While some players were still playing in the Summer Festival of Bridge in Canberra, 48 pairs played in the SBC Australia Day IMPs Butler Swiss Pairs on Saturday 24th January 2026. We played one field, with prizes awarded to 3 categories (Open, Restricted and Novice). The challengers have nothing to lose and refused to be intimidated – a total of 7 Novice and Restricted pairs broke through and ranked themselves in the top 20 overall. We are pleased to see the combined field give an opportunity for players to shine through.
Congratulations to:
Overall winner Rick Lu and Mary Hingerty. The restricted pairs was coming 2nd at the second last round and transformed from a quiet challenger to 1st with all 6 wins.
Overall 2nd – Andre Korenhof and Helena Dawson. Our members who used to play in championship night, we are pleased to see them in our congress!
Overall 3rd – Kevin Davies and Steven Bock. They were also traditional championship night players. Kevin is actually a perpetual member of SBC!
Restricted 1st – Vic Pietraszkiewicz and Louise Lewis from Central Coast.
Restricted 2nd – Libby Dale and Paul Barnett. Libby has improved so much these couple of years!
The Best Novice Pair went to Karen and David Kam. this was the first time they played in our club. The pair came 10th in the overall ranking!
Please find the detailed results on: https://nsw.bridgeaustralia.org/teamresults.asp?id=16588&umbid=0
Our next congress will be the SBC Harmony Park Swiss Pairs on Saturday 14th February. If you are interested in a high-level competition, the SBC GNOT Direct Qualifier will be held on Saturday 14th March, GOLD masterpoints awarded. It’s open for entry, please register via MyABF.
