Happy anniversary! One year ago I started writing this column. Some news remains the same, some is new.

Enjoy playing in the Santa Clara Valley regional before the fees escalate to $9.

Our Santa Clara Valley fall sectional returns to the San Jose Masonic Temple beginning Friday September 22. World champion Peter Weichsel will talk about 2-suited bids on Saturday, September 23 at 12:15 p.m. See more details advertised elsewhere in this paper. While at play, please quiet your electronic devices.

The Santa Clara Valley IMP league is resuming with cash prizes for first place in each flight. Enroll your team for monthly games by September 10. For more information contact abrams_mike@hotmail.com, June McCullough (408- 578-7423), or see our webpage, sjbridge.com.

The San Jose Bridge Club is introducing several new games in September. On Friday nights at 7:30 p.m., Will Watson will direct a stratified open game with hand records beginning September 8. On Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m. starting on September 13, Jeanne Becht (408-252-7680) will present a new Easybridge! course for people who will learn by playing bridge. Spread the word. Lynn Yokel will have a series of 0-49 North American Open Pairs games every Thursday in September. Faye Parsons will also open an Easybridge! game. Stayed tuned for details.

Calling all mentors. If you're interested in sharing your bridge experience with a newer player, Lynn (408-374-4669) will be arranging monthly partnerships. Potential mentees, identify yourselves.

Rich Reitman has reached the elevated status of Gold Life Master.

Picking up where I left off in the middle of the Palo Alto sectional, earning strat tops were K.P. Cheng, David Ford, Sam Morley, Irwin & Marion Wentzien, Sigmund Malek, Jim Tseng, William & Irene Price. Malcolm Stewart is so new to our unit, I overlooked his strat top in his first tournament game.

At the Oakland sectional, strat tops were earned by Victor Rivkin & Kato Yeung, Shih-Ming Shih & Santo Barreca, Vandana Vidwans & Joyjit Sarma, Gary & Jan Soules. Traveling to the Santa Rosa sectional rewarded Clarence Nofrey's Swiss team with a strat first.

At the San Mateo sectional, strat top winners included Gary & Jan Soules, Melinda Foos & Joyce Keckler, Jim Hayashi & Anne Boboricken, Shih-Ming Shih & Gigi Spinazze, Joy Baker & Jane Casciano. First in the board-a-match X strat was a team including Sathya Bettadapura, Leila Sink, & Will Watson. First among the B-C-D Swiss teams were Lynn Yokel & Ray Yuenger, with Vandana Vidwans' team first in the Ds. In the 199er afternoon Swiss, tied for first were a team including Alexander Tampilang, Clarence Nofrey, & Phyllis Vierra, with the team including Richard Jacobs & Stan Batiste. The latter team won the evening 199er Swiss.

I gather this tournament information from computerized game files kindly provided by our directors, Jay Magid and Dianne Barton-Paine. I've noticed that stratifying events 300/750/up tends to produce a field where As outnumber Bs 2 to 1.

Corrections, comments and news are welcome at (408)379-7717 and rayyuenger@earthlink.net.