Minnesota Bridge

The Bridge Center of St. Paul Celebrates The Longest Day

 

BIG thanks to Larry Huiras and all the others who made The Longest Day in St. Paul a HUGE success!

 

 

The Bridge Center of St. Paul celebrated the Longest Day on June 21st.  Funds were raised by our players to support the efforts of the Alzheimer's Association.  These monies will help to support research and raise awareness of the challenges that face those with Alzheimers and their caregivers.

Our Bridge Center hosted 3 games on the Longest Day!  Food and a pot luck were available between each session.  Gary Mulcahy generously donated and prepared yummy hamburgers for all between the morning and afternoon sessions. Dee Dee Lorentzen grilled great hot dogs for folks between afternoon and evening sessions.

 

Huge thanks to all our volunteers and to the many players who attended and contributed!  Overall, the three games had 47 tables of players - and raised $3,307.00 for the Alzheimer's Association!

 

 

A great day for celebrating and enjoying our great game - and doing great good, too!  Thank you!

 

 

Unit 178 Board Minutes - May 9, 2019

Many thanks to all the board members of Unit 178 and other volunteers who work hard to make bridge great in Minneapolis and surrounding areas!

Below are the board minutes from their most recent May meeting.

Unit 103 June 14th Minutes

Our thanks to Unit 103 Secretary Patti Huiras for sharing the unit's most recent Board minutes from June.

Please note that these minutes (posted below) have not yet been approved. This shall occur at Unit 103's next meeting in September.

Thanks to all board members for their efforts to make bridge great in Minnesota!

Jack Rhatigan - Memorial and Celebration of Life

 

On Saturday, June 15th, family, friends and a host of bridge players congregated at the Twin City Bridge Center to remember Jack Rhatigan.  Jack's family provided food for all to enjoy.  Teri and Chip Blu were warm hosts, as they have been for decades to our area's players.

 

 

Shannon Rhatigan, Jack's daughter, had a smile on her face as she interacted with all of us. It has been Shannon who kept Facebook followers updated on Jack's condition. And Shannon who decided that, given Jack's love of our game, a gathering at the TCBC would be most meaningful for all - including Jack.

 

 

Shannon was so right. No formal speeches were given. Nevertheless, throughout the memorial, people shared their stories about Jack and expressed sentiments about our friend.  As always, Teri was helpful to all the guests.

 

 

Very long time friends and partners of Jack, like Evan Sachs, had wonderful memories of Jack.  Laced with stories about Jack's superb abilities at the table, his amazing talents at remaining cool and calm throughout - and always being an excellent partner - brought a combination of joy and wistful sadness that Jack will no longer be at the table.

 

 

Shannon shared how much bridge meant to her dad throughout his life.  And added that when Jack could no longer come to the TCBC and compete with his great partners and see friends, fighting his illness became tougher. Yet, seeing the many people who mattered in Jack's life, together, remembering our class act of family member, friend and top notch player, was a comfort to us all.

 

 

We are so grateful that Jack's family, love of his life wife Marilyn, children Shawn and Shannon, grandson Jared, other family members, friends and a host of bridge players attended Saturday to honor Jack.

In so many ways, Jack highlighted what was best about our game - and our bridge players. A tough competitor, a great partner, an honorable man who was respected and appreciated by all...  We will miss Jack... and yet our special memories of him shall last forever.

More photos below.  Apologies that I wasn't able to grab shots of everyone who attended!  You were all greatly appreciated, to be sure.

St. Cloud Granite City Sectional Results

 

With summer in full form now, the Granite City Sectional enjoyed a fine turnout!  Players from throughout Minnesota - and even several states beyond - came, competed and conquered!

Results can be found here. Currently, masterpoint winners are not listed. But if they do appear, I will share them with you.

Of particular note was the success of Carleton College students Jackson Wahl and Sarah Emmons.  After a most successful Gopher Regional, Jackson and Sarah followed up in St. Cloud with two wins, a second place and another overall position!  Their first event, they managed to score over 64%; quite impressive!  We are delighted to see that younger people can fall in love with our great game - and succeed big time at it, too!

  Jackson and Sarah are two of our college students who won a trip to Las Vegas this summer in the ACBL collegiate competition.  Please join me in wishing them well!

Our thanks to tournament & partnership chair Kory Solarz and tournament director Kim Hayward for their fine efforts.  And we thank all our competitors for attending Granite City and enjoying an excellent sectional! 

Unit 103 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda - St. Cloud - 6-14-2019

Patti  Huiras, Secretary for Unit 103, has alerted us to her unit's Board of Directors Meeting tomorrow in St. Cloud.

