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Are you an intermediate or novice non-Life Master bridge player with under 750 masterpoints? If so, this weekend provides a great opportunity to learn and compete!
Friday and Saturday, an I/N regional is being held at the New Brighton Community Center. Three sessions are available on Friday; two on Saturday. Lunch is provided inbetween sessions!
The flyer for the regional is here. Please do take advantage of this fine opportunity to play, learn and enjoy!
As promised, gorgeous fall colors highlighted the drive to the Paul Bunyan Sectional. And - adding color to the picture were two pairs who earned over twenty masterpoints through the weekend. Terry and Kathy Beckman were at the top of the list with exactly 25 masterpoints. Well done!
And - also earning over 20 masterpoints were Mike Cassel and Barry Purrington; 21.65. The full list of points earned can be found here.
Another beautiful sight to be hold was this one; Terry Lijewski with Diane Carr, our tournament chairman. As many of you know, Terry has battled some serious health issues lately. So, everyone was delighted to see Terry At the Table and enjoying himself!
Our thanks to Diane, Director Tony Ames, partnership chair Tess Schirmer and all the others who contributed to this fine September sectional.
Results for the rest of the tourney can be viewed here. And more photos are below the line. My thanks for receiving them from the tournament!
Jack Rhatigan is one of the Twin Cities' great bridge players - in every way. Smart, talented, funny, nice to all in our bridge community ... Even if you dug deep, I think you'd have a very tough time finding anyone with a negative comment about Jack.
Unfortunately, however, like the rest of us - Jack is not immune from the passing of time. And because of that reality of life, Chip and Teri at the TCBC passed on this message below from Shannon Rhatigan, Jack's daughter.
Jack was in the hospital from August 16 – 23, then in transitional care. He’ll be moving back into his assisted living apartment with his wife tomorrow morning. They’ll be hiring the assisted living facility to help a lot more than they had been.
Physically, he’s much better compared to when he entered the hospital. But his mental capacity took a big hit with whatever infection he had, and it seems unlikely that his memory is going to come back. I don’t think that he’ll ever be able to play bridge again. Without my dad to navigate, my mom has given up driving so won’t be able to transport him anymore anyway.
Dad’s personality is still pretty much intact, sense of humor and all. He knows his wife and children, but he often doesn’t remember the conversation you had three sentences ago. He can read words but his reading comprehension is almost zero. I suspect that his memory of his bridge friends comes and goes—it doesn’t seem like there’s a hard date where his memory fails.
Thank you,
Shannon Rhatigan
Shannon and I exchanged emails about her dad. I inquired about calling him. But, Shannon thought that it likely he simply could not hear well enough for a phone conversation.
Thus, if you're up for it, perhaps a visit to see Jack would be wonderful. Or, you could send him a card! If you'd like to do either, do let me know and I'll get more info from Shannon about how to accomplish this.
In the meantime, I'm sure that many of you will join me in sending best wishes for Jack to be as well and as happy as is possible under the circumstances. Thank you!
Stunning autumn colors light up the gorgeous North Shore. Add in beautiful weather AND the Paul Bunyan Sectional - you have a weekend you don't want to miss!
The sectional starts today, with pairs and teams through Sunday. The full schedule is here.
Enjoy our great game - battle to win masterpoints - see friends and capture views like the one above! Win, win, win!
This week, our Minnesota bridge community lost a long time fine and friendly competitor and an all round excellent man: John Westrom. We celebrate that John had such a long and full life, even as we mourn his passing.
Friend Ingrid Stocking was kind enough to share this warm remembrance of John.
We all miss John. It is rare for such a good player to be so widely loved. John was a kind partner for beginners such as myself, and a challenge for the experts who competed with him.
I got to know John when he moved to Lakeville and needed a ride get to the Bridge Center. He liked to listen to my Leonard Cohen CD’s, as he and his wife had performed his music in younger days.
Despite being in his 90's, John was still volunteering for the St Paul Foundation, and trust officers would come to his home to work with him. He told me that he was feeling active and happy.
It seems fitting that John's work, both in career and in service to the community, involved choosing how best to help others.
John's obituary in the Star Tribune is here. Please note this information about John's memorial service below.
The memorial service will be held at the Cremation Society, 7110 France Ave, Edina, MN 55435 on Saturday, September 22 at 6PM.
Our deepest condolences to John's family. He assuredly will be missed.
Continue reading "Intermediate & Novice Regional Tournament - September 28-19" »
For years, IBM has been a major employer in Rochester. Many employees would gather over lunch and enjoy a bridge game! As IBM employees retired, they became active members of Rochester Duplicate Bridge Club.
Many play multiple times a week, and there is an evening game to accommodate bridge players still working.
Recently, a photo was taken of IBM alumni and spouses to send to the alumni publications/social media. The photo shows only a fraction of those that play on a regular basis - but what a great sampling of engineers, programmers, technical writers, coders, administrative assistants, sales people, manufacturing, and more!
We are very lucky to have these individuals adding to the vitality of our club and state bridge scene!
The ACBL emailed me a list of masterpoint winners at the Spring NABC 2018 in Atlanta. Here are those who earned masterpoints from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Our #1 guy, Bjorgvin, is a talented professional and director transplanted from Iceland some years ago. Not only is Bjorgvin highly skilled, all who know him appreciate what a really great guy he is.
Here is Bjorgvin at our most recent Minneapolis Labor Day Sectional, thinking and thinking - and finally producing a fine smile!
Congrats to "Vinnie" for his excellent performance in Atlanta!
Kudos, too, to some of our young stars, notably Ben Kristensen with almost 65 masterpoints, and Sean McNally, close to 49. And, of course, Cindy and Bob Balderson performed well in the Grand National Teams AND were 12th in the LM Pairs!
