I never know what to expect when I'm playing with an unfamiliar partner. Not that I mind, really. It's fun to get to know somebody new from a bridge perspective and I've had that chance three times in the past month or so.
I should have done well with Sue Bergman when I enticed her to join me in the Swiss team game at the Buffalo Spring Sectional at the end of March. She's been playing competitively twice as long as I have, even though she has fewer master points. She was a perfectly pleasant partner and wasn't distressed when a couple communication problems turned up. It felt like a good game, but it wasn't. We weren't able to lift up our less experienced teammates and won only one round out of five.
For that special Unit 255 game in St. Catharines, Ont., on April 5, it was a Saturday, so I could play, but Canadian partner Selina Volpatti already had someone. She could arrange for someone for me, she said, and she did. Her choice turned out to be the supremely accomplished Ginger Grant, who coincidentally is the grant-writing master at a college in Toronto. Ginger and I got along great, but the results didn't reflect it. We wound up out of the money at 45%. Selina was first North-South.
Last Friday at the game in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., I found myself sitting across a tan, wiry gentleman named Paul Roy, who had come without a partner. Selina paired us up so she could devote full attention to directing the game, which she needed. Paul, just back from Florida, where he golfs and bridges all winter, played smoothly, perhaps because we were on defense most of the time. In the end, we were sixth out of eight North-Souths, another 45%. If I'm sitting across from him again this week, we certainly have room for improvement.
