May 7, 2017 Newsletter Inside this issue: Bridge Lessons in May Master Your Game STaC Week First Time at Gatlinburg Page 3 Great Results in the Smoky Mountains Page 4 April Recognition Awards Page 4 New ACBL Rankings Page 5 A Busy Weekend at LBC Page 5 Lost and Found Page 6 K-W Summerfest Page 6 First Aid Page 7 Mark Your Calendar Page 7 2016 Masterpoint Races The ACBL sponsors two masterpoint races to recognize player achievements at the unit level. The Mini-McKenney, named in honour of William E. McKenney, the first Executive Secretary of the ACBL who served from 1928-1947, is based on masterpoints earned at sanctioned clubs and tournaments. The Helen Shambron Ace of Clubs, is awarded based on points earned at ACBL sanctioned clubs. Helen Shambron (1919-2013) of Tamarac, Florida, was the most successful club player in ACBL history. With a lifetime total of 24,393 masterpoints, Helen earned almost 19,000 at the club level. Happy holidays from our family to yours! London Bridge Centre's 2016 Unit 249 Mini-McKenney Winners The purpose of a holiday newsletter is to Pictures keep friends of your and family family trips, updated special on the events, events and in every Category your day family s life will life bring and share your newsletter holiday greetings stories across to life. the Once miles. The you have holidays chosen are a good picture, time place to tell it about close to your the experiences story. Be sure from to the place past year, the caption and express of the warm image wishes near the for the year image. to come. 0-5 MP Sue Jordan 48.93 100-200 MP Tom Jolliffe 140.24 300-500 MP Susan Wark 181.23 If you want to use clip art in your newsletter, you can find thousands of Getting started clip art images on Office Online that you can download Category and insert into your newsletter. To change the pictures in this newsletter to your own, click the image you want to change. On the When you send a holiday newsletter, Insert you can menu, let each click member Picture, of and the then Masterpoints family click write Clip their Art own or From articles File. or stories. Locate the You image can also you include want and family double-click portraits, it. or The new photographs image will from be inserted family vacations. into the existing Think about text what box for you easy would positioning. tell your Tip: family Text and boxes friends that if contain you could images see or text them. often do not have borders showing, so it may not be apparent that an item is placed within a text box. London Bridge Centre's 2016 LBC Unit 249 Helen Shambron Ace of Clubs Winners 50-100 MP Ken Wigle 63.17 200-300 MP Bill Hryniw 102.23 300-500 MP Susan Wark 83.71 To see Masterpoints the text boxes that contain the pictures in this template, click Options on the Tools menu, click the View tab, and then select the Text boundaries check box under Print and Web Layout options. LBC will recognize these members at the Friday, June 2nd afternoon open game. Plan to attend and offer your congratulations. Brown Bag Lunch & Learn Come early, bring your lunch and learn "The Rule of..." with Marie Wiley, accredited bridge teacher, Wednesday, May 10th at 11:30. There is no charge for this session.
Bridge Lessons in May Bridge Basics 1 This beginner course starts on Wednesday, May 10th from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm and runs for 8 weeks. It is a basic introduction to the game of bridge. Topics include: No Trump, Major and Minor Suit opening bids and basic responses. Some hand play and defense is also covered. The cost is $125, due on day 1, and includes all lessons and materials. Course instructor: Hazel Hewitt. Play of the Hand 1 This is a basic course designed for those who have taken at least one beginner course and want to learn some tips for better hand play. It starts on May 17th from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm and runs for 4 weeks. Topics include: Planning the Play, Winners and Losers, Developing Long Suits, Promotion of Suits, Finesses and Ruffing. Some bidding and defense are also covered. Cost is $50, plus an optional text. Course instructor: Hazel Hewitt. Details about other lessons during May and June can be found on our website at www.londonbridgecentre.ca/bridge-courses Master Your Game Thursday, May 11th 9:15-11:15 am Have a master join your table to provide tips on bidding and play. There is a sign-up sheet for players at the Centre. You must sign up by noon on Monday, May 8th to participate. STaC Week (Sectional Tournaments at Clubs) LBC STaC games will be held Tuesday evening (May 9th), Wednesday afternoon and evening (May 10th), Thursday afternoon (May 11th) and Friday morning (May 12th). There is a $2.50 surcharge and Silver Points are awarded at these STaC games.
Page 3 First Time at Gatlinburg contributed by Judi Carter Many LBC players travel annually to the small Tennessee town of Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains for their regional bridge tournament each year in April. This year was my first time. The Gatlinburg regional is one of the largest events on the bridge calendar, and there are all kinds of games for players of every level, lots of speakers, and great hospitality and prizes. A favorite family phrase The town itself reminds me of Niagara Falls, Ontario with lots of carnie and touristy or slogan can go here. activities, souvenir shops, moonshine sales, and places to eat. In the nearby town of Pigeon Forge there are outlet malls, more tourist attractions, more restaurants, etc. Because the area is near a national park, there are hiking trails and scenic drives and bears! Trolleys run between the two towns and all the attractions. The convention centre where the regional is held is modern and well-equipped. Games cost US $11 per session. As well as novice games, there are gold rush pairs and teams, Swiss teams, and knockouts. The knockouts are very popular with up to 20 brackets based on your masterpoint holding. Grand River, Guelph, and London players seem to enjoy knockouts the most, that or loser Swiss...LOL. Many players from our area stay at Baskin Creek Condos. Most of these condos have two bedrooms and can accommodate up to four players each. Our group occupied a block of these suites, mostly all on the same floor - kind of like being in college dorms except that these accommodations are first class. Over the years, it has become a tradition for each suite to take a turn cooking the evening dinner meal for everyone else. Various cuisines are on offer, and the food is always excellent. Another tradition is that Ross Driedger (along with his roommate helpers) cooks a meal on Friday night for not only the LBC people staying in the condo but also for all the other London, Guelph, and Kitchener-Waterloo folks he can find. This year it was lasagna made with Béchamel sauce, chicken, and spinach; salad; and, homemade tiramisu for dessert. Ross made everything from scratch including the noodles. This meal is not to be missed/believed. Janine Higgins provided a wonderful vegetable lasagna for the vegetarians in the group. What is wonderful to see is that less-experienced players are starting to join in the social aspects of the week.
