Coming up in September is our unit NAP qualifier on Sunday the 16^th, with two sessions beginning at noon. On the 27^th, Faye Parsons is kindly lending the unit her regular Thursday night slot for a stratified pairs unit game at 7 p.m. So extra masterpoints will be available. We promise to maintain the friendly atmosphere of the regular game, and guarantee any single player a partner.

In July, after some complaints about our prior restaurant meals, we tried something new for our annual member appreciation dinner and game, an on-site barbecue. Patience in the waiting line led to some tasty food. We realize we’ll never be able to please everyone, but if you know of a restaurant that will seat about 130 people at a reasonable price for next year (or want to host it yourself), please let a unit board member know.

34 tables of players turned out to play. Mindy Foos & Michael Fleisher ran away from the field with a 70.47% game. First in the other direction were Jack Verson & Ron Siegrist. Stratification tops went to Mich Ravera & David Sisson and Samuel Shat & Cassandra Leung. In the limited game, Preston Kauk & Dorr Clark took first, with other strat tops going to Stacie Bowman & Houqin Lu and Wendy Dewell & Alma Taylor.

At the nationals in Nashville, Nongyu Li and Jiang Chen were on the champion Flight B Grand National Team. On winning knockout teams were Rose Meltzer, Faye Parsons, Erin Gove, Fung Bao, and T-C Yang.

At the Monterey 299er sectional, Claire & Thomas Feury had an overall first and a strat top, while Marilyn Bliss & Karen O’Connell also had an overall first. First in the Swiss were Alan Malloy, Lynn Shannon, Ken Rosenfeld, and Eileen Kotecki. Members from our unit had 8 out of the top 14 places for total masterpoints won. It’s exciting to see a strong group of newer players coming up through the ranks.

At the Hayward sectional, strat tops were earned by Li-Chung Chen, Marilyn Bliss & Karen O’Connell, and James Long. Diane Shannon’s team won the open Swiss.

Congratulations to our newest masters: Han-Yu Chang, Janice Flowers-Sonne, Cecelia Musicant, Marilyn Ribardo (Junior); Susama Chunder, Karen Hopkins (Club); Anne Chen (Sectional); Ben Bosklopper, Wendy Dewell, Helen Tseng (Regional); Joseph Chui, Raja Smadi (Bronze); Y. E. Chen (Silver).

We started off July with a new computer setup at the club. Until Mich Ravera was able to update some programs he wrote, there were several days of scores not being readable on sjbridge.org. We are aware some people rely on this and strive to keep the website working. Those who rely on it may not realize that it is operated by a collection of volunteers, each of whom has a regular full-time job.

Please direct any suggestions about improving the website, the club, or this column to me at rayyuenger@comcast.net or 408-379-7717.