Bridge Blog 978: Buffalo Fall Sectional Day 3

I should feel worse. A bottle of champagne at friends Julie and Larry's farewell-to-the-country-house party and bonfire Saturday night out in Strykersville, then a couple Sazeracs in a downtown bar with old friend Nancy T., now living the beach life in South Carolina, after she emailed me to say she was back in town. 
Then again, I have a reason to be at least a little bit upbeat. My missing wallet is back, found in a pair of pants that I was gathering up to include in a load of laundry. 

People tell me I'm perkier in the afternoon, but our Swiss team does most of its shining before lunch. 
We lose the opening round to Mary Ball and Joyce Frayer, thanks to one big mistake by me and another by partner Myra Razik, but then rack up three wins in a row, two of them by 30-0 Victory Point margins. In there is a plus 1,100 score against John and Martha Scott (whom I introduce to Myra as the king and queen of Lockport) when they go down at 5 Diamonds doubled.

Our Swiss team after three straight wins. From left, Myra Razik, Ron Henrikson and Judie Bailey.

After the break for Firehouse subs, we run up against two of the toughest outfits in the 23-team field. We keep the bleeding to a minimum against Chris Urbanek and Bud Seidenberg, losing by only two International Match Points. But then we meet Jay Levy and a particularly joyless guy named Robert Cannizzaro, who slam-dunk us by a score of 44-1 IMPs.

We finish against another tough crew – Fred Yellen and Jim Gullo – and prevail only because they stumble into a bad slam bid.

The Saleh Fetouh team, with Chris Urbanek and Bud Seidenberg, comes in first and gets 9.08 silver points. The Jay Costello team, with Jay Levy, is runner-up and gets 6.81. The B strat leaders are Canadians, including Dee Glover, who I see regularly at the St. Catharines club. Tied for third overall, they get 5.01. Fortunately, we didn't face them.

Our team, with 119 Victory Points, manages to capture the last bonus position we could catch – fifth in the B strat – for a reward of 1.67 silver points, boosting my tournament total to 1.98. 
The Scotts, part of the all-Niagara County Jim Jones team, recover from their bout with us to finish first in C and take home more points than we do – 2.34.

Today's game marks a return to old-fashioned shuffle-and-play Swiss teams. The Unit 116 board decided to abandon their experiment in pre-dealt hands. Downside: No hand records. Upside: The caddies are back. One of them is director Brian Meyer's younger daughter, now grown up into a long-legged early teen who is as sharp and courteous as she is attractive.