Welcome to Unit 430's Webpage!
New to the site?  Click here to jump down to an explanation of what Matchpointer Online is all about.

• A new print Matchpointer has been released!  Look for one with a pink cover.  If it doesn't appear at your local club this week, you'll be able to get a copy at the sectional at Queensborough Community Centre.
• Poll of The Week!
• Poll #3: What's your #1 suggestion for improving the Annual MUG Dinner and Party?  Vote now!
• Poll #2: What's the one thing that bugs you the most about Matchpointer Online?  Results
• Poll #1: Which team will win the IMP League Flight A Playoffs?  Results
• Victoria Day Sectional, May 16-19 at Queensborough Community Centre!
• Tournament Information
• Tournament Flyer: Colour
• Tournament Flyer: Monochrome
• Breaking news: The Friday afternoon games were to have a surcharge of $1/player, but instead Unit 430 will pay the extra dollar per player to the CBF International Fund, instead of having players pay an extra dollar each.  The surcharge allows the events on Friday afternoon to pay Regional-rated (instead of Sectional-rated) silver points, and supporting the CBF International Fund helps players selected at the Canadian Championships (occassionally local players) to afford to go to the World Championships.
• IMP League Flight A Playoffs: Final Two: Litwin vs Peters.
• Flight A Standings and Information Page
• IMP League Flight X/B: Chan to play Varga - Meyer winner for X title; Meyer vs Peca for B title.
• Flight X/B Standings and Information Page
• 32 tables at the Annual MUG Dinner and Party Game!  Winners: Gilbert Lambert and Peter Morse
• Game Results
• Hand Records
• Updated Trophy Race Standings
• Next Monthly Unit Game: Saturday, June 7 - 7:30 pm (Swiss Teams):
• We will do our best to accomodate pairs and singles onto teams. (Arrive early and let the Director know you're looking!)
• Other coming Monthly Unit Games (gametime: 7:30): Sat., July 5 (pairs), Sat., August 2 (pairs).
• Complete 2008 MUG Schedule
• Recent Results and Hand Records
• Unit 430-sponsored District-wide STaC, June 2-8 at clubs throughout the district
• Tournament Information
• Tournament Instructions for Club Managers and 1-page poster: Click Here
• BIG 4-page poster (colour and B&W versions) to post at your club: Click Here
• Has your club confirmed that it will be participating?  All clubs in B.C., Washington, and Alaska are welcome!
• Jean Turnbull Trophy missing!  It's bowl-shaped and engraved yearly.  If you've got it, we'd like it back.
• Secondary links on Matchpointer Online explained (so you can type them in if you cannot find the links).
• The Unit Player Rating System explained (still working on the program...).

This is the Start Page of the Home Area, the front page of the site.  Above, under the headline you can see the nine Areas making up this Web Site.  Click on a coloured rectangle above, or on a single-lettered bid-box in the graphic, to go to the Start Page of that Area.  The pages we expect to be most frequently accessed are in the 32 clickable links in the back of the bid-box over to the left of your screen.  If you hover your mouse over any of the bid-box links (back or front areas) for about a half-second, you'll see a short description of that page.  You'll find many more tips on site navigation on the Help! page.

You may also wish to add this site to your browser's bookmarks or favorites.  If the site becomes unavailable for an extended period of time, Matchpointer Online editor Bruce McIntyre will add most of the content to his own personal web space at this link, which you may also want to add to your browser's bookmarks or favorites.

The Grand National Teams District 19 Finals were held in Everett April 5-6.

CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT - 4 Teams
1. Pat Dunn - Jim Aitken - Ray Loftis, Bellevue WA; Ken Christiansen, Bothell WA
2. Michael Hargreaves - Doug Fraser, Victoria BC; Aidan Ballantyne, Burnaby BC; Cameron Doner, Richmond BC

FLIGHT A (0-5000 MP) 2 Teams
1. Dave Grubbs, Seattle WA; Steve Handley, Edmonds WA; Mike Wilson, New Westminster BC; Howard Epley, Kent WA; Alan Epley, Bellevue WA

FLIGHT B (0-2000 MP) 8 Teams
1. Pat White, Bothell WA; Cristal Nell, Woodinville WA; Adam Ruprecht, Seattle WA; Jeff Ford, Redmond WA
2. Bob Seki, Seattle WA; Drew Hoskins - Min Zheng - Fan Zhang, Redmond WA
3/4. Jingsong Liu, Kirkland WA; Yong Cao, Redmond WA; Wenjie Deng, Mercer Island WA; Dong Yan, Sammamish WA
3/4. Angela Fenton, North Vancouver BC; Zoran Peca, Vancouver BC; Andrew Lee, Richmond BC; Jadwiga Polujan, Port Coquitlam BC

FLIGHT C (0-500 MP, non-LM) 4 Teams
1. Long Xie - Joan Tang - Roy Li, Burnaby BC; Baixiang Liu - David Hu, Vancouver BC; Jeffrey Ren, Richmond BC

Winning teams in all four flights receive a US$1400 grant from District Nineteen to attend the National Final, held at the Summer NABC, this year in Las Vegas NV, July 17-27.  Good luck!

Matchpointer Online editor Bruce McIntyre edits District 19 Regional Daily Bulletins, except for the Alaska Regionals.  Currently working on: preparations for next McBruce bulletins (Penticton, June 2008).  He can be reached by e-mail.  Daily Bulletins are posted online at this page, along with McBruce Bulletins from previous tournaments.

The IMP League's regular season this year has proceeded from start to finish with very few glitches, and most of the credit is due to the captains and the other people who have very diligently arranged matches with the vast majority taking place on time.  The Commissioner wants to let you all know that I have noticed the effort this year and I thank you for not only making my job easier, but also very interesting.

The races in both divisions, for the top spot and on the playoff bubble have been more exciting than I can remember.  We have only a handful of teams eliminated from playoff contention in Flight A, and a keen fight for the six spots and for the two byes which is almost unpredictable with only a handful of matches left to play!  In Flight X/B, the top three teams are going to be locked in battle for the two top slots, while the bottom three all will be in it to the end to get the last spot.

A new wall display has been posted at the VBC for the playoffs.  In Flight A we have moved the playoff dates back a bit this year so that most of April and May before the sectional will be in play.  The Flight X/B playoffs will start a bit later, with two fewer matches to be played.

Once again, regular season matches must be played on or before Wednesday, April 2 (in Flight A), and Wednesday April 16 (in Flight X/B).  If you play a match after that date, we will ensure that you get masterpoints for winning the match, but no VPs will be awarded.  If a regular season match is unplayed because both teams are eliminated from the playoffs, that's OK (but currently there are no such unplayed matches!)

If two teams end in a VP tie, the team with the most outright wins gets the higher position, otherwise they are tied.  If three or more teams end in a VP tie, the following steps are taken to eliminate teams (reverting to the two-team format once only two remain): most outright wins, highest average VPs in matches between teams in the tied group, best W-L-T percentage between teams in the tied group.  If the above tiebreakers leave two teams tied for a significant playoff position, a seven board match between the tied teams must be arranged as soon as possible (best is usually an hour before an evening game), and if that too is tied, single boards will be played until one team gains an IMP or more.

Playoff matches are THIRTY-TWO boards in all flights.  Please be aware that this may take extra time and organize your matches to start as the duplicate game does, or even before (I suggest 7:00pm), so the game Director need not wait for the finish.  If a playoff match ends in a tie, a four board playoff starts immediately, and single boards are played if the initial four board set is tied.  If playing at the VBC, it might be best to ensure the two tables of a match are in different rooms for playoff games.

