The NAP (North American Pairs) District 14 championship was held October 1-2 at the Bridge House in Urbandale. I was happy to see several players from our bridge unit in attendance: Paul and Nancy Klein, Janee Oleson, Melissa Heston, Bill Kent, Bonnie Stettler, Rich Winsor and Mary Wyatt. Our unit was able to strut its stuff with Bill and his partner, Peggy Kaplan, coming in second in the very tough A flight. Joe Pieper and I won Flight B, which was filled with several very good pairs from Minnesota and Nebraska.
I knew most of the top players from the Des Moines area in the event as I competed against them often in the 1970’s and they are excellent players indeed. However, the winning pair in Flight A hails from Minnesota in the form of Michael Howland and Harry Sapienza. They had a comfortable margin of victory after putting together four very solid sessions. Everyone else was bunched up behind them and it was a battle to see who would qualify for Kansas City. Howland and Sapienza won with a combined 61.51 % game. Bill and Peggy had 55.85 %, just 0.3 % ahead of third place and 0.5 % ahead of fourth in a very tight race for the remaining qualifying spots.
Joe and I played solidly throughout, but we had to come from behind. We barely made 50% in the first session, climbed to first after the third session, then held on to win with 59% combined for the four sessions.
Nicholas Erpelding and John Schlundt from Minnesota won the C flight with a score of 59%.
As it turns out, our unit boasts the only Iowa players who qualified for the finals in KC which will take place in March. Along with the master points, 27 gold for Bill, 24 gold for Joe Pieper and me, each qualifying pair will receive $700. Here is the link to view the results: http://web2.acbl.org/tournaments/results/2016/10/1610188.htm