The Bridge Gazette

The Bridge Gazette

August 2017

1520 14th Avenue, Vero Beach, FL 32960

www.verobridge.com

Page 1 of 10

The Firecracker Lunch held on July 4th was a huge success due in large part to Joan Diament with terrific assistance from Ellen Gelberg and Bobbi Maffei. These women organized a wonderful luncheon for more than 110 members and friends, many of whom brought dishes that made this a very special day indeed. Thank you to Karen Adelman, Debbie Brower, Helen Campbell, Sandra and Ray Columbaro, Denis Conlon, Joan and Marty Diament, Geri Essig, Rene and Jim Ficher, Flo and Brian Fisher, Nancy Garvey, Ellen Gelberg, Gini and Merle Hauser, Dell and Paul Hatten, Lorie Heiberger, Martha Glassmeyer, Marilyn Klussman, Linda Lemmon, Barbara Lowry, Bobbi and Ralph Maffei, JoAnne McLogan, Gail Partenheimer, Jamie Portell, Megan Porter, Brad and Pam Reiner, Dick Swartz, Jane and Pete Smith, Boots VanNostrand, and Harold and Mary Jane Zorlen and all of our wonderful members who brought dishes to share. Players made great use of the many red point opportunities in July. VBBC offers more 50% Red/Black 100% sectional rated games in August. Look for these NAP Club Qualifying games in August: Thursday the 3rd, Wednes-day the 16th, Tuesday the 22nd, Thursday the 24th, Monday the 28th and Wednesday the 30th. Please join us for ex-tra points! VBBC will also hold STaC week in August from Monday the 7th to Sunday the 13th. All Open games that week will award silver points which are 82% Sectional-rated. Limited games are scored at 80% of the Open STaC games rates. You will be competing locally and also with other clubs in our District. Overall masterpoints are calculated from the total number of tables played throughout the District which can amount to a lot of silver! The “New Chairs for the Upstairs” campaign has come to a successful conclusion. John Brunner and Bill Bastian led a brilliant campaign to raise funds to pay for these much needed additions. The upstairs games will now be played in comfort and (relative) safety. Thank you to all the generous members and donors who participated in this campaign. The volunteer spirit of our members is wonderful! Speaking of volunteers, Merle and Gini Hauser have been dedicated volunteers for many years in many capacities, most recently as the Thursday cashier team. They have decided to retire from these positions and we would like to thank them for their many years of service to the VBBC. Gini and Merle, you will be missed at the desk but we’ll see you at the tables! Georgie Pierpont, our senior member (in terms of age) was given her own beautiful chair. Georgia was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri , and was the May Festival Queen of 1936! Georgie’s 99th birthday is coming up in August so it is appropriate that the Queen resume her throne. We thank the anonymous donor who upholstered and personalized the chair with Georgie in mind. A special thanks to Ron and Kim Andrews who were recently toiling away in the July sun (see picture on page 7) to repair and replace the traffic signs around the exterior of our building. These two go out of their way to help out whenever they see a need. Thank you to them and all of you who go above and beyond to volunteer your time, talent, and treasure to make this the GREAT CLUB it is. Hope to see you at the tables soon! Martha Jamie

From your Club Managers . . .

The Bridge Gazette Page 2 of 10

Huddles and Hesitations Huddle situations are difficult for players, directors, and committees. One relevant portion of the Laws that addresses this issue is: Law 16: “Players are authorized to base their calls and plays on information from legal calls and/or plays, and from mannerisms of opponents. To base a call or play on other extraneous information may be an infraction of law. Law 16A: “After a player makes available to his partner extraneous informa-tion that may suggest a call or Play, as by means of a remark, a question, a reply to a question, or by unmistakable hesitation, unwonted speed, special emphasis, tone, gesture, movement, mannerism or the like, the partner may not choose from among logical alternative actions one that could demonstrably have been suggested over another by the extraneous information.”

JULY—AUGUST BRIDGE COURSES

THANK YOU, VOLUNTEERS! We would like to thank the valuable volunteers listed below for

their contributions and efforts in July: Kim Andrews Joan Diament Hazel Lacks Ron Andrews Laurence Farley Bev Mogensen Bill Bastian Ellen Gelberg Judy Melchiorre John Brunner Max Hughes Leslie Phelps Nicki Brunner Jean Kay Gail Partenheimer Boots VanNostrand Jan Ward

