Published: March 20, 2008 08:26 pm         

Bridge tournament set for March 28-30

The Fairfield Glade Recreation Center will be the center of activity on Friday, March 28, through Sunday, March 30, for a non-life master bridge tournament. This tournament is an annual event geared to those bridge players with less than 500 master points who have not yet attained life master status. This is an opportunity for players to gather with their peers to win silver points toward their life master. Bridge tournaments are held so that bridge players can attain their goal of life master as well as having a good time playing bridge competitively. Players need to earn 300 master points. Of these points, 50 need to be silver (earned at sectionals), 25 gold and 25 red (earned at regional tournaments), and the remainder black (earned at local club games).

Bridge players in this area that belong to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL – visit ACBL’s Web site for more information at http://www.acbl.org/) are part of District 7. As part of District 7, Eastern Tennessee and parts of Virginia are in Unit 165 which hosts the largest regional bridge tournament in the country in Gatlinburg, TN. Because this tournament is instrumental in providing funds for our unit, the Unit 165 board of directors has announced that they will subsidize players with less than 50 master points playing in any Unit 165 sectional by making their entry fee half price. This is great incentive for those players to catch the bridge bug at a reduced price.

Unit 165 is also sponsoring a sliver point contest for all players with less than 1000 master points. This contest began on January 1, 2008 and the point classifications start on that date. There will be separate awards for winners of the most silver points earned at the Unit 165 sectional tournaments. Those with 0-50; those with 50.01 to 300; and those with 300.01 to 1000. The awards are free plays in all sectional tournaments that the winners attend in 2009. The unit decided to have three categories for 2009; there were two winners in 2008. The new category for this year is the 0-50 category. Unit 165 is trying to encourage new bridge players. Winners will be announced at the beginning of 2009. To learn more about happenings in Unit 165, go to the Web site http://www.discoveret.org/unit165/.

Tournaments that are included for 2008 are:

• Oak Ridge (held in Knoxville) — March 14-16

• Fairfield Glade NLM — March 28-30

• Knoxville — June 5-8

• Johnson City — August 8-10

• Knoxville NLM — August 21-24

• Fairfield Glade — October 3-5

• Abingdon, VA — October 10-12

• Knoxville — October 16-19

Following is the schedule for the weekend:

• Friday, March 28 — Stratified Pairs, 1 and 7 p.m.

Bracketed Knockouts (continues 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday), 1 p.m.

• Saturday — Stratified Pairs, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Compact Knockout #1, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

• Sunday — Two Session Swiss Teams, 10 a.m. and TBA

A light lunch will be served between sessions on Saturday. Roger Holyer-Black of Crossville will be presenting a mini-lesson on negative doubles at 2:30 p.m.

Sunday lunch will be served between the sessions – the unit is picking up the luncheon cost. The winners of Sunday’s Swiss teams win free plays in Gatlinburg.

As always, when attending tournaments in this area, be prepared for our famous hospitality. Snacks and beverages will be provided during the tournament. For further information on the tournament, contact the tournament chairperson, Linda King, 456-6479 (LMKing24@frontiernet.net). For tournament partnerships the e-mail is U165partners@yahoo.com.

Get the bridge bug and play at the duplicate club games being held in Crossville and Fairfield Glade. Contact the club managers and get started playing bridge.

Monday – 10 a.m. Open Game, Jack Paul, 484-7221

Monday – 12:30 p.m. NLM Game w/Lesson — Invitational, Linda King, 456-6479

Tuesday – 6 p.m. NLM Game – Invitational, Jack Paul, 484-7221

Wednesday – 9:30 a.m. Open Game, Arie Buurman, 456-7768

Thursday – 6 p.m. Open Game, Jack Paul, 484-7221