McNay, Neyhart win Senior Mixed Pairs
Roger McNay and Irva Neyhart
Roger McNay and Irva Neyhart of the Portland OR area won the Senior Mixed Pairs on Friday. It was their first NABC+ win, making McNay a Grand Life Master and leaving Neyhart about 1200 points short of that rank.
The pair was strong throughout the event, starting third after the first qualifying session with 60.93% and leading after the second with 63.69%, earning a carryover of 98.18 – almost four boards. In Friday’s final sessions, they scored 58.46% and 50.08%, finishing with 805.50 to win by about a quarter of a board.
Patricia Dovell and Markland Jones
In second were Markland Jones of Phoenix AZ and Patricia Dovell of Gainesville FL with 798.73 – just 0.56 matchpoints ahead of Louis Sachar and Marjorie Michelin.
McNay said the lesson from their win was not to go looking for good boards after a bad start. “In every session, after about 10 boards we were below average,” he said. “We didn’t go head-hunting. We just put our heads down and worked, and by the end we were ahead. I’m so proud of Irva. It’s so easy when you have a bad start to fall apart, and she never did.”
Neyhart, who won the Summer NAOBC Three-Day Pairs earlier this year, said she maintained composure during the game but was a wreck in between sessions. “I couldn’t eat dinner, I was so nervous. I didn’t sleep last night,” she said. “This has been a great year for me. My game improved. I really studied.”