Upcoming special games in June:  June 8th:  World Wide Game at the Worcester Bridge Club in Sterling a 1:00 PM

STAC* Games:  Week of June 24-30:  Monday - Wachusett Bridge Club at Holden Senior Center at Noon; Twin City                                                                                    Bridge Club in Leominster at 10:00 AM

                                                      Tuesday - Gardner Bridge Club at Westminster Senior Center at Noon                                                                                                  (includes Barbecue - must sign-up in advance)

                                                      Wednesday - Twin City Bridge Club in Leominster at 9:00 AM;  Cavendish Club at                                                                              Auburn Senior Center at Noon

                                                      Thursday - Grafton Bridge Club at Grafton Senior Center at 9:00 AM; Fitchburg                                                                                  Bridge Club at Westminster Senior Center at Noon                                                                                                               

                                                      Saturday - Worcester Bridge Club at Sterling Senior Center at 1:00 PM

                                                      Sunday - CMBA Unit Game at Auburn Senior Center at 1:00 PM  

   * Silver Tournaments at Clubs which allow players to earn silver points at local club games; usually silver points are only awarded at Sectional Tournaments.                           

CMBC has planned some different events in September and October.  Save the following dates:

September 8: Special Swiss Team with a "Crazy 8" format at the monthly Unit Game in Auburn

September 13:  Pro-Am Event on Friday night with a Pot Luck Supper

October 19:  Sectional Silver Point Tournament for I/N players with less than 750 Master Points - special luncheon included

Ocotber 20:  Two session Swiss Team event in memory of those players from CMBA who have passed during the past year - special luncheon included

Look for more details and special flyers later this summer. 

At the Unit Game on April 7, the Ace of Club and Mini-McKinney Awards were presented to the winners for 2018 for Unit 113.  In addition, two players (Bruce Emond and Harris Jacobs) who achieved Diamond Life Master Status were also recognzed.  For a complete listing of the Award Winners for 2018, click on the News Page in the upper left hand corner.

Front Row: Shirley Wagner, Denise Bahosh, Candy Matthew; Second Row: Bruce Emond, George Byers, Harris Jacobs; Last Row: Leslie Malkiewich and Larry Hanerfeld

On March 30th at the Worcester Bridge Club, Eric Xiao, a young boy of 10, playing with his Dad, won his first ever Masterpoints.  He recently joined the ACBL and is the youngest player in CMBA; Eric started playing duplicate bridge with his Dad only several weeks ago.  Congratulations to Eric and continued success at the bridge table!

CMBA has just donated a total of $2000 to the following local area food banks and food pantries:  Worcester County Food Bank; Rachel's Table; Montachusetts Veterans Outreach Center; Gardner Community Action Center; Pilgrim Congregational Church in Leominster; Grafton Food Bank.  These charities provide help to the local towns we play in and where most of our players reside throughout the Central Mass area.  Approximately $1300 was raised from our special Memorial Swiss team event that we held in October in memory of those players who passed away this past year; the balance was raised from the sale of the raffle tickets that were sold for the Holiday Gift Basket that was given away in a drawing held at our Holiday Unit Game on December 2nd.   Thanks to the generous support of many of our players at all the local clubs throughout our Unit for purchasing the tickets that made this Holiday raffle so successful.  In fact, we decided to add two additional prizes - five $10 scratch tickets for a second prize and five $5 scratch tickets for a third prize since we had exceeded our goal of $500.   THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR SUPPORT THROUGH THE PURCHASE OF THE HOLIDAY RAFFLE TICKETS WHICH ENABLED US TO INCREASE OUR DONATION TO $2000.  All the members of CMBA should be proud of this accomplishment.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!  Keep on playing and see you at the bridge table soon.

At the January Unit Game on January 13th, CMBA honored Delia Jean, who has run the Gardner Bridge Club for over 25 years; she has been instrumental in keeping bridge alive for the  players in Northern Worcester County for these many years - our thanks and kudos to Delia Jean!

CMBA held it's annual meeting on Sunday, December 2, 2018, in conjunction with the monthly Unit game at the Auburn Senior Center.  The sole purpose of the meeting was to elect seven Directors to the CMBA Board for a two year period from January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2020. The following slate of candidates was unanimoulsy approved:  Vicki Angus, Marilyn Chambers, Bruce Emond, Claire McClennan, Charlotte Rowlands, Denise Bahosh* and Ernie Peabody*.  Congratulations to these Directors and their willingness to serve for the next two years.  

