Andrew Reiner Trophy: Tomer Libman and Andrew Spooner

This award is granted to the best performed pair in international competition taking account of performance in the events themselves, commitment to preparation and contribution to team success
In the view of the NPC, all 3 pairs played well, and accordingly there wasn’t a lot that separated their achievements while overseas. What was noted was that while Tomer and Andrew were the least experienced at this level, the amount of work they put into preparing themselves for the event, and the way they played, gave their team every chance of success.

Helman-Klinger Achievement Award: Matt Smith

This award, worth $400 annually and supplemented with a further $200 from the Friends of Youth Bridge Fund, is presented each year to the Australian Youth Bridge Player whose ability, achievements, sportsmanship, attitude, contribution and commitment during the calendar year are most deserving.
Matt started the year in the best possible way by finishing first in the youth butler, guaranteeing a spot on the 2018 youth team. A run of decent results early in the year got him in perfect form to take out both the ANOT Swiss pairs and the VCC teams.
Matt was also a member of the winning NSW youth team at the ANC before travelling to NZ where he played with Andrew Spooner. They went on to make the semi finals of the NZ teams before winning the Australia vs NZ test match.
Matt also had strong results in the Spring Nationals, missing the finals by 1 imp and losing the semi final of the Australian playoff to the eventual winners.
Matt has been known over many years to have a great attitude at the table and also away from the table. Matt runs youth bridge nights in Sydney, and takes an interest in improving not only his own bridge but the bridge of those around him by giving up his time to improve other youth players’ games. Matt was also the recipient of the IPBA award for Junior Deal of the Year for his declarer play in the Youth ANC.
Congratulations Matt Smith.

Helman-Klinger Masterpoint Award: Ella Pattison

This award, worth $200 annually and supplemented with a further $100 from the Friends of Youth Bridge Fund, is awarded to the Australian Youth Player who earns the most masterpoints in the calendar year in question.
This year’s winner is Ella Pattison with 169.48 masterpoints. Matt Smith had the highest MP total, but as a previous winner was ineligible to win it again.

Hills-Hurley Trophy: Nico Ranson and John McMahon

This trophy, donated by Richard Hills and Steve Hurley, is to encourage talented young bridge players in forming long-standing partnerships and reward successful pairs which have developed a well-organised partnership to harness their full potential.
John and Nico started the year on a sad note, just missing out on making the 2018 youth team, losing by 15 imps in the 3rd place playoff. In the next 6 months Nico and John qualified for both the GNOT final and ANC youth team.
The ANC started a massive 6 months for this pair. After winning the ANC youth teams, they were offered the chance to represent Australia in the Australia v NZ test match. The idea was for this pair to play the teams and the side events and prepare for the test match, but John and Nico had other ideas. Not only did they make the NZ final series, they easily won their round of 16 and quarterfinal match.
They were neck and neck at 3/4 time in the semi final, and if they had won that match, Australia would have had to forfeit the test which they went on to win by a substantial margin. To top off a great year, the pair qualified for the semi final of the GNOT – a great result for the 12th seeds.