BakersfieldBakersfield By Mimi Stull

E veryone is looking forward to the Wildflower Spring Sectional which will be held Friday, Saturday and

Sunday on April 8, 9, and 10. For the first time our Friday games will begin at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. - the same time as Sat-urday’s games. Swiss Teams play will be-gin at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. Please sign-up for food donations. Monetary donations may be given to Shirley E. or Tom R. Partnership chairman is Ann Miller, who

will be happy to assist in finding pair and/or team partners. Any players in our unit who have never entered a tournament really should do so; it’s a very interesting bridge experience! Congratulations to Teri Atkinson who was

elected president of the Western Confer-ence for 2011 recently. This group consists of Districts 17, 21, and 22. The Western Conference provide the funds for this newspaper, and arranges our three Great Western STAC week games each year. Teri also is on our unit board, is the vice-president of District 22, and is first alter-nate to the ACBL National board. She is the co-chairman of the Ventura and River-side tournaments as well. Teri retired after 30 years as a teacher and

principal at the junior high level. In addi-tion to her other activities she gives bridge lessons four days per week; many attend her Tuesday morning lessons. “My greatest hope is that my other students will come to this club to play. Perhaps we can have a special game where each experienced player will partner with a newcomer and encourage them to play at our club,” said Teri, a Gold Life Master. “I plan to post the names of my other students and perhaps, if

any members know any of them they will invite them as their partner to play at our club so the new players will not feel so intimidated and overwhelmed until they get used to enjoying duplicate,” she suggested. What a good idea! The annual Ace of Clubs (those MPs won

during club play) , and Mini-McKenney (those MPs won during club plus tourna-ment play) awards were announced at the February unit game. Top winners in each division include the following players: 0-5 masterpoints - Esther Dougherty (AC), Helen Booth (MM); 5-20 - Connie McCay (AC), Joe Kirby (MM); 20-50 Carl Romo - (AC & MM); 50-100 - Julie Cesare (AC & MM); 100-200 - Mike Pemberton (AC), Fred Carlisle (MM); 200-300 - Norman Maxwell (AC & MM); 300-500 - Connie Bruce (AC & MM); 500-1000 - Jerry Schmitt (AC), Richard Kemmerer (MM); 1000-2500 - Joan Bruce (AC), Teri Atkin-son (MM); 2500-5000 - Sandy Denison (AA), Marty Hinds (MM); 5000-7500 Wafik Abdou (AC & MM); and 7500-10,000 - Carreen Hinds (AC & MM). Each winner received a free unit play. Ku-

dos to all! Overall winners of the February unit game

were Marty Hinds - Bruce Maclin, fol-lowed by Teri Atkinson - Doug Blagdon, Beverly Busacca - Sharon Wilson, Carl Romo - Bob Anglin, Caroline Littlejohns - Joan Bruce, Barbara Moore - Sharon Cobb, GeorgeAnn Kerley - Pat Duncan, Libbie and Mimi Stull, and Fred Carlisle - Ed Cur-tis. Congratulations to those C players who

placed first in their direction: Leander Pemberton - George Hollingsworth (twice), Bob Anglin - Curtis Smith, and Christi Moore - Cathi Chrisco. Also to Terry Papac and Joe Kirby, who became new Club Mas-ters.

Please mark your calendars for the follow-ing April events: XPs game Wednesday, April 6; the Wildflower Sectional, April 8-10; and the April charity unit game (+$1) Saturday, April 16. There will be no game on April 24, Easter Sunday. For further info or questions call Shirley

Eide at 661 205-2439.

