Bridge Blog 451: No gold? No ... Gold!

          No expectations for the Buffalo Spooktacular Regional Tournament. None whatsoever. I even missed the first day of it so I could ferry a visiting poet over to Rochester. Top it off by playing the daytime side pairs games, where gold is the scarcest, and a partner, Judie Bailey, with whom I have limited experience.

          So I’m delighted to come in third North-South in the morning session with a 55% game. Earning one and a fraction red points. Judie and I seem to be meshing pretty well, especially if I heed her warning that her bids are often on the light side. In the afternoon, we’re hounded by the directors for being late. Not our fault, since the table that’s sending players to us got a late start and is chronically running one hand behind. It takes until the seventh round before I can pointedly approach our most critical director and announce that we were done two minutes early. Despite our haste, however, we have an even better game. We’re second overall, first in B overall, first North-South, with a fraction over 60%. Play another afternoon pairs side game and each of us gets gold. Gold!