Wednesday Open Game 17 September 2025

Congratulations to Ellen & Lewis for taking first overall in our NH Unit Championship.  Congratulations to Ronald & Chris for placing first overall in flight C (and fifth overall); and to Larry & Nancy for placing first in the EW flight C.  The masterpoint awards may be slightly higher than listed here - check the ACBL emails and website for the final postings.








 

 Tuesday September 16 2025

We had another lesson on finding game or slam in Advanced beginners and a lesson on Stayman and transfers in beginners.  Next week we will have our final 2/1 lesson in Advanced beginners and a lesson on Jacoby 2NT in Beginners.

Dianne and Melissa came in first with 63.33%! Melissa is back after a long Hiatus.  She wasn't rusty at all!  Harriet pulled the director up to second place with a nice even 60% and the Gibbons were third with a very respectable 56.11%. 

See you next week.  My last day before my winter down south will be November 4th. Pam Robinson will start teaching the beginners class on November 11.  --Carl 

Well, I got an email from Melissa Vokey that board 17 was entered incorrectly, so I changed the results to what she reported and it affected the results. Instead, Harriet  pulled up the director to the top with 58.99% and Melissa and Dianne were second with 58.33% Thank you for your honesty, Melissa!  What a tight finish when revised!  The revised results below:


 



 

Thursday Open Game 11 September 2025

Today we had a full 10 tables for our Stardust game which awarded 34% gold points.  We were happy to welcome Nancy Pierce's sister Joan Lewis and her partner Bob Hopkins to our game today.

Congratulations to Nancy/Chris for the first place overall award even though they are C players! Lisa/Nancy took the E/W top spot followed by Nancy/linda who were first in B.  Other C strat playiers who earned gold today were Linda/Patti, Louise/George and Brent/Darrell.




 

 Wednesday Open Game 10 September 2025

Congratulations to Sandra and Barbara for placing first in EW and second overall.  And congratulations to Judy and Carolyn for placing first in C and third overall.  This is a special game so be sure to check the ACBL link for your final Masterpoint Awards, they are a bit more than in this post.







 Tuesday 9 September 2025

We had a another lesson on finding slam or game in 2/1 in adv beginners and a lesson on NT bidding with flat hands in beginners.  Next week, we will continue slam vs game  in adv beginners and have a lesson on Stayman and Transfers in beginners.

We had 5.5 tables in the Pupil game.  John S and Bill S were the winners with 60.15% and Betty and Wynne were a close second with 59.38%.  Well done! I look forward to seeing all of you next week.

---Carl


 

 Thursday Open Game 4 September 2025

Today we had a 10 table full Mitchell movement for our Red Hot Challenge which awards 25% red points.  Congratulations to the new partnership of Linda/Bill for the first place finish.  Mary/Roslyn were in first E/W, Barbara/Paul were first place in the B and C strats.  Alan/Ken also placed in first place NS in the C strat.



 Wednesday Open Game 3 September 2025

We had an even 9 table full Mitchell movement.  Congratulations to Cliff/Carl and Bob/David for the first-place finishes.  Bob/Judy and Ruth/Harvey were first place in B and Mary/Paul and Barbara/Lisa were first in C.  The cheesecake was great.


 Tuesday 2 Sept 2025

We had a lesson on finding game or slam in Advanced beginners and a lesson on reverses in beginners.  We will continue our series on 2/1 in advanced beginners next week.  We will have a lesson on opening and responding in NT next week in beginners.

We had 5 full tables in the pupil game. Martha and Jan were the winners with 63.19%! The Kingsburys had a very nice second with 57.64%.  I hope to see everyone next week with some more pupils!


 

 Thursday Open Game 28 August 2025

Wow, we had 11-1/2 tables for our NAP game today.  This created big points for our game, half of which will be red.  Joyce/Carl came through for the big win today followed by Rita/Claire with first place for EW and James/George and Barbara/Brent for 2nd place. Linda/Nancy, Lori/Barbara and Ellen/Nancy all also earned points in the C strat.



 Wednesday Open Game 27 August 2025

Today we had a 9 table Mitchell movement for our NAP game.  Congratulations to Nancy/Dave for 1st place followed by Nancy/John in 2nd place.  Claire/Pam were first place  NS.  Judy/Carolyn placed in the C strat. The teams that did the best today are the ones who handled the bad breaks the best.





