Welcome to these new members:

   From Crystal Lake, Greg Maccoubrey

   From Johnsburg, Suzanne Beam

Unit 239 members look forward to meeting you.

Spring has sprung and with it three new life masters have emerged. Congratulations are extended to these three players who have “cultivated” their skills to earn this impressive ranking.

G E “Jerry” Johnson  has been a patient member of ACBL, having joined in 1968 and attaining life master at the Crystal Lake Sectional in January of this year. Of course, in those four decades, G E was working and raising a family. He played duplicate until 1977 and dropped out with only 65 points. His introduction to bridge was at work, playing the game over lunch. He read the book Blue Team Club, which became his Bible for learning bridge. He still prefers playing this system, but finding partners who also play it is challenging.

G E  renewed his ACBL membership in 2009 and has been on a positive trajectory ever since. Last year he won two Gold Rush pairs, one with a 74.4% game, but he still needed silver points. As partnership chair at the aforementioned sectional, he played a team game with a new partner and won 3.47 points (see volunteering does have its rewards). G E shared a great story about Omar Sharif. The notorious bridge player (and womanizer) was in Chicago with his Bridge Circus. G E  was a caddy and his wife, a non-bridge player, was with him as an observer. She caught Omar Sharif’s attention and he volunteered to teach her how to play bridge.

Mimi Boysen started playing bridge when she was nine years old, learning from her grandparents. Of course college, marriage and family all disrupted her desire to play bridge, and she relearned the game and started to play after her three children were in school. This occurred in Northbrook with partner Theresa Schneider, whom she considers her bridge mentor. Mimi readily admits that this mentor is now at gold status. However, Mimi only plays bridge seven months out of the year, alternating this sport with golf.

Mimi earned her life master status at the Winterfest Tournament in Wheeling this past January. Unlike most life masters, gold points were not a stumbling block for Mimi. With only 50 points to her name, Mimi attended a tournament in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin where she placed in a double session pairs event. This victory was not only in her section, but over the entire room and she received 17 gold points. Mimi’s advice to bridge players aspiring to life master status:  play “up” and learn from watching better players. If you place, you win more points competing against life masters.

Linda Brubaker is our third life master for this column. She disclosed that about eight years ago Julie Kelley convinced Linda’s golf group to learn bridge. Julie arranged for the golfers to take lessons at the Geneva Park District from John Kinst. Though none of the golfers had ever played bridge, they all went to “bridge camp” where John proved to be very entertaining and convinced Linda to attend a sanctioned game in Saint Charles. Her first partner, Neil Whittle, was just returning from a 20-year bridge sabbatical and they started to play together.

Besides Neil, Linda has also partnered with Bob Volsted and Janet Brandt, attended tournaments, and reached her goal of life master status. Linda adds that bridge is a great past time and the game has allowed her to meet nice people. She admits that she has overcome the fright of her early bridge days and looks forward to seeing smiling faces and building rich friendships. She adds that even though duplicate bridge is competitive, players are always willing to answer questions and give good advice. Linda concludes that she is glad to be a part of the bridge community.

Additionally, Patricia Leatherwood of Aurora attained silver life master status in March, a ten-year progression from junior master. She needed only a fraction of a point to reach this distinction, and decided to call her favorite online partner and requested that she “take her across the line.”  They made a 7:00 p.m. date and scratched for far more than what Patricia needed. She shares a second story about another online partner; they were experiencing miscommunication and ended up in slam. Fortunately, they made the bid and were the only partnership in that contract.

Patricia’s advice for new players is to remember that bridge is a partnership game. No one has fun when there is whining and complaining about hands or other players. Also, new players should strive to do their best and to remember past mistakes only as a learning experience (not as a curse), then move on and be positive. Patricia also shares that as an African-American, she is disappointed that there aren’t a significant number of African-American members in the ACBL. She reasons that this is because the ACBL was once segregated, which led to the founding of the American Bridge Association.

Here are the recent milestones for more of our members:

New Junior Masters:  Susan Seaver of Crystal Lake; Barbara Hermes of Dixon; Kenneth Dornfield of Huntley; Eric Mayer of Richmond.

New Club Masters: Karen Miller of Crystal Lake; Rod Johnson of Rockford; George Jauch and Paula Jauch of Saint Charles; Kathleen English of Sugar Grove.

New Sectional Masters:  Jeff Duckworth of Sugar Grove.

New Regional Masters: Dorothy Stewart of Rockford.

New NABC Masters:  Maria Solvie of Elgin.

New Life Master:  G E “Jerry” Johnson, Crystal Lake; Marsha Boysen, Dixon; Linda Brubaker, Geneva.

New Bronze Life Master: Lynn Patterson, Lake in the Hills; Robert Larson, Roscoe.

New Silver Life Master:  Patricia Leatherwood of Aurora.

  THE GREAT SIZZLIN’ SUMMER ILLINOIS REGIONAL

                        JUNE 22-28, 2015

       Holiday Inn,  Route 31 and Three Oaks Road, Crystal Lake IL

Tournament Chair:  Marilyn Croft  (jmcroft@sbcglobal.net)

Partnerships:  Ron and Jo Kohn  (johenricks@sbcglobal.net)