The three of us took an early flight into Memphis to give us two and a half days of sightseeing before the NAP competition. Memphis has a lot to offer visitors, and not just Graceland. Nick, Melissa and I agreed that the #1 highlight was the National Civil Rights Museum, built adjoining the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed. My second favorite was a tie between a tour of Sun Studio, where dozens of early rockers and blues musicians started their recording careers, and Beale Street on Saturday night--four blocks closed to traffic, lined with restaurants and bars with live bands, and people everywhere out enjoying themselves. Melissa and I were reminded of our much younger days when a weekend night out might not begin until 9 or 10 p.m.
The NAP competition was fun and challenging. The first thing I noticed at the start of play was how friendly everyone was. We met pairs from all over the United States, and at least two from Canada. There wasn't time for more than small talk, but it was nice to meet several familial pairs to give us something to chat about. We played against one father-daughter pair, two mother-son pairs and one mother-daughter pair, plus two pairs of spouses. One of the younger players was the talk of the first day of competition when he wore a full head-to-toe shark costume! As it happened, the opponent pair at his first table in the morning session sat at Nick and my table at the first table of the afternoon session, leading to a lively discussion.
I came expecting competitive bidding and competent play and I was not disappointed. Here is an example of the type of competitive bidding that we faced. On board 9 in the first day's morning session, I was East, Nick was West, and we were vulnerable. North, not vulnerable, was dealer and the bidding was as follows:
| North |
East |
South |
West |
| Pass |
1♦ |
5♣ |
5♦ |
| 6♣ |
Dbl |
Pass |
Pass |
| Pass |
|
|
|
In the space of five non-passing bids, the bid went from one diamond to six clubs, doubled! The result was down three for 500 points, but 5D makes six or seven (620 or 640 points), depending on play of the trump suit. All the bids were sound and well considered: South prevented us from inquiring about slam with his huge preempt; I guessed correctly to reach the diamond game; most impressively, North trusted her partner enough to sacrifice at 6C with five HCP, no aces or kings; finally, Nick's double was the best bid given his hand and limited information.
This board (#9) and the first day morning results for our section (II) can be found at:
https://live.acbl.org/event/NABC251/NAPC/1/summary?section=II
Although the bidding on this board was especially audacious, the quality was typical of bidding on the 108 boards over the two days. Declarer play and defense were similarly impressive throughout the tournament.
At the end of the first session, Nick and I thought that we had scored well, perhaps mid-fifties percent. It was therefore a bit of a wakeup call to find that we scored just a hair above 50%. More to the point, we placed 34th out of the 68 pairs, where the top 36 pairs qualify for the finals the next day. Yikes! Too close for comfort!
We scored a little better in the afternoon session that day. Each hand was a battle and we never felt secure, but in the end we placed 26th and qualified to continue playing a second day. As we were leaving the competition we met two players, the same pair that played against the shark costume in the morning session. They qualified (36th!) and we all exchanged high fives in mutual celebration.
At the end of the next day's morning session Nick and I looked at the printout of results. We were now in 18th place. But what was that dashed line separating the 17th place team and us? As we later learned, the top quartile pairs, the top 17 for this event, earn bonus red and gold masters points. We continued grinding in the final 27 hand session. Our score for that session was an exact 50%, which was just enough to move us up one place and earn us extra red and gold points. Yeah!
The one disappointment of the trip was not seeing anyone we knew from central Massachusetts. Even so, there was a silver lining. Neither the first nor the third place pairs who qualified from District 25 made it to the competition. That meant that the ACBL paid Nick and I the higher first place stipend—enough to cover airfare and some of our other expenses.
All three of us enjoyed our time in Memphis, and Nick and I had a great experience at our first national tournament. We would do it again given the chance. We recommend that any pair that qualifies for a future NAP seriously considers competing at nationals.