Paul Lavings started playing bridge in 1964 and from 1970 ran bridge clubs including Sydney Bridge Club, Bondi Rd Bridge Club and Double Bay Bridge Club. In 1972 a group of 5 young players got together and developed their own Standard American system in opposition to the NSW System then in vogue. They named it LLMM&R -Paul Lavings, Geoff Lewis, Andrew Markovics, Neil Mathiesen and Andrew Reiner.
It was agreed Paul would play a year with each of the other 4 players. In 1973 Paul and Andrew Reiner won the 7-day Butler Trials and Tim Seres invited Paul to partner him on the Australian team at the Far East Championships.
In 1974 Paul partnered Andrew Markovics and they won the Australian Team Trials by twice the score of the second-placed pair. It was decided that year that the Youth team would represent Australia at the Far East Championships while the Australian Team was given a tour of New Zealand where Australia won the Test Match, their main mission.
In 1975 Paul played with Neil Mathiesen. This was a very tough year with rich representative honours at stake. Ron Klinger and Les Longhurst had a big win in the Trials though Paul and Neil managed third. With Tim Seres an automatic selection with the partner of his choice they were invited to join the big four, Seres, Howard, Cummings and Smilde in the Far East Championships.
Geoff Lewis had given up bridge in 1975 and the group broke up. In 1978 Paul won the double at the Gold Coast Congress and started a partnership with Mary McMahon. Paul won the triple at the ANC, pipping Seres and Cummings for 1st in the Butler Trials with Mary.
In 1980 Paul played a year with Ron Klinger and they made the Australian team, also in 1981 with Gabi Lorentz and in 1982 with Andrew Reiner. Paul also made the team in 1991 with Paul Marston and in 2012 and 2013 with Robert Krochmalik (both by 1 imp while practising for the Senior Play-offs).
Robert and Paul started their partnership in 2003 and have had many successes in senior bridge events and are currently members of the Australian Seniors Team.
In 1985 Paul took up as editor of Australian Bridge and moved to Brisbane. In 1988 he was a member of the Queensland Team which defeated NSW in the Final of the Interstate Teams. In 1989 the owner sold the magazine and Paul moved back to Sydney where he worked and played rubber bridge at Double Bay Bridge Centre.
By 1994 Paul was selling bridge supplies and playing duplicate professionally. The business grew and in 2008 Paul began to source his products from Flemming Kaalund, a supplier in China who spoke both excellent English and Chinese. Flemming now claims to be the world’s largest bridge supplier.
Paul met his wife Helen in 2013 and they married in 2016. Helen has improved and modernised the business in many ways and runs their bridge shop at major events. Paul is the Australian agent for Bridgemate 2, Autodealer 4 (the Australian fully electronic Dealing Machine) and the scoring program Compscore.
Paul writes a regular feature on bridge ideas and theories in the ABF Newsletter. He is an avid collector and also sells bridge antiques and second hand bridge books. You are welcome to phone Paul on 02-4295-0870 or 0408-888-085 or email him on Paul@bridgegear.com
