Dear Unit 116 Members,
Our
Summer Outing and Bridge Game was held on July 29, 2023, at The Dale
Association Center. Results are posted herein. Many thanks to Joyce
Greenspan and Kathy Pollock for an excellent lunch.
Our
Fall Sectional was held on September 8-10 at the Knights of Columbus,
2735 Union Road, Cheektowaga, NY 14227. It was a success with 84 total
tables, which was the same as last year. Many people need to be
thanked. Our co-chairs Joyce Greenspan and Ruth Wurster, who also
provided baked goods for our afternoon snacks. Gay Simpson who provided
morning bagels. Kathy Pollock for an excellent job directing for the
entire weekend. Terry Fraas for supporting Kathy with the Swiss teams
on Sunday. Larry Abate for coordinating the sale of subs for Sunday.
And other people who provided baked goods including Mary Ball, Florence
Boyd, Sandi England, Pat Haynes, Mary Terrana and Linda Zittel.
The most important thank you goes to all who participated because there would be no tournament without your participation.
Our
last event of the year is our annual Meeting on December 2nd at Main
Transit Fire Hall. We contracted for this location more than 2 years
ago and will fulfill our obligation to avoid losing our deposit.
UNIT
116 and the Buffalo Bridge Center provided funding for Jim Gullo to
take a group of juniors to the Nationals in Chicago. Tiger Li and
Darwin Shalski participated on a Team that won the ACBL Educational
Foundation and Bridge Whiz National Youth Swiss Teams coming from
behind to win by 4.28 victory points. The overall team participated in
a $4000 scholarship from the Educational Foundation. See below and page
28 of the September Bridge Bulletin for further information.
Our
calendar of events for 2024 is in the process of development.
Traditionally, our January winter sectional has the lowest attendance
due to weather and players who seek warmer climates. We have decided to
cancel this sectional and reschedule it during the summer months. You
will be hearing more in the coming months.
I very much look
forward to seeing many of you at our Annual Meeting and all future
events. Please call me with any questions or comments. 908-256-6466.John Bava
President
Western New York Unit 116 of the ACBL
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
The Nominating Committee of the Board of Directors of UNIT 116, chaired by Larry Abate, proposes Rajat Basu
for election to a 3 year term to the Board of Directors at the Annual
Meeting on December 2, 2023 with such term commencing on January 1st,
2024.
The following is a short bio for Rajat Basu:
I was born in
India and came to USA for higher studies, got my PhD in Physics from
University of MD and later emigrated to USA. I joined Allied Chemical
in Buffalo as a Research Scientist which later merged with Honeywell
and after a long research career retired from Honeywell in 2014. I live
in Buffalo with my wife and recently celebrated our 50 year marriage
anniversary. We have two sons both happily married and two
granddaughters.
I started playing bridge in college in India and
played off and on in bridge clubs in Buffalo. Since my retirement I
have been a regular in Buffalo bridge clubs. Presently I am an ACBL
Silver Life Master and closing in on Ruby Life Master.
Additional
nominations may be made by the membership and submitted to the
Nominating Committee sixty (60) days prior to the Annual Meeting. Such
individual nomination petitions must be in writing, signed by at least
twenty-five (25) members in good standing.
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Below is a list of currently available ACBL sanctioned online and F2F games for Unit 116 players. For information and details,
contact the owner/ manager/contact person.
Airport
Bridge Club, BC Meridian and Lockport Duplicate - Bridge Base Online Virtual Clubs
SE Carolina Club of Clubs Online Bridge Collective: -
Web site and Schedule: https://sites.google.com/view/se-club-of-clubs/home
Register 45 min or more before game time and get $1.50 rebate at the start of the game.
Buffalo Bridge Center F2F bridge (Tuesdays,Wednesdays,Thursdays and Fridays at 10:30 am, note the new location at 60 Dingens St,Buffalo, NY 14206)
(Online Limited - Monday 0-750 at 7 pm,
Wednesday 0-2000 at 7 pm run as Delaware (Buffalo NY) Wednesday Night)
Betty Metz 716-773-7398 bettymetz@roadrunner.com
Web site: http://www.buffalobridgecenter.com
Bridge Club of East Aurora
F2F bridge (Wednesdays at 10 am)
David Larcom 716-649-9354 dmocral@verizon.net
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Elevate Your ACBL Membership with Element3 Health!
Exciting News! Please check Element3 Health, an organization dedicated to aligning your
health
plan with your love for bridge. Element3 Health recognizes the positive
impact of bridge on physical and mental well-being. Now, major Medicare
Advantage plans have recognized this too. Through Element3, your ACBL
membership dues might be covered.
