Bridge Blog 442: Zingless

          Twelve days into September, 13 chances to have a game at the Airport Bridge Club and how many times have I played this month? Five. Adding golf to my week – I’ve played twice this month – has crimped things even more.

          And while I’ve long maintained that even a mediocre day on the golf course is better than a great day at the bridge table, I’m starting to wonder. I struggled to find the fun in my last round of golf and, after shooting seven strokes worse than I did the previous week, started wondering if that was what I can expect for letting myself get so far away from the game.

          En route to the card game this morning, I started wondering that about bridge. If I keep playing in this part-time manner, would I lose enough of an edge to take the zing out of the game?

          Fortunately, the fun was there in my game with Marilyn Sultz – she’s still in denial about being 15th in the country in her point division – and I’m looking forward to playing with her in the Sectional Tournament on Friday. Our game, however, was odd. At first it seemed like we were doing horribly. Then after a few top boards, it seemed like we were doing very well. When the scores came out, we were neither horrid nor torrid, but right in the middle with 50.30%. Looking at all the bottom boards we had, that was a minor miracle. Fourth in the A Strat, it was good for exactly .50 point. Total for the five days of play this month – 3.86 points.