What better way to spend part of the Fourth of July than writing this column? Don’t tell me or you won’t have anything to read next year. The Palo Alto Sectional is under way as I write, so I’ll have the results next month.

Don’t expect breaking news in a monthly column with a 25-day lead time. Carole Dietz and George Pledger are starting a new game at our club on Friday nights at 7:00 p.m. beginning July 11. The game is limited to under 200 masterpoints. They will provide hand records and discuss hands at the end of the game. I hope you’ve already heard about this and have spread the word. I wish them success in filling this gap in our club’s schedule.

Our unit member appreciation dinner was again successful, as the unit took about 170 members out to dinner at Fung Lum’s and offered a free bridge game afterwards. We had 35 tables in the open game and six in the limited game. First in the open were K-P Cheng & Jeffrey Hu with a 68.44% game. First in their strats were Michael Migdol & Stephen Tu, Suresh Vasa & Konti Khokhani, Harry Shannon & Hugh Roberts, and Jan Kiernan & Patricia Yelvington.

At the dinner unit president Dan Turkus announced that the following people had been re-elected to the unit board: Marshall Yancey, Neal Webb, Ray Yuenger, and Will Watson. New board members are Tania Moalem, Mich Ravera, and Stu Goodgold. Feel free to approach any of us with suggestions on what the unit can do for the members.

Unfortunately, we have no control over the parking situation at the club. The construction work will end eventually.

At the Oakland Sectional, Will Watson ran away from the Saturday afternoon field with a 71.33% pair game. A stratification top went to Steven Chen & Michael Fleisher. In the evening session, Frank Lowenthal took first while Gary & Jan Soules had a section top and Will had a strat top. The Swiss Team of Hiram Shen, Richard Jacobs, Eric Yang and Leon Lee was first in their strat. My personal experience of that sectional was humidity my first day, humility the second.

At the Hollister Sectional, strat tops went to Will Watson & Leila Sink, Paul Chang, and T-C Yang. Other unit members had fine showings, but this column concentrates on strat tops because our members generally do so well I’d overrun my word limit mentioning 2^nd and 3^rd place finishers. At the Las Vegas Regional, Israel Bar-Nin’s team won a KO. Fung Bao & Raja Smadi cleaned up in their pair events.

I’m sorry to say Don Perry recently passed away.

If I missed anything, please contact me at 408 379-7717 and e-mail rayyuenger@starband.net. Old columns appear under “old stuff” at www.sjbridge.org.