The Les Longhurst Teams of Three is a unique bridge event held at the Sydney Bridge Centre every June.
While teams events typically require four players to a team, the Teams of Three only requires three with the fourth player being a randomly chosen NSW or Australian representative.
The structure gives players the chance to play alongside someone with exceptional bridge skills in a fun and safe environment, and learn how to advance their game. Many players who have never tried teams events before find the Teams of Three event a kickstarter to participating in more teams events in the future.
Thirty five teams of three players were matched with local expert players for a fun day of bridge, alongside some fun quizzing and loads of spot prizes from sponsors all over the world. Sponsors included BridgeBase Online, BridgeNSW, Joan Butts Online Bridge School, Marty Bergen, Masterpoint Press, North Shore Bridge Club, Paul Lavings Bridgegear, Ron Klinger, Sorry Partner bridge podcast, Sydney Bridge Centre, and Trumps Bridge Club.
Event Convenor Nick Fahrer says the event was packed with young and old players of varying skill levels, all eager to put their skills to the test and learn from the best.
A big congratulations to the following winners:
- Open 1st: Mick McAuliffe, Wing Roberts, Terence Palmer and Peter Buchen (c)
- Open 2nd: David Zheng – Ida Andersen – Yiwei Qi (c) – Noah Klugman
- Open 3rd Jamie Thompson (c – absent) – Aadhi Hariharan – Adrian Le – Alan Stoneham
Winners of the Opens: Peter Buchen (c), Mick McAuliffe, Wing Roberts, Terence Palmer
And in the Restricted category:
- Restricted 1st: Gayle Calvert, Helen Gillam, Steve English and Matthew Thomson (c)
- Restricted 2nd: Ruth Tobin (c) – Michael Jackson – Ruth Fingret – Lucy D’ambrosio
- Restricted 3rd: Roy Cotton – Louise Lewis, Fraser Rew (c) Vic Pietraszkiewicz
Winners of the Restricted category: Matthew Thomson (c) – Gayle Calvert – Steve English – Helen Gillam (missing)
Bridge NSW has received a lot of positive feedback already from the event, and will certainly be back next year.
More photos of the top three placed teams in the Open and Restricted categories can be viewed on the Bridge NSW Facebook page.
Full results can be found on the Bridge NSW website here: https://nsw.bridgeaustralia.org/resultslistbyheadevent.asp?umbid=1015.
