Diamond in the Ruff Newsletter Article
By Maxine Reagh
March 7 and 8 Spring Sectional in Petaluma
If you haven’t already made plans to play in our Spring Sectional, it is not too late. If you need a partner or teammates, contact Kathy Venton at BridgeGalleryCA@gmail.com or call her at 707 591-5015.
People always enjoy our hospitality and the comfortable venue at the Petaluma Community Center. We will have gourmet sandwiches to order on Saturday morning, to be delivered at lunchtime, and on Sunday Jacki Ortiz provides a full delicious lunch, for free! And Lynn Yokel is our terrific Director, so we can count on everything going smoothly. See the link to the flyer for more information. You won’t be disappointed.
Results from Monterey
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the District 21 Monterey Regional Tournament in January. Big winners were:
27.8 points Kathy Venton
27.8 John Oswald
25.0 Sara Rothmuller
19.73 Patricia Hertz
19.05 Jeff Sacher
19.05 David Mendel
18.41 Andy Andrews
18.25 Tony Jackson
18.08 Doug Schrock
18.08 Pam Schrock
11.60 Conrad Larkin
10.25 James Reed
Twenty other Unit 509 players got 10 or fewer points, and we all enjoyed beautiful weather after the first day.
Unit Game January 24
Tony Jackson’s lesson on “The First Trick” brought several players from Marin and Sonoma/Napa and allowed us to have a complete 499er section of 3 tables for a total of 18 tables. A big thank you to all who participated and a huge thank you to Tony for preparing and delivering another superb lesson. There were fourteen sample hands in his prepared materials, each one a challenge. It is so important to consider the bidding, the meaning of the lead and transportation issues, all before you play to the first trick. Jacki made a complete lunch with salads, roll-up sandwiches and dessert muffins. We are a lucky group to have these lovely lunches provided at our unit games.
First place winners were:
N/S Jim Reed and Kate Hill 61.86%
E/W Mark Hersko and Larry Spanier 59.78%
Second Place winners were:
N/S Michael Nistler and Ted Pyle 58.81%
E/W Tony Jackson and Patricia Hertz 58.65%
499ers:
Peter Pinfield and Cynthia Fantacone 60%
Ellen Sirbu and Anita Sinclair 56.25%
Mary Warner and Tess Offord 56.25%
Unit Game TEAMS February 7
We had eighteen teams playing in this session, several from Marin and Sonoma, which we greatly appreciate. Kathy V met the challenge of getting everyone situated, right after we enjoyed the lunch that Jacki Ortiz cooked for us. Egg sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, green salad and desserts made a delicious and ample buffet. Jacki is a legend! Thank you so much.
Tony Jackson gave a very helpful lesson on Notrump Defense, a difficult topic to tackle in an hour. But Tony is gifted at targeting various levels of learning and he walked us through how to think about communicating with your partner in various scenarios. As always, his “handout” gives us a chance to go over what we learned at home.
Team Winners:
Strat A Nancy Gunn, Bob Klein, Gary Robinson and JoAnne Murdock
Strat B Lawson James, Jerry Besses, David Mendel and Cyrus Ansari
Strat C Carolyn Farren, Georgie Farren, Paulette Moe and Veronica Berlin
Big Games
Jacki Ortiz came in first overall in a Speedball game on BBO, on Jan. 20, with an 86% game!!!
Rank Changes
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- Brian Aabel is now an NABC Master
- Lawson James is now an Advanced NABC Master
Finley 509 News
12:20 pm Start Time!!!
Starting immediately, all Wednesday games at Finley will start promptly at 12:20 pm. The custodians’ hours end at 4:00 and they must be done putting all the chairs and tables away before they leave. Starting ten minutes earlier will give us time to put our equipment away and vacate the room to allow them to do their job within their paid hours. The Person Senior Center staff has been generous in allowing us to occupy the room for more than our allotted three hours. We are fortunate to have the use of this venue and want to keep the relationship going a very long time.