 Tuesday August 26, 2025

We continued discussion of responses to forcing 1NT and the subsequent bids in Advanced Beginners.

In Beginners, we had a lesson on responding to an open of one of a major.

Next week we will discuss going for slam or game after a 2/1 game force bid in adv beginners and reverses in beginners.

We only had three tables in the pupil game today.  John S and Bill S won with 55.28%  and Betty and Wynne came in second with 53.75%.

Hope to see more of you next week!  ---Carl 


 

 Thursday Open Game 21 August 2025

The Fogarty's and Poirier's cleaned up today taking the first place spots in our 25% silver point game.  Brent and Roslyn were first place in the B strat.  Linda/Nancy and Patti/Barbara were first place in the C strat.

Thank you so much to Andi who brought in yummi brownies so we could celebrate Judy's birthday today.



 Wednesday Open Game 20 August 2025

Today the strats were Open/1500/500 based on the avg of both players on each team.  This is a club record for the highest caliber of players which have ever played here. 

 Congratulations to Lesley/Carole for first place overerall in the A and B strats and to Bob/Dave for first E/W.  Pam/Claire were first place in the B strat E/W.  Anne/Paul were first place in the C strat.  Ron/Chris, Colette/James and Toni/Elaine all earned points in the C strat. 


 Tuesday 19 August 2025

We had a lesson on forcing 1NT response in Advanced beginners and Responses to 1 of a minor opening in Beginners class.  Next week we will have another lesson on forcing 1NT responses in adv beginners and a lesson on responding to an open of 1 of a major in beginners class.

We had 4.5 tables in our pupil game. Either people are traveling or the weather was so nise that people wanted to be outside.  I already have been given notice from at least 3 people that they will miss next week's lesson. So, if you are one of them, we will miss you next week and hope you have a good trip or fun time, but I hope to see you back here in two weeks! I will be here next week and every week until the second week of November.

The BIG game today was turned in by Al and Mary Lynn with a whopping 78.13%!!!  If this were not a "Pupil Game" that scoret would be turned to the ACBL for a special listing!  Elizabeth and Jean and John and Bill  tied for second with a very nice 52.08%.

See most of you next week!  ---Carl  


 

 Thursday Open Game 14 August 2025

Today we had the perfect 9 Table Mitchell movement with 9 rounds of 3 boards for our Red Hot Challenge with partial red points awarded.  Thank you so much to Yuni for her fabulous shrimp salad.  That was so beautiful and healthy and delicious.

Congratulations to our winners today - Mary/Bill and George/James.  Wow - B and C strat teams. Linda/Nancy came in second place even though they are also C strat players.



 Wednesday Open Game 13 August 2025

Congratulations to Pat/Joe and Barbara/Lisa for the first place finishes today for our 8-1/2 table Mitchell movement.  Ron/Chris, Nancy/James and Judy/Bob all earned points in the C strat.



 Tuesday 12 August 2025

We started a new cycle in both Advanced Beginners' and Beginners' Lessons.  In advanced we started a new cycle on 2/1 explaining when it is used and when it is not used.  In beginners, we discussed the point system and evaluation of a hand, including both high card points (hcps) and distribution points based on length or shortage. 

We had 5.5 tables in our pupil game today thanks to Pam Robinson helping out and learning how to run our pupil game.  Pam will take over running the game in November!  Thank You Pam! 

The winners today were Mary Lynn and Al Bowen, in their first time to play together, with a whopping 66.67%!  Second place went to Harriet P and Bill S with a very nice 56,25%.

See you next week! ---Carl 


 

 Thursday Open Game 7 August 2025

We were happy to welcome Walter Driscoll from the Boston area to our club today. We had a nice cake celebration for Peter's 75th birthday. There was a great 12 table full Mitchell movement.  Congratulations to Erzsebet/Steve for the first place A strat finish, Linda/James and Ron/Herb tied for the B strat finish, and Linda/Nancy for the C strat finish. Congratulations also to Simone/Helen, Andi/Judi and Mary/Joyce for C strat finishes.



 Wednesday Open Game 6 August 2025

We had a smoothly running 9 table Mitchell NAP game today.  Congratulations to the Maddocks and Cliff/Carl for first place finishes. Rita/James and Susanne/Paul placed in the C stratification.  I felt bad for N/S teams with 5/0 splits against them in spades.



