Success!

Well, we're done -- sort of. There's still a lot of paperwork, but the tough part is over.

The first ever Charlottesville MABC Regional Bridge Tournament ended yesterday. I won't lie -- McKenzie worked ten times harder than I did during the week, and he deserves mountains of praise for that. We also had a great team of volunteers who deserve lots and lots of thanks:

Scott Tumperi, Hospitality Chairman -- what an artist! Try his made-from-scratch mixed drinks sometime.
Nan Massie, Partnership Chairman -- that's my mom!
Marie Hudick, Registration Chairman -- Marie was the friendly lady behind the desk giving you free stuff all week. Thanks, Marie!
Tammy Pepper & Chris Moll, Prize Chairmen -- These guys came all the way up from Raleigh to play bridge with us and help with this tournament, and we were so glad to have them!
Our guest speakers, Robert Todd, Shannon Cappelletti, Chris Moll, Betty Ann Kennedy, and Mark Dahl -- you guys were all wonderful.

And to everyone else who volunteered in any way, thank you thank you thank you. The tournament was an incredible success, and we couldn't have done it without you.

Over the course of the week, we had 1568.5 tables, well exceeding the hopes and expectations of most involved. We heard very few complaints, and lots and lots of compliments -- it looks very likely that we'll host this tournament again in the future. Our calendars are tentatively marked for every four years, beginning in January 2012. The District Six board will vote on this in May, so if you were at the tournament and you had a good time, please tell your D6 reps that you'd like to come to Charlottesville again. We want all the support we can get, because we absolutely want to host you again.

Everyone said that for a first time tournament, it was exceptionally successful. We had players from Oregon, Maine, Florida, Poland, and everywhere in between. We had celebrity guests from all over, and Bracket I was tons of fun.

We got knocked around a lot in the top bracket, but we had an absolute blast playing against those heavy hitters, and we had a couple of solid wins, including another victory over the Meckwell team (making me and McKenzie 2-0 against them!). My favorite experience of the week was playing against the Fireman team, with Alan Sontag and Mike Seamon at our table and Shannon Cappelletti and Phyllis Fireman at the other. I've seen Sontag all over the place, since he's from the DC area, but I'd only ever played two boards against him in a sectional prior to this week. He and Mike were such friendly opponents, and the nicest part of the experience was that they both took us seriously, even though these guys have more championships than we have sessions together.

I didn't get any lessons in those 24 boards, but I learned a lot. It's amazing what you can pick up from a couple of hours with some top players. It was a great experience also, to play against such heavy hitters without getting frustrated or intimidated. I held my own; Z played as well as he always does, and our teammates were solid, too. The end result? Lose by 1. Damn! Oh well -- did anyone really expect us to beat these guys? Maybe next time!

Thanks again to everyone who came to the tournament, especially those of you who volunteered your time for us. We can't wait to see you all again, hopefully in 2012, and of course before that, somewhere else on the trail!