Seating rights in playoff matches are given, in BOTH HALVES and in any necessary tiebreaking playoffs, to (a) the team that won the 1-2 playoff match to get the first spot in the final, OR (b) the team that finished higher in the regular season standings.  Before play begins, (but not at halftime), the team without seating rights may specify "no playbacks" if they wish -- if this happens, any four people that played in the first half at the same table may not all appear at either table in the second half: some switching must be done by the team that has seating rights.  Seating rights does NOT include the right to seat your players only after it is known which four from the other side will be playing; if more than four for one or both teams are present, the captains will reveal simultaneously the four players who will play before the start of each half.

The B.C. Zone Finals of the CNTC, and part of the split-site CWTC Zone Final, was played recently at the Vancouver Bridge Centre.

Canadian National Team Championships B.C. Zone Final (February 16-17)

Ten teams played, five in Flight A and five more in Flight B.  Two days of tough competition produced these winners:

CNTC Flight A (5 teams, 3 qualify to the National Final, one with a CBF subsidy)

1. Doug & Sandra Fraser, Mike Hargreaves, Gord McOrmond


2. Aidan Ballantyne, Jim McAvoy, Katrin Litwin, Mike Dorn Wiss
3. Larry Pocock, Martin Henneberger, Les Fouks, Nick Stock
4. Brad Bart, Michael Yuen, Susan Peters, Julie Smith

CNTC Flight B (5 teams, 2 qualify to the National Final, one with a CBF subsidy -- a third team may be invited)

1. Samuel Lai, Kam Tang, David Hu, Tao Feng, John Chen, Jack Lee



2. Andrew Nalos, Andrew Lee, Ken Ramsay, Zoran Peca
3. Curtis Wright, Micheal Dickie, William & Debbie Wastle, Mihail Vitchev, David de Kezel
4. Long Xie, Eric Pan, Baixiang Liu, Roy Li, Kai Zhou

Canadian Women's Team Championships B.C. Zone Final (Vancouver heat) (February 3)

Eight teams played in the Vancouver event on Super Bowl Sunday.  Over five hours of tough competition produced these winners:

CWTC (8 teams, 1 qualifies to the National Final, one or two more may also be invited)

1. Angela Fenton, Patti Adams, Marguerite Chiarenza, Samantha Nystrom
2. June Pocock, Kathy Adachi, Julie Smith, Susan Peters
3. Anne Smith, Sima Sadri, Marlene Powell, Myra Johnston
4. Cathy Miller, Tomie Yamanouchi, Gail Heuchert, Christa Mead

Five more teams played in the simultaneous Victoria version of the event.  The winners of each event earned an automatic qualification to the National Final.

In all these events, teams may add or change players before the National Final.  Check the event conditions at the CBF webpage for full details.  The National Finals of the CWTC and CNTC will be held in Montreal-Dorval, May 24-31.  The CBF Co-ordinator will get in touch with teams interested in continuing with complete CBF subsidy information (CNTC winners also received an info package at the end of the game).  Bonne chance à Montréal!

The Vancouver Bridge Centre's IMP League Wall Display, more colourful than ever this year, consists of a series of cardstock strips listing each team's members, their results in matches, and a summary box at the end showing how many matches they have left, how many VPs they've earned, and what their average is.  The strips, each a different colour to match the standings page on the website, are mounted horizontally on a trio of grocery store vertical display strips, so that as the order of the teams changes, the actual team strips can be moved up or down.

In December, the club's decorating committee put up the usual Christmas decorations, including two large wreaths in the side room, where most of the IMP League matches take place.  With twelve teams in Flight A, the top team rests on a perch that is about seven feet from the floor.  The wreath above the Flight A standings hung down and partially covered only the top team.

From that point on until the wreath was taken down in early January, no less than five teams held the first place position, and all of them lost their next match!  There was no denying the wrath of the wreath!  Litwin, Lochang, Henneberger, Morse and Peters all fell to the wreath.  By mid-January, so many of the top contenders had been knocked off the top of the heap that the top team remaining was at only 18VP per match, one of the lowest leading totals in years.  Since the wreath has been taken down, the leaders have reasserted themselves and are working to increase the gap, but at the start of February there are still nine of twelve teams with decent playoff chances, seven with decent top two chances, and no teams completely eliminated from contention yet.

