"Hi Dale," the email subject line declares,
"Welcome to your Bridge Wrapped report!" How about that? A
year-in-review from the ACBL. It certainly sucks this bridge nut a little deeper
into the statistics-mad world of sports and pastimes.
And right on top are my total points for the year:
38.04. I feel pretty good about that – it's my best year since the pandemic –
but a pittance compared to Buffalo's premier point collector, Saleh Fetouh, who
raked in more than 1,000 in 2025.
The statistics pop up in cold precision, but
suddenly one of them – Best Day, the day when I earned the most points – warms
up a memory. That was Nov. 14, two days after I was officially severed from The
Buffalo News, ending my 57-year career there. I was still in a state of existential
shell shock when Selina Volpatti and I came in second in our section in the
Swiss team game at the Niagara Regional Tournament in St. Catharines, Ont. We
hauled in 8.69 gold points and my existence suddenly started to have meaning again. That
also made November my Best Month, the report noted, with 11.83 points overall.
The report goes on to recount my Best Pair Game – 68.15% – but I don't remember how it happened and it doesn't say when. For that, it’s over to the ACBL website for a search of my results on MyACBL. There, I discover, it was on Feb. 21 with Selina in the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bridge Club. First overall, we collected 1.47 points. My first-ever visit to the club on Jan. 10 resulted in my second-best game of the year – 66.82% – but that was only good for second place.
Back to the report, which next is tracking my wayward whereabouts. Unique Days Played? 61. Total face-to-face club sessions? 48. Largest club game? 16.5 tables. Tournament events? 14. Sectionals? 4. Regionals? 1. Nationals? Zero. Tournament cities? 2. And that's all, folks. In-ter-est-ing, but I have a sneaky feeling these stats are fodder for what really matters more to the number-crunchers at ACBL Central – trends.
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