Our recent summer Sectional tournament saw the biggest attendance we’ve had post-Covid: 182 tables over three days! Almost eight hundred silver points were awarded to 214 players. It was great to see the venue so packed with bridge aficionados.

Open Games

Friday and Saturday featured two sessions of pairs games. Friday’s morning session was won by Jonathan Clark and Paul Johnson, and the afternoon was won by Steven Lockwood and Vivian Wu. On Saturday, the morning session was won by Frances Schneider and Steve Becker, and the afternoon by Gregory Rich and Alex Stolitzka.

Sunday’s open teams game was 23 tables and was won by Michael Golden (NPC), Jordan Lampe, Jacqueline Chang, Jeff Goldman and Allan Rothenberg.

Limited Games

Before the tournament we went digging deep into our collective basements and garages and came across a box of bridge trophies! While we probably can’t do this every tournament, we thought it would be a fun bonus to hand out trophies to the winners of every 299 and 499 game over the weekend.

Friday morning’s 499 session was won by Deborah Williams and Herbert Marche, and the afternoon by Tory Finfinis and Andrew Chou. On Saturday, the morning session was won by Scott Singer and Bobbi Belmont, and the afternoon by Sandra Miller and Wayne Olson.

On Sunday morning we were all treated to another fine and well-attended lesson from Unit President Mike Hess. These have been very popular and we’re going to make him keep running them in the future.

After the lecture we ran a single 299 pairs session, which was won by Judith and Steven Rolnick (playing N/S). Honorable mention to Steve Shomstein and Steve Schuman for being the top E/W pair.

We do have trophies for everyone but weren’t able to hand them all out. If you left without your prize we’ll hang on to it for you.

Speaking of trophies…

The Connecticut Bridge Association awards two annual trophies for top performers at our summer sectional. The Governor’s Cup is given to the player with the most overall masterpoints earned over the weekend, and the Scott Loring Trophy to the top masterpoint winner in Flight B.

Here’s last year’s Loring Trophy winner, Solomon Field, showing off the trophy:

Last year’s Governor’s Cup winner, Frank Blachowski, is taking home the trophy again after earning a whopping 22.70 silver points in three days. The Loring Trophy is going to Gregory Rich; his 19.54 points were a clear top in Flight B and second overall for the whole tournament!

Both trophies will be officially presented at our next tournament, which is back in Orange on October 23-25. We hope to see everyone there again!