Costa Mesa Bridge Club

Winners of Sunday Fast Pairs, playing with the Winner of the Wagar Women’s Pairs, and to add an extra touch , Margie went over 25,000 points.
Congrats Wifey.

Dear Friend's

Obviously like most of us you have been reading and watching the horrendous news from the Middle East.

Some of you have reached out to me to find out how my family is doing most of you have not.

Either because you don’t have the words to understand how to console or because you don’t understand the nature of what happened on 10/7/23.

What happened is not just another round of tit for tat violence.

What happened was nothing less than the return of the holocaust to my people.

Parents and children slaughtered wholesale in their homes. Kids at a dance party gunned down as they danced at a party for peace. Babies beheaded in front of their parents, people from 52 nations taken hostage or killed outright including 22 US citizens and all streamed directly to family members on line.

1300 dead in one night to put that in a US context that is 15 times 9/11.

I have posted very little of the things my friends have sent me from Israel, it is far too disturbing, my friends and family are in tears and shock and a whole country needs therapy right now.

As we did with Ukraine and Bridge all proceeds from Costa Mesa Bridge club until the end of the year will be going directly to help those people in Israel who have had to move, either due to indiscriminate artillery from the New Hamas N***s or simply cannot return home to wash their children’s blood from the walls and floors.

All other donations will be graciously accepted.

Some of you will support this some be opposed , now is a time to stand up and be counted and decide what side of history you are on.

Never Again at whatever the cost is not just a sound bite for my people.

Ellis and Margie

Thomas Mac Cormac, teaches 4th seat bidding at Costa Mesa Bridge Club

Costa Mesa Bridge Club

Will reopen as of Monday 30th January as a trial run, one day a week .

Game Time 12:15.

It will be lovely to see everyone.

Ellis

Dear Friends,
Wednesday 23rd November marks the final game in the current iteration of Costa Mesa Bridge Club. Although it's hard to call it a party we are holding a game and we would like to invite everybody to come and play bridge.

Our online game will continue as long as there is demand and we may run some special games after the demolition in the church, which is currently slated for January, but that is a date which has moved 15 times in the last 2 years.

Margie and I over the course of the past 3 years, have put the continuation of bridge front and foremost. Some people don’t like our management style, some people think we could have done better and maybe we could, but in truth we have done the best we are able. But from March 2020 we have done our absolute best often working 18 hour days and I will lose no sleep over anything we managed to achieve during the pandemic, both for the local bridge and local players.

The Pandemic changed many things, we calculated that we lost 20 people during the last three years, every day I go to work and I miss my friends Mathew and Shirl and Marylin and Jeannie and Fran and Mel and Jean and so many others. I miss the players who can no longer get out of the house, and we see occasionally online. So, in their honor I am running the game on Wednesday 23rd , and I will see their faces as they were one last time in my mind’s eye.

I will miss the days that C players win the open games, it always gives me a kick , I will miss getting asked Bridge questions after the game, but in truth I am not going to miss setting up tables and chairs and being a part time chef, and dishwasher and air conditioning monitor, I will probably have to do more exercise now, you win some you lose some.

I have tried to get everyone a personal remote control for the air conditioning for that day or at least program it into the bridge mates, but that is beyond my technical capabilities.

We truly do wish for the best and hope 515 manages to promote bridge in the Unit, it would be sad to see it become another dormitory unit like so many others have become.

Running a bridge club is not as easy as it looks, running a unit is harder than most members give credit for and now the mantle will pass and I hope that the best can be done for bridge, not just in 515 but all across the league, where clubs are facing similar problems.

One day I will write a book about Directing , the stories and memories I have are treasured even the bad ones on the days when everything went wrong. The book will probably be called idiots guide to solving bridge mate problems and managing the partnership desk.

So on Wednesday the 23rd I am going to set up the room for one last time, and I am inviting everyone, whether we have had cross words or you think we should have or could have done better or you think we have hurt or offended you or you just want to say goodbye as friends, to come to the club and shake our hand and finish on a kind note.

No doubt we will see many of you at tournaments and other local games.

We wish you all the best and bon chance.

Yours Sincerely

Ellis and Margie.

Just to dispel rumours and Gossip
Costa Mesa Bridge Club
Has Closed its Live Game Only
From November 23rd
We will have games up until Thanksgiving.
We will continue to run online.
The reasons for this are purely financial
No one forced us to close, but it is impossible to continue supporting bridge
with no outside help at 45% of pre Covid table count.

We had a good run, we tried our best unfortunately in the new world it was not good enough.

We may reopen 1 day a week in the New Year.
But only if we can garuantee a reasonable sized game, more because I will miss the people than I think we can create what we had before.

