You will be reading this in April, but I am writing in March so I cannot remind you to come to the tournament in Huntley on March 25, 26, and 27. I hope you did attend and had fun and won points and visited with old friends.

Another chance for fun, good food, friends, awards, etc. was the annual meeting on April 2nd. If you missed it this year, make a point to attend next year. What is better than free dinner and bridge?

If you want to learn who won the Mini McKenney and Ace of Club Awards, check it out on-line at myacbl.org . Take that opportunity to edit your personal information as we are planning to provide a new unit directory this summer and will only use the information you include in this portal.

Our next tournament is the regional in June; put that one on your calendar. Remember that you have a free-play card that you have been storing for quite some time!

We need to increase our membership!  Since the last Pairfare, we have one new member: Patricia Leonard of Geneva, IL! She has played in the St. Charles game and says her friends call her Pat. Welcome to Unit 239, Pat!

Congratulations to these members who have risen in rank!

    New Club Master: Michael King (Minooka)

    New Life Masters: Lynn Clemmons (Freeport) and Joseph Lepscier (Aurora)

New Silver Life Master – Jerr Boschee

Jerr Boschee is a Silver Life Master. Jerr was born in Highland Park in 1944, but his family soon moved to Minneapolis, where he lived until 2006 except for two years in the Peace Corps in India, a year in Washington, D.C., and a year in the Bay Area. He was the first of eight children and has three daughters and four grandchildren. 

He met his wife, Linda Ball, when they happened to sit down next to each other for a play at The National Theatre in London in December 1997. They married and later moved to Dallas (2006) when she took a new job and to Geneva when she retired in 2014.

Jerr credits his Dad as his mentor, whether it was bridge, pinochle, or cribbage.

His parents both played bridge, and Jerr started the game when he was young. Pinochle was the family game, but, when he attended the University of Minnesota, he “majored” in bridge his freshman year while working nearly full-time as a sportswriter and ignoring most classes. His primary partner then is still one of his BBO partners today; they played in a local bar just off campus for a tenth-of-a-cent a point.

Jerr played some duplicate in the mid-‘70s, but not much, and didn’t resume until 2011 in Dallas when “I forged a wonderful four-year partnership with Ray Olds.” They committed to play with each other until they both made Life Master (each needed 500 MPs because their ACBL memberships had lapsed).

Jerr and Ray learned the “new bridge” after throwing away their Goren books, then went through the usual rigamarole of adding many conventions and quickly removing almost all of them! They drove to about a dozen regionals in six states and to sectionals all over Texas, winning numerous events in their class; and they also had a formidable pair as their partners who helped them win knockout and Swiss events as well. Jerr made Life Master on his second-to-last game in Dallas and arrived in Geneva with 501 MPs.

It took about seven years to get the next 499. Jerr says he had a lot of great partners before COVID struck, especially Ken Prouty, his partner for three years; they netted about 200 of the 300 MPs Jerr earned that came from games at local clubs and tournaments. Jerr also played in sectionals and regionals with his brother Ken, who lives in Indianapolis, which earned him about 50 MPs. The remaining 150 came on BBO after COVID closed the clubs and tournaments, He’s been playing with Ken, Leo (his college partner), a friend from Dallas, and Randy Miles.

Jerr earned Silver Life Master status Dec. 13th on BBO playing one of the 18 board/6 minutes-a-board matches with Ken. Jerr needed 1.32 points and earned 1.76.

Jerr shared a favorite bridge story. “Probably the most amazing thing that happened occurred at a regional in Lubbock. The four players on our team from Dallas had a cumulative total of fewer than 1000 MPs and we found ourselves in a knockout semifinal against a team with more than 60,000. After we defeated them, we came close but couldn’t quite win the finals (the four members of that team had a total of more than 100,000), but we sure had fun that day.”

This is his bridge advice:

   1.    Forget about the last hand (at least until the session is over).

   2.    Laugh a lot, especially at yourself.

   3.    Trust your partner.