A first tournament in Park City fills sixty seats for a good cause

Sixty players, five hours of play, and a roster that filled the moment it opened. That is how TownLift described the first Mountain Mah Jong tournament in Park City, Utah, in a report published July 6. The tournament was played on a Sunday, the paper said, and the people around the tables ranged from beginners to experts, from their thirties to their eighties, and from several faiths.

They traveled in from Park City, Heber City and Salt Lake City. A waitlist formed for open spots, according to the report, and while no men played this time, organizers told TownLift that men are always welcome.

A tournament with a purpose

The afternoon was built to give as well as to play. Liz Fellows, president of the Women of Har Shalom, told TownLift that registrants were offered the chance to donate and that many took it. The gifts went toward books for the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital and sneakers for women arriving at Park City's Peace House. Fellows said the organizers wanted the event to carry meaning and to line up with their beliefs.

The Women of Har Shalom is the sisterhood of Temple Har Shalom. Its page on the temple's site describes a group that brings together the temple's women of every age and stage of life and supports Reform Judaism, and it lists a Ladies Book Club that has met since 2007. TownLift reported that past and present presidents June Volk, Nancy Friefeld and Eve Stanger came to the tournament along with Fellows.

“It was really nice to get people to meet each other and come together in the area.”Liz Fellows, president of the Women of Har Shalom, to TownLift

How the board finished

The play was scored, and TownLift printed the top of the board. Amy Cribbs finished first with 165, Susan Duncan second with 160, and Ellen Chapman third with 155. Third place took some doing: the scoring team found a four-way tie, and a roll of the dice settled it, with the highest number taking the podium spot. The podium finishers went home with Mahjong-themed gift baskets.

Fellows herself came to the game without a family history of it. She described herself to the paper as a beginner-to-intermediate player from a canasta family, and said that for her the fun runs social first, then mental, then competitive. Many of the players, the report noted, grew up with the game in their families or communities, mostly outside Utah.

Winter, summer, or both

Players told TownLift they want another tournament next year, and organizers floated the idea of holding two a year, one in winter and one in summer. TownLift's report gives no dates for the next one. As of this writing, the place to watch is the Women of Har Shalom, whose page lists a contact for the group's president, a membership form and the group's Instagram account.

Prim's view

A sellout on the first try tells you the appetite was there all along, waiting for someone to set up the tables. I love the range in that room: a player in her thirties and a player in her eighties, a newcomer and an expert, all counting the same points. And the giving was not tacked on at the end. Books for the smallest patients and sneakers for women starting over is a very good use of a Sunday.

A four-way tie for third, broken by a roll of the dice, is exactly the right amount of drama for a first tournament. If they do add a winter date, I suspect the waitlist will be longer, and Park City will have one more reason to come in from the snow.