Bridge Blog 1046: St. Catharines Regional, Part IV

The team, from left, Dave Dalton, Denise Slattery and Jed Drew.

I'm haunted by the thought of a second straight master point shutout at a Canadian regional tournament, a successor to my resounding lack of success at the Niagara Falls, Ont., Regional last November.

To my great relief, that vision vanishes with our first round in Sunday’s Swiss team event. Allied with an agreeable couple of guys from Tillsonburg, Ont. – Jed Drew and Dave Dalton – we nail our first opponents, a D-rated bunch, by 23 International Match Points. No shutout now. Whatever it’s worth to win a round, we got it.

After the second round, the fantasy begins to involve gold points. We take this one from another bunch of Ds by a mere 6 IMPs, but it’s a second win. Even a narrow third-round loss to the team that eventually wins B/C/D section of the Swiss game doesn’t discourage us. A 21 IMP drubbing in the fourth round does, though. Jed and Dave, so stellar in the beginning, have some shortcomings after all. So do we.  

Following the lunch break, when we learn that the Buffalo Bills are on their way to an epic defeat in their season opener against the Baltimore Ravens, we roar back with a 32 IMP victory, fueled by a hand that won’t soon be forgotten.

My hand is a flat 13 or 14 high-card points and I open a Club. Denise responds with a Heart. I bid a Spade and our opponent doubles. I redouble, expecting that it will prompt the other side to make a bad bid. But the redouble stands and I proceed to take 10 tricks. Plus 1120. 14 IMPs. Once that’s translated into victory points, however, it doesn’t make much of a difference, only 3 of those.

We get our comeuppance in the sixth round, though. We’re shut out, 43-0 IMPs. Bad mistake on our part comes when Denise pushes to 6 Spades, a  slam attempt, then goes down two. That costs us 11 IMPs, but no matter. It’s just piled onto what happened, mostly to Jed and Dave, on the other hands.

Chastened, we rally for a modest 10 IMP victory in the seventh and final round. Our victory point total is 117, which sometimes is enough to grab gold points.

This is not one of those times. To win gold, we’d need 127 VPs. We’re the highest scoring C team not to go gold. Instead, we take home only our reward for winning four rounds – 4 x 0.27 = 1.08 red points.

             Meanwhile, I see that Chris Urbanek tied for third in the A strat game, collecting another 11.20 gold. That brings her and Canadian women’s champ Joan Eaton to 70.69. Only two other players do better.

Next-best Buffalo players are way down the list. The Weltes, John and Martha, are tied for 77th with 16.55, while Kamil Bishara and Gene Finton are tied for 81st with 16 even. Further down are Saleh Fetouh, 14.03; John Ziemer, 13.14; Jay Levy, 12.09; Mike Ryan, 11.96; and Jim Easton and Marilyn Wortzman with 10.65, primarily from their big 74.57% win in the afternoon Gold Rush Pairs on Wednesday.

Among the St. Catharines players I see regularly, Amir Fasoud is 41st with 26.59, Lorna Johnson is 48th with 23.95, George Morrissey is 53rd with 22.13, Percy Harcourt, driver of that snappy red Porsche Carrera, is tied for 54th with 22.07, and Joyce Reger, who sometimes directs the Friday game at the St. Catharines club, is 56th with 21.31.

With my precious 1.08, I’m in a tie for 525th.

             Note on the hotel: The Holiday Inn and Parkway Conference Centre is getting downright shabby. The chairs in the ballroom are faded and their seats are showing foam padding. One of the men’s room towel dispensers jams repeatedly and one of the faucets feels like it will come off in your hand. Out-of-town players say that the $130 rate for bridge players doesn’t include breakfast. And woe to anyone who books at the last minute. The players say that rate is nearly $300 a night, two-night minimum.