The third set of 2026 turned out to be similar in terms of difficulty to the first two, with around 6% of competition entrants scoring in the 70s. We have three co-winners this month, each with a score of 78/80:
Tom Schlangen from USA,
Ekrem Serdar from Turkiye,
Patrick Shields from England, and
Stephen Vogel from USA
Tom is a retired engineer from Mesa, Arizona. He started playing tournament bridge as a Minnesota teenager but paused to raise a family. He says, “You might see me at the tables again someday.”
Originally from Charleston SC, Stephen has lived in Cincinnati for the 40+ years, working as the CFO for two different business units of Fortune 500 companies. He learned to play as a teenager and, like many others, had to put bridge on the back burner until retirement. He now enjoys playing both in-person and online, as well as mentoring others.
Also on the March Honour Roll, with a score of 77/80, are:
Merijn Groenenboom from Netherlands,
Jim Streisand from USA,
Anna Gulevich from Russia, and
Mike Gill from USA
And, with a score of 76/80:
Andy Bowles from England
Alexander Perlin from USA, and
Ho Yee So from Taiwan
This gives the USA three winners or co-winners already this year, matching the total for the whole of 2025, and already one ahead of 2024. Ekrem becomes the second Turkish player to lead the field. Patrick’s win ensures that the UK will at least match the one winner it had in each of the last two years.
There is no one from the 2025 Top 25 on this month’s roll of honour, although Anna, Merijn and Patrick all finished on the second page of the leader-board. Their scores of 77/80 move both Merijn and Mike into a tie for fourth place in the 2026 annual competition, just 3 points behind the early leader. Anna also moves into the Top 10.
Congratulations to all who scored more than 60/80 on what was another tricky set of hands.