We thank everyone for supporting us through the years

Ellis and Margie

As I write these lines overlooking the hills of Judea where ancient olive groves meet the modern world, it gives me time to reflect on the last year under the seemingly never ending reign of bad King COVID.
Last year when we played the last game in Costa Mesa I truly had no idea what the next move was.
One thing was clear , we would not give up on bridge and allow it to die and we would fight with whatever means we had to keep the game going so there would be games to return to when the time came.

In that time we moved online, supported every single local bridge entity, totally stood on its head the previous bridge equilibrium where the league supports the units who support the clubs. Now we support the units and the clubs and to no small extent the league.

In the last year we have had many setbacks especially on the personal level , we have lost so many good friends and loved ones.
We have seen the ACBL play around with sanctions and pooling arrangements, some days it looks like they are fighting against the clubs very existence.
But we are still here supporting every single local bridge entity from clubs to units.
We have been open now for just over 2 months for live bridge. To be honest it has been a hard slog. We barely cover the rent and on the days I employ a director as I have had to do during my mothers illness and mourning period we lose money.
But we promised , to work to keep bridge alive in our area and we will keep trying to support everyone.
But now it is up to you the players.
There will come a time in the not to distant future, that we can no longer afford to support local bridge to the tune of over 4000 dollars per month.
Now is the time for you the players to stand up for local bridge.
To support the games either online or live. It is time for the unit to support the club not with money for cards, but with concrete ideas how to work together to grow bridge.
It is time for the ACBL to stop playing with masterpoints and start taking active plans for helping those that helped them in the bad times.
And yet as I look out of the other window I see the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem. those stones could tell the stories of millennia of tears , destruction, exile and rebuilding but most of all one of hope , for after everything that recorded history can tell us ,Jerusalem still stands and after a year of destruction and fear for the future,Bridge is still here and with your help it will continue to be so.
Ellis

Our weekly schedule has been updated.

Online Games
0-750 every Day 11:50 AM
Open every Day 12:10 PM

Live Bridge Has Resumed.
Mondays and Fridays at 12:15 PM

2485 Mesa Verde East
Vaccination required.
Masks Required.

Margie and I wish to thank you all for you support during the past year. It has been an interesting Journey from Live Bridge to Online and I am sure the journey back will be just as interesting.

Costa Mesa Online Keeping Bridge Alive in 515
Thanksgiving.
Wow what a year.
It has been tumultuous to say the least.
So much good has happened in the last year , but like all things in life a little sadness has tinged the year.
But I am thankful for the time we spent with those we have lost, and I chose to remember them with happiness not tears.
So RIP my friends Mathew, Mel, Fran , Bonnie , Betti and Frank we thank you for the memories till we meet again.
We have so much to be thankful for, from small beginnings.
March 29th 3 table game. November 2020 Consistently over 540 tables per month.
We have managed to get a very large proportion of our players on line and playing and from that perspective we are in a much healthier state than other clubs.
We have helped support bridge clubs and local units including LW and SOBC to the tune of over $30,000 dollars.
The total of our Charity contributions is over $1500, the total of our contributions to the ACBL through sanction fees is in excess of $7000 dollars.
We will continue to support everyone else regardless of whether this game pooled with that game or this player played in my game or in their game.
Because in Costa Mesa that’s who we are.
We in Costa Mesa chose, from the outset ,to be part of the solution and hold out our hand in friendship and support to every bridge player and every bridge club in Orange County and beyond, we will continue to do so regardless of any local petty politics and machinations, here we just help now, we can worry about everything else later.
To some of you that may seem like a foolish decision, for me in this time of National Crisis, God or whoever your higher power might be ( for some of us it's our wives) is watching. Our actions now will shape the future. I am thankful and forever grateful that Margie supports me in all of this even if occasionally both she and the bank manager think my business model is somewhat deranged.
Many of you might be also wondering why? Well the truth of the matter is very simple Margie and I feel a deep debt of gratitude every day. 3 years ago for some inexplicable reason I managed to pull through a major and traumatic illness. We could never have done that without the help of every single bridge player that played and supported us in our time of crisis. We are truly thankful, and now that bridge is in crisis it's our turn to help where and when we can.
I get a great kick out of seeing the players in the same partnerships they in played in pre pandemic and on the same days.
I love the lessons, though it would be nice if a few more of you showed up on a Friday morning.
The California99 game, which I have been working very hard to get going, is up to over 20 tables 4 nights per week, so if you have less than 100 points and want to play in a shark free environment come out to play, something else to be thankful for.

So to sum it all up, we have much to be thankful for but most of all, we thank you the players for continuing to support Costa Mesa 515 and 513 and the support you show for our local bridge games and community in 515 513 everyday that you come to play.

Ellis ( this message has been endorsed by my higher power Margie)