Thanks to Al Freeman of Cleveland for this hand from the American Bridge Association's (ABA) Spring National Bridge Tournament which was held in In Las Vegas, NV from March 25 to April 2.
Freeman held the North cards and his partner, Oscar Saffold of Cleveland, opened the bidding with one spade. Freeman made a "close-out" jump to four spades.
West led the five of clubs. Saffold made an excellent decision to trump this trick in the dummy so that he could lead a small spade towards his king. East won the ace and switched to a low heart. Saffold ducked and West won the queen. A heart return went to the king and ace. The king of spades removed the outstanding trump. The nine of diamonds was ducked all around and when the ace of diamonds won the next trick, Saffold was able to claim his contract for an excellent matchpoint score.
Congratulations to all of the area players who were successful in their respective events at this tournament.
March 25. Frederick Jefferson of Cleveland Heights finished 5th in the Early Arrival Pairs
March 26. Jim Hunter of Cleveland was 1st in the Saturday Evening Open Pairs.
March 27. Al Freeman of Cleveland was 3rd in Flight A and James and Lily Cleveland of Chagrin Falls were 4th in Flight B of the Mixed Pairs Consolation Game. Lawrence Wills of Fairview Park Finished 2nd in the New Players Open Pairs.
March 28. Lily Cleveland and Alice Redd of Warrensville were 8th in Flight B and Bonnie Turner of Mayfield Heights and Wilhelmenia Jackson of University Heights was 6th in Flight C of the Non Mixed Pair. Jim Hunter was 6th in the Flight A Afternoon Open Pairs. Freeman and James Cleveland of Chagrin Falls finished 5th and Hunter was 8th in the Flight A Evening Stratified Open Pairs.
March 29. Freeman and Gresham were members of the team that finished 5th in Flight A. Jefferson was 5th in Flight B. James and Lily Cleveland, Alice Redd and Lillian Hale of Warrensville and Barbara Shakoor of Pepper Pike was 3rd in Flight C of the AM Knockout Teams. This team was also 3rd in Flight C; Jefferson was on a team that finished 5th in Flight C; and Ernestine Mapp of Shaker Heights, Wilhelmenia Jackson, Bonnie Turner and Lucille McGhee of Shaker Heights Finished 5th in Flight E; Lawrence Wills was a member of the Team that finished 3rd in Flight G of the C.G Fredd Knockout Teams. Hunter was a member of the team that was 2nd in Flight A of the Second Chance Knockout Teams. Freeman and Gresham were on the team that finished 3rd in the same Event. Mildred Dorsey of Cleveland was on the team that finished 2nd in Flight D of the same event. Bernice Napier of Orange Village and Georgia Dixon of Cleveland were 3rd in Flight B of the Side Game.
March 30. Napier and Dixon were members of the team that finished 3rd in Flight C of the Board-A-Match teams. Lawrence Wills finish 1st in the New Players Evening Open Pairs.
March 30. Freeman was 6th in Flight A of the ABA/ACBL Open Pairs. Nellie Johnson of Cleveland Heights and Vidella Vinson of Warrensville Heights were 1st in the Under 300 Open Pairs.
Congratulations also to Barbara Shakoor of Pepper Pike and Bonnie Turner of Mayfield Heights who passed the 1200 master point level and are now ABA diamond life masters.
The ABA is holding their annual Nationwide duplicate bridge
game on June 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fairhill Center for the
Aging, 12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland. For further Information
call (216) 561 3548.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb19@adelphia.net