The Bridge Gazette

August 1: Ed Knoeppel, Priscilla Knox, Ruth Maldeis August 2: Barbara Harty, John Symonds August 3: Pat Barry, Doug Ell, Marty Wright August 4: Dunc Duncan August 5: Shirley Davies, Marge Desmery, Martha Glassmeyer, Marcia Lapp, Marilyn Sparacino August 6: John Hilton, Jack Hughes, Megan Porter August 7: Loretta Curley, Warren Morse, Pam Wilton August 8: Denis Conlon August 9: Toni Gallagher, Peggy Wallace August 10: Nancy Gallery August 11: Jamie Shay August 13: Graeme Bell, Doug Johnson, Edel Livermore, Paul Thurston August 14: Pat Cole August 15: Mary Blixen, Barbara Metzler, Bob Paul Marcia Poutiatine, Scott Schneider August 16: Michel Allard, Marcel Jacques, Selwyn Kossuth August 17: Claudia Haller, Linda Holmes August 18: Jackie Bradley, Barbara Dunnivant, Linda O’Grady August 19: Beth Howard, Patti Johnson August 21: Judy Balph, Teddy Niedzwiecki, Jim Schorner, Sharon Wilson August 23: Gail Hiley, Mary Catherine O’Brien August 24: Tom Bentien, John Garrison, Letty Hurst, Phil Mercer, Joe Pacquette, Millie Wenzel August 26: Marie Balint, Jim Edgar, Lela Remmert August 27: Judy Kane, Bart Mefort August 28: Geoff Charest, Tom Rodilosso August 29: Shay Connors, Jeanne Elias, Nancy Faigen, Uma Garg, Priscilla Gavoor, Ginny Hoynes, Sandy Meyer, Mary Peters, Jack Staley August 30: Cathi Kester, Nancy Lineback, Georgia Pierpont August 31: Ros Middleman, Les Phillips

August Birthdays

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Congratulations t o VBBC members

Rita Silvia and

Jerry Swain on their recent

marriage!

We extend our sympathy to the

family of former long-time member

Marshall Wolf

who passed away recently.

The Bridge Gazette Page 4 of 10

TOP 25 FOR JULY 1— 64.72 Debbie Drury 14—16.04 Judy Kane 2— 48.31 Boots VanNostrand 15—15.53 Gail Reams 3— 44.92 Joanne Matchette 16—14.85 Margaret Mary Zoltak 4— 43.00 Bill Poole 17—13.82 Mimi Klug 5— 30.92 Steve Hayskar 18—12.76 Betty Wiese 6— 27.03 Ron Andrews 19—12.76 Charan Garg 7— 25.92 Nancy Marquardt 20—12.76 Uma Garg 8— 24.91 Jamie Portell 21—12.51 Ann Bottelli 9— 23.57 Harold Phillips 22—12.51 Dick Bottelli 10—23.08 Chris Smith 23—12.39 Lorie Heiberger 11—17.22 Sandy Gross 24—12.24 Maggie Eggleston 12—16.96 Celia Phillips 25—12.14 Bill Weber 13—16.67 David Grober

JULY CARD SHARKS 0-5 Rhonda Dykal 6-20 Jim Urner 21-50 Pat Barry 51-100 John Souza 101-200 John/Nicki Brunner

201-300 Toni Brower 301 400 Steve Osiecki 401-500 Mimi Klug 501-750 Sandy Gross 751-1000 Boots VanNostrand 1001-2500 Joanne Matchette 2501+ Debbie Drury

WELCOME FIRST-TIME MEMBERS TO THE

VBBC FAMILY! Grant Beadle Lee Beadle

MaraBeth Dexheimer Joey Lee Dobbs

Marietta Garavaglia Charles Gumpel Susan Hamilton Mike Johannsen Doug Johnson

Roberta Mueller Teddy Niedzwiecki

Brad Reiner Pam Reiner

The Bridge Gazette

Masterpoint Level

District 9

Rank

Ace of Clubs District 9

MP thru July 2017

5-20 12th 15th

Susan Kintner Marilyn Ragland

19.65 18.88

20-50 4th 5th 7th

John Souza Nick Michaels

Frank McGowan

38.90 33.76 32.45

50-100 18th

Heidi Rooney

30.43

100-200 16th 24/25th

Bill Bastian John/Nicki Brunner

36.55 35.24

500-1000

1st 6th

Boots VanNostrand Chris Smith

125.03 79.85

1500-2500

5th

Joanne Matchette 135.84

2500-3500

20 Jamie Portell 106.12

3500-5000

14th 23rd

Harold Phillips Nancy Marquardt

126.88 109.77

5000-7500

7th Bill Poole 175.58

7500-10000

6th Debbie Drury 146.54

Masterpoint Level

District 9 Rank

Mini-McKenney District 9

MP thru July 2017

5-20 18th 20th

Susan Kintner Marilyn Ragland

23.13 22.36

20-50 5th 11th 15th

John Souza Nick Michaels

Frank McGowan

42.27 37.59 34.37

500-1000

4th 8th

Boots VanNostrand Chris Smith

157.52 127.12

1000-1500

8th 10th

Chris Matus Pierter Vanbennekom

141.40 139.45

1500-2500

8th 15th

Jeff Jones Joanne Matchette

223.97 183.66

3500-5000

22nd Harold Phillips 158.15

5000-7500

17th Bill Poole 211.52

7500- 10,000

13th Debbie Drury 231.10

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DISTRICT 9 RACE LEADERS AS OF JULY

