Two weeks ago was the Davenport Regional and I attended all 5 days although I did not play in all the sessions. Ida Bell and her committee did a wonderful job and although the turnout could have been better it was still deemed a success. The free lunches were well done and no one went hungry. Ice cream sundaes topped off the evening session.
The first day my partner and I played we were pitted against the two teams that ended up winning 1rd and 3 place. These are the big dogs. To say it was intimidating? Somewhat. But you know you just have to get in there and do the best you can. This was the biggest complaint I had from players with 300 points or less. There didn’t seem to be any venue where they were playing against players in the same point
bracket. And then to add to the dilemma, it was a dual tournament with North Dakota which meant that all scores were thrown in with their tournament players and that reduced your chance of placing. I will champion the cause for the little guy with next year’s regional tournament committee (hint: I’m on the committee) to insure that we institute in our game plan a place for 399’s to feel more comfortable.
Alert to future tourny goers: If you ask the tournament partnership chair to set you up with a partner, then don’t show up that day with your own partner. This is a difficult job at best and many times there are players who give up their own game so they can be available to fill in as needed. So you can see this is easy to fix. Let the partnership chair know before the day that you have made other arrangements.
My “No, No” observation during the play: Our opponents got the bid. The dummy laid down her hand and then proceeded to tell her partner why she bid what she did and how she thought she could set up her
hand!!! Dummy means just that. What I learned on the side: I got talking to John, the hotel staffer in charge of serving up our box lunches. He was a quiet Hungarian (notice the oxymoron), but we got talking about Hungarian food and cooking. He was telling me about the ag exports before WWII. Apparently Hungary raised a very high gluten wheat that they exported all over the world but especially France. He said that was partially responsible for French pastry becoming so famous. We also discussed the ingredients for goulash (little meat, mostly vegetables). Very interesting fellow.
Last note: We have turned into a trashy society. In spite of garbage bags attached to the corners of tables and numerous trash receptacles around the room, there were still many cups, papers, wrappers and
even apple cores left on tables. Be thoughtful.