D19 GNT Flight C Team is Runner Up at NABC Atlanta!

This evening, Sunday July 29, the D19 GNT Flight C team of Jordan Tessarolo, Marc Furnemont, Ryley Breiddal and Jan Soutar played in the GNT Finals at NABC Atlanta, finishing second in the event.

They had an incredible run through the five-day event — a day-long qualifying round, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. It is a grueling and challenging event.

Jan, Jordan and Marc are from Unit 431 in Victoria. Ryley, formerly of Victoria, now lives in Vancouver (Unit 430).

Congratulations, Jordan, Marc, Ryley and Jan!

Ryley, Marc, Jan and Jordan (l to r)

Marc, when he wasn’t busy playing, found time to chronicle the team’s progress. Read his captivating two-part account below:

We played 8 matches on Wednesday against representatives of the other Districts, to try and qualify as one of the 16 Teams for the knockout stage.

We finished the 4 afternoon matches (against Alabama, California, NY and New Jersey) 2-1-1 and we were nicely above the cut, thanx to a blitz in the 4th set.

As expected, things got tighter in the evening (two small losses and a good win against Minnesota, Colorado, and Michigan). Even though we suffered the worst loss of the day in our 4th set against the team from Ohio (losing by 22 in just 7 boards to a very nice and friendly couple), we qualified in 9th place, and awaited the draw to see who we would play in the round of 16.

Our opponents, drawn by lots, were the 5th ranked team from Ohio we had just finished losing badly to in the last round. However, we felt confident, as we thought the two hands we lost 21 points on were more aberrations then being outclassed, and we thought we had a good chance.

We played 2 rounds of 13 boards in the afternoon, winning the first one by 7 and the second one by 16.In the evening, things got interesting when we lost most of our lead in the 3rd session, losing by 16 on a definitely “pushy” slam going down 1 and allowing our opponents to make 4 Spades doubled.
The final set was a see-saw battle, where I didn’t bid an easily makeable slam, and where Ryley and I allowed them to make 3 Clubs doubled vulnerable, but we also had our share of nice results and Jordan and Jan played a steady round, and we won the last set 39-32 to move on to the round of 8.

After a brief tour of the room where we will play today, in order to learn about playing with screens,
we headed for a few celebratory drinks and tried to sleep.

Today, we play against a Team from Florida.

The four of us would like to sincerely thank the amazing bridge community … and our respective spouses. Your moral and financial support, your words of encouragement and advice, and your teachings over the years, are a great part of our success so far.

Marc Furnemont, Friday morning, July 27

Before a quick update on our team’s perambulations, we have been following the results of our good friend Mike Roche, who is playing in the Pairs top flight with John Carruthers from Ontario. In this world class field of over 170 pairs, Mike and John are having a superb tournament and are in 7th place after 3 days ! Go get them, Mike.

On Friday, we played a team from Jacksonville, Florida. Things started rather slowly, with our team losing by 13 in the first quarter but gaining back 1 before the dinner break. Jim McAvoy, texted me these words of encouragement: “Your opponents are one disaster away from losing”. Well, our team certainly cranked things up in the evening, played pretty good bridge, and won the last two sets by a combined total of 59 points. What a birthday present for Jordan 😉

After that, having exceeded our realistic expectations for the tournament and having celebrated a wee bit (couldn’t fall asleep in until after 3 AM), we had to go back for “one last day”, knowing that whatever happened in the semis, we would have good memories and stories to tell.

The team we faced on Saturday was from Oregon and, just like the day before, we trailed by 15 after the first set. Then Ryley and I bid a very nice slam and pushed to a game that our opponents didn’t find, and those two boards gave us a 2nd quarter win by 25 and a 10 point lead at the break. The fist set of the evening finished on a high / low note. Ryley and I had a misunderstanding in the auction but somehow survived. YES ! win by 12 and a more comfortable lead before the final set. Not so fast ! The other team calls the Director, points out that, because of the (unintentionally) incorrect information we gave them during the auction, the score should be adjusted. The ruling came back half an hour later, in favour of the opponents, and, just like that, our lead had evaporated. I had a hard time re-focusing after that, and tried to not think about the complexities of the (fair) ruling. We were down by 12 with just 3 boards to go when fireworks started. I doubled a 6 diamond slam holding only the ace of clubs and 4 tiny trumps, but Ryley had bid and, surely, surely, he had “stuff”. After an uninspired lead that almost gave the opponents a chance to make it, they finished down 3, while Jordan and Jan “stole” a heart contract at their table. On the penultimate board, in spite of our normally aggressive bidding, Ryley and I stopped in 4 spades (making 5) while the other table bid 6, going down 1. All of a sudden, with one board to go, after playing for almost 9 hours, we were leading by 2 tiny points. That last board was all about defence, as both teams were in the same contract. Ryley and I found the perfect defence to beat the contract, while Jordan was able to induce the other team to make a mistake on defense and make his contract. Win by 14 and an UNBELIEVABLE trip to the Final against a young team from California …

Marc Furnemont, Sunday morning, July 29

Eastern and Western Washington Elections for Board Members

New three-year terms are approaching for District Board Members to be elected to represent Eastern and Western Washington on the District Board for the 2019-2021 term.

If you are a member in good standing of the following Units, you may submit your candidacy.

  • Western Washington: Units 428, 433, 437, 439, 441, 443 and 451
  • Eastern Washington: Units 436, 442, 448, 450, 453, 454 and 455

Instructions on how to proceed, from DUDLEY BROWN, District 19 Elections Chair, can be found here.

Note that the deadline for declaring candidacy is 15 July 2018.

2018 D19 GNT winners

The 2018 D19 Grand National Teams (GNT) Open and Flight B Finals took place March 24-25 in Everett, WA.

The winners are:

2018 D19 GNT Finals Open

Stan Christie, Henry Lortz, Mike Christensen, Ray Miller

 


2018 D19 GNT Finals Flight B 

Chris Pesce, Chris Jarvis, Rex Tu, Jack Yuan

The Flight A and Flight C Finals will take place the weekend of April 14-15 in Vancouver, BC.

More information can be found on our GNT page.

Whistler Regional starting soon!

 

Enjoying the views from Whistler Peak

The Whistler Regional Tournament is starting on Monday October 30.

Find complete information on our Whistler Tournament page.

If you are driving to Whistler, please note that winter tires are mandatory on Hwy 99 (Sea-to-Sky) between October 1 and March 31. The official definition of winter tires in BC includes those with a M+S designation (check for imprint on sidewall). Full information is available in this BC government document.

For current road conditions go to drivebc.ca