Bridge

SCC CELEBRATIONS

The Bridge Section Deepavali celebration was held on Monday 4 October. Proceedings commenced with a sumptuous Indian buffet specially prepared for the evening by our Club chef. After dinner a full house of 18 pairs sat down for 21 hands of somewhat rowdier than usual bridge. Scores over 60 were registered by four pairs: Raj Jayaram (Keppel) and P.A. Zafar (visiting from India), Jennifer Du and Prof. C.C. Chen (Keppel), Beng Tee Haythornthwaite/Chris Wong (Geylang West), and Firoz Khimji/Charles Macgregor. Club vouchers with awarded to Firoz/Charles (best SCC pair) and to Lee Cheong Seng and Susan Milford (best dressed) – photographed with Edith Somogyi receiving the vouchers.

The Section is looking forward to the Christmas (13 December) and Chinese New Year (3 February) celebrations.

QUADRANGLE GAMES SCC participates with Singapore Recreation Club, Keppel Club, and Singapore Swimming Club in an annual tournament with hosts rotating through the clubs. In October we journeyed out to the two massive complexes that are the Singapore Swimming Club. The two teams representing our club were SCC Black (Edith Somogyi, King Fook Chan, Lee Cheong Seng, Charles Macgregor) and SCC Gold (Patricia Jasudasen, Chitra Varapasad, Philip NG, Soma Devi). Our results were very encouraging with SCC Black finished in 3rd place out of eight teams, while SCC Gold came in 7th. The SCC Black result was pleasantly surprising considering that Cheong Seng and Charles were partnering for the first time.

On November 24, two teams waded across a wet Padang to the Singapore Recreation Club. Representing the club were: SCC Black (Edith Somogyi, Charles Macgregor, King Fook Chan, Mike Sharples) and SCC Gold (Perumal Ramanathan, Usha Perry, Esther Desilva, Kumud Rangroo). Both teams finished a commendable equal fifth out of eight teams, which was encouraging. The good news is we are now building an armoury of competitive pairings with an eye on giving Tanglin a bit of scare at the next POT games!

A special thanks to all the players who had foregone a Sunday afternoon to represent the Club.

SINGAPORE ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE Singapore qualified in April for the U25 and the U20 team’s category for the world youth bridge championships in 2020, to be held in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy. The Ladies failed to qualify automatically, finishing just outside the four at the regional qualifications, but the World Bridge Federation has allowed Singapore to participate. There will be a new category at these championships, U31, and Singapore has been invited to compete.

WEBSITE

Our website was launched in the last quarter, thanks to Carl Parker. This will contain past results and will allow players to track their progress. There is also a calendar for upcoming events and contact details for anyone wishing to play on Mondays and/or join the section. https://www.bridgewebs.com/sccbridge/

EDITOR’S NOTE:

“Bridge is essentially a social game, but unfortunately it attracts a substantial number of antisocial people.” Alfred Sheinwold The game of bridge has been affected by sometimes heated post-mortem discussions between partners, that at times descend into the realms of disrespect and rudeness. Unfortunately, this has resulted in some people leaving the game. Last year, the American Contract Bridge Association codified a Zero Tolerance policy for unacceptable behaviour and issued a poster entitled “Play Nice”. These have been adopted by the Singapore Contract Bridge Association and by our own Bridge Section. One would expect, as a Club, that we are all part of a community, who seek to engage and befriend our fellow Members. The good news is the Bridge Section is, indeed, one of the friendliest on the island!

FRIENDLY BOWLS GAME WITH TANGLIN CLUB

Tanglin Club (TC) hosted us to another friendly game on 9th November 2019. Around 30 members from both clubs played in mixed teams of triples. It was another fun outing, capped with good food and drinks graciously hosted by TC.

NATIONAL FOURS 2019

The competition was played on the weekends of 10th, 16th and 17th November 2019. Five teams took part in the Men’s Fours, of which two were from SCC. They finished in 2nd and 3rd places.

Two teams took part in the Ladies’ Fours. The team from SCC came in as runners-up.

BOWLS SECTION YEAR-END PARTY

We capped off the bowls calendar with a year-end party on 16th November 2019. It was a great night of good food, free-flow of drinks, music and entertainment.

SCC representatives at the National Fours 2019

From left: Chris Chan, Secretary-General of the Singapore National Olympic Council, with our golden girls – Margaret Lim, Amira Goh and Shermeen Lim.

The view of the Athletics Stadium from the Athletes’ Village, at the 2019 SEA Games.

Gold and bronze medals at the 30th SEA Games 2019!

What an eventful trip to the Philippines! Our 14-strong Lawn Bowls contingent led by head coach and fellow member Rodger Kimpton came away with a hard-fought haul of two medals out of four events.

The first of the two medals came on the second day of the competition when our Men's Triples team of Thomas Leong and fellow members Melvin Tan and Matthew Ngui trounced Thailand 23-14 in the Bronze medal playoff. It was sweet revenge, as they had earlier lost to the same Thai team 14-22 in the final preliminary round match on the same day.

What was incredibly crazy in this playoff match is that the trio had dropped a full-house of 6 shots in the 1st end and had to play catch-up with the Thai bowlers. It was only at the 9th end (out of a total of 18 ends) that our Singapore men led on the scoreboard for the 1st time at 11-10. They never looked back since, winning 7 of the next 9 ends to earn the Bronze for the nation.

The second and more impressive of the two medals came on the last day of the 4-day competition when our Singapore Women’s Triples team of Margaret Lim and fellow members Amira Goh and Shermeen Lim overcame host Philippines in the Gold medal match. It is the first team Gold medal in Lawn Bowls, and the first Gold medal for Singapore in lawn bowls in two decades.

The previous Gold medal in lawn bowls was won by another fellow Member, Rosemary Tessensohn, who had beaten her Malaysian counterpart in the Women's Singles in the 1999 SEA Games edition in Brunei.

The Philippines team started the match on a high, leading 7-1 after 6 ends, and then 9-3 after 9 ends. Shermeen and her team rallied back to take 3 shots in the next end to cut the deficit to 6-9. In her own words, "We never let the score bother us, and we were focused on what we needed to do." They were firmly in control soon after, winning 2 shots each in the 5 ends of the remaining 8 to a triumphant score of 16-13. Emotional scenes burst around our "Golden Girls" at the end, as our Singapore contingent of bowlers proudly sang to the National Anthem played during the medal presentation.

From left: The Bronze medalists – Matthew Ngui, Melvin Tan and Thomas Leong