Let the stretch run begin!

Both divisions of the IMP League are into the playoffs.  Below is a list of links to the final standings, team pages, and playoff notes...

TEAM CAPTAINS: ALERT!  The final date to play regular-season matches in Flight A is April 2.  The final date to play regular-season matches is April 16.  No regular-season matches played after that date will count in the final standings under any circumstances.

Here are ten commandments for IMP League players, based on common courtesy and simple sportsmanship.

1. Tell the VBC you're coming.  The Director-du-jour at the VBC can help set up for multiple matches, but only if the scheduled matches are marked on the VBC calendar.  Make sure they (or any other club where you play) know about your match.  Try to arrange so that the match starts at the same time as the regular game, so the Director doesn't need to wait around at the end.
2. Don't disrupt the regular game.  Moving into the area of the regular game to conduct a loud postmortem of scores is not what the players in that game want to see.  Or hear.
3. Have your team's money ready with one person when the Director comes to collect.  It's $7 per player on most nights at the VBC.  Sort it out and get all the money to one person, so the Director doesn't have to keep track of four or more separate people and whether they've paid or not.
4. Move boards yourself.  You don't need a caddy to do this.  Just approach the other table with boards and catch someone's eye.  They'll know what to do.
5. Send a runner to call the Director.  This beats yelling loudly until the Director hears you.  It's not easy from the next room to hear.
6. Accept the Director's ruling.  You can appeal later if you think it was wrong and you were legitimately damaged.  What you cannot do (for example) is agree to accept a claim the Director ruled invalid, or agree to wave the penalty card lead penalties if they seem out of whack.  If you call the Director, you must accept the ruling made.
7. Don't get huffy about the team scoresheets.  A 28 board match scores perfectly well on a pairs-type scoresheet.  The teams scoresheet is designed for a series of short matches, not a single long one.  If you use board 1-14 in the first half, score the second half on the lines for boards 17-30; they have the same vulnerability and dealer.
8. Check with the opponents before you go off for a break.  And don't make them come and get you.
9. Fill out the match report slips properly.  We want halftime totals and match totals, plus the players on each side in each half.  We DON'T want margins without totals, like +5 or +13.  We especially need you to take care that the scores and names on each side match the captain's name on the top of that side.
10. Make some effort to return the IMP playing area to its pre-match condition.  Put the boards away, or at least put them all back in the middle of the table.  Return pencils to drawers.  Don't leave garbage around.  Bring used cups to the kitchen.  Most importantly, especially to kibitzers: put the chairs back where they belong.  The correct number of chairs at a table is...four.  After a night with three or more IMP matches, quite often the number of chairs left at tables ranges from 0 to 9, completely at random.  Cleanup is the Director's job, but we get far more help from the pairs game players than from the IMP Leaguers.  It's so much easier if everyone does a little bit.

I rely on a local representative of an American Internet Service Provider, a friend of mine, for the matchpointer.com domain and the space used for the files posted.  Except for a few weeks where the site has been down because of difficulties on the provider's end, this has worked well and has kept the costs to Unit 430 down.  However, my friend was recently in a bad car accident, has not yet regained consciousness, and might not remember much when he does.  A minor inconvenience of this tragedy is that we don't have any other contact with the Internet company, and we don't know what will happen when it comes time to pay for another year of service.  They may contact me directly, or they may not.

So, if this site goes down suddenly, we may be forced to move the files temporarily to my own personal space (which I used in August during some down time), which you will find here.  It would be a good idea for you to add the alternate site to your bookmarks or favorites (call it Matchpointer Online Alternate or something) now, because if this site goes down, you won't be able to get this link anywhere else.  Currently posted there is the September 10 version of the site.  I won't post anything there that is more current unless it becomes necessary to do so.

UPDATE: My friend made a great recovery.