Upcoming on Saturday, March 26 at 7 p.m. is a unit game honoring our most prolific point scorers of 2004 both in club games (Ace of Clubs) and tournaments (Mini-McKenney). Since the information is on the Internet, it should spoil no surprises to congratulate the following masters, who won both categories unless otherwise noted. Rookies Robert Hanson (AC), Michael O’Connor (MM); Junior Nadia Nilsson; Club Erin Gove; Sectional Raja Smadi; Regional John Prior; NABC Fung Bao; Life Norman Wang (AC), Li-Chung Chen (MM); Bronze Rita Tingley (AC), Steve Chen (MM); Silver Tania Moalem; Gold Bonnie Beardlsey (AC), Frank Lowenthal (MM); Diamond Don Nemiro (AC), Rose Meltzer (MM); Grand Ed Barlow (AC), Peter Weichsel (MM). Erin was first in the country in her Mini-McKenney category! It’s nice to have a rising star in our midst.

I’m pleased to announce more bridge will be available at our club. On March 8, Dick Pitzer is starting an Easybridge! game Tuesday afternoons at 3 p.m. This is a very enjoyable introduction to the game of bridge. For more information, contact him at dicknellie@earthlink.net.

John Prior will be filling the only gap in our schedule by starting a Saturday night stratified open pairs game at 7 p.m., probably beginning the third Saturday in March.

Our unit members have been turning in stellar performances in recent tournaments. At the Monterey regional, first in their stratifications in two-session pair games were Bertrand Hsu, Ted Richmond & Bill Riester, Bruce Luttrell & K.P. Cheng, Norman Wang, Daren Kuo and Sathya Bettadapura,. In limited games it was Robert & Linda Caren, Nancy Rude, Bruce Scott, Lee Tsai & Cassandra Leung.

In the team events, Rose Meltzer’s team won a knockout. Other knockout winners were Victor Rivkin & Boris Ginzburg; Erin Gove, Janet Adamiak, Richard Jacobs & John Prior; Will Watson; and Don Nemiro. On winning Swiss teams were Boris & Victor; Katarzyna Wesolowska & Nadia Nilsson; Norman Wang & Chingling Tseng; Zbigniew Bieszke,Chester Jahns & Andrzej Wierzbicki.

15 tables of players turned out for a unit game honoring Rose Meltzer, our own Grand Life Master. Kit Humphrey & Henri Fahri prevailed in a room full of national champions, with Jim Hayashi & T.C. Yang taking first in their direction. First in the remaining strat were NongYu Li & Jennifer Gu.

At the San Francisco sectional, strat tops went to Li-Chung Chen, Lee Tsai & Cassandra Leung. On the winning Swiss team were Kit Humphrey & Henri Fahri.

At the Livermore sectional, topping their strats were Cassandra Leung, Li-Chung Chen, Panette Talia & Tania Moalem (where was Tamia?), and Stephen Tu. Prevailing in the A Swiss were Fran Dickman, Don Nemiro & Dianne Shannon. Tops Xers were Lynn Yokel, Ron Siegrist, Stu Goodgold & Ray Yuenger. Kamen Nedeltchev’s team won its bracket without a loss.

Am I the only one bothered by the open flight loophole swallowing up otherwise bracketed teams?

I welcome news and corrections at rayyuenger@comcast.net and (408)379-7717. Old columns appear under old stuff at sjbridge.org.