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ACBL District 4

4 THE LOVE OF BRIDGE

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Edna Bosworth – Bronze Life Master

ACBL District 4

Learning to play bridge, was one of  the best things I ever did. My husband was an avid bridge player, so I had to learn. You know how the husband teaching the wife works – it doesn’t.  So I went to our local YWCA and took lessons.

 In 2008, after my husband died, I came to live in Delaware.  I was alone & didn’t know one person.   Fortunately, the community I settled in had a social bridge game.  It was fun, bridge and lunch.

I met a lot of nice people, one of whom asked if I would like to play duplicate bridge.  I had only played  duplicate a few times in my pre-Delaware life.   My new friend & I set off to Ocean View, Dini Romito’s game.  Social bridge is interesting but duplicate is even more so, I thought.  I liked it very much and played twice a week at Dini’s game, then at Dorothy Hand’s game and Anna Delapo’s game in Rehoboth.

Over the years I traveled to many tournaments.  During Covid, I played from my couch in virtual clubs.  Entering the Bridge at the Beach tournament, I had garnered enough black, red & gold points so I only needed 0.05 gold for Bronze Life Master.

Getting 0.05 gold at home, in Rehoboth Beach, just made it that much more special.  My team, Bob Breen, Cindy Hoardley & Marilyn Haskins were excellent!

Thanks to Kim Holm for running a wonderful tournament and to the ACBL.

Jim Riccio – Life Master

ACBL District 4

Jenny Draude Krause asked me to play in my first Duplicate Bridge match in August 2015.  Jenny became my permanent bridge partner and my wife in November 2016.  We played at Maple Grove with Andie as the main director.  We did well until Jenny was stricken ill  while we played at Maple Grove.  Jenny died in December 2019.

Covid hit and we played on-line until John & Debi Klinger started Face to Face bridge again in Lancaster.  I was doing OK, but doubted I could make LM.  Then Jim Miller formed a team with Sally Patterson, Claudia Hostetter & me to play in the Valley Forge Regional in 2022.  We came in 2nd earning 17 gold.  I thought “wow” and then one of my favorite women bridge players, Jeanne Gehret, was my partner in the 2022 Lancaster Regional and we earned 16 Gold.  Just like that, I had my Gold.

Now, Silver became my goal.  Silver was difficult because not as many Sectionals are played anymore, but Becky Brown got me through this hurdle in April 2023.

I want to dedicate achieving my Life Master rank to Jenny!

William Evan – Junior Master

ACBL District 4

My bridge journey is a bit unusual.  In 1988, a group of engineers decided to teach ourselves bridge with Charles Goren’s book as our guide.  We played at lunch for a few years until lunch hours became lunch half-hours.  Then my only bridge for nearly thirty years was against early computer robots or on my smartphone.

After retiring in 2021 I began playing bridge at the Senior Center and library in Hershey PA.  I had an unrelated but very negative volunteer experience that freed up my time. On a whim I drove to the Harrisburg Bridge Club on March 20th of this year.  Pam and Jack were incredibly welcoming and described the guarantied partner policy.  As fate would have it my first experience was in an open session.  I had never played duplicate before or used a bid box.  My partner, Sam, could not have been nicer.  I was so nervous.  My goals for the day were not to revoke or have the Director called on me.  On one of the first boards I missed a transfer to hearts and left Sam in a doomed 2 Diamond contract with a combined six trump.  Sam just smiled and said “Thank you partner.”  The director was never called that day nor did we finish in last place.

After the session Pam and Andre spent time with me to answer my questions and provide invaluable guidance.  The kindness and understanding shown to me that day made joining the club an easy decision.  I have been a regular at the club for the last month and a half.  Depending on traffic the one-way commute is 35-45 minutes, but the club is such a fun place to be.  There are dedicated volunteers that keep the club running smoothly.  There is an emphasis on civility, and I have had the opportunity to play with many partners.  Masterpoints are nice, but establishing bridge friendships is the real reward.

Deborah Farkas – Junior Master

ACBL District 4
My much older neighbor told me I should learn to play bridge when I retire.  So at age 60 I took my first bridge class. I liked it right away even though I had not been a card player and had to learn how to shuffle.

When I moved to the Philadelphia area I took Bridge classes, beginner I and advanced beginner at Mainline School Night.  I started to played casually with some of my classmates.

