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Duplicate Bridge is played weekly at the Mower County Senior Center in Austin at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Players come from Rose Creek, Mason City and Northwood, Iowa, Albert Lea and Austin.  Tuesday we had seven teams.

Winners were:

• First place, Vandy Newman and Ron Peters

• Second place, Joyce Crowe and Millie Siever

• Third place, Romelle Enderson and Jim Fisher

Wednesday games saw five full tables playing.

Winners were:

• First place, Gail Schmidt and Dave Ring

• Second place, Bonnie Fritz and Lorraine Quinlivan

• Third place, Tom Flaherty and Stan Schultz

• Fourth place, Vandy Newman and Ron Peters

• Fifth place, Larry Crowe and Jim Fisher

Browsing through the November issue of the ACBL magazine is a report on results from a NABC club, with pictures. Notable is that in six pictures of players, with winning results listed, there is a predominance of men.

Two pictured winners contained two women in each. I asked myself, “why is this?” There are thousands of excellent women bridge players in the  world.

My thinking went first to a team of players from Rose Creek, who excel in placing each week, and then on to another team from Mason City, all men, inevitably placing in the winning column. Again, why is this?

The best guess is that they play as a team most of the time, as we watch and listen to the bidding process. We note that they analyze, pay attention to opponents responses  as well as their partners, assess their partners’ responses, take the time to count their winning tricks, and also their losing tricks; which brings to mind old friends of the game by the name of Schmidt and Fiala, a woman’s team that had no equal.

So I challenge all women. Assess, analyze, act and watch the vulnerable/not vulnerable board. Team members of like minds, will most always, be successful in the play.