Hats off to players who have reached bridge milestones!

New Members in Unit 223

David Dyer. Vandalia
Jacob Surratt, Belleville
George & Sharon Halsey, O’Fallon
Betty Kirkey, Glen Carbon
Brenda Kramer, Sesser
Susan Wygant, Harrisburg
Beverly Alvey, Harrisburg
Cynthia Clore, Harrisburg
Laura Langley, Harrisburg
Signe Plumlee, Harrisburg
David Berry, Harrisburg

The new members from Harrisburg joined ACBL because they have been taking bridge lessons at the Harrisburg District Library. The lessons were a 12-week course taught by Janet Jones and Cathy Hammersley. This class was wildly successful, with 17 students attending most, if not all, of the lessons. Now the new bridge players are continuing to “practice” bridge at the library, and some have been brave enough to play duplicate in the Harrisburg game.

Tournament News

The Edwardsville Sectional was held from June 27-29, 2024, at the Immanuel Methodist Church in Edwardsville IL Again, this was a successful tournament, with total masterpoints earned being 225.80 by 80 players., The total attendance was 68 tables.

Another Metro-East sectional will be held October 3-5 at the same site in Edwardsville. Starting times on Thursday and Friday are 10 am and 2:30 pm. There will be a 299er section if there are enough players. On Saturday, there will be a Swiss Team starting at 10 am. Come get your silver points!

The Mississippi River Bluffs Regional was held from September 10-14 at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville IL. Thanks to Tournament Chair Robert Holdeman and Partnership Chair Josh Rich for all their work. This is the tournament that has been held in Effingham in past years but has been moved to Collinsville. The tournament hosted 199 players and 235.5 tables of bridge.

A list of results and all point winners from the Regional is here. Online Daily Bulletins are linked from this page.  

Unit Board

After the regional, Unit 223 held a business meeting. Bob Holdeman gave a recap of the tournament. The Board felt that the tournament was a success, since it was the first year of being held at the new venue.

The main purpose of the meeting was to elect new officers. The officers for the upcoming year are:

President – Robert Holdeman                                                                                                                                     

First Vice-President – Janet Jones                                                                                                                 \

Second Vice-President – Dan Evers                  

Treasurer – Donna Swick

Secretary – Pamela Ames

Other Board members are:  Jay Coleman, Josh Rich, Chuck Wiese, Vicki Brantley and Tim Bonner. Vicki Brantley and Tim Bonner replaced Maxine and Tom Wynn, who served on the Board for several years. The Board would like to thank them for their years of service.

Also, Josh Rich volunteered to replace Janet Jones to write the Unit 223 article for the District 8 Advocate newsletter. He will also be the new Electronic Contact. Robert Holdeman will be the new Tournament Coordinator and Webmaster.                                                       

Virtual Bridge Happenings

The Central Illinois and Southern Illinois/Paducah consortium is still offering virtual games on Bridgebase Online (BBO). Currently, the games being offered are:

Open Pair Games

   Thursdays: 6:50 pm

    Sundays: 6:50 pm (Open -- 1st, 3rd & 5th Sundays; Mentor/Mentee Pairs: 2nd & 4th Sundays)

Limited Pair Games

   Tuesdays (0-750): 6:50 pm

The mentor/mentee games (2nd & 4th Sundays monthly) continue to be very successful. If you would like to play in this game, just email centralillinoisvirtualbridge@gmail.com . To be a mentor, you need to want to help someone else with becoming a better bridge player. Mentees just need to have fewer than 500 points.