Illini Champaign Regional -- May 21-27, 2019

Make plans now for our Unit's annual regional tournament, coming up Memorial Day week in Champaign.

I/N events: This year's schedule features five Gold Rush events for 0-750 players -- Pairs on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Swiss Teams on Friday.

Free workshop: Join us before the Gold Rush Swiss Teams (Friday at 12:45 pm) for a free workshop -- "Winning Swiss Team Strategy" -- with Bridge Bulletin columnist Karen Walker.

Host hotel is the Holiday Inn, 101 Trade Center Drive, Champaign. Bridge rate is $97 for one or two beds with a sleeper sofa and free wifi. Parking is free.
Ask for the bridge rate when making reservations:  217-398-3400.  Please reserve early.

Check out the tournament web site for more details and a full schedule of events.

♣   Central Illinois Top 100   ♣

Here are the top masterpoint holders in Central Illinois Unit 208 and their career point totals as of January 6, 2020. The first 22 players are ranked in the top 100 of all players in District 8 (see the District Top 100 list in this issue).
 

1    2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Colby Vernay, Lacon IL -- 22,645.83 Gary Kessler, Springfield IL -- 14,203.72 James Melville, Springfield IL -- 13,145.32 Chris Benson, Leroy IL -- 12,791.49 Karen Walker, Champaign IL -- 9404.45 Mark Kessler, Springfield IL -- 9128.47 Dick Kemmerer, Peoria IL -- 6622.12 Mike Halvorsen, Champaign IL -- 6025.17 Robert Butz, Kankakee IL -- 5756.77 Hugh Williams, Carbondale IL -- 5709.42 Nate Ward, Champaign IL -- 5497.42 John Seng, Champaign IL -- 5280.71 Ron Sholes, Springfield IL -- 5096.69 Richard Blumenthal, Crystal Lake IL -- 5016.18         Nell Schneider, St. Louis MO -- 4940.61 Christine Carroll, Champaign IL -- 4248.22 Stephen Babin, Normal IL -- 4115.89 Leonard Kaufman, Peoria IL -- 3979.58 Charles Sheaff, Jacksonville IL -- 3662.29 Zach Freehill, Bloomington IL -- 3419.13 Ronald Simmons, Peru IL -- 3387.34 Deborah Avery, Champaign IL -- 3265.95 Edward Horton, Champaign IL -- 3257.05 Carole Sholes, Springfield IL -- 3245.00 Terry Goodykoontz, Champaign IL -- 3225.06 Mary Allen, Peoria IL -- 3222.22 Eunice Patton, Bloomington IL -- 3161.95 Elizabeth Zalar, Springfield IL -- 3086.88 JoAnn Schroeder, Normal IL -- 3054.19 Roger Sokol, Minooka IL -- 3033.57 Paul Lindauer, Varna IL -- 3023.86 Marciann O'Brien, Decatur IL -- 2826.70 Raymond Russ, Henry IL -- 2781.82 Martha Leary, Urbana IL -- 2766.09 Patricia Carrington, Champaign IL -- 2678.23 Janice Franz, Springfield IL -- 2658.99 Robert Sievers, Champaign IL -- 2655.06 Margaret Hansell, Champaign IL -- 2638.78 Patrick Moos, Peoria IL -- 2623.22 Mark Daily, Charleston IL -- 2611.49 Larry Wilcox, Springfield IL -- 2604.57 Cindy Moore, Bloomington IL -- 2597.08 Leah Newell, Springfield IL -- 2580.68 Georgia Heth, Morton IL -- 2568.90 Phyllis Collins, Springfield IL -- 2531.75 George Veenstra, Springfield IL -- 2500.26 Henry Hoffman, East Peoria IL -- 2489.96 Charles Zalar, Springfield IL -- 2482.41 Carol Umbach, Havana IL -- 2457.59 John Weber, Watseka IL -- 2396.96

