Promoting BRIDGE within Victoria
Fostering interest in the game
The McCutcheon awards date back to the 1970s, at which time the award was solely a recognition of “Player of the Year”, being the player who amassed the highest number of Australian masterpoints within a calendar year. For 2018, the honour of winning the overall McCutcheon went to the great NSW player, Peter Gill, with 515 MP … more than the vast majority of bridge players earn in a lifetime.
Whilst no Victorians rated in the Top 10 overall nationally the stand-out McCutcheon performer in the higher categories (those for which Gold Points are a mandatory component) was VBA Vice-President, Christopher Leach (far right of photo), who won the Life Master category with 170 MP, holding off a fast-finishing Tomer Libman (NSW), a member of the national under-25 team. Congratulations Christopher.
In 2018, the two top Victorians in the overall standings were Dee Harley (16th) and Neil Ewart (22nd). Congratulations to both gentlemen on a terrific year.
The last Victorian to win the prestigious overall prize was Jamie Ebery in 2010.
There are McCutcheon’s awarded for the various masterpoint categories, based always on the level at which a player commenced the year. In the higher masterpoint levels, these are often close-fought affairs and sources of recognition for young and up-and-coming players.
Kim Frazer, Pete Holland, Anna St Clair after winning the Yarra Valley Teams, setting Chris off to a good start for the 2018 McCutcheon race
Other Victorians who performed commendably in the National Top 10 were:
Kim Frazer … 8th in the Grand Master category (230 MP)
Greg Nicholson & Jean Barbour … 5th and 6th in Gold life (180 & 178 MP) and John Yang, 10th(147 MP)
Jo-Anne Heywood …. 7thin Silver Life (120 MP)
Ella Pattison….3rdin Bronze Life (169 MP)
Dao-Ping Nie….6thin the Life category (96 MP)
Here is a link to the top 10 in all categories for Victoria
http://www.abfmasterpoints.com.au/mccutcheons.asp?state=3
In other categories, Deb Fogarty, Sue Beckman and John Doyle all came second in their levels (Regional*, Local* and Local, respectively), while Alan Race did very well to win the Graduate category.
Congratulations to all the above-mentioned players and happy bridging to all Victorians in 2019.
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