70% + GAMES

Dee Marshall, Portage & Jane Krueger, Schererville (99er game) — 72.50%  September 22

Dan and Donna Simon, South Bend — 70.14%  September 27

Elaine DeLaney, South Bend & John Chmielowiec, Michigan City — 71.30%  October 1

Tom O’Connell, Long Beach & Glen McGeady, Long Beach — 70.83%  October 4

Joan Tobler, Niles, MI & Sara Marcus, Granger — 70.83%  October 8

Tom O’Connell, Long Beach & Glen McGeady, Long Beach — 75.37%  October 15

Don Valiska, Highland & Carol Osgerby, Dyer — 73.61%  October 15

Bill DeFuniak, Long Beach & Glen McGeady, Long Beach — 71.67%  October 29

Carol Miller, Valparaiso & Judy Selund, Ogden Dunes (99er game)— 75.63%   November 3

Linnea Hokanson, Porter & Phyllis Brooks, Michigan City (99er game) — 70.00%   November 3

Richard Mao, Mishawaka & Howard Piltch, South Bend — 70.27%   November 7

Don and Rose Ferguson, Fort Wayne — 70.14%   November 13

Elaine DeLaney, South Bend & Frank Yoder, Goshen — 72.53%   November 18

RISING IN THE RANKINGS

Junior Masters: Arlene Bakota, Crown Point; Betty Miller, South Bend; Bernie Hay, Fort Wayne; Joseph Sowder, Fort Wayne; Helen Thiros, Schererville; Barbara Unger, Mishawaka

Club Masters: Holly Skekloff, Fort Wayne; Phyllis Brooks, Michigan City; Wayne Hiser, Hobart; Linnea Hokanson, Porter

Sectional Master: Richard Willson, South Bend

Regional Masters: Mary Ann Filipiak, Michigan City; Marilyn Ginzel, Hammond; Thomas O’Connell, Michigan City

Life Masters: E. Tim Carl, Elkhart, John Kohne, Hoagland

Silver Life Masters: Patricia Valiska, Highland; Carl Minick, Huntertown

Diamond Life Master: Joseph Chin, Highland

NEW DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE

At the Unit Board meeting, Kim Grant was elected Area 1 representative to finish out Bob Carteaux’s term.

SOUTH BEND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The new Board of Directors for the South Bend Bridge Club are:

President: Tom Hebron (pictured left)

Vice-President: Peggy Lyzun

Secretary: Leroy Boser

Treasurer: Vic Papai

Club Manager: Tricia Killeen

Members-at-Large: Mary Adams, Chris Barker, Tim Carl, Dennis David, Tricia Killeen and Joan Tobler

DIAMOND LIFE MASTER

The seed of contract bridge was implanted in Joe Chin as a youngster when his dad bought a paperback on the subject. But it was not until three friends in a dormitory at the University of the Philippines asked him to be the fourth that the subject began to germinate. Bridge was dormant as he emigrated to Indiana and pursued graduate studies in chemistry. Upon settling down as a high school teacher in Gary, Joe completed one quest (US citizenship) and started another — bridge life-mastership — in 1979.

After retiring from teaching in the same classroom for thirty consecutive years, Joe's main hobby has been bridge, whether he is teaching, directing or simply playing in this wonderful activity. He is also active with local humane groups and a stock investment club. He enjoys music tremendously, especially classical and folk music.

His bridge achievements include winning the barometer-finals pairs title at a Chicago regional with Wesley Suzuki and a close-second finish at the barometer-finals pairs game at a Champaign regional with John Goring, plus several Swiss and KO team titles at regional events.

Joe is very grateful to his partners, past and present, mentors and mentees, for their time, efforts and especially their friendship — the essence of enjoyable bridge.

Joe has now earned over 5000 masterpoints and is a Diamond Life Master. He is a model bridge player — sociable and friendly and a gracious, though ruthless, competitor. He never criticizes or says an unkind word to partner or opponent. Would that we could say that about everyone. A true gentleman!

Joe is very skilled at working with newer players, developing their talents by working with them on the various elements of play, especially bidding. In all situations he respects his opponents and is most gracious to his partners, even when they “blow” a board. He is always fair and encouraging to his partners — never raises his voice or berates them.

The good news is when you come to Joe’s table you will be greeted in a manner that will remind you that the pleasant social aspect of bridge still exists. The bad news is that you will probably get a bad board. Joe is looked up to not only in the bridge community, but as a giant human being.

SILVER LIFE MASTERS

Pat Valiska is our newest Silver Life Master — having attained 1000 masterpoints! She writes about her journey to this point in her bridge career —

In 2005, shortly after we retired, I saw an ad in a local paper — "Exercise Your Mind" — posted by Carol Osgerby. Since I wasn't exercising my body, I thought I might try to exercise my brain. This led Don and me to Hartsfield Village and Carol Osgersby’s lessons. It was there we learned about the world of duplicate bridge and South Suburban Bridge Club.

Nancy and Frank LaMaster mentored and encouraged us. We started to play in tournaments and the "allure" of the points called to us. Since then I've had wonderful partners, including my husband Don, Lynne Kostopoulos, Jan Merrick, George Roeper, Peg Kiernan, and of course, Norm Szewczyk, who says I drive him crazy.

Some comments from her partners —

Lynne Kostopoulos writes, “Not only is Pat a fantastic player, but she was an incredible partner for me when I was new to duplicate. She was patient and tolerant as I bumbled along.”

