Sigh, time to start with serious stuff first again. Rules have been created and will be posted shortly. But, for now, suffice it to say a lot of the fun was taken out of this week’s Ryder. Folks, I don’t just magically make up rules – no director does. They come about because of problems and/or complaints. The Ryder has grown tremendously and so have the difficulties of running one. If you don’t like a rule, please take it up with Dave via email or the director running it AWAY from the tournament. Don’t take the fun out of it for everyone. Also, please understand that sometimes it is just not possible to have a pair play for the side they want – teams have to be even and it is truly difficult to go back and change things around. It is never anything personal, it is just a necessity for that day. Anyone directing will do their best to accommodate requests, but there are times it just can’t be done.

Please remember that the Ryder is dedicated to Max – one of the kindest men that many of us knew ever have had the pleasure of knowing! He was always gracious to partners, opponents and kibitzers. He would happily jump in to help wherever needed and he would never say an unkind word about someone in public beyond a gentle sigh – no matter what the offense. So, as we are frequently reminded, we should all try to do as Max did.

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After a slightly late arrival by me, things quickly got moving. There was yipping and yowling and howling and growling. Cats were yodeling something about a 20-peat. Dogs were barking for another victory and the games began. And it was declared that madam directoress was a mangy menagerie manager. Hopefully, the mangy was a reference to the variety of critters and not to my personal appearance, although I will admit it was exceptionally bad (sweats, makeup barely off, hair semi-combed) – I will try to be less disheveled next week.

Round One definitely was not one for the dogs. The feline team of aimejoue/smilodonkiwi bid and made (plus one) 6DX. It ended with the poor dogs trying to bravely, but feebly, wag their tails as the cats howled victory after victory AFTER victory. Final result 10-3 felines.

Round Two was somewhat better. Someone mentioned spilling spaghetti in his keyboard, at which point Woo confessed to having several meals IN her keyboard – guess that is one dog that will never go hungry. Aime/smilo strutted out another two slams (6S and 6H), but still managed to lose this round – could it have had something to do with a –2200? In the meantime, silkenpuppy/meglynn, jean/xBrorsen and the grrrrrs announced slams of 6D, 6SX and 6H, respectively. Tails were definitely wagging much harder for the dogs at the end of this round. Final result, which was reported incorrectly during the Ryder (sorry, folks, I never claimed I could count or add well) was 15-11 cats.

While waiting for Round 3 pairings, a rather gross lesson in biology was given. It was stated that frogs do not have sex, they just slime the eggs. True, but ….. We also decided that whoppe was a better name for whodde. No argument from this witch (but I did find out his real name, which I will happily reveal next week J ). The dogs won the slam war with slams being reported by iowna2/unusual2NT (6S) and the-bigdog-uk (6N) v. Melkor/Roblyn’s 6D slam for the cats. Since I goofed on Round 2 results, Round 3 results changed as well (but not the final outcome): 27-25 cats.

Dog Teams: iowna2/unusual2NT; silkenpuppy/meglynn; sgrrrrrrr/stgrrrrrr; dpdoggie007/cath_ating_dog; seaweed4_8653/lorainew; mom_precious/zebbon; the_bigdog_uk/cathugo; kibblesnbits/mr_phydeaux; meanole_dog/betterduck123; jean_1999_2000/xBrorsen; fido79567/fetchman; baddoggieinthedoghouse/cutedoggie; rsquirrel/mental_paws/dastarly

Cat Teams: Melkor_Vala/roblyn; aimejoue/smilodonkiwi; whodde2001/sammy_girl_2u; slam1931/jr_aces_4u; alanmitchell/lynh_uk_2000/mental_paws; theholyguy/suzy/mental_paws; harlequin_smiles/rueful_rabbit; cat_o_9tails/overtroubledwaters; sugarmt2000/ron_maxey; bert_kitty/ernietomcat; kgibsonlabs/ccwaxman/ruff_hi; sophisticatat/no_fleas_plaintiffs; woo7nt/golfnlady

Subs Extraordinaire: ccwaxman; mental_paws2001 (who hopped all over the place for me and probably to a few tables I forgot to mention above); kenebaby (whose tablehopping I never got). Thanks again to all of you.

A special welcome back to cathugo and a howdy to fido/fectchman (even though I’m not so sure they are new, but rather just new names). Hope we see more of all of you.

Slams to aimjoue/smilodonkiwi (6DX; 6H; 6S); melkor_vala/roblyn (6D); silkenpuppy/meglynn (6D); sgrrrr/stgrrr (6H); jean/xBrorsen (6SX); the_bigdog_uk/cathugo (6N) … Slam trophies to aime/don and jean/xB for making their doubled contracts! Well done all of you.

Undefeated teams were: dpdoggie007/cath_ating_dog and whodde2001/sammy_girl_2u … Way to go critters!!!