51    52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Doris Foltz, Springfield IL -- 2369.26 Mike Tomlianovich, Bloomington IL -- 2291.22         Ann Schuyler, Bloomington IL -- 2269.13 John Maloney, Champaign IL -- 2125.12 Larry Richardson, Springfield IL -- 2121.94 Bernard Riley, Pekin IL -- 2090.13 Martha Stutz, Springfield IL -- 2073.22 Daniel Taylor, Manteno IL -- 2069.08 Lori Moore, Bloomington IL -- 2045.44 Aldo Mancinelli, Decatur IL -- 2029.72 Charles Young, Peoria IL -- 1997.51 John Parsons, Springfield IL -- 1983.93 Marilyn Stickel, Lacon IL -- 1964.50 Tim Cull, Mechanicsburg IL -- 1910.55 Ann Caparros, Springfield IL -- 1870.30 Beverly Bakunas, Decatur IL -- 1865.72 Sherry Steigmann, Urbana IL -- 1834.50 Randal Malone, Charleston IL -- 1823.75 Ronald Emmett, Normal IL -- 1795.40 Ann Lang, Mattoon IL -- 1794.32 David Stevens, Charleston IL -- 1770.46 J Nanda, Charleston IL -- 1743.65 Shirley Judy, Urbana IL -- 1694.66 Duane Gronau, Bloomington IL -- 1687.44 Alan Stutz, Springfield IL -- 1670.39 Robert Steigmann, Urbana IL -- 1668.71 Sharon Ertz, Hull IL -- 1659.93 D. Atteberry, Mattoon IL -- 1651.21 Gary Dell, Champaign IL -- 1648.68 Dariel Richardson, Rochester IL -- 1644.29 Joan Burlingame, Urbana IL -- 1600.14 Marjorie Hanner, Springfield IL -- 1587.95 Jeanette Sgro, Springfield IL -- 1585.08 Dennis Fitton, Champaign IL -- 1577.01 Charlie Morton, Bloomington IL -- 1572.51 Rich Pestien, Peoria IL -- 1570.84 Charles Langley, Mechanicsburg IL -- 1566.68 Martha Neal, Mattoon IL -- 1544.62 Jeffrey Furler, Bloomington IL -- 1515.87 Mary Anne Parsons, Springfield IL -- 1507.83 Donna Kaufman, Peoria IL -- 1489.70 Bill Bulfer, East Peoria IL -- 1467.29 Gerald Huck, Decatur IL -- 1426.55 Mary Jones, Champaign IL -- 1405.21 Rea Jones, Champaign IL -- 1387.43 Melissa Maloney, Champaign IL -- 1378.10 James Scott, Rantoul IL -- 1368.52  Thomas Shedlock, Danville IL -- 1349.10 Sylvia Lowry, Springfield IL -- 1341.09 Gary Schechter, Springfield IL -- 1339.85

In Memory

We mourn the loss of four of our members in recent months.

Jay Poling of Decatur passed away on December 4 at age 81. A lifelong resident of Bement and Decatur IL, Jay was a US Army veteran and had a long career as a metallurgical engineer for Caterpillar in Decatur.

Jay was a long-time volunteer for Central Illinois bridge players. He served for decades as director of the Commodore Bridge Club and helped organize local tournaments. He was a Life Master with almost 1500 career points.

His obituary is here.
 

Betty Capodice of Bloomington passed away on December 19 at age 89. Originally from Kankakee, she worked as a math teacher, realtor and manager for her family's wholesale produce company.

Betty also had great success as a bridge teacher. She taught hundreds of people to play through classes sponsored by Bloomington-Normal Adult Education. She was a Gold Life Master with more than 3600  masterpoints.

Her obituary is here.

Linda Segebart of Champaign passed away on January 18 at age 76. Linda grew up in Iowa and worked as a medical technician in Shelbyville and Champaign IL. She was a Master Gardener and was active in her church and many local organizations.

Linda loved bridge and played at least two or three times a week at Bridge at Ginger Creek. She recently made Life Master.

Her obituary is here.
 

Christine Carroll of Champaign passed away on January 30 at age 102 1/2. The photo was from her 102nd birthday last July, which she celebrated by playing at the Bridge at Ginger Creek club.

Christine, who began playing bridge at age 5, had more than 4200 masterpoints. She played at the club once or twice a week and played online bridge virtually every day until she was sidelined by a fall in December.

Christine led a very interesting life and was the subject of a feature story in the local newspaper back in 2017. You can read more about her and her love of bridge here.
 

♣  ACBLwide Senior Pairs -- Monday afternoon, March 2

This annual event, open to ages 55+, offers extra masterpoints, pre-dealt hands and online hand analyses after the game. The same hands are being played at clubs around the nation and will offer District-wide and nationwide awards. Central Illinois clubs that will be hosting this game are:

    Bloomington:  Monday Morning DBC, First Christian Church (11:45 am) -- Lori Moore (309-838-8085)

♣  North American Pairs -- Club qualifying games in June, July & August

Cheer on our Unit's winners:  The 2019-20 North American Pairs concludes in March when District winners play in the national championship in Columbus MO. Our Central Illinois pairs took all the top places in Flights B and C in the District finals and will be representing our District 8 in the national finals. 

Flight B:  Mike Heins, Champaign & Tom Shedlock, Danville

                 Chuck Zalar & Larry Richardson, Springfield

                 Irene Wen, Urbana & Marsha Woodbury, Champaign

Flight C:  Larry Ziegler & Fred Spitzzeri, Bloomington

                 Norman Lowrey, Chatham & Rosie Camille, Springfield

                 Lynn Steffen, El Paso & Patricia Lebeck, Normal

Play in Flights B and C begins on Saturday, March 28. You can check the results in the online Daily Bulletins from Memphis.