From George Roeper, “As a bridge partner, Pat is calm, competent and supportive. As an opponent, she is difficult to defeat.”

Norm Szewczyk says, “Pat is always congenial and easy to play with.”

Carl Minick is a native of Fort Wayne who grew up in a card-playing family, though they never played bridge. He became interested in the game through the encouragement of his wife, Sharon, who became involved in an afternoon women’s social bridge club in the late 1970s. An outgrowth of that afternoon club was a couples’ evening social bridge club which they joined.

Soon after that Carl attended a series of classes sponsored by the Fort Wayne Duplicate Bridge Club and taught by Joe Shull, Leroy Cable and Dick Sullivan (all very good duplicate players). He was hooked on duplicate bridge. Early frequent partners were Dr. Roland Bud) Ahlbrand and Peggy Hicks, both of whom moved out of state (maybe to get away from him, he conjectures). He played mostly evening club games until he retired from Fort Wayne National Bank early in 1999 after a banking career of nearly forty years.

One of Carl’s most memorable bridge hands was, due to a bidding misunderstanding by the opponents, he became declarer in a one club doubled and redoubled contract. His partner tabled a very strong distributional hand in support of clubs. After the dust settled and the blood quit running, Carl was fortunate enough to have taken all thirteen tricks. That made the result totally incomprehensible — one club doubled and redoubled making six overtricks. That is one of the things Carl enjoys most about playing duplicate bridge — you just never know what the next hand is going to bring.

Carl has been blessed to have had many fine partners. Current partners are too many to name individually, but all of them have helped bring him countless hours of bridge enjoyment. He entered the 2012 Fort Wayne Regional needing a little over 12 points to become a Silver Life Master and was fortunate to be on the winning team in two knockouts, thus having his best tournament ever, winning a little over 31 points. His next bridge goal is to help John Aumiller get his points.

LIFE MASTERS

Tim Carl was born in Centralia, IL on December 1, 1940, and the family moved to Elkhart when he was 12 years old. He is a 1958 Elkhart H.S. graduate who continued his education at I.U. Bloomington earning a B.A. degree in Political Science. From 1962 to 1966 he fulfilled his military service in the U.S. Air Force as a First Lieutenant, working as a Special Agent in the Office of Special Investigation.

For 25 years he worked in Recreational Vehicle Management, retiring in 2003. During 2008 through 2010 he taught Special Education at Elkhart High School and is now a substitute teacher.

Tim learned to play bridge in college from Bill Searcy’s dad and older brother, who was in his fraternity. He really discovered duplicate bridge from Bill in 2007 and was hooked from then on, as so many of us are.

His hobbies include playing golf and, of course, bridge at the South Bend Bridge Club — but only if these activities don’t take him away from his wife too often.

Congratulations to Tim for reaching the coveted plateau of Life Master. He won his final needed gold points at the Fort Wayne Regional in October. Tim is sure to be a formidable force at his local club.

John Kohne started to play bridge with his family sometime around his 8th grade of school. (His family always played bridge.) He began playing duplicate bridge about ten years ago. He became a Life Master at the Fort Wayne Regional on his 69th birthday — October 2, 2012.

John’s most memorable bridge experience prior to duplicate was playing until 4:00 am by candlelight the night of the Palm Sunday tornado in 1965. He says his favorite partners are his brother, Joe Kohne, John Aumiller and anyone else who will put up with him.

IN MEMORIAM

It is with much sadness that we announce the passing of one of South Bend’s legendary bridge players, Russell “Dean” Duncan. Dean was born in Mishawaka on July 3, 1930. He earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Indiana State Teachers College — both degrees with majors in Music.

Dean played the double bass for several midwestern symphony orchestras including Elkhart, Terre Haute and South Bend (for 41 years) and taught many students the intricacies of the double bass. Then one day he decided to take a year off to play duplicate bridge, and he never went back to full-time teaching.

Dean became an avid player, achieving the status of Emerald Life Master and earning well over 9000 masterpoints. He often played in international competitions. His bridge was very structured, and his partners could take his bids to the bank. Many of us remember his horror when, after his partner bid 1 NT and he responded 3 NT, his partner paused for a long time. At this point Dean said with consternation, “There are no more bids!”

We all learned from listening to his bids, watching his play and being the victims of his exceptional defense. We surely do miss him!

GOODWILL COMMITTEE APPOINTEES

Georgia Heth, District 8 representative to the National Board of Directors, appointed Michael and Mary Lou Clegg of Fort Wayne to the ACBL’s Goodwill Committee. Each member of the ACBL Board of Directors is entitled to appoint two lifetime members from his/her district annually. We are honored to have two of our unit members selected to this prestigious group. Their responsibility is to spread goodwill, especially in their local club.

NEW WEBSITE

The South Bend Bridge Club has a new website address — www.sbbc.info. Monthly newsletters, club results, calendars, classes, a listing of club life masters and more will be featured. Tricia Killeen did the investigation to find the right format and webmaster. Jo Ann Steigmeyer is the liaison for the club and works with John Nichols, the webmaster, in getting information to him. Club members are hoping to add a section called, “Getting To Know Us”, which will have the names of members, in alphabetical order, showing where you can find articles and biographies in the issues of their onsite newsletters published in the past 2 1/2 years.