Bridge Blog 1186: Circumstances beyond my control

 

That's what's been keeping me from the tables since mid-February. My partner Monica had her right knee replaced on the 17th and I've been on caregiver duty ever since. She's recovering nicely, but here at the two-week mark there are quite a few tasks she can't yet accomplish by herself. 

So afternoons at the bridge clubs in Canada are out of the question for a while still. When new partner Rod Sumner called recently to see if I was available for a Wednesday at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines, I estimated that I wouldn't be free to come back until at least St. Patrick's Day. But, I cautioned, it may take a little longer. 

Bridge Blog 1185: The champ

Nobody in Buffalo racks up more master points these days than Saleh Fetouh. The retired radiologist collected 1,021.31 last year, almost four times as many as the player in second place, Davis Heussler, who had 258.82. 

The good doctor was off and running toward another millennium in January with 143.01. How did he do it? Not from playing club games. He only won 3.29 that way. And it wasn't online either. He added just 2.71 there. 

His success, as we knew all along, came from the regional tournament circuit. He started off the month at the Myrtle Beach New Year's Regional in South Carolina, where he and partner Vic Queros of Phoenix brought home 47.33 points. He bagged another 16.12 the following weekend at the Cleveland Rock and Roll Regional with various partners, but did far better two weeks later at the Houston Lone Star Regional. Teamed again with Vic Queros, the two of them got 38.06 points. 

The rest of the points must have come the final week in January in South Carolina, where he played in the Hilton Head Low Country Classic Regional. There his partner was Jiang Gu of Mountain Lakes, N.J., and he came home with a total of 56.69 points. He tacked on another 48.49 in mid-February at the Indianapolis Crossroads of America Regional, playing this time with Suman Agarwal of Columbus, Ohio.