Te Puke mother and daughter a bridge duo for over 27 years

Christine Gibbons, 72, and daughter Jenna Gibbons, 48, believe their closeness is their greatest strength.

A mother-and-daughter bridge duo from Te Puke say they’ve seen family partnerships break down under the pressure of the game but they say their closeness is their greatest strength.

When Christine Gibbons started playing with her daughter Jenna she believed she was in charge – but it wasn’t long before she knew Jenna was the better player.

The pair have made global waves with their skill, claiming first place in Shanghai’s Pacific Asia Bridge Championship in 2010, no small feat considering New Zealand’s size and that most players had full-time jobs.

When Christine married a farmer and had three children in three years, she started playing bridge once a week to get out of the house. She got “absolutely, totally hooked and addicted” to the competition, the logic, the social aspect and the winning.

Christine Gibbons and daughter Jenna talk about playing bridge together at a high level.

She taught the game at the Te Puke Bridge Club, which led to her teaching her 17-year-old daughter Jenna, her “star student”.

“I was the loyal student, you know, the best in the class. She wasn’t biased or anything,” Jenna joked.

Jenna progressed in the sport fast, playing at the World Youth Champs in Rio six years after she started in the only women’s partnership in a tournament of 20 teams.

The pair have been playing together for more than 27 years, playing in the Open Level together since Jenna was 19 and making the NZ Women’s team in 2002.

Christine, 72, said it was uncommon to see family members play together, with plenty of husbands and wives and the occasional father-and-son team.

The mother-daughter duo was even more rare, and she had not played or heard about any overseas, but said there was one up in Auckland they were “great friends” with.

She had seen family partnerships fall apart, with some fighting “cat and dog” and she wondered how they went home in the same car together.

“In a family, you do cut to the chase a bit. You’re not quite as polite.”

But Jenna and Christine developed strategies and systems to mitigate tension, including “a quiet time” before the match and not talking until their “debrief sessions” post-game. They learned early on not to criticise each other at the table.

“If you’ve made a mistake, you don’t want to give the opposition the psychological advantage of knowing that,” she said.

They had to learn how to “weather the bad boards,” especially when playing at an international level, which also meant travelling together.

Jenna said being in a team with Christine meant she had her mother’s unconditional love and she also had the peace of mind her mother would forgive her if she made mistakes.

Harriet Laughton is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty.