Blum on Bridge Boston Nationals - 1999
	Every time a North American Bridge Championship or any other seasonal national competition happens you will see the name of Henry G. Francis as editor. Now in his early 70's, Henry's many accomplishments include editing the monthly ACBL Bulletin. A graduate of Boston College and former writer, editor of the Boston Herald and Boston Traveler, he fit right in during last month's 73rd Fall NABC as it was held in his favorite city. Henry co-edited the nine Daily Bulletins published during the 10-day tournament and because few of you had the opportunity to attend I thought I would re-print excerpts from those papers. Until recently it was thought the cheapest overcall that can be made is one diamond. Not so. Grand Life Master Dave Treadwell, 87, made the overcall of one club. It seems his rho opened a club, but Dave didn't see the bid card so he overcalled "one club" and lho without thinking bid one spade. Dave's partner, now quite confused, called the director who instructed the foursome to continue the auction since lho accepted the erroneous overcall. So partner passed and rho bid two spades which ended the auction. The result? Dave's one club overcall got partner off to the lead of the club king from K5. Later he got a club ruff to defeat the two-spade contract by a trick. A defender in the Senior Pairs played the heart eight, but quickly picked it up and replaced it with another card. The director was called and explained that the heart eight was an exposed card. "But I changed it in the same breath," claimed the player. Honesty somehow pays off. Joe Goltin & Karin Fisher of Quincy, Mass., didn't think they won the Saturday Morning Pairs so they left to get a sandwich at the conclusion of play. When the director called their names to collect the winner trophies, nobody responded. Upon their return to buy an entry for the afternoon game they checked the score sheet and discovered an error. They had been given minus 90 instead of minus 990 on one of the boards. Knowing this would cost them matchpoints they never the less reported the wrong score. Now here's the good news. The correction wasn't enough to change the winners. Another right spirit situation happened when a pair told the tournament director they weren't signed for any game but would be willing to fill in if needed. The director found there was a half-table hole in the 199er pairs (eligibility less than 200 points) so he asked them to fill in. The pair was ineligible having too many points, but said they'd be glad to play for fun. As they headed toward the game they suddenly went back to the director and said, "Would it be better if we ditched our usual system? We're quite willing to play standard American so that none of our opponents will feel intimidated." Two bridge players were riding on an elevator. On the same elevator were Omar Sharif and the flamboyant bridge expert, Zia. Leaving the elevator, one of the players asked the other, "Who was that man with Zia?" Jim Barrow of Lake Charles, La., shattered the record for winning most masterpoints earned in a year, officially referred to as the "Barry Crane Top 500." I know this is hard to believe, but as of the end of November, Jim has won 3,282 masterpoints and that number aint no typing error. Speaking of masterpoints, most of you duplicate players know there are gold, red, silver, and black points awarded for different achievements, but how many of you have heard of platinum points? These are awarded in nationally rated events including Grand National Teams, Senior events and various Women's championships, but not Junior, Flight B or other restricted events. The platinum point winner becomes the "Player of the Year." This year's winner is an old friend of mine, John Mohan, who knocked 'em dead in Boston accumulating 742 platinum points for the year. Teammates Frank Westcott and Bob Starr were comparing scores in a Board-A-Match contest where each pair play the same board sitting in different directions and different sections. When they got to board 13, Westcott refused to tell his result just saying "We lost the board." Starr insisted they had a good score and demanded to know the result. After much bantering back and forth Westcott relented. "We doubled them in four hearts, and they made it with three overtricks for minus 1390. Push board," said Starr. Brought up at the tournament was the "oldie" about reknowned director Maury Braunstein who was called to a table where the North-South players were complaining about how late they were getting the boards. Chuckling, Maury walked to table seven where the offending pair were two priests sitting North-South. Getting their attention, Maury intoned, "Our fathers, who are at seven, hurried be thy game."