BRIDGE TIP FOR NOVEMBER

System cannot replace

judgment. Nothing can.

Eddie Kantar

DID YOU KNOW...

Some of you may not be aware that we had a

local bridge newsletter in 2003. Featured back

then were: Nat Hughes, Dorothy "Dottie"

Foster, Roy Morrison, Mae Massey, Nap

Smith, Reba True, Kyle Weems, Gerald

Jones, Sylvia Saloshin, Earl Roth-

berger, and Anna Reynolds. These

newsletters are in a binder in the li-

brary. Enjoy reading them, but since

we have only one copy for perusal,

please don't remove any pages.

BOOK OF THE MONTH Points Schmoints! Bergen’s

Winning Bridge Secrets Marty Bergen

First published in 1995, this book won the 1996 award for Bridge Book of the Year. The publisher notes that collected in this book are “more than 65 gems, guaranteed to in-crease your enjoyment of bridge and your ability to win.” Among them are how to count trumps the correct way, when not to play second-hand low, the Rule of 20, and twenty-one rules for being a good partner. Bergen has ten national championships to his name and according to the book jacket has contributed, Bergen Raises, DON’T, and the Law of Total Tricks to the game of bridge. Not only will you learn a lot about bridge by reading this book written by a World Master, you also will enjoy the read because of the author’s writing style.

UNIT 206 CHIT CHAT Volume 1 Issue 7 Monthly Publication of ACBL Unit 206 November 2010

Editor: Sandy Cervantes

Assistant Editor: Cheryl Whitfield Staff: Teresa Moore

Features Editor: Marcia Lanphear Myra Reneau

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Our classes at Chattanooga state con-

tinue to go well and should provide

some new players for us in good time.

Another round will start in late Novem-

ber/early December assuming a suitable

number sign up. There will be classes for

those who have never played and for

those who have played some. Infor-

mation can be found on the website or

through Chattanooga State.

Please remember there are games on

Tuesday and Thursday night and Sun-

day afternoon that offer the same great

opportunities as our weekday games. If

you need help finding a partner for any

of these games, just contact Sophie Field

at 423-899-1965 or email her

at sophiefield@tutopia.com.

Bill

IS EIGHT REALLY ENOUGH? To get the answer to this question, as well as a great dinner and loads of fun, you’ll have to come out to the Bridge Center on Saturday, November 20, to play in our Swiss Team competition. There’s a pot luck dinner starting at 6:00 with the game following. Get busy and organize your team. Don’t forget to sign up at the CBC so we can plan ahead.

NOVEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Donna myers

One fine day in early July in the late 1930s, a baby girl named Donna was born to Russell and Lucie Bruce. In mostly her own words, here is her story: "I was born in central Illinois and grew up on a farm, but I wasn’t really a farm girl. My family had a farm machinery business and my father worked with that. Also, I had a lot of allergies so I wasn’t allowed near the barn. Even though I was an only child and only grandchild for many years, I was related to almost eve-rybody in our little town. My ambition in life was to carry trays at Grider’s (a cafeteria) after I graduated from college. My father taught me to play all kinds of card games. We didn’t have a TV until I was a senior in high school. He never played bridge. Guess he never had anybody to teach him. My mother was a beauti-ful seamstress and she taught me all kinds of handwork. She made all my clothes, even my prom dresses. I was the best dressed girl at Niantic High School. Of course there wasn’t a lot of competition. There were only 29 in my graduating class. There really are lots of advantages to going to a small school. One of those for me was playing in the high school concert band from the 6th grade on. First I played clarinet and then switched to bassoon. At my last band concert I played a solo and turned in the bassoon. My musical career was over. "About a year later I married Al. We had been dating about a year and a half. He had graduated from college a week after I graduated from high school and he was going into the Army. That was 53 ½ years ago. And they said it wouldn’t last! We started playing bridge while Al was in the army. The people we played with didn’t know much more than we did. After he got out of the Army and went back to work for Kroger, we moved several times. Vicki was born in Nashville and Mark in Roanoke, VA. I got my BS at the University of Memphis and then taught in the Title I program at Olive Branch, MS. "I played bridge with different groups every place we lived. My copy of “Goren’s Bridge Complete” was dog-eared. In Memphis I ven-tured a little into duplicate and there I joined ACBL. We moved to Chattanooga in 1977 and I soon joined a duplicate club through New-comers. One of my partners was Ruth Hamilton and she convinced me to go to the Bridge Club. This was just before the club moved into their “new building”. Shortly after the club moved, I really got the bridge bug! Branched out with other partners and even became a director. Anna Reynolds took me under her wing and taught me much of what I know today. I had a lot of bad habits from my years of party bridge. My goal became to be a Life Master before I became a senior (55). Larry Reneau was also working toward that goal, so we worked together. Many people helped me along the way. Betty Lord, Dottie Foster, Nat Hughes, Jody Plummer and Anna Reynolds to name a few. I reached my goal with a year to spare. I still have that bug and, although I don’t travel and play as much as I once did, it is still exciting for me. I love the games at the center and hope that I encourage and help newcomers." "After Al retired, at the age of 54, we really started to travel. We made three trips to Europe, but seeing the USA and Canada by car was what we enjoyed most. Al enjoyed planning the trips and making all the reservations before we left home. Sometimes we’d change something along the way, but not often. We have been in every state and all across the lower parts of Canada. (Of course we did fly to Hawaii and cruised to Alaska). "Being from Illinois, we grew up with basketball. While we lived in Memphis we had season tickets to the Memphis State Tigers. Men’s basketball, of course. There was no women’s BB then. Al started paying attention to the Lady Vols and we decided to go to a game. It was fun. They were winning and the women were playing BB like men used to. We decided to get season tickets. Since we like to travel, we also followed them out of town. We’ve been to every SEC school, at least once, and many tournaments including five Final 4s.

"After my back surgery in 1996, I had to give up golf. I decided to finish the quilt I had started before Vicki was born. Since she was now 36 years old, it seem to be time. I also decided that quilt was too old to finish. Mary Smith helped me find a quilting group and another passion was born. I didn’t keep track of all the quilts I have made, but most everybody in my family has at least one." Donna went on to explain to me that she had a mastectomy in 1993, and the aforemen-tioned back surgery was due to the breast cancer metastasizing to the bone. She says, "Even though I've been incurable since then, I've been so lucky. Pills kept me going until last Thanksgiving; most of them weren't even around back in 1997. Now I'm on chemo. How long? I don't ask." For many of us, our club is not only a friendly "bridge family", but is a place of refuge from the tribulations of every day life, and to be able to focus on the correct play of the hand instead of our personal situation can be a much-needed respite. Our Bridge Cen-ter is lucky to have Donna, with her always-cheerful smile and positive attitude, and our thoughts and best wishes are always with her. But don't be fooled; she is a fierce com-petitor, and you'd better be on your toes when you come to her table!

Donna and Al Myers

TOURNAMENT RECAP ♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠

The 2010 Chattanooga Fall Sectional was a record setting event. We had 188 tables, 21.10 more than fall of 2009. Our profit looks to be $1,698.31 which is wonderful for the Fall tournament and more on par with our larger Spring tournament.

A very special thank you to Susan Kimm and Harriette Hereford who headed up the hos-pitality duties this year. In addition to all their other responsibilities, they turned us "green" and recycled an entire landfill. Impressive work! I would also like to thank other tournament chairs: Teddy Thomas, David Brown, Frank Hughes, Fran Keifer, Sue Shramko, David Vine and Bill Adams. Jody Plummer served as our coordinator with the ACBL. Also, kudos to those terrific men with the six pack abs who transported all the tables to East Ridge and back again. I can’t forget to thank Bert Shramko whose "“Bridge Tournament Chairmanship for Idiots" was invaluable.

