The holidays are upon us. So it’s time again for our unit holiday party, this year on a Saturday night, December 9. It’s a potluck. Please sign up at the club so we don’t have 50 salads and no desserts. We will begin setting up the room at 5 p.m., with dining to begin at 5:30. A stratified pairs game will follow, with a separate novice section.

One week earlier, on Sunday, December 3, there will be a unit game in honor of Charlie Dorn. The game starts at noon. The format is board-a-match, so assemble a team.

Our Santa Clara Valley sectional ended recently. Again it was a success, with 50 more players turning out than last fall. The timing at the end of October seems to be more popular than the end of September. Our sectional coordinator, Tania Reyes, and her assistants, including Teddi and Derek Fiero, made sure the players had plenty of snacks and drinks.

At the sectional, Kit Humphrey & Henri Fahri won the two-session pair event and also a single-session pair event. Other unit members also won their pair events, including Lynn Shannon & Cheryl Mandala (on her birthday), Mike Carney & Michael O’Connor, Stacie Bowman, Joel Singer, and Marilyn Cox & Linda Rallis.

Other unit members recorded section and stratification tops: Patricia Yelvington & Jan Kiernan, Wendy Dewell, Sabina Siem & Tim White, David Gambelin & Derek Fiero, John Prior & Raja Smadi, Fran Dickman, Will Watson & Sathya Bettadapura, Stu Goodgold & Grant Robinson, Fung Bao, John Watson-Williams, Rodica Cailean & Mike Bennett, T-C Yang & Peter Sun, Joseph Dodson, Joel Koransky & Kat Wesolowska, Judy Travis & Keith Burnett, Beverly Nelson & Kathy Coons, Diane Shannon, and Ravi Thomas.

In the Swiss teams, Fung Bao’s team won the BCD event. First in their strat were George Pledger, Michael Ravera, Judy Travis & David Sisson.

Earlier in the month, Frank Lowenthal made the most of his trip to the Sonora sectional, since he won both pair games and his Swiss team took first. At the Oakland sectional, K-P Cheng, Michael Fleisher & Mindy Foos, Stephen Tu, Jay Xu, and Frank Lowenthal earned strat tops, as did the team including Eugene Hung.

Congratulations to our new masters: Sheri Archer, Marilyn Bliss, Yanong Han, Linda Rallis, and Lori Wortley (Club); Ronald Fischer and Melanie Kakalec (Sectional); Eileen Kotecki (Regional); Mike Carney, Frank Napolitan, and Richard O’Brien (Life); and John Prior (Bronze).

At the Berkeley-El Cerrito-Richmond sectional, Mike Cailean won one of the pair games. Li-Chung Chen and Sathya Bettadapura & Stephen Tu were first in their strats.

I wouldn’t be able to report these tournament results without the assistance of our able directors. Thanks to Jay Magid, Dianne Barton-Paine, and Nancy Boyd for promptly keeping me in the loop.

Constructive suggestions for this column will be appreciated at rayyuenger@comcast.net and (408)379-7717. You should also let me know if you notice the supply of score and sign-up slips dwindling at the club. I’ve relieved Jim Hayashi of that duty, but I’m still using the forms he created.