No live tournaments
for a while yet, the ACBL declared this
week. Everything on the schedule has been canceled through the end of July
because of the pandemic.
Depending on
conditions, the sanctioning sachems think that August may be safe enough to
allow face-to-face play in sectional tournaments to resume. As for regionals, perhaps
early October. The latest strategy for a return to normalcy is to let the local
bridge clubs go take the plunge first.
For local players,
this means that the Buffalo Spring Sectional in April definitely is off the
calendar, but the Fall Sectional in September is still a possibility. As for
the Buffalo Regional, set for the first week of October, looks like we’ll have
to wait and see.
•
• •
In the meantime, players still can earn master points on their computer
screens. Bridge Base Online offers a variety of games every day with ACBL
master points, some of which benefit local clubs. Among the clubs taking part
in Virtual Club play locally are the Airport Bridge Club, the Bridge Center of
Buffalo, Delaware Wednesday and the Lockport Duplicate Bridge Club. More info
can be found at acbl.org or bridgebase.com.
The Airport
Bridge Club is linked with the
Alliance Bridge Club, the ACBL’s largest bridge club, which offers more than a
dozen games every day. Anyone who has played at the Airport Club is
automatically a member. For more info, visit alliancebridgeclub.com or call Airport Club manager Bill Finkelstein at
603-6943.
The Bridge
Center of Buffalo offers
games at least three days a week on Bridge Base Online and the Lockport
Duplicate Bridge Club has scheduled games there on Tuesday evening and
Saturday afternoon, although the Lockport club has been inactive in recent
weeks.
The Bridge Center
has added an open game to its Tuesday
afternoon game for players with fewer than 999 master points on Bridge Base
Online. The 999er session starts at 12:05 p.m, while the open game for all
players begins at 12:20 p.m. Winners in the open game receive large point
rewards since they are based on the total table count from both sections.
For more info, visit
the Bridge Center of Buffalo website, call 691-6201 or email acting club manager Terry Fraas at tmfraas@gmail.com.
The Delaware
Wednesday Club, which is invitational, plays
under auspices of the Bridge Center of Buffalo on Bridge Base Online at 7 p.m.
Wednesday. For info, call Ed Harman at 480-1666 or email eharmon@roadrunner.com
The newly-organized
Rust Belt Bridge Group invites players
from Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh to play six days a week in a variety of
open games, novice games and Swiss team games. To visit the group’s homepage,
click this link.
For other info, call Dian Petrov at 688-1226 or email dpetrov@roadrunner.com.
•
• •
The East Aurora
Bridge Club has resumed face-to-face
games, the only ACBL sanctioned club in the area to hold live competition. Play
begins at 10 a.m. Wednesdays in the Aurora Senior Citizens Center, 101 King
St., East Aurora.
Director Dave Larcom
says that players have their temperatures checked upon arriving and must wear
masks. For more info, email him at dmocral@verizon.net.
•
• •
Frank Stewart, whose Daily Bridge Club column stopped appearing in
The Buffalo News last fall, believes that reader sentiment can bring it back.
Feedback can be
emailed to Mike Connelly at mconnelly@buffnews.com and Margaret Kenny at mkenny@buffnews.com.
Meanwhile, you can
read Stewart’s columns at bridgefeed.acbl.org. Or find a whole Frank Stewart archive at Baron Barclay here.
•
• •
Tournament
calendar
2021
CANCELED: St.
Catharines Sectional – Holiday
Inn and Suites Parkway Conference Center, 327 Ontario St., St. Catharines, Ont.
Was Friday, Feb. 12, to Sunday, Feb. 14, then rescheduled for Friday, March 26,
to Sunday, March 28.
CANCELED: Rochester
Spring Sectional – Webster
Columbus Center, 70 Barrett Drive, Webster. Saturday, March 27, and Sunday, March
28.
CANCELED: Toronto
Easter Regional – Sheraton
Toronto Centre, 123 Queen St. West. Tuesday, March 30, to Sunday, April 4.
CANCELED: Unit 112 (Rochester) 199er Tournament – Strathallan Hotel, 550 East Ave., Rochester.
Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10.
CANCELED: Buffalo
Spring Sectional – Main-Transit
Fire Hall, 6777 Main St., Amherst. Friday, April 16, to Sunday, April 18.
CANCELED: Cleveland
All-American Regional – Embassy
Suites, 5800 Rockside Woods Blvd., Independence, Ohio. Tuesday, May 25, to
Monday, May 31.
CANCELED: Niagara-on-the-Lake
Intermediate/Novice Sectional – Niagara-on-the-Lake
Community Centre, 14 Anderson Path, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Friday, June 4, to
Sunday, June 6.
CANCELED: District
5 Sectional Tournament at the Clubs (STaC) – Local clubs. Monday, June 14, to Sunday, June 20.
CANCELED: Southwest
Ontario Regional – Bingemans
Conference and Convention Centre, 425 Bingemans Centre Drive, Kitchener, Ont.
Tuesday, July 6, to Sunday, July 11.
CANCELED: Rochester
Regional – RIT Inn and
Conference Center, 5257 W. Henrietta Road, Henrietta. Monday, Aug. 2, to
Sunday, Aug. 8.
St.
Catharines 299er Sectional –
Bridge Centre of Niagara, 6-2E Tremont Drive, St. Catharines, Ont. Saturday,
Aug. 21, and Sunday, Aug. 22.
CANCELED: Pittsburgh
Labor Day Regional – DoubleTree
Pittsburgh-Green Tree, 500 Mansfield Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. Tuesday, Aug. 31, to
Monday, Sept. 8.
