Published: May 08, 2008 05:38 pm         

Williams achieves Life Master status

The annual Gatlinburg Regional Duplicate Bridge Tournament, the largest (most well attended) duplicate bridge tournament in the world, was held April 14-20 in the Gatlinburg Conference Center. Glade resident Bob Desjardins and his partner, Crab Orchard resident Robert Williams, looked forward all year to playing in this year's regional tournament. Robert accumulated almost half his gold masterpoints in last year's tournament and the plan this year was to enter every single gold-point event possible in Robert's quest for the remainder of his gold points (25 gold points are required for Life Master status).

Monday saw Robert and Bob play in four three-hour sessions, and Tuesday through Thursday in five three-hour games per day each beginning at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7 p.m. AND 11:30 p.m. Whew!

Mental exhaustion really set in Saturday evening in the first round of a knockout elimination game in which Robert and Bob lost by a score of 45 to 0 to one of the session's lower-rated teams. The situation didn't get much better Sunday when Robert and Bob's new team got eliminated in the second round of the final "compact" knockout game. That was a blessing in disguise, however, as the men were able to get an early-afternoon start on the approximately two-hour drive back home. Bob was able to safely drive Robert and himself back home with Sunday's low traffic and on sunlit, dry roads.

Let it be mentioned that most of the games in which Robert and Bob participated were team games. By e-mail and phone Bob arranged with last year's partners, Elaine and "Buzz" from Ohio, to begin the elimination matches and Ann and Ted from the Toronto area to play as partners later in the tournament. "Buzz" said it all when each of us lamented over our inevitable errors in play when he said, "When we win, each of us deserves 25 percent of the credit and when we lose, 25 percent of the blame."

On the last day of the tourney we teamed up with a congenial couple, John and Lois from Sherwood, Nova Scotia. Before beginning play we warned our prospective partners that we were pretty much "out of it," having played too many hours of bridge. They agreed to play despite this information and fortunately our team at least survived the first round of the final "compact" knockout game which netted us a small award.

When the smoke cleared, at tourney's end Robert achieved his goal of winning all of the required gold points for Life Master and all of his red points of which 50 are required. Ann and Ted, the Toronto area couple, achieved their goal of becoming Life Masters after a six-year layoff from the game. After their accomplishment we had a celebratory meal at a local restaurant with the waiter singing a congratulatory ditty to them.

Many other Fairfield Glade and Crossville residents played in the tournament as well. Some of the other multiple-point winners were Chris and Paul Lawrence; Mina and Dan Napierela; Linda King; Roger Hoyer Black; Bob King and Bill Lasalle; Georgeanne and Carl Hubbard; John Olson and his teammates, brother Bob Olson, Eleanor Meek and Judy Vineyard; John and Joyce Orr; Mike and Linda Morgan; Walt and Grayce Tysko; and David Trandel. Let it be noted that Kay Greenwood and Rosemary Foutch of Cookeville, long time Crossville/Fairfield Glade unit players, were also multiple-point winners.