Bridge Victoria

Starting Thursday, August 1, a weekly game of duplicate light will be available to players with fewer than 20 master points. Social bridge players with no knowledge of points are especially welcome.

D-Light offers social bridge players an introduction to duplicate in a very friendly setting. You can click here for a one-page primer on duplicate bridge.

The game will be at St. Aidan’s Church Hall at 12:15 with registration at noon. The game costs $5/player.

Come with or without a partner.

People will be on hand to help with every aspect of adjusting to duplicate – except what to bid and how to play the hand!!

Roy Stefaniec will be the director.
For info, call Jill at 250-686-4747

If you enjoy Larry Cohen’s teachings, here’s a chance to meet him in the flesh, although you’ll need to exercise some patience.

Larry will be teaching at the Duplicate Lite Bridge Club in Surrey, next year,  June 12-13, 2020.

Full details are available here. The event is already 70% booked so don’t tarry if you want to get in.

More info on Duplicate Lite, e.g., location, game times, etc is available on their website.

The Ace of Diamonds tournament for players under 100 MPs was held last Saturday, June 22 at St Peter’s Church.

Mark Raymond chaired the tournament with Roy Stefaniec directing. Eighteen pairs showed up to do battle and vye for silver points.

Congratulations to winners of the event:

• Gail Biyby and Janet McGregor
  First Overall (and EW in Morning Pairs)

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• Christine Simpson and Gail Simpson
  First NS in Morning Pairs

Congratulations to Bob MacDonald for winning the June quiz with a score of 490. 

Bob will receive a free game, valid at local clubs, courtesy of Unit 431.

Find the complete list of participants and scores under It’s Your Call-Results in the MEMBERS section at the top of the page. For quicker access, follow this link.

To play the July 2019 quiz, either click here, or hover your mouse over MEMBERS (at top of page) to see a pull-down menu of choices, one of which is It’s Your Call, Victoria!

Penticton ‘19  

reported by Jill Stainforth

About five dozen Victorians flew or drove to Penticton this year to compete in the Regional and two of our directors, Matt and Roy, officiated. 

The competition was impressive:  our top five results fell between the 69^th and 114^th places of the 1386 who won points over the seven-day event. 

Players love the Penticton event and travelled there from all over the States and Canada.  It’s a beautiful area with no city stress.  Restaurants in town are great and varied and minutes away are the Naramata and Skaha area wineries with stunning restaurants.

Among the notable results:

• The team of Michael Hargreaves (Victoria), Dan Jacob, Gordon McOrmond and Ken Scholes won their Tuesday-Wednesday KO (Knock-Out) bracket for 30.43 mps;
• Roxy and Lou Sandmaier (Victoria) with Karen Rise and Nobi Morris were runners up in their bracket in the same KOs for 11.81 mps;
• Gerry McCully and Rhonda Foster (Victoria) came 5^th in A in the Wednesday Open Pairs for 11.62 mps;
• Terry Foster (Victoria) and Wayne Stann came 13^th in A in the Thursday Open Pairs for 11.54 mps;
• The team of Mel Zimmerman, Lorna Smith, Brenda Wilson  (Victoria) and Bill Brand came 2^nd in the Thursday evening Swiss for 9.38 gold;
• Susan Jobbins and Joan Geber, both from Victoria and new to ACBL, got gold points in the Friday afternoon pairs and in the Saturday evening pairs;
• The team of Donald Berry, David Reid, Jill Stainforth (Victoria) and Lorenzo Migliorini were runners up in their Thurs-Fri KO bracket for 15.32 mps;
• Relative newcomers Jill Plasteras and Mark Raymond along with Shelley Burnham and Ev Goedhart, all of Victoria, placed 3^rd in their Thu-Fri KO bracket;
• The team of Roy Stefaniec, John Keech (Victoria) and Doreen McOrmond and Kathy Bye won the Friday evening Swiss for 11.95 mps;
• Duncan Smith and Debbie Mineault came 3^rd in A in the Friday Open Pairs for 19.13mps;
• Ernie Tradewell and Don Copeland came 5^th in the Saturday side game;
• Burton and Kinga Voorhees won gold coming 1^st in C in the Saturday Open Pairs;
• The team of Rita Beny, Nev Hircock, Danielle Goulet and Tony Farr got 10 mps tying for 4^th in the Fri-Sat KOs;
• The team of Russ Page, Ian Kimmerly (Victoria) and Sylvia and Terry Nazar came 2^nd in their Fri-Sat KO bracket for 8.27 mps;
• In the Sunday Swiss, the best Victoria result was achieved by the team of Ewa Zwicky and Andrea Miller with Bruce McIntyre and Roberta McIlwain, coming 3^rd in X.
• The team of Debbie Mineault, Jill Stokes, Duncan Smith and Aline Vance placed 2^nd in B in the Senior Swiss.  (Senior has nothing to do with age here.)