Discover if your health plan
qualifies to cover your ACBL membership dues, gain access to a virtual
library of engaging activities, and even contribute to our club
receiving a donation. Your participation not only benefits you but also
allows you to enhance the club experience for everyone. Join Element3
Health now and elevate your bridge membership to new heights.
Follow this LINK
to check if your health plan is eligible to pay for your ACBL dues,
gain access to their virtual bridge library, and keep playing bridge!
•
• •
Mentoring
In the recent past, Unit 116
has sponsored a very successful mentoring program. We anticipate that
we will continue our program in manner similar to what we have done
previously. The only question involves timing. Stay tuned for updates.
•
• • Youth Bridge Update 2023 Buffalo Youth players win National Youth Swiss Teams in Chicago 
The team of Han Wu, Samuel Li, Tiger Li and Darwin Skalski won the ACBL Educational Foundation and BridgeWhiz National Youth Swiss Teams on Saturday.
Wu and Samuel Li are from the Toronto area;Skalski and Tiger Li are from Buffalo NY.
The
team started out getting blitzed in the first round and finished in
fifth place out of 10 qualifiers, 17 victory points behind the leaders
with about half as much carryover. They never met that team in the
final session, but they got big enough wins in three of their matches
to win by 4.28 VPs with a score of 65.38. •
• • Youth Bridge Update 2022 
Front row: Melanie Skalski, Carol Li
Back row: Aditiya Gupta, Julian King, Daren Liu, Tyler Mu, Tiger Li and Darwin Skalski and of course, Jim Gullo :)
The 2022 Youth National Bridge Championships
for ACBL members under the age of 20 was held during the final weekend
of the Providence Open North American Bridge Championships during July
2022. A big thank you to Jim Gullo
who prepared nine students for the tourney. Eight of the students went
on to compete in the YNABC in Providence, Rhode Island.
Unit 116's newest students, Carol Li and Melanie Skalski,
competed in the Thursday morning Cardrook pairs, a competition for
beginners, and excelled in their field achieving a 60% game, good
enough for 4th overall A for 0.51 red
points. The young ladies left the beginner pairs in their dust and
moved on to the Open Youth competitions. We should all be very proud of
these young ladies!
In the open Thursday morning pairs, Tiger Li and Darwin Skalski placed 3rd overall in Strat A earning 3.44 red points with a 66% game. Also in their field were Aditiya Gupta and Julian King, who placed 4th in A and second in B in their section with a 50% game, earning 0.75 red.
Thursday afternoon was the Youth Open Swiss and the Buffalo area juniors fielded two teams, one with two brother-sister pairs, Carol and Tiger Li and Darwin and Melanie Skalski. It was the girls' first Swiss team event and they earned some more red points with a tie. The King team, consisting of Julian King, Tyler Mu, Daren Liu and Aditiya Gupta, came in third overall in B.
Friday
was the 2-session Baron Barclay National Youth Open Pairs with the
opportunity to win some gold points if your pair qualified to play in
the second session. Darwin Skalski and Tiger Li did just that, qualified. Although Darwin and Tiger did not place in the overalls and earn gold, they came in the top half of the event. Daren Liu and Tyler Mu literally just missed the cut to qualify.
Meanwhile,
for those who did not Q, players had their chance to excel in the
1-session Friday afternoon Youth Pairs and excel they did! Daren Liu and Tyler Mu came in 2nd overall in Fight A with a 64% and earned 2.47 red. Aditiya Gupta and Julian King came in 3rd overall B with a 51% and earned 0.79 red.
On Saturday, the Buffalo youth played in the 2-session Youth National Swiss Teams where Tiger Li and Darwin Skalski teamed up with Andy from California and Nicole from Florida to place 5th Overall in A and 2nd overall in B, earning 2.18 GOLD points. Our all Buffalo team, Julian King, Tyler Mu, Darien Liu and Aditiya Gupta placed 3rd overall in B and first overall in C earning 1.54 red points.
•
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Welcome
to the Western New York Unit 116 website. Our unit of over
300
dedicated bridge players is part of the American Contract Bridge
League’s District Five. Geographically, we encompass the
counties
of Erie and Niagara, at the eastern end of Lake Erie and western end of
Lake Ontario, in New York State. We often have players from
across the Canadian border playing at our clubs.
Our goal is to
promote bridge and support local bridge clubs.
We have two open, active clubs. We host three sectionals each year –
January,
April/May, and September. The District 5 Regional is held at the end of
October and famously titled “Spooktacular”.
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