BalboaBalboa By Phil Pearl

T he February unit game was held on Super Bowl Sunday, and - with the early start time - most of the 48 die

-hard players were able to make it home for the kickoff. The board again provided a very nice lunch. Strat A winners were Mary Lou Kiley - Phil Pearl, followed by George Derevjanik - Karen Horton, Mahmoud El-guindy - Vicki Jane Erickson, and Eileen Niesen - Mary Lou Huches. Strat B: Mary-anne Roode - Sofija Korff, followed by Michael and Pam Moreland, Gari and Mil-lie Andreini, and Diana Black - Bob Hinrichs. Strat C: Jody Pedri - Hans Giroux, followed by Nikki Repp - Roberta Abel. As many may already know, Kay Hall

Larsen (Chris Larsen's wife), passed away Feb. 10. Many bridge players from Orange and L.A. counties attended her memorial and graveside services Feb. 19. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kay was a brilliant stu-dent of medicine, an avid reader, enjoyed gardening, and was an animal lover- espe-cially of dogs and horses. Many knew of Kay's accomplishments in

bridge. She was a Diamond Life Master with 5500 masterpoints. She repeatedly succeeded against top flight players in na-tional and world championship events. Chris, a world champion himself, would say “She was an exceptionally capable player, and just a great, great partner.” Some of her accomplishments playing with Chris: 3rd overall in the World Champion-ship Mixed Pairs; 2nd in the NABC Mixed Pairs; 2nd in the Grand National Teams (lost to Rodwell-Meckstroth in overtime); 3rd or 4th in the Blue Ribbon Pairs. Many present day players didn't know Kay be-cause it has been nearly 10 years since she has played any significant amount of bridge in clubs or tournaments. For almost 30 years, Kay also dedicated

her life to volunteering endless hours at S.O.S. free clinics for less fortunate fami-lies in the districts of Orange County. Her fluent Spanish, medical background, and enthusiasm to help the community made her an essential asset that greatly enhanced their humanitarian efforts. She is survived by husband, Chris;

brother, Kirt; children, Kenneth, Gina, Christian; step- children, David and Car-sten; along with eight grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her cherished and

much missed son, Nicky. Our newest unit president, Hans Giroux, is

intent on promoting and facilitating dupli-cate bridge as a way of giving back to the bridge community some of the enjoyment that the game has brought him for so many years. Hans was born in Germany during WWII, and came to the United States in 1952 with a French-Canadian step-father serving in the the U.S. Army. After a typi-cal army brat life of moving every 2-3 years (Arkansas, Washington, France, Oklahoma), he entered U.C. Berkeley to become a nuclear physicist. Unfortunately, his 93-year-old landlady introduced him to this addictive card game called bridge. Be-tween wine, women and bridge, he was in danger of flunking out of Berkeley, when the U.S. Air Force was desperately short of meteorologists and offered him a military commission to become a weather fore-caster. Atmospheric sciences became his career, and being a professional student became his hobby. After 11 years at the Universities of Utah, Wisconsin and UCLA (passing his orals but not completing his thesis), his wife threatened to abandon him if he did not get a real job at age 33. After a few years in private industry, he

started his own environmental consulting company in Irvine in 1977 that he contin-ues to operate to this day Hans' wife was a social bridge player -

with a heavy emphasis on social - and little on actual play. Hans gave up bridge for 25+ years. Perhaps 15 years ago, his wife sug-gested that maybe he might resume bridge to get him out of the house once in a while. After a few lessons and some party bridge, Hans ventured back into duplicate in a non-ACBL environment ("Arnie's Game"). Around 10 years ago, he finally sent in $30 to ACBL to try a sanctioned game. His wife's declining health and work responsi-bilities limited his bridge participation to once-a-week play at "Tony's Game" at the bowling alley, and occasional play at the Santa Ana unit game - partly because they had a marvelous volunteer cook and he was now the chief cook and bottle washer at home. As his wife's health worsened, he gave up bridge again. His wife passed away in 2003. Then in March, 2003, a darling lady, Marian Mood, called him. She said that she had not seen him for almost a year and wondered if he was still playing bridge. If he was interested in playing again, she had a delightful friend who was currently un-partnered and would love to introduce her to him. She said her name was Jody Pedri, the same lady that had captured his stomach, if not his heart, by her cooking skills at Santa Ana. Jody and Hans have been partners ever since, despite that their contribution to bridge is more in managing sectionals and regionals rather than the brilliance of their play. They are the current president and vice-presidents of Unit 515, and Jody is the sectional manager and Hans

April 2011