Newly minted d17 life masters share their journey

Dick Bryant and Kathy Feeney never take for granted how fortunate they are to have each other as consistent partners.

Kathy Feeney

Our bridge adventure began in August 2012 at the Summit County Senior Center, Frisco, CO. Dick and I signed up for a beginner class so that we could play social bridge with friends. Having enjoyed it, we took a followup class a year later. As our interest grew, we furthered our learning using online tools. Dick developed a custom flashcard deck using a software program he designed. We also started playing on our computers with a PC program called JackBridge

In Tucson, we were introduced to duplicate bridge at Mike’s Play and Learn Charity Bridge. There we earned our very first master points in March of 2014, followed by our first silver points at the Tucson Spring Sectional a month later. We were hooked!

Over the years we’ve made wonderful friends playing at Maggie’s Bridge Club, Frisco, CO and at Tucson Charity Bridge Club, Inc., Northwest Tucson Bridge Club and Adobe Bridge Club, Tucson, AZ.

In 2016, we earned our first gold points playing in a Swiss team match at the Land of Enchantment Regional, Albuquerque, NM.

Before the pandemic shut down face-to-face bridge in March, we were on a mission traveling to sectional, regional and national tournaments whenever possible and visiting and playing at local clubs in Sedona, Prescott and Lakeside, AZ. A highlight was celebrating our 2019 anniversary on a bridge cruise down the east coast of Mexico and Central America, featuring our favorite instructor, Robert Todd. In the meantime, BBO has wonderfully filled the gap for regular pairs play.

While our results don’t always show it, we’re pretty disciplined about our study and review of play. Besides regular review of our flash cards and playing together with the Jack-Bridge program, we review all matches using Bridge Solver Online –a fabulous tool!

As serious as all this might sound, we’re committed to keeping our play fun and to not taking it too seriously. A big thank you to all our friends and mentors along the way who have helped and encouraged us!

Given that our favorite form of play is knockouts and Swiss teams, we eagerly look forward to the day when we can all play safely together in person.

In addition to playing bridge, Dick is the webmaster for Tucson Charity Bridge Club, Inc. where he and Kathy are now volunteer directors of an online game.