Coming up on Sunday, September 17 is our two-session unit NAP qualifier, beginning at noon. Come early to make sure you have a table.

If you or a friend is interested in learning bridge, contact one of our local bridge teachers about lessons beginning in the fall, namely Faye Parsons (fparsons@pacbell.net), Jeff Hack(jnamyats@aol.com), and Judy Clark (bmcojudy@earthlink.net). Lynn Yokel (lynnyokel@comcast.net) will be teaching Audrey Grant’s course on defense at the Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos starting in October. She will also be offering other shorter classes for advanced beginners and intermediates. Contact Lynn for help in finding a class to suit your needs.

Our unit member appreciation dinner and game was a big success. The unit bought dinner for 150 members. 34 tables of players stayed to compete. First overall were Jim Hayashi & Anne Boboricken with a 70.97% game. First in the other direction were Lynn Yokel & Ray Yuenger. First in their stratifications were Erin Gove & Joe Chui, Peggy Sprague & Joe Poppo, Joel Koransky & Kat Wesolowska. In the limited game, strat tops went to Randy Rice & Mary Harvel (69.16%), Yan Chen & Yongdong Liu, Maralyn Smith & Eileen Kotecki, Melanie Kakalec & Jin Zhu, Pete & Dee Peterson. Next time we’ll try to make sure the Community Center has the room ready for our volunteers to set up the card tables before dinner.

In the Santa Cruz 299er sectional, Joan Simpson & Mike Braun had a pairs first. In the two Swiss events, the team of Lynn Shannon, Bruce Scott, and Carol & Keith Burnett traded places with the team of Bryan Reese, Margaret Sprague, Kat Wesolowska & Joel Koransky, each taking first and second places.

At the San Mateo sectional, on winning knockout teams were Ravi Thomas, Jiang Chen & Nonyu Li. T-C Yang took two firsts in the pairs game. First in their Swiss strats were Stacie Bowman, Eryl Barker & Val Mason.

At the Hayward sectional, winning strat tops were David Grupenhoff, Panette Talia, Jiang Chen, Li-Chung Chen, Joe Tang & Doug Hong. Jiang was second overall in the two-session event, with Panette in third. Winning the knockout were Tania Moalem, Kit Humphrey & Henri Farhi. Marshall Yancey and Marolyn Imaoka-Yancey were first in their Swiss team bracket.

I regret reporting that one of our top players, Charlie Dorn, passed away recently. Charlie sharpened his skills playing for money at local rubber bridge clubs when there were such clubs. Among his protégés are Grant Baze and Jim Hayashi, who credits Charlie with teaching him about IMPs.

I promised last month to say more about Jim, who recently retired from 40 years of directing in our club. Jim was drafted into playing the first time he walked into a San Jose club to kibitz after he had read a couple of bridge books. Later, another of his mentors was Frank Warzek, who taught him matchpoint strategy.

Jim became a director at a time when unit members shared the duty of running unit games. A unit game winner in those days earned one masterpoint. There were no stratifications. Games were scored by hand, not computer. Weekend club games were popular, as local sectionals were few and far between. It was not uncommon to have six to twelve people show up without partners.

Jim, who had a day job at the time, first directed Friday and Saturday night games. Later on he helped Swanee McKay run the popular Wednesday night game. In the mid-80s, he took over the Thursday day game as well as the Wednesday night game. In addition to running his games, Jim has created many of the entry forms used at our bridge club.

Congratulations to these advancing masters: Karen Hopkins (junior); Surendra Mandava, Pravesh Mehra, Jin Zhu (club); Peggy Chen, Lynn Shannon (regional); Mich Ravera (NABC); Daniel Rappaport, Anthony Trebaol (life); Ruth Sporer (bronze); Robert Friend (gold).

Suggestions should be addressed to rayyuenger@comcast.net or (408)379-7717.