Part of me wanted to let the Swiss team game slide on Sunday at the Airport Bridge Club. Not the point-hound part of me, though. I told club manager Bill Finkelstein I'd play if he needed me. His phone message Sunday morning -- call if you want to know who your teammates are.
I didn't call. I just went and discovered our team consisted of two regular partners who are C strat players -- Judy McDermid and Marilyn Steffan -- and, as my partner, someone I have never played with before, Eileen Karnovsky.
Bill Finkelstein warned me that we would be facing the two toughest teams first -- the one with Liz Clark and Dotty May on it and the one with Mike Ryan, Jerry Geiger, Howard Foster and John Ziemer on it. Sure enough, the Ryan team shut us out and the Liz Clark team squeaked past us by two game points.
Then we hit a turning point against Chuck Schorr and Sushil Amlami. Eileen opened, I had a balanced 11-point hand and we tentatively advanced to where she rebid her opening suit, Diamonds, at the 2 level. Sushil doubled. Having only two Diamonds, but stoppers in the other suits, I redoubled. Chuck passed, Eileen passed and Sushil, holding a good hand but having no bid, also passed. Eileen made 2 Diamonds with an overtrick for a plus 760.
After that, we were on a roll. Eileen played brilliantly and our teammates, who were missing game contracts in the early rounds, were bidding and makng them now. We won the next four rounds, coming in third behind those two tough teams, first in the B strat, winning 2.55 master points. The point-hound part of me is wagging its tail.
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