 Tuesday Pupil Game 5 August 2025

It was a pleasure to run today's 5-1/2 table game today and get to meet everyone. Congratulations to John/Bill, Kathy/Alan, Martha/Sue and Sue/Martha for the mp finishes today.  The lesson was about defensive signals - attitude, first discard, count and Trump Suit Preference.  Hopefully you were able to agree and practice some of these signaling techniques.

I was asked about how you could have bid to and made the slam on board 8 below.  The key is for the opener to jump to 2NT after their 1H open and responder's 1S response.  Once responder knows that opener has 18/19 points for their 2NT jump. they can add their 14 points to see that they are in slam territory.  I can see the bidding going 1H, 1S, 2NT, 3D (forcing), 3S (courtesy showing 3 spades), then 4NT, 5H (shows 2 aces), then 6S. 7S makes with a H finesse of the 10.

Skip Page



 Thursday July 13 2025

We had 10 full tables today and Carl directed in Skip's absence.

Liz Van Hof and Ted McMichael won NS with 60.1%!! Congrats! (Nice to see C players do well!)  Bob Fogarty and Sandra Larson won EW. Second place NS went to Nancy Hornbeck and Claire I,  Second Place EW went to Nick T and Eddie S.

Skip should be back next week.  Thanks to all of your cooperation and sorry about the slow start as some of you are not in my database, so it took a little while to get it going.  See you in a couple of weeks.--Carl



 

 Wednesday Open Game 30 July 2025

Congratulations to Susanne and Paul for placing second in the East-West and fifth overall.  Today's game was a Club Championship so there are section and overall awards for everyone.  All the points are black.






Tuesday Beginner's Lesson on Doubles, and Rule of Nine

 Unfortunately,  My ACBL program would not open the Bridgemate Control program.  Here are the cards for each hand.  Today we had 5 full tables. Anne left since she had nobody to play with! and she did not want the first sit out! 

The lesson today was on "Take out" Doubles, and Negative Doubles both of which are done at the Earliest opportunity and require their partner to respond UNLESS the opponents interfere.  As was explained during the lesson, There are only numbers 1 to 7, 4 suits, pass, double and redouble to tell your partner what you have. Some Brillant bridge player in the past decided to use doubles for more than doubling the score.  So several doubles were invented.  You all seem to remember the "BIG double".  Two more were introduced today, the Takeout double, and the Negative double. You also had a review of the Rule of Nine, which occurs when your partner makes a Takeout double of the opponent's suit, and you have several of the suit that was doubled and few points. You add the number of the bid (2 diamonds let's say), you have 5 diamonds including the Jack and 10, which are considered "honors", so 2 +5 +2 are 9 so you leave the double in hoping to take down your opponent, and you've converted the Takeout double to a Penalty double.

So here are the cards that were in play.   You had some very interesting hands, where one person opened a one of a major and their partner had few points but 6 of the other major, for instance board 17

News Flash!  Kate and Connie told me they won Everything!  Congratulations Oh my goodness Mary Lynn and Claire as well as Claire and Sally said they came in first!  Congratulations to all of you!  Jan and Chris tied with John and Bill Swett for the top all male teams, while the Kingsbury's came in first as a married couple and Jean and John came in first as an unmarried couple.  Wynne and Betty came in first as the longest lasting partnership, while Judy and Harriet came in first as the Shortest time partnership.  Jane and Susan came in first as the partnership containing a student of Dave Pepple's and a student of Carl's !  So Many Firsts!  Congratulations to all of you  I got really confused, since without partnership numbers I could not tell who was supposed to play at a particular table.  

Sorry my computer can't find files today!

Skip will be teaching the lesson the first Tuesday in August! and the first lesson of the next session starts the second week in August with Carl starting all over again.  What is this Ground Hog Day? 

Suzanne 


 

 

 

 

 Thursday Open Game 24 July 2025

Wow, we had some crazy hands today for our 10 table full Mitchell movement today.  Congratulations to the Defoss couple and Pam/Skip for today's win.  Ellen/Nancy, Liz/Ted,  Joyce/Bill, Yuni/John and Barbara/Lori all took home 25% red points for today's NAP game.  I was told that the N/S pair had a void in their partner's bid suit 4 times!