Page 4 Although it's a long (10/12-hour) drive to Gatlinburg, this is a fun tournament. There is plenty to do, including good bridge, good food, great non-bridge activities, and a wonderful opportunity to get to know fellow bridge players away from the table. For me, the social aspect of bridge is one of the main reasons I keep playing this crazy game. This regional combines a picturesque location, good playing facilities, and lots of opportunities both socially and bridge-wise. The tournament organizers do a great job. And I like the tournament slogan "Be nice or go home". I think everyone should go to this regional at least once. Personally, I am already booked in with some of my friends for next year. Who knows what Ross will create or what Margot Stockie will organize in the nonbridge category next year? Great Results in the Smoky Mountains contributed by Dwight Bender At the Gatlinburg Regional Tournament the total masterpoints awarded were 51,950 to 3,270 players. The average masterpoints won by each player was 15.9. Twenty-eight members of the London Bridge Centre earned 597 masterpoints for an average of 21.3, about 5.5 above the tournament average. If we remove the top 50 pros who averaged 100 masterpoints, the tournament average drops to 14.5. Congratulations to our LBC members. You scored almost 7 masterpoints above average. Statistics are so much fun! April Recognition Awards Congratulations to Linda Butt, Arlene Lundgren and Barry Buchanan, our April Recognition Award winners. Linda attended 18 sessions during the month; Arlene earned 7.41 masterpoints (over 50 MP); and, Barry earned 6.68 masterpoints (under 50 MP) during the month of April.
Page 5 New ACBL Rankings Congratulations to our LBC members who achieved a new ACBL ranking in April: Frank Stoffle - Silver Life Master Vic Young - Bronze Life Master Janine Higgins - Sectional Master Chris Piper, Susan Kime, Beth Girvan - Club Master Heather Roch - Junior Master Busy Weekend at LBC As a volunteer owned and managed bridge club, London Bridge Centre couldn't exist without the efforts of our amazing members. On Sunday we celebrated everyone who has made the London Bridge Centre such a great place to play bridge. The afternoon started with punch and time to socialize. The 11 tables played four rounds followed by a humorous thank you presentation from Dwight Bender, a draw for prizes, cake and then back to bridge. Thank you to Marlene Benny for arranging the food and prizes. It was a fun and relaxed game - a great tribute to all our volunteers. Even the Director volunteered her services! This past weekend (April 29-30) was busy at London Bridge Centre. On Saturday, nine teams competed in the Eight is Enough Swiss. The team of Judi Carter, Marilyn Ellis, Reg Young and Nancy Taylor took top honours with a score of 55.00.
Page 6 LOST AND FOUND Monday Mornings - 0-300 MP Games Ever feel lost after the play of a hand and find yourself wondering what went wrong? Here's an opportunity to find out what a master player would have done. Dwight Bender will be available at the end of the Monday morning sessions to answer your questions and/or review significant hands and provide tips to improve your game. K-W Summerfest (Cambridge) Sectional June 17-18, 2017 Hespeler Arena, 640 Ellis Road, Cambridge, ON Volunteers with the K-W Summerfest Sectional Tournament will be visiting the London Bridge Centre several times over the next several weeks to encourage LBC members to attend their tournament and offer discounted entry fee tickets: Entry fee of $5.00 per session for players with 0-19.99 masterpoints. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the tournament. These games are scheduled on Saturday, June 17th at 10:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. (single sessions) For more advanced players, they are offering a discount book of tickets for all 5 games (two session pairs on Saturday, June 17th (AX, BCD or 299); fast pairs Saturday night; 2 session Swiss Teams (AX, BCD or 299) on Sunday, June 18th) for $50.00. The regular fees would be $62.50 so this is a 20% discount. Representatives will visit LBC on Tuesday evening, May 9th and Tuesday evening May 16th.
Page 7 We all hope we never have to, but knowing how to react in an emergency or not quite an emergency situation is important. The London Bridge Centre will subsidize members who participate in a one day 6.5 hour First Aid Training course with St. John Ambulance by reimbursing members 50% of the $90 course fee. First Aid Training courses are held at the St. John Ambulance office at 741 King Street. As there are a number of opportunities to take the course, please contact St. John Ambulance directly at 519-432-1352 to register. A big thank you to Bob Wade for installing the (replacement) emergency lighting unit. Mark Your Calendar Club Championship Rookie (under 100 MPs) - Master Game Monday, May 15th 6:30 pm No Surcharge - Extra Points Sign up sheet will be posted at the Centre Club Championship Week Monday, May 22nd through Friday, May 26th Special Games - No Surcharge! ACBL Longest Day Wednesday, June 21st A partnership between the ACBL and the Alzheimer's Association. Details to follow. Keep up to date on all the happenings at the London Bridge Centre by visiting the website: www.londonbridgecentre.ca