Congratulations to all!

Detailed results are available on Bruce McIntyre’s Penticton Online Bulletins.

Please note that next year’s dates for the Penticton Regional are June 15-20, a little later than usual.

Roy Stefaniec has a new website, bridgewebs.com/island, functional but still a work in progress. He thus joins the other Victoria clubs in using the bridgewebs platform.

Note also that there will be no bridge at St. Aidan’s Church on Monday June 10 and Thursday June 13 as Roy will be working in Penticton for the week. There will be a game on Monday June 17 and Island Bridge Club’s schedule will remain the same thereafter till August.

Starting Thursday August 1, there will be pairs games on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons starting at 12:15 pm and on Fridays in the morning at 9:30 am. The pairs game on Thursday will also feature a NLM section for those with fewer than 500 points and a D-light section for those new to duplicate with fewer than 50 points.

Congratulations to Don Copeland who has now won It’s Your Call for the third time.

Don won the May game, scoring 470 points (out of a possible 500) and will receive a free game, valid at local clubs, courtesy of Unit 431.

Find the complete list of participants and scores under It’s Your Call-Results in the MEMBERS section at the top of the page. For quicker access, follow this link.

To play the June 2019 quiz, either click here, or hover your mouse over MEMBERS (at top of page) to see a pull-down menu of choices, one of which is It’s Your Call, Victoria!

Our Bridge Buzz editor, Nev Hircock, has prepared an exciting and fact-filled April 2019 edition.

A few paper copies will be available at clubs this week, however if you want to read it right now, head to our website (bridgevictoria.ca)’s Bridge Buzz page. Look at the top menu and you can see… The Bridge Buzz!

Just click on it. If that’s too hard, here’s the direct link: The Bridge Buzz

Congratulations to Sophie Watt and Bree Watts who tied for first place the April quiz.

Sophie and Bree will each receive a free game, valid at local clubs, courtesy of Unit 431.

Find the complete list of participants and scores under It’s Your Call-Results in the MEMBERS section at the top of the page. For quicker access, follow this link.

To play the May 2019 quiz, either click here, or hover your mouse over MEMBERS (at top of page) to see a pull-down menu of choices, one of which is It’s Your Call, Victoria!

Several Unit 431 members have attained new ranks in the masterpoint rankings in March.

See them on our Masterpoint Milestones page.

Perhaps some of you have read Paul Linxwiler’s column on masterpoint ranks in the April Bridge Bulletin.

I totally share his conclusion. As he aptly puts it, “the beauty of our game – and the difficulty in becoming proficient at it – demands that we celebrate these milestones”.

Every month, new Unit 431 members who attain new masterpoint ranks, from Junior to Platinum and beyond, are celebrated on our Masterpoint Milestones page. Have a look and see how your friends are doing.

Congratulations to Don Copeland who came in first in the March quiz.

Don will receive a free game, valid at local clubs, courtesy of Unit 431.

Find the complete list of participants and scores under It’s Your Call-Results in the MEMBERS section at the top of the page. For quicker access, follow this link.

To play the April 2019 quiz, either click here, or hover your mouse over MEMBERS (at top of page) to see a pull-down menu of choices, one of which is It’s Your Call, Victoria!

Take a look at this Washington Post article for some light-hearted weekend reading. Be sure to look at the comments too.