Wednesday Open Game 23 July 2025

Congratulation so our C players Chris and Ron for their 65% game. Congratulations also to Sharon and Joe for placing North-South and to Anne and Sally for placing East-West. Today's game will be 25% Silver and 75% Black.  Thank you all for coming out.





 Tuesday July 22, 2025

We finished up our Defense lessons set today in advanced beginners and reviewed competitive bidding in beginners. There will NOT BE an ADVANCED BEGINNER'S LESSON next week.  There WILL BE a BEGINNER'S LESSON next week that Suzanne will run on takeout doubles.  Skip Page will run the beginner's lesson on August 5th.  I will return to start a NEW CYCLE on August 12.  THERE WILL NOT BE AN ADVANCED BEGINNER'S LESSON UNTIL AUGUST 12 WHEN WE WILL BEGIN A REVIEW OF THE 2/1 GAME FORCE SYSTEM.  In beginner's we will restart the cycle for new beginner's on August 12.

We had 5 full tables in the pupil game today.  The Kingsburys were the winners today with 61.81%, followed closely by Christopher K and Jan E with 60.42%. Sue and Martha finished 3rd with 55.56%.

Next week there will be no Advanced Beginner lesson, but the beginner's lesson on takeout doubles will be run by Suzanne.  See you August 12 ---Carl 


 

 Thursday Open Game 17 July 2025

We had a very nice RED HOT CHALLENGE 10 table Mitchell game today where the winners should earn 25% RED points.  We were very happy to see Alan Carpenter here for the first time playing with Ken Gminski.  The ranking was settled in the last round when Yuni/John played Ed/Jim at Table 1 and they each came in first place!  Other C strat players who finished in the money include Nancy/Linda, Alan/Ken and Pat/Gordon.

What do you think of board 21  where there were 10 spades in one direction and they could make 4S and their opponents had 11 diamonds in the opposite direction and one partnership made 5D?  That is really a lesson in the LAW of Total Tricks!

Thanks so much to Nancy Bates for bringing in the yummy brownies and also to whomever brought in the dippable spreads.  It was a very nice day.



 Wednesday Open Game 16 July 2025

Congrats to Carl and Cliff for winning North-South and Dave and Nancy for winning East-West.  Also congrats to our C players Judy and Carolyn, Lynn and Cate and John and Nancy for placing in the overalls.  If you are interested the scores in the ACBL portal will have the Qualifying results for the North American Pairs in this game.




 Tuesday 15 July 2025

We continued lessons on interfering with declarer in Advanced Beginner and had a lesson using Gerber in beginners.  Next week we will finish up the lessons on Defense in Advanced beginners and review competitive bidding in Beginners.

We had 5.5 tables in the Pupil Game. Sue H and Martha R came in first with a whopping 68.75%!  Second place went to Elizabeth B and Jean L with 57.64% A close third was turned in by Jane G and Susan S with 56.25%.  See you next week! ---Carl


 

 

TOMORROW, July 12

Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening  July 12, 2025

What it will be like:

    We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time.  Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid  and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp.  I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables.  If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands.  That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.

It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first.  There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.  

The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.

If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com.  Hope to see you there!  ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 10 July 2025

WE had a very nice 10-1/2 table Mitchell movement today.  Congratulations to Susan/Daryl and Erzsebet/Steve for the first places finishes.  Ellen/Nancy, Linda/Nancy, Carol/Carol and James/George all placed in the C stratification.  Rita/Claire, Lesley/Bob and Nick/Ed did the best in the B strat.



 

 THIS SATURDAY, July 12

Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening  July 12, 2025

What it will be like:

    We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time.  Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid  and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp.  I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables.  If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands.  That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.

It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first.  There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.  

The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.

If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com.  Hope to see you there!  ---Carl

 Wednesday Open Game 9 July 2025

We are very happy to see Sally Kroeker, Barb Hennebe and Margie Dickinson here today. Welcome! Today was a special NAP qualifier where you earned 1/2 red and had the chance to qualify to represent our district at the nationals.  

We had a very nice even 9 table Mitchell movement.  Congratulations to Ellen/Lewis and Carole/Steve for the first place finishes.  Susanne/Paul, Joyce/James, and Coleen/Ronald all earned points in the C stratification.