Great Lakes
Sectional – Erie Bridge Center,
1221 Grant Ave., Erie, Pa. Saturday, Sept. 11, and Sunday, Sept. 12.
Buffalo Fall
Sectional – Main-Transit Fire
Hall, 6777 Main St., Amherst. Friday, Sept. 17, to Sunday, Sept. 19.
RESCHEDULED:
Buffalo Regional – Millennium
Hotel, 2040 Walden Ave., Cheektowaga. Was Tuesday, Oct. 19, to Sunday, Oct. 24.
Rescheduled to Tuesday, Oct. 5, to Sunday, Oct. 10.
Niagara
Falls Regional – Crowne Plaza
Hotel, 5685 Falls Ave., Niagara Falls, Ont. Tuesday, Nov. 9, to Sunday, Nov. 14.
Unit 255
Sectional – Niagara-on-the-Lake
Community Centre, 14 Anderson Path, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Friday, Nov. 13, to
Sunday, Nov. 15.
District 5 Winter
STaC – Local clubs. Monday, Dec. 6,
to Sunday, Dec. 12.
•
• •
Bridge
club websites:
Click
names for links.
The
Airport Bridge Club does not have a website. For info, call 716-603-6943.
•
• •
The
Duplicate Bridge column is compiled
weekly by News Staff Reporter Dale Anderson. The print version stopped
appearing Saturdays in The Buffalo News when the pandemic forced local bridge
clubs to halt face-to-face play.
These days you can
find it in two places online. Google “Duplicate Bridge” plus the current
Saturday date and that should bring up a link to it on buffalonews.com, the Buffalo News website.
If you can’t get to
it there, go to Dale Anderson’s bridge blog at http://newsdupli.blogspot.com/
Deadline for
submission of scores and notices is Tuesday night. Email danderson@buffnews.com or dahotwings@aol.com. Office phone is 716-849-4420.
•
• •
Now a Gold
Life Master, Dale Anderson is
playing online these days and finished 2020 with a career total of more than
2,800 master points. Online play doesn’t provide as much drama for his bridge
blog as face-to-face competition, but he still writes about his quest for the
next measure of achievement, Sapphire Life Master (3,500 points), and other
bridge adventures here.
•
• •
Duplicate
scores from Bridge Base Online
Week of Feb. 15 to Feb. 21
Bridge
Center of Buffalo Monday evening –
99ers. North-south, Janet and David Desmon, 60.58%; Walter Balon and partner,
59.39%; Amy Habib and Jane Constantine, 55.56%; Joann and Gary Keenana, 51.46%;
east-west, Pat Pasculle and Michel Dupuis, 64.68%; Linda Henschel and Martha
Cain, 59.66%; Sarmishtha and Shyam Kumar, 54.36%.
Bridge
Center of Buffalo Tuesday afternoon – 999ers. North-south, Martha Townson and Jim Lanzo, 70.11%; Carol Roth
and Rivona Ehrenreich, 62.20%; Jo Ann Smith and Maria Schory, 54.34%; Ruth
Nawotniak and Richard McGowan, 53.53%; (tie) Agi Maisel and Fred Hirsh, Susan
Cardamone and Linda Milch, 51.35%; east-west, Beverly Titzel and Joan Becker,
64.04%; Seema Bhagwat and Beena Deshmukh, 61.31%; Jennifer Epstein and Terry
Camp, 61.04%; Judy Duberstein and Susan Levy, 60.46%; Mary Ball and Joyce
Frayer, 60.30%; Usha Khurana and Mary Terrana, 57.53%; Jane Mitchell and Linda
Henschel, 55.13%.
Bridge
Center of Buffalo Thursday afternoon – Under 1,500 points. North-south, Martha Townson and Amita Arora,
61.25%; (tie) Judy Zeckhauser and Pat Haynes, Richard McGowan and Bill Rich,
57.68%; Agi Maisel and Tova Reinhorn, 56.25%; Martha Cain and Linda Henschel,
56.07%; Laura and John Houghtaling, 53.93%; east-west, David Schott and Larry
Himelein, 74.64%; Paula Rosen and Maryann Szafran, 56.61%; Sharon Wilcox and
Joyce Greenspan, 55.89%; Usha Khurana and Violet Makhija, 55.18%; Anne Slater
and Kathleen Voigt, 53.57%; Terry Camp and partner, 53.39%; Mary Terrana and
Gail Pitterman, 50.54%.
Bridge Club of
East Aurora Wednesday morning –
Home-style pairs. Joan and Bob Ciszak, 3 wins.
Delaware Wednesday
evening – (3-way tie) Violet and Jasbeer Makhija, Henry Chudy and Jeff Bender,
Jan O’Mara and Walt Olszewski, 58.33%; Ed Harman and Bob Ciszak, 56.94%; Mary
Ball and Joyce Frayer, 51.39%; Jo Ann Smith and Maria Schory, 50.69%.
Garret Club
Invitational Monday morning – Sunny
Davis and Amy Habib, 64.81%; Maureen Saab and Candace Graser, 58.33%; Pinky
Regan and Linda Henschel, 55.09%.
Garret Club
Invitational Friday morning – Janie’s
Game. Robin Coffin and Maureen Saab, 69.44%; Elizabeth Hemenway and Linda
Henschel, 60.19%; Pinky Regan and Devon Marlette, 59.26%; Sunny Davis and Amber
Dixon, 50.93%.
Twentieth Century
Club Invitational Friday morning –Anne
Allen and Mary Ellen Cotter, 61.11%; Cherry Searle and Nancy Deneen, 56.11%;
Phyllis Wilkinson and partner, 55%; Barbara Kaye and Barbara Meenaghan, 52.78%;
Helen Scott and Mary Bell, 50.56%.
