Diamond in the Ruff Newsletter Article
By Maxine Reagh
Unit 509 Masterpoint Race Winners 2025
On Saturday, May 16, we recognized our Ace of Clubs and Mini-
McKenney 2025 award winners. Each winner receives two free play
coupons and a certificate.
The Mini-McKenney awards go to the person who accumulates the
most points in their point range category in any in-person game,
including tournaments, the Ace of Clubs award goes to the person who
accumulates the most black points only in their point range category in local club games. Certificates also go to players accumulating master points in online games.
Betty Sather Celebrates her 104th Birthday!
by Carol Morse
Wednesday, May 6, was a special day for the Finley 509 Bridge club. Not only was it the third anniversary of the club, but it was also unit member Betty Sather’s 104th birthday. Club Manager Maxine Reagh held a drawing for free plays before revealing a beautiful birthday cake.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Betty had a career as a nurse. After living in San Francisco for three years, Betty and her husband, Paul, moved to Marin County, CA in 1951. They had three children. In 1956, she met Jean Marchant, and through Jean, connected with two other couples who would become lifetime friends. Known as “the four families”, the group played social bridge and enjoyed parties and family celebrations together. Fifty years later, Jean encouraged Betty and Paul to try playing duplicate, and they took bridge lessons at the Crossley Center in Greenbrae.
In 2016, Betty and Paul moved to Santa Rosa to be closer to their daughter. Betty began playing at the Bridge Gallery in Santa Rosa with her current regular partner, Carol Morse, who grew up with the four families, and has known Betty for over 70 years. Paul passed away in 2017. Special guests for the occasion were longtime friends, Jean Marchant, and her daughter, Susan Angel, who drove up from Marin County for the day.
Today, only two of the original senior members of the four families are still with us, Betty and Jean, 101, and they are both still playing bridge. Carol feels very fortunate to be able to play regularly with two of her mother’s best friends, with Betty on Wednesdays, and with Jean on Tuesdays on BBO. And Jean’s daughter, Susan, is her bridge travel partner.
Jean and Susan came in first, making the trip up from Marin even more worthwhile! When she first started playing with Carol in Santa Rosa, Betty joked the she wanted to get 100 masterpoints by the time she was 100. She almost made it and has now exceeded it. Betty looks forward to the weekly game at the Finley Center and says Wednesdays are her favorite day of the week. And earning over 1.04 master points on her birthday was just the icing on the cake!
ProAm Game
Finley 509 held a ProAm game on the fifth Wednesday of the month in April. Mark Hersko and Maxine Reagh came in first N/S and Abbe Cohen and Ron Welch came in first E/W, earning free plays and other goodies. Three lucky people won door prizes of free plays, too.
Unit Game Lessons
We have had three very fine lessons provided on Saturday Unit game days. Tony Jackson gave a very thorough lesson on all kinds of doubles on April 11 and was able to challenge all levels of players. Evelyn Holtz took us deeper into slam bidding on May 16, also challenging all levels. On June 20th, Bruce Blakely presented a fine lesson on Negative Doubles, a review for some, with a challenging play of the hand at the end. These lessons are very well attended and attract players from out of our immediate area. Jacki Ortiz provided delicious lunch buffets each of these dates. We are quite lucky to have such generous talent amongst us.
Winners April 11: Section A Bob Klein and Nancy Gunn 4.97; Larry Borsian and Asher Nathan 2.86. Section B: Roy Redlich and Hans Van Boldrik 2.6, David Mendel and Jerry Besses 1.46. Section C Doug and Pam Schrock 1.96mps.
Winners May 16: Section A: Stephanie Singer and Carol Kemper with 4.22, Shelley Dunietz and Sara Rothmuller with 2.37, Evelyn Holtz and Lynn Blumenthal with 1.78, and Joanne Wegsten and Daniel Harp with 1.00. Section B: David Kramer and Veronica Berlin and Tony and Naomi Ramsden.
Winners June 20 Kate Hill and Jim Reed 4.77, Lynn Blumenthal and Evelyn Holtz 3.58, Carol Morse and Andy Andrews 2.6, and Joni Conner and Jeremy Brott, 2.01.
Fall Sectional October 3 and 4
Mark your calendar now so that you will attend our Fall Sectional on October 3 and 4 in Petaluma. It is usually in September so if you haven’t been able to attend in the past, try to make it this year. See the linked flyer (here) for more information.
Big Games
Debbie Tessler and Patricia Gittings placed first in Speedball on 4/13/26. (69.72%)
Debbie Tessler and Jackie Ortiz placed first in Speedball in IMP scoring on 4/15 (38.97 IMPs)
Debbie Tessler and Mark Hersko got a 72.98% game, coming in first out of 78 pairs on May 15.
Patricia Hertz and Eleanor Wales came in first, with 71.94% in the Club Championship Speedball game on June 12.
At the Oakland Sectional on June 13, Nancy Gunn, Sarita Mathiason, Bob Klein and Erwin Linzner placed first in the Sunday Team Game. And, as a matter of fact, they did not lose even one match! BIG WIN!
Congratulations.
Sacramento Regional Report
Here are the results for Unit 509’s top twenty-one scorers:
Larry Spanier 29.87, Tony Jackson 18.12, Denis Racine 13.97, Carol Morse 13.52, Andy Andrews 13.49, Lawson James 13.03, David Mendel 12.46, Kathy Venton 11.59, John Oswalt 11.59, Jane De Briyn 10.68, Patricia Hertz 9.78, Daneil Harp 8.90, Joann Wegsten 8.90, Evelyn Holtz 8.38, Jeff Sachar 7.66, John Shribbs 5.54, Shelley Dunietz 5.41, Gerald Besses 4.80, Jeremy Brott 3.64, Joni Conner 3.64.
Larry came in 51st out of almost 700 players!!
Several attendees got sick at the tournament, unfortunately, from either food poisoning or a Noro virus and therefore did not participate as many days as they had planned.
Changes in Rank
- Larry Spanier has become a Sapphire Life Master
- Tony Jackson has become a Ruby Life Master
- Brian Sullivan has become a Bronze Life Master
- Jim Kirk has become a Junior Master
Congratulations, all.
