Elmhurst woman joins U.S. Bridge Federation team in qualifying for world competition in China this fall
The United States Bridge Federation recently completed its tournament to determine the eight teams to represent the U.S. in the World Bridge Federation competition in Wuhan, China, this September.
Four main events comprise the biennial World Bridge Federation contests: the prestigious Bermuda Bowl (an Open event), the D'Orsi Senior Bowl (players must be at least 61 years of age), the Venice Cup (women's championship), and the Mixed Teams (players compete in male/female partnerships within a team).
Teams represent over 30 different countries. The United States sends two teams to each event.
This year, winning teams in three different categories include one player whose start in bridge was in downstate Illinois, more specifically in Champaign-Urbana over 40 years ago.
Cheri Bjerkan (who went by her maiden name Protko in the late 1960s) is a member of the USA1 Mixed Team heading to China. As a student, Cheri ran the weekly bridge game at the Union. Locals and students gathered regularly, hoping to win coveted master points. Today, Cheri resides with her family in Elmhurst, Illinois. Since her college days, she has won several major bridge championships at all levels, including the 1987 Venice Cup. Locally, Cheri was presented the Harmon Wilkes Award, the highest honor bestowed on a bridge player in Unit 123 (Chicago) of the American Contract Bridge League. This award is given to an expert player who exemplifies the highest of ethical standards combined with the highest standards of sportsmanship.
Back in the day, when Cheri taught bridge and mentored young fledgling players, one of her followers was a high school student named Chip Martel. Chip was raised in Urbana. In his high school days, Chip would play as often as he could in Cheri's game. When not playing, he could be found in the Student Union discussing bidding and play with the "big guys." Now he is one of the "biggest" in the bridge world. Chip holds gold medals for the Bermuda Bowl in 1985, 1987, 2001 and 2017. He will be defending his 2017 medal in Wuhan as a member of Marty Fleisher's USA2 squad. A winner of many World and National events, Chip was inducted into the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Hall of Fame in 2014. Today he lives in Davis, California, with his wife, Jan, also an ACBL Hall of Famer.
Playing alongside Cheri and Chip in Champaign was a teaching assistant in the math department at the University of Illinois. Kit Woolsey, now a member of the USA1 D'Orsi Senior Bowl team, was completing his coursework in the late 1960s. Like Chip, Kit is a member of the ACBL Hall of Fame, inducted in 2005. Kit has won gold medals in past world competition in the Rosenblum Teams in 1986, the Senior Team Olympiad in 2000, and the Senior Teams in 2013. In addition, he holds several national titles, too numerous to mention. Kit and his wife, Sally, live in Kensington, California. Besides playing professional bridge, Kit is an avid bridge columnist on the BridgeWinners.com website. In 2015, when the bridge world was rocked with the cheating scandals, Kit was instrumental in helping the ACBL catch the guilty parties. He worked with video tapes of actual play and designed logical algorithms to analyze methods used in the scams. Today's level playing field is in large part to his credit.
It is amazing how, while remaining friends, the lives of three different players went three separate ways raising families and working in different industries. Then, some 40-plus years after college, a card game like bridge reunites them in the hope of winning international titles halfway around the world.
Go Illini!