Unit 431 wishes to welcome some recent additions to our membership list

A new member…

• Lyle Russell

… and a transferee from another Unit

• Elaine L Busch

The June 2016 edition of the Bridge Buzz is now available on the (you guessed it) Bridge Buzz page.

By making a donation you are helping the Alzheimer Society provide much needed programs and services for Canadians affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and advance the search for the cause and cure. All funds collected will be used in BC.

Unit 431 wishes to welcome some recent additions to our membership list

A new member…

• Alice Farquhar

… and a transferee from another Unit

• Celia Wilson

This year marks the 4th annual The Longest Day fundraising event supporting Alzheimer’s disease care and research. Held on Monday, June 20, 2016, the longest day of the year, this event symbolizes the difficult journey of those living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.

The four bridge clubs of Unit 431 have chosen to participate in the Trump Alzheimer’s Contré event and play bridge in support of our local Alzheimer Society. It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause by making your tax-deductible donation online using this link: Victoria Area Bridge Clubs Alzheimer Donation. By making a donation you are helping the Alzheimer Society provide much needed programs and services for Canadians affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and advance the search for the cause and cure. Whatever you can give will help – it all adds up! And all funds collected will be used in BC. The Victoria area bridge clubs greatly appreciate your support.

On this day, bridge games will be held at the following venues:

• Morning: 9 am – Capital City Bridge Club- open stratified game
• Afternoon: 1:00-3:45 – Island Bridge Club – open game and 199ers section (with Nicole from Monterey Bridge Club co-directing)
• Evening: 7:00 pm -10:30 pm – Victoria Bridge Centre – team of 8 game

Congratulations to Cecelia Wilson and Heather Davies the overall winners at the 99’er Rookie Game on Sunday May 22, with a score of 59.52%.

Although it was a long weekend we still had nine full tables in play; more than usual for the May Rookie Game. It was wonderful to see everyone having a good time, particularly the players from the D-light game.

(notes from Leslie Wood)

The next Rookie game for players with fewer than 100 Master Points will be held on Sunday May 22 at the Victoria Bridge Centre in Esquimalt.

The cost is $2.00 for ACBL members and $8.00 for non-members.

Come alone or with a partner. Free treats and coffee or tea.

For information, please contact Leslie Wood by email or phone: (250) 727-6762

Full details can also be found in the May 2016 Rookie Game Flyer.

The Spring Sectional was a huge success thanks in large part to the enthusiasm and dedication of tournament Chair Jill Stainforth. Here, in her own words, is a recap of the event:

The sun was shining for our Sectional in Sidney, held April 1, 2, and 3 at the very comfortable Mary Winspear Centre. Attendance was huge on Friday with 17.5 tables in the Newcomer/199er Pairs event alone.

Players came from Alberta, Washington, Oregon, mainland BC and the Island.

At the end of three days of play, Victoria’s Duncan Smith was the overall individual winner with 39.73 MPs.

The Friday afternoon Open Pairs game (48 tables) was won by Debbie Mineault and Duncan Smith. Linda Edgell and Johanna Rusnak won the Newcomer/199er game (17.5 tables).

On Friday evening, Sandra and Doug Fraser won the Charity Open Pairs (44 tables) while Daina Eby and Dianne Clark won the Newcomer/199er game (6.5 tables).

Winners of the two-session Open Pairs event (38 tables) on Saturday were Axie and Craig Millar. The Saturday afternoon Newcomer/199er game (13 tables) was won by Dianne Clark and Daina Eby while the Side game went to John Massman and Galen Hesson.

Saturday evening, Marylynn Ghitter and Al Stacey won the Side game and Dianne Clark and Daina Eby won the Newcomer/199er game (again !).

Sunday’s Open Swiss Teams event (52 tables) was won by Victoria’s Rita Beny, Delma Murray, Bob Cheeseman and Jon Gage.

Both single-session 299er Swiss Team sessions on Sunday were won by the Sidney and North Saanich team of Edwina Bauer, Viv Harding, Madeleine Tremblay and Brenda Wilson.

