By: Anna

It was all very well stepping into Dee’s shoes at the last minute, directing Ryder was a doddle compared to the headache writing the report…….. So please forgive me, if I have left anyone out, or not mentioned names, and maybe forgotten the odd slam.

I have one comment to make after my first Ryder as Director, and that is, could ONE person from the winning team announce the results in the lounge giving the names and whether a cat or dog win, ie rae/judmom over psspill/tuffypar cat win. Particularly for new directors. I know Dee is familiar with most of us now, but as a newbie at this, I found I was recording things twice and looking up to see who partners were, and ops. You should have seen the pages of notes I had everywhere, it was like a tornado had hit the place!!!

Thank you all for being so patient with me, very much appreciated, especially as the partying started early, and some who came in costume, added to the fun of the evening. I noticed bigcheetah who gave me a lot of help with registrations. And then mountainxlion (amekat) arrived in all her regalia and played as a "dog" this week, and she was even on standby as a sub at one moment………. Thanks Anita. 1_ spade_kitty and 1_spade_cat are names I haven’t seen before, in disguise no doubt!! I am not sure who else was in fancy dress, but at the off we had 18 dog teams and 17 cat teams, and coffeebeaner offered to play if we found a partner, and fortunately suegloss scampered in to make up a kitty team, thank you Sue. (EDITOR'S NOTE: 18 tables is a record)

A warm welcome to Susanna who played for the first time in Ryder. There may have been other first timers but they were not made known to me, if there were, welcome and I hope we see you here again.

The first round was held up for diverdn/nitrox as we were trying to arrange ops, so they only played 5 games. Acastofmany/golfnldy announced 6H bid and made. Well done. The result after the first round was Cats 10 and Dogs 8. A lot of purring from the cats and growls from the dogs. Many, many thanks to mrykath for her help with the scores as they came in.

Somewhere between the 1st and 2^nd round I missed a slam, I know someone made it but didn’t record it straightaway. The slam I did get was geofspa/upho66 6S bid and made, well done there. At the end of the second round cats and dogs got 9 each, making the score 19 – 17 to the cats. Again with loads of help from mrykath. I think it was during this round that some obnoxious person, with a name I cannot recall, tried to cause mayhem in the lounge, by using caps and being extremely rude, but I think he got bored or was chased out of the lounge.

In the 3^rd round I had to use all my available subs and even had to call upon my very valuable right hand mrykath as a sub, but fortunately Dee popped up in her Halloween outfit as Kenny, and helped me out with the scoring. In the first few hands a lot of caterwauling as melkor_vala/roblyn bid and made 6H’s twice, and growls and roars as squirrel_dog/Dixie_deez bid and made bid and made 6S X. Very exciting………. As the scores came in it looked like the cats were having a clear run through, but then the dogs kept announcing winners………… and it seriously looked like it might be a tie. Dee and I had to do a recount……… and the final result was 37 – 35 to the cats……. (sigh)

Cat Teams: cat_o_nine_tails/imtigger, rae_jean/judmom, whodde2001/sammy_girl, harlequin_smiles/slam, mom_precious (in first round) yellowrostx (2^nd & 3^rd round)/aserious_joker, bert_kitty/ernietomcat, kitty-kir/wombiepiem, ron_maxey/sugarmt, roblyn/melkor_vala, AlanMitchell/lynh_uk, nozo/irish, golfnldy/acastofmany, Belinda/ pom_2, tis (1^st round) pomfretd (2^nd & 3^rd rounds)/borderline, errikos/kebbers, 1_spade_kitty/1_spade_cat, gerkay/smilodonkiwi, coffebeaner/suegloss

Dog teams: upho66/geofspa, squirrel_dog/dixiedeez, dbdog/cath_ating_dog, timothy_the_toucan/flaunce, mean_ole_dog/betterduck, psspill/tuffypar, canada_woofer/woo, rebos/seaweed, ridgerunneric/deuce_prize, newtie/pretchiouspup, lorrainew/bigcheetah, sugarrrrrr/joelf, baddoggieinthedoghouse/kamel, jean/dittny, vissitra/mountainxlion (who at midnight turned back into a pumpkin, amekat!!!) Koograssy/kgibsonlab, gaunicz/susanna, dyverdn/nitrox

3Peats: (if I have got it right, please forgive me if I have missed anyone, or got it wrong)

for the cats: roblyn/melkor_vala, Belinda/pom_2, alan/lynh, rae_jean/judmom, harlequin_smiles/slam

for the dogs: squirrel_dog/Dixie_deez, dpdog/cath_ating_dog (I think?)

Subs: Barbara, gane, wonderful wayne, kennebaby, mrykath

In the gallery I saw harri_bear, ydnas, and please forgive those I missed………. My eyes were more on the bits of paper strewn around the room than keeping up with social politeness.

It was fun, stressful, and quite frustrating at times, but thank you all for being pleasant, patient and helpful………. I might even do it again!!!

Anna