Slow Play The ACBL Board of Directors has passed a policy regarding slow play which states in part: “In the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary, the director should presume that a pair finishing a round late by more than two or three minutes on more than one occasion during a session is responsible for the lateness. There is a strong expectation that the director will penalize such a pair. The size of a pen-alty will tend to increase for subsequent instances of slow play and for chronic or egregious slow play.” There are several ways players can speed up their game, including:

1. Lead before you write. Opening lead should be made before you attend to your paperwork.

2. Save the socializing until your table has caught up.

3. Claim when you are absolutely sure of the rest of the tricks. Be sure to clearly state your line of

play.

4. Review prior play after the last board of the round.

5. Get the hand over with. Stalling or otherwise putting opponents to sleep is poor sportsmanship

and unfair.

Most of this is common courtesy. No one is trying to remove thinking from the game. However, it is the director’s responsibility to maintain a level playing field and avoid any player having an extra advantage.

The Bridge Gazette

BY: Pieter VanBennekom

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Audrey Fetter says she believes she’s taken every course ever offered by our Vero Beach Bridge Center and she’s pretty sure that even in the 88th year of her life, she’ll sign up again for the next course being offered. She loves all the bridge teachers she’s ever had. “I just love learning new things,” says Audrey. “I guess I am truly the eternal student.”

Audrey has done that all her life, in bridge as well as in her multiple careers, gathering different advanced academic

degrees, and traveling all over the world with her husband, Bob, to learn about different cultures, customs and people.

She was born Audrey Lillard in Shreveport, LA, and got an undergraduate degree in Business Education from South-

eastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA. She earned at least part of her tuition working as a secretary for the de-

partment chairman at 25 cents an hour and was delighted to later get a raise to 35 cents. One of her professors helped

her get a postgraduate assistantship at Indiana University, where she met her husband.

Audrey recalls that at class registration, she went to the wrong booth. One of the guys there took all of her forms, ex-

amined them very carefully, and then sent her on her way to where she needed to register. That turned out to be her

husband Bob, a doctoral student in business who used the information gathered from her papers to ask one of the

professors to introduce them – “that’s the way it was done in those days.”

They started dating in September and were married by February after a whirlwind romance. The Fetters have three

children – living in Boston, Vermont and Denver now – and seven grandchildren.

After Indiana, they were at MIT in Cambridge, MA, for five years. Then her husband became a professor at Yale, and

they spent many happy years living in Woodbridge, CT, a suburb of New Haven. When they became empty nesters,

they travelled extensively, with her husband either being a guest professor or on a sabbatical. Destinations included

California and Arizona; the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland; Leuven University in Belgium; Australia

and New Zealand, South Korea and France.

Audrey also went back to school in those days, obtaining a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in hospital

administration from Yale – “I like to solve problems and hospitals always have lots of problems.” With that degree she

eventually became assistant VP and acting COO of the Bridgeport, CT, Hospital.

Retirement didn’t take the Fetters to Vero Beach right away. They were into skiing and tennis, and at first they kept ski

homes in Vermont and New Hampshire while settling in Wintergreen, VA. That’s where they ran into friends who kept

singing the praises of Vero Beach to them. Even so, they didn’t settle immediately in Vero when they moved farther

south to Florida for the winters, first renting places on the West Coast near Naples and Sarasota.

Eventually they did settle in Vero, more for the tennis than for the bridge, and they’ve lived at Sea Oaks, Orchid and

now Oak Harbor.

Audrey’s love affair with bridge wasn’t as whirlwind as her courtship with her husband and she warmed to the game

rather slowly. She and her husband played social bridge once a month with a few other couples at Yale, and when she

first came to Vero, she didn’t join the Bridge Center right away.

“I’d heard that it was kind of scary to play there against all those sharks,” Audrey recalls. But a friend of hers convinced

her try it about 15 years ago and she found that “it wasn’t scary at all – actually all the people were quite nice.

“And pretty soon my partner and I were brave enough to try our luck in the Open game and we came in first, getting a

full 3 MasterPoints. Everybody congratulated us and we were so happy.”

Audrey has played in the Open games ever since with a variety of partners and she usually holds her own pretty well.

And watch out for her: She’ll take the next course and get ever better!

