Bennett squad takes easy win in Senior Swiss
Winners of the Senior Swiss Teams in a runaway: Mike Shuman, Fran Dickman, Hamish Bennett, Gene Simpson and Bruce Noda.
Going into the final round of the Senior Swiss
Teams, the Hamish Bennett squad knew that even if
they were blitzed, it wouldn’t matter. With 131
Victory Points on a 20-point scale, they had a lead
of 34 VPs. The championship was theirs.
Far from taking it easy, however, they picked
up another 19 VPs on the final round to complete
the rout of the field.
Bennett, who lives in Menlo Park CA, was
playing with Fran Dickman, San Jose CA; Gene
Simpson, San Rafael CA; Mike Shuman, Pasadena
CA, and Bruce Noda, Corte Madera CA.
Second place went to Fred Hamilton, Las
Vegas; Ira Rubin, Elmwood Park NJ; Grace Hunt,
Dallas; Chuck Said, Nashville, and Dave Adams,
Kennesaw GA.
Bennett, Simpson and Shuman won the Senior
Swiss in 2000 and have several other North
American championships to their credit. Dickman’s
previous North American victory came in the
Women’s Board-a-Match Teams.
Noda was winning his first major
championship. He is a retired benefit consultant
who took up bridge a couple of years ago under the
wing of Bennett, with whom he had a business
relationship many years ago.
“He’ll win a lot more,” said Simpson of Noda.
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 Attendance to date - So far at New York 2004, the total attendance is 8751 tables.
Milner, Mohan
take
long route to 2nd
A major correction of a score in the final
session of the Life Master Pairs caused a huge
change in the standings. The points Reese Milner
and John Mohan gained on the correction were
enough to vault them from 11th to second place.
Ralph Katz and Michael Rosenberg dropped to third.
Why has it taken so long for this change to
appear in the Daily Bulletin? Because the score
correction was extremely hard to validate.
Mohan discovered the mistake while he was
having a snack after the game. He immediately
reported it to the directing staff, well within the
allotted time period. The score had been recorded
as plus 300 for beating a club game doubled. That
was not a good score because there lots of 480s and
450s. But Mohan claimed that they had beaten 5C
three tricks for plus 500, and that would cause a 33-
point change in their score.
Tournament Director-in-Chief Sol Weinstein
said that it would be necessary to verify the facts
with Mohan’s opponents – Abby Heitner and Lou
Reich. That seemed reasonable enough, but the task
of finding Heitner and Reich proved to be very difficult.
With the help of Tournament Director Patty Johnson, Mohan and Milner finally found a phone
number to call and left a message.
Some time later Heitner and Reich called Johnson. When asked about the result in question, both
remembered the deal very well. “They set us three tricks – no question about it.”
That was enough for the tournament staff – they changed the score, and suddenly Milner and Mohan
were second. Both had high words of praise for the help they received from Weinstein, Johnson, Heitner
and Reich.
“The directors went the extra mile to get equity,” said Mohan. Click here for final standings.
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Husband-wife vie
in Spingold play
It will be a family feud of sorts as the Spingold
Knockout Teams enters the fourth round of play
today.
The next opponent for the No. 1 seed,
captained by Roy Welland, is the team led by Mike
Kamil. That squad, seeded No. 16, includes
Welland’s wife, Christal Henner-Welland.
The No. 1 seed had no trouble getting to the
round of 16, dispatching the squad led by Michael
Kovacich 169-77. Kamil had a tougher time with
the No. 17 seed, winning 109-102.
Most of the other high seeds came through day
three unscathed. The one exception was the No. 7
seed (Steve Robinson), 135-129 losers to the
original No. 39 seed, captained by Doug Simson.
Baker leads way
into Wagar semis
It’s Baker vs. Narasimhan and Westheimer vs.
Sprung in today’s semifinals matches of the Wagar
Women’s Knockout Teams.
Lynn Baker, Lynn Deas, Beth Palmer, Kay
Schulle Kerri Sanborn and Disa Eythorsdottir – the
#1 seed – had an easy time against the team
captained by Donna Compton. Baker pitched a 37-
0 shutout in the first quarter and led by 73 at the
half. Compton withdrew after the third quarter.
By far the toughest match of the day was
between Valerie Westheimer and Lynne Tarnopol.
Westheimer led at the quarter by 4 and at the half
by 31. But Tarnopol took the third quarter, 51-20, to
tie the match at 80 apiece. Westheimer had just a
slight edge over the final 16 boards to win, 110-
102. Playing with Westheimer were Judi Radin,
Mildred Breed, Shawn Quinn, Stasha Cohen and Cheri Bjerkan.
The match between Narasimhan and Ginny
Schuett was close most of the way, but Narasimhan
had a big final quarter to win, 154-125. The margin
had been only 9 at the half and 6 going into the final
16 boards. Other members of Narasimhan team are
Irina Levitina, Jill Levin, Susan Picus, Debbie
Rosenberg and JoAnna Stansby.
JoAnn Sprung led all the way against Carlyn
Steiner – 34 at the quarter, 41 at the half, 59 at three
quarters and finishing with a 166-119 victory.
Sprung is playing with Kathleen Sulgrove, Pam
Wittes, Renee Mancuso, Karen Allison and Peggy Sutherlin.
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