Bridge Blog 1016-A: St. Catharines Sectional, Part I

I never think about the Greater Niagara Sectional Tournament in St. Catharines, Ont., without thinking about the weather. More than once, because the expressways were just too treacherous, I’ve threaded my way home on local streets through heavy snow and ice.

       The 2018 edition was no exception. I was glad my tentative plans evaporated Friday, when a steady drizzle-like flurry piled up all day long. Getting out to the Airport Bridge Club and back was miserable enough. Thrown together at the last minute with Bill Boardman, our results were  miserable too (sub 40%), but at least we had a lot of fun getting there, starting on our first two hands with back-to-back slam attempts that crashed and burned.

       For Saturday in St. Catharines, I enlisted my usual Saturday partner at the Airport Club – Denise Slattery – and fortunately, the snows of Friday had slipped away. It was clear sailing all the way to the Holiday Inn & Suites, Parkway Conference Centre, a few short blocks away from the Queen Elizabeth Way.

       Since Denise has just 200-plus master points, I had hoped that the tournament would average us down into the B stratification, but nooooo. Nobody with more than 2,000 points can play in the B/C/D strat game. We went into the A/X unlimited game instead (a two-session game, all that was available at that level). We were X players, the ones with fewer than 3,000 points.

       Nevertheless, we were up against the A players, the savviest people in the Merlot Ballroom. Vera Carpenter and Rashid Khan from Toronto. Jerry Smee and John Mackay from St. Catharines. Christy Kellogg and Bert Hargeshimer from Buffalo. We got to all of them during the double session.

       Afternoon highlight was a score I never registered before – plus 1,600 – 3 Spades down three. Redoubled. Vulnerable. The victim was Barbara Sims, partnered with Bev Ross, who has been a director at other Niagara District tournaments.

We were bidding up to 4 Heart game, not vulnerable, when Barbara intervened, thinking her six-card Spade suit and void in Hearts would thwart us. Holding A-J-10-2 in Spades, A-9 in Hearts and A-Q-6-5 in Clubs, I could have done the sensible thing and raised Denise to game after she rebid her Heart suit. Instead, I doubled. Barbara redoubled. Disaster ensued.

Despite that top board, our afternoon score was not especially notable – 53.37%. Fifth overall among North-Souths. But first in X – 1.38 master points. We planned to celebrate by searching out a Thai restaurant that was recommended to us, but seeing a fresh blanket of snow in the parking lot, we opted for the company of a couple Buffalo guys – John Bava and Ed Morgan – and a fajita platter in the Holiday Inn’s restaurant.

We ground out a 51.55% game in the evening and were happy with that, considering the opposition. This time we were second in the X strat, but our combined afternoon-evening total held up. Although we were eighth overall, behind seven A pairs, but we were first among the Xes – 4.69 silver points for the day.