CALLING ALL (SEMI) BEGINNERS!

Most small bridge clubs don't offer regular lessons for beginners or others who wish to revisit the basics of the game as played competitively. ACBC has always been an exception. Nancy DeWeese started the sanctioned game when there simply weren't a lot of bridge players in the area with a sound basic bridge education. When Nancy retired, she turned the teaching job (and her teaching materials) over to Judy King who revised them and used them to offer a series of newcomer courses every year. It helped a lot! Many players currently active in ACBC started playing bridge under either Nancy's or Judy King's tutelage.

In 2025 Judy Kuiper took over the teaching task from Judy King. Though a relative newcomer herself, Judy became an ACBL certified bridge teacher after training in Gatlinburg under the ACBL Master Teacher Patty Tucker. The 2025 classes had excellent feedback and several 2025 graduates have transitioned to our regular club games.

The format of our lessons follows the master format created by Patty Tucker. This is very useful, because anyone who misses a local lesson can view Patty's version of the same lesson (recorded) on line. The class materials are also very good.

Lessons start for this year on Tuesday, May 6, at the Alden Library (10:00 a.m. to noon). Contact any club manager or Judy Kuiper if interested.

Mini-McKenney Success for ACBC members

The ACBL holds a yearly competition for people who win the most masterpoints.. The overall ranking determines who wins the McKenney race. Like any small bridge club in a "bridge desert" (not much population) our members don't show up often in the overall rankings. As the ACBL is divided into smaller subdivisions (Units, we're in 12, and Districts, we're part of 195) we look lots more successful compared to more-similar clubs. So for us a more realistic gauge is the Mini-Mckenney. Here our members do REALLY WELL! Competition is divided into categories by the number of masterpoints every player has at the beginning of the year. The lowest bracket is 0-5 and the brackets widen as the numbers rise (such as 300-500 or 1500-2500). There are 15 brackets, and no player in our club competes in a higher bracket than 1000-1500 points (number 9). At the unit level, the top ten finishers in each bracket are highlighted in the ACBL listings for "District & Unit Races". This year no ACBC player raked in the top ten of the bottom two brackets (0-5 and 5-10).

In their respective brackets (3 through 9), 11 ACBC players placed in the top ten. Three finished first: Judy Kuiper, Judy Thurston and Sylvia Gill. Lindy Bryson earned a 2nd. Lou Slyker was 3rd and Sharon Bacon was 4th. In alphabetical order Jinny Crall, Louise Haley, Judy King, Tom Lannen and Nancy McCully each also placed in the top ten in their respective brackets.

Congratulations to everyone!

No News Is... NO NEWS

If you've checked this website recently you've noticed that most content has gotten pretty out-of-date. Around the end of October my laptop died. Somehow the credentials to modify the site didn't make the transfer to my new computer. Game scores continued to update, and the Find A Partner page worked, but writing new content or entering new membership information was impossible.

We're back in business, thanks to help from Lisa Balbach at NMC and Kyle Warner, former NMC student who led the design team that built the site.

GOOD News

CORRECTION (1-4-2026): Our highest table count prior to the pandemic was 545.5 in 2017. In 2019 we registered 527 tables. We finished 2025 with 551.5 tables, still higher than our best pre-COVID year. The downward trend is real and continues.

The trend is disappointing, but ACBC ends 2025 as the third consecutive year when our table count met or exceeded 2019, the last full year before COVID destroyed face-to-face (F2F) bridge and just about everything else.

Most clubs haven't recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Most probably never will. Our F2F counts are still smaller than 2019, but the ACBC online game directed by Mike Kiwak adds enough tables to keep our numbers relatively healthy. The online game and our small seasonal 199er game offset the loss of our evening Thursday F2F game.

The good news hides an ugly reality. Our highest table count was 2023 and it has slipped each year. 2025 is BARELY larger than 2019. Unless we recruit more new players whose devotion to the club compares to the players we are losing through normal attrition, we will join just about every other F2F club in looking like a pale echo of our pre-COVID selves.

We actually already have fewer players than when Nancy DeWeese turned the club over to the current board, but the members we do have are remarkably active and loyal. Our largest Summer games used to have 12 or even 13 tables. Last year our largest games were only 9 1/2 tables.