 

 THIS SATURDAY, July 12

Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening  July 12, 2025

What it will be like:

    We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time.  Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid  and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp.  I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables.  If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands.  That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.

It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first.  There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.  

The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.

If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com.  Hope to see you there!  ---Carl

 Tuesday 8 July 2025

We had a lesson on interfering with the declarer on defense in Adv Beginner and Asking about Kings in Slam bidding in Beginners.

Next week we will continue on Defensive interference (No penalty for it, this is bridge not Football!)   in advanced beginners and Gerber in beginners.

We had 6.5 tables in the pupil game and welcomes a new participant, Al Bowen who played with yours truly and managed to pull me up to second place at 58.12%. First place (58.33%) went to Jean L. and Elizabeth B. (back from a long time away and playing like she never left!).  The Cullys came in third with 55.62%.  

I will see some of you at the boot cap this weekend and the rest of you next Tuesday!  --Carl

 

 


 

 THIS SATURDAY, July 12

Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening  July 12, 2025

What it will be like:

    We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time.  Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid  and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp.  I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables.  If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands.  That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.

It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first.  There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.  

The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.

If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com.  Hope to see you there!  ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 3 July 2025

We had a perfect 9 table Mitchell movement today.  Congratulations to Lisa/Nancy for a 72.5% game!  Patricia/Joe were first NS.  Jude/Ken and Sid/Gordo were both first in their respective C strats.  James/George and Lesley/Carole were first in the B strats.

Have a fabulous 4th of July holiday.



 Wednesday Open Game 2 July 2025

We had a perfectly even 9 table Mitchell movement today.  Congrats to Bob/David and Lesley/Carol for the first place finishes today.  I am also impressed with the C strat finishers of Pat/Jackie, Anne/Paul and Nancy/John.

 Centennial Hall Bridge Club Meets Monday at 12.  This is a duplicate bridge game that does not award ACBL points


 Tuesday 1 July 2025

We had a lesson on finessing and ruffing on defense, including signaling your partner in Adv Beginners and a lesson on RKC 1430 in beginners.  Next week we will look at interfering with declarer on defense in Advanced Beginner and asking for the Q of trump and Kings in beginner's lesson.

 We had 6.5 tables in the Pupil game today.  Newcomer Judy Pinette managed to  come in first, even with yours truly dragging her down with 67.5%.  Second was Wynne and Betty with 66.88%.  We also had returning players of long ago with Barb M and Sally K!  Welcome back!

Don't forget about the bridge boot camp right here in Centennial Hall on July 11!. Have a great 4th of July!  ----Carl 


 

 

 SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, July 12

Another Bridge Boot Camp is happening  July 12, 2025

What it will be like:

    We will discuss up to 27 randomly dealt boards, one at a time.  Attendees will all bid and play the same hand, followed by discussion of how I would have bid  and played the hand and why. A hard copy of the hands and my discussion of the bid and play will be provided at the end of the camp.  I will have enough sets of cards to handle up to 6 tables.  If needed, due to extra players that don't fill out a table, some players may need to rotate as observers, but no one will need to do so for more than a few of the hands.  That will only happen if we have one or two extra because I will fill out the table if we have three extra.

It will start at 10 AM and continue until 4 PM or until 27 boards have been discussed, whichever comes first.  There will be a 15 minute break for lunch at about noon, but no lunch will be available, so bring your own.  

The fee will be $15/person, which is divided between Centennial Hall, North Hampton DBC, and me.

If you have any questions, email me at cvwikstrom@gmail.com.  Hope to see you there!  ---Carl

 Thursday Open Game 26 June 2025

Wow what a fantastic day. We had a record 15 tables for our silver point sTac game. We were very happy to welcome our new players Harry Messenheimer  and Erzsebet Bean. It was also nice to see Judy Parks here again.  Points may go up because our scores will be compared to the rest of the district.  There will be no less for this summer.  First place was by two C strat players - Donna/Peter and Geroge/James.  Congratulations so to Sue/Barbara, Pat/Gordon and Juni/John.



 Wednesday Open Game 25 June 2025

WE had a nice, cool 6-1/2 table Howell movement today.  We were very happy to see David Reinhard here again.  He has been away for a long time.  Congratulations to our first place winners - Carol/Leslie. Nancy & Suzanne came in first in the C strat.  These points will convert to silver in a few days and may increase.  