To all who came, conquered and grabbed some monsterpoints - well done!
Minnesota Masterpoint Winners at Atlanta 2018 NABC
82.21 Bjorgvin Kristinsson
64.97 Ben Kristensen
56.94 Cynthia Balderson
56.94 Bob Balderson Jr
48.71 Sean McNally
41.40 Curt Kristensen
41.36 Terry Beckman
41.36 John Koch
39.44 Joel Kramer
39.37 Paul Sitz
39.34 Peggy Kaplan
38.87 Paul Meerschaert
38.87 Robert Schachter
37.16 Tom Grue
37.16 Gregg Van Dyke
35.41 Stephen Jackson
35.41 Susan Jackson
35.00 Paul Nesvig
35.00 Harry Sapienza
19.19 Randy Okubo
19.09 Michael Cassel
19.09 Barry Purrington
17.31 Paul Gutterman
17.31 Eric Hendrickson
14.89 Christine Greenberg
14.89 Joyce Lewis
13.53 Michael Flader
12.15 Jean Boettcher
12.15 Steven Gaynor
8.09 Jerry Bartlett
8.09 William Boline
7.50 Amy Dutton
7.50 Susan Sanger
7.23 Judy Hansen
7.23 Elizabeth Hughes
6.45 Bruce Boje
6.45 Vern Swing
6.14 Roger Anderson
6.14 Sharon Anderson
5.42 James LaFave
4.31 Jill Flader
2.33 Zeren Shui
2.09 Sarah Eyer
0.56 Matthew Hoffman
0.51 Allie Clark
District 14 North American Pairs Finals- Oct 6-7
Edina, MN
Please send an RSVP by September 30th if you are planning to play in the D14 NAP Final in Edina, MN on Oct. 6-7. We need a count for Sunday lunches and pre-registration will help us to start the tournament on time. Send your names and flight information (A, B, or C) to either Sue Jackson, at sjackson@smumn.edu or to my email; diane.henson@gmail.com.
See attached flyer for further information. Please note that this tournament requires that you qualified in a club qualifying game.
There is a pair game on Friday, October 5th at 7:15pm at the Grand Slam Club at the same location in Edina, if you want to play in a warm-up game.
Sales of entries will be from 12-12:50 pm with the tournament starting at 1pm on Saturday. There will be separate sections and winners for Flight A, Flight B, and Flight C. You may play in the tournament to win points even if you don't want to play at the Memphis NABC NAP in March, 2018 but you still must have qualified at a club qualifying game.
There are subsidy funds available from the ACBL & the District for the top 3 winners in Flight A and the top 4 winners in Flights B & C. The district will be sending a total of 11 pairs to the national NAP event in March.
Please contact me or Sue with any questions. Hope to see you all at the District Finals.
Diane Henson
District 14 NAP Coordinator
The long Labor Day weekend holiday delivered four days of great bridge at the Twin City Bridge Center! As you can see from the photo of Jean Boettcher above - it was LOADS of fun!
One competitor - Minnesota star Robert Schacter - earned over 31 masterpoints during the sectional. Judy and Phil Schwartz scooped up 26.49 with a very nice showing, too. All the masterpoints earned can be viewed here; results from each event are at this link.
Highlights were a couple of BIG games throughout the tourney. Congrats to Terry and Kathy Beckman for a substantial 68.15% - and to Harry Sapienza and Dave Collins for a 67.61%.
And "well done" to University of Minnesota tough competitors, Sean McNally and Morgan Johnstone. Their hefty 59.43% earned them 1st in Flight B and C - and 3rd overall in Flight A! We do hope that with students returning to college, more of our young players will be battling away at clubs and tourneys.
As always, our thanks to Director Kim Hayward, and Tournament Chair Teri Blu. (By the way, be sure to read our write up of Teri, who earned District 14 Teacher of the Year for 2018! Part of why we had lotsa people playing!)
Wonderful to see quite substantial turnouts on Friday and Saturday. And, despite the holiday weekend, both Sunday and Monday fared well, too.
More photos below! And apologies for everyone I missed. Your webmaster is becoming too decrepit to follow suit and get a shot of everyone ... but glad I could nab some!
Continue reading "Labor Day Sectional - August 31-Sept 3 - Results" »
Are you a player with 0-500 points? Would you enjoy two sessions of bridge with your peers - along with a lecture from District 14 Platinum Life Master G S Jade Barrett?
If so - then this is a great opportunity for you! On September 15th, Rochester is hosting a Non Life Master Sectional for players with 500 or fewer masterpoints.
The flyer and details are here; come, compete and have a fun day of bridge and learning!
This Labor Day weekend, throngs of players from Minnesota and beyond have been enjoying the Labor Day Sectional at the Twin City Bridge Center. Part of the reason we see so many attending and enjoying is due to the labors of the lady above - TCBC owner and superb bridge teacher, Teri Blu.
Teri has earned the title of Teacher of the Year for 2018 in our District 14. Teri surely is a person most worthy of this honor!
Through her directing work, her tutoring with individuals as bridge partners, and from her many classes over the years at the TCBC, Teri has trained so many that are enjoying our game today. Her "chat bridge" is a marvelous concept that allows newer players to get their "sea legs" at bridge, through talking immediately about the game. What works; what doesn't - what does this bid mean and how do you learn to communicate with your partner? Teri explains it all, in a kind and gentle manner that makes the bridge world a friendly, not too fierce place.
One of the best ways to acknowledge Teri's achievement is to head on over to the TCBC tomorrow and Monday! We're only halfway through the Labor Day Sectional! Teri would love to see you - and - you will love competing ... and perhaps seeing your name up in lights!
Teri - thanks for all you do and for earning this meaningful award!