* denotes new additions to the Board

On Sunday, October 21, CMBA held a special two session Swiss Team event in memory of CMBA members who have passed this year - Nancy Brown, Charlie Burack, Jim Culhane, Syd Dorfman, Donna Johnson, Dr. Rashmi Patwardhan and David Reine.  We want to thank everyone who attended - the excellent turnout helped to make this event a success.  We raised approximately $1300 which was donated in early December along with an additional $700 to 6  local area foodbanks in honor of these deceased members.   Again, we want to thank all the players who came out to support this worthy endeavor.     

At a  special meeting which was held in conjunction with the Unit Team game on June 3rd, the revised Bylaws of the Central Massachusetts Bridge Association were unanimously approved.  Thanks to all who came out for this special meeting and to participate in our Unit Swiss team event - we had 17 tables which was a great turnout and one of our best attended Unit games.  We will be having another Swiss team game on Sunday, October 21st which will be a two session event.  More details will be forthcoming as the date approaches.  

SECTIONAL TOURNAMENT - MAY 5-6

Our Spring Sectional was held on Saturday and Sunday, May 5th and 6th.  We want to thank everyone who came to play along with many of the members from the Central Mass Bridge Association that donated food items and helped with the work involved in running this tournament.   At our Swiss team event on Sunday, we had an International team of students who finished first in C.  The team was comprised of Jonathan Baumel, a sophomore at Harvard, Lucy Zhang, a freshman at MIT, and two high school students who were visitng from Czechoslovakia, David and Premsyi Vavra.  Additionally, Zach Grossack, a junior at Tufts, and Harrison Luba, an 8th grader from Lynnfield Middle School, also competed on different teams.  Harrison's team placed 5th overall.  Above is a photo of these 6 students who played in the Swiss Team event from left to right, Zach Grossack, Lucy Zhang, Premsyi Vavra, Jonathan Baumel, Harrison Luba and David Vavra.     

Profits from this event will help to fund our scholarship awards and our annual charitable donations.  We hope you will join us for our some of our upcoming monthly Unit Games.  We will also be holding a full day Swiss Team event on Sunday,  October 21st,  in place of our Fall Sectional.  Stay tuned for more details about this special day and event.    

The Biennial Meeting for the Central Mass Bridge Association, Unit 113, was held on December 3rd at the Auburn Senior Center in conjunction with the regularly scheduled Holdiay Unit game.  At the meeting, the slate of Officers and Board Members as proposed by the Nominating Committee was unanimously elected for the next two year term which begins January 1, 2018 and ends December 31, 2019.  For a listing of the newly elected Unit 113 Officers and Board Members, visit the News Page.   

 A NEW PAGE REFLECTING SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS AND NEW LIFE MASTER MILESTONES  HAS BEEN ADDED - CLICK ON THE CMBA PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS NEWS ITEM ON THE TOP LEFT OF THIS PAGE TO REVIEW THESE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The winners North/South at the April 7th Unit Game:  Jeanne Martin, Mark Aquino with Director, Vicki Angus.

Winners of February Unit Game - Section A:  Jeanne Martin and Bonnie Luks

Winners of the February Unit Game:  Stephen Powers and George Byers.

Winners -  East/West: Chuck Greenslit and Anand Lele; North/South Tony Wolf and Bruce Emond 

Winners of 499er Game - East/West: Robert Waite and Dorothy Murphy; North/South: Sharon Uusitalo and Sharra Canan

Winners of December Unit Game - Open Section North/South: Lorraine Konisky and Inger-Lise Kilcoyne.   

Winners of 499er December 3, 2018 Unit game:  Kathy Aberizk and Denise Bahosh

Winners of the November Unit Game: North/South - Mark Thompson and Bob Casey; Co-winners East/West - Bruce Emond and Tony Wolf.  The other co-winners East/West, Harris Jacobs and Tim Pettus, were not available for the photo.

WELCOME to the Central Mass Bridge Association, or CMBA Web Site. CMBA is Unit 113 of the ACBL, American Contract Bridge League. Membership is open to all Central Massachusetts contract bridge players who enjoy this challenging, competitive and mind-stimulating card game.

The greater Worcester area has several games a week at five locations. Click on the CLUBS in Unit 113 in the upper left hand corner for a list of all weekly games and locations.

OTHER GAMES -In addition, games are sponsored monthly by the Unit and are held at the Auburn Senior Center, 4 Goddard Drive, Auburn, Ma 01501. One or two of these may be two-day Sectional tournaments. See schedule to the right.

NEWCOMERS are always welcome at CMBA bridge games. Some clubs provide partners if a player arrives 15 minutes before the scheduled game time; or call the club contact, listed in the club section, to ensure that a partner can be provided. DUPLICATE BRIDGE is similar to party or rubber bridge games. Most games are stratified which allows players of similar experience to compete with one another playing the same cards in each session.

♠ ♥ ♣ ♦   If you have any suggestions or comments regarding the information on the CMBA Web Site, please contact Bruce Emond, bae17@charter.net. ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