Minnesota Bridge

Happy New Year Minnesota Bridge Players!

 

Unit 103 - Board of Directors and Minutes from November 2018 Meeting

Patty Huiras, Unit 103's new secretary, has kindly provided us with a new roster for their Board of Directors, along with the minutes from their most recent board meeting in November.

Our thanks to Patty for all the information and to the Unit 103 Gopher Board for their hard work and efforts to make bridge in Minnesota as excellent as possible! 

 

List of Board Members and Minutes are below.

Bill Erickson - 1929 - 2018

 

Chip and Teri Blu have been the owners of the Twin City Bridge Center for many years now. Yet, prior to their ownership, previous owners Bill and Elaine Erickson ran "the place" to play bridge in Minneapolis.

We are sad to report that Bill passed away this December in Las Vegas, where he and Elaine had moved to enjoy retirement.

Both Bill and Elaine were long time Minnesotans who loved our game - and enjoyed sharing their passion with so many of us here in the Twin Cities.

A memorial link for Bill can be found here.  Our deepest condolences to Elaine and all of Bill's family. 

In the meantime, please enjoy the photo of above of Elaine and Bill in their hey day at the Bridge Studio - along with a very young, up and coming Joe Grue in the background! 

Bill - it was a great run.

From Here To - Almost! - Eternity

 

We hope that all of our Minnesota players have been having a wonderful holiday season!  And, with the advent of our new year - 2019 - soon to be upon us, we are again grateful to Steve Gaynor.  Steve has an upcoming calendar of events in Minnesota and ones that might be attractive to our players, posted below.

If you know of an event that is not listed, please contact Steve and he will add it!

Best wishes to us all for an excellent new year, filled with loads of marvelous bridge adventures!

(Also - please note this comment just received from Mr. Almost Eternity himself, Steve G:

"I missed the sectional on September 5-7 at the Black Bear casino in Carlton, MN. Located right on I-35 just 20 miles south of Duluth."  Thanks for the addition, Steve!)

Our Friend Terry Lijewski

 

As a number of our community know, our friend Terry Lijewski has faced a number of serious health issues this past year.  And sadly, due to health, Terry can no longer play bridge.

Terry also has been moved to an acute care facility in River Falls, Wisconsin. While he doesn't answer emails or phone calls, Terry does welcome visitors!

If you would like to visit Terry, please contact his daughter in law, Keri. You can reach her at:  Kerith42

Additionally, if you are not able to visit our friend Terry but would like to share some messages with him, please contact me at [email protected] OR write a comment on the website. It will be posted!

 

I met Terry when I first began to play duplicate bridge, many moons ago. A friendly and fun guy in addition to a fine bridge player!  So - let's show our support!

 

Gopher Regional - 2019

We may have just finished with Hannukah; Christmas and New Year's Day will be here soon.  Yet - time marches on and before you know it, spring will arrive and with it - the Gopher Regional 2019!

Patti Stuhlman and Sue Jackson, our co-chairs, are already working hard with their volunteers to present a great tournament next May. 

The schedule is here.  Not too early to be grabbing your favorite partner, putting together your teams and aiming at a loads of fun and success at Gopher Regional 2019! May 20th through 26th; save those dates!

First Place Intermediate/Novice Winners at the State Tournament in Oakdale

 

Congratulations to Theresa and Paul Wurst! The I/N pair tied for 1st place, having won over 5 Masterpoints in Intermediate/Newcomer games at the State Tournament. The three day event was held at the Oak Marsh Golf Club in Oakdale, MN. 

Theresa and Paul plan to compete again next year - perhaps earning back to back wins!

We invite you all to plan to play in these fun games next year, too. 

(Webmaster side bar:  Congrats on your achievement; big and beautiful trophy you have there!)

Winter Holiday Sectional Results

 

The Winter Holiday sectional was sensational! Lots of pair and pair/team games through the weekend, stupendous treats each day - and, of course - plenty of winning bridge.  At the top of the masterpoint list, we find a fellow who often lands there:  Paul Meerschaert (seen above sharing a winning hug with his sweetie, Sandy Fisher). Paul earned an impressive 40.39 masterpoints for his efforts.

Close behind (and apologies for no photo) was Barry Purrington. Barry managed to produce an over 70% game with partner Dennis Cerkvenik - and a couple of others that were close to that mark!  A number of excellent sessions earned Barry 36.86 masterpoints.  The full list of masterpoint winners is here; who made the overalls each event is here.

 

 

Hospitality was out of this world - and the volunteers providing it with beautiful smiles were tip top, too!

 

 

Director Kim Hayward yet again admirably managed all her many duties with a smile on her face.

 

 

A great time was had by all!  Thanks to every one who came, who competed, who volunteered and helped!

MORE photos below!

Minnesotans Continue to Shine in Hawaii!

 

The Land of 10,000+ Lakes continues to conquer the beautiful island of Hawaii!

In addition to Sharon Anderson's 3rd place finish with Barbara Heller in the Women's Pairs, we are now delighted to share these new triumphs by Minnesotans!

In the six session Mini-Blue Ribbon event, congratulations to fine showings by Mark Krusemeyer, Rebecca Anspach and Keith Connolly!

Mark, along with partner Barry Margolin, were second overall!  Way to go!

And partners at the table and in life, Rebecca and Keith, secured spot #5.  Excellent!

Then - just ONE spot behind Rebecca and Keith, Randy Okuba snabbed 6th place with his partner, Nathan Glasser!  Yay!

Overall results for the Mini-Blues are here.

We hope everyone still in Honolulu is having a marvelous time and doing super, too!