Big Slam Magazine - Flipbook - Page 4
Foreword to the Story of the 84th
Australian National Championships
Rob Ward, Organiser
Welcome to the 84th Australian National Championships incorporating the 2024 Butler Pairs and
inaugural Central West Festival of Bridge.
In 2017 I was asked to join the Council of the NSW
Bridge Association (now Bridge NSW) to search
for a venue for the then to be 2021 ANC. After two
Covid postponements, time has finally arrived for
this wonderful celebration of bridge in the beautiful
City of Orange and the Central West of NSW.
Finding venues for major bridge championships is
not easy, but we have found one in Orange, and
our playing venue is the Orange Ex-Services Club.
Thank you to the team here at the OESC who
have been enthusiastic and accommodating as a
major sponsor of our event, along with an extensive band of national, state and local sponsors.
A special thank you to the Orange Bridge Club as
our hosts. They are an enthusiastic and wonderful
club, led by Margaret Barker and her team. A
stroke of genius by Margaret when she asked
Murray Paterson and Anne Tonna to join with me,
and form the Gang of Three (GO3) to make this
event the best it can be. We hope you enjoy it as
much as we have enjoyed working together to deliver it. A special thanks to the tournament team of
over 25, led by Chief Tournament Director Matt
McManus, who you will see around and about the
club and behind the scenes making everything
happen.
The national championships travel Australia on
rotation, arriving in NSW about every seven years.
We are delighted to announce that 2025 will see a
new event on the Australian calendar, the 2025
Central West Festival of Bridge here at the exServices Club from 9 to 13 April, 2025. We hope
many of you will join us again to kick off this new
event.
Once again welcome, good luck and enjoy.
Rob Ward on behalf of Murray Paterson and
Anne Tonna (GO3)