston North. We had a farewell afternoon tea for them last Saturday, where members had a chance to reminisce and wish them well. Club president Alan Dick spoke about the great contribution they have both made to the club over the years and noted that Henk is the first life member to leave the club vertically! We wish them all the best for the future in their new home and hopefully we will see them back here for a tournament sometime.