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Kim Frazer wins International Bridge Press Association
Master Point Press 2020 Book of the Year Award
Kim Frazer, an Olympian in Athens 2004 and winner of three gold medals in four Commonwealth games for shooting, has won a prestigious international award for writing a bridge book “Gaining the Mental Edge at Bridge.”
The International Bridge Press Association has 300 journalists as members around the world. The award is sponsored by Master Point Press and normally presented at the Hainan Bridge Festival in China. Hopefully when travel restrictions are lifted Kim will be travelling to Hainan to accept the award in person.
The award was announced at the IBPA AGM by the President, Barry Rigal, who visits Australia often to edit the Daily Bulletin at the Gold Coast Congress.
 In shooting Kim was National Women’s Champion on seven occasions and National Open champion twice.
In bridge Kim has represented Victoria in Women’s and Open teams and has won selection for the Australian Women’s Team.
It was in shooting that Kim became interested in the mental side of sport. When she took up Bridge she started writing articles for Australian bridge magazines and the French bridge magazine Le Brigeur on the application of sports psychology in bridge. In this book she has adapted the mental techniques that brought her success in shooting and how to use these at the bridge table.
The foreword of her book was written by Ron Klinger, champion Australian bridge player, Bridge author of over 70 books and bridge columnist for the SMH for 18 years. Ron wrote “I am anxious to try out these new ideas and incorporate them as part of my regular regime. I can’t wait for my next bridge game! I would just like to bar all of my regular opponents from reading this book.”
Kim is still heavily involved in the administration of shooting and bridge and is Secretary of the Australian Bridge Federation.
The President of the ABF, Allison Stralow, says “It is a great honour for Australian bridge that Kim has won such a prestigious award against international competition.”
Kim won the award from a shortlist of international bridge writers including David Bird author of 130 books, Larry Cohen best known for “The Law of Total Tricks”, Mike Lawrence who has won three Bermuda Bowls and Nicolas Hammond who  was also famous for solving the Rubik’s Cube in 37 seconds.
Kim is the fifth Australian to have won this award and only the second woman following champion Sabine Auken from Germany in 2006 with “I Love This Game”.
Australian winners IBPA Book of the Year:
2009 Ron Klinger (Right Though the Pack Again)
2013 Bill Jacobs (Fantunes Revealed)
2014 Tim Bourke and Justin Corfield (The Art of Director Play)
2017 Sartaj Hans (Bidding the Best)
2020 Kim Frazer (Gaining the Mental Edge at Bridge)
These winners demonstrate the exceptional standard of bridge writing in Australia.
Kim’s book “Gaining the Mental Edge at Bridge” can be bought in paperback or as a digital download from The Bridge Shop or from Paul Lavings Bridge Books.
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About the Author
Bridge is my second competitive hobby. In my first competitive hobby - rifle shooting - I represented Australia on various teams from 1978 to 2006 contesting 4 World Championships and multiple World Cups. I competed in 4 Commonwealth Games winning Gold medals on 3 occasions. This was definitely the highlight of my shooting career alongside making the Australian Olympic team for Athens in 2004. I was the National Women's Champion on 7 occasions and National Open Champion twice.
While not a sports psychologist by training, I became interested in the mental side of sport following an introduction to the subject during a training camp in 1985. I used it extensively during my shooting career and I started writing a series of articles for Australian bridge magazines on Mental Management for bridge in 2014 some of which were translated into French for publication in Le Brigeur.
After finding a local bridge club on google in June 2005, I went along to a duplicate session at my local club in Ascot Vale. This was the start of what has turned into a passion for the game – something I am sure all keen bridge players can understand.
I started playing regularly at the state association in state bridge events in about 2009, and my state bridge representation started in 2014 when I was the non-playing Captain for the Victorian women’s team. I represented Victoria on the state women’s team the following year & the Open team the year after that. I played in my first Australian women’s team trials in 2017 where I was successful in making the team with my then partner Anna St Clair.
In my professional life, I worked for Kodak & Telstra in a variety of management roles including marketing & business development. Since retiring from corporate life, I have been actively involved in administration of both my shooting club & the state & national bridge associations.
My husband John and I live in Ascot Vale in Melbourne with our blue heeler Zoe & John’s pigeons which he races as his hobby. I still enjoy shooting, and also the theatre, reading, and watching TV series & movies. In my spare time I am writing a book about mental skills for bridge.
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Participants at the IBPA meeting
1.00 am Sydney time on Sunday 12th December
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Anne Russell has won the ABC Radio Brisbane Award for Community in Social Media Category for the Kenmore Bridge Club. Starting with two club members, which grew into three full-time volunteers, they organised 240 members whom each were given an hour of personalised training to play online on BBO during Covid-19. They ran Beginners classes and learned to teach bridge using BBO with Zoom video and audio. Zoom enabled members to have social interaction and brought in new members from clubs that were not providing online bridge. Kenmore organises social bridge each weekday for players with or without partners, ran tournaments four days a week and a team’s competition for 16 teams one evening each week. Lessons for improvers are provided twice a week, beginners are taught four times a week and Therese Tully, one of Australia’s top players offers a Zoom discussion each week to discuss hands.
An outstanding performance that is a great example to bridge clubs around Australia of what can be achieved. If you would like to learn more here is a lovely story by Edwina Seselja about the club, a video of the awards starting at about the 21.50 minute mark and an interview with Anne prior to the awards.
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