The table count over the three days was a startling 341.5 and 329 players went home with silver in their pockets. Better still, players seemed very happy with the bridge, the venue and the great offering of baked treats.

Our Sectionals will continue to be held at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney and we hope to see many returnees and new players at the Fall Sectional on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, September 8-10, 2016.

Pictures from the tournament can be found on our Photo Gallery

Results for this weekend’s Spring Sectional will be available on ACBL Live. This means you can get notification of your results on your device (phone, tablet, computer) soon after the game is completed.

To ensure you do receive them, you need to subscribe to ACBL Live (free). You only have to do it once to automatically receive notification of results whenever you participate in an ACBL-sanctioned tournament.

Here’s how to set up instant notification of your results via email or text message:

1. Log into your MyACBL Portal
2. Go to Privacy Settings (Located under “Membership”)
3. Change privacy preferences to SUBSCRIBE for General Email Communication and/or SUBSCRIBE for Cell Phone Text Communication

If you prefer not to subscribe, you can still access results from tournaments by going to the  ACBL Live website.

Unit 431’s Spring Sectional will be held April 1-3, 2016 at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney. For detailed information, you can access our tournament flyer here: 2016 Spring Sectional Flyer.

For information on other upcoming tournaments of interest to Victoria players, check out our Interactive Calendar.

The Unit’s Spring Sectional will be held at Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, April 1-3 (Friday to Sunday).

Volunteers are needed to help run the event smoothly. If you would like to assist by donating some of your time, here is what we need:

If you’re willing to contribute, please email Jill Stainforth (jstainforth@yahoo.ca) with your preferences.

The March 2016 issue of the Bridge Buzz is now posted on the website.

If you participated in the February 2016 Canada-Wide STaC and want to know where you stand, please note that Nicole Dupuis has kindly posted the names and scores of all Victoria area winners on Monterey Bridge Club’s website.

Our popular D-light (“duplicate light”) games are now held weekly on Friday morning at Capital City Bridge Club. If you have friends who might like to try duplicate without having to jump in at the deep end, bring them to our new D-light sessions.  All are welcome who have some knowledge of bridge and who want to find out how duplicate works. One member of each pair must have fewer than 5 Master Points.  For more details, please go to our D-light page.

The 2016 edition of the Ace of Hearts Tournament for players with fewer than 200 masterpoints was held on February 20.

18 pairs, divided into two section, participated in the single session morning game. The afternoon Swiss Teams game attracted eleven teams. Detailed results for all games can be found on our Tournament Results page. Photos from the tournament are in the Photo Gallery.

The newly updated Victoria bridge brochure is available on our Clubs page. It contains a complete list of Victoria ACBL sanctioned clubs, a weekly schedule of duplicate games, tournaments and more.

Calling all players!

This is your chance to earn valuable silver points while playing in the comfort of your own club (or you can be bold and visit another Victoria club).

Next week (Feb 15-21), Sectional Tournaments at Clubs will be held around the country, giving you a chance to compete against other Canadian players. Section results are determined by comparing the results of play at individual clubs. Overall pair game awards are determined by comparing the results of all games conducted at a particular session just as if all of the games were played at one site.

Participating clubs in Victoria include:

Capital City Bridge Club: Wednesday evening (Feb 17), Thursday afternoon (Feb 18) and Friday morning (19).

Island Bridge Club: Monday afternoon (Feb 15), Wednesday morning (Feb 17) and Thursday afternoon (Feb 18).

Monterey Bridge Club: Tuesday afternoon (Feb 16) and Saturday afternoon (Feb 20).

For more information on individual clubs, please go to our Clubs page.

Unit 431 now counts a third Diamond Life Master among its ranks. Congratulations to Sindy Patterson on achieving this distinction which puts her in the top 2% of ACBL’s 170 000 menbers.

We also have new Gold and Silver Life Master this month. Read all about it on our Masterpoint Milestones page.

For a bar chart of distribution of members within the different masterpoint categories, go to Masterpoint Statistics.