Greater St. Louis Bridge News

Don’t miss this major event:  ABA/ACBL Unity game will be held at Olivette Community Center on June 27, 2009.  Click here for more info.

Two St Louis teams qualify to represent District 8 in the 2009 summer Grand National Team championships.  

Open Flight:  Alan & Nancy Popkin, Milton Zlatic & Tom Oppenheimer

Flight B:  Mark Boswell, Tom O'Reilly-Pol, Debbie Romero & Sandy Bigg

St Louis May Sectional spotlights three records:

A new attendance record – for the third successive sectional – was set in the three-day event. Table count was 380 tables, with 481 unique players. Contributing to this success was the new Friday night single-session Swiss team, with 39 tables.  A long-time ACBL player achieves success: Congratulations go to Jack Bryant (left), who passed the 15,000-masterpoint milestone on Saturday at the tournament.

The younger players join the adventure of duplicate tournaments.  Thanks to the efforts of Chris Shaw (Education Chair, District 8), seven tables of youths from Illinois competed for trophies on Saturday.

Winners of the youth event: 1 - Andrew Logerhausen - Doug Kruger, Beecher City IL -- 71.88% 2 - James Ritz - Swade Unkraut, Effingham IL -- 67.50% 3 - Cheyenne Corbitt - Laura Reimers, Effingham IL -- 63.13%

Club Corner

For 20 years, Paul & Louise Ellebracht have hosted a 10:30 a.m. Monday morning duplicate game at Maryland Heights Center.

Paul & Louise Ellebracht were childhood sweethearts and were married after Paul’s discharge from the Navy in 1946, 63 years ago. They raised five children, and then  started playing duplicate in 1986. In 1989, they  purchased three duplicate bridge games in North St. Louis County. Louise gave lessons and was the perfect partnership person; Paul directed. The games grew and eventually they sold two of them, retaining the Monday morning game

Today, their weekly 10:30 A.M. game has, arguably, the best snacks in town. Among their smorgasbord are selections of freshly baked cakes or pies, salty snacks (crackers, chips, salsa & cheeses), protein (egg salad, ham salad, liver sausage spread, crab cream cheese spread), and freshly cut veggies. Sometimes there is even shrimp cocktail! Bridge players love to be fed, and Louise’s efforts pay off with a table average better than 15+ tables – even though there are two other nearby games at the same time.

And of course, it helps that Paul also runs a regular monthly series where extra masterpoints can be earned. “Thank God for bridge,” says Paul.
 

   In Memory

Stephanie Baldwin Moses of Glendale died suddenly on May 25 from complications related to a broken leg.

A graduate of the University of Missouri, Stephanie worked for many years for a government cartography division. She retired early and devoted herself to a new career as a teacher at Block Yeshvia High School in St. Louis. Stephanie and her husband Tod met at a bridge game in St. Louis. They have an 11-year-old son, Justin, and would have been celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary on the day of her death.

Stephanie will be remembered as a sweet, ingenuous and caring woman who always took a sincere interest in others. Our sympathies go out to Tod and Justin, to her mother and brothers and sister, and to her many friends and students.
 

Illini Regional -- May 19-25

The regional at Champaign on Memorial Day is usually a popular – and lucrative one – for Unit 143 members. This year was no exception.  For complete results, click here. 

First place winners in their flights/brackets from Unit 143 included:
    Norman Athy, Rod Beery (2x), Diana Drisko, Charles Fleisher, Eugenia Fleisher, Donald Florida, Rob Kelly, Marvin King, Tom Kniest, Mary Macchesney, Linda McHoney (3x), Tom Oppenheimer, Jan Pass, Alan Popkin, Nancy Popkin, Glenn Smith,  Barbara Stewart (3x), Arbha Vongsvivut,  Rod Van Wyk, Percy Wu (3x) (formerly St Louis, now Grand Rapids), Stephen Zenk  & Milton Zlatic.

Congratulations to the following players who have advanced in rank since April 1, 2009, effective May 1, 2009:

Upcoming Tournaments

June 27, 2009  -- Combined Unity Game: ABA & ACBL Players may earn either ABA or ACBL MPs. 

July 11-12, 2009 --  Greater St. Louis Braggin' Rights KO Team Trials

August 17-23, 2009 -- St Louis Regional