Bridge Blog 715: Sad September

             Sayonara, September. You’ve inspired more than your usual grim contemplations of mortality, thanks to death of our beloved cat just before you began. What am I playing bridge for, anyway, I wondered, as my days dwindle down to a precious few. Thoughts like these took all the joy out of the game. So did my results.

          One dismal session after another piled up – successive games of 44.84%, 44.48%, 46.92% and 41.96% in the second week of the month. It’s taken until almost October for things to start brightening. In fact, I may even have hit double digits for the month, impossible to even contemplate last week. As for the 17 points I need keep pace for my 200-point goal for the year, forget it.

          I was helped along by Monday’s partner, June Feuerstein, who pronounced herself feeling better than she had in ages because she’d finally gotten the right diagnosis for what was ailing her and it’s clearing up. Our 55% game made us first in the B strat North-South, second overall in our direction and fourth among all pairs, earning us 1.15 points on this, the final day of double-point ACBL International Fund games.

          A check of month-to-date point totals at the Airport Bridge Club showed 7.75 as of last Thursday, the last day the club was open. Uncertain if that counts Thursday’s game, though, when I was reunited with the lovely Dianne Bloom for a 52.78% effort, earning 0.68 points for being third in the A and B strats in our direction. And then there are those club series statistics, which award points for wins on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, etc., which have not been updated at all this month.

           So, at the least, there’s 8.90 points at the club, to which we can add another 0.78 from Sunday’s Swiss team game at the Buffalo Fall Sectional Tournament and a couple scores with Selina Volpatti from the Bridge Centre of Niagara over in St. Catharines, Ont. – 0.32 from a 50.15% effort on Sept. 6 and 1.12 from our 61.79% game on Friday the 13th. Minimum point count for the month – 11.22. A few lucky bounces and that might be 13.