May / June Bridge Letter 2011
www.BridgeEvening.com
Not a very auspicious start to the summer season! What with the ash cloud descending once again and the unrest in the Mediterranean holidays have come under threat, hope all goes well as the summer rolls on and substitute venues are found.
This article from USA gives hope to the game. School children are being interested in the game at a young age lets hope this catches on this side of the pond!!!
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. — Four bridge players stared down at their cards, trying to determine which team would play the role of the so-called declarer and dummy.
Max Plati, 8, a second grader at Thomas Jefferson School, says, “Bridge is more fun than chess.”
Then one of the four, Max Plati, 8, dissolved into laughter as he mouthed to the boy sitting across from him: “You’re the dummy!”
Their teacher, Eileen Crowley-Bloss, reminded her second-grade students at the Thomas Jefferson School that in bridge, the meaning of “dummy” is “silent partner.” Even more unfamiliar, though, may have been the students’ quiet play and earnest concentration, all without the involvement of an electronic device.
Chess is still the game of choice among educators, but bridge is catching on at a growing number of schools, community leagues and recreational centres across the nation, many of which see the card game as offering similar mental benefits to those of chess, but with a social component.
The Lakeland district in this northern Westchester County town began teaching bridge this year as a way to both reinforce math and problem-solving skills and to socialize a generation of children raised on solitary pastimes like playing video games and listening to iPods.
Now kindergartners here learn to sort suits and high and low numbers, while older students play in bridge clubs and compete online in virtual tournaments.
Their efforts to promote bridge among students have helped revive a game that peaked in popularity in the years after World War II, and have redefined it from a leisurely pastime for the elderly to a game fit for interscholastic contests in which young players vie for trophies, scholarships and bragging rights.
In 2009, a 9-year-old Georgia boy, Richard Jeng, became the youngest player to earn the rank of life master from the American Contract Bridge League, the nation’s largest bridge organization; the average age of its 165,000 members is 67.
www.acbl.com
www.bridgehands.com
Three hundred top junior players are expected to compete in the fourth annual Youth North American Bridge Championships in Toronto in July, while hundreds more will play in local tournaments this year.
“To see seventh and eighth graders sitting and concentrating for three hours, it never happens except in bridge,” said Bud Brewer, whose none profit group, Reno Youth Bridge, held a tournament in April after teaching the game to 160 students in 14 public middle schools and three private schools in Reno and Sparks, Nevada.
Similar youth bridge programs have cropped up in more than a dozen other cities, including Atlanta; Raleigh, N.C.; Pensacola, Fla.; Phoenix; and Honolulu. Atlanta Junior Bridge, which was started by bridge players in 2006, has taught the game to 1,700 students in after-school classes and summer camps.
www.nytimes.com
www.cataloguecity.co.uk
This site is worth a browse if you have got time to spare.
These sites offer on line bridge if you cannot drag yourself away from the game and have to play at home as well as at your club.
www.peeplo.com/Online+Bridge
www.swangames.com
www.ronklingerbridge.com
Pattie Dupree |
