Prez
Sez
2
North
American Pairs 3
Octoberbest Information 4
CBA
Elections 5
Library News
6
CBA Gift
Certificates 7
Summer
STaC Winners 8
The Twilight Zone – Edmiston 10
CBA
Balance Sheet 11
CBA Profit
& Loss 12
Membership
News 13
Organization
of the CBA 14
Club
Notes 15
Mentor-Mentee Finale Pot Luck
Sunday, October 7, 12
(Mentees bring food for Mentors)
Saturday, November 3, 12
ACBL-Wide Charity Game
Monday, November 27,
CBA
Sunday, December 16
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
The game of bridge…..a perplexing thing! That is why we keep coming back. Why do you keep coming back? For an afternoon or evening of entertainment….to
catch up with friends….to win those elusive points that matter to no one but
bridge addicts…for the love of the G-A-M-E?
On Sunday, September 1st, I received
the following email from Dean Congbalay ….don’t know Dean? You should!
He is migrating over from the I/N game. Dean has a charming personality
and an infectious laugh. He is responsible
for the recent article in the Enquirer,
“Young Students take up the game of
Bridge”, and we laughed when we saw the photograph for an accompanying
story. Dean and I connived to send it
to Jay Leno’s “Headline News” segment…we are still looking for it. His email to me read:eH
Today was neat.
A
friend of mine and I traveled to
The girl was 11. Her father started teaching her bridge five years ago;
all of her brothers play, as well. Her partner was a 13-year-old boy who has
earned 49.23 master points. He learned the game from his grandmother and
has already played in a national tournament. He even plays Two-Over-One.
On the penultimate board, she dealt and opened a diamond. He jumped
to Blackwood. After she showed one ace, he bid 6NT.
My partner smartly cashed in her ace on the first trick. The
boy then quickly proceeded to take the next few rounds. In the middle of
the hand, he led a small spade. My partner followed low.
He called for a low spade from the dummy; she pointed at her 6 and played
it only after he muttered "yes" and nodded his head. I
then plucked a good 8 from my hand, but just as it was exposed and
nary a few inches from the face of the table, he realized his mistake
and abruptly called for the dummy's Queen.
All of us knew what was happening. Our four sets of eyes darted from
one face to another. But nobody called for the director; my very
gracious partner gave him a gentle smile and told him that she would allow him
to correct his error and play the winning card.
I
didn't argue. He, of course, took the rest of the tricks and got a high board.
As we all put our cards back in the metal tray, my partner looked
at me, obviously concerned that her decision annoyed me. "He made a
bold bid," she said. "They're nice kids; I didn't want to win that
way."
There was, however, no reason for her to justify her action. I
smiled and immediately assured her that she did the right thing. When the final tallies were in, we
perused the score sheet. We came in second place -- trailing the winner by
a scant 0.62 point. That one, generous ruling made the whole
difference.
I
can't say enough how proud I was of my partner. I gave her a big hug, and we
happily took off for lunch.
Sometimes, a loss can produce a big win.
Enjoy your holiday weekend.
Dean
What would
you do? “Sometimes, a loss can produce a big win.”
Dean Congbalay
Patti English
2007
North American Pairs
Noon & TBA
The North American Pairs is a grassroots
event starting at the club level and leading all the way to the Spring 2008
Bridge Championship in
There will be no Unit Final to
qualify – only the District 11
Three
Flights:
Flight A
(unlimited); Flight B (0-2000); Flight C (NLM with fewer than 500)
Great
Prizes!
Win
a Trip to the Spring
First-Place
District Winners in each Flight:
$700.00 per person
Second-Place
District Winners in each Flight: $300.00 per person
Third-Place
District Winners in each Flight: $100 per pair from District 11
(Unit Qualifying Games were held June through
August.)
For
additional information about the
Barbara
Levinson, 513-530-0953.
OctoberBest
Sectional
Thursday
– Sunday, October 25-28
at
the
Parking: Arrangements for overflow parking have been
made at the Etter Golf Center at
players to the
CBA Elections: Contrary to the announcement in the last
ALERT newsletter, changes to the CBA Constitution will not be voted on
at the Sectional. We will, however,
have our normal election for new CBA Board members (details on the next page).
Committee members: Chairs, Diave Travis & Jane Burpee; Director, Jay Albright; Partnerships, Lorna Davis; Treasurer, Adrienne Netherwood; Consultant,
Sandy Orr; Free Sunday Buffet, Patti English;
Parking, Frank Lictenberger; Hospitality,
June Cushman & Mary Smith;
Facilities, Everitt Kitchen; Caddies, Gerry Mirus; Promotion, John Burpee.
A special thanks to Erna Herre for caring for the beautiful
plants outside the CBA door.
CBA WEBSITE
All committee chairs,
directors, teachers, etc.,
who want to post information
on the CBA Website (http://www.cincybridge.com)
need to email the
information to Potter Orr, our webmaster, at
CBA ELECTION TO BE HELD AT FALL SECTIONAL
Election of five members to
the Cincinnati Bridge Association Board of Trustees takes place at the Fall
Sectional at the
Current Board members are
Carolyn Ahlert*, John Burpee*, Debbie Cummings, Tom Deddens*, Pat Dutson*,
Patti English (President), Betty Hurst, Everitt Kitchen, Barbara Levinson, Michael Lipp, Adreienne Netherwood (Treasurer),
Pat Newman, Potter Orr*
(Vice-President), Mike Purcell, and Bob VeVerka (Recording Secretary). (* Indicates that their terms expire at the
end of 2007.) As of press time, we have
the following five candidates running for election to the CBA Board:
JOHN BURPEE
I was appointed to the Board in August,
2006. I’ve been involved in: the member survey; the promotion campaigns
for the Regional and the upcoming Sectional; and increasing our membership. (It
was my idea to have a booth at Coney at the Senior Expo -- wrong!) I’ve been the correspondent for Unit 124 to The
Looking ahead, I will work to increase
membership through an expanded education program; establish better communications
with other Unit games; and increase participation in existing games. These activities could require some
“investment” spending.
