Let’s party! It’s that season again. Our unit’s holiday party is on Thursday, December 9, giving you time to recover from Thanksgiving. Dinner at 6:30 p.m. is ham, turkey, and potluck, with a pair game at 7:30. It’s STAC week, which means silver points are available. To ensure a seat at the feast, sign up at the club. Food and drink contributions will be gratefully consumed. Attendance will be rewarded with a free membership roster. Don’t forget the dinner and team game the week before on December 2.

Let’s look back to October’s Palo Alto sectional. Our Santa Clara unit members did well. Section and flight tops went to: [Friday afternoon] Jim Hayashi & Dave Pankrantz, Bonnie Beardsley, Daniel Gildenberg, Lynn Yokel & Ray Yuenger, Stan Batiste & John Swindlehurst, Benjamin Fleishman & Mike Carney; [Friday evening] Marshall Yancey & Marilyn Imaoka-Yancey; Sabina Siem & Candy Wentworth, Donald Perry & Richard Birdwell, Rita Randolph & Simone De Lu; [Saturday afternoon] Gary & Jan Soules, Mike Abrams, Fleishman & Carney (win twice, lose your first name), Donald Tzeng & Jim Tseng; [Saturday evening] David Huffaker, Tzeng & Tseng, William & Joyce Keckler. On Sunday the under-200 team of the Kecklers, Perry and Shih-Ming Shih prevailed.

Newcomers, Easybridge!™ on Sundays at 6:30 p.m. is evolving into a friendly 0-20 game.

I bear news from Sacramento’s sunny regional, the Fall Fling. Dave Pankrantz had a big kickoff, winning the charity pairs on Monday night. It will be news in my next column if Dave doesn’t keep winning. (Thanks, Dave, for giving me a chance to revive that line. It was edited out of last month’s column. {What, me wordy?})

On Thursday in Sacramento, Henry Zoellner took first place in the two-session senior open pairs. On Saturday, Sathya Bettadapura was first in the two-session open pairs. Rose Johnson-Meltzer’s team with Peter Weichsel won each knockout they entered, three in all. On Sunday, Jim Hayashi’s Swiss team won the open event. Steve Bosma, Ernest English, Mostafa Hafezi, and Eileen English also won a knockout event.

The scroll, please, for Sacramento section and flight tops in pair events: [Tuesday] Pankrantz, David Chang, Batiste & Swindlehurst, Sherry Waki, William Reister, Jr.; [Wednesday] Fran Dickman & Dianne Shannon, Waki, Charlotte & Charles Sharples, Batiste & Swindlehurst; [Thursday] Waki, Batiste, the Sharples, Hafezi, Victor Rivkin, Bosma & Ernest English; [Friday] Richard Reitman, Leila Sink, Yuenger & Neal Webb, Lisa Fishman; [Saturday] Zoellner, the Soules’, Yokel & Annette Powers, Yuenger & Webb, Andrea Malone, Mike Abrams & June McCullough.

If I’ve overlooked a flight top by a unit member, your name may not be in the 1999 membership roster. A new Y2K roster is being prepared. Please update your information (including your e-mail address) before December 5 on a draft copy that will be posted at the club, or contact Lynn Yokel at (408)374-4669 or lyokel@sprynet.com.

Please excuse any oversights. I welcome corrections, comments, and news at (408)379-7717 and rayyuenger@earthlink.net.