Our thanks to the Unit 103 Board for all their diligent efforts!  And good luck to all at the St. Cloud sectional, too!

The agenda is below.

Celebration of Life for Jack Rhatigan - Saturday June 15th

 

A reminder that this Saturday Jack Rhatigan's family is honoring and remembering Jack with a celebration of his life.  An open house is scheduled from 4:30 to 7:30 at the Twin City Bridge Center.

Jack spent countless hours at the TCBC enjoying our game and all our friends - as did we so appreciate Jack.  We hope that you can join Jack's family in recounting all our great times with this fine player and wonderful man.

More details can be found here (see below the line)

Granite City Sectional - June 13-15

 

The Granite City Sectional in St. Cloud will soon be upon us!  Thursday, June 13th is the start date. 

Get your favorite partner and teammates and join in the competition!

The sectional flyer is below.

Gopher 2019 - More Highlights!

 

Our Gopher Bulletin editor, Mike Cassel, wanted to give special mention to the pair who won the I/N trophy at Gopher 2019.  Joe Fahey and Gerry Keith played 7 I/N sessions - and - were in the overalls for 6 of the 7!  

Their average throughout their sessions was almost 59%

Very well done, Joe and Gerry!  Congrats on earning that fine trophy and award - and - here's to more achievements down the road!

Rochester Med City Regional - Partnership Chair Change

Please note that we have had a change in for the Partnership Chair at our Rochester Regional in September.

John Ryder was the Partnership Chair, but had to step down from that position.  

We thank John for his efforts - and are most fortunate that we have a fine new Partnership Chair:  Sheri French.

Sheri will do a fine job for us!  A new flyer is below with the changes.

Gopher 2019 Highlights - Education in District 14

 

Education is integral to so much in life.  Of course, bridge is included!  Fine bridge teachers do so much for our game.  They find and introduce new players to the greatest mind game there is.  They aid those who wish to grow their game to do so - learning more and more about all the intricacies of bridge.  They support and improve our players everywhere.

At the Gopher Regional, a number of our excellent bridge teachers were honored. In our first photo above is Sue Greenberg from Rochester.  Sue and her husband Rich do so much for bridge in so many ways - including supporting our teachers!

 

 

MaryAnn Boardman, of Cedar Rapids, Unit 163, is an ACBL accredited teacher. MaryAnn serves as a teacher, mentor and tournament chair for I/N tournaments.  She has also served in several leadership roles in District 14 and Unit 163.

As MaryAnn was unable to be at the Gopher for this presentation, Nancy Klein accepted for MaryAnn at the tournament.

 

 

Layne Vinje, from Rochester, Unit 103, has been instrumental in supporting entry level bridge and Chat Bridge. For those who are no longer able to get to and from home and bridge, Layne is the bridge chauffeur!  He also acts as a mentor several times a month by partnering I/N players and spends extra time and his own resources to support students. Layne also has served several terms as president in Rochester.

 

 

And finally, our U of Minnesota Honors Bridge coaches, from Unit 178.

 

On top is Matthew Bribitzer-Stull, Honors Dean at U of MN, pictured with his students (Matt was unable to be at the presentation). Professors Eric Hendrickson, Paul Gutterman and Glen Meeden (along with Sue G) are in our second photo. And Eric is solo in our last shot.

 

These U of MN teachers have had a profound impact on junior bridge in Minnesota. They have established the teaching of bridge as an honors program extra curricular activity and have shepherded teams into national competitions.  (One was 9th in the nation in 2018; this year, 4 teams from U of MN plan to compete.)  They have spent enormous amounts of extra time and personal resources to expand learning opportunities for our bridge students. 

 

Additionally, this year Eric put forth mighty effort to raise funds throughout our bridge community and beyond, so that more of our students could have the opportunity to attend the Summer Collegiate NABC in Las Vegas. 

 

Please join me in extending applause and huge thanks to our honored teachers!  We are so grateful to them, and to all the other teachers in our bridge community.  There contributions and efforts are helping to keep our game alive and growing, so that generations to come can enjoy and participate in the magic of our great game.

Gopher 2019 Highlights - Carol Cummings Pairs and I/N Winners

 

A great many of remember a long time Minnesota player who not only was one of our finest - but - one of our nicest, too.  A number of our players were able to compete in the Carol Cummings Pairs event on Friday, honoring our friend.

Among them were two brothers; Clark and Bill Cummings.  

So glad to know Clark and Bill enjoyed their mother's event and could be with all of us to remember Carol.

 

 

Meanwhile.....

Two of our I/N players, Steve and Marilyn Riederer of Rochester, earned handsome trophies when their partnership captured the Saturday morning I/N session.

I'm quite certain Carol is smiling about all!