I am the retired Assistant Treasurer of a small
manufacturing company in
PAT DUTSON
During the year that I have been on the
CBA Board, I have assisted the Board with the member survey and promotional
activities. I believe that my
organizational skills. leadership skills, and experience with promotional
activities are of benefit to
the Board.
I would appreciate your vote for the
Board.
GAYLE KEANEY
For the past year I have volunteered as
the CBA’s librarian. My work background
is in accounting and includes running my own businesses as a CPA and as a
Homeowner Associations manager. I also
served on the Board of my homeowner association and have done a wide range of
volunteer work, including running an
I am pretty new to bridge – two years now
– and have amassed an astounding 29 points (some even in colors!!!) while
maintaining my sense of humor so far.
Whether it be me or someone else, I think you would be well represented
to have the viewpoint of a “newby” on the Board.
POTTER ORR
I am running for a second 3-year term on the CBA
Board. I have been both treasurer and
vice-president during my first term. In
addition, I am the webmaster for both the cincybridge.com and the District 11
web sites. Working interferes with
bridge for me and I mostly play on Saturday afternoons and some evenings.
Despite all of that, I manage a life
beyond bridge involving a wife of 40 years, travel, golf, platform tennis, and photography
ABSENTEE VOTING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Contact Joe Muenks, (513) 469-6446 or jmuenks@cinci.rr.com, to request an absentee ballot no
later than October 14.
2. An individual must request an absentee ballot personally; no group requests will be honored.
3. One ballot and return envelope will be mailed to the member’s address of record.
4. Once an absentee ballot has been issued, that member’s name will be recorded as having voted.
5. Follow instructions included in the envelope.
6. Return envelopes containing more than one ballot will be declared invalid.
7. Only absentee ballots received by mail through Saturday, October 27, will be counted.
NOTE: The mail is sometimes slow, so please allow ample time for your ballot to be received.
LIBRARY NEWS
by
Gayle Keaney
The cover story of this past June’s Bridge Bulletin told
about the latest bridge book surveys.
Two top ten lists resulted - the Experts Favorites and the
Readers Favorites. Most
of the total 15 favorites (five books showed up on both lists) were already in
the CBA library. Also in June’s Bulletin
was New Players Reading List by Tim Bourke, “arguably the world’s
foremost expert on bridge literature”.
The library’s goal is to eventually include all of the books from these
3 lists on our bookshelves. To that end,
most of the new additions recently purchased and listed below came from the
lists. Proceeds from the library sale
during the STAC ($109.50) helped pay for these additions.
Safety Plays
- Bird, Smith
Safety Plays, Test Your Technique -
Bird, Bourke
Entry Management
- Bird, Smith
Entry Management, Test Your Technique -
Bird, Bourke
Simple Squeeze, Test Your Technique -
Bird, Bourke
Famous Bridge Records -
Bird, Sarantakos
Commonly Used Conventions -
Grant
More Commonly Used Conventions -
Grant
Judgment at Bridge -
My System: Unbalanced Diamond -
Miles
Murder in the Menagerie -
Mollo
Four-Suit Transfers -
Seagram, Stark
Jacoby Transfers
- Seagram, Stark
Stayman Auctions - Seagram/Lee
Killing Defense at Bridge -
Kelsey
25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know -
Seagram, Smith
The library has also purchased two sets of Audrey Grant
videos/dvds. These are two sets of
classes - the 3-volume Bridge Brush-up and the 2-volume Bridge at Sea
(the 3rd volume is no longer available). The Bridge Brush-ups are 13
half-hour PBS programs recorded in the late 90’s. The Bridge at Seas, as you
might guess, are recordings of classes Audrey has given on cruises. Both sets have great visual aids, top-rated
teaching and short sidebars like multiple choices for bridge terms (e.g. what
is a Pajama Party?). The ability to use
the pause & replay buttons is a big plus.
NOTE: VIDEOS & DVDS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR LOAN UNDER A
SPECIAL LIMITED POLICY OF 10 DAYS ONLY AND WITH ONLY ONE SET PER CBA MEMBER AT
ONE TIME. LATE FEES OF $1/DAY WILL BE
STRICTLY ENFORCED.
Another purchase, Audrey Grant’s Bridge at a Glance
, a 32-page booklet showing the bidding diagram and the bidding ladder with the
meaning of all the bids, is displayed on the library‘s easel. Because of the nature of this item, currently
it will NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR LOAN. It
will, however, be displayed and available for your review indefinitely. It fits easily inside the Convention Card for
quick reference. I purchased one of
these for myself. It’s the perfect
example of one of the best uses of the CBA library - to check out an item to
see if it’s something to add to your own library.
CBA Gift Certificates
$6.00 Gift Certificates for games at the
are available for purchase from Sandy Orr, (513)
271-6318,
Joy Norris, (513) 984-8783, or Nancy Sachs (513)
561-1766.
♦ ♥