Doping scandal rocks bridge world!

With thanks to Madeleine Tremblay for bringing it to our attention.

Unit 431 lost two members in February 2019. Mac Tidmarsh passed away on February 10. Irene McDonald was 101 years old when she left us on February 24.

More details can be found on our In Memoriam page, under Members in the top menu.

Congratulations to Michael Cockerell who came in first in the February quiz.

This is Michael’s second win (he also won last November). He receives a free game, valid at local clubs, courtesy of Unit 431.

Find the complete list of participants and scores under It’s Your Call-Results in the MEMBERS section at the top of the page. For quicker access, follow this link.

Once there, you can also read some pretty interesting comments by players explaining their choices of bids. If you feel like responding or adding your own comment, just email the webmaster.

To play the March 2019 quiz, either click here, or hover your mouse over MEMBERS (at top of page) to see a pull-down menu of choices, one of which is It’s Your Call, Victoria!

The Victoria Spring Sectional will once again be held at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, March 8 to 10.

Unit 431 will offer a hospitality table of refreshments for our local players and out of town guests. Contributions for the hospitality table are gratefully accepted! In order to protect our unit’s recent investment in a BridgeSorter dealing machine and new cards, we will avoid serving food items which might damage the machine or cards, and we ask that sticky food donations be avoided. If you prefer to provide a cash donation to assist Unit 431 in purchasing food and beverages, cash donations are also welcome. See our Treasurer Gail Richardson, or any of our other board members: JP Weber, Gloria Dorrance, Ann Brydon, Lionel Traverse, Maureen Trappe, Nev Hircock, Shelley Burnham, Jill Stainforth, and Ernie Tradewell.

On Sunday, Unit 431 will provide free muffins, croissants and fruit, before the Swiss Team event.

See the flyer for more tournament information.

We hope to see you there.

Unit 431, Bridge Victoria Board of Directors

A little cold and snow did not keep our dedicated bridge players away from the Ace of Hearts sectional event on February 9, 2019. The event was chaired by Shelley Burnham and directed by Roy Stefaniec. We had a good turnout of 13.5 tables for the pairs, and 10 tables for the Swiss teams.

Tournament Winners

Ravi Mehra and David Korican won the N/S Morning Pairs and placed first overall in the tournament with 2.66 silver masterpoints.

Margot Northey and Marian Webb won the E/W Morning Pairs.

Eileen Lugossi, Audrey Mactier, Madeleine Tremblay, and Dolores Johnson won the Afternoon Swiss Teams.

Unit 431’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday, February 10, 2019 starting at 12:30 pm. Plan to attend and choose your new Unit Board!

The AGM will be followed by a fun, individual movement duplicate bridge game ($5)

Free coffee and cookies!

Free pizza and pop after the game!

Read all about it in the flyer.

Congratulations to Alison Campbell who came in first in the January quiz.

She receives a free game, valid at local clubs, courtesy of Unit 431.

Find the complete list of participants and scores under It’s Your Call-Results in the MEMBERS section at the top of the page. For quicker access, follow this link.

Once there, you can also read comments by players explaining their choices of bids. If you feel like responding or adding your own comment, just email the webmaster.

To play the February 2019 quiz, either click here, or hover your mouse over MEMBERS (at top of page) to see a pull-down menu of choices, one of which is It’s Your Call, Victoria!

Our favourite director, Matt Smith, is also everybody’s favourite director. As reported in the January edition of the Bridge Bulletin, Matt was presented with the Jean Molnar Employee of the Year Award at the Fall NABC in Hawaii, recognizing a field employee for outstanding customer service.

Matt is highly regarded by both players and his co-workers. As one world champion, Steve Weinstein, puts it, “for my money, Matt is the best of the best.” He further notes that any event where Matt is in charge will be run professionally with rulings well thought out and explained clearly and thoroughly.

More encomiums from bridge luminaries can be found in the full article on page 26 of the January Bridge Bulletin.

Matt is going part-time as director, saying he wants to stay home more, so Victoria players can expect to see him more often, playing  at local clubs.