After our stellar showing in the Swiss Teams match on Friday -- second place in our division, 8.69 gold points -- I had high hopes of picking up more master points at the Niagara Regional in St. Catharines. Not Saturday, though. Partner Selina Volpatti wasn't playing and I was set to sit it out, but she lined up one of the better Bridge Center of Niagara players, John MacKay, for me.
We mesh better than I expected (I hope he wasn't too disappointed that I don't play two-over-one), but could manage only 36.75% in the morning session, almost as dismal as the 36.04% Selina and I had Thursday afternoon. Bottom of the heap, just like Thursday. We should be more aggressive, John advises as afternoon play begins. And we are. 45.95%, ninth out of 12 pairs. I take his phone number. Games at the club could be better.
Selina and I are back together for Swiss teams on Sunday, visions of a repeat of Friday dancing in our heads. Teammates are John MacKay and Marg Dykstra, who also is one of BCON's better players. We lose our first round by a small margin, then get shut out twice in a row. We limp to the finale with wins in two of the three rounds after lunch. Not nearly good enough to tap into that treasure trove of gold points that Swiss team play provides, but at least we don't go home emptyhanded. A win in each round is worth 0.33 red points.
Before the game started Sunday, the place applauded one of our Buffalo players, Mike Ryan, who's pictured above. It was his 77th birthday.
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