Bridge Blog 780: Finale with fireworks

         Airport Bridge Club manager Bill Finkelstein began the last game of July on Thursday by announcing that it would provide a last-minute winner the master point race for the month. The three leaders, Jerry Geiger with 27.68, Judi Marshall with 27.67 and John Ziemer with 27.43, all were in the house. But it really came down to Jerry and Judi, since John was Judi’s partner.

          Jerry and Mike Ryan gave it a good effort, finishing second North-South with 60.42% for 1.87 points, bettered only by Linda Vassallo and Walt Olszewski, who notched 66.67%. Judi and John, however, were first East-West with 62.73%, winning 2.50 points.

          As for me, I was finishing out a dismal and unproductive week with Dianne Bloom, who confessed at the start that she was exhausted from spending the past week helping her son get settled in his new apartment in Rochester. To further unhinge us, we were the bumping pair in the 9½ table game, displacing a different North-South pair each round.

          Nevertheless, we were sharp on defense. In our first round against John and Judi, we brought them down to nearly 50%. We had one bottom board, one top board and four ties for tops. It felt good and it was – 59.38%, best game I’ve had in a while, fourth in A and second in B overall for 1.97 points, 0.99 of them red.

          If my July calculations are correct, that would give me 10.77 points for the month at the Airport Club, 3.34 of them red, plus 0.49 at Unit 116 picnic. 11.26 in all. Not as wonderful as June, but at least it’s double digits.

          With Canadian partner Selina Volpatti unavailable to start the new month on Friday, I reunited with Dianne Bloom at the Airport Club. This time she was well-rested and I was not (problems with my sleep apnea machine). This did not feel like Thursday’s stellar session. We both made dumb mistakes. The most egregious was Dianne forgetting about a winning finesse she intended to take and cashing the Ace from her Ace-Queen. Despite all that, we finished first East-West with 56.65%, fourth overall, for 1.64 points, half of them red.