VANCOUVER BC UNIT 430
1,033 Members

Unit 430 covers the Greater Vancouver area, including the Fraser Valley east to Hope, the Sunshine Coast, and the Howe Sound to Whistler. The Executive Board of Unit 430 promotes bridge by organizing tournaments, coordinating ACBL special events with local bridge clubs, producing an informative newsletter (the Matchpointer) for its members, and running monthly Unit championship games and the popular IMP League, an annual contest every winter of team-of-four play, with matches played once every two to three weeks.

The Matchpointer is Unit 430's newsletter. One thousand copies are printed in a legal-sized digest format, running to about 24-36 pages, five times a year, and distributed to local bridge clubs where players pick them up for free. Issues appear in early March, late May, mid August, mid-October, and mid-December. Issues normally include several feature articles, an interview with a local player, a middle section for club news called the "Club News Yellow Pages," and an information section containing winner's lists, details on tournaments, special events, and Monthly Unit Games. Copies of the Matchpointer are sent to the Vancouver Public Library, which houses issues dating back nearly thirty years. Current editor McBruce continues to brashly boast that he is the worst bridge player ever to have been appointed editor of the venerable publication, a needless boast since many of his printed analyses make that apparent...  Download the Matchpointer, see left sidebar.

Unit 430 runs six sectional tournaments every year. Four of these are the familiar weekend tournaments: the Winter Sectional in late January, the Spring Sectional in late Spring, the Evergreen Sectional in early September, and the Round-Up Sectional in early November. The fifth sectional is a Future Stars Sectional restricted to players with less than 100 masterpoints. The sixth sectional is the District wide Sectional Tournament at Clubs. The STaC attracts players to their local clubs to play in sectionally-rated events for silver points without having to attend a sectional tournament. Unit 430 invites all clubs in District 19 to particpate and large overall awards are available for each session, Monday to Sunday, afternoon or evening. Units in District 19 are offered a share of the STaC profits in proportion to the tables contributed by their clubs

Four trophies exist for the annual masterpoint race. The overall leader in masterpoints at Unit 430 Sectionals (not including the Future Stars or the STaC) wins the Phil Wood Trophy. The Edith Bonnell Trophy is awarded to the woman who wins the most masterpoints over the course of the four tournaments. The Phil Wood Under 200 Trophy is awarded to the player amassing the most masterpoints at the four sectionals who began the calendar year with less than 200 masterpoints. The Leo Steil Trophy is awarded to the senior player (over 55) who wins the most masterpoints in the four sectionals.

IN MEMORY

Martin O'Reilly : 1952 - 2004 ::>

Gordon Davis: 1942 - 2003 ::>

Pat Landau : 1928 - 2003 ::>