In addition, thank you to all who cooked, cleaned and donated. We probably had 97% par-ticipation which is the only way we can be soooo fantastically successful.

Janie Hunt Tournament Chair

♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠

TOP MASTERPOINT WINNERS

CHATTANOOGA SECTIONAL

28.67 Linda Smith 28.67 Ron Smith 28.67 Claudia Feagin 28.67 Jack Feagin

♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠

Pictured above are Jack Feagin, Claudia Feagin,

Linda Smith and Ron Smith. Congratulations.

A round of applause to the two ladies pictured below: Fall Tournament Chair Janie Hunt (left)

and Unit tournament coordina-tor, Jody Plummer. They both worked overtime to make this past tournament such a resound-ing success.

Full tummies make for contented bridge players and

these two ladies took care of us all. We owe a major

debt of gratitude to (pictured above from left to

right) Harriette Hereford and Susan Kimm. They

took on the daunting task of heading up the Hospi-

tality Committee and made it all look effortless.

Word’s out about our famous Chattanooga hospitality and these

two ladies drove all the way from Mississippi to enjoy our Fall

tournament. Pictured here are Sheila Flurry and Nell Husbands.

On Saturday these ladies had a 70.83% game in the 299er Open

Pairs game.

At left are Cleveland Club players Ann Arnwine, Ruth

Varnell, Polly Sullivan and Pat Byers — all smiles as

they enjoy the delicious chicken casserole that was

featured for lunch on Friday.

Partners in life and partners in bridge — and they

still can smile. It’s beyond amazing!! In the photo

below are Everett and Shirley Hixson from Chatta-

nooga.

At left is our tournament director extraordinaire, Geoff Greene, hard

at work entering Sunday’s Swiss Teams results.

HIGH GAMES FOR OCTOBER

Chattanooga

Open Jody Plummer/John Friedl 69.74

NLM Nancy Mapel/Jan Printz 68.95

Cleveland John Herrmann/Marcia Lanphear 71.88 Fairyland Donna Myers/Chuck Lippy 67.19

TRICK OR TREAT

BRIDGE IS SWEET

GIVE ME SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT

Everyone had a wonderful time the Wednesday before Halloween when Reba Jernigan, the hostess with the mostest, held her Halloween party. There were good-ies galore and lots of costumes to help put all in a fes-tive and fun mood.

Pictured at the top right is Bert

“one-eye” Shramko; following

clockwise is Betty Sue “the En-

chantress” Farmer; party hostess

Reba Jernigan and Susan Roth-

berger; putting a hex on Unit

206 President Bill Adams is Marla

“Hocus Pocus”

Michel; and above

are Kathy Miller

and Myra “cat

woman” Reneau.

Are you ready for

some pizza?

The Monday night NLM game is having

a pizza party on November 8. Come at

6:oo p.m., partake of a slice, stay for the

mini class at 6:30, and enjoy the game

at 7:00. There’s no better

way to spend an evening.

See you there.

Cleveland News

Due to voting at the Cleveland Senior

Center, the regular game scheduled on

Tuesday, November 2, will be at the Wesley

Memorial Methodist Church. Hope to see

you there.

Get well wishes go out to Charlie Fletcher

and BasilSavard. We miss you!

Don’t forget that a mini class will be offered

before the regularly scheduled Friday game

at the Cleveland Senior Center and will

start at 12:15. Wishing you

Endless Reasons To be

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving

NORTH

WEST EAST

♠ AKQJ10xxxxx x

♥ Qx

♦ Qxx AKxxx

♣ AKQJx

SOUTH

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

♣♦♥♠♣♦♥♠

Here’s an interesting puzzle for you.

This unbelievable deal is from the last

regional in Gatlinburg. Myra Reneau

and Suzanne Atchley were competing in

the Knock-Outs and their opponents

were dealt these two hands. How do

you think the hand should be bid?

North is dealer.