After KOP Bridge Club opened , when Covid was calming down, I started playing duplicate bridge with a partner found for me by the club. It was a bit of a shock at first but I persisted.  I try to improve my playing by taking some of the classes offered at KOP.  I hope to keep accumulating points little by little.  I think the club is great !

Gerry King – Bronze Life Master

ACBL District 4

At 94, I am pleased that I finally made Bronze Life Master.   My late wife and I took bridge lessons many years ago when the children were quite young.  It was one of the best things we ever did.  Not only did we keep our minds active, but got to meet a lot of nice people (also occasionally some not so nice).

I had a job as a community pharmacist (before the big chains) and did not have a lot of free time.    We got another couple and went to the Cheltenham High School adult education lessons.   The other couple became dropouts, but we continued taking more lessons, playing and eventually were introduced to Duplicate.  I really didn’t get serious about bridge until many years later after my wife had passed away (13 years ago) from Alzheimer’s and other bad stuff.   Bridge became my life.  Really, I became addicted.  Someone asked me how many times a week I played and on reviewing, it had been nine times that week.

I went to Philmont Country Club a couple of summers for Bridge Camp with Joann Glasson.   I got my gold with my late bridge partner, John Bravo.   He passed in July 2022 and I really miss him.  And with Covid, (we didn’t and I don’t) play online, it has been a struggle to make Bronze but I’m happy that I finally made it.   Here at Rydal Park there is a lot of bridge played but it is social – much different.

Gene Marks – Ruby Life Master

ACBL District 4

My dad taught me the basics of bridge when I was about 16.  I taught my friend, Billy Ullman and together we taught two others.  From there the game grew to four tables at school lunch and from there Billy and I started playing duplicate at the Roger Smith hotel in White Plains.  There were some very good players there (Ron Gerard, Dorothy Hayden, Allen Truscott to name just a few) but we were too inexperienced to be petrified. Eventually we began traveling to regionals (I can remember a section top in Asbury Park) but we just loved the game.  After graduating from high school, I began attending Adelphi University in Garden City, New York where I fell under the thrall of a 25 year old sophomore, with a car.  We were within an hour of a dozen clubs on Long Island and I found myself playing more bridge than studying and soon began missing classes and exams.  After one semester, I flunked out of college because of my bridge playing. This became even more serious when I was drafted into the army (this was 1966 and Vietnam was my probable destination). However, I lucked out and wound up in an army band in Japan.  After the army, I went to Syracuse university where I managed to keep my bridge playing under check enough to graduate in 1973.

After banging around for a while, I found myself in the restaurant business and wishing to expand on that, I attended the culinary institute of America, graduating in 1978.  By 1981, I was first hired as a Chef. Being a chef and the father of 3 children left me little time to play bridge and rarely would I have the opportunity to head out of town to play in sectionals, regionals or nationals but one year, some buddies and I qualified for a National in Toronto and even though we were very low ranked, we managed a win against a team headed by Barry Rigal and got our first platinum points.  However, those opportunities to play at a high level were rare and there were years where I was lucky if I got to play once a week.  It took me till around 2000 for me to become a life master.

In 2019, after over 40 years in the restaurant business, I was finally free to play on my schedule.  This past few years, I have felt like my bridge skills had never been better and I went to the Nationals in New Orleans with every confidence that I would do well. Playing with a friend who had been a teammate in the past but rarely a partner, we did so poorly on the first day of a qualifying event that I was ready to quit.  After a below average first round, we managed a 54% on the second, qualifying us 59th out of 80 pairs or so. To complicate things a bit, I managed to rupture my Achilles tendon the week before.  In any case, we got our heads back in the game and finished with the top score of the third round. On the fourth round we had a decent game and wound up finishing 7th out of the 162 pairs who started the competition; good for over 33 platinum points against a pretty damn good field. Two days later, my regular partner and I finished with the top score out of 124 pairs, good for over 37 gold points.

I love the competition that a national tournament offers.  Playing a club game rarely is a good measure of your skill since a mixed field of skill sets tends to give more random results.  Your mind wanders as you wonder what your opponent could possibly be thinking as you wait for 15 or 20 seconds for them to open a no trump or pass or play the jack of diamonds.  Playing against the best competition forces you to utilize all your skills and if your mind wanders, you lose.  I love that my game continues to improve and, at almost 77 years old and having played bridge for over 60 years, I still find it as exciting and interesting as I did when I was 16.

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