Asked what her favorite place was around the world, Audrey didn’t hesitate: “Some small town in France, where my

husband and I could just sit and relax at a wine cafe.”

VBBC member Audrey Fetter

The Bridge Gazette Page 7 of 10

VBBC members and guests enjoying Mother’s Day Brunch, Memorial Day Potluck, & Firecracker Lunch!

The Bridge Gazette

FRIDAY STUDENT GAME

If you are learning bridge or are interested in learning more about duplicate bridge, this is

the game for you! The morning begins with a mini-lesson on bidding, leading, or scoring, etc., and then

you will play a duplicate-style game until noon.

It is perfectly acceptable to use notes or ask the instructor for help during the auction

or play. You may come without a partner as it

usually works out that everyone gets to play.

Give it a try!! 9 a.m.—noon.

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CONVENTIONS & MORE Each Wednesday morning, 9:30-11:30. This drop-in class is a great way to keep up-to-date with modern bidding. No partner or reservation required. $15/class.

8/02: Duplicate Strategy Chris 8/09: Negative Doubles Lyn 8/16: Leading Against No-Trump Gail 8/23: Reverses & Jump Shifts Lyn 8/30: Preemptive Bidding Chris

NORTH-SOUTH RESERVATION

POLICY

If you have a medical disability and/or have submitted

a prescription from your physician indicating the need

to sit North-South, there is a form at the front desk on

which you may indicate the days of the week that you

will be playing. If you would like to sit in the N-S posi-

tion but do not have a physician's prescription on file

with us, these seats are on a first-come, first-serve

basis. It is our intent to accommodate all players but

since many of our members have serious medical

issues there are not enough North-South seats to

satisfy everyone. Please be courteous to our cashiers at

the front desk who are valuable volunteers doing the

best they can to keep the game stratified properly in

fairness for all.

CLUB STATS FOR JULY

TOTAL BLACK POINTS: 1,114.44 TOTAL RED POINTS: 267.88 MONTHLY TOTAL: 1,382.32 TOTAL TABLES: 683

JOIN VBBC’S TEXTING PROGRAM

Text 51660 to receive

information about special games, classes, events,

sectional tournaments, etc.

JULY 70%+ GAMES 7/10 Robert Flor/Marcia Lapp 70.83% 0—299 7/28 Eunice Gauger/Sean Kashawlic 72.22% 0—20

The Bridge Gazette

JUNIOR MASTERS: Nancy Faigen Toni Gallager Julie Geer Bill McHugh Lorraine Smith

REGIONAL MASTERS: Joan Diament Marty Diament Ralph Maffei NABC MASTER: Shirley Davies LIFE MASTER: Joanne Matchette RUBY LIFE MASTERS: Judy Calley Uma Garg Joanne Matchette SAPPHIRE LIFE MASTER:

Celia Phillips

JULY RANK CHANGES

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Extra masterpoints and a chance to play in a national

event await players who participate in the North

American Pairs qualifying games.

August is the final month of the popular NAP games.

ACBL allows these qualifiers to be played in local

clubs only during June, July, and August.

All NAP Qualifying games are 100% sectional rated

with masterpoint awards of 50% red and 50% black

points in open and 0-500 NLM games.

If you qualify in any club game you will be eligible to

play in the District 9 NAP Finals October 27-29 in St.

Petersburg.

Each of ACBL’s 25 Districts will be represented in the

national contest. The top three pairs in the district

final will be eligible to play in the national final.

The ACBL provides subsidies for first and second

among qualifiers to the national event, which will

take place at the 2018 Spring NABC in Philadelphia.

The first-place pair in the final qualifying event will

earn $700 per player in each flight. The subsidy for

the second-place pair in each flight is $300 per

player.

If you are on your way to earning Life Master status,

you will need 50 red points if you joined the ACBL

prior to January 1, 2010. If you joined ACBL after

January 1, 2010, you need 100 red points to attain

Life Master. This is a great time to earn those points!

NAP games for August are scheduled to be held on

the following dates:

AUGUST 3, 16, 22, 24, 28, 30

2018 CELEBRITY SERIES SPEAKERS JANUARY 16: MARTY BERGEN

FEBRUARY 13: ROBERT TODD

MARCH 6: AUDREY GRANT

NORTH AMERICAN PAIRS

The Bridge Gazette Page 10 of 10

OPEN GAME PARTNERSHIPS: CALL GAIL PARTENHEIMER

(772) 213-3049

Limited Game Partnerships:

Jean Kay (772) 567-5049

Open Game Partnerships:

Gail Partenheimer (772)213-3049

AUGUST SPECIAL GAMES & EVENTS

DISTRICT 9 STaC SILVER POINTS ALL WEEK!

Birthday

Celebration