Tuesday - Student Game and 24 June 2025

 Tuesday 24 June 2025 - a blistering hot day, when we left it was 103 outside!

Today we learned about Pre-emptive bidding, which takes bidding room away from your opponents.  We had 2.5 tables, so we could not earn Masterpoints, since I believe we need ~16 people to earn points. The game had 5 rounds of 4 hands with every pair having a 4 hand sit out, which is very long  In order to practice and play, I decided that the sitout couple recruite one of the dummies from the other tables to help in the bidding, so we could get some more practice in.  Unfortunately, Sometimes the "borrowed" player got the bid.  Sometimes they went back to their game and things went smoothly.  Other times they did not wish to go back to their team mate, so that caused confusion and at one point we had 3 partnerships broken up with a partner playing at 2 tables.  I was not confused and tried to get them back in line, but they were adverse to giving up a hand they had bid. LOL

Our players were John B and Martha , Jane and Herb, Connie and Kate, John S and Bill Swett, Harriet and Claire D.  in no particular order.  Jane and Herb had first sitout, while Harriet and Claire got to go home early!

I hope all of you had a good time!  Carl will be back in July!  You might want to  ask him how to bid Hand 18, where West had 19 points and a void in clubs.  Some people might open 1 Spade,  Bill opened 2 clubs, and John S responded 3 clubs rather than 2 diamonds and West went to 2 Spades.  It is a wild hand.  Had John responded 2 diamonds, I think West would then go to 2 Spades, making east uncomfortable, since all they had was one Spade.

Thank you all for coming on this sweltering day!

Carl will be back next week!

Suzanne 



 Thursday Open Game 19 June 2025

We had a nice 12 Table Howell movement today.  Congratulations to Sue/Barbara for first place EW.  The Maddocks were first place overall in NS.  Jude/Ken, Gordon/Pat, Roger/Connie, George/James and Mary/Rosyln all earned points in the B or C strats.



 Wednesday Open Game 18 June 2025

We had a nice 8 table Mitchell movement. Congratulations to our strat C players who go first and second place - Coleen/Mike and Linda/Joe.  Cliff and Carl were first place NS.  Connie/David placed today also.



 REMINDER!!-- THE START TIME FOR THE WEDNESDAY SANCTIONED GAME is 11:30 AM!

 PLEASE arrive by 11:15  so that I can get the game setup for an on-time beginning!  --Carl W

 Tuesday June 17 2025

We had a lesson on defense in Adv beginners and a lesson on Blackwood in beginners.

There will be NO ADVANCED BEGINNER LESSON next week and Suzanne will be teaching the beginner lesson which will be a review of pre-empts and responding to pre-empts.

 We had 6 full tables in the Pupil game.  The winners were Guil S and Bob E with 58.89%! Second place went to John Safford and Bill Swett with 57.78%.

 NO ADVANCED BEGINNER LESSON NEXT WEEK, but there will be a beginner lesson by Suzanne Sayer.  I will be back as usual on July 1.  See you then.


 

 Thursday Open Game 12 June 2025

Wow - 14 tables here today!  Thak you all so much for coming.  I was really happy how the game went.  However, we need to work to reduce the noise.  Also, players must get here earlier.  The Monday game sends people away if they are not here within 15 minutes of start time.  It creates a lot of trouble for me and confusion for everyone f I need to keep changing the game to accommodate late comers.

Congratulations to Rita/George and Brent/Darrell for the first place finishes!  Both of these teams were in the C strat.  In fact take a look at the score below - there were more finishers in the C strat than in the B strat which was 500 - 3000 mps.  All those with a Q after their names below are eligible to compete to represent our district and get a free trip to the spring 2026 regional.


 Wednesday Open Game 11 June 2025

I was really happy to see 10 full tables today.  Carl will direct next week's game starting at 11:30.  The group which was originally playing her on Wednesday has decided to play on Mondays so Wednesday will only be an open game.

Congratulations to Carl/Cliff for the first place overall finish.  Bob/David were first place EW.  Nancy/Jim were first place in C followed by Judy/Carolyn.


