The weather was what one might expect for an October 17, quite chilly in the morning but with a promise of better things later in the day. As usual for the NAP qualifier, the leaves were pretty much at their best. My wife, who was playing in the C event, insisted on driving, and for once we arrived on time.

I worked hard to promote this tournament this year, and Rich DeMartino sent out an e-mail to all of the qualifiers. I had high hopes that attendance would be up this year.

When we arrived at Sturbridge, I purchased my customary sausage biscuit with egg and large coffee at McDonald’s. The parking lot was nearly full. This was not a definitive sign because the Sturbridge Host Hotel has quite a few conference rooms and occasionally hosts large weddings. We went inside, and the first thing that I saw was the line to buy entries that stretched halfway down the hallway, and it was more than thirty minutes before game time. This was definitely a good sign.

In fact, attendance was considerably up, especially in C. Rich supplied me with these numbers:

I was playing with Dave Landsberg, who had arrived from a trip to California at 2:00 Friday morning. He felt a little jet-lagged, but he played pretty well. We made some mistakes in the afternoon session, but we had a very strong final table to finish above 50 percent. The afternoon started very badly, but I caught fire at the very end. I played five of the last six boards, and I made all five contracts. On two of them I was in damage-control mode, but the opponents seemed especially cooperative. We finished the first day in eleventh place, which was easily good enough to qualify for Sunday’s final.

Sue and her partner were not so lucky. They had a few system issues before her partner plays only 2/1, and Sue has not learned it yet. Issues that probably should have been ironed out beforehand surfaced repeatedly in Sturbridge.

It seemed cold in the big room all day on Saturday. I was dressed for it, but some people complained.

Dave was smart enough not to tell me about the Michigan-MSU game while we were playing. I found out when we got home, but I refused to watch any highlights because I knew that they would be replayed all night in my sleep. Dave got the last room in the hotel, but Sue and I commuted.

I was psyched for Sunday’s event. I have never done well in this tournament, but I felt that I had been playing better this year. The bridge was intense. Several people remarked on it. One said what I was thinking to myself, “This is really bridge.”

Things did not go well for us in either session. Our opponents on a crucial hand in the morning bid an impossible slam. My lead (jack from J10 fifth) gave it to them, and when I succumbed to a pseudo-squeeze, the declarer scored all thirteen.

Hand #12 in the morning was emblematic of our problems. I opened 2♠ in the first seat with a truly miserable spade suit headed by the nine. LHO bid 2NT. Dave raised to 3♠, which, the way that we play meant that he had exactly three spades and ten other cards. RHO bid 3NT, which passed out.

The contract was utterly impossible. RHO only had five points, but they were all in diamonds, and he had six of them. Since Dave had the King, and declarer had the Queen, the suit almost ran. Even so, declarer could not possibly make the bid as long as Dave kept his fingers off of the ♠K, but that was what he led. I could not get too upset. I was the one that got us into the mess, and he led the top of a supported suit which is our standard. I was just hoping that he could smell the rat-like emanations coming from my side of the table.

There were many new names on the list of qualifiers, but Greg Chang repeated in B as did the team of Adam Grossack-James Streissand in A. The defending champions, Mark Aquino and Shome Mukherjee were exempted from qualifying. District 25 will therefore send four representatives in each of the three divisions.

My only complaint about the event was the food at lunch on Sunday. They ran out of nearly everything while many people were still in line. Mark Aquino got the last of the chicken fingers. Dave and I feasted on cold hot dogs, perhaps the worst hot dogs either of us could remember eating.

By all means come to the tournament next year. There is nothing remotely like it. You might want to bring lunch on Sunday.