No sooner had I rolled onto Richmond Avenue en route
to St. Catharines, Ont., on Wednesday than I fielded a phone call from one of
my oldest and dearest friends in Florida, who was brimming with positivity now
that she's emerged from the complications that followed the death of her
husband last winter. She was so upbeat that I was sure that the positivity
would rub off on my bridge game with Rod Sumner.
Rod, however, was as low as I was high. He was in pain. He'd injured
his hamstring muscle. Nevertheless, we both felt uplifted after
our first round against two of the better players, Myrna Mackey and Dot
Duchnicki.
First hand, Board 10, felt good even though it was a wash, a complete middle
board. Myrna stopped at 2 No Trump and went down two after Rod got to unload a six-card Spade suit. Other, unluckier, players sitting East stopped
at 2 NT and went down three.
Board 11, though, was a complete triumph. I opened a weak 2 Spades and
when they went to 5 Clubs, Rod doubled. Down two. Top board. Board 12 also felt good but still was middle board. I made 3 No Trump, along with four other Norths. So far,
so good. We sailed into the second round at 66.67%.
But our positivity lost its punch in the next round against Motaz Farag
and Dena Jones. Two ties for bottom boards. When we emerged, we’d deflated to
40.63%. It took until the final round against John Stevens and Rocky Laiqing to
find another bright spot. Rod, playing 3 Hearts doubled vulnerable, made two
overtricks. 1,130 match points! How often do you see that score? As a result, we managed to stumble across the finish line in seventh place with 45.98%.
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