 Tuesday June 10 2025

In advanced beginners we discussed signaling to your partner with your card play and in beginners we talked about Splinter bids as an alternative to Jacoby 2NT when you have opening points, 4 of your partner's opening major and a singleton or void.  Next week, we will talk about Blackwood and Roman Key card 1430 in Beginners and developing tricks on defense in advanced beginners.

 We had six tables in our pupil game today. Jan pulled the director up to first place with 61.38% and Mary Lynn and Claire came in a close second with 61.00%! We only played 16 boards today, because we could only get in 8 rounds by 3:00, but it was still a fun time!

See you next week!  ---Carl

 


 

 Thursday Open Game 5 June 2025

We had a very smooth 8-1/2 table Mitchell movement today for our NAP game.  Congrats to Nick/Bob and Nancy/Skip for first place finishes.  The new partnership of George/James came in second place.  The oldest partnership of Leslie/Bob (that is a joke) got a good finish, as did the Carole/Carole team, the Labonte team, Ed/Jim and Joyce/Carl.

The previous fun game which was running as a separate section on Wednesdays has moved to Monday so there is now plenty of room for you to come play on Wednesdays also. 


 Wednesday Open/Fun Game 4 June 2025

Next week's FUN game will be held Monday at noon which is what I originally suggested.  This will be directed by Suzanne.  The Wednesday game will only be a single session open game. 

The Fun Game had a 5-/2 Table Howell movement. The Open game had a 6-1/2 table Howell movement.

Following are the results for the FUN game:



Following are the results of the Open NAP Game:




 Tuesday June 3 2025

We had a lesson on signaling in Adv Beginners and a lesson on Jacoby 2NT in Beginners.  Next week we will continue discussing signaling in Adv Beginners and we will discuss splinters in Beginners.

We had 6 full tables in our pupil game.Betty and Wynne were back in the winners circle with 65.56% and Mary Lynn carried the director to a second place finish with 62.22%.  Thank you all for putting the tables away after the game for the recital tonight. 

The weather is warming up and we will need those air conditioners the rest of the week.   See everyone next week! --- Carl


 

NOTICE FOR WEDNESDAY FUN GAME

Suzanne is feeling over pressured.  I have heart conditions. She is going to take the summer off, while Skip and/or Carl will be running 2 sections on Wednesday, one of which will be the Fun Bridge.  Two members of Suzanne's family are in different Medical facilities in parts of Vermont 3 hours away from each other each 3.5 hours away from her.  Also she is taking an advanced college course that is unrelentless  12 weeks of college Mechanical engineering in 6 weeks. Fascinating! but lots of work.  A tree fell down in my yard, and I have to cut it up, and My cherry tree and 5 blueberry bushes need netting put up so the birds wont get them all.  I've never had any apples or grapes since I've never had the time to net them.

Have a good summer and I will reevaluate my health in August.     Suzanne


 Thursday Open Game 29 May 2025

Welcome to a few players who are relatively new - Jim Scamman who has not been here for about 10 years and Margaret/Dave and Jude/Ken from the Derry Club.  These new club members helped make this the largest single game I have run here - 11-1/2 tables!  

Darrel/Brent and Bob Jerry took the top spots. Liz/Ted, Nick/Ed, Jim/Gordon and Louis/George also did very well earning points.  The points were not very high because 25% of the points will be gold points.  Next week the points will be high because it will be a NAP qualifier game.



 Wed Open Game 28 May 2025

Well it was certainly an exciting game today.  I was really impressed with the quality of play we had.  The B stratification was 500-1200 mps by team average. We played a 6-1/2 Table Howell movement so sit-outs were only 2 boards.  Ruth/Harvey earned the top spot with a fabulous 68%.  The top C stratification point winners were Nancy/John and Lynn/Cate.

Thank you for everyone's efforts to be gracious hosts and friendly guests.  I think we did an excellent job working together even though we are used to playing such different games. I for one have found that I usually think I know what is best, but usually find I am only seeing half of the truth. 

Noise is an issue that I think we can improve on.  We both had 7 tables but the Fun group (Section A) was playing a 4 board Mitchell while the Open group (Section B) played a 2 board Howell.  Therefore the two groups were moving at different times. We will also try partition barriers next week which we hope will reduce the noise.

Thanks again. I hope everyone had a nice time.  There is a 25% Open gold game tomorrow, same time same place.