Bridge Blog 1116-B: Bits and pieces

Cold, cold, cold. Every day I remembered too late that the social hall at the Main-Transit Fire Hall in Amherst is frigid in January. Even when the temperature outdoors is above freezing, the way it was this weekend. Saturday I retrieved my parka in the middle of the morning game and wore it the rest of the day. Sunday we were in front of a door to the entry hall, thanks to Flo Boyd’s demand for a stationary table, but there were a big note telling players exiting for the restrooms to close the doors. It helped.   

Anemic attendance. What seemed a little light on Friday and Saturday was dramatically smaller on Sunday. Only 16 Swiss teams. No St. Catharines people at all.

Total master points were 477.96 earned by 122 players. How does that measure up to previous years?

2019 – 515.30 points by 127 players. 20 tables for Swiss.

2018 – 578.10 points by 146 players. 20 tables for Swiss.

2017 – 588.20 points by 135 players. 24 tables for Swiss.

2016 – 594.02 points by 137 players. 23 tables for Swiss.

Sad news. I got a text in the middle of the afternoon Sunday that one of my regular partners, Celine Murray, had just died. I’d seen her daughter, Kathy Fenn, in the supermarket a couple days ago. Celine is well remembered from the days when she taught introductory bridge in the Hengerer’s department store at Main Street and Eggert Road in Eggertsville, where she worked in human relations. That was back in the 1960s. Petite and always well turned-out, I treasured the moments when she sat underneath the Marilyn Monroe poster at the Airport Bridge Club, her blonde waves a living echo of Marilyn’s. I took a phone photo of her there. I’ll have to dig it up.

This Bud’s for Bud. Sunday’s game included a 90th birthday celebration for Bud Seidenberg, who is not only one of the city’s most enduring players, but also one of the most accomplished. There was a cake. And there was a victory for Bud’s team – Jay Costello, Fred Yellen and Saleh Fetouh, all top-notch players. They won 7.15 master points. It was a good weekend for Bud. He was the tournament’s leading master point winner – 22.14.

Bud Seidenberg receives the first piece of birthday cake from Donna Steffan.