When the partial results went up on the
bulletin board at the Airport Bridge Club on Tuesday, it looked like my New
Year’s Resolution – no games under 40% – was in jeopardy. Usha Khurana and I
were last among the North-Souths at 38% with five boards left to tally.
Happily, those five boards were good
enough to pull us across the line to 40.63%. Nevertheless, it was my worst game
of the year so far, a dark exclamation point on a mini-slump that began Friday
with Dotty May and 46.67% game after a fearsome weather forecast stifled my
plans to go to St. Catharines, Ont. Good thing, too! By the time the sleet and
freezing rain arrived, I was snug at home when I otherwise would have been
slogging through it.
Bad weather kept people away from the
Saturday game at the Airport Club. Only six of us showed up, then went home. Or,
in my case, out to lunch and then shopping.
For Monday’s Martin Luther King Day doubleheader,
I notched 45.28% with a first-time partner, Andrei Reinhorn, in the morning and
48.33% with more frequent partner Judie Bailey in the afternoon. I won’t see
Judie again until after she gets back from Florida
Wednesday partner June Feuerstein phoned
in Monday night saying she wasn’t feeling well and we agreed to cancel. Usha
and I made provisional plans to try again Wednesday – could we possibly be
worse? – but club manager Bill Finkelstein stepped in and paired me with
another person I had never played with before – longtime player Nancy
Wolstoncroft, who is getting in a lot of bridge now that she's retired.
I was surprised to find that she prefers an
unadorned style – very few conventions – but she’s sharp and she’s aggressive.
In fact, she faulted me a couple times for not being aggressive enough. Imagine
that!
At any rate, most of the chances we took
paid off – overcalls of opponents’ 1 No Trump bids, pre-empts on ridiculously
weak hands, they all turned out to be good ideas. Still, I hadn’t expected it
all to add up so handsomely. 61.57%. First overall in a 5½ table field. 2.19
master points. Best game of the year so far.
Which made me start thinking of redeption.
When I eventually do break below 40%, can I erase it with a game over 60?
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